Game Thoughts: Abandoned 09-2024
Despite my best efforts I've got yet another pile of unfinished games. Just
stuff that I didn't have the patience to get through or wasn't clicking with
me. For the sake of preventing future me from repeating my mistakes, here
are the reasons for putting them down:
(Sekiro, Mother3, Void Stranger)
- Read the rest -
Story: A King De-Phoned
The following is a short story / writing exercise I'm titling
A King De-Phoned. It's a fairly mundane tale of first-world
problems involving relatively privileged individuals and occasional
hyperbole. That said, this stuff actually happened and was pretty shitty.
- Read the rest -
Book Thoughts: The Saint of Bright Doors
Thrusting out blindly for my next read, I ended up settling on the most
recent Nebula winner: The Saint of Bright Doors. The
audiobook version is superbly narrated, and the whole experience
was a very fun departure from my normal fantasy/scifi reads.
The setting is a modern-tech alternate indo-inspired continent with very
different takes on magic. Where I frequently enjoy fantasy that provides
clear constraints on it's magic system, this book leans heavily into a more
mystic world of vague demons and inexplicable occurrences -- such as how any
door left closed too long in the City of Luriat will seal forever.
The author brought the city to life, painting an extremely vivid and
interesting world with which they tell the story of Fetter, a man with
strange powers trained from childhood to assassinate a spiritual leader.
Spoilers below.
- Read the rest -
Comic Thoughts: Tokyo Ghoul
With a little too much time on my hands I decided to finally give
Tokyo Ghoul (main series plus :re) a read. I remembered
enjoying the first season of anime 1000 years ago, but recall that the
second season didn't hold my attention at all -- but as they always say:
"the manga was better".
- Read the rest -
Comic Thoughts: Innocent
I just finished the last chapter of Innocent &
Innocent Rouge. I was craving some grown-up-oriented manga
and settled on this. It was certainly something.
- Read the rest -
Game Thoughts: Disco Elysium
After another back injury I found myself bedridden once again. I decided it
was time to finally get through Disco Elysium.
It's a game I've struggled to play for a while now. One that felt like it
was very much catering to everything I could want in a game, but frustrated
me at every attempt to play.
- Read the rest -
Book Thoughts: Someone you can Build a Nest In
I was looking for my next book after reading Chain-Gang All-Stars and saw a
random post on Mastodon about a novel called
Someone You Can Build a Nest In, which pitched itself as a
horror fantasy romance novel. The rest of my to-read list looked a bit
daunting so I dove in.
It was a fun short read. The protagonist is a shape-shifting monster who
falls for a human, and the rest of the story surrounds the resolution of
their differences (and the fact that the protagonist's new girlfriend's
family are monster hunters).
- Read the rest -
Game Thoughts: Abandoned 07-2024
While I've been trying to finish all the games I start, sometimes I
just don't have the energy or a particular game just doesn't hit right and I
put it down early. As a result I don't get around to writing about them,
which is a shame because I frequently refer to my own blogposts as a
refresher on what I did or didn't like about a given game or book.
So, for future me's reference, here's a handful of recent games I didn't
quite make it through:
(Drilldozer, Pokemon Unbound, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, A Space for the
Unbound, Cocoon)
- Read the rest -
Book Thoughts: Chain-Gang All-Stars
A friend of mine recently recommended
Chain-Gang All-Stars and I thought it was a really cheesy
title for a book, but gave it a shot anyways.
After finishing the audiobook version of the novel, I'd just like to say:
Holy shit.
- Read the rest -
Book Thoughts: I am a Strange Loop
I've wanted to read a bit of philosophy-of-the-mind for some time now, but
never really got around to it. After a discussion on consciousness with a
friend a bit back, I was recommended the works by Douglas Hofstadter. His
big-dick book "G.E.B" was a little intimidating, but the title of his more
recent work "I Am a Strange Loop" resonated with me (my own
online identity being tied to my loop-like spiral logo), and I've just
finished the audio version!
Firstly, a bit of praise: I'm a philosophy noob, and the author's heavy use
of allegory and analogy made digesting the book's core ideas approachable
and entertaining. I've managed to grind my attention span into dust and was
concerned the general dryness of philosophy texts would have me reaching for
other things to read -- but while it wasn't a particularly
gripping read, it absolutely held my attention the whole way
through.
- Read the rest -