Post cards, completing games and books - W22

Honestly, this week went by in a flash, I am not sure of what even happened with it, but either way, time continues moving forward, and some things changed during such an event, here are some notes I got from it.

• 📬 I finally received my pair of post cards from NantucketLit’s First-Class Fiction! The mailing system in my country isn’t the best, but they arrived nice and safe. One of them was written by Amin, which is a reason why I subscribed to the service, but both were really nice, and I should get more for three months before I see if I renew my subscription.

• 🎧 While cleaning my room, I returned to Wolf 359, I listened to the special episode Change of Mind, which is a story that happens between the events of the current timeline connecting to how the next season will start. It was more than two hours of greatness. Listen to that podcast guys, from the beginning, you won’t be dissappointed.

• 🚲 A neighborhood close to my own recently got brand new asphalt streets, and as I passed by, I couldn’t help but notice dozens of kids going out in bicycles and scooters all over the place. On the weekend, I decided to bike in all of the new streets of the neighborhood. It is a flat area so I didn’t do as much excercise, but it was enjoyable and zig-zagging around the place meant I still did quite the distance! 14 kilometers this time, I also went a bit late and had to cut the session short.

• 🎮 I would like to completely blame Wouter for the fact that I ended up purchasing another videogame. I am talking about Animal Well, a metroidvania that saw quite a bit of fame, although things kind of died out as the year of 2024 went by. It still seems to be awesome though and I would like to play it soon… the backlog keeps growing…

Gaming

Completed

• Monument Valley - Remember when I said I had completed this one? Well, it was true, but I now completed an extra set of levels, in a special chapter called Ida’s Dream, they were just as awesome and full of mind-bending mechanics! It was a short return, but a nice one nonetheless. Perhaps I should write a short post about this game now.

• Hades - My Summer Game Challenge is off to a great start! I have managed to reach credits on Hades’ at last! This game is absolutely terrific, and I am really looking forward to play a bit more of it on a more chill pace, I kind of want to see if I can reach the second ending it seems to have given what I learned from the finale.

Ongoing

• Minecraft - We finally resurrected the server! Everyone is making their own houses again, looking to survive and thrive among this land. Good stuff!

• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream - I checked on some of my Miis again and some incredible things happened. Some of them involve irl friends, some of them involve online friends I made into Miis, it’s been quite dramatic, let’s say.

• Full Metal Furies - We returned to this game for a little bit. The current level is actually a bit of a stealth section, but it has proven to be quite challenging with four players.

• Super Smash Bros Ultimate - We had a few rounds of Ultimate and one of the young ones in the group actually started to get good at it and I feel my hands getting rusty and old as I lost a bit more than I want to admit.

Started

• Metroid Prime Remastered - Although these weeknotes are from Tuesday to Monday week to week, I often skip what I did on Monday—while I write these—but I already played like 5 hours of this game today and I may as well mention it. The good thing about Metroid is that saying I got the double jump is not a spoiler, just a tradition of the game at this point!

Reading

Completed

• Strange Dogs (The Expanse #6.5) by James S.A. Corey - A novella that takes place before the seventh novel starts. I started reading it a while back, but left it on hold to read Tiamat’s Wrath, however, some names were brought up in that novel, and I decided to return here. I am so glad I did so, the second half of the novella was fantastic—all of it was to be clear—a short review is coming soon, perhaps.

Ongoing

• Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S.A. Corey - Up to chapter 39. I keep saying how high the stakes get on these novels, but I just don’t have any other way to talk about them without spoiling things. It really is an amazing series and some epic stuff has been happening. There have also been heavy losses, which is something that really got me crying a bit. I’m definitely looking forward to the conclusion of this epic journey.

• Clarkesworld #211 - I compelted another short story: The Arborist by Derrick Boden. I have to admit I was probably distracted at the beginning, each page kind of came and went, but as I read through, things started to click a bit more, and I really enjoyed this one. It had some interesting themes like space colonization, terraformation and the like. Definitely an interesting concept.

• Smoking Behind The Supermarket With You - Up to chapter 62. Oh no, oh no! They are doing the thing, where we get so close to finally have a love declaration, and some long-forgotten memory of the character’s past returns at last, and now everything is a mess! I can’t believe it and I can’t stop reading but I have to wait a whole month again!

• Heavenly Delusion - Up to chapter 79 - I am only three chapters behind now, and this story has been a roller coaster of mystery and dangers on every corner. I think I’ll leave it here for now because it has been a couple months and I assume the author is on a bit of hiatus, I am loving this a lot right now. Looking forward to more.

Around the Web

Blog posts

• The Mandalorian and Grogu should have been a mostly-puppets movie - I was very skeptical and kinda cringed a bit at the idea of the title here but then I thought about it and I agree whole-heartedly.

• Where everybody knows your name - This is an interesting idea and I have a similar concept. Just hanging out in a place where people you know show up here and there and conversations and interactions naturally spark. I agree than some healthier social media spaces have become that very thing, but it’s harder in real life.

• I want everybody to live very close - I didn’t realize this at the time but this and the last post are actually kind of similar! A walkable neighborhood of close friends sounds like such a nice thing. I wonder if it could be possible in today’s world.

YouTube

• all the pixels in new york are freezing - This is one of those videogame essays that really do change your outlook in life and gaming as an artform. It is absolutely beautifully made and I really recommend you giving it a watch. This is the one video I would love to hear your thoughts about.

• I Tried The Internet’s Favorite Browser… I Get It Now. - I like to see some of the love for Zen Browser out there, this is a pretty simple video which talks about many things that may be obvious for most Linux users, but I love seeing these alternative browsers get the spotlight.

• Viva La Derivada - (Coldplay Calculus Parody) - A musical parody video on this day and age? This video feels like we traveled back to 2014 or something, and I would welcome that with open arms.

• We Recreated a 47 Year Old Effect: How Hard Could It Be? - Last year I had an absolute blast revisiting the old and new Alien films, and this video from Corridor made me smile quite a bit. I also feel old knowing this effect was made almost fifty years ago.

This is day 70 of #100DaysToOffload