I did not play Silksong

There was a lot of rain this week, and that meant I had to step in mud a few times. Thankfully, my dad gave me a ride to work during the days with heavier rain, and I didn’t suffer that much.

This week was definitely one where reading took hold, as well as playing videogames that aren’t Silksong for the first time since it came out, that was a good run folks, but I may go back to my regular routine of “playing games and abandoning them for months at a time” at last. Or not, we’ll see.

🧑‍💻 The test at work was successful and almost everything worked as expected, however in the later stage of the test there were some settings missing that weren’t done by a 3rd party so, we had to put the whole thing on hold again. It’s alright.
🎨 I have like three pending graphic design tasks at home (small stuff I do for free for friends and family, at the moment) and I’ve honestly been super uninspired to advance on any of them. They all showed up almost at the same time, and they are all so easy to do (vectorizing an existing image, a simple banner, stuff like that) I just don’t feel like doing anything. It’s weird because I can do like 8 icons for Arcticons in a day when I feel like it, so, anyway.
💼 There’s this kinda big work project coming up that might mean I’ll go on an international trip? Honestly, I don’t want to do it because I am super duper lazy and I feel like I’ll be under a lot of pressure, but also, I kinda want the experience anyway, but also I don’t know if I’ll actually be that necessary in the first place. I don’t think I even have my papers in place so I have no idea if I’ll be able to. Whatever, we’ll see.
🖋️ After the mixed results I had with my Platinum Preppy fountain pen—I am yet to clean it up or set it up again or do anything to actually fix it—I got a Pilot Metropolitan! I’ve been writing almost daily since I got my hands on it. It’s been fun and the pen behaves as one would expect. I’ve been close to buying another fountain pen just for the sake of it, but I’ve resisted, for now, after 6 or 7 pages, the ink has yet to run out, which is more than I expected from some comments online.
🏰 A new game has been acquired. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. I fell for it, and I am sorry. I even bought it again because I saw it ten bucks cheaper and I’ll be returning the other one soon. Truly tragic stuff.
🏃‍➡️ I didn’t go to the gym during the week. One of those days I simply did walk home from work, but other than that, I was lazy and I didn’t commit. Will fix this week.
🎵 I got three albums from Bandcamp! The videogame soundtracks for Celeste, Jet Lancer and Hyper Light Drifter! I wanted to buy the album for Tron: Ares but I haven’t yet.

Watched

Not a lot of things were watched this week, but at least we went to the movies during the weekend!

Tron Ares - I kinda liked this movie! I thought the soundtrack was awesome, and I quite enjoyed that it was basically a gian chase sequence most of the time. It does feel kinda incomplete though, and rehashes a bunch of concepts from Legacy, it’s kind of a sequel to it while also being a replacemente, but it doesn’t do the best job at either. In any case, I had a great time with it, and I hope this world gets fleshed out a bit more. I will definitely rewatch Tron Legacy soon.

Gaming

I am rather surprised at the gaming I did this week, given Silksong is not part of it. I feel kind of bad since I’m right at the last boss now, but at the same time, I did exactly the same thing to Hollow Knight for literal months, so it’s within expectations.

Completed

Hyper Light Drifter - Finally played through the last bit of this game, after raising the four pillars, me and my friend took the time to find all of the modules and some of the other collectibles. After that, we faced against the final boss and beat it after many failed attempts, reaching credits at last. This game is a fantastic take on something akin to Zelda with just a bit of the Soulslike style, without getting too deep or complicated about it. I had a great time with it, the artstyle is immaculate, the music is incredible, I’ll be writing a review soon.

Ongoing

Soul Reaver Remastered ✨ - This is October’s game for The Low Key Game Club in the TWG Discord server, and I happen to be the one who suggested it. It is the reason I decided to pause my Silksong playthrough this week and played like 5 hours of this. This game came out for the PS1 back in the day, and the remaster brings new textures and character models, which look exactly how the game looked to me when I was a kid. I’ve managed to beat the first two boss fights, and I’m now exploring a spooky cathedral and solving puzzles to find my way around the place. Honestly, it’s been quite enjoyable, despite some of the old school jank I’ve seen. The voice acting and the overall game design have been really awesome! I think I am pretty close to the last set of puzzles before I face against the next boss, we’ll see!
Slice & Dice - I am still blown away by this Roguelike’s ability to stay interesting week after week. I think I should be writing a review soon.

Reading

I read a lot this time around, so I am quite satisfied with myself on this regard, even if I failed at other things…

Babylon’s Ashes - Somehow I managed to reach up to chapter 35 of the book. That’s 15 chapters in about a week! I got absolutely hooked this time, there have been some really big developments that completely changed the course of events I was expecting, and honestly I am really looking forward to reading more of it! The Expanse is just awesome.
Ariadne in the Blue Sky - I read up to chapter 177 of this as well. Pretty good progress I’d say! The story here is also going places! There’s some crazy stuff going on, so I’ll keep reading.

Around the Web

A very diverse mix of posts and videos this time, guess the crazy for Fountain Pens was not that crazy in the end. Or maybe I am simply picking the links specifically avoiding the ones about Fountain pens, you’ll never know.

Blogposts

Allow me to introduce the two-sentence journal - This was a very journaling method that I am tempted to try out. I found out about it thanks to another post by Steven! So you get two in one.
Let’s Talk About AI Art - This is a comic, not a blogpost, but it’s still a pretty interesting thing on this whole debacle. I hate reading about AI nowadays but this was fun. This is the same artist that worked on Exploding Kittens by the way, that card game is super fun so go check it out!
Seeing Things Differently - An interesting slice of life moment that shows you how two things are not quite the same to different people.
Feeling less lonely on the web - A post replying to other posts and also linking to other posts about this topic. I don’t think I’ll write about it specifically, but I do share many of the thoughts shown here. Write, link to each other, have conversations, the way of the web.
This flipping thing! - Gabz got an Anbernich handheld, the RG34XX SP, the younger sibling of mine! Good stuff!
The lost art of not giving a damn - Dave continues to write some cool stuff. On this one he has put aside the boring tasks and the homework required for developing his TTRPG, and decides to focus on having fun and letting the mind roam free! Good stuff.

YouTube

7 Pens That OBLITERATE The Lamy Safari - I probably shouldn’t buy more pens but I can’t help but watch more videos about it, I kind of want the Kaweco Perkeo for some reason…
Why handwriting letters can change your life - This guy fooled us, he’s using a typrwriter, not actually writing by hand, in any case, the video is quite a joy to watch, because typewriters are fun too.
ONE YEAR of Work for TEN SECONDS of Film - Corridor Crew decided to try their hand at the Matrix Bullet Time scene with modern technology. At the same time, this is a mini-documentary of how the original Bullet Time was done, awesome video.
TRON: ARES - End of Line for a Disney Black Sheep - I quite enjoyed this review of the film, even if it is a bit of a letdown. I still liked the movie as I said but it brings some interesting points about the future of the franchise. Good video either way.
Game Prices - I’ve missed videos by Scot The Woz, and he finally came out with yet another banger. The debacle of game pricing in modern times, and how it has been in decades past. Good stuff!