When was the last time you walked quietly while kicking a pebble on the ground over and over again? Just letting the time pass by for a little while, without picking up the phone from a pocket, without checking the time on my wrist watch. Just walking back and forth, kicking a little rock, with the front of the show, with the heel, a side, just to make it slide a meter or so and then do it again? Yesterday, for me, and it was very nice.
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📱 As I mentioned last week, I can’t complain enough about the amount of permissions and things to disable when setting up new devices for my parents. I didn’t go all in with stuff like UAD, but I removed some of the common ones, and replaced a few apps, such as Chrome for Vivaldi and a few of the Fossify Apps.
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🎮 I suddenly decided to acquire a new controller, the 8BitDo Pro 2, and I have to admit, I am absolutely in love with it. I already liked the Ultimate 2C, but the ergonomics and the slightly bigger size fit me better, and the face buttons are glorious, they feel so much better than any other controller I have. I am excited to use it more. Might write a review of it!
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🎒 Had to replace my backpack since my laptop corners started to slice through the bottom of my old one. Workplace provided me with a new one and I took the opportunity and swapped out the pins I had on it! I have quite a big collection so it’s fun to mix things up.
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🕹️ I also impulse-purchased a Miyoo Mini Flip and I just love this little thing so much already! I installed MinUI on it, a super simple interface that felt right at home with the tiny screen. It feels very nice, if probably not for a long period of time, the buttons rival the original GBA SP, and are nicer to press than my v1 RG35XX SP. I want to make it a very minimal device with a limited game set, we’ll see how it goes.
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📞 Valentine’s Day came and went, and I didn’t do much! I had a bit of an online video meeting with some long distance friends, and we played some party games together, although that was on Friday before the actual day was set. One of the more extrovered in that group made it so we made a letter for another, who would get chosen at random. It was a fun time.
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📄 I did the first origami I had folded in ages, it was for the letter mentioned before, actually! I folded an origami heart, as well as Joisel’s Butterfly model. I will take pictures later today! I think they are pretty nice. The heart was actually new to me, if rather simple, but I really enjoy when seemingly simply figures are done cleanly and with just a few folds.
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💌 On actual Valentine’s Day, I went downtown with friends to spend some time together and we ended up at the house of one of them, we had tacos, snacks and we also played an awesome online game called Gartic Phone, where we have to draw and guess each other’s drawings and prompts, it is a fantastic time. I gave chocolates to everyone too, and got some myself!
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🎲 My physical set of Land of Eem got delayed due to snowstorms and the like, so I am a bit upset that it’s going to take even longer to get to me, but well, it is how it is sometimes.
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⚔️ We didn’t get to play Land of Eem at all either, as some of our party members couldn’t come and we decided to play Betrayal at House at the Hill this time around, it was a fun time but I was a little annoyed heh.
Gaming
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🧟 Resident Evil 2 - I’ve been playing this on my handheld so much more and making progress through the game and it is absolutely fantastic! I love it so much. It has flaws, sure, but they are rather charming and work well anyway. I have been enamoured by the puzzle design and the way the Police Station has opened up throughout the game. I am now exploring some Underground area, and made my way to the Sewers. I met some new characters and new enemies and… this is so fun! the dub acting is pure nostalgia and, I don’t know, I just I love this game and I’m glad I do. I will play more.
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🐾 Grapple Dog - This is the game I decided to test the 8Bitdo Pro 2 with on my laptop, I played the first level twice, because the Linux version of the game didn’t start-up reliably, so I ran it with Proton but something happened to the save data. In any case, it is a very fun game so far! I am pretty willing to keep playing it on there, but I may purchase it on Switch just because.
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🧙 Final Fantasy VI - I returned to finish the dungeon in Dary’ls Tomb, which is Setzer’s quest to reclaim a new flying ship, the faster there is! From here the world is pretty much open for me to explore as I please, and I definitely want to find all of my party and maybe some new members to join me on my quest for a better tomorrow! Also, one of the best overworld themes of all time.
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🦍 Donkey Kong (1994) - On a whim, I started this game just to test the waters, and I have to say, I can see why it’s so fun! A simple, challenging game for the Game Boy that I may explore further later, I must admit though, that I should probably return to Mario vs Donkey Kong first, at least for now.
Reading
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Persepolis Rising - Up to chapter 5. I keep being super slow with this one, but an interesting conflict has started to develop, once again featuring Holden making a decision that may affect the future of the space society Humanity has managed to build over the last 30 years!
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Planetes - Up to chapter 7. This has been a very interesting manga so far, so thought-provoking and with an actual plot developing in the background as well. All of the chapters have stayed quite long, each of them with 40+ pages, double the usual I read. This hasn’t stopped me from really liking and going through it in small chunks. It’s pretty much a love letter for space exploration, I simply find it beautiful.
Around the Web
Blogposts
- My new mobile phone - Michał recently acquited an new phone, featuring an e-ink screen and some other very limiting features, and I respect the committment!
- New series - Good offline apps - Dom recently shared this neat idea, about apps that work offline and don’t require an internet connection in any way! I think it’s a pretty cool idea.
- Mewgenics: Worth The 14 Year Wait - Cameron always reviews the strangest games, but this one, from the creator of Binding of Isaac seems to be at about the limit of what I enjoy in terms of artstyle, I’ll keep it in mind…
- The Good Old Hyperlink - The hyperlink is awesome, and it makes the internet go round! Lovely post this one.
- The cost of not caring - Robert’s post titles are often ominous, but I love how they always to a somewhat mundane experience of life. This one was a short one, but enjoyable, and very important to remember.
YouTube
- My favorite game on every retro system - TechDweeb once again making my backlog of retro games grow further more, it is how it is.
- Maybe don’t buy a used 3DS anymore? - An interesting essay comparing the landscape today where 3DS gaming is finally feasible on actually powerful 3rd party hardware, if still very expensive.
- Apple has a transparency issue - I loved the Mac Address channel, even if I don’t care about Apple itself, and to have it return with such a well produced video is nice.
- Retrogaming on a $30 Walmart TV box - This was an awesome video! I didn’t watch it completely but if you want a cheap gaming setup, this seems super well explained.
This is day 17 of #100DaysToOffload
