IndieWeb events, cleaning up and speedcubing - W08

These weeknotes are being written earlier than usual, started on Thursday and will continue to be filled up throughout the weekend. I often forget some things going on in one day or another, so maybe doing it like this will be helpful, as more things are fresh on my memory as of the time of writing them.

Now that I’m finishing them in early Monday, so many things have happened… My country is in a state of disarray, as conflict between the army and drug cartels has risen after the leader of the biggest cartel in Mexico died. I type this after my workplace gave us the day off to avoid any risks. Me and family are safe, thank God. Alas, let’s continue with the rest of the notes!

• 📅 A few days ago I forgot to bring up that I assisted to a Homebrew Website Club meeting! I was invited by Naty and have been to a couple meet-ups already, but never talked until now. you can check the last event’s notes to see what we talked about! I introduced myself, talked about my bookshelf and my blog pings, and shared how I find people who mention my website via FreshRSS user queries.

• ✍️ I also had the chance to join the HWC Writing Edition meeting, which was hosted by James himself! That was pretty cool, although I didn’t speak at all on this one since I wasn’t by myself.

• 🏋️ Gymgoing was a bit of a failure this week, I went only once. However, I did use the stationary bike on my room, so that’s at least something, right?

• 🎮 Last week I couldn’t get my 8BitDo Pro 2 controller to connect via Bluetooth to my Laptop, but after dabbling around in a manner of ways, and installing tools like evtest and connecting to it via bluetoothctl something happened and it is now getting properly recognized and usable wirelessly! I played a lot more times later in the week and it connects without any issues now.

• 💾 I cleaned up my bedroom during the weekend, and honestly I am much happier with it once again. I found some inspiration to write about some old hardware of mine collecting dust. There’s a couple things yet to do, but they can wait.

• ⏲️ For the first time in ages, I did a 10-solves speedcubing session. The results were pretty good, if I do say so myself. My best time was 18.38 seconds, by best average of 5 was 19.98, my overall average was 25.55.

• ⌚ I think it might be nice to mention the watch I wore throughout the week! It’s often my Casio Royale, but this week I switched it up for the Casio CA-53W, I also wore the A-130WE yesterday!

Gaming

Completed

• Resident Evil 2 - I cannot praise this game enough. This old title for the PS1 has been an absolute success for me, I finished playing the whole Leon A side and it was a joy from start to finish! I also started and finished the Claire B side, and experiencing a the story from a different angle was incredible to see, so much effort went into this game, and I enjoyed the variety between both scenarios, even if they don’t perfectly line up. For a game from the late 90s, it is commendable. It’s basically four campaigns—plus a bunch of extra modes to unlock—allowing for so much fun and replayability. I may revisit it some other time, but I’m also curious to try the other classics.

Ongoing

• Grapple Dog - I have played some more levels of this game and it is really fun! A cute platformer with some challenge but rather great level design so far, I’ve already completed the first two worlds, and gotten a bunch of the collectibles as well, it’s rather awesome to traverse and the gameplay design has been top notch, every level introduces interesting mechanics! I kind of want to get all the achievements of this one, and I’m poking away at it whenever I’m on my laptop.

• Final Fantasy VI - After obtaining the Falcon, my new flying ship, I decided to just grind for a little bit, but didn’t progress much in the story, I talked to a few people in a new town, to find some of my lost friends!

• Slice & Dice - A few fights here and there, nothing too much happening, but I played it and had fun!

Reading

• Planetes - I’ve read a few more chapters of this and I still find it super enjoyable. The plot has started to pick up and a timeskip happened that puts us right in the vanguard of space exploration. I an really looking forward for the rest of it, and I’m also a bit upset that it won’t much longer, as the manga is already finished with less than 30 chapters total.

• Persepolis Rising - I keep struggling to commit to actually reading this book. I love the progress I made thus far, need to keep it up.

Around the Web

This time I added a new section where I will mention things I discovered or learned during the week! It can contain games, websites and other tidbits that aren’t blogposts or videos.

Blogposts

• first impressions of my MP3 player (Innioasis Y1) - I love seeing more fellow bloggers getting into this kinda retro-inspired single-purpose device trend that I’ve noticed more lately. It may be just a temporary thing, but I genuinely find joy in it.
• Unpublishing posts - I was actually going to share the series that Syl unpublished, but this post sharing some thoughts about getting too personal on the web. I don’t really mind that much when it comes to music, but there’s some things that I may have doubts on. Do whatever you like with your site people!
• Letting go of old hobbies - This is such an interesting post, what happens when you had your fill with the hobby you enjoyed doing? When you are content with your skill, or your setup, and you don’t need to pursue any more? Good stuff.
• Emulate vs Paying up! - Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen made it to the Nintendo Switch, and they are not $20, but $26 USD in my country. I am not paying that kind of money for a GBA game that I can already play on my Anbernic or my Miyoo devices.
• Rediscovering my CD collection - Elena shares some thoughts about her CD collection, ripping them up, digital vs physical media and optimizing the physical space they use, as well as some general thoughts about her music listening habits!

YouTube

• These are Anbernic’s strangest handhelds - This was an incredible video featuring Anbernic’s mishaps creating handhelds. They always seem to have a caveat that makes them one step away from perfection. This was a very fun watch.
• Handheld gaming has changed - A video reflecting on modern handheld gaming. The experience on the go should be quick and easy to return to. It doesn’t need to be a grandiose adventure, just something quick to lock-in to and spend time, but things have gotten muddier lately.
• How Capcom botched the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 - This was a wonderful video that explains in details the things that the RE remakes—wonderful games by themselves—
• The transformative power of classical music - A YouTube short led me to this wonderful TED talk, I really enjoyed the speech given here, and the piano performance and the way things are laid out was simply superb, just give this one a watch, it’s an old one, but still holds up.

Cool discoveries

• TTRPG Resources - Dave wrote a cool list of resources he has been finding as he explores the world of tabletop RPGs.

• Games like Resident Evil - I found out about some games that follow the classic fixed camera and tank controls of the original games. Some interesting ones are Alisa, which features PS1-style graphics, or Tormented Souls, which is a more modern take that still sticks to the classic formula.

This is day 21 of #100DaysToOffload