Echoes, Castles, Dunes - W43

I have three titles on my big text file for all my drafts. One titled “Strange Jigsaws”, one for “The Left Hand of Darkness”, another for “The House on the Borderland” and one more for “Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye”, yet I’m about to go on vacation, and write my weeknotes instead! At last, let us begin. Wait. That’s four titles, aaargh.

Anyway, here are some things that happened between October 20 to 26, 2026.

• 📚 I’ve done a lot of work on my website to improve my bookshelf once again! Make sure to do a full refresh if the CSS looks a little wonky for you too.

• 🧳 I gotta get my stuff ready for the trip! I actually bought a pretty big backpack that can be expanded in size and the like. It is all I’ll carry with me.

• 🃏 I did some more card tricks to some different people, they were younger kids from church and they were all very amazed by it, it was so fun to see their faces filled with joy.

• 🌧️ There is a hurricane going on and although it didn’t get to where I live, there are some light rains going on because of it! Not much to complain about honestly.

• 🐕 So out of nowhere some stray dog decided to stay in our patio? It’s a german sheperd and she is pretty much a puppy and even though I tried to ignore it she just sort of stayed and I guess we kinda adopted her unofficially now. My other dogs seem to be fine with it as long as she doesn’t go near their food. She’s very shy though.

• 📖 I have been catching up with my Bible reading plan and it’s working out very well! Using less social media and reading instead has helped a bunch here and with Dune Messiah. Good stuff.

• 🌌 I have resumed my constant watching of Outer Wilds playthroughs on YouTube, I recently finished About Oliver’s full playthrough, which was glorious.

Reading

Starting and being nearly finishing my third book planned for October!

Started

• Dune Messiah - 71%, 240/336 pages. I am started this one pretty immediately, and decided to read most of it physically, with a mass-produced paperback edition. This book has been really intense. I don’t know if I’m just excited for the movie or simply in a reading mood, but the continuation of Paul’s story is quite intriguing so far. The plots within plots, the clash between free will and destiny. Every sequence of pure dialogue here feels like a battle of wits of the highest caliber to me, like every decision affects the future of the cosmos and is a puzzle piece put in place to lock things into motion. I don’t know how Frank does it, but I’m enjoying the ride.

Ongoing

• Battle Angel Alita: Last Order - Chapters 4-14. This continuation has managed to do a couple really interesting developments already. Lots of action, but also some very interesting world building that we only got glimpses of before. I am quite impressed by these first few chapters, and they are also pretty long, which explains the low number of them I got to read.

Gaming

Completed

• Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye - This game… is truly fantastic. It is an incredible addition to the base game, which puts on display the talent of the people behind the original in a shorter journey that manages to feel just as huge. There are answers to questions I didn’t even know I had, and it was as wonderful as it was terrifying. I do think there are elements here that weren’t developed as well as what the main game did. It does feel more like a puzzle designed for the player, rather than something that simply “is”, if you know what I mean? Still amazing though, genuinely adding do much to what was already a perfect game. Also the music by Andrew Prahlow is another instant purchase for me.

Started

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - At last, the second game in my plans for October. I actually did the little “prologue” fight a week or so ago, but now I started the main game. I am playing more or less along Sam who started a thread where he’ll share his journey. I’ll do the same and probably write a progress log on this website too. In any case. I beat the first boss—two ugly monsters tag-teaming against me—and I have found like three save points thus far. No character interactions yet other than Death taking away all my powerups. Not cool! Definitely looking forward to more, although I have to say I’m not yet used to the game physics. Jumping feels kinda off? I shall continue playing and get good!

Ongoing

• Meccha Chameleon - This game continues to be all the rage with my group of friends. All of us has bring our laptops and sit together to play in the same room and try our best to hide in wack locations and environments. I continue to hate being a Hunter, but hiding is just so much fun! It’s very fun to get more daring with my hiding spots. The more obvious the better when everyone’s location is revealed. Simply fun stuff!

• Into The Breach - For some reason I felt like returning to this awesome tactics roguelike game. I managed to secure a couple of islands, but it was only a quick session that I quickly dropped to do some other stuff.

• Nintendo Switch Sports - Looks like Resort is already out! But I still only have a Switch 1 and this is still plenty fun.

Around the Web

• Why big tech stopped building useful stuff - big tech was a mistake.

• The Credit Feed Halloween Special (2026) - cool games that aren’t spooky.

• Hello? Where Is Everybody? - it’s all big tech’s fault!

• How do you Title your Posts? - Like normal people who don’t care about SEO should.

• when the party’s ending - oh look, evil big tech again (but also cool updates).

• Prepping - Everyone in Mexico has 40 liters of water at home.

This is day 59 of #100DaysToOffload