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march 2024
hii hello welcome to a new month. it was a pretty good one. i've been very sociable, almost uncharacteristically so. it's been real nice to put in a little extra effort into hanging out, and i think i was also just rather lucky. shoutout to my friends!! :)
my hrt updates (first seen last month) won't be monthly / regular btw. there's just not much to say. slowly but steadily changing, and now that i'm actually walking forward i'm in no rush. this peace is what all true warriors strive for etc. still do need to find some good albums to prod at my new and shifting range without straining. we're planning on a karaoke night soon and i'm uh. a little bit scared.
new on the site: pathologic is gorgeous ok, my screenshot page. this game is truly showstopping and i tried to get that across. i don't usually screenshot while playing anything really, these are basically all me purposefully booting the game to take photos. anything can be a photography simulator. this one just have rats biting at your ankles occasionally. anyway i'm very happy with this and had a lot of fun taking pics. at some point i'd like to take some interior pics too, and gush a bit about the character costumes, but not very high priority rn so you're gonna have to play it.
art
yeah so this month i've been mostly fooling around with new art academy on the 3ds. it's nice being able to draw on the couch while watching rivvy. howeverrr i've submitted the good stuff for the 3ds zine so i won't be posting anything yet. the form closes april 4, so there's still time if you wanna celebrate the best handheld ever made. anyway, here's a tnk drawing i did to test the waters ^_^
media
games
- four last things (2017): having played the demo of the dev's latest game you can really see how he's polished his work, but this is super solid point and clicking too, it was pretty fun. it feels like a flash game in all the right ways
- lunar axe (2022): oh man i wish this had been good but the puzzles are all SO obnoxious. the hidden object aspects are so lame and there's a lot of fiddly stuff that boils down to trial and error instead of yknow. thinking things through? finding and combining objects to solve problems? i think it might be a disappointment for fans of every genre it mixes in lmao
- pseudoregalia (2023): i'm notoriously bad at 3d platforming but come on i had to check this one out at some point, so i grabbed it on a bit of a whim when it went on sale after the map update (thank god for the map i don't think i'd have progressed much without it. a compass would be nice though). it controls SO well, the movement is delicious. love the world design too, wonderfully interconnected (more than the average metroidvania ime), so while it's pretty bite sized it's dense, it's a super fulfilling game. it's a lot of fun and totally worth it. even if it didn't get me out of the metroidvania curse (i have played a handful of them but only finished a single 'vania to date, hollow knight) — got stuck on some platforming sections at the theatre. also so many indie games involving dreams lately.
- thoroughly damned (2024): :)
- leechcraft: cave monster: roguelike walking sim?? really cool
- pathologic (classic hd) (2015 ← original from 2005): ahh finally got around to finishing the bachelor's route. with no hyperbole whatsoever, this is one of my favorite looking games. it's gorgeous, the bloom makes everything hazy, the fog is thick. the spots with pixellated textures and no normal mapping are charming and highlight the artifice. there's impossible architecture. others have waxed poetic about this game at length, but they never really mention how impressive the game looks. maybe i just have a soft spot for this kind of graphics (morrowind is also a gorgeous game btw. to me.) — look at my screenshot compilation page. yeah anyway this took me a while because the play sessions are long (a day takes like 90 minutes). maybe one day i'll have the stamina to tackle the other routes, because i'm really really curious about them. good viddy game.
- of the devil (demo) (2024): ooooh this was so fun.
- isolomus (2020): this dev's games are all super unique. neat :)
- zelle (2019): cute little game, has some very flash-like design sensibilities. i wish i'd found the combat more intense / anxiety inducing but i suppose i have nerves of steel. regardless, it's a nice little two hour affair
- manglepaw (2022): what a nice little game. love the retro cd rom aesthetic.
- siphonopolis (2022): this game looks and sounds so fucking cool. gameplay is clunky, a mix of the weirdness of point-and-click movement and troublesome geometries, but if i wanted to play a smooth bullet hell i'd boot up a touhou. haven't finished it yet though
- shadow of the colossus (2004): save me walking around a large empty world....... ruins..... massive creatures save me..... not as hard or long as i feared (um. that's what she didn't say. btw), i plowed through it in two days because i'd go "hmm just one more colossus". it's great duh. it's been two decades it's all been said. well maybe one thing hasn't: this is rather close to my dream walking sim souls game. not elaborating on that because it's a barely coherent thought but just know that i'm right. the only thing i found a little underwhelming was the music... idk the loops are kinda short and the style didn't grip me much :/
- the beginner's guide (2015): man............... no one had told me this was a borgesposting game too. god just play it already.
a handful of little treat games this month. sometimes you just pick up something cheap like grabbing a snickers at checkout line. sometimes it's the new (limited edition?) lime snickers that kinda sucks but it's always nice for the most part ^_^
movies and series
- tipping the velvet (2002): yayy early 2000s bbc period lesbian miniseries with sally hawkins (she's just a side character here but it's an interesting coincidence) (if you don't know she's on fingersmith (2005), which i watched a while back). jumperdict cumberscare (benedict cumberbatch jumpscare) warning for the first episode. nan has a soft butch swag thank god. even if she's a bit 'butchest woman twitter can handle' (get that mascara away from her!!). i liked it :)
- vampire hunter d (1985): didn't like it as much as bloodlust, but it's still a stylish movie with a bishonen dhampir so i can't complain either. it's alright.
- kill la kill (2013): i'd started it years ago and straight up forgot i was watching (many such cases, it's why i prefer watching stuff as it comes out one week at a time). which is a shame because the animation is do good and energetic, it's so fun.
- megamind vs the doom syndicate (2024): look. when i found out megamind (2010) my most beloved got a bad straight to streaming sequel 14 years later i reacted exactly like skinner reading the will on ratatouille. an epic "a second megamind has hit the twin towers" moment. i immeadiately sent it to the group chat in shock and we watched it the same day. i mean yeah it's bad duh. flabbergasted at the decision to set it days after the first movie but also just make the tech current, though i don't think that crossed anyone's minds. not gonna clown on the movie, this is a serious space for serious analysis. so i'll just say the animation is bad (i'm terrified of megamind's eyes), the story just repeats the first movie's arcs as if the characters hadn't changed, it feels unfinished because it's just the pilot of an animated series. i like nell minow's "as though they ran the original through the washing machine a few times, and then faxed it" assessment, it's very accurate.
- DNF dune (2021): i attempted to watch it for social reasons but there are better ways to spend my time. i can't stand timmy chalamet. the costumes are soooo drab. the pace is crawling. who give a shit honestly. i liked the lynch movie and the novel well enough (and haaaaated messiah), but i truly don't get the hype and the grip the villeneuve movies have with people who are not ordinarily into scifi? but then again i'm the eternal hype hater. read story of your life.
- therese and isabelle (1968): ehh it's alright. i think the book will be worth a read.
- jojo's bizarre adventure: stone ocean (2021-2023): finally watched the third part (never not mad at the way part 6 was released), which was for the most part very good. the ending was wack though i fucking hate that trope. also can i just say something. is this a safe space. i uh. i forgot dio was killed back in stardust crusaders. so for a hot minute i was all "damn they gotta deal with this priest and then there'll be dio too eventually" before i remembered he's only alive in my thoughts and marina and the diamonds amvs. sorry king. pucci is a great antagonist though love that guy. fucking love made in heaven's design.
- the ballad of songbirds & snakes (2023): eughhh. yeah the hunger games prequel is bad, who'd have thunk it. it's the kind of lame movie that's kinda interesting to analyze because you can see the seams and pick at them yknow. the character arcs (if you can call them that) are nonsensical, there's very little to care about with the story too because you know where snow is headed. it's just trying to rehash the first book / movie but the thing about katniss as a protagonist is that she's interesting and we spend time with her and understand her motivations and stakes and she works for her victory. lucy gray is just kinda there and succeeds because she's the specialest girl ever. and the actress is bad. and yeah beyond story let's talk about audiovisual stuff: it suckssssss. this movie is UGLY the costumes are HIDEOUS and i don't just mean that i don't like them aesthetically but they just don't work! talked a bit about lucy's costumes here. and not helped by the aggressively sepia and desaturated color grading. ugly ugly movie.
- faust: love of the damned (2000): with mark frost. not that one. and jeffrey combs and screaming mad george. yes those ones. i think the audio mixing in this movie is lowkey fucked. at least in the file i got from the internet archive. the voices would sometimes just be super quiet. anyway. movie's sorta cool. sorta bad. and misogynistic. madonna-whore complex is literally textual, a character straight up says "you think there's two types of women, you're pure and i'm a whore". it's a very stereotypical teen boy movie i think. poster goes hard as hell.
- jaws (1975): hate what it did to the perception of sharks ofc but damn yeah this is a good movie. the shark is fucking massive. also i watched it on a chilly day when sweaters were on my mind and brody's black mock neck was giving me insane envy. i may be an eccentric sometimes but i love a well fitting understated piece like this.
also finished riverdale season 2, which i found rather bland. i did feel clever for figuring out the black hood pretty early though. now season 3 however is a whole different beast. i'm about two thirds of the way in and i'm having a lot of fun now they fully committed to being insane. hated the parts with the sisters of quiet mercy (as usual) though. i think i have a pretty strong stomach in general but these subdued / realistic cultish confinements get under my skin. maybe that infamous pre-confirmation weekend retreat fucked me up a little bit. anyway that's not exactly what i'm looking for when watching rivvy.
books and manga
- rogue protocol (martha wells): it's alright. didn't like it as much as the others, it kinda feels like filler?
- matrix (lauren groff): the prose!! really fucking good book.
- walking to aldebaraan (adrian tchaikovsky): wish i'd liked it more... found the narrator / style obnoxious, i don't think his quipping worked well with the setting
- heterogenia linguistico (salt seno): it's nice. kinda hard to follow but that's kinda the point.
- the fealty of monsters (ladz): really great light reading! i was kinda afraid of it having "writer is active on twitter" syndrome but nah it's pretty solid. i'll even let the one use of boypussy slide because pussy has been in use since the 17th century and the setting is overall grounded. the worldbuilding is overall pretty good, the sex and violence well described. really fun book, hyped for the next volume. hopefully we get monstrous vampire lesbian sex ^_^
- the aleph (jorge luis borges): reread. i'm kinda sad this is the one i have a physical copy of, rather than ficciones, because i don't really love the stories here. but borges is always a slay
- a vida e as mortes de severino olho de dendê (ian fraser): i bought this book so long ago and it's been just languishing at the top of my to-read queue. for some reason. anyway it's just rather trite. and it kinda bothers me that it's set in 2577 century while constantly making references to 20th and 21st century music and culture. it makes it seem like culture completely stagnated for 500 years. it feels like the author just set out to write scifi nordestina in the most general terms, which he executes in a competent and inoffensive manner, so it's just the most generic story imaginable wearing a new skin. deeply unremarkable book. i remain unlucky with brazilian scifi. also i think it's really really weird how heteronormative this book is. pray tell why is every off-handed mention of a relationship in this 26th century scifi novel heterosexual.
- the girls in 3-b (valerie taylor): i've been meaning to taste some lesbian pulp (fiction) for ages now (is this a good innuendo. i thought it was decent). 'tis quite alright, kinda like reading gossip too
i'm currently reading the monster baru cormorant, and also intend to get back on track with nonfic. i specifically have some theses queued up. one of them about asemic writing owo
cya!
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