Souls Like Strings

My Husband by Maud Ventura.

The perfect couple

The narrator is just a normal woman who loves her husband. Over the course of a week, endlessly escalating revelations exemplify just how normal and healthy her love for her husband is. I'm hesitant to write about the plot in any detail for fear of spoiling it, not because it's reliant on twists or shock value (both of which are plentiful), but because the journey of perspective you go on as you read is part of the experience. The prose is also excellent, posessing that intangible 'quality' I so...

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman.

Everything is fine, nothing is answered

This one just didn't do it for me, despite not being meaningfully different to the preceding two. Part of it was definitely a bit of ick from two characters I very much saw as kids (Lyra's ~12 in this book!) suddenly being very interested in romance. I mean it makes a lot of sense, most kids are at that age even without the extensive trauma-bonding, but much like their other authentically child-like reactions and decisions it's just not fun to read for me.

Something else...

• If you pass a to React Router doesn't know about to Link it'll change the URL but not go anywhere
  • Which means if the page refreshes for some reason, you'll end up where you were going

Links

• Understanding the fundamentals of CSS Layout - Polypane

To my surprise there were quite a few new tidbits here, especially about normal and inline layouts. Hopefully I'll remember it next time I'm confused by block margin doing nothing to an inline element.

• Fun with the Web - Patrick Brosset

A nice reminder...

What if world-building was the gameplay?

Why

• Your favourite part of games is learning about their world
• If 'intriguing' is a more attractive description than 'fun'
• You want something chill & different

Why Not

• Definitely slower paced
• If you care about literally anything other than learning about the world, there's not much here for you

Impressions

I briefly wanted to be a marine biologist when I was a kid, mostly because I thought dolphins were cool (they are) and I liked the idea of being away from my family for months at a time...

Beauty is only skin deep

Why

• Stunning 2.5D with plenty of care put into (most) environments
• Combat is pretty fun, if not particularly challenging
• Packed with personality/pop culture references

Why Not

• Story is laughably incoherent, plays out like bad fanfic
• Lots of dialogue, lots of it awkward (in English)

Impressions

"Frustration". If I had to choose one word to describe ANNO: Mutationem, that'd be the one. ANNO gracefully delivers a stunningly rendered cyberpunk world packed with cool character designs and fluid combat, then falls flat on its face the second it opens its mouth.

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