gem @spurll@ramshackle.town

News that I should have posted here sooner! Passepartout won first prize in the Bedford Competition! https://bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk/BWC/php/archive.php

Additionally, "I should play Balatro right now" is an intrusive thought, but I meant what I said.

Balatro is an intrusive thought

Not bad at all...

FINALLY

Pretty good, but alas, not good enough.

Marginal improvements.

(Flush house, aces over kings, scoring 4.25M chips.)

Well, that's definitely my highest-scoring single hand...

As a former tech guy and born-again Luddite, I get a little too much giddy glee watching this stuff play out. https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/24/24081441/reddit-shares-redditor-ipo-user-risk

lol https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/air-canada-must-honor-refund-policy-invented-by-airlines-chatbot/

Fellow parents: please don't do this. https://www.404media.co/google-telus-pays-50-to-scan-childrens-eyelid-shape-and-skin-tone/

Well, this seems bad. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/chilling-effect-pro-palestinian-1.7064510

1. LoZ: Tears of the Kingdom
I like exploring things, and this has three world maps instead of two, so I guess it wins.

2. Elden Ring
I like exploring things.

3. Return of the Obra Dinn
The game that I played immediately after Myst, and a good companion game. It requires fairly undivided attention over a few play-throughs, but it's well worth it. I had given it a try a couple years ago but didn't have enough time to dedicate to it, and I'm glad I went back.

4. Myst
This is the game that originally inspired me to get into software development, if I remember right, so I guess it has a lot to answer for. But despite having given it a few gos over the years, I never got more than one or two ages in. I finally finished it this year and really enjoyed the experience.

5. Crab Champions
A delightful Risk-of-Rain-2-alike, but you're a crab. Probably the most fun I had playing co-op this year.

6. Citizen Sleeper: Flux/Refuge/Purge DLC
The writing in Citizen Sleeper is top-notch, and the three DLC episodes released this year didn't disappoint. I'm looking forward to the sequel, and I hope to go back and finish In Other Waters, the developer's previous game.

7. Dark Souls
I went back and actually played this to completion (third time's the charm!) after beating Elden Ring, and it was well worth it.