The NES was my first home console, and while I loved it dearly at the time, I am not overly nostalgic for it as-is. I have found that being able to play the games on a handheld device with an independent save feature makes them a lot more appealing, and the Nintendo Online rewind feature is icing on the cake. I can play a lot of things on my Playstation Classic but it requires I set up in front of the downstairs TV undisturbed, which is impossible if Minnow is awake. By contrast, I’ve found it’s comparatively easy to carve out a few minutes here or there to play a game on Switch and I’m able to enjoy these games a lot more that way. The Switch will always be my preference, the 6.2 inch screen is just right, but I’d like to play games I know won’t be supported, like Mother 3 and other games with translation patches, as well as a way to casually try games and see if I’m even interested in them for more than 5 minutes. The Switch Online library has been very hit or miss for me so far.
I’m looking at the ODROID-GO Advance, but it just started shipping this month so the reviews aren’t in yet. Since I own a DS Lite (3 inch) I’m also looking into Flash cart emulation. I’ve looked at NDS Flash a few times over the years, and at this point it looks like many have moved on to the newer 3DS, but NDSL flash carts like the R4i and Acekard 2i are still around. I broke out the DS Lite about a year ago to play an Animal Crossing game and the small screen legitimately bugged me but the carts are so inexpensive it might be worth a try.
Two useful links: Obscure Handhelds and Retrododo
PUMPEDI feel so freaking good today. Instead of writing an incomprehensible post of keyboardsmash, I will explain why like an adult human who speaks English. In my original BuJo I had a Gratitude section, and of course I almost immediately abandoned. Well, the blog now has a Gratitude tag for when I need to reflect on positive things.
I am in that mildly euphoric state that occurs when you get over a lingering illness and you are rexperiencing what it feels like to feel Normal. OH MY GOD, you think, not-sick feels sooooOOoooO good why didn’t I appreciate this before thank you baby Jesus I can’t believe I
This is slightly premature, but I don’t care: I think I have conquered my gastro problems. I don’t want to discount the low-FODMAP diet, which I was on for about 6 weeks and I think made a huge difference, but more recently I began having kefir (probiotics) for probable gut flora imbalance and I made two significant non-dietary changes, I cut my food intake by about half and I resolved to eat more slowly. Reducing meals kind of sucks, because I am hungry much of the time, and kefir made me nauseous at first (which enlightened health blogs such as Livestrong informed me meant its arcane food magicks were “working”), but I’ve eliminated most of my symptoms as a result. I’m optimistic I can actually return to a unrestricted diet if I keep portions small. If anyone ever comments on me eating blueberries slowly, one at a time, I will punch them in the face, as is my right and mandate.
And that led to me cooking again, and exploring new recipes, which I haven’t done in years. On low-FODMAP I could no longer simply eat whatever was convenient, I had to make food that met specific criteria, so now I no longer care if I’m only cooking for myself, I just cook what I want and it’s great and everyone else can fend for themselves or eat out of a can or whatever. I’m currently very into rice dishes with egg cooked on top (things like nasi goreng).
I finished the large coding commission and agonized over the invoice, like always. I don’t want to short-change myself, my time and expertise obviously valuable, but I still go through my devlog and ask, yes but is this really a $X added class? And so on. I tend to spend more time on the code than I should, because I’m me, so I don’t necessarily want to do a strictly by-hour charge and pass that on to the client, and I still feel weird about making money on what amounts to an “enjoyable hobby.” I am aware that this idea my labor only has value if I’m suffering is part of America’s toxic work ethic, thanks for your concern. I actually have a cost calculator I use that makes commission invoices cut and dried, but I always end up hemming and hawing over the final invoice and whittling down charges here and there. With the agony of sending out an invoice comes the obvious reward: a cash infusion to my mad money stash, which is what I use to buy hobby supplies and media, just in time for the new Animal Crossing game.
Clearing out all the above means I’m ready to focus my undivided attention on the novel outline and boy am I ready. I made two major structural changes recently and watching a story grow, reinforce, and grow again in entirely new and excellent directions is such a rewarding feeling. Novel writing is hell but by gibbity it’s the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I will never tired of it.
There’s more, but those are the main ones. Happy Monday!
HappyWe don’t get much snow around here and yesterday was the perfect snow day for us. We got about four inches of picturesque, fluffy snow in the morning. The snow was not heavy enough to break branches and by afternoon it had completely melted from the roads. That morning I went on a long walk and got some pictures of the forest and lake, and a creek I normally run by. I keep putting off setting up a static photo album of nature pictures, that will be my next web task.
Minnow last saw decent snowfall when they were 2 I think, and they didn’t know what the heck was going on and basically hated it (granted, they hated everything at that age), so I was glad they got to see a good snowfall at age 5 when they are old enough to play in it and see what it’s like. We (by which I mean Marlin and I) built a couple of snowpeople and Minnow knocked them down, I threw some snowballs which Minnow did not appreciate, and then I mixed up some snow and juice for a snowcone which evidently went over well. It was a productive morning.
Much of the city shut down for the day, as it does, so that derailed the day’s plans. I was hoping to adopt a cat from the shelter. Things keep coming up, so this keeps getting pushed back.
I’m not apolitical, merely resting quietly as I die on the inside, but I do occasionally read my favorite American politics site, Politico, that great juicy jewel of the polititrash sphere. Today’s read was An Unsettling New Theory: There is no Swing Voter, which is a magazine piece about political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, who argues elections are largely determined by turnout and turnout can dramatically change between elections. This would mean much of the current American political analysis cottage industry is bubkes, an idea I find intensely gratifying.
My patience for political analysis has dropped substantially since 2016. I’m still bitter about legions of journalists tripping over themselves to blame their readership, of all people, for their colossal failings while apparently learning nothing in the process. Every time I look at any sort of political reporting or analysis or opinion it is with a cynical and suspicious eye. Who does this writer truly serve, or think they serve?
Bitecofer’s perspective interests me because I have always found the concept of the swing voter confusing and counterintuitive. There is allegedly a large American voting bloc that voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016, but I find that difficult to process. I have never, in my life, talked to anyone who thinks or votes this way. I can only imagine someone who doesn’t care about politics doing this, and in my experience people who don’t care about politics don’t vote. I concede that anecdotal evidence is worthless, but I’m a writer and the anecdotal is my business so you’ll have to forgive my foibles. The people who place so much power in the hands of the strange and mythical swing voter are the same people I’ve come to distrust, not because I think they are deliberately lying to me, but because I believe they are intellectually compromised and thus lie to themselves. It’s not an easy knot to untangle.
Also, Ms. Bitecofer has a nameplate on her desk that says, “I came to slay, bitch,” and I respect that. The nameplate alone gets my vote. I guess that goes to show how fickle a voter can be.
I’ve begun working on my epic freeware game list and was mildly disturbed to find some link rot. Not a lot yet, but enough that I felt the need to start a mirror for some of the most specialest fatabulous games I was afraid might be lost to the ages. Might as well put that 50GB of NeoCities supporter space to use.
Link rot always seems worst on tumblr. I kind of hate it when developers host their games as dropbox or mega links on a site like tumblr. itch.io and gamejolt, and a host of other indie game platform sites, do a wonderful job of preserving these games when the creator blog is inevitably restructured or deleted. Anytime a developer’s main site is tumblr the odds of me having to claw my way through a rabbit hole of pages rises significantly. And when it comes to confusing Byzantine link trails from tumblr to wix to twitter to god knows what else… RPG Maker community, I’m looking at you. You’re beautiful, and I love you, but you are one hot mess.
Anyway, this isn’t a tungle hate post, though I do think tumblr is a terrible platform for anything but fast-web image sharing. Of course, fast-web image sharing is one of the most banal uses of our glorious internet so… disregard that, this is absolutely a tungle hate post. d̷҉҉̱̯͍̼͚͘ͅe̸̡̨͍̙̳̺̩̼̦͟͡a̶̧͈͚͍̩̠̝͙̠͉̻̖̖̪͙͉͕͡t̸̡̛͙̬̮͕̤̟̜̖̺̗̣͚̟͕͉h̻͕̣̪̙͇͚̗̤̰̮̼̦́͞ͅ ̢̡̡͈̬̲͇͍͡͝ͅţ͇̯̞̟̟͖͚̘̟͓̠͇̞͖͙̻͠ͅo̵͢͏̟͕͖̠͍͉ ̯͓͔͙̣͔̙͎̞͔̞͍̺̰͡ṱ̶̨̢̪̲͔̬͕̣͈̼͖̺͔͇͔̜̙̼ư̵̧͖͕̥͇̥͔̙̤ͅͅn͏̵̀҉͖̭͖̥͚̟͔͈̗͓͈̥͓̙̝͝g̶̛̘͙͚̱̺̯͖͍̫̣̫̺͇ļ͚̼̝̖̯͖̟̀è̸̷̢̼̪̣̞̟͖͔͇̞̫̗̘͘