rename files to have datestamps; top ten posts; lots of shortcodes!
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---
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title: My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s
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date: 2019-11-13
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url: my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s
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tags:
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- games
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cover: https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/gamescolor.png
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---
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Another decade in the book, another opportunity to represent my life in lists and data.
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Looking retrospectively, this past decade defined my interest in games. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a young child — I remember holing up in my mom’s basement, replaying the same minigames over and over in _Gus Goes to Cyberopolis_. My dad bought me a Gameboy Color for my fifth birthday, and I dedicated at least a decade of my life (regrettably) to the _Kingdom Hearts_ series. But in 2010, I started my first job, and so I finally had some disposable income to spend on my hobbies; I didn’t have to beg for games as birthday or Christmas or whenever presents. And so I played a lot more games in these past ten years. I started to follow industry news beyond new releases. I became more thoughtful about and critical of the industry. And I shifted my hobby into professional inquiry: in 2018, I co-wrote a book chapter about how video games could be used in educational settings, and in 2019, I piloted a camp that empowered kids to create their own video games.
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The games industry has shifted a lot in this decade, too. We’ve seen a renaissance of games that put character and narrative at their center, which has long been what I wanted to see out of the medium. Game designers continue to heighten the artistic potential of games, both in photo-realism and artistic expression. Put shortly, video games this decade have been _really_, _really_ good.
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Now, to offer a caveat to this list: I obviously didn’t play every game that came out in this decade. I didn’t even play _most_ games this decade. I missed major, beloved titles like _Red Dead Redemption 2_, the _Uncharted_ series, or any of the _Call of Duty_ games. Some of this comes down to personal taste, others to time (and monetary) restrictions. This list therefore will be limited to games that I actually played this decade, rather than some kind of pseudo-objective ranking of every game that released in this time frame — and I reserve the right to amend this list when I finally get around to playing _Control_.
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Editorially, I have also decided to omit remasters or re-releases from my consideration unless they dramatically transformed the content of the original game. I have also listed the platform(s) on which I played the games listed, as that may have affected my experience with them.
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___
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## #10. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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{{< boxes >}}
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{{< box label="Released" value="2017" >}}
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{{< box label="Platform" value="Nintendo Switch" >}}
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{{< box label="Developer" value="Nintendo" >}}
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{{< box label="Time Played" value="105 hours" >}}
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{{< /boxes >}}
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My feelings on _Breath of the Wild_ are complicated, to say the least. I’m sure many folks out there would recoil at it only just making my list; I’m sure it will appear at the top of most critical and personal lists, lists assembled by folks who are far better informed and well-equipped to talk about it than me. But here it is, at #10, even though it’s one of the games I pumped the most hours into within this decade (and threw the most curses at).
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I have a rocky history with _The Legend of Zelda_. Most of the games in the series that I’ve enjoyed and spent considerable time with — _Oracle of the Ages_, _Minish Cap_, and _Phantom Hourglass_ — are either widely disliked or, at least, considered the lesser games in the series. I’ve tried a few times to play through some of the classics in the series, like _Majora’s Mask_, but something never quite clicked for me in them. Other series staples, like _Wind Waker_ and _Twilight Princess_, were inaccessible to me because I never owned the appropriate console on which to play them.
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But _Breath of the Wild_ was something different, both for the series and for me. To begin with, I had access to it: my boyfriend got a Switch not long after it released, and _Breath of the Wild_ was the driving force behind that decision for him. I later would get a Switch of my own, and the ability to play _Breath of the Wild_ as both a handheld experience and and a traditional console game seemed to help me stick with it.
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_Breath of the Wild_ was also an entirely new direction for the series. While past games have had open worlds and a focus on exploration and puzzles, _Breath of the Wild_ did all that like no other. The simple act of traversing through the world works so, so well in _Breath of the Wild_, and the reason for that is that it never limits you in what you can do. You see a mountain, you can climb it — with the right gear, food, or stamina, of course — but _you can climb it_. The game never stands in your way when you are following your curiosity, and it rewards your wandering eye with breathtaking skylines, quirky characters, and new discoveries. Even after I had completed all the towers and unlocked fast travel points throughout the map, I would still choose to run great distances to an objective just to take in the splendor of the world, to enjoy the sparse yet powerful music, to meet other travelers along the road. This is why _Breath of the Wild_ eked its way onto my list.
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But as much as I loved my interactions with with world of _Breath of the Wild_, I hated just about everything surrounding it. The story, while competent, did not deviate too far from the _Zelda_ formula: fight some mini-bosses (the corrupted Divine Beasts) to prepare you to fight the big bad (Ganondorf). While that’s a simple story structure that _most_ games can be reduced to, _Breath of the Wild_ does not add anything particularly innovating or exciting on top of it. And while Zelda is more of a compelling character in _Breath of the Wild_ than she has been in some previous titles, she is still relegated to a damsel in distress role and is totally absent outside of the occasional flashback. I think the setup for her character is refreshing and interesting — a young woman attempting to discover her power and be worthy of the throne — but it’s still ancillary to the bulk of the game despite her name being in the title.
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_Breath of the Wild_ also offers no incentive to participate in its combat; by a certain point in the game, I had plenty of resources and powerful weapons, so the random Bokoblins and Moblins were more of an annoyance than anything else because I would not gain any experience points from defeating them — and when you factor in the weapon durability system, I felt actively discouraged from engaging in combat at all because I only served to lose from it. On top of that, I often felt I was fighting against the controls; the systems design of _Breath of the Wild_ simply felt too ambitious for the limited JoyCon, and while a Pro controller assuaged most of my control issues, it’s difficult to swallow that the game almost requires a $70 add-on.
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And then there are the shrines. My boyfriend, Joe, will insist that I hate puzzles and that’s why I did not enjoy the shrines in _Breath of the Wild_, and maybe that’s true. I don’t seem to derive the same fulfillment others do from sitting stuck at a puzzle for hours until you work it out; I’d much rather just look up the solution online and continue on my way. Many shrines I found had clear solutions, but they would be so tedious to actually perform that I simply handed the controller over to Joe and asked him to save me the frustration. While there are multiple possible solutions to many of these puzzles, I found the shrines overall to be so disconnected from the magic of the world above them — like entirely separate teams and design philosophies had inspired them compared to the parts of the game I actually liked.
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It probably doesn’t help that — for inexplicable reasons — the game’s developers placed [one of the most obtuse, irritating shrine puzzles](https://zeldauniverse.net/guides/breath-of-the-wild/sidequests/shrines-of-trials/myahm-agana-shrine-myahm-agana-apparatus/) so close to the Great Plateau, almost guaranteeing that most players would discover it in their early hours with the game. I did, and it did not leave a good first impression.
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Even with all these frustrations, I know in my heart of hearts that _Breath of the Wild_ is a phenomenal accomplishment — that it belongs on this list, that I secretly like it, because it does an open world unlike any game before it. Every so often, the game comes together in a beautiful harmony — I feel free, untethered, unrestricted, and in awe of the beautiful world before me, and then all my criticisms of the game slip away. And then I go down an elevator to a shrine and the din begins anew. I’m torn between that discordance, but it belongs here.
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___
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## #9. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
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{{< boxes >}}
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{{< box label="Released" value="2012" >}}
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{{< box label="Platform" value="Nintendo 3DS" >}}
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{{< box label="Developer" value="Monolith Soft" >}}
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{{< /boxes >}}
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My love affair with the _Animal Crossing_ series started back on the Nintendo DS with _Animal Crossing: Wild World_. I spent many a hours in middle school decorating my player’s room, designing custom patterns, and visiting my the towns of my siblings and friends. I broached the 3DS library late, but when I picked mine up in 2015, I knew that _New Leaf_ would be a must buy.
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Now, I could talk about some of the more meaningful and enjoyable additions that _New Leaf_ brought to the series, like Dream Towns, Public Works projects, and more options for character customization. I could croon on about Isabelle, who I inexplicably and wholeheartedly love. And I could enumerate all the hours I dumped into the Desert Island Escape mini-game hidden within _New Leaf_, but I would rather not realize my shame and addiction on a semi-permanent platform like my blog. (I have since learned that Desert Island Escape is playable in _Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival_, making me one of four people who purchased _Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival_ for something other than the bundled amiibo.)
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_Animal Crossing_ simply works in that it is one of the coziest experiences in gaming. While other titles focus on leveling up your character, meeting impossible combat challenges, or working out team strategies in cooperative settings, the joys of _Animal Crossing_ are often found in solitude. Even if I have only twenty minutes to spare, I can load up my town and tackle whichever of _New Leaf_‘s numerous offerings best strike my fancy that day: I can catch fish, hunt for fossils, or design my house. I can build relationships with my townspeople or explore the towns other players have constructed. And even while some parts of the game can feel a bit tedious, like filling out the museum or raising enough bells to pay off a mortgage, the game never forces the player to complete any of it: all of these activities happen at the player’s pace, and the game encourages a sense of leisure. There’s certainly room to go hardcore in _Animal Crossing_, by time-traveling or hacking one’s game, but what I love most about _Animal Crossing_ is how it respects my time and how it seems naturally designed for self-care. _Animal Crossing_ is welcoming and playful in its art, music, and characters. It’s a game for taking a mental health day (or hour, or afternoon, or week), wrapping yourself in a warm blanket, and escaping to a world that is softer than our own.
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___
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## #8. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
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{{< boxes >}}
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{{< box label="Released" value="2013" >}}
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{{< box label="Platform" value="PlayStation 4, PC" >}}
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{{< box label="Developer" value="Square-Enix" >}}
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{{< /boxes >}}
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I have had a rocky few years with Square Enix. As a company, they have released some of the most important games and series to me — I count _Final Fantasy X_, _Final Fantasy XII_, and _Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced_ among my all-time favorite games, and the _Kingdom Hearts_ series was my entryway into gaming as a more serious hobby and gaming as a community. Square’s releases in the 2010-2019 span were not such easy allies; the company clearly struggled to meet both the new challenges of developing high definition games as well as match the innovations other developers had made. Quite simply, they no longer enjoyed their top dog status. They lost the trust and brand recognition that blockbusters like _Final Fantasy VII_ and _Final Fantasy X_ afforded them, and I was actively offended by _Final Fantasy XIII_ series (!) and _Final Fantasy XV_.
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I started in with _Final Fantasy XIV_ on a whim. I had never played an MMORPG before, unless you count spending the better part of a day downloading _The Old Republic_ and promptly uninstalling it after just a few minutes of gameplay. But I liked the _Final Fantasy_ series, and it was free to sign up for the alpha. So I thought, _why not_?
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I fell in love with _Final Fantasy XIV_ quickly, even with the immense learning curve that any MMO would have. And I certainly had my ups and downs with the game; it is guilty of the infamously menial MMO quest design of fetch quests and killing squirrels to progress the story, of grinding out levels for hours just to access new content. Even so, I roped friends into playing with me, and part of my enjoyment of _Final Fantasy XIV_ became the relationships and socialization that happened around it: I was able to maintain and reconnect friendships through _XIV_. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to keep up with Square’s active roadmap for the game or set aside enough time in my increasingly busy life to justify the subscription cost. I’ve yet to even finish the _Heavensward_ expansion. But every time I come back to the game, I’m delighted by what I enjoyed the last time I played, and the new content only seems to get better and better.
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_Final Fantasy XIV_ represents hope, then, that a game company can take a critical eye to their releases, do right by their customers, and deliver something fantastic. The game’s original launch was a different sort of debacle than their other contemporary releases, and certainly larger in scale in that the game was pulled off shelves and rebuilt from the ground up. But the team behind _A Realm Reborn_ were able to raise the game from the ashes, and many critics agree that _XIV_‘s most recent expansion, _Shadowbringers_, is its most ambitious and powerful yet. And while I’m in one of my valleys with the game right now, distracted by the responsibilities of grad school, the opening notes of some Gridania’s field music are enough to wrap me in comfort and inspire me to return yet again to Eorzea.
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___
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## #7. Marvel's Spider-Man
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{{< boxes >}}
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{{< box label="Released" value="2018" >}}
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{{< box label="Platform" value="PlayStation 4" >}}
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{{< box label="Developer" value="Insomniac" >}}
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{{< box label="Trophies Earned" value="100%" >}}
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{{< /boxes >}}
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I’m not a big superhero fan, but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Spider-Man. The Sam Raimi films came out when I was young, and they were exactly the type of popcorn blockbuster that I wanted at that age. I also played a whole bunch of the _Spider-Man 2_ video game on my original Xbox; it was one of the first open world games that I played, and I would spend hours swinging around New York City or, my favorite, climbing to the top of the Empire State Building and seeing how close to the ground I could get before I had to swing off to safety.
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So when Insomniac announced their new Spider-Man game for the PlayStation 4, I was excited to relive the joys of one of my favorite childhood games, in a more modern and varied open world. I made it a few weeks after _Spider-Man_‘s release before I cashed in some coupons and dove in. I played every night for a week, and it was the first (and only) game I ever platinumed on PlayStation.
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_Spider-Man_ is simply a joy to play. The web swinging and traversal is fluid, allowing the player to zip around the city with ease and style. As entertaining as the fast travel cutscenes were, I rarely used the system simply because I loved travelling through the city so much. The game also has one of the best golden hours around; much of the action of the game takes place against golden sun rays and soft shadows. It’s a beautiful, beautiful game, and I appreciate any game with a cosmetic system as deep as _Spider-Man_‘s. I loved earning all the suits and cycling through them, especially the comic book suit.
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The story in _Spider-Man_ is better than it has any right to be for a superhero game. The twists and reveals are mostly predictable, but where the game shines is the relationships built between the characters. Peter and MJ have real chemistry, and the complications in their relationship are believable because MJ has an actual will in this version of the Spidey universe. She doesn’t want to stay away from the action and actively resists any damseling (and Peter’s attempts to protect her). Peter and Otto have a believeable mentorship, which makes his shift to Doc Ock more tragic. _Spider-Man_ cares about establishing and developing its characters, and it helps ground the superhero action in a human, emotional context.
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By far my favorite portions of the game were the sections where Peter was allowed to be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man: retrieving his homeless friend’s escaped pigeons, chasing down a garbage truck that took his trashed belongings after he was evicted, and collecting the backpacks he had scattered through the city offer a nice reprieve from the big action of the main story. Again, it helps to humanize the character and ground the story; there was a levity to _Spider-Man_ that made it a joy to play.
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_Spider-Man_ was a triumph in how to make a _good_ superhero game — one that isn’t bogged down by a cinematic universe, one that doesn’t repeat the stories we’ve seen a dozen times on screen and in comics. Insomniac put their own fresh, original spin on the characters and the universe, making it accessible for folks like me who don’t know the character well while still being a satisfying homage to the character for superfans.
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___
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## #6. Horizon Zero Dawn
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{{< boxes >}}
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{{< box label="Released" value="2017" >}}
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{{< box label="Platform" value="PlayStation 4" >}}
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{{< box label="Developer" value="Guerilla Games" >}}
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{{< box label="Time Played" value="75 hours" >}}
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{{< box label="Trophies Earned" value="100% (base game)" >}}
|
||||
{{< /boxes >}}
|
||||
|
||||
When _Horizon Zero Dawn_ was first shown at E3 2015, I was instantly interested: a new IP starring a badass, bow-wielding female character voiced by Ashly Burch? Sign me up. The setting looked unique, following our society’s fascination with post-apocalyptic societies but avoiding any cliches. _Horizon Zero Dawn_‘s world is harsh for some, but there are thriving settlements and communities, diverse tribes with real identities, and, well, robot dinosaurs.
|
||||
|
||||
The way that _Horizon Zero Dawn_ contrasts its grounded tribal life with the high-tech machines makes for a visually splendid experience, often set against the backdrop of sweeping mountain ranges and decaying ruins. I found myself regularly pausing on mountaintops just to take in the beautiful, varied scenery of Aloy’s world, just as I did with _Breath of the Wild_. There’s a real sense that Aloy lives among the ruins of a world that once was, and the player discovers the story of that world’s downfall through some pretty incredible environmental storytelling.
|
||||
|
||||
_Horizon Zero Dawn_ also focuses on stories that we do not usually see outside of novels geared specifically toward young women. We have had a prolific history of games about fatherhood — _Final Fantasy X_, _Heavy Rain, God of War, The Last of Us_, _BioShock Infinite_, to name a few — and many of them craft compelling, meaningful narratives. And fatherhood is important in _Horizon_, certainly: Rost, Aloy’s father figure, is killed in the opening hours of the game, but his influence on Aloy looms large throughout Aloy’s internal narrative and the ways he taught her to survive in their harsh world. That is all well and good, but _Horizon_ fills the comparative void that the industry has created for games about motherhood. _Horizon_ therefore distinguishes itself in that it focuses not only on a woman’s story, but the story of a young woman discovering her connection to her mother through the game’s narrative and, on a broader scale, Mother Earth. It’s not a coincidence that the person responsible for destroying the world before the events of the game is a man and that the person who works to heal it is a woman — a woman who goes on to create a female-coded entity to care for the inhabitants that will follow long after her death. And without spoiling the ending or events of the game (you can [click on this link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQIqoTHY2MU) if you want to do that for yourself), _Horizon_ has a powerful final message: for women to nurture their daughters to be curious, brave, and compassionate women who can nurture the world under that ethos.
|
||||
|
||||
In terms of gameplay, _Horizon Zero Dawn_ offers a varied experience; Aloy has many different bows, slings, traps, and other tools at her disposal, which the player can select according to their playstyle and the demands of the combat encounter ahead of them. I found myself favoring the Sharpshot Bow for stealthy, high-precision shots and its tear ammo, which will shoot pieces of armor off of enemies. Enemy encounters were always varied, as the terrain would often shape one’s approach, and enemies of different types were present together, adding a heightened challenge.
|
||||
|
||||
_Horizon Zero Dawn_‘s shortcomings are especially stark when you consider that it released just days before _Breath of the Wild_, and I think that led many to overlook it. _Breath of the Wild_ very much follows the “if you can see it, you can climb it” philosophy, so long as the player has adequate stamina and it’s not raining. _Horizon Zero Dawn_ instead uses an _Uncharted_-style traversal system. It’s functional, but it lacks the fluidity and freedom of _Breath of the Wild_, which is jarring when the games are played soon after one another. _Horizon Zero Dawn_ also has a robust crafting and inventory system — in some ways, I prefer it to _Breath of the Wild_, as I can quickly craft some new arrows in _Horizon Zero Dawn_ as I need them, which gives me the freedom to use the weapons and tools I prefer in combat. But the gathering and inventory management in _Horizon_ can feel clunky at times, as the player is always having to figure out which resources to keep and which to sell off.
|
||||
|
||||
All around, though, I have really enjoyed my time with _Horizon Zero Dawn_. Its world is vast and visually delightful, its story is gripping, and even the side quests have a level of care and detail put into them that other open world games struggle to embed. More than anything, it tells a story that actively values and empowers women and mothers, which few if any games do or do as well. I’m excited to see Guerilla fine-tune some of the clunkier aspects of the game and evolve Aloy and her world.
|
||||
___
|
||||
## #5. Firewatch
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{{< boxes >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Released" value="2016" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Platform" value="PC" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Developer" value="Campo Santo" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Time Played" value="3.5 hours" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Life Course" value="Permanently Changed & Altered" >}}
|
||||
{{< /boxes >}}
|
||||
|
||||
From _Firewatch_‘s art, it’s easy to get the wrong impression of the game. Its now iconic design features flat mountains against the glowing backdrop of the setting sun, rich trees to lose oneself in, and a lone firetower set on spindly legs for your quiet contemplation. It seems, then, to follow the Emersonian ideal of transcendentalism — of communing with nature to discover truth and beauty and the meaning of all things. It seems to be about living deliberately, separated from the constant phone calls and text messages and push notifications. But _Firewatch_‘s realities are far from these _Walden_-esque projections.
|
||||
|
||||
Henry goes to the woods not to discover himself but to lose himself. _Firewatch_ is a game about escapism — about running from what’s tough in life, using solitude as a hideout, constructing fantasies to keep you from hardship, and the people we wrap into our paranoia as we jump at the shadows, afraid to confront what actually looms within us. It’s a game about learning that reality eventually catches up with you. We can only live in the fictions we’ve built to protect ourselves for so long, and the more we try to cling to them, the further we’ll be driven to madness.
|
||||
|
||||
Part of what makes _Firewatch_ such an accomplishment is the way it is able to build human relationships through a walkie-talkie. The voice performance of the actors behind Henry and Delilah is terrific and helps create an intimacy between two people who have never met in person. And that, too, becomes part of _Firewatch_‘s power — it forces the player to question how well we know other people when we only see the sides of themselves they have constructed. We are rapt as we watch their romance evolve, and we root for it even though we know it is doomed.
|
||||
|
||||
_Firewatch_‘s anti-climax is perhaps [one of the most divisive in gaming history](https://quarterly.camposanto.com/the-end-of-firewatch-8a7d334a9586), and it brings those themes to a head. When you talk to anyone about the game, your conversation will probably — and circuitously — start with what you thought about the ending. Henry and Delilah’s relationship was always going to end this way, because it had to, but that doesn’t stop the player from desiring that catharsis — they’re simply looking for it in the wrong place. That density and room for debate is the mark of a great piece of story — we’re able to still talk about it and dissect it years after its release. _Firewatch_ stakes out a place in your head and stays in there. It’s a work of art.
|
||||
___
|
||||
## #4. Mass Effect 2
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{{< boxes >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Released" value="2010" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Platform" value="PlayStation 3" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Developer" value="BioWare" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Time Played" value="55.5 hours" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Trophies Earned" value="79%" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Life Course" value="made me gay" >}}
|
||||
{{< /boxes >}}
|
||||
|
||||
I have been quoted as saying that _Mass Effect 2_ is the “game of the century.”
|
||||
|
||||
Such an assertion is impossible to make given that we’re only nineteen years _into_ this century; it’s obviously a hyperbole. But with _Mass Effect 2_ releasing in January of 2010, I hold that it established an ethos that would guide the games that came after it — and that ethos is character.
|
||||
|
||||
The first _Mass Effect_ game was a trailblazer in its own way, of course. The level of choice, consequence, and cinematic storytelling included within it was unprecedented at the time, and it received appropriate accolades. But while the story is an enjoyable space opera, it’s pretty by the books — you play as a noted military hero who assembles a team of soldiers and experts to fight an operative gone rogue. _Mass Effect_ has its unique voice, and the story takes some exciting turns, but you’re still a hero who does heroic things (or, if you play Renegade, you’re a hero who does mostly heroic things with a sarcastic smirk and a willingness to line your own pockets in the process).
|
||||
|
||||
_Mass Effect 2_ asserts that it is going to do something different within the first five minutes of starting the game — when the player character, Commander Shepard, is abruptly killed, then reincarnated two years later by rogue paramilitary group for what they make clear will be a Suicide Mission.
|
||||
|
||||
From there, _Mass Effect 2_ does not launch any big twists or surprises onto the player. You always know that things are headed for the Suicide Mission, and you have to prepare as best you can for it. While you had the backing of the intergalactic government, vast military resources, and a highly qualified crew in _Mass Effect_, _Mass Effect 2_ sees you assemble a ragtag crew in a patchwork body; your crew consists of hackers, mad scientists, thieves, genetic experiments, and generally disturbed personalities. Even those characters who return from the first game are grizzled by time, with shifting moralities. Most of your assembled crew could give a damn about the fate of the galaxy or Cerberus’s interests, but _Mass Effect 2_ lives and dies by these characters. As you sort through each of your squad member’s personal traumas and help them find the peace they need before they join you on your Suicide Mission, the game posits that the way to overcome impossible odds and save the universe is by loving and caring for the people around you — of building bonds that mean they will follow you to death’s door (and, hopefully, back).
|
||||
___
|
||||
## #3. Life is Strange
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{{< boxes >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Released" value="2015" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Platform" value="PlayStation 4" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Developer" value="Dontnod Entertainment" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Trophies Earned" value="60%" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Life Course" value="made me gayer" >}}
|
||||
{{< /boxes >}}
|
||||
|
||||
When Dontnod released the first episode of _Life is Strange_, [I shared effusive praise about it](https://cassie.ink/life-is-strange-episode-1-chrysalis/). It was one of the few games that I felt represented me — that spoke to my experiences as a teenage girl, that did them justice, that felt authentic. I still feel that way. _Life is Strange_ continued its exploration of difficult topics in its later episodes — suicide, drug use, sexual abuse, cyberbullying — but it was never exploitative, nor did it ever feel like an afterschool special. It conveyed these harsh realities with grace and mindfulness — realities that most games are either too afraid to include or woefully mishandle. And in that way, it did justice to the stories of many.
|
||||
|
||||
After I finished the fifth and final episode of _Life is Strange_, Polarized, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth: I didn’t feel that Dontnod delivered on its ambitious storytelling or tied up loose strings in its ending. I still haven’t quite made my peace with the game’s final choice, though learning about the time and resource crunch behind it softened it a little. But when I think about the game as a whole, I think about the good. I think about the incredibly deep and real and complicated and human characters that inhabit Arcadia Bay. I think about the way Dontnod masterfully uses licensed music to establish those characters and add an emotional weight to scenes. I think about the tension and twists in the narrative. And I think about how few games have been able to tell a story of this magnitude — a story that, by its nature, wraps the player in and doesn’t let go even after the credits roll.
|
||||
|
||||
And I think about how _Life is Strange_ is unlike any other game. Sure, there are comparisons one can make across genre or mechanics, but what other game places a group so often excluded from and terrorized within gaming — teenage girls — at its center? What other game speaks to the ways that men victimize young women? What other game gives voice and power and agency to these young women, refusing to sideline or damsel them?
|
||||
|
||||
As much as it is easy to goof on _Life is Strange_ for its, at times, cringe-inducing lines or its rampant _Twin Peaks_ references, it has a clear mission to represent the social and emotional realities of young people. And it manages to mix its ambitions for social commentary with a deeply affecting, resonant story; it never becomes too didactic or wrapped up in making a message — it’s always grounded in the characters and the story. I think about Max and Chloe and Kate and Rachel and Nathan and Victoria on a regular basis, and I was in anguish as I watched tragedy unfold around them. It’s a rollercoaster I loved riding.
|
||||
___
|
||||
## #2. The Last of Us
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{{< boxes >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Released" value="2013" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Platform" value="PlayStation 4" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Developer" value="Naughty Dog" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Trophies Earned" value="3%" >}}
|
||||
{{< /boxes >}}
|
||||
|
||||
When I started exploring video games as literature, the first game I thought of was _The Last of Us_. There are some phenomenal, emotional, impactful stories to be found within games — and I’ve included many of them on my list, lauded them for just that. But _The Last of Us_ is in a class all its own.
|
||||
|
||||
Nothing about _The Last of Us_ would make one expect anything revolutionary. It’s a zombie game. It’s a big escort mission. The story, on paper, doesn’t seem like anything extraordinary or new for the genre. You’re Joel, a survivor twenty years into the zombie apocalypse who has lost his daughter and been tasked with escorting a 14-year-old girl across the country so that she can be studied for her immunity to the zombie virus.
|
||||
|
||||
Where _The Last of Us_ distinguishes itself is in the extraordinary execution of that story. Joel and Ellie are made to be real by the complex motivations and ambitions and stories behind them. In the opening moments of the game, when the zombie virus first emerges, Joel loses his daughter Sarah _The Last of Us_ is about finding small glimpses of humanity in a bleak, punishing world. There is no easy mortality to _The Last of Us_, no clear villain or hero — there’s a darkness behind every character, a guilt that they have for continuing to exist in a world filled with senseless loss. As much as I hate Joel for his actions throughout the journey, I understand them. I understand that he clings to his concept of surviving at any cost because it’s all he has left. I understand the ways that he has been broken and twisted by loss, the way that Ellie represents his final remaining connection to his humanity. In the final moments of the game, when Ellie at last sees Joel for what he is, we understand that the world could do the same to her.
|
||||
|
||||
_The Last of Us_ is a game about love because somehow, after all the traumatic blows that Joel, Ellie, and the player share, we still want to believe that love and humanity can endure. We want to prevail and do justice to the memory of the people we have lost along the way. We want to believe that our connections to the people we love can stop us from being swallowed by the harshness of the world. We want to look for the light — and the shreds of it that are found in _The Last of Us_ are made profound by their rarity.
|
||||
___
|
||||
## #1. Stardew Valley
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{{< boxes >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Released" value="2016" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Platform" value="PC, Nintendo Switch" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Developer" value="ConcernedApe" >}}
|
||||
{{< box label="Time Played" value="160 hours" >}}
|
||||
{{< /boxes >}}
|
||||
|
||||
Depression has been my quiet struggle for many years. When I picked up _Stardew Valley_, I had just started on a new medication that left me an emotional mess: up and down, crying all morning, needy for Joe to come around and pick me up. I wasn’t in school, and my next steps in life were totally uncertain. It was a dark time for me, and _Stardew_ was my light. The game was a good distraction; I could sink hours and hours into it at at time and never feel bored. And it made me feel like I was _accomplishing_ something, working on making things better, even if that “better” was happening in the context of the game — like upgrading my sprinklers so I wouldn’t have to do as much watering or getting the town bus line reopened so that Pam would have her job back. _Stardew_ gave me comfort; it became my game for self-care. And even when things aren’t so dire as my first months with the game, _Stardew Valley_ is still like an old friend I can come back to whenever I need some solace or just to kill a little time.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s difficult to pitch _Stardew Valley_ to people. There’s an immensely personal bond I have to it, but on the surface, it doesn’t sound too interesting: it’s a farming simulator like _Harvest Moon_, kind of, with shades of _Terraria_ and _Animal Crossing_. But it’s more than that, too. And I think part of it has to be played and experienced to be understood.
|
||||
|
||||
{{< image src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/krobus.png" width="600" alt="Please, don't be alarmed. I am different from the others." caption="Krobus has some of the best dialogue in the game." >}}
|
||||
|
||||
To speak more broadly, though, I think the message _Stardew Valley_ carries is something we all need to help get us through the state of the world in 2019. _Stardew Valley_ is about community — about forming relationships with the people around us, about rekindling our connection to the earth and to family and to ourselves. _Stardew Valley_ posits this message early on, through Grandpa’s Letter, which suggests that the “dire change” the player needs can be accomplished by rediscovering what really matters in life: “real connections with other people and nature.” That ethos becomes the reason for the gameplay loop: rebuilding the town’s community center and pushing out the capitalistic forces that seek to place us in endless, soul-crushing competition with one another. _Stardew Valley_ carries an overwhelming hope that happiness is within reach if we work for it — that we can regain and rebuild our connections to the world through good, honest work, through communion with the land, through taking care of each other, through forming a sense of community in our increasingly separate, disconnected time. Sometimes I need reminders of that hope, and _Stardew Valley_ makes it all seem achievable — even if we know it won’t be as easy as picking some leeks in the forest or growing some gold star quality parsnips. It’s within reach, if we’re willing to work for it.
|
||||
___
|
||||
## Honorable Mentions
|
||||
**Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.** I played a lot of _Shadow of Mordor_ these past few years, and yet I somehow haven’t managed to finish it. _Mordor_ does not do much in terms of compelling narrative or world-building — which is shocking considering it takes place in the Tolkien legendarium — but what it does do phenomenally well is the Nemesis system. I hope to see more games implement similar systems within them — though the game has been out for five years now, and nobody has really delivered there yet. It made for some fun antics in what would otherwise be a pretty humdrum game.
|
||||
|
||||
**The Order 1886.** Those who know me will know I was incredibly hyped for _The Order_, and it was one of my biggest gaming disappointments. I liked what was there, but it needed more to it. I still think that the setting and characters are incredibly compelling, and I hope — against odds — that Ready at Dawn will have another chance to give the IP the second shot it deserves.
|
||||
|
||||
**Tomb Raider.** I had never played a _Tomb Raider_ game prior to playing _Tomb Raider_, the 2013 reboot by Crystal Dynamics. I had also never played an _Uncharted_ game, which I am told is very similar to playing _Tomb Raider_. This game was surprisingly gay and surprisingly good; what I expected to be a fun action romp actually had an enjoyable story and gave some solid development to Lara Croft. It was a commendable way to breathe life into an old, aged franchise.
|
||||
|
||||
**The Sims 4.** I am a _Sims 4_ convert. I clung to _The Sims 3_ for a long time, lamenting the loss of the Create-A-Style system (and toddlers, and pools, and other things). _Sims 4_ recovered from a rocky launch and has turned into a streamlined version of _The Sims_ that I didn’t know I wanted. I can’t imagine going back to _TS3_ now — even if I did like the live neighborhoods. I’ve sunk a heck of a lot of time into _The Sims 4_, and I think the team behind it deserves recognition for bringing more equitable and diverse gender options to a game series that has previously been quite binary.
|
||||
|
||||
**Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna).** I want there to be more games like _Never Alone_. _Never Alone_ was created in partnership with Alaskan native peoples to represent their stories, their heritage, and who they are now. While the gameplay and story are relatively simple, they gave me exposure to a culture that I would probably otherwise know or see very little about. I enjoyed unlocking all the little documentary-style clips, which I found incredibly well-done, and the educational potential of _Never Alone_ excites me as both a gamer and a teacher.
|
||||
|
||||
**Pokemon Sun & Moon.** This _Pokemon_ game let me dress up my character, which is really all I ever needed out of a _Pokemon_ game. But it also streamlined a lot of things about the series, making it accessible again for me, someone who has flagged on it. Not having to deal with HMs alone was a huge difference from previous titles, and I don’t care what anyone says — experience share saves me time and makes it so I can actually finish these games.
|
||||
___
|
||||
_I commissioned the phenomenal header image for this post from_ [_Nax Yoder_](https://naxdraws.com/)_._ _Follow the link through to see more of their work._
|
||||
16
content/posts/2023-08-31 Media Log (August 2023).md
Normal file
16
content/posts/2023-08-31 Media Log (August 2023).md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: Media Log (August 2023)
|
||||
date: 2023-08-31
|
||||
url: media-log-august-2023
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- media-log
|
||||
draft: false
|
||||
---
|
||||
# Movies
|
||||
_Barbie_ - I was underwhelmed. There's been lots of chatter, and I loved _Lady Bird_, but _Barbie_ didn't hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to _Barbie_ as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.
|
||||
|
||||
# Games
|
||||
_Vampire Survivors_ - I originally played _Vampire Survivors_ for my video game podcast, [Pitch & Play](https://pitchandplay.org) (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don't really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded _Vampire Survivors_ onto my phone and went deep into it. It's a fantastic game that I'll come to associate with my early days in the house.
|
||||
|
||||
# Books
|
||||
_Walk Two Moons_ by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try _Walk Two Moons_ out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I've read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I'm an adult reading a book written for children and because I've read it before. I'm not sure it's the book I'm looking for, but it's not a bad read.
|
||||
@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: Media Log (August 2023)
|
||||
date: 2023-08-31
|
||||
url: media-log-august-2023
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- media-log
|
||||
draft: false
|
||||
---
|
||||
# Movies
|
||||
* _Barbie_ - I was underwhelmed. There's been lots of chatter, and I loved _Lady Bird_, but _Barbie_ didn't hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to _Barbie_ as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.
|
||||
|
||||
# Games
|
||||
* _Vampire Survivors_ - I originally played _Vampire Survivors_ for my video game podcast, [Pitch & Play](https://pitchandplay.org) (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don't really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded _Vampire Survivors_ onto my phone and went deep into it. It's a fantastic game that I'll come to associate with my early days in the house.
|
||||
|
||||
# Books
|
||||
* _Walk Two Moons_ by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try _Walk Two Moons_ out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I've read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I'm an adult reading a book written for children and because I've read it before. I'm not sure it's the book I'm looking for, but it's not a bad read.
|
||||
17
content/week-notes/031.md
Normal file
17
content/week-notes/031.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: (WN31)
|
||||
url:
|
||||
date: 2025-09-07
|
||||
tags:
|
||||
- week-notes
|
||||
draft: true
|
||||
---
|
||||
## Doing
|
||||
|
||||
## Reading
|
||||
|
||||
## Watching
|
||||
|
||||
## Playing
|
||||
|
||||
## Listening
|
||||
@ -374,6 +374,16 @@ nav ul {
|
||||
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.cover {
|
||||
width: 100%;
|
||||
height: 100vw;
|
||||
max-height: 500px;
|
||||
background-size: cover;
|
||||
background-position: center;
|
||||
margin-top: 10px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
/* Shortcodes */
|
||||
.page .audio {
|
||||
|
||||
audio {
|
||||
@ -389,13 +399,31 @@ nav ul {
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.cover {
|
||||
width: 100%;
|
||||
height: 100vw;
|
||||
max-height: 500px;
|
||||
background-size: cover;
|
||||
background-position: center;
|
||||
margin-top: 10px;
|
||||
.boxes {
|
||||
display: flex;
|
||||
justify-content: center;
|
||||
align-items: baseline;
|
||||
gap: 10px;
|
||||
flex-wrap: wrap;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.box {
|
||||
background-color: var(--blue);
|
||||
color: #fff;
|
||||
padding: 2%;
|
||||
|
||||
.label {
|
||||
font-family: 'Domaine Display', Georgia, serif;
|
||||
font-weight: 900;
|
||||
text-transform: uppercase;
|
||||
margin-right: 5px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
figcaption {
|
||||
text-align: center;
|
||||
font-size: .9rem;
|
||||
font-style: italic;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
/* section */
|
||||
|
||||
@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
|
||||
<a href="/about/">About</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a aria-current="true" class="ancestor" href="/posts/">Posts</a>
|
||||
<a href="/posts/">Posts</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week Notes</a>
|
||||
|
||||
117
public/drafts/index.html
Normal file
117
public/drafts/index.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||||
<html lang="en-us" dir="ltr">
|
||||
<head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script>
|
||||
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
||||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="description" content="Hi, my name is Cassie. This is my personal blog and home of the esoteric bullshit that I am incomprehensibly fixated on, which includes books, video games, music, and thinking way too much about everything.">
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@cass@social.lol" />
|
||||
<title>Drafts | cassie.ink</title>
|
||||
|
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css">
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/fonts.css">
|
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|
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<script src="/js/main.js"></script>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://localhost:1313/drafts/index.xml" title="cassie.ink">
|
||||
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
<header>
|
||||
<h1>
|
||||
<a href="http://localhost:1313/">
|
||||
cassie
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-filled icon-tabler-droplet"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M10.708 2.372a2.382 2.382 0 0 0 -.71 .686l-4.892 7.26c-1.981 3.314 -1.22 7.466 1.767 9.882c2.969 2.402 7.286 2.402 10.254 0c2.987 -2.416 3.748 -6.569 1.795 -9.836l-4.919 -7.306c-.722 -1.075 -2.192 -1.376 -3.295 -.686z" /></svg>
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ink
|
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</a>
|
||||
</h1>
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||||
<nav>
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<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/about/">About</a>
|
||||
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<li>
|
||||
<a href="/posts/">Posts</a>
|
||||
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<li>
|
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<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week Notes</a>
|
||||
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|
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</ul>
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||||
</nav>
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||||
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||||
|
||||
</header>
|
||||
<main class='section'>
|
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|
||||
<h1>All Drafts</h1>
|
||||
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||||
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|
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|
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|
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||||
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<path d="M18.648 15.254c-1.816 1.763 -6.648 1.626 -6.648 1.626a18.262 18.262 0 0 1 -3.288 -.256c1.127 1.985 4.12 2.81 8.982 2.475c-1.945 2.013 -13.598 5.257 -13.668 -7.636l-.026 -1.154c0 -3.036 .023 -4.115 1.352 -5.633c1.671 -1.91 6.648 -1.666 6.648 -1.666s4.977 -.243 6.648 1.667c1.329 1.518 1.352 2.597 1.352 5.633s-.456 4.074 -1.352 4.944z" />
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<path d="M12 11.204v-2.926c0 -1.258 -.895 -2.278 -2 -2.278s-2 1.02 -2 2.278v4.722m4 -4.722c0 -1.258 .895 -2.278 2 -2.278s2 1.02 2 2.278v4.722" />
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<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#eb743b" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-metabrainz"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7v10l7 4v-18z" /><path d="M21 7v10l-7 4v-18z" /></svg>
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|
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don't forget to have fun.
|
||||
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|
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all errors © cassie
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||||
</html>
|
||||
26
public/drafts/index.xml
Normal file
26
public/drafts/index.xml
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
|
||||
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
|
||||
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
|
||||
<channel>
|
||||
<title>Drafts on cassie.ink</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/drafts/</link>
|
||||
<description>Recent content in Drafts on cassie.ink</description>
|
||||
<generator>Hugo</generator>
|
||||
<language>en-us</language>
|
||||
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
|
||||
<atom:link href="http://localhost:1313/drafts/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>dad</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/dad/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/dad/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>My father left when I was six and never stopped leaving. At school events, scheduled visits, personal lows, I scanned the crowd for his face and didn&rsquo;t find it. I grew used to his absence and started to resent the appearances he made; when he did show up, I&rsquo;d wish he hadn&rsquo;t. At my college graduation, he parted with the gift, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad you&rsquo;re not a fuck up like me,&rdquo; turning my achievements into his own deluded, narcissistic pursuit of sympathy. He at least — and unwittingly — stumbled upon a truth: I succeeded despite his example and influence. Never because of it.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title></title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/drafts/turning-30/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Nov 2024 23:56:38 -0500</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/drafts/turning-30/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>My thirtieth birthday party, the day before my actual turn from one decade to the next, was a beautiful night. My mom, both pre-emptively staking out her territory as an Italian-American grandmother and (past but an adverb?) fulfilling regrets at never having been able to throw me a childhood party, brought too much food and snacks and love — or staying up and out past the early afternoon, which is a kind of love for us; my friends, older than me in years and with busy families and schedules, brought wisdom and comfort in growing older gracefully; and my friends closer in age drove great distances to celebrate <em>me</em> — or at least, with me.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
</channel>
|
||||
</rss>
|
||||
10
public/drafts/page/1/index.html
Normal file
10
public/drafts/page/1/index.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||||
<html lang="en-us">
|
||||
<head>
|
||||
<title>http://localhost:1313/drafts/</title>
|
||||
<link rel="canonical" href="http://localhost:1313/drafts/">
|
||||
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
|
||||
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
||||
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://localhost:1313/drafts/">
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
122
public/drafts/turning-30/index.html
Normal file
122
public/drafts/turning-30/index.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||||
<html lang="en-us" dir="ltr">
|
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<head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script>
|
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<meta charset="utf-8">
|
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="description" content="My thirtieth birthday party, the day before my actual turn from one decade to the next, was a beautiful night. My mom, both pre-emptively staking out her territory as an Italian-American grandmother and (past but an adverb?) fulfilling regrets at never having been able to throw me a childhood party, brought too much food and snacks and love — or staying up and out past the early afternoon, which is a kind of love for us; my friends, older than me in years and with busy families and schedules, brought wisdom and comfort in growing older gracefully; and my friends closer in age drove great distances to celebrate me — or at least, with me.
|
||||
">
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@cass@social.lol" />
|
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<title> | cassie.ink</title>
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|
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</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
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<header>
|
||||
<h1>
|
||||
<a href="http://localhost:1313/">
|
||||
cassie
|
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<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-filled icon-tabler-droplet"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M10.708 2.372a2.382 2.382 0 0 0 -.71 .686l-4.892 7.26c-1.981 3.314 -1.22 7.466 1.767 9.882c2.969 2.402 7.286 2.402 10.254 0c2.987 -2.416 3.748 -6.569 1.795 -9.836l-4.919 -7.306c-.722 -1.075 -2.192 -1.376 -3.295 -.686z" /></svg>
|
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ink
|
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</a>
|
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|
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<nav>
|
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|
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<main class='page'>
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|
||||
<article>
|
||||
|
||||
<time datetime="2024-11-25T23:56:38-05:00">25 November 2024</time>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1></h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<p>My thirtieth birthday party, the day before my actual turn from one decade to the next, was a beautiful night. My mom, both pre-emptively staking out her territory as an Italian-American grandmother and (past but an adverb?) fulfilling regrets at never having been able to throw me a childhood party, brought too much food and snacks and love — or staying up and out past the early afternoon, which is a kind of love for us; my friends, older than me in years and with busy families and schedules, brought wisdom and comfort in growing older gracefully; and my friends closer in age drove great distances to celebrate <em>me</em> — or at least, with me.</p>
|
||||
<p>The actual day passed uneventfully, cleaning and resting from the festivities, alone and at home with Joe. As the night wore on, however, I noticed, with (something something - mixed alarm, absence, desparation, and a painful normalcy) that I hadn’t heard from my dad, and I was suddenly borne ceaselessly back into the past.</p>
|
||||
<p>After years of baggage and mixed-up emptions, ups and downs, I’ve entered a maintenance phase in my relationship with him: I maintain the most tenuous connection I possibly can while his mother, my grandmother, is still alive, and I have planned to sever those last vestiges when she passed. I’ve entertained fleeting fancies on what would happen when <em>he</em> goes — how I would find out, how I would react, if I would even bother to attend or instead seize it as an opportunity to enact my triumphant revenge by never showing up.</p>
|
||||
<p>And yet, and yet, despite years of receiving a call on the wrong birthday, I’m back in the second grade, at an in-school Father’s Day celebration, waiting, waiting for any sign; mixed gratitude and crushing disappointment to see my maternal grandfather in my dad’s stead; and sunk lower by every playground busy-bpdy asking why my dad was so old and having to explain that it’s not actually my perfectly hale and hearty dad, who simply did not show up. I’m back in the schoolyard waiting for him — late again — to pick us up for his agreed upon custodial visits, so late the sun starts to set and a worried teacher contacts home seeing three abandoned kids who are realizing, slowly, that they are not important to their father. I’m back at my high school graduation and not bothering to invite him because I have almost two decades of experience to know the outcome, to know it’s better than to set myself up for disappointment by expecting him to show. I’m back at my college graduation, a tremendous, back-breaking accomplishment, shocked to see him show up but wishing he hadn’t as he makes it about himself: “I’m glad to see you’re not a fuck up like me.”</p>
|
||||
<p>I am 30. Why now, on the cusp of starting my own family — of discussing the unsexy logistics of planned conception, (lack of sufficient) maternity leave, and childcare, do I need a call from my daddy on my birthday? Why have I not learned the lesson experience has so deeply (that isn’t the right word) taught me so many times over?</p>
|
||||
<p>At a parent meeting for a beloved student, I sang praises about her while admiring the original: she is, in every respect — her mannerisms, dress, energy — her mother. A little shorter and less gray, but otherwise a carbon, in the ways that matter. And as I went home that evening and reflected, I wondered what in me I would pass along — those idiosyncrasies impossible to spot within oneself that would one day leave bemused teachers, friends, family to remark the same of my child and me.</p>
|
||||
<p>And again, the lingering seven year old in me bubbled to the surface: what in me resembled my father — and, worse yet, what of his toxic line would seep (need a stronger verb, think like an oil spill) into another generation? Have I created enough distance to avoid his influence? Is there some latent biological evil in my genetics? And what of my traumas, my inability to move past my feelings of abandonment, would I, against my best efforts, inflict on my own?</p>
|
||||
<p>People say girls look for their fathers in their partners. I’ve looked for the opposite. Joe is always gentle, always patient — the kind to drop everything just to be there for a friend in need. When I asked him if I had any mannerisms he thought I might pass along, he laughed and responded with a list, paramount upon which was my passion. He recalled nights at the movie theater sitting in a mostly one-sided conversation, listening to me monologue about some esoteric music bullshit and falling in love.</p>
|
||||
<p>I hope for my children from me passion and devotion; that they stick wholeheartedly to that which — and <em>who</em> — they care about. I wish for them the softness that comes from having two parents who make them feel loved, valued, important.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
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<path d="M12 11.204v-2.926c0 -1.258 -.895 -2.278 -2 -2.278s-2 1.02 -2 2.278v4.722m4 -4.722c0 -1.258 .895 -2.278 2 -2.278s2 1.02 2 2.278v4.722" />
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<meta name="description" content="Movies Barbie - I was underwhelmed. There’s been lots of chatter, and I loved Lady Bird, but Barbie didn’t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to Barbie as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter. Games Vampire Survivors - I originally played Vampire Survivors for my video game podcast, Pitch & Play (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don’t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded Vampire Survivors onto my phone and went deep into it. It’s a fantastic game that I’ll come to associate with my early days in the house. Books Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try Walk Two Moons out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I’ve read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I’m an adult reading a book written for children and because I’ve read it before. I’m not sure it’s the book I’m looking for, but it’s not a bad read. ">
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<meta name="description" content="Movies Barbie - I was underwhelmed. There’s been lots of chatter, and I loved Lady Bird, but Barbie didn’t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to Barbie as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.
|
||||
Games Vampire Survivors - I originally played Vampire Survivors for my video game podcast, Pitch & Play (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don’t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded Vampire Survivors onto my phone and went deep into it. It’s a fantastic game that I’ll come to associate with my early days in the house.
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<h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There’s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn’t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There’s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn’t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</p>
|
||||
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch & Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don’t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It’s a fantastic game that I’ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch & Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don’t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It’s a fantastic game that I’ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</p>
|
||||
<h1 id="books">Books</h1>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><em>Walk Two Moons</em> by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try <em>Walk Two Moons</em> out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I’ve read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I’m an adult reading a book written for children and because I’ve read it before. I’m not sure it’s the book I’m looking for, but it’s not a bad read.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p><em>Walk Two Moons</em> by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try <em>Walk Two Moons</em> out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I’ve read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I’m an adult reading a book written for children and because I’ve read it before. I’m not sure it’s the book I’m looking for, but it’s not a bad read.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
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Looking retrospectively, this past decade defined my interest in games. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a young child — I remember holing up in my mom’s basement, replaying the same minigames over and over in Gus Goes to Cyberopolis. My dad bought me a Gameboy Color for my fifth birthday, and I dedicated at least a decade of my life (regrettably) to the Kingdom Hearts series. But in 2010, I started my first job, and so I finally had some disposable income to spend on my hobbies; I didn’t have to beg for games as birthday or Christmas or whenever presents. And so I played a lot more games in these past ten years. I started to follow industry news beyond new releases. I became more thoughtful about and critical of the industry. And I shifted my hobby into professional inquiry: in 2018, I co-wrote a book chapter about how video games could be used in educational settings, and in 2019, I piloted a camp that empowered kids to create their own video games.
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<time datetime="2019-11-13T00:00:00+00:00">13 November 2019</time>
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<h1>My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s</h1>
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<div class="barcode">
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my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s
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</div>
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<div class="cover" style="background-image:url('https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/gamescolor.png');"></div>
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||||
|
||||
<p>Another decade in the book, another opportunity to represent my life in lists and data.</p>
|
||||
<p>Looking retrospectively, this past decade defined my interest in games. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a young child — I remember holing up in my mom’s basement, replaying the same minigames over and over in <em>Gus Goes to Cyberopolis</em>. My dad bought me a Gameboy Color for my fifth birthday, and I dedicated at least a decade of my life (regrettably) to the <em>Kingdom Hearts</em> series. But in 2010, I started my first job, and so I finally had some disposable income to spend on my hobbies; I didn’t have to beg for games as birthday or Christmas or whenever presents. And so I played a lot more games in these past ten years. I started to follow industry news beyond new releases. I became more thoughtful about and critical of the industry. And I shifted my hobby into professional inquiry: in 2018, I co-wrote a book chapter about how video games could be used in educational settings, and in 2019, I piloted a camp that empowered kids to create their own video games.</p>
|
||||
<p>The games industry has shifted a lot in this decade, too. We’ve seen a renaissance of games that put character and narrative at their center, which has long been what I wanted to see out of the medium. Game designers continue to heighten the artistic potential of games, both in photo-realism and artistic expression. Put shortly, video games this decade have been <em>really</em>, <em>really</em> good.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now, to offer a caveat to this list: I obviously didn’t play every game that came out in this decade. I didn’t even play <em>most</em> games this decade. I missed major, beloved titles like <em>Red Dead Redemption 2</em>, the <em>Uncharted</em> series, or any of the <em>Call of Duty</em> games. Some of this comes down to personal taste, others to time (and monetary) restrictions. This list therefore will be limited to games that I actually played this decade, rather than some kind of pseudo-objective ranking of every game that released in this time frame — and I reserve the right to amend this list when I finally get around to playing <em>Control</em>.</p>
|
||||
<p>Editorially, I have also decided to omit remasters or re-releases from my consideration unless they dramatically transformed the content of the original game. I have also listed the platform(s) on which I played the games listed, as that may have affected my experience with them.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="10-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild">#10. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/botwzelda.png" alt="Zelda alone in a pool of water"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2017</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Nintendo Switch</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Nintendo</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Time Played</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">105 hours</span>
|
||||
</div>
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||||
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||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>My feelings on <em>Breath of the Wild</em> are complicated, to say the least. I’m sure many folks out there would recoil at it only just making my list; I’m sure it will appear at the top of most critical and personal lists, lists assembled by folks who are far better informed and well-equipped to talk about it than me. But here it is, at #10, even though it’s one of the games I pumped the most hours into within this decade (and threw the most curses at).</p>
|
||||
<p>I have a rocky history with <em>The Legend of Zelda</em>. Most of the games in the series that I’ve enjoyed and spent considerable time with — <em>Oracle of the Ages</em>, <em>Minish Cap</em>, and <em>Phantom Hourglass</em> — are either widely disliked or, at least, considered the lesser games in the series. I’ve tried a few times to play through some of the classics in the series, like <em>Majora’s Mask</em>, but something never quite clicked for me in them. Other series staples, like <em>Wind Waker</em> and <em>Twilight Princess</em>, were inaccessible to me because I never owned the appropriate console on which to play them.</p>
|
||||
<p>But <em>Breath of the Wild</em> was something different, both for the series and for me. To begin with, I had access to it: my boyfriend got a Switch not long after it released, and <em>Breath of the Wild</em> was the driving force behind that decision for him. I later would get a Switch of my own, and the ability to play <em>Breath of the Wild</em> as both a handheld experience and and a traditional console game seemed to help me stick with it.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Breath of the Wild</em> was also an entirely new direction for the series. While past games have had open worlds and a focus on exploration and puzzles, <em>Breath of the Wild</em> did all that like no other. The simple act of traversing through the world works so, so well in <em>Breath of the Wild</em>, and the reason for that is that it never limits you in what you can do. You see a mountain, you can climb it — with the right gear, food, or stamina, of course — but <em>you can climb it</em>. The game never stands in your way when you are following your curiosity, and it rewards your wandering eye with breathtaking skylines, quirky characters, and new discoveries. Even after I had completed all the towers and unlocked fast travel points throughout the map, I would still choose to run great distances to an objective just to take in the splendor of the world, to enjoy the sparse yet powerful music, to meet other travelers along the road. This is why <em>Breath of the Wild</em> eked its way onto my list.</p>
|
||||
<p>But as much as I loved my interactions with with world of <em>Breath of the Wild</em>, I hated just about everything surrounding it. The story, while competent, did not deviate too far from the <em>Zelda</em> formula: fight some mini-bosses (the corrupted Divine Beasts) to prepare you to fight the big bad (Ganondorf). While that’s a simple story structure that <em>most</em> games can be reduced to, <em>Breath of the Wild</em> does not add anything particularly innovating or exciting on top of it. And while Zelda is more of a compelling character in <em>Breath of the Wild</em> than she has been in some previous titles, she is still relegated to a damsel in distress role and is totally absent outside of the occasional flashback. I think the setup for her character is refreshing and interesting — a young woman attempting to discover her power and be worthy of the throne — but it’s still ancillary to the bulk of the game despite her name being in the title.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Breath of the Wild</em> also offers no incentive to participate in its combat; by a certain point in the game, I had plenty of resources and powerful weapons, so the random Bokoblins and Moblins were more of an annoyance than anything else because I would not gain any experience points from defeating them — and when you factor in the weapon durability system, I felt actively discouraged from engaging in combat at all because I only served to lose from it. On top of that, I often felt I was fighting against the controls; the systems design of <em>Breath of the Wild</em> simply felt too ambitious for the limited JoyCon, and while a Pro controller assuaged most of my control issues, it’s difficult to swallow that the game almost requires a $70 add-on.</p>
|
||||
<p>And then there are the shrines. My boyfriend, Joe, will insist that I hate puzzles and that’s why I did not enjoy the shrines in <em>Breath of the Wild</em>, and maybe that’s true. I don’t seem to derive the same fulfillment others do from sitting stuck at a puzzle for hours until you work it out; I’d much rather just look up the solution online and continue on my way. Many shrines I found had clear solutions, but they would be so tedious to actually perform that I simply handed the controller over to Joe and asked him to save me the frustration. While there are multiple possible solutions to many of these puzzles, I found the shrines overall to be so disconnected from the magic of the world above them — like entirely separate teams and design philosophies had inspired them compared to the parts of the game I actually liked.</p>
|
||||
<p>It probably doesn’t help that — for inexplicable reasons — the game’s developers placed <a href="https://zeldauniverse.net/guides/breath-of-the-wild/sidequests/shrines-of-trials/myahm-agana-shrine-myahm-agana-apparatus/">one of the most obtuse, irritating shrine puzzles</a> so close to the Great Plateau, almost guaranteeing that most players would discover it in their early hours with the game. I did, and it did not leave a good first impression.</p>
|
||||
<p>Even with all these frustrations, I know in my heart of hearts that <em>Breath of the Wild</em> is a phenomenal accomplishment — that it belongs on this list, that I secretly like it, because it does an open world unlike any game before it. Every so often, the game comes together in a beautiful harmony — I feel free, untethered, unrestricted, and in awe of the beautiful world before me, and then all my criticisms of the game slip away. And then I go down an elevator to a shrine and the din begins anew. I’m torn between that discordance, but it belongs here.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="9-animal-crossing-new-leaf">#9. Animal Crossing: New Leaf</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/acnl.jpg" alt="Various characters from New Leaf"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2012</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Nintendo 3DS</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Monolith Soft</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>My love affair with the <em>Animal Crossing</em> series started back on the Nintendo DS with <em>Animal Crossing: Wild World</em>. I spent many a hours in middle school decorating my player’s room, designing custom patterns, and visiting my the towns of my siblings and friends. I broached the 3DS library late, but when I picked mine up in 2015, I knew that <em>New Leaf</em> would be a must buy.</p>
|
||||
<p>Now, I could talk about some of the more meaningful and enjoyable additions that <em>New Leaf</em> brought to the series, like Dream Towns, Public Works projects, and more options for character customization. I could croon on about Isabelle, who I inexplicably and wholeheartedly love. And I could enumerate all the hours I dumped into the Desert Island Escape mini-game hidden within <em>New Leaf</em>, but I would rather not realize my shame and addiction on a semi-permanent platform like my blog. (I have since learned that Desert Island Escape is playable in <em>Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival</em>, making me one of four people who purchased <em>Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival</em> for something other than the bundled amiibo.)</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Animal Crossing</em> simply works in that it is one of the coziest experiences in gaming. While other titles focus on leveling up your character, meeting impossible combat challenges, or working out team strategies in cooperative settings, the joys of <em>Animal Crossing</em> are often found in solitude. Even if I have only twenty minutes to spare, I can load up my town and tackle whichever of <em>New Leaf</em>‘s numerous offerings best strike my fancy that day: I can catch fish, hunt for fossils, or design my house. I can build relationships with my townspeople or explore the towns other players have constructed. And even while some parts of the game can feel a bit tedious, like filling out the museum or raising enough bells to pay off a mortgage, the game never forces the player to complete any of it: all of these activities happen at the player’s pace, and the game encourages a sense of leisure. There’s certainly room to go hardcore in <em>Animal Crossing</em>, by time-traveling or hacking one’s game, but what I love most about <em>Animal Crossing</em> is how it respects my time and how it seems naturally designed for self-care. <em>Animal Crossing</em> is welcoming and playful in its art, music, and characters. It’s a game for taking a mental health day (or hour, or afternoon, or week), wrapping yourself in a warm blanket, and escaping to a world that is softer than our own.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="8-final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn">#8. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/ffxivarr.jpg" alt="Key art from FFXIV showing Alphinaud, Alisaie, and the Warrior of Light"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2013</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PlayStation 4, PC</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Square-Enix</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>I have had a rocky few years with Square Enix. As a company, they have released some of the most important games and series to me — I count <em>Final Fantasy X</em>, <em>Final Fantasy XII</em>, and <em>Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced</em> among my all-time favorite games, and the <em>Kingdom Hearts</em> series was my entryway into gaming as a more serious hobby and gaming as a community. Square’s releases in the 2010-2019 span were not such easy allies; the company clearly struggled to meet both the new challenges of developing high definition games as well as match the innovations other developers had made. Quite simply, they no longer enjoyed their top dog status. They lost the trust and brand recognition that blockbusters like <em>Final Fantasy VII</em> and <em>Final Fantasy X</em> afforded them, and I was actively offended by <em>Final Fantasy XIII</em> series (!) and <em>Final Fantasy XV</em>.</p>
|
||||
<p>I started in with <em>Final Fantasy XIV</em> on a whim. I had never played an MMORPG before, unless you count spending the better part of a day downloading <em>The Old Republic</em> and promptly uninstalling it after just a few minutes of gameplay. But I liked the <em>Final Fantasy</em> series, and it was free to sign up for the alpha. So I thought, <em>why not</em>?</p>
|
||||
<p>I fell in love with <em>Final Fantasy XIV</em> quickly, even with the immense learning curve that any MMO would have. And I certainly had my ups and downs with the game; it is guilty of the infamously menial MMO quest design of fetch quests and killing squirrels to progress the story, of grinding out levels for hours just to access new content. Even so, I roped friends into playing with me, and part of my enjoyment of <em>Final Fantasy XIV</em> became the relationships and socialization that happened around it: I was able to maintain and reconnect friendships through <em>XIV</em>. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to keep up with Square’s active roadmap for the game or set aside enough time in my increasingly busy life to justify the subscription cost. I’ve yet to even finish the <em>Heavensward</em> expansion. But every time I come back to the game, I’m delighted by what I enjoyed the last time I played, and the new content only seems to get better and better.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Final Fantasy XIV</em> represents hope, then, that a game company can take a critical eye to their releases, do right by their customers, and deliver something fantastic. The game’s original launch was a different sort of debacle than their other contemporary releases, and certainly larger in scale in that the game was pulled off shelves and rebuilt from the ground up. But the team behind <em>A Realm Reborn</em> were able to raise the game from the ashes, and many critics agree that <em>XIV</em>‘s most recent expansion, <em>Shadowbringers</em>, is its most ambitious and powerful yet. And while I’m in one of my valleys with the game right now, distracted by the responsibilities of grad school, the opening notes of some Gridania’s field music are enough to wrap me in comfort and inspire me to return yet again to Eorzea.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="7-marvels-spider-man">#7. Marvel’s Spider-Man</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/spiderman.jpg" alt="Spider-Man perched atop the Empire State Building"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2018</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PlayStation 4</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Insomniac</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Trophies Earned</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">100%</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>I’m not a big superhero fan, but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Spider-Man. The Sam Raimi films came out when I was young, and they were exactly the type of popcorn blockbuster that I wanted at that age. I also played a whole bunch of the <em>Spider-Man 2</em> video game on my original Xbox; it was one of the first open world games that I played, and I would spend hours swinging around New York City or, my favorite, climbing to the top of the Empire State Building and seeing how close to the ground I could get before I had to swing off to safety.</p>
|
||||
<p>So when Insomniac announced their new Spider-Man game for the PlayStation 4, I was excited to relive the joys of one of my favorite childhood games, in a more modern and varied open world. I made it a few weeks after <em>Spider-Man</em>‘s release before I cashed in some coupons and dove in. I played every night for a week, and it was the first (and only) game I ever platinumed on PlayStation.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Spider-Man</em> is simply a joy to play. The web swinging and traversal is fluid, allowing the player to zip around the city with ease and style. As entertaining as the fast travel cutscenes were, I rarely used the system simply because I loved travelling through the city so much. The game also has one of the best golden hours around; much of the action of the game takes place against golden sun rays and soft shadows. It’s a beautiful, beautiful game, and I appreciate any game with a cosmetic system as deep as <em>Spider-Man</em>‘s. I loved earning all the suits and cycling through them, especially the comic book suit.</p>
|
||||
<p>The story in <em>Spider-Man</em> is better than it has any right to be for a superhero game. The twists and reveals are mostly predictable, but where the game shines is the relationships built between the characters. Peter and MJ have real chemistry, and the complications in their relationship are believable because MJ has an actual will in this version of the Spidey universe. She doesn’t want to stay away from the action and actively resists any damseling (and Peter’s attempts to protect her). Peter and Otto have a believeable mentorship, which makes his shift to Doc Ock more tragic. <em>Spider-Man</em> cares about establishing and developing its characters, and it helps ground the superhero action in a human, emotional context.</p>
|
||||
<p>By far my favorite portions of the game were the sections where Peter was allowed to be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man: retrieving his homeless friend’s escaped pigeons, chasing down a garbage truck that took his trashed belongings after he was evicted, and collecting the backpacks he had scattered through the city offer a nice reprieve from the big action of the main story. Again, it helps to humanize the character and ground the story; there was a levity to <em>Spider-Man</em> that made it a joy to play.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Spider-Man</em> was a triumph in how to make a <em>good</em> superhero game — one that isn’t bogged down by a cinematic universe, one that doesn’t repeat the stories we’ve seen a dozen times on screen and in comics. Insomniac put their own fresh, original spin on the characters and the universe, making it accessible for folks like me who don’t know the character well while still being a satisfying homage to the character for superfans.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="6-horizon-zero-dawn">#6. Horizon Zero Dawn</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/hzd.jpg" alt="Aloy ziplining down from the top of a snowy mountain"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2017</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PlayStation 4</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Guerilla Games</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Time Played</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">75 hours</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Trophies Earned</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">100% (base game)</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>When <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> was first shown at E3 2015, I was instantly interested: a new IP starring a badass, bow-wielding female character voiced by Ashly Burch? Sign me up. The setting looked unique, following our society’s fascination with post-apocalyptic societies but avoiding any cliches. <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em>‘s world is harsh for some, but there are thriving settlements and communities, diverse tribes with real identities, and, well, robot dinosaurs.</p>
|
||||
<p>The way that <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> contrasts its grounded tribal life with the high-tech machines makes for a visually splendid experience, often set against the backdrop of sweeping mountain ranges and decaying ruins. I found myself regularly pausing on mountaintops just to take in the beautiful, varied scenery of Aloy’s world, just as I did with <em>Breath of the Wild</em>. There’s a real sense that Aloy lives among the ruins of a world that once was, and the player discovers the story of that world’s downfall through some pretty incredible environmental storytelling.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> also focuses on stories that we do not usually see outside of novels geared specifically toward young women. We have had a prolific history of games about fatherhood — <em>Final Fantasy X</em>, <em>Heavy Rain, God of War, The Last of Us</em>, <em>BioShock Infinite</em>, to name a few — and many of them craft compelling, meaningful narratives. And fatherhood is important in <em>Horizon</em>, certainly: Rost, Aloy’s father figure, is killed in the opening hours of the game, but his influence on Aloy looms large throughout Aloy’s internal narrative and the ways he taught her to survive in their harsh world. That is all well and good, but <em>Horizon</em> fills the comparative void that the industry has created for games about motherhood. <em>Horizon</em> therefore distinguishes itself in that it focuses not only on a woman’s story, but the story of a young woman discovering her connection to her mother through the game’s narrative and, on a broader scale, Mother Earth. It’s not a coincidence that the person responsible for destroying the world before the events of the game is a man and that the person who works to heal it is a woman — a woman who goes on to create a female-coded entity to care for the inhabitants that will follow long after her death. And without spoiling the ending or events of the game (you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQIqoTHY2MU">click on this link</a> if you want to do that for yourself), <em>Horizon</em> has a powerful final message: for women to nurture their daughters to be curious, brave, and compassionate women who can nurture the world under that ethos.</p>
|
||||
<p>In terms of gameplay, <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> offers a varied experience; Aloy has many different bows, slings, traps, and other tools at her disposal, which the player can select according to their playstyle and the demands of the combat encounter ahead of them. I found myself favoring the Sharpshot Bow for stealthy, high-precision shots and its tear ammo, which will shoot pieces of armor off of enemies. Enemy encounters were always varied, as the terrain would often shape one’s approach, and enemies of different types were present together, adding a heightened challenge.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em>‘s shortcomings are especially stark when you consider that it released just days before <em>Breath of the Wild</em>, and I think that led many to overlook it. <em>Breath of the Wild</em> very much follows the “if you can see it, you can climb it” philosophy, so long as the player has adequate stamina and it’s not raining. <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> instead uses an <em>Uncharted</em>-style traversal system. It’s functional, but it lacks the fluidity and freedom of <em>Breath of the Wild</em>, which is jarring when the games are played soon after one another. <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> also has a robust crafting and inventory system — in some ways, I prefer it to <em>Breath of the Wild</em>, as I can quickly craft some new arrows in <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em> as I need them, which gives me the freedom to use the weapons and tools I prefer in combat. But the gathering and inventory management in <em>Horizon</em> can feel clunky at times, as the player is always having to figure out which resources to keep and which to sell off.</p>
|
||||
<p>All around, though, I have really enjoyed my time with <em>Horizon Zero Dawn</em>. Its world is vast and visually delightful, its story is gripping, and even the side quests have a level of care and detail put into them that other open world games struggle to embed. More than anything, it tells a story that actively values and empowers women and mothers, which few if any games do or do as well. I’m excited to see Guerilla fine-tune some of the clunkier aspects of the game and evolve Aloy and her world.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="5-firewatch">#5. Firewatch</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/firewatch.jpg" alt="An empty firewatch tower at sunset"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2016</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PC</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Campo Santo</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Time Played</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">3.5 hours</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Life Course</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Permanently Changed & Altered</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>From <em>Firewatch</em>‘s art, it’s easy to get the wrong impression of the game. Its now iconic design features flat mountains against the glowing backdrop of the setting sun, rich trees to lose oneself in, and a lone firetower set on spindly legs for your quiet contemplation. It seems, then, to follow the Emersonian ideal of transcendentalism — of communing with nature to discover truth and beauty and the meaning of all things. It seems to be about living deliberately, separated from the constant phone calls and text messages and push notifications. But <em>Firewatch</em>‘s realities are far from these <em>Walden</em>-esque projections.</p>
|
||||
<p>Henry goes to the woods not to discover himself but to lose himself. <em>Firewatch</em> is a game about escapism — about running from what’s tough in life, using solitude as a hideout, constructing fantasies to keep you from hardship, and the people we wrap into our paranoia as we jump at the shadows, afraid to confront what actually looms within us. It’s a game about learning that reality eventually catches up with you. We can only live in the fictions we’ve built to protect ourselves for so long, and the more we try to cling to them, the further we’ll be driven to madness.</p>
|
||||
<p>Part of what makes <em>Firewatch</em> such an accomplishment is the way it is able to build human relationships through a walkie-talkie. The voice performance of the actors behind Henry and Delilah is terrific and helps create an intimacy between two people who have never met in person. And that, too, becomes part of <em>Firewatch</em>‘s power — it forces the player to question how well we know other people when we only see the sides of themselves they have constructed. We are rapt as we watch their romance evolve, and we root for it even though we know it is doomed.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Firewatch</em>‘s anti-climax is perhaps <a href="https://quarterly.camposanto.com/the-end-of-firewatch-8a7d334a9586">one of the most divisive in gaming history</a>, and it brings those themes to a head. When you talk to anyone about the game, your conversation will probably — and circuitously — start with what you thought about the ending. Henry and Delilah’s relationship was always going to end this way, because it had to, but that doesn’t stop the player from desiring that catharsis — they’re simply looking for it in the wrong place. That density and room for debate is the mark of a great piece of story — we’re able to still talk about it and dissect it years after its release. <em>Firewatch</em> stakes out a place in your head and stays in there. It’s a work of art.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="4-mass-effect-2">#4. Mass Effect 2</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/me2.jpg" alt="Liara and Female Shep kiss in the Shadow Broker’s Lair"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2010</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PlayStation 3</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">BioWare</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Time Played</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">55.5 hours</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Trophies Earned</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">79%</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Life Course</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">made me gay</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>I have been quoted as saying that <em>Mass Effect 2</em> is the “game of the century.”</p>
|
||||
<p>Such an assertion is impossible to make given that we’re only nineteen years <em>into</em> this century; it’s obviously a hyperbole. But with <em>Mass Effect 2</em> releasing in January of 2010, I hold that it established an ethos that would guide the games that came after it — and that ethos is character.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first <em>Mass Effect</em> game was a trailblazer in its own way, of course. The level of choice, consequence, and cinematic storytelling included within it was unprecedented at the time, and it received appropriate accolades. But while the story is an enjoyable space opera, it’s pretty by the books — you play as a noted military hero who assembles a team of soldiers and experts to fight an operative gone rogue. <em>Mass Effect</em> has its unique voice, and the story takes some exciting turns, but you’re still a hero who does heroic things (or, if you play Renegade, you’re a hero who does mostly heroic things with a sarcastic smirk and a willingness to line your own pockets in the process).</p>
|
||||
<p><em>Mass Effect 2</em> asserts that it is going to do something different within the first five minutes of starting the game — when the player character, Commander Shepard, is abruptly killed, then reincarnated two years later by rogue paramilitary group for what they make clear will be a Suicide Mission.</p>
|
||||
<p>From there, <em>Mass Effect 2</em> does not launch any big twists or surprises onto the player. You always know that things are headed for the Suicide Mission, and you have to prepare as best you can for it. While you had the backing of the intergalactic government, vast military resources, and a highly qualified crew in <em>Mass Effect</em>, <em>Mass Effect 2</em> sees you assemble a ragtag crew in a patchwork body; your crew consists of hackers, mad scientists, thieves, genetic experiments, and generally disturbed personalities. Even those characters who return from the first game are grizzled by time, with shifting moralities. Most of your assembled crew could give a damn about the fate of the galaxy or Cerberus’s interests, but <em>Mass Effect 2</em> lives and dies by these characters. As you sort through each of your squad member’s personal traumas and help them find the peace they need before they join you on your Suicide Mission, the game posits that the way to overcome impossible odds and save the universe is by loving and caring for the people around you — of building bonds that mean they will follow you to death’s door (and, hopefully, back).</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="3-life-is-strange">#3. Life is Strange</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/lis.jpg" alt="Max and Chloe lay on a bed together in their underwear"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2015</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PlayStation 4</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Dontnod Entertainment</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Trophies Earned</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">60%</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Life Course</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">made me gayer</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>When Dontnod released the first episode of <em>Life is Strange</em>, <a href="https://cassie.ink/life-is-strange-episode-1-chrysalis/">I shared effusive praise about it</a>. It was one of the few games that I felt represented me — that spoke to my experiences as a teenage girl, that did them justice, that felt authentic. I still feel that way. <em>Life is Strange</em> continued its exploration of difficult topics in its later episodes — suicide, drug use, sexual abuse, cyberbullying — but it was never exploitative, nor did it ever feel like an afterschool special. It conveyed these harsh realities with grace and mindfulness — realities that most games are either too afraid to include or woefully mishandle. And in that way, it did justice to the stories of many.</p>
|
||||
<p>After I finished the fifth and final episode of <em>Life is Strange</em>, Polarized, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth: I didn’t feel that Dontnod delivered on its ambitious storytelling or tied up loose strings in its ending. I still haven’t quite made my peace with the game’s final choice, though learning about the time and resource crunch behind it softened it a little. But when I think about the game as a whole, I think about the good. I think about the incredibly deep and real and complicated and human characters that inhabit Arcadia Bay. I think about the way Dontnod masterfully uses licensed music to establish those characters and add an emotional weight to scenes. I think about the tension and twists in the narrative. And I think about how few games have been able to tell a story of this magnitude — a story that, by its nature, wraps the player in and doesn’t let go even after the credits roll.</p>
|
||||
<p>And I think about how <em>Life is Strange</em> is unlike any other game. Sure, there are comparisons one can make across genre or mechanics, but what other game places a group so often excluded from and terrorized within gaming — teenage girls — at its center? What other game speaks to the ways that men victimize young women? What other game gives voice and power and agency to these young women, refusing to sideline or damsel them?</p>
|
||||
<p>As much as it is easy to goof on <em>Life is Strange</em> for its, at times, cringe-inducing lines or its rampant <em>Twin Peaks</em> references, it has a clear mission to represent the social and emotional realities of young people. And it manages to mix its ambitions for social commentary with a deeply affecting, resonant story; it never becomes too didactic or wrapped up in making a message — it’s always grounded in the characters and the story. I think about Max and Chloe and Kate and Rachel and Nathan and Victoria on a regular basis, and I was in anguish as I watched tragedy unfold around them. It’s a rollercoaster I loved riding.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="2-the-last-of-us">#2. The Last of Us</h2>
|
||||
<p><img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/tlou.jpg" alt="Ellie"></p>
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2013</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PlayStation 4</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">Naughty Dog</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Trophies Earned</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">3%</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>When I started exploring video games as literature, the first game I thought of was <em>The Last of Us</em>. There are some phenomenal, emotional, impactful stories to be found within games — and I’ve included many of them on my list, lauded them for just that. But <em>The Last of Us</em> is in a class all its own.</p>
|
||||
<p>Nothing about <em>The Last of Us</em> would make one expect anything revolutionary. It’s a zombie game. It’s a big escort mission. The story, on paper, doesn’t seem like anything extraordinary or new for the genre. You’re Joel, a survivor twenty years into the zombie apocalypse who has lost his daughter and been tasked with escorting a 14-year-old girl across the country so that she can be studied for her immunity to the zombie virus.</p>
|
||||
<p>Where <em>The Last of Us</em> distinguishes itself is in the extraordinary execution of that story. Joel and Ellie are made to be real by the complex motivations and ambitions and stories behind them. In the opening moments of the game, when the zombie virus first emerges, Joel loses his daughter Sarah <em>The Last of Us</em> is about finding small glimpses of humanity in a bleak, punishing world. There is no easy mortality to <em>The Last of Us</em>, no clear villain or hero — there’s a darkness behind every character, a guilt that they have for continuing to exist in a world filled with senseless loss. As much as I hate Joel for his actions throughout the journey, I understand them. I understand that he clings to his concept of surviving at any cost because it’s all he has left. I understand the ways that he has been broken and twisted by loss, the way that Ellie represents his final remaining connection to his humanity. In the final moments of the game, when Ellie at last sees Joel for what he is, we understand that the world could do the same to her.</p>
|
||||
<p><em>The Last of Us</em> is a game about love because somehow, after all the traumatic blows that Joel, Ellie, and the player share, we still want to believe that love and humanity can endure. We want to prevail and do justice to the memory of the people we have lost along the way. We want to believe that our connections to the people we love can stop us from being swallowed by the harshness of the world. We want to look for the light — and the shreds of it that are found in <em>The Last of Us</em> are made profound by their rarity.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="1-stardew-valley">#1. Stardew Valley</h2>
|
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<div class="boxes">
|
||||
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||||
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||||
<span class="label">Released</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">2016</span>
|
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</div>
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<div class="box">
|
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<span class="label">Platform</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">PC, Nintendo Switch</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Developer</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">ConcernedApe</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">Time Played</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">160 hours</span>
|
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|
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||||
</div>
|
||||
<p>Depression has been my quiet struggle for many years. When I picked up <em>Stardew Valley</em>, I had just started on a new medication that left me an emotional mess: up and down, crying all morning, needy for Joe to come around and pick me up. I wasn’t in school, and my next steps in life were totally uncertain. It was a dark time for me, and <em>Stardew</em> was my light. The game was a good distraction; I could sink hours and hours into it at at time and never feel bored. And it made me feel like I was <em>accomplishing</em> something, working on making things better, even if that “better” was happening in the context of the game — like upgrading my sprinklers so I wouldn’t have to do as much watering or getting the town bus line reopened so that Pam would have her job back. <em>Stardew</em> gave me comfort; it became my game for self-care. And even when things aren’t so dire as my first months with the game, <em>Stardew Valley</em> is still like an old friend I can come back to whenever I need some solace or just to kill a little time.</p>
|
||||
<p>It’s difficult to pitch <em>Stardew Valley</em> to people. There’s an immensely personal bond I have to it, but on the surface, it doesn’t sound too interesting: it’s a farming simulator like <em>Harvest Moon</em>, kind of, with shades of <em>Terraria</em> and <em>Animal Crossing</em>. But it’s more than that, too. And I think part of it has to be played and experienced to be understood.</p>
|
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<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://cdn.cassie.ink/images/2019/krobus.png" alt="Please, don't be alarmed. I am different from the others." width="600" />
|
||||
<figcaption>Krobus has some of the best dialogue in the game.</figcaption>
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
<p>To speak more broadly, though, I think the message <em>Stardew Valley</em> carries is something we all need to help get us through the state of the world in 2019. <em>Stardew Valley</em> is about community — about forming relationships with the people around us, about rekindling our connection to the earth and to family and to ourselves. <em>Stardew Valley</em> posits this message early on, through Grandpa’s Letter, which suggests that the “dire change” the player needs can be accomplished by rediscovering what really matters in life: “real connections with other people and nature.” That ethos becomes the reason for the gameplay loop: rebuilding the town’s community center and pushing out the capitalistic forces that seek to place us in endless, soul-crushing competition with one another. <em>Stardew Valley</em> carries an overwhelming hope that happiness is within reach if we work for it — that we can regain and rebuild our connections to the world through good, honest work, through communion with the land, through taking care of each other, through forming a sense of community in our increasingly separate, disconnected time. Sometimes I need reminders of that hope, and <em>Stardew Valley</em> makes it all seem achievable — even if we know it won’t be as easy as picking some leeks in the forest or growing some gold star quality parsnips. It’s within reach, if we’re willing to work for it.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<h2 id="honorable-mentions">Honorable Mentions</h2>
|
||||
<p><strong>Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor.</strong> I played a lot of <em>Shadow of Mordor</em> these past few years, and yet I somehow haven’t managed to finish it. <em>Mordor</em> does not do much in terms of compelling narrative or world-building — which is shocking considering it takes place in the Tolkien legendarium — but what it does do phenomenally well is the Nemesis system. I hope to see more games implement similar systems within them — though the game has been out for five years now, and nobody has really delivered there yet. It made for some fun antics in what would otherwise be a pretty humdrum game.</p>
|
||||
<p><strong>The Order 1886.</strong> Those who know me will know I was incredibly hyped for <em>The Order</em>, and it was one of my biggest gaming disappointments. I liked what was there, but it needed more to it. I still think that the setting and characters are incredibly compelling, and I hope — against odds — that Ready at Dawn will have another chance to give the IP the second shot it deserves.</p>
|
||||
<p><strong>Tomb Raider.</strong> I had never played a <em>Tomb Raider</em> game prior to playing <em>Tomb Raider</em>, the 2013 reboot by Crystal Dynamics. I had also never played an <em>Uncharted</em> game, which I am told is very similar to playing <em>Tomb Raider</em>. This game was surprisingly gay and surprisingly good; what I expected to be a fun action romp actually had an enjoyable story and gave some solid development to Lara Croft. It was a commendable way to breathe life into an old, aged franchise.</p>
|
||||
<p><strong>The Sims 4.</strong> I am a <em>Sims 4</em> convert. I clung to <em>The Sims 3</em> for a long time, lamenting the loss of the Create-A-Style system (and toddlers, and pools, and other things). <em>Sims 4</em> recovered from a rocky launch and has turned into a streamlined version of <em>The Sims</em> that I didn’t know I wanted. I can’t imagine going back to <em>TS3</em> now — even if I did like the live neighborhoods. I’ve sunk a heck of a lot of time into <em>The Sims 4</em>, and I think the team behind it deserves recognition for bringing more equitable and diverse gender options to a game series that has previously been quite binary.</p>
|
||||
<p><strong>Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna).</strong> I want there to be more games like <em>Never Alone</em>. <em>Never Alone</em> was created in partnership with Alaskan native peoples to represent their stories, their heritage, and who they are now. While the gameplay and story are relatively simple, they gave me exposure to a culture that I would probably otherwise know or see very little about. I enjoyed unlocking all the little documentary-style clips, which I found incredibly well-done, and the educational potential of <em>Never Alone</em> excites me as both a gamer and a teacher.</p>
|
||||
<p><strong>Pokemon Sun & Moon.</strong> This <em>Pokemon</em> game let me dress up my character, which is really all I ever needed out of a <em>Pokemon</em> game. But it also streamlined a lot of things about the series, making it accessible again for me, someone who has flagged on it. Not having to deal with HMs alone was a huge difference from previous titles, and I don’t care what anyone says — experience share saves me time and makes it so I can actually finish these games.</p>
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
<p><em>I commissioned the phenomenal header image for this post from</em> <a href="https://naxdraws.com/"><em>Nax Yoder</em></a><em>.</em> <em>Follow the link through to see more of their work.</em></p>
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<time datetime="2019-11-13T00:00:00+00:00">13 November 2019</time>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1>My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
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|
||||
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|
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<path d="M12 11.204v-2.926c0 -1.258 -.895 -2.278 -2 -2.278s-2 1.02 -2 2.278v4.722m4 -4.722c0 -1.258 .895 -2.278 2 -2.278s2 1.02 2 2.278v4.722" />
|
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</svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="https://listenbrainz.org/user/babyspace/" aria-label="Listen Brainz">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#eb743b" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-metabrainz"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7v10l7 4v-18z" /><path d="M21 7v10l-7 4v-18z" /></svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p class="forget">
|
||||
don't forget to have fun.
|
||||
</p>
|
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<p class="copyright">
|
||||
all errors © cassie
|
||||
</p>
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|
||||
112
public/posts/2019-11-13/index.html
Normal file
112
public/posts/2019-11-13/index.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||||
<html lang="en-us" dir="ltr">
|
||||
<head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script>
|
||||
<meta charset="utf-8">
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||||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
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|
||||
<meta name="description" content="">
|
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|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@cass@social.lol" />
|
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<title> | cassie.ink</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css">
|
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/fonts.css">
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|
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|
||||
<script src="/js/main.js"></script>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
<header>
|
||||
<h1>
|
||||
<a href="http://localhost:1313/">
|
||||
cassie
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-filled icon-tabler-droplet"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M10.708 2.372a2.382 2.382 0 0 0 -.71 .686l-4.892 7.26c-1.981 3.314 -1.22 7.466 1.767 9.882c2.969 2.402 7.286 2.402 10.254 0c2.987 -2.416 3.748 -6.569 1.795 -9.836l-4.919 -7.306c-.722 -1.075 -2.192 -1.376 -3.295 -.686z" /></svg>
|
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ink
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<nav>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/about/">About</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
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<li>
|
||||
<a aria-current="true" class="ancestor" href="/posts/">Posts</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week Notes</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
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|
||||
</nav>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</header>
|
||||
<main class='page'>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
|
||||
<time datetime="0001-01-01T00:00:00+00:00">1 January 0001</time>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1></h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
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||||
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||||
</article>
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|
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<footer>
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<ul class="social">
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<li>
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<a href="mailto:me@cassie.ink" aria-label="Email">
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|
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<a href="/index.xml" aria-label="RSS">
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
<a rel="me" href="https://social.lol/@cass" aria-label="Mastodon">
|
||||
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|
||||
<path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none" />
|
||||
<path d="M18.648 15.254c-1.816 1.763 -6.648 1.626 -6.648 1.626a18.262 18.262 0 0 1 -3.288 -.256c1.127 1.985 4.12 2.81 8.982 2.475c-1.945 2.013 -13.598 5.257 -13.668 -7.636l-.026 -1.154c0 -3.036 .023 -4.115 1.352 -5.633c1.671 -1.91 6.648 -1.666 6.648 -1.666s4.977 -.243 6.648 1.667c1.329 1.518 1.352 2.597 1.352 5.633s-.456 4.074 -1.352 4.944z" />
|
||||
<path d="M12 11.204v-2.926c0 -1.258 -.895 -2.278 -2 -2.278s-2 1.02 -2 2.278v4.722m4 -4.722c0 -1.258 .895 -2.278 2 -2.278s2 1.02 2 2.278v4.722" />
|
||||
</svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="https://listenbrainz.org/user/babyspace/" aria-label="Listen Brainz">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#eb743b" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-metabrainz"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7v10l7 4v-18z" /><path d="M21 7v10l-7 4v-18z" /></svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p class="forget">
|
||||
don't forget to have fun.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
<p class="copyright">
|
||||
all errors © cassie
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
</footer>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
@ -156,15 +156,27 @@
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
29 December 2024
|
||||
1 December 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/dad/">dad</a></h2>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/an-ode-to-gitsync/">an ode to gitsync</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
dad
|
||||
an-ode-to-gitsync
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>My father left when I was six and never stopped leaving. At school events, scheduled visits, personal lows, I scanned the crowd for his face and didn’t find it. I grew used to his absence and started to resent the appearances he made; when he did show up, I’d wish he hadn’t. At my college graduation, he parted with the gift, “I’m glad you’re not a fuck up like me,” turning my achievements into his own deluded, narcissistic pursuit of sympathy. He at least — and unwittingly — stumbled upon a truth: I succeeded despite his example and influence. Never because of it.</p>
|
||||
<p>Since I <a href="https://cassie.ink/what%27s-this-%28and-how-it-works%29/">moved this site to Hugo</a>, I’ve been using an app called GitJournal to post from my phone. I have a beautiful desk setup with a clacky mechanical keyboard that’s a joy to write on, but the simple fact is that I’m a lazy shit and want to update my blog from the couch. It’s all mostly worked fine, with some headaches. I originally intended to use GitJournal to store my Github repo to my phone’s filesystem and then point an Obsidian<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> vault at that.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/tech/">Tech</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -36,13 +36,6 @@
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/cassie-ink-is-my-new-home/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>I moved domains, again.</p>
<p>This blog started on bearblog.dev as cassie.land. Bearblog is a great platform, but I <a href="https://cassie.ink/what%27s-this-%28and-how-it-works%29/">wanted a challenge in my life</a>, I guess, so I taught myself to use Hugo and moved to esotericbullshit.net (cassie.land was repurposed for my NAS). I love the esotericbullshit moniker and URL — it makes me laugh — but as it turns out, it&rsquo;s kind of hard to share your link when it contains profanity.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> Perhaps that&rsquo;s copium for a growing domain purchasing addiction, but I intend to make this one stick.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>dad</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/dad/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/dad/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>My father left when I was six and never stopped leaving. At school events, scheduled visits, personal lows, I scanned the crowd for his face and didn&rsquo;t find it. I grew used to his absence and started to resent the appearances he made; when he did show up, I&rsquo;d wish he hadn&rsquo;t. At my college graduation, he parted with the gift, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad you&rsquo;re not a fuck up like me,&rdquo; turning my achievements into his own deluded, narcissistic pursuit of sympathy. He at least — and unwittingly — stumbled upon a truth: I succeeded despite his example and influence. Never because of it.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>an ode to gitsync</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/an-ode-to-gitsync/</link>
|
||||
@ -50,13 +43,6 @@
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/an-ode-to-gitsync/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>Since I <a href="https://cassie.ink/what%27s-this-%28and-how-it-works%29/">moved this site to Hugo</a>, I&rsquo;ve been using an app called GitJournal to post from my phone. I have a beautiful desk setup with a clacky mechanical keyboard that&rsquo;s a joy to write on, but the simple fact is that I&rsquo;m a lazy shit and want to update my blog from the couch. It&rsquo;s all mostly worked fine, with some headaches. I originally intended to use GitJournal to store my Github repo to my phone&rsquo;s filesystem and then point an Obsidian<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> vault at that.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title></title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/posts/turning-30/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Nov 2024 23:56:38 -0500</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/posts/turning-30/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>My thirtieth birthday party, the day before my actual turn from one decade to the next, was a beautiful night. My mom, both pre-emptively staking out her territory as an Italian-American grandmother and (past but an adverb?) fulfilling regrets at never having been able to throw me a childhood party, brought too much food and snacks and love — or staying up and out past the early afternoon, which is a kind of love for us; my friends, older than me in years and with busy families and schedules, brought wisdom and comfort in growing older gracefully; and my friends closer in age drove great distances to celebrate <em>me</em> — or at least, with me.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Reflections on elections</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/reflections-on-elections/</link>
|
||||
@ -188,7 +174,7 @@
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/media-log-august-2023/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/media-log-august-2023/</guid>
|
||||
<description><h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
<ul>
<li><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There&rsquo;s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn&rsquo;t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
<ul>
<li><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch &amp; Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don&rsquo;t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It&rsquo;s a fantastic game that I&rsquo;ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="books">Books</h1>
<ul>
<li><em>Walk Two Moons</em> by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try <em>Walk Two Moons</em> out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I&rsquo;ve read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I&rsquo;m an adult reading a book written for children and because I&rsquo;ve read it before. I&rsquo;m not sure it&rsquo;s the book I&rsquo;m looking for, but it&rsquo;s not a bad read.</li>
</ul></description>
|
||||
<description><h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
<p><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There&rsquo;s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn&rsquo;t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</p>
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
<p><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch &amp; Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don&rsquo;t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It&rsquo;s a fantastic game that I&rsquo;ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>On Teaching</title>
|
||||
@ -239,6 +225,20 @@
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2020/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>It feels like most of my blog posts end up being about music. I’d like to pretend that this post is a piece of an annual tradition in which I review and analyze my listening patterns from the past year, but truth be told, I’ve <a href="https://cassie.ink/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2015/">only done this once before, in 2015</a>, and then <a href="https://cassie.ink/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/">kind of early in 2020, when I reviewed my favorite albums from the last ten years</a>. Truth is, I’d like this to be a tradition, a habit I develop, but I’ve had about as much success with that as I have with my resolution to exercise more regularly.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>My Top Ten Albums from the 2010s</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>That I’m a big ol’ music weirdo should come as no surprise to anyone who has read <a href="https://cassie.ink/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2015/">some</a> of my <a href="https://cassie.ink/revolutions/">previous</a> writing <a href="https://cassie.ink/canopies-and-drapes/">about</a> it. I have tracked just about all of my music listening to <a href="https://www.last.fm/user/wearebeautiful">last.fm</a> since 2014, both to maintain a record and gather minute statistics about myself.</p>
<p>I turned 16 in 2010, and my 25th birthday was this past November. The latter half of my adolescent identity formation therefore took place during this past decade, and the music I listened to during those years acted as a score, a signpost, a catharsis, a reflection. I’ve come to mark events in my life with the music I was listening to at the time. And having spent my teen years sitting in front of a computer listening to music at pretty much all times, I developed a pretty large collection.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>Another decade in the book, another opportunity to represent my life in lists and data.</p>
<p>Looking retrospectively, this past decade defined my interest in games. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a young child — I remember holing up in my mom’s basement, replaying the same minigames over and over in <em>Gus Goes to Cyberopolis</em>. My dad bought me a Gameboy Color for my fifth birthday, and I dedicated at least a decade of my life (regrettably) to the <em>Kingdom Hearts</em> series. But in 2010, I started my first job, and so I finally had some disposable income to spend on my hobbies; I didn’t have to beg for games as birthday or Christmas or whenever presents. And so I played a lot more games in these past ten years. I started to follow industry news beyond new releases. I became more thoughtful about and critical of the industry. And I shifted my hobby into professional inquiry: in 2018, I co-wrote a book chapter about how video games could be used in educational settings, and in 2019, I piloted a camp that empowered kids to create their own video games.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Women in a Sea of Men: The Representation of Women in The Curse of the Black Pearl</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/women-in-a-sea-of-men-the-representation-of-women-in-the-curse-of-the-black-pearl/</link>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -52,46 +52,6 @@
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
1 December 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/an-ode-to-gitsync/">an ode to gitsync</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
an-ode-to-gitsync
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Since I <a href="https://cassie.ink/what%27s-this-%28and-how-it-works%29/">moved this site to Hugo</a>, I’ve been using an app called GitJournal to post from my phone. I have a beautiful desk setup with a clacky mechanical keyboard that’s a joy to write on, but the simple fact is that I’m a lazy shit and want to update my blog from the couch. It’s all mostly worked fine, with some headaches. I originally intended to use GitJournal to store my Github repo to my phone’s filesystem and then point an Obsidian<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> vault at that.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/tech/">Tech</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
25 November 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/posts/turning-30/"></a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>My thirtieth birthday party, the day before my actual turn from one decade to the next, was a beautiful night. My mom, both pre-emptively staking out her territory as an Italian-American grandmother and (past but an adverb?) fulfilling regrets at never having been able to throw me a childhood party, brought too much food and snacks and love — or staying up and out past the early afternoon, which is a kind of love for us; my friends, older than me in years and with busy families and schedules, brought wisdom and comfort in growing older gracefully; and my friends closer in age drove great distances to celebrate <em>me</em> — or at least, with me.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
7 November 2024
|
||||
@ -173,6 +133,66 @@
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
17 August 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/the-basic-eight/">I finished The Basic Eight and I can't decide if I enjoyed it</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
the-basic-eight
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Spoilers to follow.</p>
|
||||
<p>I wrote in my week notes:</p>
|
||||
<blockquote>
|
||||
<p><strong><em>The Basic Eight</em> by Daniel Handler.</strong> Handler’s <em>Adverbs</em> is often what I cite when folks ask what my favorite book is, and I loved <em>Watch Your Mouth</em>, too. I need light reprieves from <em>The Odyssey</em>, too, so this seemed an excellent time to round out my reading of Handler’s bibliography. I’m about halfway through and enraptured by the narrative voice. It’s pretentious, as a story narrated by a precocious high school senior should be, without being cloying, and with Handler’s charming humor throughout. I love it so far and have faith that the feeling will continue. I normally hate books set in high school, but this one takes me back to my high school self — somehow, in a good way, which I don’t think I’ve ever felt before.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/literature/">Literature</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
8 August 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/smooth-runs-the-water-where-the-brook-is-deep/">smooth runs the water where the brook is deep</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
smooth-runs-the-water-where-the-brook-is-deep
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<blockquote>
|
||||
<p>Write a blog post about words of wisdom your younger self would have appreciated hearing.
|
||||
(via <a href="https://blogprompts.fyi">blogprompts</a>)<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup></p></blockquote>
|
||||
<p>I’m trying out doing blog prompts in an effort to populate this blog with more than just weekly round-ups and to get more comfortable writing about personal things.<sup id="fnref:2"><a href="#fn:2" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup></p>
|
||||
<p>I’m going to select two quotes — both song lyrics — that have resonated for me.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first is from “Banshee Beat” by Animal Collective, which I first heard in my late teens (maybe 16?) and still consider one of my favorite songs.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/prompts/">Prompts</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/music/">Music</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -52,66 +52,6 @@
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
17 August 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/the-basic-eight/">I finished The Basic Eight and I can't decide if I enjoyed it</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
the-basic-eight
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Spoilers to follow.</p>
|
||||
<p>I wrote in my week notes:</p>
|
||||
<blockquote>
|
||||
<p><strong><em>The Basic Eight</em> by Daniel Handler.</strong> Handler’s <em>Adverbs</em> is often what I cite when folks ask what my favorite book is, and I loved <em>Watch Your Mouth</em>, too. I need light reprieves from <em>The Odyssey</em>, too, so this seemed an excellent time to round out my reading of Handler’s bibliography. I’m about halfway through and enraptured by the narrative voice. It’s pretentious, as a story narrated by a precocious high school senior should be, without being cloying, and with Handler’s charming humor throughout. I love it so far and have faith that the feeling will continue. I normally hate books set in high school, but this one takes me back to my high school self — somehow, in a good way, which I don’t think I’ve ever felt before.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/literature/">Literature</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
8 August 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/smooth-runs-the-water-where-the-brook-is-deep/">smooth runs the water where the brook is deep</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
smooth-runs-the-water-where-the-brook-is-deep
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<blockquote>
|
||||
<p>Write a blog post about words of wisdom your younger self would have appreciated hearing.
|
||||
(via <a href="https://blogprompts.fyi">blogprompts</a>)<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup></p></blockquote>
|
||||
<p>I’m trying out doing blog prompts in an effort to populate this blog with more than just weekly round-ups and to get more comfortable writing about personal things.<sup id="fnref:2"><a href="#fn:2" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup></p>
|
||||
<p>I’m going to select two quotes — both song lyrics — that have resonated for me.</p>
|
||||
<p>The first is from “Banshee Beat” by Animal Collective, which I first heard in my late teens (maybe 16?) and still consider one of my favorite songs.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/prompts/">Prompts</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/music/">Music</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
2 August 2024
|
||||
@ -195,6 +135,65 @@
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
10 March 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/moving-my-home-server-to-a-new-chassis/">Moving my home server to a new chassis</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
moving-my-home-server-to-a-new-chassis
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I have a home server (running Unraid) that I use to backup computers, as media storage, and to run various apps. It’s mostly been cobbled together from used parts I found for cheap, and it generally followed <a href="https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-nas-killer-4-0-fast-quiet-power-efficient-and-flexible-starting-at-125/667">Serverbuild’s NAS Killer 4 guide</a>. It runs like a dream, and putting it together is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. More recently, with streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, etc. cracking down on password sharing, it has become my pathway to shedding some monthly subscriptions and owning my own media.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/home/">Home</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/tech/">Tech</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
10 March 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/thirteen-to-know-me/">Thirteen to Know Me</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
thirteen-to-know-me
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>@jamesmckz <a href="https://twitter.com/jamesmckz/status/1764778536244507081">shared the following challenge on X</a> earlier this month:</p>
|
||||
<blockquote>
|
||||
<p>No cheating - your Quietus style Bakers Dozen. 13 albums (off the top of your head) to know you by. Not looking for a perfect list, looking for a list that you instantly regret posting because you then remember something else.</p></blockquote>
|
||||
<p>I approached my response largely as a list of albums that have meant something to me in my life — not necessarily what I’m actively listening to at the moment. Many of these albums I’ve not listened to much in years, but I consider them pivotal, essential listening for <em>me</em>.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/music/">Music</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -52,65 +52,6 @@
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
10 March 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/moving-my-home-server-to-a-new-chassis/">Moving my home server to a new chassis</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
moving-my-home-server-to-a-new-chassis
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I have a home server (running Unraid) that I use to backup computers, as media storage, and to run various apps. It’s mostly been cobbled together from used parts I found for cheap, and it generally followed <a href="https://forums.serverbuilds.net/t/guide-nas-killer-4-0-fast-quiet-power-efficient-and-flexible-starting-at-125/667">Serverbuild’s NAS Killer 4 guide</a>. It runs like a dream, and putting it together is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. More recently, with streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, etc. cracking down on password sharing, it has become my pathway to shedding some monthly subscriptions and owning my own media.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/home/">Home</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/tech/">Tech</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
10 March 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/thirteen-to-know-me/">Thirteen to Know Me</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
thirteen-to-know-me
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>@jamesmckz <a href="https://twitter.com/jamesmckz/status/1764778536244507081">shared the following challenge on X</a> earlier this month:</p>
|
||||
<blockquote>
|
||||
<p>No cheating - your Quietus style Bakers Dozen. 13 albums (off the top of your head) to know you by. Not looking for a perfect list, looking for a list that you instantly regret posting because you then remember something else.</p></blockquote>
|
||||
<p>I approached my response largely as a list of albums that have meant something to me in my life — not necessarily what I’m actively listening to at the moment. Many of these albums I’ve not listened to much in years, but I consider them pivotal, essential listening for <em>me</em>.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/music/">Music</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
25 February 2024
|
||||
@ -192,6 +133,67 @@
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
7 January 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/hate-for-the-island/">hate for the island</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
hate-for-the-island
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I was born and raised on Long Island in a hamlet that rests along the Great South Bay.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> Known to most as a ferry town, this charming suburb lives and breathes the ocean. Most every resident has access to some kind of boat, whether through personal ownership or advantageous friendship. In the 90s, the town was voted the “friendliest town in America,” a slogan that still adorns the sign as you drive into town, by a mysterious group that awards such superlatives. That accolade, along with our yacht clubs, country clubs, lack of racial diversity, and generalized fear of anything outside the norm makes the town the near picture of 1950s suburban ideal.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
1 January 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/my-year-in-lists/">my year in lists</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
my-year-in-lists
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I’m not a New Years Resolution person; listening to a lot of <a href="https://loscampesinos.bandcamp.com/track/my-year-in-lists-2">“My Year in Lists”</a> by Los Campesinos! as a teen made me quite cynical about the whole thing.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, I <em>am</em> a very goal-oriented, reflective person. In late 2022, after years of gaining weight and developing some really negative patterns of self-talk around my body image, I decided to join a gym. Of course I’d like to see the number on the scale go down, but the main goal was just to get healthier and develop healthier habits. I started running, because that’s what I used to do (not well), and eventually convinced a friend to join with me. Together, we set the goal of running a 5K, and we did our first in May of 2023, in about 41 minutes (in our defense, it was an <em>extremely</em> hilly course, but also progress, progress<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>). We ran three more as the year went by; my most recent was November, where I finished in around 36 minutes.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/exercise/">Exercise</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/internet/">Internet</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/teaching/">Teaching</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -52,67 +52,6 @@
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
7 January 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/hate-for-the-island/">hate for the island</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
hate-for-the-island
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I was born and raised on Long Island in a hamlet that rests along the Great South Bay.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> Known to most as a ferry town, this charming suburb lives and breathes the ocean. Most every resident has access to some kind of boat, whether through personal ownership or advantageous friendship. In the 90s, the town was voted the “friendliest town in America,” a slogan that still adorns the sign as you drive into town, by a mysterious group that awards such superlatives. That accolade, along with our yacht clubs, country clubs, lack of racial diversity, and generalized fear of anything outside the norm makes the town the near picture of 1950s suburban ideal.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
1 January 2024
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/my-year-in-lists/">my year in lists</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
my-year-in-lists
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I’m not a New Years Resolution person; listening to a lot of <a href="https://loscampesinos.bandcamp.com/track/my-year-in-lists-2">“My Year in Lists”</a> by Los Campesinos! as a teen made me quite cynical about the whole thing.</p>
|
||||
<p>However, I <em>am</em> a very goal-oriented, reflective person. In late 2022, after years of gaining weight and developing some really negative patterns of self-talk around my body image, I decided to join a gym. Of course I’d like to see the number on the scale go down, but the main goal was just to get healthier and develop healthier habits. I started running, because that’s what I used to do (not well), and eventually convinced a friend to join with me. Together, we set the goal of running a 5K, and we did our first in May of 2023, in about 41 minutes (in our defense, it was an <em>extremely</em> hilly course, but also progress, progress<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>). We ran three more as the year went by; my most recent was November, where I finished in around 36 minutes.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/exercise/">Exercise</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/internet/">Internet</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/life/">Life</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/teaching/">Teaching</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
28 December 2023
|
||||
@ -187,6 +126,54 @@
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
31 August 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/media-log-august-2023/">Media Log (August 2023)</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
media-log-august-2023
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
|
||||
<p><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There’s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn’t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</p>
|
||||
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
|
||||
<p><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch & Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don’t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It’s a fantastic game that I’ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/media-log/">Media-Log</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
18 August 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/on-teaching/">On Teaching</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
on-teaching
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>This September marks the start of my fourth year teaching.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I was a kid, I was always interested in teaching; my grandparents had an unfinished basement that, for some reason, had a little chalkboard and table. My siblings and I would play school down there, and I loved to play the role of teacher – despite being considerably younger than them.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> I loved school, too. I loved most every subject (especially grammar – I’m one of the few children who absolutely rejoiced when asked to take out my grammar workbook) and was, at the risk of conceit, <em>good</em> at academics. I also read voraciously in elementary school.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/teaching/">Teaching</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -52,62 +52,6 @@
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
31 August 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/media-log-august-2023/">Media Log (August 2023)</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
media-log-august-2023
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There’s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn’t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch & Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don’t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It’s a fantastic game that I’ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<h1 id="books">Books</h1>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li><em>Walk Two Moons</em> by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try <em>Walk Two Moons</em> out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I’ve read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I’m an adult reading a book written for children and because I’ve read it before. I’m not sure it’s the book I’m looking for, but it’s not a bad read.</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/media-log/">Media-Log</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
18 August 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/on-teaching/">On Teaching</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
on-teaching
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>This September marks the start of my fourth year teaching.</p>
|
||||
<p>When I was a kid, I was always interested in teaching; my grandparents had an unfinished basement that, for some reason, had a little chalkboard and table. My siblings and I would play school down there, and I loved to play the role of teacher – despite being considerably younger than them.<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup> I loved school, too. I loved most every subject (especially grammar – I’m one of the few children who absolutely rejoiced when asked to take out my grammar workbook) and was, at the risk of conceit, <em>good</em> at academics. I also read voraciously in elementary school.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/teaching/">Teaching</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
15 August 2023
|
||||
@ -203,6 +147,56 @@
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
26 July 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/what%27s-this/">What's This?</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
what's-this
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Well, I have another blog.</p>
|
||||
<p>Welcome to <a href="https://cassie.land">cassie.land</a>, the latest (as of writing this) web project that I’ve started and may promptly abandon.</p>
|
||||
<p>Here’s the truth: These past few months have shown me the impermanence of online platforms. I have quit reddit with the third-party API shutdowns, and while I am probably better off for it, it does feel like losing one of the bastions of the internet I once knew. I regret to inform that I am officially an old person on the internet; I yearn for the days of hyper-specific Geocities pages with incredibly useful information written by a thirteen year old screaming into the void (and for the days where our search engines actually directed us to that information rather than some circuitous tripe written by AI that packs in every SEO keyword without actually saying anything).</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
30 June 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/an-empty-promise-to-blog-more/">An Empty Promise to Blog More</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
an-empty-promise-to-blog-more
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>This past year has emphasized to me the impermanence of online platforms. I have quit reddit with the third-party API shutdowns, and while I am probably better off for it, it does feel like losing one of the bastions of the internet I once knew. I regret to inform that I am officially an old person on the internet; I yearn for the days of hyper-specific Geocities pages with incredibly useful information written by a thirteen year old screaming into the void (and for the days where our search engines actually directed us to that information rather than some circuitous tripe written by AI that packs in every SEO keyword without actually saying anything).</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/wordpress/">Wordpress</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -52,56 +52,6 @@
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
26 July 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/what%27s-this/">What's This?</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
what's-this
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Well, I have another blog.</p>
|
||||
<p>Welcome to <a href="https://cassie.land">cassie.land</a>, the latest (as of writing this) web project that I’ve started and may promptly abandon.</p>
|
||||
<p>Here’s the truth: These past few months have shown me the impermanence of online platforms. I have quit reddit with the third-party API shutdowns, and while I am probably better off for it, it does feel like losing one of the bastions of the internet I once knew. I regret to inform that I am officially an old person on the internet; I yearn for the days of hyper-specific Geocities pages with incredibly useful information written by a thirteen year old screaming into the void (and for the days where our search engines actually directed us to that information rather than some circuitous tripe written by AI that packs in every SEO keyword without actually saying anything).</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
30 June 2023
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/an-empty-promise-to-blog-more/">An Empty Promise to Blog More</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
an-empty-promise-to-blog-more
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>This past year has emphasized to me the impermanence of online platforms. I have quit reddit with the third-party API shutdowns, and while I am probably better off for it, it does feel like losing one of the bastions of the internet I once knew. I regret to inform that I am officially an old person on the internet; I yearn for the days of hyper-specific Geocities pages with incredibly useful information written by a thirteen year old screaming into the void (and for the days where our search engines actually directed us to that information rather than some circuitous tripe written by AI that packs in every SEO keyword without actually saying anything).</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/wordpress/">Wordpress</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/meta/">Meta</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
30 December 2020
|
||||
@ -130,6 +80,52 @@
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
20 December 2019
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/">My Top Ten Albums from the 2010s</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>That I’m a big ol’ music weirdo should come as no surprise to anyone who has read <a href="https://cassie.ink/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2015/">some</a> of my <a href="https://cassie.ink/revolutions/">previous</a> writing <a href="https://cassie.ink/canopies-and-drapes/">about</a> it. I have tracked just about all of my music listening to <a href="https://www.last.fm/user/wearebeautiful">last.fm</a> since 2014, both to maintain a record and gather minute statistics about myself.</p>
|
||||
<p>I turned 16 in 2010, and my 25th birthday was this past November. The latter half of my adolescent identity formation therefore took place during this past decade, and the music I listened to during those years acted as a score, a signpost, a catharsis, a reflection. I’ve come to mark events in my life with the music I was listening to at the time. And having spent my teen years sitting in front of a computer listening to music at pretty much all times, I developed a pretty large collection.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/music/">Music</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
13 November 2019
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/">My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s</a></h2>
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Another decade in the book, another opportunity to represent my life in lists and data.</p>
|
||||
<p>Looking retrospectively, this past decade defined my interest in games. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a young child — I remember holing up in my mom’s basement, replaying the same minigames over and over in <em>Gus Goes to Cyberopolis</em>. My dad bought me a Gameboy Color for my fifth birthday, and I dedicated at least a decade of my life (regrettably) to the <em>Kingdom Hearts</em> series. But in 2010, I started my first job, and so I finally had some disposable income to spend on my hobbies; I didn’t have to beg for games as birthday or Christmas or whenever presents. And so I played a lot more games in these past ten years. I started to follow industry news beyond new releases. I became more thoughtful about and critical of the industry. And I shifted my hobby into professional inquiry: in 2018, I co-wrote a book chapter about how video games could be used in educational settings, and in 2019, I piloted a camp that empowered kids to create their own video games.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/games/">Games</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
28 September 2016
|
||||
|
||||
@ -3,7 +3,10 @@
|
||||
xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
|
||||
<url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-08-25T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-09-07T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-09-07T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/30/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-08-25T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
@ -13,9 +16,6 @@
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/tags/week-notes/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-08-25T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-08-25T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/029/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2025-08-19T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
@ -85,6 +85,9 @@
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/dad/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2024-12-29T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/drafts/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2024-12-29T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/018/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2024-12-22T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
@ -101,7 +104,7 @@
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/015/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2024-12-01T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/posts/turning-30/</loc>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/drafts/turning-30/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2024-11-25T23:56:38-05:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/week-notes/014/</loc>
|
||||
@ -265,6 +268,12 @@
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2020/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2020-12-30T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2019-12-20T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2019-11-13T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
</url><url>
|
||||
<loc>http://localhost:1313/tags/movies/</loc>
|
||||
<lastmod>2016-09-28T00:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -63,6 +63,13 @@
|
||||
<h2><a href="/early-thoughts-on-pokemon-unbound/">Early thoughts on Pokémon Unbound</a></h2>
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
13 November 2019
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/">My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s</a></h2>
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
5 February 2015
|
||||
|
||||
@ -15,6 +15,13 @@
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/early-thoughts-on-pokemon-unbound/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>I downloaded <em>Pokémon: Unbound</em> the other day to play alongside my partner. We are both big <em>Pokémon</em> fans — like buy the new games every year fans — though my interest has waned over the last few years (I loved <em>Legends Arceus</em> and generally felt that <em>Scarlet/Violet</em> were slaps in the face<sup id="fnref:1"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote-ref" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>). I have fond memories of the classic games, and I&rsquo;ve read a lot of positive buzz about <em>Unbound</em>.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>My Top Ten Video Games from the 2010s</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-video-games-from-the-2010s/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>Another decade in the book, another opportunity to represent my life in lists and data.</p>
<p>Looking retrospectively, this past decade defined my interest in games. It’s been a hobby of mine since I was a young child — I remember holing up in my mom’s basement, replaying the same minigames over and over in <em>Gus Goes to Cyberopolis</em>. My dad bought me a Gameboy Color for my fifth birthday, and I dedicated at least a decade of my life (regrettably) to the <em>Kingdom Hearts</em> series. But in 2010, I started my first job, and so I finally had some disposable income to spend on my hobbies; I didn’t have to beg for games as birthday or Christmas or whenever presents. And so I played a lot more games in these past ten years. I started to follow industry news beyond new releases. I became more thoughtful about and critical of the industry. And I shifted my hobby into professional inquiry: in 2018, I co-wrote a book chapter about how video games could be used in educational settings, and in 2019, I piloted a camp that empowered kids to create their own video games.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Life is Strange Episode 1: Chrysalis</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/life-is-strange-episode-1-chrysalis/</link>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/media-log-august-2023/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/media-log-august-2023/</guid>
|
||||
<description><h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
<ul>
<li><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There&rsquo;s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn&rsquo;t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
<ul>
<li><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch &amp; Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don&rsquo;t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It&rsquo;s a fantastic game that I&rsquo;ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="books">Books</h1>
<ul>
<li><em>Walk Two Moons</em> by Sharon Creech - I read this book originally as a child in the fifth grade. I remember loving it but little else. I have been looking for a text to add to my curriculum and wanted to try <em>Walk Two Moons</em> out. I enjoyed reading it and was surprised by how much of it came back to me even though I am (nearly) twenty years out from reading it the first time. I do think the Native American set dressing might be problematic given that the author is not, by any account I&rsquo;ve read, actually Native; the plot is also predictable, but perhaps that is because I&rsquo;m an adult reading a book written for children and because I&rsquo;ve read it before. I&rsquo;m not sure it&rsquo;s the book I&rsquo;m looking for, but it&rsquo;s not a bad read.</li>
</ul></description>
|
||||
<description><h1 id="movies">Movies</h1>
<p><em>Barbie</em> - I was underwhelmed. There&rsquo;s been lots of chatter, and I loved <em>Lady Bird</em>, but <em>Barbie</em> didn&rsquo;t hit for me; too much Ken (to be the hundredth person to whine about it) and the ending felt unearned and thematically confused. This was more of an homage to <em>Barbie</em> as a product than it was an homage to womanhood, but it pretended to be the latter.</p>
<h1 id="games">Games</h1>
<p><em>Vampire Survivors</em> - I originally played <em>Vampire Survivors</em> for my video game podcast, <a href="https://pitchandplay.org">Pitch &amp; Play</a> (on hiatus but will come back!); my friend and co-host Ross recommended it to me. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I got into it given that I don&rsquo;t really have nostalgia for this sort of game, but I played several hours of it and then became distracted by life. While moving this month, I was without internet for quite a while and had not hooked up my consoles (or my PC, still). To kill some time while my body recovered from lifting boxes and scrubbing surfaces, I downloaded <em>Vampire Survivors</em> onto my phone and went deep into it. It&rsquo;s a fantastic game that I&rsquo;ll come to associate with my early days in the house.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Media Log (July 2023)</title>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -84,6 +84,13 @@
|
||||
<h2><a href="/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2020/">Here’s What I Was Listening to in 2020</a></h2>
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
20 December 2019
|
||||
</time>
|
||||
<h2><a href="/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/">My Top Ten Albums from the 2010s</a></h2>
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
<time>
|
||||
7 January 2016
|
||||
|
||||
@ -36,6 +36,13 @@
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2020/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>It feels like most of my blog posts end up being about music. I’d like to pretend that this post is a piece of an annual tradition in which I review and analyze my listening patterns from the past year, but truth be told, I’ve <a href="https://cassie.ink/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2015/">only done this once before, in 2015</a>, and then <a href="https://cassie.ink/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/">kind of early in 2020, when I reviewed my favorite albums from the last ten years</a>. Truth is, I’d like this to be a tradition, a habit I develop, but I’ve had about as much success with that as I have with my resolution to exercise more regularly.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>My Top Ten Albums from the 2010s</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/</link>
|
||||
<pubDate>Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
|
||||
<guid>http://localhost:1313/my-top-ten-albums-from-the-2010s/</guid>
|
||||
<description><p>That I’m a big ol’ music weirdo should come as no surprise to anyone who has read <a href="https://cassie.ink/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2015/">some</a> of my <a href="https://cassie.ink/revolutions/">previous</a> writing <a href="https://cassie.ink/canopies-and-drapes/">about</a> it. I have tracked just about all of my music listening to <a href="https://www.last.fm/user/wearebeautiful">last.fm</a> since 2014, both to maintain a record and gather minute statistics about myself.</p>
<p>I turned 16 in 2010, and my 25th birthday was this past November. The latter half of my adolescent identity formation therefore took place during this past decade, and the music I listened to during those years acted as a score, a signpost, a catharsis, a reflection. I’ve come to mark events in my life with the music I was listening to at the time. And having spent my teen years sitting in front of a computer listening to music at pretty much all times, I developed a pretty large collection.</p></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Here’s What I Was Listening to in 2015</title>
|
||||
<link>http://localhost:1313/heres-what-i-was-listening-to-in-2015/</link>
|
||||
|
||||
125
public/week-notes/031/index.html
Normal file
125
public/week-notes/031/index.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||||
<html lang="en-us" dir="ltr">
|
||||
<head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script>
|
||||
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
||||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="description" content="Doing Reading Watching Playing Listening">
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@cass@social.lol" />
|
||||
<title>(WN31) | cassie.ink</title>
|
||||
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css">
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/fonts.css">
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/syntax.css">
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<script src="/js/main.js"></script>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
<header>
|
||||
<h1>
|
||||
<a href="http://localhost:1313/">
|
||||
cassie
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-filled icon-tabler-droplet"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M10.708 2.372a2.382 2.382 0 0 0 -.71 .686l-4.892 7.26c-1.981 3.314 -1.22 7.466 1.767 9.882c2.969 2.402 7.286 2.402 10.254 0c2.987 -2.416 3.748 -6.569 1.795 -9.836l-4.919 -7.306c-.722 -1.075 -2.192 -1.376 -3.295 -.686z" /></svg>
|
||||
ink
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<nav>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/about/">About</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/posts/">Posts</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week Notes</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</nav>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</header>
|
||||
<main class='page'>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
|
||||
<time datetime="2025-09-01T00:00:00+00:00">1 September 2025</time>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1>(WN31)</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 id="doing">Doing</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="reading">Reading</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="watching">Watching</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="playing">Playing</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="listening">Listening</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week-Notes</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</main>
|
||||
<footer>
|
||||
<ul class="social">
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="mailto:me@cassie.ink" aria-label="Email">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-mail"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7a2 2 0 0 1 2 -2h14a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v10a2 2 0 0 1 -2 2h-14a2 2 0 0 1 -2 -2v-10z" /><path d="M3 7l9 6l9 -6" /></svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/index.xml" aria-label="RSS">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#f26522" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-rss">
|
||||
<path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none" />
|
||||
<path d="M5 19m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" />
|
||||
<path d="M4 4a16 16 0 0 1 16 16" />
|
||||
<path d="M4 11a9 9 0 0 1 9 9" />
|
||||
</svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a rel="me" href="https://social.lol/@cass" aria-label="Mastodon">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#6364ff" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-mastodon">
|
||||
<path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none" />
|
||||
<path d="M18.648 15.254c-1.816 1.763 -6.648 1.626 -6.648 1.626a18.262 18.262 0 0 1 -3.288 -.256c1.127 1.985 4.12 2.81 8.982 2.475c-1.945 2.013 -13.598 5.257 -13.668 -7.636l-.026 -1.154c0 -3.036 .023 -4.115 1.352 -5.633c1.671 -1.91 6.648 -1.666 6.648 -1.666s4.977 -.243 6.648 1.667c1.329 1.518 1.352 2.597 1.352 5.633s-.456 4.074 -1.352 4.944z" />
|
||||
<path d="M12 11.204v-2.926c0 -1.258 -.895 -2.278 -2 -2.278s-2 1.02 -2 2.278v4.722m4 -4.722c0 -1.258 .895 -2.278 2 -2.278s2 1.02 2 2.278v4.722" />
|
||||
</svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="https://listenbrainz.org/user/babyspace/" aria-label="Listen Brainz">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#eb743b" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-metabrainz"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7v10l7 4v-18z" /><path d="M21 7v10l-7 4v-18z" /></svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p class="forget">
|
||||
don't forget to have fun.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
<p class="copyright">
|
||||
all errors © cassie
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
</footer>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
125
public/week-notes/2025-09-07-wn31/index.html
Normal file
125
public/week-notes/2025-09-07-wn31/index.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
|
||||
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||||
<html lang="en-us" dir="ltr">
|
||||
<head><script src="/livereload.js?mindelay=10&v=2&port=1313&path=livereload" data-no-instant defer></script>
|
||||
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
||||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="description" content="Doing Reading Watching Playing Listening">
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@cass@social.lol" />
|
||||
<title>(week notes #) | cassie.ink</title>
|
||||
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css">
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/fonts.css">
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/syntax.css">
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<script src="/js/main.js"></script>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
<header>
|
||||
<h1>
|
||||
<a href="http://localhost:1313/">
|
||||
cassie
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="currentColor" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-filled icon-tabler-droplet"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M10.708 2.372a2.382 2.382 0 0 0 -.71 .686l-4.892 7.26c-1.981 3.314 -1.22 7.466 1.767 9.882c2.969 2.402 7.286 2.402 10.254 0c2.987 -2.416 3.748 -6.569 1.795 -9.836l-4.919 -7.306c-.722 -1.075 -2.192 -1.376 -3.295 -.686z" /></svg>
|
||||
ink
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<nav>
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/about/">About</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/posts/">Posts</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week Notes</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</nav>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</header>
|
||||
<main class='page'>
|
||||
|
||||
<article>
|
||||
|
||||
<time datetime="2025-09-01T00:00:00+00:00">1 September 2025</time>
|
||||
|
||||
<h1>(week notes #)</h1>
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="barcode">
|
||||
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<h2 id="doing">Doing</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="reading">Reading</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="watching">Watching</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="playing">Playing</h2>
|
||||
<h2 id="listening">Listening</h2>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="tags">
|
||||
<ul>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.5" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-tag"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M7.5 7.5m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" /><path d="M3 6v5.172a2 2 0 0 0 .586 1.414l7.71 7.71a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 3.408 0l5.592 -5.592a2.41 2.41 0 0 0 0 -3.408l-7.71 -7.71a2 2 0 0 0 -1.414 -.586h-5.172a3 3 0 0 0 -3 3z" /></svg>
|
||||
<a href="/tags/week-notes/">Week-Notes</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
</article>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
</main>
|
||||
<footer>
|
||||
<ul class="social">
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="mailto:me@cassie.ink" aria-label="Email">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-mail"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7a2 2 0 0 1 2 -2h14a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v10a2 2 0 0 1 -2 2h-14a2 2 0 0 1 -2 -2v-10z" /><path d="M3 7l9 6l9 -6" /></svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="/index.xml" aria-label="RSS">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#f26522" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-rss">
|
||||
<path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none" />
|
||||
<path d="M5 19m-1 0a1 1 0 1 0 2 0a1 1 0 1 0 -2 0" />
|
||||
<path d="M4 4a16 16 0 0 1 16 16" />
|
||||
<path d="M4 11a9 9 0 0 1 9 9" />
|
||||
</svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a rel="me" href="https://social.lol/@cass" aria-label="Mastodon">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#6364ff" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-mastodon">
|
||||
<path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none" />
|
||||
<path d="M18.648 15.254c-1.816 1.763 -6.648 1.626 -6.648 1.626a18.262 18.262 0 0 1 -3.288 -.256c1.127 1.985 4.12 2.81 8.982 2.475c-1.945 2.013 -13.598 5.257 -13.668 -7.636l-.026 -1.154c0 -3.036 .023 -4.115 1.352 -5.633c1.671 -1.91 6.648 -1.666 6.648 -1.666s4.977 -.243 6.648 1.667c1.329 1.518 1.352 2.597 1.352 5.633s-.456 4.074 -1.352 4.944z" />
|
||||
<path d="M12 11.204v-2.926c0 -1.258 -.895 -2.278 -2 -2.278s-2 1.02 -2 2.278v4.722m4 -4.722c0 -1.258 .895 -2.278 2 -2.278s2 1.02 2 2.278v4.722" />
|
||||
</svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
<li>
|
||||
<a href="https://listenbrainz.org/user/babyspace/" aria-label="Listen Brainz">
|
||||
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="#eb743b" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" class="icon icon-tabler icons-tabler-outline icon-tabler-brand-metabrainz"><path stroke="none" d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"/><path d="M3 7v10l7 4v-18z" /><path d="M21 7v10l-7 4v-18z" /></svg>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</li>
|
||||
</ul>
|
||||
<p class="forget">
|
||||
don't forget to have fun.
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
<p class="copyright">
|
||||
all errors © cassie
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
</footer>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
||||
@ -374,6 +374,16 @@ nav ul {
|
||||
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.cover {
|
||||
width: 100%;
|
||||
height: 100vw;
|
||||
max-height: 500px;
|
||||
background-size: cover;
|
||||
background-position: center;
|
||||
margin-top: 10px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
/* Shortcodes */
|
||||
.page .audio {
|
||||
|
||||
audio {
|
||||
@ -389,13 +399,31 @@ nav ul {
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.cover {
|
||||
width: 100%;
|
||||
height: 100vw;
|
||||
max-height: 500px;
|
||||
background-size: cover;
|
||||
background-position: center;
|
||||
margin-top: 10px;
|
||||
.boxes {
|
||||
display: flex;
|
||||
justify-content: center;
|
||||
align-items: baseline;
|
||||
gap: 10px;
|
||||
flex-wrap: wrap;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
.box {
|
||||
background-color: var(--blue);
|
||||
color: #fff;
|
||||
padding: 2%;
|
||||
|
||||
.label {
|
||||
font-family: 'Domaine Display', Georgia, serif;
|
||||
font-weight: 900;
|
||||
text-transform: uppercase;
|
||||
margin-right: 5px;
|
||||
}
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
figcaption {
|
||||
text-align: center;
|
||||
font-size: .9rem;
|
||||
font-style: italic;
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
/* section */
|
||||
|
||||
4
themes/neverhungoveragain/layouts/shortcodes/box.html
Normal file
4
themes/neverhungoveragain/layouts/shortcodes/box.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
|
||||
<div class="box">
|
||||
<span class="label">{{ .Params.label }}</span>
|
||||
<span class="value">{{ .Params.value }}</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
3
themes/neverhungoveragain/layouts/shortcodes/boxes.html
Normal file
3
themes/neverhungoveragain/layouts/shortcodes/boxes.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
|
||||
<div class="boxes">
|
||||
{{ .Inner }}
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
4
themes/neverhungoveragain/layouts/shortcodes/image.html
Normal file
4
themes/neverhungoveragain/layouts/shortcodes/image.html
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="{{ .Params.src }}" alt="{{ .Params.alt }}" width="{{ .Params.width }}" />
|
||||
<figcaption>{{ .Params.caption }}</figcaption>
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
Loading…
x
Reference in New Issue
Block a user