J. Martin

July 23, 2023

2023 Mid-Term Grade!

Now that we’re about halfway through the year, which happens to coincide with the first moon landing’s anniversary and also my birthday, it’s a good time to take stock. 2023 didn’t start out promising here, with that common cold from hell in January, Covid in February, and the lengthy break I had to take from running thanks to meniscus surgery in late ’22. Also, my Mac broke down! My book’s deadline was looming! I left Twitter! And there was one other thing that didn’t turn out in my favor. But now, things are fine—if I had to grade life for its current performance, I’d give it a B+. I’m running again more or less every day; I have a new Mac & improved work desk; my book’s out in August; I found a new home on the Fediverse; and that other thing I mentioned is on fire right now and I was lucky not to be involved after all. Sure, there are bumps in the road—I have yet to find an agent for my first novel; I’m merely halfway through writing the second; no progress has been made with the TTRPG; and I’m struggling with the Godot engine more than I expected. But on the sunny side, I made good on my New Year’s resolution to enjoy life for a change and went to more concerts, exhibitions, and events than in the last five years combined. And now: summer!

Courtesy of my work schedule, the only thing I wrote last week was a brief blog post on yet another AI inanity that caught my attention. Apart from that, there’s a new album on Flickr with 15 shots from a stroll along some of the less spectacular parts of Singapore’s marina promenade; a bunch of new vintage-style travel-squaries on Pixelfed; and a handful of posts at my Instagram accounts betweendrafts and voidpunkverse.

As for this week’s game recommendation from the Indie Game Fest last June, here’s a casual fun brawler that’s so easy to learn and execute that it’s practically a party game: Two Strikes by Retro Reactor. Samurai, terrific hand-drawn animations, lots of blood, what more do you need! Right now, alas, it’s only on Steam; but if you happen to be on Steam, you can buy the top-rated early access game and follow its development along.

J.