This has been the first full week “back in business” again, and in some ways it’s quite nice, it’s nice to be back to all my normal routines. On the other hand it’s kind of sad that the vacation already feels so far away, but well, that’s just how life is some times. I had a great weekend this weekend though, so that’s something.

Books

I finished off Ken MacLeod’s Corporation wars series with Emergence And I have to say I really liked this series a lot. It was pretty dense without really being obtuse, and the farther I got into it the more rich with politics and stuff it became, which was great, the ending was also really fun, with some ambiguity that made it kind of spark some ideas for thinking. While a politics heavy triology, it’s kind of hidden behind the story though, so I think it’s something that one can read even if the politics isn’t something that you’re fond of, there’s a lot of future fighting and guerilla war that it can be entertaining no matter what.

After having read some heavy series I thought I would read something lighter again, and it turned out I enjoyed this next one so much that I’m going on multiples in a row, something I don’t really do that often. I found that I had the Mandrake Company series lying around on my kindle, these are written by Ruby Lionsdrake, which is another pen name of Lindsay Buroker, which I’ve enjoyed some books by before, and I haven’t really read that much of, because the series that I have of hers I am missing one book in between, but this one is complete, so I thought it would be a nice palate cleanser after some more heavy books.

So I started on Thursday reading Mercenary Instinct by Ruby Lionsdrake, and it was a lot of fun, the plot was driving and going on, and the writing was really enjoyable, fun characters, and with some competent Main Characters, and not that much of the YA drama of misunderstandings it was just really a nice read. So it went pretty quick, and on friday a bit too late in the night I finished it off.

I felt up for some more reading on the weekend so I went on to start the next one in the series Trials and Temptation by Ruby Lionsdrake, and it was another one that just hooked me, and made me feel nice, this one has a functional person on the Autistic spectrum as one of it’s main leads, and it was kind of nice seeing a person that has at least quite a lot in common with myself (Just that I’m not really a ripped martial artist) being humanised, it was quite gripping, and I ended up reading quite a bit on saturday and sunday, and finished it off yesterday on sunday.

And then since I haven’t really gotten enough of the series yet, I read the first chapter of The Assasin’s Salvation also by Ruby Lionsdrake, and so far it’s just the same fun writing as the other ones. I’m also happy that these feel quite varied, in too many of these romantic series it kind of feels like it’s almost the same book with some variation 5-6 times, and it kind of dips off in the end of the series, but it doesn’t really feel like that will be the case with this one, at least this far all of the books have been pretty different from each other, which is nice.

Games

Most of this week I’ve been kind of in a holding pattern with games, as I’m slowly getting back into the go of things, so I have been doing quite a bit of Picros S+ a collection of picross games from the 3DS era, which are really enjoyable and very much a comfort game for me, it’s nice to do some puzzles, and just relax a bit, they aren’t that hard, but also not so easy that it’s completely trivial, after I figured out how to do the mega picross, which have clues spanning two columns it’s also great, it doubles the amount of puzzles that I can do for each of them, and it’s also nice to have some other logic to think about than just the standard nonogram logic, some times they get a bit too convoluted and it feels more like some guess and check stuff, but I think that’s just because I haven’t solved enough of them yet to really get all of the logic, still learning, and that’s always quite entertaining.

I also did some grinding on Siralim: ultimate which is also a comfort game, it’s just nice going forward there and just having some creature battles. This is one that I come back to quite often if I just need some relaxing time, it’s a bit of thinking, then some grinding to see how it works, and then some little thinking again, it’s just quite a lot of fun, which is why I keep coming back to it, at least now that the godawful story is finished. The person creating the game was good at making a compelling game, not very good at writing a story.

At the end of the week I kind of felt like getting something new, and the first thing that I got was the shovel knight DLC for Rift of the Necrodancer and it’s really quite fun to play with, it sparked some more motivation for me to keep on learning the hard level, I’ve finished all of the normal ones, and they are starting to feel mostly quite easy to me, still have to full combo a lot of them, but at least that seems possible now. The hard levels are still a bit challenging but I’m working my way through them and have 15 or so of them that I have managed now, and still quite a lot to go. This game just feels so good when you start to get a song, there are some really fun and interesting patterns, and because they can be kind of tricky to “get” at times it just makes it feel better when you have it set, and you can go on a bit more, this really is the rhythm game lately that I’ve had the most fun with, and I will for sure come back to it.

And I also got Monster Train 2 I wanted to have another card game to play, and it seemed from what I read that the consensus was that the second one just is the first one, but better, and that it also has most of the content of the first game as well, so I got this one. I have 4-5 runs under my belt now, and think at least I have a bit of a feel of it, still haven’t managed to win yet, even on the easiest difficulty, but it has a better feel for me than I got for Slay the Spire, I’m sure that objectively STS is a better game, but I enjoy the graphics more for this one, also I’m really not that great about the strategic thinking over the run, and don’t enjoy it as much, and it feels better with this one, the runs are a bit shorter, and the planning seems easier to do, so it’s something that is easier to come back to for me. I’m still usually dying on the second to last level where I haven’t really managed to have the needed fire-power yet to get through the bosses, but I’m sure I will figure it out some time. I’m quite excited about this one, and look foreward to me getting a bit more of a feel for what to do, and actually start getting a bit better at it.

Misc

I had some really nice walks this weekend, as it’s getting a little bit less scalding hot outside walking around feels so much nicer, I don’t get tired so fast, and it just feels so much better. I went up to a tourist place with some nice views of the mountains, and it just felt really nice, I hope this will keep on being the weather so that I can enjoy some more great walks in the weeks in the future, it just feels great being able to do that again, and without feeling on the verge of overheating the whole time. There is a Harley Meet around this time, so a lot of bikes from all over europe driving around, quite a bit more police activity than normal too. They are a bit loud, but it feels nice and lively, and most of the people are quite nice, and mostly on their bikes anyway, so it’s more like just something that is a bit different, which is enjoyable to me.

I did the same mistake before this vacation that I usually always do, in downloading a bit too many podcasts before the trip, to make sure I have something to listen to, which of course when I spent time with my family I’m not really doing, so now I’m working my way down the list of stuff, this week I got it down from 63 to 45, so I will still need a bit of time to get back in the groove, but I’m getting there.

A nice thing is that I didn’t get to watch much youtube by the people I normally watch, so I also have a backlog of that to watch, which is nice as well, I enjoy not really having to think much about finding something, and just working down my list of episodes that I have lying around.

All in all this has been a pretty nice week, that I have been enjoying, I hope the next one will be a good one as well :)