The Blog In Yellow

Has it been so long since I've written here? Im writing but now im working on a story. I've been playing games in my down time and one that has my interest, and disdain, is Ale and Tale Tavern. I currently wash dishes as part of my job which would .are you think Id hate these games but theres some kind of madness thats soothing in them. Repetition in games can be relaxing and comforting, so I make an effort to buy all the Medieval tavern sims I can find. It doesn't hold a candle to my current favorite Tavern Manager Simulator but it has itw own perks, and flaws. Both games have you running a tavern. The difference between being Ale and Tale is multiplayer. Would be nice if I have someone to play with. Ale also also tasks you with delivering food and hunting monsters for ingredients. A nice twist but you only have your axe to defend yourself. Zombies can sneak into your tavern, or maybe spawn there, and other monsters can kill you during your deliveries. It also bugs me that...

I tried something different yesterday. I gave myself two things, I gave myself an assignment and I gave myself some pieces. I figured that if I go to a certain place, this place being the library, and body double with someone, this someone being my mom, that I could get some wriring done. And I was correct, I got almost two pages in within an hour and a half. It felt good being this sharp. I had an idea in my head and I had pieces, little bits of plot and story that I had taken notes of on my phone. It was better than working on my Cain story in which I have almost no idea where I'm going. AI certainly didn't help. I'm not at the level of Stephen King where I can snatch concepts out of my mind and put them on paper. I don't have that kind of imagination. What I need is a few pieces to keep me going, almost like the parts to an outline. I don't know if this will always help me but I'm going to give it a try. The interesting thing is that I'm excited about thi...

I've read books about subjects I could care less about that have somehow wormed their way into my subconscious and even if they haven't gotten me to love the subject matter, they have at least gotten me to appreciate it. Jeff VandeMeer's "Annihilation" is not one of those books, I'm sad to say. The book flip flops between being insanely interesting and utterly boring. VandeMeer seems to be an expert on biology, or at least interested in them. I follow him on Bluesky and he posts about plants every now and then, a subject I find dull and uninteresting. But the inclusion of some cosmic horror mixed in with the story and the fact that the book got a movie release, made me curious. I have to say that reading Annihilation was a slog. I didn't feel drawn in and I'm not sure if that's my fault or the writer's fault. The pacing is fine, the writing is good, and the mystery behind the story about a woman who's more in sync with a cosmic horror event...

I picked this game because of the ties to Lovecraft but the only connection from the game to the lore is the Shamblers and the final boss Shub Niggurath. Quake is hailed as a landmark in the gaming world as the first 3D shooter. It hasn't aged well by my standards and I had several issues with the game. For starters, all the levels look more or less the same. Gray and brown castles are your domain and will remain your only location. There's a little variety in the pre levels where you fight armed soldiers but I think this is weak attempt to connect Quake to Quake 2. The sequel took almost nothing from the first game and replaced the eldritch horrors with cybernetic monsters. I actually played Quake 2 before the first one and it's a markable improvement. For startes, Quake has a limited weapon loadout.  You have your standard shotgun, the super shotgun, grenade launcher, missle launcher (which uses the same ammo as the grenade launcher), nail gun, super nail gun, axe (in cas...