OK, understood. But *why* won't you take me to funky town?

So how's everyone else doing? 🫠

✨and the like has become like nails on a chalkboard to me. I'm tired of it needling me, trying to find its way into every tiny facet of my existence and telling me how great it would be if I embraced it. I've been taking a few definite but imperfect steps to lower its footprint on my life.

It's funny to me that Reform supporters have to believe simultaneously that the party is some kind of anti-establishment alternative, and that loads of tories want in.

"Hmm, maybe I'll watch the end of whatever is on before The Traito--- oh no never mind I'd rather eat my own legs"

Suddenly remembered a dream I had last night where someone was trying to sell me on 'encrypted coffee'

Adventures in Linux update: I ran it for 8 days without wanting to boot into Windows. When I did, it was because I was having streaming problems in Discord. Might be solvable, but I think there's something pretty broken out of the box about the Linux version of Discord when it comes to streaming.

If we get off the Titanic the iceberg wins - so I'm staying

*Tina turner voice*

They put The Traitors on several times per week because they know if we had to wait a whole week for every episode our entire society would collapse. Moreso, I mean.

I'm so glad Baby Steps seems to be starting to get its due after screaming about it for 3 months

The Traitors (mainly the UK version but the others are good even if the US one is ... well, I think they made bad decisions with it) is one of the best things on TV at the moment. It knows how ridiculous it is which helps but current series has the tension of a high suspense prestige drama series.

Had a minor flurry of unexpected and nice news in the last 24 hours which is doing a nice job of fending off them January vibes

Linux Experiment update. I'm getting most stuff to work, and at times it reminds me of what computers were like in the 90s. Sometimes stuff doesn't work, mysteriously, and you have to figure it out. Which is annoying, except that once your brain starts ticking over in that mode, it's... almost fun

I don't think this is perfect, but this is what I've been thinking about lately with regards to why certain 'difficult' games work better for me than others

Oh never mind, I thought I was being fiscally irresponsible but turns out I was actually a genius for buying a PC at the end of 2025.

I'm glad that quite a few publications and individuals have mentioned Baby Steps in their end of year lists. I don't think it got enough attention at the time, it's my favourite game of the year and it isn't even close. I think of this among some of my all time favourites.

*paranoid voice* The milky bars are onto me

I finished writing up my favourite games of 2025 medium.com/@peter.silk/...

I think I like Tiny Turnip enough that it's making last minute waves in my end of year list

I installed Linux on my PC for the first time since the 90s because of... well, various reasons all crystalising around 'I sometimes but not always have desire for something not-Windows'. I asked around and lots of people say Mint is the easiest one to get up and running on. 24 hours in, thoughts:

Deck the halls with

Recommendation for music lovers next year... Find a group of 8-12 friends. Perhaps with overlapping but not identical tastes. In a comfortable timescale, build a mixtape. One song each. Base it loosely on a theme. Listen to it, *really* listen. Compare notes. Give points if that seems fun. Repeat.

Season 2 of Playdate hit when I wasn't in a very Playdate mood so now I'm properly discovering some of the games that seemed cool. Tiny Turnip is a weird, so far combat-free Metroidvania with a very odd method of movement

See? This is why I was yelling so much about how good Baby Steps is in so many different and sometimes unexpected directions

The Captcha in the Rye Is that anything?

Hi I'm the CEO of Megahat and I would love you to integrate our hats into your CPUs. Now, you might have heard that nobody wants the hats and they make the CPUs overheat and emit a very, er, distinct odour but you are absolutely gonna want to get in on the ground floor of this.

I don't want to switch to a different browser but I 100% will. It's not even in my top 10 inconveniences right now.

Spilled Mushrooms is the Tetris of the Playdate. There's lots of fun games at this point for it but that's the one where you can always hop in and while away a pleasant few minutes or an hour.

My brother chose the best wrapping paper for his gift to me haha

Myrrh Crumbs Mess everyone

And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die (as otherwise would have happened) And Tiny Tim, who did not DIE (but still had a terrible time of it) And Tiny TIM, who did not die (but Tiny Larry did) And TINY Tim, who did not die (but Massive Tim did) And Tiny Tim, who DID not die (but is about to)

What if Santa is our future selves, sent back to a day when they can be pretty sure where we or one of our ancestors will be, to warn us about the future? Due to strict time travel regulations they can only do so by leaving presents that provide clues you've missed through your entire childhood.

Each year when I visit family for Christmas I help deliver some cards for my mum. This year it felt like no time had passed at all since I was last doing this. And you'd think I'd just be making the trite observation that time seems to get quicker as you age, but I think that's not quite right...

If you did a blog in 2025, where would you do that, assuming you're not gonna just set up a website and wordpress? What's a decent place for longer form thoughts these days?

All the leaves are brown And the sky is gray I've been for a walk On a winter's day I'd be safe and warm If I was in L.A. California dreamin' On such a winter's day Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the waaay

Finished all of Roottrees. For me it's got something for sure, but doesn't quite have the sauce. The investigating is GREAT and that sustains it for a time, but I feel like it lacks confidence in its own worldbuilding and so is constantly winking at the audience.

What's that game where there were mechs and it was a square and you had turns

According to a thing, that was my top post this year

Right about now The funk soul brother Check it out now The funk soul brother Any second now The funk soul brother With you in just a moment The funk soul brother Terribly sorry about this The funk soul brother Your call is extremely important to us The funk soul brother

If I wanted to read piss poor rants at whatever someone is fake-angry at I'd buy The Spectator

It's hard to remember that time way back when the Escapist actually aspired to something

He's making a list He's making a list He's making a list He's making a list Santa Claus is making a list

I started playing The Roottrees Are Dead. I'm enjoying it A LOT but like some of the other games this year I've played which are investigatory puzzles, I'm sort of enjoying the process more than I'm actually enjoying the tone it's hitting or the narrative beats.

What a fool beleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Updated profile pic by the ever excellent @michaelfirman.bsky.social I've coveted this for a while now :)

I've played this; it's great. Also yesterday I somehow managed a game where the specific combination of deck and tags meant nearly everything I did resulted in a chain reaction which ended in max level dogs. I went 2 hours like this before selling one of the tags to make it possible to lose.

Man if that pisses you off I have terrible news about *checks notes* all of language

It's sort of how I feel about it too. I love Nightreign's hyper-condensed, low-stakes, bite-sized, frenzied, sped-up version of Souls, but I think possibly Peak This is when there are about 2 more DLCs of similar scope.