Words On Wednesday

“ Hollow Knight ” is a Metroidvania released on all major platforms in 2017. I steered clear of Hollow Knight for years due to its "Souls-like" description, but a recent whim turned my opinion and made me open up a bit more to the genre. It's no secret that  I hate Souls games , and as much as I love Metroidvania games, I didn't want to get frustrated by a prohibitively difficult experience. As  Silksong  was coming out around that time and the original Hollow Knight was on sale , I decided to pick it up and give it a try. You can't say you don't like something without ever trying it, and I considered that my love of the Metroidvania genre might make up for the Souls elements. After no more than an hour in, I was pretty hooked. Sure, I could see how aspects of Hollow Knight did resemble Souls in certain ways, but I didn't hate it. Benches are just like bonfires, and going back to retrieve your geo from your corpse after you die was a concept I was pretty  ...

The cocktail series continues! This month, I wanted to go heavy on the fall-into-winter flavors that are frequently associated with Thanksgiving. Google Gemini's suggestion for this month wasn't surprising: Theme 1: Thanksgiving & Harvest.  Feature autumnal flavors like cranberry, pear, or maple syrup. A Cranberry Bourbon Sour or a Maple Pecan Old Fashioned. Theme 2: Comfort & Spice.  Use warming spices like nutmeg, clove, and allspice. A Spiced Pear Cocktail or a Mulled Wine. I don't love pear, so that's off the table. Cranberry is alright, but a vodka-cran seemed a little low effort. Maple, though? I love some maple syrup. On pancakes, in a latte, maple syrup and maple flavor in general is a welcome addition anywhere. Hence, the maple pecan old fashioned: Recipe 2.5oz pecan/cinnamon infused bourbon 0.25oz pure maple syrup 3 dashes pecan bitters When Gemini suggested a maple pecan old fashioned, I was intrigued. It seemed like a logical, if somewhat niche, riff...

  After months of rumors and some pretty convincing hardware leaks, Valve has   announced new Steam hardware   to be released in "early 2026." In particular, they are releasing a Steam Controller, an updated Steam Machine, and a VR headset called the Steam Frame. Last Wednesday, I was walking my dog when I got a Discord notification from the  Refurbished Steam Deck Notifier  server that I joined earlier this year. Originally, I joined to watch for refurbished Steam Deck restocks before I bought my own. After I got one, I turned off restock notifications but stayed in the server in case friends were interested. With individual restock notifications disabled, I didn't frequently get updates from this server. I considered leaving the server entirely, but after I read the alert, I'm glad I didn't. "Valve announced new Hardware for next year! https://store.steampowered.com/sale/hardware " The thumbnail showed a VR headset, a controller, and a box. I was ecsta...