the Andrew Bailey

Here's a short and quick game to end the year with. There's not much here to make an epic review post.

At some point Mass Effect fans expanded Commander Shepard's N7 designation into November 7th, and made that into Mass Effect day. While installing non-Steam Linux gaming compatibility programs, I noticed I had Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I don't remember how or when, but it was likely a freebie, since I never remember buying anything on EA's digital store. Shortly after figuring out how to backup this blog's data, I was in, or had recently completed, a Mass Effect binge, and wrote about it (however inarticulate I was back then). I've replayed each one at least 5 times, probably. I've experienced (almost) all the paragon and renegade options, and new game plus modes. On this past November 7th, I started another playthrough for the first time in a decade, knowing the disappointment that would result.

I’ve recently started working in the refurbishing division of an e-waste recycling company. As such, I’ve come across some retro items; items that would be useful for Twentieth Century. It now has a gigabit Ethernet card, a USB 2.0 card, more RAM (now 384 MB), and a Gravis GamePad Pro.

Gone Home is a walking simulator from about 10 years ago, as was the style at the time. You play as Katie, a young woman who just returned to her family's house in (presumably rural) Oregon. It's past 1 AM, and storming. There's a note from your sister, Sam, imploring you to not investigate where she is. Mom and dad are off on a vacation of their own. There's no one home. You're left alone to explore this sprawling mansion by yourself.

I've watched Back to the Future once or twice, and I thought it was an OK movie. I didn't think there was much to it, and the whole thing would be prevented with some very obvious safeguards. Of course, it's hard to not notice that it's been a cult classic for a long time. It's the only reason that the Delorean Motor Company is known outside of niche groups. Too bad their cars weren't as popular as those movies, and went out of business years earlier.

Wow, I've had a scrap for this post lying around for years (since May 2022?). I guess it might be time to write about what I'm running this server and how it works, particularly since I've been rather active with releases on GitHub. I've had some massive changes to which software I use, reflecting how my relationship to technology in my life has evolved. Since I don't do a podcast anymore, this might be the only proper venue to share this.

Soon after the Master Chief Collection came to Steam, I bought it. As I played through it, I made sure to document myself becoming a Halo fan. In so doing, I decided to dig into Halo machinima. I've encountered and even watched entire series of machinima before, but I never got into Red vs. Blue, the series that made machinima a big thing. Now that I've watched it all (or most of it), Red vs. Blue is the silliest series of anything that I've ever come across.