Book Review
Demian - By Hermann Hesse



"Demian" by Hermann Hesse follows the journey of Emil Sinclair, a young boy growing up in Germany during the early 20th century. He struggles with his inner conflicts and the pressures of conformity in society. Through encounters with enigmatic characters like Max Demian, Sinclair embarks on a spiritual and psychological quest for self-discovery and enlightenment.

Basically, it's a coming-of-age book.

I initially picked up this book out of nostalgia. At a second-hand book sale, I stumbled upon the same edition my dad had when I was a kid, the one (among other books) I apparently ended up destroying while playing. Oh well...

Reading a bit on the internet i discovered this book is commonly assigned to high school and college students, given that Emil Sinclair, the protagonist, is around that age throughout most of the story. His internal struggles and his perception of the world resonate with individuals of that demographic. Despite that i can certainly say it resonated with me at some level, because i still have some doubts about my presents that are, in a certain level, present in Emil's own inner struggles.

Emil Sinclair is portrayed as an impressionable teen, riddled with doubts. I could totally relate to his tendency to over-analyze situations and thoughts. However, his inclination to cling to disparate ideas and symbolisms struck me as peculiar, but I suppose it's a part of what being a adolescent is after all...

Without spoiling the plot, the central idea of the book revolves around the concept of embracing both the good and evil within oneself, and accepting the good and "evil" parts of one way of thinking, rather than conforming to societal norms blindly.

The book is chockfull of symbolysms and hidden ideas that are not hard to grasp if you scratch a little and do a bit of your own research. While "Demian" delves sometimes into mysticism, religion, and gnosticism, it serves more as a platform to explore ideas rather than endorse specific beliefs.

It has a lot of flaws and the ending is a bit rushed to my liking but it's still an enjoyable and relatable read.

Today i am wondering if maintaining this microblog the way i am doing it right now, generating static files with all the content of the page every time, is a good idea in the long run.

I personally don't have a problem with it, it's more like a logistical concern, because if i ever want to change things in the layout of the site i would need to re-generate and upload basically the whole site, which for me is not a problem because the system i coded does it automatically, but it seems like a bit clunky to work with maybe?

The other idea is to an iframe for the content, which i think would work in a way but it's pretty old school that sometimes thinking about it it's painful, hah. The other way is to use heavy javascripting to render the frontend, but i am also kind of against sites who NEED javascript to run and display because a lof of legacy devices don't play good with Javascript.

I'll try to maintain the site the way i am doing now for as long as i can, but if in the future the situation calls for it, i may do the javascript solution to provide a less painful way of updating the site.

*cleans his glasses*

I think furry is a lot more weirder than futanari, but that's just me.

*walks out the room*

Also, believe it or not, the posting system that i wrote to update this blog is a hella lot incomplete, i really should get to upgrading it because as it is now it's pretty basic. There are stuff missing like basic formatting and even pagination still left to do.

I'm preparing a quite lenghty post about a spicy topic, and i'm taking my time to write it because it's a controversial topic, i don't want to get facts wrong or write opinions that may be misinterpreted. Hopefully i will post it next week.

Retro Game Review:
Blaster Master - Blasting Again
Year: 2000
Playstation 1



"Blaster Master - Blasting Again" is essentially a sequel or "reimagining" of the original Blaster Master series, which first appeared on the NES and a few other consoles of that era. Like its predecessors, this game maintains a heavy focus on exploration, and it doesn’t disappoint in that regard.

If you've ever played Metroid Prime for the GameCube, the core concept will feel familiar, aside from a few core gameplay differences (like perspective and such). The general idea is the same: you traverse vast maps, exploring every nook and cranny, trying to figure out how to proceed. You'll be unlocking doors, activating elevators, and checking unmarked areas of the map to figure out your next move.

For fans of games that emphasize exploration and puzzle-solving in dungeon-like environments, this is an excellent experience. It doesn’t hold your hand, and the sense of satisfaction you get from figuring things out on your own is rewarding.

Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the shooting mechanics. While exploration shines, the combat falls flat. Despite the various weapon upgrades you acquire, enemies remain just as tough, and many of the upgrades feel underwhelming against the more relentless monsters. On top of that, the guns sound weak, like you're firing a pebble gun, so the combat never quite feels satisfying.

The controls are another weak point. They feel a bit stiff for a game that emphasizes free roaming, and the camera angles can be frustrating at times, requiring constant adjustment. However, despite these shortcomings, you do get used to them fairly quickly.

On a brighter note, the music is a highlight. The tracks are energetic and fit the atmosphere well, though some songs can get repetitive after being looped in the same dungeon for long stretches. Still, the quality of the music helps you overlook this most of the time.

As for the graphics, they're pretty much what you'd expect from a PS1 game. They're not mind-blowing, but they’re not bad either, decent for the time period.

The story did nothing for me. I guess if you know about the previous games you can have a bit more context on why things happen but it's not a necesity to know since nothing crazy happens. The voice acting of the cutscenes falls into the "so bad it's good" department so there's that.

Overall, I found Blaster Master - Blasting Again enjoyable, especially due to its focus on exploration, which is something I personally love. If you're like me and can overlook its flaws, you'll likely have a good time. My suggestion? Try it on an emulator to smooth over some of the rougher edges, but even with its quirks, it's still a solid recommendation.

Rating: 80/100

Curious thing happened, I was trying to print some images for the homework of a kid, and the color printer refused to print this picture several times:



It just printed like about 1/4 of it and then showed an url for a page: https://rulesforuse.org/

I knew some printers had algorithms to prevent printing notes for counterfeinting and such, but come on, the notes aren't even being shown complete.

I had to add some noise to the image so i could print it, but who's gonna return me the ink wasted? :V I tried to print it on the b/w laser printer and that one didn't complained.

By the way also, you may be interested in moving to Linux soon... unless you are somehow okay with Microsoft's attempt to pushg that surveillance software shit "Recall" on future versions of Windows. I know that they say that "you can turn it off", but not being able to uninstall or even having a say what you want or not YOUR computer to have ticks me the wrong way...

By the way, also just to mention it, i am devising some system to add a commenting system to this blog. I realize that maybe noone is gonna be interested in commenting here but it's nice to have it nonetheless (and i love to take on these kind of challenges, since i am planning on coding it myself).