stanley: minor fixes suggested by the editor

Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso <me@christine.website>

Cargo.lock

@@ -168,9 +168,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "axum"
-version = "0.5.11"
+version = "0.5.13"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "c2cc6e8e8c993cb61a005fab8c1e5093a29199b7253b05a6883999312935c1ff"
+checksum = "6b9496f0c1d1afb7a2af4338bbe1d969cddfead41d87a9fb3aaa6d0bbc7af648"
 dependencies = [
  "async-trait",
  "axum-core",
@@ -200,9 +200,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "axum-core"
-version = "0.2.6"
+version = "0.2.7"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "cf4d047478b986f14a13edad31a009e2e05cb241f9805d0d75e4cba4e129ad4d"
+checksum = "e4f44a0e6200e9d11a1cdc989e4b358f6e3d354fbf48478f345a17f4e43f8635"
 dependencies = [
  "async-trait",
  "bytes",
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ version = "0.3.6"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "277c75e6c814b061ae4947d02335d9659db9771b9950cca670002ae986372f44"
 dependencies = [
- "axum 0.5.11",
+ "axum 0.5.13",
  "bytes",
  "futures-util",
  "http",
@@ -451,9 +451,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "color-eyre"
-version = "0.6.1"
+version = "0.6.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "8ebf286c900a6d5867aeff75cfee3192857bb7f24b547d4f0df2ed6baa812c90"
+checksum = "5a667583cca8c4f8436db8de46ea8233c42a7d9ae424a82d338f2e4675229204"
 dependencies = [
  "backtrace",
  "color-spantrace",
@@ -478,9 +478,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "comrak"
-version = "0.13.2"
+version = "0.14.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "2f6adde15dc19b207fd77b6bd88cf76cfa40cd23c4cc002647ed808c91be7905"
+checksum = "15bf1e432b302dc6236dd0db580d182ce520bb24af82d6462e2d7a5e0a31c50d"
 dependencies = [
  "clap",
  "entities",
@@ -3212,7 +3212,7 @@ dependencies = [
 name = "xesite"
 version = "2.4.0"
 dependencies = [
- "axum 0.5.11",
+ "axum 0.5.13",
  "axum-extra",
  "axum-macros",
  "cfcache",

Cargo.toml

@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ axum-macros = "0.2"
 axum-extra = "0.3"
 color-eyre = "0.6"
 chrono = "0.4"
-comrak = "0.13.2"
+comrak = "0.14.0"
 derive_more = "0.99"
 dirs = "4"
 envy = "0.4"

blog/anbernic-win600-first-impressions.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,175 @@
+---
+title: "Anbernic Win600 First Impressions"
+date: 2022-07-14
+series: reviews
+---
+
+Right now PC gaming is largely a monopoly centered around Microsoft Windows.
+Many PC games only support Windows and a large fraction of them use technical
+means to prevent gamers on other platforms from playing those games. In 2021,
+Valve introduced the [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/) as an
+alternative to that monopoly. There's always been a small, underground market
+for handheld gaming PCs that let you play PC games on the go, but it's always
+been a very niche market dominated by a few big players that charge a lot of
+money relative to the game experience they deliver. The Steam Deck radically
+changed this equation and it's still on backorder to this day. This has made
+other manufacturers take notice and one of them was Anbernic.
+
+[Anbernic](https://anbernic.com/) is a company that specializes in making retro
+emulation handheld gaming consoles. Recently they released their
+[Win600](https://anbernic.com/products/new-anbernic-win600) handheld. It has a
+Radeon Silver 3020e or a Radeon Silver 3050e and today I am going to give you my
+first impressions of it. I have the 3050e version.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">A review of the Steam Deck is coming up
+soon!</xeblog-conv>
+
+One of the real standout features of this device is that Anbernic has been
+working with Valve to allow people to run SteamOS on it! This makes us all one
+step closer to having a viable competitor to Windows for gaming. SteamOS is
+fantastic and has revolutionized gaming on Linux. It's good to see it coming to
+more devices.
+
+## Out of the box
+
+I ordered my Win600 about 3 hours after sales opened. It arrived in a week and
+came in one of those china-spec packages made out of insulation. If you've ever
+ordered things from AliExpress you know what I'm talking about. It's just a
+solid mass of insulation.
+
+[![The console siting on my desk with its charging brick and included cable](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXozAEjUsAQEg9d-smol.jpeg)](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXozAEjUsAQEg9d.jpeg)
+
+The unboxing experience was pretty great. The console came with:
+
+* The console
+* A box containing the charger and cable
+* A slip of paper telling you how to set up windows without a wifi connection
+* A screen protector and cleaning cloth (my screen protector was broken in the
+  box, so much for all that insulation lol)
+* A user manual that points out obvious things about your device
+
+One of the weirder things about this device is the mouse/gamepad slider on the
+side. It changes the USB devices on the system and makes the gamepad either act
+like an xinput joypad or a mouse and keyboard. The mouse and keyboard controls
+are strange. Here are the controls I have discovered so far:
+
+* R1 is right click
+* L1 is left click
+* A is enter
+* The right stick very slowly skitters the mouse around the screen
+* The left stick is a super aggressive scroll wheel
+
+Figuring out these controls on the fly without any help from the manual meant
+that I had taken long enough in the setup screen that [Cortana started to pipe
+up](https://youtu.be/yn6bSm9HXFg) and guided me through the setup process. This
+was not fun. I had to connect an external keyboard to finish setup.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">This is probably not Anbernic's fault.
+Windows is NOT made for smaller devices like this and oh god it
+shows.</xeblog-conv>
+
+## Windows 10 "fun"
+
+There is also a keyboard button on the side. When you are using windows this
+button summons a soft keyboard. Not the nice to use modern soft keyboard though,
+the legacy terrible soft keyboard that Microsoft has had for forever and never
+really updated. Using it is grating, like rubbing sandpaper all over your hands.
+This made entering in my Wi-Fi password an adventure. It took my husband and I
+15 minutes to get the device to connect to Wi-Fi. 15 minutes to connect to
+Wi-Fi.
+
+Once it was connected to Wi-Fi, I tried to update the system to the latest
+version of windows. The settings update crashed. Windows Update's service also
+crashed. Windows Update also randomly got stuck trying to start the installation
+process for updates. Once updates worked and finished installing, I rebooted.
+
+I tried to clean up the taskbar by disabling all of the random icons that
+product managers at Microsoft want you to see. The Cortana button was stuck on
+and I was unable to disable it. Trying to hide the Windows meet icon crashed
+explorer.exe. I don't know what part of this is Windows going out of its way to
+mess with me (I'm cursed) and what part of it is Windows really not being
+optimized for this hardware in any sense of the way.
+
+Windows is really painful on this device. It's obvious that Windows was not made
+with this device in mind. There are buttons to hack around this (but not as far
+as the task manager button I've seen on other handhelds), but overall trying to
+use Windows with a game console is like trying to saw a log with a pencil
+sharpener. It's just the wrong tool for the job. Sure you _can_ do it, but _can_
+and _should_ are different words in English.
+
+Another weird thing about Windows on this device is that the screen only reports
+a single display mode: 1280x720. It has no support for lower resolutions to run
+older games that only work on those lower resolutions. In most cases this will
+be not an issue, but if you want to lower the resolution of a game to squeeze
+more performance out then you may have issues.
+
+## Steam
+
+In a moment of weakness, I decided to start up Steam. Steam defaulted to Big
+Picture mode and its first-time-user-experience made me set up Wi-Fi again.
+There was no way to bypass it. I got out my moonlander again and typed in my
+Wi-Fi password again, and then I downloaded Sonic Adventure 2 as a test for how
+games feel on it. Sonic Adventure 2 is a very lightweight game (you can play it
+for like 6.5 hours on a full charge of the Steam Deck) and I've played it to
+_death_ over the years. I know how the game _should_ feel.
+
+[![The starting screen of City Escape in Sonic Adventure 2, with the console propped up with a Steam Controller](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXpIjhwUIAUEujg-smol.jpeg)](https://cdn.xeiaso.net/file/christine-static/img/FXpIjhwUIAUEujg.jpeg)
+
+City Escape ran at a perfect 60 FPS at the device's native resolution. The main
+thing I noticed though was the position of the analog sticks. Based on the
+design of the device, I'm pretty sure they were going for something with a
+PlayStation DualShock 4 layout with the action buttons on the top and the sticks
+on the bottom. The sticks are too far down on the device. Playing Sonic
+Adventure 2 was kind of painful.
+
+## SteamOS
+
+So I installed SteamOS on the device. Besides a weird issue with 5 GHZ Wi-Fi not
+working and updates requiring me to reboot the device IMMEDIATELY after
+connecting to Wi-Fi, it works great. I can install games and they run. The DPI
+for SteamOS is quite wrong though. All the UI elements are painfully small. For
+comparison, I put my Steam Deck on the same screen as I had on the Win600. The
+Steam Deck is on top and the Win600 is on the bottom.
+
+[![The game overview for Sonic Adventure 2 on both the Steam Deck and Anbernic Win600](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/FXqSz_tVsAAU0wf-smol.jpeg)](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/FXqSz_tVsAAU0wf.jpeg)
+
+Yeah. It leaves things to be desired.
+
+When I had SteamOS set up, I did find something that makes the Win600 slightly
+better than the Steam Deck. When you are adding games to Steam with Emulation
+Station you need to close the Steam client to edit the leveldb files that Steam
+uses to track what games you can launch. On the Steam Deck, the Steam client
+also enables the built-in controllers to act as a keyboard and mouse. This means
+that you need to poke around and pray with the touchscreen to get EmuDeck games
+up and running. The mouse/controller switch on the Win600 makes this slightly
+more convenient because the controllers can always poorly act as a mouse and
+keyboard.
+
+When you are in KDE on the Win600, you don't get a soft keyboard at all. This is
+mildly inconvenient, but can be fixed with the moonlander yet again. Here's a
+screenshot of what my KDE desktop on the Win600 looks like:
+
+[![My SteamOS desktop on the Win600, showing Crossette from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 center frame](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/Screenshot_20220714_144655-smol.jpg)](https://f001.backblazeb2.com/file/christine-static/img/Screenshot_20220714_144655.png)
+
+Overall, SteamOS is a lot more ergonomic in my opinion and will let you play
+games to your heart's content.
+
+The D-pad feels really good. I love how it responds. When I did a little bit of
+Sonic Mania I never felt like I was inaccurate. There were some weird audio
+hitches on Sonic Mania though where the music would cut out randomly. Not sure
+what's going on with that. I could play through entire Pokemon games with that
+D-pad.
+
+## Conclusions for now
+
+Overall I'm getting the feeling that this device is _okay_. It's not great, it's
+not terrible, but it's okay. I need to get some more experience with it, but so
+far it seems that this device really does have a weight class and oh god if you
+play a game outside its weight class your UX goes to shit instantly. The battery
+life leaves _a lot_ to be desired so far. However it does work. It's hard to not
+compare this to the Steam Deck, but it's so much less in comparison to the Steam
+Deck.
+
+I don't know how I feel about this device. I'm not sure it's worth the money. I
+need to get more experience with it. I'll have a better sense of all this when I
+write my full review. Stay tuned for that!

blog/stanley-parable.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+---
+title: "The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Review"
+date: 2022-07-25
+series: reviews
+---
+
+Every so often a game comes around that is genuinely hard to review. Especially
+when you are trying to avoid spoiling the magic of the game in that review. This
+is a game that is even harder to review than normal because it's an absolute
+philosophical document. This game absolutely riffs at the games industry super
+hard and it really shows. I'm going to try to avoid spoilers in this article,
+except for a few I made up.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="coffee">I was going to include screenshots in
+this article, but it's difficult for me to get them without spoiling the subtle
+comedy at hand, so I'm going to leave this as a text-only review.</xeblog-conv>
+
+The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is either the second or third game in the
+series. At first this game was a Half Life 2 mod that came out of nowhere and
+was one of the most beloved mods ever released. Then they made it a proper game
+on the Source engine and expanded it a bit. After a while they wanted to
+continue the parable and expand it even more, but they weren't able to get it on
+consoles with it still being a Source engine game. So they ported it to Unity
+and the end result is The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It is one of my
+favorite games of all time.
+
+It is a deeply limited game, you only can move around and interact with things.
+The story is about an office drone named Stanley that pushes buttons based on
+instructions from his computer. The big thing that this game does though is make
+you realize the inherent paradoxes in its own design.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="happy">Being mechanically limited like this is
+not actually a bad thing like the phrasing might imply. This means that the main
+focus of the gameplay is not on the micro actions the player can take. In this
+case the main focus is on how the player interacts with the story and not how
+the player interacts with their controller or puzzles or tactics. Additionally,
+the mechanical limitations of the gameplay are thematically aligned with the
+story's premise of being an office drone in ways it can play with. Think
+dramatic irony taken to its logical conclusion.</xeblog-conv>
+
+Endings that make you look like you had exercised your free will actually boil
+down to your actions being controlled by following the narrator's voices. This
+is absolutely taking the piss out of how most modern AAA game design works,
+guiding you with an invisible hand and making it _seem_ like you had the free
+will to choose what was going on when in fact you were really just following the
+invisible guidance the whole time.
+
+However I think one of the best examples of how The Stanley Parable riffs at
+mainstream game design is via the Adventure Line™️ that shows up in one branch of
+the game. The Line™️ is an obvious riff on games like Dead Space where you can
+summon a line to tell you where to go at any time. It shows how _boring_ modern
+game design is by making you _see_ the consequences of it. If you follow the
+narrator's voice, you get boring endings.
+
+In many modern AAA games, you have the free will to choose to follow the main
+story and finish all the quests or whatever, but not much else. Consider Call of
+Duty or Battlefield. You are John America and you have to kill the enemies to
+death before they kill you to death by throwing bullets at you. You get to the
+end of the level and blow up the brown people some more or something and then
+it's suddenly a victory for America. But what did you really accomplish? You
+just followed the line. Walk outside of the intended playable area? 10 second
+timer until the game kills you. Shoot a person with the wrong skin color? The
+game kills you.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Numa" mood="delet">If you manage to clip out of bounds in the
+escape ending, the screen will fade to black and you will be transported to a
+temperate climate. Then a t-posing model in terrible armor will tell you that it
+used to be an adventurer until they took an arrow to the knee. Hope that's not a
+marriage proposal!</xeblog-conv>
+
+However in The Stanley Parable you can defy the narrator and that's where the
+game really opens up. It's great to get in the area where the game is unfinished
+and then have the narrator complain about deadlines, scheduling delays, investor
+funding and them wanting to avoid having to stuff it to the gills with
+microtransactions. You can legitimately glitch your way out of bounds and then
+the game will reward you with a new ending you didn't know was possible. The
+game takes the concept of the illusion of free will and plays with it.
+
+The game makes you think about what games _can_ be. It makes you wonder if the
+potted plant soliloquy after the broom closet ending speaks to the mental state
+of the author more than anything. Of all of the artistic endeavors that games as
+a medium _can_ have, we end up seeing very few or none of them in mainstream
+gaming. Sure you get your occasional 4k120fps robot killer waifu with a bow and
+a whacky stick, but none of it really _revolutionizes_ video games as an art
+form. It's all just derivative of the generic "unalive bad guy and save earth"
+trope.
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Mara" mood="hacker">If you want some games that really
+revolutionize what games can be, check out
+[Celeste](https://mattmakesgames.itch.io/celeste), [Secret Little
+Haven](https://ristar.itch.io/secret-little-haven), [Baba Is
+You](https://hempuli.itch.io/baba), and [Glittermitten
+Grove](https://twinbeard.itch.io/glittermitten-grove). All of these games really
+challenge what games can be and experiment with radically different kinds of
+art. You never will see mainstream games be as risk-taking as this because art
+is fundamentally risky and capitalism wants line to go up, so they go out of
+their way to make sure that mainstream games are as safe and likely to sell many
+copies as possible.</xeblog-conv>
+
+I made up the thing about the potted plant, but if you had played the game then
+you'd probably have started the game up to look for it just to see what was
+there. I wonder if I made someone stand at that potted plant for like 5 minutes
+or something. This game sparks creativity in ways that other mainstream games
+just fundamentally don't. If you've been looking for something different in your
+video game diet, I really suggest you give it a try. Go in as blind as possible.
+I'm not paid in any way to say this, I genuinely think this is really good.