Breaking news: switched blog to English (choose: hehe / not hehe).

January was a month of rest. I tried to maintain only old projects, with some exceptions (like this blog). However, there are many things I want to write about. It’s like monthly post – more about this format in blog section.

Life

Year started in unexpected way – with a midday drinking of mulled wine in the company of good friends and completely unfamiliar but so friendly Serbs on the Danube promenade. An interesting tradition of one local man, and the wine was excellent!

Went to Kuršumlijska Banja to relax and cosplay Japanese macaques – in an open-air pool under falling snow. Also stopped by the Đavolja varoš, though the real curiosity here is the geological formation of these “towers” rather than their appearance. As bonus, tested out a gifted flask filled with alcoholic honey during the walk – and enjoyed it.

Also this month: two birthdays of our friends, a plenty of movies and games (single, VR, coop), zero concerts. Last one should be fixed soon.

And I’ve made another year movie, third in a row.

We’re discussing travel plans for this year including music festivals. Exit in our city is 100%, RiP and Tuska under the question.

Started building another Lego set – this time, Ornithopter from Dune.

And I’m back to fedi, this time on self-hosted GoToSocial instance.

Blog

So yeah, main decision here is that I’ve decided to switch to an English blog completely this time. No more excuses or second thoughts. This is good practice by the way.

I didn’t write year summary post this time – just made my own conclusions in diary format and moved on. But I found a draft for it, with top things of the year – and maybe will make a mini-post (it’s never too late, heh).

Also, during January, I didn’t write anything excluding this post, but many ideas kept coming to backlog. I hope that means more posts with different topics in the future.

I don’t know if I’ll be writing in this format again. As I said before, January was a rest month for me. Maybe “Moments” would be about life stuff only, with links to other posts, maybe format like this won’t be necessary anymore. Let’s see.

And about techical stuff. I heard about static site generator Zola: “everyone is moving to Zola from Hugo.”. Main reason often sounds as easier templating system. Well, I tried it, easily launched a basic blog, and then attempted to integrateblock from my theme. When I couldn’t immediately figure out how to display either site or current page title, I questioned engine usability. Then I checked one of the top themes in catalogue and saw how many edge cases were handled for this situation – and suddenly lost interest in rewriting everything.

I don’t say Zola is worse than Hugo – it’s just not for me. I don’t want to reproduce my fully customized theme in a new environment, spend my time. I know Hugo templates well enough, I know how to debug and how to find answers.

Though, just ten days ago, a Hugo update broke my wishlist. But I took the simple route – just locked theme version. Will update quarterly, I guess.

Cinema & TV

Nosferatu by Eggers – nothing new, but a solid piece of directing. Beautiful, mesmerizing, and with good cast (is Dafoe already a favorite for the director?).

A Complete Unknown turned out to be a nice movie just to see it once and enjoy the music. Distilled biopic that works because of real man, his work, and epoch surrounding him. Watching it was tough due to Dylan’s accent, which Chalamet captured well enough to not understand half the words.

Finally watched The Godfather (yes, yes, about time). Didn’t realize what was so great about him until greatness started. A masterpiece.

A Real Pain – it’s difficult to write about this movie. Simple and complex at the same time, and also very emotional. And no, Kieran doesn’t play Roman Roy here, but Jesse has a little bit of Zuckerberg in it (ad-selling business).

Pluto – expectations were high due to someone’s recommendation, but it turned out mediocre. The format is also odd for anime – eight one-hour episodes, more like typical TV mini-series, although duration is the same as classic 24 episode anime.

Music

Music break: new beautiful clip from pianist whose concert was my first after moving to Serbia.

New from the music world:

• One more great album by Wardruna – Birna.
• Dark Tranquillity In Flames The Halo Effect released a new album, March Of The Unheard. Sadly, Mikael’s songwriting has felt repetitive for quite some time now.
• Wanna fresh, quality chiptune? Genre maestro with new EP — Shirobon - Breaker.

Books

The Sympathizer – a book I should’ve quit when I first wanted to. Not because it’s bad, but because this book has rich and truly live language, the emphasis is on descriptions instead of story and at some point you get tired of it. And also there is a really disturbing scene at the end.

Df Mag – interesring magazines about retro games, consoles, and more (on Russian). Enjoyed reading about Sonic rise as a mascot, mods and glitches in different games, and the evolution of retro Alien games (and evolution of pixel Alien itself too).

Games

Slay the Princess – a short, variable, and interesting visual novel with some wow moments. After “beating” it, you can unlock new endings and “variations”, but I wasn’t so engaged by then.

After reading Vastrik’s year summary post (on Russian), I finally decided to finish Stray, which I abandoned somewhere close to the beginning. So, overall impression – easy and not so long game, but it’s about cat, so 10/10. Common question from friends – did cats react? Yes, one of them searched for the source of “meows” in TV and noticed in-game cat.

Remembered a game we played back in university (more than 10 years ago) – Sumotori Dreams. A brilliant example of ragdoll fighting, still hilarious to watch.

Found a simple game for breaks – Battleship Solitaire - Logic Puzzle. I love both the minimal and maximal board sizes, especially on Hard Mode.

Stimulation Clicker — simple clicker game I could only finish by cheating. The first time I reached Duolingo stage, my brain screamed “Fucking stop it”. An incredibly stimulating game, especially if played with headphones and full immersion. Just try it.

VR games are back, baby – took down the Christmas tree, freeing up space for proper VR gaming. Bought Alien: Rogue Incursion and Synth Riders – the latter immediately beats the Beat Saber, thanks to synthwave tracks.

Katana Zero — finally finished it after a long break in the middle. It’s Hotline Miami, but with a katana and in a classic 2D-side-platformer format. I call these games (Hotline Miami, Ghostrunner, Katana Zero) skill-puzzle-action games. Loved it.

Gave Sonic Mania one last chance (paused at Zone 3), and now I’ve finished it. And as result: I don’t wanna play play Sonic games again – after all, it’s not my type of game. But this one was extremely nostalgic.

Another game outside my usual interests, this time a rhythm game – Hi-Fi RUSH. Main character, Chai, is basically Rufus from the Deponia games – absolutely same vibe. Very colorful game (missed that in modern media), simple story, but solid character progression. Recommended.

The game for the Emperor (Space Marine 2) is progressing slowly but steadily – I’m savoring every level. In Baldur’s Gate 3 we’re already able to enter Act 3, but we’re still clearing areas. Heard a lot of bad things about Act 3, let’s see. Started Ghostrunner 2 and for now it’s so good.

That’s all, folks, thank you for your attention!