Games

I finished Animal Well this week after a pretty long period of letting it collect dust. I’m sorry it took me so long to finish because it’s a great little game. It’s a Metroidvania, but one that’s about puzzles and experimenting with the game mechanics rather than combat.

I’m sure I have more to explore and uncover even though I “finished” the game, so I’ll probably be coming back to it over the next week or two.

Books

I started a couple new books recently. The first is Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey, the third book in The Expanse. Like the last book, this one has a mostly new cast, most of which I’m really liking.

The other book I’ve begun is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, which I’m absolutely loving so far. It’s completely unlike anything else I’ve read, which won’t come as any surprise if you know about the book or have read it yourself. I went into it mostly blind other than knowing about the general premise. I just kept hearing about it and seeing it referenced in different places, so I figured it’d be worth a go and so far I’ve been right! I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next, since I’ve flipped through some of the later sections and things get… interesting.

HackTheBox

I’ve come back to doing more HackTheBox lately, which I first started back in November. At this point I’m through with most of the guided machines (the free ones, anyway) and I’ve completed two of the active machines which are entirely unguided but reward points.

It’s pretty enjoyable. Each machine is like a puzzle and I get to work out some skills that I don’t usually use. I’ve had to look up a hint or two on the machines I’ve solved so far, but already I’m feeling less and less of a reliance on that.

Something I’ve noticed though is that while the guided machines were spun up specifically for me, the active machines seem to be shared between players. There is some kind of process in place for making sure the machines stay close to their original state, but I’ve still found leftover files from other players and in one case an account I needed had either been removed or had its password changed. It wasn’t a massive deal since the password had been reset the next time I tried, but I guess it’s something to watch out for.

Back to work

The last thing is that I’m back at work after a long-ish break for the holidays. It’s not all bad since I’m on a new team this year. It’s been sort of exciting and I think it’s been going well so far. Good way to start a new year.

— JP