I Feel It Coming

I think it’s that time again. I’m fully prepared to play Minecraft religiously for three weeks, only to spend the following month desperately nagging my friends to log back on long after the "feeling" has died for everyone else.

But that’s not really the point. The point is that I'm looking forward to twenty-one days of pure dumbassery and total disconnection from the real world. Honestly, I think I need it.

It doesn’t matter how many times you spawn into a fresh world; it still feels like the very first time. It’s remarkable what that kind of "free" game design can achieve. Even if the magic only lasts a few weeks before I’m left grinding away on a solo server, the day this game finally becomes truly stale is a day I genuinely dread.

Bossman Said Yes, Then Said No

I’m not entirely in the loop regarding what happened with Notch and his proposed "Minecraft 2," but part of me really wants it to happen. Minecraft feels stuck in a cycle of small, safe iterations, and the cracks are starting to show.

New blocks and colors are fun for a minute, but there hasn't been a fundamental shift in how the game actually plays in forever. We need new systems, but I don’t think retrofitting them into the current engine will work and it would probably just result in a wave of complaints. Maybe a clean slate is exactly what the "bossman" should have gone for.

A friend called me a month or so ago asking if I wanted an old PlayStation she’d found at a thrift store. Sure, I already have one or two lying around, but this was a launch model. I couldn't say no.

Is this anything you'd ever want? I just saw it and thought of you.

It turns out the laser was on its absolute last legs. The drive died after only ten minutes of gameplay—typical. But fret not; my previous hesitation toward soldering small circuitry vanished the second I realized this was the perfect "low-stakes" moment to try. If I was ever going to mess something up, this was the time to do it.

What Must I Do?

I did what any sane person would do: I ordered an aftermarket ODE (Optical Drive Emulator) the second I realized the disc drive was toast. And boy, does that thing work wonders.

I’ve been on a total retro binge for a couple of weeks now. I’m already on Disc 4 of the glorious Final Fantasy IX, and Front Mission 3 is next on the list!

The OSSC really does its thing when paired with high-quality RGB SCART cables.

ODE Everything

Over the last year, I’ve been on a real bender when it comes to replacing physical discs. It’s happening just in the nick of time, too. Most of these 90s disc-based consoles weren't built to last forever, and between failing motors and the looming threat of disc rot, the hardware is getting fickle.

Luckily, there are amazing modern alternatives to these slow, aging readers. So far, I’ve replaced the drives in my GameCube, my Saturn, and now the PS1 I never actually got to enjoy.

PS: The UI is so damn snazzy—and it even has a very apt Christmas theme!

I finally did it. I had a talk with my Kindle and that talk involved a USB cable, some questionable firmware files, and some "pleasedontbrick" anxiety.

But now my Kindle is officially straight outta jail, and it feels so much better to use it now!

Here are my pros (I actually don't consider anything a con, you always trade something for freedom):

The KOReader tablet: This is the biggest pro. If the stock Kindle software is doing you good, KOReader is a going to do you better. I’m finally reading EPUBs natively without begging Amazon to convert them for me with the their extremely convoluted process. The reading statistics are so detailed in this thing and it's easy to keep track of yourself when you get lost in a book.

I don't feel dirty anymore: By blocking OTA (Over-The-Air) updates and stripping away the tracking, the device feels so much faster and It’s no longer "calling home" to Jeff Bezos every time I flip a page.

The Verdict

45 minutes of setup is so worth it, if you have one and see an opening (meaning you are on a firmware that is jailbreakable), just do it!

As a kid, role-playing games always captured my imagination, but none of them made me spend more time min-maxing and grinding like Persona. (Maybe Final Fantasy IX, but that game is a 10/10, always.)

When I was around 14 or 15, a friend of mine was always making Persona references whenever he saw the chance. I didn't have the slightest clue what he was talking about, but it piqued my interest. How could a game be so good that you have to quote or refer to it ad nauseam? Needless to say, I picked up my first copy of a Persona game and I was hooked. The brilliant combination of a watered-down dating sim and a dungeon crawler makes the game flow with a pace I haven't experienced since.

Remakes remakes remakes

Quirky and unabashedly Japanese in everything it does, Persona hooked me even to this day. When I picked up Persona 3 Reload about a month ago on the Switch 2, I thought it would be a slow game I'd play when nothing else excited me. Instead, it made me appreciate the series even more.

Sure, the games can feel pretty slow and repetitive from time to time—just like real high school life—but then it hits you with something big. You just have to beat the boss or see the cutscene before you shut it off. As someone who played through P3:FES a long, long time ago, revisiting the suspiciously Odaiba-like location has me hooked.

Oh you want some tunes? I'll give it to ya.

Aquire this and all you troubles will be gone /Sun Tzu (maybe)

Writing this, I still haven't even touched on what is arguably one of the Persona series' strongest points: the soundtrack. Banger after banger of tracks fuse everything a human has ever tried composing into a beautifully messy mix of genres and tunes.

I even think Persona inspired my desire to collect games and merch. Now, every time I'm in Japan, I look for editions or merch from the series and you sure as hell aren't finding much of it in the West so you better. (although it has gotten better since the release of Persona 5).

ATLUS and the future

Remakes are usually my guilty pleasure in 2025, either that or indie games. I haven't had any respect for AAA game developers in a long time, seeing as most of what they churn out are just lazily asset-swapped UE5 games that run like absolute dogshit. You have to force the person playing it to enable DLSS just to get the thing running.

ATLUS, on the other hand, carefully puts out mainline games in the Persona series, and it feels like a slight shift in gaming every time it happens. I sure can't wait to see what happens after Persona 6 is released.

Remember when Windows was an actual operating system and not an ad delivery platform with a new side hustle in AI.

I haven't had a private Windows computer since the late 2000s and there is nothing on this earth that would pull me back.. And now they are even losing on the gaming front thanks to basedgabe~

Self-Hosting: Because Subscriptions..

Welcome to 2025, where every app, every song, and every photo you take is just another opportunity to pay someone else. Welcome to paradise! If you’re not paying, you’re probably not using it right.

Oh, and did you notice? Linux is actually gaining market share. I know, wild. Even good ol' pewds is out here burning down YouTube with his new Linux and AI videos while speedrunning to freedom.

I wonder if these two are related somehow...

Get yourself a Server.. Anything really.

Anyways rant /over and here is what you do!

Save some money, get a cheap ThinkPad from a company that rotates them like every 2 years but can't ever recoup the investment on them. srsly and with that money just buy something that is able to stay on 24/7 and run your services.

• No More Monthly Drains: Oh geeeee wiz I sure love my monthly subscriptions and microtransactions!!!11
• My data, My mess: I'm hoarding around the files from my Windows XP machine I had in 2003, BUT IT'S MY DATA and I will do whatever I please with it.
• DIY IT: Just build a media server bro, no one is ever going to now (ok someone will but there are so many good ways to obfuscate stuff online when you run your own machines)
• Raspberry Pi: Aka just get one bro: The Raspberry Pi is so damn cheap now and there are thousands of cheap chinese alternatives (yeah yeah i know)
• No Ads: For real this time, not this half assed adblock stuff and btw youtube premium will always be the only subscription service that makes sense.