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My second immersive card in Pokémon TCG Pocket

Cropped screenshot of the mobile game Pokémon TCG Pocket, showing a newly-obtained rare immersive card version of Celebi EX of three-star rarity.

Whoa, today I obtained an immersive Celebi EX card from a Mythical Island pack that I received from the holiday mission in Pokémon TCG Pocket!

This was my second immersive card. My first one was the Mewtwo which I obtained when I started playing the game.

🔗 Stardew Valley Polyamory mod

Previously, I had been using the unofficial update of Free Love as my polyamory mod of choice in Stardew Valley, but unfortunately it appeared that a recent update to the game broke Free Love's unofficial update.

Fortunately, I discovered a new polyamory mod for Stardew Valley made by EnderTedi, literally named Polyamory, through the Diverse Stardew Valley Discord server.

🔗 Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand: The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami 20 years on - ABC News

Asia’s deadliest wave turned towns to rubble. Here’s how its survivors are doing

The Boxing Day tsunami interrupted a civil war, triggered the worst rail accident in history and shattered the lives of millions. Twenty years on, the survivors share their incredible stories.

A New Wallet

I received a new wallet as a Christmas present from my mother on this 2024 Christmas Day.

🔗 Christmas: Then and Now

The biblical Christmas story is thus a Palestinian story par excellence. It is not a fairy tale from the distant past. It is not a story of Northern European elves, flying on sleds pulled by magical reindeer. It is a real story, of a real people, in a real time and place. It is a story that we can profoundly identify with in December 2023.

Happy 30th Birthday to My Brother

This Christmas Eve marks the day my younger brother officially joins me in the 30s club!

New glasses

I just got a new pair of glasses. It is time since I had used my previous pair of glasses for years.

🔗 Email obfuscation: What works in 2024?

I have been trying to obfuscate my email address on Leilukin's Hub to hopefully stop email spams as much as possible. Today I came across this article that has the most comphrehensive list of methods to do so, along with the effectiveness of those methods.

Currently, I chose to use the CSS display: none and HTTP redirect methods.

🔗 Harry Potter is Also Ableist

Ember Green's video essay "Harry Potter is Also Ableist" is another great addition to my anti-Harry Potter and anti-J.K. Rowling masterlist.

🔗 Psyduck (SM-P Promo 286) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

Today I learned that the Psyduck has a Japanese-exclusive Pokémon card that was inspired by Edvard Munch's "The Scream", both in the illustration and the attack, which was literally named Scream.

🔗 PSA: Retiring from Tumblr

After spending 13 years on Tumblr since 2011, I have decided that I will no longer be active on the website, due to the multiple major changes in my interests and life, especially in 2024.

Cassette Beasts: "The Midnight Train" Side Quest Completed

I have beaten 50 carriages of Magikrab's Gauntlet in Cassette Beasts. In other words, I have completed "The Midnight Train" side quest.

I was already around level 180 when I started the Gauntlet, while the Gauntlet starts at level 50+ and then gradually levels up as you progress, so it wasn't too difficult.

However, due to the random encounter nature, bosses can catch you by surprise with their gimmicks. For example, one of the bosses I encountered was Poppetox, whose gimmick punishes AoE attacks due to the Effigies. I had Kayleigh with me when I encountered Poppetox in the Gauntlet, and both our starting tapes, Umbrahella and Decibelle, have the Echolocation sticker, which gave us the Multitarget status at the start of battle, so for 3 to 4 turns (Kayleigh's Decibelle's Echolocation sticker has the +1 Duration attribute) we took damage from our own attacks. Ouch.

(Magikrab's Gauntlet spoilers below)

There is also the boss for Carriage #50, Magikrab, who battles like an Archangel due to the Summoned Power status, He will summon random monsters with the Ghostly status as backups. It took me two tries to defeat him.

I brought Meredith with me when I fought Magikrab. In my first try, we did not fuse, and his Angelic Attack and one of the summoned monsters ended up defeating Meredith, including her human form, while Magikrab was still not close to being defeated, so I had to retreat and then battle again. I chose to fuse with Meredith this time and the battle became much easier.

Q & A about Cassette Beasts’ ending during Bytten Studio’s latest AMA in r/cassettebeasts

Bytten Studio recently hosted another Reddit AMA session on 20 November 2024, the day Cassette Beasts' Version 1.7 Gauntlet Update was released, this time on the official Cassette Beasts subreddit.

I took the opportunity to ask Bytten Studio if they had any thoughts on the players' reception to the game's story ending:

Do you have any thoughts about the players' reception to the game's story ending? I actually like the ending, but there are players who dislike the ending and are rather vocal about it, so I wrote a post on Tumblr to defend it (spoilers in the link obviously for those who haven't beaten the game).

Jay Baylis, the writer and lead artist of Cassette Beasts, responded:

I think it's always tricky to conclude a story - we had a particular idea of how the game would end from the start and the kind of story we wanted to tell, and I can see that it might not work for some players. I think that's OK - I'd rather that then write something that is safer or more crowd-pleasing that doesn't have as much of an impact, if that makes sense?

I was, and still am, very pleased to learn that they already had an idea for what kind of story they wanted to tell and how they wanted to end the game, because as I said in my follow-up response to Jay's reply:

Totally makes sense. I would much prefer creators to have a clear vision for what kind of story they wanted to tell as well as how they wanted to conclude the story, and stick to their creative vision, instead of just trying to play safe and please the crowd. The more I played and explored Cassette Beasts, the more amazed I was by how much thought was put into making the game.

Not to mention, the story is one of the most underrated aspects of Cassette Beasts. Now that I got confirmation that Bytten Studio had a vision for how they want the game to end from the beginning, I will continue to defend the ending of Cassette Beasts to the grave.

In fact, I just did that in the Reddit AMA thread itself, when someone else asked about the ending in a separate comment that happened after my comments:

I was genuinely surprised at the end when everyone did decide to go their separate ways and return home, instead of staying together after bonding all game. Was the ending ever different?

Bytten Studio did not respond to this question, but I did my duty as one of the staunchest defenders of Cassette Beasts' ending by replying to the comment myself:

I'm not one of the developers, but when I asked earlier did they have any thoughts on the players' reception to the ending, Jay stated that:

" …we had a particular idea of how the game would end from the start and the kind of story we wanted to tell"

So I'm guessing no, they had always intended the story to end that way.

To be honest, I was never surprised that the party decided to go back to their own worlds. In fact, I find it to make perfect sense. After all, the game has set up from the very beginning that the player's goal is to find a way to leave New Wirral, people do not end up in New Wirral by choice, and people ended up staying on New Wirral only because they could not find a way to leave before the player came along.

The partner characters are in the same situation — they have made it clear in their dialogue and personal quests that they all came from different worlds, and they had their own lives, friends or families before being transported to New Wirral and separated from their former lives against their will, so it makes total sense that they would choose to return home if there is an actual opportunity to leave. In fact, Viola, who still hasn't found her brother even in her personal quest, points out in the ending that wanting to see her brother again as why she still chooses to leave. Even if you romance any of the partners, they would also make it clear in dialogue that you may have to separate when you find a way to leave New Wirral.

It also makes sense that Barkley is the only partner who follows the player back home, since he is a dog who lost his owner, and thus has no one else to go back to.

Aren’t plushies beautiful? They were created so a sick child had something…

Aren’t plushies beautiful? They were created so a sick child had something to hold. They were created so an adult living alone might have a friend to keep them company. They were created for a teenager to clutch to her chest as she cries. They were created to accompany a college student to his geology classes. They were created not for any material benefit, they don’t change tires, but to be loved.

They were created for the purpose of love.

mascula-sappho on Tumblr (Archived version)

Tried and Quitted Neko Atsume 2

I tried out Neko Atsume 2 as soon as it was released, but I just uninstalled it because I honestly dislike the item degradation mechanic, with the cowboy hat requiring 100 silver fish to fix being the last straw for me. I decide to stick to playing the first game.

Font Awesome's Poo Storm Icon

Today I learned that Font Awesome has a poo storm icon, and they have a Podcast Awesome episode sharing the story behind the poo storm icon too.

Good thing the icon is available for free as well, LOL.

In Praise of the Writing of Cassette Beasts

(Cross-posting my Bluesky thread praising the writing of Cassette Beasts that began with quote posting and responding to Jay Baylis, the writer and artist of Cassette Beasts. By the way, Jay liked my post that quote posted him!)

The writing is one of the most underrated aspects of Cassette Beasts IMHO. I love stories that are not afraid to explore mature topics, but are still ultimately optimistic. This is one of many, many reasons Cassette Beasts is my ultimate favourite video game.

I love how the partner characters not only have distinct personalities with their own character arcs, but also how many of their arcs are also intertwined with the main quest.

I also like the ending and IMO it is a good example of how a story can conclude in a bittersweet note but still make sense to the story, both in terms of plot set-up and the themes and messages.

Players who dislike the ending may be a vocal minority, but they're vocal enough that I was compelled to write a post on in defence of the ending. I will defend Cassette Beasts' ending to the grave.

In Defence of the Ending of Cassette Beasts

(Originally posted on Tumblr)

I may write a proper essay to elaborate my thoughts on this subject better, but for now, I want to state for the record that I actually like the ending of Cassette Beasts and I think it fits the story and theme of the game.

Yes, it is bittersweet, but it is not a bad thing. A story being happy, sad or bittersweet does not inherently make the ending good or bad; what matters is how well the ending is set up, and how thematically fitting the ending is to the story. In my opinion, the Cassette Beasts ending achieves both.

Cassette Beasts' story has set up from the very beginning that the player character's goal is to find a way to leave New Wirral, and that the people who are living in New Wirral, including all the player character's partners, came from different worlds, with no one knows how to go back to their world until the player character and their party do in the ending. It makes sense that the player character's party expect they may never see each other again, because the game never says if there is a way to contact with someone else from a different world.

Even if you choose to romance a partner, every single romance option points out that you may have to split up when you return to your own worlds during their conversation where you choose to commit a romance with them, but they all also state that despite that, the time you spent together still matters (see my video compilation of the partner romance scenes). Not to mention, every partner has their own life before arriving at New Wirral, and it is neither realistic nor healthy to expect them to give up everything they knew in their world just for one person, even if you are the protagonist. So it makes sense that you and your romance option do not stay together in the ending, but that does not mean there is no point in romancing them.

Morgante says outright during your final battle against Aleph Null that humans have the ability to manifest their will to alter reality, to change the world and themselves, to the extent even cassette tapes are merely talismans to channel that will, which is proven immediately after when the player fuse with all their partners even though their cassette player was broken. Kayleigh echoes Morgante's words in the ending when saying goodbye to the player character that they do not need cassette tapes to manifest their will to change the world. Combined with the partner characters' growth during their time with the player character, the game opens up the hope the party can take what they learn from their time in New Wirral to make their lives better. This is the game's another way to reaffirm that even though you and your partners' stay in New Wirral may not be permanent, it does not mean your time in new Wirral does not matter, and returning to your world does not necessarily mean returning to the status quo either.

Cassette Beasts' story is not a choice-driven narrative (which is not a bad thing since not every game needs to have one); even choosing to pursue a romance with a partner does not change the story and just add some additional dialogue when you rest and a few extra lines in the ending (which is a good thing because I dislike it when the story or a character's "best" ending is locked behind a romance), so I am fine with the lack of option for the player to not returning to their world. That said, there is also an argument to be made that you, the player, choosing to continue to play the game, including the post-game is deciding that you still want to stay in New Wirral. Even Ms. Amber says after you defeat Aleph Null and discover the gateway to leave New Wirral that you do not have to leave right away. In that sense, the game's ending also serves as your farewell to New Wirral as the player.

I do not know if liking the Cassette Beasts ending is an unpopular opinion, because there is a possibility that not liking the ending is a case of vocal minority, but they are still vocal enough that I am compelled to write this post to defend the ending.

🔗 Using static websites for tiny archives by Alex Chan

For a long time, I thought of HTML as a tool for publishing on the web, a way to create websites that other people can look at. But all these websites I’m creating are my local, personal archives – just for me. I’m surprised it took me this long to realise HTML isn’t just for sharing on the web.

🔗 A Syllabus for Generalists by Cristina Jerney

In recent years, there’s a tendency towards specialism and specialists, from the job market to identities to relationships to education and more. Conversations around university education, for example, tend to be focused on high-earning job prospects, rather than on developing multidisciplinary ways of thinking. The job market tends to favor people who have had a clear, laddered path to success. The prevalence of TikTok trends, which disappear as quickly as they appear, have viewers categorizing themselves within a range of attributes, classifications that are used as bywords for a personality: “clean girl”, “softboi”, “thought daughter”, “thot daughter”, “de-influencers”, and more. Curiosity for curiosity’s sake is not discouraged, per se, but it’s not clearly monetizable either, and therefore can be deprioritized.

As a result, people are quick to try to categorize themselves based on interest or skill, as a way of telling the world who they are quickly, before an audience’s attention runs out, which can lead to tunnel vision, bias, and a sense of social entrapment. Generalists have an important place within society, working from a broad range of knowledge that brings context into the complex and nuanced circumstances humanity finds themselves in today. For example, doctors looking to improve their practices could find helpful lessons from history and philosophy—the history of humankind is also the history of generations of patients, after all. However, generalists have long faced the danger of being overlooked as the “jack of all trades, master of none”.