I quit my job and bought a keytar.

Played through the original six episodes of Blood; can't remember if I ever did that back in the day. Still nothing quite like it. Marrow impresses immediately, but I'll get back to it. I feel like I should've waited for Cheello to update Coagulated, but oh well...

Quickly:

• The parry mechanic in DOOM: The Dark Ages is less obtrusive than I feared.
• Isles of Sea and Sky gets kinda frustrating toward the end; I seem to be missing a few upgrades though, so maybe that's on me.
• SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance is stellar (Lizardcube hasn't missed yet) and way more Metroid than I expected.
• Animal Well is up there too, but I'm not sure sure how I feel about the roguelike elements.
• Inmost gets a little silly toward the end and loses some of its impact, but still really good.

Metroidly:

• Metroid II - EJRTQ Colorization is really well-done, and the core game holds-up nearly 35 years later; a little short, but still huge - especially for an original Game Boy game.
• Trying PrimeHack after a few hours of Corruption on original hardware is a revelation.
• Other M at 1440p, 8x SSAA, and 16x Anisotropic Texture Filtering with a DualSense feels almost comtemporary.

Finally found a copy of RUSH: A Disney • PIXAR Adventure in the wild (and it has a "Microsoft Company Store" sticker on it), as well as Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for PSP, and a sealed copy of Destruction Allstars on PS5.

Boox Go 7 seems to be the sweet spot that balances portability, display, performance, and public-library support - so I got one for my partner.

EndeavourOS + Waterfox + Startpage? Waterfox's AUR package doesn't seem to be maintained all that well and I'm not really interested in Flatpak, so I opted for a manual installation. Still running Windows 11 + Edge + Bing in most places, and Android for mobile; Gemini's getting annoying on the latter though, so... Graphene? Lineage? Calyx?

More Thrift Store Stuff:

• ASUS RT-AX57 AX3000 for $10
• Wi-Fi 6 is way faster than I need, and the Agile Multiband and DFS stuff is interesting.
• TP-Link RE305 V3 AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender/AP/Adapter for $7
• Should be useful; reminds me of the DWL-G730AP I used on my 360 from 2006 into 2011
• Antennas Direct ClearStream 2V TV Antenna for $14
• Was actually looking for one.
• An HP power adapter for a buddy's old laptop for $5
• I told them I'd find one :)
• An HP power adapter for that $12 EliteDesk for $4
• Might need it to replace the $10 official universal travel one - down to $20 total ;)
• Rock Band 3 Xbox 360 Wireless Keyboard for $8
• It's also a MIDI keytar!

Really gotta move the old routers...

Keeping:

• ASUS RT-AX57 (AX3000, Gigabit, 2x2 MU-MIMO)
• Linksys EA8500 (AC2600, Gigabit, 4x4 MU-MIMO, USB3.0, eSATA)
• TP-Link Archer A8 (AC1900, Gigabit, 3x3 MU-MIMO)