STG's

 The RiftBreaker is a base building game, which also has a mech fighting component - very similar to another of their games I played, X-Morph:Defense . Interface is nice overall, although as your base gets bigger managing it gets pretty hard, and it is hard to tell what is taking power, exactly, or why connected resources won't work. There are tons of upgrades, including each base element, the mech weapons, extra mech powers, etc. There are a lot of elements involved, though, and they don't seem to always show in the UI. Overall, I really like it so far, but I can't help but feel that the UI could be a little better. Update (11/Jan/2022): Finished it on easy - about 23h. Pretty good, although skills disappeared from the list altogether halfway through, and I had to restart missions that failed for no good reason.

Seems silly, but I had a Xbox Wireless Bluetooth Controller that disconnected from my PC after random amounts of time (usually 10 minutes or so). Turns out it was paired to both my tablet and PC, and for some reason, even when the tablet was turned off, it would pair to it. I could just tell by the fact that the controller would suddenly jump to the top of the Bluetooth decide list. Solution is simple - either unpair the controller on the other device, or turn off bluetooth on it.

The Dispatcher: Murder by other means is the second volume in a SF (or fantasy?) series by John Scalzi, all pretty short (around 100 pages). I wasn't aware there was a previous one as I was reading (I think I got it because of a sale), although there are enough references. The base story is that for unknow reasons, people who are murdered come back to life fine, 999 times out of a thousand. It is silly but cute premise, and Scalzi used it well. The action was satisfying, and so was how everything came together at the end.

 Runtime, by S.B. Divya, is a SF novella in a future world where people have implants that improve a number of things, and where "free" services in the US are only for some original citizens - others have to buy a license. This obviously reminds me of Machinehood (which is the reason I got this), and it is pretty good in its own way, although very short.

 Imago, by Octavia E. Butler, is the final volume of the Xenogenesis series, where a group of aliens that only use biotech save humans from extinction, but require that future humans can only have hybrids with them. This one cover another of Lilith's kids - Jodahs, which turns out to be an ooloi (so does his "sister", but she is a smaller character). This is similar to the previous book, in the sense that it shows the main character's efforts to learn about their role as a new hybrid species, and their relations with humans and aliens. Overall, pretty good, I really liked the series overall - specially for the imaginative world building with bio-tech.

 Adulthood Rites, by Octavia E. Butler, is the second book in the Xenogenesis series. The series is about a group of aliens that rescues the last human survivors after wars pretty much wiped out humankind and destroyed the biosphere. They don't work for free, though - any new humans will be designed by them to have genes from both species. There is also a small matter of what they will be doing with Earth when done... The last book talked about Lilith, a survivor that was used to train other humans, and that ended up being made pregnant against her will. This one starts later, and is about a new baby that mostly looks human, but is Oonkali, and very smart.  Early in the story, it is kidnapped by humans, who don't want to be made pregnant by the Oonkali but still want human looking babies... I think I liked this one better - there was less wallowing in the existential despair of the situation, and more action. The world building is pretty great, and there are extra explanations...

 Unidentified, by Douglas E. Richards, is a SF novel. In this one, an author decides to create a hoax, saying he is going to reveal the truth about UFOs, which causes a number of groups to chase them, and ultimately he does learn the truth about UFOs. I do like most of the author's books, but this one was much less enjoyable than the others. The writing seems off, and one would think that he was getting paid by twist/reveal. Not exactly bad, but certainly not great. I guess it is nice that I got it from Kindle Unlimited...

 Curse of the Dead Gods is a top-view action RPG.  I really like the graphics, and there are quite a few mechanics different from the usual, in particular the use of curses that alter the rules. Tutorials are good (and repeat until you show you got the special move, such as parrying or combos).  There is stuff that can be used after each run for upgrades (which now I guess is mostly common), and the use of maps were you choose between options (which always reminds of Slay the Spire, but are everywhere now) such as healing, attributes, etc. Update - 13/Dec/2021 - Still playing regularly. My favorite thing about the game is how different it can be - weapons, relics, and the events (which change the rules, sometimes radically) can completely change the way you play. For example, some events come with a vert overpowered bow which adds corruption on every kill. Sometimes relics or weapons heal you, if you kill the enemies with that weapon, or sometimes using traps. Relics and ...

 Machinehood, by S.B. Divya, is a SF novel. It takes place on the 2090s, in a very interesting future world - personal agents are used for everything, drone swarms follow you everyone (and you can get tipped for anything interesting you do), people constantly take pills (which include micro/nano machines, apparently) to get themselves stronger/smarter/heal faster/cure the new manufactured diseases, and smart matter is everywhere - furniture, clothes, etc. On that world, Olga Ramirez, ex-military (who left after being betrayed by the government), and with plenty of military hardware, is now a shield - a mix of a bodyguard and a performance artist, who shields important people from protesters. But a group rises that demands that people stop being made to compete with machines, and that the AIs, even if not sentient, be set free. I really liked this one. The worldbuilding was just great, and the I really liked the tech. The actions was good, and the ending was very appropriate.

 Styx: Master of Shadows is a stealth PC game.  It is a bit old, and that certainly shows in the graphics. Sound is good, and the overall stealth system seems ok, with the usual lights making you easier to detect, carpets dampening sound, etc. Seems ok overall, but nothing out of the ordinary for now. I'm also having some problem with finding the ways to objectives - seem a little too open in that aspect.

 Weapons of Math Destruction is a SF novel in a dystopia where people gave computers too much power and they took control, subjecting the people without power to horrible conditions... Oh, wait. No, that is just how our world works now, not SF... It shows a bunch of ways where algorithms are f people up (specially poor people, who can't fight back) - credit reports being used to hire (or not hire) people, scheduling software making impossible for people to do anything else (other jobs, education, etc), social networks destroying democracy... And much more. I recommend reading this - in the vague hopes that more people being aware of the problem will help change things.

 Dawn - by Octavia Butler - is a SF novel, and the first in the Xenogenesis series. Humankind really messed things up, and killed pretty much everyone in nuclear wars. But after that, the main character is in a cell being questioned by someone who won't appear. That could be considered a spoiler, but it is what everyone thought - aliens. They are "good", in the sense that they want to save mankind, but they have a price... Nice world building, although uncomfortable at times. She went with the "alien use biology for everything", which is not new but not that overused. Overall, good, and I will definitely continue with the series.

 Snake Eyes is the third book in the God & Monsters series - a fantasy series where all the gods and monsters are real, and in Earth. The series has completely separate stories (except for a few lines referencing events in the other books). What I really liked about this one is that the gods/monsters were really obscure by comparison, so it felt much fresher than the others (who felt a bit like American Gods or Supernatural episodes).

 John Wick Hex is a tactical shooter, which seems somewhat appropriate to the character. It immediately reminds of my favorite in the genre (probably, might be forgetting something) - Silent Storm, which I really liked. It did have more stealth, which I really liked (including throwing knives, which would have gone great here). This one is quite different, as combat systems go. There is no real inventory (just bandages and a single gun you are carrying), and steps are more limited. Tutorial is a little weak. Graphics are cell shaded, and look fine. John goes around hitting or shooting people, and can also crouch or take cover to break sightlines. Overall, it is nice, but probably a little tiresome. I will update if I play more (I know there are bosses, for example, which might have interesting changes).

 Black Future 88 is an interesting platform shooter, with nice cyberpunk graphics and music. It is a rogue-like, with unlocks as you get points, and plenty of possible in-game upgrades and weapons. I didn't like the fight system, though, which pretty much ruins the whole thing...

Mythbreaker, by Stephen Blackmoore, is the second book in the Gods and Monsters fantasy series, in which gods are real. This is a bit similar in some ways to the first book, but it does go into a slightly different area - this time, the main protagonist is a prophet (which obviously reminds me of Supernatural). Like in Supernatural, the prophet is pretty messed up, an addict and assumes he is crazy. There are a lot of intersting battles, the book follows American Gods and give new concepts godhood (the Internet, the man, big money), but then we have a twist about the prophet's powers. It looks like an interesting idea by the end, but then I assume the whole thing is over (looks like a tough topic to write a book about AND be fun). There is a mild reference to the events in the first book, but it is just a shared universe for the series - no major recurring characters. Overall, pretty enjoyable, specially the end.

 Katana Zero is an interesting side-scroller with a lot of sword action. It stays in an interesting place between pure action and pure strategy. I do like that it quickly rewinds the level when you make a mistake. Seems a little too easy to make mistakes, and some levels can take a while, so that part is annoying. Graphics are pixel perfect retro, with plenty of effects - it looks great. There are some wall to wall jumps, but they are quite forgiving.

 Unclean Spirits, by Chuck Wending, tells the story of a man who got in serious trouble, discovered gods exist and are everywhere, then discovers he has some god blood in him, then gets in the middle of gods' fights. Wait, that is the exact description of American Gods, too... In all fairness, these are different enough that they are both enjoyable, but in general lines, the plots are pretty similar. Pretty enjoyable.

 The Quantum War, by Derek Hausen, is the third in a series that started with The Quantum Magician. These are usually complicated (and I am not so sure a lot of the physics in them make any sense), but pretty fun, and usually involve some complicated scheme by the main character, Bel Arjona, which is a Homo Quantus - a race specially developed by the banks for predictions and quantum computation, but that didn't seem to work so well. In the last book, a large portion of all the Homo Quantus were kidnapped by a big power, and are being used as puppets with their minds suppressed in the war. So, Arjona is going to try a impossible prison break... I really liked it (except for the ending, which didn't seem to conclude Arjona's fate). A summary of previous events on the other book would be nice though - I was confused on most of the beginning.

 Phoenix Extravagant is an interesting fantasy take on golems. On an occupied country, an artist is blackmailed into working for the government branch that makes golems, as artists are needed to make the instructions (and thus are the coders). They (the artist - it is the pronoun used. As a side note, it seems to me that it would be better if another pronoun that wasn't already used became the standard for this - I was confused a few times) then end up making one of the golem sentient and fighting the occupying government. There was also a complicated romance with the woman who killed the artist's sister-in-law. Overall, I really liked it.

  I just watched the first episode of Foundation on Apple+. Personally, I was ambivalent about subscribing to Apple+. I did subscribe to Apple Music for a while (and switched to Google Play Music, which I do somewhat regret, because of YouTube Music), and had a couple of iPads, but I’m not an Apple fan. In particular, not having an Android app for Apple+, which is really  in your face  monopolistic behavior — yes, everyone else does it when convenient, including Amazon and Google (in particular, not having Youtube/Youtube Music skills for Alexa), but they are harder to avoid. Also, they seem to be taking a boutique streaming service angle, which is nice but diminishes the service value (i.e. how long till I watch everything I want to?) Anyway, I got a 3 month free trial from another streaming service (Globoplay), and that was convenient because while I am OK skipping the rest of their series so far, I am a huge Asimov fan, and I have been since I was a kid. So of course I...

 Do Androids dream of electric sheep?, by Philip K. Dick, is the 1968 SF novel that Blade Runner was based on. For some reason, I never got around to reading it, but recently got it on a sale. It was pretty interesting. The larger story is basically Blade Runner, but there were some interesting details along the way, including the explanation of the world state (bombs spread radioactive dust everywhere), the whole Mercerism religion, and the boxes that allow to induce feelings. Overall, very good, and well worth reading.

I already had an Echo Show 8 for a few months (old model), and when I saw an Echo Dot (3rd gen) on sale, I decided to get one. Just now I tested both for my biggest use - listening to music. I was quite surprised about how close the 1/4 price, tiny Echo Dot was to the Echo Show. Yes, the biggest one does have a bigger bass and is louder, but I certainly wouldn't choose one over the other just for that at 4 times the price! Commands seem to fail slightly more frequently on the Dot, and it doesn't have the camera (useless where it is, but could be useful on another place). The screen is cool, but I don't use it enough for the difference. Overall, right now I would just get the Dot. The Echo Show is cooler in a number of ways, but unless you plan to use the screen to actually watch something (and then you will get into limitations about the apps), it doesn't seem worth the difference. It also takes a whole lot more space.

The Singularity Trap, by Dennis E. Taylor, is a SF novel. Funny that it took me a month to go through Rainbow Six, and then I read two books in two days... It starts pretty slow and generic. The main character is in financial trouble providing to his family, in an Earth that is collapsing (from basically, the path it is right now), and he goes to be a space miner. Then comes a very generic segment, till he touches an unknow substance, which starts turning him to chrome. It continues pretty well till the end. Overall, very enjoyable, and I am hoping for sequels.

 Hammers on Bones, by Cassandra Shaw, is a very Lovecraftian horror book. I really, really liked it. It is pretty short (around 100 pages), and the writing is just delightful.  A lot of what is happening is not very clear. The main character is a PI that is some sort of creature inhabiting a dead body. And that is the good guy. In the first page, a kid asks him to kill his stepdad, who is a monster. Overall, strongly recommended for fans of the genre.

I have just finished reading Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy, published in 1998. It is pretty long, at 900 pages. It doesn't feel like it has a lot of filler, though. I thought the main plot was interesting enough to mention. It concerns a anti-terrorist black ops organization. Now for the interesting part - SPOILERS! In the main plot, a group of eco-terrorists create a ebola-based virus that can kill most of the world's population (so that nature can heal) and plan to distribute in the olympics, and after that, as a fake vaccine. I am surprised the conspiracy theorists didn't mention this one... Overall, pretty nice.

 Neon Abyss is a retro rogue-lite. It has a few weapons, although you don't get specs, plenty of upgrades you pick up, and a persistent upgrade tree. Shooting is ok, but I'm sort of neutral on the whole game - it is ok, but I don't particularly enjoy anything about it.

 Ghostrunner is a cyberpunk parkour game. I have just played for an hour or so, and it sure is intense. I haven't played many of the parkour style games, just a little of Mirror's Edge, but I found Ghostrunner to be a little tiring. There were certainly a LOT of reloads on my part... It does look great, but I'm not sure if I like the action or not.

When I saw a new SF book by Peter F. Hamilton (also by Gareth L. Powell, but I didn't know him), I got it immediately, as he is one of my favorite authors. Light Chaser doesn't take place in one of his universes, but on the domain, where a bunch of human planets live in serious stability - which turns out is for reason.  Our main protagonist is a light chaser - someone who goes on 1000 year circuits (they don't have FTL propulsion) around worlds exchanging the use of memory collars - entertainment for the higher-level worlds -  for various goods in an AI run ship. But everything changes when someone starts showing in several memory collars, in different planets... Which was supposed to be impossible. I thought it was funny that this book had resurrections and such, but then I remembered the Night Dawn trilogy, which had some aspects like that, too. Overall, strongly recommended. My only complaint is that it was pretty short.

 Infinitode 2 is an abstract tower defense game. It is available both for PC and Android, with only minor differences (the only obvious one to me is that you can watch ads to get extra stuff). I initially bought it on Steam, at a ridiculous price (about US$1.5 in R$), played it on the PC, and enjoyed it. Then I tried it on my tablet, discovered I had download it several months ago, synced to the same place  via their login(which is a nice feature!), and tried it there. Graphics are pretty much abstract, but they look ok. Music is ok at some times, and painful at others. You get all the common TD stuff - towers in a range of specific places, regular/fast/strong/etc enemies, basic/splash/sniper/etc towers, etc.  There are also a bunch of objectives per level, and you get a lot of items, which you can later use for research, which has a pretty large tree. You also get things like mining for resources for research. Basic tutorial is good, but seems to completely ignore all th...

 Black Book is another RPG with a card game. These are obviously popular now. The art is quite distinctive, and the subject matter too - you are a "witch" (it is actually russian folklore, so unless you are russian, you probably won't recognize their names for things) in training, and the equivalent of the traditional paths is you going to tasks. The first is dealing with a demon, in a card battle, of course. I really like the art, and the gameplay is overall very good, and seems not to have too many complicated mechanics. There are some small segments that remind me of 90s Sierra adventure games (when they started getting isometric 3D), but while a bit silly they are short.

 Mini Motorways is a simple puzzle game (or a minimalist sim), just like Mini Metro, where you have to connect houses and stores/malls/whatever using roads, roadways, traffic lights and roundabouts. It is still in early access, but seems fun enough. The music is super annoying, though. It was very, very cheap here (less than US$3 with exchange rate + Miniverse Collection discount).

 Nowhere Prophet is a card game, which naturally reminds me of Slay the Spire (that being my favorite in the genre). You travel with a convoy (your followers and powers are cards) in a randomly generated map, in an SF like dystopic, messed up world. There is also equipment, cargo, weapons you can buy, force fields, etc. It seems interesting in many ways, but very, very complicated - which over time I have less and less patience for... Nice graphics, sound and ok music. Tutorial is ok. 

 Agency, by William Gibson, is a SF novel, and the sequel to The Peripheral  . This happens on another stub, which is a nice story mechanic for less phony sounding multiverses, and concerns Verity, an "app whisperer" testing some software, which turns out to be sentient. A whole mess ensues - both in the stub and in the "future", which is trying to improve the mess caused by creating that stub. Overall, good, although nothing revolutionary. The whole drone and distributed AI things were fun, though.

 Planet Alpha looks great. It does seem to have a multi-year bug (there were 2018 posts about it) where it starts on the wrong size, and thus unusable (can't change resolution).  This was fixable by starting with -windowed.  But then the game has minimal tutorials, and questionable UI choices (like not using the mouse for the menu, for some reason you have to use the arrow keys). Also, escape doesn't open it on the start screen, which is why I couldn't change the settings on the game. I did play for a few minutes (the start is VERY slow, basically you keep pressing D for like 3 minutes). After about 10m, when the game failed to demonstrate a mechanic I needed to progress (for the second time, but I guessed it the first time), I just gave up and uninstalled it.

 Billy Summers is the latest Stephen King book.  This one has mostly nothing supernatural (not that unusual for him, of course) - the main character (Billy Summers) is an assassin (sniper), who only kills bad people, and who got a job that seems a little weird... There is even a girl that was attacked that the assassin saves, which no doubt reminds you of a dozen other cases (for me, it is The Professional that comes to mind first). It's certainly nothing out of the ordinary as big plot points go, but as it was very well written, it was very enjoyable, and one of the rare cases lately where I really have to work at it to not skip sleep to read another chapter. There are some references to the shining, but they are minimal and have no real importance to the story. It ends fairly, and featured a double ending. This immediately reminds me of The Dark Tower's ending, but this one manages to fit well instead of sounding like an author comment. Overall, very good. Much better than t...

 A few days ago, Prime Gaming gave away Battlefield 1. I have played several of the predecessors, so I thought I'd try it. So far I really like it. It has an actual campaign mode, which has been pretty good. There are even stealth sections, which surprised me. And I love the destructible environment, specially when using tanks. Graphics are great (2018 computer with a 1070), and load times are nice. I definitely wouldn't recommend buying this at full price, but seems pretty nice on a sale (it was about US$5 on Steam here when I checked). I will update if I try multiplayer, but that likely will only happen if there is a bot mode. Update: I finished the campaign mode. Took me about 7 hours, which would have been fine at the discount price, and great as part of Prime Gaming. I am a little sad that there isn't a bot MP mode - I liked those in the earlier BFs. There is also a well know bug in which the binoculars don't work. It is definitely not game breaking, but annoying.

 Dorfromantik is a simple, relaxing PC game, that looks on the surface like a city builder - but it is actually much more like a puzzle game where there are conditions to get points placing world tiles - almost exactly like Islanders  . In effect, these are very similar games. Both have pleasant, relaxing graphics and music, with slightly different rules.  And both are good fun, for their prices (Dorfromantik was under US$4 for me).

 Erebus, by Ralph Kern, is a SF novel, part of the Sleeping Gods series. Technically, it is not a sequel - mostly the story is unrelated, except for happening in the same universe, and sharing some characters (although minimally). This one is a detective story, where the main character who investigates war crimes (as well as another group) looks into the destruction of Io, which was already described in Endeavour. There is a lot of different tech, and the book feels quite different in many ways (and personally, I read this one much faster, as the suspense was greater). It was interesting to know that the author is actually in law enforcement, too. Overall, very good, but looks like the end of the trilogy was still not published, which I really didn't like...

 I just finished Endeavor (Sleeping Gods, part 1), by Ralph Kern. It is an hard SF novel. As classical for hard SF, it starts with a ramscoop and drones traveling from Earth to Tau Ceti, and goes exploring, finds plenty of life. Nice.  Then they discover how to quantum teleport (the destructive kind) and send a gateway, which allows people to go and explore. The quantum teleport is light-speed only, so they effectively jump forward in time.  Coming back, they discover that gateways are being sent to many other world. Eventually, the crew goes back to another mission - and discovers intelligent life. Then another mission. Now humankind has created Von Neumann gateways (and changed in many ways). And they go to a distant star where they see clear evidence of higher civilizations, and cool super structures. Then they meet aliens. There is a nice flight into the alien territory, and a cute segment with the Roanoke colony (which appears in so many fiction pieces). It then ends...

 When Gravity fails, by George Alec Finger, is a cyberpunk novel from 1986. It is part of a trilogy, and I read one of the books (not sure when) - that was how it worked for me back in 90s, I'd just get whatever mass market paperbacks were available in the bookstore. As always, it is funny to read old SF. This one isn't bad, but it sure feels outdated - for example, no internet access in implants, which in any new book is the first thing that is added. The only thing you can have on your implants are personality changes and practical functions (such as no hunger/not being afraid/being able to speak a language/etc). Of course, these come in little "cartridges", and have to be plugged in to work. Very 80s. The story itself is interesting, and being in a islamic area, doesn't feel as done to death as most. The characters are interesting, although the author's apparent obsession with sex changes is a bit annoying. Overall, nice. I got the trilogy pretty cheap, and...

 Azkend 2 is a match-3 game made by 10 Tons (authors of a few games I played, including Tesla vs Lovecraft, which I played a lot of this year). I do enjoy the variety of modes - changing colors of the board, clearing a number, puzzle mode (clear the whole board) and do matches around objects (including insects climbing the board). It also has quite a few powers/objects you collect over the levels that you can use - some cause items to explode, others add wildcards,etc. Graphics are pretty good and music/sound are ok. Overall, I really liked it, just felt a bit short for me.

 Star Trek Picard: The Last Hope is a SF story that is a prequel to the series. I watched the series as it was released, bought the book somewhere in the middle, and then forgot about it. Now I found it and read it, and it doesn't have many surprises, overall - just what happened in the series, but in more detail. Nonetheless, I found it quite pleasant, and the only problem is that now I wanted to view the first season of Picard again...

 Steampunk Tower 2 is an unusual tower defense game. As you can see in the screenshot below, they stand in a mobile big tower. You can choose and upgrade them before the missions, though, and you will have to rotate them to reload, or between different enemy types. There is also several planning screens, where you upgrade your base and where you choose your attacks in a map. Graphics are ok - with great illustrations for the characters. There are a lot of complicated concepts, really could be simpler. It has a auto-grind option, which is called autobattle (after you have a battle on a map location). That is an interesting idea. For the price on sale (about US$1 here), I can't complain, it has already been great value.

 Super Learning, by Peter Hollins, talk about learning techniques. As usual for his books, this one is short and to the point, and present its material well.  I had seen most of the techniques elsewhere (probably Scott Young's books, and  Jonathan Levi courses and book), but there were still a few new ones for me.

Jornada Improvável: A História do RenovaBR, a Escola Que Quer Mudar a Política no Brasil , por Eduardo Mufarej, obviamente fala do RenovaBR - uma escola para políticos. A leitura foi agradável, e a iniciativa muito importante. Infelizmente todo político adora falar da importância da educação, ao mesmo tempo que acha que é só chegar no governo e quase automaticamente vai saber o melhor jeito de fazer as coisas. Imagina se os engenheiros também fizesse assim? (não vou falar de médicos porque a residência é em parte isso...) Mas não tem problema, não é como se nossos políticos fizessem algo de importante... Só governar o país inteiro e fazer todas suas leis... Obviamente o RenovaBR já teve bons resultados - com muitos candidatos já eleitos, e também ajudando a criar cursos para deputados eleitos, outra iniciativa que acho importante. Espero que continuem com a jornada, e expandam ainda bastante!

 Islanders is, supposedly, a minimalist city builder game. In practice it reminds me of some tablet games, such as a Simcity version, and another that had a real state theme I played many years ago. It mostly rewards you for placing city-themed objects in certain relations (such as mansions near city centers, house near other houses and city centers, etc). In the high score mode, after a while you will unlock a larger island. That is, in fact, not unlike a city builder, so I guess the "minimalist city builder" is somewhat accurate. But it feels different to me - like comparing Mini Metro for one of the regular train network games, such as OpenTTD. The game has nice (but minimal) graphics, and pleasant music. I found it somewhat enjoyable, but it feels like a game you will play for a few minutes and then stop, not something you will spend hours with. Given that the price is proportionally right, seems like a reasonable purchase.

I've been using tab groups on Chrome, and I really like it.  There are a ton of courses, articles, and more that I intend to watch. In the past, they would accumulate as tabs, then I'd dump them to bookmarks, and I would (usually - I keep notes on courses I want to take later) forget about them.  Now I just add them to my Courses group tab, and I'm much more likely to see them, and at the same time, in regular use my Chrome tabs are not cluttered at all. And you just have to right-click each tab and choose Add tab to Group.

 The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, is a gothic horror novel written long ago - 1959 - and adapted on movies and TV several times. It feels pretty generic right now, of course, after decades of similar novels. I really liked the beginning, and the overall haunting part is ok, if a little underwhelming. By the end it was just ok for me.

Providence, by Max Barry, is a SF book. In this future, humanity is apparently flying around in FTL and suddenly meets aliens, and is traditional, the aliens (called salamanders) proceed to kill the humans, who then start to hunt the aliens across the galaxy. The real story is the group of just four people, that gets placed in an AI ship that is fighting the salamanders.   This was good, don't get me wrong. But after reading Jennifer Government I expected a little more. As it is, it was quite enjoyable, and the ending was nice, if traditional in a sense. **SPOILERS FOLLOW** It is kind of nice that the aliens communicated in the end, but nothing was solved by it (except for reaffirming the human stance of trying to kill them all, as they killed two other races already).  I realize this used to be the standard, but lately I have read/seen too much SF that goes that way. The AI is kind of sentient sub-plot was kind of subtle, I think I like that (while I really like AI centric st...

 Desistir não é opção, de Camila Farani, é um livro sobre empreendedorismo. Achei que tem uma série de ideias úteis, muitas se referindo a princípios que vi recentemente no MBA (não o que ela trabalha como professora, PUCRS, mas no Saint Paul), ou nos livros The Lean Startup e Implementing Lean Software Development  (que naturalmente são mais completos para suas áreas específicas). Infelizmente, em alguns pontos é meio chato para ler no Kindle, com 2-3 páginas com uma única sentença, ou com uso de fundos escuros, diminuindo o contraste. No geral, recomendado, mesmo porque não é muito comprido, então vale a pena.

Night of the Full Moon is a deck-builder strategy game. I played the Android version, which I got for free on Play Pass. I really liked this. I played Slay the Spire quite a bit, but this seems cleverer in a number of ways. The characters are well done, sound cool and look great, there a ton of options, and they don't force grinding nearly as much.  The variety of cards and character types is pretty good, too. If I have any criticism, it is that some things are not very clear, and should have been better explained at the beginning, and that the cards layout make them hard to see when there are many on the screen, even in a tablet. It also sounds weird at times. It still does have options ads, even with Play Pass, but only to double your coins after boss fights. Very much recommended.

 Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire, by Brad Stone, goes into the story of Amazon, mostly about the recent stuff (he already wrote a book into the earlier stuff, which was also good).  Quite enjoyable. I have been buying from Amazon since the year they opened, and it was entertaining to read about everything, and particularly about the development of products such as Alexa, AWS, Blue Origin and others. The politics - and the whole mess with Bezos and his girlfriend - actually feel more like a novel.

 Bombslinger doesn't seem to be bad. I like the retro graphics, and the bomb theme is a classic. However, zero instructions or tutorials (or even a key changer so I can figure out what each key do) is way too annoying.

 Ruin and Rising, by Leigh Bardugo, is the finale of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. After the disaster at the end of the last book, Alina is recovering underground, without powers. For a while, at least... This one had a nice set of battles, and what I specially liked were the twists, specially on the third amplifier and what happened when she got it. Overall, very good. I wouldn't say that was my favorite book series ever, but it was very nice.

 Siege and Storm, by Leigh Bardugo, is the second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy.  So, the main characters (Alina and Mal) escaped at the end of last book. They are almost immediately captured. Then they meet the pirates (sorry, privateers), which lead to another series of adventures and another confrontation with the Darkling, of course. Overall, I like the series so far. I liked this one more than the last, but mostly because it actually advanced the story, given I started by seeing the Netflix show's first season. There is way too much teen romantic drama, though.

 I read Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo because of the Netflix series, which I watched and liked. It is pretty much the same in most aspects - as usual, some of the explanations made more sense in the book. It does not include the whole Crow crew, which I understand they pulled from another book series - Six of Crows. As a vague summary, in this universe there are people that are born with various powers. In the book it sounds like they could be trained for specific powers, instead of just being fixed - darkness, telekinesis, fires, light, etc. The main character (Alina Sarkov) is the first since times of legend with light powers, and is expected to destroy a big barrier in the middle of the fictional country (Ravka), which is tearing it apart (and killing many that try to pass it). There is also a boy she grew up with that she really is close. There is a nice twist on what is happening near the end, and it ends well enough but unresolved (just like the series, but diff...

 Exhalation, by Ted Chiang, is a SF book in the form of short stories and novellas. There were many excellent stories, in many different styles. It already starts with a great time travel story, in a very uncommon ancient fairy tale style. Then there is a cute conceptual universe, where people run on pressurized air (the book title Exhalation). The Lifecycle of software objects is about artificial life. I had already read it, but I'm not sure when or how. It is also great and have many thoughts about raising kids, and the responsibilities we have towards AIs. The truth of fact, the truth of feeling talks about what happens when everything is recorded. I particularly liked the parts about the nature of memory, and how technologies as simple as writing change it. Omphalos is about a world where the constructed nature of the world is expressed everywhere, and a new fact makes them doubt it (although I would say that in this case the logical thing to assume is that they discovered a cl...

O Kit das Start-ups, de Bruno Marinho, é mais para um resumo de outros livros na área. Li faz pouco tempo um deles ( The Lean Startup , recomendo muito), e achei que o resumo foi razoável.  Vale o investimento de tempo, e se você achar interessante, pode ir na fonte. 1 estrela a menos porque o link para o material extra não funciona mais.

 Later, by Stephen King, is (not surprisingly) an horror book. The story is basically about a kid who can see and talk to bad people (who apparently most can't lie, or only with difficulty). It's nice, and relatively short. Surely not one of his books likely to be remembered after years, but a good enough time. Some people called it an overextended novella, and I think they are kind of right.

The Immortality Code, by Douglas E. Richards, is a SF thriller. I've read many books by the author, and as far as I can remember, I liked all of them. This one is mostly about a scientist who posts a breakthrough in quantum computers, and the operative who is sent to protect her. I really liked the beginning of the book. The tech was pretty reasonable and the action was nice. Further on, the tech escalated quickly, and the dialog started being a bit annoying. One the twists (the memory related one) was pretty obvious from the first page. The end scenario was nice, and reminds me of The Expanse for obvious reasons. It also reminded me of Neal Asher, as he heavily uses the extra-dimensional extrusion thing in the Polity series. As usual, there is a large section on the back of the book with comments, on the choices made in the story as well the current state of the technology mentioned, which I really like. A bit weaker this time since the tech was so beyond what is known. Overall, g...

 Relacionamento interpessoal e gestão de conflitos   é um curso do LIT/Saint Paul. Sinceramente achei que ia ser meio inútil, no final achei interessante. Alguns temas - comunicação, percepção, feedback, formação e desenvolvimento de equipes, gestão de conflitos. Evidentemente que trabalhando sozinho de casa, boa parte do conteúdo não é útil, mas no contexto de uma empresa acredito que teria ótimo efeito se todos entendessem o conteúdo. Uma das leituras extras foi esse artigo , que fala de uma técnica para evitar conflitos. Não tem dados, mas desconfio que bem implementado faria muita diferença em organizações.

Critical Thinking for Better Judgment and Decision-Making is an interesting course on LinkedIn Premium.  It covers many ways to improve your critical thinking, and what disrupts it. It talks about logical fallacies, how to enhance your planning, using mental models, enhancing your questions and more. Overall, pretty useful for the short length (about an hour).

 Jetbrains Academy teaches programming in a practical manner, using projects. Currently they have tracks for Java, Python, Kotlin and Frontend development. You can use the browser or their IDEs, with a plugin - which of course is nicer and faster. Not to mention that if you are going to use them afterwards, that is practice on mastering them. It seems nice so far. You can skip classes for the projects by taking exercises/tests, and the classes so far were all in text format, which I personally like. This is not free, though. You get a free trial (14 days, +2 months if you complete your first project), then it is US$50 a month or US$250 for the year.  It does seem to be more effective in relative narrow ranges (I didn't take any more complex projects yet), but you can get a year of Pluralsight for that, which includes a lot of courses, and some interactive projects, too. If you'd like to try them, you can use this link  for a 3 month trial. I get gems if you do, which can ...

 I imagine every gamer out there heard about Cyberpunk 2077. There was a discount on Steam, so I got it. I just played for a short while so far, but it seems nice - I like the stealth and hack mechanics (not sure if this is from the source material, but the RAM thing seems a bit silly), and the shooting part seems satisfactory, too. Graphics are good, even in my 3 year old PC with a GTX 1070, although I get mostly 30-something FPS at QHD (1440p). I will probably update this as I play more. Update: I like the Braindance investigation thing. It was a little slow, though.  Which applies to a lot of things in the game so far, it is fun and everything, but 30-60 minutes will pass and almost nothing really happened... Driving is OK, but not good... Update (07/Jun/2021): I have played 75h, and finished the game. I didn't take all the side-missions, but took a whole lot of them.  I do really appreciate that there were many ways to solve each mission - full stealth, hacking, ...

 Starship Titanic, by Terry Jones (from Monty Python) is a sci-fi/comedy book in the Hitchhiker's guide universe (barely). It was made to be a set with the 1997 adventure game (3 CD-ROMs!). Douglas Adams was too busy with the game, so when Terry Jones, who was doing the voice of the parrot, asked what he could to help, Adams suggested the book. It concerns the titular Starship Titanic, which was supposed to be a modern marvel, but as you might have guessed, things go spectacularly wrong. Anyone paying attention will note that the story is very adventure-game friendly (lost items that need to be found, heroes going on about the large structure to find things, etc). It was pretty silly, just like Adam's books, and also pretty funny. Not sure if I will try the adventure, but the book was definitely worth the time (it is pretty short, 255 pages) and price.

 Building your first machine learning solution, by Mohammed Osman, on PluralSight, covers the basics of machine learning. Since I already had that on other courses, I watched this one mostly for completeness of the Machine Learning Literacy path on Pluralsight. Mostly it wasn't helpful, but I did like seeing the demos with Google Collab, which I hadn't used before. In particular, I was impressed by how easy it was to create an API with it.

 Método Ágil: Scrum, Kanban, outras metodologias e Toolkit é um curso do LIT/Saint Paul. Como diz o nome, ele fala de metodologias ágeis, especialmente do Scrum e do Kanban. Já falei um pouco do LIT no último review de curso, mas achei que esse foi melhor: - vídeos são um pouco melhores, com mais tempo mostrando tela. - tutores interagem mais. - aula foi um pouco mais prática. Eu tinha feito um curso recente de Kanban , e lido sobre o Scrum, mas achei que o enfoque foi interessante e que aprendi bastante coisa. A avaliação final foi um estudo de caso sobre empresas que usaram agile. Meu tempo final foi de cerca de 7h.

 Exploring Lean Principles, by Chris Behrens, is a PluralSight course. It covers a number of lean principles, including their origin, and ways to apply them in coding. Overall, very much worth the hour or so it takes to watch it.

The Bosch is a novella by Neal Asher, that takes place in the Polity, in a post-polity period. I really loved this one. There is a lot of biotech, and the usual weird monster/bioweapons. Obviously, there aren't a lot of character definition, but I came for the tech, and it was totally worth it.

 Sparkle 2 Evo is a creature evolution game, which I see occasionally, specially after Spore. It looks nice, but pretty much everything about it was annoying to me, specially the behavior of the controls. The swim down and up thing, too. Even the tutorial felt annoying, with the huge buttons you had to click.

 Tesla Force is very much like Tesla vs Lovecraft, which I've played a lot of - a run and gun game with tons of weapons, abilities, upgrades, and monsters. However, they tried to make a different game around it by having missions (just like regular levels, except with a silly task), and adding many more elements, including playable characters (which are pretty much the same, play wise). So far, I mostly find it confusing. It isn't at clear to me what elements transfer between the times you are killed and what do not, and a lot more beside... Overall, so far I think it would be better to just get Tesla vs Lovecraft.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain, is about the difference between introverts and extroverts. I am an introvert, and I felt it was quite interesting to read about the research into the field, as well as ideas about coping mechanisms, and how companies and schools could improve for them - and given that estimates go to 30-50% of the population, the effects from this could be huge. I imagine this book would be particularly helpful for parents of introvert children - not only to understand them, but to improve how they behave around them and their lives.

 Criatividade, Inovação e Empreendedorismo é um curso do LIT, a plataforma online do Saint Paul. Naturalmente, o post vai ser em português (o que é bem raro nesse blog), por motivos evidentes. Também vai ser um misto de review do curso e do LIT. Em teoria a carga horária é 20h, mas desconfio que fiz em bem menos (desenvolvi meu software em que anoto horas para minha época de consultor - e não adicionei uma categoria para o curso). Porém, a maioria das aulas fica ótima em 1.5x (0.5-2x no software, a extensão que uso para isso também funciona). A qualidade dos vídeos é OK, 360p. Infelizmente, o enfoque da câmera é tipo antigo - professor de corpo inteiro com tela no fundo. Isso significa que parte do tempo ele está apontando para a tela mas não dá para ler direito. Na maioria dos casos tem zoom para tela eventualmente. O curso tem apostilas em PDF, baixáveis. As notas são as seguintes - 20% para os fóruns, 30% para avaliação individual, 50% para avaliação final. As que são manuais de...

 I recently got Sparkle 2 for Android free in Google Play Pass, and I really liked it. So I decided to see how much it was for PC.  It is a Zuma clone (I think it was the first on the game type), and quite similar. Just shoot matching marbles, with cascades and some special powers. Given that it was just about US$2.5 (after currency conversion), I decided to get it. It is, as far as I can tell, exactly the same as the Android version, except that I like using the mouse a lot more (and right-click to switch balls is faster and more intuitive). Graphics are pretty nice, and I really like the songs.

 Swimsanity! is simple side scroller shooter. I really didn't like it. The fact that it insisted on using my controller (to the point of not reacting at all to the keyboard once the game started) really didn't help. Graphics are good enough, but the gameplay and sound made me feel like late 90s.

 Sparkle 2 is a Zuma clone - which is basically a line of colored marbles that come out of a hole, and may not reach another. You shoot marbles at them, and when you get a 3-match or more with one color they disappear. You get bonuses for cascades. There are also a bunch of power-ups (such as wild marbles, explosions, etc), as well as unlocking powers, such as faster balls. It isn't great, and so far doesn't seem like much of an advance on Zuma, but it is nice enough, and for me it was included in Google Play Pass, which is a nice bonus. As a side note, it is made by 10Tons. I've been playing Tesla vs Lovecraft for a while now, also by them.

 Optica is a puzzle game. It covers a well-know subgenre - puzzles connecting two sources - but does have its twist by having several "perspectives", which also cause blocks to move. Good graphics and sound, and somewhat entertaining.

 Escape Machine City: Airbone is an escape room game. As you might expect, it has a number of rooms with puzzles that you have to solve to continue. This one was free on Prime Gaming. I tried, and it is nice. Puzzles aren't that hard so far, and there are hints, too. Graphics and sound/music are good enough. Controls are a little mouse centric. I assume a mobile origin.

 Heaven's River, by Dennis E. Taylor, is the latest release in the Bobbiverse series, a series about Bob, who had his head frozen and his mind uploaded into a computer. Then went Von Neumann and, replicated himself, saved what was left of humanity and went about in the universe. At this point of the story, there are a lot of bobs, spread across many light years. They don't have FTL travel, but they do have FTL comms. Bob (the first replicant) decides to look for one Bender, who disappeared years ago. They follow his trail to a star, where they discover a topopolis (a massive structure kind of like ringworld), as well as enemies.  Now they will have to disguise themselves as natives and enter the structure to search for Bender... As always, I really liked the story. It has a lot of things I like - VR, mind uploads, aliens, etc, and I liked the rest of the series, so that was no surprise. Strongly recommended for SF fans, but start at the beginning!

 Wildfire is in an unusual genre - a stealth platformer.  It also has magic elements, including fireballs, which are the biggest thing. You can throw them and burn parts of levels. There are also unlockable powers. So far I really like it.

 Entrepreneur Foundation, by Kim Kaupe, is a course on LinkedIn Learning - which I decided to try out. First of all, LinkedIn Learning - so far it is ok. There are a few annoying UI choices (reviews are stars only, no text, and are not displayed on the main search; it can't remember video speed), but overall it works well, both web and the android app. Selection of courses is pretty OK, covering many fields (programming, graphics, business, etc). Most courses have certificates you can add to LinkedIn profile with a click. Price in Brazil is very, very good - something like US$5 per month, with a discount for annual. About the course - the instructor is very pleasant, and I loved her work in Psych (just kidding, but in some angles she looks a lot like Juliet, and even sounds like her). Since it is an hour long course, there isn't much content. It is more like a long article. Still, well worth the time.

 Beyond Love, by Dominique Lapierre, is a romanticized history of the aids epidemic, and the search for a drug that helps (if not cures). It overs doctors, the feud between Robert Gallo and the french, and the Sisters of Mother Teresa, as they battle against the disease and care for the afflicted. Sadly, the book, like everyone at the time, ends imagining that a vaccine would soon be available. 30 years later, and not yet... I liked it, but I wouldn't go as far as to recommend it. Maybe it is because I read the translated version, but it was pretty much just ok for me.

When I got Lockdown Tales, by Neal Ashes, I thought it would be ok. They are novellas set in the Polity, on the side of the regular stories. What it turned out to be was quite awesome. Asher's latest trilogies are pretty great, but they can also be a little tiresome - there is a lot of descriptions in each scene. I think that the short form limitations worked great for him and made him focus on smaller concepts, and I loved it. Almost every story was great, to the point that I can't even tell which I liked more. Overall, strongly recommended for fans, but I'm not sure if it would very well if you don't already know the concepts behind the events.

Build Your Own CLI Planner App Using Python Abstract Base Classes, by Nicolae Caprarescu, is a project in the Core Python path in PluralSight. There were some things I didn't know about, for sure, including how to force issubclass to see protocols (which, BTW, as a fan of strong typing seem horrifying), and the various weird ways to do abstract classes in Python. The approach of having the whole project in a single block is a little annoying, too, but not a major problem. Time seems wildly wrong here. They predict 3 hours. Took me 50 minutes. And I am not that good in Python. This was the last item on the Core Python path for me.  I also took their SkillIQ test and got 92%, which seems very nice (and very unrealistic).

Advanced Generators and Coroutines is the final course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight (I still got a project to do, though) This seemed way more confusing than necessary. Also, since I just took a course on Async programming in C#, I can't help but draw parallels, and to me it seems like C# wins handily in this case...

Yesterday there was a new offer in Appsumo , BiQ  , which is a all-in-one SEO solution. They have content planning, keyword research and tracking - starting at US$49 lifetime. But what I really signed for was the keyword research (they call it Rank Intelligence). I was disappointed at first, because I didn't get any decent keywords for the first sites I tried, but I tried some of the competition and got what seem like great keywords that should be possible to rank in.  For the price, this is pretty good, and I can continue using the tools for years (they do have monthly limits as well as permanent quotas depending on which offer you get - so pay attention). I also really like their tutorial  . Support seems good, I contacted them about some UI problems (such as columns that don't sort properly), and they answered right away.   US$10 off link  for Appsumo (yes, I get money if you buy).

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill Gates, is a book about what we can do to avoid things getting much worse, climate wise, and perhaps one day better. Unfortunately, there are no magical solutions, just a lot of small things that could be done, as well as possibilities. The idea of green premiums - the extra cost between an alternative that causes carbon or carbon equivalent emissions and the version that emits less or none. I think I learned a lot about techniques in this area I didn't know about, as well as had some useful suggestions about what I can do personally, such as eat less meat (and eat meat substitutes, to show that there is a market for those as well as lower the price), invest in green tech, and be an earlier adopter of green tech (such as electric cars or use electric panels). Of course, the biggest thing that would help would be using nuclear power, but as all people see is 50s tech, they obviously see it a...

Managing Python Packages and Virtual Environments, by  Reindert-Jan Ekker, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. Virtual environments are a solution to the Python version of DLL hell, which seems to be a common pattern among all languages (Delphi, my previous favorite language, did have the advantage of just having everything in the EXE - but you still got it in the IDE, and I don't recall having a solution at the time if you needed several versions of things - just reinstall/rename and re-run the IDE).  I have been using them, mostly by the way PyCharm handles them automatically, and the course was pretty useful to understand what is actually going on.

Decoding Sensor Data Using Python, by Hugo Valle,  is another project in the PluralSight Core Python Path. Their way to check projects is interesting. Basically, you fork a repo in github, tell them your github name, and they will test what you did after you push the code. This was pretty useful, but in a limited way - you mostly just do what you are told, such as adding methods to a class, and adding that exact call. So what you learn is much more limited than just telling you to do something. Yet more useful than the last, as it had some different stuff to do. Some bits were pretty much "type this", but I guess they were easier than students mismatching their exact formatting. There were some bits on the descriptions that referred wrong variables, as well as unit test instructions mismatched with the description (strptime vs strftime), but nothing too hard to fix.

 Python Best Practices for Code Quality, by  Reindert-Jan Ekker, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This one cover PEP8 - which I thought was silly, but after programming a while in Python I actually like how the code looks - , generating documentation from docstrings, and type hinting. The most interesting bit was the type hinting, as I am a big fan of static typing (which I feel saves typing, btw, as the compiler can tell what you can be passing).

 Core Python: Hashing and more Collections, by Jon Flanders, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This covered hashing and equals to use custom classes in mapping collection (covered elsewhere in the path, although here it was much more clear), as well as a few utility class I was not aware - Defaultdict, Counter, Namedtuple and Deque. Video was a little bad at spots, though, which I don't recall seeing recently on PluralSight.

Core Python: The Numeric tower, conversion and operators, by Matt Harrison, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This covered the user of int, float, decimal, datetime, and fraction. Sounds familiar? Yeah, that sounds a lot like Core python: numeric types, date and time (except for the date and time), and most of the content was similar. At this point it should be obvious that I'm only adding the reviews here for the sake of completeness.

Unit Testing with Python, by Emile Bache is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. Very nice. I am a big fan of unit testing - in a big part because before I started using it, my code quality was much worse, not so much because of bugs, but mostly because of way to many dependencies.

 I have already played Kingdom Rush: Vengeance on Android, but now I got it on PC. It is, as one would assume, pretty much the same. But graphics are much better in QuadHD. Pretty nice so far, although pretty the same thing as the other Kingdom Rush. I have played all of them, and they are pretty nice TD games, without any revolutionary additions, but well executed. I particularly like the references to movies in both of them, as well as the clickable scenary. In one case, you could even disable some of the enemies if you solved a "puzzle". I do like that this one has no shop, though. Grinding to get gems is very, very annoying.

 Ghost 1.0 is a cool side-scroller action RPG.  This was on sale, but it was very cheap (like under US$2), and it looked cool. I am glad I got it. It is a tiny download (250MB), the gameplay is ok so far (not sure if the orientation won't be a problem), graphics are good and there were plenty of funny moments. There seem to be some clever mechanics (such as hacking other robots), extra guns and more.

Build a Personal Budget Report with Python Collections and Iterables is a project in PluralSight, part of the Core Python Path. My opinion is just the same as on the previous course - you do learn stuff, but since you are mostly not supposed to think - just type their english into code - it is not that much. I can't help but imagine that a lot of the course could be generated with some heuristics, just reformatting the code as english. Still, somewhat useful. It doesn't take a lot of time, either.

 Valfaris is a side shooter, with slight platformer elements. I really like the graphics. They are a bit retro but they look great with the effects. Gameplay is OK, but for whatever reason it didn't click for me yet. There are adequate options so far, pistol, sword, shield, you can hang from some elements, etc.

The Pale Horse, by Agatha Christie. I decided to read this because I saw the mini-series. The book is different enough that it still had some surprises, even if they have some things in common. I found the first half or so to be very, very slow, but it does pick up later. I think the tone of the book does show its age much more than the series, though, even with the similarities.

Core python: numeric types, date and time, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This covered the user of int, float, decimal, datetime, and fraction. At this point it should be obvious that I'm only adding the reviews here for the sake of completeness. In this one I viewed part in a FireTV. It worked well. I did miss taking screenshots, though (photos work, but you can't pause or the UI covers it).

Core Python: Instrospection, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This mostly covered, as obviously for the name, several techniques for instrospection of classes and objects.

Core Python: robust resource and error handling, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This mostly covered custom and chaining exceptions, the exception hierarchy, and using the with statement, as well as context managers. Overall, pretty interesting. A bit longer than necessary, though - even at 1.2x.

Core Python: Implementing Iterators, Iterables and Collections, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. It covered a number of the important protocols to create collections in Python. I liked that this one used TDD - it always bothered me how they keep running the same tests by hand over and over. Overall, pretty interesting.

 Tesla vs Lovecraft: For Science! is DLC for the excellent Tesla vs Lovecraft. It adds a lot of extra weapons (including epic versions of all existing ones), perks, abilities and even a couple of upgrades (health, generic damage increase). Very much worth the price if you already liked the base game.

Life in the Fasting Lane: The Essential Guide to Making Intermittent Fasting Simple, Sustainable, and Enjoyable, by Dr. Jason Fung, Eve Mayer, Dr. Megan Ramos. Everyone with obesity or medical problems should read this book, or something like it. To make it as short as possible, eating constantly is unnatural, and the body is not built for it. So it is no surprise that as snacking got popular, so did obesity and diabetes.  Some fasting, which happened all the time, is good for you, and specially helpful if you are trying to lose weight or improve your health. I have already been fasting for about an year (lost 12kg in 4 months, and then a little more over the course of the pandemic) and I saw a lot of his interviews and online advice when I started. Later I read one of his books . This book added a bit to it, including some useful advice on how to fast, as well as how to fit fasting in your life.

Add Extensions to a Static Site Generator with Python is a project in PluralSight, following the previous one. Their way to check projects is interesting. Basically, you fork a repo in github, tell them your github name, and they will test what you did after you push the code. This was pretty useful, but in a limited way - you mostly just do what you are told, such as adding methods to a class, and adding that exact call. So what you learn is much more limited than just telling you to do something. This project ended up a little more useful than the last, as the requests were a bit more complex. Tests in PyCharm didn't work, but running pytest directly did...

 Dead Lies Dreaming, by Charles Stross, is another horror book in the Laundry Files series. This one goes does not concern the main characters, but mostly Imp and his gang of magically powered villains, Eve, a minion of a rich, twisted guy, and Wendy, a super-powered rent-a-cop. It does happen after the new government is in place. Mostly this is about the chasing of a powerful book, and the consequent mess. I very much liked this one, as it went a little deeper into the magic of the series, and had plenty of action. I am also happy to hear that a sequel to this should be coming out later this year.

 Build a Static Site Generator with Python is a project in PluralSight. I never used their projects before (they had another style for HTML, which I did use), and it was interesting. Basically, you fork a repo in github, tell them your github name, and they will test what you did after you push the code. This was pretty useful, but in a limited way - you mostly just do what you are told, such as adding methods to a class, and adding that exact call. So what you learn is much more limited than just telling you to do something. Unless I skipped something, there was no talking about the structure of the project either, which would have been interesting. Still, give how little experience I previously had with PyCharm, I did learn a few things.

 Core Python: Classes and Object-orientation, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. It covers class attributes, methods and properties, string representation, multiple inheritance (which is implemented in quite an interesting way in Python), Class decorators, and data classes. My favorite were data classes. I didn't know about them (they are kind of recent, being added in 3.7), These seem to be popular, considering Kotlin's data classes and C# records, and this is for a reason, as they save a lot of unnecessary code. Overall, pretty interesting.

 Tesla vs Lovecraft is a twin-stick shooter, which feels a lot like Crimsonland (which I played a lot), which is easily explained by the fact that 10tons made them both. Basically you go around shooting while running from monsters. What is nice in this one is the teleport (jump short distances) and the mech (after you get 6 parts, you can shoot from a big mech for a while). Perks are pretty similar, and so are the guns. It is just themed around Tesla and Lovecraft, which I think I was very clever and works well. I particularly like that even if you die, you can still get crystals from kills, which you can use for upgrades. Overall, strongly recommended for fans of shooters.

  Core Python: Functions and Functional Programming, by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This cover callables, decorates, conditional expressions, lambdas, some of the more complex argument conventions (*args, **kwargs) and map/reduce. Useful, and very short - 1 hour.

  Card Thief is a very clever card game based on concepts used in stealth games, such as guards, light sources, etc. Very interesting, and the tutorial is quite long, because there are a lot of rules. Graphics are nice, and the gameplay is fun enough. It is in Google Play Pass (Brazil), too.

Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change, by Edward D. Hess, is a book about effectively learning, heavily focused on organizations (but also potentially useful for individuals). There is a lot touch-feely stuff, as well as lots of practical, important advice, that I imagine could turn organizations around. I was already practicing a few of the suggestions around the book, such as meditation. Overall, pretty interesting. I am glad I spent the time reading this (I didn't spend extra money, as it was on O'Reilly Safari).

 Zombie Army Trilogy is pretty much Sniper Elite (by the same company, too), with zombies. However, playing it is a completely different experience, because stealth is a huge component in Sniper Elite, and basically inexistent here. So graphics, shooting, etc is ok, but I really didn't like the gameplay so far. Just go around shooting zombies and planting traps (same items as Sniper Elite). At least there are explosives laying around, which you can shoot... Also there are minor annoyances, such as when you can grab a gun it doesn't show any stats (depending on how many are there you won't even know the weapon class).

 Core Python: Organizing Larger Programs , by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, is another course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. This cover packages, distribution, and another minor subjects in Python. Useful, and very short - 1 hour.

 Kingdom Rush is a tower defense game. I recently played Kingdom Rush: Frontiers on the PC and Android, and saw this one was free in Google Play Pass, so I decided to try it out. It is pretty good, although the other entries do have some nice extras. Still, a solid game, nice graphics, with pretty much all of the good ideas of the others.

I just finished Core Python: Getting Started , by Austin Bingham and Robert Smallshire, a course in the Core Python learning path in PluralSight. While I already knew a lot of was taught in the course, I haven't used Python in forever and most Deep Learning courses use it, so I needed a refresher. The course was clear enough, even at a regular 1.2 speed. Good narration and examples, too, and a reasonable length (4 hours, although I don't know how much it took me - I watched it at several speeds, but also took notes).

 Cyber Hook is a very abstract runner game. You run platforms to reach portals and get crystals, using a hook that doubles as a gun (at least where I got so far - from the tutorial it looks like it does more). It is interesting. But personally it seemed a little too hard.

 Brain Wave, by Poul Anderson, is a pretty old SF novel (1954) that is a what-if - what if people and animals suddenly became much smarter? It covers pretty much what you'd expect - people not handling it well and trying to go back, people really enjoying it, some losing their emotions, animals revolting, etc. Of course, tech is sometimes obviously outdated - but it doesn't get that much in the way. There is a silly looking bit about the ship being manually handled, but that is the biggest one. I guess if this was written today, there would be a whole lot more about the super intelligent terrorists. Overall, good, considering the size.