Souls Like Strings

TWIL December 12th 2025

  • Having a two person team is challenging when one of you is out and the other is blocked by PR review
  • You can't read Rails' encrypted cookies in a test (at least by default)
    • Since the test cookie object doesn't implement encrypted
  • Someone once decided to make a 'Link' component which can be a button, link or just plain text
    • but the button can have a to attribute
    • the text can have an onClick which can navigate, effectively making it back into a link
    • something intended to be an actual a tag can become a...
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Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

I could hardly bear the despair

Why

  • Wacky cast of characters you might actually end up attached to
  • Ensures you have enough knowledge to solve mysteries while letting you make the connections
  • Interesting minigames to make points during the class trials

Why Not

  • Dialogue is often painful/repetitive
  • Some of the mysteries are ridiculously convoluted/probably don't stand up to scrutiny
  • Sometimes leans too hard on shock value/anime tropes

Impressions

Danganronpa has a lot of problems. The dialogue is generally so poorly written I skim-read 80% after the first chapter, it leans on shock value/edginess a...

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TWIL December 5th 2025

  • Argon2id is the state of the art in hashing
    • But for short-lived OTPs, probably overkill

After being reminded subgrid exists & is useful in October, Josh comes swooping in with a typically high quality article about the possibilities it unlocks. Siblings being aware of each-other's size & layout is a very valuable thing in CSS, as is a layout being able to 'penetrate' containers like cards.

I did not...

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The Grief of Stones

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison.

Way too eager to explore a haunted area called the 'Hill of Werewolves'

The 2.5th chapter of Thara Celehar's suffering starts off on a worryingly positive note. He gets to do normal things at his job, have minimal interactions with people in positions of power and even gets an apprentice! Fortunately we quickly return to normal, as investigating the suspected murder of an elderly marchioness leads him on the mother of all tangents, ending with something notably scarier than a ghoul and serious consequences.

Also, photography is apparently inherently pornographic...

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2025 November Retro

What went well

Projects

  • Kept writing this blog
  • Some minor progress on the spending tracker, mainly styling the transaction dialog and making it usable for editing as well

Games

Silksong continues to be incredible; now 70 hours in, not even done with Act 2 and still absolutely loving it. I even enjoyed the famously rough Bilewater boss & its accompanying runback (plus pre-boss gauntlet!). Every moment with Silksong feels special, and I'm going to take my time finishing it because once it's gone all that's left is a replay of the original.

In service of taking my...

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