This post is a continuation of my series of monthly review posts - what I've been doing and all that kind of good stuff. Other entries in the 2025 series:

This month has been quite topsy-turvy. I made good progress on the garden, pulling up the (significantly heavy) artificial turf, applying a volumetric tonne of compost, and sowing a grass/clover mix. It hasn't germinated yet, but I'm hoping that by keeping the sodding pigeons away from it, I'll see some results in the next week or two. The idea with the clover mix is that it will require less maintenance whilst still providing a healthy base for the soil.

The wildflower patch has also sprung up over the last week. Last month, the forget-me-nots were the first to flower and are still dominating. It will be interesting to see what comes next.

Flowers in the garden

Alongside the two Robins, the garden has also had Coal Tits and a gang of Starlings enjoying the bird feeder.

Pulling up the artificial turf also had the unfortunate side effect of flaring an old foot injury I sustained during the Great North Run 2014. It isn't as severe as back then, although I'm taking it as a sign that I'm doing too much. There's little chance of me getting near the running times I used to accomplish (or I should hire a PT). This injury is a setback, though, and it happened just as I was starting to get into a regular rhythm.

Halloween Idler Game

I've been iterating over the core concept of the Halloween Idler game, documenting the main mechanics in a blog post. It has come on a lot since the last post, with the game now supporting various item types, placement bonuses, and drag-and-drop functionality.

It's in quite a decent playable state now, even if it still heavily relies on emoji instead of real artwork! I've been tidying up the code as it evolves past 'proof of concept' - the code wasn't in a bad state - refactoring to patterns and adjusting where abstractions are delineated. One quality-of-life improvement trades off efficiency against readability, switching out a multidimensional array of data into a fluent interface domain-specific language. I use this for creating items and specifying their properties, as it's much easier to read back and refine for balance purposes. I also added a bespoke 'audit' script to produce the data in tabular form.

Without official artwork or a budget to commission some, my focus will continue to be on the core gameplay.

Media

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch

This tome from David Deutsch took up most of my reading time this month, as I needed time and space to digest the content. I'd say it's a story about progress. What Deutsch describes as the 'beginning of infinity' touches on the concept that on an infinite timeline, no matter how large the number, it always places closer the beginning than the end. These beginnings are inflection points at which progress can rapidly advance. But it doesn't always work out that way. How many branches of natural selection were culled, how many empires have fallen, how many books have burned at the fear of Knowledge. Deutsch broaches mathematical and quantym concepts as easy as he does philosophical, biological and meta-physical. From maths to memes.

Today, the creativity that humans use to improve ideas is what pre-eminently sets us apart from other species. Yet for most of the time that humans have existed it was not noticeably in use.

Deutsch argues the Enlightenment is the beginning of infinity, with profound statements on the nature of progress and the Scientific Method.

one thing that all conceptions of the Enlightenment agree on is that it was a rebellion, and specifically a rebellion against authority in regard to knowledge.

and therefore,

Infinite ignorance is a necessary condition for there to be infinite potential for knowledge.

Why? Because

knowledge held immune from criticism never can be improved!

The Scientific Method is a process, an algorithm for uncovering knowledge. Although

science claims neither infallibility nor finality

it progresses through Testability. It is our ability to stay curious, to hypothesize, to test and to learn which brings forth possibility. Deutsch warns of those who want to send us back to 'simpler times':

Here is another misconception in the Garden of Eden myth: that the supposed unproblematic state would be a good state to be in. Some theologians have denied this, and I agree with them: an unproblematic state is a state without creative thought. Its other name is death.

The Forgetting by Hannah Beckerman

The Forgetting is a captivating story told from two perspectives, and it's a story about domestic abuse, particularly coercive control. I figured out the twist early in the book, but this didn't really 'spoil' anything, or lessen the impact when that was revealed. A woman in London awakes from a car crash, having forgotten her name, or that she's married. A woman in Bristol is bringing up her child with her husband and contemplating to return to work. As these two perspectives are kept distinct for most of the novel, the husband figure in both scenarios gradually tightens their coercive grip on their partner, before everything clashes together.

Hotell by John Lees

Told through a series of interlocking stories, Hotell explores the lives of the visitors to a mysterious Hotel on Route 66, which only appears to those it chooses. A mysterious owner staffs the hotel, and an ominous harlequin portrait looms over the reception desk. I loved some of the short stories in this collection; the mother-and-baby and the long-lost sister-searching ones, in particular, were stellar. Overall, this is an enjoyable, albeit brief, and well-connected set of stories that hint at larger mythos.

Hellblazer, Vol 1: Original Sins by Jamie Delano

Going right to the early days of John Constantine, the DC Universe English antihero magician, this first omnibus collection covers some of the stories first told in the Swamp Thing comics, and the first stories in the character's series run. There were some interesting concepts here - the 1980s late-era-Thatcher setting is deeply intertwined into the storytelling, with the economic turmoil, racism and the AIDS panic all providing the contextual backdrop to Constantine's exploits. Additionally, there's also some forward-facing, almost cyberpunk themes with Constantine's contemporary magician 'surfing' the web. Constantine battles cults, demons and himself. A great start.

We Need to Talk About Putin by Mark Galeotti

It is fair to say that the Russian President remains a mysterious figure, often portrayed in Western media as a mastermind who deliberately orchestrated Brexit and the destabilisation of the global order, with a clear plan to remake the Soviet Union. In reality, there is a lot of blood on his hands, but the story of the man himself is more complicated than the caricature. Galeotti talks about Putin in the sense of a Mafia Boss, adept at seizing opportunities when they arise and would bring benefit, but also a character who is ever-retreating inwards, with the likes of the COVID pandemic reducing his inner circle further. Having constitutionally reset the clock on his Presidency, Putin has awarded himself another twelve years in power (practically speaking). With the events in Ukraine becoming more serious, especially with the retreat of the US from the global stage, we in Europe must understand the man at the doorstep, the motivations and the flaws.

Skeletá by Ghost

Skeletá album cover

Ghost's latest psalm landed in April with a new front character and an evolved sound. The album didn't grab me on the first listen like its predecessors Impera and Prequelle did, although subsequent listens have won me over. The album's sound mixes 80s-inspired AOR with modern production techniques and that distinct dark, foreboding, Ghost vibe. Lyrically the tracks are introspective, as is fitting the 'to the bone' album title. The standout track for me is Umbra, a cowbell-laden anthem with a massive chorus. The single tracks Peacefield, Lachryma, and Satanized demonstrate the band's variety, with evident influences from Def Leppard, KISS, Queen, Abba, Ozzy/Sabbath, Journey and Iron Maiden. As for notable 'deep cuts' on the album, I'd also highly recommend Guiding Lights, De Profudnis Borealis, Cenotaph and Marks of the Evil One.