#006 House of Leaves and burning out

27 Apr, 2026

Welcome to my bi-weekly digest for the 9th to the 22nd of April.

House of Leaves

... Is such an imposing book, which I suppose is the point. I started it a few weeks after I was gifted it for my birthday, fast forward by a few months and I'm now continuing it. No spoilers, obviously, but a footnote led me to a string of letters, and there was a decryption task that broke my heart near the end of it. Later on in the main book, there was a single symbol that wouldn't mean anything had I not read those letters yet I did so, in that moment, I felt called out. Such a weird feeling.

I've been skimming over a lot of stuff because, frankly, I don't have that kinda beast in me. Worse yet, I've been getting headaches after reading for prolonged periods of time. Nevertheless, I'm having a good time, even if it is a chapter or two every couple of weeks.¹ I try not to let it get to me, but the pace at which I read and the struggles I have to take it all in really call into question my overall media literacy but I think I've just been feeling really tired lately.

Nothing sticks mentally and I'm dreading going into work just to sit down and either 1., be bored and soul drained or 2., get soul drained by a customer a light breeze away from being ashes and mould spores. It's reached a point where I have just begun dissasociating on shift, my mind isn't in my flesh-type shit but at least my corporeal self still smiles and says, "have a good rest of your day, take care! :D" Much to dwell on, but I don't have it in me to dwell much and I don't think you should dwell on the irony of that statement given the medium I have presented it in.

Games I've Been Playing

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Three stars, DLC, hotel, gyroid city, renovations, white tulips, mountainscapes, waterworks, ten villagers, propagation stations, co-op, bell making, the great wasp (and tarantula) wall; if you ask me what -core the greatest island in the world, Kuzametal, is then I will end your entire lineage.²

Universal Paperclips Nothing happens at work, not anything to excite me anymore. Paperclips is baller, though. It always has been! Come on. I made a Reddit post years ago asking if anyone had documented the mobile-exclusive flavour text, to which no one had, so I intended to lead the charge on that. I will say, I've made progress. I've got the texts and where to find them (mostly) noted down!... I just can't be bothered to... Post them to the wiki... I do love number go up.

Raccoin A coin pusher roguelite I haven't really seen get much steam yet but has received super positive ratings. If you know Balatro, some of the systems feel like Balatro. It took me a bit to figure out how each of the components played with each other, though, so I would almost wager it's even more complicated in some regards. Then again, unlike Balatro, I was able to beat this one on every difficulty with the Manager so I must be doing something right (not as confident with the other characters yet).

Look Outside I started this game the day before the bi-week was up so I'll absolutely have more to say in two weeks. I started out quite nervous because, as much as the cosmic-body horror intrigued me as a concept, I had to get used to the jank that's inherent to RPG Maker games ³ and there weren't any straightforward guides. Eventually, I figured it out and I've poured about 12 hours into it (as of writing this late digest, 27/04/26)!

Media Treats

malice@doll, porcelain skin & inanimate tears I would recommend mara's entire channel, to be honest. They have such a way with words (notwithstanding, "that's my shit/jam/this fucks," and so on) to describe these insane parts of the internet the mainstream just isn't privy to and what a lot of us would've come across as youths with unrestricted internet access.

Not never let art made by human hands, advocating for the human right to justice, die.

Congratulations you found the secret video I haven't checked out this guy's channel yet and I'm not in the mood right now. Can someone else check and let me know if there's more to Giggly Giggly than meets the eye? I would do it myself eventually but I think it would benefit me more to maintain a healthy distance.

mr I luv Naked Gun de-deh-deeeh-de-deh-de-de-deh-deeeh-de-d-d-deh.

How They Made This - Coinbase Commercial Breakdown No one in the comments section is letting you forget about the irony of this commercial. They are not wrong. Give some kudos to the director separate from Mr Coin, this is a labour of love.

&Extras

• Earn the cock
• RAIL REPLACEMENT BUS - by Lorraine Bowen
• I smoked every Chinese cigarette so you don't have to (DO NOT DO IT)
• we need to impregnate the president.
• The UK'S Five Nights at Freddy's Experience
• HufflePuff
• 67
• I Replaced Every Ad on the Internet With Art

Web Goodies

https://nlquotes.com This matters more to me than anyone else I know in my life. I like Northernlion and if you also like him, you will like this website. If you don't even know who he is, you may keep calm and carry on.

https://poolsuite.net I'm very confused by this vaporwaveporeum.

https://same.energy "Good" Pinterest alternatives are only really good if you're looking for moodboard material derived from professional arts and photography, from my experience. I personally use Pinterest not for that so I've had no luck finding good alternatives that really feel user-generated (call me lucky for not letting the ads inflict psychic damage on my soul nor AI appear on my feed at all). Regardless, I fiddled around with this website here and it's actually insanely cool.

https://windows93.net If you've been on the indie web long enough, you've probably come across this desktop-themed oddity. If not, I open the door for you. My favourite feature from this is the datamosher.

https://www.meibooth.com Gorjus gorjus sparkly kirakira photobooth for you <3

Edited 3 hours, 5 minutes ago

Footnotes

#2026 #diary #music #videogames #weekly digest