Two Japanese games

So the very famous game Hatoful Boyfriend is in this week's Humble Bundle (if you see this in the next few hours, it's still available). I've seen so many comments on the internet saying that Hatoful Boyfriend is surprisingly profound and much more rewarding than the concept of a high school dating sim with pigeons would imply, so I gave it a go.

( review )

It's a bit of a stretch to call this related, but ghoti recently gave me a very cool present, the Japanese themed game Machi Koro. She described it as a kawaii cross between Dominion and Settlers, and it's hard to imagine a better encapsulation of what the game is. ( first play thoughts )

Blatant nepotism for localish people

Well, today's LJ cross-post made it into the top 25 LJ posts. Which these days is hardly an achievement; according to the rather crude site stats LJ offers, that amounts to approximately 70 visitors. But anyway, while I have the attention of the last few dozen people still clinging to LJ, some publicity:

My amazing brother angrysampoet has achieved a minor life ambition: he's playing The Junction in Cambridge. Headlining a Hammer & Tongue poetry slam on Friday 6^th November. I really want to go, but I can't because there's no way I can get to a Friday evening gig five hours' travel away from where I'm teaching on Friday afternoon. So I'm telling you lot about it instead, I think a fair proportion of my circles live in or near Cambridge.

And my equally amazing baby sister, berksonbakes, has set up a website for her bespoke gluten-free baking business. At least some of her cakes can be sent by post, so anyone in mainland Britain can order from her. And she really is doing bespoke stuff, she'll make four or six individual slices of cake, or she'll cater a whole event. She's pretty good at other dietary restrictions too, eg vegan, nut-free etc.