Latest Posts

• Not-2024 Games - Notable stuff I played from the past

  I try to keep up, I really do. But at the same time I know for certain that more games that I will love come out in a year than I will have time to play. In that knowledge, I played a bunch of games I dug in 2024 that came out well before. Here are some of the ones I enjoyed the most.

• 2024 Games - The Steven Shortlist

  2024 was a great year to be a video game liker. From monstrously giant and high-budget worlds to smaller scale and powerful indie games there’s been a lot to appreciate this year. These are some of my highlights that released in 2024.

• 2024 Music - The Steven Shortlist

  I usually try to curate a little list of albums I loved at the end of a year. It’s a nice way to think back on what I really enjoyed listening to, what soundtracked my life for that particular span of time hurtling around the sun. I forgot to last year, but I’m doing it again now!

  This won’t be everything I enjoyed in the year, not by a long shot! I’d be here writing longer than anyone would care to read if I tried to do that. Here are some of my highlights though.

• Using EQ For Better Audio

  

  I’ve been using these little AudioEngine A2 speakers pretty close to daily since I bought them in 2012. Twelve damn years ago! They’re so damn nice sounding for little speakers that don’t demand huge chunks of my desk space. The other day however, I came across a tweet from John Linneman about using EQ to get better sound from these diminuitive little boxes, so I gave it a try.

• The 16-bit Audiophile Project

  

  I went looking for a copy of the Sonic 3 soundtrack the other day. It’s not available on streaming for reasons and I had a hankering for Ice Cap Zone’s music so went searching.

• Aeromatic Broadened My Coffee Horizons

  

  I love my Aeropress, but I’m generally the kind of person to find a recipe that works and stick with it forever. That changed when I discovered Aeromatic, a neat little iPhone app with a directory of different recipes and grinding guides that uses some iOS features smartly to make experimenting with the Aeropress a breeze.

• Games I loved in 2022

  

  I played a whole pile of games in 2022. Here are the ones I loved the most.

• My Writing Toolkit feat. Obsidian

  

  I’ve spent about as much time researching and playing with writing applications as I have actually writing in them. I’ve gone from office-y applications like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, to code-focused plaintext editors like Sublime Text and Visual Studio Code and even trialled some writing centric but comparatively expensive options like iA Writer. Each have some advantages, but for some reason or another each one has been missing something that kept me looking elsewhere.

• Looking back over my games of 2021

  

  2021 was a huge year for catching up on games I’ve been meaning to play for ages, as well as indulging in new releases. Here are some of my highlights.

• Apple Music Spatial Audio - Quick Impressions

  

  Spatial audio seems made for me. A self-confessed Apple enjoyer who has also fallen down the entry-level audiophile hole, I was excited to try Apple Music’s new Dolby Atmos features. I grabbed my AirPods Pro, searched the playlists for music I’m familiar with already and got to listening.

• Qcma lets a Vita play nice with a modern computer

  

  I was faced with a problem recently. I have a pile of screenshots on my Vita that I’d love to share online, but the Vita’s sharing apps have mostly found their way to the graveyard.

• 2020 MacBook Air (with Apple Silicon) review

  

  I don’t think I’ve had a computer before that was this immediately impressive.

• Dell P2721Q thoughts and answers

  

  I spent far longer than I’d hoped researching monitors for my MacBook than I’d have liked. Reviews are common for the high end stuff - no shortage of YouTube people and tech websites reviewing LG UltraFines and Pro Display XDRs, but finding specific details about midrange monitors that aren’t built for gamers is surprisingly hard.