I accidentally drank green tea a few hours ago.

Hello sleepless night. :-(

The good news is I'm slowly edging closer to LJ-land again, mentally. That is, I'm beginning to overcome the strange, great reluctance I always feel after an extended absence. I'll probably start dropping in randomly at various people's journals in the next few days. No proper catching up yet, though, because there's still other things that need sorting out before that.

Also worth noting:

- I haven't looked very energetically for a job yet. I feel kind of guilty about that, but on the other hand, I do think I needed the time to decompress.

- I was nominated for an award for my MA thesis without noticing. (I didn't win, but it's still pretty amazing. And kind of hilarious/embarrassing that I didn't know. The notification must have been among the thousands of mails I still haven't sorted...)

- Two weeks ago I made my first attempt to 'join' Greenpeace. (You don't really join them, you just volunteer your time with the local group. So far I've only been to an introductory meeting thingy, but I plan to keep it up. I'm not sure Greenpeace is the right organisation for me, but until I find another, they'll have to do. ;-))

- Level building is going great. Here's a preview: Pretty pictures! - This is quite possibly the most relaxing form of creative endeavour I've ever discovered. Unlike most of my other creative outlets, with level building I can just sort of... completely let the right hemisphere take over. It's like a trance. It's euphorising!

- Oh, hey - if you would like to play a tiny little - finished - practice level I made: Right click and save. As with the recs I posted earlier, you're going to need the Knytt Stories software to play this, of course. Oh, and the level is an environmental, i.e. there are no challenges or enemies in there. The worst that can happen to you is falling into the sea.

Right. Since I'm sleepless anyway:

Insanely relaxing and pretty online games:

For the most part, don't expect much challenge here; although *some* of the games do provide some nice puzzles to make you think. Most are very easy, though - and all are very pretty. If you should need a walkthrough at some point, http://jayisgames.com is the place to go.


Point-and-click adventures:

http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/
http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/ - Samorost is a classic of the genre.

http://www.daymaretown.com/ - Some people find this a bit creepy.

http://www.submachineworld.com/ - This series is a bit more challenging. Also, long.

http://fastgames.com/littlewheel.html - Very simplistic gameplay, but exceedingly pretty.


Surreal flash experiences:

http://www.polcarstva.net/ - Russian fairytale based?

http://www.vectorpark.com/park/ - Try everything.

http://www.feedthehead.net/ - Do what the URL says.

http://box7box.com/tinygrow.html - The point? Who needs a point when you can grow surreal flowers?

http://www.deepchalk.net/ - The intro screen looks a bit rough, but the game itself is pretty, even if surreal to the point of incomprehensibility
http://www.deepchalk.net/secondphase.html


Exploration platformers:

http://westykid.deviantart.com/art/nevermore-1-26567268 - Vaguely Miyazaki-esque series, first part. Second and third part vastly improve on this.
http://westykid.deviantart.com/art/Nevermore-2-30222032 - Technically a prequel.
http://westykid.deviantart.com/art/Nevermore-3-120482622 - The prettiest, longest, and generally most accomplished of the three.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/503833 - You're a beautifully animated fox running around in a rainy mountain landscape. Insanely relaxing.


Puzzles:

http://launchingpadgames.com/games/the-pretender - Lovely platform puzzle; beautiful, and not too difficult. If the dialogue that keeps popping up annoys you: that's only in the three intro levels, to give you the backstory.