Achievements
As of today, July 2nd, 2026, at 1:11 AM UTC (Still July 1st for me), I have finally 100%'d Portal 2, as in I finally completed all of its achievements! For almost a year I've had only 50 of its 51 achievements, with the last
NimbleBit Games
As I said in my latest weekly update, I've been "playing" a lot of Bit City, a game by NimbleBit (creators of Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes, Pocket Trains, and more), and so I've ended up with a lot of its music stuck in my
Weekly Updates
I definitely feel like I've hit my stride again this week. Despite there being some bad news going around, this has been a very good and productive week for me! I started doing some deep cleaning of my files and photos after being inspired by Jeremy Maluf'
Video Games
After a much shorter waiting period than I thought, Deltarune Chapter 5 came out, and I wanna share my thoughts about it, but I should probably clarify some things first. I used to be a bit more serious about it when the game (or at least Chapter 1) first came
Dropout
I don't know why I am only starting this now, but I've decided that while Season 8 of Game Changer is going, I might as well write my full thoughts on the episodes as they come out, as I usually have a lot to say about
Personal
https://desertbus.org/express2026/
Weekly Updates
I managed to go out and do slightly more stuff this week than usual, which was extremely nice! As well as generally doing more stuff than just being on the internet. Of course, I have to mention what's probably the highlight of the week, though it was just
Videos
I've really wanted to write more this week, and today in particular, but I was really struggling to find something to actually write about. Bored, and with no idea what to do, I was sitting on my desk with this same page open, and then I got a
Meta
Welp, today is June 15, 2026, meaning that it's been 1 year since I officially launched this blog! This is a very big milestone for me, so just like I did when I uploaded my 100th post, I'll temporarily turn this site gold! Hooray! Originally I
A blog by Karl Abate
About 2 months ago MrWeenus on YouTube shared an old video from 2006 by 1Up Network where they interviewed Valve during the development of The Orange Box, which included a lot of footage of early versions of Portal, Team Fortress 2, and — the main focus of this post — Half-Life
I haven't been that motivated to write recently, so this is my sixth post in a row to be a weekly update. I've noticed I'm getting a pretty bad case of "nobody cares" syndrome with my writing, so I haven't
I wasn't sure on if I would write this week at all, let alone a weekly update, but I guess I am! Though this one will be a bit different. To officially reveal what I've been teasing lately, I am currently in New York! It was
I've gotten into full prep mode for the upcoming secret thing, which I was originally planning on directly revealing today, but I decided not to, as I don't know when I'll get to write about it here. I did drop a hint on my
This was another pretty hectic week for me, but at least I managed to do some nice things. We got a new small cabinet from Ikea on Monday, and we decided to put our board games there! Pretty much all of these games used to be in another cabinet with
It's been a bit of a tough week. Although I didn't write anything here, I did spend a lot of time this week on some of my other hobbies, which has been very nice! Plus I still have some cool stuff to share, of course. I&
Another week, another update! I've done quite a few new things, returned to some old stuff, and have quite a lot of fun stuff to share! First of all, like last week, I wanna explain the header image. This week I spent a while in Punta Cana with
An old school project from 2021.
After I finished my previous map about how each country divides their currency, I watched a video by RobWords about how a lot of currencies got their names and symbols, which I highly recommend you check out! It's very well made, has lots of interesting bits of information,
Happy Friday! This week has been a bit of a return to form for me. I've been able to actually work on some personal projects again, and I have a good amount of stuff to share today! First off, I do want to mention something that I'
After over a year without getting any new ideas for maps, I suddenly got struck with inspiration to make one again! I was rewatching CGP Grey's video about nickels for no apparent reason, and in it he said that the quarter is "the most American coin"
This is a more personal kind of post than I am currently used to writing, but to me it wouldn't feel right to not write about this today. Exactly 10 years ago, on April 27, 2016, we found my cat, Maya. Well, we didn't find her,
