Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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Book Review: Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

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Book cover featuring an impossible staircase.

I'm a fan of R.F. Kuang's books - but this is the first which I've found laugh-out-loud funny. What if your University advisor died and the only way to graduate was to descend into hell and bring him back? In a terrible sort of way, I'm glad that Kuang had such a miserable time at University. Being able to mine that psychotrauma has led to the brilliant Babel and now the excellent Katabasis.…

How many hours do you need to work to afford a pint of beer?

· 5 comments · 450 words · Viewed ~542 times


Graph showing a gentle rise in the cost of draught beer.

I dropped into a pub in central London and ordered two pints of draught beer. Obviously the price of everything is nuts these days - and doubly so in London - so I only winced a little bit when the cost came to about twelve quid. Shocking, obviously. But as we supped on our pints and discussed the state of the world, I tried to remember how expensive it was to have a pint when I was a lad young…

Game Review: Unravel Two

· 5 comments · 350 words


Two string creatures help each other climb a hill.

My new year's resolution is to play more video games. Specifically co-operative games. I hate playing competitively; it's rubbish to achieve victory at the expense of someone else. So I asked for recommendations and picked the cheapest thing that looked reasonable. Unravel Two is a little gem! It's a 2D platform puzzler dressed up in a 3D engine. You and your friend play little string…

Adding "Log In With Mastodon" to Auth0

· 3 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~293 times


Login screen with several social login buttons.

I use Auth0 to provide social logins for the OpenBenches website. I don't want to deal with creating user accounts, managing passwords, or anything like that, so Auth0 is perfect for my needs. There are a wide range of social media logins provided by Auth0 - including the usual suspects like Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Discord, etc. Sadly, there's no support for Mastodon. All is not lost…

Book Review: Under Fire - Black Britain in Wartime by Stephen Bourne

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Book cover. A black soldier in uniform stands in front of Big Ben.

Everyone knows that Black people didn't exist in the UK until recently, right? Despite mountains of evidence of everything from Black Tudors and Victorian actors, some myths perniciously persist. What was the experience for Black Britons during the second world war? I find it fascinating how the US cultural hegemony rewrites history. I've heard people in the UK talk about "Jim Crow laws" as…