2023

2023 category

TIL the term Jamais vu, which is essentially the opposite of déjà vu.

Jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer’s impression of experiencing something for the first time, despite rationally knowing that they have experienced it before.

Found it in this equally fascinating article on the strange scientific research awards.

IMG 4674

🕹️ I just beat the original Kirby’s Dream Land for the original Gameboy. Took me an hour and a half. It’s short and relatively easy, but a real fun time. The last boss has a long annoying pattern though.

Every time it looks like the damage of the myth of perpetual growth and climate change couldn’t get any more stark. Wilful ignorance drives civilisation collapse

I haven’t posted anything today. Is that…good?

Currently reading: Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse 📚

Mozilla has a damning car privacy and security report. The worst offender? All of them. I’m grateful I don’t own a car, but I’m in the slim minority in the US. What a shit show.

Back in New York.

A night show of glowing New York City skyscrapers

Finished reading: 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A. Reed 📚A wonderful book. If you have any interest in games or novels, read it now.

I called into last weeks Best Show. I was nervous, not my best representation of myself, and I made the mistake of reading the chat, but still proud of myself. Its scary!

In game screenshot of Maria facing Death on top of a pirate ship. Death is almost dead.
Screenshot taken from the web, not my gameplay

🕹️ Last night, I beat Death in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. So difficult, even with Maria, the easier character! After that, I beat the Shaft boss gauntlet. Now, on to the final level and Dracula. It is hard.

Kyle E. Mitchell on confusing open source license terms.

Why not simply deprecate all these troublesome terms? Or push for more “correct” definitions? Because that doesn’t work… It’s all as self-limiting as…calling the Kindle the “Swindle”… The difference between the names we use and the names everyone else uses are merely unintentional lists of our clear political losses.

Many activists rely on ideological purity over more nuanced tactics, as the latter requires rigorous self reflection.

Having a simple playbook makes it easier to define for new members, and makes clear when the in group is performing their dogmatic duties.

These are real benefits to organizing. The problem: it doesn’t work well for achieving actual change.

Enjoyed this introspective post on consumption from hidden tiramisu. Taught me about the diderot effect, which is essentially the opposite of collector brain. Not wanting something is better than having it. Not having an apartment right now and traveling out of a backpack, I can co-sign on that.

Went for a bike ride with my dad. The ride left an impression. So did the helmet. In my head. #baldlife

Man’s scalp with an impression from the helmet&10;

From the Interconnected blog

creative works are commentaries on the act of creation.

Some examples I found more compelling than others, but overall an interesting lense to look at creative work. That the act of creating is made visible in the end product.

Austin Kleon quotes Alan Moore on inspiration for writers.

“If you are inspired by a good book, there’s always the danger of plagiarism, of doing something that is too much like that good book. Whereas, a genuinely helpful reaction to a piece of work that you’re reading is, ‘Jesus Christ, I could write this shit!’”

I’ve heard versions of this sentiment many times, and I subscribe to the notion. I certainly enjoy lots of bad media.

A drawing of an extreme close up of a man's face. The eyes take up most of the frame. They bug out, with dilated pupils and  exaggerated vains. The man has a long pink nose and a purple mustache. The mouth is open in an expression of fear, with thick, yellow block teeth. A single drop of sweat rolling down the face.

🎨 This one speaks for itself.

A drawing of a junk heap, with a maniacal-looking robot with tractor treads and a pincer arm driving over it

🎨 It’s WALL-E, but twitchy.

🕹️ 🍸 My swear-y attempt at playing Castlevania: Rondo of Blood while drinking a Bloody Mary.

A drawing of a sea with a tiny island in the middle. A castle occupies the majority of the island. Two creatures heads take up the foreground, their bodies implied to be flying, looking down menecingly at the castle.

🎨 A study in bright menece. Or something.

Reading State of CSS. Some takeaways.

  1. Respondants largely white, male, in US
  2. Highest incomes in US
  3. Most under age 45
  4. Largest usage increase: :has()
  5. Least used feature: font-palette
  6. Majority use Subgrid
  7. content-visibility use decreased
  8. Cascade Layers has low awareness
  9. Framework use trending down
A distorted and exaggerated line drawing of a sad male aristocrat, eyes drooping, wearing froofy victorian garb.

🎨 This one is called, “The despondant upper class” and it’s making a statement. That statement may be, “I can’t draw fingers.”

When someone goes, “What people always forget, you know, what people don’t understand, is…” Whatever comes next, I guarantee everyone remembers and understands.

A black and white doodle of a flying saucer

🎨 A black and white study of some of our nation’s top military imaginations.

A drawing of a dreamy landscape, no people, a path winding between distant mossy mountains below a night sky, a large purple moon hanging overhead.

🎨 Tolkien-inspired doodle-scape.

Messing around with my friend Jon’s synths. I can’t play but I can make noises.

Three stacked keyboard.