a doodle of an artist kitty looking at an empty sheet of paper
the kitty bangs its head on the paper
there’s now a stamp of the kitty in the paper, and it has a bandage on the forehead
creative process
DISCO ELYSIUM is PLANESCAPE: TORMENT for people who have not read a book in the last calendar year but have watched a series of 2 hour video essays on YouTube
An AI slop image showing the '12 steps to masterful game directing", including 'Connectiarg' and 'Porkon Cows'
People over on Facebook/YouTube/elsewhere on bluesky/reality have been mocking this, but these are all totally genuine and highly advanced GMing techniques pioneered in obscure corners of indie rpg design in the early 2000s.
Let's go through them one by one and learn together.
That's no way to talk about the Gamers.
Always weird to log in to a new website and find that someone's camping 'potatocubed' as a user name.
Like... who other than me is using this handle?
The 90s had a very clear idea of what 'being a man' meant and it sucked.
I often think about how Heat (1995) was a spectacularly popular movie about how having emotions makes you weak.
I've been thinking the same thing for *years*.
Something is deeply wrong with the internet.
5. It links to a 'railway roundhouse museum' in Maryland.
6. I give up.
3. An independent search confirms Desertfest London 2026 is running from the 17th to the 19th, and has Clutch listed on their lineup. But not where or when they're playing.
4. Their 'venues' page does mention the Roundhouse, though, so I click the link provided.
1. May the 17th is Friday, not Sunday.
2. The link to the event links to a poorly-constructed webpage about "Desertfest", where Clutch are not mentioned.
"Oooh," thought I, "a chance to see Clutch playing. I shall investigate further."
Off the back of this I went and listened to Nosferatu Madre by Clutch, on Youtube. Underneath the video I was presented with this:
Meme with a photo of a fountain drink machine with a cup sitting under two nozzles (red and blue), a hand pushing both buttons at once and liquid coming from both nozzles. The blue (left) drink is labelled "grateful for the insight I have gained from all my experiences" and the red (right) drink is labelled "still thinks some of that sh*t should not have happened". The hand is labelled "me".
I mean it is wholly owned by a foreign power.
He's the rug that's going to tie this whole sidequest together.
Mahomako is a shark in a wizard hat.
Ah fuck, it was a trick question meant to make me look like an asshole and I walked right into it.
Hmm. I think my fear then is that I'd accidentally make something good.
Like... if I'm creating purely for myself, why put the work in? I can just imagine how it would go and think "yeah, that was cool" and not need to write any of that shit down. Way more efficient.
I'd go mad.
Like, the stipulation downthread that nothing made during that year can *ever* be public would drive me insane. Even though I do a lot of writing that nobody ever sees, a part of me holds onto the idea that someday, someone *might* see it.
two images of the human body's circulatory system. One of them with good cable management
The human circulatory system, before and after proper cable management.
Some time in my 20s I started meeting people who found themselves in unwanted situations because they "couldn't think of a graceful way out", and then I got conned out of some money by someone who used that against me, and I realised that being rude was self defence.
I'm also offloading all my old Citadel Combat Cards. Got all the old 1980s sets up for sale, although no boxes or front cards and the Chaos set is a bit more beaten up than the others.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/22730751...
A quick heads up; The UK government is currently holding a consultation on the Online Safety Act. The consultation lasts until the end of next month.
Please fill it out if you live in the UK and/or share it around to get more eyes on it.
www.gov.uk/government/c...
Like a Chekhov's gun speedrun.
Since this post is aggregating my Bloomberg column, I kinda feel the need to clarify that the Imagine Dragons game is not "live-service" (designed for recurring monetization). It's a $15 multiplayer shooter with no microtransactions.
Here's the original article: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...