My brain says, “Vantablack tattoo.” I think to myself, “That sounds cool.” That would make for some good flavor text in a story. Something cyberpunk, maybe. But what if it already exists? So I Google it, and I read a blog post about the darkest ink available. It’s called World Famous Blackout Blackout, and you can order it on Amazon. That’s pretty cyberpunk.
In the last two years, I’ve read more physical books than I have in the previous decade. I would have preferred to have those books in a digital format, but there was no way around it; some books I wanted to read were only available in print. While I enjoy the experience of reading physical books, OCRing highlighted text for notes is tedious.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Ghost Song by Cécile McLorin Salvant and A Stray Ending by Surface 10.🎵
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to No Plans To Stick the Landing by Boat and Aperture by Braulio Lam.🎵
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
Finished reading: Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson 📚 I have been reading Neal Stephenson for decades, and there’s a reason for that. I picked up The Big U at a bookstore when I moved to Boston in 1986. I recognized the city and the characters he was writing about. Zodiac, Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon captured my imagination and impacted how I saw the world.
I’ve read every book he’s written, and I look forward to each new book by Stephenson, but I admit it took me a while to get into a groove reading Termination Shock. Stephenson always delivers an imaginative, information-dense story, but something with this book failed to land with me. I was entertained and engrossed, but less so than in previous books by Stephenson. And that’s okay. Not every book by him has to blow me away. I’ll still read his next book. Termination Shock is still much better than most science fiction I read.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Souvenirs by Pale Blue Eyes and Spell 31 by Ibeyi.🎵
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar and Loveless by My Bloody Valentine.🎵
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to for you Innate Passage by Elder and Hit With the Most by Ribbon Stage.🎵
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
I’m rewatching The Mandalorian. I love the arc of Din Djarin and IG-11’s relationship in season one. It begins adversarial and ends with IG-11 as a stand-in for Djarin‘a parents. I get choked up just thinking about it.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei by Rubinho E Mauro Assumpção and From Soil To Ashes by Katsu Weri (thanks, Eric Harrison).🎵
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYYMhKC4bf2QhkTIqkN3_fx9BrlRTI-AU
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to for you Presents: Lindeville by Ashley McBryde and Nothing Left Behind by Tomotsugu Nakamura.🎵
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eU9bsb02aggki4oCJpezi?si=GJPH3IZJR1mTXGOFmISIjg
Finished reading: The Elusive Shift by Jon Peterson 📚
Growing up with role-playing games, I take for granted what a role-playing game is, even as the hobby continues to evolve. The Elusive Shift explores how role-playing games came to be. More importantly, what are role-playing games?
It was fascinating to learn how quickly role-playing games matured quickly within a decade. I see many of the questions asked in the 70s that are still being answered today in the rise of narrative-based games.