In the last two years, Iβve 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.
Finished reading: Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson π 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.
Rabbit family ready to celebrate Easter.
Wet stroll.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Souvenirs by Pale Blue Eyes and Spell 31 by Ibeyi.π΅
Iβm rewatching The Mandalorian. I love the arc of Din Djarin and IG-11βs relationship in season one. It begins adversarial and ends with IG-11 as a stand-in for Djarinβa parents. I get choked up just thinking about it.
Skyline.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei by Rubinho E Mauro AssumpΓ§Γ£o and From Soil To Ashes by Katsu Weri (thanks, Eric Harrison).π΅
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.π΅
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.