No longer using the #oneaday hashtag, as I’ve officially fallen off the wagon. I’m still going to post as often as I can, but three months of working 5PM-1AM have totally broken my ability to maintain a routine. At this point, labeling these posts #oneaday would just be disingenuous. Erp.
Talking about a videogame today! An unreleased one! Shock and/or amazement!
The break in the clouds lasted several days. It had been years since the sky had permitted more than a fleeting glimpse of the stars, and now a freak high-pressure system had unfolded the velvet night like a gift. The astronomer would have taken advantage, but he was miles from any observatory, and he knew the constellations by heart. He would have gained nothing from retracing his charts, aside from the small comfort of a familiar tableau. He had learned to live without such respite.
He no longer dwelt on the uncertain future. The centuries had taught him that.
A few hours ago, I had a conversation with a friend who was feeling a bit low on confidence. Among my attempts to explain why there was no need for such misery and self-doubt, I said something that was much more significant than I realized:
I am completely full of it sometimes, and that’s not really a big deal.
There was an epic Buzz thread about the misuse of the term “extrinsic motivation” when referring to game design that relies on reward systems like scores or loot to motivate players, rather than something more intellectually stimulating. True to form, I produced this wall of text as my dubious contribution to the discussion:
So I spent the past week back home in New York, visiting friends and giving my roommate the CliffsNotes edition of the city that made me who I am, and every night I arrived home completely exhausted and fell asleep without writing a #oneaday.
Well, crap.
This week I’m going to make up the difference by posting twice a day, which will prove to be a nice exercise in conciseness and avoiding excessive self-editing (which I still do way too much). So, onward…
I miss photographing animals. Since I have few opportunities to snap photos in the wild, I took advantage of a day trip to the Norwalk Aquarium in Connecticut:
I’m on vacation in New York for the rest of the week, so my posts will be short. BUT! I went through some old photo albums at my mom’s place and found these. Sorry about the reflections; I snapped them with my phone camera on a table.
But this post isn’t about him.
Last night was less than ideal for me; I’d been so obsessed with my work that I’d forgotten to file my taxes back in April, and I only remembered when the loan paperwork for my next term at Full Sail requested a copy of my 2009 tax return. At the same time, I opened a letter from my lawyers informing me that they were dropping my case for medical reimbursement after a car accident back in October, resulting in a few grand down the drain. Neither of these things was particularly disastrous, but unfortunately this all occurred at 2AM, when there was literally nothing I could do about it.
Earlier today, Leigh Alexander (who aside from being a fantastic writer is also one of the raddest people I know) wrote a piece for Kotaku questioning our seemingly disproportionate love for simulated war. I posted a long-winded response in a Facebook thread, and honestly I feel kinda silly to have used that thread as a soapbox when I have a Tumblr specifically for this purpose. So it’s going here instead:
From the letters of Cpl. Arto Vaeltanen to Martina Strannikova, ca. Aug. 2023:
…but it is not [the bloodshed] that tears at my soul and finds me whispering your name in the night, over and over like a mantra, like a ward against the darkness. It is the mentality, the brutality of thought, the oppressive air of antagonism and mental violence that blankets this desert. One does not ponder in this place; one only reacts. One does not discuss; one only defends. Everywhere the message is clear: seek not to understand. Seek only to resist the unceasing attack from without, lest your weakness be found and the pale sand painted in broad strokes with your blood.
