I got really hurt a year ago and almost died. I think I'm doing okay now.

I still check here sometimes but can't think of anything to say. I'm surprised the site is still here, but my old self feels like it has so little in common with present me.

My notifications bell says I have a bunch of alerts, but clicking that button gives me nothing because they're too old to appear, hahaha.

Hope everyone's okay.

Long ago in an ancient era, I promised to post my own advice guide on writing haiku, since I'd written a couple for a story. People liked some of them, so maybe I knew a few things that might be helpful. And I really wanted to examine some of the rules of the form, how they're used, how they're broken.

Read More

I used to think quality animation entirely boiled down to how detailed and smooth the character drawings were. In other words, time and effort, so it's simply about getting as much funding as possible. I blame the animation elitists for this attitude. If not for them, I might've wanted to become an animator myself. They killed all my interest.

It took a really long time to figure out there's something more important going on: direction. Just like in live-action film, imagine that.

Read More

For years, every time someone says "All Lives Matter" I'm reminded of this quote:

It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.

Read More

Not long ago I discovered that archive.org has free videos of every episode from Connections: An Alternative View of Change.

https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke

I think it's the most amazing educational TV program I've ever seen (sorry Carl Sagan, you can still be #2). It finds an interesting path through history / technology that covers so many overlooked details and persons, while still tying everything back into the big picture.

Read More

This is a good video (hopefully it works in all browsers, GDC's site is weird) about fairness in games. And by extension, stories.

https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025683/Board-Game-Design-Day-King

Preferences are preferences, but some of them are much stronger than that. Things that feel wrong to us. Like we want to say, "that's not how stories should go!"

Read More

I wanted to write this exhaustive academic analysis after revisiting Butterfly Soup, a short visual novel by Brianna Lei, creator of Pom Gets Wi-Fi. She literally writes the best character dialogue since William Shakespeare, so you should buy this game immediately.

(also it's free)

I won't spoil anything at all here, just wanted to describe how the VN makes such a smart choice about story structure.

Read More

“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel, you will never be stuck.”

(source)

Read More

I noticed that Jamie Foxx's character in Baby Driver is a pretty similar archetype to Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs. They're the psychopath. And among a group of thieves, the others dislike them for being trigger happy and putting everyone at greater risk. Bats and Blonde see it the other way, that they're the only ones being serious and protecting the team. It's everyone else being a poseur.

Bats: You rob to support a drug habit. I do drugs to support a robbery habit.

Read More

I've been going to Bronycon since 2015, the year of the largest attendance record. The last one ever is less than a month away. We should honor it by following some of the strange traditions I've accumulated over the years.

some of these are not actually traditions, but by me pretending they are, they become so

Escape Room

Read More