We've read a lot of books with the kiddo over the last few years, but Lobel's Frog and Toad short stories from the 70s are my (and his) favorites right now. There are 20 short stories across 4 books. I originally wanted to rank them from my favorite to least favorite in this post, but I couldn't agree with any ordering that I wrote. Each story brings something great and different, from the…
Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective. -- Commissioner Pravin Lal "A Social History of Planet" Okay, after taking claude for a spin a few months ago, I've been using it pretty heavily at my new job. I'd estimated that the SWE role would change to just…
So between a past coworker's recent recommendation, antirez's Don't fall into the anti-AI hype post a week ago, and the internet not shutting up about how good Opus 4.5 is since it released in Nov, I decided to give Claude a try. Reminder As mentioned in how, This blog does not and will not use AI or LLMs to generate any of its content. This is my personal immaterial journal. It's already…
Added a canvas to the grid for fun. Requires js. Might delete later.
I don't game nearly as much these days, what with competing hobbies and responsibilities (I'm looking at you 1473 hrs in dota 2, 402 hrs in factorio, and however many days in ffxiv). But, I've played a handful recently. Here are some quick thoughts in no particular order. Artifacts I hit bronze for the current season of artifacts (currently at 110/200 achievement points), but my automation stalled…
I'm taking another swing at artifacts for its 6th season. This time around, I'm coding it entirely in TypeScript. So naturally, I've run into multiple async bugs from forgetting to await promises. The no-floating-promises eslint check can "Require Promise-like statements to be handled appropriately" and help mitigate this problem by alerting you in your editor. This essentially requires us to use…
During week 0, I started working on my Sherwalk idea from project ideas i. Sherwalk is a game based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. By traveling around Victorian London, you get to explore some of Sherlock Holmes most famous mysteries. But in order to take steps in the game, you need to walk around in the real world. The game does not use your GPS or location, does not have any in-app…
Nothing like writing how your site is built (and a little free time) to make you want to completely redo everything. So, let's dig into what's new. Rendering updates This site is an infinite grid. In the original new site, who dis post from nearly 3 years ago, I mention how that works. The approach to rendering today hasn't changed too much. However, while I originally left all the panels…
After updating the dictionary used by my booggle app, I noticed several words had been removed. One of them was rhinoceroi. what is a dictionary? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines a dictionary as A book which explains or translates, usually in alphabetical order, the words of a language or languages (or of a particular category of vocabulary), giving for each word its typical spelling,…
As mentioned in an update on last week, I left my job. After over a decade working for the company, there's a lot I'll miss. But the three at the top of my mind right now are: There's not much I can do about (1) and (3) right now, but for (2), I've started using Obsidian to keep daily notes of what I'm working on, design docs for side projects, and miscellaneous learnings as I navigate the tech…
It has been an amazing 11.5 (!) year run at Alphabet, by my access was just cut off and my role eliminated. Why are you leaving? "Local Remote" work is going away and I've declined the ask to RTO. I would prefer to work somewhere with a remote-friendly culture. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ One of my awesome past teammates has also shared some interesting thoughts on Google in 2025. What do you plan to do next? No…
wrapped If I've learned anything from seeing my spotify history over the years, it's that video games have a lot of really talented music composers — Masayoshi Soken (FFXIV), Piotr Musiał (Frostpunk), and Danny Baranowsky (Crypt of the Necrodancer) to name a few. adaptive music One of the details I love in some of my favorite games is when the music dynamically responds to what I'm doing. For…
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process. One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken. -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye" colophon I've written…
If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself. -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye" 14 years of watching Tony Horton tell me to do my…
Superior training and superior weaponry have, when taken together, a geometric effect on overall military strength. Well-trained, well-equipped troops can stand up to many more times their lesser brethren than linear arithmetic would seem to indicate. -- Spartan Battle Manual Not the valve one. After playing spacetraders a few months ago, I've once again found myself playing an API game. In…
Urza and the Kor My foray into magic began with the Call of the Kor deck from Stronghold (1998). However, when I think of my personal magic nostalgia, the picture in my head is of the Lightning Dragon on the cover of those Urza's Saga tournament packs. Of the cards I own from this generation, some of my favorites were Memory Jar, Rancor, and Deranged Hermit from Urza's Legacy (1999). On again, off…
And so we return again to the holy void. Some say this is simply our destiny, but I would have you remember always that the void EXISTS, just as surely as you or I. Is nothingness any less a miracle than substance? -- Sister Miriam Godwinson "We Must Dissent" Spacetraders is a "space-themed economic game with HTTP endpoints for automating gameplay and building custom tools." It's had me hooked…
There are two kinds of scientific progress: the methodical experimentation and categorization which gradually extend the boundaries of knowledge, and the revolutionary leap of genius which redefines and transcends those boundaries. Acknowledging our debt to the former, we yearn nonetheless for the latter. -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov "Address to the Faculty" Prelude While digging through some…
I The fifth ffxiv expansion, Dawntrail, releases in exactly three weeks on June 28 and I'm excited to continue the adventure. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics between the Scions plays out on opposite sides of the political struggle over in Tural and Wuk Lamat seems like a great addition to the cast. If there isn't a battle on that big bridge between the northern and southern regions,…
If you're on desktop, you can now zoom in and out on the grid with the [ and ] keys. I'd previously toyed with animations that would zoom in and out when navigating far distances on the grid, but never settled on one that I liked. This feature takes inspiration from that, letting you just zoom in and out as you please. At 3 levels of zoom, the performance of the page is a little janky, but not so…