Despite having worked as a software engineer for over a decade and received a graduate degree in Computer Science, I had a serious gap in my knowledge: I didn’t actually know how computers worked. Of course, I exaggerate. I knew how logic gates and Boolean algebra worked. I knew that compilers were related to formal […]
These days, most news stories are either about COVID-19 or about the impact of the pandemic on something else. In fact, it’s hard to think of anything that hasn’t been impacted in some way. A few weeks ago, I read a story about how blood banks were running low. Presumably, usual donors were reluctant to […]
As this pandemic continues to stretch out (at least in the US), this new way of life is feeling more normal. Not only has the pandemic affected work life, errands, and socializing, it has also changed our hobbies, and I’m just starting to notice the new normal set in. Of course, four months is perhaps […]
I estimate that I have run between 200 and 300 sessions, and despite having spent over 1000 hours prepping and running games, I just finished a campaign for the first time. It took 7 years and 53 sessions, but I took players from level 1 to 18. They started out fighting zombies and ended fighting […]
If you’re familiar with Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, it’s probably having watched a reaction video like this. I’m not certain if he actually played this game for 12 hours: that seems a tad long (especially for how far he is), but I guess it’s possible. On the other extreme, the current record speedrun […]
I have been quite fortunate during this pandemic to have had my life relatively unaffected. My extended family and I have all stayed healthy. I can continue to work remotely. I also haven’t had a huge change in leisure activities being a homebody. Others have certainly experienced much tougher hardships, and my inconveniences are quite […]
I was quite serious about playing tuba in high school. Somewhere between video games, I actually practiced between a half-hour to an hour every day for almost four years. I can read both treble and bass clefs and various rhythms and time signatures. As part of my daily warmup routine, I played my major scales […]
I have written much about my relationship with video games. Over the past few years, I have found a few stand-outs such Bioshock Infinite, Braid, and the Mass Effect series. However, I have found it more and more difficult to just sit down and play a video game by myself. I tried to diagnose why. […]
I have been incredibly fortunate to have developed some cool and valuable side projects. Most notably, Spawning Tool went from an all-nighter hack to a much beloved and very significant resource in the StarCraft 2 community. However, most side projects don’t work out that way, and I too have a litany of failures. I usually […]
To start, I am no expert on the COVID-19 pandemic and can’t offer recommended behavior or predictions on any aspect of it. I know roughly as much as anyone else reading on the internet and talking to friends about it. And that’s all the time because this pandemic is a big, global deal that has […]