March 25
Brass sextet for 6 trumpets and epic digital signal processing
I haven't been able to make music with my brass quintet since the start of the pandemic. I ended up redirecting that grief into a 10-month quest to use extensive digital signal processing to transform live trumpet audio into realistic horn, trombone, and tuba, so I could play a sextet with myself.
I haven't been able to make music with my brass quintet since the start of the pandemic. I ended up redirecting that grief into a 10-month quest to use extensive digital signal processing to transform live trumpet audio into realistic horn, trombone, and tuba, so I could play a sextet with myself.
A narrative game system over 200 years old: "The Impromptu Tale"
I worked up a rough translation of one of the collaborative story-telling games linked in this post: Pre-Surrealist Games. It's called "The Impromptu Tale," and there's a lot to it that modern tabletop gamers may find familiar.
I worked up a rough translation of one of the collaborative story-telling games linked in this post: Pre-Surrealist Games. It's called "The Impromptu Tale," and there's a lot to it that modern tabletop gamers may find familiar.
March 23
A VR Schizophrenia Simulator for Us All
My senior year of college, I had a mental crisis of sorts. I was struggling with intrusive thoughts and was afraid that I’d blurt them out loud in class, thereby humiliating myself and inflicting emotional damage on both myself and my peers. I became convinced I had schizophrenia, although I wasn’t exhibiting any of the symptoms... [more inside]
My senior year of college, I had a mental crisis of sorts. I was struggling with intrusive thoughts and was afraid that I’d blurt them out loud in class, thereby humiliating myself and inflicting emotional damage on both myself and my peers. I became convinced I had schizophrenia, although I wasn’t exhibiting any of the symptoms... [more inside]
March 20
Hermit Crabs of Paradise Cove, Vanuatu
I lived in Vanuatu for 4+ months pre-pandemic and was intrigued by the variety of Hermit Crabs on the beach. I decided to photograph them. These are my favorites. [more inside]
I lived in Vanuatu for 4+ months pre-pandemic and was intrigued by the variety of Hermit Crabs on the beach. I decided to photograph them. These are my favorites. [more inside]
March 19
You think you're addicted to Spelling Bee?
Here's my NYT Spelling Bee inspired game, Spellbound. Besides coding it up, I created all the word lists. Compared to the NYT, there is more food and plants, fewer chemicals and fish, and no words that would embarrass anyone playing with their children. Free, no ads, no shared data, just for fun. And you don't need a subscription to the NYT to play it.
Here's my NYT Spelling Bee inspired game, Spellbound. Besides coding it up, I created all the word lists. Compared to the NYT, there is more food and plants, fewer chemicals and fish, and no words that would embarrass anyone playing with their children. Free, no ads, no shared data, just for fun. And you don't need a subscription to the NYT to play it.
March 16
OpenCV AI Game Show
OpenCV AI Game Show is a trivia show all about artificial intelligence and computer vision. 3 contestants go through 3 rounds of questions in different formats. In our pilot episode folks are playing for a charity of their choosing. It's sponsored by Intel, and I'm the showrunner / co-host. [more inside]
OpenCV AI Game Show is a trivia show all about artificial intelligence and computer vision. 3 contestants go through 3 rounds of questions in different formats. In our pilot episode folks are playing for a charity of their choosing. It's sponsored by Intel, and I'm the showrunner / co-host. [more inside]
March 14
Post-Gogol World
Daniil Kharms' (discussed here and here) texts (specifically, 8 texts) were translated (into English) and recorded (on analog tape) with improvized jazz (by musicians). The Musicians' Improvized Jazz Analog Tape English Translations of 8 Specific Daniil Kharms Texts was supposedly "too long" and "not great", so we titled the album "Post-Gogol World" instead. It's now available on Bandcamp. Give it a spin! x
Daniil Kharms' (discussed here and here) texts (specifically, 8 texts) were translated (into English) and recorded (on analog tape) with improvized jazz (by musicians). The Musicians' Improvized Jazz Analog Tape English Translations of 8 Specific Daniil Kharms Texts was supposedly "too long" and "not great", so we titled the album "Post-Gogol World" instead. It's now available on Bandcamp. Give it a spin! x
March 8
Hunter x Hunter Ladies Fanzine - For International Women's Day
Happy International Women's Day! I'm back again with another fan project! This one is a fanzine for Yoshihiro Togashi's anime and manga Hunter x Hunter, possibly the only Weekly Shounen Jump manga where the co-protagonist ends the series by deciding to look after his beloved trans kid sister instead of embarking on further adventures. To celebrate all the great female and fem characters in this series, we put together this free fanzine, which you can read at the link above. It was important for us to create an inclusive zine, and I'd like to ask in comments for your suggestions for trans-inclusive feminist charities, especially European ones, as we are still deciding where we'd like to put any money left over at the of this project (the digital zine is free, the print zine is at cost, and we might do a merch drive for charity if we can find the right one). [more inside]
Happy International Women's Day! I'm back again with another fan project! This one is a fanzine for Yoshihiro Togashi's anime and manga Hunter x Hunter, possibly the only Weekly Shounen Jump manga where the co-protagonist ends the series by deciding to look after his beloved trans kid sister instead of embarking on further adventures. To celebrate all the great female and fem characters in this series, we put together this free fanzine, which you can read at the link above. It was important for us to create an inclusive zine, and I'd like to ask in comments for your suggestions for trans-inclusive feminist charities, especially European ones, as we are still deciding where we'd like to put any money left over at the of this project (the digital zine is free, the print zine is at cost, and we might do a merch drive for charity if we can find the right one). [more inside]
The Gender Bias Inside GPT-3
In honor of International Women's Day, I decided to do an experiment to see what GPT-3 might reveal about human gender bias. And boy did it reveal a lot!
In honor of International Women's Day, I decided to do an experiment to see what GPT-3 might reveal about human gender bias. And boy did it reveal a lot!
March 7
Guess the AI Jukebox artist
AI Jukebox is a fascinating project from OpenAI that uses cutting-edge neural neworks to perform all sorts of musical magic -- it can take a clip of a song and continue it in a new way, sing text lyrics in any artist's voice, make a song sound like it's being sung by someone else. My favorite? Tell it to generate music by an artist without any other info, and it will produce a gibberish song with nonsense lyrics... that still sounds 100% real and just like the actual singer or band with their unique style. You can hear instruments, melodies, sometimes an audience, the breathing of the lead singer -- but the whole thing is generated completely from scratch by the AI, not with samples or digital sounds. It's not flawless -- some of the songs ramble, with glitchy effects or a mutating voice. But these just add to the vibe, like it's from a dream or a parallel universe. I went through their database to find the best examples of these tracks from the most famous artists, then turned them into an audio quiz on Sporcle -- complete with AI-generated art of the artists I made to serve as hints in the second round. How many of the artists can you name? [more inside]
AI Jukebox is a fascinating project from OpenAI that uses cutting-edge neural neworks to perform all sorts of musical magic -- it can take a clip of a song and continue it in a new way, sing text lyrics in any artist's voice, make a song sound like it's being sung by someone else. My favorite? Tell it to generate music by an artist without any other info, and it will produce a gibberish song with nonsense lyrics... that still sounds 100% real and just like the actual singer or band with their unique style. You can hear instruments, melodies, sometimes an audience, the breathing of the lead singer -- but the whole thing is generated completely from scratch by the AI, not with samples or digital sounds. It's not flawless -- some of the songs ramble, with glitchy effects or a mutating voice. But these just add to the vibe, like it's from a dream or a parallel universe. I went through their database to find the best examples of these tracks from the most famous artists, then turned them into an audio quiz on Sporcle -- complete with AI-generated art of the artists I made to serve as hints in the second round. How many of the artists can you name? [more inside]
March 5
A cryptic clue a day for Enigmarch
For Enigmarch instead of writing a full-fledged puzzle every day, I'm just writing a daily cryptic crossword clue. [more inside]
For Enigmarch instead of writing a full-fledged puzzle every day, I'm just writing a daily cryptic crossword clue. [more inside]
March 2
Polyfluous: MIDI-enhanced keyboard polyphony
I wanted to play polyphonic music (e.g., Bach) on my keyboard and give each voice a different sound, so I wrote some software to make it so. Link goes to 2 min. youtube video of a somewhat rough demonstration of my progress so far. Still lots to do, but I think there's something there.
I wanted to play polyphonic music (e.g., Bach) on my keyboard and give each voice a different sound, so I wrote some software to make it so. Link goes to 2 min. youtube video of a somewhat rough demonstration of my progress so far. Still lots to do, but I think there's something there.
March 1
February 27
The World's First Granny Square Pattern
While doing research for an article on the history of the granny square (a crochet motif), I managed to find what is very likely the first published pattern for a granny square. With the help of another researcher, I was able to trace the connection between its first publication and what was previously thought to be the first published example. I then contacted some historians to do some myth-busting about previous theories of its origins. [more inside]
While doing research for an article on the history of the granny square (a crochet motif), I managed to find what is very likely the first published pattern for a granny square. With the help of another researcher, I was able to trace the connection between its first publication and what was previously thought to be the first published example. I then contacted some historians to do some myth-busting about previous theories of its origins. [more inside]
February 19
Saturday morning cartoons
Classic, weird and wonderful cartoons streaming on Twitch for your watching enjoyment, picked from my collection of old and odd stuff [more inside]
Classic, weird and wonderful cartoons streaming on Twitch for your watching enjoyment, picked from my collection of old and odd stuff [more inside]
February 18
Le Grand Tour (Echoes from Jupiter)
My band's (post-rock, from Québec, Canada) third LP, a 42-minute journey through space and (hopefully) time. For this one, we chose to tell a story through a kid's point of view.
My band's (post-rock, from Québec, Canada) third LP, a 42-minute journey through space and (hopefully) time. For this one, we chose to tell a story through a kid's point of view.
February 16
Vmail newsletter
I wanted to try something different, so I've created a weird mixture of discussion list, newsletter, bulletin board & letters page. Anyone can submit text/Markdown and images with retro filters, then selected messages get sent out in a single-email 'inbox'. [more inside]
I wanted to try something different, so I've created a weird mixture of discussion list, newsletter, bulletin board & letters page. Anyone can submit text/Markdown and images with retro filters, then selected messages get sent out in a single-email 'inbox'. [more inside]
DNDle - Wordle, but you're picking stats to guess D&D monsters
It feels like there's a Wordle clone for everybody nowadays. But I decided to go in a slightly different direction when I made DNDle, a game in which you try to guess the Dungeons & Dragons "monster of the day" by assigning values to its attributes and being told where you've got them right. [more inside]
It feels like there's a Wordle clone for everybody nowadays. But I decided to go in a slightly different direction when I made DNDle, a game in which you try to guess the Dungeons & Dragons "monster of the day" by assigning values to its attributes and being told where you've got them right. [more inside]
London is Stranger than Fiction
… was a 1950s newspaper cartoon strip by the artist and historian Peter Jackson (not that one). Appearing weekly in London’s Evening News and modelled closely on Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Jackson’s strips recounted the true stories and fascinating trivia of London’s bizarre past. They’re as eye-opening today as ever, and still an excellent guide for anyone with a sense of curiosity about the city. In one 1950 strip alone, Jackson covers London’s earthquake panic of 1750, the reinforced hats worn by Billingsgate fish porters, a remarkable tomb in Bunhill Fields and where to find the West End’s clock in a barrel. Elsewhere in his career, he succeeded the great Frank Bellamy on Eagle’s Marco Polo strip and painted dozens of historic scenes for the British educational comic Look and Learn. You can see a handful of my own favourite LISTF strips in this Twitter thread and read my full PlanetSlade essay about the series and Jackson’s other work here. [more inside]
… was a 1950s newspaper cartoon strip by the artist and historian Peter Jackson (not that one). Appearing weekly in London’s Evening News and modelled closely on Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Jackson’s strips recounted the true stories and fascinating trivia of London’s bizarre past. They’re as eye-opening today as ever, and still an excellent guide for anyone with a sense of curiosity about the city. In one 1950 strip alone, Jackson covers London’s earthquake panic of 1750, the reinforced hats worn by Billingsgate fish porters, a remarkable tomb in Bunhill Fields and where to find the West End’s clock in a barrel. Elsewhere in his career, he succeeded the great Frank Bellamy on Eagle’s Marco Polo strip and painted dozens of historic scenes for the British educational comic Look and Learn. You can see a handful of my own favourite LISTF strips in this Twitter thread and read my full PlanetSlade essay about the series and Jackson’s other work here. [more inside]
February 11
Flowers, vase and petals
This is a painting I commissioned from a local artist. I've had this idea / image in my mind for several years, it started with a rose being handed to me as a new student somewhere, a table and a boring lecture... I ended up separating every petal from the flower and arranging the petals into perfectly even rows. It means a lot to me, but I think the most important attribute of an art work is what it makes the observer think or feel.
This is a painting I commissioned from a local artist. I've had this idea / image in my mind for several years, it started with a rose being handed to me as a new student somewhere, a table and a boring lecture... I ended up separating every petal from the flower and arranging the petals into perfectly even rows. It means a lot to me, but I think the most important attribute of an art work is what it makes the observer think or feel.
February 10
Around the World in 80000 lat/lon pairs.
I got a bit obsessed with Around The World in 80 Days, and went looking for a data set showing the journey. It turns out there wasn't one, so I went and made it. [more inside]
I got a bit obsessed with Around The World in 80 Days, and went looking for a data set showing the journey. It turns out there wasn't one, so I went and made it. [more inside]
February 4
WordleWordle
Feeling SPEECHLESS at the wonderfulness that is Wordle? But prefer to play words that are DECAMETRIC? Ready to put UNSTINTING effort into a new word COLLECTION with the same AESTHETICS? This might just be in your SUGARHOUSE if you can make the ADJUSTMENT from 5-letter words to 10-letter words. STRENGTHEN your VOCABULARY and play WordleWordle today!
Feeling SPEECHLESS at the wonderfulness that is Wordle? But prefer to play words that are DECAMETRIC? Ready to put UNSTINTING effort into a new word COLLECTION with the same AESTHETICS? This might just be in your SUGARHOUSE if you can make the ADJUSTMENT from 5-letter words to 10-letter words. STRENGTHEN your VOCABULARY and play WordleWordle today!
Brigid: Goddess, Saint, Badass (Or Why I'm Starting This YouTube Channel)
This is my first YouTube video, which I've been working on researching, writing, filming, and editing for the past three weeks to a month. content note for Metafilter: contains spirituality of the witchy kind
This is my first YouTube video, which I've been working on researching, writing, filming, and editing for the past three weeks to a month. content note for Metafilter: contains spirituality of the witchy kind
January 31
Return to the Planet: a Zine Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of FFVII
About eight months ago, some discord friends and I decided we wanted to make a zine to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. It's been a long ride, but happy to share the result with you guys because so many people poured their souls into this passion project and it came out amazing. Includes original art and writing from ~60 people, including eight non-fiction essays discussing topics ranging from Carl Sagan to 90s Japanese environmental activism. Cheers!
About eight months ago, some discord friends and I decided we wanted to make a zine to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. It's been a long ride, but happy to share the result with you guys because so many people poured their souls into this passion project and it came out amazing. Includes original art and writing from ~60 people, including eight non-fiction essays discussing topics ranging from Carl Sagan to 90s Japanese environmental activism. Cheers!
Modern Love
Modern Love is a short hypothetical story about love in the age of data. "It was the tradition now. To go along with those old markers of commitment – engagement rings, joint bank accounts, borrowed clothes, shared rent – there was this opening up of your data to each other, all the things you had said and done and seen and been, all the way back to the beginning of time (2007). There was no deeper symbol of your trust, no greater intimacy in your relationship, than this limitless mingling of information. Anna and Oya laid their phones on top of each other and between them they shared everything." [more inside]
Modern Love is a short hypothetical story about love in the age of data. "It was the tradition now. To go along with those old markers of commitment – engagement rings, joint bank accounts, borrowed clothes, shared rent – there was this opening up of your data to each other, all the things you had said and done and seen and been, all the way back to the beginning of time (2007). There was no deeper symbol of your trust, no greater intimacy in your relationship, than this limitless mingling of information. Anna and Oya laid their phones on top of each other and between them they shared everything." [more inside]
January 26
Kool
I made this video for my band, Bottlecap Mountain, and our new song, Kool. I play bass on the song, and did everything on the video. [more inside]
I made this video for my band, Bottlecap Mountain, and our new song, Kool. I play bass on the song, and did everything on the video. [more inside]
January 24
Birdsong Audio Separation
We made some cool new machine learning models for separating birdsong in soundscape recordings, and demonstrated how to use the separated audio to improve downstream classification. The separation model is available on github, where we've also got lots more examples. There's also a paper.
We made some cool new machine learning models for separating birdsong in soundscape recordings, and demonstrated how to use the separated audio to improve downstream classification. The separation model is available on github, where we've also got lots more examples. There's also a paper.
January 21
The Fix - Everything We Think We Know About Drugs and Addiction is Wrong.
Samuel L. Jackson narrates this fast-paced, provocative series that upends everything you think you know about addiction—from why we use drugs to how they’re brought to market. Adapted from Johann Hari’s best selling book, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs” and celebrated Ted Talk, "The Fix" exposes the true history of the war on drugs and its impact worldwide. Watch the entire series for free.
Samuel L. Jackson narrates this fast-paced, provocative series that upends everything you think you know about addiction—from why we use drugs to how they’re brought to market. Adapted from Johann Hari’s best selling book, “Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs” and celebrated Ted Talk, "The Fix" exposes the true history of the war on drugs and its impact worldwide. Watch the entire series for free.
January 20
So I made a Wordle clone (with some extra features)
I have been playing Wordle for a few months with friends from a Discord, and I really liked it, but I felt it had some shortcomings that I wanted to address. So, I made a Wordle clone. It's mostly the same as Wordle but [more inside]
I have been playing Wordle for a few months with friends from a Discord, and I really liked it, but I felt it had some shortcomings that I wanted to address. So, I made a Wordle clone. It's mostly the same as Wordle but [more inside]
January 18
How Stories Saved Me
A blog post I wrote Skolion, on how being a writer with a vivid imagination both harmed and helped my mental health.
A blog post I wrote Skolion, on how being a writer with a vivid imagination both harmed and helped my mental health.
January 17
The 885 films I saw and reviewed in 2021
Last year I started reviewing the many films I watch. Bit by bit, writing these reviews became my new “Art Project”, my main creative 'thing’ for 2021. I usually only write a short personal paragraph or two about each film. Here is the 2021 year-end summery with stats and a spreadsheet. I've continued with it now into the second year.
Last year I started reviewing the many films I watch. Bit by bit, writing these reviews became my new “Art Project”, my main creative 'thing’ for 2021. I usually only write a short personal paragraph or two about each film. Here is the 2021 year-end summery with stats and a spreadsheet. I've continued with it now into the second year.
January 16
Dang Blues: The return of Jawbone.
When Bob "Jawbone" Zabor, a one-man blues band from Detroit, played a 2004 live session on John Peel's BBC radio show, the DJ declared him "almost a definition of what I would like this programme to be about". Peel played nearly every track of Jawbone's homemade CDR on the show and immediately invited him for another live session - but died before that offer could be made good. Jawbone, who still struggled to find gigs in America, released a couple of official albums here and remained a cult favourite on the UK circuit until 2008, when he suddenly dropped out of sight. Now he's back with his first new songs in over a decade and this exclusive PlanetSlade interview telling the full story. [more inside]
When Bob "Jawbone" Zabor, a one-man blues band from Detroit, played a 2004 live session on John Peel's BBC radio show, the DJ declared him "almost a definition of what I would like this programme to be about". Peel played nearly every track of Jawbone's homemade CDR on the show and immediately invited him for another live session - but died before that offer could be made good. Jawbone, who still struggled to find gigs in America, released a couple of official albums here and remained a cult favourite on the UK circuit until 2008, when he suddenly dropped out of sight. Now he's back with his first new songs in over a decade and this exclusive PlanetSlade interview telling the full story. [more inside]
January 14
The Rocinante, my hand-painted ship model from The Expanse
I wanted to gift my partner a scale model of the Rocinante, the ship of the primary crew on the show/in the books of The Expanse. So I found a 3D printer who could print the ship (credited inside) and I meticulously painted the ship with every detail using reference images and stills from the show, using the Season 4 red/black/grey design. [more inside]
I wanted to gift my partner a scale model of the Rocinante, the ship of the primary crew on the show/in the books of The Expanse. So I found a 3D printer who could print the ship (credited inside) and I meticulously painted the ship with every detail using reference images and stills from the show, using the Season 4 red/black/grey design. [more inside]
January 9
The year I won a year's supply of cheese
I started a little journal about what I did with the year's supply of (Cabot) cheese that I won in a contest. And then COVID hit and I forgot to finish it. I finally did. 🧀
I started a little journal about what I did with the year's supply of (Cabot) cheese that I won in a contest. And then COVID hit and I forgot to finish it. I finally did. 🧀
January 5
A tiny story I am proud of
This is a very tiny story (less than 500 words) that I wrote years ago for a writing workshop, and the vagaries of social media recently reminded me that it exists. I re-read it, and remembered how much I like it and thought I would share it with Metafilter.
This is a very tiny story (less than 500 words) that I wrote years ago for a writing workshop, and the vagaries of social media recently reminded me that it exists. I re-read it, and remembered how much I like it and thought I would share it with Metafilter.
January 1
Hello, I'm Currently…
This is a non-functioning but clickable demo (built using Carrd) of the sort of thing I wish I had now that I'm off social media: a profile-driven site, with no feed, where people can just update what they're up to or into these days. "Catch up, then log off; made for people, not users." [more inside]
This is a non-functioning but clickable demo (built using Carrd) of the sort of thing I wish I had now that I'm off social media: a profile-driven site, with no feed, where people can just update what they're up to or into these days. "Catch up, then log off; made for people, not users." [more inside]
December 31
And They Were Not My Words
And They Were Not My Words is a small collection/zine of various cut-up fiction experiments, in which I’ve tried creating new works from old pieces by various authors. Includes Five Entries Recovered From Jorge Luis Borges’ Imaginary Book Of Beings, In The Terminals Of Minraud (a William Burroughs trilogy), Thirteen New Tales by the Brothers Grimm, Five Tributes To The Works Of Daniil Kharms, and What Haruki Murakami Talks About When He Talks About Women. [more inside]
And They Were Not My Words is a small collection/zine of various cut-up fiction experiments, in which I’ve tried creating new works from old pieces by various authors. Includes Five Entries Recovered From Jorge Luis Borges’ Imaginary Book Of Beings, In The Terminals Of Minraud (a William Burroughs trilogy), Thirteen New Tales by the Brothers Grimm, Five Tributes To The Works Of Daniil Kharms, and What Haruki Murakami Talks About When He Talks About Women. [more inside]
December 30
The Frenchie Guide to Life ??
If you're thinking of getting a French Bulldog or are already a butler to one, this guide is packed with Frenchie-specific information and printables to help your Frenchie live it's fullest, healthiest and happiest life. [more inside]
If you're thinking of getting a French Bulldog or are already a butler to one, this guide is packed with Frenchie-specific information and printables to help your Frenchie live it's fullest, healthiest and happiest life. [more inside]
December 24
Noddy screams "It's Christmas!" for one hour
Just some dumb fun on December 24: my wife (Kitteh, here) said "I could listen to Noddy scream It's Chriiiistmaaaas!! for hours, and I thought I'd test that theory. [more inside]
Just some dumb fun on December 24: my wife (Kitteh, here) said "I could listen to Noddy scream It's Chriiiistmaaaas!! for hours, and I thought I'd test that theory. [more inside]
December 23
Mary Sue's Character Casino
A loving tribute to character tropes, gacha games, and freestyle music in the form of a simple, browser-based roguelike deckbuilder. [more inside]
A loving tribute to character tropes, gacha games, and freestyle music in the form of a simple, browser-based roguelike deckbuilder. [more inside]
December 22
Emma Goldcoin
Emma Goldcoin (EGX) is an easy to use and totally secure cryptocurrency with zero environmental impact. [more inside]
Emma Goldcoin (EGX) is an easy to use and totally secure cryptocurrency with zero environmental impact. [more inside]
Tracking college and university plans for Omicron
How will academia deal with the Omicron COVID wave? Several of us set up an open Google Sheet to track institutional plans, especially decisions to cancel or move classes online this January. [more inside]
How will academia deal with the Omicron COVID wave? Several of us set up an open Google Sheet to track institutional plans, especially decisions to cancel or move classes online this January. [more inside]
December 20
Rogerian Therapist Bot
This is a Rogerian therapist modeled after real transcripts of therapy administered by Carl Rogers. Uniquely, this program can be downloaded and used locally. It is for entertainment purposes only, of course, but some may fortuitously find it helps in self-examination. Enjoy!
This is a Rogerian therapist modeled after real transcripts of therapy administered by Carl Rogers. Uniquely, this program can be downloaded and used locally. It is for entertainment purposes only, of course, but some may fortuitously find it helps in self-examination. Enjoy!
December 19
Overtime (a seasonal Laundry Files tale)
Every author has to write a Christmas story sooner or later, even if they're not Christian: it's a tradition or an old charter or something. Here's mine, published in 2009 on Tor.com and shortlisted for the Hugo award for best novelette in 2010 (it didn't win). Merry solstice!
Every author has to write a Christmas story sooner or later, even if they're not Christian: it's a tradition or an old charter or something. Here's mine, published in 2009 on Tor.com and shortlisted for the Hugo award for best novelette in 2010 (it didn't win). Merry solstice!
December 16
North London's angry & witty protest stickers: a gallery of lamp-post art
I've been out photographing the street art of my North London neighbourhood again. This time, it's the wide range of angry, witty and often very creative protest stickers adorning every lamp-post and traffic sign round here. Targets of the 50+ stickers in my online gallery include climate change, male violence, NHS austerity, Brexit and increased police powers. Others I've chosen aren't protest stickers at all, but earn a place anyway simply because they made me laugh. [more inside]
I've been out photographing the street art of my North London neighbourhood again. This time, it's the wide range of angry, witty and often very creative protest stickers adorning every lamp-post and traffic sign round here. Targets of the 50+ stickers in my online gallery include climate change, male violence, NHS austerity, Brexit and increased police powers. Others I've chosen aren't protest stickers at all, but earn a place anyway simply because they made me laugh. [more inside]
December 12
git-history: a tool for analyzing scraped data collected using Git and SQLite
I've been exploring a way of running web scrapers for a few years that I call Git scraping: the idea is to scrape a source of data (like a "current power outages" map from an electricity company) into a Git repository such that the history of that repository tells the story of changes to that information over time. git-history is a new command-line utility I've released which helps convert that collected history into a SQLite database to support analysis using my Datasette tool.
I've been exploring a way of running web scrapers for a few years that I call Git scraping: the idea is to scrape a source of data (like a "current power outages" map from an electricity company) into a Git repository such that the history of that repository tells the story of changes to that information over time. git-history is a new command-line utility I've released which helps convert that collected history into a SQLite database to support analysis using my Datasette tool.
December 10
Show-biz Yiddish
Yiddish words that were used in the golden age of entertainment, with brief demonstrations by yours truly in a variety of silly voices and glasses.
Yiddish words that were used in the golden age of entertainment, with brief demonstrations by yours truly in a variety of silly voices and glasses.
December 7
Triple Tautonyms
I noticed a list of 28 triple tautonyms (animals with zoological names made up of three identical words) and decided to make them into a Top Trumps/Pokemon deck using illustrations by HappyToast. There's a PDF of the cards you can print off.
I noticed a list of 28 triple tautonyms (animals with zoological names made up of three identical words) and decided to make them into a Top Trumps/Pokemon deck using illustrations by HappyToast. There's a PDF of the cards you can print off.
December 1
Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day
Lots of important things depend on volunteer labor - local civic groups, open source software projects, and more. But maybe you are getting exhausted, burned out, from trying to volunteer too much. So: every solstice (the next one is December 21st), it might make sense to take a look at your volunteer responsibilities, and see if it's time to pause, rotate, or sunset one of them. Feel free to point to the Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day page as a way of saying: I need to put a few things down. I hope other people pick them up and carry this work forward. But even if no one does, I need to stop, or at least pause for a while. [more inside]
Lots of important things depend on volunteer labor - local civic groups, open source software projects, and more. But maybe you are getting exhausted, burned out, from trying to volunteer too much. So: every solstice (the next one is December 21st), it might make sense to take a look at your volunteer responsibilities, and see if it's time to pause, rotate, or sunset one of them. Feel free to point to the Volunteer Responsibility Amnesty Day page as a way of saying: I need to put a few things down. I hope other people pick them up and carry this work forward. But even if no one does, I need to stop, or at least pause for a while. [more inside]
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