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Sat 19 Nov, 2022
to lessen the worry about what I should or shouldn't be writing on here, I may as well start with a general brain-dump. here's what's on my mind at the moment.
I had been on twitter for over a decade and had no plans to leave, but between having a couple of bad experiences on there recently and things getting *weird* with the acquisition, I haven't used it in about a week.
fortuitously, a friend created a Hometown (Mastodon fork) instance a couple of months ago, and I've been using that a lot. it feels pretty cosy, and I've only seen one fascist so far, so that's pretty good. it's pretty shocking how much the fediverse has been taking off - while a couple of weeks ago it would have been unthinkable for one of my posts to get more than a small handful of interactions, this week I had a post "blow up" by my standards (hundreds of boosts and faves) - I bring this up not to brag but to illustrate how completely caught off guard I was. I had been making posts for an audience of about 20 friends - that's not necessarily going to be the case all the time now. I'm not sure whether to restrict my privacy settings or expand my conception of my "audience" on there. I definitely prefer a cosy vibe; irritated strangers appearing in my mentions because I phrased something poorly (or whatever) is the sort of twitter-esque thing I'd like to avoid.
a week ago I was struck by a creative spark and spent the weekend prototyping a small game engine. I don't want to go into too much detail on it, since I want it to be a surprise for the game dev community I'm a part of, but I have a working prototype now. I'm using rust (just because it's the language I'm most comfortable with at the moment) and a crate that provides ffi bindings to raylib, an excellent set of C libraries. my approach here is to create a very simple scripting language, and all the game data is just files in a folder, referenced by the script(s). there's already support for images, text, music and custom fonts.
I'm pretty happy about this, since I've had creative block for quite a long time, and my previous (more ambitious) attempt at a game engine stalled repeatedly. I've also sketched out a small game I'd like to make, to debut the engine with.
today, my mum came over and helped me make some progress in putting together a metal shed in my garden, although there wasn't enough time/daylight to get the roof onto it. I'm a little nervous about leaving it half-finished outside in case strong winds bend the frame or something, so wish me luck.
I also cooked a veggie goulash with chive dumplings, with her help!
I'm only a couple of chapters into this so far but it's gripping. A mind-expanding look into fungi, the least-understood form of life on our planet, and the crucial symbiotic relationships it forms with both plant and animal life.
I knew the pharmaceutical industry was a problem, but this book rather excellently catalogues the myriad ways that the profit motive stifles pharmaceutical innovation, directly and indirectly harms our health, impoverishes patients, and needlessly drains public funds. nationalise this shit immediately please.
I checked this one out on a recommendation from Lee Tusman on Mastodon, especially since I'm a fan of Saharan band Tinariwen and I wanted to check out some other music from the region. a beautifully lo-fi collection of songs, very atmospheric. I'll have to check out this label's other releases.
yeah, I'm still on my bullshit. I can't stop listening to smooth music. a few choice picks recently:
Michael McDonald - No Such Luck
Steely Dan - Any World (That I'm Welcome To)
Hall and Oates - Gino (The Manager)
right, that's about it for now. ciao!
max
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