Ink for October 1st, 2020

As mentioned in my most recent check-in, I'm going to do something slightly different. As in, I'm taking a leaf out of Dave Winer's book and will try to blog everyday. I've also been inspired a few other things—Banjo Guy Ollie's foray into vlogging, MsMadLemon's approach to her YouTube channel as she writes on her blog, Ivenne's (CheapShow Magazine and 1324: Out of Order) blogging on her Patreon, Logospilgrim doing the same thing while getting back into drawing, Louis Rossmann on his Bafang (or on his armchair), etc.

In short, awesome people doing awesome things. I thought about going the vlogging route, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to properly do one. I'm not exactly photogenic and being anal retentive (read: a perfectionist) would probably be the thing that scares me from doing one. It sometimes intimidates me from properly doing a blog without repeating similar things over and over.     

It goes without saying that there's no structure to this. It'll all be freehand. I'll do some editing to add hyperlinks and make some sentences make more sense. Outside of that, it's like how I tweet but with no limits. I recall Winer saying something similar in one of his posts, where he takes his tweets and places them into said posts. Unfortunately, I can't find the link for that one. Not sure what keywords would bring it up.

Yesterday went really well, all things (at large) considered. One of my co-workers bought me a chocolate and peanut butter cupcake and breaded spaghetti (or spaghetti and sand) was on the menu. The latter was my favorite childhood meal so it was a nice, personal journey into nostalgia. I always preferred small celebrations with immediate family over big gatherings. 

Kickstarter rewards also came in coincidentally—the first half of 8-Bit Symphony Pro on CD with the bonus "Just the Chips" album, and Amiga Rocks from Fastloaders in digital. More importantly though, the second episode of Liana Kerzner's Bossfight aired on YouTube.

If you remember the posts that I scrapped, or just scoured the Wayback Machine. I mentioned Liana in relation to me being frustrated at how reactionary the web—at large or in small sectors—was to particular issues. Looking back, I feel like my big issue was with the presumed "culture wars", or rather the art of feeling obligated to take a side on a thing you have no investment in for the sake of advocacy at large, or face outrage. There's something I remember from my university days that relates to this and what I would call superficial advocacy, but I'll save that for tomorrow. It's getting late for me.

I would say that Liana's one of the reasons why I've been able to enjoy playing video games again as games. Aside from this year's usual suspects that you may see me retweeting, liking (if the timeline isn't chronological), or recommending in the case of podcasters—Geekade's Stone Age Gamer being one of them. 

On that note, this tweet thread has aged poorly. Personally anyway. The physical copy was the big gift. I played Sunshine first. 

Nearing Thirty...

At the end on September (read: in mere hours), I'll be turning 30 and there's still a lot I need to do. I initially wanted to do a check-in post with regards to the Coronavirus pandemic, more or less letting everyone know that I'm still safe and as healthy as I can be. I still do essential work in grocery retail, but still haven't been tested, and so on.

I procrastinated as I often do, but to the point that I kept moving the reminder date forward on my smartphone. Much of that in more recent months is a result of the mental exhaustion of the day job—I also had another job until recently by means of resignation. I would go home, shower like usual, check-up on my social networks (usually just Twitter and sometimes Goodreads), then I would just end up booting up the Switch to play a couple games.

The Switch is also the reason I've been mostly mute online for the past year. It was an unexpected Christmas gift and I have not been into gaming like this since when I lived in Washington state—or more accurately, when I was a kid. It goes without saying that the console has been my way of escaping from the present state—the pandemic, the US (45th's) Administration's continued mismanagement of both it and the country, the day job in general (both pre-pandemic and now), etc.

I'm still working through many of my Friday Reads that I mentioned on Twitter many weeks ago, but most of my time with books has been with Audible (mostly). Listening again to the Hitchhikers' Guide series has brought me great comfort and, out of sheer spontaneity, I'm also revisiting Yahtzee Croshaw's literary backlog—started with Jam, currently on Mogworld.  

The stranger, if not inevitable, thing is that I had to unfollow a few of the noteworthy figures who I respected two years ago—people like Peter Bogohossian and James Lindsay—during these uneasy times. If you're here via Twitter, one of my replies may have snuck into the main timeline where I expressed dismay at how both Peter and James view the Black Lives Matter protests and marches that occurred and are still ongoing after the murder of George Floyd. Same thing with Bret Weinstein after I briefly listened to his recent appearance on Joe Rogan* where he expressed similar concerns as Peter and James.

To make a long story short, I cut them out of the timeline for my own sake and mental health. I still follow Iona Italia—who does excellent work with the Two for Tea podcast—along with Helen Pluckrose, Cathy Young, and the Heterodox Academy along side a few other accounts that advocate for viewpoint diversity, but don't dismiss cultural diversity or view it as "the world gone mad". (Or put simply, if they're a guest on Two for Tea, or someone like Cathy mentions them on Twitter, I'll consider them.) 

Ironically though, without discovering Bret via Popehat retweets, James and Peter through a conference Bret appeared in, I don't think I would have that "a-ha" moment, in which a personal bubble popped. Or rather, the conference reminded me of those moments in college during my time with the writing club and what was going on with the social group I was a part of. I felt like it took months for that moment to sink in, but I'm glad that I took away from it that I should have been more assertive. I'm glad I realized this right before I turn 30.

I started my twentieth decade on a good stride academic-wise—getting my Associates in Liberal Arts & Sciences, then graduating magna cum laude with Bachelors in English. I'm still employed with the same people eleven years, but I'm also still living with the family. 

All things considered, I'm grateful. I feel like I could have done much better, though.

I feel like if I actually left the writing club the moment I wanted to that I would've been more motivated to find work in my field. This blog would be more well-maintained, at least between 2012 and 2014—I used to blog under a different Blogspot URL, titled the Dirty Fishtank, where I mentioned that I would be blogging about my experience going for my BA. I probably would be finding places to submit articles, and would be less afraid of getting outside my comfort zone.

At the same time though, I don't think I would have ever re-discovered my love of being a geek and of humor in general. As in, the things that inspired me to write in the first place. That's the short of it. 

What I may do after tomorrow is try to do a sort of daily journal-esque posts a la Dave Winer over at Scripting News. More or less to get back into the thick of things and so I'm not as focused on trying to be too formal. As long as I don't let writing get rusty, I feel like there's still a chance I can put my talents, and my degree, to use somewhere.   

Here's to ten more years, and many more! 

*If you're interested in listening to the specific bit, listen to it for around 30 minutes. Otherwise, other podcasts are available.

 

This Blog is Woefully Out of Date...

Hello! It's been awhile since I've blogged here and I should've made an update post much sooner than now. If you're coming here from Twitter, where I also have Goodreads auto-post my reviews, this post's title will make a lot more sense than if you arrived here via the RSS feed or by e-mail.

(If you arrived by the latter means, hope you all have been safe and well!)

I feel that my posts in 2018 gave the impression that I was going down some sort of ideological rabbit hole. Especially since I was going to conceive a series of self-censorship stories that, when I actually thought about it, really boiled down to two points:

• My first year of being in the English Club/Writers' Guild, as I previously wrote about in a post where I suggested an idea of a blog for the club only to have it shot down with the club president initially asking, "Are you stupid?" The overall club attitude bugged me to the point where I e-mailed the advisor asking to meet with him regarding my concerns. Unfortunately, my ride couldn't make it the day we were supposed to meet—I would arrive past the time we agreed on—but he never replied to reschedule. 
• The coffeehouse preceding the e-mail exchange had the club president start out declaring that we were taking donations for Hurricane Sandy—something that was never mentioned in the previous week's meeting minutes—and that if anyone did not donate that, "they were going to hell". I remember mentioning this to their secretary months later—when we were both in the same creative nonfiction class—who claimed that the reason being was due to some hecklers in the student cafe. This was something I thought should have been handled by the Student Center staff, but I didn't mention that to her. 
• There was also a matter of a poem submitted by a student—who was also the club's treasurer at the time—that we all voted unanimously for approval. Unfortunately, we had to later reject it because of the content as it dealt with "ass" and "weed". If the club president informed the club of this news verbatim—without exaggeration—I believe that the aftermath would've been better. Instead, he read out every line of the poem to note how we couldn't submit it then threw the paper that it was printed on across the room. She ended up not coming back after that meeting, even when they expected her to bring the coffee to the next coffeehouse. I don't blame her in the slightest, both in hindsight and in the semester after that one where any coffeehouse posters near  the university's primary computer lab were taken down from the bulletin boards mere days after we pinned them on. I'm glad that those events did not stop her from writing. She wrote couple of articles on Elephant Journal and did a few pieces over at Pucker Mob if you'd like to give them a read. 
• I ended up wanting to leave the club after these events, but only ended up staying after I covered a later coffeehouse. That and they considered me for the position of secretary because of my attendance. With the shoddy attendance we had, it was hard to say "no" and, well, I didn't.         
• The president who came after (the then-secretary) took issue with a student who was also a self-published author. Said student was very enthusiastic about the club and wanted to help out in anyway she could. I'm not exactly certain about specific instances here, but I always remembered her (the president) not holding this student in high regard for said enthusiasm. Like the former treasurer, this student still writes.     
• The campus newspaper meeting in which the candidates for specific positions made their case to a room full of staff writers. The particular department I was in, Arts and Entertainment, had two people vying for the head position. One person was a freshman who did well-written game reviews that loved working for the paper, but advocated for better communication between editors and staff, along with overall transparency. The other was a soon-to-be senior who specialized in public relations and essentially praised every person on the editorial board in an overly extravagant manner with little to no criticism of the organization—at least from what I can recall. 
• I voted for the former, who the editorial board thought was rude when we got together to plan out the fall semester. I do remember his word choice being slightly brash, but felt that anyone who endorsed the paper by asking them to work out any issues would allow both editors and writers to create a better product. Goes without saying, I said nothing.    

In short, I don't have a self-censorship problem. I have a problem being assertive. It's an issue that I understand better now than in 2012. 

This is also the reason why many of the posts from 2018 have been deleted. This decision is something I wasn't initially fond of, but when I thought about it further, I feel like it is the best course of action. Many of those posts were written when I had all those pent up emotions surrounding those events. I felt bad for not taking action when those issues happened and chose to maintain the group dynamic even when I wanted to leave. Not to mention letting it affect me to the point where I made irrational choices. Five years is and was way too long to let things linger.

There was also things that were happening in a group that I was a part of for 13 years—since its inception. Without going into detail, I worried that the group would run parallel to the English Club/Writers' Guild in terms of leadership. I mentioned something, but unfortunately ended up backing away after I realized that there was barely any change in the way they operated.  

I have been working to be a better person to myself with regards to issues that happen at work and home for the past two years. Anyone on Twitter will recognize that I ended last year on a cynical note. There was a work situation that I won't go into for reasons that go without saying. I will mention that I was almost manipulated out of a friendship. I'm glad that never occurred because other people at the site informed me about the possibility I was being played at. I am glad that I have the support system that I do now and my friendship with the person in question is stronger than ever.  

I also finished up a technical writing course after applying for a full-time, local writing gig early into 2019. I really did enjoy being back at community college where, even when I was there during my undergrad, I felt that the student body was far more open-minded with regards to academic and philosophical discussion that at the four-year one. In hindsight, I felt the same way when I first went there, but I digress.

There was also that patch in which I praised the people who I patronized through Patreon non-stop—I still do so on Twitter for CheapShow and Two for Tea when an account asks for good podcast recommendations. There's a reason for that, especially with regards to video games and the geek zeitgeist—with an emphasis on discourse. As in, they enjoy games and geeky things for the sake of enjoying them, but that's a blog post for another day.  

Right now, I feel comfortable blogging. I feel better about being myself than I did years ago. Hopefully, I'll keep this blog up-to-date instead of being out-of-date. 

On Incarceration Troupe...

.Most if not all of the information on what was once called "Maximum Security Showcase" is woefully outdated since the last time I talked about it. I'll also confess that I never referred to it by that moniker in the drafts. I was paranoid about calling it "Incarceration Troupe" because admittedly, if or when I decide to market this, I wanted that title for the final product. I worried that I wouldn't be able to if I referred to it online as such.

I was full of myself in thinking that. It also may have been silly in hindsight.

The whole hauntology angle never really panned out. The main reason being that it would've merely combined the recent works of Hossein Derakhshan, Jaques Derrida, M.T. Anderson, and Jon Ronson into some fictional narrative. In part, I have to thank an Internet friend for pointing out that this whole thing has been done before* when he joked that the projects he was working on were his projects.

(OtherMichael, if you're reading this, hello, and thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow.)

The other reason dealt with the additional characters who would be the major players in that argument. I liked writing them, but the more I focused on fleshing them out, the less I focused on the main characters. Simply put, it became a hot mess.

Around NaNoWriMo 2015, I started reading Specters of Marx and if Capital broke me out of Marxism, Specters prompted me to say, "Well, screw it," and give up on the story as it was. That book was frustratingly dense, even for an academic book. I got the gist about what deconstruction theory is (in part) and how it works upon finishing it, so it wasn't that bad.

Still, I let that story collect dust for months. I tried again in the following summer to bring new life to it, but ultimately failed.

It had been over a year before I decided to take a look at the project again, or rather the short story that it branched from in the first place.

The circumstances in which I wrote that, well, sucked. This was two months into the new year after I realized that my hiking partner used me as a third wheel to start a relationship with someone who took my writing and ran. They did tell me, after our last hike, that they liked him and I relayed the message when we crossed paths at school. Either way, it hurt.

There was also an internship that did not turn out as it was originally planned. I ended up doing mostly secretarial work when I was supposed to be learning about web development. By proxy, I would've fulfilled my job over at the student-run newspaper if the internship was successful since, it goes without saying, that's what they hired me for in the first place. What's even worse was the fact that I didn't question it, that I just let the guy who ran the internship use me to write up some bits of content, change a club's constitution, and scan the back archives of their magazine which ironically never found their way onto the actual website. In short, I felt slighted and going into the final semester, asking myself if that internship was actually worth anything, is not a pleasant thought to say the least.

I also wasn't happy in the groups I associated with in general. I was physically tired due to both the workload and roommates who turned the commons into a pigsty in the course of a semester--it didn't help that I lacked the confidence to say something about it, and the fact that they were noisy past quiet hours--and mentally tired for the same reasons and then some. The some being pretty much the above...

...and what ultimately lead to me writing out that very story.

The draft itself had an ending far different than what I ended up with in the "final". Instead of this realization that he (the main character) was "free" from his ex-colleagues, he finds himself chastised by his girlfriend who leaves him the next day. Instead of just realizing that he's no longer obligated to maintain a relationship with some co-workers, he finds himself free. This, after he finds some slip of paper stuck in a book with some motivational passage comparing people to planets and how gravity, metaphysically speaking, can attract friends based on one's attitude or, well, "orbit".

Either way, it was the ending I preferred. The one in the final was a result of even more sleep deprivation, and delusions of grandeur in which I started to picture it as more of a sitcom in a series of short stories than a stand-alone novel, finals week notwithstanding. In short, it was a cop-out. It was crap...

...and I'm glad I veered away from that direction.

In early February, I decided to look at the workshop critiques from that first draft to try and figure out what the story was about it the first place. Many of them pointed out that the conflict between the main characters and his former co-workers is left unresolved and that the issues between them are unclear aside from the obvious political differences. There were also some questions about the main character's anxiety towards them, mostly due to said non-resolution but also in scenes where it's just him and his girlfriend. One of them noted that he doesn't seem to be comfortable with anyone, let alone relate to them.

It's sort of a dead giveaway as to where this is going and yet, four years on, I've finally figured out where this story's going and more importantly, what's it about.

Instead of focusing on making it some literary magnum opus, I'm going to focus on it. Whatever happens, I'll be glad once I finish writing it just for that fact alone. We'll see what happens after that...

Weekend Checkup for June 24 & June 25 2017 (#2)

Mark's verdict on #Transformers pic.twitter.com/03DClCAyVT

— Wittertainment (@wittertainment) June 23, 2017

After I wrote the last weekend checkup, I thought it over and decided that I prefer writing these as opposed to a set of lists with links. Most of this is inspired by the newsletters I read weekly including Sean Bonner's The Crowd which I linked to last time.

Speaking of Sean, this came in...

...it's not the pin. Don't Go Outside: Tokyo Street Photos was a Kickstarter-funded project that I first read about in early January and was lucky enough to back the tier for a signed and numbered copy. I mentioned Sean last week as one of the major inspirations for my foray into the blogsphere, but it goes slightly deeper than that. I started following him on Google+ not too shortly after my cousin gave me an invite. This was also when I started reading Cory Doctorow and ultimately Boing Boing and so much of it stems from that fact that Sean also embraced Creative Commons by using the licenses on his photos--the book itself uses a CC-BY-NC license. I started following Safecast shortly after and made a donation to them last year along with backing their bGeigie Raku project.

It goes without saying that Sean's awesome, and I'm looking forward to reading his book!

The pin comes from Tinkity Tonk, a group dedicated to connecting fellow Wittertainment (Kermode & Mayo) listeners through these pins while raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society with one pound donated for every pin purchased. Long time followers might be familiar with my love of the duo as I posted about then elsewhere--mostly here, Twitter, and my former Google+ account which unfortunately no longer contains said post among others. I've been listening to Mark and Simon since 2008,  far into October, in which Mark praised Of Time and the City while calling Quantum of Solace a "Question of Sport".

That was the haul, and here's the video of the week...

It is part of a larger series where Banjo Guy Ollie fixes up and restores arcade machines which you can view here. I would also reccomend watching this playlist where he makes his own game room.

Unfamilar with Banjo Guy Ollie? I'll let this speak for itself...

You can find his music channel here as Banjo Guy Ollie. His channel for DIY, painting, reviews of retro handhleds and MSX games, thrifts, and vlogs is here under BG Ollie.

Goes without saying, both channels have their own respective Patreons here and here.


What I've been reading...

I just finished JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner which covers its namesake who took the reins as producer of Doctor Who from 1980 to 1989.  Richard Marson does some really thorough research here and I'm still not sure what to think about JN-T. There is no doubt that he is responsible in part for keeping the show alive for fifty-plus years and that some elements of the show are more prevelent than ever in the modern series which I think is great. Aside from that, I don't know.

In the meantime, I started reading William Gibson's Neuromancer and I'm still working on Cory Doctorow's Walkaway. There's also Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text, The Offworld Collection, and Ukept on my Kindle, but those are on hold alongside a couple of Wodehouse anthologies and Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse.

Progress on writing...

Very little, if not much at all. I've done some late spring cleaning on my computer so that I could easily access and work on my projects. Last year was slightly better on the Showcase, now Incarceration Troupe, where I managed to iron out some of the places where I had trouble and made it further into the story.

Oh, there's anothe project in the works that I might post on Wattpad if I can't market it. More on that later.

As for the rest...

Nothing much happened between the past couple weeks, at least personally. In politics, there's the health care bill in the US that, if it passes, would not only repeal Obamacare, but would be an overall disaster. Here's Barack Obama on the matter (Note: Facebook Link). Russia's interference in last year's elections is more of a thing than not. Locally, the town council was about to close a local golf course pub and resturant, only to renew its lease days later. I'll leave this letter from the owners' lawyer here (Note: Facebook link) which is rather telling. Municipal elections for the town proper happen this November, however, so there's some hope.

Jon Ronson wrote about the mysterious arnsons happening in San Francisco's Mission District and Hideo Kojima's Snatcher is more than just a remix of its parts.

From Ronson:

The numbers cited by Campos and others—45 fires in two years—also weren’t necessarily as suspicious as they seemed. It turns out that 25 fires a year is about average for the Mission. But there’s a reason that arson is on everyone’s mind: While the number of fires has stayed steady, the value of the real estate in question has not. The 27 fires that burned in the Mission in 2006 caused $2.6 million in damage; the 22 fires in 2015 caused almost $15.6 million in damage.

From Kotaku's Peter Tieryas:

Unlike the protagonists in many noirish cyberpunk books and films, Gillian Seed is expressive rather than following the trope of being stoic and subdued. His strong personality goes from melancholy amnesiac to driven investigator and even womanizer (though he gets almost universally rejected). He’s a likable character, even with his flaws. He’s visually inspired in part by Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, but also the more humorous Lupin the Third from the eponymous animated series. 

I'll talk again soon and hello to Jason Isaacs!

Weekend Checkup for June 10 &11, 2017

'Good grammar is essential' #Batman pic.twitter.com/tlsqad0fef

— Mark W. (@TMITGS) June 11, 2017

I planned, over a month ago, that after I did some online spring cleaning,  I would post a series of weekend links on May 12th. Then the following week, I planned to use my vacation time to blog things that I wanted to write out for awhile. Most of "spring cleaning" was managing my Patreon contributions and culling through who I followed on Twitter. The latter went as well as I thought.

Same goes for this post. I did enjoy my vacation however, and with it came a nice bookstore haul...

The only one that came via Amazon was Jem Roberts's The Frood, while the two Doctor Who novels, White Trash, and The Handmaid's Tale I bought at Bank Square Books. We are the Change We Seek, Hate Crimes in Cyberspace, and Bird by Bird were from the Savoy Bookshop while all the Shakespeare plays I purchased at Barnes & Noble in Warwick. I read through The Frood already and loved it as the book expands on Douglas's life and career beyond the confines of Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic. I also finished A.L. Kennedy's Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse and, while it was nice to see an Fourth Doctor novel, its take on psychological and cosmic horror ultimately hindered it.

Speaking of Who, I've been obsessed since the new season began. Bill (Pearl Mackie) and the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Calpaldi) are an excellent duo and a breath of fresh air since Clara left two years ago. Aside from this past week*, I've enjoyed their stories. I thought about doing Doctor Who reviews in a similar vein to Stuart Ian Burns over at Feeling Listless or Frank Collins who has done a thorough, academic analysis of "The Empress of Mars" that I think is worth reading. My mind flashes back to the Behind the Sofa blog in which they both contributed to, a site which is partly responsible for my initial inspiration into the blogosphere alongside FL, Tachyon TV, and Dan Gillmor via Mediactive.

Also, Sean Bonner and Documentally also played a major role to the point that, if it weren't for the former's newsletter, Just Another Crowd, I would never know of Seth Abramson. Seth's done some excellent interpretations of the Trump Administration's actions via his Twitter. The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an article on him which I found via Sean's newsletter (#275 in the letter archive).

Speaking of politics, my local borough went through their mayoral and council elections and I couldn't be happier with the results. The opposition didn't sell me enough on their campaign leading to similar issues I had with Bernie Sanders last year. I also ran into their candidate for Mayor in passing who made me feel rather uneasy and intimidated by him. It's complicated and I'd rather not blog about it right now, but it did affect my vote.


Writing that also was slightly unnerving so here's my video of the week to ease your troubles...

Kim Justice does these excellent documentaries on retro games and gaming culture. This is just one of many, and it's s still ongoing. In fact, if you contribute to her Patreon, you'll get early access to later episodes. I've only started watching her videos after listening to her interview with the guys at the Retro Hour Podcast, and thought, "Hey, this was the sort of thing I was looking for with Let's Plays." This video on notable Playstation ads of the '90s is another one of my favorites so far and the semiotic examination makes it more than worthwhile.


As for the Rest...

I've been playing around with the Brave browser for about a few months and it's nice to not only see a privacy-centric browser, but one that's similar to Vivaldi. By that, I mean that they are both browsers with features already built in as opposed to having to search through the extensions marketplace. I found that while using private tabs, Brave is very friendly to my SSD over a few hours of usage. As for RAM, it goes without saying as it's also Chromium-based. I felt comfortable enough with it though that I decided to get Firefox off my computer altogether and that's something.

Mastodon might be my new favorite social network once I finally decide to cull through Twitter. It's open-source and decentralized like Diaspora, meaning that there are multiple, separate instances that connect together. It respects privacy in the same way that Ello does and then some, but more importantly, you can pay to keep the network going via creator Gargron's Patreon. My first post on there mentions this, a fact that I hope gets much love. Brave's on the same page with Brave Payments where the user can voluntary send money to sites whose work they support, while wishing not to be tracked by them.

In other contributions worth donating to, the GaymerX East Kickstarter is still ongoing--five more days as of today. Regardless as to whether or not you're attending, you would be providing a space for LBGTQ players to showcase their latest developments and provide a space to well...play. The rewards are also worth it and I'll admit, after watching TieTuesday** play through Read Only Memories, I'm interested. It's my kind of title. Enough said. Either way, if you can, donate.

One last thing before I go. Remember my recent Doctor Who bug, well, I found this blogger via Clayton Hickman on Twitter, and his analysis of Eric Saward's writing is something else:

Saward has a particular prose style which can be brutally efficient, the grammar of which is so at pains to be correct, it’s awkward.  (Not unlike that last sentence.)

Consider his habit of giving characters concise, frank questions to elicit a response from another character. Often these questions try to fit in both a descriptive noun and and active verb. “The escape was prevented?” is an example. The line could be, “everything worked out fine” or “no harm was done”. But in Saward’s style, we find out two things: there was an escape and it failed. In one super efficient question!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like something anyone would actually say. See also, “you have the Doctor?” And “you fear an attack?”. And my personal favourite, from The Mark of the Rani, “you suspect another motive?”

That's all for now! I'll blog again soonish!

*Mark Gatiss isn't my favorite of the NuWho writers. At least recently anyway. Loved the throwbacks though.

**If you're interested in catching Tie's streams, he's moved over to Twitch. The archived ROM stream was originally broadcast on Hitbox (now Smashcast). You can also donate to his Patreon here.

Catching Up and Belated Weekend Links for March 25th & 26

I've neglected this blog for far longer than I intended. I did write a couple posts about the election, but then just decided to go back offline again, not so much offline as being on Twitter for longer than necessary.  If you came here from there, then that means the IFTTT recipe I put into place works. From here on out, I won't be on Twitter as much in favor of posting here and elsewhere in which long-form content thrives or is a thing (Ello, Goodreads, etc.). I'll expand on that in a later post along with talking about my sudden hiatus and other changes which I thought about over for the past year.

Instead, here's some late links for the weekend of March 25th & 26th, 2017.

SKILL, STAMINA, and LUCK--A BBC Radio 4 Documentary on the history of interactive fiction from text-adventures and Dungeons & Dragons to today's video games.

What was it that set them apart? They were part of a much wider literary innovation known as interactive fiction. You don't merely read them, page by page, cover to cover. You were asked to make decisions all the way along about what would happen next, where you would go, who you would even fight, which page to turn to. And you often had to keep a notebook and pair of dice close to hand while doing so. You might fail along the way and have to start again (or more likely you'd keep your finger in the previous page until you were satisfied you'd made the right choice). Essentially, they were puzzle books.

The World Wide Web turned 28 earlier this month...

• Tim Berners-Lee outlines what he sees as the biggest threats to the open web today.
• Aral Balkan, founder of Ind.ie, attempts to counterpoint Berners-Lee by pointing out Silicon Valley's role in causing these issues. 
• Hossein Derakhshan's "The Web We Have to Save" is still, I think, the best go-to about how these issues have come about in the first place. 

The Oxford Comma is important. Atlas Obscura reports on a court case which brings this point home.

The comma, Barron then wrote, was important, since ambiguities “must be construed liberally” under Maine law, meaning that the delivery drivers, who had sued for overtime pay, might in fact be entitled to such pay since “distribution” in the law is not unambiguously separate from “packing for shipment.”

Motherboard reports on the refugees who helped Edward Snowden and the ongoing issues they face today.

As it turns out, this fear was not unwarranted. In the past weeks, Motherboard spoke to the refugees and Snowden's lawyer Tibbo, to find out what's changed since they became known through an investigation of the German Handelsblatt and the National Post. They describe a situation that has deteriorated significantly.

And here's what I've been watching this month starting with Ariel Waldman's look into Earth's history as a giant snowball...

Waldman did an interview for Rebecca Watson and Ken Plume's podcast, Just Admit I'm Right, that also gets streamed live on YouTube for their $5+ patrons. I'll hyperlink the corresponding episode when it comes up on the iTunes feed. Until then, and if your are fans of Rebecca and/or Ken, you should pledge to their respective Patreon pages if you can. I have and I can tell you the streams are worth it.

The next video is actually an playlist for a Let's Play I finished watching yesterday. I've embedded it here, but I recommend that if you're interested for the long-haul, to watch it on YouTube in full. There's also the cut commentary version here.

I've followed Chip and Ironicus for years now, at least since 2010, and their Let's Plays are filled with funny riffs and roasting, while also analyzing the game itself. Programming, design, narrative, anything that makes the game great or interesting gets covered in some way. This latest entry also made it into a Waypoint article by Cameron Kunzelman that not only is a shout out to these LPers but is also about the experience of watching Let's Plays in general:

The magic is happening in the let's play moment. I'm not just enjoying the game, and I'm not just enjoying the two guys talking about it. I am enjoying this weird composite of a game filtered through the mind of two people I've never met. We're a decade into LP culture now, and if you're in it you probably think this is the most boring thing, but it never fails to amaze me that I can enjoy someone else enjoying something so much that I can't conceive of one without the other. I have zero interest in playing an Uncharted game, not because of some problem, but just because they're not for me. But Chip and Ironicus open up a door to an experience of a game, not just a game itself, in a very fulfilling way.

...and that's all from me this weekend. I'll post more soon. Bear with me as I return to the blogosphere and ultimately back to writing.