Got the trophy + ranked up to Platinum in a #MTGxTheHobbit Pick-Two Draft on #MTGA with a sweet green-black deck. Green was wide open in my seat; I was passed many rares (enough to get the Rare Drafter achievement) so I had lots of strong cards including Chief Warg's Company and Part in Friendship.

7 wins in a Marvel Super Heroes Quick Draft on MTGA with a scrappy black-white deck. A decent mix of removal and card draw (stapled on creatures) with a few land cyclers to smooth out draws is a recipe for success in this format.

Review: The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson This is an excellent conclusion to Mistborn Era 2! It pulls in more from the wider Cosmere than the other Mistborn books, laying interesting ground work for Era 3. Most importantly each of the Era 2 characters get an emotionally satisfying ending. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

@lynnesargent.bsky.social and I are back from summer vacation which included two stops partially inspired by @3blue1brown.com videos. The Escher museum where we saw in person the Print Gallery featured in Grant's excellent video. The museum had other fun things too, thanks for the recommendation!

This month I celebrated my twelve thousand three hundred forty fifth day on Earth, a.k.a. my 12345 day. Humans love celebrating once in a lifetime events that are multiples of 5 or 10 (50th birthday, 25th wedding anniversary, etc.). 12345 day seems like a good one to add to the list!

Review The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson I do love an Indiana Jones style adventure story. This one hit all the beats while still staying true to the characters we've grown to love over the series. This might be my favourite installment in Mistborn Era Two yet! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sending off Secrets of Strixhaven with one last pick-two draft trophy. This was a fun format! Being Lorehold for my last draft is fitting since I did quite enjoy playing that archetype. Of course the pinnacle for me was the draft where I won every game with Mathemagics.

Review: Higher Magic by @courtney-floyd.com This is a fresh take on the dark academia genera focusing on a more realistic story of graduate studies (but still with magic obviously). It's quite a good read! I especially enjoyed the little world-building details included throughout. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

60 cards. 5 colours. 7 wins. In limited! Oh yes, this cascade emblem format is a fun time. Legitimately I think this a good strategy in the format. It's ok if your mana base is a little bad because you are only paying the mana cost of about half the spells you cast (you just cascade into the rest).

It's new story day! Find "The Once Green Forest of My Lungs," out now with @rottingleafmag.bsky.social. www.briefecology.com/the-rotting-...

The Once-Green Forest of My Lungs — Brief Ecology

by Lynne Sargent

briefecology.com

7 wins with a nice Prismari deck in Strixhaven Quick Draft! I won't be competing in the Arena Limited Championship Qualifier, but I can still get some wins in a cozy low stakes draft.

Review: The Way of Kings Brandon Sanderson I liked this well enough and I am interested in what will happen to these characters, so I will continue with this series. I do think it is a little too long; it doesn't have the quick pacing of other Sanderson books, like second era Mistborn. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A clean 7-0 in a Strixhaven draft on #MTGArena I won every single game with Mathemagics forcing my opponent to draw from an empty library. I guess I should have done that Draft Contender event after all!

Review: Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson I like that this book has more connections to the original Mistborn series than The Alloy of Law. I also enjoyed that we got a little more of Wayne in this one; he is hilarious. Otherwise, it still had everything I liked from the first book. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I trophied a Secrets of Strixhaven pick-two draft on #MTGArena with a streamlined Silverquill deck! I got lucky to consistently draw Stirring Hopesinger, which is one of the best Repartee payoffs. The incidental damage from Melancholic Poet also mattered.

Review: The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H. G. Parry This is a good version of a dark academia story. I'll always be a fan of this kind of story because, even though I am something of a failed academic, I still think real universities, learning and research are magical ✨ ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow I don't know how to write a spoiler-free review of this book that includes any detail. There are a number of twists throughout that feel both surprising and satisfying the way they were set up earlier in the story. I enjoyed reading it. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

7 wins with a Prismari deck on #MTGArena ! Magmablood Archaic is a great card even in a strictly two colour deck. The two incidental damage from Heated Argument was also relevant in a few games. Secrets of Strixhaven has been a fun format so far!

Review: To Ride a Rising Storm by Moniquill Blackgoose I liked the first book in this series, but I might have liked this one even more. Not much goes on (until the very end) but Anequs's relationships with the other characters and her philosophy are engaging enough for me. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: The Problem with Plastic by Adam Mahoney, Judith Enck and Beyond Plastics I agree with the core of the book: reduce plastic production + consumption, protect communities harmed by plastics processing, regulation preferred to individual action. But I have some gripes in the presentation ⭐⭐⭐

I went 3-0 for the first time at a MTG prerelease event! Lorehold aggro seems like it will be a good archetype in Secrets of Strixhaven limited.

I built another small game! This is a remake of a puzzle game I have enjoyed playing in the past. I also included an algorithm for finding the optimal number of moves. Trying to find the optimal sequence as a human is an additional challenge to the game. birchmd.github.io/water-sort/

Review: Once Upon a Prime by Sarah Hart The new-to-me content was sparse; I was already familiar with all the mathematical ideas and many of the historical anecdotes. The literary examples where these things appear are interesting though. It's not the book's fault that I love math so much! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell I didn't enjoy the first 2/3s because it looked like a typical liar revealed trope. I never like that one and I was dreading how it would resolve. But, without giving anything away, the last third of this book included my favourite parts. ⭐⭐⭐

I made an incremental/idle game! It's in the style of classics like Kittens Game and Universal Paperclips. The central element is a plot that visualizes how quantities in the game are changing (with respect to time and each other). You can check it out here: birchmd.github.io/de-idle/

Review: The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake I liked the opening of this book; recruiting powerful magical individuals to compete for spots in a secret society is very fun. I feel like the book drags in the middle though relative to this opening. It is more character-focused than I would prefer. ⭐⭐⭐

Review: The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson It's been a long time since I read the original Mistborn trilogy and I remember quite enjoying those books. I think I liked this even more though - in a guilty pleasure sort of way. I'm a sucker for high action, witty remarks and powerful magic. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Review: A Grim Reaper's Guide to Cheating Death by Maxie Dara I didn't like this one as much as the first book. The parrot was funny and the additional world-building was interesting. But overall I didn't find the mystery as engaging and it didn't have as many touching emotional scenes. ⭐⭐⭐

@3blue1brown.com always produces incredible math explainers, but this one is particularly excellent. I love the overlap between math and art in it.

Grant Sanderson@3blue1brown.com · 5mo ago

This video was a complete joy to make. Here's a short preview, but next time you're looking to sit down for 45 minutes of math and art, take a look at the full version on YouTube: youtu.be/ldxFjLJ3rVY

Review: Play Nice by Jason Schreier I'm not much of a gamer (I haven't played any of Blizzard's games), but I am a programmer that has worked at startups so I could sympathize with some of the grind culture. This is an engaging non-fiction book that I quite enjoyed! ⭐⭐⭐⭐