Spent most of today helping my son get his car to and from the shop, and going with him to see the new Spider-Man movie. The latter was quite good. I can see why it's doing so well at the box office. Now to try to get some creative work done with what's left of the evening.

Welcome to the CAMBRIAN FECAL REVOLUTION. We didn't name it the Cambrian fecal explosion for obvious reasons. I'm happy to share this paper on fecal matter and its role in Cambrian ecosystems. So if you want to read a really shitty paper (50 days free access): authors.elsevier.com/a/1nYg8cZ3X7...

As of this evening, I've finished my first-cut rewrite of the Cultural Evolution Game's primary game loop. Same number of steps per round, but word count has been cut down from about 4800 words to about 3000, and there aren't as many concepts for the player to juggle. Encouraging . . . #gamedesign

A really odd request came in today: someone wanted to see the numeral-words from a constructed language I built six years ago. (It's the language for the Tremara people in my sole thus-far-self-published fantasy novel. Which I really need to get back to one of these days.) #conlang

Spent today writing prose narrative, building rules text, and pushing little cardboard spaceships around on my main game table. Lots of incremental progress on list items. Good news is that cutting an item out of my diet does seem to have had positive impact on my health. Need to keep that up.

hi t'lyn

My collection of audiobooks has done wonders for my ability to sleep at night. Really reduces hamster-wheel syndrome. On the other hand, it also produces a ton of weird dreams. Often involving struggles with people who just Will Not Shut Up and let me get a word in edge-wise.

Started the actual rewrite of the Cultural Evolution Game today. Looking for considerable streamlining and increased utility for world-building with this tranche of revisions. For starters, I'm moving from a complex list of 160+ "cultural capabilities" to a much simpler set of tracks. #gamedesign

Think I may have located one of the things that's been throwing my health off so badly. It's worth an experiment - I'm going to cut something out of my diet for a while and see if that helps. Being a diabetic in my 60s creates whole new exciting opportunities to apply the scientific method.

#GURPS 4E at the #BundleOfHolding bundleofholding.com/presents/G4S...

GURPS 4E Space Bundle

For GURPS 4E Week we reach to the stars with the revived June 2022 GURPS 4E Space Bundle featuring ebook starfaring supplements for the Fourth Edition of GURPS, the Generic Universal RolePlaying Syste...

bundleofholding.com

Had my "survived another turn around the sun" day earlier this week - 61 years old now - although I've been feeling rather under the weather. Not to mention (*waves around at all the insanity*) so it doesn't feel like a good time to celebrate. Ah, well. The horrors persist, but so do I.

Spent the dinner hour listening to my son complain about a course he’s taking at the local community college. Sounds like a rather shallow and half-baked course on futurism. During this discussion, I had the Dangerous Thought. “I can do better than that.”

Something like 2700 words down on the current "Lower Decks" story in the past two days. Including an apparently reformed Harry Mudd. Apparently. Tomorrow's a day for a few errands, but I may be able to get this chapter finished, polished, and out the door. #writing

Back in 2013, CJ Cherryh got in touch to compliment this strip of mine. I need to print and frame that email... www.dorktower.com/2013/05/14/p...

Kept busy today - helped my wife with the weekly shopping expedition, then I worked on a couple of creative projects, most notably the next "Lower Decks" story. Currently at about 2100 words between yesterday and today, so I should be able to finish the first chapter tomorrow sometime. #writing

Somehow I keep coming up with new stories for the "Lower Decks" series. This one's going to be fun. "Haaar-COURT!" #fanfiction #lowerdecks #writing

I just saw the preview for "Star Trek: Zero Point" Featuring Captain Raffaela Musiker's crew and OMG I'M DYING AT TENDI'S NEW HAIR😭 My baby all grown up, a commander 🥺🥺 #StarTrekLowerDecks #lowerdecks #DvanaTendi #StarTrek

Luna's interpretation of Chris Wayan's PLANETOCOPIA, a series of exoplanets that are meant to highlight how far the definition of 'habitable' can be stretched while still supporting intelligent life. #space #art whirligig-girl.tumblr.com/post/7753338...

I’m coming to realize that Matt Damon may be the most weirdly type-cast actor in American film history.

In other news, I spent a good chunk of today looking at the AEGEAN RPG, by @stoogoff.com. Looks like a nice balance between rules-light and crunch, with an ancient Hellenic setting. The only thing that's making my brain itch is that the game is a tad anachronistic ... (1/2) #hellenist #ttrpg

Aegean — Mythic Roleplaying in ancient Greece

AEGEAN is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of mythic heroes building a new, free city on the shores of the Aegean Sea. There are neighbouring cities to trade or war with, monsters to kill, go...

aegeanrpg.com

Finally got my results for this year's university courses. Passed the astronomy course with distinction, but the mathematics course topped out at a Grade 2 pass. Annoying, given how well I did on the assignments, but the exam was 100% of the grade and I ran out of time on that. (1/2) #studying

Yeah, this tallies.

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Hmm. Open University informed me the results for my mathematics course were ready . . . but now the site is getting hammered so badly I can't log in. I suspect those two facts are causally connected.

Seen a few people come out of The Odyssey, inspired to run a campaign but throwing up all sorts of old sword & sandals overly crunchy hacks together as ideas. The answer is right here, and I hear some pretty great people have written for it.

Stoo Goff@stoogoff.com · 2w ago

Now may be the best time to say, if you've just got back from watching the Odyssey and you're looking for an RPG for an epic Greek mythology campaign (with added management of your party's polis), look no further than Aegean: www.aegeanrpg.com

Like, thematically, Nolan is using the Odyssey to almost speak *as* 'western civilization' and then what he says is, "you men (very much *men*), with your violent inhospitality, your greed and appetites are what has destroyed civilization by breaking the bonds between people."

this is what i think, fwiw. i kind don't understand the controversy, like at all variety.com/2026/film/ne...

kobayashi ḫamṭu@mattboot.bsky.social · 3w ago

what i liked most abt the Nolan Odyssey is it is (more than i expected) a true reading of the text! it is largely not an unquestioning cinematic rehash of classics tropes. it is a modern "translation" (i.e. a recreation) with its own messages (like them or not, agree with them or not)

More evidence that Callisto is hiding a vast underground ocean under its icy shell: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... It'd be around 50 km thick, situated 100-300 km under the surface. Article: eos.org/research-spo...

American soldiers are being asked to adopt the "Spartan mindset." Let's consider that model and see if it's good to emulate. Sparta was a viciously oppressive slave state, whose soldier-citizens were usually unwilling to fight abroad because they were too busy brutalizing people at home. (1/2)

Just got back from a showing of “The Odyssey.” As a Hellenist, I think I’ll just say it was by far the best film adaptation of Homer I’ve ever seen. Also, the right-wing morons who have been bitching about it have been complaining about exactly the wrong elements. (1/2)