DM of the Rings Remaster XXIII: Happy Halloween
I’m getting a EKG and heart monitor put on for my usual writing day this week. Nothing too serious, but it’s out of the way and I won’t be home till late.
I’m currently binge-playing Tears of the Kingdom, maybe even have some words about it to write eventually here? There’s a particular series of quests driving me nuts, that feels article worthy. Bad quests feel way, way worse when the rest of the game is a masterpiece.

– Shamus, Friday Oct 27, 2006
Continue reading 〉〉 “DM of the Rings Remaster XXII: Are We There Yet?”
The year is 2007, and Lorretta is gone. Kelly and Michael are devastated, as is Logan, although him with much less understanding of what’s happened, only that grandma is gone.
Lorretta has left Kelly and Michael the house in her will, as well as half of what she had saved. Kelly’s older sister got the other half, and Lorretta’s car.
At first, who got what doesn’t seem to matter that much, in the midst of grief and funeral arrangements. Kelly and Michael aren’t celebrating getting the house, they knew that was Lorretta’s plan and it makes plenty of sense to them; they’ve been living in it for the last seven years.
Kelly’s sister, Jen, though? She doesn’t feel like it’s so fair.
Continue reading 〉〉 “Sims 4 Overthinking: Jentle Disagreement”

– Shamus, Wednesday Oct 25, 2006
Continue reading 〉〉 “DM of the Rings Remaster XXI: The Epic Sounds of Battle”
It’s now 2006, Lorretta is 61, Logan is five. Kelly and Michael are married, and Lorretta has cancer.
The few weeks after the concerning diagnosis are a blur. The doctors at the ER are worried it’s progressed due to her symptoms, but the specialist she’s sent to is really optimistic it’s not. The nurse doing her blood draw helpfully mentions she has an uncle who recently died of cancer, but one of Lorretta’s colleagues at the library has herself been cancer-free for twenty years. Everyone has something different to say, and none of it is collaborated in any way because none of these people know each other. If Lorretta wasn’t under an over-abundance of stress and worry, she’d be understanding about that, but as it is she wishes these idiots could have a group call and get their stories straight.
Continue reading 〉〉 “Sims 4 Overthinking: Ice Cream and Noodles”
A programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
Two minutes of fun at the expense of a badly-run theme park.
Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
Back in 1999, I rode the dot-com bubble. Got rich. Worked hard. Went crazy. Turned poor. It was fun.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2012.
Obviously they are. Right? Actually, is this another one of those sneaky hard-to-define things?
C++ is a wonderful language for making horrible code.
No Man's Sky is a game seemingly engineered to create a cycle of anticipation and disappointment.