Unplugged Keyboard, Part 3

I may be misrepresenting what I type on the unplugged keyboard as always being funny. A lot of it is stuff I need to say, but to no one in particular, and things I can’t say in English (not literally, mentally)…

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Unplugged Keyboard, Part 2

Perhaps in mowing the lawn of words, I’ve missed the wildflowers. A few years ago, I read On Writing Well by William Zinsser and it overhauled how I think about writing. My main takeaway was to ruthlessly delete. To purge useless words, poor sentences, and unwieldy paragraphs; to trim the verge, evening, noon, and night.…

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Unplugged Keyboard

Typing on an unplugged keyboard. It’s oddly nice. I can type whatever I want. Watching letters go straight to the void. Typos don’t matter. I’m the only one who knew they existed. Or did they exist in the first place? What’s the point of function keys? I would at least want the enter key. Punctuation?…

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Unscripted, #9

Hey, I just watched this video by Savannah Brown. It’s the most real conversation I’ve seen in a long time, a level of realness I aspire to. Allow me to set the stage: (Excerpt from another essay:) I want to use tools of the past to create games of the future, games where you feel…

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Game Dev Notes, #2

What kind of game could you guarantee finishing in 10 minutes? Seriously, I’d be thrilled to see. Here’s mine. I think this is an interesting question because it’s at the heart of what it means to finish games. The decision process involved in finishing a 10-minute game is a condensed version of the process to…

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Discovering “Ink”

I’ve found a perfect tool for writing interactive text games! It’s called Ink and it’s free and open source. I normally use Windows Batch, but I’ve been looking for something cross-platform. I’ve briefly used Inform and Twine, and Ink is somewhere in the middle. I think of Inform as being on the far left of…

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365 Days

Hey! Today marks one year of daily posting! Who would’ve thought when I wrote, “I might also continue tomorrow if I’m having fun” that I’d end up here? I wanted to do something to celebrate, so I played my ukulele, blew bubbles outside, ate some gummy worms, and listened to my favorite music on repeat.…

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Reading “The War of Art”

Today I read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The central theme is the idea of resistance, a force which prevents people from making creative works and becoming their truest selves. I really liked the book, but the idea of resistance didn’t resonate with me. It was still a motivating read and I’d definitely…

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Game Dev Notes, #1

Hey, just wanted to say that game development isn’t always difficult. I see most people online (including me) talking about problems and roadblocks, but sometimes there are moments when everything’s coming together. Earlier today I was working on a project and everything was going smoothly and my creative expression was flowing and it felt so…

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Learning Assembly, Part 2 #4

Ok, I’m about to get coding, just reviewing the processor carry and overflow flags first. I’m also thinking about which coder editor to use. I normally go for Vim, but maybe I’ll use something else this time.

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Learning Assembly, Part 2 #3

I’m reviewing the 6507 processor flags and registers. I’m interested in the stack pointer register. Last time around I hardly noticed it and it seems super useful.

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Playing “Portal 2”

I just finished playing Portal 2. Wow, what a cool game. And so different from Portal 1. Before I get to the comparison, here’s some of my favorite things about Portal 2 (spoiler warning): The massive areas. Seriously, I could just look out into the largest warehouses ever. Are large areas like this common in…

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Mini Blender Renders, #7

This one is based on a memory I have of Sears. I have no idea why they had washing machines right at the front entrance, but I think it looks cool.

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30 Days of Sound, Series Review

It’s review time! I’d say it went well overall. I didn’t exactly follow the original premise of “make something musical each day”, but I did explore music and that was the point. Two of my favorite things about doing series are knowing what I’m doing each day and that I don’t have to uniquely title…

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30 Days of Sound, #30

It’s the last day! I wasn’t sure what to make today and I was absentmindedly tapping the fretboard when I came up with this:

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30 Days of Sound, #29

I’ve discovered harmonics! They’re a very delicate sound, especially on ukulele.

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30 Days of Sound, #28

Today I tried to wrap my brain around a new strumming pattern: DDU UDU. I spent like 30 minutes struggling and then it sort of clicked. Although, I have to maintain the perfect amount of concentration. It’s easy while my mind’s partially on auto pilot, but as soon as I start thinking about it, I…

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30 Days of Sound, #27

It was rainy today, so of course I sampled some. Then I played some ukulele chords and drenched them in delay and reverb.

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