Film Development Research

With my Anscoflex camera fixed, I’m researching what I’d need to take photos with it. I’m looking at developing my own film because there’s no film labs near me and I think it would be fun. I’m not sure whether to start with color or black and white film. I’ve never tried black and white…

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Paint Jam Log, #3

It isn’t working out this time; I didn’t find anyone to collaborate with. I thought that with 200 people in the jam, there would be more people looking for teams. I considered going ahead solo, but there’s two problems. Firstly, the point was to make a game with other people. Secondly, I don’t have time…

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Paint Jam Log, #2

Today I tried to find a team for the jam, but no luck. Maybe tomorrow. If not, I might do the jam solo; I’ll see how it goes. On the bright side, I have an idea for a story.

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Paint Jam Log, #1

I’m participating in Paint Jam! It’s a week long game jam with one restriction: all the graphics must be made in Microsoft Paint. It starts in a few hours, but I’m probably going to start this evening.

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Anscoflex Camera Restoration, #2

Today I cleaned the parts and reassembled the camera! Everything works now! The shutter action is super cool, so I recorded it in slow motion. I spent all my time on it though, so I ran out of time to take other photos. More photos coming soon!

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Anscoflex Camera Restoration, #1

Yesterday I bought a vintage 1956 Anscoflex film camera at a thrift store for $12! Today I’m taking it apart and trying to fix the shutter.

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7 Days of Nothing, #7

Today I thought about the differences between making games in Godot and PICO-8. Using Lego as an analogy: PICO-8 is like making all your own custom bricks and then building with them. Godot is like a huge bucket of bricks and the process is learning how to connect them and making a few custom bricks.…

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7 Days of Nothing, #6

Modern web design is boring and all websites look the same. I’ll prove it to you. Go to any of your other open tabs and I’ll describe it.

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7 Days of Nothing, #5

Today I thought about how to define things as being inside other things. Is it when something is fully contained by the container? When no part of the object extends beyond the container’s volume? I feel like this is a good start, so let’s test it:

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7 Days of Nothing, #4

Today I thought about Godot’s game object system. Godot is a game engine I started learning earlier today and its system for handling game objects is very intuitive. Everything is a node: scenes, objects, UI elements, everything. Nodes can contain other nodes and there’s no distinction between nodes being part of their parent node or…

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7 Days of Nothing, #3

Today I spent the time resting and thinking just a little. I thought about participating in a game jam. I like the idea of making games as an event. Although, I’m not sure if I’m skilled enough. I’d like to do a game jam with a team, but I don’t know anyone who’s into game…

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7 Days of Nothing, #2

Today I thought about Manifold Garden and what makes infinity cool. (Sidenote: Manifold Garden’s website is super cool, go check it out!)Manifold Garden is a 3D game about exploring infinity. I haven’t played it yet, but I love the concept and I thought about making a similar game in PICO-8. The problem is infinity. It’s…

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7 Days of Nothing, #1

Wind is weird. I spent the time today looking out my window and some leaves would be swaying about and some next to them perfectly still. I saw 20 leaves fall. I don’t know why I counted them.I thought about leaves and the wind and the weather. At the start of the 20 minutes, it…

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7 Days of Nothing, #0

Time is a fun mystery ingredient. I want to know what will happen when I mix time with nothing. So here’s what I’m doing: I spend 20 minutes a day, for a week, doing nothing. And each day I write about it. Boring? Possibly, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Things to avoid…

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Mechanical Keyboard Research, #2

Today I continued my research. There’s so many options! I’m realizing more and more that I don’t know what I want. It’s like when you walk into an ice cream shop thinking you want strawberry, but then you see 175 flavors and you’re not so sure anymore. Here’s what I’ve narrowed it down to so…

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Mechanical Keyboard Research

Recently I’ve been reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo and I’ve realized that some of the things I have don’t spark joy, especially my mouse and keyboard. They’re just boring. My current keyboard is a Redragon K552 with no backlighting (it’s discontinued) and my…

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Motivational Lizard

Today I want to share with you one of my all-time favorite videos: Motivational Lizard. Go watch it. You won’t regret it.

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Thoughts on Tools for Making Things

I’d like to discuss an aspect of tools for making things: the identity they suggest. Have you ever gotten out all your notebooks, pens, books, and been like, “I’m a student. I can study.” And then just plowed through all the work? I have. The study supplies elevate my mindset from “I can’t” to “I…

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