No Time To Play @notimetoplay@elekk.xyz

Micro-optimizations are bugs in disguise.

tl;dr hobbies are neat, enjoying hobbies is neat, people who enjoy hobbies are neat

If you didn't follow me until just today, but had followed me in the past on another account, this is why:

"Mastodon Account Migration Turned Malicious"

https://blogghoran.se/2020/01/25/mastodon-account-migration-turned-malicious/

I think what I like about #Bitsy, #PICO8, and other restrictive game-making tools is that the tools themselves give me leads on games I could make with them.

I wouldn't have made "A memory of a library" - https://packbat.itch.io/a-memory-of-a-library - if I were making a Unity game or a LÖVE game or a Twine game or a boardgame or a tabletop roleplaying game. The game exists and is the way it is because I hummed notes into Bitsy's shell until I found a melody that resonated.

LB is really good! It really captures my experience as a writer who also consumes a lot of internet criticism.

One of my favorite bits: "the ultimate solution to plot holes isn’t to fill in each and every one of them. The art of storytelling is one of smoke and mirrors. People notice plot holes and inconsistencies when the story itself isn’t grabbing them. When the reader is emotionally engaged, they just won’t notice."

Copyright is a monopoly right, and monopolies have a tendency to accumulate in the vaults of big companies, who use them to dominate creative industries. #CopyrightWeek https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/01/serving-big-company-interests-copyright-crisis

One of the really big problems with the world is that no one values competence or compassion anymore.

Overshare
overthink
Overeverything.

And while creativity may have its uses, the vague impression that it is some individualistic flash of genius that creates something from nothing is misleading. Creating anything useful depends on structures of culture, learning, synthethizing prior work, social relations, and cooperation. Yet the work that goes into these structures, the preservation, communication, organization and more, are seen as subservient to and inferior to the act of "creation."

"all the citizens generated x bazillion kilograms of garbage each!" no, a handful of people produced vast quantities of trash, but we're expected to believe that it wasn't garbage until it entered our homes

imo if you’re worried about self-publishing just know that it’s 2020 and art doesn’t have to come through a filter created by stuffy white folk anymore. Put it on itch.io. Distribute PDFs. Whatever. We have the power to grow our own audiences who care about what we have to say instead of a nonexistent, constantly changing “mainstream.”

I am a rather experienced software engineer who could use some means of actually supporting myself in the long term. Self-directed open source development and sporadic game development/music composition aren’t cutting it.

My resume is at https://beesbuzz.biz/resume and I mostly enjoy working on the service/backend side of interactive/social media stuff. I am not willing to relocate from Seattle at this time, but I would be absolutely fine with working remotely.

if your FOSS software isn't easier to use than its proprietary software alternative, work on it until it is