Dispatches

A few GDPR rulings have recently been handed down that are going to be causing major shakeups across a number of sites and services. This year’s off to a wild start.

The truth is that I am just a very referential writer. And my problem is that I’ve got a very Catholic taste. There’s a hell of a lot of Bible stuff in there too.

So you’re getting ready to kick off a campaign for your gaming group? Before you even get started, ask yourself: are you looking to create a campaign that will simply be fun, or one that your players will be talking about for years to come?

It’s been a wild first six months for those of us at Explorers Wanted, and we’ve been humbled and astounded by our growing community of listeners. I love making our show, and talking with our fans has been a delight.

It isn’t news to anyone that I’m a big fan of Numenera. It is my favorite game to run and I will shamelessly hype for it to anyone who will listen.

You don’t have to monetize your joy. — Molly Conway, The Modern Trap of Feeling Obligated to Turn Hobbies Into Hustles

When all the archetypes shamelessly burst in, we plumb Homeric depths. Two clichés are laughable. A hundred clichés are affecting–because we become obscurely aware that the clichés are talking to one another and holding a get-together.

[Joanna] Russ had no patience for a genre predicated on the notion of speculative technologies but unable to imagine social institutions and women’s roles in them as freely. She would surely have objected to some of the stories in The Future Is Female.

I’ve posted a new short story in Ye Olde Fiction section. This one’s for anyone who’s felt alien, and trapped by the weight of their own feelings. It’s also a reminder that those feelings can have power, even if it manifests in unexpected ways.

Last Tuesday, I wrapped up a two-month introductory adventure for Invisible Sun. It was my first time running the game, and all my players were new to it as well. One other had also backed the original Kickstarter, but this was his first opportunity to play.

Warren Ellis’ commencement speech to University of Essex at Southend is a delight to read. I particularly loved this bit. Making mistakes happens when you’re trying something new. It’s how you know you’re bending the envelope.

This is a hell of a speech from New Zealand’s PM on the Christchurch shooting. We cannot know your grief, but we can walk with you at every stage. We can.

I gave a lecture on time travel where, using the “butterfly effect,” I explained that we cannot predict the weather or one’s trajectory in life accurately. Every second in our past matters equally.

The NYT recently ran a wonderfully in-depth story covering the history of women in coding. The issue of note for the article is that in the beginning of computer science the gender balance among programmers was basically equal.

One of my favorite places to visit is Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. Exhausted from the gray and brown of winter, today my family made the trek out there for their Orchid Extravaganza.

Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett In his latest novel, Vigilance, Robert Jackson Bennett shows us the plausible terror of an America which has utterly given up preventing gun violence and instead embraced it.

To succeed with this approach, a useful first step is to remove from your smartphone any apps that make money from your attention. This includes social media, addictive games and newsfeeds that clutter your screen with “breaking” notifications.

There’s a new short story in ye olde fiction section. Well, I say, “new”. This is actually a couple years old, but it felt like a good time to share it.

Here’s the scenario you find yourself in: you’ve built and deployed a cool little Django app, and successfully deployed it on Heroku. You’ve followed all the great advice out there and are using django-environ to help manage all the various configuration variables you have to retrieve from your Heroku dynos.

Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.