January Update/Links/Screenshots
After averaging 9 posts a month last year, I have gotten off to a slow start this year. Mostly this is because, at least for right now, I have no daily project to write about. One of my takeaways from writing at such a frenetic pace last year was that it would be nice to actually take my time drafting and editing things, which I've been doing, but is a bit of a monkey's paw: when I don't just immediately hit "publish" after writing something I often end up either deciding it was a bad idea or making tweaks to it for weeks at a time. So there are a few longer posts in the chamber that I will hopefully finally get out the door eventually.
In the meantime, a general update:
I went to MAGFest earlier this month, which has become a yearly tradition. It went about the way it usually does: I had a lot of fun with friends, developed severe gastrointestinal distress, and was generally overwhelmed. MAG and cons in general are kind of a form of pyschological torture for me: as someone who doesn't deal well with prolonged exposure to crowds, loud noises, and The Gamer Odor I have learned to pace myself and take a lot of breaks. I still always end up having a good time with people I really love. Highlights from this time:
- my friends Matt & Nat, who came for their first time last year, gave a talk about hauntology & depression in games that was packed to the gills
- the MAGFest fish tank, a new indie arcade addition, was a delight, and my friend Henry's Low Guevara was the final fish scan for the main questline
- a friend surprised us with a bunch of Temu-bought Mr. Beast masks on Saturday night and we inflicted our Beastification on a number of people. My personal favorite was the person who saw us walk into the arcade and immediately vomited.
Since MAG, I've mostly been focused on getting ready to teach again this semester. My first class was yesterday and I really enjoyed it. Funny how having to get students excited about things reminds you why you were excited about them in the first place.
Other than that, I read Master and Margarita this month as my quarterly Important Book and loved it. I've been playing a lot of ARC Raiders, and spending more time than I'd like indoors while New York continues to weather the coldest stretch it's had in years.
Links
Claude's new soul document/Anthropic is at war with itself: like a lot of other people, 2025 was the year when I finally started using AI regularly in my work. I am generally still of the mind that its indiscriminate introduction and widespread overuse has had roughly the same effect as letting an eight-year-old drive an eighteen-wheeler, but I cannot deny that it's a huge force accelerator in my own programming work. I've always been interested in AI, both positively and negatively, so I'm just trying to hold onto my own sanity and beliefs without sticking my head in the sand. With all that said, I really only use Claude: I find OpenAI to be reprehensible on just about every level, and while Google is less openly cynical about AI, supporting a monopolist isn't really on the table for me. Anthropic is a weird company but of the frontier labs they're the only ones who actually seem to care about the effect their product will have on its users and society writ large. These are both interesting dives into how that concern manifests itself. Anthropic is a for-profit company, I expect a heel turn from them at some point, but at least right now I'm fairly impressed with how they're navigating the AI explosion while trying not to lose their (or Claude's) soul.
All Gas Town, No Brakes Town - like many other people, I read Steve Yegge's manifesto/product launch/mental breakdown on Gas Town and was torn between worrying that I am falling behind and worrying that Yegge is literally going insane. This helped me put the brakes on.
The Case For Blogging In The Ruins - I am, obviously, predisposed to pro-blogging pieces, but I thought this was a nice and thoughtful one about why we keep on blogging at the end of the world.
Screenshots
Til 'next time!