Yup! Just got a bit of a cold probably from theme park kids or pressing up against all the queers at Pride haha. Fine now
Co-founder of Studio Lakes. Illustrator, video game maker, writer, Amsterdammer, š³ļøāā§ļø (she/her)
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Yup! Just got a bit of a cold probably from theme park kids or pressing up against all the queers at Pride haha. Fine now
I havenāt posted much recently due to illness and life being busy but Iām still alive! So here are some pics from some recent Dutch adventures Iāve had: Amsterdam Pride, Efteling, Amsterdam Sail 2025, and a bonus shot from Germany
Yeah I saw a lot of that at Amsterdam Pride yesterday
I might come off as an old curmudgeon about this but Iām not thrilled by the playful infantilization and objectification of trans women by parts of the community and our allies Itās fine if you accept being a ādollā or āpetā as your own identity but seeing it used to describe all of us icks me out
DEVILāS LIMINAL is in Early Access on Steam! Please review, even if you haven't finished playing everything. 10+ reviews are crucial for Steam visibility! š¤2 sapphic romance routes š¤Faustian horror story in rural Arizona š¤Ghost, demons & poverty in the US #gamedev #indiegame #yuri #horror
When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.
They donāt want to admit it but there are far more āfeminineā shades of blue than āmasculineā ones; checkmate cis dudes
oh
Are we as a society ready to discuss how the reason the old segregationist āwe must protect our white women from these predatorsā rhetoric is used as a cudgel against trans people and immigrants is that a lot of white folks *still* believe it to be true with regard to black people? No?
As GDC talk applications have opened, I want to politely remind you that GDC remains one of the most inaccessible, unfairly expensive, and dangerous for-profit game industry events out there - and that offering your labour for free to it just adds value that pressures people into going needlessly.
I have a long held belief that conservatives cannot understand narrative and have no ability to deconstruct story whatsoever. Itās like some kind of universal comprehension barrier that they all share. Talking to them about literally any piece of media is actually a stunning experience.
God being a Cassandra sucks
Certain people have convinced themselves so thoroughly that god has prepared and shielded them for any test that theyāre accelerating us all toward tribulation. Any sane god would find them all lacking but unfortunately we will all be punished for their hubris
A good reminder that while Metal Gear Rising was incredibly loud and completely devoid of subtlety, people mistook that for being dumb. It is not. It's one of the most clear-eyed and pointed political satires AND most plausible takes on cyberpunk around. It is the Rage Against The Machine of games
Never thought Iād get to see a strandbeest in person but today I got to fulfill a lifelong dream to see (and propel) some of Theo Jansenās amazing creations!!
The ancient Dutch curse!!
Whatās one trivial belief you have that you have no factual support for but still firmly hold? Mine is that the zombie game ā7 Days to Dieā is extremely popular with Mormons
FYI, itās at around 4 times more likely that your child will be born trans (~0.5-0.6% based on self-reported population in the US) than you being dealt a full house in a game of poker (0.14%)
Why did they make this spray cleaner smell like BBQ chicken? Not that I mind but now every time I go into my living room I want BBQ
Rural people often look down on other rural people as trash even more so than they claim city folk do and vote accordingly
Reposted with ALT because fucking come on why would you exempt people who use screen readers from this moment of joy?
Like building a house of cards made from tropical orchids and powered by inbred show-dogs
There are no distractions. It's all bad. Systematically stripping trans people of their rights, guys in balaclavas shoving any brown person with a tattoo into a ummarked vans, ending healthcare for millions. It's all in service of fascism and technofeudalism. It's all one thing. That's the point.
Breaking: Transgender people lose Skrmetti, SCOTUS rules that Tennessee's law banning gender affirming care is not subject to heightened scrutiny. I'll be reading and reporting more fully today. Terrible day for transgender people. Full decision here: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
The United States is committing genocide against its trans population, and SCOTUS just legalized it. That's the truth.
I just now saw a man in Albert Heijn wearing a MAGA hat and I dearly hope he drunkenly falls into a canal tonight. Amsterdam doesnāt need any of that fascist nonsense here
Uh this is like 80% there. If I made some pickled carrots Iād be pretty close to perfect
Improvising a banh mi from ingredients from my local Dutch grocery store. A puntje with schouderham, vegan pate, coriander, komkommer, rode pepers and, Maggi, and garlic Zaanse Mayo
The lady and I are celebrating Pentecost the only way we know how
The Landsraad and Bene Gesserit were the OG mean girls
Thinking of Greta Thunberg (and co) and those being attacked by ICE in LA. Lot of horrible stuff going on right now but also A LOT of people standing up for what's right.
Yes every conservative social media site becomes a tropical rainforest of school shooters and Ponzi schemes but did you know that there is a left-wing social media site where people are rude to the nationās center-right political pundits
Between Greta Thunberg and her fellow activists being kidnapped by Israel and Trump turning LA into his personal war zone, I hope people realise that protest, no matter how peaceful, will always be met with violence by dying empires.
We can be better, but unfortunately we all might need to suffer greatly before weāre ready to for that change
We are gross apes, constantly striving and failing to reach for the heavens, often only learning by inflicting trauma on ourselves or having it be inflicted by others But in that lies a bit of hope, because things like empathy, compassion, and a desire to care for others is baked into our biology
I might be pessimistic about this, but Iām also both a student of history and human nature enough to recognize that there is nothing unique or exceptional in the American character that makes us immune to the same cycles wrought by our ancient brain hardware, which are even more overtaxed than ever
Honestly without a major external catastrophically existential threat, I donāt see a way forward for America as a country. Itās going to dive deep into authoritarianism for a few decades before the rot is so deep the country fractures entirely as the center crumbles after having been entirely looted
Right, left, or center, thereās a deep spiritual exhaustion at this generations-long culture war and some people just want the cognitive load to end, or at least to numb themselves, even if means swallowing a corrosive worldview. Religion and regressive politics offer this while also selling virtue
Pre-2020 I would have said that Americans would have had a chance to reject fascism and authoritarianism but there is too deep a streak of denialism to break the hold of the propaganda machine There is too much aversion to the complexity of the modern world and an eagerness for simple, easy answers
But then again COVID taught us that people could die in your own family or community and people will still deny the fact whatās happing in front of them to maintain their political illusions, despite millions of deaths so who the fuck knows what will happen Any sane society would rise up but šŗšøā¦
They think it benefits them to say to average citizens āitās okay if you look the other way since weāre not going to war against people like you, but a shadowy cabal of external powers manipulating American cultureā but as more neighbors disappear itās going to get harder to maintain this fiction
Fundamentally itās rooted in the fascist misconception that empathy is fake and that only external motivations would prompt people to advocate and protest for their marginalized neighbors. This is why they paint protestors and critics as āpaidā, āvirtue signalingā or āactivistsā
Haha no. Weāve leveled up our chip/fry/frites game since moving to the Netherlands and have instead embraced the mighty kapsalon as our preferred potato-based form of self-destruction
I have never in my life, seen anything like this, and I would actually like to ask anyone else if theyāve ever seen whole groups of federal officials obscuring their names and replacing it with āthe othersā or if this is new.
The only HPs we accept in this house are Hewlett-Packard and like maybe the sauce
I'm sorry but expecting civilians to follow the law when law enforcement is out openly committing crimes left and right is a joke. Either we have a system here or we don't. Pick one.
One of the reasons I think ādefund the policeā is a great slogan is that you get to repeatedly tell people that studies show that police donāt actually solve murders, and in fact one-third of stranger-murders are committed by police.
in so many videos out of LA i am seeing officers aiming rubber bullets right into crowds, this is filling me with a deep and anxious rage knowing what happens when they do that www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/ne...
Making your god damn horse trample a person is attempted murder, period, end of story.
This is the same sort of fiction the right spun about Seattle during the George Floyd protests and the template theyāll deploy for demonizing any public protests against police/ICE/military oppression Any citizen fighting back against injustice will be painted as an evildoer at war with goodness
"My name is Greta Thunberg and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel."
the hong kong protestors used the phrase "do not split" to mean that the radical protest and peaceful protest arms of the movement should refuse to criticize each other.
Happy pride!
Itās honestly embarrassing that the Dems keep losing to these two. Theyāre so pathetically easy to predict and manipulate
Well lookee here
There is another future where Musk declares open war on Trump and starts airing his dirty laundry. Both men are egotistical and megalomaniacal enough to go scorched earth on one another and honestly we should be fanning any sparks that suggest they might
There is a possible future where Musk keeps criticizing Trump and is publicly and violently punished for his disloyalty, driving a wedge between the billionaire class and Trump, who view him as a useful fool they can placate Who knows what will happen if they withdraw and he feels betrayed
wagingnonviolence.org/2025/06/the-...
Unquestioning fealty has been the litmus test for the GOP this entire administration, so of course theyād sign without reading. Itās more surprising any would share even vague criticism after the fact
Jonathan Joss--voice actor of John Redcorn from King of the Hill, and Ken Hotate from Parks and Rec--was killed in a homophobic hate crime today. I'm so angry.
J.K. Rowling is using her wealth attained from the "Harry Potter" series to create an organization dedicated to removing transgender people's rights "in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces.ā š: bit.ly/3ZBRxYk
My wife: ugh I hate this hot weather Me, an engineer: I could get us some aluminum sheet pans to use as heat sinks. We could wear them on our bare backs like turtle shells and be so comfortable this summer Wife: Thatās unhinged. Me: but effective, right? Wife, also an engineer: youāre not wrong
Their whole house of cards is built on the idea that white men specifically are the only ones suited to succeed and prosper. Once you question gender and race , you question the entire hierarchy that it props up and that is an existential threat to abusive conservative structures
Heās like the walking embodiment of Divorced Dad Energy except infinitely less sympathetic
Still disappointed that David Lynch didnāt fuck with us by casting Shelly Long from Cheers as Cooperās Diane. Never specify whether itās the same Diane and just leave us debating for decades
Jesus the gull just flew off to attack another seagull who was flying off with the corpse of a baby bird it had clearly stolen from a nest. What the hell Amsterdam birds
I just saw this seagull eating the carcass of a dead pigeon before attacking some ducks and god help me I will never ever turn my back on them again
For my @msnbc.com column this week, I wrote about exactly what the Republican anti-trans budget bill would do to trans people on Medicaid. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
So I got my first canal shower today when some drunks threw a severed (plastic) head at a canal boat
Itās also a playful exploration of disability and accessibility in a way that is both positive and surprisingly deep
Takahashi Keitaās new game To a T is so deeply trans-coded this canāt be an accident. From the unspecified gender of the (probably NB) main character to the opening songās lyrics āI donāt know why I became a T. Youāre the perfect shapeā itās a joyful celebration of being who you are
Calling the guy who was cited repeatedly by the recent report on trans youth care by Trumpās DHHS āirrelevantā is either wildly misinformed nativity or a straight up psy op
Weāre Studio Lakes!
The result they consider a āsuccessā for PBs is giving kids time to āgrow out of this trans phaseā because they donāt think gender dysphoria is real. Transition is the worst case scenario and is treated like a catastrophic failure Itās all bad faith science rooted in hatred of trans people existing
Uh so today we've created an absolutely unhinged prototype mashup of pinball and a twin stick shooter and it's such a cognitive logjam to actually play. Maybe we should lean into it and add a bunch of distracting sounds and colors a la Lumines #gamedev #studiolakes
A lot of people are brain-poisoned by capitalism into seeing anything but cancerous exponential growth as a failure
Never thought Iād have to live through FFVI but I guess ānihilistic psychopath ruling over a ruined worldā is a pretty apt description of things right now
tfw he dunks on the THIRD net
Yes. Thatās entirely it. Just bad, spooky vibes
This is the video that sent me down this dark road:
Their entire grift revolves around āmaking up a guy and getting mad about himā Itās so utterly shameless and pathetic how unethical they are
Itās not even that complicated. Putin is just playing regular chess against a guy canāt even figure out the rules of tag and always thinks heās āitā
I even didnāt realize this was a genre of video
I accidentally watched a stealth camping video and now have found my YouTube algorithm is now almost entirely āI went camping and was spooked by something in woods and had to bailā
Unfortunately my lack of psychopathy means that a career as a high-power CEO, cult leader, or politician is unsuitable for me, despite my very suitable skillset
Inspired by @delaneyking.bsky.social I took a bunch of personality tests at Psychology Todayās site and the results were pretty much as I expected - Iām shockingly well adjusted but also kinda depressed Also the charisma explains why people just randomly open themselves up to me unprovoked
A lot of people who followed their values and left Twitter have found their success there to merely be a local maximum but you do you
Oh that ADHD one hits a little too close to home š
Maybe? Their denial runs so deep that I have no idea if theyāll ever admit that. I mean if trans men and trans women can support each other without feeling envy animus they should too but chauvinism is a hell of a drug, be it around gender or nationality
I understood it a bit more when my immigrant relatives (who are now US citizens) yelled at me for days for fleeing to š³š± . Like they literally did the same thing but now find it unthinkable that I would leave āthe greatest country on earthā. They have so much invested emotionally in being American
I canāt get over my cousinās graduation cake.
Having finished both, I would 100% play Tainted Grail again and not so much with Blue Prince. That said, BP is a game I was happy to play with my wife - it shines when there is someone to bounce theories off, help write down stuff, and take the reins when the RNG gets too frustrating
This guy is like one of 4 Americans who actually went and got their REAL ID and immediately they said it was a fake. Just so everyone knows when they toss your ass in a truck it won't matter what passport or identification you have they'll throw it in the street and you're gone
This is a really important read for many people out there, as this has been erroneously reported. The spending bill DOES ban HRT from Medicaid, which is horrific. It does NOT ban ACA/Private plans from covering it, as Gillian Branstetter of the ACLU lays out in her thread here.
sigh. you might want this
This week is doing nothing to renew even a scrap of my faith in humanity
