Fantasy and science fiction author, tabletop game designer, amateur artist and cartographer, retired instructor and instructional designer in cybersecurity. Blog: https://wordpress.sharrukinspalace.com Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/sharrukinspalace
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Of course, there's a point at which insanity becomes moral depravity. Somewhere on the sliding scale from "choosing to believe lies" to "choosing to repeat lies" to "choosing to act upon lies in such a way as to harm others" you've pretty much given up the game. Epistemology is an ethical concern.
Some days it’s hard to tell which is worse: the insanity in high places, or the moral depravity. It’s particularly hard to take when it’s coming on full blast from people who really ought to know better.
What with one thing and another, I'm not going to have any tai chi classes for a couple of weeks. The senior center had to shut down this week, and our coach is out of town next week. I'm probably going to be doing some practice at home, and spending more time than usual working on Projects. (2/2)
Mostly incremental progress yesterday and today. Collated playtester comments, had a meeting with my collaborators (which was pretty productive), knocked out slides for the fall seminar, did some research for the current story. Might be able to start the next chapter soon. (1/2) #writing
I still didn't get any new work done on the Cultural Evolution Game today, but I was crazy productive nonetheless. Did planning for September, spent an hour or so studying mathematics, knocked out a few PowerPoint slides, and wrote about 2,500 words of new prose narrative. Not bad at all. #writing
Well. The relevant time-scales are a *little* different.
Planning for September 2025 I was pretty busy throughout August, reaching several milestones, so I'm reasonably happy with how things went. In general, I seem to be adapting pretty well to retirement - I'm having no trouble at all in filling my days, and if anything I still don't feel as if I have…
I also knocked out about 1,300 words of narrative prose. I may be able to finish another chapter by mid-week. The new story seems to be leading my Muse to go hyperactive on me. Did *not* get much done on the Cultural Evolution Game today, but hopefully tomorrow will be better on that front. (2/2)
Incremental progress today. I worked on my "Getting the Astronomy Right" seminar for this fall. That's going to be a 45-minute lecture on the current state of astronomy for world-building: the likely distribution of Earthlike worlds, the results of exoplanetary science, and so on. (1/2) #writing
Bookmarking this. I did an oral-history interview on my way out the door back in April, but that was fairly routine, it didn’t focus on the current nonsense.
I was kind of useless today, aside from finishing another chapter of the current story. Tomorrow I need to get back to the Cultural Evolution Game, and work on my slide deck for my seminar for this fall. Honestly, I think I may be fighting a little burnout at the moment. Hopefully it will pass.
... I did push the slide deck for my Philcon seminar forward a bit, and wrote about 1,200 words of new prose narrative. I think this weekend I need to give some more attention to the Cultural Evolution Game, now that my collaborators and playtesters have had a chance to poke at it some. (3/3)
I'm seeing incremental but definite improvement in the muscle tone in my legs and in my balance. Not to mention starting to get some of the basic elements down well enough I can practice a little at home. This was a good post-retirement decision. Didn't get much creative work done today ... (2/3)
I have to say, tai chi is the most fun I've been having with *exercise* since, well, ever. Our instructor keeps changing things up every week, pushing us to try new forms, and there are short discussions of the philosophy in between. Gives my brain something to do besides mindless repetition. (1/3)
No, most likely I’m going to Philcon, a convention outside Philadelphia in November.
Spent most of today working on material for the fall cons: character sheets and bios for a Star Trek game, the first bits of a slide deck for a "getting the astronomy right in SF" seminar. Tomorrow is tai chi, but that's about it, so I hope to take care of a few more creative tasks. #writing
Really busy today - tai chi, bar trivia, *and* about 1,000 words of prose narrative. Posted the first chapter for my next story. Also did a little work on games for Philcon, and collated a bunch of playtest comments for the Cultural Evolution Game. Tuesdays aren't usually this productive. #writing
Another day of incremental progress. Finished putting together character sheets for a Philcon game, and banged out another 1,600 words or so of narrative prose. Tomorrow is the worst day I have all week for creative work, so we'll see how things go. Might be able to finish a small task. #writing
Sure, I'm putting together complete packages for the players, including character sheets and bios - these are all assuming my personal "Lower Decks" continuity, of course. I hope to be finished with those in another day or two, I'll send you a copy if you want.
Felt a bit under the weather today, but I still managed to be productive. Read and filed a lot of playtester comments, started putting together character sheets for a "Star Trek Adventures" game for Philcon, and wrote about 1,000 words of new narrative prose. More tomorrow. #writing
Got the current draft of the Cultural Evolution Game sent off to collaborators and playtesters. Which means I'm free to work on other things for the next few days. Currently starting my next bit of prose fiction, and working on a game I'll be running for the fall conventions. #gamedesign #writing
... and sending copies to a few people who have volunteered to playtest. Then I'm going to work on some other things for a few days. Deadlines breathing down my neck. (2/2)
Okay, I finished my second trial run of the "Cultural Evolution Game," and I've made a few necessary tweaks to the rules and added a few paragraphs of new material. Tomorrow I'm going to be pushing this document up for my collaborators ... (1/2) #gamedesign #writing
Okay, this is all on or past the edge of what I mastered forty years ago. Looks like this will be the first course in my second-degree project that's going to include a lot of unequivocally new material. Good thing I retired when I did. This is going to take some serious effort and study. (2/2)
The textbooks arrived today for the advanced math class I'll be taking this year. Hoo boy. First- and second-order differential equations, scalar and vector fields, multiple integrals, Fourier series, partial differential equations, non-linear differential equations . . . (1/2) #backtouniversity
Meanwhile, yes, I'm going to want a few play-testers (other than my immediate collaborators) to have a look at this material. Drop me a line if you're interested, especially if I've worked with you before on, say, "Architect of Worlds." (3/3)
Also spent a few hours working through a trial run of the "Cultural Evolution Game." Interesting results. I think one more round of error corrections and the thing is ready for other people to take a swing at. I might write the results of this trial run up as a worked example. (2/3) #gamedesign
Weird day today. I injured one foot yesterday, and it was still a bit sore today, so I skipped tai chi class and spent the day running a bunch of long-outstanding errands. Getting my passport updated, that kind of thing. Not that I plan to travel anywhere, but given how things are going ... (1/3)
Bookmarking this for later. I don’t do a *lot* of constructed-language work, but I’ve sometimes wanted a tool like this.
Chattel slavery was so bad that when we tell you how bad it in fact was most of y'all shut down and tell us we're making it up and pass laws against us ever telling you how bad it was again because your brains literally cannot handle how bad it in fact was.
Remarkable open letter from Bill Burns. "If intelligence analysts at the CIA saw our rivals engage in this kind of great-power suicide, we would break out the bourbon. Instead, the sound we hear is of champagne glasses clinking in the Kremlin and Zhongnanhai." theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
My take on it is: cheer him on now, oh *hell* no in the primaries, hold my nose and vote for him in the general if the primaries go badly. I sincerely hope the Democrats can find a fighter or two in their roster who isn't such a horrible human being.
I'll believe it when it's residing on my hard drive . . . but yeah, this does look really promising.
Okay, as of today I've finished a polishing pass on the "Cultural Evolution Game." Mostly doing balance tweaks, and changing how a few mechanics work to model real-world history better. Now to print out the rules (it's now a 19-page document) and go through another trial run. #gamedesign
Long day. I pushed myself pretty hard at tai chi class this morning - which is good, because I'm definitely seeing progress and improvement - but I've been dragging tail ever since. Pretty much zero creative work today, so I'm off to bed and we'll see how tomorrow goes.
Most stars form in clusters! 🔭🧪☄️ #galactic In a new paper led by @alexis-space.bsky.social, we show that >80% of stars in the local Milky Way formed in clusters. This is *much* higher than other recent estimates (~15%), and supports more traditional 'clustered' models of star formation!
Borrowing a lot from "Transhuman Space" there, although the timeline is being telescoped a bit. Back when we were developing that setting, we were a bit optimistic about how quickly some developments would happen. We missed a few things too. Hope to finish this polishing pass by Wednesday. (2/2)
Lots of good work done on my "Cultural Evolution Game" today. The draft rules are pretty much finished, with some new tweaks I added today. Now I'm reviewing the Big Table of Technologies, tweaking the existing entries and fleshing out a bunch of new items for the near future. (1/2) #gamedesign
. . . Hmmm. I’ve had a Herakles novel in the back of my head for close to thirty years now. Never could get it to work. I always had the Omphale episode as Herakles going off to serve the Hittite kings, maybe fighting in the battle of Kadesh. But yeah, this has potential too.
President Macron: We are talking about an imperialist and revisionist power that is today's Russia, which since 2008 has constantly sought to conquer new territories, has constantly revised international borders, and has never kept its promises of peace and non-aggression.
DYK there is a whole zoo of neutron stars! Some are slow, some fast. Some emit in radio, some in high-energy. Some are in binaries, some are isolated. Some have very strong magnetic fields, others not as strong. It's a zoo out there! 📸 arxiv.org/abs/1302.0869 / NASA JPL-Caltech #NeutronStarWeek
I *might* have the whole design documented by tomorrow evening, but I kind of doubt it. More likely I'll be at the point of making some tweaks and then doing another trial run. Then I can push the whole thing up for my collaborators to look at sometime next week. That's the big milestone. (2/2)
Fairly productive day today. Mostly I've been collecting notes on what I'm calling the "Cultural Evolution Game," and writing a rough draft of the complete rules for it. ~9 pages of material so far. Presumably there will be a "Biological Evolution Game" that precedes this one. (1/2) #gamedesign
Another sound bedrock principle that, alas, a great many people don't seem to understand.
With everything else that’s going on, I’ll take my moments of joy when I can get them. As, for example, from the news that “Lower Decks” appears to have won *two* Hugo Awards this year.
Congratulations. Well deserved - that book was just outrageously clever.
No, a quick search turns up news articles about it from 3-4 days ago.
No…f*cking…way.
About 2,500 words of prose narrative today - that last chapter ended up quite a bit longer than I expected it to. Still, that's "Mariner's Seven" finally put to bed. Tomorrow, it's back to my big game-design project, and I'm going to start putting together notes for games for Philcon in November.
About 1,400 words of new prose narrative today. I should be able to finish this chapter, and in fact the current story, by tomorrow. Then it's back to the current game design project, and I think I'm going to start putting together one of my games for Philcon in November. #writing
The US is being left behind -- in a clean, digital, electric world it is erecting walls & tariffs, cutting itself off from the world, constricting its own power supply, and tying itself to fossil fuel combustion & autocratic fossil fuel regimes. This is what you get when you elect reactionaries.
Didn't get a lick of creative work done today. On the other hand, I'm seeing small but noticeable improvement to my physical health and capability from tai chi classes, so I'll take that as a tiny win. Friday through Monday is the core of my creative week, so I should be hitting the road tomorrow.
Pretty much all the work I ever did for Steve Jackson Games is in this database. I've signed up to be added to the class. Not that I ever expect to realize any damages here, but I'll gladly add a tiny bit of weight to the attempt to bring these idiots to account.
On the other hand, nothing pushes an asshole into utter frothing mania faster than being called out on their behavior. At which point you now have a maniac to deal with. This strategy goes against the natural human urge to have the last word, but that’s best ignored anyway. (2/2)
As a general principle: just because I’ve written a few books, doesn’t mean I feel obligated to put up with harassment from assholes. Painful experience has taught me that it’s best to block and ignore them. Eventually, met with silence, they do tend to get bored and wander away. (1/2)
Nice thing is, once this bit of design is at least sorta-kinda finished, I may be able to start writing and laying out a *big* chunk of the first draft of the book. I could see this system taking up 30%-40% of the page count, easy, between text and pre-made worksheets. (5/5)
I think my next step will be to apply some tweaks and go through a second trial run, and then document the game's current state in detail and push that up where my collaborators can start poking at it. I'm guessing that will keep me busy for the rest of August. (4/5)
... antisocial and xenophobic over time, for example. Probably don't want that to be inherent in the system. (I'm seeing a lot of potential for someone to automate the game once it's closer to being finished, and run through a bunch of trials, just so I can identify imbalances like that.) (3/5)
... going to change a lot before we're done with it, but I got a *very* rich set of notes for the past history of the notional aliens in question. Biggest concern from this first trial run is that there are some balance issues. There was a strong tendency for the aliens to get more ... (2/5)
Well, as of today I've finished a first trial run of the "Cultural Evolution Game" that's going into the new book at some point. It . . . didn't go too badly. I found places where the rules need to be tweaked, and the Big Table of Technological Developments is probably ... (1/5) #gamedesign
This is very much a bedrock principle, which unfortunately a lot of people don't seem to get.
Tuesday is increasingly the No Creative Work day. My day is pretty much spoken for from about 0730 to 2200. Tomorrow should be more productive. Objectives include at least another 1,000 words of narrative prose and a bunch of game design work. Plus probably starting on a game for the fall cons.
The exercise is helping me polish the game - I've already found things to tweak and streamline. Main concern is that the game as written might be a bit humanocentric, and might not produce sufficiently diverse results. Still, once I get the basic engine working, I can start tinkering with it. (4/4)
... and that slowed down their development a bit. They never went in for domesticating animals for eating - they probably tended to go hunting for meat even long after agriculture got going. Possibly related, their hunter-gatherer cultures managed to push back against farmers for a while. (3/4)
Egalitarian, empathetic, and imaginative pseudo-primates, living on a mildly metal-poor planet. So far I've gotten them through the late Neolithic, and they've already had a couple of interesting events. For example, they never really developed microlithic technology in the Paleolithic ... (2/4)
Decent progress today. About 1,000 words of new prose narrative, and I might get a little more done before bedtime. I also no-kidding started a trial run for the rough draft of my cultural-evolution mini-game, using one of the aliens from my "Human Destiny" setting. (1/4) #gamedesign #writing
Solid day of work on my "cultural evolution" model today. I'd say I'm about 95% of the way to being ready to try a trial run. Tomorrow may be the golden day. Although I'm starting to get antsy about a bunch of other deadlines that I really need to start working toward. #gamedesign #writing
At the moment, the "progress table" is maybe 90% finished in first draft, and the "challenges list" is about 30% finished. Soon as I have both of them finished in rough draft, I'm going to take the system for a test drive and see how it works in practice. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see. Progress! (4/4)
The end result is, hopefully, an interesting alien culture with lots of hooks for building its narrative history, and also some clear hooks for conflict (that is, "this is how these aliens might be difficult to get along with, and here's the events in their history that give you the why"). (3/4)
There's also a set of "challenges" that the evolving culture has to meet and overcome in each round of the mini-game, with possible "setbacks" or negative consequences for failure to overcome a challenge. A third element is a set of ten "personality traits" for the developing culture. (2/4)
Still working on my "cultural evolution" mini-game. There are three major components here. There's a big table that tracks social and technological progress on nine tracks, with specific "index developments" that may or may not have impact along the way. (1/4) #gamedesign
I've been working through the White Space novels, and they are *superb*. Elizabeth Bear has gotten onto my list of People I Wish I Wrote As Well As.
Continuing to bang on my cultural-evolution model, both adding items to the main framework and also doing back-of-brain design work on some of the other subsystems. Still hoping I can do a trial run, possibly with some items still undefined, before the weekend is out. #gamedesign
... but it's proving to be a slow process. In other news, after tai chi and some time on an exercise bike and going shopping with my wife, I'm really beat this evening. Got a *little* creative work done today, but mostly it was a wash. On the gripping hand, I'll probably sleep well tonight. (2/2)
Man, am I out of shape. Well, we all knew that. I've been enthusiastically flying a desk for my entire adult lifetime, and that was before a temporarily uncontrolled case of diabetes did a number on my legs. I'm building up some leg strength, not least so I can actually do tai chi ... (1/2)
... before I can do a "playtest" run, but I think that series will converge before much longer. Might be able to do a trial run or two this weekend. (2/2)
Felt quite a bit better today, so I was more productive in general. Spent most of the day hammering on my "generate an alien culture's history" mini-game. Every time I think I'm making progress, I realize there are more bits of the model that I need to define ... (1/2) #gamedesign
mind you im sleep deprived af atm
Down with some kind of crud today, didn't go to either tai chi or bar trivia, pretty much stayed home and vegetated all day. I did have a (short) meeting with @kenburnside.bsky.social, and finally finished the next chapter in my current fan-fiction story, so the day wasn't a total loss. #writing
Unfortunately, most Americans don't understand *how* to make their preferred party move - which involves a lot of involvement in local politics and the primary elections process - which is one big reason why the parties are so disconnected. We have too many "consumers" and not enough citizens. (2/2)
They certainly don't have anything like that yet, and they probably won't until we get closer to the next Presidential election. There's a lot of internal debate going on. Which is why now is the time for citizens to get in and push rather than wait for consulting firms to make the decision. (1/2)
I think many individual Democrats get it, and are working on it, but the party has enormous inertia. Which is why I think now is the time citizens need to stand up and *demand* that the Democratic Party get to work on meeting the moment. They won't do it in a timely manner otherwise. (3/3)
It also doesn't fit the current historical moment, where we've gone well past "Republican policies won't be as good as ours" and are into "The Republican Party and its billionaire sponsors have become an active threat to modern life, and need to be thoroughly defeated." (2/3)
The problem the Democratic Party is facing right now is that what they've worked on standing for over the past generation or so is "boring, competent government institutions." Which isn't a bad thing to stand for, in normal times, but it makes a terrible rallying cry in times of crisis. (1/3)
Lots of incremental but no-milestones progress today: planning message for August, about 900 words of prose narrative, some tinkering with my model for "Symphony of Cultures." Tomorrow's Monday, and I don't have anything on my calendar, so that should be another productive day.
Planning for August 2025 July 2025 didn't go quite as planned, largely because of the new Symphony of Cultures project taking up a lot of space. I'm not dissatisfied with how the month went, by any means. These planning messages, and the project white-board I maintain in my office, are intended to…
Heh. Well, in this case it's more a series of "Beckett Mariner becomes a responsible officer" storylines. Spock did make an appearance a few installments ago, though.
Well, the mini-game for developing an alien culture's history is all the way up to the "atomic age" in (very) rough draft. My brain is now very tired. I think I'm going to knock off early and spend tomorrow working on something else. Maybe writing a chapter of bad "Star Trek" fan-fic or something.
@joshuaeakle.com
... and I ought to be able to run a few tests as early as next week to see how it plays. Also on the agenda, I need to do the planning message and set up my project board for August, and I *really* need to get started pulling material together for the fall conventions. Busy weekend ahead. (3/3)
... through the threshold of the Bronze Age, with nothing but a bunch of 2d6 and 3d6 rolls. A couple more solid days of work, and I'll be able to extend this all the way to the equivalent of the late 21st Century. It's a rough draft, to be sure, but it's coming together *very* nicely ... (2/3)
Sometimes, when I've done enough back-of-brain work, a design just starts dropping onto the page all at once. From a cold start, today I set up a mini-game by which a player can simulate the cultural development of an alien or alternate human society, from the Old Stone Age ... (1/3) #gamedesign
"If the political system doesn't give me exactly what I want, I'll just refuse to participate. That'll show them!"
(She's been studying karate and tai chi for something like twenty years, so she's a lot more physically capable than you might think at first glance. Watching her work through the forms is a genuine pleasure.) (4/4)
I mean, I'm already noticing some minimal improvement in my balance, and if I can just rebuild some strength in my legs I think I can make good progress. Meanwhile I get to watch my wife be insanely graceful for two hours a week, so that's all to the good. (3/4)
... I have a hard time with the stances. I *am* starting to get a feel for some of the basics, so that I can at least shift my weight back and forth appropriately and approximate the hand motions. I'm thinking I may just focus on practicing those for a while every day, and see if that helps. (2/4)
Felt a little under the weather today, got a little creative work done but not as much as I'd hoped. I did get to today's tai chi lesson. Still struggling with that. Between nerve damage in my legs and the general muscular atrophy that comes from flying a desk for forty years ... (1/4)
Absolutely. It may be a while before we get to that point.