Ran out of words and not tagging @imagecomics.com and @stephaniehans.bsky.social. Also, appreciate any spreading of this. It is that time.

The #Deathstalker soundtrack and music video are finally here! I had a blast collaborating with Slash, Brendan McCreary, Gene Hoglan, Omer Ben-Zvi, and Pete Griffin to reimagine Chuck Cirino's timeless theme for the 80’s cult classic Deathstalker II (Steven Kostanski) ...

This is not a drill: Cliff Eidelman's Star Trek VI Concert Score reading copy! (Previously only the End Credits Suite had been available.) This score has lived rent-free in my head for over three DECADES. (Okay, lunch and a relisten now!) www.cliffeidelman.com/concert-work...

I know I'm old and grumpy, but the only way this article could have made me grin even more maliciously was if the AI had led all the influencers over the rim of a volcano. www.thetimes.com/world/articl...

Thank you to everyone who's picked up the new Fallen London merch! The presale on the Arcana and the new Mysterious and Indistinct t-shirt will be open for a while, and it's going to help us be prudent in how many of these things we make. There will be some stock, too. gametee.co.uk/products/the...

I have thought up a unhinged fake MUD combat mechanic running off the Chinese Remainder Theorem = good grief, Yoon Ha, GET SOME DLEEP.

Sitting here during downtime wondering if I could refactor that 60% WIP Shuos Academy game from ChoiceScript into MUD... Easier (smaller) starting points would probably be From Every Spark a Fire or Turnabout Is Fair Prey, Amiable Planet from Twine etc.

Lol, in some cases THIRTY YEARS (Fidonet) or twenty-plus (Usenet, various listservs...), then onward to LJ etc.

I snapshotted the opening of each transcript in my old Infocom transcript printout collection. blog.zarfhome.com/2025/10/old-... Doesn't reveal much new, but it was fun. (I was hoping to determine the release number of the version of Suspended that I played, but the transcript doesn't show it.)

I feel personally attacked... /o\

Figuring out where the additional MUD components were loading from means I can STOP scope creep BS like researching preliminaries for implementing the Z-Machine (.z3) into Forth on a baremetal ForthOS on Raspberry Pi, that's obviously a NORMAL AND SANE COPING METHOD. intfiction.org/t/implementi...

Getting started coding a Ninefox MUD using NakedMud (Python 3 MUD server - github.com/NakedMud/nak...). Thanks to a friend I worked out where the heck the entities were loading from and ripped out two of the starter example races/species. Everything else is on defaults so time to build!

I'm reminded of this scene I wrote in Darth Vader, which is born of me pitching "Okay - the reason Droids don't generally beat humans in Star Wars is they don't have blood, as that's where midichlorians are. So, how about syringe-powered vampire robots?" and (rightfully) being told no, kieron, no.

INACTION FIGURES!

The Fallen London Arcana. (Very) Soon.

Genuinely cannot ascertain whether catten is about to taste-test the graphic novel or the husband... 😅

classical orchestra conductor, mixing engineer, speakeasy jazz pianist

I love retrospectives like this. We are obsessed with the same imaginary problems, generation after generation

Okay, one more for the road: There's a Forth implementation for the Z-Machine! #interactivefiction github.com/llasram/zmfo...

Today's readings in progress: - Gforth Manual (www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/gforth...) - Ed. J. Robinson, MUSIC AND MEANING - Naomi Novik's THE SUMMER WAR - Martin Van Creveld's COMMAND IN WAR - McShaffry & Graham's GAME CODING COMPLETE 4th ed (a 2013 discussion of A* is still useful!)

I'm biased because I am contributing a story-adventure to this. :3 But I would have wanted a copy of this even if not!

I'm adopting this immediately

www.wired.com/story/openai... You have no idea how fast I reached for my copy of Arpaci-Dusseau & Arpaci-Dusseau's OPERATING SYSTEMS: THREE EASY PIECES and Siegel's UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL COMPUTERS. Alternately, it's a great time to contemplate hobbyist CP/M on a Raspberry Pi (in emulation)!

A gift from Balatro?! I'm boggled that my husband and I are both, simultaneously, Balatro widowers. :) It only took him a YEAR to convince me to play Slay the Spire so this feels like a fitting revenge.

Working on a Journalist RPG where the player who is experiencing most emotional crossover with their character takes control of the group's direction. It's called IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS.

A totally normal confluence of hobbies/interests :3

So I've been joking on and off for a while about starting a newsletter? I don't think it's a joke anymore.

You’ll now be able to get an updated coronavirus shot in every state without a prescription, according to the American Pharmacists Association. CVS and Walgreens have stated you won’t need to attest to any underlying conditions and the questions will be removed from their online booking system.

Yeah, I keep joking about doing the world's tiniest laser printer snail mail newsletter-zine for a few friends with flash fiction or aggro goose cartoons or Unpopular Opinions About Sf/f and it's...not a joke anymore either.

3 DAYS LEFT on Ex Tenebris. AMA? www.kickstarter.com/projects/bla...

I feel personally attacked by this proof note and it isn't even for me... /o\

Today's emotional support spinning WIP: cotton. Pilot Vanishing Point for scale.

A brag that will be meaningless to all but 2.3 people reading this: after SIX MONTHS teaching myself to spin on a treadle wheel (I had a two-hour ~orientation courtesy of a family friend when I visited in-laws), I CAN SPIN COTTON ON AN ASHFORD TRAVELLER. Must research cellulose dyes now... :)

Rereading THE GREAT CRASH OF 1929, one of my two favorite financial histories. It's always seemed vaguely prophetic to me, in the sense that history repeats. This is from the 2009 forward.

@macarrick.bsky.social Rook and Rose Pattern Deck!!! So chuffed.

Emotional support spinning: OH. I'm slow on the uptake!: this colorway (from a monthly fiber subscription to push me out of my comfort zone of all silk all the time) is a seasonal PUMPKIN SPICE: THE YARN! :D Break before spinning up the 2nd batt (of two) and then two-plying.

SHOWGOOSING

Yeah, science fictional treatments of the Turing test have a lot to answer for, but it's not like this is a hot, new, modern form of ableism as opposed to a sadly ancient one. (The number of people in the USA whom I saw treat my mother like s*** because she doesn't speak English...)

People... are allowed to come up with mean names for inanimate objects. If you compare this practice to racial slurs, I'm going to think you believe people of other races hold the same concrete significance and value as inanimate objects. This is one of those slips that does not look good on anyone.

More emotional support spinning. It's that kind of day.

Today's emotional support spinning: 2-ply ramie handspun. (Fountain pen for scale; it's not functional to my wheel!!)

Beg to report: Balatro has claimed a new victim. :D (My husband is the new victim. NO ONE IN THIS HOUSEHOLD WOULD EVER HAVE PUT IT IN FRONT OF HIM, ROGUELIKELY FLUTTERING ITS JOKERS.)

she's armed

ICYMI posted some of my solo scripts. Yeah, I’ve been known to write passion projects w/out @shawnabenson.bsky.social sometimes. Delight in my Last Starfighter pilot, Eastbound &. Down, Parks & Rec, and Silicon Valley specs, and a period piece. Or not, whatever. www.thebensonsisters.com/julie-benson

The new anime season has started, so I watched the premiere of May I Ask for One Final Thing? It's about a young noblewoman who gets fed up with her corrupt peers in high society and decides her fists are rated E for Everyone. It's hilarious and I rec it.

I will be a guest speaker at the 12th annual Albatwitch Day Festival taking place Saturday October 11th at 431 South Front Street, Wrightsville PA 17368. I will take the stage at 3pm. Admission is free. I will not have books with me to sell, but am happy to sign books you bring from home.

Spinning fiber "ratings" (these are highly individual!) - tussah silk: EASIEST SPIN. - mulberry silk, eri silk: slippery but lovely - "overspin" to get a stable single. - cotton: can't spin reliably longer than 6" lolsob. - ramie: delightful. - tow flax: lovely & rustic, now I want to try line flax.

Catten hlep ramie spinning!

www.wired.com/story/ice-so... Surprising no one, if accurate. At this point, one hopes they outsource to SomethingorotherGPT and SomethingorotherGPT hallucinates itself a bunch of accusations against spambot accounts.

TIL that Project Gutenberg has Le Roman de la Rose! Added in 2005, i.e. AFTER I searched desperately for a reading copy in the 1990s after falling in love with Pamela Dean's TAM LIN. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16816