Last night, playing Mad Verse City, in an effort to write a bar that rhymed with “painful,” I wrote “The Devil on my shoulder told me to listen to the Angel.” Every once in a while, I think Force Of Will might still be alive in there.

You mean to tell me that Jeff Bezos capped his salary at $82k, and borrows against the value of Amazon to fund his lifestyle? So you’re saying that if Amazon were to suddenly and precipitously lose value, it would directly and immediately impact Bezos negatively. Huh. Fun things to think about.

As an anthropologist, I endorse this message!

I think it’s time we start treating the people who say “you couldn’t write a 10-page paper without ChatGPT” the same way we treat people who say “there’s no way the Egyptians built the pyramids.”

How does it feel to drive an F-150? (Sung to the tune of New Order’s “Blue Monday”)

If your business is primarily based on the preparation and serving of coffee, and you are not open for business at 6AM, I don’t trust your business. I might give a pass for 6:30, but 7:00 is too late. If you’re serving coffee as your main thing, you gotta be up to serve the early birds.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s kinda funny that the first episode of the new season of Game Changer features recent defector and SNL cast member Jeremy Culhane getting *positively buried* by Legal Eagle?

I miss fun.

Boston needs food carts. Not food trucks, we’ve got plenty of those. I mean food *carts.* Similar to NY’s Halal carts. I should start one. A hot dog cart that offers all sorts of toppings. Maybe even specialty dogs. I could call it Best Wurst.

Dear Apple Music, I understand your inclusion of MC Lars on the playlist “Get Up!”, as his music is usually very upbeat, fun, and light. “Twenty-Three” is a **HUGE** exception to that rule.

“My depression kicked my ass today, I think I’ll call it an early night.” “Perfect! Allow me to assist you with that with a toothache and dreams about the apocalypse. Good luck!”

Look, I get that Stomp Clap Hey is the poster child of The Worst Millenial Music, but come on, gang. Matt & Kim is *right there.* Fight the real enemy.

I think it’s time to boycott WWE and TKO above them. If they wanna cut wrestlers’ salaries for their profit, we low blow their wallets. Cancel your Netflix, ESPN, Peacock, whatever other service airs WWE programming. There are so many other promotions out there. And support your local indie!

My job just had me sit in a seminar called “Unreasonable Hospitality.” Am I the only one unnerved by that sentiment? “You need to go beyond hospitable. Make your clients uncomfortably comfortable. Get personal. Like really personal. Make it weird.”

Man, I’m getting really frustrated trying to get people to play games outside of D&D. I know! I’ll design one that not only isn’t high fantasy, it removes the dice (one of the few things gamers agree on enjoying) and adds a degree of improv artistic performance, which scares people! Genius

Advertise your account with a Simpsons image.

…why does Apple Music spell Jay-Z’s name with an umlaut over the Y?

But each one will have different needs, and favor toward one may be seen as rejection by toward another. Actions you take to appease one ghost will offend another. At what price, this power?

TTRPG idea: a game where the only way to gain experience is through combat, and therefore, killing. However, every thing you kill stays with you, haunting you. You can only utilize the strength these deaths offer by keeping the spirits appeased.

Listening to Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson’s “Uncluded” album? Check. Craving hot dogs? Check. Taking too long in the shower under way hotter water than usual? Check. That’s the whole list, team. We are go for depression.

Or don’t, stay home, and watch whatever Netflix is allowing you to watch this month. But don’t whine about art dying if you’re not willing to support its outlets in a real, tangible way.

Theaters charge more for concessions because they don’t make any profit on tickets. Something like 95% of a ticket sale goes to the studio, leaving theaters with barely enough to keep the lights on, let alone pay their staff. If you love movie theaters, buy concessions.

Dear Trader Joe’s, Of all its qualities, the meltability of American cheese is its most important. That is why it exists. It is what makes it perfect for grilled cheeses and breakfast sandwiches, and high on the list for omelettes and burgers. Why Doesn’t Your American cheese melt???

Dear TNA, Fire Carlos Silva. Get out of WWE’s pocket. Regain your own unique identity. WWE just released a shitload of people, and they’ll need some place to go. But the Motor City Machine Guns aren’t gonna want to come home to TNA while you’re still fellating the people that fired them.

The richest man owns X. The second and fourth richest men control Google. The third richest man owns The Washington Post. The fifth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?

Hang on, Dominic Cooper and Ruth Negga were in Warcraft together, too? Was Preacher filming next door or something?

Ordered a TTRPG two weeks ago. Payment page says the order is confirmed, but no other movement has occurred. Sent the dev two emails, haven’t heard back. Trying to figure out if I’ve been spoiled by fast-shipping Amazon stuff, or if I should try for a refund.

Tara—Jameela Jamil. I would not be shocked if Tara was (at least physically) based on Ms. Jamil.

The Morrigan—Maisie Williams. She’s such a chameleon, she could play all three of her really well, I think (although if they wanted to bring Becky Lynch in to cameo as Badb, I wouldn’t complain)

Baal—Kola Bokkini. He’s got the look, and his turns from aggro to sensitive in Ted Lasso showed me he could do this part. Plus, he’s got the right accent.

I just reread Kieron Gillen’s “The Wicked + The Divine,” so here’s a fan-cast of it. A thread. Laura Wilson/Persephone—Zendaya. I know she’s kinda everywhere (even a little over exposed) right now, but she looks the part and is decent actress.

Mark my words; in less than a decade’s time, there will be an Austin Powers reboot.

I think artists should be able to make a decent living without living in one of the three designated "this is where you live if you want to be an artist" cities

Woke up to a feed full of WOTC, Avatar, GenAI, and of course, ads. Off to my day job in a neighborhood where very eatery is owned by a venture capital firm. Art really is dead, isn’t it?

Wow, the new Street Fighter trailer looks profoundly bad. I had already discounted it due to Andrew Schulz’ involvement, but I had hoped that there might be some redeeming factor to it. That trailer just killed that hope.

AAA is a game that needs space to breathe. It needs a proper saga. At the very least, it needs multiple seasons. You can’t do a one-shot of it without investing effort into details that will probably never come up, or a world so rich only to be abandoned. I love the game, but I love an epic.

But in a scene that expects the GM to have the world and plot built out before session 0, a game that asks all players to build the world together will struggle. And when so may groups don’t want stories to go longer than 6-8 sessions, a game with as many POVs as AAA won’t find a table.

Hot take: Armour Astir Advent is one of the best PBTA games that will never find a big enough audience. It’s a great game. The theming is perfect. The story it tells is solid. The split between mech action and pilot drama is v good. Rolling with dis/advantage *and* inspiration/desperation is fun.

(Inb4 yes, I understand that fighting said corruption is a priority, and believe in continuing to fight it. I also stand by finding joy in small things, hence my wordy set-up to what amounts to a 30-year-old meme)

Yes, the world is on fire. Chaos and corruption reign. But I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that joy is an act of rebellion. So with that in mind I invite you to not dwell on the horrors of the world today. No, we mustn’t dwell. Not today. We can’t! Not on Rex Manning Day!

There’s a big difference between “laughing with” and “laughing at.” I’m glad those players found the humor in it, and if you like, I don’t begrudge your enjoyment of it. All I know is that if I were sitting at that table, I would’ve been pissed with how that game was presented to me.

I still don’t like Dimension 20: On a Bus, for all the reasons I didn’t like it before. Hell, Brennan addresses the reasons it feels disrespectful *in the episode*, and tries to get something authentic out of Katie, and we get it for a second, but then it’s right back into the bit.

X-Men had always had religious extremists as villains, and I get why; it’s an stand-in for WBC & those like it, as X-Men is used as an allegory for queer folks. But shouldn’t there also be a different sect that see mutant abilities as miraculous, and a sign of the Second Coming?

Ah, there’s the Con Drop. I as wondering when that was gonna hit me this time.

They really missed a trick by not styling it as tra Ve ller

It might feel good, it might sound a little somethin’ But fuck the game if it ain’t sayin’ nothin’. —Chuck D

Back to the day job today. It’s funny how I spent my weekend little more than a block from where I’m standing, but for the difference in culture, feeling, and experience, I may as well have been on Mars.

Play tested Alphabet Alchemy this weekend. Group loved it, and got some great feedback about some tweaks. Spoke to someone who seemed interested in helping it get made. Spoke to someone else who was interested I potentially publishing it (pending a rough draft). Is… is this happening?

The capitalist ghouls who refer to what was once art as "IP" and "content" want nothing more than for you to convert from Producer to Consumer. Producers are competition. Consumers are profit.