All's well here at The Dispatch. The snails are getting super into taking online self-defense classes. This was an area of snail life that we had no even considered up until this point. We generally don't see them interacting with anyone else and they don't really leave the house except to go out into the garden. But we supposed that it's good for them to be prepared. We're not sure how much they're paying for to take these classes or if what is being taught really translates to a snail's anatomy. So we're going to keep tabs on their spending and make sure they aren't being taken for a ride.

Game Boy 👾

• Magic: The Gathering
• Alan Wake II
  • Shares more lore with Control than I realized, some recurring characters showing up
  • Still fun to play, but gets thematically intense and difficult gameplay makes me put it down

Links 🔗

• Devon Rodriguez's parasocial aesthetics
  • An article about an internet-famous painter who retaliated online after this critic's review
  • Interesting read on people thinking that technically impressive art shouldn't be criticized
  • And the parasocial relationship that can develop with people in the realm of influencer
  • And that relationship being harnessed as a narrative-driving force
• How Bear does analytics with CSS
  • very cool idea for analytics without needing javascript
• Confusing Git Terminology
  • in depth explanations on parts of git that are super-unintuitive
• 7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Known Fruit in the World
  • Commissioned by the US Government in 1886 and all available to download
  • seems like a good thing just to have a reference back to
  • and the Open Culture website seems like a cool site in general
• Songs of Grief, Songs of the Swamp
  • Hipsters of the Coast article about Magic cards depicting grief
  • A cool short post about the author's ideas around grief and sadness and how it can be conveyed through a square of art and flavor text
• The Standard Cube
  • Another Hipsters of the Coast article from a past MTG designer explaining the problems with the standard format and how to build a cube that exemplifies what he considers to be a standard experience of Magic
  • Got me thinking again about building a cube

Albums 🎧

• "Isn't It Now?" by Animal Collective
  • three times this week
  • really got into a vibe with it, and made me want to listen to their last album
• "Time Skiffs" by Animal Collective
  • surprised that I felt like I missed listening to it
• "Jenny from Thebes" by The Mountain Goat
  • another run trying to parse or get the groove
• "Javelin" by Sufjan Stevens
  • three times this week
• "Dandelion Gum" by Black Moth Super Rainbow
  • coffee shop cranking out work
• "Run the Jewels 2" by Run The Jewels

Podcasts 🎙️

• Not Another DnD Podcast
  • Continuing to listen to chill out