In A Fantasy Setting, My Job Would Be Exactly The Same

when Brennan said "The first rule of existence is: as above, so below. People are fractal images of the universe. You are as we are. In the same way your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don't, then it doesn't."

when Brennan said "It is a horrifying responsibility to think because things cannot remain the same, each and every one of us must shoulder some responsibility for how they will become different."

when Brennan said "Sometimes decisions are not difficult. Sometimes they are just hard."

when Brennan said "There is no moral. The Wolf eats you one day and until it does, the forest is beautiful."

when Brennan said "I always felt the fundamental substance of the universe is creation. None of this makes any sense, when you really break it down. It's like, none of this had to happen, but it's beautiful and art is the definition of 'this didn't have to happen, but it's beautiful.' [...] It resonates with the universe because the universe is consciousness playing with itself."

when Brennan said

when Brennan said

So my sister wants to start sewing more, because

a. She’s 5′ 11″ and can never find pants long enough for her legs or shirts long enough for her arms.

b. She hates synthetic fibers as much as I do and it’s difficult to find natural fiber clothes that aren’t made of cotton

c. She’s a biologist and would physically fistfight microplastics if given half a chance

So her gift from mom and dad for her birthday was a sewing machine. Not a super expensive one but a good solid serviceable one.

And recently she asked “So where do I GET wool or linen and thread that isn’t polyester” and mom was like ‘go ask your sister’

And I, of course, crashed into the group text like “GET A PEN I HAVE WEBSITES FOR U” and honestly I’m thrilled about this

There's a really conceptually interesting beat in World War Z, during one of the later Todd Waino sections, where Waino is discussing that the problem with trying to use land mines to fight zombies is that the point of a landmine isn't necessarily to kill the enemy, it's to control their movement because they're aware of the possibility of land mines, it's to hurt them, it's to turn a soldier into a living-but-crippled drain on the medical system of the enemy nation and a morale drain when he goes home to his parents without legs. And, of course, since absolutely none of those head games or logistical concerns are applicable to zombies, the best case scenario is that you create a bunch of legless zombies that are harder to notice until they're underfoot, and the worst case scenario is that you blow up your own guys on accident because the documentation on where you put the landmines while running away from all the zombies wasn't very good. And all of this is part of the book's continual concern with how there's this two-faced idea in war, where you dehumanize an enemy against whom none of your tactics would be remotely effective if they actually were the unthinking evil automaton you're hyping them up as. That's fine. But at the end of it all I'm left in an uncomfortable position where I'm not really sure if Max "lectures at West Point" Brooks recognizes the moral horror of what he's describing, or if he thinks that Landmines are a clever idea that're just inappropriate in this specific context. A lot of the book falls in that uncanny valley for me.

'This is Garnet, back together.'

stolen from bluesky.

i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.

there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.

anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.

A Better World - create an alternate history timeline

Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game

Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet

Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games

Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones

Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy

ZenGM - simulate sports

Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi

IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)

Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface

The Cafe & Diner - mystery game

The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game

Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions

Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game

Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game

Miniconomy - player driven economy game

Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes

BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators

Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil

Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.

if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.

"So this is how liberty dies... With thunderous applause."

I'm not satisfied with it but It took hours so I'm proud.

Why You're Not Creative As A Writer

Most writers talk about being the writer that barely writes. Most artists talk about being the artist that barely creates anything. It seems like a joke or a badge of honor or some artificial form of profundity as "quality over quantity" when, in reality, it exposes a serious problem when it comes to creativity as a whole.

We get that people enter a slump sometimes, that great ideas are hard to come by and even harder to execute. However, creativity itself is abundant and comes from a state of ease and flow. If creativity is difficult to inspire in your life that means you're at a state of dis-ease and tension, and you need to relax.

Yes, sometimes pain and stress can create something beautiful. However, destroying yourself for the sake of being creative is never the way to go. That only works in the story, not in real life. In real life, you need to be in a state of ease, a state of flow and harmony so creativity can flow through you effortlessly.

If you're constantly stressed and worried about real life problems and always in survival mode, you will almost never find it easy to be creative. Yes, your story will make a great story but only after you've gone through it and can look back in hindsight. Not while you're in it on the brink of death.

If you want to be more creative and establish better flow as a writer and artist, you need to find ways to ease your mind and body. Take care of yourself because mind, body, and soul are all one. When one is lacking, so are the others. When two are lacking, you can't really partake in higher forms of leisure, can you?

For all the writers that barely write, the artists that barely create, we implore you to find ways to put yourself at ease in mind, body, and soul without destroying yourself as it is only a tranquil mind, nourished body, and content soul that can access the abundance of creativity and keep its waters flowing eternally.

Hope this helps.

Keep Writing. . .

Source: Why You're Not Creative As A Writer