First Time Out
Where do I start? This is my first time writing a newsletter, so, you know, beginnings.
TLDR Update: vaccinated. Listening: Land of the Giants podcast Playing: Brindlewood Bay Reading: The Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson Watching: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Writing: Newsletter (This one but also another one focused on games and game design End Notes: You can contact me at jadettman@gmail.com
THE UPDATE I got my first vaccination shot last week. Beloit offered it to me because I've started volunteering as an election worker. My arm was sore for a couple days but otherwise no noticeable side effects. Not that I was expecting any.
Otherwise, I remain unemployed (going on 10 months now) and, frankly, I'm not feeling super enthusiastic about finding a new 40-hr per week gig. I've been thinking about why that is and I'm sure it will feed into some other things I'm thinking about writing.
LISTENING Land of the Giants is a podcast about big Tech. Each season talks about the rise and controversies of one tech company. Previous seasons have been about Amazon and Netflix. This season is about Google. I'm enjoying it, but so far it hasn't been quite as compelling the previous seasons. It might be that Google, as a company, doesn't worry me as much as other companies do. Which, thinking about it, may be a bit of a personal blindspot.
Google's stated goal is to collect and make all of the world's information available online. They don't seem too concerned about privacy and, since they've dropped their "Don't Be Evil" motto, I'm not sure they've become more trustworthy.
Land of the Giants - Vox
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Season 6 | In Land of the Giants: The Facebook/Meta Disruption, senior reporters Shirin Ghaffary and Alex Heath bring us inside the company formerly known as Facebook during an unprecedented moment of transition. Now Meta, the company that defined social connection, community, and identity on the web has rebranded itself and is seeking to control the future of social experience in the metaverse. As its famous founder Mark Zuckerberg looks ahead, we ask how Facebook impacts our relationships, the social infrastructure of the web, and — even in a moment of vulnerability — still shapes lives across the globe?
Season 5 | In Land of the Giants: The Apple Revolution, Recode’s Peter Kafka explores the company that changed what a computer is — and then changed what a phone is. From its beginnings as a niche personal computer company, Apple became the preeminent maker of consumer tech products, a cultural trendsetter, and the most valuable company in the world. And along the way, it changed the way we live. New episodes come out on Wednesdays starting September 22, 2021.
Season 4 | Big Tech is changing every aspect of our world. But how? And at what cost? In this special four-part series Land of the Giants: Delivery Wars, Recode teams up with Eater to unbox the evolving world of food delivery. Find out how the rise of investor-backed third-party delivery apps has dramatically changed consumer behavior, helped create a modern gig workforce, disrupted small businesses, and potentially changed our relationship with food forever. From Recode, Eater, and the Vox Media Podcast Network, and hosted by Ahmed Ali Akbar.
Season 3 | In Land of the Giants: The Google Empire, Recode’s Shirin Ghaffary and Big Technology’s Alex Kantrowitz explore how a company that began with idealistic goals of creative experimentation and making useful products has evolved into a worldwide power with enormous impact on our lives. Google's dominance in everything from search and online advertising to its YouTube and Android platforms gives it tremendous power and responsibility. But with multiple antitrust cases against it and its own employees rebelling against company decisions, is Google too big for its own good?
Season 2 | In Land of the Giants: The Netflix Effect, Recode’s Peter Kafka and Rani Molla examine how Netflix got where it is today and whether or not it can maintain its streaming supremacy. Hear from Netflix’s founders and top executives as well as its competitors, critics, and more — covering everything from its unusual internal culture to its battle with Blockbuster, its disruption of Hollywood, and the upcoming streaming wars.
Season 1 | In less than two decades, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos scaled an online marketplace for books into the world's most valuable company. But at what cost? From Prime and HQ2, to the growing adoption of smart speakers and home cameras, to increasing scrutiny of Amazon's power and its role in the changing nature of work, Land of the Giants: The Rise of Amazon addresses it all with detailed, thought-provoking, measured reporting from host Jason Del Rey.
PLAYING Games have kept me, relatively, sane the last year. We've been playing boardgames with friends, digitally, every couple of weeks and we've been trying to keep up with our roleplaying games but that has been tougher and more sporadic.
Lately, the game I've been looking forward to is Brindlewood Bay. It's a roleplaying game in which the players are portraying retired women enjoying their lives in the community of Brindlewood Bay, spending time with their fellow retirees as part of the Murder Mavens (a murder master book club), and occasionally solving mysteries themselves.
Of course, the mystery solving is the point of the game. The game really wants to hit the tone of Murder She Wrote in that it is, as murder mystery solving games go, pretty easy going. It's billed as a cozy game and hopefully it will be. We're one session in so we'll see how it goes.
- | DriveThruRPG.com
READING I just finished The Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson. It's the fourth book in the author's Stormlight Archive series, which is epic fantasy that feels, to me, anime tinged. I don't watch a lot of anime, so I could be completely wrong on that. Sanderson is an author whose books are 1000+ page bricks. I would describe them as slogs if I didn't enjoy them so much.
The Stormlight Archive is your usual good guys trying to save the world from the Big Evil. It's unusual, I think, in that the all of our heroes are troubled and have difficult pasts. It's kind of like Lord of the Rings but the journey is a psychological one rather than a physical one. It's good if you're into epic fantasy.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765326386WATCHING We've been watching a lot of TV in the last year; I find tv shows soothing, especially some comfort shows. There are several but this time around I'm talking about the best modern Star Trek series: Deep Space Nine (though ST: Discovery has also become an excellent 2nd place).
DS9 is everything that makes Star Trek great pushed to 11: all of the actors have amazing chemistry from the first episode, the political situation between the Federation, the Bajorans, and the Cardassians is an excellent setup for political tensions between each of the groups (and is also a well considered push forward of the political situation seen in the last couple season of Next Generation) and with the wormhole, there is a new frontier for exploring. Throw in new alien species to encounter and the added bonus of everyone being locked into one particular setting, the space station, (which also prevents our heroes from flying away from the consequences of their adventures, like your usual Stars Trek) and you've got great television.
WRITING Your reading it! However, I'm also working on another games specific newsletter that, if you're interesting in such a thing, you can subscribe to here: https://buttondown.email/J.A.Dettman
That newsletter will be focused on games that I'm designing, games that I'm running, or the passing fever dreams of games that often amount to little.
END NOTES If you'd like to send me some feedback or discuss one of the topics I've talked about here (or even a different topic), email me at jadettman@gmail.com