Out of the box, into the map
This one is about maps, somehow, multiple times, even though I really can barely read them.
A fun thing I've done--collected the first year of this newsletter into a collection of siz zines, with bonus mazes and flash fic and whatnot. Available here on Itch.io as both "read on a device" and "print out a zine" files.
My dayjob involves me designing tools for things like content management, writing the how-tos for those tools (as well as tools others have made) and sometimes training people on those tools. It's very fun, but something that it has brought into sharp relief several times is that I do not have the same cultural touchstones as the people I am training. I referenced the "Would You Like To Know More"1 of Starship Troopers once while training and the echoing emptiness of response had me scrambling for a different comparison.
Some of that is that I'm a good ten years older than many of my coworkers, but a goodly part of it is that I am incredibly more a Tumblr user than they are. There's a rich language of memes on Tumblr and I've been steeping in them since 2008. Many are recognisable without their text, and honestly applying a meme reaction minus text is like when you give someone a look rather than saying something--only it's giving everyone in the room the same look, but we all get it.
The way media is available now makes it a kind of fun game of "do you know what I'm talking about?" Yes, I watched things like House and The X-Files and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when they first aired, but there's also a whole free Pluto channel that does nothing but air DS9 now. Books my younger coworkers grew up on that I was too busy going to college to read I am finally getting around to (I read the Hunger Games books for the first time last year, and now own a set, lol).
It's a mix of marvellous and maddening. So much is available thanks to FAST channels like Pluto and library programs like Kanopy, but also so many things are hidden in corners or lost or buried under some big network's copyright. This is not what I meant to start writing about, btw. It dares dip a bit too deep into themes beyond what this newsletter is supposed to be. That's what my blog is for, darnit.
But, while I'm writing this I'm also messaging my best friend about how we both would tape our favourite shows on TV and decorate the cases after and how fun that could be now. I had crammed the entire single-season run of The Lone Gunmen onto one tape thanks to super long play and carefully pasted the episode descriptions from TV Guide onto the case among the bright paper collage of its decoration2.
I guess this does play into what I meant to talk about--not getting distracted. I mean, yes, I've talked about that before, but this is specifically about getting distracted by the task itself.
So, back to the whole cultural touchstones thing. Do you know what I mean when I say "get in the map?" Now, I know I watched Friends, but I don't remember much of it. One character has to literally step into the map to figure out what direction they need to go (if you want a choppy youtube clip of it here you go). I remember this part because this is me. Not just with directions (though I am very embarrassing at the botanic gardens I've been to like a hundred times as I still get turned around, though it is very squirmy a map), but anything else really.
That whole "designing tools" thing that I do for work? Yeah, that requires making mockups and wireframes, and I have been told mine are "very clear" and that's because I have to "get into the map". I do literally sit there and think about if I were a user of the tool, where I'd go and what my actions would be. If I do it right I can shake out any hangups with use that we wouldn't have found until there was a working version of the tool in a test environment. It's very fun! It means I am very slow!! My "wireframes" look like screencaps of the eventual tool, which is very silly!!!
This was all very in my head recently as I thought about a project I was working on.
I'm writing a thing, which I do semi-regularly, and like most things I have a specific structure I'm building around (normally it is an Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index). In this case I have a pretend video game. Which means I need to at least loosely design this pretend video game.
Which, we can understand I mean "loosely."
Point being! Yes, I am in theory procrastinating (do I need a game map, maybe I need a game map) from the actual project, but while I'm doing this side work to "get into the map" my brain is still churning on the main thing. I'm letting it simmer, and we all know that a good simmer is what makes the stew. That is 100% an established saying.
It's play, I'm letting myself play in the space I'm creating in. And I think that's useful to remember for a lot of things. Animal babies play to learn, and that includes human babies. We don't stop playing to learn, but I think a lot of things discourage us from taking the time to do it. It's worth it to play, it's worth it to "get into the map," it's worth it to let something simmer. It's worth it to take the time.
Links go to the Storygraph entries for each title, a great place to check out content warnings and find ways to read them.
- I originally read 50 Years of Text Games by Aaron A. Reed as it was syndicated on Substack, and it's a very fun history and survey of what text games are and can be. I also (obviously) got the book, because I'm a big ol' game writing nerd. If you're of an age, you've probably played a text game and will also have fun flipping through the years of examples. If you're even bigger a nerd, Reed has a portal on the book's website where you can find links to play, download, or buy the games in the book, very cool stuff!
- I think maybe vibe-wise Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke is a nice pairing here. It's told through Slack messages and is, if you'll forgive me: a mood. It's weird and I guess speculative, and honestly just a delight. We know I love an epistolary work and honestly aren't a bunch of Slack messages just minute versions of that?
When you have taken pictures for years and years and years really the hardest thing is finding what you're looking for in the archive. Here's three kind of enigmatic?? images I found in an album labelled "small printer" (images destined for a 4x6 photo printer that delights me).
Image description: A square photograph of a sort of lozenge-shaped bush, which is hiding all but the hood of a shiny black car parked behind it. At first glance, it feels like the car is part bush. End ID.
Image description: A square photograph of the edge of a wood, where a toilet (minus seat) rests on a thick bed of leaf litter. A scribbled sign on thin metal stakes next to it reads: FREE (please leave sign). End ID.
Image description: A square photograph that is heavily obscured on both sides by black drapes--one is peeking between dark curtains to a sliver of bright and beautiful sunlit beach under a clear blue sky. End ID.
How about some cool links, loosely related to games and writing.
- Since I'd already brought up text games and epistolary work, it feels correct to link to Unknown Number by Azure. That link archives it outside of a socials thread, though if you use Bluesky and would like the "screencaps of a text convo" energy that slowly unfurling a thread gives, here's a link for that format.
- Speaking of games, this is a charming archive at Monkeon of what happens when you swear in various text adventure games on the Spectrum 48k.
- This absolutely stunning machine embossed leather cover on a Victorian book was done to imitate Gothic carved wood covers. Doing it required quite the press. If you feel like quite the deep dive, the site this is on, Jeremy Norman's Historyofinformation.com will have enough to sustain you for quite some time. Be sure to "Select Theme" and pick a topic or focus to make it a bit less overwhelming to poke through.
- And here's three map-making links: Village Generator and Medieval Fantasy City Generator are part of Watabou's Procgen Arcana, a suite of delightful generators for world building and TTRPGs. In the same vein is Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator which is like continents. Fun stuff!
Megan Piontkowski has a great one-page zine on how to report ICE, with regional variants for a lot of places. I'm linking to her Bluesky post about it here because the free printable download is in a google drive, so that seemed like the best way to do it.
If you've thought of donating eSims, this guide was very helpful, and Crips for eSims for Gaza is a good option if you can't easily manage topping them up. There are also more traditional donation targets like the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, UNRWA, and Doctors Without Borders. If you prefer giving directly to families, Gaza Funds is a nice resource that facilitates finding campaigns.
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If you would like to know more here's a clip of what I was referencing. ↩
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My modern version of this is fanbinding. ↩