Something good that happened today:
I don’t have a toaster, so I just make it in the oven. This time I wanted to try putting butter on the bread first and then pile onions and then broil it all to make the toast.
I charred the edges a little but after I scraped it off it was really good! Very flavorful.
I was alerted to the Mathematics Genealogy Project (https://www.mathgenealogy.org) today, which records detail of many - but not all - mathematics (and some computer science) PhD etc. students and their advisors. My husband isn’t in the database, but his PhD supervisor is. So I stepped back, a generation at a time, to see where we got to. Being a genealogist I couldn’t resist this! From my husband through his supervisor and her supervisor etc. we can reach Isaac Newton. And back from him we can get to Galileo Galilei. Given my husband’s first degree was in physics and astronomy and he works as a space scientist now it’s a pretty cool connection, albeit very distant! Makes a change from me looking up genealogical family trees. I know there are a few Maths PhD types here. You may want to have a look at the database …
I’ve been almost completely out of commission the past few days thanks to some kind of stomach bug that came out of nowhere - but managed to keep some crackers and water down today! Small steps - and I updated my website with all the projects I’ve completed so far this year, so I’m feeling slightly productive and proud of it even in my vaguely zombified sickly state.
I’ve been meaning to follow up on a hunch for some time now, and finally did so tonight. After much tinkering and poking around in Twine, I got it to work, and I’m so pleased with the styling- it looks just like a blog! And of course, it’s very pink. This night and last night have been quite busy on that front, which is good, since coding is fairly intensive brain wise for me, so writing into both project templates will be easier by comparison after the fact, and so much more satisfying since I get to see the end result instantly as compared to styling after drafting. Having something pretty to handle (and share with private testers) is so motivating! And I love the color pink. 
I read an article the other day about the decline of fish & chip shops in the UK. It had a particular focus on the East Neuk of Fife near me. Anyway inspired and hungry, tonight I ordered a jumbo haddock supper (“supper” = with chips) and a tub of mushy peas. Rather bonkers ordering it on a Friday night, their busiest. But it arrived ok. And was delish. Yum.
Had a blast surfing around on Neocities for some inspiration. Was a bit surprised at the amount of attention an old, abandoned project of mine had gotten on there over the years… Kind of fitting, considering the other project I’m working on. (Balancing between two very different ones has been working out a lot better to avoid the dreaded zero day malaises…)
We have clouds. I haven’t seen a cloud in a month, just a bleached pale blue sky shimmering with heat. I missed clouds. They’re beautiful.
Back from my summer holiday, with still a month and a half until the “new year”. It’s sad leaving fun activities like diving into huge waves (if you haven’t tried it, it’s awesome as long as you don’t get sucked into the center of the wave!) but also sort of nice to be back in a familiar place. 
Ah, clouds.
… Was it winter or summer before the clouds appeared?
We’re in Texas, so it’s the middle of an exceptionally nasty summer. Brutally hot and dry and cloudless.
Finally got around to updating my backup of the Butterfly Court TTRPG campaign writing between me and Jinx. This is rough, and unformatted, so the counts are slightly off due to usernames also being counted.
For partnered 1v1 roleplay between Jinx and I, outside of the group sessions, we’re at about 329,650 words. For drabbles/solo writing pieces in the server, it’s 11,970. On her own blog, it’s another 9,027. And the group TTRPG sessions are at 122,166! So it’s like, 472,813 words in total-ish.
The best part about the campaign being written is that I can go back and read whatever fun scenes we did whenever I want. Soooooo Sophie treats.
The 3D printed cylinder seals work!
For all your ancient-Mesopotamian-document-sealing needs!
Back when everything was written on clay, you could sign a document using one of these seals: a cylinder of semiprecious stone with some sort of personal design or pattern carved into it. Though usually they were more intricate than just cuneiform signs, and the impression would go the other way (coming out of the clay instead of going into it) because when you don’t have a 3D printer it’s easier to cut into stone than to extrude out of it.
For a bit of IF connection, one of the Phoenix mainframe games included one of these—I think it was Hezarin? My recollection is you find it in the tomb of Gilgamesh. (Since they were personalized and made out of semiprecious stone they were often used as grave goods.)
But, I can now create these automatically with any name or text I want to, with just a few clicks!
You could engrave some cylinders with IF-appropriate text (cuneiform translated of course) like “You’ve been eaten by a grue” or “You don’t see any such thing” and donate them to the prize pool for a competition of your choosing.
I would be so unbelievably honored and excited if I won that in a comp.
You have no idea.
EDIT: If this gets put into a prize pool for a comp, please message me. I’m quite serious.
I’m making another boardgame. It’s been forever since I last made one.
This one’s gonna be on the shorter side (if playtesting will be anything like theoretical gameplay), which I’m excited about, because my previous boardgame kinda takes about an hour to play, if I remember correctly.
I’ve been wanting to make something closer to 30 minutes. I think I figured it out.
Made a prototype gameboard for it tonight, while watching YouTube with my niece (she recently found Jaiden Animations, who is one of my favs, so that was a ton of fun lol).
Gotta make the game tokens, still, which will be a bit more difficult.
Mind you, none of the boardgames I make look professional in design. They’re all handmade from whatever I can make work. I don’t have the money to invest in production, and don’t have the marketing to do a Kickstarter, as I tend to make niche stuff that’s semi-educational (which probably comes as a surprise to nobody).
The most work I ever put into a boardgame wasn’t even one of mine. My entire family once worked together and we made a really nice, hand-made, wood-carved rendition of the Royal Game of Ur (which I’m quite certain will interest @Draconis ).
All of my original designs are usually made of shrink paper, glue, posterboard, index cards, printer paper, and a couple sharpie markers lol. Still, if it works, then it works!
Surely you included detailed instructions on how to play?
In keeping with what seems to have happened with the original game, we have not! 
Makes it feel more accurate, that way!
If you haven’t done so, try looking up cheapass games. Great games, easy to make.
I’ve mostly been wearing my headphones because of them being easier to bop in and out of conversations with, plus they hold back my bangs and are comfier for longer stints of wearing, but i forgot how absolutely delicious the bass sounds with my in-ear earbuds. Listening to Wyrd was the perfect song to re-acquaint myself with that fact.
