This is the shelf of everything. You can also see the shelf of items and moments I have written thoughts about or the shelves of items by year finished.
There are 940 items here.
This shelf has gotten worse but soon it will get much better.
2023-09-03
Old, Middle, and Modern English at Language Log; notable for a Beowulf translation reco from Cybulskie and the casually useful term “macrolanguage”.
50 Years of Text Games
Author: Aaron A. ReedFinished: 2023-07-21
Started: 2023-06-17
Status: Read
I so looked forward to reading an entry in this book each night. It offered a warm welcome-home from a hobby subculture I’d been adjacent to since playing and building text games in the 1980s. This is how I want to replace the otaku-lifestyle video games I said farewell to over the past couple of years. Next I’ll go back, comb through the hundreds of games mentioned, and compile a list of titles to try.
Seveneves
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2023-06-15
Started: 2023-04-20
Status: Read
2023 fortress reread. I don’t reread books often but I needed something familiar and guaranteed to be enjoyable, a fortress to return to while otherwise delving many dungeons in other areas of life. I could have set up some elaborate project for choosing just the right book to revisit, but that itself would have been a dungeon. This stood out from the Kindle library screen and before I knew it I was well into it.
It was even more captivating and enjoyable the second time around, and has joined its sibling Anathem on the “personal canon” shelf. Stephenson has both a myth-making mind and a scientific mind, and loves to show us again and again how real heroes and gods, resonant with our spiritual instincts, could come to be in a rational universe.
2023-05-23
Athletic day complete, with old-fashioned headache and soreness following. Watched “Working”. The new YES album is pretty all right. Booked the rest of our itinerary to Hawaii and Japan, opting to pay to shift from misery into potential enjoyment.
2023-05-13
Reconfiguring my keyboard life after realizing the Planck’s one broken socket can be worked around. Hoping to lower barriers to more casual writing.
2023-05-08
As of last night, I own four one-way plane tickets. As of today, I have signed a letter terminating my employment in one country and reëstablishing it in another.
2023-05-06
Apple Park with R to say farewell to decades worth of devices. Processed the last of the Sentimental Stuffs. Contemplating the ethos of Heisei Moe and the symbols to enshrine in one’s Lass Room of the Soul.
女の園の星
2
Finished: 2023-05-02Started: 2023-04-06
Status: Read
Sometimes I forget that I have a sense of humor that can be reached by media; but this series is sparking it repeatedly.
2023-04-23
Passed the event horizon at work. Major progress on making the move official with the company; significant progress on the thing; unloaded the very last of the video game paraphernalia (to Canada, Spain, and the Retro Fix); processed the sentimental stuff drawer. Started broadcasting Time Stand Still. Getting serious about move timing scenarios.
Post Captain
Author: Patrick O’BrianFinished: 2023-04-16
Started: 2023-01-14
Status: Read
An ordinary good book is pleasurable while you read it. But O’Brian seems to be able to create an experience that continues to deploy enjoyment throughout the day, as you reflect back on it. The echo of having read it last night, and the promise of getting to read it again tonight, infuses life itself with additional texture and flavor.
2023-04-15
Fixing the photo library metadata, wiping a stack of aged Apple devices, gathering up Playstations, and generally just keeping balance while sliding towards the move. Considering symbols: Lass Room, Limbo, and the Refactory.
2023-04-11
Rental management call; tax call; two encouraging meetings about the thing; sold the bed from the study / guest room where most of my life progress has taken place over the past three years.
2023-04-09
Motivated to burn down the list of tasks to do before moving.
2023-04-08
Easter festival and parade; selling off furniture and compact discs; classic protracted software setup unruining sessions (photo library metadata and lost At2 reloc site).
2023-04-08
“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” into “Solsbury Hill” at the plant store, while kids went inside the Miko Coffee trailer for the first time. A sort of crescendo to this spring break chapter marker.
2023-04-06
Almost certainly going to do the thing. The main person of the thing is requesting that I, in particular, do the thing.
女の園の星
1
Finished: 2023-04-05Started: 2023-03-16
Status: Read
Every panel is a micro-masterpiece of warmth and quiet hilarity.
2023-04-03
Appreciating the past; surviving the present; making decisions about the future. 87% chance I’ll make the change, up from 65% yesterday.
2023-04-01
Reflective family-oriented spring break has begun. Significant-seeming game of Blokus.
2023-03-30
Mom is in town; our first family visit in four years. She says none of us seven kids were anything like R.
2023-03-29
Celebrated the new Clammbon album by reminiscing on how their music has been woven through my life for these 23 years.
2023-03-26
Sold the “gaming” club chair we’ve been hoping for over a year to find a new home for. Gave away dozens of Copics, tubes of acrylic paint, bottles of Dr. Martin’s ink, watercolors, oil pastels, et cetera. Contemplated wholesomeness.
What’s Our Problem?
Author: Tim UrbanFinished: 2023-03-26
Started: 2019-09
Status: Read
I agree with most of the points in the book, but spent most of the book frustrated by how the points were made. Given the argument of the whole text, I expected more nuance, complexity, and compassion throughout.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Author: Douglas AdamsFinished: 2023-03-26
Started: 2023-01-10
Status: Read
Rereading this series along with my cousin Steve, after last reading it together in 1992. The theme that emerges for me as an adult reader is the absurd contrast between the overwhelming grandiosity of reality and the idiotic banality of life in it. The book itself is wry and hip, while no character is more than incidentally admirable; from clueless Earthlings to vastly powerful extra-dimensional beings.
2023-03-25
Eating at Mendocino Farms with neighbors yesterday; recital and pizza at the park today. Eventful and exciting kid times. Wrist getting much worse. Heart being dumb. USCIS paperwork. Gaming out Tokyo solar power scenarios.
2023-03-24
Sent 15 consecutive money transfers to the builder in Japan.
2023-03-20
Turning crisis into tropical opportunity. Koikeya chips, Onna no Sono no Hoshi, Toki Asako. Wrist brace and a heap of ibuprofen.
2023-03-16
Visited the office and felt its immensity all over again. Took an important phone call that felt symmetrical with one from seven years ago. Got a house timeline and made some major move plans.
韋国日記
10
Finished: 2023-03-15Started: 2023-02-13
Status: Read
Ikoku Nikki is quickly becoming an emblem of what I want manga to be. Each character is treated with love. Each scene is handled with grace. The entire stack of books exudes poetry and warmth. The message is delivered again and again: the world is hard and absolutely worth it.
2023-03-14
First in-person work engagement in three years was wine at the top of a windswept, tree-littered mountain. Tonight’s texture: giving the only like to a calm discussion of the heartfelt comical manga 女の園の星 receiving the Japan Media Arts Festival social impact award.
2023-03-14
Revised my translation of Kimi wa Boku no Mono, probably the most pivotal single song of my life. A reasonable palate cleanse after 45 minutes of Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is going to take some trying to get through. And such a cleanse is needed, as I hope to rest reasonably well before my first in-person work function in over three years.
2023-03-13
Revamped one of the earliest songs on Dramatickers, Pan Mitsu. I still have vague memories of initially working on this: probably on the night shift at ShopKo HQ, wishing I was back in Tokyo, and struggling with the linguistic resources available to me at the time.
If Loud Aliens Explain Human Earliness, Quiet Aliens Are Also Rare
Author: Robin Hanson, et aliiFinished: 2023-03-13T00:00:11-07:00
Started: 2023-03-11
Status: Read
Mostly glad I read this paper behind the popular grabby aliens model in order to find elements which my disagreement with generates ideas for a fiction project I’m pursuing. Most centrally — I sure do philosophically dislike the principle of mediocrity, and I don’t at all buy that expanding into the galaxy ends up looking like a worthwhile thing to do for advanced civilizations.
2023-03-12
Consolidated the identity of my blog, Heta no Yokozuki Sekai 5, into my newsletter, Microcosmographia, since they had gradually become the same thing. The HnS name had a long history across LiveJournal, Vox, Movable Type, Wordpress, and Hugo.
2023-03-10
The story idea “ADCE” came to me while playing with the kids and trying to endure illness. Captured as much of it as I could.
2023-03-08
The Garden of Eden translated by Dov Greenwood
A translator’s only choice is to have faith in their target language, and thankfully, English is deserving of that faith, its pastiche of root languages lending dozens of options for vocabulary and sentence structure.
2023-03-07
Got a Shortcut working to create Picocosmographia entries in one step.
2023-03-07
Read a lot of AI doom from Erik Hoel and David Chapman.
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: The Nitpicks of Power
Author: Bret DevereauxFinished: 2023-02-04
Started: 2023-01
Status: Read
This series developed quite a bit my understanding of wanting stories to feel grounded in reality and like they are made of consequences.
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe — Space, Time and Motion
Author: Sean CarrollFinished: 2023-01-13
Started: 2022-12-05
Status: Read
For decades I’ve been reading physics books that purport to explain the nature of the universe without including inscrutable equations, but that end up requiring the reader to trust that the math undeniably and elegantly leads to this or that conclusion. It came gradually clear that in order to feel the significance of what we know, one really needs to understand the math at least somewhat, not just stories about the math and the people who discovered it. This book is the first of a promised trilogy from Sean Carroll, who was already one of my favorite science explainers. I appreciate his willingness to at least sometimes start from the most fundamental principles of what we know rather than defaulting to telling the historical sequence of who discovered what when and then who later found something more fundamental. The idea of the series is to cater to people who want to make the effort to understand the math, but don’t plan to study it at an academic or professional level. That’s me! After reading this I feel a dramatically deeper understanding of what is going on in the universe than any physics book has ever given me, and understanding the universe is one of my elementary particles of meaning.
2023-01-11
Got a new system running that merges my old “Shelf” project, which was easily in its tenth incarnation, most recently as a rickety Python apparatus; and Picocosmographia, this microblogging setup in Hugo. I will mainly write about books and other long-form works, but can also share the occasional bare thought.
The Weird of the White Wolf
Author: Michael MoorcockFinished: 2022-12-30
Started: 2022-12
Status: Read
Felt the crustiness more prominently in this volume of some of the oldest Elric stories. The iconic imagery, esoteric mythos, and personal significance offset the grim nihilism. It does feel like delving to the primal roots of Elden Ring, Shin Megami Tensei, and of course a thousand D&D campaigns.
The Fortress of the Pearl
Author: Michael MoorcockFinished: 2022-12
Started: 2022-11
Status: Read
Came back to my almost lifelong aspirations to get into Moorcock, ignited probably around 1989 when I saw my brother’s copy of The Cornelius Chronicles. I had tried once during a college librarygoing stint in 2003, then again upon visiting the prodigious Moorcock section at Powell’s in 2004, and then once again while making my way through Matthew Colville’s back catalog of videos about the history of gaming and geekery in 2021. The new Elric Saga omnibus editions are precisely what I needed to navigate the absurd tangle of titles and revisions. The story itself, being chronologically early but written much later, was refreshingly mature and thoughtful while still having the same surreally hip fantasy aesthetic. The Dream Realms in particular, and Elric’s passage through them, seem to be well-crafted allegories for common thought traps and how to avoid them.
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
Author: Becky ChambersFinished: 2022-11
Started: 2022-10-26
Status: Read
I needed something comfortable after the harrowing trek through Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past. This science-feelings story seemed to build upon the argument Graeber puts forth in The Dawn of Everything — namely that human societies are wildly weird and flexible, with no single correct or natural configuration. Reading that primed me to be more willing to believe in the post-gluttony solarpunk utopia it presents, though heck if I know how we might get there peacefully.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
Author: Becky ChambersFinished: 2022-10
Started: 2022-10-07
Status: Read
What to Remember Upon Waking
Author: David WhyteFinished: 2022-05-21
Started: 2020-06-28
Status: Read
2022-05-13
Made Picocosmographia. The idea was inspired by sben’s blurt!, and assembled from an apparatus of Shortcuts, Ulysses, Working Copy, Gitlab, Netlify, and Hugo, all on an iPad in bed while sitting up with a kiddo suffering from night terrors.
Hunt, Gather, Parent
Author: Michaeleen DoucleffFinished: 2021-08-15
Started: 2021-04-11
Status: Read
Sailor on the Seas of Fate
Author: Michael MoorcockFinished: 2021-04-04
Started: 2020-12-31
Status: Read
Be Bilingual — Practical Ideas for Multilingual Families
Author: Annika BourgogneFinished: 2021
Started: 2021-01
Status: Read
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and the Philosopher’s Stone
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2020-07-20
Started: 2020-07-05
Status: Read
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and the Last Enemy
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2020-07-05
Started: 2020-06-26
Status: Read
Hermione Jean Granger and the Phoenix’s Call
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2020-06-26
Started: 2020-10-06
Status: Read
The Machine in the Ghost
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2020-02-22
Started: 2020-01-16
Status: Read
The Catholic Church — A History
Author: William R. CookFinished: 2020-01-18
Started: 2019-12-11
Status: Read
How to Actually Change Your Mind
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2020-01-16
Started: 2019-12-11
Status: Read
英雄伝説 零の軌跡 Evolution
Finished: 2020-01-11Started: 2015-10-01
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Status: Finished
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Iron, How Did They Make It?
Author: Bret DevereauxFinished: 2020
Started: 2020
Status: Read
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Bread, How Did They Make It?
Author: Bret DevereauxFinished: 2020
Started: 2020
Status: Read
I believe this was my introduction to ACoUP and its delightful blend of accessibility and academic rigor. This marked a renewed interest for me in getting to know the people of history.
Xenoblade 2 黄金の国イーラ
Finished: 2019-11-11Started: 2019-09-22
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Status: Finished
A Guide to the Good Life
Author: William B. IrvineFinished: 2019-10-29
Started: 2019-11-22
Status: Read
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and the Shadows of Death
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2019-10-05
Started: 2019-09-06
Status: Read
Xenoblade 2
Finished: 2019-09-22Started: 2018-11-10
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Status: Finished
Fond memories of semi-impulsively buying a Switch in Shinjuku, much like many console purchases before, and sneaking Xeno time during baby naps on our long stay in Tokyo. Lost interest for half a year, much like the first Xenoblade, then got way back into it during a hectic time at work that called for some mindless JRPG decompression.
Ryuutama — Natural Fantasy RPG
Author: Okada AtsuhiroFinished: 2019-09-06
Started: 2019-09-01
Status: Read
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and the Professor’s Games
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2019-09-06
Started: 2019-07-25
Status: Read
Haskell Programming from First Principles
Author: Christopher Allen and Julie MoronukiFinished: 2019-08
Started: 2018-10-21
Status: Read
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and the Methods of Rationality
Author: Eliezer YudkowskyFinished: 2019-07-25
Started: 2019-05-25
Status: Read
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2019-07-21
Started: 2019-06-03
Status: Read
Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass
Author: Geddy LeeFinished: 2019-03-23
Started: 2019-03-09
Status: Read
The Rise and Fall of DODO
Author: Neal Stephenson and Nicole GallandFinished: 2019-01-07
Started: 2018-12-18
Status: Read
Debt — the First 5,000 Years
Author: David GraeberFinished: 2018-10-13
Started: 2018-09-10
Status: Read
Mindfulness in Plain English
Author: Bhante Henepola GunaratanaFinished: 2018-10-04
Started: 2018-02-01
Status: Read
A Queer History of the United States
Author: Michael BronskiFinished: 2018-06-24
Started: 2018-06-16
Status: Read
From Bacteria to Bach and Back
Author: Daniel DennettFinished: 2018-05-23
Started: 2018-05-10
Status: Read
The World Until Yesterday
Author: Jared DiamondFinished: 2018-05-01
Started: 2018-04-15
Status: Read
Why Buddhism Is True
Author: Robert WrightFinished: 2018-02-26
Started: 2018-02-04
Status: Read
This book encapsulates the essential messages of a heap of evolutionary psychology and mindfulness books I’d added to my personal canon over the past several years. Now I can just recommend this one brilliant book for that whole complex of ideas.
Braving the Wilderness
Author: Brené BrownFinished: 2017-12-24
Started: 2017-12-11
Status: Read
“Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.”
The Gene
Author: Siddharth MukherjeeFinished: 2017-12-15
Started: 2017-11-24
Status: Read
Genetics and evolutionary biology might be the most deeply mysterious and strange field of study there is. I sort of resent that all this bizarre and profound discovery about the origins and mechanisms of life was going on while I was in school, but I learned nothing of it until I was an adult choosing books for myself.
The System of the World
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2017-12-10
Started: 2017-11-23
Status: Read
Thus concludes the Baroque Cycle. This was the last of his novels that I hadn’t read: an eight-volume, three-thousand-page opus that dominated my fiction consumption for a year and a half. Visiting the Metropolitan museum and the Tower of London while in the midst of it made the thing come alive. It’s good!
The All-or-Nothing Marriage
Author: Eli J FinkelFinished: 2017-11-24
Started: 2017-11-20
Status: Read
A survey of the history of the institution of marriage, and a study of what makes a modern marriage work. I appreciated the idea of keeping a “social portfolio” of people who can serve your various emotional needs rather than relying solely on your spouse. And the idea of temporarily descending the mountain of fulfillment during trying times, in order to just focus on surviving together is especially relevant right now!
Strangers in Their Own Land
Author: Arlie Russell HochschildFinished: 2017-11-18
Started: 2017-10-01
Status: Read
Guess what: Trump voters are human, and they operate according to genuine human emotions. A Berkeley professor explores first-hand how unrestrained pursuit of profit and indifference to human well-being has caused tragedy and despair in places like rural Louisiana, shaping the political opinions of families there.
The Gardener and the Carpenter
Author: Alison GopnikFinished: 2017-10-07
Started: 2017-10-03
Status: Read
Parents tend to want to shape their children to a blueprint, like a carpenter. But the best we can hope for is to give them a healthy environment to thrive in and grow their own way, like a gardener.
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Author: Jon RonsonFinished: 2017-10-02
Started: 2017-09-26
Status: Read
Life 3.0
Author: Max TegmarkFinished: 2017-09-26
Started: 2017-09-08
Status: Read
This author remains one of my favorite science explainers, this time taking on our possible AI future, which might turn out to be the most consequential thing that has ever happened. I recommend pairing this book with a playthrough of Universal Paperclips.
On Tyranny — Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Author: Timothy SnyderFinished: 2017-07-23
Started: 2017-07-22
Status: Read
Believe Me — A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
Author: Eddie IzzardFinished: 2017-07-21
Started: 2017-06-26
Status: Read
An utterly charming memoir from a truly unique, inspiring, and unflappable soul. Izzard was boldly transgender before it was widely understood, before we had good language for it, certainly before it was cool. And he happens to be a delightful and vivid storyteller, besides. The audio version is positively encrusted with bonus impromptu jokes and digressions and footnotes on footnotes; don’t even consider the text version.
The Highly Sensitive Person
Author: Elaine N. AronFinished: 2017-06-04
Started: 2017-03-03
Status: Read
Dramatically helpful and satisfying. This book has given me introspective concepts and tools I wish I’d had all my life.
Quiet — The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Author: Susan CainFinished: 2017-05-03
Started: 2017-03-28
Status: Read
If you are an introvert or you love one, please read this book. We aren’t broken!
Odalisque
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2017-01-12; 2006-10-02
Started: 2016-12-03; 2006-09-18
Status: Read
Quicksilver
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2016; 2006-09-01
Started: 2016; 2006-08-14
Status: Read
Third attempt to read the Baroque Cycle in ten years.
How Proust Can Change Your Life
Author: Alain de BottonFinished: 2016-12-14
Started: 2016-11-28
Status: Read
I’ve been timidly edging toward the idea of reading Proust for quite a while now. This helped quite a bit.
King of the Vagabonds
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2016-12-13; 2006-09-18
Started: 2016; 2006-09-01
Status: Read
Essentialism — The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Author: Greg McKeownFinished: 2016-10-19
Status: Read
Deep Work — Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Author: Cal NewportFinished: 2016-10-05
Status: Read
Daring Greatly — How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Author: Brené BrownFinished: 2016-08-24
Status: Read
Radical Acceptance — Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
Author: Tara BrachFinished: 2016-08-09
Status: Read
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Finished: 2015-12-26Started: 2015-12-04
Platform: Wii U
Status: Finished
This was not at all what I’d hoped Xeno would become, and much of the depth and mystique that made me such a fan of the previous games just isn’t here. But it’s fantastic at what it does. I eventually got genuinely hooked on exploring its colossal world, meeting its silly inhabitants, and beating up a wide variety of aliens. Much like the first Xenoblade, I find myself a bit homesick for it long after it’s over.
Soma
Finished: 2015-12-05Started: 2015-11-07
Platform: PlayStation 4
Status: Finished
This had some of the most provocative decisions I have ever seen in a game. Not just mundane “whose life do you save” choices, but ones that are genuinely philosophical and that often split our group down the middle.
Gather the People — A Simple Honest Approach to Creating Work that People Love, Buy, and Share
Author: Sarah J. BrayFinished: 2015-10-05
Status: Read
Superintelligence — Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Author: Nick BostromFinished: 2015-09-11
Status: Read
So Good They Can't Ignore You — Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
Author: Cal NewportFinished: 2015-07-29
Status: Read
The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
Author: Amanda PalmerFinished: 2015-05-28
Status: Read
Becoming Steve Jobs — The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
Author: Brent SchlenderFinished: 2015-04-28
Status: Read
The New Jim Crow — Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Author: Michelle AlexanderFinished: 2015-03-15
Status: Read
Our Mathematical Universe — My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Author: Max TegmarkFinished: 2015-03-08
Status: Read
英雄伝説 空の軌跡SC
Finished: 2015-02-22Started: 2014-11-11
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Status: Finished
Being Geek — The Software Developer's Career Handbook
Author: Michael LoppFinished: 2015-01-29
Status: Read
The Happiness Hypothesis — Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Author: Jonathan HaidtFinished: 2015-01-06
Status: Read
Persona 2 罪
Finished: 2014-11-09Started: 2011-05-16
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Status: Finished
I played the P2 duology out of order, which was actually probably ideal. More late PSX-era graphics, more weird psychology, more Amano Maya, more Persona 2! These games are so emblematic to me of the strange, hip, geeky Japan of the 1990s.
初音ミク Project DIVA F 2nd
Finished: 2014-10-26Started: 2014-04-16
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Status: Finished
I think Project Diva is the perfect artifact to represent the entire Vocaloid phenomenon. So many creative folks’ efforts went into creating it, but my favorite fact about this game is that the motion capture for when Miku plays guitar was done by one of my favorite bands, Gacharic Spin.
フェイト/ステイナイト［レアルタ・ヌア] extra edition
Finished: 2014-10-17Started: 2013-09-08
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The joke was that nobody would want to watch a Japanese visual novel on Twitch. But a few friends ended up immersing ourselves in the day-to-day rhythms of this game together, and developed elaborate inside jokes and rituals for the narrative’s meditatively repetitive nature. I wish Nasu Kinoko was better at editing, though; I like drawn-out pacing but nearly every scene felt about 50% too long!
Nobody Passes — Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity
Author: Mattilda Bernstein SycamoreFinished: 2014-09-21
Status: Read
Waking Up — A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
Author: Sam HarrisFinished: 2014-09-18
Status: Read
How to Live — A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer
Author: Sarah BakewellFinished: 2014-07-30
Status: Read
Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of the Christian Myth
Author: Burton L. MackFinished: 2014-06-14
Status: Read
Delusions of Gender — How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference
Author: Cordelia FineFinished: 2014-06-09
Status: Read
The Beginning of Infinity — Explanations That Transform the World
Author: David DeutschFinished: 2014-04-29
Status: Read
The Righteous Mind — Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
Author: Jonathan HaidtFinished: 2014-02-06
Status: Read
Gone Home
Finished: 2013-12-24Started: 2013-12-08
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
I am so ready for the generation of mature, intelligent, heartfelt games that this heralds. Played through it with my cousin Steve as a revival of our MacVenture days, then again on my own with commentary, then played through it for H.
The Legend of Heroes — Trails in the Sky
Finished: 2013-12-21Started: 2013-10-03
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Status: Finished
Solid, meat-and-potates, earnestly pre-moe JRPG. Focuses on the experience of traveling around a rich fantasy world, which feels like it existed long before you came along, and discovering the complex relationships between its people and institutions. Doesn’t focus on gimmicks, technology, or unlockable swimsuits for your female party members. The promising beginning to what seems to be a truly epickal series.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Finished: 2013-12-14Started: 2012-04-21
Platform: Wii
Status: Finished
Given how often I find myself wanting to go back and play this again, maybe it should have gotten five stars. The excitement of a brand-new Xeno title that Shishka and I could play together was huge; he’s the one who got me into Xenogears in the first place, so many years ago. The world and much of the story felt appropriately epickal for the Xeno name. The tedium of the back third of the game cost me so much enthusiasm, though.
The Bible Unearthed — Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts
Author: Israel FinkelsteinFinished: 2013-12-08
Status: Read
Art and Fear — Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
Author: David BaylesFinished: 2013-11-18
Status: Read
An Appetite for Wonder — The Making of a Scientist
Author: Richard DawkinsFinished: 2013-10-04
Status: Read
Analogue — A Hate Story
Finished: 2013-09-10Started: 2013-09-07
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
Digital — A Love Story
Finished: 2013-09-06Started: 2013-09-06
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
Bird by Bird — Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Author: Anne LamottFinished: 2013-09-06
Status: Read
Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung — A Companion
Author: Stewart SpencerFinished: 2013-08-10
Status: Read
American Savage — Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics
Author: Dan SavageFinished: 2013-07-09
Status: Read
The Swerve — How the World Became Modern
Author: Stephen GreenblattFinished: 2013-05-30
Status: Read
Going Clear — Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Author: Lawrence WrightFinished: 2013-03-22
Status: Read
The Looming Tower — Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Author: Lawrence WrightFinished: 2013-03-21
Status: Read
Empire of Liberty — A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
Author: Gordon S. WoodFinished: 2012-09-14
Status: Read
Roadshow — Landscape with Drums — A Concert Tour by Motorcycle
Author: Neil PeartFinished: 2012-05-24
Status: Read
My Freshman Year — What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student
Author: Rebekah NathanFinished: 2012-05-02
Status: Read
メルルのアトリエ ~アーランドの錬金術士3~
Finished: 2012-04-07Started: 2012-02-11
Platform: PlayStation 3
Status: Finished
Religion for Atheists — A Non-believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
Author: Alain de BottonFinished: 2012-03-15
Status: Read
トトリのアトリエ~アーランドの錬金術士2~
Finished: 2012-02-04Started: 2012-01-14
Platform: PlayStation 3
Status: Finished
The Rational Optimist — How Prosperity Evolves
Author: Matt RidleyFinished: 2012-01-31
Status: Read
The Better Angels of Our Nature — Why Violence Has Declined
Author: Steven PinkerFinished: 2011-12-13
Status: Read
Valkyria Chronicles
Finished: 2011-05-13Started: 2010-02-08?
Platform: PlayStation 3
Status: Finished
Your Inner Fish — A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
Author: Neil ShubinFinished: 2011-05-11
Status: Read
The Hidden Reality — Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
Author: Brian GreeneFinished: 2011-05-01
Status: Read
Guns, Germs and Steel — The Fates of Human Societies
Author: Jared DiamondFinished: 2010-12-30
Status: Read
CHAOS;HEAD NOAH
Finished: 2010-12-25Started: 2010-10-28
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Status: Finished
God Is Not Great — How Religion Poisons Everything
Author: Christopher HitchensFinished: 2010-11-22
Status: Read
Misquoting Jesus — The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Author: Bart D. EhrmanFinished: 2010-11-10
Status: Read
Persona 4
Finished: 2010-11-07Started: 2010-08-27; 2010-11-14
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The one game that Hiroko and I enthusiastically played through together in its entirety.
The Moral Landscape — How Science Can Determine Human Values
Author: Sam HarrisFinished: 2010-10-20
Status: Read
The Emperor's New Mind Concerning Computers, Minds and the Laws of Physics
Author: Roger PenroseFinished: 2010-10-14
Status: Read
The Seven Daughters of Eve — The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry
Author: Bryan SykesFinished: 2010-08-23
Status: Read
The Greatest Show on Earth — The Evidence for Evolution
Author: Richard DawkinsFinished: 2010-08-13
Status: Read
Ar tonelico 3 世界終焉の引鉄は少女の詩が弾く
Finished: 2010-07-27Started: 2010-02-22
Platform: PlayStation 3
Status: Finished
Impressions; Button Trance: Ar tonelico 3; Addendum: Of Tilia
The Blank Slate — The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Author: Steven PinkerFinished: 2010-07-02
Status: Read
Shin Megami Tensei — Persona
Finished: 2010-05-15; 2010-06-16Started: 2010-05-02; 2010-05-15
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Status: Finished
Just Six Numbers — The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe
Author: Martin J. ReesFinished: 2010-03-25
Status: Read
Uncharted 2 — Among Thieves
Finished: 2010-01-25Started: 2010-01-18
Platform: PlayStation 3
Status: Finished
Silent Hill — Shattered Memories
Finished: 2010-01-23Started: 2010-01-17
Platform: Wii
Status: Finished
A Devil's Chaplain — Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
Author: Richard DawkinsFinished: 2009-02-05
Status: Read
The Double Helix — A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
Author: James D. WatsonFinished: 2009-01-13
Status: Read
Mana Khemia ~学園の錬金術士たち~ プレミアムボックス 特典 ドラマCD付き
Finished: 2008-5-29Started: 2007-7-17
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
Traveling Music — The Soundtrack to My Life and Times
Author: Neil PeartFinished: 2008-05-28
Status: Read
Ar tonelico 2 世界に響く少女たちの創造詩
Finished: 2008-04-14Started: 2007-11-01
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
Button Trance: Ar tonelico 2
Nature Via Nurture — Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human
Author: Matt RidleyFinished: 2007-10-04
Status: Read
Writing with Power — Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process
Author: Peter ElbowFinished: 2007-08-27
Status: Read
Hotel Dusk — Room 215
Finished: 2007-05-24Started: 2007-05-16
Platform: Nintendo DS
Status: Finished
The Language Instinct — How the Mind Creates Language
Author: Steven PinkerFinished: 2007-02-25
Status: Read
Phoenix Wright — Ace Attorney
Finished: 2007-02-23Started: 2007-01-31
Platform: Nintendo DS
Status: Finished
Summon Night Swordcraft Story
Finished: 2007-01-31Started: 2007-01-02
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Status: Finished
Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones
Finished: 2007-01-02Started: 2006-09-19
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Status: Finished
The Legend of Zelda — Twilight Princess
Finished: 2006-12-10Started: 2006-11-23
Platform: Wii
Status: Finished
The Omnivore's Dilemma — A Natural History of Four Meals
Author: Michael PollanFinished: 2006-11-16
Status: Read
Atelier Iris 2 — The Azoth of Destiny
Finished: 2006-09-24Started: 2006-08-20
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The Zen Commandments — Ten Suggestions for a Life of Inner Freedom
Author: Dean SluyterFinished: 2006-08-08
Status: Read
Genome — the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
Author: Matt RidleyFinished: 2006-08-02
Status: Read
Atelier Iris — Eternal Mana
Finished: 2006-07-29Started: 2006-06-10
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The Fabric of the Cosmos — Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
Author: Brian GreeneFinished: 2006-07-01
Status: Read
New Super Mario Bros
Finished: 2006-06-24Started: 2006-06-13
Platform: Nintendo DS
Status: Finished
Ar tonelico 世界の終わりで詩い続ける少女
Finished: 2006-06-10Started: 2006-02-24
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
SIMPLE2000シリーズ Vol.50 THE 大美人
Finished: 2006Started: 2006
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The people at Pink Godzilla practically made me take this when I bought some other game there, and I can see why. It made for a pretty dumb couple of hours at Shishka’s house.
Power-Up — How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life
Author: Chris KohlerFinished: 2005ish
Status: Read
Getting Things Done — The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Author: David AllenFinished: 2005-10-31
Status: Read
The Elegant Universe — Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
Author: Brian GreeneFinished: 2005-10-06
Status: Read
サクラ大戦V ~さらば愛しき人よ~ 通常版
Finished: 2005-09-10Started: 2005-08-16
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The Diamond Age — or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
Author: Neal StephensonFinished: 2005-07-15
Status: Read
The Story of B — An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
Author: Daniel QuinnFinished: 2004ish
Status: Read
The Ancestor's Tale — A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
Author: Richard DawkinsFinished: 2004
Status: Read
SIMPLE2000シリーズ Vol.31 THE 地球防衛軍
Finished: 2004Started: 2003-09
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
零～ZERO～ PlayStation 2 the Best
Finished: 2003Started: 2002
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
零 ~紅い蝶~ PlayStation 2 the Best
Finished: 2003Started: 2003
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
Xenosaga エピソード I 力への意志
Finished: 2002-04-22Started: 2002-03-04
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Finished
The announcement of a new Xeno game marked my first phase of fervent video game geekery. I ended up teaming with some folks online to create a guide and script translation.
サクラ大戦
Finished: 2002Started: 2002
Platform: Dreamcast
Status: Finished
CAPCOM VS. SNK 2 MILLIONAIRE FIGHTING 2001
Finished: 2001Started: 2001
Platform: PlayStation 2
Status: Played
The first video game I ever imported (from good old NCSX). I used to pack up my precious PS2 and bring it to Jon’s apartment so we could play this. Eventually I just moved in with him.
Monkey Island 2 — LeChuck's Revenge
Finished: 1994Started: 1993-12-25
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
Space Quest I — The Sarien Encounter
Finished: 1993?Started: 1993?
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
King's Quest V — Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!
Finished: 1993-10Started: 1993-10
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
King's Quest II — Romancing the Throne
Finished: 1993-07-27Started: 1993-07
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
King's Quest VI — Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
Finished: 1993-07-12Started: 1993-06
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
Space Quest III — The Pirates of Pestulon
Finished: 1993Started: 1992-12-25
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
Space Quest IV — Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers
Finished: 1992?Started: 1992?
Platform: Macintosh
Status: Finished
Unweaving the Rainbow — Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
Author: Richard DawkinsStatus: Read
The Mac Is Not A Typewriter — A Style Manual For Creating Professional Level Type On Your Macintosh
Author: Robin P. WilliamsStatus: Read
The Essence of Shinto
Status: ReadingSketching User Experiences — Getting the Design Right and the Right Design
Author: Bill BuxtonStatus: Read
Several Short Sentences About Writing
Author: Verlyn KlinkenborgStarted: 2019-03-22
Status: Reading
Revolution in The Valley — The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
Author: Andy HertzfeldStatus: Read
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Justice for All
Started: 2007-01-31Platform: Nintendo DS
Status: Played
No Immediate Danger — Volume One of Carbon Ideologies
Author: William T. VollmannStarted: 2019-08-22
Status: Reading
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Status: ReadingMan and his Symbols
Status: ReadingLearning iOS Design — A Hands-On Guide for Programmers and Designers
Author: William Van HeckeStatus: Read
Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution
Status: ReadingDungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Player's Essentials — Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms
Author: Mike MearlsStatus: Read
Clock Of The Long Now — Time And Responsibility — The Ideas Behind The World's Slowest Computer
Author: Stewart BrandStatus: Read
Axiomatic
Status: ReadingA History of Private Life — Revelations of the Medieval World
Author: Georges Duby, EditorStarted: 2020-03
Status: Reading
A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Fortifications
Author: Bret DevereauxStarted: 2023-01
Status: Reading