Sam's L33t Journal

Last week was a stressful week, and it was capped off by layoffs hitting my immediate area of the Goog. The layoffs were maximum chaos style, insta-cutoff, no transitions, total surprise for us but also several levels up the management chain. I'm still employed, but my team, which had gone from twelve active engineers at the start of last year to six by the end (not due to layoffs, just attrition, but organizational factors were in play), is now further down to four (with three active because one is on leave). I'd already thought things were pretty reduced, but now they're downright osseous (as in "cut to the ____" or worse, "we're _____"). I don't have a foot out the door, but at this point I feel like I ought to have both eyes out the window. I updated my resume, which I hadn't done for a long time.

This weekend was a pretty good break, at least. Did some cooking. I took Erica to see the latest special exhibit at the MFA ("Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits"). I've been enjoying playing Death's Door, a humorously spooky indie adventure game which in aesthetic seems somewhere between the newer 2D Zelda games, Persona, and Dark Souls.

Solo-parenting tonight and tomorrow because Julie is making a day-trip to the land of finance. Busy busy.

It's been a week where I've been too late to write before I'm really tired.

Once of Trump's criminal cases came to (technically) an actual close this week, with a sentence of him getting told that he's been a very naughty boy and they hope that gives him something to think about while he's President. So the only thing that Trump gets epsilon more than zero consequences for is the least serious crime for which he's been criminally indicted: Committing petty frauds to be slightly more effective in covering up a scandal that would have sunk any previous Presidential candidate, in the immediate aftermath of another scandal that would have sunk any previous Presidential candidate. It's too crazy to contemplate.

I've been playing a lot of The Outer Wilds this week. Definitely a great game, I recommend it and recommend people play it as spoiler-free as possible. It's an exploration-focused game, and one of the interesting things about it is just how dedicated it is to knowledge being the thing that progresses you through the game: Not items, not ability upgrades, just knowledge. Fascinating setting and a great sci-fi yarn. (And a musical motif that is now perpetually running through my head.)

I've been watching some of the runs from AGDQ this week, and that's been a lot of fun, too.

Back in the "I don't know what to write", but I said maybe I'd write more about Magic: the Gathering, so that's a thing I can write about.

I play Magic these days mostly on MTG Arena, almost entirely Standard (with cards from a rotating cast of the most-recent sets). Fairly recently, Standard rotation was extended to a three-year cycle from two. This year, two new things are happening to Standard.

First, there's a new core set out, released last week. Core sets in Magic are meant as an introduction and retrospective, they tend to feature a lot of reprints and have a greater breadth of theme and setting instead of focusing on one particular setting and story. The latest set, Foundations, will get special treatment in the rotation, with a current plan that it will stay in Standard for at least five years. Foundations seems like a great core set, but I wonder if it will start to overstay its welcome before the time is up. I haven't been the biggest fan of the extended Standard rotation, the changes don't seem to shake things up as much as I like. (Speaking of core sets, the superb Magic video essay channel Rhystic Studies took the occasion to do a retrospective on 7th Edition, the 2001 Magic core set that was also a turning point for the role that sort of set plays in the game.)

Second, the other-IP-as-Magic sets "Universes Beyond", are coming to Standard. Wizards has been doing a lot more of that recently. Alternative card art aside, unique cards based around existing media franchises have been coming into various Magic formats. They did a Lord of the Rings set that went straight into Modern (a non-rotating format of cards from mainline sets starting in 2003, plus some newer sets added directly to Modern and older non-rotating formats), and a Warhammer 40,000 set for Commander (a popular non-rotating format with a multiplayer focus and a few twists to the rules). But this year, Standard will include sets based on Final Fantasy (which fits well enough, I guess), Marvel: Spider Man (??!), and something TBA (who knows).

It's interesting because Magic is a game that invests pretty heavily in its aesthetic elements. Obviously, those elements function in a mnemonic role as well: "Deal three damage to any target" is easier as "Lightning Bolt" than "spell 261". But I do get the impression that Magic-but-bland would be a much less memorable and enjoyable game. So how about Magic-but-whatever-the-heck-this-is? Magic has always drawn all sorts of influences from all sorts of media franchises and tropes, but "pop-culture mashup" is still not its primary aesthetic. But at some point, it might be. The Universes Beyond stuff has been a commercial success for Wizards so far, and these "what ifs" have an appeal, so it's natural for them to give the goose a squeeze. I still get the sense it's different when that becomes the thing the game is. Unsurprisingly, in addition to excitement, this trend in the development of the game has also caused a lot of at least apprehension in the player-base. I don't know how it will play out.

Today, went to Boda Borg for the first time with some of my work teammates as a fun event. Was pretty fun, I probably enjoyed it more than Level99. Afterwards, we went to Mineirao Steakhouse for lunch, which was delicious.

After an abbreviated workday, went to a Dads of Camberville Dad's Night Out event. A very nice break to get a night out for myself after a lot of extra-hard work on the home-front. This one was at The Sea Hag in Harvard, a new-ish (2023) bar from the same owners as Grendel's Den. Food and drinks were very tasty, and the staff were very hospitable and on top of things. Was good to see various people in the dads group again.

Had an interval of solo parenting while Julie was on her trip (she returns tomorrow). It's been going pretty smoothly. Erica and I played a few games of Forbidden Desert, which was fun, I need to dig a bit more into our collection of co-op games. On Saturday, Erica had her first art lesson at the MFA, and we went to the Science Museum in the afternoon. On Sunday, we went climbing, I met up with an Ingress teammate to say hello and swap some in-game gear, then I took Erica to the aquarium. This afternoon, Erica is over at a friend's house, so I have a moment to myself.

I've been watching a few anime shows recently, too, which I want to talk about a bit, so let's talk media!

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - If you are at all a fan of the fantasy genre, watch this one. The brief synopsis: A long-lived elven mage was one of the party of heroes who defeated the demon king some decades prior. Their journey together took ten years, but was still one of the most significant intervals in her millennia-long life. They parted ways, and then a short (from her perspective) time later, her comrades are old or gone. She finds herself filled with regret that she let the moment pass so lightly. She ends up on a journey retracing her steps, with new proteges who were themselves students of her former comrades. Beyond that synopsis, it's hard to describe what in particular is good about this show because everything about it is so great. That said, it's hard to think of other examples where the narrative pacing is the best aspect of a work of fiction, and that's arguably the case here. This show can use narrative techniques that often destroy pacing without skipping a beat, and it's capable of putting more brilliance into a 14-second recap flashback than some shows put into entire episodes.

Re:CREATORS - This show is soon disappearing off of Prime Video into the graveyard of lost media due to Amazon's disaster of an anime streaming venture. I took the time to watch it at the recommendation of some anime enthusiasts I follow who really liked it. But it struck me as just an okay random-characters-random-powers science-fantasy venture, with a somewhat interesting concept. The power system isn't fleshed out enough or consistent enough to make the mystery of characters trying to suss out one another's weaknesses that interesting. On the other hand, it is a rare opportunity to indulge in the perhaps-under-served power fantasy of "for the sake of the world, we need to give your particular creative venture unlimited budget". Worth watching if you really like that sort of thing, though I don't know how you'll be able to get it without resorting to piracy.

This past weekend we took Erica to the Boston MFA. She didn't have as much patience for exploring the galleries as I would have liked, but was very interested in the possibility of art classes. Erica had her birthday party at the climbing gym the previous weekend, which was fun.

Other stuff has been a lot.

So instead of talking about any of that, I'd like to talk about Awesome Games Done Quick, which was a few weeks ago, but was a real highlight then and since. It was full of great stuff: A run of Tunic, a charming game where the speedrun glitches seem like just more of the game's secrets. Super Mario 64 on the drums. An NES game originally controlled with R.O.B. instead controlled with D.O.G. A run of Bluey: The Videogame (hooray!). An even faster Super Metroid TAS. A Mario Maker 2 glitch showcase featuring a favorite streamer. One quarter's worth of Arkanoid. It's a week long marathon so obviously that's not the half of it, there's a lot to enjoy in the full playlist.

Going to work backwards-ish for this one. Or just jump around at random.

Today, I'm watching Erica while Julie is making a day-trip to NYC for company things. Feeling a bit sore because I got COVID and flu vaccines with the family yesterday. (For me, drinking a bottle of Gatorade and plenty of water after the shot is sufficient to head off more annoying side-effects.) Erica got a flu shot, but the pediatric dose for the COVID boosters isn't in yet and they don't know when it will be. I'm also on the tail end of an unpleasant but brief cold. (Not COVID, at least doesn't seem like it from the symptoms and a negative antigen test.)

Erica's playing Mario Odyssey now after a leisurely breakfast.

The wall/fence repairs at the condo are getting close to done, though there's still logistics to handle.

Last night, went out with Julie for supper at a cool new Vietnamese restaurant at Bow Market, then to Bronwyn for dessert. Their apple strudel really is great. Erica watched movies at home with Mary.

On Friday, I took the day off to go to Breakaway Boston. Was a great line-up, I especially wanted the chance to take in a Porter Robinson DJ set in person. I really like his music and he's a great DJ and performer. (And producer, his mid-pandemic Secret Sky music festivals were really something special.) The festival was outdoors at The Stage at Suffolk Downs, I'd never been there before but it's right off the blue line. The path to the venue cuts across the historic race track. The main stage itself was quite the audiovisual setup. A lot of planes track over there from the nearby airport, and I bet it's quite visible from the air. Really was a memorable experience.

The weather was pretty nice on Friday and yesterday despite the approaching hurricane. Very windy yesterday, though. We're super lucky that wasn't 100 miles further west. Definitely a near-miss.

I've been having fun playing limited of the new Magic set on Arena. Even managed to 7 two sealed pools and a draft. In constructed, I've been enjoying red-white aggro and blue-black control with the new Ashiok. There seem to be a fair number of new competitive things to try despite the deferred Standard rotation, with many of the old best cards still haunting the format.

So I've been busy, but life is pretty good.

I feel like I can't organize my thoughts about anything. The week's been so busy and I feel not recovered enough to enjoy the little alone time I have. I keep meaning to write and never writing.

I managed to see Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, which was amazing, earned its cliffhanger ending, can't wait for the third installment.

Erica finished first grade, and we're on to the summer.

My parents are in town this weekend and this coming week, then we're going up to Sandy Island Camp. The past week, Erica was at Steve & Kate's Camp, a sort of freeform, no-set-schedule day camp. Erica enjoyed it a lot.

Tears of the Kingdom continues to be very fun. It's just wild what you can do with the game's physics system. There's a bit where Link builds a hydrofoil to ferry a band across a river. (At least that's how I read that puzzle, I'm sure there are a half-a-dozen equally crazy ways to solve it.)

Erica's vacation week went by quickly. Glad she was able to get so much grandparent time. I took one of the days off, but mostly had a reasonable work-week. I finished a game and played some Magic. With the new set out, there are so many things I want to try, but the thing about clever ideas for new decks is that most of them don't work.

I enjoyed having the chance to catch up with Markos and Michi and their friend and housemate, Adam over lunch today. Erica also got in a playdate with Isaac and I had the chance to say hi to Anne on my weekday off, though Dan was absent (probably busy with work).

Erica enjoyed playing Score Four on a set I didn't remember seeing before, maybe my parents got that from my grandparents' stuff after I'd already left for college? I'm a bit confused by that because I went through a phase as a kid where I was really into Connect Four, and I'd expect this game would have been memorable to me if I'd seen it earlier because it's quite similar to that. Surprised me a bit to learn that the game came out six years before Connect Four. Erica had no problem grasping the game, though I think I still have the advantage unless I'm really tired.

Apparently Erica is also quite good at Set. I'll have to play some games of that with her because I am quite bad at that game and she'll relish the opportunity to win.

Erica has the week off, so we're visiting family.

For the first weekend, Julie arranged a last minute to visit her parents and sister's family in Dallas while her brother Sean was also visiting with his oldest, Owen. It was great to see everybody, we hadn't seen Sean and Owen in person in a long interval. Travel went reasonably well. Erica was a pretty good traveler, and I've managed to get together a reasonable setup where we can watch movies together on my phone on the plane. We watched Arietty on the way there (Ghibli's adaptation of The Borrowers is as charming as anything can be) and Belle on the way back (the pacing is inconsistent, and it probably could've been edited as short as the Disney adaptation it frequently references, but there's a lot that's compelling about it, so I see why Erica wanted to see it again).

On Saturday, we went out to brunch, then went to an all-you-can-play retro arcade in the afternoon. Was pretty fun, but definitely I enjoyed the DDR most of all (which, I guess, stood out as one of the less retro titles). Was glad that I hadn't totally lost my ability to read the charts. I really miss the MIT Arcade days.

Julie's dad was also showing off his new car, a Tesla Model Y, which was pretty cool, and a bit of a surreal experience. Seems like the beta version of some technology from the future. Very sleek and cutting-edge, but also rough around the edges in some surprising ways and suffused with Musk-esque humor.

I played some cribbage with Julie's dad, losing three close games in a row. And got in a little time to read and to play Magic on Arena, too, during the trip.

(Speaking of Magic, and something I should've mentioned in my last post, now that Erica's achieved enough sophistication about games to start getting interested in playing that for real, we've been playing some games together with decks from a Magic Game Night set I picked up a long while back with the thought of eventually using it for that purpose.)

We got home on Monday, and I had one day to look after Erica, get a bunch of laundry and household stuff done, and repack, before we head off tomorrow to visit Melissa and family in Baltimore. Should be fun. (The weather for that trip will range between 30 and 78 degrees. What a month.)

I'm writing this post on my new computer, a System 76 (again) Lemur Pro light-weight. My last laptop was seven years old at this point, and I'd basically stopped using it since I was more often on my work laptop. But figured my personal one was due for an update.