Everything else

• Book · Aug 18, 2026

  The Cyberiad

  A robot builds a machine that can make anything starting with the letter N, someone asks it for Nothing, and the universe nearly ends over a joke, which tells you exactly what kind of book this is.

• Essay · Jul 28, 2026

  Why I Read the Rulebook Twice

  Once to understand it, once to catch what I skimmed past the first time thinking it didn't matter yet.

• Book · Jul 18, 2026

  Permutation City

  I spent more time reading Wikipedia articles trying to actually understand Dust Theory than I spent reading the chapters explaining it, which is either the book's biggest flaw or its whole point.

• Board game · Jul 17, 2026

  Star Realms

  A tiny box that turns into a shelf commitment the moment you buy one expansion, but the actual attacking-your-opponent deckbuilding underneath is still some of the fastest fun I own.

• Board game · Jul 14, 2026

  Kemet: Blood and Sand

  Streamlined and mean in the best way for the first two thirds, then the endgame at four or five players runs long enough that everyone's running on fumes by the time somebody actually wins.

• Book · Jul 7, 2026

  Supersizing the Mind

  The idea that your mind isn't just in your skull, that your notebook or your phone can be a real extension of your cognition, is a genuinely great one buried in a book that spends too long arguing with people who aren't in the room.

• Book · Jul 6, 2026

  His Master's Voice

  Contact's evil twin, basically, a first contact story where the whole point is that first contact fails, written by a mathematician who breaks the fourth wall on page 31 to warn you not to expect thrills.

• Essay · Jul 1, 2026

  The Ticket Queue and the Shelf Look the Same Lately

  Fixing a login issue for the third floor archivist and thinking about deckbuilders is not a healthy sign, but here we are.

• Board game · Jun 26, 2026

  Magical Athlete

  Drafting the weird little athletes is the whole game, the actual races are just watching dice roll while you hope your screwage power triggers at the right moment.

• Essay · Jun 22, 2026

  The Night Mara's Apartment Finally Ran Out of Table

  Seven people, one Kemet box, and a kitchen table built for four. Something had to give, and it wasn't the game.

• Book · Jun 11, 2026

  Use of Weapons

  One timeline runs forward, one runs backward toward the same ending, and I had to read the plot on Wikipedia after finishing just to confirm I'd actually understood what the last chapter did to me.

• Essay · Jun 4, 2026

  Rebuilding the Spreadsheet From Memory

  My laptop died with half my ratings history on it, and trying to reconstruct three years of opinions from memory taught me something uncomfortable about how much I actually remember.