If you're a fan of interactive fiction, consider www.myweft.com.

It's a free authoring tool and publishing platform for stories that branch.

Although it's currently bare-bones, it does include:

• A visual, map-based editor to help manage authoring complexity
• User accounts to save works-in-progress
• One-click publishing
• Export, so you can take your story with you
• A 60-second demo story that illustrates the principle of restricted choice

I'm actively working on it, so feedback is gold to me. Thank you.

What Ring camera feature is supposed to help people find lost pets?

What musical group performed the 1986 song "Take My Breath Away" ?

What 1991 musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg was inspired by Madama Butterfly ?

What was the code name of the operation during which Seal Team Six killed Osama bin Laden?

Posted a quick update on my progress for Caravan! over on my blog.

tl;dr - It's coming along nicely.

I'm pretty stoked about this project because the Venn Diagram of "What I Think the Gaming Public Wants" and "My Game Design Skillset" are about as close to a circle as I think I can come up with in the present.

Full honesty? It's pretty simplistic, and may turn out to be a flop, but I think it's worth giving a shot and see how people respond to it... or don't.

Also? I think it's fun, so there's that.

Matt Lichtenwalner's post on Random Stuff in Google Sheets inspired me to do a little tinkering with random stuff in Google Sheets as well. I now have a moderately good bingo card generator:

People frequently ask me for ways they can modify the HTML+Javascript+CSS version at osric.com/bingo-card-generator/, but I suspect they aren't up for that level of manipulation. On the other hand, loads of people are spreadsheet wizards!

I went through the Wayback Machine and found an old post that I wanted to update for my TTRPG audience. The updated version is now live over here, if you're interested. In short: both weighted and unweighted random selections from lists, which makes for useful tools for TTRPGs, worldbuilding, writing, etc. But I do it without the use of AI - which is (obviously) an easier method, but since some folks are super anti...

Sometimes the correct answer is the more obvious one, and sometimes it isn't, and even knowing the non-obvious answer doesn't help you decide which one to pick.  Sometimes you just need to read the question more carefully.

What is the common name of very thin stripes, often used in men's clothing?

What is the more famous name of the Misión San Antonio de Valero ?

What fruit popular in America has the Latin name Prunus persica and was cultivated in China during the Neolithic period?

What do the three previous answers have in common?

What is the name of the black cuboid building at the center of Islam's holiest mosque?

What does IBU measure in the context of beer?

Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera has the shortest land border in the world between Spain and what country?

Just wanted to let y'all know that I did a blog post over on my Patreon blog about The State of the Art - referring to my current project list and goals (art wise). It's freely available to read to the public - no membership or subscription needed.

Check it out, and feel free to reply here if that's easier and you're so inclined. :)
ETA: strange. There's a link at the bottom of my 'edit screen', but nothing is showing up in the actual post for me. *shrug* I added the link above in case / for future reference.

I cockily cheered at the final category "Flags of the World" before actually seeing the question, but did succeed in dunking on it.  

What actress shared hosting Jeopardy until Ken Jennings took over full-time?

What undrafted African-American quarterback was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006?

What name is shared by the currency of Panama, a fictional county in Veronica Mars, and #7 on AFI's list of movie heroes?

What country's flag is identical to neighboring Romania's except for a superimposed coat of arms?

Hardly the technological revolution of our time. But today I realized I was seated really far from the order status board at Starbucks. My eyes are quite good with glasses (1), but not that good. So I took a pic of it with my very midrange Pixel 8a, zoomed in, and read my name.

I remember posting a few years ago that I was looking forward to this, but cell phones were still inferior to the naked eye most of the time.

Of course, everybody could have carried opera glasses starting a century ago. But one's daily carry has limits.

I like to note these small milestones because I tend to miss how much has changed in our lifetimes. Despite how dystopian technology can be, I feel a bit cheated that we haven't gone from the Wright Brothers to the Moon. But some seriously crazy shit is going down, and cool little stuff too.

(1) People without glasses, particularly people who had vision surgery more than ten years ago, are often surprised that I can see stuff they can't. Look, I definitely remember my own "oh I don't need glasses" phase. But cheap glasses are nowhere near as dorky as they were THIRTY YEARS AGO 👻. Just grab an eye exam, under insurance if you're lucky. Make sure they write down your IPD (Intrapupillary Distance). And then just hop on Zenni. Don't be a boomer and get suckered into vision store prices.

Also there's contacts if you're vain. I get it. I'm totally vain.

Kim and i gave up our community garden plot.  We have too much going on still at home and we weren't taking care of things.  It's the first time we haven't gardened since our very early days together, other than my GBS year.

Dad and Mom came to California to visit me and Paul in December; Mom said that he was very insistent and, well, when a 92-year-old is almost desperate to see his kids, you can guess what might be going through his head.  Turns out that his health started declining soon after his return, where he couldn't keep any food down.  They found a mass in his stomach that was blocking the entrance, and we hope to have the biopsy results... today?  Welp, tomorrow, then.  Again, at 92, it seems immaterial.  He's got a feeding tube installed now, plus a catheter because he's had trouble urinating, too.  They had just pulled the trigger on a house in The Villages and now it seems unlikely that he'll move from Quito, given his health.

My department at work only got 30% of the headcount they requested, so i, sadly, remain an employee of the contracting agency and not Google.  But my contract was renewed for a full year, so it's not all bad.