The Myth & The Majesty

A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time. - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Let's talk about the Penumbraverse for a moment. Back in 2016, while wandering the stacks of (the now beleaguered) Tattered Cover in Denver, I came across a book I'd somehow not heard of, even though it had been around for four years by then. White background, bright yellow books (which I later found glowed in the dark – jarring) and an intriguing title. I finished reading it before my trip had ended . Since then Robin Sloan has built a world. Not Middle Earth style – it's not total invention from the ground up – but a world built on our existing one, a world that is just a touch more ideal than the one we inhabit. Every time I re-read one of the books (or re-listen – they're fantastic fun in audio form) I find myself happier. They're fun, they're interesting, and they feel so ... possible. In-world, here they are chron

 Go play with this. Just ... follow the instructions and click around. (Hit the little button in the corner that says "view machine" if you want to see how it all works together.) ANOTHER XKCD GEM

Well, hello there. Who else realized we're already 25% of the way through 2024 and thought, "Huh, I wasn't actually ready for that. How do I go back a couple months?" Yeah, I didn't think it was just me. So in the last couple of years, I've cut waaaaaay back on my internet presence. There was the general toxicity of The Face, the distraction of The Gram, the inanity of ... everything. I couldn't do it. And as such, this little project of mine also fell by the wayside. The thing of it is ... I've wanted to get back into it. I've missed throwing my little tidbits onto the internet here. This is more of a shout into the void than other platforms and an outlet for a quiet engineer that doesn't get a lot of chances to write anymore. Not to say there's anything of real substance. But the possibility is there. So let's see if I can give this a proper shot again, shall we? I'm in need of a hobby again, and on a day like today -- cold and ra