2025-03-04 22:02:47
For Christmas 2001 I got a Playstation 2 and a copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3[1]. I had played Tony Hawk 1 and 2 at a friend's house a handful of times but I'd never spent significant time with either of the games.
That Christmas break I spent every waking moment playing. This was the first time I'd been obsessed with a video game. I'd go to bed thinking about it, wake up thinking about it, and spend days at school thinking about how to get better scores or where the hidden tape might be on the cruise ship. Obsessed.
Every run was two minutes and I must have done hundreds over the years which means I've listened to the first two minutes of some absolute bangers a lot. To the point that when I'd eventually listen to the full tracks I'd be surprised to hear anything past 120 seconds. The soundtracks to all of the games are iconic[2]. I went and saw Zebrahead live as a direct result to hearing them in this game. I still listen to most of the bands to this day[3].
I, along with everyone else back, took up skateboarding because of the games.
This is why I'm so excited for the 3 and 4 remaster. It shaped my love of video games and music[4].
I also got a copy of Shadow of Memories, a criminally overlooked game, but this post isn't about that. ⤾
I have most of the soundtracks as playlists on on Apple Music ⤾
I'm listening right now ⤾
I still love skateboarding but as a viewer and not a participator - the knees I have now can't possibly be the same ones I had when I was a teenager. ⤾
2025-03-04 05:31:09
A whole load of stuff this round, I've was ill a lot of last week, got very behind on everything, so here's all the hot links I had saved.
The hardest working font in Manhattan is a deep dive into a font never designed to show up pretty much everywhere.
Making Software is a new book by Dan Hollick but what struck me was the hard-drive illustration on the home page; it's gorgeous.
I used to archive Throwback Thursday playlists when I used Spotify but someone is doing it for all sorts of public playlists over there.
Kevin wrote about how he keeps a blank page in Pixelmator open all day to fill with nice messages and other things he comes across, then prints it to stick in a notebook. I love this idea.
I also love 2024 in Stitches.
I happened across track changes over time by scraping to a Git repository while remembering how Thinkup would track a person's changes to their bio on Twitter.
My Life in Weeks is fun. Not sure I want to do one though.
A f******* **n in Severance...?!?. Pen stuff becuase I'm a pen person now.
Adam had us all fingering each other last week which led me down a rabbit hole of the finger protocol and eventually to plan.cat.
I don't recall how I found Tweek Calendar but it's a "minimal to do list and weekly task planner app". One page per week, it's printable, good stuff.
Strftime is a handy reference for formatting dates.
I don't know when I'll need to create a CRT with CSS but I'll find a reason to do it.
If such a thing as a Trump-proof stack exists if you're a US citizen this is probably it.
I had no idea Panel Editor existed in MacOS and it looks pretty useful.
Finally an indie web manifesto from 1997:
We invite the users to realize the essential role they play on the Internet: when they start their own website, when they send comments, criticisms or warm letters to the webmasters, when they exchange tips and hints in the newsgroups or by e-mail, they provide an independent and free source of information that others would like to sell and control. Education, information, culture and debate can only come from users, independent webmasters, academic or associative organizations.
2025-02-17 06:21:31
There was a post on Reddit yesterday that I didn't save, and now can't find, that said something along the lines of "I'm trying out Mastodon but my timeline is too quiet".
One of the comments noted the lack of algorithm on Mastodon which led me to a realisation that seems obvious in hindsight: no matter if you follow one person or a thousand, the algorithm-driven social media platforms will make sure there's always stuff in your timeline. Even if you follow no one, you're getting a full timeline.
No conclusion to draw here, just an observation.
2025-02-16 07:44:05
Remember a week ago when I bought some Zebra Mildliners? Well now I have all of them because I have no self control. But how many are there?. If you check the Zebra website, you'd see this natty graphic that shows there are 35 colours available across seven sets. You might also find this "complete" set and assume that 35 is the number but it's not.
There are actually 36 colours - there is an secondary version of the Neutral set called "Natural", which is sold in the Japanese market. This set has dusty pink, instead of copper. Dusty pink appears in some other sets (that aren't part of the core seven) so it's much easier to find that one separately, which is exactly what I did to complete my collection[1].
Here's an updated version of Zebra's chart to include the variations:
As I was finishing this post, I did find official confirmation of 36 colours on Zebra's website[2], in this PDF which is named Mildliner_US-Japan_Cross_Reference.
It hasn't arrived yet but when it does, I'll post an updated test page ⤾
Only by landing on this Go Wild partnership page ⤾
2025-02-13 18:00:52
Firstly, I'd like to thank my right honorable friend for giving me an advanced copy of her post.
A few months ago, as we are wont to do, Zoe and I got into a heated discussion about if Portsmouth is an island or not. Then she went a bit overboard in this post correcting me about the density of Portmouth's population which is fair enough because I was misled by Wikipedia.
The second half of her post, however, is nothing short of lunacy, claiming Portsmouth isn't an island because you could get there using shank's pony:
If you can walk to it, it’s not an island
An outrageous claim. I'd like to paraphrase the great Haddaway and also start like a really crap best man's speech:
What is love an island? Merriam-Webster defines it as:
a tract of land surrounded by water and smaller than a continent
so does the Cambridge Dictionary:
a piece of land completely surrounded by water:
and Britannica, Collins English Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and National Geographic. And every other dictionary in the land including the Chambers School Dictionary I got given by my English teacher when I left school[1]:
Even school children know what an island is. Portsmouth is, last time I checked, smaller than a continent. It's also surrounded by water.
There is no definition I could find that has a caveat of "If you can walk to it, it's not an island". The tidal island list Zoe mentioned in her post is lacking a vital entry: Portsmouth.
While writing this, I did came across some anti-island propaganda from none other than the biggest tech company in the world. Apple Maps does not show Portsmouth as an island. Shenanigans! I shall be emailing Tim Apple post haste[2].
Anyway, you don't get to argue with the dictionary, Zoe. Words mean things. Island means surrounded by water. Like Portsmouth.
This is the dictionary I used for 3 years in secondary school ⤾
This was funnier before Apple decided to bend over for fascists ⤾
2025-02-12 20:32:15
I started bullet journalling a month ago and it's my understanding that part of getting into analogue tools is buying too many pens and shit. Well I have bought a lot of pens and shit since I started.
I feel like "a lot of pens" is underselling it
I needed a case for the handful of pens, pencils, and a ruler I want to use in my journal so I went on a hunt for something slim and came across the Lihit Lab Compact Pen Case.
It has a double zip, two pockets for pens, plus smaller slots for other things. The website says it's water and stain repellent although I haven't tested that claim. I imagine it could hold maybe ten pens but it might be a bit of a tight squeeze - with two fountain pens on the left hand side and a full right side made it a bit too bulky for my liking.
It comes in four relatively boring colors so I went with red. It costs ~£10 which is very reasonable, the build quality seems solid, and it does exactly what I wanted. I'm also considering buying a second one for some of my smaller DIY stuff.
