Grunge no Hamster
@bbupton.bsky.social
Game Designer and Play Theorist / Designer of Rainbow Six & Ghost Recon / Author of The Aesthetic of Play & Situational Game Design
For fun I make board games and watch anime!
For fun I make board games and watch anime!
I impressed my class today by multiplying 4x17 in my head.
The old, deep magic!
The old, deep magic!
November 20, 2025 at 12:44 AM
I impressed my class today by multiplying 4x17 in my head.
The old, deep magic!
The old, deep magic!
The fact that Elon Musk thinks we can colonize other planets should give people a clue that the idea is pure fantasy.
New column from me on why interstellar space travel will never, ever be a thing, and how it's kind of weird that they keep telling us otherwise:
jasonpargin.substack.com/p/interstell...
jasonpargin.substack.com/p/interstell...
Interstellar Space Travel Will Never, Ever Happen
It's basically impossible and they know it.
jasonpargin.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:21 AM
The fact that Elon Musk thinks we can colonize other planets should give people a clue that the idea is pure fantasy.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
Important 🧵
So you were told that Israel is a “settler colonial state”
🎙️@lanianpo, indigenous rights activist on IG breaks it down. Followed by a three part response to commentary on this video.
1/4 🧵
🎙️@lanianpo, indigenous rights activist on IG breaks it down. Followed by a three part response to commentary on this video.
1/4 🧵
November 17, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Important 🧵
I have no idea if J. Edgar Hoover really was a transvestite, but once the idea took hold in the popular imagination, it was impossible to shake.
We now know how Donald J. Trump will be remembered.
We now know how Donald J. Trump will be remembered.
November 16, 2025 at 3:13 PM
I have no idea if J. Edgar Hoover really was a transvestite, but once the idea took hold in the popular imagination, it was impossible to shake.
We now know how Donald J. Trump will be remembered.
We now know how Donald J. Trump will be remembered.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
Come look at this y’all!
November 16, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Come look at this y’all!
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
When you get in your feelings about the devastation you see in Gaza.
You need to understand this!!
You need to understand this!!
If you’ve never experienced war, you don’t understand what you’re watching through the media. Every image you’ve seen is by design. To get you emotional and rush to judgment.
November 16, 2025 at 1:07 AM
When you get in your feelings about the devastation you see in Gaza.
You need to understand this!!
You need to understand this!!
Just finished reading Of Monsters &Mainframes today. Insanely good. It always kept me guessing.
My debut scifi novel Of Monsters and Mainframes is coming out in June 2025. It's about computers dealing with a whole aisle of Halloween monsters and maybe falling in love in space. 🚀🧛🐺🦑🌈
November 16, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Just finished reading Of Monsters &Mainframes today. Insanely good. It always kept me guessing.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
Today my students had their first playtest of their final project. All four teams had solid core loops and wildly original concepts. Graffiti taggers competing for wall space. French aristocrats bidding for gems. Exploring flooded catacombs. Putting together a team for a jewel heist.
November 12, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Today my students had their first playtest of their final project. All four teams had solid core loops and wildly original concepts. Graffiti taggers competing for wall space. French aristocrats bidding for gems. Exploring flooded catacombs. Putting together a team for a jewel heist.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
The millennial hipster learning how to bake bread or crochet or make artisanal pickles between shifts at the email job is going to go from corny loser joke to the last of the Renaissance men whose skills seem almost mythic to future generations of hollow GPTpeople huh...
A pretty bleak thing that GenAI is revealing is that a significant percentage of the population seems to have no interest in actually learning or doing anything. They want to ChatGPT their way out of hobbies, art making, everything... www.thecut.com/article/woul...
The People Using ChatGPT to Cheat at Their Hobbies
Why are so many of us letting AI have all the fun?
www.thecut.com
November 12, 2025 at 7:10 PM
The millennial hipster learning how to bake bread or crochet or make artisanal pickles between shifts at the email job is going to go from corny loser joke to the last of the Renaissance men whose skills seem almost mythic to future generations of hollow GPTpeople huh...
Continuity policing is the lowest form of fandom.
Individual stories can stand alone. You don’t need to slot them into a big multi-decade meta-narrative.
Individual stories can stand alone. You don’t need to slot them into a big multi-decade meta-narrative.
November 12, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Continuity policing is the lowest form of fandom.
Individual stories can stand alone. You don’t need to slot them into a big multi-decade meta-narrative.
Individual stories can stand alone. You don’t need to slot them into a big multi-decade meta-narrative.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
No wonder young people prefer videos—they can’t read easily.
how did i go so long not knowing we were literally teaching people to read wrong. i knew something wasn't right but jesus christ www.apmreports.org/episode/2019...
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers
For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't kno...
www.apmreports.org
November 11, 2025 at 6:34 PM
No wonder young people prefer videos—they can’t read easily.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
![Joyce Carol Oates quoting a tweet that says “wherever he [Elon Musk] goes, he wants to leave”:
"wherever he goes, he wants to leave"-- that's because when he gets there, he has brought his own self along; & whatever club he's invited to join has been devalued by the invitation.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:buy3qvqcj3o76leo6ap7pn2p/bafkreifilfbsxemfsambf4kqwolr24ld2ekqcrz4ybgv3bv7kzi5e6kppm@jpeg)
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
ZZ Top – La Grange (Asian Folk Metal Cover) | NiNi Music
YouTube video by Nini Music
youtu.be
November 10, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
A rare interview with the creators of the always-funny, always-brilliant, and *usually*-sexy—or occasionally anti-sexy—OGLAF!
Cooper has kept a low profile over the years, but is legitimately one of the very best artists in comics today. Read OGLAF if you're old enough to drive!
Cooper has kept a low profile over the years, but is legitimately one of the very best artists in comics today. Read OGLAF if you're old enough to drive!
Talking Oglaf with Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne: 'We'd stay up all night drawing stuff to make each other laugh' - The Comics Journal
Other than some time off every year for Christmas, Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne have delivered a new Oglaf comic, skewering fantasy tropes with absolutely not safe for work humor, every week since 2008...
www.tcj.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:42 PM
A rare interview with the creators of the always-funny, always-brilliant, and *usually*-sexy—or occasionally anti-sexy—OGLAF!
Cooper has kept a low profile over the years, but is legitimately one of the very best artists in comics today. Read OGLAF if you're old enough to drive!
Cooper has kept a low profile over the years, but is legitimately one of the very best artists in comics today. Read OGLAF if you're old enough to drive!
I think it’s time to write another academic book for fun.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 AM
I think it’s time to write another academic book for fun.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
Pips is a logic puzzle where players must arrange a set of dominoes to meet the conditions of the board to win. There are three new puzzles each day — Easy, Medium and Hard — so you can solve at your own speed, in any order you want. nyti.ms/493FOrg
November 8, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Pips is a logic puzzle where players must arrange a set of dominoes to meet the conditions of the board to win. There are three new puzzles each day — Easy, Medium and Hard — so you can solve at your own speed, in any order you want. nyti.ms/493FOrg
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
Dear Friends:
Please listen to Rabbi Hirsch.
@nisey69.bsky.social
@ektashahmd.bsky.social
@icookfood2023.bsky.social
@repschneider.bsky.social
@letatcestmoi.bsky.social
@demmaj4israel.bsky.social
@haliesoifer.bsky.social
@mayimbialik.bsky.social
youtu.be/kFkmR7AW-HU?...
Please listen to Rabbi Hirsch.
@nisey69.bsky.social
@ektashahmd.bsky.social
@icookfood2023.bsky.social
@repschneider.bsky.social
@letatcestmoi.bsky.social
@demmaj4israel.bsky.social
@haliesoifer.bsky.social
@mayimbialik.bsky.social
youtu.be/kFkmR7AW-HU?...
November 9, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Oh! You said “Sterling Hayden”, not “Holloway”.
It would put Winnie the Pooh in a whole new light.
It would put Winnie the Pooh in a whole new light.
This whole documentary is Sterling Hayden just drinking and getting high, and rambling. The narrator actually said "we wished we could get Hayden to drink less." I've never seen anything like this.
Now we are watching a 1983 documentary on Sterling Hayden that's on the Criterion disc. Great actor, crazy bastard.
November 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Oh! You said “Sterling Hayden”, not “Holloway”.
It would put Winnie the Pooh in a whole new light.
It would put Winnie the Pooh in a whole new light.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
November 9, 2025 at 12:10 AM
So it turns out... the US air travel system was incredibly, deeply dependent on federal funding to just run day-to-day all this time, to the benefit of private airline shareholders, when everyone thinks that state-run trains are leeching off the government. Weird!
Relevant both for puzzle design and brainstorming play mechanics.
Three words: pine, crab, sauce. There’s a fourth word that combines with the others to create another common word. What is it? When you finally get it, it may feel instantaneous. A recent study shows what happens in the brain during “aha” moments.
How Your Brain Creates ‘Aha’ Moments and Why They Stick | Quanta Magazine
A sudden flash of insight is a product of your brain. Neuroscientists track the neural activity underlying an “aha” and how it might boost memory.
www.quantamagazine.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Relevant both for puzzle design and brainstorming play mechanics.
Prepare for the Second Impact.
I'm not saying I saw this movie, but I think I saw this movie.
Wasn't it a heartwarming story of a crew of researchers, their beloved dog, and flamethrowers?
Wasn't it a heartwarming story of a crew of researchers, their beloved dog, and flamethrowers?
NASA Balloon Detects Strange Signals Coming From Ice in Antarctica
Unusual radio signals from beneath Antarctica’s ice continue to defy explanation. Several years ago, scientists using a cosmic particle detector in Antarctica recorded a series of puzzling radio signa...
scitechdaily.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Prepare for the Second Impact.
Reposted by Grunge no Hamster
this looks like a trick daffy duck would put up to get bugs bunny into "the oval office"
November 5, 2025 at 11:04 PM
this looks like a trick daffy duck would put up to get bugs bunny into "the oval office"
Working out a modular map system for my tiny kriegspiel.
November 5, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Working out a modular map system for my tiny kriegspiel.