Mark Sample
@samplereality.bsky.social
Professor of Film, Media, and Digital Studies at a small liberal arts college.
Digital skulduggery and more
☞ https://www.samplereality.com ☜
Digital skulduggery and more
☞ https://www.samplereality.com ☜
"The real poverty line—the threshold where a family can afford housing, healthcare, childcare, and transportation without relying on means-tested benefits—isn’t $31,200.
It’s ~$140,000."
It’s ~$140,000."
How a Broken Benchmark Quietly Broke America
www.yesigiveafig.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:30 AM
"The real poverty line—the threshold where a family can afford housing, healthcare, childcare, and transportation without relying on means-tested benefits—isn’t $31,200.
It’s ~$140,000."
It’s ~$140,000."
pre-thanksgiving verso splurge
November 27, 2025 at 4:11 AM
pre-thanksgiving verso splurge
What, no bamboo?
November 27, 2025 at 3:23 AM
What, no bamboo?
It's National Novel Generation Month. LLMs have drained much of the original creativity and impetus for NaNoGenMo, but I gave it a go this year anyway. I took "No Time to Discourse," my interactive web-based speculative atlas of climate disaster, and turned it into a ~400-page book.
No Time to Discourse (Novel) · Issue #15 · NaNoGenMo/2025
My NaNoGenMo '25 contribution reworks No Time to Discourse, my interactive web-based speculative atlas of climate disaster, transforming it into a stable print book. The online version uses context...
github.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:21 PM
It's National Novel Generation Month. LLMs have drained much of the original creativity and impetus for NaNoGenMo, but I gave it a go this year anyway. I took "No Time to Discourse," my interactive web-based speculative atlas of climate disaster, and turned it into a ~400-page book.
oh, the bamboo was a *metaphor*
November 22, 2025 at 5:18 PM
oh, the bamboo was a *metaphor*
apparently there was some magic the gathering news tonight?
November 22, 2025 at 4:03 AM
apparently there was some magic the gathering news tonight?
Now at least 3 of the sources for @youarecarrying.bsky.social will not put me in legal jeopardy!
Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today!
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
Zork is now open source
Two years ago, I wrote: Microsoft-the-company does not care about Infocom. But a lot of people in Microsoft must care. Microsoft is heavily populated by greying GenX nerds just like me. Folks who grew...
blog.zarfhome.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:16 AM
Now at least 3 of the sources for @youarecarrying.bsky.social will not put me in legal jeopardy!
Reposted by Mark Sample
Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today!
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
Zork is now open source
Two years ago, I wrote: Microsoft-the-company does not care about Infocom. But a lot of people in Microsoft must care. Microsoft is heavily populated by greying GenX nerds just like me. Folks who grew...
blog.zarfhome.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Hey, I bet you didn't hear that Zork 1, 2, and 3 were open-sourced today!
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
…Oh, you have heard. Yeah. Way ahead of me. :)
Here's my comments, and some details that you might not have seen.
blog.zarfhome.com/2025/11/zork...
I keep hoping to catch glimpses of the coyotes that I know come around the back yard, but instead I got this little feller.
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I keep hoping to catch glimpses of the coyotes that I know come around the back yard, but instead I got this little feller.
Someone recommended Task, and besides the fact that little bums me out more than Mark Ruffalo in sad sack mode, I'm having trouble with the plot holes so big you could drive a semi through them.
November 20, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Someone recommended Task, and besides the fact that little bums me out more than Mark Ruffalo in sad sack mode, I'm having trouble with the plot holes so big you could drive a semi through them.
Unsettling data viz and reporting on how billionaires with state-like powers are building a fully privatized "regime where corporate boards, not public law, set the rules."
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
www.authoritarian-stack.info
November 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Unsettling data viz and reporting on how billionaires with state-like powers are building a fully privatized "regime where corporate boards, not public law, set the rules."
A Google Doc from Miriam Posner at UCLA with the pros and cons of different strategies for dealing with students using ChatGPT for writing
ChatGPT Harm Reduction for Writing Assignments
ChatGPT Harm Reduction for Writing Assignments Because this document has escaped containment, a couple points of explanation. I wrote this for myself and a few colleagues as we work out how to handle the issue of LLMs in an undergrad writing-intensive class. None of these strategies is perfect, ...
docs.google.com
November 19, 2025 at 9:32 PM
A Google Doc from Miriam Posner at UCLA with the pros and cons of different strategies for dealing with students using ChatGPT for writing
Gotta love this 1980s-era Weather Channel simulation, complete with live weather updates
WeatherStar 4000+
weatherstar.netbymatt.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Gotta love this 1980s-era Weather Channel simulation, complete with live weather updates
📣 Tenure-track DH position at Chapel Hill with a home in English/Comp Lit
Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities
The Department of English & Comparative Literature at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill invites applications for a full-time Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities with an anticipated sta...
unc.peopleadmin.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:22 PM
📣 Tenure-track DH position at Chapel Hill with a home in English/Comp Lit
📣 TT job at UGA: Assistant Professor of Film Studies www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/458...
Assistant Professor
The Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Georgia invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Film Studies with an anticipated start date of August 1, 2026.The success...
www.ugajobsearch.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:30 PM
📣 TT job at UGA: Assistant Professor of Film Studies www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/458...
Gonna keep plugging this new work of mine because it is—tragically—entirely of the moment. Check out A Million Random Acts fugitivetexts.net/acts/
A Million Random Acts
A vast grid of procedurally generated cruelty, resistance, and more, an attempt to capture the chaos and fear of our times.
fugitivetexts.net
November 18, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Gonna keep plugging this new work of mine because it is—tragically—entirely of the moment. Check out A Million Random Acts fugitivetexts.net/acts/
My website/blog is due for a major overhaul, but I don't have it in me. At least I managed to replace my front page with a portfolio of some of my projects over the years. samplereality.com
Mark Sample's Digital Skulduggery
Weird digital games, poems, and other computational gambits by Mark Sample
samplereality.com
November 18, 2025 at 4:02 PM
My website/blog is due for a major overhaul, but I don't have it in me. At least I managed to replace my front page with a portfolio of some of my projects over the years. samplereality.com
The problem isn't that journalists can become horrible people. It's that horrible people can become journalists.
November 18, 2025 at 2:30 PM
The problem isn't that journalists can become horrible people. It's that horrible people can become journalists.
Functionally, iOS 26 is fine, whatever. But aesthetically, it's an insult. What am I, 4 years old, and I need shiny bubbles everywhere to entertain me?
November 17, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Functionally, iOS 26 is fine, whatever. But aesthetically, it's an insult. What am I, 4 years old, and I need shiny bubbles everywhere to entertain me?
CFP for a special issue of Eludamos. What are antifascist games? Proposal deadline is December 19.
eludamos.org/index.php/el...
eludamos.org/index.php/el...
Special Issue: WHAT ARE ANTIFASCIST GAMES?
| Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture
eludamos.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
CFP for a special issue of Eludamos. What are antifascist games? Proposal deadline is December 19.
eludamos.org/index.php/el...
eludamos.org/index.php/el...
I'm grateful to @michiganquarterly.bsky.social for publishing my latest work of digital skulduggery, A Million Random Acts. It's a vast canvas of everything happening around us right now in the U.S. It's different every time, but always seems the same. fugitivetexts.net/acts/
A Million Random Acts
A vast grid of procedurally generated cruelty, resistance, and more, an attempt to capture the chaos and fear of our times.
fugitivetexts.net
November 17, 2025 at 3:44 PM
I'm grateful to @michiganquarterly.bsky.social for publishing my latest work of digital skulduggery, A Million Random Acts. It's a vast canvas of everything happening around us right now in the U.S. It's different every time, but always seems the same. fugitivetexts.net/acts/
RIP Todd Snider, who forged his own Americana path
Americana troubadour Todd Snider, alt-country singer-songwriter, dies at 59
Known for his cosmic-stoner songwriting and freewheeling tunes, Todd Snider's career spanned three decades.
www.npr.org
November 16, 2025 at 2:43 PM
RIP Todd Snider, who forged his own Americana path
For my fellow Charlotteans
OJO Obrero (ojonc.org) is now available. This website features information about confirmed ICE operations in our state to help parents and workers get to school and work safely. OJO Obrero only features sightings that we can confirm involve federal agents, rather than crowdsourced reports
November 16, 2025 at 1:59 AM
For my fellow Charlotteans
Reposted by Mark Sample
This is a 52-pound 9000+ page accordion-bound artist’s book of Donald Trump’s lies, conceived, printed, and bound by Jill and Ray Nichols of @leadgraffiti.bsky.social in Delaware. Each of the 9000 pages has the text (per the Washington Post) of one or more of Trump’s lies; none are repeated.
November 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
This is a 52-pound 9000+ page accordion-bound artist’s book of Donald Trump’s lies, conceived, printed, and bound by Jill and Ray Nichols of @leadgraffiti.bsky.social in Delaware. Each of the 9000 pages has the text (per the Washington Post) of one or more of Trump’s lies; none are repeated.
Dunno why I bother but I'm updating old WordPress sites for teaching so that they're still accessible. Like anyone wants to see my course website from 2005.
November 14, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Dunno why I bother but I'm updating old WordPress sites for teaching so that they're still accessible. Like anyone wants to see my course website from 2005.