These are ideas I’ve decided to put into words.
The research required often takes longer than the actual writing, and each headline goes through a rigorous three-step vetting process (my mom, my best friends, my cat). I hope you enjoy.
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The legacy of SomaSim
When it comes to independently developed simulation games, a name that comes up often is SomaSim. The Chicago-based studio has been at it for over 10 years, and in the wake of a less-than-satisfying launch, they’re looking for a new direction.
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Onstage couple’s therapy: catharsis and breakup songs
Below every YouTube upload of the May 1997 performance of Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs,” there are endless comments discussing the stage behavior of one Stephanie Nicks. What Stevie really feels doesn’t matter, though. Only our perception does.
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A programmer, unmoored
America has always been a place defined by the contributions of immigrants. One such immigrant, like many before him, has the restless hands of a tinkerer. From in front of a stark white wall in Sao Paulo Brazil, he spun a plastic fidget toy between his fingers.
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Fuck Spotify, I’ll wrap it myself
Because Spotify lies – I’ve become convinced of this, both because of their links to weapons manufacturing and the fact I obsessively track my own listening stats – I’ll wrap it myself.
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A chapter of something I’ve been thinking of
There have always been witches in Salem. This one had seen three hundred years and millions of miles of road. From deserts to forests to mountains and back again a thousand times over. Witness to the fall of empires and the creation of new, quieter ones. All to die in a field in Michigan.
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Deconstructing the Deindexing
Gamers, we have a sitchuation on our hands. On July 24, Itch.io unlisted all NSFW and adult content on their site in response to “scrutiny from [their] payment processors.” To say the response was overwhelming would be an understatement.
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Horse racing and magazine making
I’ve been gone for a while. I don’t have a good explanation for that absence, but I do have some bad jokes about the Kentucky Derby.
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A local history nerd
The first thing of note at the McFadden-Ross house is a sign with a cannon on it. The sign, as well as the house, sit off the main thoroughfare of Dearborn, Michigan. Mason Christensen, the resident archivist, explained the house’s past as gunpowder storage for the Dearborn arsenal. The cannon is apt, then.
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Teacher-in-training returns to school, still at crossroads
A short profile of a classmate.
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Has anyone wanked the TikTok ban yet?
On Sunday, January 19, 2025, the American Agora will go dark. The TikTok ban is interesting in part because it echoes the bans of previous sites like Tumblr and LiveJournal, and these bans beg the question: When online communities built around creativity and free expression collapse, where do the users go?