asgromo info!

Starred films, for example PlayTime*, were my selection for movey night.

My current bike is a "cardinal red" Schwinn LeTour. It's a steel road bike from the bottom of their 1980 lineup that I found at a secondhand store for $25 several years ago. Being the cheap one, it's plain old 1020 carbon steel, not the nice chrome-moly. Before anything but the kickstand is bolted on, it's 30 pounds, which is too heavy. But if I don't drop it into a volcano, it will probably outlive me.

To this I have attached:

• Pletscher Model C rear rack (found as purchased)
• silver Wald 1392 Basket mounted to the rack with zip ties (purchased as the "Huge" basket from Rivendell Bicycle Works) with a blue net to hold stuff in (also from RBW)
• black Cannondale handlebar touring bag 1995 vintage (purchased from R Community Bikes for $5)
• silver SKS P45 fenders (last item from that RBW order)
• a couple of lights
• a little saddlebag with a patch kit, multitool, and tire levers
• a mini pump
• a bell (I have a classier brass one, gifted by my sister, and a subdued black one. I go back and forth.)

This has made the bike approximately 1 metric ton and the steering could stand to be more lenient. Nevertheless, it rides beautifully at speed and fits a lot of groceries.

I may further adjust it for a more upright and casual ride, but that'll mean a new stem, handlebar, or both. And I need to rewrap the present handlebar. And then it will be perfect.

The [...] continue reading

I'm not sure I got to the end of any video games until I was like 15.

I had mostly lower end or behind-the-times PCs growing up.

I tasted a bunch of DOS stuff in large part thanks to my childhood friend Anthony Turner, who shared his Game Empire shareware disc with me. This is also where he discovered ZZT.

• Rise of the Dragon (Dynamix, 1990)
• Chip's Challenge (Chuck Sommerville, 1989)
• ZZT (Epic MegaGames, 1991)
• Myst (Cyan, Inc., 1993)
• MegaZeux (Software Visions, 1994)

The legendary Home of the Underdogs is probably where I learned of these:

• Oolite (Giles Williams, Jens Ayton & contributors, 2003–2021)

  As a teenager my bedroom was painted a vivid blue, like a dark afternoon sky. At night I would play Oolite with a Saitek Cyborg Evo, pretending (by default) that I was a space trader, and the room would glow. It was an even smaller game than it is now.

• Out of this World (Éric Chahi, 1991)

• The Typing of the Dead (Sega, 2000)

  I learned how to type on this game.

Noctis (Alessandro Ghignola, 2000)

For exploring a galaxy I don't think this game has been quite matched. I'm uneasy about the chaotic retrofuture maximalism attitude in No Man's Sky, where new lands are candy-colored canvases for base-building. The hope-starved slide-rule non-mystique of Elite makes my freeform adventuring in it feel like a highly sanctioned, monitored, and redundant sinecure. As video games, they're both on their own admirable missions.

But Noctis is the simulator of [...] continue reading

• JetPens

  They put different cute little comics about stationery on the packing lists.

• Muji

  Clothes, home goods, stationery. Fair prices, clean lines, and neutral colors!!! I have a baseball cap from them I thrifted and the quality is great.

• Lush

  Skin and hair care products that smell nice, feel nice, and look nice.

• itemLabel

  They have Dinkle here.

• Rivendell Bicycle Works

  I do not expect to afford one of these bikes, but what a great website. What a great store. I am a Grant fan.