Rugged men feasting on mushrooms ✶

An Arma Reforger session featuring Artwo, Yootsvik, and custom kit from our imaginary sponsor of our Freedom Fighters campaign.

Space type generator ✶

Animated type generator. Lets you save static images, animated GIFs, and MP4s, depending on the ones you choose. Via jank.cool.

The example text is nice, too, like:

Deep down, nature is inherently peaceful, calm and beautiful. The universe as a whole is perfect. The chaos is on the surface.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed.

Jank ✶

New PC games website by Jon Hicks, Brendan Caldwell, and Graham Smith.

Jank is an independent arts and culture website about PC games. Whether a blockbuster or a hobby project, we want to celebrate any game that is bold, new and inventive. Even if that means that it’s a little janky.

We are supported entirely by generous readers via site memberships. No ads. No AI. No influence.

We publish news, reviews, interviews and analysis about video games, solely motivated by what we want to say and what our audience wants to read. We have no need to chase pageview traffic or to pander to marketing teams, platforms or search engines.

We believe that videogames are for everyone.

Check out their favorite games of the decade so far, to which I added the following:

Three additions from a space-head in need of more space:

  1. Elite: Dangerous Odyssey (2021) has excellent in-a-space-suit sound design, an infinite legs-to-ground scale ratio, and the promise of becoming a modern Frontier: Elite II.

  2. Flight of Nova (2022) is a sort of 3D Kerbal Space Program for patient cargo delivery sim drivers partial to good ambient music.

  3. Delta V: Rings of Saturn (2023) brings an open-worldish version of Asteroids to life, and has patch notes that never break character. I seem to read more about video games than play them currently, and now you’ve all made this problem worse by creating this site…(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

And Caldwell’s article on AI:

An LLM does not have thumbs to feel the drift of invisible friction in a platformer. It does not have ears to suffer clichéd dialogue, nor eyes to appreciate a cleverly reused asset. And no matter how many facsimiles of human sense organs it might adopt in code, it will not share the common, mundane, and sublime humanity that exists between you and I. You and I both shit. So when I write that playing Borderlands 4 is like having an attack of diarrhea, we are co-existing in a moment of embarrassing human frailty. Whether you agree with my fecal assessment or not, you must concede: an AI cannot join us in this toilet stall.

Good stuff.

Saturday, 31 January 2026

Monty Roberts joins up with a horse ✶

The kind man who listens to horses.

When the professionals first saw this in the late 40s when I was showing it, man, I was ostracized. And after I wrote a book about it, and identified it, after 11 world championships I was thrown out of the hall of fame because I didn’t respect tradition.

And that’s okay.

If you have to respect tradition to the extent that you can’t improve, then I don’t want to be in their hall of fame.

…

To blame a horse for anything is like blaming the night for being dark.

Sirāt ✶

An astonishing fable in film form.

Thursday, 29 January 2026

Streets of Minneapolis ✶

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free, Bruce Springsteen

Wednesday, 28 January 2026

Freedom Fighters & Reaper Just In Time ✶

We tried two different Arma Reforger mods in yesterday’s livestream.

I like the Reaper Just In Time mod technically, but the narrative of the story doesn’t vibe with me.

Feels like I’m playing as the bad guys who already have all the best toys instead of starting from the bottom and working up slowly in Freedom Fighters.

I like playing as the “underdog”, I guess. Resonates more with me.

Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?

What is the meaning of this metaphor? In some cases, it is all too simple and clear. Bombers and tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are that high, solid wall. The eggs are the unarmed civilians who are crushed and burned and shot by them. This is one meaning of the metaphor.

This is not all, though. It carries a deeper meaning. Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: It is The System. The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others - coldly, efficiently, systematically.

—Haruki Murakami

Need to play the mod more to make up my mind. Maybe it is actually something antiwar, like Spec Ops: The Line, or Far Cry 2.

I did love the gear and doll dressup with TACTICOOL gloves and TACTICOOL flashlights on helmets, etc 😂

And Grant’s experience disguised as luck!

Artwo replies:

You might be taking video games too seriously my friend 😀 Not that I’m any different, I can’t play pvp cause it’s too stressful for me 😀

Exactly! I can’t not take video games seriously, because they’re a medium of communication, and an art form!

Regarding PvP, I think you’d enjoy Arc Raiders a lot, with its PvPvE and aggression-based matchmaking system (if you are generally friendly and only fire after fired upon, you’re put in lobbies with players with the same playstyle).

Tuesday, 27 January 2026

Beyond the door ✶

Finally beginning Exanima story mode.

Monday, 26 January 2026

Freedom fighters valise delivery & night poster run ✶

Arma Reforger stream #50 with cooperative play starring Artwo and Yootsvik.

Tuesday, 20 January 2026

Uniting people ✶

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech today reminded me of what good leaders do: Unite people, for the benefit of all.

We aim to be both principaled and pragmatic. Principaled in our commitment to fundamental values, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN charter, and respect for human rights.

I hope he means it, and that others listen.

Monday, 19 January 2026

Letter from a Birmingham Jail ✶

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

Happy MLK day.

Tuesday, 13 January 2026

We need cooperation to save our world ✶

And other lessons learned from gaming, in the editorial to Simulation & Gaming Volume 57 Issue 1, February 2026.

Monday, 12 January 2026

Exanima Expert Practice complete ✶

Two more Exanima videos, starring shieldmaiden Joan Rambo.

4. The weight of the swing
5. Precision in chaos

Story mode starting next stream!

Foley ✶

In sound design, Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. It is named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley. Foley sounds are used to enhance the auditory experience of viewers across film, audio dramas, and video games. They can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. Foley can also be used to cover up unwanted sounds captured on the set of a movie during filming, such as overflying airplanes or passing traffic.

Monday, 5 January 2026

Tools

❦

A pencil drawing of a hand drawing a piece of paper that is itself by Hypertexthero.
Drawing of a hand drawing a piece of paper that is itself, originally made for the UN Archives.

We’re shaped by our tools. Here are some I’ve made to help me navigate a life with computers, ordered by most recent.

Stream marker tool 𐦮︎

Elapsed timestamps for YouTube video chapters or whatever you like. =todo: Test more. Better sounds like UIs of Everything, Starfield, MGSV.

Mindful timer 𓇳︎

To help remember to look away from screens regularly, or check the stove. =todo: Better bell/gong sound with subtle variations.

Piano chords 🎹︎

Poster to help me learn to play keys.

Daily exercise 𐦂︎

Seven minute workout. =todo: Light images with transparent background.

Compass rose with back azimuth 🧭︎

Head back the way you came, or tell someone you see in the distance roughly where to head to meet you, in both real and virtual worlds. =todo: increase size of bearing numbers & redo typography.

HTML Form to File.txt ✎︎

HTML/JavaScript form that saves user input into a text file in Markdown format with YAML front matter for use on your local computer. Use to quickly create a post for publishing with a static website generator such as Hugo.

U+23FF Observer Eye Symbol ⏿

I couldn’t find a symbol for an observer that was mentioned in an astronomy lecture, so I made one, dedicated it to the public domain and submitted it to the Unicode Consortium.

Web typography template ❦

HTML & CSS template.

Pasta clock 🍝︎

Timer and technical advice for cooking pasta al dente, not al mush. =todo: User-definable infinite time settings. More recipes.

˚　✦　.　　.  ˚　.　　. ✦　 
  . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚ ˚　　 *　　
　✦　 .　✶　.　✦　˚ 　✦˚　˚　　　　
    .　. 　˚　.　 ੈ  ✧̣̇ ˳ · ˖ ✦ .
Everything, Sound Space 6 ✶

It’s hard to imagine that everything could be here for each other, because you can only see things from your own perspective.

From the work of art video game Everything, where I began a new playthrough using autoplay while taking breaks for music improvisation in Sound Space #6.

Sunday, 4 January 2026

Double-wielding & music improv - Exanima 2 ✶

15 minutes from Exanima stream 2.

7-minute exercise (and stream marker tool) updates ✶

The workouts page is more green and glowy, with voices working in iOS. Your pocket computer phone now stays awake instead of going to sleep while you are in the middle of exercising.

The stream marker tool has placeholder titles automatically selected when created and saved after 10 seconds, nicer buttons, and subtle sound effects for button presses.

Friday, 2 January 2026

Exanima

❦

A screenshot taken beyong the first door in Exanima.

Melee combat system aficionados, behold hither! And see a nascent series of livestreams of video game going by the name of Exanima!

Unfinished, yet accessible to play for many moons, a diminutive party keeps their mettle and bring forth bemusing medieval melee experiences, should sounds of clanking and clothing bemuse thee, as they do me, admirer of sounds of space in other audio art pieces.

Hypertexthero Exanima video list:

The beauty of Exanima is it doesn’t let one “fake it.” Being present with the physical movements, in the moment, is necessary for progress.

Further notes shall, by the grace of the gods, befall upon this page!

  • Change view with middle mouse button (MMB) held while dragging mouse.
  • Scroll wheel zooms in and out.
  • V to place camera behind you.
  • Double-click left mouse button (LMB) and hold second click for overhead chop.
  • Hold Alt and click for thrusting attack.
  • Click LMB just right of opponent and hold, then quickly move mouse left for a powerful swing from the right, and vice versa for the left.
  • “Your character is subject to physics, your inputs must work in harmony with them.”
  • “Let go of LMB at any time to perform a feint or abandon your attack to defend instead.”
  • “To deliver significant damage you must land clean hits with the correct part of your weapon.”
˚　✦　.　　.  ˚　.　　. ✦　 
  . ★⋆. ࿐࿔　.  ˚ ˚　　 *　　
　✦　 .　✶　.　✦　˚ 　✦˚　˚　　　　
    .　. 　˚　.　 ੈ  ✧̣̇ ˳ · ˖ ✦ .

Thursday, 1 January 2026

Vinyl, tape, books, lifestream ✶

Vinyl record covers are nicely-sized artworks for displaying in a room.

Listening to an album you love, while taking the time to flip the record or tape, or taking the time listen to an entire album in your streaming service of choice, helps you to notice things and be present.

Recommended film: Perfect Days by Wim Wenders.

Recommended book: Bridge of Waves by W.A. Mathieu.

In 02026: Slow down, and fix things.

Slow is smooth.
Smooth is fast.

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