iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Oops, all harpsichord! The honest truth is that the further I go back, the more whatever I listen to looks the same as everything else.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 4h

The yearly stuff has come to and end, at least for now, so this is just some themeless writing. Mostly records you're already aware of. I do finally write about that Doppler record that came out this year, it rips. "Five Songs: they can't all be winners!" www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 10/4/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 10/4/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 02/10/2026

Awww yeah, time to check out the Allmusic new releases newsletter. Wonder what records are highlighted this week?

A stock photo of someone scraping a plate of food into the trash.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 02/10/2026

Dang, some excellent albums released on this day.

An "on the day" graphic from Plex, saying Kool & the Gang's Live at PJ's came out 55 years ago.

An "on the day" graphic from Plex, saying Public Enemy's Apocalypse '91 came out 35 years ago.

An "on the day" graphic from Plex, saying Fountain of Wayne's self-titled album came out 30 years ago.

An "on the day" graphic from Plex, saying Phono-Comb's Fresh Gasoline came out 30 years ago.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 01/10/2026

We're back in 1985 with Five Songs, and what am I going to talk about from 1985 other than Hüsker Dü's incredible run of records. Also, an incredible Foetus record. www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/30/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/30/2026

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Reposted by jbuergel

🥧 suzanne 🥧 @425suzanne.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Really wish @safety.bsky.app would actually review and take action on impersonation and harassment accounts. At least a dozen accounts set up purely to try to impersonate, defame, harass, and embarass me - all reported for obvious harassment. Most still up. suzzzshellll, suzzzzshellkd...

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 29/09/2026

Hero Kids is very simple and there is lots of material out there that you can make use of to run a game. As a way to get used to RPGs, it can be a good way to go. You can pick up PDFs for not much on DriveThruRPG.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 27/09/2026

Five Songs arrives in 1986, the year I remember first buying a record with my own money. The records in here are frankly all over the map, but they're all good: www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/27/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/27/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 26/09/2026

I was lucky to get it. Well. "Lucky" I suppose

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

Yeah. It certainly could be better. But as the smallest EV I could find (the vast majority of my trips are just running around the city), it has been a good fit. We did actually get the Fiat 500 before this one, but got in a fender bender and it totalled the car.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

It's the best! I bought a used electric Mini and as a thing that can do almost all of my trips in city it's just perfect.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

It's really good! StS 2's multiplayer is a lot of fun also, though.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

Yeah, absolutely with you there. It takes a pretty special board game for me to really try it solo when I could just be playing Slay the Spire. I'll do it learn more about a game, learn the system, figure out what makes it tick. Or obscure historical subjects. But mostly, just do digital stuff!

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

That kind of thing would be sick, as it would be large enough to comfortably have multiple players and would be great for RPG maps and such. It was also going to be very expensive. If we can get to large enough screens that are rugged enough to be tables, great. But these half-measures are DOA.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

A very, very long time ago I got to play with the original Microsoft Surface, which was a table with a projector inside of it that used a series of cameras from below to track where stuff was placed on the table. It was very cool and it actually worked great for playing Ticket to Ride.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

In conclusion, everybody say hello to the Ever Board. The most "you could have bought a Switch" device to ever be proposed, topping our previous champions, every other $500 board game tablet ever floated.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

The Ever Board does make me wonder: will it be boring enough that no teens will try and make The Grossest Board Game with it? Or will we get amazing news stories about breakthroughs in disgusting game technology thanks to the hilariously inept guardrails on it?

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

I think it's great that there's a device that will bring the hallowed tradition of family game night back into our lives. Without this, what would we do? It's not like we could take our $500 and buy 200 packs of Bicycle cards or anything. (Plus 60 more a year.)

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

Now, I know I'm being a little unfair here. I haven't even tried it! Maybe I'll be amazed at the output of this thing. Why, if enough people expend enough effort on prompts, there's probably a way to make it produce something that isn't "z-tier mobile game" or "Uno, but with more steps".

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

Personally, I'm looking forward to having new reasons for electronics problems. Now, it's not just pedestrian stuff like "it keeps crashing" or "it's not charged". It'll also be futuristic things like "I ran out of tokens" or "the robot just keeps filling the screen with blood for some reason".

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

At last, a product that is willing to get an answer to the critical question of our time: if you add a bunch of quarter-assed implementations of "classic" board games to unlimited un-assed board game slurry, will you have a compelling device?

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

The selling point here is that it doesn't just make all the games you didn't want to play anyway a bigger hassle. It also has an infinite library of games you super duper don't want to play thanks to the magic of gen AI. Finally! I had no idea where I was going to get infinite garbage from!

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 25/09/2026

I spent some time back on Twitter making fun of the various digital board game replacement gizmos that people would try and throw out there, and I see that there's a brand new one, the Ever Board (www.polygon.com/everboard-ta...). Let's have a look!

polygon.com

New $500 AI-Powered Console Can Create Digital Tabletop Games From Scratch

EverBoard told Polygon how its new machine works — and what continued access will cost

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Reposted by jbuergel

Jack Grimes @jackapedia.design · 24/09/2026

I'm joining the war on slop with cheap, fast flyer commissions. If you know someone who is asking the computer for event posters, tell them to ask me instead. Get the guarantee!

A poster mocked up as if it was offset printed in black and red roughly 60 years ago. The header reads "AVAILABLE NOW! FLYERS DESIGNED BY A HUMAN BEING!" and the subsequent text is pitching $50 flyer designs with a "SLOP-FREE GUARANTEE," incorporating some vintage Henry Volk clipart of people looking at a poster and saying how well it reflects on the event organizer.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 24/09/2026

Five Songs arrives in 1987, a year of some monumental releases in metal and hip-hop, none of which I really talk about much. What are you going to do? Anyway, I do write up a Negativland record, so there is that. Can you believe that this is free? www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/23/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/23/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 23/09/2026

And in other news, my attempt to post today's blog appears to have failed, so I guess I'll have to figure that one out later.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 23/09/2026

Dan's thread here on hosting his own work applies to so many people. I know there are discovery problems, believe me. I run a music blog that has ten readers on a good day. But if you're on somebody's else platform, you still have that problem, plus you inherit every problem of the platform.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 22/09/2026

To my mind, they function as different things within a game. Set collection to me is primarily a scoring mechanism, a way of judging the success of your game. Tableau building instead describes how players perform actions within the game, but it doesn't imply any particular scoring mechanism.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 21/09/2026

Five Songs is in 1988, and I don't have a lot of personal stories relating to these records, because I was a hopeless dork back then. Now as well, of course, but I'm a more knowledgeable hopeless dork. Progress! www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/20/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/20/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 20/09/2026

As someone who designed and developed a poker-based card game: our playtesters universally hit the roof every time we tinkered with the hand list. Hated it so much! Seemed to transfer that hate to us personally! Just straight up trying to hate us to death. So yeah, should definitely try it.

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Reposted by jbuergel

Alex McKenzie @meepleandthemoose.com · 19/09/2026

Apparently I stress out my 5 year old.

A letter from my 5 year old that says it is okay dad I still love you you just stressed me out

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 17/09/2026

I shouldn't have looked at mine, so I'll just say: yeah, looks totally normal to me!

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 16/09/2026

Five Songs has wound backwards to 1989, wherein I reminisce about debate camp. Yes, debate camp. Shut up! Also NoMeansNo, Einstürzende Neubauten, Operation Ivy, and others. www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/16/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/16/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 15/09/2026

I've mentioned it before, but Plex's mobile player has a "feature" that will tell you about the round anniversaries of the albums in your library, which is always a brutal thing to see every time I open that app.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 15/09/2026

Hanging out with me is your best option.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 15/09/2026

Why does my inbox have to do me like that?

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 13/09/2026

Five Songs reaches 1990, a high school year from me, and I reveal my major extracurricular activity. Also, Skinny Puppy is in here. www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/13/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/13/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 13/09/2026

Somehow, despite their sound changing a fair bit over the decades, it remains true the entire time.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 10/09/2026

The anesthesiologist busts out the ? during planning poker and the whole surgical team groans.

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 09/09/2026

Five Songs is up, on 1991. And I go on and on about some records, like the infamous Negativland U2 single. But great stuff, too! Tar! Surgery! Cop Shoot Cop! www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/9/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/9/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 06/09/2026

Five Songs is in 1992. I reminisce about WRCT and tape trading, and failed to mention that the latter led to the bassist of a band on tour crashing in my dorm room one night. Hard to imagine that happening today! For starters, I don't live in a dorm. www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/6/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/6/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 02/09/2026

Five Songs, in which a story about superglue is told which does not look good for me. It's also probably not even the funniest superglue story I have from college. Also, some music is involved: the Grifters! Demilich! The Fastbacks! www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 9/2/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 9/2/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 31/08/2026

I still remembered to post this today! I mean, everybody is in bed, but whatever. So am I! Anyway, Five Songs is in 1994, I'm talking about college radio, and you're going to roll your eyes at one of these records: www.fiverandomsongs.com/posts/2026/f...

fiverandomsongs.com

Five Songs, 8/30/2026

Your Five Songs (and more) for 8/30/2026

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 28/08/2026

Happy trails to the first podcast I ever listened to regularly, it's been a great run, and I can't wait to hear what you're up to next!

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jbuergel @fiverandomsongs.com · 27/08/2026

My goodness this was such a good piece, what a way to think about things. Thank you.

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