iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 9h

Part of @gdposta.bsky.social’s job in our relationship is to remember things I posted many years ago and bring them back even funnier the second time around

A tweet I had made in 2021, with his text adding “@ Ahab”.

A Pokemon snap screenshot of a Wailord poorly hidden behind a rock, and me complaining that the game detected “no subject”.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 9h

“I’ve connected the dots” “you didn’t connect shit” “I’ve connected them”

Moby Dick. That certain sultanism of his brain, which had otherwise in a good degree re mained unmanifested; through those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible dictatorship. For be a man's intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the prac. tical, available supremacy over other men, without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments, always, in themselves, more or less paltry and base. This it is, that for ever keeps God's true princes of the Empire from the world's hustings; and leaves the highest honors that this air can give, to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their undoubted superiority over the dead level of the mass. Such large virtue lurks in these small things when extreme political superstitions invest them, that in some royal instances even to idiot imbecility they have imparted potency. But when, as in the case of Nicholas the Czar, the ringed crown of geographical empire encircles an imperial brain; then, the plebeian herds crouch abased before the tremendous centralization. Nor, will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direst swing, ever forget a hint, incidentally so important in his art, as the one now alluded to.

Moby Dick.
In this one matter, Ahab seemed no exception to most American whale captains, who, as a set, rather incline to the opinion that by rights the ship's cabin belongs to them; and that it is by courtesy alone that anybody else is, at any time, permitted there. So that, in real truth, the mates and harpooneers of the Pequod might more properly be said to have lived out of the cabin than in it. For when they did enter it, it was something as a street-door enters a house; turning inwards for a moment, only to be turned out the next; and, as a permanent thing, residing in the open air. Nor did they lose much hereby; in the cabin was no companionship; socially, Ahab was inaccessible. Though nominally included in the census of Christendom, he was still an alien to it. He lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled Missouri. And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws; so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab's soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!

Some strong pressure is certainly at work. What is more, it appears to me that this is a critical time for him, a lesser climacteric - a time that will settle him in that particular course he will never leave again, but will persevere in for the rest of his life. It has often seemed to me that towards this period (in which we all three lie, more or less) men strike out their permanent charac-ters; or have those characters struck into them. Merriment, roaring high spirits before this: then some chance concatenation, or some hidden predilection (or rather inherent bias) working through, and the man is in the road he cannot leave but must go on, making it deeper and deeper (a groove, or chan-nel), until he is lost in his mere charac-

ter - persona - no longer human, but an accretion of qualities belonging to this character. James Dillon was a delightful being. Now he is closing in. It is odd - will I say heart-breaking? - how cheerfulness goes: gaiety of mind, natural free-springing joy. Authority is its great enemy - the assumption of authority. I know few men over fifty that seem to me entirely human: virtually none who has long exercised authority. The senior post-captains here; Admiral Warne.
Shrivelled men (shrivelled in essence: not, alas, in belly). Pomp, an unwholesome diet, a cause of choler, a pleasure paid too late and at too high a price, like lying with a peppered paramour. Yet Ld Nelson, by Jack Aubrey's account, is as direct and unaffected and amiable a man as could be wished. So, indeed, in most ways is JA himself; though a certain careless arrogancy of power appears at times. His cheerfulness, at all events, is with him still. How long will it last?

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 9h

also I was like TWO seconds away from bringing up master and commander at moby dick discussion tonight because I am DISEASED I am UNWELL OF THE MIND

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 9h

have you considered? the whale

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games 🔜 Metatopia @planesailinggames.com · 12h

My latest (October) newsletter has just gone out. In it I discuss ♥️ Road to Romance 💀 Escape the Apocalypse 🌹Playtesting "Before the Season Ends" (by @jenkatwrites.bsky.social ) ✍️ Review of Zhenya's Wonder tales 🎤 two game designer interviews 📆 Convention news

plane-sailing-games.beehiiv.com

October 2026

An update from Plane Sailing Games with news, reviews, and game design updates.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 19h

the lads were yearning and they had an electric guitar and four chords to prove it but that was enough. dressed to kill? yearning. when your heart stops beating? yearning. check yes juliet, the great escape, I'd do anything, all yearning as pathetically as possible. important

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 19h

while I am having a 24 hour period of nostalgia for the pop punk of my tween and early teen years, I am thinking about how romantic some of these songs are (not this one necessarily lmao)

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 20h

was talking about GM prep in a chat with pals and I think this is my main take on it really lmao this is what it boils down to

A discord message where I say "good session prep feels like wrapping nice presents for your friends like 'oooooh tee hee I can't wait for them to open THIS one'".

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Everyone should read Mavis Gallant’s Paris Notebooks covering the May 1968 French student protests

I say to her, "What did you hope would happen?
What did you want?" Seems taken aback, stares at me, says, "Je ne sais pas. Quelque chose de propre." Can't count the number of times I've heard this. Say, "Une merveilleuse abstraction?" She shakes her head. Doesn't know.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

re: 2000s nostalgia avril lavigne's 2022 love sux album IS great, and everyone was like "wow the return of the pop punk princess" EXCEPT... it doesn't sound like let go at all! it doesn't sound like HER version of pop punk! it just sounds like 2003 because it has travis barker on drums

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

you remember these twerps? I think they were disproportionately big here because they were from buffalo but they were like, a thing, right? youtu.be/UAQcNo9yWbM

youtu.be

Cute Is What We Aim For: The Curse Of Curves [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

YouTube video by Fueled By Ramen

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

when people talk about misremembered “indie sleaze” as a trend is it possible they’re literally just remembering Metro Station music videos

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Control was SO good though, eternal jam right there (even if this video is the most appallingly 2009 thing I’ve ever seen, just ghastly) youtu.be/eF2wdYpEJ14

youtu.be

Metro Station - Control (Official Video)

YouTube video by MetroStationVEVO

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Me: why wasn’t Metro Station bigger? Shake It was everywhere in 2009 of course but Control was SUCH a bop, that should’ve blown up ~one google later~ HANNAH MONTANA’S BROTHER???

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

update: Greg said with the bathrobe I look like a Russian mob wife walking around in a mink coat, and I think that is not true because have you ever seen a Russian mob wife with less-than-immaculate hair and nails

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

they should invent a house that is not constantly throwing you new problems to spend money on

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Jason Morningstar @jmstar.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It's so good! I was *gasping* at some of the cards I drew. Shock, excitement, indignation, horror at the fragile bonds I was about to callously tear asunder without recourse...

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I have my trepidations (that it will be a bunch of nerd-ass dorks NOT dancing, rather than what I want, which is a bunch of nerd-ass dorks actually dancing) but we'll see

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

bought a ticket for the halloween blade rave (dance party with a "bloodbath" like the opening scene of blade. obviously. a very normal event to have. for halloween) and it comes with this disclaimer and I think, frankly, if I go to "the bloodbath rave" and I DON'T get wet, that's false advertising

Please note, if you are in the crowd during the blood bath, you may get wet. "Blood" is washable, but there's always a small chance it may leave a stain.

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Ben Robbins is launching M2 @lamemage.com · 06/10/2026

The kickstarter for the new Microscope is live! I can't wait to see what you make with the new edition www.kickstarter.com/projects/lam...

kickstarter.com

Microscope (2nd Edition)

The award-winning game of epic fractal histories

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

so the thing is that I turned 16 in 2009. the 2008-2013 (charitably) boom of club dance songs about dancing at the club to club dance songs was like. perfectly timed for me. I will never recover. I just went looking for the perfect jason derulo song to add to a playlist

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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 06/10/2026

Anti-Prime Day starts…NOW! 🥳 Today through midnight on 10/7, enjoy free shipping site-wide, all while supporting local, independent bookstores.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

(Decision fatigue, as I understand it, doesn't really care what AREA of your life those decisions apply to. A choice is a choice. My "make lots of decisions very quickly and think about them in the background" process might look VERY different if the REST of my life was structured otherwise. YMMV)

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

(The other other side of this is simply that I have been lucky enough to structure my life in a certain way. I have a day job, but not one that requires much decision-making from me. I do not lack quiet uninterrupted thinking time. I don't have children/other dependents that require me/my time/etc)

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

anyway don't let me pretend I've got it all figured out. I recently went through a phase of skipping lunch and thinking "ah I'll just have a snack in the afternoon when I get hungry" and being completely mystified why I felt like garbage all afternoon and evening. because I'm dumb.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It's SO bad. I've been using wordpress since like 2012 and it just gets worse and worse

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

We could also take the view that I had like a MILLION words of PURE BULLSHIT in my system that I exorcised by just writing and writing and writing for YEARS, and once you have scooped one million words out of your brain, INEVITABLY, some of them HAVE to start being good. I guess that's practice.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Anyway! A couple of friends recently said something along the lines of how I get so much done so fast, and that's a big part of it. I make sure I always know what I want to be doing and I have honed my instincts for what works for me and what doesn't and I act on them.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

But when it's Time to Sit Down and Work, the ability to make quick decisions without too much second-guessing is really valuable. The more you do it, and the better you understand your ideas, the more often that first decision will be one that is right for the project, or at least works.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And this goes just as much for game design as it does for writing prose. You have instincts; follow them and fix them later if needed. When I'm NOT actively in it, like when I'm idly thinking in the shower or while doing chores, that's the time I can mull on it and wonder if it's really right.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

(I will not pretend I do not have bad days where I have to throw out everything I did, or times I have basically started projects over because I committed to something foundational early on that turned out to be wrong! But they're pretty rare, and getting rarer! Trade-offs!)

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

And decisiveness... the thing about writing is that every single word you put down is an individual decision. Decision fatigue IS real but I absolutely think you can put it off by just not making too much of it. I am not waffling back and forth between options. PICK ONE. TRUST YOUR GUT. MOVE ON.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

If I know I have an hour of writing time, it does not serve me to spend 20 minutes making everything just so or getting in the mood to work. No time for that. Sit down. Words on page. GO. JUST DO IT. I am admittedly impatient with being *precious* about it. I have my routines; they're not MANDATES.

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I won't pretend it was perfect by any means, but I do think my years of doing nanowrimo did two big things for me in setting up my long-term creative habits, which is that 1) I get In the Zone really easily, and 2) when I am In the Zone, I am both focused and decisive

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Asa Donald | Backwards Tabletop @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The first essay in my design series for Mousetrap is "Let the Metagames Begin," which surveys games that are about games and what I find both exciting and challenging about them:

backwardstabletop.com

Let the Metagames Begin

Games about games

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

what's really cool is that with the internet you can look up basically any house issue you might be having and figure out troubleshooting and stuff, but also sometimes the answer at the end of that is still "you gotta call a guy"

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

tonight someone also said "well if Aristotle had known about atomic chemistry..." which, you know, frankly would change a lot of things about civilization probably but what IF

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

tonight I said something about myself that I knew but didn't KNOW until I said it, which is that while I agree that it's about the journey, not the destination, I do not enjoy a destination-less journey. I don't ever need to GET there, but I need to have one in mind to orient my thinking around

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

my reading group is forming into camps now that we have read both a little aristotle and a little plato. it begins. western thought formed anew. the cycle continues. (I'm dying) (I'm also maybe more of a platonist than I thought) (but like whatever)

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This post was also about this book bsky.app/profile/jenk...

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is bubbling under as the next big booktwt phenom and for once I was ahead of the curve, because I’ve been telling people this was fucking amazing for a whole year

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

“Gilbert ‘Strongbow’ FitzGilbert de Clare” wow……. some incredible names you get in the Middle Ages tbh

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

(It's because I like writing AND I like game design, so I design games that allow me to do a lot of writing to support play. Well, ideally. Check back after the playtests and we'll see how I feel about it then)

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I think Greatness is BASICALLY where I need it to be for metatopia, like I'll continue to refine some stuff, and if I have time to do a second playset, I definitely will, but it's ready enough. It can go. Squire's Sword... is so much writing. This is such a writing-heavy game lmao why did I do this

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Today it was yet more Greatness (I worked a bit on the different endings you can get to, and how you get there) and yet more Squire's Sword (two more of the different role sheets, and also the OATHS you have to SWEAR and I made MYSELF emotional about it).

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Jennifer Adcock @jenkatwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

big pastry. hot coffee. dance music. these are the things that make the words come out 🫡

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