iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 23/09/2026

The most recent block of results from my job searching. Still at it. As always, would appreciate any referrals or links to potential roles people can provide. Find me on LinkedIn for more on my work history. Also looking to do contract work in consulting on customer experience or CX logistics.

Two columns from my job-tracking spreadsheet, showing around 50% pending applications, 1/3 rejections, and one first interview that’s been outstanding for around two weeks.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 22/09/2026

#shelfie I am currently in the “rearranging my office” phase of unemployment…

A Kallax shoved into what was once the closet of the bedroom I turned into an office; there is a lot of Magic: the Gathering product in there. And Kirby.

The Billy shelves in the back of my office. They are not all sorted yet, as I’m working through them in reorganizing my office. There are a bunch of storage totes around.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 15/09/2026

welp - guess it's time for me to try learning things while I wait on job applications

The loading copyright notice from the Motion app on macOS.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 27/08/2026

me in Marathon this season

A humorous image of the Rook (scavenger) frame/hero from Marathon wearing expensive clothes, chains, and watches.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 24/08/2026

Marathon lets you select a specific sound source to be your input for proximity voice chat. It has given me… ideas.

The mix settings for the Elgato Wave XLR Pro, showing the “Marathon Prox Chat” mix, currently using only the “Soundboard” source.

The settings for Marathon, showing the “Voice Chat Input Source” being the “Marathon Prox Chat” option. :)

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 13/08/2026

I’d blog about this, but my site is currently part of that Namecheap outage. Here’s something I wish literally anyone else would copy: this way you can display your game in Final Fantasy: Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. It’s a gorgeous piece of design, especially for people recording or streaming.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 11/08/2026

Job hunting and comfort food today, I guess. Golden Curry Extra Hot made with beef broth instead of water, frozen mirepoix mix and frozen green beans added in.

A 50/50 plated bowl of rice and curry, with my laptop and keyboard in the background.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 10/08/2026

It was super-worth going out in the insanely humid Tokyo summer. If you ever have a chance, you really should go, before they (apparently) tear down this stadium—one of the few still standing where Ruth took an at-bat.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 07/08/2026

Tokon’s performance graph is super-wack. It doesn’t really strain my system, other than super-intermittently, where things get jumpy for tiny instances, especially with audio for whatever reason.

A Steam performance chart. It shows very spiky FPS numbers in specific places, and corresponding weird CPU spikes. It’s barely toching the GPU most of the time.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 04/08/2026

I have been working this evening at uninstalling a wire shelf the builder put in my extra bedroom (my office) closet when this house was built around 20 years ago. These mounting bits are SATANIC. There is no logical way to remove them without them taking chunks out of your drywall.

The ClosetMaid pre-loaded anchor “screw.” (They are actually more like nails, but they have screw heads. I’m not joking.)

It is a screw pushed into a drywall anchor that was invented by the devil.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 03/08/2026

Potentially overlooked aspect when I decided to go ultrawide:

An OBS compositing window, showing the ultrawide viewport for FFVII Remake (using a mod). It takes up only half the 16:9 viewport. It’s clearly not going to work as-is.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 22/07/2026

I am still trying to find ways to relax a bit this week, rather than go to panic mode immediately. This is a good-looking game.

An ultrawide resolution screen of a cutscene in FF7R where Cloud and Roche are fighting.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 21/07/2026

Why not? It’s been a while.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 21/07/2026

The last cookbook I ordered before we needed to curtail things a bit more. Looking forward to what Amanda and the kids might be able to make from this one.

“Konbini” by Brendan Liew and Caryn Ng. It’s a book full of recipes to reproduce Japanese convenience store foods.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 19/07/2026

Making curry rice to be lunches for most of the week. I’d like some flavor to go with how hard things will hit tomorrow.

A Zojirusgi rice cooker next to a diced Japanese curry roux block.

A skillet on the stove boiling vegetables.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 18/07/2026

Sometimes I forget I have this in my office somewhere. From the *first* career that didn’t work out. (It’s a long story.) 😉

My masters degree. It’s a divinity degree from Concordia Seminary.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 18/07/2026

Thinking about getting back on my bullshit.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 17/07/2026

I am not a number! I am a free man!

Patrick McGoohan as Number Six from “The Prisoner.” (Where the line is from.)

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 17/07/2026

This felt kinda good, though.

The iOS dialogue presented when I deleted OpsGenie (a paging application) from my phone.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 12/07/2026

My kid made homemade pork buns late last week, and they were *magnificent*. She's told me she's interested in making shokupan from scratch so we can make legit egg sandos. I guess if I'm not going to get back to Japan any time soon, we can bring the konbini home instead.

A picture of a plate full of the pork buns. One of them is sliced as a cross-section.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 12/07/2026

[digs around in the Bag of Memes Holding for no particular reason]

The now-classic Yu-Gi-Oh meme with a card played saying "don't speak ill of the dead" and the counter-play being "don't be a piece of shit while you're alive"

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 30/06/2026

You are the community. We are the community.

A group picture of the tournament staff from Evo 2026.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 29/06/2026

Here is a shot from the Evo 2026 credits. You may notice how many of us choose to have our tags put up with our names. This is because we are you. Say what you want. I just spent another week alongside an insanely talented group of caring humans who ran an event for the FGC, by the FGC.

A shot of the credits roll from the Evo 2026 stage on Sunday night. Every person in tournament operations has their tag displayed alongside their name.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 26/06/2026

Y’all can get on my level

A picture of the Namco arcade machine Quick & Crash, showing my third place time of 4.208 seconds.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 03/06/2026

This is legitimately how LLMs act all too often, and it's both infuriating and fundamentally contrary to the tech magnate bombast about them

One of the meme images from the TV show "Arthur," with the caption "That sign can't stop me because I can't read!"

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 16/02/2026

Like: *Bruh,* do you know how rad you could make this 15.5k square foot building? * Main floor for games * Finished lower level for arcade cabs or 40K mole people space? * Maybe make rentable coworking spaces on the second floor, or *just move in*?? * There’s a third floor too???? $375k.

A building. Three stories. Originally built in 1887. It’s currently vacant.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 20/01/2026

I can’t get over the fact that you legitimately just threatened exactly this

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 26/11/2025

It’s not even close. This is The One.

Skull Leader’s VF-1S Valkyrie from Macross.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 07/11/2025

Look, I grew my hair out around COVID. It was… a questionable decision. I’m down 45 pounds since then, and I think 5 was hair.

I’m wearing a mask, aviator shades. And my hair is around shoulder length and curly.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 19/10/2025

Always worth the long walk at IAD to get Ben’s Chili Bowl.

A Ben’s spicy chili half-smoke, fries, and a Pepsi Zero in one of those little plastic baskets.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 13/10/2025

Some days, not too many people are headed to Chicago. Some days, feels like they all are.

Screen capture from the United Airlines app showing that all upgrades for status are handed out and I’m still 9th in line. I have been flying a fairly decent amount the past two years.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 26/09/2025

One more runback with nature’s most perfect food.

A 7-Eleven Egg Salad and Tuna with Mayonnaise sandwich.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 20/09/2025

For the next thirty minutes, most is right in my world.

CoCoICHI curry with tonkatsu and a deep fried egg.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 10/09/2025

Need to talk about something trivial right now while it feels everyone in my circles is holding their breath. Found an awesome Etsy store from a dude who makes these 3D-printed drawers for MTG cards. They fit depth-wise in an IKEA Billy and are modular/interlockable. www.etsy.com/shop/TCGStor...

The seven drawers locked together horizontally. One for each mana color, one for multicolor, and one for colorless.

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Ryan Markel @ryanmarkel.com · 10/09/2025

I bought exactly ONE collector booster for Edge of Eternities. Pulled the @tenjin-hidetaka.bsky.social showcase Endstone, which I'd been planning on ordering as a single as a fan of his work. Gonna leave that as my only collector booster experience. :) Maybe someday I can get it signed.

The Japanese Showcase printing of The Endstone, a card from Magic: The Gathering's Edge of Eternities expansion. A borderless art version with a biomechanical space suited person reaching for the Endstone.

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