- The Antimemetics Division series, starting with There Is No Antimemetics Division, continuing with the interlude SCP-2256 and the sequel Five Five Five Five Five.
- After reading it, I wrote a note to myself that "I think that There Is No Antimemetics Division encapsulates a familiar human struggle: how can I live well and rightly when I am constantly forgetting the truth of the world that I live in? when I keep forgetting that it's not about me? when I keep forgetting that other people's reactions are not my responsibility alone? when I know all these true things about what is effective in my life, and things other people have found effective, and I consistently forget to apply them for mysterious reasons?" The specific things listed may be a bit of a stretch but also — yeah, those seem like the real-life antimemes.
- There Is No Antimemetics Division the live-action YouTube series. This is what prompted me to finally read the novels
- "When No One Has to Say Goodbye," by Elizabeth Ring, featured in Apex Magazine Issue 142. A creepy-sad story about immortality and the end of the world by flesh-mob pandemic and one couple's ending in that world. Probably my favorite short story I've read this year.
- "Two Robots at the End of the World," from A Catalogue for the End of Humanity by Tim Hickson. A touching story of "humanity" and friendship between robots living in the post-apocalypse.
- This narrated collection of the ghost stories of M.R. James. Well-read and fun.
- This video of Keerigan Rudd and Felicia Hoeppner dancing at MadJam 2023. It feels less exciting rewatching it, maybe because I'm in a bad mood as of writing this item, but I loved this the first two or five times I watched it earlier in the year, and it was the video that first convinced me I wanted to learn to dance West Coast Swing, so I am contractually obligated to include it.
- My aunt sent me (warning, Facebook) a clip of Leo Lorenzo doing a backflip during a Champion Jack and Jill west coast swing dance with Susan Kirklin at Midnight Madness in Dallas. Leo's a delight to watch in this video, he looks like he's having the time of his life, and Susan doesn't look half bad either.
- Also here's a video with a delightful Keerigan-Leo dance at Midnight Madness in Dallas, with a partial clip of Leo going through Keerigan's legs. The other dance in the video is probably also lovely.
- The Noclip documentary on The Outer Wilds, a delightful documentary on one of my favorite games of all time.
- Chase the Light, a video-poem over street photography (videography?) assembled and read by Diego Fabro, a podmate of mine in the Ultraspeaking course — a cohort of early 2023. Delightful.
- This interview with Ken Liu on Ex Urbe Ad Astra, hosted by Ada Palmer (historian PhD., of Machiavelli series fame) and Jo Walton. Absolutely delightful, full of interesting asides about things like why novel lengths are what they are. (Tl;dl: Booksellers wanted thick enough so they look substantial yet thin enough they could stock a good number on their display racks, and this created pressure on publishers to keep books a certain length.) Their episode on the Florentine Renaissance was also great although I followed much less of it.
- The mobile port of Baba Is You. It's as excellent a port as I could have hoped for yet did not realize I somewhat wanted.
- The Mr. Psmith book review of The Man Who Rode the Thunder, by William H. Rankin. I did not know I wanted to read a book review of a hard to find, long-forgotten, once-popular 1960 memoir by a man who fell out of his plane through a stormcloud and barely survived—not until I read said book review. It does a great job of contextualizing and discussing the book and also rambling about clouds. It's a wild tale worth the read-in-summary.
- The Mr. Psmith book review of The Real North Korea by Andrei Lankov. A dive into a delightfully insane parallel reality. I'm only disappointed it never explains (as far as I recall) why it made sense for North Korea to kidnap random Japanese people as teachers.
- The Mrs. Psmith book review of Fears of a Setting Sun by Dennis C. Rasmussen. Did you know George Washington had an amazing and symbolically-carved chair from which he presided over the Constitutional Convention? Also, did you know that "the Founding Fathers universally blackpilled on America?" It's a fascinating read.
- This guest book review of Nine Lives by "Aimen Dean." A former insider's perspective on Islamic extremism and al-Qaeda. He used to be a true believer, but eventually his faith was shattered after he checked the citations on the hadiths used to justify jihad and after that he turned spy. A strange and interesting story, if I recall correctly.
- This post about setting up network equipment for US-born Indian Handsome Squidward Nick Bhandari in response to a reddit post, which includes lines like "I'm on red alert panicking inside as I’m suddenly forced to imagine myself in a forced three-way with Big Nick and his wife Skinny Kim." Did I mention the delightful MS Paint illustrations? Simon's other posts are also great.
- I could take a lesson from his parting paragraphs here but I will probably dodge that a little longer.
- Sugar cookie decorating class with The Traveling Cupcake (Jilian Mora) at the (now defunct?) Creature's Cauldron coffee shop in Lexington. This was great.
- Slay the Princess, a delightful horror-ish game which I can't believe I finished in January because it's so deeply embedded in the back of my brain. This has to be one of my favorite games of all time, up there with Tunic, Doki Doki Literature Club (Plus), Yuppie Psycho, Undertale, Deltarune, The Outer Wilds, Katana ZERO, To the Moon, and Necrobarista. A unique, charming, and gory yet fun style in animation and in writing. It's among the most affecting and thought-provoking narratives I've played in a video games. I liked this so much I wrote a long post about it elsewhere diving into the story in more detail. Best played spoiler-free.
- Across the Obelisk has eaten 173 hours of my life this year since I got it as a gift in February. I'm slightly ashamed to note that only places it at #11 for most played on my Steam profile. It's a great game to play with friends and over time with a regular play schedule those hours add up.
- Flow (2024) is a pretty fun animated adventure. It's much tenser than I would have expected for a dialog-free animated film about a cat and its strange companions.
- You Can't Run Forever, Darling is a creepy horror animation about a young girl whose parents die under strange circumstances, leaving her alone in the world with nothing but a doorhandle and a note reading, "You can't run forever, darling." I watched the Chapter 1 compilation on YouTube and found it delightful. Apparently it's scheduled to return in early 2025.