Get your red pen and correction fluid, it's time for another decadently error-filled issue of #GarbageDigest! I let a cat dance on the keyboard for this very special volume 01 issue 10, this publication's decacentiliary, the big one-oh, or one-oh-one-oh in binary, or one-two in octal, or one-four in seximal. First one to find all the typos, wins! For a transcript of this blog post, send $25 to this website.

meta

I've made the mistake in past issues of implying that #GD is first and foremost a delivery vehicle for jokes, but that wasn't supposed to be the case. According to the RBIC style bible, it's intended as more of an all-purpose heavy-duty bucket to hold any number of short thoughts that've been on my mind, but aren't substantial enough for their own entry. Sometimes (often) that's going to be nothing but jokes, because a joke doesn't require context or citations or any critical thinking (well, a minimum amount to make sure it's not a shitty joke that would hurt people, but those don't pass the first QC check.)

But sometimes I want to include little status updates or replies I've received or just random observations, so from now on, jokes go in the Humidor, which is where you store humor or anything else you don't want to let get too dry. Some issues will be all-jokes, some might not have jokes at all, it just depends on the day. Well, the intro will always be jokes, but what intro could I possibly write that isn't a joke? This whole magazine is a joke. Except for the stuff between the intro and humidor. This is the serious zone. No fun allowed. Ok, maybe a little fun.

tokimeta

Hot dang, I did not expect heartthrob 101 to be almost 3000 words. Even after I posted it, I figured I hit 1000, maybe got to 1500. Was shocked when the wordcounter app showed me a number almost twice that. I thought it looked longer than it is because it has a lot of images, but even when you don't factor them in, it's a doozy.

I went ahead and tagged it as #long, since I figure anything above 2500 words qualifies as a longread. I wasn't sure what other category to put it in. It's not an essay, it's not current (other than the fact that a fan translation came out recently, which eh, I'm still talking about an almost 30-year-old game.) So I just made a new tag for it, #media, which I guess I'll use going forward for any dedicated piece of writing talking about a piece of media, but doesn't really have enough criticism or analysis to qualify as an essay.

feedback

I was worried since I didn't put a lot of time into editing, it'd end up a jumbled mess that doesn't really convey what I was trying to say, but Kutan over at chitter.xyx said:

saw that 6 hour video on Tokimeki a while back, but that presenter was gushing so much about it being life-changing that it was hard for me to take seriously. It's cool seeing a level-headed take on it, and the point you made about it not being objectifying is a big sell. I already like those Monster Rancher weekly scheduling type games, so I'd probably really enjoy this. Good writeup!

Tim Rogers' video is what inspired me to check the game out in the first place, but I definitely get why people would be turned off. I've been a fan of his for awhile, and to enjoy his work you kinda gotta be able to distance the parts where he's not taking himself seriously from the other parts, and that can be a big ask for a new viewer. But I'm glad I could provide a different, less cartoonish viewpoint and I'm glad it was helpful!

On May 27th, anonymous replied to struggling and said:

test

Just letting you know your test worked!

Thanks also to inbtwn and everyone else who reached out to offer support. Times are tough, but no moment is unendurable.

good UI award

I just wanted to take a second to applaud the Simple Notes app on the F-droid store for doing something really smart that I don't think I've seen before: if you press the shift key, the cursor changes slightly from a simple line to a line with a triangle at the bottom.

I like it! It's subtle, but when you're trying to type an A or an S, it's just enough visual feedback to indicate that the reason one of the letters didn't show up isn't because it didn't register my input, but because I was just a little bit off. It saves me time, because I can undo the shift before attempting to type any more letters. When I'm using a device that only registers about 75% of my input on a good day, every little bit helps. I wish phone UIs had more little bits of extra feedback like this.

humidor

get it together, plankton

I don't understand what motivates a plankton. It's like they evolved just to exist as floating food for real animals. What's in it for them? If you ask me, they need to start thinking about number one.

falls

Actually, it's only Niagara if it comes from the Niagara Falls region of Ontario

Otherwise, it's just sparkling water

char

Every day, all I hear about is "carbon footprint" this and "carbon footprint" that. Well, you won't catch me walking on any hot coals. No thank you, I'm sure it's very fun if you're into that sort of thing, but it's not for me. I'm more interested in my carbon foodprint, you know what I'm saying? 🦝