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A collection of 32 posts

A halftone photo of the view of the St. Lawrence River seen from the Quebec city boardwalk

Do I listen to too many remixes? (Link Roundup: September 2023)

It's been a bit since I last did a link roundup, so I wanted to share some media I've been enjoying lately. This time, the unintentional theme is both cyberpunk and solarpunk. And things are weighted heavily in the direction of electronic song remixes and books about tech, but that's

a digital sketch of a point-and-shoot camera

Tech talismans and commonplace nostalgia

Last time, I wrote about my fascination with a late 2000s "what's in my bag" photograph I stumbled across on Pinterest. The everyday objects that a stranger carried around made me feel such a strong sense of nostalgia that I ended up scouring Pinterest for more images of the contents

a digital sketch of a variety of everyday objects

The Aesthetics of Commonplace Nostalgia

A set of everyday objects sprawl on a slab of cardboard, surrounded by a moat of beige carpet: a yellow iPod Nano slung atop an iPod Classic; the two-tone purple disc of a Advair inhaler; a faded mass market paperback of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; a phone with

halftone image of flowers with abstract text

Low-effort Link Roundup (July 17, 2023)

On Mondays, I usually give updates on various projects that I'm working on, but it's been a week and I don't have much interesting to say about 'em. I've been doing a lot of writing and I dropped an episode of the podcast about stories of the pigman in Denton,

halftone solarpunk collage of flowers and tech with the words "why so many devices?"

Modular devices, BS excuses, and simple solarpunk solutions

We need repairable devices.

halftone collage of flowers and tech with the words "not excessive at all"

Device overload and solarpunk imagination

Why the heck do we need multiple computers?

halftone flower collage with the words "cyberpunk versus solarpunk"

Cyberpunk, cautionary tales, and imagination

This week, I'll be writing about science fiction, solarpunk, and imagining better futures.

a sketchy digital drawing of a crested owl

Learning Things

Randonauting, synchronicity, and lost batteries (Learning Things: June 19, 2023)

The New Blood Kickstarter campaign is still going strong this week! (It'll be running until July 9 at 8:08 am EST.) Last week, I appeared on a livestream with the rest of the cast and crew of New Blood and Inhuman Beings, two brand-new paranormal shows that we're currently

a purple halftone drawing of a cassette tape and the word "nostalgia"

Feelin' nostalgic: emotions and analog paranormal investigation tools

Continuing my deep dive into nostalgia and the paranormal! Does the way we feel about paranormal investigation tools change their efficacy? How do our emotions (especially nostalgia) interact with the paranormal? Highlights include: * My continuing fascination with whether the ghosts of living people can haunt us * Looking at nostalgic paranormal

green halftone UFO drawing with a Russell Targ quote: to be right, you have to be willing to be wrong.

Digital camera nostalgia, remote viewing, and digital gardening (Learning Things: June 12, 2023)

I'm back from Iceland and back in the swing of things. It's shaping up to be a busy month, but a good one! One big ongoing project: I mentioned this last week, but the New Blood Kickstarter is still in progress! In case you missed it, a few months ago,

a diagram of a DR60 overlaid on a swirled purple background with the words "the hype around the Panasonic RR-DR60"

The hype around the Panasonic RR-DR60

A look at lore surrounding the legendary Panasonic RR-DR60. How did the late 1990s audio recorder become a device that now sells for $4,000-5,000 USD on eBay? What makes the DR60 so special? Highlights include: * plenty o' nostalgia (and skepticism) * a digression about hard drives (everyone's favorite) * some

engraving style flowers based on a 19th century illustration

A meandering week (Learning Things: May 22, 2021)

This past week has felt especially meandering to me. Time seems slightly twisty; I've found myself repeatedly writing the date as either March 2023 or May 2025, so I'm not sure what that's about. I suppose I should just be grateful that my brain finally feels like it's broken out

a drawing of a purple Eurasian eagle-owl

Dark forests and notable trees (Link Roundup: May 9, 2023)

Here's some stuff I've enjoyed reading, playing, and listening to lately.

A halftone-style photo collage of a polaroid camera, headphones, and a spirit box with the words "feeling nostalgic"

Spirit boxes and paranormal nostalgia

A deep dive into nostalgia, liminality, and the paranormal.

Digital drawing of an automatic writing planchette.

Following a vintage automatic writing planchette ad down a rabbit hole

Digging into the backstory of an ad in Mystic magazine.

A graphite-style digital drawing of a Panasonic RR-DR60 recorder.

Is the Panasonic RR-DR60 worth it?

Musings on an expensive and hyped piece of tech.

A black and white drawing of a snake plant with the repeated words "love to talk to plants" in the background.

Starting the biodata sonification build (Learning Things: April 10, 2023)

Biodata sonification supplies and Erik Satie-inspired automatic drawings.

A digital drawing of a SB-7 spirit box with a swirly pattern

I asked ChatGPT to create and code paranormal investigation gear for me

I wouldn't say that it went "well."

A black and white digital drawing of a Eurasian eagle owl, rendered in a sketchy style.

Trusting your own perception

It's hard to trust yourself.

a black and white graphite-style digital sketch of a dead mall

On humanity, writing, and digital dead malls

Are our errors what make us human?

DIY REM pod initial build (Learning Things: March 27, 2023)

DIY REM pod initial build (Learning Things: March 27, 2023)

Things I learned and made this week (including an initial DIY REM pod build.)

a grayscale digital drawing of a (not DIY) REM pod with the words "did you find the ghost?"

Notes for a DIY REM pod build

Some thoughts on a future DIY REM pod project.

graphite-style digital sketch of the full moon with the words "is this real?"

Accidentally overriding reality: untrustworthy and automatically faked photos

If smartphone cameras are increasingly depicting "idealized" images of the world, smoothing out anomalies and removing variations from what an computer might consider "normal," what does that mean for paranormal photography?

A watercolor-style black and white digital drawing of a vintage Polaroid 600 camera

Taking pictures of ghosts: Polaroids, instant photography, and paranormal investigation

Instant photography has become increasingly popular when trying to photograph ghosts—but can we trust it?

A graphite-style digital illustration of an SB-7 spirit box

Spirit boxes, radios, and analog ghost hunting

I'd like to explore different popular ghost hunting tools through the lens of nostalgia. First up: the spirit box.