Justin’s Web Journal

Welcome to my personal web journal. Unlike the game design blog which is the core purpose of this website, posts here are more akin to free-form thoughts.

Here you will find articles that are probably more “personal” than “professional” in tone and subject matter. In essence, this journal’s purpose is to function much like my original Paths to Adventure blog.

You may also check out the dedicated poetry section of my web journal.

  • Anomie Ano’you.
    I am in a bit of a mood today, so here’s my version of a “hot take”… I think we are existing in a state of anomie. Particularly with the way we communicate on the internet and via social media. It is increasingly challenging for people to take a measure of themselves, much less others….
  • What is Authenticity?
    What is authenticity? It seems like a simple question. Authenticity is embracing who one really is. But, who is that? I’ve come to the conclusion that I am a hundred different people. There’s a whole village in here. All of them share many of the same traits; those core notions that I believe manifest the…
  • Pondering Generative AI
    Rather than bantering on about the typical narratives that inundate topical discourse regarding debates about generative AI and LLMs, I’m going to just forego those arguments to make a post focused on my own observations. While keeping an eye on the AI industry (and tech industry at large), social trends, and common vernacular as it…
  • Final Fantasy: My Most Impactful Song
    A trend recently passed through a circle of friends asking, “What song had the greatest impact on your life?” The answers were intriguing and varied, yet I only saw a handful of responses that actually answered the fundamental question. Not your favorite song. Not a song you listen to frequently. Not a song that represents…
  • Your First Programming Language
    The Question: What was the first programming language you learned? The Asnwer: The very first? BASIC/QBASIC, when I was eleven in 1991, on an old Compaq Deskpro 286 with an amber CRT monitor that I had snagged secondhand from one of my Dad’s coworkers after begging for months for a computer so I could “make…
  • A Discussion About Politics
    I don’t make public statements about politics often. However, while terrible things happen to those with little or no control over the policies leading to that treatment, and while the public discourse continues to essentially be, “my team vs. your team“, I’d like to make my own opinion known: It doesn’t matter what political system,…
  • Building A Custom Soundboard (Brainstorming)
    So, one of the ideas I’ve been mulling around has been creating a custom sound board. This means creating a lot of sound effects from scratch and building a library that can be indexed logically for quick reference. Especially on the fly, during a game session. I’m creating this journal entry as sort of a…
  • The Green Knight’s Helm
    The Green Knight’s helm is a mod project I undertook awhile back while paying homage to a childhood adventure. An unwitting quest that went awry, and then concluded nearly two decades later by the conversion of universal oddities. For this project to come about, some really strange temporal twists were traveled both by me, and…
  • The Dissolution of Japan’s Otaku Coin
    It feels a bit like the end of an era. This evening I received an email from the Tokyo-based Otaku Coin Association (OCA) notifying me that the association, having fulfilled its purpose, is being dissolved at the end of 2024. One of many strange chapters in my life, I got involved with the OCA in…
  • 12 Years a Game Designer: An Introspective
    This post is just an introspective. After a bit of a break, I’m back. Needed to step outside myself for awhile to reassess life, creative ventures, and plans for the future. I seem to experience these major introspective moments about once a decade. I think maybe it’s just a weird part of being a creative;…
  • Technoarcheology?
    Assuming that data survives somehow beyond decades into centuries, I’m curious how social media may be used by future digital archeologist. There are already archives of websites that date back 25 years or more. I can even find some of my early web design works in those archives. How future generations will view us as…
  • Game: The Game (Brainstorming)
    I’m almost certain some variant of this concept probably exists somewhere, but since the idea randomly came to my mind during a personal fun thought experiment about a game where the players design the game they’re playing by playing the game. I figured I’d share for kicks. GAME: A GAME For 2 or more players….
  • Seeking my Old BBS Door Games
    Almost all of the BBS software and door games I programmed when I was a kid have been lost to time. It was just one of those things when I was growing up I never really thought about keeping, especially as Bulletin Board Systems gave way to regular internet access and the world wide web….
  • The Energy Drink of Major League Gaming
    Anyone remember when NOS Energy Drink was associated more with gaming than with NASCAR? I do. It’s so strange that they’ve gone out of their way to scrub as much of that association as they can from existence. Not even their Wikipedia article mentions it, despite it once literally being their main shtick. Only a…
  • Printing: Old World Meets New World
    I was helping a friend understand some of the subtleties of prepping graphic design for print this afternoon, and had a momentary flashback to my teens. Just a fun reflection on how much the print industry has changed in the last two decades. When I was a teenager in the late 1990s and working in…
  • The Ephemeral Nature of Digital Memories
    I suspect that the often ephemeral nature of digital memories will play a key role in the continuing evolution of human society. Particularly where the impact of nostalgia and personal reflection are concerned. While I think this is mostly a constructive shift that allows for more meaningful interconnectivity, more responsible resource allocation, and a much…
  • Making Music with the Endless Cosmos
    Loud clacking of mechanical keys accompanied the static-laden broadcast sputtering from a poorly-tuned radio station as the night waxed deep into the witching hour. The WKDF 103 call-sign brushed through the hiss, bringing the distinctive voice of Ozzy Osbourne declaring, “Nashville’s best rock!” My thirteen year-old self paused long enough to guzzle the last of…
  • Gaming Memory—The Hobby Shop
    Sweltering summer radiated from the sun overhead. There was not a cloud in sight and the heat wavered and undulated against spongy asphalt through the obscenest humidity. It was high noon during mid-summer in southwestern Kentucky. The constant rhythmic gusts of passing vehicles on the busy road provided some reprieve from the torrid broil, but…
  • Gaming Memory—A New Kind of Adventure
    My Introduction to Tabletop RPG Gaming & My First Player Characters It was the frigid winter of 1991. I was eleven years old and attending Christian County Middle School in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Among the small niche of new friends I had made that year was a guy named Scotty. In those days your “home room”…
  • That Time I Forgot Who I Was
    Or, how creating a short-lived internet radio station helped me find direction, and why. This post is a reflection on my history, delving into a period a decade past when I had to make some difficult decisions about who I want to be. I think it’s worth sharing as an example of how its possible…
  • Morning Static
    Sometimes the subconscious mind seems fundamentally sadistic. Like some assassin charged with the slaughter of tranquility; waiting for the most inopportune, unexpected moment to dredge up old memories that have lain still and dormant for years. Recollections that, out of context, would seem innocuous, but given the full breadth of causal observation, instead weigh heavy…
  • The Human Song
    I was watching a documentary on the Chauvet caves of Southern France which contain a plethora of the oldest cave paintings still in existence. One chapter of the presentation focused on a more general area-wide examination of the early human cultures of that area. A 40,000 year old ivory flute, discovered around Hohle Fels near…

Recent Musings & Introspection Posts

Recent Prose & Long-form Journal Posts

Recent Brainstorming & Project Sketching Posts

Recent Poems & Poetry