Temptation brought me back to Twitter, and I left after seeing this.

I'll admit it: I missed Twitter.

Last year, I jumped ship from Twitter after Elon's on stage salutes. It just didn't feel right to me to be on that platform given his actions. It was sorta sad for me since I spent a decade or so on the platform and used to enjoy it quite a bit.

I gave into temptation in December last year and started to poke my head around. My home feed was pretty good! Zero politics (because of my filters) and only entertaining content.

Until I saw this...

I was quickly reminded why I made the decision that I did. The guy is a weak, pathetic, drug addict who has created nothing of his own. He just exploits the intelligence of others.

Besides, I've been enjoying posting on LinkedIn about elearning, LMSs, and edtech.

#personal

Looking back, I realise I wrote much more than I remember! 182 blog posts, mostly session reports, news about new releases, crowdfunding campaigns, and sales, and various challenges (Character Creation Challenge and RPGaDAY). Regardless, I am still a bit shocked by the volume.

I blog for fun, and write what I want when I want. Turns out I like to write more often than I thought! Looking at analytics, I see that the blog was visited 23 000 times. Five most visited blog posts in 2025 were:

1. Goodbye to Alarums & Excursions APA. Legendary RPG APA ceased publication last year, and this was my humble farewell. The post was picked up and re-shared in the blogosphere, resulting with many views.
2. Swords & Wizardry: White Box Editions. It seems that differences between various white box editions remains a popular topic.
3. Swords & Wizardry: Which Monster Book to Pick. A comparison of all major S&W bestiaries, including a monster index, is still bringing in traffic.
4. Swords & Wizardry: 400 Pregenerated Characters and 288 Equipment Packs. I love sharing useful material, so I am happy to see pregenerated characters and equipment packs used.
5. News: Ever & Anon roleplaying APA launched. Following the demise of Alarums & Excursions APA, we started a successor APA named Ever & Anon. The same focus, same contributors, and same dedication to do it for years to come.

Three of the above are posts from 2024, and I am happy to see they are still useful to people. Two were about big news and were circulated and picked up by others, which I believe contributed a lot of views.

After going through all the last year's posts, I would like to highlight the following five as my favourite posts of 2025:

1. Convention: Preparing for the Cauldron 2025. I pull the curtain on how I prepare for an OSR-focused con, from choice of adventures to why I choose OD&D to preparing supplemental material for players.
2. Convention: Cauldron 2025 Reflections. I share my thoughts on all three games I ran at the con—including the six hour marathon session with 24 characters and 17 players—as well as general impressions of Cauldron con. Spoiler: it was awesome. Get on the wait list for this year if you can.
3. 2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 31. 80 fourth-level OD&D characters ready for play.
4. Wilderlands Hall of Fame 2023. Wilderlands Hall of Fame represents the most legendary gaming situation of the year, as voted by the players in our Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. This one was illustrated by FSF-INK.
5. Seventy Magical Weapons for Old-School Roleplaying Games. In 2023 year I rolled 70 magical weapons as part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers. Since then several people asked me for a print-friendly PDF versions. So I made them!

What about this year?

I have decided not to participate in challenges as usual. I will focus instead on finishing old projects—Dragon Magazine reading list, S&W supplement, and two adventures for Fight On!—as well as supporting good people like Rob of Bat in the Attic Games, Matt & Suzy of Mythmere Games, Calithena & Iggy of Fight On! zine, and Jim of Ever & Anon.

This will be an exciting year.

#Blogging

Van Voorbijgaande Aard & De Elite Zonder Contract

treden vandaag op in het op afstandbestuurbare cultureel tele visie centrum

Mijn begeleiding stond vroeger bekend onder klinkerende titel amateur ex groep van liefdeswerk en oud papier, een beetje hipper ingekleurd maar tegenwoordig is mijn begeleidingsband stukken handiger verpakt ik noem deze horde mij getrouwen inmiddels “De elite zonder contract”

Ze komen keer op keer opdagen voor allerhande degelijke bijdragen nemen deel aan het strijdperk voor overwinningen en nederlagen in de hete harde wedde strijd voor kwaliteit en winnaarsmentaliteit maken ze zeer bondsgetrouw deel uit van mijn oorblog bestuursbeleid

Elitair en Zonder Contract godzijdank niet meer bestempeld als amateur ook al is het hetzelfde merk parfum maar met een heel andere geur Het kan allemaal dankzij de vreselijk ingenieuze mix van ingrediënten spelen met woorden gaat namelijk niet ten koste mijn overdosis centen

Je krijgt niks meer dan weinig tot niets ja alles is en blijft feitelijk gelijk maar ze hebben een heerlijk welluidende naam klinkend als het aardse slijk De elite zonder contract spelen voor mij bij de vele optredens de zalen plat terwijl ik een beetje op het podium blijf cirkelen rondom mijn enorme gat

Ik strijk met alle eer, doe later de leuke dingen en krijg cultuurlijk alle lof en als ik het alweer niet naar mijn zin heb kruipen zij door mijn stof Het is niet anders, 't heeft zo moeten zijn, het is door het lot duur betaald zij geboren om te spelen in het perk door mij en de mijnen zo bepaald

De elite zonder contract is een geweldige inwisselbare begeleiding de luchtige vulling van mijn steeds toenemende persoons vereer ring die amateur status ondertussen omgeruild voor een wat modernere naam en als dat niet meer voldoet noem ik ze De discipelen van het bestaan

of De meesters van het luchtledige, misschien De helden van de tijd Kranigen van de stroom, De hoogwaardigheidsbekleders van het tapijt De toonbaren van het bejubelde, De koningen van het ontroonbare, Tovenaars van het onverklaarbare, De heilige geesten van het ingevarene

Zo lang ze maar zonder zich te beklagen elke oorlog komen opdagen voor hun bijdrage aan de metersdikke stapel van onder en neder lagen noodzakelijk voor het innen van een eeuwige stroom aan geldbedragen die de toeschouwer schare met alle contractuele verplichtingen moet betalen

P.R. (Post Rijm)

...dit weer nodig voor de instandhouding van een kunstige schijnvertoning waar winst en verlies hetzelfde moeten voorstellen als de schat voor een koning strijden in het perk voor als slagroom opgeklopte eer zonder werkend geweten een uniek kijkspel aangemaakt om door je beschermheren te worden bezeten

Today is complex with cross-currents, so hold on to yourself. There are flows of openness and spiritual mastery running into draining thoughts, physical tension and self-suffocation. The seas are rough but the truth is that we are each at the centre of our experience and can stay right with the world if we stay open to it and remain calmly in our deepest sense of who we are. If you can't get there mentally, relax your grip of whatever you are holding too tightly or start a new routine that is more flexible than rigid.

Key emotions: touched, quiet, pessimistic, worry, guarded

GO HOOSIERS!

Later this morning I'll tune in to The Flagship Station for IU Sports ahead of this morning's NCAA men's basketball game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Indiana Hoosiers. Start time is scheduled for 11:00 AM Central Time, but I'll listen earlier to catch pregame coverage as well the call of the game itself.

Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be Thy name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily Bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil

Amen

Jesus is Lord! Come Lord Jesus!

Come Lord Jesus! Christ is Lord!

Good

A splice decurrent of time at rest Fingers riding ring and cross A golden good of refuge at war Maked in friend to speak and cherish Others seek- and this is will A time of gentle good Nary peace on that wall but willing here Men at rest, and some deride Why our days succumb as such But faithful good A prowess seen Daylight to day and witness from the home In errant light- refend our days- and this is war A morning deep and dressed as Mom Greatest hue- Sixteen of the walk and choosing day Fright to a play of men- Who are killing here Melee as stood to well and right Good to logic and tear the night Purpose apart defending day And young to wellness repose Right of death and East of dawn Sixteen of war and living breath Squanders be Solemn at entrance year Every entrance done and to unpoem Good is greatest And Woman be A neighbor finds the path The respite hour in silence Parked to war- ending war The purpose finds a Heaven To us below and camping here Good of street and men The daybreak calls Good is at sovereign rest above Accounts of day and nice Peace, solid day Ends of land and work repose Every dawn unto- Reward above For all, and Dove Through unto A picture calls a home Let us tire Seeks beyond recuse And there at last Solid will in pain To cause at last- A difference seen and made.

Rest in Heaven, Renee Nicole Good

The music section is the one with the most categories in the #JujuAwards! We did the Track of the Year, now we are doing the #AlbumOfTheYear, next we'll do the Act, the Ambient track, the Dance track and finally the Gig! (Apparently, this is some kind of teaser.)

Interestingly this year I listened to a lot of French musicians. Is nostalgia hitting me that hard? Is my midlife crisis reaching a new stage? Am I homesick?! I don't know but there is a lot of good stuff coming from my birth country.

Here are the 5 nominees.

Poèmes Pulvérisés by Léonie Pernet

I really liked Léonie Pernet's previous album, Le Cirque de Consolation. She is keeping the momentum, delivering the tunes and ever better lyrics – seriously good writing, actual poetry. She mixes electronic beats with African drums or classical instruments such as the piano and strings. She also diversifies the emotions between dance music, nostalgic ballads and chants from protests. A real trip. I especially enjoy the tracks Réparer Le Monde, L'Horizon Ose, Paris-Brazzaville and Nymphéas.

Contre-Temps by Flavien Berger

I'm so late with this, this album was released in 2018, I had briefly listened to it years ago but rediscovered it this year and it's full of good stuff, whether it's instrumental flights or lyrical puns, Flavien Berger shows his talents for a full hour on it. He also has duets with two other amazing French artists: the fiery Rebekah Warrior and the enticing Bonnie Banane. The tracks I would like to single out are: Brutalisme, Maddy La Nuit, and the title track, Contre-Temps.

Ultratonics by Ryoji Ikeda

Japanese multimedia artist Ryoji Ikeda came to Melbourne for the Now Or Never festival and graced us with his Ultratonics show which plays this album fully. It was a great experience in itself (I will talk about it further in the Gig of the Year section) but the music is just so amazingly well crafted. The level of detail, the experimentalism... A electronic masterpiece. My favourite tracks are the soberly named Ultratonics 01, Ultratonics 07 and Ultratonics 13.

Watt by Bertrand Belin

Don't you love a mononymous album title? Björk always names her albums with a single word. In fact, she even has an album called Volta, a name linked to electricity, like Watt. I barely knew Bertrand Belin before, I had heard a wee bit of his music ages ago but hadn't been charmed because I thought it lacked modernity, as in, it wasn't electronic enough to my taste. With Watt, he is definitely embracing the times while still keeping in character. He has aged since his big 2010 breakthrough, Hypernuit, and his voice is featuring something more vulnerable and it just makes it more raw and personal. I love being positively surprised by an artist's evolution. On this album, I especially enjoy the tracks Berger, L'Inconnu En Personne and Ni Bien Ni Mal.

Dance at Oscar's by C.A.R.

French and Canadian musician Chloé Raunet is back with a new album and is as good as ever. It's still her great electronic, almost brutalist self but she doesn't hesitate being downright funny or emotional this time. I'm very curious to see what she will do next. My faves are: The Pageant, Shyana and Anzu.

And the winner is... Poèmes Pulvérisés by Léonie Pernet! Wow! Woohoo! Aya! Yay! Etc.

#JujuAwards2025 #BestOf2025

Trump møter María Machado, hun lovpriser ham og gir ham Nobels fredspris. Som takk installerer han henne som president i Venezuela. Eventuelt kaster han henne bare på båten. Uansett har han «fått» fredsprisen som belønning for et militært angrep. Dette er ikke et usannsynlig scenario, det fremstår faktisk som det mest sannsynlige scenarioet akkurat nå.

I så fall vil nok tildelingen av Nobels fredspris 2025 stå igjen som en av de dummeste beslutningene Nobelkomiteen noen gang har gjort. Nobelprisen blir misbrukt til å legitimere USAs overgang til naken imperialisme uten noe skjær av legitimitet. Selv om Nobelkomiteen har formelt rett i at prisen ikke kan «gis videre» på denne måten, så burde de ha forstått at risikoen for et scenario som dette var stor.

Det var flere som advarte mot nettopp dette. Som påpekte at Machado både hadde støttet Trump-administrasjonens vilkårlige bombetokt i Mexicogolfen og oppfordret til militær inngripen. Det var også godt kjent at USA hadde stasjonert en stor militær styrke utenfor Venezuela da prisen ble utdelt. Kritikerne fikk rett.

USAs angrep på, og de facto maktovertagelse av, Venezuela, vil stå igjen som et skjebnesvangert øyeblikk der USA gikk fra å være en global hegemon som, i alle fall på papiret, garanterte for demokrati, menneskerettigheter og en regelstyrt verdensorden, til å bli en regional bølle som bruker sin stormaktsstatus til å underlegge seg andre land, og dermed også legitimerer mer krig og imperialisme i resten av verden. I dette mørke øyeblikket gjorde Nobelkomiteen det som i for ettertiden vil fremstå som det dummest tenkelige valget, nest etter å gi prisen til Trump selv.

Dagens komité har skjemt ut både fredsprisen og Norges omdømme i en skjebnetid for både fredssaken og demokratiet. De gjorde det sikkert med de beste intensjoner, men fadesen er like fullt et faktum. Det er på høy tid at Stortinget tar grep her, og sikrer høyere kompetanse og mer uavhengighet i prisen. Nobelkomiteen bør ikke bestå av politisk utpekte personer med til dels sterk ideologisk slagside, men av uavhengige eksperter med tilstrekkelig innsikt i fredsarbeid og relaterte felt, som faktisk er i stand til å bære denne viktige og stolte arven videre.

the snowdrop in the town garden an inch tall barely there edged with bricks encased in ice

si es posible / siempre que lo fuera quizás valga la pena intentarlo o más bien comenzar con un trazo aquí / otro allá y frenando mirar la maravilla de lo inconcluso

I don’t know what to say. It’s not that it hurts this bad but genuinely that I don’t know what to say. It doesn’t help I’m this depressed right now. I wanna lash out so bad, and so I guess this is my avenue for it.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to be in this painful position to begin with. Why does she have to have ex lovers keep coming back up some way or another. Today another one sent her a message, and she said she was going to block him over a week ago. And I guess she never did, and so she responds like nothings wrong. I fear I only found out because she was playing games with me right next to me, and she knew I saw the notification. No mention of how she said she would block him and nothing had happened. She said she just forgot, and also said that he was a close friend even though they don’t talk often. It’s painful not because of that, but because of the 180 in direction. I feel mad at myself and then her for the fact that I gave her so much credit and trust for saying this on her own, on how she wanted to put her past behind her and she was going to do this. But now I feel like a fucking idiot for believing her. I wonder now if she even blocked the other person on instagram or any other platforms now. Or if she even blocked him. I just don’t know what to believe anymore. And what was before that built trust of her saying something and me trusting her on it is now back to this skepticism and fear that site on my chest like a stone. I honestly am tired from looking at things through the other persons lens, I feel hurt by this. I feel uneasy and uncomfortable with not feeling like my emotional security is valued. And writing that out makes me wonder if that’s a me problem.

I don’t really know the answer to that question, but I feel like if I am to be mentally strong against things that hurt my emotional security that means that I cannot value the person who did those stuff to me in the first place. But also I need to recognize with depression things are much more different than they seem. I don’t know what to think or what to feel anymore. I know I want to be with her, but I wonder why I feel like this for what seems so often. I know that depression plays tricks, but they look quite real.

La course effrénée à la privatisation de notre ciel vient de franchir un nouveau cap inquiétant. Dans une décision qui ressemble davantage à une soumission réglementaire qu'à une véritable surveillance, la commission fédérale des communications des États-Unis (la FCC) a accordé hier à SpaceX l'autorisation de lancer 7 500 satellites Starlink de deuxième génération supplémentaires.

Cette annonce porte le total autorisé pour la seule constellation Gen2 à un nombre vertigineux de 15 000 satellites. Sous couvert de progrès technologique et de connectivité mondiale, nous assistons en réalité à une colonisation unilatérale de l'orbite terrestre basse par une seule entité privée, avec la bénédiction explicite des régulateurs censés protéger l'intérêt public.

La FCC tente de masquer cette saturation orbitale derrière un langage technocratique prometteur. On nous parle de facteurs de forme avancés, de fréquences étendues couvrant les bandes Ku, Ka, V, E et W, et d'une optimisation de la couverture mobile. L'agence américaine a même levé ce qu'elle qualifie d'exigences obsolètes pour permettre à SpaceX de densifier encore davantage ses opérations entre 340 et 485 kilomètres d'altitude. Si l'objectif affiché est d'améliorer la latence et la vitesse d'Internet, la réalité physique est celle d'un embouteillage spatial sans précédent. En autorisant cette occupation massive de l'espace, elle ignore les appels à la prudence concernant les débris orbitaux, préférant valider la stratégie du fait accompli d'Elon Musk.

L'argument sécuritaire avancé par SpaceX, qui prévoit d'abaisser l'altitude de 4 400 appareils existants pour soi-disant réduire les risques de collision, peine à convaincre face à l'ampleur des déploiements prévus. Cette manœuvre ressemble surtout à une stratégie d'occupation des couches orbitales inférieures pour verrouiller le marché. D'autant que l'entreprise ne compte pas s'arrêter là. Non contente de saturer le marché de l'Internet fixe, SpaceX vise désormais l'hégémonie sur le mobile via le service « Direct to Cell », s'appuyant sur un accord colossal de 17 milliards de dollars pour racheter des licences de spectre à EchoStar. Cette expansion tentaculaire transforme Starlink en une infrastructure incontournable, menaçant d'étouffer toute concurrence réelle.

Cette situation soulève une fronde légitime parmi les autres acteurs du secteur. Des concurrents locaux comme Viasat et Globalstar ont déposé des pétitions pour bloquer cette expansion, alertant sur des risques d'interférences insurmontables et une préemption déloyale des ressources spectrales limitées. Viasat a justement souligné que cette autorisation donne à SpaceX le pouvoir et l'incitation de barrer l'accès à l'espace aux autres opérateurs. Pourtant, ces avertissements se heurtent à un mur politique. Le président de la FCC, Brendan Carr, ne cache pas sa proximité idéologique avec Elon Musk, allant jusqu'à faciliter activement les transactions de SpaceX sous prétexte de lutter contre un harcèlement réglementaire imaginaire.

Cette nouvelle autorisation est donc un échec de la régulation. En déroulant le tapis rouge à SpaceX pour qu'elle déploie 15 000 satellites et alors que l'entreprise en planifie déjà 15 000 autres pour un système futur, la FCC participe à la création d'un monopole spatial dangereux. Nous sommes en train de céder une ressource commune, l'orbite terrestre, à l'appétit d'une seule corporation, au mépris de la sécurité spatiale à long terme et de l'équité concurrentielle. Le ciel est devenu une propriété privée.