dave stranding @dthompson@toot.cat

Thank you so much to everyone who boosted/contributed to the GoFundMe I posted earlier. My family is really feeling the love. I can't thank you all enough. It means a lot.

I know times are tough for everyone right now, but I figured I'd share my family's GoFundMe campaign here anyway. my sister died unexpectedly on Saturday, leaving my wonderful 11 year old niece Piper without any parents. we are setting up a trust fund to help with whatever she may need now and into the future. I'm the closest person she has to a parent and I will be adopting her.

gf.me/u/xxycaw

my sister passed way unexpectedly this morning. today doesn't feel real. I'm gonna go quiet on here for awhile while I deal with things.

windows for dork groups

my trees are here! my trees are here!

I am getting a buttload of bare root trees delivered today and I am #excite

lisparuga now has an itch.io page that I will be updating with new builds periodically until the jam deadline.

https://davexunit.itch.io/lisparuga-2020

anyone running 64-bit intel/amd linux want to test an early build of my jam game? your system needs to have glibc 2.27 or later so if you are using a distro released in 2018 or later you should be fine.

https://files.dthompson.us/lisparuga.tar.gz

extract and run the launch script.

made decent progress on the jam game tonight. the most complicated scripted sequence is done, but I'm probably only about halfway done overall.

gonna make a game about dogs specifically so I can call patches "pupdates"

the example code of a credits sequence is very similar to the scheme code I have written for a tutorial sequence. neat!

"Object control code, which the gaming world euphemistically calls AI, typically runs only a couple of times per frame. For this kind of code, speed of implementation, flexibility, and ease of later modification are the most important requirements. This is because games are all about gameplay, and good gameplay only comes from constant experimentation with and extensive reworking of the code that controls the game’s objects. The constructs and abstractions of standard programming languages are not well suited to object authoring, particularly when it comes to flow of control and state. GOOL (Game Oriented Object LISP) is a compiled language designed specifically for object control code that addresses these limitations."

I don't know if I've ever actually read this article by Andy Gavin about using Lisp in Crash Bandicoot, though I've known for years a custom Lisp was used for Crash games and later Jax and Daxter. really good read!

https://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/03/12/making-crash-bandicoot-gool-part-9/

way behind on my jam game at this point since I was just too exhausted yesterday to do any work on it. hopefully tonight I can make some progress.

behold! the propagation station!

I will be doing another 6 variations of this over the weekend when the rest of my fruit trees arrive. I don't have enough plants to do the same configuration but everything will definitely be getting comfrey and currants.

oh I almost forgot: there's a teeny tiny red currant cutting hiding in there, which is a shade tolerant fruiting shrub that should provide an additional fruit yield even once the pear is mature and casting shade.

it doesn't look like much but this is my new asian pear guild. goumi is a nitrogen fixer that produces fruit and can be cut back for mulch. it is planted directly next to the pear to maximize the nitrogen benefits and will be removed once the pear is mature. comfrey is a nutrient accumulator and mulch plant. bee balm is a beneficial insect attractor, as is anise hyssop. alpine and june bearing strawberries will provide ground cover as they expand plus a little snack. the whole thing needs some fresh mulch. in the fall I'd like to add bulbs around the trunk of the tree as a weed/critter suppressor. will it work well? dunno. I imagine some things will, some things won't, and I'll adjust over time. #permaculture

my day has been fucked since 3am when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep

lol I'm not even gonna say what the vet charged me today. good news is the chicken is okay even though it sounded like she could barely breathe but I will definitely never even come close to breaking even on my "investment" if you add up the value of the eggs.