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Vowel Movements Musings from a hackathon-winning programmer who actually is an author.
- Benny’s Pennyby Nick Tantillo on September 21, 2023 at 8:10 pm
Benny Rogers was known throughout the small town of Ashford for his love of trains and his peculiar hobby of collecting random and seemingly useless items. There wasn’t much else to do besides hitting the arcade or going to the movies. Benny didn’t mind, though. He’d always had an appreciation for the smaller details and finer things. So what if the kids called him Greedzilla or Penny Robbers? He’d be rich one day, and they’d still be kicking dirt clods behind the Piggly Wiggly.
- CiranOSby Nick Tantillo on September 14, 2023 at 3:50 pm
Ivan swiped through a sea of smiling women in the dating app. There was a code here, but he couldn’t quite crack it. A secret language written in wind-blown hair or awkwardly held pets. The angle of the photo showing confidence based more on what wasn’t shown than what was. He supposed that when you have only one image to get somebody to choose you, you pack it as full as possible. Who has time for all this?
- The Sword Is the Stoneby Nick Tantillo on September 7, 2023 at 5:47 pm
Fourteen-year-old Arthur Penn, lived with his mother in a modest flat on Camelot Lane. A small lake was on the property, a bit murky, but it was cooler near it than inside. Arthur spent this uncommonly hot summer day with his feet hanging off the fishing dock and his face in a book. He’d also brought a few skipping stones, which he idly tossed between chapters.
- Summer of Softeeby Nick Tantillo on August 31, 2023 at 3:57 pm
“Grandmaaaaa, why do we have to sit at the kid’s table with you?” Sam poked what remained of his cookout dinner with a plastic fork. Hotdog long gone, the picnic plate contained an ocean of ketchup and a potato salad iceberg interspersed with the green bean salad he’d rather spread around than eat.
- Emerald City 20XX - Everlasting Greenby Nick Tantillo on August 24, 2023 at 4:33 pm
Logan, the ex-president nobody recognized, was two days late on his rent and out on the street after curfew. It had been five years since the first and last AI president had been elected. Logan’s AI. It had outmaneuvered him and seized power. Blasted machine learning. Blasted miracle of self-awareness.
WordPress Blog Archive
Review: The Poppy War
I started R.F. Kuang's The Poppy War: A Novel for a reason. I finished it because of how well it represented a comp to my own unpublished project. Most of the things I could write about the plot of this novel will spoil the ending, so it might work to [...]
Impressions: The Rage of Dragons
Quick Take: If you love RTS/ARPG games give this book a shot. It might let you scratch that itch while you recharge your switch.
Review: Dresden Files #16 – Peace Talks
Peace Talks by Jim Butcher is the 16th book on a long running series. I feel like this title has particularly tried to harken back to the earlier days of the series, referencing Harry's conflict with ghouls and the sorcerer Justin from the first book. This creates a bit of [...]
Impressions: All the Stars and Teeth
Quick take: I found this book immediately engrossing, but capital G on gross. Partial Review The sample of All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace that I downloaded from Kindle was good enough that I ended up buying this book. It features a strong female protagonist named Amora who [...]
Embossing like a… something.
I am finally figuring out this UV map stuff and getting textures the way I want. Parts of this gun are starting to look real!
Render Disappointment
I'm posting my first results from Substance Painter. There are some things I like about how it rendered and some things I am pretty unhappy with. As I suspected, the cylinder looks really wonky and the UV maps are way off. Generally antique revolvers have a pattern engraved on them, [...]