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Experiencing

Accumulating Cringe Theory (or, why It Sucks Growing Old)

June 5, 2023

If you think you’re about to read some grand existentialist revelation, let me stop you right there – or redirect you to Giacomo Leopardi. Accumulating Cringe Theory might sound fancy, but it’s just something I came up with in the middle of the night while trying to fall back asleep.

To be fair to my brain, the “what if” behind it was intriguing. The basic premise is: If we are embarrassed by our past behavior – think of the silly things you said as a teenager – doesn’t it follow that the older we get, the wider the expanse of this past?

In other words, as we get older and have more of a past to recall (often in a flawed manner), doesn’t it mean we have more embarrassing moments, too? I decided to call this accumulating cringe theory just to have a name for it. Is there anything valuable to discuss there? I’m finding out myself as I’m typing this very post.

Perhaps this not-to-be-taken-too-seriously cringe theory of mine could contain a clause for doing embarrassing stuff when you’re old

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Symbolic Spring: From Rebirths to Temporal Distortions

May 8, 2023

Experiencing

experiencing, life, time

Somehow reading my own title makes me think it sounds too academic. Serves me right for using a phrase – “temporal distortions” – I’m sick and tired of, after using it a godzillion (sic) times in my doctoral dissertation. But this post isn’t academic. Hell, Symbolic Spring sounds like an awesome title for a post-rock album.

This text is mostly stream-of-consciousness. It’s about experiencing – another pearl of experiencing in a necklace containing such stuff as almond trees and Greek coffee.

It’s a post I write just because I feel like it – though this is a trick statement: All posts I write because I feel like it.

Symbolic spring? The symbolic nature of spring? Spring as a symbol? Rebirth is a hopeless cliche in that direction, I hate it. Spring isn’t about a rebirth; it’s just another instantiation of the temporal pit all humans are trapped in.

(In case you haven’t realized yet, this post will likely feel nonsensical and incoherent to you. What can I say, every now and then I need to write such posts – and publish them – as a reminder that I don’t try to please anyone; I only write them for myself. In other words, proceed at your own risk)

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The Clock Village: an Interactive Fiction Experience

April 24, 2023

Experiencing, Fiction, Programming

fiction, game, programming, text adventure, video games

The Clock Village, my latest programming project, is first and foremost an interactive fiction experience. Only nominally could one also call it a modern text adventure game, like my earlier Mansion Escape.

In other words, though in this process as a “player” you move around, engage in interactive dialogues, collect and use items, and try to increase the score that will let you get a “better” ending, I prefer to see The Clock Village as something more artistic.

Perhaps it’s a philosophical exploration of self. Or maybe a short interactive reflection of our innermost existential anxieties. Maybe, like true art, it simply is what its experiencer wants it to be

interactive fiction clock village game screen — This is the main screen of the interface. I don’t want to call it “game”; it’s interactive fiction

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