WITNESS is a theoretical system that logs number plates in an encrypted database that can later give you a WITNESS statement if it saw a target car or bike at a given time. I could make it for real but I am mostly exploring the idea for fiction. I had …
In the update, I hinted that the first step was to resolve the guests and plus-ones. In this post, I am going to walk you through some of the clues and try to figure out who the guests and plus-ones were. Massive spoilers to follow. This is the grid that …
For the 7th of December #TimeTravelAuthors question set by Julie Bihn, will be (unless any of you go back and change it) the question of the Earth moving. I shall make the case that this is not a problem at all. Or, rather, I will make several independent cases. “But …
There is a sense you can get in some quarters that Sci-Fi that isn’t serious (Hard Sci-Fi) is (in some gatekeeper way) invalid. I’m calling BS on that right here. Soft Sci-Fi is still Sci-Fi. Fans of the hardest Sci-Fis might not like it but the world does not turn …
The murder mystery logic game had its last update at the end of last week. In theory, this is enough clues to solve the case and identify the killer. Theory is all well and good but do you need more clues? Speak up now because I am planning the reveal …
While it is true I do not update here all that often, I do update what I call Matt’s Social Node which is half blog, half social media (via Mastodon and AtivityPub). If you subscribe to my node, you will get updates about all my blogs.
Is an indoor garden a realistic dream? And is it something that can be done on a budget? I would love to have my own garden. Something that is probably not ever going to happen. This is why I would like to figure out how to make my flat into …
It is that time of year again when I get officially older. I’m not ready to be an adult yet even if I have legally been one most of my life.
One of the fun parts of world-building is creating a magic system. This is true for both novels and tabletop role-playing games. Why do we need magic system diagrams? Magic systems are often at their most interesting when it is clear what they cannot do rather than what they can …
I’ve been thinking about suffering in the world. There is so much of it and it all seems so needless. That got me thinking. Does suffering have a purpose – a wider, deeper, or bigger picture meaning? I think that the answer is probably no. Suffering just is. It is …
