Randy's Changelog v4

Bit late on this one, was in the middle of switching over to Revue for these newsletters. I also just finished importing last month’s subscribers from the old site, hello new peeps! You can check the backlog over here for some context.

Hope you’ve had a great week :)

“Why is Excalidraw so fucking good?” A thought that’s once again popped into my mind after putting it to good use this week via the Obsidian plugin.

It’s funny, I’ve always wanted my own Google knowledge panel. Who doesn’t? Googling your name and having your face come up is the flex of all flexes.

This how the great Tom vs Thomas debate was born in my mind.

The answer came down to “Which one is easier for SEO?” (which yes, is probably the most shallow sentence that’s ever left my mouth)

But after reading a rather daunting blog post on fame earlier this week, I’m really quite happy being buried under the other famous Randys of the world.

Here’s that article. Do yourself a favour and skip over it, unless you’re really into voluntarily exposing yourself to existential dread and anxiety.

It really threw me off for a few days there, but after talking with some mates (uno who you are, thanks guys) and doing a bit more reading into it, I found some answers.

I think most people want to become famous, it’s deeply engrained in our culture.

Idk about you, but after reading all of that, it feels like a massive weight off of my chest. Fame is no longer a goal that’s rummaging around in my mind.

From here on out I’m gonna do my best to fly under the radar and just focus on this newsletter & my projects.

I can’t help but notice, you’re reading this. You know my face, you know my full name, hell, you might even know my address.

I’m sure I can trust you though ;)

I ain’t gonna sit here and pretend like my week has been earth-shatteringly amazing.

This isn’t an Instagram feed.

It’s life.

Without shitty days, weeks, months, years, we wouldn’t have a reference point for the good ones.

So suffice to say, this hasn’t been the best week. But right as I was drowning in overdue projects, unanswered questions, and a healthy dose of existential dread - this guide on journaling graciously floated into my life (thanks Salman, n thanks Camilo).

I had been journaling for a while now, ever since I started using Obsidian, but I haven’t made a solid practice out of it.

Here’s are my late night note-taking brain’s thoughts:

My favourite take-away from the article is:

That’s definitely another core habit goin on the ol’ list.

Like I said, not my best week.

It’s a mixture of me setting my goals way too high and just my general headspace after being a bit shook by that whole fame issue.

The project I set for myself this week was to have building fully fleshed out and implemented. Which in hindsight, was way too ambiguous.

I got off to a pretty great start. Like I mentioned earlier, Excalidraw is just bloody amazing, especially in this prototype context. I realised I could dead set just export the individual components from the app and use them as assets for the prototype.

I love the whole sketch art style, it really embodies the programmer art aesthetic and to top it off - it’s just as easy as doing shitty rectangles in photoshop.

I didn’t get much done in the way of programming beyond revamping the placement snap logic.

But I did manage to figure out a bit of theory around the base building itself.

My hope here is that if I define the rules well enough from the bottom up, there’ll be some kind of emergent creativity on the player’s behalf.

The prototype will ultimately tell.

I’m excited to see what y'all do with it when the time comes.

I’ll leave you with my favourite quote of the week.

and my fav song this week.

Just keep on keepin on,