Some links you might like 8

I always feel really bad when I procrastinate on the weekly link roundups. They’re relatively easy to put together and yet I still struggle to get one out each week. I’ll continue to try to get at least one roundup a week out, but I’ll likely continue to fail.

Noodle: am I crazy or did old movies used to look different??

I am an occasional watcher of Noodle's second channel, and recently he's been ranting about how color is kind of one of the hardest problems. Not just for computers, just in general. This video specifically focuses on how it is impossible to watch the original version of the movie The Matrix, and the wild thing is, this might be one of the best case scenarios for a movie. Movie rereleases change things all the time. Every accessible release of the original Star Wars trilogy no longer resembles the movie people saw in the theaters.¹ Same goes for the recent releases of James Cameron movies. Unless (and sometimes even if) you want to turn to piracy, it feels like movies as a concept is gnawed by slow fire.

Grace Benfell: What does it actually mean for a video game to be "horny"?

The simultaneous cultivation and rejection of smut has resulted in a phenomenon one might call “wholesome horny” games. Fields Of Mistria, Spirit Swap, and Date Everything! are all examples. None of these games have sex scenes, but feature attractive characters and innuendos aplenty. They feel ready-made for other people to make smut about them, but are ultimately skittish about being erotic themselves, beyond a little cleavage, a shirt tight across muscles, or a wink to the audience. Even more than games like Hades or Baldur’s Gate 3, which do feature sex, they retreat into a strangely sexless horny zone. Sure, you’ll find hot people here, but for erotica, apply elsewhere.

With the advent of Hades II, I was reminded of this article along with Melos Han-Tani's Treatmills article. I could've put either of them in the roundup, but I picked this one because, as an ace person, I find it really interesting. The modern world's specific flavor of puritanism is a weird special interest of mine. I have further thoughts on this and some weird things about the vibes of the MBMBaM and Dropout fandom that will maybe get expanded into a full blog post down the line. Who knows.

Rick Shory: Growing figs in the Pacific Northwest

You may be planting a potted fig tree from a nursery. I see this so often: Someone has brought me in for a consult, and they proudly show off their little fig tree, set to grow upright and stately like a maple. Sometimes, they have even staked up any spreading limbs, to make the growth even more vertical.

Sure enough, it will be beautiful, but other things besides figs make better shade trees. Within a few years, no ground-walking creature is going to be able to reach any of the fruit. There are better ways to feed the birds.

Just a guide on growing figs in the Pacific Northwest. Please read it.

Thomas Günther: The web behind glass

Liquid Glass—Apple's new design system that is currently used in all their major operating systems—is just okay. At its best, it's stunningly beautiful. It its worst, it's unreadable. In both outcomes, it calls too much attention to itself. There has been a number of thinkpieces on Liquid Glass. Perhaps give this one a shot.

Lyra Rebane: You no longer need JavaScript

CSS is probably my favorite programming language, so this is a fun read just for more ideas to steal on how to handle CSS stuff. Note: Most interactivity on the web should be JavaScript. Just for accessibility reasons. Theres a lot of nuances to this though.

Footnotes

1. Fans responded to this with the Despecialized Edition, which also has its own problems. ↩