humantooth's postnormal cyberpunkjournal

The month was a delight that began aiming towards the end where I would go up to LA for another thanksgiving hosted at my brothers house. His birthday was in September and I had to play catch up making his belated bday present. I ended up with a set of abstract figurines that I forgot to take a picture of, a set of "ceramic"* magnets i forgot to take a picture of, and a weird wooden music chime thing I got off of TEMU.

I did deliver another birthday gift closer to on time to my friend Taylor at the inimitable Mortis Studio. His partner (business partner, not life or crime fighting) asked for my feedback on a pitch deck for adult swim, he's hoping to make a early 00s set show about two teenage boys that meet in an adult chatroom while posing as lesbians. This kind of dovetailed with some of the work I had been doing and my experience here as a neo citizen. Anyway I was honored if not overzealous.

Ok lets get to the meat and potatoes, or should I say the turkey and the potatoes, or the spatchcocked heritage turkey and mashed potatoes with caviar. call the man yan cuz my brother can cook. friends came over and we made decorations and took a ton of pics with a bunch of toy thermal print cameras I had brought and stuck them in a little book I might be able to scan when Jj/Jk return from Miami. I ended up giving one of the camera's to Dave's daughter and have already ordered one for Jen (Temu again). After dinner we all played Wavelength and tury's wife was nearly clairvoyant in her on the dot picks.

The next day we participated in black friday my way. First we went to Hightide to browse the Japanese stationary for 20% off. I picked up some mini pens plus sketchbook from PENCO and this sick ass magazine called UNLIRICE about creative asian people's experiences under globalization. Then we took the stationary experience global and all went to FLAX Pen to Paper for the first time (a trip i had been planning since june or july), where my zeal for the Plotter convinced my brother to get one on the spot. Yes folks, I finally got my very own Plotter Mini in black Pueblo leather ♥ ♥. Discounts came at the spin of a wheel and between the two shops we saved over a hundred bucks. A special early dinner was held for my Dad's birthday at Major Domo and from there I romantically boarded the Pacific Surfliner so I could be home in time for Chola's meds and avoid sitting next to Maia for three hours on the ride back (my life is heavily ruled by dogs). My folks are watching her for a few weeks while her parents are in Miami.

My favorite Turkey Day app my brother makes, Le HighBrow Lowbrow-
Lays™, crème fraîche, salmon roe, chili oil & chives

*read: air dry clay i got at marshalls a few years ago

Decker // Hypercard

I'm here to share another fun tool I've discovered, along with its ancient predecessor. In true tooth fashion, I'm inclined to share the path I took to get here. So without further adieus...

Decker

Ok so im on my computato all dang day, and rarely am I willing to pause youtube to give something the full attention it deserves. But today I had some down time and decided to give some of the play-in-browser games I've been link hoarding on itch and started with GUS IS SAD, a mini game about depression, made by one of favorite people to follow on the platform, OXY. This led me to check what other in-browser gems they might have, and noticed a lot employed this sweet sweet dithering effect over relatively simple click through design. Every now and then I think I want to try my hand at making a game, but put those thoughts aside when I realize the effort it will take. I scrolled down to their first game, arguably one of their best, Collage Advertisement (right). After playing a round I scrolled down to the product page and see that its made using "Decker". A comment reading in part "inspiring use of decker!" caught my eye.

Ive heard of other visual novel makers like Ren'py and Twine and those went over my head before I could get into them since my brain falls out of my butt as soon as i see a github link but Decker immediately hit different. Namely it had an itch page and didn't suggest I learn Python. In the description, the maker (Internet Janitor) states it's inspired by "Hypercard" with a link to the wiki.

Hypercard, 1987

Hypercard borrows its name from the Hyper family of the early internet, Hypertext, Hypermedia, Hyperdrive? Anyhoo, there's a link to a video on the wiki, which is nothing short of a delight. It's part product demonstration, part interview with the creators on an old tv program called Computer Chronicles. I am immediately smitten, as it would fit right in on an episode of Sleepcore (a go to bedtime media choice).

From here I see that Hypercard is an archive hashtag and name of a dedicated collection. I'm browsing creations from the late 80s and 90s that look like a cyber-xerox edition of everything neocities wishes it was. Old web af and clip art aesthetics at peak perfection. I find a digital magazine that was published via Hypercard and read an essay on vaporware by the folks who coined the term (above). Soon Im somersaulting down the rabbithole, flicking back and forth between the Decker community forum and Hypercard stack emulations on the internet archive and idk which im more excited to discover the old quirky, cyber dusty collection or the indie project iteration.

pick both.

I downloaded the Decker zip file and I urge y'all to do the same and let me know if you make something because I know if i can, then you dear reader most certainly can too! I would also urge you to browse some time away on the Hypercard archive, you're bound to find something that inspires you.

To open a Hypercard:

Once the emulator is running, click on 'disk' below the program icon (está aquí) and above the trashcan. Click the associated files in the window until the program opens.

▷ for other cool tools ive come across you can wade through linkdump.html ◁
► ► or check out this list in the purple box. ◄ ◄