Author: matt (page 1 of 2)

November 11, 2025

AI Slop: The Death of You and Me

I sat in a garage and invented the future because artists lead and hacks ask for a show of hands.
steve Jobs (2015)

boy finds love, pt. 1

My life changed the night my dad brought home our family’s first desktop PC. Inside the huge cardboard boxes were a CRT monitor and a Micron computer with a 1 GB hard drive and Windows 95. I was smitten with the machine from the moment the crackling screen was first turned on. I spent the rest of the night drawing in Microsoft Paint and playing Minesweeper though I did not even know the rules of the game.

Soon after, I picked up a book on HTML from my elementary school’s Scholastic book fair. A world of possibilities opened up before me. CSS was a new invention and a complete unknown to me; the <center> tag was a critical tool. <table>-based layouts ruled the web. Discovering the <marquee> tag was like Oppenheimer unleashing nuclear weapons, but good design and separation of concerns were irrelevant. I could create my own websites. The computer had become a creative tool for me.

Learning HTML set me on a lifelong path. I taught myself C++ in order to develop my own video games. In high school, I picked up Java. Originally, I went to college for biomedical engineering, but I would eventually realize I wanted a degree in computer science instead. The house I live in is paid for by the career I have built writing code.

Programming is still my passion. My nights and weekends continue to be spent learning and building with the computer. Why do I still love coding so much? Because it is literally fucking magic. You pick the right words and put them in the correct order then you can change the world. You can communicate across continents, solve impossible math problems, or build entire virtual lands.

October 19, 2025

Taylor Swift: The Chosen One

You can tell them anything if you just make it funny, make it rhyme.

Bo Burnham, Make Happy

Steph Curry ruined basketball¹. I am not mad at him nor do I blame him. If my jump shot was better, I too would want to compete for Larry O’Brien trophies. In many ways, Curry has improved the game of basketball, but his style of play has certainly destroyed what the game once was.

Historically, basketball has been dominated by freakishly tall centers: George Mikan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and many more. With Bird and Magic in the ‘80s, this became less true, but we are still talking about a power forward and a 6’9” point guard who could play any position on the floor. In the ‘90s and ‘00s, the most popular players were Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, but centers and power forwards were still superstars in the league: Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, etc.

Steph, however, changed that². No player has ever been so effortless at shooting threes, and the second most dangerous 3-point shooter in the league was his teammate, Klay Thompson. No longer could players keep their distance from a ball handler past the 3-point line. Even a half-court shot needed to be contested. The Splash Brothers widened the field of play. In doing so, the paint and the centers who dominated it became less important³.

Aerith & Cloud on the skywheel in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

August 10, 2025

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Nomura Keeps Getting Away With It

Marge: Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon.

Homer: That’s not how I remember it.
The Simpsons, “Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo”

Full spoilers for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Remake, and the original FFVII follow.

Aerith dies.

Growing up, I was a Nintendo kid. I did not own a PlayStation until I was a man. Nonetheless, Aerith’s death at the hands of Sephiroth’s Masamune is common knowledge for anybody who knows the acronym JRPG. Seeing this moment recreated in glorious high-definition was the main appeal for picking up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Technically though, I also grew up playing Rebirth. I started the game shortly after its release as a late-young thirtysomething and finished it a year later as a young-mid thirtysomething.¹ FFVII Rebirth is too long. Beating the game took me under one hundred hours, so this is not the longest JRPG ever created. Yet it drags so damn much. I would play for a week or two at a time but grow bored every time I set off to complete all the world intel for each region. Inevitably, I would put the controller down for a few months, play something else, and then pick Rebirth up once again. Remake’s shorter, forty-hour runtime felt like a light snack in comparison to Rebirth’s all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

July 25, 2025

Dodgeball

A 2D dodgeball-themed video game, made with Unity.

Releases

Windows
Web

Controls

Move: WASD or arrow keys
Throw: Hold and release left mouse button
Dodge: Right mouse button
Pause: Escape

July 25, 2025

Paddlist

A Pong clone with a twist, made with Unity.

Releases

Windows
Web

Controls

Move: Up/down arrows or W/S
Pause: Escape

July 20, 2025

United Kingdom 2025: Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself

I have mixed feelings about who I am but that is OK, I’m a little bit of everything.
Paddington Bear

Sunday, June 8

L and I have arrived in London. We were in the United Kingdom last year and got engaged; this year we are back for someone else’s wedding.

I am exhausted by the time we check in to the Z Hotel Soho. The room is cramped. Your arms can almost stretch from one side of the room to the other. Most of the floor space has already been claimed by our limited luggage. The small room does not bother me though. Sleeping on planes is impossible for me, and the ten-hour flight from Phoenix has sapped all my energy. I take a quick nap while L goes to look around the nearby Uniqlo.

Eventually, I am able to drag myself out of bed. Soho is even busier than the next-door neighborhood of Covent Garden where we stayed last year. Our hotel is right next to the Palace Theatre where Harry Potter and the Cursed Child plays most afternoons and evenings. The crowds are thick but never unmanageable.

We grab dinner at Rock and Sole Plaice, one of the city’s best chippies. Unlike many fish and chip spots, RSP has an extensive variety beyond just the standard cod or haddock.

I decide on skate for dinner, a rare find on most menus. This was always my granddad’s favorite type of fish. Unlike most fried fish, the skate is served on the bone. Pulling the meat from these bones which resemble the strings of a harp is a bit of a faff. The extra effort though is worth it for the strong, yet still clean, flavor of the meat. My granddad had good taste.

May 29, 2025

Sonic x Shadow Generations: Paint It Black

I guess I felt attached to my weakness. My pain and suffering too. Summer light, the smell of a breeze, the sound of cicadas–if I like these things, why should I apologize. The same with having a beer with you…
Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

Some rivalries are lopsided: Coke versus Pepsi. Globetrotters versus Generals. Roadrunner versus Coyote. And despite both bands’ critical and commercial successes, the Beatles versus The Rolling Stones can be included on that list as well.

A hundred years from now, the Fab Four will still be the quintessential rock band. “Ruby Tuesday” is charming, but “Yesterday” is legendary. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road are seminal works that define not only the rock genre but music as a medium.

But liking the Beatles is fairly meaningless. Their work has been absorbed by the popular culture. Enjoying the White Album says as much about you as eating at McDonald’s; you would sometimes prefer to listen to harmonious sounds than silence. As Stephen Hayden explains in Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, “If I’m honest, I’ll admit to being a Stones guy because being a Stones guy just seems more interesting. Loving the Beatles is ordinary by comparison; it says nothing about you other than your unquestioning acceptance of inevitable truths. Siding with the Beatles is like siding with gravity.” I wish I was a Stones guy.

May 11, 2025

How to Earn Your CS Degree in 9 Months

In fall 2019, I started my bachelor’s in computer science at Western Governors University. By April 2020, I had finished my degree.

At most schools, this would be impossible. WGU, however, has a unique system. Students sign up for a six-month term at a fixed tuition price. You start with a regular semester’s worth of classes. Once you finish those first four classes, you can take additional ones as long as you finish them before the end of the term. In theory, you can complete your entire degree in a single six-month term. My studies only took an extra 3 months. If you are looking to do the same, here are some of my best tips:

April 26, 2025

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: The Balance of the Force

The following essays contains spoilers for all Star Wars films and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

For the first six months of dating, my partner believed I hated Star Wars. Any time the franchise was brought up I would express visible disgust. Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker was still too fresh on my mind, and that film had buried my love for lightsabers deep down. But the lady doth protest too much, methinks.

The truth is I love Star Wars. I always have and always will. But the franchise is hard to love because it has a fundamental flaw. And that weakness is not a recent development arising out of the sequel trilogy. That problem started a long time ago in theaters not so far away.

Episode IV: A New Hope is a classic hero’s journey. The film is the most prototypical example of the monomyth, and Joseph Campbell’s influence upon George Lucas is well documented. Luke Skywalker answers the call to adventure, crosses the threshold, transforms himself, and in doing so saves the galaxy.

The morality of that first film is obvious and binary. The Rebels are the good guys. The Empire are the bad guys. Luke is robed in white, and Darth Vader is dressed in black from head to toe. From the moment Luke discovers the charred corpses of his aunt and uncle, the audience never doubts his mission to stop the Empire. And the guiding lights for Luke on this adventure are Obi-Wan Kenobi and the very idea of the Jedi.

November 9, 2024

When We Were Young 2024: The Kids Are Alright

Friday 3pm

French fries taste better in the car. The spuds are still piping hot and crispy, having not yet been ruined by steaming inside the bag. I am already in vacation mode, so the first waffle fry on my tongue tastes of salty deliciousness, not fattening guilt.

We are grabbing a bite before getting on I-17. E, J, and I are heading to Vegas for When We Were Young music festival. L is joining us tomorrow. This is my second year attending. For the other three, it is their third. We converse for the first three hours of the trip, catching up after months of not seeing each other. The long drive eventually saps us of energy though. The second half of the ride is spent listening to music. The volume steadily grows. We are going to Las Vegas for pop punk and emo, and this is our first taste of the weekend.

The playlist repeats, but we do not notice until “Vindicated” by Dashboard Confessional plays for the second time. The darkness of the desert is broken by the distant haze of light. Las Vegas nears. Soon enough, E and J are dropping me off at Park MGM. I am too cheap to stay closer to the festival grounds. I grab a slice of Roman-style pizza and a Peroni from Eataly. The pizza crust is overdone.

I review the lineup for the fourth time on my phone. No perfect solution exists. WWWY is stacked with the biggest artists the genre ever had. Missing some of the bands I want to see is inevitable due to overlap. I go to bed a little salty about the plethora of riches in front of me.