6 ways to make your life a little better...

The Powers of Labyrinth Life

I’ve play-tested the game now with hundred of people, and I’ve been continually surprised at people’s acceptance of the sixteen powers of Labyrinth Life. These sixteen little beasties were hell to choose, and I still think about the kind of world we’d have if these were the sixteen characteristics that defined our civilization.

I’m going to tackle the powers today, hopefully offering satisfying answers to the following questions: Why have powers at all? Why sixteen? Why these sixteen? Is this really all there is to human experience?

With everything else going on in the game, it's easy to miss that part of what makes Labyrinth Life so interesting is the shape of the cards (and the implicit placement of tiles). In this article, we'll explore the logic behind the geometry, and we'll discover how the hexagon was the first step in turning a bunch of nice ideas into a game. more

How Do You Deal With the Word Faggot?

I wrote an article over at Mused Mag. You might like to check it out. Starts like this…

“It was 7th grade, winter, and the school day was almost over. I was late to homeroom because I was asking Mr. Kessler, my fresh-out-of-college social studies teacher, inane questions about his personal life with a group of pubescent girls. Each set of their shoulders pulled further back than the one before to accentuate the little breasts the girls feared might never reach a size worthy of attention. But I was trying not to be noticed.”

Count My Soulmates

For Valentine’s Day, Joe Hanson of PBS’s It’s OK to Be Smart compared finding true love to finding alien life on another planet. In the latter part of the video, Joe calculated the number of soulmates a 25-year old, NYC girl might find in her region, given a few variables particular to her situation.

But I wanted to know how many soulmates I might have around these parts! So I did some calculating. Disappointed as I was to realize there are just 4 in NYC for me (did someone say quintet?), I pushed ahead and made this nifty little calculator to help calculate your odds of finding love on this lonely little planet.

Last week, Mused Mag’s Drew-Shane Daniels spoke against the growing popularity of the comparison between the gay and black experience embodied in the slogan, GAY IS THE NEW BLACK. He argued that not only is it unfair to conflate the gay and black struggle, but also that it’s unfair to expect black people to support the gay cause simply because they’ve been through the ringer as well.

I wanted to agree that we should put the slogan to rest. Though Daniels stated his case well, I don’t think his argument was enough to send GAY IS THE NEW BLACK into retirement. The comparison is important, and here’s why…

Mike Stop Continues

The Wonder of Hexagons

His Quest...

6 ways to make your life a little better...

The Powers of Labyrinth Life

The Wonder of Hexagons

How Do You Deal With the Word Faggot?

Count My Soulmates

GAY IS THE NEW BLACK is for Heroes