Jonathan H. Liu

Stack Overflow: Recent Fiction Usually when I gather my thoughts at the end of the week to write my Stack Overflow, I check in a box that I keep next to my desk, where I keep books that I've finished reading but have not yet writte...

Today's stack: three compelling novels

geekdad.com/2025/12/stac...

When we got a new fridge recently, the movers did an amazing maneuvering through our narrow doorways that involved opening and shutting the fridge door at particular angles while they rotated it. Super impressive.

It's Schrodinger's war: It's war when he needs to justify killing civilians but not war when that requires Congress

I saw a bumper sticker today that said "Pessimism never works."

I'm curious how this analysis applies to his own choice to use an Asian name--David Wong--when he first started publishing his writing. I see a lot of his videos and he makes some good points but that origin story still irks me even now.

Angel ornament made of paper and tissue paper--the angel's head is a circle with a printed face that looks a bit like a Cabbage Patch Kid.

We have this "pudgy angel" that my kid made years ago and it always makes us laugh when we hang it up.

I rewatched 1 a few years ago and was pleased with how much I still enjoy it. 2 was a fun role for Tommy Lee Jones for sure.

Stack Overflow: Making Movies I've finally managed to dip into my stack of movie-related books (some of which are long overdue).

Today's stack: movie-making books!

geekdad.com/2025/12/stac...

'Masters of Crime: Mosquito' Mosquito, a secret crime organization, is determined to protect its treasure from hunters like you. Solve the clues and get to the loot before Mosquito does!

Mosquito is the 5th title in the Masters of Crime series, but the first one I've played. You're a not-entirely-legal treasure hunter and you need to solve a murder, and then find a treasure.

geekdad.com/2025/11/mast...

A German Kickstarter (game books) from a few years ago is starting to ship now, and he put out a post asking for voluntary contributions to defray shipping specifically to the US, because it costs about $55 over what had been planned at the time.

I mean, you only need money for food and shelter if you *pay* for those things instead of "pirating" them, apparently 🙃

Always appreciate your ability to process and put into words some really complex feelings.

Have you tried Tim Fowers' Typewriter yet? Has some interesting similarities to Paperback/Hardback but is its own weird thing.

Thanks for your post, Dan.

Woohoo! Congrats, that's great!

This thread is excellent

Stack Overflow: AI—Real and Fictional Artificial intelligence. Love it or hate it, it seems to be everywhere these days.

Today's stack: AI, real and fictional (but mostly fictional).

geekdad.com/2025/11/stac...

Crowdfunding Tabletop Roundup Today I've got a number of ongoing and upcoming crowdfunding projects for tabletop games!

Got a crowdfunding tabletop roundup today: heists, card-crafting, videogame adaptations, giant dice, and more!

geekdad.com/2025/11/crow...

I remember that--they had asked us to review the knock-off versions (since I'd written up the older versions at the time) and I didn't feel comfortable with the knock-offs. That's about when we decided to stop covering Mayday titles.

Oh no 😂

Zap the Ziggurat

I do a version of Inktober but on my Etch-a-Sketch!

Skewer the Skyscraper

Well, I mostly do a bunch of drawings in October every year and the rest of the time it's a lot of board game stuff 😄

And it's not just in the Crokinole world that Mayday Games does this, either. :/

If you sincerely think you have done the Author Job by having an idea, then of course it's legitimate to stick that idea into the regurgitron and claim the extruded word product as 'your book'. If the idea is all that counts then yes, you 'wrote a book'.

Thanks! Yeah, I've been doing Etch-a-Sketch drawings for a really long time now. If you look at the "media" tab on my profile, you'll see a bunch I just did last month for Etchtober. :)

You're welcome! Hope you have fun with it!

Etch-a-Sketch drawing of Calvin and Hobbes bent over an Etch-a-Sketch, Calvin gesturing at it (based on the comic strip where Calvin talks about "high art" and "low art")

Happy 40th anniversary, Calvin & Hobbes!

(a drawing I did back in 2022)

You know what doesn't run on Cloudflare? My board game table 😁