Laura Michet's Blog

Week wrap-up: Oct 13

Here's what I've been looking at this week!

Reading

2024 NACCC: North American Cycle Courier Championships San Diego - David Pintado and Josh Weinberg

This article about the '24 North American Cycle Courier Championships is a great read.

If you watch any urban cycling content on YouTube, you have probably seen videos of people at the NACCC - a yearly competition where bike couriers meet up to compete in events themed around urban navigation, speed, cargo, etc. This article goes into what it takes to bid for, plan, and operate this sports event. The pictures are awesome. Some real characters in here!!

DNSSEC Root Signing Ceremony article from Cloudflare

Loved this description of the several-times-a-year ceremony they hold while signing the root DNS zone's public security key. The level of ceremony here is, like, Warhammer 40k shit. They're just missing all the cyber skull robes.

The article is full of incredible flowcharts demonstrating why the ceremony is conducted and staffed in the way it is. Self-awarely, the ceremony is designed not only to be resilient to subterfuge, but to convey a type of formality and majesty that engenders trust. Wild stuff.

A Compleat History of the Magic: the Gathering Metagame, Supplemental: Commander's Road to Hell - Bruno Dias

Bruno finally published his huge summary of the history of Commander in MTG, which also gets into why he thinks Commander has not been great for MTG as a product, a community, or a game.

Living alt-history election dreams — and nightmares — in The Campaign Trail - Jack Sheehan

I found this article pretty fascinating and strange. Alt-history politics nerd guys (imagine them now: you are probably correct) are modding a US-election-sim browser game to create absurd scenarios imagining various political realities.

Some of the strongest writing is found in “W.,” a scenario that asks you to lead the younger Bush to reelection in a universe where 9/11 never happened. Without this totemic, era-defining event, Bush and his Republican party are floundering, out of ideas and patience. Writer QuoProQuid wanted to ask, “What is the Republican party without this huge national tragedy?” There was an urgency to the project for the developers. As the younger Bush’s presidency receded into the past, they wanted to recontextualise his personality, wars, and catastrophes for younger players who did not experience them directly. Bush and Nixon are undoubtedly fun characters to personify, with their neuroses, fatal flaws, and instantly recognizable approaches to the English language. But there is a sincere effort at historical understanding here, to try to show how many of our present-day problems originate in these earlier political eras.

I don't know that I would EVER want to play this game, but it does sound like a pretty bizarre modding community. They got Huey Long scenarios in here, but also shitpost scenarios, I guess some right-winger scenarios, and a lot of nerd-stroking data-fan shit. The article is interesting and I guess entirely satisfies my curiosity in this area, haha.

Games

Mouthwashing

I finished this game!! Second banger I've played from Critical Reflex in as many weeks. I wrote about it yesterday. Check the game out here.

I am still playing this game for the first time - emulated for the GBC, not the Switch re-release. Still enjoying myself! I just completed the trading quest and am halfway through the Face Shrine. I had to look at a guide, like, 2 more times, so my playthrough is definitely no longer pristine. That trading quest is brutal, haha... if I'd had to go around the map talking to EVERYONE 3 or 4 times to see what I had to do next, I think I would have been mad as fuck. Gamers were so strong in 1993...

For the cohost refugees

Here's some utilities for folks who are setting up blogs or connecting with folks after the shutdown of cohost:

#link_roundup