Hiya, we’re not gonna go super in depth today, but I just wanted to show y’all some nerd shit I’ve been working on :D. I’ve got a bigly game of Draw Steel scheduled for this weekend which is going to be incredibly exciting. Like… 12-16 hours probably :D. It’s going to be soooo funnnnn. Anyways, I made some things that are kinda cool.

First, as you loyal followers know, Draw Steel is played on a 1 inch-by-1 inch grid. However, some creatures take up more than 1 square — some are two-by-two or even three-by-three. And some of these are a creature type called minions — creatures you expect for there to be a lot of. So we needed some tokens for these chonkers. So I went out to the dollar store to make something and I cam back with these wooden discs. I painted them up and boom. We’ve got big tokens

We also started using a new miniature priming technique. Before, we basically just used a spray primer to give them a black base coat, then we applied other colours from there. This new technique is a pretty well-known one called Zenithal Priming. Basically, you base it black like normal then you spray the top with white — creating a highlight and shadow effect. It looks pretty decent and is also super easy. Look at these guys!

While they look pretty good just like this, the other benefit is it makes them easier to paint — since if you use thinned out paints, the shadows and highlights sort of still show up. Look at this nerd I painted: Emperor Parthunaax

This guy really didn’t take me a long time — probably 30-40 minutes — but looks really solid. Super serviceable at the table. My partner also painted their character: Saint Esyr.

They spent way more time on theirs, and it shows. It’s really good! But I’m pretty happy with Parthunaax given the time I spent on him.

Anyways. should be a fun TTRPG weekend. Maybe I’ll write some fiction for Sunday, but who knows :p.

Other News

A little bit of a saddie

ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Cazadores de Fake News put together a massive database of all the Venezuelans sent to the ol’ El Salvador prison. Which was like… you know. Bad. And also Yikes.

I’ve spent an hour of two reading through the database and it’s just so sobering. Also ridiculous that part of the investigation had to be into people’s normal ass tattoos.

I can’t recommend other folks read through this — but it was very moving to me.

DRAW STEEL DRAW STEEL DRAW STEEL

Not to freak out. But draw steel releases tomorrow — probably at noon. I think it can be found here. It’s gonna be so cool I love this game so much. It does mean I’m on the hook to update all the stuff we’ve published for Draw Steel already, but that’s okay. It’s a pretty fun process once I sit down to do it.

Anyways. I’m so hyped for Draw Steel. The art is so fucking good.

Remember that essay

Well I submitted it for peer review. And it’s reeeeaaaalllllllyyyyyyy bad. Like half as long as it’s supposed to be, borderline incoherent, and doesn’t even include as many sources as it needs to.

And well, I figured what the heck. I know basically no one in the class. They don’t know me. So what if it’s shit — I’ll never see them again.

Uh oh. Slight problem. The editor in chief of the Ubyssey is in that class. And guess who is reviewing my paper 💀 

I want to die I’m so embarrassed even though she says it’s fine and I shouldn’t be embarrassed.

Terrible. Worst day of my life.

Also I’ve been watching invincible

More on this later but I’m really enjoying it :D. It makes me want to run a supers ttrpg game. Probably will some time this year :D.

Also I hate gore but I’m… fine with 2d animated gore? Idk it’s weird.

From the Archive

Whoa chat it’s the death of first past the post in AMS elections

Oct 3, 2003

That’s All!

That’s tonights newsletter. We really blitzed through this one :D. I need to do some more prep for Draw Steel Demonanza this weekend. It’s gonna be insane. They’re tenth level and I think the game is simply gonna break. But we’ll figure it out.

Also I need to unfuck my essay :(

Until Sunday at 10:03 pm, buzz on, my busy bees!

Queer youth prison since 2025