this poem walks the line between two worlds and asks me to do the same.

"its large black feathers and low caw
 on the parapet above

 there at the golden field
 in my left hand coin and roses
 in the right bunnies royalty wild

 wanting both and having thought
 i could not and letting go of all that
 and just having and wanting
 
 what i want at the golden field."

this poem is a reminder to myself to make weapons. not weapons like knives and implements of violence, but knives like kill gameplay, transformative implements, weapons with no point. to remember to wield them and enact change in my world. the tradition of language would demand that i call these tools but i have a knife for that too and i'll do what i want, thank you.

"to cut the universe of your world take shape
 though it naturally rounds and slides still
 make weapons every day and second
 by second dreaming of knives turns
 to dreaming of each round and slide
 rounding and sliding right through
 universes uncaring of perpetuity
 cosmic or existential cutting
 like knives without knives."

"which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

"in programming, state can be explicit or implicit
 that's a too-simple way of putting it but
 it will work for the purposes of our game.

 when state changes, does the code actually
 keep track of the new state, storing it some-
 where? or does it merely announce change
 and immediately forget?

 as a person, you contain directions. thoughts.
 states.

 do you store your states
 implicitly or explicitly?"

game 8
 
"when processes change, ask yourself
 this one question:

 am i storing this state change internally
 or announcing it and then forgetting?"

game 7

(i can't make a simpler game 7.)

"it is simple
 to make the meaning plain
 but it hurts
 revealing my own plainness."

"it is easy to eschew
 seeming oversimplification
 in favour of learned complexity.

 it is easy to break words in-
 to parts in-comprehensible masking
 meaning beneath the shade of end-
 less device."

"simple
 things are not easy and not hard
 like making ideas simple
 or telling the truth and not lying
 or not using the threat of losing to make people pay attention."

i want  to make art
that i can look back at and use to remember
who was i, what was i going through?

i want to make art
that i can show someone --
not necessarily just anyone, but
i should feel comfortable enough sharing it
that i don't avoid it
so in that sense maybe it should be safe
enough.

i want to make art
every day, connecting my present self
to every future self i'll ever become.

i want to make art
for these reasons.

game 6 is instrumental.
does it accomplish these goals?
does it connect me to myself?
does it connect me to others--
the others i want to connect to?
the others i'll want to connect to tomorrow?

these are the design pillars
of game 6
which has yet to reveal itself.

"when you make a game, you decide what to do with it. you decide who plays it. nothing is given. you may play it, or not play it. your friend may play it, or not play it. if a game falls in the forest, it is a game."

"make 30 harmless card games
 in the month of april of 2026."

"PREFACE: numbers of things have existed since the beginning of time! numbers are innocent, without the dirty fingerprints of humanity's oils on them.

utilize numbers in order to get whatever you want, including: more numbers!"

"run score run."