Steven Splinter

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:12:12 -0400

Fables: The Last Castle, read in Fables: March of the Wooden Soldiers.

Just… wow. An epic in 35 pages. Utterly beautiful, rich in hastily taken joys and brave sorrows. It’s an emotional thing to read this warm summer morning. 📚

Fri, 22 May 2026 18:10:45 -0400

AI as a Design Medium - Harvard Design Magazine

Three examples of how LLMs can be creatively used to explore spaces and materials, rather than get to an answer the asked wants to hear.

If you treat AI as a tool, you ask: how do I get the right answer? If you treat it as a medium, you ask: what happens if I push this?

I’m curious to know how these projects worked with LLMs. If they used cloud offerings, like Gemini or Claude, could they replicate the same results using a local machine and a local model? I’m convinced that is the future: no data centers, no profit seeking enterprises or token maxing, just a curious seeker and a machine they can physically touch.

It shows that AI does not just produce outputs; it produces trajectories. And those trajectories have shape, drift, bias toward the familiar. That is material. We are spinning up whole systems, questioned and investigated and visualized.

Mon, 18 May 2026 22:03:37 -0400

Whenever I come across a link with poor anchor text, I like to read it voiced with sudden ridiculous emphasis.

“To find out more, CLICK HERE!“ “The paper’s sources, found HERE and HERE, illustrate this point.” “THIS is a funny thing I found!”

I picture the writer wearing a comical outfit having wandered off a Monty Python set. It’s quite entertaining!

Fri, 15 May 2026 15:49:54 -0400

This week has utterly flattened me.

Work projects shuffled around, leaving me in chaos;
My manager is taking unexpected sick leave, leaving my vacation plans in a lurch;
Weather rollercoasters doing numbers on my joints;
My D&D character died in yesterday’s session, and the cherry on top:
When I’m planning to create a new one, the GM says he’ll be taking a well deserved summer break to deal with burnout, starting after our next session.

None of it is insurmountable, nothing that happened is worth throwing a pity party over. But damn if it isn’t a heavy load on my soul this afternoon.

Recently Watched: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Wed, 13 May 2026 21:00:51 -0400

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty ⭐️⭐️⭐️

There is something to be said for giving up depth for rhythm. This is a gentle film with fine and nuanced acting. If it hits some notes a little too often and maybe a little too well, like the projections of fantasy into reality, it exceeds them with movements of gorgous scenery, wonderful characters, and the lesson that living in the real moment won’t bring your fantasies to life but can reward you with stories and experiences that are better. And isn’t it just like fantasies to be monotonously repeated notes of frustrated passions, while real life is cinematic in ways you don’t expect but that feel right? 🎬

Subvert: a member owned music store

Wed, 13 May 2026 07:38:02 -0400

Now this is a cool idea I’ve only just heard of through Zöe Keating. From their FAQ page:

Subvert is a cooperative-owned music marketplace. Artists and labels sell digital music directly to listeners. Listeners buy and own what they pay for. The platform itself is owned by the people who use it.

Something like Bandcamp, but co-op style. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:11:55 -0400

It would be a perfect day to finish my work on my deck, if the entire city didn’t think it was the perfect day to get an early start on their outdoor mowing and yard’s work too.

One more reason to get out of this city, I guess.

365 Wordle Wins

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 22:05:08 -0400

Well, I did it! 365 straight wins in Wordle!

This was my third try at it. The first time, I dislocated my shoulder, and broke the streak in recovery. The second time, I had just updated my phone and forgotten to log into my account before playing. This time, I was practically devotional in how I did it. Every morning, the first thing I checked on my phone after I got out of bed, and then checked to see I was logged in and the win was recorded.

This achievement has another significance: I can retire this puzzle now.

I like playing puzzles like this in the morning. Where some people start their day with a morning run, or coffee by the window, or devotional prayer, I wake my mind by stretching it with some online puzzles. It not only helps wake me up and get focused, it gives me a small win at the start of the day, and who doesn’t like that?

Eventually, some puzzles become stale, more rote routine and obligation than joy. Murdle is a bit like that - I should enjoy it, but it doesn’t feel like a win when I solve it, more like a chore I wish I could avoid. Wordle has become that. By January of this year, I was more interested in getting the badge than I was figuring out the word. That’s when I knew I had to put it down. Not before getting that badge, though!

Tomorrow will be the first day I start with a different puzzle. I really should post about them: Raddle, Clues by Sam, Puzzmo, Tiled Words, Thinky Games, sometimes Lex’s Games. They’re all small wins that feel like standing up and stretching, feeling the small tensions release and ease into happiness. Maybe a reader would be inspired to try one and add it to their daily routine.

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 22:08:18 -0400

“They didn’t explain it to you because there’s not a good reason,” she says. “It’s just how the story is to them, and they don’t know how to read any deeper.” She pulls me closer. “Or maybe they’re just pretending. I think the entire world depends on people pretending they don’t know they’re doing terrible things.“

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, pg. 205, emphasis mine. 📚

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:28:43 -0400

To the person driving the dirty red Corvette in front of me, blasting Nirvana’s Unplugged album: you have good taste in music. If only your driving skills matched.

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:32:30 -0400

60° today. I have my windows open, and the balance of the air against my bare skin and my warm tea feels both centering and promising. I can hear the day care center across the street, through the hall and bedroom window. The kids are being themselves, loudly, but their calls and shots are proper and grounding. This is how life should be, the world’s gentle hand on our shoulders as we go about our work and lives, a murmuration of works and goings to and fro.

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:57:57 -0400

Why can’t Daylight Savings Time ever be synced to my internal clock? Stars above, my internal and external schedule is so out of whack today.

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 23:26:42 -0400

Waiting for me while waiting for a massage. By the end of this week and the rain it’s bringing, I hope the ducks will be here for real!

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 23:29:49 -0400

Seen on my morning walk to the cafe. I’d say it’s a fairly common sentiment this weekend after a week long street parking ban. 🌨️🚗

The attack on Iran today, February 28th, 2026

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 11:20:44 -0400

I am absolutely disgusted with my country right now. This attack on Iran is morally and politically bankrupt, and will do nothing but confirm for the rest of the world why they are better off without the US.

This “regime change” that they talk about, will have consequences for us down the road. But what do our leaders care? They won’t be around to see the outcomes. The dust will settle on the poor, the maimed, the downtrodden, and the powerless, and our leaders will blame them for being filthy. They will jeer at the opposition to clean up the mess if they care so much, they’re too busy making the world in their funhouse mirror image.

They do not understand - you do not bring about your goals by preparing the way for it. Preparing the way for it is how you bring about your goals. Practicing peace and prosperity is how you bring about peace and prosperity. This will do nothing but salt the earth we live on.

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:21:40 -0400

This storm is wild, everyone. It’s shaken the building in just the right way to make me think a window or door has slammed open, all night long.

The snowball fight tomorrow is gonna be epic, though!

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:18:41 -0400

Someone left googly eyes behind yesterday at my favorite tea shop. The staff knew what to do!

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:39:32 -0400

The FreakQuencies open with a new cover song and a full house!

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 10:02:21 -0400

After half a week of what felt like nothing but pointless meetings, I have two days when I can just focus at work and get projects finished.

The empty stretch on my Outlook calendar stares back at me, as if daring me to take action. As if it knows how to parry any attack I make. The catch-up-on-documentation pose? How quaint, when it has the layout-updates and queue-cleanup riposte. I can’t counter without leaving my documentation exposed, though!

Well, I’m gonna get cut no matter what I do. Might as well get started.

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 22:17:06 -0400

I was worried the book club would be sparsely attended tonight, or that I might be the only one. I’d messed up the date in the announcement, and didn’t realize my error until sending the reminder.

It ended up being one of the better attended ones, and with a great discussion too. It was less about the book and more what defined “psychoanalysis”, but aren’t some of the best discussions borne of tangents from the topic?

Snowmageddon 2026!

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 12:30:35 -0400

Drove around Providence on a last minute errand before the snow, and the streets were eerily empty. Other than the middling streetlights, beaurocratically working as if it were a sunny Sunday, I could drive freely and without the usual traffic. It reminded me of the beginning of the COVID lockdown, only with an air of anticipation and expectation, not hesitation. During COVID, the people didn’t know what the air would bring; this morning, the only uncertainty was how much of a workout the shoveling would be.

Businesses are handling this in stride. My favorite tea shop decided to open for as long as they felt like it. But now I’m home, cooking a stew and doing some laundry, before I settle in for some tea and a good book.

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 11:23:12 -0400

There is a woman catching up with a friend at this cafe, with an amazing laugh. I don’t want them to think I’m eavesdropping, because I’m not, but every time she laughs it takes effort for me to not join in.

And she just left, off to make someone else’s day brighter, I hope.

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:25:30 -0400

This month just continues to get worse and worse. Now my DnD campaign lost a decisive battle. Heck, our efforts to stop the BBEG ended up helping him.

Remind me to hibernate for January of 2027, would ya? 🎲⚔️

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:56:14 -0400

Between sickness, allergies to medication, isolation, cancelled plans and ruined routines, January has turned into the kick in the butt I needed to get working on moving out of Providence. All the comforts that kept me complacent faded, and what’s left shows me I’m not where I’d like to be.

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 19:59:39 -0400

There comes a point where people will take advantage of the standards you hold yourself to.

I’m still learning how to take the L to my pride, and take the W to my self respect.