Neat, it has a sort of Hollywood quality to it. The creaking and groaning seemed special and interesting. Reading about this game, I wonder if Cole's brother would like it (he loves No Man's Sky)

My Appreciation Wednesday pick is General MIDI. It is very cozy and I have so many cherished memories playing games that use it: Maddy's old stuff, Oddwarg's, and now Old School RuneScape

I mentioned Vue SFCs a while back which scratched a similar itch for me.  Who knew that three languages in one file could feel so good?

Yeah! I was disturbed when I saw how angular did it back when I last worked with it (3 files!!! zomg!!! no thank you!!!) maybe it's closer to the vue approach now... web framework i had most expertise in was react, i really like their approach to dom + logic. but i saw like 4 different frameworks for applying CSS to components, and never really spent enough time with react outside of work to decide which one was the nicest.

Somehow I struggled more in Java in deciding when to use abstract classes vs interfaces, or even inheritance vs composition.  Too many options for me.

I really relate to this--TS gives you sooooooo much flexibility (arguably too much), but I think after 8 years I am finally narrowing in on my preferred approaches haha. It feels like a lifetime ago that I programmed in Java, but I mostly preferred inheritance. after i Becamed A Professional i started picking up more composition techniques though. i feel i regularly used some pretty wack features in java (anonymous classes is one that comes to mind)

I still haven't played with TS.  If I start a new JS project, I should give it a go.

TS is my fave if you couldnt tell... if you're already bundling (which if you're writing for the web, then you probably are) it might be pretty plug and play. and i think you can configure which compiler rules you care about the most. (i have a feeling you can't opt out of some of them or something, though!) i have found myself unable to perform at jobs where i inherited JS code, but i have spent almost 15 years working in strongly-typed languages

OK mine is less adorable, but I appreciate TypeScript namespaces

I really love them. I think it is so cool to be able to organize types, functions, constants inside a single unit. I really enjoy the explicitness at usage sites of the namespace, too. They also have some interesting quirks where a type, class, or function can even be a namespace!

// data-itemz.ts
export namespace DataItemz {
    export interface Type {
        name: string;
        cost: Integer;
    }

    export const manifest = {
        burger: {
            cost: 999,
            name: "Delicious Burger",
        },
        cheeseburger: {
            cost: 1,
            name: "Undelicious Cheeseburger",
        },
    } satisfies Record<string, Type>;
}

// player.ts or something
function eatItem(player: Player, item: DataItemz.Type) {
    player.health += 1;
    console.log(`Wonderful. It tasted like it cost ${item.cost} money.`);
}
I think they are being deprecated in some future version of TS though. I will probably not use that version, as I find this so pleasing!!!

I've a friend from another online community who is as close to a saint as I know.  He's a teacher professionally who works with challenging kids.  He supports and donates to LGBT causes, donates blood regularly, and tries to spread as much positivity as possible.  Online, he organizes community events to bring people together and motivate them.  He arranges writing events, game giveaways, and more.  He gives more of himself than anyone else I know.

I really appreciate and admire that.  I also know it's not easy.  It's a deliberate decision to continue pouring one's energy out into the world, offsetting the negativity that permeates so much of online discourse, and hoping it makes a difference.

For me, at least, it has made a difference.  I can honestly say that he inspires me to be a better person.  He's my pick for this week's Appreciation Wednesday.

The last good year of our lifetimes.