The Tri-Cities translated into hexagons

Hex translator metapattern of the Tri-Cities. Composed of separate patterns for each of the Tri-Cities, arranged (flipped/rotated) to kind of fit together the way they are in real life.

Links to each city's pattern with stats (Flickr): Richland, Pasco, Kennewick

Hex translator XIV - Pasco; Elio

The 2nd pattern on build 20250802, this time generated from the input "City of Pasco, Franklin County, Washington State". This reminds me of another change in the new build, which is that short strings (less than 200 characters) get repeated until they're over 200 characters. So the modified input is actually this string (48 characters) repeated five times (to 240 characters). I made this change because I noticed smaller patterns tended to be less visually interesting.

BTW, saw Elio on Friday and really loved it. Easily in my Pixar Top-Five. It seems like many of the recent Pixar movies haven't been super well received aside from Inside Out 2, but for me it's been some of their best stuff. I missed Lightyear and was kind of meh on Elemental, but I thought Turning Red, Luca, and Soul (and Inside Out 2) were all amazing. Onward was great, but not amazing.

New Hex Translator build

I've been reworking the Hex Translator since July 2024 and just today finally got it to a point where it can generate pattern instructions. The new build is 20250802, previous stable build was 20210227A. Major changes include:

• No more fixed base-palette, now the input determines which palette is used and most of those palette options are themselves generated from the input.
• The "speed" at which one palette color transitions to the next is now generated from a 12-value probability array unique to each entry in the palette.
• Starting and ending cells are marked.
• Regressions (resetting origin to the starting cell during pattern generation) can happen, and become increasing likely the longer it's been since the last one while the base likelihood decreases with each regression.
• Symbols and "hollow/broken" qualities have been replaced by "vacuoles" and "gears." Generation is handled a little differently.
• A bunch of "under the hood" stuff that makes it easier for me to build the pattern.
• Other things I'm probably forgetting since this took a really long time.

Here's the first full pattern I generated with the new build. The input is translated lyrics from "Pepper Keibu" by Pink Lady.

My experience with ketamine infusion therapy

Overview

I recently went through ketamine infusion therapy for depression and want to share my experience. (Buckle up, this is a long post.) Overall, it was very, very positive. If you’re not familiar, the therapy consists of getting hooked up to some equipment (IV pump, blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter) and sitting in a dark room for 40-120 minutes at a time. The pump pushes a steady dose of ketamine (and a little antiemetic to control nausea) into your veins throughout the infusion. Medical staff check your vitals periodically. Eventually they come in, say you’re done, unhook you from the machines, and you can spend a few minutes getting your bearings before leaving. The clinic I went to recommends six 40-minute infusion sessions within a 15-day period with the option of another one or two sessions in the 3-6 weeks following that period.

I won’t try to explain what happens neurochemically, but basically the thinking is that this treatment increases neuroplasticity in the days and weeks that follow. As I understand it, repeated exposure to the drug “loosens up” rigid patterns of thought, freeing your brain to form new, healthier patterns. And this helps treat depression and anxiety. (Subjectively, I feel like it might grant perspective that makes it easier to find your way out of these dysfunctional loops.)

Ketamine, especially in these doses, is profoundly disorienting and nausea is a common effect. They tell you to fast for 8 hours before the infusion and limit liquids in the last 2 hours. (I once tried fasting for only 3 hours after a light lunch and that was the only time I had noticeable nausea afterwards. Fasting the full 8 hours is a good idea.) You also shouldn’t drive or make important decisions for 24 hours following each infusion.

The clinic I used strongly recommends being under the care of a mental health provider prior to and during infusion therapy. I think that’s a very good idea.

Details

This table shows how my sessions were scheduled, the ketamine dose for each session (expressed as milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight), and what I listened to.

Session	Day	Time	Dose	Music
1	1 (June 10)	5:15pm	0.53 mg/kg	Richard Houghten
2	3 (June 12)	6:15pm	0.64 mg/kg	Mikel
3	9 (June 18)	3:30pm	0.64 mg/kg	Richard Houghten
4	10 (June 19)	3:30pm	0.76 mg/kg	The Japanese Town
5	15 (June 24)	4:00pm	0.76 mg/kg	River Master
6	16 (June 25)	3:00pm	0.82 mg/kg	sole space
7	36 (July 15)	3:00pm	0.82 mg/kg	custom playlist

For anyone considering this therapy, I’d recommend spacing the infusions with at least one day between them if possible, rather than having them back-to-back like I did due to schedule limitations.

Audio

Also, regarding music: The provider I worked with recommended calm, gentle music without lyrics and I think that’s excellent advice. Your thoughts can go strange places while in that dissociative state and I strongly suspect lyrics would encourage unhelpful diversion. The disassociation isn’t just a byproduct, it’s the therapeutic payload. Tempo and mood make a difference too; for my second infusion, I listened to Zelda & Chill II and, though I enjoy that album in other contexts, found it to be a poor choice for these infusions. It had a dark, mechanical “marching” vibe that made me feel like I should doing. That’s apt for video games, but wrong for this experience.

The albums that worked best for me during the infusions were Sailing through Rainbows of Sound, meowcraft, and The Angler’s Dream. Earbuds with active noise cancellation are a good idea.

Play-by-Play

Because it’s something I would want to know, I’ll describe in detail what happens during each infusion visit. Bear in mind that: (1) these were preceded by a consultation appointment where I discussed my complete medical history with the provider and got to ask lots of questions, and (2) protocols differ and this only represents my perception of how one clinic does things. That said, here’s how it goes:

The patient arrives. Since they won’t be driving after, they were probably brought there by someone they trust. They identify themselves to the reception team and pay the fee. Reception then escorts them to a small room just large enough for a sink, some cabinets, a power recliner, a stool, and a chair. The care provider comes in and talks with the patient for a couple minutes. Meanwhile, a nurse enters and starts getting things ready. The provider gives the nurse some instructions which might include information like dose, use of an initial bolus, and additional medications (perhaps to control blood pressure or nausea). They tell the patient the nurse will check on them about ten minutes into the therapy and the patient should try to give a thumbs-up if everything is going well.

The provider leaves and the nurse preps the patient for IV catheterization (helps choose the site, swabs the skin, gives a small subcutaneous lidocaine shot to numb the spot). The nurse places the IV, then connects the blood pressure cuff and pulse ox finger clip. The nurse records patient vitals and starts the IV pump. Before the nurse leaves, they switch off the lights and turn on a projector that covers the ceiling in slow, swirling green and blue shapes. The patient reclines the seat and stares at the ceiling.

It takes a little while for the drug’s effects to become noticeable, maybe two or three minutes. The first thing I notice is that my tongue and fingertips start feeling “fuzzy.” The disassociation comes on gradually. I would begin feeling very comfortable, but not sleepy. The state itself is hard to describe. You don’t think in the ways you normally do. Maybe imagination deepens. Time seems to move at a different rate. The nurse checks in, a thumbs-up is given, they leave.

Thirty minutes later, the nurse comes in and makes sure the patient has some awareness. They remove the sensors and IV, then bandage the insertion site. They leave the lights off and tell the patient to take as long as they need to get their bearings. Once the patient feels well enough to walk, they go outside and meet their ride.

Thoughts, Mind-Wandering

Here are some things that passed through my mind during the infusions. These were mostly like vivid daydreams, or possibly pseudohallucinations.

During the first infusion, I briefly forgot where I was and felt like I was in a place outside the world. Another time, I felt like I was capable of perceiving everything anywhere and my entire life to that point had just been a tiny, arbitrary sliver of this greater continuum of experience.

For a while I considered the vast amounts of human labor it took to produce the room I was sitting in; the construction of the building, the manufacturing of the tools to do that construction, the development of technologies to produce materials, laying all the roads to bring them there, the training of the staff (and the training of the trainers), and all these recursive origins for the people, objects, and knowledge that went into creating this little room for this simple (in a way) treatment.

Once, I was in something, part of it. I couldn’t move or breathe, but there was no sense of confinement because I was getting everything I needed to live. I knew that the things surrounding me were having the same experience and we had some awareness of each other. I had a moment of panic, thinking, “Oh no, what am I supposed to be doing?” And then a surge of relief realizing that I was already fulfilling all my obligations by just existing in this state. I think I was a cell in the body of a larger organism.

Something that felt like an epiphany and stuck with me for a long time after: There’s no escape from existence. Once you have presence, the feeling of being, you will always have it. Death might change it, or erase memories, but “you” (as in, the thing that feels) still exist and experience something. If you were looking forward to some “final rest” forget about it! The only feasible response is acceptance because the alternative is discomfort and longing without end. Learn to love existing. (I admit some cognitive dissonance about this. It’s impossible for me to know it without evidence, but it feels true and I think the belief is functionally useful.)

Cost

I understood the cost per infusion, without insurance, to be $350. Fortunately, my insurance covered it and the Explanation of Benefits forms showed an “amount billed” of $407 per infusion. My personal costs were $200 for each of the first five visits, at which point I hit my deductible so visits six and seven were only $100 each. My total out-of-pocket cost with insurance was $1,200.

Effects

The short-term effects are apparent and somewhat negative. Immediately following an infusion I would only want to lie down and watch TV. I’d have no appetite. But this went away after 4-5 hours and I was back to feeling fully normal by the middle of the next day, aside from a temporary reduction in physical stamina. The reduced stamina lasted, at most, 2-3 days. During that time I also felt sharper while doing complex tasks, sort of like the opposite of brain fog.

The longer-term effects are more subtle. My mood improved massively, though not immediately. For me, it took a couple weeks. And even then I wasn’t sure about the cause since there’s some natural variation and an uptick in early summer is typical. But now that I have more data I feel confident in attributing most of the improvement to the ketamine infusion therapy. Here’s a chart from a daily mood tracking app I use:

Other longer-term changes I’ve noticed include a small increase in libido and shortened recovery from events that would usually worsen my mood for hours or days after.

Overall, I’m extremely satisfied with the therapy. The provider at the clinic says I can come in for booster infusions in the future and I can imagine myself benefiting from those. Maybe in 3-6 months or a year, we’ll see. I don’t regret my 7th infusion but it felt like the returns had diminished substantially.

Timberborn detailer custom tail pattern (LGBTQIA+ progress pride flag)

If you haven't heard of Timberborn it's a great city builder game, kind of like a simpler, cuter version of Dwarf Fortress, but with beavers instead of dwarfs (dorfs).

In Timberborn's Update 6 they introduced the Detailer, a building that lets beavers stamp designs on their tails. And you can make your own custom patterns for it. They have a gallery of custom tail patterns on the wiki, but they don't really fit with the "rustic" textures in the rest of the game imho. So I made one for the progress pride flag. Here it is in action:

You can download the LGBTQIA+ Pride Progress Tail Pattern here:

2025-06-06_timberborn_pride-flag-tail_final.png (1.3 MB PNG Google Drive link)

Lastly, here's a screencap of my current Folktails settlement, Gnawcksville:

Fantasy Drag Race (s17) final update

Here are the final Fantasy Drag Race Top-4/Bottom-3 (RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17) results! Congrats to Cris on winning with 96 points. A&L came in second with 76 and I scored a gentleman's 52. There was no scoring for the final episode, which aired 4/18/25 (Onya Nurve won), because this roto only calculates scores at the end of each episode in which there are at least four contestants left in the competition.

Cris and I are doing something similar, but less structured, for RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 10. This time they're doing three brackets of six contestants each, so we picked our top-3 in each bracket (plus a bottom-1 per bracket) and then an overall top-3 from that pool of 9. Here are my picks for All Stars s10 (excuse the messiness):

Gamifying Dinner Decisions: A 12x12 Grid for Takeout

"What should we have for dinner?" The eternal question—riddled with metaphorical quicksand, ready to trap anyone who dares ask it in the sinking suck of choice paralysis. But fear no more: Introducing Dinner Picker.

---

This is an idea I had last night. I made a list of places from which we could potentially order delivery. Conveniently, it was a nice round number (40). Then my spouse and I weighted some of the results using these rules:

• You have a budget of 15 +'s and 5 (-)'s.
• Apply +'s to places you like and (-)'s to places you don't.
• The maximum number of +'s you can apply to each place is 2. Max (-)'s per place is 1.
• Each place starts with a 3-point share, modified by the sum of +'s and (-)'s applied to it.

This was the result:

Today, I refined it further. It was pretty straightforward because I'd made something similar for TV shows back in 2019. So, now, here's Dinner Picker v. 0.10:

And, hey, a printable PDF version (88 KB) because why not.

Each restaurant appears in the grid a number of times equal to its modified share value. Luckily, it works out that there are 140 results (40×3+(15-5)×2) which fits nicely into a 12x12 grid if you chop off the corners. Scrambled the positions because it's more interesting that way (and it helps prevent I thing I dislike where folks can start predicting results without consulting the table after they become familiar with the layout).

---

(cue announcer:) Dinner decisions don’t have to be a nightly spiral into vacillation. With a little structure, Dinner Picker turns chaos into clarity—one grid square at a time. Go ahead, let the table decide.

Hex Translator - SubPalette Tests

There's this 5-color palette I like, sort of a combination of muted/faded versions of teal, red-orange, gold, navy, and dark gray. Couldn't find a name for it specifically, but people seem to consider it part of Art Deco. Separately, I've been working on differently-weighted subpaletes for the next iteration of the Hex Translator. I decided to work out the relationships between those "Art Deco" colors using my homebrew color system so I could have the HT generate new versions of that palette. These were the results:

Began by getting as close as I could with selections from the 56-hue palette (the colors on the far left, excluding jet). Then figured out how those needed to change to match my ideal version of the Art Deco palette (the next column, indicated by the black triangle). Navy was complicated because I have rules about how modifications to BaseHues can't stack too much ink in one place, or get too dark—i.e., in CMYK, C+M+(Y/2)+(K×1.5) can't exceed 180. So the K formula for that color ends up being (180-((C+M+(Y/2))/1.5.

I treat teal as the index color from which all others (except jet) are calculated. So the red-orange slot, for example, is always the index BaseHue minus 24 (and wrapping around to 56 if less than 1). Confusingly (to me), in Excel, the actual formula for that (since there's no 0 BaseHue) ends up being MOD(IndexColor-25,56)+1. Then the result gets its CMY values multiplied by 0.95.

The next four columns are the subpalettes generated from different index colors (7, 34, 41, 55).

The process of figuring out how to translate an existing palette to my own grammar was engaging. Think I'll try this again with a different palette.

FDR Update (s17e10), Mickey 17, HT2024 palettes

New Fantasy Drag Race update (now current through episode 10). Good thing this has been a bit of a test run—realized I'd completely forgotten a major part of the scoring (the points players get for members of their Top-4 remaining in the competition).

Saw Mickey 17 yesterday. Really enjoyed it. My Letterboxd review for anyone interested.

Been working on palette stuff for the next version of the Hex Translator. Finalized the 56-color "basic hues" palette a while back but never shared it here. This forms the backbone from which all the colors used in the patterns are derived. The basic hues each have 2-4 light variants and 0-4 dark variants based on formulas for minimum and maximum pigmentation (C+M+(Y/3)+(K*1.12) > 20 minimum, C+M+(Y/2)+(K*1.5) < 180 maximum). In the spreadsheet excerpt below you can see the effects of those formulas as red zeroes where a light or dark variant passed out of range for having too little or too much pigment. It's also why, for example, indigo (im500) in the BasicHues chart (right) only has light variants.

refine(refine(refine (garden troughs)))

This is a series of images I had DALL-E 3 generate. The initial prompt was for garden troughs with beautiful shrubs and flowers growing out of them. Then I asked it to refine that output and kept on iterating like that. It couldn't quite get what I had in my mind's eye (or maybe I couldn't communicate it well enough), but it made some pretty stuff along the way.

Feel like we peaked with these two:

More refining...

Last two:

FDR Update

Fantasy Drag Race update for s17e08 (see below). And I made a mistake in the last one, now corrected.

Fantasy Drag Race update, new Kancho, card binder

Six episodes into Drag Race Season 17 now. Our updated Fantasy Drag Race T4B3 standings:

Also, another awesome Kancho illustration commissioned from the excellent Alen Fey!

Recently reunited with a binder of collectible cards I kept when I was 11. One of my most prized possessions at the time. The page shown here was "favorite Marvel superhero art cards (female)."

Made crinkle cake today. It's really good. Didn't put nuts in mine. I think next time I might do 50% more custard. Would go well with almond gelato.

FDRT4B3 Update

Three episodes into Drag Race s17 we finally have an elimination. Here are the current standings (click to enlarge):

Fantasy Drag Race Season 17

Some friends and I are doing a Fantasy Drag Race game for RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17. Here's a link to the rules (264 KB PDF): 2024-12-14_Rules for Fantasy Drag Race.pdf
(edit: updated file 12/14/24)

Message me your picks by Jan. 2, 2025 if you want to play!

Nauvis Space Platform is Go

Still chugging along in Factorio: Space Age. Last night I got my first space platform into orbit! Here's the big moment down at the rocket silo (surrounded by heavily polluted waters):

And the platform itself (named for the space station from Planetes), rinky-dink as it is:

And a snapshot of the main base map at time of launch:

Solid Fuel Optimizer

This is a little solid fuel optimizer I made in Factorio: Space Age using decider combinators. It figures out which oil fraction (light oil, heavy oil, petroleum gas) is most plentiful and processes it into solid fuel for boilers down the line.

Same image without the decider windows: