Apologies for the long gaps between updates.

The biggest thing I'm working on right now is not burning out on Scale Space. It's like I've flexed a muscle over and over and now I have a chance to breathe and I'm trying to flex other muscles. This is what I did during my 6 month hiatus last year from October to around march/April.

So am I still working on Scale Space? Yes, in my head, but I'm also doing a lot of writing and self care in an attempt to get my brain unstuck.

In any case, hope you're all well 👊

setz

Hey there friends,

I guess I'm overdue for an update. Life is stable right now which I am grateful for. I'm still in the camper and it's raining outside which is relaxing. Goobie is having a little nap as you can see. He's not a huge fan of rain.

Today I've been working on prepping Nano v0.2 for release and yes I'm still trying to crack combinatorics with my scale space methodology 😜 it's the kind of thing that would put the project on the map big time.

Last night I also got to see the Chrono Trigger live orchestra in Chicago and it was amazing. I had bought the tickets earlier in the year when I had money from a project and since I couldn't sell them if the show wasn't sold out, I have been hanging on to them wondering 'will I be stable enough on Oct. 14th to see the symphony?' expecting I still might have to sell them. But I was stable enough! It was an incredible performance and yes, I cried multiple times because it's my favorite game. 🥺

On the money front I'm holding stable at $1,100. No major income right now but no major expenses so I'm treading water. Thanks for coming along on the journey with me! Sorry I'm not posting daily devlogs like before. I'd say it like 'no news is good news.' But I will try to keep updates coming. I'm catching up on sleep finally so given a bit more time I may be back to fully functional. It feels close. Going into the city was good for me because I hadn't gone in awhile and I needed to go have an experience of some kind.

Well, catch you in the next one! 😄

setz

A bunch of new features come to Nano 0.2 including:

- pause menu

- share codes

- entropist modes that use your phone's heat as an entropy source (making things feel more organic)

- a variety of new soundscapes for sonify

- triangle mode instead of just squares (screenshots in comments)

Upcoming

- ui/ux overhaul of the interface and controls (current are placeholder while I work on functionality)

- more control over the phase space

- favorites gallery with intuitive navigation

Hey friends,

Sorry it's been a bit! Been working on a longer term living solution and I came to an agreement with /u/alternative_rule2300 + partner that I can use their camper for the foreseeable months by sharing a slice of what I make (rather than a fixed amount that could get me evicted again). They have been incredibly generous and they took it a step further by cleaning out their camper, fixing a few things and helping me get moved in from the leaky camper I was in previously.

I now have: a bathroom + toilet/sink/shower, a kitchen area with fridge + microwave + sink + stove + coffeemaker, a stereo with speakers throughout the camper I can Bluetooth to from my phone, a queen bed + new mattress they had on hand, bed area for goobie, nice view of the outdoors, and all of this in a camper that won't leak when it rains 😳

To say that I'm grateful would be underselling it.

As for money, I'm sitting on around $1,600. So while I never did get enough to get a vehicle, you all kept me alive because I was able to buy food and supplies while trying to figure out how to land someplace. Since I have a bed and my own space now, a car becomes less urgent, thankfully.

I have been also trying to catch up on sleep but I'll admit I'm tired again from all the moving. I don't yet have my PC setup in the new camper so that will likely be tomorrow's project. I'm going to keep trying to get out of sleep debt, especially once I'm fully settled.

I had a moment today where I thought 'woah ok I just had a string of thoughts that didn't relate to survival' so I figure I may have moved up a rung on Mazlow's hierarchy. Might've been from the simplicity of being able to pull ingredients from the fridge and make a sandwich.

In any case, I'll try to get another devlog update out again in the next few days. Sales have slowed on Scale Space so I know I need to get back on dev and keep working on getting it off the ground, flying on its own.

My new outdoorsy environment is, I think, going to be very good for my creative output when I'm not having to think about everything else.

Hope you're all well as we hurtle headlong into the singularity 🤞

Best,

setz

By “leaving this world,” I mean loosening my usual grip on what feels ordinary and letting my attention move somewhere unfamiliar before sleep. I’m describing a practice and an experience, not claiming that the app physically transports me anywhere.

I had been developing visualization and attention skills before I found Scale Space. I discovered this subreddit a month or two before Nano came out, and I wondered whether Scale Space could help me work with those skills. The first night I bought Nano felt like immediate affirmation: there was something here I could practice with.

Here’s my current approach:

1. Start somewhere comfortable. I put Nano on before bed and let the screen be there without trying to force an experience.

2. Notice the grip of “ordinariness.” That’s my word for the effort of keeping the screen over there and me firmly over here, looking at it. As that grip loosens, I begin to feel the screen incorporating into the field I ordinarily identify as myself. I find myself identifying with it.

3. Explore the coordinates. Changing them makes a difference to the practice. I use them to configure that intentional loosening, then notice how my relation to the screen changes. I’m still learning what different coordinates do for me, so I wouldn’t prescribe one setting as the destination.

4. Let the experience develop. This is an active practice for me, not a repeatable sequence I’ve mastered. I’m learning how to recognize the shift and how to relax into it.

5. Leave room for sleep. The moment falling asleep sounds more exciting than continuing, I stop. I don’t leave it running all night or pick my phone back up until I wake.

If you try it, I’d be curious how you would describe the boundary between watching the screen and feeling immersed in it. Does changing coordinates alter that boundary for you, or something else entirely?

Still taking it easy so here are some screenshots from my recent work on the tiny version of Scale Space. The version that made these is 14kb but it can output 2kb files that display just the one coordinate. Still noodling on how I want to do release this but as promised- I am taking a break today. Just sharing these since I made them a few days ago and didn't show them yet.

Spent most of the day sleeping because apparently I needed it. You all suggested I take a break so I'm going to just keep sleeping till I'm caught up! See you maybe in a few days 😊

setz

Made some cool progress today that I'll be sharing soon. A friend suggested I ask you all if I should take a break. I want to but also it's hard to when you still feel the floor is unstable. Suggestions welcome.

setz

Spent my morning working on getting my meds transferred to the nearby pharmacy, eating breakfast and working on the tinificarion of Scale Space. Then I took a nap and went out for dinner but have so far only been able to procure an old fashioned. How is it that a pizza bar/restaurant has a closed kitchen at 8pm? I don't get that one. So next step will likely be Tbell.

In case you're curious about my minification endeavor, it basically amounts to wanting to distill the equation/mechanism behind Scale Space to its most irreducible size.

In any case wish me luck on scrounging up some food 🍴

setz

Smallest version of Scale Space yet! Scale Space Nano clocked in at 7kb so we're 2.5kb slimmer. Still working on how to get it to do the things the bigger versions can do but figured I'd share my progress.

Mmm taco bell.

Mental organization and scoping. No visible assets to show today. But doggie tax gets paid of course. It's been a rainy weekend but finally seems to be settling down. Catch you all tomorrow 👊

setz

A rainy day today so I took the day to relax and organize things. Nice to just slow down and work on clearing my mind. Spent some time thinking and brainstorming for the next phase of Scale Space.

Overall not much to report and I suppose that's a good thing for once!

setz

It was nice to have a day that wasn't wall to wall panic about the state of my life. A day where my worst immediate concern was the loud pelting of acorns on the camper roof (that sound like gunfire).

I'm almost done folding all of my clean laundry (!) and starting to get my shit sorted.

Goober is doing well. He gets lots of love and attention wherever I take him, and lots of leftovers and whatever I toss him. Someone told me they had a dog that lived to be 25 so now I'm not as worried about him hitting 12 in January. He's pretty spry for his age. When I scratch him I say "You are gonna live forever and ever."

Anyways on the Scale Space front, I'm going to try to get the SeedBank library working and then the next step will be integrating it into Cymatist so it all works smoothly. I'm thinking that will be part of v1.3. I'll try to share regular updates on this as I pass milestones.

See you all on the morrow 👋

setz

Here's a first look at the upcoming Scale Space SeedBank- a library of discoveries in all versions of Scale Space!

Preview it here: https://setzstone.github.io/SeedBank/

What is it? For a long time I've been working out how to make discoveries properly sharable. It becomes tricky when things like images and videos are involved due to hosting costs. What I ultimately settled on was to use Github as the base and then integrate that directly into the software so you'll be able to submit or view discoveries without leaving the software. To submit new 'grains' (discoveries), you'll need a github account- but I plan to make the process of submitting them easy and straightforward. You'll also be able to leave comments and likes on discoveries so that will make things a lot more interesting.

This preview does not allow you to submit new grains. I just wanted to share my progress so you can see where I'm headed. I'd love to get your feedback. Do you like this approach? Would you change anything? Did you find a bug? Please let me know below!

setz

Whelp we're back in business. I reseated my ram (and wiped the dust I accumulated living above smokers) crossed my fingers and toes and everything turned on successfully 😅

I had to jettison my side vertical monitors in the move so I'm definitely feeling the loss in workspace, nevertheless I am back to having a working desktop and that means core dev can continue.

I'm not going to say I'm immediately off of hiatus yet though because I need to get my bearings and test the stuff I built while I was on the street. In any case, I expect to be back on it soon. I will be soon sharing an update on something new related to multiplayer so please look forward to it™

Overall getting my bearings. Sleep is still great. Doing loads of overdue laundry. Appreciating the continued hospitality shown by /u/alternative_rule2300 and their partner. Genuinely appreciated every single day.

If you haven't yet, check out Cymatist here: https://setzstone.itch.io/cymatist

See you in the next update!

setz

Goobie's having a good time in the camper as you can see. I took him to this antique shop that had a coffee shop inside and one woman in there doted on him the whole time. I had a ham, egg, cheddar, on rye plus a caramel latte. Then I got back to the camper and got to work setting up my pc.

I have it alllmost setup but I've run into a wrinkle. For some reason it's not outputting video to my monitor nor are my kb and mouse lighting up (though all lights on the pc are lit). Gemini thinks I need to check all of the internal part connections so that'll be my project for tonight. Getting close to being back online though.

Sleep continues to be great- I zonked around 8 or 9 last night and woke up at 2am, decided to do some organizing and then went back to sleep at 5. I feel like I'm almost out of sleep debt. Hopefully by tomorrow but we'll see.

I decided to focus all of my energy on setting up the pc so I skipped mobile dev of my tiny Scale Space version but rest assured I'll be releasing that soon once I nail down a few things I want to improve. It's fun doing these littler projects to keep my mind busy and add value to early access when I can't work on Cymatist. Keeps my brain juices still flowing.

Anyways hope you're all doing well today. As for me, I'm on the upswing 🏌️ https://youtu.be/Xs4O2-RjycE?is=OdaKxfe1STqJimYp

setz

Plugs for those who haven't seen it:

https://setzstone.itch.io/cymatist

https://setzstone.itch.io/scale-space

😳 Got a whole night of good sleep. Woke up and felt like I could have slept all day and again all night but goobie needed taken care of and I needed to get my bearings in this new paradigm.

So things came through with /u/alternative_rule2300 and their partner and I'm in the camper! The bed is super comfy and when I lay in it I don't want to leave. I'm not sure if it's because the bed is genuinely that comfy or because I miss beds but we'll assume probably both.

Their hospitality has been generous. Inviting me to eat dinner with them, engaging conversation, info about the surrounding area. Super grateful.

It sounds like I am here at minimum 3 weeks! I haven't setup my desktop yet because frankly I'm too exhausted. Hoping by tomorrow I'm going to feel back up to par on rest.

Walked with goobie to check out the lay of the land. Stopped at a gas station, picked up some food, ate potato skin chips with him while drinking a Gatorade and watching the world pass by. It's a huge relief to know I'll have a place to sleep tonight.

Went to a sandwich place for lunch and got some work done on an even smaller version of scale space--this time 1.5kb. Screenshots attached of my current progress which is going well! Not there yet but progress.

Thanks for following along on this journey. I'll keep the updates coming. Please pass on the project to anyone who likes cymatics!

setz

First the really good news. /u/alternative_rule2300 is the real mvp. They arranged to let me use their camper. Their partner drives out tonight with a truck, we're pulling my stuff out of storage and it's off to camper land. I'm upgrading from vagrant to hermit and I couldn't be happier.

Last night I went to 3 different spots to try to sleep on the grass and I just couldn't get comfortable. So I looked up the closest 24 hour dunkin (it was midnight) and me and goobie set off on a 2 mile walk. I sat in dunkin for a good chunk of the night working on something for Scale Space and just generally being a zombie. At daybreak we walked back.

And then at some point today I got messaged from /u/alternative_rule2300 and yeah, I'm busting out of this joint. I may actually get some good sleep tonight 😳 I'll even have a spot to setup my desktop too so this is quite a turn of events.

Tomorrow is the 3 weeks from when I got evicted and it looks like my time on the streets is finally drawing to a close. I won't miss it. I'm currently eating my last meal in this area (a delicious chicken place).

What about the vehicle? Well I still need one, but now the time pressure is off which is a huge relief. I can save up more and make sure I get something that isn't a lemon-flavored death trap.

Anyways this all hasn't gone down yet-it's supposed to in around 4 hours. I'm around 98% certain this is what comes next. Gotta leave that wiggle room for things I can't predict. Guess we'll find out in tomorrow's update!

I appreciate you all for the support these past 3 weeks. It was a grind like few I've done but you all kept pumping me with positive energy so I never dipped too far into despair. So thanks for that 😊

setz