Old magic, new circuits, and whatever else strikes my fancy.https://lbds137.github.io/blog/en-ushttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-backrooms-part-3-every-place-that-ever-was/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-backrooms-part-3-every-place-that-ever-was/This is the third of four posts about the Backrooms film. Part 1 was the first night: everything it reminded me of, and the degrading fractal underneath. Part 2 followed that pattern down into the Abyss and through Clark's story, up to the moment the pirate copy of him takes him. This one is about…Sun, 01 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMTfilmbackroomshorrorocculthttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-backrooms-part-2-the-one-thing-it-cant-do/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-backrooms-part-2-the-one-thing-it-cant-do/Last time, in Part 1, I went through everything the new Backrooms film set off in my head, starting the night I first saw it, from The Stanley Parable to the Habsburgs, and the pattern I found under all of it: a degrading fractal, a world made of copies of copies that get worse the further down you…Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTfilmbackroomshorrorocculthttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-backrooms-part-1-the-degrading-fractal/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-backrooms-part-1-the-degrading-fractal/If you've spent much time online in the last few years, you've probably seen the picture: a big, empty room with yellowed wallpaper, damp-looking carpet, and buzzing fluorescent lights, the kind of office space that feels like it's been closed for years. It was posted to 4chan in May 2019, in a…Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTfilmbackroomshorrorocculthttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/picking-this-back-up/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/picking-this-back-up/The last thing I posted here was a ramble about randomness in April 2018. It ended with me saying I wanted to keep writing, but that I was going to try the mirror exercise and then go to sleep instead. The last time I came back from a break, in "The 2017 Reboot", I opened with "Yikes, it's been over…Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTmetaaihttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/on-randomness-ramble/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/on-randomness-ramble/I wrote a rambling essay last night about randomness. The tl;dr is that I think that when our respective creation stories say that order was created from chaos, the real meaning is that chaos is the building block of our reality. Chaos never left, and it is the entropy / randomness that engulfs us…Tue, 17 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMTlilithmetaphysicshttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/transgender-poetry/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/transgender-poetry/It has been far too long since I engaged in the creative endeavor of writing poetry, where "far too long" can be more precisely expressed as "almost two years". Given that my recently discovered transgender identity has been on my mind a lot these days, it made sense to use that topic as a…Wed, 25 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTpoetrytransgenderhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-2017-reboot/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-2017-reboot/Yikes, it's been over a year since my last post, but now I'm back and hoping to stick around. As you may have noticed, I changed up the theme of the blog a little bit (and of course I changed my name on Google+) to better reflect the new and improved me (keep reading for the big but pretty obvious…Thu, 19 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMTmetatransgenderhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/myers-briggs-type-indicator-and/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/myers-briggs-type-indicator-and/I've been meaning to write on this subject for a long time now (and in general to post content more frequently!) but my lingering insecurities, combined with excessive perfectionism, have made it difficult for me to get motivated enough to produce content of sufficient quality (as determined by my…Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMTcognitionmbtimetahttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/time-capsule-high-school-graduation/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/time-capsule-high-school-graduation/While rifling through my room as part of some spring cleaning that I've been doing, I decided to flip through the various awards I've gotten throughout the years (how narcissistic of me), specifically those received in the era spanning from elementary school through the end of high school. Nestled…Sat, 09 May 2015 00:00:00 GMTtime capsulehttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/in-honor-of-national-poetry-month/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/in-honor-of-national-poetry-month/I almost missed the occasion due to ignorance (my 7th and 8th grade English teacher's efforts notwithstanding), but today I remembered that April is National Poetry Month in the United States and realized that I only have a handful of days left to use it as an excuse to post some more of my…Sun, 26 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMTpoetryhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/close-encounters-of-canine-kind/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/close-encounters-of-canine-kind/There are few experiences in life that are as raw and visceral as sex and fear. In the name of decency and privacy, I will probably never write about the former, but in the aftermath of today's events I am compelled to write about the latter.Mon, 23 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMTrunninghttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/better-late-than-never/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/better-late-than-never/Cliché is generally frowned upon by writers with any degree of skill and self-respect, amateur and professional alike, but from time to time certain occasions arise in which it is desirable and even preferable to utilize such a literary device (if it can be termed thus). As I attempt to write this…Thu, 04 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMTmetapoetryhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/valentines-day-prelude-trilogy/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/valentines-day-prelude-trilogy/In anticipation of the rapidly-approaching annual celebration of Valentine's Day, I thought it might be appropriate to share a recent trilogy of poems dedicated to a special someone, even though my attempts at courtship ultimately floundered. I have since escaped the clutches of the negative…Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMTpoetryhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/a-foray-into-mythological-poetry/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/a-foray-into-mythological-poetry/I've been fascinated by ancient mythological stories for as long as I can remember. My first exposure to mythology came at an early age in the form of a (likely pirated) videogame, Disney's Hercules. Then, in elementary school, I learned about Egyptian and Norse mythology, becoming enamored with the…Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMTpoetryhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/my-musical-metamorphosis/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/my-musical-metamorphosis/I bought my first music CD sometime in fourth or fifth grade, setting off a grand aural adventure and amassing a rather sizable collection of shiny flat plastic doughnuts in my bookshelf in the process. My interest in music began after I heard Linkin Park's In The End several times on DC's (now…Mon, 30 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMTmusichttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/running-mile-in-my-shoes/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/running-mile-in-my-shoes/Although running is indeed one of the few sports that require very little equipment, one still cannot do without the basic essentials of clothing, which (in most cases) include a pair of sturdy running shoes. I've already outlined the broad strokes of the debut of my running career, but talking…Sat, 03 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMTrunninghttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/my-one-year-runniversary/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/my-one-year-runniversary/Despite the fact that I played lacrosse for a few years back in middle school, I never considered myself particularly athletic and generally viewed sports with disdain. I was that chubby little kid who huffed and puffed and ran the mile in 11 minutes in fifth grade PE. In my second year of playing…Wed, 10 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMTrunninghttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/playing-with-play-music-all-access/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/playing-with-play-music-all-access/A few weeks ago, Google simultaneously announced and released its new Play Music All Access service on May 15th, the first day of the I/O 2013 developer conference it held in San Francisco. I was already excited about I/O, but the release of All Access caught my interest in particular because I was…Sun, 09 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMTmusictechnologyhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/tour-de-leesburg-adventure/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/tour-de-leesburg-adventure/Today was the first day of Strava's fi'zi:k Tour Tune-Up Challenge, the completion of which requires participants to ride 30 hours on their bicycle of choice in the span of 16 days. When I joined the challenge, I did some simple math and found that 30 hours split across 16 days comes out to 1:52:30…Sat, 08 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMTbikingfoodhttps://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-obligatory-inaugural-post/https://lbds137.github.io/blog/posts/the-obligatory-inaugural-post/All good things (or bad things, for that matter) must start somewhere, and my humble personal web log (henceforth referred to as "my blog", "the SOSS", or perhaps "the sauce") is no exception. I suppose the expectation is that this inaugural blog post will shed some light on a few key questions you…Fri, 07 Jun 2013 00:00:00 GMTmeta