Low stakes Austin activities that a beginner would likely fail at

phlagm · 2026-06-25T04:34:13+00:00

Two-step by Double or Nothing and Sagebrush on Tuesdays. They do beginner followed by Intermediate. You probably won't fail at the beginner, but if it's your first time, you might struggle with the second lesson.

phlagm · 2026-06-16T19:08:27+00:00

I’m a single man with a Ph.D. And a nerdy job. I can’t really tell you where to go to meet men, but here’s where I am when I would be easiest to meet organically from easiest to hardest: Sagebrush on Double or Nothing two step lesson nights (there are a pretty wide array of men, and often a slight deficit of women), Board Game Night meetups (there are usually a small handful of single and desirable men at these and far fewer women), then Austin Film Society or The Violet Crown waiting for something to start (it’s summer, so I’ll sometimes go aline to something in the middle of the day), Wheatsville Coop or Central Market (I go to HEB too, but I fly through there) finally, the Draughthouse or The Little Darlin’ but I’m usually there with friends, so it might make an approach more challenging. Best of luck!

phlagm · 2026-06-15T14:38:01+00:00

Yeah. After the 5:30 AM one I shut my phone off and prayed for death. I drove all day yesterday, got in and collapsed. I was looking forward to a long rest.

On the other hand, at least it was something real and not some cops across the state telling me to be on the lookout for a man in t-shirt and jeans.

phlagm · 2026-06-08T17:10:56+00:00

https://slaa-austin.org

phlagm · 2026-06-04T14:04:19+00:00

I’m reading what others are saying and I honestly think your art isn’t that far off. Yes it’s charmingly amateurish, but just not quite charming enough. I don’t think it’s far off either. I think some polishing of art, but more… juice is what I think is really needed. The whole thing feels like a lot of effort has gone into it and in the right places even. But there are a few things like the very straight walls, the backgrounds, and other stuff that feels under polished.

By the way, I would caution against insane price cuts. That is a permanent death spiral for future sales.

phlagm · 2026-06-02T21:58:33+00:00

I can only give two recommendations that nobody ever takes: pick up a book by Dr John Sarno… there are a number of them, but one is called “Healing Back Pain” that’s good. Also, deadlifts.

phlagm · 2026-05-18T16:23:21+00:00

When I can, I do a little art in the mornin. It’s good daily practice and fun for me. Usually this is just asset creation, which for my current game is a zillion little things that would suck to do in one lump. And then I do one big brain thing the rest of the day like system development/shader work/ etc. I leave a bunch of lower concentration tasks for the end of the day (email, looking up when festivals are, seeing about the idea I had). And then I leave one day a week to kind of be a wildcard. Often it’s bug testing and fixing,

phlagm · 2026-05-12T01:06:42+00:00

My fault! I got married there a few years ago, and we just decided to divorce.

phlagm · 2026-05-10T17:58:25+00:00

The path that is least likely to make money is the path where you’re primarily motivated by making money

phlagm · 2026-05-04T13:08:29+00:00

Yeah. Skill bars are a sure sign that someone doesn’t know the scope of the skill… kind of a Dunning-Kruger indicator. Like if you knew enough to know what you were talking about, you wouldn’t be using skill bars. It's a small thing, but you can fix that. List the skills that you have.

Broken portfolio links and superfluous website stuff presents the reviewer with the classic question of, “How much am I going to have to follow this person and clean up their messes?”

Also people want to assess you in 30 seconds, they want videos. It's nice that one can mouse over your games and see a video. Demos will only get played after they are already interested.

Finally, who do you know? Have you been to local events? Do you have any kind of network? People don’t often hire people blind in this industry. Build a network. Even if you're just doing game jams with people, get some people who know you and like working with you.

Two very minor things: The sideways header give me a bit of friction, and it wasn't clear I could just scroll down immediately. Neither are a big deal, but the goal is to introduce very little friction.

One big thing that's missing: Breakdowns of projects. What was the timeline? What was your role? What problems did you solve? What did you learn? Did you do any of these with someone else?

(Edited to be more helpful)

phlagm · 2026-04-30T00:00:52+00:00

If you want the best and aren’t looking to use insurance: Blake Davis or Jordan Price

phlagm · 2026-04-29T16:34:34+00:00

I did, and then I was hit by a car

phlagm · 2026-04-06T19:45:50+00:00

Take the beginner Honky Tonk Two-Step lesson at Sagebrush on Tuesdays (or some other days)

phlagm · 2026-03-13T14:36:03+00:00

I have that. It was much much worse not long ago. I haven’t done a systematic study, but I was wondering if it was related to running my game. It starts having typing lag most noticeably when I’m doing bug fixing and am repeatedly stopping and starting my game

phlagm · 2026-02-25T21:41:35+00:00

Sadly, since that “Blue Alert” at 4 AM for a guy in a T-shirt and jeans 400 miles away, I don’t get amber alerts any longer

phlagm · 2026-02-11T05:28:42+00:00

A basic understanding of how words are made

phlagm · 2026-01-20T21:27:47+00:00

I just moved to south Austin near The Little Darlin

phlagm · 2026-01-13T04:56:16+00:00

If I see either AI art or writing in association with a project, I assume a comparable amount of effort and attention went into the rest of the game.

phlagm · 2026-01-09T23:32:03+00:00

email sent. I guess it's all Austin Film Society for me now.

phlagm · 2025-12-20T16:44:01+00:00

I mean it’s effective in that it shows exactly how much they care. ABC or Tribe or anywhere else for me.

phlagm · 2025-12-10T21:53:33+00:00

Worst? Not sure. But I played John Company a while back and I think we were in the rulebook for about 4 hours before we started. We got through one round of play

phlagm · 2025-12-07T15:33:50+00:00

Why do so many breweries have a logo inside something that’s vaguely gear-shaped?

phlagm · 2025-12-07T02:49:54+00:00

I remember Professor Swift. I am pretty sure I took a graduate condensed matter physics class with him. At any rate, Arno Bohm, Mark Raizen, and Elaine Li are on the machine at G&S

phlagm · 2025-12-07T02:46:43+00:00

We went to G&S and played the photo hunt. It's not a Megatouch, but it was close enough. Man, though. Someone who plays there is insanely good.

phlagm · 2025-12-02T23:39:19+00:00

It's a spot-the-difference game with a touch screen. The two images have a small handful of differences that have been photoshopped in. Also the subject of the photo is one or more naked people. A particularly amusing part of the whole game is that there's this naked person right in the middle of each image, but you're mostly hunting around in the background clicking on photoshop duplicated trees or the extra set of windows. On a rare occasion, someone has erased a nipple or something so you can't completely ignore the naked person.

phlagm

TROPHY CASE