chaosworks.org

13 May 2026

Broadway Binge

I recently spent 2 weeks in New York City to feed my nostalgia and revisit this place that I kind of grew up with. I used to stay with a relative here on my past visits, who sadly passed away a few years ago. But what I did a few times with her was to go to TKTS and get discounted same-day tickets for a show. That way, I saw The Producers and Wicked, for example. However, it was usually not so easy to go to plays, because we had to go deep into New Jersey afterwards – which late […]

10 May 2026

Revisiting New York: Politics, history and famil(iarit)y

Yesterday, I returned from my 10th visit to New York. After I blogged about my New York Nostalgia last autumn, I actually went through with it and booked a 12-day trip to New York, despite some doubts I had, mainly regarding the political situation. Is politics a reason not to visit a place? Depends. I think if you think like that, then I think a lot of countries are off the table for a vacation as well… most countries in the Middle East and northern Africa for their treatment of women and queer people, some European countries with right-wing governments […]

24 April 2026

Dark and Dangerous TTRPGs (III)

In December 2025, I posted about 20 RPG systems that I played that are not DnD – 10 fantasy systems, and 10 more systems that are not traditional fantasy. Since then, I’ve got to play a lot more RPGs, so it’s time for another round of mini-reviews. Not all of them are necessarily dark and dangerous, but I somehow had to come up with a distinguished title 😆 Black Powder and Brimstone: This is a standalone game based on Mörk Borg is set in a fantasy world where gunpower just became a (volatile and very explosive) thing. Not only that, […]

2 April 2026

A Rant About T-Shirts

I’m not a fashionable person, I wear t-shirts and hoodies about 98% of the year. I can’t handle dealing with all the fancy outfits and whatnot that you’d find in the average fashion store. Usually they are uncomfortable, unpractical, cold, or all of the above. Regular shaped women’s shirts with a comfy zipper hoodie are the only thing I’m really comfortable in, even though in summer when it’s really hot, I will also occasionally wear v-neck shirts, and even the occasional dress. Let’s get back to t-shirts though. I like funny and nerdy shirts, and had lots and lots of […]

16 March 2026

The Drowning Empire

The Drowning Empire series by Andrea Stewart is a trilogy of novels consisting of The Bone Shard Daughter, The Bone Shard Emperor and The Bone Shard War. I was interested in reading this series because it comes highly recommended especially by fans of the Realm of the Elderlings series (probably my favorite book series), and because it was supposed to have a few themes and topics that I’m generally interested in – here, in particular, it was animal characters. I actually pitched The Bone Shard Daughter for the recently founded book club that I’ve been attending, since it was supposed […]

18 February 2026

Growing up with dogs

Losing Bifi made me reminisce a lot about the pets in my life. First and foremost, Bifi is still on my mind a lot, and it still feels unreal that she’s not here anymore. I often still find myself yearning to pet her little head, missing that bond we shared. I want to hold on to those memories for as long as I can, because eventually they will fade. She was not the first pet I lost. I grew up with many, many animals that have been gone for a long time, and my memories of them seem so far […]

6 February 2026

Good bye, good dog

A week ago, we said goodbye to our 13 1/2 year old dog, Bifi. She was a street mutt, named after the African country Biafra by the shelter that saved her from starvation, which in short became Bifi. She was my partner’s dog since she was a few months old, I’ve know her since she was 4, and she became ‘my’ dog as well when she was around 7. Every dog owner will say this about their own dog, but Bifi truly was one of the best dogs I’ve ever met in my life. Not only that, she also was […]

5 January 2026

Shakespeare in the mud

What strange fate has had me slumber upon this gem for two decades? The subject of my thoughts is Deadwood, a TV show first aired in 2004. Being almost 22 years of age does not impede its qualities at all, on the contrary, it is still as valuable as the gold which is cause for its genesis. Deadwood tells the stories of a colorful array of characters as they establish themselves in a camp in the Dakota territory during the gold rush in the 1870s, started first as tents on a muddy patch. The camp quickly turns into a prosperous […]

19 December 2025

Stephen Fry’s Greek Mythology Books

Greek Mythology and I have a complicated relationship. I definitely learned about Greek myths in school at some point, and to this day I still have a fairly basic book on Greek Mythology on my bookshelf. Then came my “wild phase”, and I thought that Norse Mythology was sooo much cooler and more metal than Greek Mythology! In part, my former favorite novel American Gods was also responsible for that. Then a couple of years ago I started playing in a Greek-inspired DnD campaign. That’s when my interest for Greek Mythology really surfaced, because even though I was vaguely familiar […]