chaosworks.org

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 […]

11 December 2025

TTRPGs beyond DnD and fantasy (II)

In my previous post, I posted mini-reviews about roleplaying games that I’ve played that are not DnD, but that are mostly fantasy. This post is part two of that post, and lists RPGs I’ve played that are mostly not fantasy, at least not in the traditional medieval fantasy sense. Most of them are still full of fantasy elements or are straight up urban fantasy though. Brindlewood Bay: This is a cozy Miss Marple inspired adventure in which you play a group of old ladies solving murder mysteries. What’s different about this compared to other adventures is that there is not […]

4 December 2025

Fantasy TTRPGs beyond DnD (I)

I’ve been playing DnD for quite a few years now and blogged about my DnD characters about a year ago. A lot of roleplayers are currently going through a bit of DnD fatigue – and while I agree that the combat in DnD can be tedious and frustrating, I still think it’s one of the best systems for long, epic campaigns because the sense of progression you get in DnD is excellent. However, ever since I have started running a regular roleplaying event, which massively contributed to the rapid rise of a local RPG community, I’ve been getting to play […]

27 November 2025

Good and Evil: Baldur’s Gate 3

Is there even a point in blogging about Baldur’s Gate 3? This game is over 2 years old, and surely it’s old news by now? Perhaps, but I’m probably not the only one still playing it, and this game is just something else entirely. I have 467 hours in this game of 4 full runs, but judging by some of the BG3 subreddits those are rookie numbers. I’ve been a big fan of Larian’s games long before BG3 – my favorite game was Divinity: Original Sin 2 before it, and in some aspects, I still think that DOS2 is the […]

17 November 2025

TFW when the biggest achievement of your life becomes your biggest curse

Conversations with recruiters usually tend to go more or less like this: “Are you looking for data scientists?” “Indeed we are! Do you have a degree in data science?” “I have an equivalent degree and over 8 years of experience in data science.” “So what kind of degree do you have?” “I have a PhD in English linguistics, but methodically I worked with data during that time.” [at this point the recruiter’s face usually assumes a puzzled look] “…That… doesn’t really sound like what we need… we’re not looking for humanities scholars.” “While linguistics is indeed often grouped among the […]

7 November 2025

Chief of War: An Accomplishment for Pacific Islanders

I love to watch historical TV shows, especially those that are a bit gritty and not stereotypical period dramas. Vikings is one such examples that comes to mind. This year a new show in the same spirit was released, but focusing on a completely different culture from the other side of the world: Chief of War, a TV show about late 18th century Hawai’i. So Chief of War, with Jason Momoa in the lead role? Sounds cool! I knew him only from GoT and the first Aquaman, both of which I wasn’t much of a fan, and he didn’t blow […]

2 November 2025

New: Subscribe to this blog via e-mail

I added an option that lets you subscribe to this blog via e-mail, meaning you will get an e-mail whenever a new post is published. If you’re interested in subscribing, head to the page Subscribe. It also lists the other two options to subscribe, namely by following the blog in the fediverse, or by subscribing to the RSS feed. I’m sure this might be of interest for about 2 of the about 10 people who regularly read my humble blog 😅