There was a chat today where the term "socialized male" or "male socialization" came up quite innocently and it was apparent that it's not obvious the way that phrasing often hurts trans women (I'm going to talk about transfem experience here, transmasc folks experience similar but also notably different violence from terms like "female socialization"). It's a phrasing that is used by TERFs to say that our experiences of being treated like boys, either instead of or in conjunction with our bodies, make us in some way immutably male and therefore dangerous and should not be allowed into women's spaces or communities.
\r\nIt's a tempting argument. Certainly as closeted trans girls we're treated as boys and given certain messages and opportunities, often encouraged and uplifted in ways that cis girls aren't, and the violence of gendered socialization that is inflicted on us is a masculine one that demands that we kill the emotional relational living hearts of ourselves to achieve strength and dominance, in contrast to the various violences of feminine socialization that crushes strength and demands submission and the performance of emotional labor from cis girls and closeted trans boys.
\r\nTrans women's experiences are different to those of cis women, but then cis womens' experiences are also profoundly different from one another as are trans womens'. Trans womanhood is different to cis womanhood, but it is still womanhood which itself is wildly different from person to person.\r\nBut TERFs wield "male socialized" as a weapon. They imagine these experiences as a mechanical process, unerringly and irreversibly changing a person from one thing into another form. In the way that "mechanization" takes something and makes it mechanical, and "urbanized" takes a place and makes it urban, they imagine "male socialized" takes something (someone) and makes it(them) male, or masculine in some fundamental social sense. They imply with their past tense that this process is successful, that that treatment, those experiences do always have that same effect.
\r\nFor me I certainly had those experiences, was treated in those ways, was offered those opportunities, and some of them landed. The academic and youth leadership opportunities I was offered were almost certainly more easily accessible to me than they were to my cis peers. I was certainly not actively told to make myself smaller, to clip my own wings in the way they experienced from the social systems around us. But being a trans kid is weird. It pulls you slightly out of one line of fire and slightly into another. Something in you knows that you're not what they think you are. So what they say you should be often doesn't quite hit, their demands somehow don't quite apply. Furthermore if part of you knows what you are is closer to the girls around you, then you do get struck by some of the crossfire telling them what they should and should not be. So you end up experiencing a weird mishmash of violences from both sides, some hitting and some missing from both directions. Furthermore you experience an extra third violence of a kind of uniquely trans socialization. We often somehow know we don't, can't, and maybe will never be able to fit into the demands being made of us from either side, which naturally fucks us up in a whole other way.
\r\nThe result is that what we are isn't shaped by those various experiences and pressures from different sides in the same way as our cis peers of either gender, but in some weird other way. The machine doesn't make us into what it intends, but just bends and bruises us into something else all together.
\r\nSo in this way the unconditional "socialized/socialization" phrasing feels like it submits to the TERF idea that we are what they imagine we were made into by the successful or inevitable success of that process. I don't really have a better phrasing to talk about having been subjected to those forces without being changed by them in the same ways as our cis brothers and sisters, instead having this different, profoundly trans experience. It's frustrating as hell that TERFs have used that language so often that their implication feels almost hardcoded in phrasing that otherwise might not include it. Instead I'm left using complex phrasing like "I was treated like a boy growing up" which still feels like it never properly encompasses the profound weirdness of it all. The best terminology I can come up with to talk about the experience that doesn't imply that it was a successful process is "training". I was trained male. But I failed the exam.
\r\n","content_text":"There was a chat today where the term \"socialized male\" or \"male socialization\" came up quite innocently and it was apparent that it's not obvious the way that phrasing often hurts trans women (I'm going to talk about transfem experience here, transmasc folks experience similar but also notably different violence from terms like \"female socialization\"). It's a phrasing that is used by TERFs to say that our experiences of being treated like boys, either instead of or in conjunction with our bodies, make us in some way immutably male and therefore dangerous and should not be allowed into women's spaces or communities.\r\n\r\nIt's a tempting argument. Certainly as closeted trans girls we're treated as boys and given certain messages and opportunities, often encouraged and uplifted in ways that cis girls aren't, and the violence of gendered socialization that is inflicted on us is a masculine one that demands that we kill the emotional relational living hearts of ourselves to achieve strength and dominance, in contrast to the various violences of feminine socialization that crushes strength and demands submission and the performance of emotional labor from cis girls and closeted trans boys.\r\n\r\nTrans women's experiences are different to those of cis women, but then cis womens' experiences are also profoundly different from one another as are trans womens'. Trans womanhood is different to cis womanhood, but it is still womanhood which itself is wildly different from person to person.\r\nBut the TERF wields \"male socialized\" as a weapon. They imagine these experiences as a mechanical process, unerringly and irreversibly changing a person from one thing into another form. In the way that \"mechanization\" takes something and makes it mechanical, and \"urbanized\" takes a place and makes it urban, they imagine \"male socialized\" takes something (someone) and makes it(them) male, or masculine in some fundamental social sense. They imply with their past tense that this process is successful, that that treatment, those experiences do always have that same effect.\r\n\r\nFor me I certainly had those experiences, was treated in those ways, was offered those opportunities, and some of them landed. The academic and youth leadership opportunities I was offered were almost certainly more easily accessible to me than they were to my cis peers. I was certainly not actively told to make myself smaller, to clip my own wings in the way they experienced from the social systems around us. But being a trans kid is weird. It pulls you slightly out of one line of fire and slightly into another. Something in you knows that you're not what they think you are. So what they say you should be often doesn't quite hit, their demands somehow don't quite apply. Furthermore if part of you knows what you are is closer to the girls around you, then you do get struck by some of the crossfire telling them what they should and should not be. So you end up experiencing a weird mishmash of violences from both sides, some hitting and some missing from both directions. Furthermore you experience an extra third violence of a kind of uniquely trans socialization. We often somehow know we don't, can't, and maybe will never be able to fit into the demands being made of us from either side, which naturally fucks us up in a whole other way.\r\n\r\nThe result is that what we are isn't shaped by those various experiences and pressures from different sides in the same way as our cis peers of either gender, but in some weird other way. The machine doesn't make us into what it intends, but just bends and bruises us into something else all together.\r\nSo in this was the unconditional \"socialized/socialization\" phrasing feels like it submits to the TERF idea that we are what they imagine we were made into by the successful or inevitable success of that process. I don't really have a better phrasing to talk about having been subjected to those forces without being changed by them in the same ways as our cis brothers and sisters, instead having this different, profoundly trans experience. It's frustrating as hell that TERFs have used that language so often that their implication feels almost hardcoded in phrasing that otherwise might not include it. Instead I'm left using complex phrasing like \"I was treated like a boy growing up\" which still feels like it never properly encompasses the profound weirdness of it all. The best terminology I can come up with to talk about the experience that doesn't imply that it was a successful process is \"training\". I was trained male. But I failed the exam.\r\n","date_published":"2026-04-15T15:41:22.965017","attachments":[]},{"id":"32d58810a6a545e3b26bb32bf27216d5","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/32d58810a6a545e3b26bb32bf27216d5","content_html":"Transgender Day Of Visibility is on March 31st
\n","content_text":"Transgender Day Of Visibility is on March 31st","date_published":"2026-03-29T10:12:31.326187","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/91ea953686be51a7249ff67895350e6e440ea11f39edcbe5e8b41567a40dc528/bafkreiajetf637he7adtbt2vr724rtkjiqnijnk22xfxvajt7vod3wdgpa.webp","mime_type":"image/webp"}]},{"id":"bd8e2e5020cd4e6689c8e9759e886551","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/bd8e2e5020cd4e6689c8e9759e886551","content_html":"I used to suggest Notion as a simpler alternative to Jira/Confluence because the UX was just so much better, but now both have fuckin AI bullshit built in. Does anyone have suggestions for a wiki/task management combo (or two really great separate tools) that are either corpos or open source projects that have taken active anti-AI stances?
\n","content_text":"I used to suggest Notion as a simpler alternative to Jira/Confluence because the UX was just so much better, but now both have fuckin AI bullshit built in. Does anyone have suggestions for a wiki/task management combo (or two really great separate tools) that are either corpos or open source projects that have taken active anti-AI stances?","date_published":"2026-03-20T09:15:14.693932","attachments":[]},{"id":"137c5e05cc76489f8e343f5b91a30fd9","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/137c5e05cc76489f8e343f5b91a30fd9","content_html":"Another craft project from last christmas is this #AshPlushie backpack that I made for a loved one. I'd been trying to make it for several years with several false starts of getting most of the project done before realizing major flaws in my design, approach, or materials.
\nThe final product is completely made from scratch, internal construction and all and has an internal laptop sleeve and pairs of D-rings for adjustable straps with arms and legs on the straps and claws and teeth, two sets of three eyes, floppy ears, a ridge down it's back, and, completely unintentionally, some caked up ass cheeks.
\nAs far as #punkcrafts projects go I'm glad I took the time to get this one right. It's one of the best #punkplushies I've made, though I'm glad to have it finished so I can go back to working on smaller ones.
\n","content_text":"Another craft project from last christmas is this #AshPlushie backpack that I made for a loved one. I'd been trying to make it for several years with several false starts of getting most of the project done before realizing major flaws in my design, approach, or materials.\r\n\r\nThe final product is completely made from scratch, internal construction and all and has an internal laptop sleeve and pairs of D-rings for adjustable straps with arms and legs on the straps and claws and teeth, two sets of three eyes, floppy ears, a ridge down it's back, and, completely unintentionally, some caked up ass cheeks.\r\n\r\nAs far as #punkcrafts projects go I'm glad I took the time to get this one right. It's one of the best #punkplushies I've made, though I'm glad to have it finished so I can go back to working on smaller ones.","date_published":"2026-02-28T23:30:30.585088","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/87eb619db87c5164474503c03f8005d86edcc6c75bb655d498bd3ee3da91c802/IMG_2455.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/f25365c776459fb0b6079c1d56f2a9391dc34d496c47e0b9a1a6de721f96ceca/IMG_2453.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/b2986b307cea573d447407bcef6b6a1bd9c04ce3b960e7c68c337442cdeca254/IMG_2450.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/3ef1eeee7a43cffcc81c22f8e85c16257e40025a2b06e76351a72c27bc8f5b7d/VID_20251222_215556.mp4","mime_type":"video/mp4"}]},{"id":"91a7c58d41b94c9b9df014c86e4b5f76","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/91a7c58d41b94c9b9df014c86e4b5f76","content_html":"The end of January marked 10 years since the beginning of my medical gender transition and I decided to use the opportunity to have a big celebration with friends and loved ones. I decided to indulge my desire to get to be a princess for the evening and also to invite all my friends into a safe space to experiment and play with gender presentation so the rules were cis folks were required to be in drag to attend, while everyone else was allowed to play with gender presentation however they liked. Everyone really put the genuine effort in and bunch of friends also secretly organised to decorate the space like a trans/wedding themed high school prom night without my knowing. The whole night was completely magical and I just keep coming back to how incredibly thankful I am to be so loved and supported by such amazing, wonderful, fun, strong people.
\r\n","content_text":"The end of January marked 10 year since the beginning of my medical gender transition and I decided to use the opportunity to have a big celebration with friends and loved ones. I decided to indulge my desire to get to be a princess for the evening and also to invite all my friends into a safe space to experiment and play with gender presentation so the rules were cis folks were required to be in drag to attend, while everyone else was allowed to play with gender presentation however they liked. Everyone really put the genuine effort in and bunch of friends also secretly organised to decorate the space like a trans/wedding themed high school prom night without my knowing. The whole night was completely magical and I just keep coming back to how incredibly thankful I am to be so loved and supported by such amazing, wonderful, fun, strong people.","date_published":"2026-02-06T12:16:30.172775","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/85e867e5e33da39ffbd934df877f4c3f74086c0eb71deaf23c9dcd52e15cab87/aaaPXL_20260131_200522366.PORTRAIT.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/8a02c3d0a84ea52c2f8c7975e8d84adfccf950e3f10862b17b4c3a8177348618/aabPXL_20260131_200927212.PORTRAIT.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/b4c272cef0c03f886afaa4cd0fd13db8cbb412bcaeacbf80e225a41fd13f06a4/aacPXL_20260131_195435023.PORTRAIT.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/eecc04bebc7c05454e4cd2a6e03e860c5e04d4866268d11b2ba487cb61e7f0eb/aad20260201_0026.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"}]},{"id":"01a98201509b4cba8241af18308703ec","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/01a98201509b4cba8241af18308703ec","content_html":"@kat_cal2@ck.catwithaclari.net I always end up saying why give kids Rowling when you could give them Tamora Pierce
\n","content_text":"@kat_cal2@ck.catwithaclari.net I always end up saying why give kids Rowling when you could give them Tamora Pierce ","date_published":"2026-02-03T22:49:04.974083","attachments":[]},{"id":"6e0caf7606d3421ba26e1fa00ca42f4f","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/6e0caf7606d3421ba26e1fa00ca42f4f","content_html":"After learning that some indoor plants benfit from being shaken to simulate wind, I decided to automate the process and built this plant shaking machine aka "WobbleBot" as a Christmas gift for a dear friend with a green thumb.
\nThe motor is from an impact drill from a thrift store, the wire basket was from a homewares store as was the mop handle that I cut for the axle and the plastic storage container that protects the motor. The rest was spare bits of wood, a few screws, a bunch of zip ties and a coat of paint.
\n\n","content_text":"After learning that some indoor plants benfit from being shaken to simulate wind, I decided to automate the process and built this plant shaking machine aka \"WobbleBot\" as a Christmas gift for a dear friend with a green thumb.\r\n\r\nThe motor is from an impact drill from a thrift store, the wire basket was from a homewares store as was the mop handle that I cut for the axle and the plastic storage container that protects the motor. The rest was spare bits of wood, a few screws, a bunch of zip ties and a coat of paint.\r\n\r\n#punkcrafts","date_published":"2026-01-29T20:04:19.493190","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/09420bda5800971602f44cc0a544546389a68c333c22bad5bd866d8139a31a1c/Compressed_1769715443322.mp4","mime_type":"video/mp4"}]},{"id":"5c7fba0933184b50af17b0547f040483","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/5c7fba0933184b50af17b0547f040483","content_html":"Finally finished rolling the last of the stones for this project. I actually started this while I was sick with food poisoning and then Covid this summer. The burning of the lines on the board was very meditative while I couldn't think straight. Once I had it together I coated it in beeswax, cut a little leather strap clasp from an old belt, and rolled stones from polymer clay. I find that the size of these stones and the grid are a bit awkward to play with, small to pick up with clumsy fingers. Now I understand why standard boards have grids and pieces of a certain size, but I'm still very proud of this board as a thing I made for myself.
\n\n","content_text":"Finally finished rolling the last of the stones for this project. I actually started this while I was sick with food poisoning and then Covid this summer. The burning of the lines on the board was very meditative while I couldn't think straight. Once I had it together I coated it in beeswax, cut a little leather strap clasp from an old belt, and rolled stones from polymer clay. I find that the size of these stones and the grid are a bit awkward to play with, small to pick up with clumsy fingers. Now I understand why standard boards have grids and pieces of a certain size, but I'm still very proud of this board as a thing I made for myself.\r\n\r\n#punkcrafts","date_published":"2025-11-14T20:21:20.630638","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/3d4964a9b8d0fd332cb2674a0980ddd06c3d68bd5f18dc3d69d88c298bf94688/IMG_2430.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/efefa591b0dd1cf115b941cfae43f50732a27bfa850c05e2cea7afa3583d9e0c/IMG_2427.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/033f883dd77c54cab0f1dd62e3c7f82c814a05c173363dff13043208d6fd5121/IMG_2432.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/034f42a8119e352813c5b7d686eb1c22feaf107f036a70b891404e54e43c1717/IMG_2436.JPG","mime_type":"image/jpeg"}]},{"id":"f8d2fd618015401a957b3372caead1f2","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/f8d2fd618015401a957b3372caead1f2","content_html":"@unormal@mastodon.social Four years later I still find the northern hemisphere night sky unsettling. Why are the stars wrong here? Why is the moon upside down and goes backwards?
\n","content_text":"@unormal@mastodon.social Four years later I still find the northern hemisphere night sky unsettling. Why are the stars wrong here? Why is the moon upside down and goes backwards?","date_published":"2025-11-11T09:58:43.515763","attachments":[]},{"id":"854a05b11e96426bacfde7a6eeb37597","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/854a05b11e96426bacfde7a6eeb37597","content_html":"As I age I want to grow into a kind of great Deku Tree or Grandmother Willow, figure that the young-uns can come to in their times of distress and I will give them comfort, then wisdom, and then a knife before sending them back out into the world to cause trouble for dragons and kings alike.
\n","content_text":"As I age I want to grow into a kind of great Deku Tree or Grandmother Willow, figure that the young-uns can come to in their times of distress and I will give them comfort, then wisdom, and then a knife before sending them back out into the world to cause trouble for dragons and kings alike.","date_published":"2025-11-03T13:04:41.832626","attachments":[]},{"id":"6d478311e85d4aaca3f15dcdac33ea06","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/6d478311e85d4aaca3f15dcdac33ea06","content_html":"biblically accurate angel but make it cute vibes for halloween
\n","content_text":"biblically accurate angel but make it cute vibes for halloween","date_published":"2025-11-01T18:19:29.760564","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/248d1bc3749049aa766168d54284a25fe5dd4146cd1c53f025336e5f81782981/IMG_20251025_212256_385.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/b2af3fada826922d82f1fe0d3ff227e04c2623b7608f463b5728ddc853b14f93/PXL_20251024_185724735.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/153ffb7d5d0f507cab4c38edfaa978bdf3bb0ee4388bbe592df6af7a5fe5e0bd/PXL_20251024_235840559(2).jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/77003c4a78899585aa5c1c3ae11e949227c9fd5f262679bfb669732f5ee7d962/PXL_20251024_185821469.MP.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/c731cceeb5c8ef1d29aec79e497df56bd15f6a75f883b9be3e077d19162f6635/PXL_20251024_195354260.MP.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/fde8e084700ab809e686edf8819d37888833ec9543cbb8edd2830cb1157df1c1/IMG_20251031_231156_962.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"}]},{"id":"e2100a4cb2ea4822a7a45777526a4543","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/e2100a4cb2ea4822a7a45777526a4543","content_html":"it's not #ScreenshotSaturday but I'm just really glad to have finally figured out how to get the terrain biomes blending smoothly over long distances in #ProjectWeirdLittleGuy without weird shader artefacts in between. And yes I am just encoding 12 different custom values into the vertex data which limits the potential number of biomes, that's FINE
\n","content_text":"it's not #ScreenshotSaturday but I'm just really glad to have finally figured out how to get the terrain biomes blending smoothly over long distances in #ProjectWeirdLittleGuy without weird shader artefacts in between. And yes I am just encoding 12 different custom values into the vertex data which limits the potential number of biomes, that's FINE","date_published":"2025-10-23T15:50:41.570678","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/f9469ea616e97878dd24e0f41c13ce0b27dd217e7285b752af4cd9066da8b7e8/output.mp4","mime_type":"video/mp4"}]},{"id":"901cb96b52c4444899019709c5511dbe","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/901cb96b52c4444899019709c5511dbe","content_html":"Finally got around to painting Ursula today. Having female models and an older woman as a hero model of the Imperial Guard was honestly the thing that made me feel actually keen to restart my Guard army after immigrating and leaving all my old models back in Australia. #wh40k
\n","content_text":"Finally got around to painting Ursula today. Having female models and an older woman as a hero model of the Imperial Guard was honestly the thing that made me feel actually keen to restart my Guard army after immigrating and leaving all my old models back in Australia. #wh40k","date_published":"2025-10-11T20:54:20.501191","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/f7a7bb1bb3fbe6d9f4ba5c5da63bdd2a97b77b166cae8309e797b21b9c8b46e6/PXL_20251011_133220537.MP.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/f7f231936412516c66574fa19a43caf1cb0f7f2464be8967e7f10a6d0b579d78/PXL_20251011_133244913.MP.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"}]},{"id":"a17096124fa542ff9fa57b6643cc4a20","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/a17096124fa542ff9fa57b6643cc4a20","content_html":"Since finding out I'm being laid off last week, so many wonderful people have reached out to me with offers of support. Often people ask "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." Because I know there are other folks in similar situations getting similar offers for support but feeling too overwhelmed to actually take anyone up on those offers, I made a #zine . It's called:
\n**Things You Can Do To Help Your Depressed ADHD / Autistic Friend While She Looks For Work **
\nIt's 8 a5 pages of detailed practical suggestions on ways you can support someone going through a rough time, especially if they struggle with neurodivergence or depression. I've written it for my friends as a guide for helping me specifically but I think most of the advice is broad enough that it can help a lot of folks in a lot of situations.
\nYou can grab the pdf here: https://acegiak.net/etc/Things%20You%20Can%20Do%20For%20Your%20Depressed%20ADHD%20-%20Autistic%20Friend%20While%20She%20Looks%20For%20Work.pdf\r\nor I've put it up for $0 on itch.io so that you can find it more easily later if you misplace it and want to find it again:\r\nhttps://acegiak.itch.io/things-you-can-do-for-your-depressed-adhd-autistic-friend-while-she-looks-for-wo
\n","content_text":"Since finding out I'm being laid off last week, so many wonderful people have reached out to me with offers of support. Often people ask \"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.\" Because I know there are other folks in similar situations getting similar offers for support but feeling too overwhelmed to actually take anyone up on those offers, I made a #zine . It's called:\r\n\r\n**Things You Can Do To Help Your Depressed ADHD / Autistic Friend While She Looks For Work **\r\n\r\nIt's 8 a5 pages of detailed practical suggestions on ways you can support someone going through a rough time, especially if they struggle with neurodivergence or depression. I've written it for my friends as a guide for helping me specifically but I think most of the advice is broad enough that it can help a lot of folks in a lot of situations.\r\n\r\nYou can grab the pdf here: https://acegiak.net/etc/Things%20You%20Can%20Do%20For%20Your%20Depressed%20ADHD%20-%20Autistic%20Friend%20While%20She%20Looks%20For%20Work.pdf\r\nor I've put it up for $0 on itch.io so that you can find it more easily later if you misplace it and want to find it again:\r\nhttps://acegiak.itch.io/things-you-can-do-for-your-depressed-adhd-autistic-friend-while-she-looks-for-wo \r\n","date_published":"2025-10-09T14:38:38.037469","attachments":[]},{"id":"3e0f241a015f4ca2b3d2ac47c88abae2","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/3e0f241a015f4ca2b3d2ac47c88abae2","content_html":"So I'm one of the casualties of last week's Stockholm Gamedev Bloodbath, losing my position at Avalanche. I've had an amazing time there but it's time to work out what happens next.
\nIf your team or a team you know needs "an unstoppable force of creation", "the best team leader I've had", or someone who is "inventive, patient, expressed herself with clarity, & is deft at design"* then I'm available for creative leadership, game design, narrative, and good-trouble-making roles. Reach out here, on linkedin, @acegiak.bsky.social on bluesky, or email at acegiak@gmail.com.
\n*quotes from, in order, a friend, a member of my team, and a colleague
\n","content_text":"So I'm one of the casualties of last week's Stockholm Gamedev Bloodbath, losing my position at Avalanche. I've had an amazing time there but it's time to work out what happens next.\r\n\r\nIf your team or a team you know needs \"an unstoppable force of creation\", \"the best team leader I've had\", or someone who is \"inventive, patient, expressed herself with clarity, & is deft at design\"* then I'm available for creative leadership, game design, narrative, and good-trouble-making roles. Reach out here, on [linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/acegiak), [@acegiak.bsky.social](https://bsky.app/profile/acegiak.bsky.social) on bluesky, or email at acegiak@gmail.com.\r\n\r\n*quotes from, in order, a friend, a member of my team, and a colleague","date_published":"2025-10-08T13:43:15.716457","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/508efb149153224780d18e1c47c1d31225452fe55e35d01c3d1c734a9157d69b/bafkreibi25bksfb7a7odgc6gnwsrhogogbjhjnbgh6cvkkjfcpl6bapqda.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/516477f2c75b20678b5a10a95b80859d9562f30c4689ec25813002112615480b/GZ720.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/ae0029b97862c2b6f9e3e9b46283647eec9205a12ac54afd87d7821bd262897b/img_6130.jpg","mime_type":"image/jpeg"},{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/e1704042bd64a265f25e4b15f8165fd7342f86a823d45aa69459f375f1a53e60/CoRW_cover.png","mime_type":"image/png"}]},{"id":"9f5aa2e94cbc49a9922e7874fda00c47","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/9f5aa2e94cbc49a9922e7874fda00c47","content_html":"New personal best: 100kg deadlift x 2 💪
\n","content_text":"New personal best: 100kg deadlift x 2 💪","date_published":"2025-10-07T13:34:38.919637","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/517640fa8e44ca4c386ff38b29c6ca57367585cfa2b7222df87a581222416032/VID_20251005_082205_105.mp4","mime_type":"video/mp4"}]},{"id":"b1bc745b1177480bb974c3658f440db4","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/b1bc745b1177480bb974c3658f440db4","content_html":"You know what's actually a really cool linguistic technology/innovation I've seen emerge in my lifetime and solve an actual problem I struggled with?
\nThe rise of the word "Verdance".
\nI remember being in school and being a fantasy nerd trying to write, GM, design games and always struggling to find a word for the elemental force of plants, growth, green things, and then at some point I encountered the word Verdance and I was like "of course! That's perfect and seems so obvious in retrospect!"
\nAnd you can see it's rise in the Ngrams. I think it might have been discussing Sunless Skies things with the lovely folks at Failbetter where I first encountered it in this kind of form but there's clearly some jumps after 2010 and then 2016 and I'm curious what caused those.
\n","content_text":"You know what's actually a really cool linguistic technology/innovation I've seen emerge in my lifetime and solve an actual problem I struggled with? \r\n\r\nThe rise of the word \"Verdance\".\r\n\r\nI remember being in school and being a fantasy nerd trying to write, GM, design games and always struggling to find a word for the elemental force of plants, growth, green things, and then at some point I encountered the word Verdance and I was like \"of course! That's perfect and seems so obvious in retrospect!\"\r\n\r\nAnd you can see it's rise in the Ngrams. I think it might have been discussing Sunless Skies things with the lovely folks at Failbetter where I first encountered it in this kind of form but there's clearly some jumps after 2010 and then 2016 and I'm curious what caused those.","date_published":"2025-10-04T13:29:42.393525","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/e81514649a7d54ef7850d8e6054c2e13c74c1343d97f33ac8b7909fa0dd80c80/ResizedImage_2025-10-04_15-17-10_2549.png","mime_type":"image/png"}]},{"id":"ad7838321b2846b08596373a6758682a","url":"https://acegiak.net/o/ad7838321b2846b08596373a6758682a","content_html":"@Coopr8@kbin.earth they're in order of date created, with pinned notes kept at the top. I'm very much using a tag and search methodology, rather than a nite organizing methodology that is demanded by something like Notion. The actual column layout is provided by minimasonry.js so I'm not sure how I would implement rearranging anyway. For notes I want together I just tag them with a hashtag and then have a link to that hashtag in a pinned note.
\n","content_text":"@Coopr8@kbin.earth they're in order of date created, with pinned notes kept at the top. I'm very much using a tag and search methodology, rather than a nite organizing methodology that is demanded by something like Notion. The actual column layout is provided by minimasonry.js so I'm not sure how I would implement rearranging anyway. For notes I want together I just tag them with a hashtag and then have a link to that hashtag in a pinned note.","date_published":"2025-09-18T20:42:56.029886","attachments":[]},{"id":"9216ce0075e2411d9fbb852eab549b1d","url":"https://acegiak.net/articles/9216ce0/antiquarian-adventures","content_html":"Antiquarian Adventures is a pulpy tomb raiding and treasure hunting TTRPG that is a love letter to the likes of Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and The Mummy.
\nIt is Forged In The Dark and contains Six Roles and Six Personalities to combine together in different combinations to make your heroes. It has clocks, traps, clues, keys, globe-trotting, lost cities, vicious rivals, ancient treasures, and long-dormant perils. The game has been praised for the ways it's simple refinement of mechanics from Blades In The Dark drives forward adventures in the appropriate tone and tropes of the genre, and provides a solid engine for a rollicking good time.
\nYou can find Antiquarian Adventures at https://acegiak.itch.io/antiquarian-adventures .
\n","content_text":"Antiquarian Adventures is a pulpy tomb raiding and treasure hunting TTRPG that is a love letter to the likes of Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and The Mummy. \r\n\r\nIt is Forged In The Dark and contains Six Roles and Six Personalities to combine together in different combinations to make your heroes. It has clocks, traps, clues, keys, globe-trotting, lost cities, vicious rivals, ancient treasures, and long-dormant perils. The game has been praised for the ways it's simple refinement of mechanics from Blades In The Dark drives forward adventures in the appropriate tone and tropes of the genre, and provides a solid engine for a rollicking good time.\r\n\r\nYou can find Antiquarian Adventures at https://acegiak.itch.io/antiquarian-adventures .","date_published":"2025-09-18T14:40:45.804197","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/30f584ee871d8abbd4e3c4692a5a3e9884e890617f4bf962fb02e96e573bfc8c/antiquarian_adventures.png","mime_type":"image/png"}]},{"id":"2edcdfe11f374d12b62e55c9acac1d3c","url":"https://acegiak.net/articles/2edcdfe/webtarot","content_html":"WebTarot is a minimalist web-based tarot app that I create after being frustrated with the complexity and ornamentation of other tarot apps available on different platforms.
\nWeb Tarot offers three spreads by default including a daily card and allows users to save readings to revisit later. By default it uses the Colman Smith illustrations from the Rider-Waite tarot, and has very basic and silly card descriptions by yours truly.
\nHowever, WebTarot is run entirely in the frontend of the user's browser and the user can customize their card deck, spread layouts, card descriptions, and even the CSS theme of the app itself.
\nYou can find the project at https://codeberg.org/acegiak/webtarot and access the development version of the app at https://acegiak.codeberg.page/webtarot/ .
\n","content_text":"WebTarot is a minimalist web-based tarot app that I create after being frustrated with the complexity and ornamentation of other tarot apps available on different platforms.\r\n\r\nWeb Tarot offers three spreads by default including a daily card and allows users to save readings to revisit later. By default it uses the Colman Smith illustrations from the Rider-Waite tarot, and has very basic and silly card descriptions by yours truly.\r\n\r\nHowever, WebTarot is run entirely in the frontend of the user's browser and the user can customize their card deck, spread layouts, card descriptions, and even the CSS theme of the app itself.\r\n\r\nYou can find the project at https://codeberg.org/acegiak/webtarot and access the development version of the app at https://acegiak.codeberg.page/webtarot/ .","date_published":"2025-09-18T14:30:22.585943","attachments":[{"url":"https://acegiak.net/attachments/3fef5a9d91f6f099b9f13b62d027c6fc1b5eb1d1464b91bc10e6616dc493a161/Screenshot_2025-09-18_12-52-35.png","mime_type":"image/png"}]}]}