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Pull up a chair by the fire, adventurer. Pick a quest below to begin.

Latest quests

Three days in Novato
Released: Aug 30, 2026Length: Medium9 min

The cheap blackout curtains I rush-ordered from Amazon a few months ago are too small for my windows. I pay the price in lost sleep and headaches that start before my morning alarm.
Representation in a convoluted media landscape is an increasingly fraught path we must keep walking
Released: Jan 23, 2026Length: Medium8 min

On Thanksgiving Day last year, after a lifetime of actively avoiding anything described as "supernatural horror" and nine years out of the Stranger Things loop, I finally succumbed to overwhelming social pressure and…
Machines of loving taste
Released: Oct 23, 2025Length: Long12 min

Long overdue thanks: to Stephanie Dukich and Manasa Karthikeyan for organizing and running the reading group and lecture series Death to Spotify Forum: Decentralizing Music from Capitalist Economies (SFGATE: sold out…
All the world's a stage, and all the humans and machines merely players
Released: Sep 28, 2025Length: Long11 min

I used Open Paper to help me parse through the papers and technical reports I referenced in writing this blog post. Thanks to Saba, all my readers can use code VALSTECHBLOG for 50% off the Researcher Plan. Thanks to…