jbuergel
@fiverandomsongs.com
Board game designer (Fox in the Forest, Hocus, Foresight) and terrible music blogger (fiverandomsongs.com). (He/him)
I wrote some thoughts on 2025 music. It's not a ranking, it's just some records that I loved this year in no particular order: fiverandomsongs.com/2025-year-in...
2025 Year in Review
Well well well, if it isn't my old blog. Sorry about the false start the other day, turns out I wasn't quite ready to bring this thing back full time. I did kick around changing formats and even got a...
fiverandomsongs.com
January 4, 2026 at 7:30 AM
I wrote some thoughts on 2025 music. It's not a ranking, it's just some records that I loved this year in no particular order: fiverandomsongs.com/2025-year-in...
Just in case anybody out there is encountering the same problem as I am, my Lenovo laptop used to keep going to sleep on me while I was using it. After a lot of poking around, I figured out that the "Elliptic Labs Smart Sensor Platform" is responsible. It's supposed to sense if somebody is... [1/2]
January 3, 2026 at 5:58 AM
Just in case anybody out there is encountering the same problem as I am, my Lenovo laptop used to keep going to sleep on me while I was using it. After a lot of poking around, I figured out that the "Elliptic Labs Smart Sensor Platform" is responsible. It's supposed to sense if somebody is... [1/2]
I had a ton of fun in this conversation!
Had the pleasure of talking trick-taking with the brilliant and generous Josh Buergel about The Fox in the Forest and the candlelit game of Knockout Whist with his kids that got him thinking about his next design. Also, he holds forth on DJ Q-Bert to great effect.
👇Hear our talk with link below
👇Hear our talk with link below
December 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I had a ton of fun in this conversation!
My random campaign generator just produced a couple bangers for names.
(deleted and reposted because I forgot alt text)
(deleted and reposted because I forgot alt text)
December 14, 2025 at 6:05 AM
My random campaign generator just produced a couple bangers for names.
(deleted and reposted because I forgot alt text)
(deleted and reposted because I forgot alt text)
Oh my God this list talks about Surgery, I am all in.
Never let it be said I haven’t earned my on-the-list-plus-ones. Here are 50 Albums of 2025! zacharylipez.ghost.io/playing-my-p...
Playing My Part In the Ecosystem: 50 (or so) Good Albums of 2025
Here are fifty (or so) albums that I liked very, very much this year. It is not every album that I liked very, very much this year. Not even close. But it is fifty of the 'em. Industry, you're welcome...
zacharylipez.ghost.io
December 9, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Oh my God this list talks about Surgery, I am all in.
Reposted by jbuergel
Plex Submits $35 Bid For Warner Bros.
Plex Submits $35 Bid For Warner Bros.
LOS GATOS, CA—In an attempt to fend off growing competition from Paramount and Netflix, Plex CEO Keith Valory announced Monday that the streaming platform had submitted a $35 bid for Warner Bros. Disc...
theonion.com
December 8, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Plex Submits $35 Bid For Warner Bros.
Three hands of I'm Out by Masato Uesugi tonight and it's a banger. I think it's going to hit the table frequently, it's so pleasant to play.
December 6, 2025 at 6:30 AM
Three hands of I'm Out by Masato Uesugi tonight and it's a banger. I think it's going to hit the table frequently, it's so pleasant to play.
Listening to the latest Tortoise record for the first time, and got confused when what I thought was a gradual intro for a new track just turned out to be water slowly dripping off a pan onto a burner.
December 2, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Listening to the latest Tortoise record for the first time, and got confused when what I thought was a gradual intro for a new track just turned out to be water slowly dripping off a pan onto a burner.
Well, tonight, apparently I'm going to try and go to sleep with Killdozer's cover of "Take the Money and Run" going in a loop in my head.
November 24, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Well, tonight, apparently I'm going to try and go to sleep with Killdozer's cover of "Take the Money and Run" going in a loop in my head.
Reposted by jbuergel
cryptography is a mathematical system for transforming problems which aren't key-management problems into key-management problems
November 22, 2025 at 2:15 AM
cryptography is a mathematical system for transforming problems which aren't key-management problems into key-management problems
When I'm feeling down at all during the holiday season, I head to One Simple Wish to donate something and it absolutely fixes things.
🧵 We are, in fact, doing the thing again for @onesimplewish.bsky.social. In 2024, the kind people of this community put the money cannon on blast to help grant $75K in wishes for children in foster care. Toys, tech, a suit for job interviews. Here we go again! 👇
www.onesimplewish.org/giving/megwa...
www.onesimplewish.org/giving/megwa...
November 21, 2025 at 5:39 PM
When I'm feeling down at all during the holiday season, I head to One Simple Wish to donate something and it absolutely fixes things.
Reposted by jbuergel
Reposted by jbuergel
i was at a house party once with calvin johnson from beat happening and he went into the kitchen and just sorted out all the mixed recycling
November 18, 2025 at 4:57 AM
i was at a house party once with calvin johnson from beat happening and he went into the kitchen and just sorted out all the mixed recycling
Reposted by jbuergel
Reposted by jbuergel
holy father, i'm offering you a chance to skip this boring lunch. get day drunk with jane and i while we watch clips of the '05 world series on youtube
Pope Leo XIV Will Have Lunch With 4 Trans Women in "Unprecedented" Meeting
https://www.them.us/story/pope-leo-xiv-lunch-trans-activists-alesia-nobile
https://www.them.us/story/pope-leo-xiv-lunch-trans-activists-alesia-nobile
November 15, 2025 at 12:31 AM
holy father, i'm offering you a chance to skip this boring lunch. get day drunk with jane and i while we watch clips of the '05 world series on youtube
Reposted by jbuergel
it's on miro. it's literally on figma. you have to log into okta. it's in jira. it's on zoom. it's on pureref. it's on flow. it's on perforce. it's on slack. you can find it on slack. you can go to slack and find it. log onto slack right now. you can slack it. slack has it for you. it's on slack.
November 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
it's on miro. it's literally on figma. you have to log into okta. it's in jira. it's on zoom. it's on pureref. it's on flow. it's on perforce. it's on slack. you can find it on slack. you can go to slack and find it. log onto slack right now. you can slack it. slack has it for you. it's on slack.
Fuck Everything, We're Doing Eight Cheeses
November 9, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Fuck Everything, We're Doing Eight Cheeses
Time to do the second half of this project: the creation of a gazetteer PDF to go along with the map. Been working on the title page. ("Enthusiastic Man" is a randomly generated name which is just a random adjective and random noun.) (repost because I forgot the alt text last time)
November 7, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Time to do the second half of this project: the creation of a gazetteer PDF to go along with the map. Been working on the title page. ("Enthusiastic Man" is a randomly generated name which is just a random adjective and random noun.) (repost because I forgot the alt text last time)
Reposted by jbuergel
being a tabletop designer means sometimes you find an Untitled Spreadsheet and inside is just the numbers 1 to 100 in order
November 4, 2025 at 11:14 PM
being a tabletop designer means sometimes you find an Untitled Spreadsheet and inside is just the numbers 1 to 100 in order
If this game were happening in a movie, you'd be thinking "well, that's a bit much".
November 2, 2025 at 3:56 AM
If this game were happening in a movie, you'd be thinking "well, that's a bit much".
Reposted by jbuergel
fortnite feels like the pearl america was built to gestate. memeified celebrities and licensed cartoons killing each other over and over in uncannily bloodless PG gunfights within freemium software subsidized by a child casino. a satire beyond the cruelest imagination did it not already exist
April 11, 2025 at 12:04 AM
fortnite feels like the pearl america was built to gestate. memeified celebrities and licensed cartoons killing each other over and over in uncannily bloodless PG gunfights within freemium software subsidized by a child casino. a satire beyond the cruelest imagination did it not already exist
Reposted by jbuergel
JOE BUCK: Welcome to the top of the 47th
[Sun rises]
[Sun keeps getting bigger]
BUCK: yes
[World engulfed by flames]
BUCK: oh god yes
[Sun rises]
[Sun keeps getting bigger]
BUCK: yes
[World engulfed by flames]
BUCK: oh god yes
November 10, 2024 at 6:22 PM
JOE BUCK: Welcome to the top of the 47th
[Sun rises]
[Sun keeps getting bigger]
BUCK: yes
[World engulfed by flames]
BUCK: oh god yes
[Sun rises]
[Sun keeps getting bigger]
BUCK: yes
[World engulfed by flames]
BUCK: oh god yes
Rivers are now no longer perfect 60 degree turns. (The butts remain.)
October 26, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Rivers are now no longer perfect 60 degree turns. (The butts remain.)
Well, this dumb thing now has points of interest - towns, cities, all kinds of stuff.
October 23, 2025 at 5:46 AM
Well, this dumb thing now has points of interest - towns, cities, all kinds of stuff.
I was just talking last night about the bizarre line reading in the MLB Piazza ad to my daughter, and now Lauren Theisen at least provides me with why I have to hear about that and "oppo taco" five thousand times a game: defector.com/the-mlb-app-...
The MLB App Won't Stop Forcing Me To Remember 9/11 | Defector
As a woman about town who loves baseball, I have followed a good deal of these playoffs with my trusty wired headphones, moving from place to place while listening to the games’ radio streams on the M...
defector.com
October 15, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I was just talking last night about the bizarre line reading in the MLB Piazza ad to my daughter, and now Lauren Theisen at least provides me with why I have to hear about that and "oppo taco" five thousand times a game: defector.com/the-mlb-app-...