Mark Sample
@samplereality.bsky.social
Professor of Film, Media, and Digital Studies at a small liberal arts college. Latest project: https://notime.now. Other things I've made: https://samplereality.itch.io
November 6, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Spent part of my Saturday afternoon writing a FOIA request to my town's police department regarding their use of Flock cameras. Their public records request portal only gives you 1000 characters to work with, but I made good use of those characters.
November 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Spent part of my Saturday afternoon writing a FOIA request to my town's police department regarding their use of Flock cameras. Their public records request portal only gives you 1000 characters to work with, but I made good use of those characters.
Penn's alumni email list was hacked. Got several of these within a 5-minute span. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
October 31, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Penn's alumni email list was hacked. Got several of these within a 5-minute span. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What new DRM bullshit is this? Seeking to buy an ebook from Princeton UP, only to be locked into their exclusive app.
October 23, 2025 at 1:47 AM
What new DRM bullshit is this? Seeking to buy an ebook from Princeton UP, only to be locked into their exclusive app.
Tuesday afternoon study break: making granola
October 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Tuesday afternoon study break: making granola
If you see this, quote skeet with a screenshot from a video game that released the year you were born.
I was there at the beginning.
I was there at the beginning.
September 27, 2025 at 3:35 PM
If you see this, quote skeet with a screenshot from a video game that released the year you were born.
I was there at the beginning.
I was there at the beginning.
Republic of Texas? More like the Republic of Gilead. www.chronicle.com/article/a-pu...
September 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Republic of Texas? More like the Republic of Gilead. www.chronicle.com/article/a-pu...
Qanon right now
September 14, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Qanon right now
The weirdness deepens! I found an even earlier advertisement for the Atari VCS, dated August 14, 1977. But get this: the ad was in an Anchorage newspaper for a local drug store called Longs. How is the 2600 available in Alaska before California!?!?
September 12, 2025 at 2:39 AM
The weirdness deepens! I found an even earlier advertisement for the Atari VCS, dated August 14, 1977. But get this: the ad was in an Anchorage newspaper for a local drug store called Longs. How is the 2600 available in Alaska before California!?!?
And actually, I see an advertisement for the VCS in *August*. This is from LA Times on 8/18/1977. I'm guessing the store advertising it had some of the initial consoles, before it became available for wider release in September and October.
September 12, 2025 at 1:25 AM
And actually, I see an advertisement for the VCS in *August*. This is from LA Times on 8/18/1977. I'm guessing the store advertising it had some of the initial consoles, before it became available for wider release in September and October.
Randomly, here’s my dog.
September 11, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Randomly, here’s my dog.
Orlando gets its own special treatment in notime.now.
September 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Orlando gets its own special treatment in notime.now.
Just looking at how the work conditions are described in the job ad for an ICE "detention and deportation officer." It often requires "extended periods of sitting, standing, walking, and crawling through a variety of terrain."
www.usajobs.gov/job/842599200
www.usajobs.gov/job/842599200
August 8, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Just looking at how the work conditions are described in the job ad for an ICE "detention and deportation officer." It often requires "extended periods of sitting, standing, walking, and crawling through a variety of terrain."
www.usajobs.gov/job/842599200
www.usajobs.gov/job/842599200
It's tragic that I cannot properly convey to my offspring just how much playground discourse in the fall of 1978 was devoted to the question of whether the release of four separate solo albums by the four members of KISS signaled the band's impending breakup.
August 7, 2025 at 7:03 PM
It's tragic that I cannot properly convey to my offspring just how much playground discourse in the fall of 1978 was devoted to the question of whether the release of four separate solo albums by the four members of KISS signaled the band's impending breakup.
Ted Nugent and Kid Rock will also be joining Trump's Brownshirts.
August 7, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Ted Nugent and Kid Rock will also be joining Trump's Brownshirts.
It's fig season. So at least there's that.
August 6, 2025 at 6:52 PM
It's fig season. So at least there's that.
Just came across this 2008 onboarding email from Dropbox welcoming me to "the Cloud."
Which is literally depicted as an open cardboard box on a puffy white cloud in the sky, which you reach by ascending a golden stairway (to heaven).
Which is literally depicted as an open cardboard box on a puffy white cloud in the sky, which you reach by ascending a golden stairway (to heaven).
August 1, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Just came across this 2008 onboarding email from Dropbox welcoming me to "the Cloud."
Which is literally depicted as an open cardboard box on a puffy white cloud in the sky, which you reach by ascending a golden stairway (to heaven).
Which is literally depicted as an open cardboard box on a puffy white cloud in the sky, which you reach by ascending a golden stairway (to heaven).
For a 1-bit game on a tiny screen, @scenicroutesoftware.com's The Whiteout is surprisingly somber and satisfying, while still leaving me wanting more. A great game to dive into the #playdate with.
July 24, 2025 at 7:02 PM
For a 1-bit game on a tiny screen, @scenicroutesoftware.com's The Whiteout is surprisingly somber and satisfying, while still leaving me wanting more. A great game to dive into the #playdate with.
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to *checks notes* stop protecting the environment against climate change. See the consequences in my project notime.now
July 23, 2025 at 8:32 PM
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to *checks notes* stop protecting the environment against climate change. See the consequences in my project notime.now
While at #ELO25 I’m launching a new online project. Here is “No Time to Discourse”—a speculative atlas of future climate disaster. Millions of (non-AI) procedurally generated flash fiction disaster stories. And they all hit a little too close to home these days. notime.now
July 12, 2025 at 3:09 PM
While at #ELO25 I’m launching a new online project. Here is “No Time to Discourse”—a speculative atlas of future climate disaster. Millions of (non-AI) procedurally generated flash fiction disaster stories. And they all hit a little too close to home these days. notime.now
And the Marvel comic includes this badass image of the pope as a young man skiing.
May 8, 2025 at 11:16 PM
And the Marvel comic includes this badass image of the pope as a young man skiing.
The extent of my pope commentary is this: in 1982 Marvel issued a comic-book version of the life of Pope John Paul II. And I own a copy.
May 8, 2025 at 11:14 PM
The extent of my pope commentary is this: in 1982 Marvel issued a comic-book version of the life of Pope John Paul II. And I own a copy.
Welp. I think that’s the end of the baby bluebirds.
May 3, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Welp. I think that’s the end of the baby bluebirds.