Concrete Peninsula Newsletter #4

This newsletter compiles links to all the posts created and published on the Concrete Peninsula website within the last week, August 11-17, 2025.

There were no new posts this week, so this week's correspondence can be more of a check in, and I just thought it was fun to keep the same formatting at the beginning. I'd like to use the space to share a couple mainstream items I'm enmeshed in to help distract from The Way of the World.

Firstly, I'm roughly 8 years into a basketball-based mid-life crisis (watching basketball, playing basketball) and just wanted to share it's a great time to jump in on the WNBA season. The playoffs start mid-September, so I'm going to lock in. I've been following the league since I got back into basketball and it's fun to see more attention and expansion. Aspects like expansion team, expanded 7 game finals series, more nationally televised games are positive, while generic and mainstream sports fandom and all the hell that comes with that is the negative, but the games are good.

Here's some highlights from a particularly great performance by one of my favs, Napheesa Collier: the incredible footwork, defensive activity, and shot making is so fun to watch.

It's worth noting that the WNBA Players' Union is currently negotiating their next contract, and there is opportunity for better pay that we are all rooting for. If they strike, we support the players.

Related: we've established a weekly pickup game on Wednesday evenings here in the Concrete Peninsula at the whim of schedules and the rainy season, but we've been getting some good runs.

My other mainstream distraction is the card game Magic: The Gathering. I grew up in nine months of winter, so was born into a lifetime of needing games to survive. I mostly want to bring it up so I can share cool art of cards and stuff like that, but I do hope you have some fun games and distractions in your life.

I recently read the first culture novel Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks and this card art reminded me of the main character and shapeshifter Bora Horza. I've read a couple of these books and love the style and the deconstruction of post scarcity society, and I'm very concerned by the prospect of amazon turning them into a crushingly mid show with terrible cgi like they are so wont to do. But anyway, I love this art by Thomas M. Baxa, shoutout to them. I have this half-imagined idea to incorporate Magic card tarot in some future newsletters or some such abomination, so stay tuned.

Thanks for checking in, it's ok to not be productive every single week. Productivity is not worth. I appreciate you being here and letting me share.

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This has concluded Concrete Peninsula Newsletter #4.