What Is The Exploration Log?
The Exploration Log is the page I tell the tales my drifting grants me.
Tales of people, places, and things.
May 18th 2026
I wanted to talk about this cool piece of magazine art I found on The Internet Archive.
So, I have this small hobby of browsing old magazines online, throught pretty much whatever
topic peaks my intrest that day. Today happened to be gaming. shocker
And as I was going through some older gen Electronic Gaming Monthly, I found this gem.
I'm gonna let my boomer show a little, but I miss this stuff so much!
The point of advertising is to catch the viewer's eye and attention, to make
something they couldn't forget. And a lot of modern advertising has lost a
certain novel magic, that I feel this image specifically has in spades!
Now I hear you, "SATA, ads are supposed to pull money from the consumer,
you should be opposed to the practice!" And in the modern day, I agree.
But THIS is a whole different beast! Follow along, and we may change
that outlook a little bit. :)
So, as you likely know, over the years advertising has changed a lot, but one thing
has stayed largely the same. Bold, attention grabbing designs.
From the hyper-real Orangina furry commercials, to the ICE ads that
knee-capped Spotify. What do these have in common?
THEY WERE ABSERD!
Look back to the image above. Notice something? It's pretty obvious once you see it.
The man in the photo is the main focus. Everything else is secondary! Even the product!
It's nasty, it's off putting, and it takes up the whole page!. THAT isn't an ad.
THAT is an artist given free-reign to do whatever they wanted on a full leaf of a
commercially sold and consumed piece of (at the time) modern history!
"It ain't that deep, SATA."
Yes, it totally is! Artists, photographers, writers, all spaces of the visual creative
medium would kill for a chance like this, and whoever was on the marketing team here saw
their chance to make not an ad, but ART!
This concludes today's yap session, thank you for attending.
Play safe, Drifter. And have fun.
May 16th 2026
I'm a huge fan of exploring in virtual reality, and being able to do super-human feats is always
such a treat! So of course games like the Bone series (Bonelab and Boneworks) are right up my alley!
I've spent a lot of time in both games, and have plenty of stories to tell, but I think this old
recording I found takes the cake over any story I could tell you. It plays out like an action
movie! Enjoy!
I clearly like to roleplay along with impacts, it makes it that much more entertaining.
I'm a fan of the jump off the bridge strut down to the lower platform, catching myself
on that ledge, starting around the three minute mark.
I've got more clips like that hiding in old hard drives, so if I can dig some up, I'll
be sure to share!
Did I learn anything from this to share with the class? Sure did!
I found that allowing yourself to find deeper meaning in your media, even if it's
made up by you and outside of original intention, can elevate the experience, giving it
an individual and unique identity!
I provide myself that experince here by acting out impacts against my avatar, regardless of
whats happening to my actual body. It puts me in the game an extra level deeper, and I
doubt I'd look so fondly on this clip if it wasn't for me putting that extra work in to
enjoy my media. I highly recommend doing that in your favorite game!
Play safe, Drifter. And have fun.