Monthly 2026, 07 - A Living Deck of Cards

So People Make Games put out a documentary on a living map, the creation of which is partially piloted by a modified card deck. I really like the idea of the deck, the map I'm not too artistically inclined to try my hand at, but I think I could find a fun way to include the deck in a routine.

The crux of the whole thing is probably up to two things:

• The deck needs to prompt itself to change
• The deck needs to give me something else to do
• The cards should be in a format that allows them to be shuffled

Luckily, the USPCC exists, and they have plenty of decks. Why would I need to make a month-ish start to this project? I'm going to do some framework design for myself here, which will make it possible for the deck to evolve, and I would like for anyone to use the deck without any further instructions. That means that each card will have to include at least a "basic operation", which so far I'm thinking are the following:

• Shuffle
• Modify a Card
• Add a Card

Modifying a card should also come with a number that directs the user to exactly which card to modify. If there are several of these operations on a card at any point, the order of operations should be made clear. I might also want to make different themes for different decks from which I source the cards, in which case adding a card should include the deck from which it's sourced from. This will also require the inclusion of a unique card "Define a Deck", which will prompt me to buy a deck for this, and define its theme.

I have a brick of standard Bicycle playing cards, which I can easily use for this. My initial thought is to start off with ten random cards from that deck, and use it for the month, to see how it changes.

I think the deck might actually be a good companion for my planner, but addressing tasks that require semi-regular attention and that I'm not likely to keep up with when I give them a hard schedule. I'm thinking of it as a kind of call-out to myself, but with a deck of cards. The first set of these I'm doing will then be "Follow-up themed". On that note, a quick update on the planner:

Predictably, I come up with a lot more ideas than I come around to doing, and I'm noticing that I'm starting to get very careful with my time. That means that long projects usually just stay ideas. That's something I want to start working against a little, which is somewhat difficult, because, since I'm still very much in the process of growing up, time isn't a resource that's still abundant, and getting increasingly scarce. I don't really want the deck to tell me to start a huge project, but I do think it should be able to tell me to start any new project, for example. It's just a reminder that I can do it. I could also source from previous projects. For example, I wanted to get back into blender and CAD for ages, but never found any reason to. This might give make me figure out a short-term goal, and make me start up the process, which is usually enough to get me into it. Add to it some admin and health-stuff, and I have the purpose of the first deck more or less done.

OK, let's talk materials. USPCC cards (the paper variety, not the plastic ones) usually have a standardized linen finish. I know of card magic that uses sharpie markers and the like to draw on a card to make it "unique", but I'm going to quickly run into a space problem, if I use a standard felt tip sharpie, so I'll have to do some testing. Every deck of cards includes a joker or two, and maybe a cover card. I have enough of those lying around to use one as a test paper for pens. My dream scenario would be finding a store-bought fineliner that works, because usually they offer packets with a lot of different colours, which could be cool to look at. Unfortunately, the stabilo .88 fineliners smudge on the cards, even if given some time to dry. I don't want to modify a card and have to leave the deck for an hour until the ink has dried on the finish. Apparently gel pens are supposed to work, but as I have none on hand, I will have to buy a gel fineliner to give it a try. In the end, I went with sharpie fineliners, because those yielded the best result. There was a relatively cheap pack of a dozen colours or so available during prime day, which was more than convenient at the time.

Since I'm waiting on my markers, I can think about a big project that I could let the cards direct. It should be something that could be doable with a brief moment from everywhere. That leans it toward text, but I'm not so sure whether text is a good approach for this one, because I produce so much of it already, and I think it would be nice to have something to look at. That puts me onto some sort of visual art, which I struggle with a little bit. I definitely don't want this to become a physical project, because I dread the prospect of moving it in any way. This leaves me with digital art, which I've touched every now and then, but haven't been able to get into properly. I'm good at filling up a sheet or paper if I think that's the way to finish a project. I don't want to be able to finish it, strictly speaking, so I found an application called Concepts, which lets me draw on an infinite canvas, which is about what I trying to. I'm not sure I can use it across devices, but I've known people to learn digital art on their phone, so that's what's going to have to be the primary mode. What will I draw? Not sure yet, I'm assuming it'll become a Where's Waldo picture, no matter what I'm trying to do. The methodology should ideally tell me what to do in as open ended a way as is possible. Digital art will give me a good environment to work with colour and patterns and such, which I've neglected methodically, but at the beginning of this process I won't have a lot of things to give shape to those aspects. Instead I think I should start with a few cards that make me add objects. This will give me enough space to add those aspects later without having disembodied splotches of colour everywhere.

An obvious question for me is whether I want the card itself to mean anything. I don't really want to start out with making a big 54 (counting Jokers) table again, because that's too much of a system to remember. What I could do is decide on two or four or five categories, and have them intensify with rank. I'm thinking, since I'm defining a deck as a theme anyway, I might as well try to split each theme into four subcategories, either with two categories to slot in between, or make the Jokers something fun I couldn't fit. For example, if I were to make the first deck an exercise deck, then I could split colours into strength and cardio, and split each into upper and lower body, and have the Jokers do something that involves the whole body.

Surprise, surprise, there's not a lot of space for writing on a playing card. I think I have to start writing fewer words in the instructions. It's already very cluttered, so I'm deciding to use different coloured text for each of the three parts of the card. I'm more or less arbitrarily deciding to use blues for tasks, and greens for drawing instructions. That might change, depending on the deck I'm writing on, but for now, that's the plan. I also noticed that I was going to run into several problems. One, I don't want to have to keep buying identical card decks when I run out. I think having 54 cards a set in there will be enough, and if I decide I might want to double that, I will do so on a whim. That makes me have the problem of having to keep track of the decks, because "adding cards" will be basically addressing a random deck that is in rotation. I'm also deciding that if there is no "card" or no "deck", then that'll just be it. The algorithm addresses nothing, and the instruction is void. That should keep the size of things in check somewhat. The decks that are in rotation will be on a stack, and occasionally an instruction will change that stack.

When testing this out, I'm definitely noticing some friction, mostly driven by the same factors that kept me from making exercise a habit up to this point, mainly, no good space to do it in. On the other hand, the way that very specific exercises are noted on the cards removes the need of checking a document, which is a vast improvement. It's not quite a full routine, but I'm assuming the cards will develop to one over time, because erasing isn't an option. The rest of the friction comes from carrying a deck of cards with me. I've already suspected that it would come back to bite me, since I'm already carrying one, and once it exceeds 2 decks worth of cards, I would need a different storage option. Luckily, I'm not expecting that to happen very quickly.