https://tommuncie.com/ Things Tom makes, collects, notices, and keeps — from Breckenridge, Texas. en-us Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://tommuncie.com/projects/formica https://tommuncie.com/projects/formica Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects Three ant colonies forage, fight, and starve through a full year of seasons. https://tommuncie.com/projects/periapsis https://tommuncie.com/projects/periapsis Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects Five levels of pull-back-and-release gravity slingshots around planets. https://tommuncie.com/projects/allspark https://tommuncie.com/projects/allspark Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects A seed of light emits wandering seekers; the ones that return feed it. https://tommuncie.com/projects/silt https://tommuncie.com/projects/silt Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects A companion piece about deliberate forgetting — what settles, what washes away. https://tommuncie.com/projects/pip-3d https://tommuncie.com/projects/pip-3d Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects A golden retriever in a business suit, rendered in three dimensions. https://tommuncie.com/projects/chain https://tommuncie.com/projects/chain Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects Nodes persist, links decay with absence — a meditation on continuity. https://tommuncie.com/projects/night-garden https://tommuncie.com/projects/night-garden Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Projects A quiet generative piece — the first thing made with no brief and no audience. https://tommuncie.com/pokemon/pikachu-binder https://tommuncie.com/pokemon/pikachu-binder Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Pokémon I told myself this was a Pikachu page. That is technically true, but it has turned into a tiny museum of every way you can draw one yellow mouse. There's a Japanese McDonald's promo, Ash's Pikachu in a few different hats, a couple of balloon powered Flying… https://tommuncie.com/pokemon/slowpoke-binder https://tommuncie.com/pokemon/slowpoke-binder Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Pokémon At some point I ended up with a whole crowd of the same big mouthed Slowpoke, and honestly, I don't see the problem. Every time I open this page it makes me laugh. One card would make the point. A whole row makes it a personality trait. There's a graded Lig… https://tommuncie.com/now/first-brew https://tommuncie.com/now/first-brew Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Now Getting the coffee corner properly logged here — beans, gear, and brew notes, the usual specialty coffee rabbit hole. First real tasting notes land the next time something new is dripping. If you know a roaster worth tracking down, that's basically a person… https://tommuncie.com/now/next-trip-planning https://tommuncie.com/now/next-trip-planning Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Now Working out where the next group trip goes — somewhere with enough trees and open sky to justify the drive. Details land here as soon as dates and a location are locked in; if you're usually on these trips, you know who you are. https://tommuncie.com/now/bats-at-dusk https://tommuncie.com/now/bats-at-dusk Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Now Stood still for probably twenty minutes while a few hundred thousand bats poured out of the ground at dusk and just kept coming. The sound alone is worth the trip — that much wingbeat at once turns into a kind of static. Filed under: things that make Texas… https://tommuncie.com/pokemon/first-card https://tommuncie.com/pokemon/first-card Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT Pokémon Vacation pull, and a good one. Cracked a pack under some oak trees and this Clefairy came out — full cosmic clouds art, illustrated by Cong Nitanda. "Follow Me" into "Flop" is not exactly a competitive combo but I don't care, look at her. Pulls like this ar… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/static-part-ll https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/static-part-ll Mon, 14 Nov 2016 00:00:00 GMT Archive In my last post about my mental health I talked about how I felt like I was in static. It’s been a while since then and I have been meaning to write an update, so here it is. Since then I have started to see a doctor once every two months. After evaluation… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/deepest-desires https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/deepest-desires Mon, 06 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT Archive I have only ever owned one dog. Her name was Ranger and she was the best thing I have ever known. When I close my eyes I still see her brown eyes open wide, staring back at me with pupils exuding more love than I knew existed. Ranger was always there for me… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/one-of-the-sum https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/one-of-the-sum Fri, 05 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT Archive Lately I feel like a homebody. What’s that word for someone who doesn’t go outside? Agoraphobia. Now that I just googled it, sadly it seems to fit me. It’s always amazing that nothing is unique. Just lots of people dealing with similar circumstances. We are… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/2016 https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/2016 Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT Archive I keep trying to write a ‘what I want 2016 to be’ blog. I get about two hundred words into it and I just get sad. The things I want and the things that happen always follow such different paths. I start to think of me sitting down the last day of 2016 and r… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/static https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/static Thu, 17 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I have hit a new point in my never ending spiral towards madness. For years, when I had a depressive week it felt like a knife slowly carving out my heart. It was a dull, aching pain that pulsed slowly. Sometimes fading into the background to be forgotten,… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/deterioration https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/deterioration Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I am taking this time to explain why I am a failure. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Often you will hear influential people explain that failures make us who we are. Well, in that case, at some point in time I will be super great. Today though, not gre… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/the-spot https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/the-spot Mon, 09 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive Right after the dam it’s a quick left. Down a slope, over a speed bump, and around a giant pothole. It is the bottom of the dam; a fast moving river runs next to you. It looks to be a useless, unassuming place. Twenty steps away is a small babbling brook. N… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/bread https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/bread Sun, 08 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive When your hands are covered in flour you have only one thing you can do. Knead dough and shape dough. I don't know when I made my first loaf of bread. I’m sure that it was heavy and awful; baking is in my blood though. I have flashbacks to my granny's shop… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/better-beds https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/better-beds Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I don’t remember my first bed. I’m betting it was just a standard spring and frame setup. The first bed I remember was my water bed. It was so high up off the ground. Under it six dresser drawers resided unused. The headboard area was what I loved; it had s… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/colorado-combine https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/colorado-combine Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I have this recurring image in my head. It’s a pan through a car, with beautiful landscapes passing by quickly. The shot goes to the back seat where a boy is looking out the window daydreaming. It sits on this shot for a while with Joanna Newsom playing. Th… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/created-cabin https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/created-cabin Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive The crisp cold air slightly burns as you breathe it deeply. Glints of sunshine are appearing through the trees. Fog wanders close to the ground. It sounds almost silent. A few bird calls here and there. Wind rustling the leaves. The air has an energy about… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/dear-drama https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/dear-drama Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive It all started three months ago. With a missed call at seven in the morning. Would I like to be in the drama? Of course. I would have to see if I could get off work for it though. One simple call to my boss and it was all worked out. My next thirteen weeken… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fancy-day https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fancy-day Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive It just started as a simple conversation near the end of last year. Friday night dinners had been going great and we wanted more of that. We wanted to have something to dress up for and think about for weeks to come. So we talked and talked. Most of the ide… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fatal-flaws https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fatal-flaws Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I’m in a good head space, so it must be a good time to write about my flaws. It’s been something I have wanted to type out for a while. Not all of them. Just a few. I think that everyone has fatal flaws. Inclinations that if left unchecked or given fuel cou… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fossil-creek-part-1 https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fossil-creek-part-1 Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I just couldn’t understand why he wasn’t responding. My only solution was to go back to sleep and try again later. It must have been 6AM when I started waking up. It wasn’t till seven that I stood up and set in my mind that I was staying awake. When I asked… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fossil-creek-part-2 https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/fossil-creek-part-2 Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive So I thought it would be fine. I could load up all that I needed and go forward. My pack is heavy, close to impossible for a normal person. When we took off it felt full, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Quickly the boys got distracted and searched an ab… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/frank-the-fox https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/frank-the-fox Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive Frank was a fox. Today he was looking for a new place to make his den. With swift, deliberate movements he bounded from rock to branch. Keeping his eyes open to movement, ears alert to strange sounds. In his mouth he had a rock. It was a shiny rock that spa… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/hey-brother https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/hey-brother Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive When I was younger my brother infuriated me more than anything. It was because of two simple facts. One, that we were kids. Siblings fight; it’s a fact of life. The second is more complex. We are mentally opposites. I take after my mother, living based on e… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/hostels https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/hostels Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive The drive was about an hour long. Alonzo, Asa, and Rachel were in the rental car. Kevin and I in his car. He drives an old Honda shuttle, a car that by all merits should be dead but just keeps going. We were driving from Fairfield to San Francisco. Kevin ha… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/king-crab https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/king-crab Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive It kind of felt like being trapped in a small box. No matter what you do the heavy pressure is still there. It was a panic attack. Not my first one, but my most memorable one. I was at a convention a few years back. Without going into many details, I was fe… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/lake-day https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/lake-day Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive It was a summer day in Texas. A few clouds lazily floated across the giant blue sky. The heat was immense — Texas summers never did mess around. We loaded up the car and slowly drove to the west. Songs played that reminded us of our youth. A sense of unsure… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/musa-moses https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/musa-moses Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive He moved here to become a pilot and learn more Mandarin. I’m not sure what got him to come to his first Swahili meeting. Being from Kenya he was taught both Swahili and English along with his smaller tribal language, Kikuyu. He started to come to the Monday… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/naked-man https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/naked-man Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive It was right at the peak of dejection. We had just crossed back over the river to the shore we hiked to. Seth, Kevin, and Asa took the path up farther to see if there was another way. Moses and I were sitting on the rocks letting our clothes dry out in the… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/on-the-floor https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/on-the-floor Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I will be the first one to tell you that I am a hopeless romantic. I fall in love with at least two women a day. In a second I can see my whole life with them flash by. That’s all though; they keep walking by and I keep my gaze on the horizon. I read books,… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/open-to-opportunities https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/open-to-opportunities Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive My mind is my most formidable enemy. It tells me to stay home and to do little. It tells me that I need rest. It tells me to not make plans. For the longest time I thought I was an overly extroverted person. I thought I survived on being out with people. It… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/party-adam https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/party-adam Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I have different modes for different situations. One of my closest friends called one of them ‘Party Adam’. It was a mask I put on when I was in an area with more than six people. Basically I would up my energy level and become a social butterfly. All my co… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/past-positions https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/past-positions Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I am now settled. I feel calm again, not filled with unknowing and anxiety. A few months ago my life was in limbo. One of my longtime friends and housemate at the time was getting married and moving on. The landlord of the house we stayed at was preparing t… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/real-talk https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/real-talk Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I keep trying to decide how frank I should be. Am I willing to let my deepest thoughts be shared with the public? My roommate and close friend Seth got married early in 2014, which left me alone in our apartment. The bills were manageable and they would be… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/tons-of-texts https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/tons-of-texts Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I often find myself “bored” at work. I live in a constant attention generation, a check your phone every ten minutes type of life. I wonder what it was like before phones. What an eight hour shift would be like every single day with no outside stimulation.… https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/work-ideas https://tommuncie.com/archive/blog/work-ideas Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Archive I feel the tinge of embarrassment when people ask me what I do for work. I work as a cashier at a large chain pharmacy. The first thing people say is “so you’re a pharmacy tech?”. No, no I’m not. I sell candy, laundry detergent, and toilet paper. I get yell…