Book advertising via trope has gotten to the point of ridiculousness that is actively turning me away from reading the book. I don't want to know the full story arc of every book before I read it!

Sometimes I see news about tech billionaires and it makes me want to hold their hand and gently tell them that no matter what they do they will eventually die and we will all dance on their graves.

Just lost a decent sized machine deal because the company that outsources to my customer is closing their plant in Michigan and moving manufacturing to China. The huge skilled labor shortage in manufacturing combined with insane tariffs and import costs are killing US manufacturing.

Are you consumed with thoughts of imminent doom? Why not cheer yourself up by hanging out with some *even more doomed* people? THE LEAGUE OF LOST SOULS is 25% off for preorders at Barnes & Noble with coupon code PREORDER25 #BNPreorder

It's just three weeks until The Dragon Has Some Complaints flies into the world! And this week is the big Barnes & Noble preorder sale, meaning you can get 25% off my dragon with the code PREORDER25. Do you need a lonely dragon in your life? #booksky

B&N Preorder sale is live! What are you all ordering? This is the day I make 90% of my purchases for the year, so I'd love to hear about upcoming titles you're excited about or have written!

My neighbor told me a cat keeps eating his british prime minister so I asked how many PMs he has and he said he just goes to the commons and gets a new PM afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding PMs to a cat and then his daughter started crying.

Mother fuck- kitten fosters there’s a potential recall in process for all Breeders Edge/Shelter Choice puppy and kitten formulas. For non foster folks- these are the gold standard formulas. This is a big deal For Team Potat- this is a freaking nightmare.

An interesting thread from a month ago that predicted exactly what we’re seeing in the reflecting pool now (peeling up, prolific microbial activity)

Really hate that Apple got rid of the button for macro mode and made it automatically switch when you get really close to whatever you're taking a picture of. I want cool pictures of spiders, I do /not/ want to be that close. Anyway: cool spider I just saw www.inaturalist.org/observations...

I'm in the fun part of Illinois that's predicted to get 2-3" of rain in an HOUR and might get EF-2 tornadoes. Needless to say it's a work from home day since I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to *get* to the house later, with the river across the street and all.

Remembered to put the hanging baskets and bird feeders in the garage and bring in folding chairs for the basement before the storm hit. Usually I'm watching plants get wrecked and saying "I should have put those in the garage", but not this time!

Green Peppers. Utterly vile and can be found in pretty much any food with zero warning. They not only taste horrible, they have the fun property of making anything they’ve ever brushed against also taste disgusting. Did you touch green pepper and then touch my food? Thanks, you’ve ruined it.

Went on a walk through Graceland Cemetery yesterday and saw some urban coyotes!

Got up at 5am to buy Pokemon cards at Meijer. I think I have a problem?

I was too clever with tofu and played myself. Saw a video where someone grated it and thought it might be a clever work around for my dislike of ground meat. It’s the exact same texture! The texture is 100% the problem and I knew that!

Only one in the front office today and it’s a madhouse. Customers can scent that you’re alone in the like sharks smell blood in the water.

In case you would like to officially share your thoughts

Sitting on my bed, watching a romcom when suddenly I see something move from the corner of my eye. There is a big juicy spider crawling next to me IN MY BED. I thought we had a gentleman’s agreement that the bed was a safe zone, but apparently I was mistaken!!

Reading Ulysses and Moby Dick at the same time is A Lot. The things I choose to do to myself!

My unread copy of Ulysses is so old it has a Borders price sticker on it.

Would I be attempting the impossible to do Ulysses in 80 this year while also working my way through Moby Dick? I'm doing 4 chapters a day of the later, and Ulysses is broken up into 10-15 minute sections every day. It seems achievable, but I might be delusional.

Genuinely enjoyed the chapter in Moby Dick where Herman Melville is gloriously wrong about whales but presents himself as the sole person capable of sorting out their classifications. Did you know the sperm whale is the largest whale? And whales are definitely fish?

Coincidentally I'm reading Moby Dick right now and last night read the bit where Melville says directly to the reader "the white whale's important!". Don't even need a note! The quote: A white whale - did ye mark that, man? Look ye - there's something special in the wind.

It increasingly feels like we're living in one of those really fucked up sci-fi dystopias. www.science.org/content/arti...

Got the pollinator garden dug out and planted tonight! Nephew was a huge help again and my littlest nephew (3) also helped dig out some plants and dirt.

This afternoon’s gardening should be interesting. Have to clear out a 10 ft bed and plant it with a wrist I hurt yesterday when two cars got in a major accident in front of us. My dad was driving and reacted so quickly that we didn’t hit either car, but we all got a little banged up from it.

Still laughing about the look of betrayal on my sister’s face last night when my nephew asked if he could come over after school today to help me garden.

Hey so if you're in the USA, the FCC is floating the idea of making shows put a warning up if they include or discuss trans people and trans lives. A short paragraph saying this is messed up would help a lot! You gpt less than a week. Submit your comment by May 22: www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings...

How did I manage to get my feet covered in dirt through my shoes and my socks??

Dug up 13 ft of neglected garden bed and planted all native plants. God a variety of soil conditions because I have no idea what will like it there, so half of it’s going to die, but that’s how we learn!

"who have not yet dated"

They’re trying to bring these to Chicago and 1) absolutely not but also 2) they’re confused by circles and Waymo expects them to navigate six way intersections, alley streets, and Lower Wacker in 3) winter with giant potholes? No.

Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.

Can always tell when I'm consuming too much British media because I start switching my z's to s'.

Really need a new non-Adobe pdf reader without AI or ads. Anyone have suggestions for a Windows program?

Discovered matcha lemonade two weeks ago and am, unfortunately, making it my whole personality.

Would really like to know the theories behind including an excerpt instead of the full work in the Hugo finalists packet. There is so much material to get through, an excerpt drops your work to the bottom of the stack since I'll have to do extra work to get it. So pretty unlikely I'll vote for it.

Chrome is reaching into users' machines and writing a 4 GB on-device AI model file to disk without asking. It is the weights for Gemini Nano, Google's on-device LLM. Chrome did not ask. Chrome does not surface it. If the user deletes it, Chrome re-downloads it. www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-...

Spent my last three days sick and mainlining Pit Babe while texting @vehiclesshockme.bsky.social the insanity, who I have to emphasize expressed no interest in the show or asked for this. 💖 Friendship 💖

Pens eliminated. Damn.

The Sun Also Rises. Why the fuck would any 14 year old girl want to read about a grown ass man’s obsession with his erectile disfunction? Literally the only thing I remember about it.

Isn't that just the first Avatar movie?

I'd build a library with built in hardwood shelves in said new house, get stained glass windows, and buy original art with the pricey custom frames. Build a closet room. Buy that really nice Italian oven that comes in custom colors. Get the $$ hiking boots. Pay someone else to mow the lawn.

Made myself a toddler lunch. Berries, reheated chicken fingers, and a slice of cheese. All it needs for me to only eat the berries and leave torn up pieces of everything else on my plate.

Pens won!!!! Series is still 3-2 to the Flyers but we got a Game 6!!

Bookstore, no question.

My brother just called me? To tell me he saw a cookie he thinks I’d like? Going to need to go check their basement for pods.

The discourse about men being emotionally conscripted into doing search-and-rescue for women who would otherwise be eaten by bears (I guess) has me thinking about this riveting story from a little over 10 years ago. www.outdoors.org/resources/am...