If Bluesky is a bubble then why am I constantly exposed to the worst takes of all time. Wait. Don’t answer that.

From the textile festival in Amersfoort. Wish you could be here to see these, Nori.

I guess I have the sort of sunburn that tells you that, yes, I actually did a great job applying sunscreen, _except_ that decades of not wearing clothes that show much skin made me forget that some of my tanktops also cover a lot less of my back than I'm used to. The reverse Icarus tan, I suppose.

I've definitely been hit by the continental Europe transit envy. I know there are annoyances here too, but The Hague has more tram lines than the CTA has subway/elevated lines, with <20% the population and half the population density of Chicago.

Sketch of Terra // Final Fantasy VI ⟡ #art ⟡ #finalfantasy ⟡ #sketch

A problem I'm having with The Red Scholar's Wake is that I've kinda recently run into "no, you see, some pirates can be noble and good and stand for freedom, unlike the awful pirates who hurt you specifically" elsewhere. And it was in the live action One Piece. Which has a different rather vibe.

"quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap" Since I did Sadie Killer and the Suspects last time, how about:

You know the various levers, switches, knobs, sliding things, etc. for basic day-to-day interaction with indoor space? This trip is reminding me of the perplexing variety such things exhibit in Europe. As though rooms were finished via rolling on random tables at the world's biggest hardware store.

It didn't arrive in time, but I did bring a fifth. They're mostly all quite short, though! ...and then I went book shopping. In my defense, I'd been meaning to pick up The Other Wind for a long time, and, in the US, The Red Scholar's Wake is only available in print from Amazon.

This is a very easy exercise for me, and nor just because my gallery app doesn't make the scrolling particularly difficult. Meet Zoey. She lived out her old age with me, from 2012 to 2020, and she loved me and loved attention. She was more into being picked up than any other cat I've met.

I saw the North Sea today, for the first time. Also, um... that thing where mermaids who can't fulfill their contracts turn to sea foam, is that only in Denmark, or here too? Because there was a _lot_ of sea foam, and I'm told it wasn't even an unusual amount. What are the sea witches even selling.

also you don’t have to wait for accounts to reactivate to do this in general, you can use cleanfollow-bsky.pages.dev

Of course if I read a book all in one go like this I'm likely to dream about it. Of course. But I'm still charmed that I did, and that it wasn't marred by any of my usual dream nonsense. Hey Ms. Valente: I found a brute force way to sneak a look into your city. No visit to the frog woman required.

] ]longing ]

I'm in the Netherlands! I've been awake for >20 hours; one more to go before I can check into the hotel. It's fine. I didn't have a bad time in transit, though I'm happy O'Hare terminal 5 isn't a major part of my life. It doesn't look at all like a night club. And Frontera's menu has gone downhill.

Tomorrow I leave for the Netherlands, which I've never visited. I haven't been to Europe since 2015, and that was the UK-- last time I was in continental Europe was Spain in 2010. Anything I should know about basic life shit or courteous behavior or whatever that I'm likely missing?

When a restaurant's online ordering (via their website) is via Toast or "order.online"-aka-Doordash, does it affect how much money the restaurant gets if you log in during the checkout flow? They just push it so aggressively. It makes me suspicious. And a lot of Chicago restaurants have this setup.

Patience, Bravery, Integrity, Perseverance, Kindness, Justice

wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖

What it's like to work training AI models: archive.ph/P3Icn (Wired, de-paywalled) This is the treatment Americans with professional experience get. The work that is sent overseas is even worse (as you may have read). For the next time you hear praise for its "brainstorming" or "summarizing" uses.

So like, clearly "you are filled with determination" was not written in ignorance of Rem's beloved red geraniums, yeah? What are the odds that "take care of them, Steven" is an intentional nod to "Vash, take care of Knives"? This doesn't feel like a stretch. Trigun was everywhere in the early 00s.

This is the only way I can reply, but: yes, it's very good! And a quick read. Depending on how often you need to put the book down and stare off into the middle distance. It's surprisingly funny for something that's largely about grief. I should probably read more Chana Porter at some point.

I don't do favorites per se, but I'd love a LucasArts-style point-and-click adventure game version of The Seep. It just feels like such a good fit in terms of tone. Let our sad main character fuck around, failing to find solutions to obtuse puzzles, while snarkily describing everything around her.

I can get away with only bringing four books on a two week trip if I'm also bringing my Switch, right? (I will of course bring a fifth if Radiant Star gets here in time.)

🍑🐈🏠

I do not agree with the framing "AI is a tool". Tools do things, whereas "AI" as it developed in the year 2026 does not do things. AI is for *avoiding* doing things, skipping things, faking doing things. I'd prefer to call it a permission structure, or perhaps a form of pollution.

I don't think I ever posted one of my most viral Sailor Moon comics here

Trying 'name a song with "girl" in the title but replace girl with squirrel if you'd like' and I can't decide among - How Can I Sing Like a Squirrel - The Most Beautiful Squirrel in the Room - Science Genius Squirrel - The Squirrel Who Stole the Stars Not beating the allegations today, huh.

I don't know who besides @brassica.online and maybe @amimoregore.com might care about this, but did you notice the use of specifically "Elly" as a nickname in toby.fangamer.com/snowman/ ?

This feels accurate to me, except I can't say where networking falls. Maybe it's just as a category not predictive of whether any specific instance is math or files.

footage of my ps2 running old ass deltarune

Piping plovers Sea Rocket and Imani this morning at Montrose Beach. (Filmed from a distance with my 800 mm lens.)

but I expect not to share     [ nothing of the blessed ones    [ for I would not be like this     [ toys               [ but may it happen to me     [ all               [

Current* conditions near Chicago, IL:

Oh _this_ is why the "The Locked Tomb" feed was blinking out of existence for a while! Jesus fucking Christ. I came here because the news is that there's no Alecto this year either. Maybe next year, maybe not. Tamsyn Muir has had health problems and other obligations. But I found this instead!

My work laptop (PopOS-aka-Ubuntu, previous LTS, old Gnome-based Cosmic) gives the F1-F12 keys their tradition effect; holding Fn triggers the media key meaning. My personal laptop (MX-aka-Debian, latest stable, XFCE) has the media keys as default, with Fn bring back the traditional F1-F12 meaning.

the other night I met someone named Ezra and I asked if he was jewish and he said "no, im trans" which i think is the best response I couldve gotten

@harmonwest.bsky.social @toomanymouths.bsky.social

It’s so weird

I woke up this morning with toxic godzilla yuri in my head

I can't remember if I saw this back in the day or just heard about it a lot, but I'm available to go see it on the 31st or 1st if any of y'all wanna make a thing out of it!

A significant aspect of my mental state lately, helpfully expressed with near-Tamarian opacity: Where I would ideally be Mary-the-Patternmaster on the one hand and Camilla Hect on the other, I'm instead finding myself stuck at Vash the Stampede and Jasper-living-in-a-cave. This is _decidedly_ off.

May 6–10: Blossom storm Apples and crabapples release petal ‘snow’; sidewalks drift in pink and white.

The ground: Buttercup Festival 3-379

I've been alternating reading the Trigun manga with Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword, and at some point it clicked that all the bizarre giant opposing knights in Arthuriana are just shonen fights-of-the-week. I don't know why that took me so long. There're many similar cases through history, really.

"Top 15 movies, don't think about it hard" I Saw the TV Glow Moulin Rouge The Muppet Christmas Carol Desert Hearts Shock Treatment Greener Grass Please Baby Please Frances Ha Howl's Moving Castle Spirited Away Adolescence of Utena Mulholland Drive But I'm a Cheerleader Go Fish Gigantic

Minneapolis celebrates spring with a parade of giant handmade socialist puppets and a festival where people row the sun across the lake. This year's Mayday festival was today, and I'm going to try to share some photos and videos (many taken by others) to try to explain it for my non-local friends.

Hello, I am at the trans picnic in Horner Park, with @maeveynot.online! Come say hi? I'm wearing a Cookie Cat shirt under my cool dyke jacket.

"Slightly diminish a book" This Is How You Withdraw From The Time Undeclared War