I sure do love hearing meaningful #GoodNews youtu.be/KUq4TiXSYHw?...

November chapters are finally live! My monthly posts are now shared with everyone, and only the story is reserved for patrons. First line this month: Asra awoke on a stretcher, surrounded by concerned faces. Join to read more! www.patreon.com/posts/novemb...

I feel like every new rando who watches me lately is on a quest to convince me that AI are cool. You don't understand. I'm a sci fi fan. Real AI are SO COOL. Your loser plagiarized slop machines just make me sick. The scams and lies just make me angry and sad. There are no real AI yet. Grow up.

I love #danmei stories. Master of Demonic Cultivation, mentioned in the article, is my favorite Chinese anime to date, just gorgeous art and a well-crafted, complex story in an interesting world. I want to support authors in this genre, however I can. apnews.com/article/chin...

No Spotify until they stop airing fascist recruitment ads.

Important stuff!

12 or so yrs ago, when I started Duolingo, I dreamed of the day when I could afford to pay premium, to support their "mission". By the time I had money, they'd removed every feature I found worth paying for, and now they've gotten worse. I no longer understood why anyone would get premium.

I love this creator so much. Also #LeavetheLeaves youtube.com/shorts/d0yBw...

What this says to me is that the parts of a city that feel built for humans to thrive in? We thrive in those parts. I've long believed that if the people had more say in city planning, we'd all be happier in urban areas. But yeah, city walkies are good too. Sometimes. apnews.com/article/well...

I have been studying Japanese on #Busuu for a full week now. I wish I'd found it sooner. I like its teaching style better than Duolingo, and I find its lessons to be higher in overall quality. If you're tired of the constant cheerful Duo enshittification, Busuu is a good alternative so far.

Owen is 55! I think this happened yesterday. But we want him to get much older! Please support his GoFundMe, so he can keep creating games for many years!

A todos:

I want this. I want it at fast food places. I want it for every party I ever throw again. 🍴🥄 #ediblespoons youtube.com/shorts/t_aom...

Oh yikes. I was thinking I'd need to do what I can to help the food bank pick up the slack. Apparently that's not a thing. I mean, I still think I'll try to help out the food bank, but I'm readjusting my expectations regarding the effectiveness of that strategy.

While reading this article and feeling sad about the destructions of historically significant artifacts, it also occurred to me. The condescending argument that "we have to keep your artifacts because you can't keep them safe" is pretty well dead at this point. apnews.com/article/louv...

It's definitely Epstein Ballroom. I mean what could it be other than Epstein Ballroom?

For many years now, I have noticed that apologies given online are never good enough to placate people. I think this is because we as a culture (at least in the US) think of apologies wrong. No one sounds sincere when they apologize because we were taught to apologize insincerely. 1/9

What a neat idea! We need more community nooks.

I stopped using Spotify a couple of years ago, but maybe others can usefully boycott their new pro-fash ads.

Heebie jeebies

Duolingo has found another creative new way to make their app worse and less fun! It's a constant project for them. Does anyone have other language apps to recommend? Please give details, like number of languages offered, writing practice (kanji, cyrillic, etc), types of fees, options ...

Haven't had much time for bsky in several days, but I sure had a great weekend! Amazing energy at the No Kings rally, so much diversity of opinion, all standing together, supporting democracy side by side! And while I didn't get to participate to my usual degree, I bid a fond farewell to Orycon.

October patron chapters! First lines this month: Six months later, Asra still had no idea where to find Sen. His hireling had come back only recently, with news of a few blue fish boys, even one named Sen, but none remotely matching _his_ Sen's description. www.patreon.com/posts/octobe...

In our mecha vs kaiju tabletop game, my fellow PC uses this technology in his mecha. We're a search and rescue themed indie mech garage, and one of our mechs has a Swiss army knife collection of sound-based abilities for protecting civilians during/after kaiju attacks. youtube.com/shorts/R2Svp...

What a great economy. Please help out an old friend, and/or buy cool stuff

Wow. Horrifyingly well said, Zelda Williams.

You have the right and the duty to disobey unlawful orders.

Lots of illustrative video clips in this. A real Portland protest, ICE misconduct. Good info here.

A beaver with a soggy bento, taking shelter from the rain. (my translation) Poor little guy. And who's that in the shadows? Today I knew every kanji, but I had to look up how to pronounce 雨宿り(amayadori, to take shelter from the rain) because I hadn't seen those kanji together before.

What's actually going on in Portland.

Apparently "ceasefire" has entered the growing list of words that no longer have any meaning.

This would make taking walks in the rain so much nicer! youtube.com/shorts/9ziEX...

Working on a thing. New thing for new publishers. Not sure if it'll happen yet, so that's all I'll tell for now. *buzzes softly, emitting occasional sparks* Wish me luck!

At a peaceful protest maybe 15ish years ago, we got some intimidating right wing counter-protesters acting kinda threatening. Some intimidating people from our side went and made a wall between them and the rest of us, to keep us safe to finish our protest. Nothing escalated into violence. 1/5

If you see this, quote repost with a GIF of your first ever anime:

Take the .01%'s cookies. They taste better, especially if shared with local "foreigners".

Nothing is even happening here.

A beaver going up a mountain (my non-literal translation. Literally it's more like "a beaver entering a mountain", but in English that sounds like a cave is required, so I tweaked it a little.) Sign posts read: Entrance - 入口 Hiking - ハイキング Exit - 出口

Our National Guard troops want to protect us and the Constitution. They don't want to be used as authoritarian stunt props.

A beaver, headed for the destination (my translation) This one's from yesterday, and I could read it all! Yay!!

A beaver crossing a crosswalk. (my translation. 横断歩道 is more literally "pedestrian crossing") Today I had to look up 横断 (oudan, crossing), even though I shouldn't have because I've learned it before. I also forgot how to pronounce 渡る (wataru, to cross over). I need to practice more often! 💛🐤

My mom is getting kind of disappointing hospice care right now. This article sheds some light on that for me. I'm hoping we can find something better.

So cute! Ittekimasu! That word doesn't translate well, but it's what you say when you leave a familiar place, like home. It sort of means "I'll be back soon" maybe? It's a friendly thing to say when leaving a place you'll return to. (Literally it's like, "I go and come.")

Yep, pretty much.

Ok, this made me laugh

September patron chapters are live! Fulfilling a little late this month, but I got it done! First line this month: In the morning, Sen picked berries from the garden and mixed them with grain porridge and some honey donated by one of the devout. www.patreon.com/posts/september-soul-139589550

This is what I look for in my representatives. Got some lucky people in Chicago, with candidates like these.

Here's some people on the right side of history

I love my city's street vendors. I'm glad people are honoring street vendors with poetry. This poem is a whole thread long, so check out the whole thing for full emotional effect.

This song is fun.