I feel this. It's no coincidence that gardening was something I enjoyed this year. Fewer devices, less tracking, more care. Paper books, friends IRL, walking, tea, perfume, cinema, gigs... Just be mindful that the attention economy is *not*your friend and not everything is accomplished by shopping.

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

Sir Terry Pratchett is best understood as one of the most interesting, deeply ethical practical (I would say Pragmatist but I cede to actual experts) philosophers of the late 20th Century who just happened to work in deconstructed fantasy literature as his medium.

Oooof

Jesus, can you hear me? Good, the comms are working. Now, you're gonna need to run if you want to evade those Roman soldiers. Hold down A to sprint. Go ahead and try it. ... Good work! You just might be the savior yet. Now pick up that AR-15 and let's do some target practice.

Merry today! Here is a festive painting of my dog in watercolour and gouache. (I’m learning to paint! When my impotent rage about AI wore itself out, all that remained was an urge to create in the most aggressively lo-fi mode possible.)

How would you motivate people to study foreign languages? This German caller has the ultimate, definitive answer. [I love this so much 💙]

“hey leena how’s your day going?” “WAKE IN FRIGHT WAS A DOCUMENTARY”

AD-ROCK: Yo Ebenezer you gotta show re- BEASTIES: MORSE AD-ROCK: Redemption is not a mere matter of Beasties: COURSE MIKE D: We’ll show you Bob Cratchit’s not a lazy BEASTIES: MOOCHER MCA: We’re Christmas Past MIKE D: Christmas Present BEASTIES: AND CHRISTMAS FUTURE

"they don't know how to express the idea" here's rian johnson's storyboard for knives out pick up a pencil and a napkin

@adelaidesean.bsky.social Just realised I was not following you. The audacity!

LEVEL UP! You receive: Floppy Hat!

When it originally appeared in Reckoning 3, "The Blackthorn Door" expanded our concept of what environmental justice means and what a story about it can do. It's a fascinating reframing of the long-term psychological impacts of the horrors of war through the medium of paranormal mystery

New today from @reckoningmag.bsky.social's #Neurodivergent Reprint Collection, A CHORUS, DIVERGENT, @fordwalker.bsky.social's "The Blackthorn Door," a powerful story about trees, trauma, and how memory defines us. reckoning.press/the-blacktho...

Sharing this for no particular reason... 😎

Here’s a classic bit of story feedback from my writing buddy @fordwalker.bsky.social.

"There, on her mother’s stomach, where her hands had fallen away, was the bloody outline of a butterfly." We're excited (and...scared? A little intrigued?) to share an excerpt from @wenyilee.bsky.social's adult fantasy When They Burned the Butterfly!! 🦋🔥 reactormag.com/excerpts-whe...

In a newly integrated insect metropolis, generations clash around art, technology, and capitalism. Boris, a rural vesper, chases modernity to the city, but tradition is there first. Next week. "Laurie on the Radio" by Sam Davis!! Art by Michael Hirshon Edited by @annvandermeer.bsky.social

I sent a photo of our half-cleaned patio to @fordwalker.bsky.social and

So, twice a week @fordwalker.bsky.social and I do writing sessions: one digital, one in person. I just asked how her editing went and she replied: "I am midway through replacing square brackets with specific and appropriate car models." If this isn't the most writerly of writer phrases.

This is your periodic reminder that: "AI" is artificial, but not currently intelligent "hallucinations" are actually incorrect or misleading output (errors) "AI" cannot "join the workforce" any more than a broken clock can When we use their marketing terms we only help them perpetuate the scam.

Putting it out there: my PhD is winding up, so I’m looking for work in creative copywriting, tech writing, or art direction. Remote; potentially hybrid if based in Hobart or Brisbane. Many years experience working with internationally distributed teams in businesses both startup and established.

If you go to @dorkymum.bsky.social profile and click on her pinned post you’ll see her Tasmanian starter pack that has links to all the Tassie accounts on here. Great way to reconnect with old Tassie Twitter

Hey! I just found Old Tasmanian Twitter!

Just saw a licence plate reading ‘734 TBR’, and man, what a succinct description of my home library

Back on my bullshit* *The continent of Australia

JACOB MARLEY: Shit, we’re gonna need more ghosts here www.theguardian.com/...

tv tropes taught a whole generation of readers to mistake basic pattern recognition for gotcha criticism and a whole generation of writers to feel insecure every time they came up with an idea that happened to be in conversation with other ideas

Your email did not find me. Like a velociraptor, I tracked it by scent and spoor, I crept as I hung to the shadows and veiled myself in the moist leaves of the forest. I watched and waited and waited and watched. I was a clever girl.

It has been my experience that whenever someone criticizes a book for having a "Mary Sue" protagonist that their real beef is the fact that it has a female protagonist written by a female author.

Friend and I were picking out a movie to watch and I mentioned Mad Max Fury Road and she asked if the plot was good and I legitimately didn’t know how to answer because it was basically like asking about the plot to a porn movie, I just have never even thought about it

Went on a swamp tour out of New Orleans yesterday. A gaggle of five blonde girls got on the bus, near-indistinguishable from one another, all dressed identically, right down to their matching bucket hats, which were covered in cartoon hot dogs. American culture is so exotic. 🙂

As necropolii go, this one was a corker!

If the Glasgow Necropolis didn’t want me eating the forbidden grave berries, it should not have grown them so dark and sweet and bloody.

New lyrical YA horror just dropped! Grief, queerness, a suffocating small-town setting, and a supernatural evil killing local kids. Intrigued? Check out The Dark We Know, @wenyilee.bsky.social’s debut. www.wenyileewrites.com/the-dark-we-...

My latest book is now out in the world!

The fruit scones I ate this morning were a revelation. Never could get behind scones in Australia. This, it turns out, is because we’re Doing It Wrong.

@naomikritzer.bsky.social Congratulations and congratulations! 🏆🏆

I got tagged in this review, and then needed to lie down for a bit. www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-asund...

@clarkesworldmagazine.com Congratulations, Neil! So glad to hear about the subscription numbers, too. 🙌

The Hugo Awards are so entertaining this year. A++ no notes!

I’m back! It’s @aimeeogden.bsky.social’s fault. Hope this doesn’t awaken something in me…

So how’s everyone’s 2024 so far?

Hi folks! I’m still alive, though I can’t honestly say I’m “still here” (where “here” = “social media”) as I very much haven’t been. I’m halfway through my PhD, deep in the belly of the beast, but I’m going to make a little more time this year to keep up with what’s happening outside.