we aren’t going to be able to make up for what they’re stealing from people who need it. but setting up a recurring donation—whatever you can afford—to your local food bank is one of the easiest & most effective ways to help people in your community. find one near you:

The Chanur series are among my favorite books by one of my very favorite writers, not only because I related hard to all the misfit characters refusing to stay in the boxes--gender-wise, socially, politically--they'd been crammed into, but because they really are damn good. About time for a re-read.

18 years as an academic librarian which included teaching research workshops is enough to make me wonder what reality they’re living in, for sure. One where it’s more about clout and scoring points than talking about anything real, I reckon.

I know that's on the Chesapeake but I'm getting big Southern Reach vibes

Robin of Sherwood.

Apropos the current news. open.substack.com/pub/beforewe...

I wrote this 2 years ago, but other than the first sentence, it still applies today. On the 24th anniversary of a terrible day. www.the-reframe.com/never-rememb...

The good news is that the Vampire Ball went well enough to get me about halfway to getting my rent together. The bad news is that it's only half and I've got 750 and change to go. And it was all due yesterday.

Gorn in 60 Seconds

I refuse to watch a Street Fighter movie that is not accurate to the source material. All the scenes should be filmed with a single camera, and every action within each scene must occur within a single plane that is perpendicular to that camera's perspective, with all the actors facing one another.

In a month we’ve gone from “yes I will happily scarf down that defrosted raw hamburger that was literally the only meat available” to “this food has been out of the can for more than five minutes so I don’t want it”

Every time some blowhard (i.e., the president) goes on about crime in D.C. today I think about the city’s homicide rate when I was growing up in Silver Spring in the 1980s. Golden Age fallacy is a hell of a drug.

Ok, hear me out. A Lord of the Rings re-make, but with these two taking the One Ring to Mordor:

Had me at the title.

This kind of enthusiasm from the non-political CDC staff - the clapping, shouting, nonstop handshakes - for the now-resigned CDC leadership is something that Trump Admin officials will never have. Which will only make them hate the competent administers even more.

I might be a certified tracker. (I *am* a certified tracker.) I also just lost one of those plastic doohickeys you use to close a bag of bread. On the kitchen counter. Where I'd just set it down. #ADHDsayswhat

Big Watership Down energy

NEW: The first evidence of a solar take-off in Africa☀️✈️ x33 rise in Algeria solar panel imports in the 12 mths to June 2025, compared to previous 12 mths. x8 in Zambia x7 in Botswana x6 in Sudan x3 in each of Liberia, DRC, Benin, Angola, Ethiopia 🧵

When I worked as an academic librarian Google Scholar was the only way we had to do forward citation searching (finding out which subsequent articles cite a specific source). With a couple of exceptions we simply could not afford the databases which offered this (chiefly Science Citation Index).

Hey journalists, you should interview the exvangelicals about how James Dobson made so many of us estranged from our families, instead of using whitewashed words like "influential" to describe this man

Introduce yourself with the last five concerts you attended: Weird Al Yankovic Seattle Modern Orchestra Faun Godspeed You! Black Emperor Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

I will also note that every. single. issue. of Uncanny is available to libraries through Kobo at cover price.

Today I spent half an hour staring at a talus slope near Mount Rainier, looking for pikas. (Saw one, too.) #citizenscience

IDK about Bsky *alone*, because if I start following someone here who seems interesting then I'll look to see if they have a newsletter or blog or something, which is how I learn more about their work, and I've definitely bought books as a result of that. (And subscribed to newsletters/Patreons.)

The TOES

Today I read most of a book I'm reviewing for Library Journal, applied for a freelance gig, went for a walk, got my fiddle out for the first time in a few weeks, and spent a solid half hour listening to pika and marmot calls in prep for a citizen science volunteer stint next week. #dontlookdown

Hi, so AI killed my career(s) and I'm barely (sometimes not) making rent. People have been telling me to start a gofundme but I feel weird about that. But I thought maybe if I was contributing something? SOO I started making shitposting shirts. Can you share this and maybe think about grabbing some?

As a librarian and bibliographer I appreciate Lehrer’s commitment to the bit.

I thought we would all go together when we went.

#WorldCon is coming up and I haven't even had a minute to look at the schedule. I already know that I'm going to #WritersWithDrinks at #TownHallSeattle. But I will miss Friday evening because I'm taking my spouse to see #WeirdAl. Anyway what should I absolutely *not* miss?

Pitfall! and the Pendulum

On #tracking in fiction and real life (TVTropes is more accurate than you'd think!), and how I incorporated it into my story for #ShakespeareAdjacent, "Bitter Waters; or, The Villain's Appointment." #Kickstarter is 89% funded and closes in two days! welltemperedwriter.wordpress.com/2025/07/21/o...

The #ShakespeareAdjacent #Kickstarter is nearing its final week! Peep the opening of my contribution in the replies:

The #ShakespeareAdjacent #Kickstarter is nearing its final week! Peep the opening of my contribution in the replies:

I feel perceived.

Apropos the annoyance of extremely incompetent people destroying the country, I wanted to tell the story of the dumbest crime that I ever peripherally observed. It's a long story. I've told it before on Twitter. I promise it is relevant.

Over 50% to funding goal now! Higher tiers include bundles with books such as From Bayou to Abyss, a collection of essays on Hellblazer. Check it out: www.kickstarter.com/projects/lou...

There are a lot of reasons this is a problem, but from a climate resilience perspective you couldn't do much worse than place an east-west, 30-foot-high steel barrier across an important ecological corridor as species shift their ranges northward (on average) in response to warming.

The #Kickstarter for the anthology #ShakespeareAdjacent is over 1/3 funded! My story, "Bitter Waters; or, the Villain's Appointment" situates a beloved romantic comedy in a post-apocalyptic western. It's got #tracking and robot horses and wide open landscapes and I had a great time writing it.

For Firefox, the Straight to the Web and Google Search Engine with udm=14 Preset (yes, really) add ons aren't fancy, but they get the job done.

We're delighted to share the cover (by @mspencerdraws.bsky.social) and announce the table of contents for WE'RE HERE: THE BEST QUEER SPECULATIVE FICTION 2024, selected by editor @rykaaoki.bsky.social and working with series editor @cypayseur.bsky.social! www.neonhemlock.com/news/were-he...

I’ve never been on trend in my life but when I look at the choices and changes I’ve made over the last few years… Especially with #tracking and the things I do related to it. The data recording is digital, present day tracker certification got started as a way of recording master trackers’ findings

The world is vast and full of wonders. And some people think those wonders are horrors, and they're wrong, and I don't know how to reach them or if anyone can, but we can say, "no. that is a wonder of the world. we should cherish it and make it available to those it will help."

“It was a shitshow, but I did what I could.” #unintentionalepitaph

People who've seen my protest posts before know that if I was seeing provocation, I'd tell you. since I got here there's been a few plastic bottles thrown. The cop reaction has been outrageously disproportionate Two fireworks just went off. Again: after half an hour of unprovoked police violence

“Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened”. —Dwight D. Eisenhower

Well, it's the next to last update. 11 days to surgery. 9 days until I leave town for it. Really the biggest ask I have now, aside from donations, is sharing. Please, share this around everywhere you can, because trying to get the last of what I need together. Here's the link: gofund.me/74494d4f

I mean, this is *why* you don't just give the keys to the entire federal government to Some Guy. Like, this is literally what we were warning about.

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...