Today's article is about a form of bad-faith speech somewhat akin to bullshit, which I'm calling (because why not) wank. I don't quite think I've focused the ideas down as much as I can, but I think it says some interesting things regardless:

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

Out of curiosity (and because I encountered a definition that I am nearly certain is wrong), how do you define "high fantasy" vs "low fantasy"?

Out of curiosity (and because I encountered a definition that I am nearly certain is wrong), how do you define "high fantasy" vs "low fantasy"?

So! I've been on Zepbound for about six weeks, and I'm pleased to report that it seems to be helping quite a bit. The brain fog started to clear nearly immediately. I didn't really push my activity right away (I had COVID _again_ right before I started, so was taking it extra easy.) But now...

A bunch of phone games that had mysteriously lost their appeal became fun again after I got reading glasses, but I still want to kick whoever picked yellow text on a cream background firmly in the shins

Alex, upon bringing my breakfast: "The toast is extra-crispy because... I toasted it twice." I <3 my ADHD wife.

It is an absolute tragedy for me that I have zero interest in either perfume or fountain pens because _I fucking love little bottles_

Reading Cherryh's Alliance-Union books in whatever order the library sends them is clearly not the ideal way to do it.

One of the great grinding soundtracks. I could not get very far in this game - my timing is dogshit, always has been - but I would play this game for hours just grinding coins to get the best equipment so I could zone out to this tune.

Get your copy here books2read.com/angelmaker

One of my favourite books this year is on sale for less than three dollars American: @caitlinstarling.com's The Starving Saints: www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/... Read it: it's fucking great.

This is in fact one of my favorite scenes in the history of literature

Hey Firefox users.

I see and I hear and I speak no evil; I carry no malice within my breast; yet quite without wishing a man to the Devil one may be permitted to hope for the best. -“An Ethical Grook” by Piet Hein

water resistant phones are: good wolf spiders in the bathtub are: bad my night is: mixed

Welp, it's less than a week until ANGEL MAKER launches! You can pre-order your copy here, or from your local bookstore! books2read.com/angelmaker (Or from MY local bookstore! www.odysseybks.com/elizabeth-be... )

Why is my nose dripping? Why is my acid reflux acting up? ...oh, right. I should probably _take_ these pills in front of my keyboard.

Harriet is not interested in letting anyone else play after she has won

Gotta respect Going Medieval, in Early Access for 4+ years, patches two to four times a week. Their dev process must be bonkers.

Absolutely every MMO is haunted in its own special way, and I think that's beautiful. (ff14)

Absolutely chuffed to announce that pre-orders for ANGEL MAKER are now open. Details here: www.patreon.com/posts/136481... The long-awaited full-length sequel to the cult classic KAREN MEMORY! (Audible books are a little goofed up in the database right now, so hold off on those.)

When I have slightly more brain, I need to expand my "a bunch of the problems in video games are caused by people protecting their friends from precarity rather than making sensible hiring decisons" theory to a straight-up "precarity leads to corruption" theory.

re: today's Discourse: It's actually more useful, in terms of understanding the genre, to start with contemporary things that you enjoy and can relate to and then trace their influences back. The context you bring makes up for the cultural context you lack not being a SF fan in 1960 or whatever.

The pub that makes a delicious crab rangoon pizza now just serves the topping as a dip and I am very happy.

I would really like to enjoy Diablo 4 but my God is the performance unbearable. Freezing, crashing, rubberbanding - I mean come on, people.

PSA: a California King mattress isn't just bigger - "California" is not an intensifier. It is a longer but narrower mattress than a standard king, appropriate for tall people. (People seem to think it means "really really huge" and that's just not the case!)

post a random picture or everything will go bad in August. (Everyone gets superstitious when they have no control)

I have officially joined the ranks of the GLP-1 users in an attempt to manage my Long COVID. Fingers crossed this does something productive. (I do not really care about losing weight - it'd be good for my knees, I have put on a bunch due to the Long COVID fuckery, but it is not my priority.)

No mice in the bed. NO MICE IN THE BED. It is a VERY SIMPLE RULE. And yet. We live in the sticks, mice get inside sometimes, we have a clowder of enthusiastic hunters, this is all fine, but NO. MICE. IN. THE. BED. HARRIET.

Oh my god seriously, break my thumbs, I'll lend you the hammer.

putting this in the microwave and watching as it catches on fire with my leftovers trapped inside

I remember when Jesse was driving away from the horrors of Texas and I'm looking forward to this comic about it! (Well. Hopefully not literally about it.)

"SLOPPER" I'm losing my mind

Hey, guess what!? It is just two months and one day to the debut of Angel Maker!! (and also, chicken butt, naturally)

Apparently my request to be taken off the Meta recruiting list did not result in my being taken off the recruiting list. I am workshopping variations on the theme of "If I ever sell my soul it will be to a less-stupid organization, thanks". Which will also probably not get me taken off their list.

Loose ends

I once tried to put off a customer who reported this kind of bug with handwaving about probability. They offered to scan and send their ten years' worth of handwritten notes on tens of thousands of instances, zero of which produced the intended 10% result. We went back to the code. It was a bug.

There's something interesting here but I do wonder how much of it is just simply lack of time and resources. So many people have such scarcity of time and precarity of resources that it becomes very hard to do anything that takes time and costs resources

Is the use of "Ser" as the title for fantasy knights entirely from ASoIaF or did it have another source? I see it _everywhere_ now and don't remember ever seeing it before A Game of Thrones.

hey who wants to see the worlds most sinister hotel sink

our country rn

Lox. I am not a huge salmon person in general (raw is fine, cooked is not my favorite but it's fine, cured/smoked, no thanks) but I have had every opportunity to get to like lox and it just makes everything it touches taste like lox. Which I don't like.

My mom and stepdad are from the same diaspora group as Zohran Mamdani’s dad (same like “my stepdad was kicked out of the same town and knows some of his classmates”) and apparently the New York Times doesn’t understand how diaspora works, so I am going to tell you a little about my mom’s people!

The Sunday afternoon snoozes. (The crop on this is extra funny )

Isn't this Susan Collins's entire political career?

Cartoon toes

Look I just reread the entire Slacktivist analysis of Left Behind and this is absolutely what happened.

I've been out of town for two weeks and Harriet is now Keeping an Eye On Me in case I try it again

tbf if I was also visually sorta passing as 31 while pushing 50 you bet your ass I'd be tempted to try it on a Times reporter interviewing me