My local bookstore, First Light, is sold out of Platform Decay. I hope that is because of good news on sales volume for @marthawells , but now I will have to practice patience. (*insert wry #murderbot comment here*)

RE: https://aus.social/@chestas/116481869638435224 Very cool project. The trailer at the link looks great, I hope it gets picked up so I can watch it!

New from @pamherd.bsky.social and I: Trump has added work requirements to Medicaid, expanded them in SNAP. Now he is going after public housing. You can do something about it: take 5 mins to write a public comment opposing this change. Instructions enclosed.🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-trump-...

A could write my own review of #KateElliott 's The Witch Road, but @CuriousMagpie has said just about what I'd say. (boosted below) Both halves of the duology were very engaging, in a "I don't want to put this down" kind of way. recommend.

I ran across this data series of the survey response rate to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday and was astounded by the drop over the last 13 years - from a ~75% response rate to a ~44% response rate. That's not a small shift in a bellwether of […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

Oh, now they tell me! (two hours of swearing later. #crossword #nytimes #nytcrossword

Gotta give some credit to the side--eye in the Austin-American Statesman's coverage of #clarencethomas 's speech at #utexas yesterday. #supremecourt

Reviewing random geography with my kid last night and was crushed to learn that #moxyfruvous led me wrong and that Delaware does not, in fact, have the lowest highest point. In fact, that's florida. Delaware just has the lowest average elevation. Apparently the rest of the internet figured this […]

Try to fix more stuff than you break.

Just finished "Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter" by Heather Fawcett. A funny, cozy fantasy read. Pretty much a target read for most the Mastodons in my feed. Really, the title implies pretty much everything you need to know about whether you'd want to read […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

will -> way

I guess there goes Bayesian Statistics and Behavioural Economics. #utexas #texas

Shoutout to the (relatively) new #1972pub title IX sports bar in #austin. Family went there last night and at our request they put up replay of the NCAA women's volleyball finals from earlier in the day on the big screen. Excellent (and veggie friendly) food. #atx https://1972pub.com/

I just (a week late, but whatever) completed "Secret Entrance" - Day 1 - Advent of Code 2025 #adventofcode https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/1

Just finished reading "The Formidable Miss Cassidy" by Meihan Boey, and my one word review is "delightful." #sff #bookstodon

Got my membership to #Armadillocon next weekend. If you're in #austin maybe I'll see you there. #sff

I looked at #austin isd's survey re:proposed school consolidations. (context: Years of state-forced under-funding means Austin schools will soon consolidate & change) One thing stands out: respondents from the richest schools were far less likely (<50%) to […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

Downtown #austin this evening. #mayday #atx

Anyone know anything about the US release date for #sleeperbeach by #nickharkaway ? looks like it's live at Waterstones UK but not my usual US shops. Is that a side effect of the (stupid, shoot-yourself-in-the-stomach) trade war? #sff

Ran across a new (to me) word in the new short story compilation by @naominovik - "otiose." ("that pathetic and otiose impulse to sanitize the events of the war") & found a good recap at merriam-webster: "When otiose was first used in the late-18th century it described things that, like leisure […]

Armadillocon 47 has announced! Sept 12-14, 2025 #austin Special Guest: @pdjeliclark Writer Guest: #samanthamills Artist Guest: @sillysarasue Fan Guest: Brad Bankston Toastmaster: Jayme Lynn Blaschke https://armadillocon.org/d47/

The "United States Disappeared Tracker' is brilliant, though we should be sickened that it is needed. Huge kudos to Prof. Danielle Harlow. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/danielleharlow/viz/UnitedStatesDisappearedTracker/Map Here's her explainer […]

Great live #videogamemusic concert by Density512 at the KMFA Power Up showcase at #sxsw

I've been reading, and enjoying #tlhuchu 's #edinburghnights books. But the third and fourth books (The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle, The Legacy of Arniston House,) have taken a darker turn as the stakes keep getting pushed higher. I'm still reading, but it's not as fun as when I started. #sff

I took a convenient #capmetro ride down to the Texas capitol and #txlege this morning to register my opposition to the latest book ban bill #txsb13 . Brought my copy of #SlaughterhouseFive to read on the bus. You know, while people still can. https://www.txftrp.org/oppose_sb_13_thursday

re: #census shutdown @ipums has put out a statement noting "We are writing to reassure you that IPUMS data remain available, and that IPUMS remains committed to preserving and democratizing access to the world’s population data. [...]As part of our standard procedures, we download and preserve […]

Fun fact from Ben Orlin's newsletter this morning: " it's a special year because 2025 = 452 = (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9)2 = 13 + 23 + 33 + 43 + 53 + 63 + 73 + 83 + 93."

Crushed to learn of the passing of modern Sword & Sorcery giant Howard Andrew Jones, editor of Tales Drom the Magician’s Skull and creator of Hanuvar. He was always so generous with his time when interacting with other creators and S&S fans, it’s unfair that he was robbed of that time […]

The internet is broken. this can not be true. #atx

(grumpy old man voice) Back in my day we passed notes on papyrus, and we liked it.

Today's #adventofcode is a little too much like my least favorite work projects, so I think I'm going to pass. Data munging is important, but rarely fun.

I started today's #adventofcode with a vague notion to stick with base #rstats for the solutions, but the #tidyverse solution was staring me in the face, so took the easy road. #tomorrowsalad

Finished my read of #impossiblecreatures last night. Some parts resonated more than others, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. It had a nice texture of the oral tradition, reading as if it were a story told around the hearth to the family before bed. I certainly recommend. #sff […]

So, apropos of nothing, there was a song I heard in the 80s, probably on #cfny in #toronto, called "No Peace Until the Spaceships Come." (I may have even owned the cassette?). But I can find no evidence of it on the internet, other than google autocompleting my search so I know I'm not the only […]

Mark your calendars: December 9th, 2024 Patty Griffin, Adrian Quesada, Britt Daniel from Spoon, Fastball, Money Chicha, and special guests play a concert for Casa Marianella, an #austintx shelter for men, women, and children seeking asylum in the U.S […]

Contemplating important facts about the universe with my kids. #Pythagoras #mtbos #math

When your day starts in the #rstats rounding documentation, and you vaguely remember previously laughing at its use of "infamous" to describe the question the last time you ended up there.... https://rpubs.com/maechler/Rounding

Just finished @kbwagers 's "Behind the Throne," the first of the #indranan series. I thoroughly enjoyed it-- It had the best (breakneck) pacing of any book I've recently read. Definitely a don't-read-before-bedtime-(space)-thriller (because you can't put it […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

My cartoon for Guardian Books’ autumn reading special.

Nearing the end of a re-read of the #Heinlein juvenile "Farmer in the Sky." Gender roles & racial references haven't aged well. There is a weird techno-optimism at the end that social sciences are going to be able to predict war 40 years into the future and […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

I've recently noticed when running legacy #rstats code I now have to add an explicit dplyr::rename() to all my rename() calls. Did dplyr get dropped from the general library( #tidyverse ) call? Did I miss a memo on name conflict handling? I've solved the issue, just curious of what changed […]

Just bought my membership to Austin's #Armadillocon . See some of you there - special guest @delilahsdawson ! @mrmaresca ! @christopher_brown !

I think when I read Daniel #Pinkwater as a kid (Snarkout boys!), I just kind of assumed things were going over my head because I was a kid, but it didn't matter because it was a fun ride. I just randomly picked up Pinkwater's "Bushman Lives," and I feel like […] [Original post on wandering.shop]

Austin, TX Mayoral and City Council Candidates Forum regarding housing: rsvp here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hot-takes-on-housing-a-mayoral-and-city-council-candidate-forum-registration-974388110067 #austin