this is the solution to the male loneliness epidemic I am 100% serious

Last night in a lovely place (this year).

I am in a tent. It’s raining. I’m listening to an audiobook. Everything is terrible but we live in a world of casual miracles.

Kayaking weekend. (Saysutshun Island, off Nanaimo.)

adding @globalvoices.org - we need international non-profit news too! globalvoices.org/donate/

We guarantee no AI, no pandering to algorithms, and saying whatever we want about the Trump administration here at @theflytrapmedia.com and you can be a member for as little as $6.66/month!

This is one of those things that I love about following people with different interests than me. If you compare this video with the next one he posts in the thread, I'm not sure that I would have ever noticed the difference. But now that @dieworkwear.bsky.social pointed it out, I can't NOT see it.

I am going camping for the weekend. Who thought this was a good idea? (Me; It was July Me.)

I would like to occasionally come back from taking a second away from the news and not sigh like a 100-year-old ogre who has just been forced to leave her hut against her will yet again, but it seems it is not to be.

Just introduced a colleague to Disco Snails. Starting the day out right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAZB...

It’s done. New mattress pad is very thick! Brûlée approves tho.

Some food for thought: if you're reviewing a book & it has good, useful maps, say so in the review! And name the mapmaker if you can. Often, folks writing books don't know where to go for good maps. Making mention of them in your review helps everyone. #skystorians #midievalsky #historians

I need to change my sheets tonight, mostly so I can put a new mattress pad on my bed, but I REALLY don't want to. /adulting problems

This is a mood. (My mood.)

so many dead canaries and we just keep on mining

This is a great book that I read earlier this year. It will, of course, not make you feel better. But you will be more informed!! 📚💙

Book 186 💙📚: The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces by Seth Harp. This book is about corruption in the US special forces. While I wasn't surprised at the b.s. involved in the Iraq/Afghanistan war, I did not know about all the drug trafficking by American soldiers.

Still jailed. Wild

the trump administration is counting on enough people not caring about Ayman soliman’s fate so they can deport him as soon as they can get away with. That is true for an exceedingly large number of people and families, but to make this very simple: It’s not an exaggeration to say his and others’…

Book 185: John Scalzi's The Shattering Peace. Yes, it just came out yesterday. 💙📚 I have always loved the Old Man's War series and this is an excellent new installment.

Well, I dozed off at about 2am. But just finished it. A fantastic new chapter! 💙📚

We're halfway through September, and there are a TON of new science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other books hitting stores this month. Here's a selection that you should check out: transfer-orbit.ghost.io/september-20...

It’s very unlikely that I won’t finish the new Scalzi tonight.

Calling peoples' employers in a rage because their tributes to Robert Redford weren't horny enough

Behold: www.usatoday.com/story/entert...

Here’s a wholesome forest friends video @erinbiba.bsky.social I feel like we need something relaxing to start the week.

Everybody gamely says “Vance hosted Kirk’s podcast” instead of “the regime officially turned the major channel into state-controlled media just as it began its violent crackdown on any opposition or dissident messages.”

REMINDER! THE FIRST THOUSAND TREES is the final book in the ANNUAL MIGRATION OF CLOUDS trilogy -- following Henryk as he wanders dangerously north into bandit and wildfire (also bears, sorry) territory. Out Sep 30 from @ecwpress.bsky.social ! ecwpress.com/products/fir...

Also. OOF. I don't want to do ANYTHING today. And we're going away on a kayaking weekend on Friday, which is lovely, but I really need a day or two to do nothing. I suppose that may be today. Maybe later....

Re: the triathlon. I'm done with races for the time being. They don't actually motivate me to train and I'd rather be doing weights. I still do cardio because it's important, but I'm happy with my HIIT workouts. I think I'm tapping out of longer endurance activities.

I think that the pic I posted of me from the triathlon made it to the discover feed or popular or something. It's very odd to have so many people I don't know liking it. (It's fine; just a little weird.)

the borbs of summer happiness

You Can't Do That On Television but with dogs

IF YOU MISSED IT OVER THE WEEKEND... Audiobook preorders are up, read by my wonderful and always amazing friend, @realrayporter.bsky.social Honestly, I can't wait to hear how he did some of this.

Book 184 for 2025: Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer. This was a @wcsfa.bsky.social book club pick. Sawyer's "Hominids" won a Hugo in 2003. Calculating God had some interesting points and things I def enjoyed! But the female characters were...a bit oof.

Book 183 for 2025: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. Magic maps! Cartographer drama! Family secrets! 💙📚

I finished a thing. (A little slower than last year, but still finished.)

Went to a dahlia farm. There was a cat!

The triathlon is tomorrow!

I wrote my own Charlie Kirk obituary, and about valuing truth over manners: www.thenation.com/article/poli...

and I'll add, it doesn't matter what you're wearing when you say gay people should be stoned to death, it doesn't matter what tone you use, it doesn't matter whether you smile politely, it is not "civil" in any meaningful sense to express that idea.

I sometimes enjoy a meme post, as a treat. Dessert mode ACTIVATE: Best pie: apple Best ice cream: Stracciatella gelato Best donut: chocolate glazed Best bar: ...I do not have strong bar opinions. Best cake: coffee Best other: peanut butter cups

If the shooter really does turn out to be an addled rightwinger, that won’t matter to MAGA, which increasingly doesn’t think in terms of left/right but of MAGA /not-MAGA, aka “good & evil.” Long history of fascism re-labeling inconvenient internal factions as deviant or communist.

One policy solution to Young Men we should be considering is Universal Basic Electric Guitar (UBEG). I'm not joking, by the way. Kids of any gender should get a low-cost starter kit for some hobby of their choosing once they turn 13. A camera, paints, a cheap sampler, etc.

Book 182 for 2025: Cory Doctorow's The Bezzle. I am enjoying the continuing adventures of freelance forensic accountant, Martin Hench, although this book highlights the horrors of the US prison system and private equity.

I am reading a book called Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry by Jeffrey A Lieberman and it is very interesting to realize how quack-adjacent 1950s psychiatry still was. I go off a bit on the pod.

How is this not fraud? When professionals use genAI to do work that they're being paid to do themselves, and don't check it, and turn it in, and accept payment for the incorrect slop they've claimed was their own work, how is it not fraud?