So sick and tired of the "tsundoku means the art of buying books you don't read" rubbish. It's a "to-read pile." Japanese people use that word the same way English people do. It's not some mystical ancient Japanese "art" of anything.

Yuri studies from a queer/feminist perspective!! I’m excited to read this book for many reasons, not the least of which is the contribution from @okazu.yuricon.com!

Some localization agencies out there try to do everything to hide who they work with, mainly because they fear their "resources" being "poached". Not @locquest.bsky.social The trick? Treat them like human beings, with kindness, as a collaborator, not as a resource. Simple, yet effective.

We have made the decision to formally close our X social media account. Once a vibrant platform to promote the interests of authors, we feel X is no longer a trusted place for balance, community support, and reliable information.

New blog post: Leave translation (technology) to translators www.pb-translations.com/portfolio5-1...

I've had this interview with Kate Gray on @questmarkers.bsky.social on my to-watch list for forever and finally got around to watching it. It's got a lot of good advice for writers and Kate is such a joy to listen to. Now to watch the rest of the interviews. m.youtube.com/watch?v=mBS8...

Our Ethical Game Localization starter kit still has room! If you're a freelance translator or a collective focusing on fair rates with a solid no MT policy, say hi and we'll include you right away 🤍 go.bsky.app/3wN9Ep5

And one more thing. Students. If you have a professor who is, for some reason, outsourcing their own job to ChatGPT....drop the class. If they tell you to "ask ChatGPT" for sources, drop the class. Because they apparently don't know their own discipline well enough to teach it.

Annual post about Japanese to English translation competitions! Sadly I couldn't find any new competitions, but at least the JLPP and JAT are running again this year. j-entranslations.com/japanese-to-...

Finished my first Japanese novel of the year and phhhheeeewwwww was it disappointing. With a book titled ババヤガの夜 that describes itself as シスター・バイレンスアクション you'd imagine a fast paced John Wick style violent action novel that happens in one night. But that is not what we get.

Just joined Bluesky or X/Twit is down and wanna follow companies and folks in the #anime / #manga community? Check out this starter pack to get started: go.bsky.app/HYKWj1j

PERFECT SLECTION Dale North vol. two featuring unreleased and one-off songs by Dale North released two years ago today: scarletmoon.to/psdalenorth2/ Dale is avaialble for your #gamedev by reaching out to Scarlet Moon directly. #gamemusic #vgm #indiegame

I am so shocked that Google pushing AI overviews which steal from websites without compensation is reducing the amount of people going to the websites they steal from. Their AI push is so backwards and makes no sense. It’s an endless spiral to doom. Sites will die and so info won’t be updated.

Exciting news! Our summer school has a new home @stedmundhall.bsky.social, Uni of Oxford. Aspiring & practising literary translators, join us online in July for workshops in 11 languages and an exciting range of events designed to prepare you for a career in translation.

In April 2024, Spotify implemented a new scheme: songs with less than 1k streams per year would no longer receive royalties. The data for 2025 was just released via Luminate, and 88% of songs have been demonetized. Read it again: 88% of songs on Spotify have been demonetized.

Every year I think I'll do the JLPP and every year I don't make time for it. But this year...this year I'll do it. (Maybe.)

JLPP posted their translation competition for 2026. Submission window is in May. www.jlpp.go.jp/competition1...

Legendary composer Yuko Komiyama of Monster Hunter and Mega Man X series fame joined the Scarlet Moon Artists roster 4 years ago today. She's looking forward to partnering with you on your #gamedev, so let's get in touch! #gamemusic #vgm #ScarletMoon

I often think about Jonathan Cooper's posts about TLOU2, that the studio ran out of seasoned game animators because its reputation was so bad and thus had to hire film folks who had to be taught how to put games together.

自分がchatGPTとかを使いたくない理由は生成AIイラストと成り立ちが全く同じで学習元が無許可の著作権無法地帯って事も大きいんだけど、一番は些細な意思決定も自分以外のものに委ねちゃうといつかメンタルが大きく崩れそうだからってのがある スマホが普及して漢字が書けなくなったの実感してるので自分で考える事を少しずつ手放してくとなんか壊れそうな気がする　脳って意外と単純なので

Hey guys, just so you know there is an anti-Al writing tool, similar to MS Words or more like Google docs. It has all the basic functions for formatting, they don't scrape your writings, and pledged never to integrate Al Oh and it's completely free ellipsus.com

You can totally use anime to practice Japanese (it's great for listening practice and picking up words and phrases), but you can improve a lot faster if you study too.

It looks like SDCC updated their terms on the art show! shaming works! (and thank you @senguie.bsky.social for posting this screenshot)

Will never, ever, ever, ever use slop.

Crunch is bad. Crunch ruins lives. Crunch kills. Don't ask for it. Don't do it. It's bad. I can't believe I still have to say this after all these years.

Drop everything. First Sideways video in four years just dropped!!!!! m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dJL...

Hi everyone, If you are a literary translator, please fill our survey ! It only takes a few minutes and we need your feedback to get a clearer picture 😊 www.ceatl.eu/ceatls-ai-su...

We're not subtle with all our sassy skeeting about it, but it's probably time for a persistent, official statement about our stance on AI. TL;DR: we know what we're talking about. GenAI is harming creatives. There will be no AI features in Yarn Spinner. yarnspinner.dev/blog/why-we-...

I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1765

greatest steam update of all time, because of one unnecessary detail

Last year's tequila plum wine experiment is a success!!!

The music for Silksong is a masterpiece. Every piece is perfectly crafted for the scene it's used in. Should have beaten Expedition 33 for the music award.

Please stop using Google's AI overview as your source for ANYTHING. It is GenAI. It is making shit up. Boycott it like you boycott ChatGPT and all other LLMs.

The thing that depresses me in the whole AI revolution in my industry (I’m a literary translator and publisher) is that the question is not whether machines can replace human translators, but how will we deal with the fallout after machines are forcibly introduced regardless.

I let them know my thoughts and I highly encourage everyone to as well.

This is simply not technically possible. You cannot generate enough writing in-house to train an LLM. You cannot generate enough art in-house to train a GAN. People who think they have a model "trained on our own material" are using a base model of mass-scraped data, unknowingly or disingenuously.

If you know anyone who's hiring a front-end web developer remotely, please share Chris' info with them! His current place is giving off bad vibes, so he is looking for opportunities. He's the other half to @hand-designed.com so y'all seen his work! cabrailsford.com

Every year we try to find the derpiest zodiac statue for our entranceway and this year's a good one.

"No fucking AI assets" - a reminder that many good publishers that will disqualify any prototype with genAI placeholders, and that using it is at your own peril. Hooded Horse happens to be one of the best publishers out there at the moment, so this is a big one. kotaku.com/hooded-horse...

the discourse on what jobs are acceptable to replace with generative AI reveals a lot about what we think of other people's jobs

Are you a gamedev who's not using any GenAI in your pipeline? I'm currently compiling a list of such statements, either in the press, social media, or directly through your credit roll. Feel free to add more examples below.

Speaking of Brandon Sanderson I loooove his advice for writing. www.polygon.com/brandon-sand...

Finished the 4th Stormlight Archives book, Rhythm of War, and I think that was the best one so far. I loved every moment. Hoping I can read book 5 next year, then re-read the whole series in time for book 6 in 2031(ish).

Finally reading this great essay on what translators do and what language is! This part in particular hit home for me.

If your resolution this year is to support more independent bookstores, hi!👋🏽 We’re Bookshop.org, an ethical alternative to Amazon for buying books online where every purchase supports indie bookstores all over the U.S. 😌📚 (And our CEO has never gone to space, just saying)

Make music! Get on stage! Draw comics! Make zines! Translate books! Write novels! Put your weirdness out into the world! We need your art to stay sane in this increasingly wild world!

I was biking to work one day and a pigeon LEAPED out of some long grass as I turned a corner. Turning corner + dodging pigeon = wipe out. I effed up both knees and the palms of my hands and I still went to work covered in blood and bike oil 😂

You don't necessarily need to say "image of" in your alt text for users to know it's an image. Screen readers will announce that it's an image. But it can help readers to specify if it's a hand-drawn image, Polaroid, infographic, screenshot, chart, map, diagram, or so on.

Japan Post is out here doing the Lord's work, and while I salute their efforts, given the number of "A happy new year" greetings I still receive, they are fighting a losing battle.

LinkedIn is so stressful. I can't spend more than a few minutes on it because of all the sloppy crap. I would have quit it ages ago if it weren't for the nice messages I get saying they appreciate my posts or from aspiring translators asking for help.