Somehow we’ve ended up in a position where the richest most powerful people in the world are innocent benevolent bystanders while a college professor with no tenure is part of a decadent and corrupt establishment that controls everything

ANYWAY, I'm busy until the New Year (medical tests, work, family visiting) and MAYBE the first week of January I'll have time to read again.

Apropos of my conversation with @bobthetrout.bsky.social, if you're looking for a "gateway" author for fantasy, you can do a hell of a lot worse than T. Kingfisher.

Family is visiting. "Have you read any Jim Butcher? Or Brandon Sanderson?" I would rather put a cigarette out in my eye, thanks.

why isn’t there a gogurt style on-the-go spaghetti yet

The new purple blanket has yet to be named.

My sibling gave me a roll of Who Gives a Crap toilet paper and, while not my FAVORITE gift, it's the one that made me laugh the hardest.

"I really need a copy of Wicked!" I have never laughed so hard in my LIFE

To everyone shopping for a very specific gift on December 24: I wish you a very merry choke on a thousand dicks.

I remember all the times I was told that (analog) books would quickly become obsolete, that I would be out of a job, that everyone should just give in and buy a Kindle. Yeah, about that: didn't happen, probably won't happen any time soon. Sorry.

There are too many damned holidays. Two is enough; one in summer, one in winter.

I don’t mean to sound extreme, but I don’t think we should have torture camps for people with criminal records either.

Home is where I keep my snacks.

And the utterly WORST book I've read was We Begin at the End by Chris Whittaker. Poorly written, poorly edited, stupid plot, poorly researched. Just a fucking dumpster fire that everyone inexplicably loved.

Here are my favorite books I've read this year: Katabasis by RF Kuang The Empusium by Olga Tolarczuk You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White Junie by Erin Crosby Ekstein Angel Down by Daniel Krauss The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Well, I WASN'T dreading Christmas, but Tammy just leapt off of the top rope with a solid steel chair.

So, I got pretty high last night and was thinking about uploading one's consciousness to a machine (as one does) and realized that I haven't even brought up how much of our mood, personality, temperament is determined by *hormones*. How do you account for that in your lazy techno fantasy?

As a knitter, I say this in awe and respect: Crocheters are goddamed MAGICAL. They are blessed with abilities that us normies could never even imagine.

people always laugh when bears run away from housecats because they're so much bigger but like. imagine you were in the woods & you ran into a weird little guy that looks kinda like you but like 1/5th the size & his head is shaped weird & he is running toward you full tilt yelling. what would you do

ANYWAY, still really happy with my decision to buy Christmas gifts from local makers and stores, and to make them myself. That has definitely helped with my stress levels, too.

Beating cancer aside, I've had some, uh, not great scans and mysterious symptoms crop up in the past couple of months that I'm hoping to get some diagnoses for in the New Year. I feel like garbage enough without the added stress of trying to survive another Christmas with people I'd rather not.

For the first time in I don't even know how long, I'm not dreading Christmas. Due to, in large part, my refusal to spend it with those that don't bring me joy. I beat fucking cancer, why am I wasting my precious short life with people who think it's a fun game to upset me?

This has not stopped me from buying books.

Just say you're scared of Robot Hell and save the rest of us the frustration of your 101 level understanding of philosophy and religion.

Beyond the utter uselessness, the undermining of work, and the environmental destruction of AI are its promoters-- a large percentage of which are dipshits who believe that not only is it possible to "upload" a consciousness, but that we will inevitably have the technology to do so.

Even though I had a brutal migraine WHILE AT WORK today, I sold every dingdamn copy of "God of the Woods" (Liz Moore) and "North Woods" (Daniel Mason) that we had in stock. Neither of which is in my typical reading wheelhouse, but both are utterly fantastic.

This has been said a million different times and ways and it never seems to penetrate but I’ll try again: Using AI to “do” art isn’t possible. Art is not the process of coming up with a good idea to get started and then executing it flawlessly in the style of someone you admire.

In general, AI adoption levels are a measurement of to what extent a particular reward system (a corporation, a market, academia as a whole system) has ceased to distinguish between doing a thing and pretending to do a thing

Man, now people are digging up posts I made nearly a year ago to get mad at. Relax. Enjoy a little weed. Get a hobby. Life is too damned short for whatever it is you think you're achieving.

People wonder why I get so mad at Democrats and it's because IN THEORY they should be at least a little bit angry about us losing benefits, but instead we got shrugs and the suggestion that we were lucky that we got anything at all.

Man, for once I want to stop talking about LLMs and my overall fears that we will have ~entertainment~ made by LLMs/etc and bespoke (read: expensive) entertainment made by real people. I shouldn't have logged on today. Fucken Nebulas.

I'm giving myself an A+ for deciding to either buy all of my gifts locally or make them. It's not just boycotting particular retailers (you know the ones), but I've been battling some pretty severe fatigue and I've managed to get Christmas done without running myself into the ground.

Now that the gift hats are done and washed and currently drying, I've started the traditional "you know what? I want a present, too!" project for myself. It's a hat.

I have decided to make 70" long blanket in seed stitch because I hate myself and want to die. (I'm KIDDING. Mostly.)

Here's the last of the Christmas hats (the purple hat just needs to be washed and have the bobble attached; the brown striped was cast on earlier today) and because I haven't done enough work, the next purple blanket has been started.

Give this casting director an Oscar RIGHT FUCKING NOW

Hot on the heels of watching the Diddy documentary, I can assure you that I was not expecting this.

I watched Sean Combs: The Reckoning yesterday and whew

I do really enjoy having an excuse to sit and knit during the busy holiday season. My sister-in-law is getting a hat!

Unmatched. Unbeatable.

It has been over 11 months, but here is the Sorry Your Husband is Cheating on You blanket off of the needles-- just finished today. I've since woven the ends in and thrown it in the wash while I try to figure out a way to block the damn thing.

I mean, if people can afford things like housing and medications and food, they *will* spend more money on holiday crap! It seems pretty self explanatory AND YET

I know this is a little hypocritical because I am at work right now in a sector of the Little Treats Industry, but it is far far far more important to me to know if Gen Z can afford things like medications and housing, and less about if they can/want to buy holiday crap.

“AI is clearly sticking around so you have to get used to it” wrong. I don’t have to get used to shit. I am a practiced hater and I can keep this going for decades if I am required to

I don't think I posted the books I picked up last week (but haven't started yet): "Empire of the Dawn" and "We Survived the Night" because I contain multitudes.

We are in the middle of SNOWPOCALYPSE 2025, so I'm doing my usual Tuesday work from home. No book haul today BUT Olga Tokarczuk's new book (House of Day, House of Night) is out and I cannot waaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiit to get my hands on it.

I have Stancil and his surrounds pretty effectively blocked, but since people are liking 6+mo old dunks i made on him I can only assume he's up to more dipshittery.

It’s Giving Tuesday, and the support of readers via Patreon means the world to this writer, speaker, and advocate. I’m a truth teller who doesn’t bothsides issues or kowtow to the powerful and wealthy for access. This isn’t lucrative, but with your help I can keep doing it www.patreon.com/cstroop

I'm logging off to start another hat. For those of you that don't know me well: I am pro- art, pro- human, and an environmentalist which means that I am VERY anti-capitalist and VERY anti- AI. Also, I have better things to do than to argue with toolbags about it.

[death to ~romantasy~]