Betting there's going to be another influx soon as the butterfly site bends knee to the tyrants

I can't help but assume at this point that the much-applauded introduction of Spaceships in Edge of Eternities, and possibly the entire existence of Edge of Eternities as a set, was a cynical exercise in preparing the ground for next year's Star Trek set to be accepted by the community. Look, it […]

This is the thing that irritates me about people who argue against renewable energy. They say things like "solar and wind are unreliable" or "solar farms take up a lot of arable land" or "lithium mining also damages the environment" and then they just... stop. The chain of reasoning ends there […]

OK, this is EXTREMEY irritating. Apparently preordering the Mastery Pass did not qualify me for the Fleem cosmetics. Well that's my entire day ruined

I'm starting to genuinely hate my own writing tics. Like, I was aware that I start a lot of stories with zero-context dialogue lines, but I've been doing a lot of minor revising lately to avoid having to produce fresh drafts, and my lord Satan, it's like every second one. I still feel like it's […]

Help, I forgot to take my meds today. Someone please take away my access to social media, lol

Went to the Olive Garden for the first time today, and the food was pretty meh, but man I could have eaten a couple whole packets of those bread sticks just by myself

Over 40 years, we were collectively told to give tax cuts to rich people. And we were told that if we did that, wealth would trickle down and everyone would be better off. Over 40 years, pretty much everything got cut to fund these tax cuts. Schools. Hospitals. Public housing. Public […]

If we sell university degrees primarily as an investment in a high-paying career, and degrees in the arts and humanities do not reliably lead to a high-paying career, students will begin to avoid those majors, which will lead to a decrease in the number of people who are highly skilled and […]

I have to admit, I'm unironically kind of in love with all the weird Spider Heroes in Through the Omenpaths. If nothing else, this whole schlimazzle has resulted in a very interesting experiment in narrative engineering that has made me more excited about the Magic lore than I have been probably […]

It's really hard writing stories about the future when the future is so uncertain and things are changing so rapidly. So many of my stories feel like they were written about a world that doesn't exist anymore

So I tried to go to the bank and renew my bus pass today and both were closed because of Truth and Reconciliation day and I felt like kind of a douchebag for forgetting

The amount of data I get about the subscribers on my mailing list is honestly a little unsettling. I know which country they live in. I know which of my emails each of them has opened and when, as well as which links they've clicked on. I know who's opening all of my emails, who's actually […]

The Waterloo police are all over social media saying how they have an orange squad car to spread awareness about truth and reconciliation. Truth is, I did not go to the event today because their presence disturbs me. Last year, when I did go, the cops were the very […] [Original post on c.im]

Idle virtual economy observation: on Duolingo free plan, it costs twice as many gems to refill your hearts as it does to buy a new streak freeze. This is obviously supposed to make you want to buy Super and get unlimited hearts, but if you're unwilling to pay, it instead directly incentivizes […]

Very pleased to announce that Saskatchewan Screams, an anthology of prairie horror featuring my short anti-capitalist fable "With Interest", is now available in ebook and paperback formats! Looking for some chilling tales to curl up by the fire with as the leaves turn and the nights grow longer? […]

I am 100% willing to bet real cash money that George R. R. Martin dies with the Winds of Winter unfinished and Brandon Sanderson has to do it for him

Another book for the Shelf of Triumph

OK, the Homestuck pilot is actually pretty good. I sincerely doubt they'll be able to get through the whole story, but it'll be fun while it lasts

The amount of scammy facebook ads I see now about "writing books" with AI is extremely depressing. At least with the scammy books and courses about how to succeed as an indie author, people were being encouraged to create something real

Every historical text and historical artifact lost is a tragedy, but the vast majority have been and each and every one eventually will be. These are things that must simultaneously be true. Cherish history, for eventually it will go the way of all matter

I think the thing about "death of the author" that ride-or-dies for author intent just fundamentally don't grasp is that the interpretation of a text is always and necessarily a partnership between the author and the reader. The author does not and cannot dictate the meaning of the text to you […]

So the first preview I saw for Lorwyn was just Bitterblossom stapled to a creature and I was like "Ah, so that's the way it's going to be"

"We need to spend more than the US economy to build a data centre big enough to make our plagiarism machine lie better"

If corporations are allowed to keep existing, no individual should be allowed to own more than one share of them (and "institutional investors" shouldn't be allowed to own shares at all). Same as political democracy: one person, one vote

Governmental Systems Explained Monarchy: One person has all the power, but of course this is impossible so mainly their ministers and bureaucracy have the power. However, they make all the *big* decisions. They typically rule for life and inherit the position from a parent or other relative […]

Had an unhinged idea for an instant that says "Until the end of the turn, if a player would lose life, they instead gain that much life, and if a player would gain life, they instead lose that much life". Would this templating work, or would the card have t be worded in an extremely complex and […]

I'm sitting on an exciting announcement, I'm waiting for communication about a forthcoming publication, and the world's slow slide into the dumpster is beginning to pick up speed. This is a great time to be taking sativa edibles

So here's how today's bargaining session went 9AM, employer's lawyer joins the call Lawyer: "We haven't been able to fully cost out your proposed benefits package. So when do you want our next date?" Our negotiator: "The cost to you is fully detailed in the union proposal" Lawyer: "Yeah but […]

So I'm assuming all this sliver stuff in the Through the Omenpaths mastery is teasing that slivers are going to be the next big bad of the MTG story

Do people have MCU movie watch parties, like we used to for the LOTR moves? How many MCU movies does one watch in a sitting? 3, 4? What movies tend to be rewatched most? Or is MCU supposed to be this disposable stuff that you just bathe in as it comes out and then forget about? Surely there […]

I can't even find any joy or pleasure in fake fan-made cards anymore because my immediate first response is now "is this more fucking universes beyond shit" #mtg

It is WILD that we now live in a time where my job as an astrophysics professor has gone from "learn cool things about space" to "try to get someone to hold billionaires accountable for dropping shit on us from orbit"

So they finally, *finally* gave us enough concessions on scheduling that we were able to agree to it. That means only like 3 or 4 language items outstanding. Which means we got to drop our monetary package! Cue another fucking 6 months of fighting about wages and benefits

Toxic masculinity has nothing to do with being strong or stoic, either physically or emotionally It has nothing to do with being a protector, a provider, or a role model It has nothing to do with drinking beer, watching football, or rocking a sick beard It has nothing to do with changing […]

The increasing language in AI policies is "no AI-written submissions unless you have edited it to the point that it is fully your own work", and I'm just not sure I understand what that looks like. Every word generated by the AI replaced with one you thought of yourself? That's no different than […]

And of course the most important question about AI: what does it look like? A helpful little robot, a shower of sparkles, a weird vortex? Brand managers are desperate to find out

OK so instead of random polls, I decided to do some proper grown-up market research. Please fill in this survey if you're interested in supporting my self-published work. I need numbers! https://s.surveyplanet.com/e8ife7c5

The problem with politics is that the only people who go into politics are the kind of people who go into politics

GWAR started with someone dressed as Elon in a Doge shirt that got decapitated, then Trump was disemboweled, an ICE agent sawed, and Putin had his hands cut off. With requisite blood spraying. I guess they have some feelings about the current geopolitical environment.

Got a rejection note today that basically said "Your work is good, we really like it, but it's just not the right story for us right now", and it honestly kind of shattered me. Like, no matter how good my work gets, no matter how hard I work on polishing my craft, there will always be enough […]

So microsoft is now straight-up giving away a million dollars in a desperate attempt to get people to use bing search. This is pathetic, just really sad. I feel pity for a corporation. This must be some kind of psyop, it makes no sense otherwise

I'm at the point where I just don't want to engage with IPs and fandoms anymore. Even the ones I like, even the ones I've loved since childhood. There's something ghoulish and unsanitary about the way we as a culture are treating people's creative ideas that I've become uncomfortable with being […]

So I went to jury selection today. Arrived at 9:30AM, sat around until 10:45. Then the judge came in, and said "Sorry for the delay. The trial has been cancelled. There will be no jury selected today. You're all free to go." Sigh, probably my only opportunity ever to be a juror, gone just like […]

I have a new patron-only post up on Patreon! New schedule, same brilliant repartee! Gain access to free copies of three short ebooks for as little as $1USD/month! #scifi #writerslife […]

You have my absolute guarantee that I will never deliberately use AI art for my book covers. I will use bulk stock as nature intended

"We went from 'DEMOCRATS DID THIS WE ARE AT WAR TRANS IDEOLOGY DEATH TO DEMOCRATS' to 'Let us pray for the misunderstood white child who just didn't know better' REALLY fucking fast, huh?"

Lol, they made us take the shotgun and pistol bongs out of the display case & put them in the back. A school shooting every week down there and no worries, but one fashy dipshit bites a bullet and suddenly they're too controversial!

Genuinely very grateful right now to be able to go over to the butterfly site and be the worst version of myself and leave all you fine folks out of it

I'm already sick of the Takes