When your dog training mentor is in jail, so you find yourself reaching out to a dog trainer in another country for advice...

You ever advocate for an event…pull others in to try to create opportunities for them…and then when the announcement comes…they’ve taken over and you are “given” 15 minutes to do you “little” thing? The thing you spent all bloody weekend planning… Anyway, no.

I’m not a big curling guy, but I get the significance of this, and WOW it’s mind-blowing. Some are calling it the best shot in curling history! #TeamCanada at the #ParalympicGames.

I have been giving a lot of thought to diesel generators. Not just because of data centres, though. South Africa can be quite reliant on them for basic electricity. You know, when the coal isn’t enough… Sigh.

Yep.

To translate: they want to use a ton of electricity in a country that regularly has rolling blackouts. Also, much of RSA’s electricity comes from coal. Never mind all the rest of the reasons data centres are problematic, this is bonkers.

1. A Navy Vet w/ spattering of post 20-yr jobs, including working in Glacier Park. A chicken farmer who, after 3 kids, became a science professor at University of Portland (and had 2 kids). (The latter’s wife, my grandmother, was her university’s first woman to ear mathematical degree.)

He really is trying to get punched in the face, isn’t he. No, that wasn’t a question.

UpWork: Wanted - an interactive romance writer for an app. Me: Yes, I know how to do that. In fact, I'm bloody good at it. UpW: You must be able to produce 100,000 words a week. Me: Er, see, I'm a mere mortal so that be a no. UpW: What if we allowed you to use AI to help? Me: Still no.

Good morning.

Tau has never been a cuddly cat. Well, unless it is deepest, darkest winter and it is not (Southern Hemisphere). Yet, since the youngest went to uni, the cat has been much more social and affectionate. Which is how I ended up desperately wanting more coffee yet not getting myself more coffee.

Anyone remember a helicopter that crashed in DC? Apparently a report came out. Can’t say it cleared much up. But hey ho, I suppose in this day and age the fact that there was any follow up is something. www.cnn.com/2026/02/17/u...

Today’s work involved meeting Leo, a six month old Yorker with magnificent ears.

Every time I see the word “phalanx” I think of “phalanges”, thanks to the equine anatomy course. And then ponder how horses don’t walk on feet but the equivalent of a finger (front) or toe (back.) That’s right, the part of the horse that looks like an ankle is actually a super robust knuckle.

It's finally here! A Million Points of Light, the sequel to The Shape of Monster, is now live. Get more of that woke cannibal erotica you e been craving ;) Or, yanno, mages and monsters and betrayal. Listen to A Million Points of Light by C L Hellisen on Audible. www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0GMRMJTR...

Listen, I'm not saying what this family did was correct. I'm just saying that if you have ever been through the post-death process or witnessed others going through it... Then the urge to pull this stunt is strong. iol.co.za/thepost/news...

One of my pastels from nearly 30 years ago showing a path across Jesus Green in Cambridge. I think this was late in the year with a few leaves hanging on to the trees with some autumn colour remaining. It was bought by a late friend and is now with his family. #Cambridge #pastel #painting

Never have I wanted a plate so badly.

Gang. GANG. LLM DETECTORS ARE ALSO LLMs AND PRONE TO THE EXACT SAME ERRORS. STOP USING THEM.

I would feel personally attacked by this, but… Then I remember that I survived 2020 to whatever this is now and the fact I can actually still read anything is a bloody accomplishment. In fact, we all deserve medals for still using a text-based platform. Well done, everyone. You’re amazing.

My youngest: courgette…chocolate chips…SAME…obvs.

Also: Some dinosaurs appear to have had quills. like porcupines or something. So all you paleoartists out there, new skin unlocked. www.naturalsciences.be/en/science/n...

Welp. Just wrote the letter giving permission to euthanise my horse. Sold to me 4 years ago with permanent soft tissue damage. (Assoholes.) A great deal of time and money has been put in to keep her going but you can't undo the past. The drought has been so hard on her. Shit situation.

It doubled the hours and halved the pay in writing/editing. Because it is already written and the grammar and spelling are so good. And yet. It needs a complete rewrite. I’m tired.

The sorting people detail gives me very vivid flashbacks to certain historical documentaries, books, and films.

I stand corrected… They * only * want 15% back. The fact a massive company is demanding 4 students give them R150 each is pathetic.

Guilty 😬😬😬 www.independent.co.uk/life-style/h...

My son’s team in early Dec. not only won the competition but took 1st in the maths challenge. The sponsors for the maths challenge now want 25% of the prize money back due to the change of the dollar/rand exchange rate. *checks exchange rate* *wonders at the maths competency of the sponsor*

No funding for DHS. Abolish ICE.

Welp. My tax anxiety just ratcheted and I don’t even live within my country’s boarders. 😬

Yet for the last two decades my US family kept asking why we wouldn’t come live there. Why I had concerns of putting Husband in such a position. (Also, he enjoys having 4 weeks holiday leave and affordable healthcare…anyway…)

It only takes a little over 6,000 US dollars to make a “six figure salary” in RSA Rands at today’s exchange rate. Just saying.

Filming federal agents in public is legal, but avoiding a dangerous—even deadly—confrontation isn’t guaranteed. Here’s how to record ICE and CBP agents as safely as possible and have an impact.

And, bloody hell, a Cape Town “writer”. 🫣 @nerinedorman.bsky.social - off to check my murals to see if I accidentally “friended” her.

Spare me from snobby horse breeders who chastise a child for posting about their school horse show success by using their horse’s pet name rather than official. Listen, you sold the horse, got your cash, then the horse has been passed on many times - thankfully ended up w/a kid that loves him.

Should be big enough for the A-Team to round up ICE and shove them all inside. What happens next? I couldn’t possibly say. 🤷🏻‍♀️

They are all complicit. They either made criminal actions or enabled them. All participating in criminal coverups. There are no innocents in Ice. Zero.

Alright. As is now tradition, here are my 10 favorite African SFF stories from 2025 📖 📚 Featuring tales from: @fiyahlitmag.bsky.social @clarkesworldmagazine.com @omenanamag.bsky.social @giganotosaurus.bsky.social @zamashort.com @khoreo.bsky.social @willthisbeaproblem.bsky.social + more!

Thrilled to see Shadow Jack (@giganotosaurus.bsky.social) included on @wtalabi.com's list! He calls it, "Weird, dark, intense, beautiful, strange, surreal, unsettling, and vivid..." Fab to be in the company of excellent writers like @tadethompson.bsky.social - so many cool new stories to read.

The only way for this to have teeth if there are real consequences. As in, congress can revoke funding by 1/3 minority votes if found in non compliance. Otherwise, this is just a wish list.

I can’t believe in 2026, the year of Grok & Epstein files, I still get DM’s on various social media platforms asking why… I don’t refer to my kids by their real names or post easily identifying facial images.

So proud of these two. #DogTraining

If the dems take power, they need to snatch this company for greater good. It’s siphoning off our tax dollars and data. So we need to claim all this BS back. Call it NASA 2.0 & Friends

First thing to jump into my head. This would be the fastest way to get the those file out there. And he won't. So he'll quietly drop the suit and declare himself victorious (probably). Or go after Noah on an immigration technicality.

The bizarre human tendency to try to dictate to another on how they should feel or process something. I've come across it many times, from managing my chronic conditions to people telling me I MUST be perimenopausal, because they are, while my doctors are, um, no. Latest: empty nest syndrome. 1/

The puzzle: for years I wondered how certain people achieved such thick smoothies. I tried ice and it didn’t work. Discovery: They were using frozen banana. The lesson learned: take the peel off before you freeze said banana.

Beautiful.

I may be a minor writer in South Africa but at least I didn’t recently use my platforms to write about the ”the palpable excitement” over a project founded by “a bunch of influential and famous academics and intellectuals” who… Are in the Epstein files. Or their spouses. Or friends.

I confess, it never occurred to me that Zuma was in the Epstein files. Nonetheless, I am not surprised by the revelation. The man has an ugly past in regards to women…if you believe women…and I do. May Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, aka “Khwezi,” rest in peace.

I still think of the author who got big mad at me at the start of this administration’s reign. She was upset that an event was being held in X country because it could be unsafe. I pointed out that holding global writing events in the US was also highly problematic. She, er, disagreed.