Things I have asked my mom's new cat: "Are you the Oracle of Delphi?" "Are you the answer to life's most important question?" "Are you stinky?"

when the Matrix referred to "the desert of the Real," was it referring to antique stores

Happy holidays, folks. I hope next year is a little kinder.

Christmas is hard for many. The years roll, the ghosts at the table increase. We’re haunted by the absence of voices, of laughter engines who drank and ate with us. This can be day of remembrance rituals. For what it’s worth, Hooklanders near and far are in my candles today. Be gentle on yourselves.

And The Dude, who DID abide

Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice

Happy solstice! Increasing daylight begins tomorrow! #Alaska #Fairbanks #northernlights #Alaskasky

happy solstice from our family to yours

Today marks the #WinterSolstice ❄️ This illustrated page, ‘Erde und Sonne’, from a German atlas by Justus Perthes (c.1910), shows how Earth’s tilt and orbit create the solstices, equinoxes and seasons. 📜 | Bodleian Map Room Blog More at: https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/maps/2024/03/19/spring/

every catholic saint is like "st. bobbolas lived in rural frisia, he was the patron saint of sneezing people and camel racers"

Going into 2026, a reminder for everyone who's fallen off the creative wagon, game dev, writing, art, music, whatever, no matter how long:

for how cruel things get, I will answer with kindness for those who deserve it

new scam going around where they hire you for a job but pay you less than the value your labor produced

i want to live in a world where the biggest concern my wife and i have as is if we took the chicken out to thaw for dinner that night i want the biggest concern of a trans kid to be if they forgot their homework in their locker i want trans elders to be the norm not outliers we're gonna get there

Considering opening up a second mouth hole and shrieking blood. Happy holidays.

Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google. My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence! go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT

Elon's little serfs are quite literally begging journalists to come back because every publicly available source of data shows people have fled the platform and young people won't use it. They are literally begging regular people to come back. Don't do it! It is a website by and for actual Nazis!

The beauty of a winter’s night in John A. Grimshaw’s (1836-93) Victorian world

in any kind of movie, like Constantine, or Blade, i'd never want to be the hero just the weird dude with esoteric knowledge and a toolshed of odds and ends that shouldn't exist

It's time for slower art. The constant churn and grind pushed by techno capitalism has reached its inevitable conclusion with AI slop. Let's make our best work and be patient with our process. Let's release art that's worth stopping for and savoring. Let's show each other what humans can do

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead Christmas wreath inspiration. Skull with poppy wreath, from Scalpel: The 1911 Yearbook of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. (Appropriately, the poppy was the College flower.)

Rare medieval ‘cool S’

someday I'll actually create a content calendar i can keep up with i miss writing about you, weird books!!!

Figured I'd share this on Bluesky because this is the most 38 year old video I've ever seen in my life

Tubi is such a crazy streaming service. It’s like if the Criterion Closet was in a gas station

The Angel of Anatomy (1949), Leonor Fini

You should write weird, human stuff as a fuck-you to AI and the awful world we live in, yes, but also because you will be changed and your life will be changed through allowing yourself to be vulnerable and uncomfortable in your art.

LOTS of people still go to the movies! it's not their fault you spent a quarter of a billion dollars on one film and you need them all to see it three times for it to make a profit. spend less!

NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones! My guide:

Merry Krampusnacht!🌲 by Margaryta Yermolayeva #Krampusnacht #Krampus

The Belsnickel (Pelznickel or Bell Sniggle) is the cantankerous, Christmas gift-bringer in German and Pennsylvania Dutch folklore. Dressed in tattered furs, the old man carries a switch to frighten naughty kids and pockets full of sweets to reward the good. #FolkloreThursday

Karl Fredrik Nordström, Clear Evening in Late Winter (Winter Night), oil on canvas, 1907

For fucks sake

Is it just me, or does a lot of contemporary fiction have this exact sentence structure way too often? "Here is an observation about a story element, dependent clause here expounding on the core statement with a different image but saying the same thing again but differently, rinse and repeat."

it finally happened -- a good student of mine vanished from class about six weeks ago. this student reappeared today and explained that they had been in ICE detention in another state during that time. ICE needs to end. ICE needs to end. ICE needs to end.

Cold, cold is the blast when December is howling, Cold are the damps on a dying man's brow,— Stern are the seas when the wild waves are rolling, And sad is the grave where a loved one lies low; – P.B. Shelley 1810 #poetry #gothic #romanticism #booksky #December

I need some more grist for the Profane Illuminations machine: What are some interesting recent(ish) collections of weird fiction (unsettling, irreal) from outside the dreary whiteness of the anglosphere (interpret as you will)?

the desire to write about weird books? endless the body that houses the will? fragile and in need of sleep

If I saw a stranger thing I would punch it in the mouth. I got enough going on with things as they are

Congratulations to the 2025 Small Spec Book Awards winners! ✨BETTER LIVING THROUGH ALCHEMY by @evanjpeterson.bsky.social (@slgable.bsky.social) ✨YOU WILL SPEAK FOR THE DEAD by @rabusby.bsky.social (@stelliform.press) ✨EMPRESS OF DUST by @alexyquest.bsky.social (@wctracy.bsky.social) #SSBA #SSBA2025

Thinking about mapping out what I want to learn about in 2026. Spooky humanities studies. Is that a thing?

Great counterargument but what if I told you there were also use cases for deez nuts

'Owl on a Pine Branch' - Utagawa Hiroshige, ca. 1830-1835. #OwlishMonday #ukiyoe #JapaneseArt

Finally out into the world, the labour of many months. My long essay in the inaugural edition of the Alter Magazine on the pasts, presents, and futures of Indian science fiction. “The Secret History of Indian Science Fiction” — altermag.com/articles/the...

🍁🍂AN AUTUMN GEM😊🍁 I wish I had my companion to nag... autumn dusk 小言いふ相手のほしや秋の暮 -Kobayashi Issa, 1823. Half-forgotten for most of the year, Tenju-an (天授庵), like many of Nanzen-ji's small sub-temples, bursts into life during late autumn. #Kyoto #京都 #Japan #天授庵

Autumn’s Waning 🍂

kicked out of the party because i wouldn't stop describing things as "aickmanesque"