One of the great joys of my adult life has been realizing that I can just pick up a new skill every so often, take a fun little class in it weekly for a year or two, and simply enjoy meeting people and getting medium proficient and not attempting to become professional in it at all!

Professional writer organizations should not send out pro-AI propaganda in the form of tantrum-having "essays" to their members, and I don't think that's controversial.

Regarding The Pro-AI Tantrum In The HWA Newsletter

Today I, and every other HWA member, received the HWA newsletter in our inboxes. In that newsletter was an essay (“essay”) of pro-AI propaganda that made a number of specious points in …

terribleminds.com

what happens when you barely step on your pets tail?

Gavin Newsom is trying to sneak through an SCE-sponsored bill that aims to make it impossible to sue your utility company when they burn your house down. It also adds a $100/year "pay for the next fire we inevitably start" surcharge to your power bill. www.latimes.com/california/s...

L.A. fire survivors say Newsom is trying to help utilities reduce their wildfire costs again

Survivors and the insurance industry slam purported last-minute bills to shift wildfire costs away from utilities.

latimes.com

I'm just steeped enough in folklore and myth that if some slick talker comes to me telling me I can have my dead relatives back, just like they were, promise, i don't care if they're disguised as tech execs, that's just the Devil trying to get one over. I don't even believe in the Christian hell.

You can/should read Emily Wilson's latest take on the Odyssey, but I'm logging on to convey my hairdresser's reaction. She was AGHAST that Nolan, with his million $ budget, gave Matt Damon ONLY 6 hair extensions. As a result, his hair did not blow around properly, & that ruined the film for her.

Healthcare settings are another place you really want to be masked. People there are unwell! Do not catch their viruses or pass on your illnesses to others. 😷

Stanley Beck@bluebeck.bsky.social · 20h ago

Hey, the COVID is increasing. Please PLEASE wear a mask to protect all the children. This virus causes brain harm! At least put masks on when flying on a germ tube, you don’t want to inhale everybody’s exhaust. It’s not all just from faces ya know. Icky.

Unable to articulate the depth of my rage that he vandalized the moon. cbs12.com/news/local/a...

Abandoned SpaceX rocket slams into moon at 5,400 mph, carving new crater

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster that launched from Florida struck the surface of the moon early Wednesday, creating a new crater.

cbs12.com

I’ve been screening our documentary with organizing communities in the South. So far, the organizers mention data centers first at every single event. From racial justice orgs to old school activists who don’t usually think about tech policy. This has legs.

Look, we can talk about the genuine harms of the internet, but the fact that I, a semi-house bound multiply disabled person, get to talk to people and have friendships and occasionally be heard—that’s pretty important.

Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 19h ago

Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.

Because it apparently needs to be said: I have never fucking used the AI/LLM/chatbot/plagiarism machine and I never fucking will. If you use it, I think you're a bad person.

Oh no (I do this when explaining things)

Mx. Tiffany Leigh@tiffanyleigh.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Discovered a cursed photo subgenre: "grift hands"

This is wonderful; everyone should have access to something like this. Speaking of access, I can’t speak for every disabled person in the community, but if the accessible toilet is where you feel safe, please go. (RADAR keys are like £4 and unlike a blue badge, nobody gatekeeps.)

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 7h ago

As the EHRC Code of Practice comes into force, we’ve compiled a new Oxford toilet guide highlighting unisex/gender-neutral provision. 38 facilities across the city for when you need to go. Read it here: oxfordclarion.uk/oxford-publi...

I shouldn’t say anything, the internet whiny pissbaby already has enough attention… But the idea that a “FANTASY AUTHOR” might write something insightful is foreign to him because he only reads white men who agree with him. Not like fantasy has always been a lens to examine the world or anything

BRAVE Books and Kirk Cam3ron's "See You at the Library" right-wing, Christian nationalist storytime is coming back for the fourth year. This time, it lands in October–the pre-primary timing is intentional. bookriot.com/see-you-at-t...

Right Wing "See You at the Library" Event Back for 2026

BRAVE Books is once again coordinating its right-wing, Christian nationalist "See You at the Library" events this year on October 3.

bookriot.com

Just saw someone online insisting that if, when thrifting furniture, you can’t shut the drawer with your pinky, it’s not worth taking home. My hypermobile pinkies notwithstanding—who exactly is finding “expert craftsmanship” in thrift stores?

Oh, very cute, trying to make people who are against the plagiarism death machine sound like they just don’t know how to use it and should learn. Such patronizing nonsense will definitely go over well with people with actual principles.

Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · 21h ago

There is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.

Girón: people should stop having opinions and also technology is bad except now that it's good and also cancel culture is real and it made a baby and the baby looked at me King: Koontz: Poe: Lovecraft: Barker: Barker: damn thats some mad communication skills Girón: thats why i'm an HWA trustee

If you'd like something even more dangerous, our archive is so old that we don't use these fancy modern rolling stacks. Ours are attached to a motorised chain that runs the length of the room. This means sometimes they like to move by themselves just a little, enough to keep you on edge.

alix e. harrow@alixeharrow.bsky.social · 22h ago

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

Literally my life would get easier, because the energy I have to put in to AVOID genAI tools is actually disruptive. This sounds like paradise.

Alexander Glass@alexanderglass.bsky.social · 15h ago

I have one answer.

Also, quick reminder for people whose lives have not been touched by abuse—PTSD and C-PTSD are very common among survivors, so do be mindful of what you post. It can stick with people far more painfully than you intended. Comments about the mom, for example, or who should have expected this.

Anna Holmes@annabookwriter.bsky.social · 20h ago

If you have any history of abuse, do not watch the video of that representative being interviewed. I shouldn’t have and I am still amped up hours later. Those of you lucky enough not to speak abuser should, though. The guy is textbook.

If you have any history of abuse, do not watch the video of that representative being interviewed. I shouldn’t have and I am still amped up hours later. Those of you lucky enough not to speak abuser should, though. The guy is textbook.

Library pro tip: never go in without locking the emergency stop. If the lights are motion activated and you’re alone, they will definitely turn off if you’re in there, someone will come in and assume sensibly that there’s no one there. Ask my busted ribs how we know!

alix e. harrow@alixeharrow.bsky.social · 22h ago

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

i don't like to police genre, but it's not dark academia unless somebody gets squished in one of these bad boys

"Rena" sent this from Moses Lake WA where she is weeding carrots for a non-union company. She shared: The air is bad. See my cell phone. The AQI is 166, which is unhealthy. We start at 4am. We'll work 7-8 hrs & earn minimum wage. #WeFeedYou

My father apparently tried mowing the lawn during the Canadian smoke drift and developed a nosebleed even with an N95 on. (This lawn is my fucking nemesis; he’s so devoted to it he feels obliged to make himself sick.)

Anna Holmes@annabookwriter.bsky.social · 22h ago

Your workout routine can and must wait. This shit isn’t even equivalent to smoking a cigarette; it’s like lighting a bonfire of plastic and chemically treated wood and fully snorting the ash. Be safe, be careful, be smart.

Hey, Washingtonians, Oregonians, Canadians et al—your resident “never stopped masking because my lungs and immune system suck” pal here. Just like when selecting a mask for virus protection, you want the mask that provides the best seal. Check for gaps around your chin, corners of your mouth, nose.

What in the chicken fried fuck did I just read They’re doing turd eugenics now?

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · yesterday

Oh my god the dietician who is telling everyone in the White House to only eat steak and sauerkraut doesn't wipe his ass.