One thing that I have been learning about myself lately is when to stop writing for the night. I WANT to do more (I wanna finish these edits *so bad*), but I know I am at the point that anything I write, I am going to have to redo later. Better to leave it be and get some sleep. #amWriting

Writing summaries is the woorrrst. 😩 (And AI, despite what one may be told, really doesn’t help.)

Just finished my first Astroprisma run. And now, bed.

I have Psycho (by BABYMONSTER) stuck in my head. @mwithpen.bsky.social this is your fault!

Well finishing the Fic Chapter of Doom edits isn’t happening this week. Ended up being too tired this weekend during writing time to complete things. (I do have time tonight but I also went to the pond today and know better than to start - I will go from 60 to 0 in about 4 seconds, without warning.)

Our town had a drone show tonight, and I was really disappointed. It’s neat the shapes they can make, I guess, but compared to fireworks they have no soul. The silence of the show is eerie; it feels like an advertisement or a distraction, not a celebration.

I went to see the tall ship in port today and spoke with one of the young crew. He encouraged me to join up, but I told him I had a regular day job. He asked what and when I told him I made websites for the National Weather Service, he vehemently said, “Don’t quit your day job! We need you!!”

Movie night! I was going to write tonight, but C wanted to watch the Demon Slayer : Infinity Castle movie (1 of 3…#2 comes out next year?). It was surprisingly long (2.5 hours) with some great fights and a fair bit of backstory. I enjoyed it. (And no Zenitsu screeching, thank all that is holy!!)

For lots of my friends but I think @taenia.bsky.social and @turtlesoup.bsky.social and may have particular interest.

Quentin Bacquelé@quentinbacquele.bsky.social · 2w ago

1/ The world's songbirds sing in just 8 basic sounds. And where a bird lives decides which ones it uses. My first PhD paper is out now in @science.org (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6239) Here is what we found:

Thread, and if you are an author who was published by Daily Science Fiction (DSF), which is now defunct, you may want to check if your stories have been scraped and hosted on this new site that is NOT seeking permission and is making itself impossible to contact directly. FINISH THEM. ⬇️

Marie Brennan@swantower.bsky.social · 6d ago

Especially since they say they'll take things down if you ask -- which they shouldn't need to say if they asked for permission in the first place -- and then give you no way to do so! You'll have to contact Cloudflare: www.cloudflare.com/trust-hub/re...

I went to the pond today and had a loon encounter! One came up maybe four feet from me, so I said “hello loon!”. It dove, and I ducked under to watch, and it swam right past me, close enough to touch (if I had tried)! It was super cool seeing a loon swim under water!! They’re like torpedoes!

VICTORY!!! I FINALLY FINISHED A DRAFT OF THE FIC CHAPTER OF DOOM!! It’s not *done* yet, because I need to do an editing pass to clean up typos across 8100 words and fix the inconsistencies I’m sure exist from the sheer number of permutations this chapter went through. BUT. SOON. #amWriting #ao3

I have been working on this Fic chapter ALL DAY, and I think I *finally* have something that works. I still need to finish a couple of scenes, but those aren’t anything that my brain is going to flip at this point. Then I need to do an edit pass on these [checks notes] . . . 8000 words. #amWriting

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of realizing yes, you do in fact want a scene that you cut . . .and find out that no, you did *not* put that scene into your “cut scenes” doc like you thought you did, and have to write it again from scratch. 😩 #amWriting

Finally watched Project Hail Mary. I enjoyed it; it was really heartwarming. I also laughed aloud really hard because the part with building science a lab with hardware store tin foil and duct tape: accurate. (Been there, done that. Did not get to go into space though.)

The internet lied to me about the closest UPS dropoff location and the UPS search function on their website doesn’t work, and the directions for the nearest location (found by *manually looking through a list of towns*), are wrong by *miles* - and I only know because I’m local. I am highly annoyed.

Just a little fun (and accurate) something because life is AHHHHHH right now.

iKE PASTEL@ikexpastel.bsky.social · 2w ago

This is taking me OUT!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well, now I’m sad. My favorite travel kettle has been safety recalled. 😭

@libscote.bsky.social - you get caught yet?

Micro SF/F by O. Westin@microsff.com · 2w ago

I noticed a neighbour had set up a little library box in their front yard. I checked the books and saw they were all jumbled up. I had only moved a few when a net fell on me. "Gotcha! Oh..." "What's going on?" I asked. "There's a feral librarian around." "Ah. Catch, tag, feed, release?" "Yup."

I knew about a lot of the bakeware not being what it was; this is both depressing (snd unsurprising) and useful.

@laperry2.bsky.social · 2w ago

www.worseonpurpose.com/p/your-cookw...

Me: All right, cat. I’m heading to bed, so don’t lock yourself in the bathroom (as he has done many times before). Jiji: [looks right at me, immediately happy-trots directly into the bathroom]

I feel like a broken record at this point. But EVERY TIME I think I’m about to finish this Fic chapter, an itch about something not working makes me stop, and fixing it means *rewriting chunks of the chapter*. 🤬 I swear one day, my updates will not sound like this. Today is not that day. #amWriting

Not a bad day. The “250th Freedom Festival” in town was underwhelming, but at least the pie eating contest was amusing to watch (one guy just was ‘to hell with the tray’ and ate it off the table directly - he won, btw). It’s rainy. But we got food at our favorite cafe and I got some writing done.

In downeast Maine next week? Are you interested in writing? Melissa has workshops and she’s awesome!

Melissa Burkart@mwithpen.bsky.social · 3w ago

Is anyone on here local to #Maine's Schoodic peninsula? And a #writer? I'm running 3 in-person writing workshops with the Schoodic Arts for All festival next week, but registration is only open through this weekend! (1/4)

After a stressful day at work, I somehow managed to get some words in for the Fic Chapter of Doom. I was really hoping to finish it, but a couple of places of [[ MAKE THIS HAPPEN HERE ]] will have to remain for the moment because I am out of steam. #amWriting

Smoky sky yesterday

Still tired from my trip, and feeling unfocused and unmotivated to write at the moment, despite having *three* projects staring at me. I’m feeling especially guilty for not making progress on the Fic tonight, because things are currently *months* behind where I wanted to be 😩. #amWriting #nope

🧵

Dr. Jeff Masters@drjeffmasters.bsky.social · 3w ago

A dangerous and potentially historic wildfire smoke event is headed toward the Great Lakes and Northeast. Yesterday, record 100° heat, very dry fuels, and strong winds worsened wildfires near the Minnesota/Ontario border. Their smoke will affect MN, WI, MI, OH, NY, NJ, and PA on Wed-Thu. (1/8)

Dear brain, this is a content edit pass. Why do you *keep insisting* on doing line edits? (It’s because changing lines changes content, isn’t it?) #amWriting #revision #novel

GAHHHHH! I just found out that Book 3 of a trilogy I just started reading and *really loved* (Moonstorm, Yoon Ha Lee) IS NOT BEING COMPLETED 🤬(announcement is on the author’s website)! I can’t stand an unfinished story, so I guess I won’t try to get and read Book 2 after all. 😭😭😭