Mishell Baker is going to win.
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mishellbaker.bsky.social
Mishell Baker is going to win.
@mishellbaker.bsky.social
Author of the Arcadia Project trilogy etc. Terminal cancer, incurable optimist. Currently 8% novelist 25% dungeon master 62% vidyagamer 5% Linux learner

Enjoy life. Be someone you would love. Make things better.
Pinned
Starting in February I'm going to start holding "What Can I Do?" virtual meetings at the same time every week (probably Saturday mornings).

Their purpose will be to share ideas of how to get involved in our communities in nonviolent but effective ways to help make things better.
After reading some scientific studies and getting the go-ahead from my oncologist, I have tried a 60-hour fast (water, + pedialyte starting at 36 hours) around my chemo treatments. Will watch tumor markers to see if it makes a difference.

I don't feel significantly worse, maybe better, so 🤷
February 10, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
Thrilled to announce that Slay the Princess has officially surpassed one million units sold!

When we started work on it, we couldn't imagine a visual novel would be able to hit such a milestone let alone being backed by critical acclaim. And yet, here we are. We couldn't have done this without you.
February 2, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Been very interested in @blacktabbygames.com ever since Slay the Princess blew my mind. Will be buying this one after the rumored "big changes" to the first two episodes go live. I just want to have the best possible start. :)
Finished a replay of Scarlet Hollow episode 4 last night.

Unnerving supernatural events continue, seeds of doubt are planted. And there's more to come...

All set for the release of episode 5 now! Can't wait to see where the story goes next--and how much my choices will help and haunt me!
February 10, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
Wild European bison are roaming the Carpathian Mountains for the first time in 100 years — and bringing the land back to life. https://reasonstobecheerful.world/rewilding-european-bison-gentle-giant-returns/
A Century After Vanishing, a Gentle Giant Returns
Wild European bison are roaming the Carpathian Mountains for the first time in 100 years — and bringing the land back to life.
reasonstobecheerful.world
February 10, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
www.reuters.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
My hubs/I run a 501c3 micro dog sanctuary. Been doing that since 1990's. We adopt unadoptables. We've had some incredible dogs & some jerks as well. I certainly have an affinity towards dogs, & prefer dogs to some ppl I know, but they're still dogs. Pretending otherwise can actually be dangerous.
February 10, 2026 at 4:53 PM
People otherwise rational and skeptical, who scoff at me for believing in human souls, seem to go full-on religious about dogs. It's disconcerting even when they don't angrily converge on me for not enjoying a specific dog.
I got more hate mail from this blog than anything I've ever written and I assume people are still sending slurs to my dead vice email about it. traumatized www.vice.com/en/article/y...
Your Dog Isn't That Special, According to Science
Researchers looked at hundreds of studies to determine whether dogs were exceptional when compared to other species.
www.vice.com
February 10, 2026 at 4:17 PM
The word "nonpartisan" ceases to be reassuring when one party wants to exterminate (or failing that, disappear and silence) the majority of the human population.

You can't innocently "not have an opinion" in a scenario like that.
February 10, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Reminder that when I post a seemingly scary article without comment, it's because I believe the call to action is obvious, and the bad thing is anything but inevitable. Just don't do it. Reject it. Don't buy it. Not here to scare you, here to let you know to avoid huge scary mistakes.
February 10, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
NEW: Ring has introduced "Search Party", a horrifyingly dystopian feature nominally designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses AI to look for, in their commercial, a cute lost dog.

With Ring, US consumers are actually building a surveillance dragnet.
With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet
Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.
www.404media.co
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 PM
The right to the poor: humans from other places who look different are TAKING OUR JOBS! DESTROY THEM!

The right, to the rich: Invest everything in AI so you will never have to hire any humans again.
February 10, 2026 at 3:27 PM
The pretense of not understanding *why* people took out their anger on inanimate objects is the most baffling thing to me. We kick holes in walls, and walls aren't even taking our jobs.
Chicago’s autonomous delivery robots are getting into scrapes with humans, per city records we obtained via FOIA. with @robertchannick.bsky.social

www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/09/f...
February 10, 2026 at 3:25 PM
I'm a serious person (mom of 2 teenagers, living with cancer, good at emotional regulation) letting you know that you seem to have some huge blind spots re: people of color. It might be worth considering that if you make a lot of folks mad to incoherence, the problem may not be them.
What you guys need to understand is that if you want me to take your accusations of racism/misogyny/transphobia/etc. seriously, you first need to satisfy the gateway criterion of not acting like malicious freaks who are incredibly thrilled to make those accusations. Then we can talk like adults
February 10, 2026 at 3:11 PM
"Kids these days" are honestly kind of amazing.
Homelessness, and a mission to offer some hope

A 15 year old girl from Brighton is taking on the task of tackling homelessness in Brighton and Hove | Mick Channon
@sussexbylines.co.uk
Homelessness, and a mission to offer some hope
A 15 year old girl from Brighton is taking on the task of tackling homelessness in Brighton and Hove
sussexbylines.co.uk
February 10, 2026 at 2:54 PM
A great read for anyone looking to improve government on any level. We have to have basic analytical and problem-solving skills, to think more like good students than CEOs (who focus entirely on abstract numbers and how they "look"). Dig into the specifics and context of every number.
February 10, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
⚠️ Despite all the hype, chatbots still make terrible doctors. Out today is the largest user study of language models for medical self-diagnosis. We found that chatbots provide inaccurate and inconsistent answers, and that people are better off using online searches or their own judgment.
February 9, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Spending a moment comparing my teenage contempt for children with my 16yo's deep compassion and protective instincts for them even though she doesn't want any of her own. She told me once there are No Bad Kids the same way folks say there are No Bad Dogs.

Reminded that she is the New Improved Me
February 10, 2026 at 12:26 PM
Thinking about Pokemon and how I am exactly the wrong age for it, as my first exposure to it was when I was like 17 and deeply contemptuous of kids and their toys. I think you either have to be a kid or a grownup secure in your inner child to get a good first impression of Pokemon.
February 10, 2026 at 12:15 PM
Age verification?

I never understood the kids' newfangled pog thing.
Age Verification?

I had pogs. I remember the weirdly aggressive boys' arguments and tears in the classroom over losses.
Age Verification?

I had a rotary phone.
February 10, 2026 at 12:11 PM
One should make about the same % of one's life about healing a corrupt nation as I should about curing the cancer I have. I'd be dumb to do nothing, but a lot of it is in specialists' hands, and even if it's impossible, this life is still my one chance to do the things I love and experience joy.
February 10, 2026 at 11:49 AM
Age Verification?

I had a rotary phone.
Age verification?

I played Pong.
Age verification?

My first TV was black and white.
February 10, 2026 at 6:08 AM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
Fun story: I don't think I've ever been quite as excited as the first time I actually put a bunny in the game myself

(One of my earliest "the heck?" memories of WoW was finding a random floating targetable invisible bunny lol)
February 10, 2026 at 4:19 AM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
tonight I ran across a newsletter about parenting and video games that I would've been interested in reading, but it was on Substack, so I read something else instead
February 10, 2026 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Mishell Baker is going to win.
when I come across a small action that MIGHT help make the world better, like "cancel Spotify" or "transfer my newsletter away from Substack," even though these things are small in the grand scheme and inconvenient to me, my main reaction is relief that there is something within my power TO DO
this happens 1-2 times a day. what are people still doing over there?

are you all not desperate to do every possible tiny action that could somehow get us out of this hell we have made!!
February 10, 2026 at 2:35 AM
I like that I get a little money for writing, but it's not why I do it. This is why I do it.
So everything feels so terribly raw and real and visceral. Especially these characters. They're not just words on a page, they exist because of that level of depth. I know these people, have walked the streets with them, shared a Denny's table with them.

And that's just plain magical.
February 10, 2026 at 3:16 AM