W. Dow Rieder
@riderius.bsky.social
Mathematician, writer, lover of books, rememberer of computers past.
Writing at Dreamwidth: https://riderius.dreamwidth.org/
My old writing tumblr: https://docfuture.tumblr.com/
Old Stories archive: https://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/62787551366/stories
Writing at Dreamwidth: https://riderius.dreamwidth.org/
My old writing tumblr: https://docfuture.tumblr.com/
Old Stories archive: https://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/62787551366/stories
They are off and mutating already!
Summary of yesterday’s play:
We cannot seem to finish the adventure we’re playing. We need to find three clue tokens and have only found two.
Tanks continue to be difficult to fight and someone figured out how to sneak another in on us.
We have all mutated so much.
AND WE’LL PLAY AGAIN TODAY!
We cannot seem to finish the adventure we’re playing. We need to find three clue tokens and have only found two.
Tanks continue to be difficult to fight and someone figured out how to sneak another in on us.
We have all mutated so much.
AND WE’LL PLAY AGAIN TODAY!
And Team SENSIBLE SHOES is live! Playing our Extra Life overtime, in support of the National Immigration Law Center. www.twitch.tv/blarkytopia
February 15, 2026 at 10:28 PM
They are off and mutating already!
And it's on! Watching now... 8-)
And Team SENSIBLE SHOES is live! Playing our Extra Life overtime, in support of the National Immigration Law Center. www.twitch.tv/blarkytopia
Twitch
Twitch is the world
www.twitch.tv
February 14, 2026 at 9:03 PM
And it's on! Watching now... 8-)
February 12, 2026 at 8:06 PM
They are *back* this Saturday! I'm going to be watching, and they are raising money for a good cause.
Stream will be on here:
www.twitch.tv/blarkytopia
Stream will be on here:
www.twitch.tv/blarkytopia
February 12, 2026 at 6:02 PM
They are *back* this Saturday! I'm going to be watching, and they are raising money for a good cause.
Stream will be on here:
www.twitch.tv/blarkytopia
Stream will be on here:
www.twitch.tv/blarkytopia
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.
February 10, 2026 at 6:10 AM
I tried to take a photo of a grasshopper on my windshield, but now it looks like a gigantic bug destroying the town.
Age verification?
I watched men walk on the Moon live on television.
I watched men walk on the Moon live on television.
Age verification?
I used to memorize dozens of phone numbers
I used to memorize dozens of phone numbers
Age verification?
My first TV was black and white.
My first TV was black and white.
February 10, 2026 at 9:27 AM
Age verification?
I watched men walk on the Moon live on television.
I watched men walk on the Moon live on television.
Thread 8-)
I love Sidequested too.
I love Sidequested too.
I first met @kbspangler.com because she decided to put one of my book covers in her comic A GIRL AND HER FED. It was being read by a foul-mouthed superintelligent koala, and that was how I knew we would be sympatico and should be friends.
February 10, 2026 at 4:08 AM
Thread 8-)
I love Sidequested too.
I love Sidequested too.
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
If you'd like to purchase the digital version now, I have it up on my shop:
blackmudpuppy.myshopify.com/products/the...
blackmudpuppy.myshopify.com/products/the...
The Unfamiliars - Digital Download - PDF and ePub Version
Save a tree and download The Unfamiliars in a glorious digital edition. This is a story for anyone who has ever had to deal with having to come to terms with their favorite creator being a less than a...
blackmudpuppy.myshopify.com
February 3, 2026 at 5:20 PM
If you'd like to purchase the digital version now, I have it up on my shop:
blackmudpuppy.myshopify.com/products/the...
blackmudpuppy.myshopify.com/products/the...
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university.
Differential equations
History of religions
Assembly programming
English composition
Advanced technical physics
(this is undergrad--not counting grad school here)
Differential equations
History of religions
Assembly programming
English composition
Advanced technical physics
(this is undergrad--not counting grad school here)
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university.
Political philosophy
Women’s studies
Sociology of education
Psychoanalysis
Water polo
Political philosophy
Women’s studies
Sociology of education
Psychoanalysis
Water polo
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university.
1. Polish
2. Ice Ages
3. Marching Band
4. Physics of Music
5. Sociology of Family
(Plus loads of psych, but that goes without saying. These seemed the five most interesting to mention in retrospect.)
1. Polish
2. Ice Ages
3. Marching Band
4. Physics of Music
5. Sociology of Family
(Plus loads of psych, but that goes without saying. These seemed the five most interesting to mention in retrospect.)
January 31, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took at university.
Differential equations
History of religions
Assembly programming
English composition
Advanced technical physics
(this is undergrad--not counting grad school here)
Differential equations
History of religions
Assembly programming
English composition
Advanced technical physics
(this is undergrad--not counting grad school here)
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
If I lived in the Legion of Superheroes era, I'd have superpowers by now.
January 28, 2026 at 5:26 AM
If I lived in the Legion of Superheroes era, I'd have superpowers by now.
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
Today is a good day to read (or reread) this classic story 8-)
My apologies to everyone who has heard this story before.
Back in the 1970s, two things were true about UWaterloo:
* UW never, ever closed.
* Many faculty members owned farms.
Cue the Great Storm of 1978.
Back in the 1970s, two things were true about UWaterloo:
* UW never, ever closed.
* Many faculty members owned farms.
Cue the Great Storm of 1978.
January 26, 2026 at 5:48 PM
Today is a good day to read (or reread) this classic story 8-)
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
You people that laughed at this update probably don't think the situation can get any funnier.
Well, it can.
And it does.
Later today.
Well, it can.
And it does.
Later today.
𝗛𝗲𝘆!
Side Quested is up and so is THAT BENCH!?
🔗 tapas.io/episode/3742...
🔷 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿?
🔹 Start here: tapas.io/series/SideQuested
🔹 Or here: sidequested.com/page/1/
🔷 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: patreon.com/alepresser
🔹 #webcomics
Side Quested is up and so is THAT BENCH!?
🔗 tapas.io/episode/3742...
🔷 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿?
🔹 Start here: tapas.io/series/SideQuested
🔹 Or here: sidequested.com/page/1/
🔷 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀: patreon.com/alepresser
🔹 #webcomics
Read Side Quested :: Chapter 3: 86 | Tapas Community
Read Side Quested and more premium Comedy Community series now on Tapas!
tapas.io
January 26, 2026 at 4:08 PM
You people that laughed at this update probably don't think the situation can get any funnier.
Well, it can.
And it does.
Later today.
Well, it can.
And it does.
Later today.
These are always worth watching, and chip in if you have a bit to spare - you can give them some *extra* fun 8-)
Team Sensible Shoes is in the owe on some incentives from Extra Life (those tanks won’t fight themselves), so we’ll be back at it on Feb 14 to make it up and then some. Romantic!
We’ll be raising money for @nilc.org and have added a new wheel! This time it might give us a monkey. Kids love monkeys.
We’ll be raising money for @nilc.org and have added a new wheel! This time it might give us a monkey. Kids love monkeys.
Tiltify - Made for Fundraisers
We give you the tools to engage with your donors and raise more for your charity
tiltify.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:52 AM
These are always worth watching, and chip in if you have a bit to spare - you can give them some *extra* fun 8-)
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
I don't have time to research the background on this paper about confirmation bias but their results feel right.
January 25, 2026 at 5:03 AM
I don't have time to research the background on this paper about confirmation bias but their results feel right.
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
Man, everywhere you look lawyers are still flinging themselves into fights. I know some people will disagree about the usefulness of taking shit to court but I think it's important that we're still doing that. We're still behaving as if the law has meaning.
January 25, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Man, everywhere you look lawyers are still flinging themselves into fights. I know some people will disagree about the usefulness of taking shit to court but I think it's important that we're still doing that. We're still behaving as if the law has meaning.
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
So do I! 🙌 Go, team can’t spell!
January 22, 2026 at 1:56 PM
So do I! 🙌 Go, team can’t spell!
Umanista (noun, Italian, pl. umanisti): a professional teacher of the studia humanitatis, a variation on the classical trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) prioritizing rhetoric, in contrast with scholastic education (dominant in universtities at the time) which favored logic.
Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence.
“Under the terms of the contract Sir Harry was to get that money, the new Duke nothing.”
“Under the terms of the contract Sir Harry was to get that money, the new Duke nothing.”
Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence.
"But soon I would get to indulge my alpine fantasies in an unforeseen way."
"But soon I would get to indulge my alpine fantasies in an unforeseen way."
January 22, 2026 at 3:13 AM
Umanista (noun, Italian, pl. umanisti): a professional teacher of the studia humanitatis, a variation on the classical trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) prioritizing rhetoric, in contrast with scholastic education (dominant in universtities at the time) which favored logic.
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
Me, reading the timeline.
January 21, 2026 at 4:50 AM
Me, reading the timeline.
From Usenet, in a long argument about whether a nanotech reconstruction of someone dead would really be the same person:
"Maybe he wouldn't be me. But he'd do the things I'd have wanted to have done. He would feed my cats for me."
"Maybe he wouldn't be me. But he'd do the things I'd have wanted to have done. He would feed my cats for me."
Speak, muses — tell me about a sentence or phrase that you read in someone's ephemeral post on a long-dead online forum but has lived rent-free in your head ever since
January 21, 2026 at 7:29 AM
From Usenet, in a long argument about whether a nanotech reconstruction of someone dead would really be the same person:
"Maybe he wouldn't be me. But he'd do the things I'd have wanted to have done. He would feed my cats for me."
"Maybe he wouldn't be me. But he'd do the things I'd have wanted to have done. He would feed my cats for me."
Oh, no contest - The Oakland Original Hot Dog Shop (The "O") in Pittsburgh, while I lived there in grad school and for a while after.
And their fries 8-)
Anyone from Pittsburgh will know.
And their fries 8-)
Anyone from Pittsburgh will know.
Sunday night timeline cleanse
please tell me about your favorite lost restaurant (closed for at least 5 years, like I really want you to go back into the vault), why you loved it and what you ate there
please tell me about your favorite lost restaurant (closed for at least 5 years, like I really want you to go back into the vault), why you loved it and what you ate there
January 19, 2026 at 7:52 AM
Oh, no contest - The Oakland Original Hot Dog Shop (The "O") in Pittsburgh, while I lived there in grad school and for a while after.
And their fries 8-)
Anyone from Pittsburgh will know.
And their fries 8-)
Anyone from Pittsburgh will know.
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
This is a test of the Cute Distribution System
January 18, 2026 at 7:44 PM
This is a test of the Cute Distribution System
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
New blog entry: how to buy "The Regicide Report": www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...
The Regicide Report - Charlie's Diary
The Regicide Report, the last novel in the main Laundry Files series, is coming out on January 27th in the US (from Tor.com Publishing) and the UK (from Orbit).
www.antipope.org
January 17, 2026 at 4:35 PM
New blog entry: how to buy "The Regicide Report": www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...
Reposted by W. Dow Rieder
USENET.
Okay, let's get nostalgic
What was the VERY FIRST online platform that you became addicted to posting on?????
What was the VERY FIRST online platform that you became addicted to posting on?????
January 16, 2026 at 9:14 PM
USENET.