Words-ish Katamari
@cyballard.bsky.social
CY Ballard. Speculative fiction writer with stories in Lightspeed and City in a Wild Garden, vol 2. Collector of cosmic mysteries over at www.cosmicmystery.club
(Also video games, weaving, and things I find on the ground)
(Also video games, weaving, and things I find on the ground)
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.
SFWA members and general SFF community:
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to office@sfwa.org to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to office@sfwa.org to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
December 23, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The survey is open to non-members (I am not one) and to readers (who here is not &c.) so I encourage you to share your feelings on the matter. Don't assume that everyone already understands that AI is bad or why! I mean, people *should*, but you could say that about a lot of things.
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
Would love to try this out here in the Sonoran
Happy Winter Solstice!
Beer can, pinhole camera photos of the Summer to Winter Solstice (2024) and the Winter to Summer Solstice (2025).
You never know quite what you're going to get with these photos, set the beer can pointing towards the sun at hopefully the correct angle and wait 6 months!
Beer can, pinhole camera photos of the Summer to Winter Solstice (2024) and the Winter to Summer Solstice (2025).
You never know quite what you're going to get with these photos, set the beer can pointing towards the sun at hopefully the correct angle and wait 6 months!
December 21, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Would love to try this out here in the Sonoran
This week I wrote a little about how Paradise Killer’s art direction puts players in the mind of the sleuth in Kaizen Game Works’ 2020 murder mystery game. Featuring hard questions from fish ghosts, getting lost in paradise, and various Knives:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
Love Dies in Empty Paradise
"The day starts with a warm sun enveloping our lives in hope before bleaching the world clean under its scorching gaze."
www.cosmicmystery.club
December 21, 2025 at 5:59 PM
This week I wrote a little about how Paradise Killer’s art direction puts players in the mind of the sleuth in Kaizen Game Works’ 2020 murder mystery game. Featuring hard questions from fish ghosts, getting lost in paradise, and various Knives:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/love-dies-...
FATHER JUD will return in CONCLAVE: THE NEXT GENERATION
December 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
FATHER JUD will return in CONCLAVE: THE NEXT GENERATION
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
I've seen some people saying that the new SFWA rule on "AI" in the Nebulas will prevent people from being transparent about their LLM use. Newsflash: They wouldn't have been anyway. It would cost them readers. It would cost them votes. It would potentially cost them opportunities with publishers.
December 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I've seen some people saying that the new SFWA rule on "AI" in the Nebulas will prevent people from being transparent about their LLM use. Newsflash: They wouldn't have been anyway. It would cost them readers. It would cost them votes. It would potentially cost them opportunities with publishers.
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
this is so incredibly 10000/10 niche I am howling
December 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
this is so incredibly 10000/10 niche I am howling
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
Oh to be a little Tardigrade walking across a microscopic slide. 🫧🐻🧪
December 16, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Oh to be a little Tardigrade walking across a microscopic slide. 🫧🐻🧪
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
December 16, 2025 at 10:03 PM
“Do not open before December 25th” ??? ?????????
December 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM
“Do not open before December 25th” ??? ?????????
All the good jokes about the US have already been made so. Gray-white in 2026? The bane of minimum viable apt remodels for the past decade?
Pantone’s 2026 color of the year is technically not a color at all — meet Cloud Dancer, the first-ever white shade to receive the designation from the world’s color authority.
Pantone makes a surprising choice for its 2026 color of the year
We did not see that coming.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
All the good jokes about the US have already been made so. Gray-white in 2026? The bane of minimum viable apt remodels for the past decade?
It’s officially citrus season
November 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
It’s officially citrus season
I went to see Wake Up Dead Man the one day this extended holiday weekend I don’t have to be at a movie theater and yeah worth it
November 28, 2025 at 5:12 AM
I went to see Wake Up Dead Man the one day this extended holiday weekend I don’t have to be at a movie theater and yeah worth it
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
This is why Kentucky Route Zero and 1000xResist are the goats
There should be more games inspired by avant-garde stage design.
November 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
This is why Kentucky Route Zero and 1000xResist are the goats
People doing acoustic Letterboxd in my neighborhood
November 24, 2025 at 8:10 PM
People doing acoustic Letterboxd in my neighborhood
First cozy-cold Saturday of the year and that means Ball x Pit in bed before work
November 22, 2025 at 6:10 PM
First cozy-cold Saturday of the year and that means Ball x Pit in bed before work
Last week I wrote a little about Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places, Ocarina of Time randomizers, tamarisks, and writing character interiority at the intersection of mystery and cosmic horror:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
Willows + Revisitations
“...a host of beings from another plane of life, another evolution altogether, perhaps, all discussing a mystery known only to themselves.”
www.cosmicmystery.club
November 18, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Last week I wrote a little about Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, T. Kingfisher's The Hollow Places, Ocarina of Time randomizers, tamarisks, and writing character interiority at the intersection of mystery and cosmic horror:
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
www.cosmicmystery.club/p/willows-re...
I first played FFIX when I was fifteen. Different characters and parts of the story have reflected my own life back to me as I’ve aged, and I still play it every few years to see what I see differently, what stays the same. (Also, some seriously cool fantasy library/archive designs.)
Happy Birthday, Final Fantasy IX! Released in North America 25 years ago today on November 14th, 2000!
A return to the high fantasy of older Final Fantasy games, giving us some of the most beloved characters in the franchise and, uh, an infamous PlayOnline guide book, aha.
Much love for FF9. 💜
A return to the high fantasy of older Final Fantasy games, giving us some of the most beloved characters in the franchise and, uh, an infamous PlayOnline guide book, aha.
Much love for FF9. 💜
November 14, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I first played FFIX when I was fifteen. Different characters and parts of the story have reflected my own life back to me as I’ve aged, and I still play it every few years to see what I see differently, what stays the same. (Also, some seriously cool fantasy library/archive designs.)
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
"I long to read more in the book of you."
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
I Long to Read More in the Book of You: Moomins Creator Tove Jansson’s Tender and Passionate Letters to the Love of Her Life
“I’m so unused to being happy that I haven’t really come to terms with what it involves… I feel like a garden that’s finally been watered, so my flowers can bloom.”
www.themarginalian.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
"I long to read more in the book of you."
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
Beloved Moomins creator Tove Jansson's almost unbearably beautiful love letters to the love of her life (who inspired her wisest Moomin character) www.themarginalian.org/2020/06/12/t...
New sights on South Mountain last night. Chatted with another hiker about identifying this pink-stemmed plant that's covering so much of the ground right now.
November 12, 2025 at 4:59 PM
New sights on South Mountain last night. Chatted with another hiker about identifying this pink-stemmed plant that's covering so much of the ground right now.
This is extremely hard. I feel like #kyanite represents all the minerals I previously disregarded and came to appreciate over #MinCup25 but #tugtupite represents all the new minerals I learned so much about this month
#MinCup25 Final: After a month of learning and laughter, we’re at the final match to determine the 2025 Mineral Cup Champion! We have blue blades of #kyanite up against optical magician #tugtupite.
Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
Results: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...
Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
Results: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...
Vote in 2025 Final Match — Mineral Cup
Click here to vote in Kyanite vs Tugtupite Photo credits: John Sobolewski and Parent Géry
www.mineralcup.org
October 1, 2025 at 5:08 PM
This is extremely hard. I feel like #kyanite represents all the minerals I previously disregarded and came to appreciate over #MinCup25 but #tugtupite represents all the new minerals I learned so much about this month
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
#MinCup25
Yay … someone shared explanation the greenish blue.
What causes the other colors observed in #kyanite? What about the very green samples? I need to know … but not enough to try hard to bypass paywalls. 🫠
Yay … someone shared explanation the greenish blue.
What causes the other colors observed in #kyanite? What about the very green samples? I need to know … but not enough to try hard to bypass paywalls. 🫠
this is a hard choice, but tugtupite is too rare, whereas kyanite occurs in a range of rocks, including diamond or ruby-bearing eclogites... and it's one of the very few minerals where Cr3+ provides a greenish blue color instead of red or green
October 1, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
Colours are super important in #MinCup25, no?
Here is the bracket, with the colors superposed (of course, some minerals have multiple, so I took the snippets from the images on the voting posts or the website).
Don't forget to vote (once)! It's super close now.
www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
Here is the bracket, with the colors superposed (of course, some minerals have multiple, so I took the snippets from the images on the voting posts or the website).
Don't forget to vote (once)! It's super close now.
www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
October 1, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Colours are super important in #MinCup25, no?
Here is the bracket, with the colors superposed (of course, some minerals have multiple, so I took the snippets from the images on the voting posts or the website).
Don't forget to vote (once)! It's super close now.
www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
Here is the bracket, with the colors superposed (of course, some minerals have multiple, so I took the snippets from the images on the voting posts or the website).
Don't forget to vote (once)! It's super close now.
www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r5...
Went to the library since I finished my draft and I’m allowed to read books again. (Don’t ask me how many holds I placed.) Probably shouldn’t have gone alone?
September 30, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Went to the library since I finished my draft and I’m allowed to read books again. (Don’t ask me how many holds I placed.) Probably shouldn’t have gone alone?
Reposted by Words-ish Katamari
I mean, look at these choices:
#Hematite: Turns Mars red, key in telling early Earth story
#Kyanite Anisotropic & BLUE!!! Blueblueblue!
#Tugtupite Piezoelectric reindeer blood!
#Dioptase Birefringent GREEN!! Greengreengreen!
In the end, there can only be one #MinCup25 champion.
#Hematite: Turns Mars red, key in telling early Earth story
#Kyanite Anisotropic & BLUE!!! Blueblueblue!
#Tugtupite Piezoelectric reindeer blood!
#Dioptase Birefringent GREEN!! Greengreengreen!
In the end, there can only be one #MinCup25 champion.
September 29, 2025 at 1:06 AM
I mean, look at these choices:
#Hematite: Turns Mars red, key in telling early Earth story
#Kyanite Anisotropic & BLUE!!! Blueblueblue!
#Tugtupite Piezoelectric reindeer blood!
#Dioptase Birefringent GREEN!! Greengreengreen!
In the end, there can only be one #MinCup25 champion.
#Hematite: Turns Mars red, key in telling early Earth story
#Kyanite Anisotropic & BLUE!!! Blueblueblue!
#Tugtupite Piezoelectric reindeer blood!
#Dioptase Birefringent GREEN!! Greengreengreen!
In the end, there can only be one #MinCup25 champion.