Daniel Southwell
@dpsouthwell.bsky.social
Reader, writer, dad, quesadilla enthusiast, lapsed trail runner, analog boy
With all respect to Marx, this opiate is hitting so good
Had 'em all the way, right Tigers fans? My pulse never topped 150. www.blessyouboys.com/detroit-tige...
The Tigers secure Wild Card win with wild seventh inning against Guardians
What. a. Game.
www.blessyouboys.com
October 4, 2025 at 2:12 PM
With all respect to Marx, this opiate is hitting so good
So glad the kids are back in school so I can get back to my actual job: checking Class Dojo notifications from their school
August 22, 2025 at 9:47 PM
So glad the kids are back in school so I can get back to my actual job: checking Class Dojo notifications from their school
Any two people will do many things differently (slice sandwiches, read stories, arrange pillows) When you have children together, the children will have preferences. If they prefer your way, you will hear "Can you do it dad's way?"
This means you win, and is the primary goal of parenting
This means you win, and is the primary goal of parenting
August 18, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Any two people will do many things differently (slice sandwiches, read stories, arrange pillows) When you have children together, the children will have preferences. If they prefer your way, you will hear "Can you do it dad's way?"
This means you win, and is the primary goal of parenting
This means you win, and is the primary goal of parenting
Is this a good time to share my playlist: "Music that sounds like Ethel Cain's aesthetic looks like she should sound like"
August 16, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Is this a good time to share my playlist: "Music that sounds like Ethel Cain's aesthetic looks like she should sound like"
What makes the best Billy Joel songs great is they're Beatles songs: bloated franken-songs combining bitter longing with weird bouncy circus shit. But there's no John and Paul, there's only Billy, letting his inner John/Paul wolves at each other's throats
August 15, 2025 at 11:44 AM
What makes the best Billy Joel songs great is they're Beatles songs: bloated franken-songs combining bitter longing with weird bouncy circus shit. But there's no John and Paul, there's only Billy, letting his inner John/Paul wolves at each other's throats
The farther you get into reading a book that feels perfect, the more it feels like watching a no-hitter in baseball. The tension builds. Can it continue like this? Is there anything I can do to avoid jinxing it? The unbroken thread feels too tenuous to continue to the end, but you hold your breath
August 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The farther you get into reading a book that feels perfect, the more it feels like watching a no-hitter in baseball. The tension builds. Can it continue like this? Is there anything I can do to avoid jinxing it? The unbroken thread feels too tenuous to continue to the end, but you hold your breath
Reposted by Daniel Southwell
my ancestors had to kill to eat and survive. they endured subzero winters near the Arctic Circle. no, I am not "enrolled in your rewards program"
July 8, 2025 at 2:40 PM
my ancestors had to kill to eat and survive. they endured subzero winters near the Arctic Circle. no, I am not "enrolled in your rewards program"
As I send out queries during this of all weeks, I flip-flop wildly between "it's so frivolous and selfish to ask for attention for my silly book right now" and "if this work has ever mattered, it matters now."
Just… supposed to sit here and work on my little books as I stare down the end of my disabled kid’s healthcare. Wild.
July 4, 2025 at 2:44 AM
As I send out queries during this of all weeks, I flip-flop wildly between "it's so frivolous and selfish to ask for attention for my silly book right now" and "if this work has ever mattered, it matters now."
So I was roasting this article this morning, but it got me thinking: what if un-siloing the humanities is the real cure for male loneliness?
July 2, 2025 at 2:35 PM
So I was roasting this article this morning, but it got me thinking: what if un-siloing the humanities is the real cure for male loneliness?
Other writers: My partner isn't a very helpful critique partner because they're just so darn encouraging and not critical enough
My partner:
My partner:
![note from Claire Southwell: "Nope [laugh emoji] as I explained this is nonsensical"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dw3p4rue4fcmbozqjy777hfu/bafkreiacnyayew6xvanx6p23graj3t4rbtthyl7x2hyn23juiw4xbjy3ky@jpeg)
June 24, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Other writers: My partner isn't a very helpful critique partner because they're just so darn encouraging and not critical enough
My partner:
My partner:
Reposted by Daniel Southwell
I needed to read this today. Thought someone else might need it too.
June 22, 2025 at 11:20 AM
I needed to read this today. Thought someone else might need it too.
Reposted by Daniel Southwell
It is really really sinking in for me the degree to which LLMs are the ultimate expression of right wing anti-intellectualism. Its proponents are literally mocking the idea that anyone would ever want to learn anything, know anything, develop any actual skill, or have a thought of their own.
June 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
It is really really sinking in for me the degree to which LLMs are the ultimate expression of right wing anti-intellectualism. Its proponents are literally mocking the idea that anyone would ever want to learn anything, know anything, develop any actual skill, or have a thought of their own.
Give your kids a disposable film camera and tell them to go nuts
June 4, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Give your kids a disposable film camera and tell them to go nuts
Decided to risk my career today
June 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Decided to risk my career today
Recalled out of the blue today how, in 2010 or 2011, I outlined (but never wrote) a short story set in a world where all art was made by robots and a human tried to experience reality like a robot in order to make art
May 31, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Recalled out of the blue today how, in 2010 or 2011, I outlined (but never wrote) a short story set in a world where all art was made by robots and a human tried to experience reality like a robot in order to make art
I finished draft 18 of a novel today, and it feels like it might finally be getting somewhere.
May 24, 2025 at 11:06 PM
I finished draft 18 of a novel today, and it feels like it might finally be getting somewhere.
Nothing like starting the day ready for creative flow, only to remember that your seven-year-old spewed a mouthful of hot chocolate on your laptop yesterday, and it still needs to be cleaned before you can write anything
May 23, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Nothing like starting the day ready for creative flow, only to remember that your seven-year-old spewed a mouthful of hot chocolate on your laptop yesterday, and it still needs to be cleaned before you can write anything
Here's a list of books that I, a human, am anticipating:
- mine
- this one that I'm writing
- I've been writing it for years
- jk you probably can't read it ever but imagine you did and it was really good, that would be cool
- mine
- this one that I'm writing
- I've been writing it for years
- jk you probably can't read it ever but imagine you did and it was really good, that would be cool
May 22, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Here's a list of books that I, a human, am anticipating:
- mine
- this one that I'm writing
- I've been writing it for years
- jk you probably can't read it ever but imagine you did and it was really good, that would be cool
- mine
- this one that I'm writing
- I've been writing it for years
- jk you probably can't read it ever but imagine you did and it was really good, that would be cool
It seems to me that too much of the AI-critique discourse focuses on how it doesn't work very well. But that's not the problem with AI. That's just a funny side effect. AI's *goals* and *ethics* are the problem. They're going to make it work better, and things will be even worse when they do...
May 20, 2025 at 4:50 PM
It seems to me that too much of the AI-critique discourse focuses on how it doesn't work very well. But that's not the problem with AI. That's just a funny side effect. AI's *goals* and *ethics* are the problem. They're going to make it work better, and things will be even worse when they do...
Tolkien: the trans woman blesses the journey of the cozy gay men (who I wrote in memory of my queer friends) to go kill the fascist demigod
Rowling: you have to sympathize with the creep who bullies a child, because he's an incel that wanted to bang the child's mom
WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING
Rowling: you have to sympathize with the creep who bullies a child, because he's an incel that wanted to bang the child's mom
WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING
Wild that we know her dead name and her mom was transphobic 🤔
May 17, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Tolkien: the trans woman blesses the journey of the cozy gay men (who I wrote in memory of my queer friends) to go kill the fascist demigod
Rowling: you have to sympathize with the creep who bullies a child, because he's an incel that wanted to bang the child's mom
WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING
Rowling: you have to sympathize with the creep who bullies a child, because he's an incel that wanted to bang the child's mom
WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING
I'm listening to the Twilight audiobook so I can understand my wife's culture and when I jokingly suggested I rewrite it in the style of Cormac McCarthy, she encouraged me, but when I showed her this, she said, and I quote, "Why is it so bad?"
May 16, 2025 at 2:53 AM
I'm listening to the Twilight audiobook so I can understand my wife's culture and when I jokingly suggested I rewrite it in the style of Cormac McCarthy, she encouraged me, but when I showed her this, she said, and I quote, "Why is it so bad?"
Reposted by Daniel Southwell
In the 1950s, polling on interracial marriage was at 4% approval in the United States. Loving v. Virginia is 1967. We hit an above 50% approval rating for the first time in the 1990s. In 2021, 94% of Americans approved of interracial marriage.
I say this for everyone who thinks that we just have to go along with what the public things: we don’t. The public can change their minds. They have in the past.
We can just do the right thing and then not end up looking like a horrific bigot in a handful of years.
We can just do the right thing and then not end up looking like a horrific bigot in a handful of years.
May 8, 2025 at 11:46 PM
In the 1950s, polling on interracial marriage was at 4% approval in the United States. Loving v. Virginia is 1967. We hit an above 50% approval rating for the first time in the 1990s. In 2021, 94% of Americans approved of interracial marriage.
The average american has three friends
May 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
The average american has three friends
Reposted by Daniel Southwell
I HATE GENERATIVE AI I HATE IT SO FUCKING MUCH USE YOUR BRAIN WRITE A STORY MAKE SOME ART DO LITERALLY ANYTHING BUT PLEASE *BE HUMAN* GODDAMN
April 27, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I HATE GENERATIVE AI I HATE IT SO FUCKING MUCH USE YOUR BRAIN WRITE A STORY MAKE SOME ART DO LITERALLY ANYTHING BUT PLEASE *BE HUMAN* GODDAMN