Eric Lotze
LightNews LightNews
banner
ericlotze.com
Eric Lotze
@ericlotze.com
130 followers 330 following 1K posts
American ex-pat living in Canada. (Very) amateur astrophotographer, professional forgetter of important things
Posts Replies Media Videos
ericlotze.com
I read half of this (excellent) @katiederosa.bsky.social story waiting for the legal gymnasts to appear before I realized I’d misread the first sentence, and they were not coming, and neither were the implied *illegal* gymnasts and their underground parallel bars scene

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
The days leading up to John Rustad's resignation played out like a dramatic soap opera of secret meetings, legal gymnastics and even a gingerbread making competition. The climax came Wednesday with the party announcing Rustad's removal, and the denouement came Thursday, when an at times emotional Rustad bid his job as leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia farewell.
December 9, 2025 at 5:27 PM
ericlotze.com
I’ve never heard of a Wreckhouse Wind Warning, is that bad? It sounds bad.
A weather forecast tile for Victoria, BC, Canada. It’s going to be 8 degrees Celsius there, and alarmingly there is something called a “Wreckhouse Wind Warning” in effect. This sounds bad to me? Unless it’s, you know, named after Sir William Wreckhouse, who was famous for evoking gentle, unseasonably warm breezes that remind one of their childhood. (It isn’t)
December 8, 2025 at 4:56 PM
ericlotze.com
The DETAIL on these three! I want to read this book immediately to find out what nasty business they are up to
A crop of one of the covers, showing three green-tinted witch-like faces who look very very pleased with themselves
November 25, 2025 at 4:40 PM
ericlotze.com
I have no context for this and it is perfect on its own, I will not be reading further to find out what this exchange is actually about, lol
Screenshot of a text exchange between TMC and Pierce Presley about sex robots
November 19, 2025 at 7:40 PM
ericlotze.com
Local news is important for many reasons, but maybe the most important is that nowhere else can you find a one-two punch of headlines like this.
Two headlines from Castanet, the local news outlet for the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. The first one says “Tree of Hope festival returns”, and the second says “Porta-potty fire in Kelowna”
November 3, 2025 at 9:41 PM
ericlotze.com
Finally catching up on yesterday's Toronto/LA game and this line from @laurenthiessen.bsky.social just levelled me in the Vancouver airport

Gift link defector.com/vladimir-gue...
"This time, Ohtani was a little less careful. He fell into a 2-0 count, and that forced him back in over the plate. He went with a fastball in the low middle, and Guerrero was a little late on it, fouling off a juicy pitch. As Clayton Kershaw looked on from the bullpen like a divorced dad told to stay away from his kid's soccer game, Ohtani tried a breaking ball, higher in the zone, and Vlad Jr. pounced. He launched the ball over the left-field fence to deliver a 2-1 lead that the Jays would never surrender."
October 29, 2025 at 10:28 PM
ericlotze.com
I have bad news
An Ngram graph of the phrases “I’m in this” and “and I do not like it”, which show both phrases trending up starting in the mid-2000s.
September 27, 2025 at 4:54 PM
ericlotze.com
@premeemohamed.com the preorder is now a real order and is in my house, LET’S GOOOO

Also who does this cover art, it’s gorgeous
Three books by Premee Mohamed side by side: The Annual Migration of Clouds, We Speak Through the Mountain, and The First Thousand Trees
September 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
ericlotze.com
Completely captivated by this soldier who is holding some kind of explosive stave, and looks like he’s just realized he won’t have time to eat lunch before his next meeting

Also the soldier in the foreground, who I think may have the most intensely furious expression I have ever seen.
Crop of the OP image showing three of the soldiers on the right, one who looks bored, one of whom looks extremely dejected even though he got to hold a fire stick, and the other of whom looks as if he is about to kill a wild boar using only the ferocity of his gaze
September 11, 2025 at 4:06 PM
ericlotze.com
DONE. And, since I haven’t read the first two, picked them up as well, so it’s going to be Premee Mohamed central over here for a while IT BETTER BE GOOD lol

(It’s going to be excellent and I am very excited)
August 21, 2025 at 3:07 PM
ericlotze.com
This bothered me enough that I looked up the answer. It’s the official declared pronunciation, based on a pulverized French rendering of a native tribe’s name!
JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE General Assembly of the State of Arkansas. WHEREAS, Confusion of practice has arisen in the pronunciation of the name of our State; and it is deemed important that the true pronunciation should be determined for use in oral official proceedings; and, whereas, the matter has been thoroughly investigated by the State Historical Society, and the Eclectic Society of Little Rock, which have agreed upon the correct pronunciation as derived from history and the early usage of the American immigrants. Be it therefore resolved by both Houses of the General Assembly, That the only true pronunciation of the name of the State, in the opinion of this body, is that received by the French word representing the sound; and that it should be pronounced in three syllables, with the final "s" silent. The "a" in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables, being the pronunciation formerly universally and now still most commonly used; and that the pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable, with the sound of "a" in man, and the sounding of the terminal "s" is an innovation to be discouraged. Approved March 15, 1881. T. J. CHURCHILL, Governor of Arkansas.
May 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
ericlotze.com
I promise this is not me fact-checking a joke, but I just had the Ngram viewer open for other stuff and put these terms in and the big surprise to me was not that nobody uses “amuseballs”—YET—it’s that a lot of people are still saying “amazeballs” in 2025.
A graph of the Google Books Ngram for “Amazeballs” and “amuseballs”. From this graph it is clear that this thread is the first time on earth that Amuseballs has ever been used, and a shocking number of people are still using Amazeballs although slightly off the 2016-2020 highs.
May 17, 2025 at 5:29 AM
ericlotze.com
@keezyyoung.bsky.social the boob job question is old now and I got sidetracked before I could post this, but I can’t waste the fact that I typed these terms into the google books Ngram viewer, so here you go anyway lol
A screenshot of a Google Ngram search query. The search terms are boob job, tit job, and breast enhancement. The graph shows none of those terms were commonly used before the mid 1980s and then “breast enhancement” usage skyrocketing in the 1990s. The other terms are much less used.
May 16, 2025 at 10:29 PM
ericlotze.com
My life, in one image
May 7, 2025 at 2:21 AM
ericlotze.com
This post reminded me that I hadn’t subscribed to The Onion, and I just fixed that, partly bc The Onion has remained funnier than the Simpsons longer than the Simpsons (yes they used to be funnier than themselves, somehow) BUT ALSO because supporting this attitude is important as hell, keep on team
April 28, 2025 at 8:15 PM
ericlotze.com
Having missed whatever came before this, I’m now just going to assume that all blocked posts are inherently British
A screenshot of Faine’s quote post above the OP, which is blocked, so it looks like blocked posts are inherently British
April 6, 2025 at 4:06 PM
ericlotze.com
Second playthough of BG3 (or, really, starting over after abandoning a game in Act 3 due to life), and just noticed this: when Raphael teleports you to his lair, they positioned him precisely so the fire-shadow behind him carves out a demon wing. Such a nice touch.
Screenshot of Baldur's Gate 3, where the player is talking to the demon Raphael in human form. Behind Raphael, a fire is burning in a huge fireplace, and the shadow thrown by the flames resembles an enormous demon wing positioned exactly where a real one would be.
April 2, 2025 at 11:41 PM
ericlotze.com
I love this so much. Maybe the most uncomplicated, wonderful sentence ever written that contains the word “cow”. (From The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf)
A screenshot from The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, which says: “His mother saw that he was not lonesome, and because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy.”
March 22, 2025 at 11:17 PM
ericlotze.com
The HBR story about why people don’t like AI may be the funniest thing I have ever read. It doesn’t mention accuracy, ecological impact, or producing very bad writing and art after stealing good writing and art. It DOES say that we are needlessly hesitant about using AI for dating advice, though.
A photo of a Harvard Business Review story about AI, and why humans don’t like it, and how companies can make us like it anyway. The pictured section is about how people think AI is not good at subjective tasks like, and I swear this is real, DATING OTHER HUMANS. An excerpt is highlighted and says: “For example, people are just as open to financial recommendations from AI as they are from humans, because that task is viewed as subjective. However, when it comes to something like dating advice, which is seen as highly subjective, they have a clear preference for human input.”
January 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM
ericlotze.com
I ran up that ramp daily for a few years and now I miss the musician who used to sit at the end with his guitar, and as everyone rushed by him heading up to the station he would strum his guitar and go “welcome to Vancouver, it’s lovely to see your backsides” and then sing puff the magic dragon
The pedestrian bridge to the Seabus terminal at waterfront station in Vancouver. There is a bright orange reflection of the sunlit water on the glass and you can barely see people walking along the bridge thought the reflection.
September 30, 2024 at 6:31 AM
ericlotze.com
I only regret that my state of record is California, which doesn’t need the help, but I have still never filled out an overseas ballot faster and with more savagery in my life.
September 26, 2024 at 6:16 PM
ericlotze.com
If you see this, post a bird! 🐦‍⬛
A bird with a red eye patch, dark gray head, black wings and an orange chest. I am not sure what kind of bird it is, but it is very close and looking at me as if he’s about to try to eat me.
September 21, 2024 at 5:10 PM
ericlotze.com
A Bluesky Elder stamp! I am on the ragged outskirts of Elder, where the streetlights don't work and you should have a buddy. The true elders were here long before, and were forged in the fires of Alf hogs, Tom Boobadil, and shitposting about food wait I think i'm just describing @faineg.bsky.social
The bluesky 10M celebration badge, for which I am but a lowly number 616,966, but i guess counts as a bluesky elder in some kind of extremely generous fashion. I'll take it but it feels like stolen valor
September 17, 2024 at 12:54 AM
ericlotze.com
Buyers apparently also do not believe it is real!
Screenshot of this real estate listing showing the property repeatedly being offered for $500,000 and then removed from the market 3 months later. This happens 3 times in the screenshot view but more times in real life.
September 13, 2024 at 1:32 PM
ericlotze.com
This was August 2023 from my house in BC Canada (Kelowna). Doesn’t matter how far away the fire actually is, seeing it come down the hillside like that messes you up (the bright spots on the right side of this image are houses burning).
A wildfire advancing down the hillside outside Kelowna, BC, Canada. It is night and the city lights are bright but the sky is orange and full of smoke. The fire extends the entire width of the picture.
September 12, 2024 at 12:55 AM