Jon Strother
LightNews LightNews
banner
jonstrother.bsky.social
Jon Strother
@jonstrother.bsky.social
110 followers 75 following 340 posts
I write fiction, novels and short stories mostly, and the occasional essay and poem. Been known to do a bit of flash fiction and published two flash fiction anthologies from the #FridayFlash community. It was a terrific group of writers. Love 'em all.
Posts Replies Media Videos
jonstrother.bsky.social
Black letters on a magenta background reading: I use Scrivener’s text to speech function for editing. It is incredibly useful. But its pronunciation sucks. My main character’s name is Irene. As in, Goodnight Irene. In Scrivener is Rhymes with weenie. My main character. By the time I’m done I’ll be hearing Irenie in my sleep. Now THIS is where AI could actually be useful.
June 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A quote, white test on a black background. "If coruption is powerful enough it's not corruption. It's the law." - Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs
April 27, 2025 at 1:37 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Don't make the same mistake.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enablin...
Magenta background with white lettering reading: We are marching closer to The Enabling Act of 1933 every day.
March 30, 2025 at 12:52 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A statement about the current state of affairs in the United States. A blue background with white lettering reading: The willfully ignorant remain willfully blind.
March 17, 2025 at 7:44 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A white box with a thin black frame. In the upper left corner is a portrait of FDR in a circular inset. The text reads: “The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.... Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.” ― Franklin Delano Roosevelt
March 12, 2025 at 12:27 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A blue background with white lettering reading: I made a Calvin and Hobbs cup of hot chocolate today. You know, a cup full of mini-marshmallows, a packet of hot chocolate, and about a quarter cup of boiling water. I think the kid’s onto something.
March 7, 2025 at 9:23 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
The Ukrainian flag, blue over yellow. In the blue area, the text reads: Extortion As Foreign Policy We have sunk low In the yellow area, the text reads: I Stand With Ukraine
March 1, 2025 at 2:32 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A red rectangle with centered white lettering that reads: Bye bye, WAPO.
February 27, 2025 at 4:19 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A red rectangle with a single line of centered white text that reads: Canceled Amazon Prime.
February 27, 2025 at 4:06 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A short poem in white letters on a deep blue background reading: February, by J. M. Strother I just put my hoodie on On top of my sweater On top of my flannel shirt On top of my t-shirt Inside With the heat on
February 19, 2025 at 1:28 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
My latest free post is up on Mad Utopia: The Path Less Taken.
www.patreon.com/posts/path-l...
A close-up photo of a skull, perhaps that of a coyote, on a snow-strewn field of stubble. The skull lies top down, the teeth pointing skyward. The lower jaw is missing.
February 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Blue background, white text reading: DOGE: All your data are belong to us. And you were worried about TikTok.
February 4, 2025 at 12:38 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
How I’m de-zucking from Facebook. Short visits. Check my notifications so I can respond to friends. Keeping up with friends was the whole point of social media in the first place. Scroll through the first 20 or so posts to see if there are any friends’ posts I want to respond to. Enjoy any cartoons simply by looking at them. No reaction emojis. Don’t view any of the Reels and Shorts Don’t respond to any posts that are not either my friends or a cause I support. Once done, get the zuck out.
February 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Blue background with white text. Text reads, in four lines in decreasing length, centered: "I find it hilarious that an AI company that uses others' data without permission objects to others using their data without permission. Cue the tiny violins." A blank line separates the last line from the rest.
January 30, 2025 at 1:22 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Smartphones and Alzheimer's are a terrible combination. I assist someone with Alzheimer's - take them shopping, help with their bills, and search for misplaced items. While doing the latter, searching for misplaced vital documents, I ran across her latest Discover bill. I was surprised at how big it was and scanned through the itemization - two-and-a-half pages of itemization. The entire first page comprised Apple Store purchases made via Apple Pay. The entire page. The second page had a half dozen regular purchases; the grocery store, a restaurant or two we go to, and things like that. The rest of the second page again were all Apple Store purchases. Well over 90% of the items were from Apple. The third page was only a half-page of purchases. The first four items were regular things she usually gets when we are out, plus a few online Christmas items I helped her buy. The remainder were Apple Store purchases. I called Discover and talked to an agent. I suspected that these did not represent fraudulent activity and that she had done this to herself, but I told them this had to stop. If left unabated, at this rate, she would burn through over fourteen thousand dollars in unwanted and unnecessary Apple Store purchases in a year. $14K! To address this, I had to call Apple Support. I called Apple Support: 800-694-7466 and got a very helpful agent. The thing to do was to go through her apps, one by one, and unsubscribe. I’m not an Apple user, so I had no idea how to do that. I needed a lot of help. She walked me through setting up screen sharing and then guided me through the various settings. We went through all of her purchases one by one. She had over twenty pages of apps, with about two dozen apps per page. This took a long time. I said I wanted to block push messages. Again, this had to be done app by app. Again, she walked me through it - app by app. This took a long time. In the end, we deleted over 90% of her purchases, mostly "phone cleaners."
January 26, 2025 at 6:00 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
I coined a new word on the phone with my sister today.
A mock dictionary entry for a made-up word, comiserable. It reads: comiserable adjective kō-miz-ər-bəl someone who is also miserable in the same way My brother and sister are comimerable though separated by miles Origin of COMISERABLE Coined by J. M. Strother, January 2025
January 10, 2025 at 2:38 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A solid red background containing a blond Beagle from shoulder to head on a burgundy-colored armchair. Green lettering at the top of the frame says Joy to the world. At the bottom, it reads Merry Christmas. This is my dog, Joy, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas on this Christmas day of 2025.
December 26, 2024 at 4:38 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Black text on a white background that reads: "Question for the hive mind. I need to find a handheld gaming device that does not entail recurring fees to play. Buy a game, and it's yours to play as often as you want. I have a relative that runs up huge fees in the Apple store mostly on silly games that she thinks she's playing for free. I believe the Apple store is predatory for children and the elderly, using many of the same tactics encountered in gambling addiction. I think the only solution may be to get a simple cell phone and cut ties with Apple. But she needs something to play to keep herself occupied. On a side note, if she cuts ties with Apple, can she download all her data from the iCloud first?"
December 14, 2024 at 12:29 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
They grow 'em big in Brentwood. :D
A huge (1 story tall) inflatable Christmas lawn inflatable white dod with a red Santa hat and green scarf in front of a brick home in Brentwood, MO, USA. A smaller white dog is pulling an inflatable sled carrying an inflatable snowman, both with Santa hats. A large green live pine tree provides a seasonal backdrop with clear blue skies overhead.
December 8, 2024 at 3:11 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Today my friend Deb and I took a special hike. We went to Rockwoods Reservation and walked the Quarry Trail. It is special to me because I helped make it. Paul Burr, Lilly Millman, and I were the three people that blazed the original Quarry Trail, now the short loop. Brought back many fond memories.
An old man (me) in a gray hoodie (hood down) touching a trailhead sign that reads Rock Quarry Trail with his right hand and holding a hat near his thigh with his left hand. Behind the sign an unpaved trail wends off into the denuded early-winter woods. The terrain is mostly flat to his right (left of frame) and climbs steeply to his left (right of frame). The trail is fairly level as it disappears into the woodland. Brown leaves cover the forest floor. The same old man (me) proudly points down the trail with his hiking stick. He is somewhat offset from the middle of the trail and half turned away from the camera. His hood is down, and he wears a wide-brimmed cloth hat. Very few leaves are left on the trees, but many are strewn on the unpaved trail. They are all brown, mostly of oak. Small patches of light blue sky peek through the high cirrus clouds.
November 27, 2024 at 12:53 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
I #am Reading The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera. Unlike any fantasy I've ever read before. It puts me in mind of Siddhartha. It is available at least through my library as an audio book via Hoopla.
The cover of the book, The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera. An ornate golden door on a dark blue jagged rectangle on a bright yellow background. There are pieces of broken ornate blue and white tiles along the edges in the upper right and left, and in the lower right. The title overlays the door itself in white lettering.
November 25, 2024 at 4:30 AM
jonstrother.bsky.social
A friend and I started hiking several weeks ago hoping to catch the autumn color change. Week one was a bust. We were too early. Week two was also disappointing. The leaves were mostly dull shades of brown. Week three presented us mostly nude trees. But we finally saw this! At least we got exercise.
Two small understory trees provide a vivid splash of red in a nearly denuded woodland of oak and hickory. The terrain is quite steep. A small part of a sharply angled post and rail fence is in the foreground and a brilliant blue sky tops the tree line near the edge of the photo. This was taken at the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center in Kirkwood, MO. Photo by Jon Strother.
November 24, 2024 at 3:43 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Love Birds.
Saw the smaller one soar over to land next to the larger one.
They were a wonder to behold.
Two harks resting side by side on the limb of a nearly leafless tree. The one on the left is smaller than the one on the right. Dark heads and wings form a nice frame for the white/red chests and bellies. The undersides look more red in flight, but they present as nearly white here at rest. There is a light blue sky in the background.
November 23, 2024 at 3:22 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
Nope. Nope. Nope.
A Washington Post banner ad hawking their new AI-powered answering bot regarding their stories.
November 21, 2024 at 9:34 PM
jonstrother.bsky.social
I always play with new things in unexpected ways. Bluesky is no exception. This is my experimental blog to see what I can do within the site's character count restraints. I can write more in the ALT text than I can in the post which is disappointing. But then, they never intended this for blogging.
A painting in the public domain by Julius Paulsen - Adam and Eve, 1887 via Wikimedia Commons. A reclining nude male, gazed upon by a standing nude female over a dark background, both lit from slightly behind and from the left of the frame.
November 20, 2024 at 12:06 AM