Brent Simmons
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thrashy.bsky.social
Brent Simmons
@thrashy.bsky.social
Lab planner, toddler dad, maker, modder, motorsports enthusiast and lapsed autocrosser. SF/F nerd - I've never won a Hugo, but I've *got* one...

PFP shamelessly yoinked from (the merch shop for) Order Of The Stick, by @rich-burlew.giantitp.com.
They need to link up as the militant wing of on Dropout so I can justify the Superfan subscription
November 12, 2025 at 9:17 PM
What a weird, crass way to mark Veteran’s day.
November 12, 2025 at 1:08 AM
The Silicon Valley techbro set did not, and the world is vastly poorer for it.
November 12, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Looking back there are several points where I think “there but for the grace of God go I,” and one of them was when I bounced off of an intro to programming in C++. My interests took an artistic bent, and I eventually came to appreciate society in an its color and mess and whorl.
November 12, 2025 at 1:02 AM
As it happens, something important is lost when one turns a vibrant city like San Francisco into an undifferentiated wasteland of athleisure-clad, Huel-guzzling culture ciphers who can only carry a conversation if the topic is memory-safe programming languages or high-risk financial vehicles.
November 12, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Silicon Valley techbros dreamed of a world where misanthropic computer nerds had to be tolerated, and when they made it so it turned out to be Very Bad and now we’re all locked in an existential battle against their anti-human worldview even as they train their kids to follow in their footsteps.
November 12, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Architects in the US have bemoaned our low pay for years, but my firm partnered with a starchitect out of the UK recently. I was shocked that the juniors doing the grunt work on their part *in London* made about half of what my starting salary had been 15 years ago, after accounting for inflation.
November 11, 2025 at 8:36 PM
If we were torching a McMansion a day at least the architectural environment of the country would be improving.
November 11, 2025 at 4:04 AM
As a counterpoint, I did a quick check back after the incident at COTA this year, and there have been Lap 1/T1 incidents at that track at about 1/3 of races held there. Maybe it's an issue of track design, but as it stands dive-bombing to the T1 apex seems like it's way too tempting to drivers.
November 10, 2025 at 8:45 PM
My mental image of Kitty in the command module already looked a bit like it was on the commode. Suddenly its unwillingness to come out makes so much more sense.
November 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Kirk was moderately influential in the alt-right, but he’d lost stature in recent years and was on the outs with Trumpworld as he’d recently called for full disclosure of the Epstein files. He only became useful again as a martyr, and even then it seems like that was a flash in the pan.
November 8, 2025 at 2:35 PM
If you're willing to place some constraints on the foundational biology of the aliens, amino acid dating might be a possibility. I don't think you'd have to stretch too far, since amino acids are thought to have been the first chemical precursors of life.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amino_a...
Amino acid dating - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 6, 2025 at 8:53 PM
I hear radar-absorbent materials have a great nutty flavor when lightly toasted
November 6, 2025 at 8:39 PM
The older architectural faculty at KU circa 2005 were still salty about the university pulling the ivy off Marvin Hall in the 90s.

I'm a huge fan of dedicated climbing trellises where they can work, though.
November 5, 2025 at 9:31 PM
But what if the AI would have found the solution to create a utopia while the power was out? What then? WHAT OF THE OPPORTUNITY COST, HANK!?

(precautionary /s)
November 5, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Right... without an analysis of how the Cuomo vote breaks between Mamdani and Sliwa in his absence, the "historic D underperformance" angle is premature at best.
November 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM