#rather-be-writing
LightNews LightNews
mthrjo.bsky.social
This isn’t a huge criticism of Lewis - I rather like the dream-like elements of Narnia - though the fact he could be quite slapdash is a definite flaw (I simultaneously think a lot of the criticisms of the Susan problem are unfair, and that Lewis brought them on himself by careless writing).
November 27, 2025 at 8:49 AM
eveharms.com
I doubt anyone thinks I make a living from writing, but I don't care to talk about my day job here. I do shit with computers and websites. I enjoy it sometimes but the subject doesn't interest me. And I'd rather keep it private, to be honest. This isn't linkedin. I don't have a linkedin for a reason
November 25, 2025 at 11:23 PM
profgeoffpearson.bsky.social
Have had a productive and enjoyable writing retreat in lovely Hydra and a book will be forthcoming from it. However, any mistakes will be those of the many cats who have interfered with my efforts, rather than my own.
November 25, 2025 at 2:24 PM
musicologyduck.bsky.social
like yes, we should be teaching them the limitations of all research and writing tools. But this kind of exercise isn't some kind of magic pill

I used to have an assignment that was just aimed at getting students to merely go into the library and many of them willingly failed it rather than go
November 23, 2025 at 11:15 PM
keithwdickinson.bsky.social
Went to the shops, so now I have a bunch of voice notes I need to transcribe, because no matter what I'm doing I'd rather be writing.
November 25, 2025 at 12:58 PM
eveharms.com
And because it's unfortunately not a given, I will say that I do NOT work with any companies in the defense industry and would starve before I did. I'm grateful that my clients are not evil. But I'm not really proud of the work, because I'd much rather be writing
November 25, 2025 at 11:33 PM
ernie.tedium.co
If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
Update November 22. We’ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail’s smart features. The settings themselves aren’t new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google’s AI models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google’s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Gmail does scan email content to power its own “smart features,” such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn’t the same as training Google’s generative AI models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users’ experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared. It’s easy to see where the confusion came from. Google’s updated language around “smart features” is vague, and the term “smart” often implies AI—especially at a time when Gemini is being integrated into other parts of Google’s products. When the new wording started appearing for some users without much explanation, many assumed it signalled a broader shift. We’ve revised this article to reflect what we can confirm from Google’s documentation, as it’s always been our aim to give readers accurate, helpful guidance.
November 22, 2025 at 9:44 PM
georgepenney.bsky.social
Here are some pictures from before all the people arrived and our party. We got 70 people turning up on a rainy day in a city that is notorious for everyone staying home at the first hint of a sprinkle. It was a simply wonderful evening. (More in alt text)
You are looking at a bunch of copies of Tiny Moments of Joy--a dark pink cover with white serif writing sitting in neatly arranged stacks on podiums of differing height. They're sitting next to an orange book with the title OverLondon, which looks rather fun. Behind the books are two plinths holding snacks. One of the reasons I was so chuffed to hold this event in a gallery was because we'd get to have snack plinths. People pictures not included because I've been assured that any side-profile-mouth-half-full-of-fairy-bread-or-chippie pictures of my wonderful friends will result in them visiting me with a big stick. And I am completely fine with this as this is how things should always be. You are looking at a plate of fairy bread which is white bread with multi coloured sprinkles on top. It's sitting on top of a freakin' plinth, a fairy bread plinth. Majestic. The fairy bread here is cut into squares and there is a sign nearby saying "Squares for Vegan Fairies" which contrasts with another plate in the room with triangles for butter loving fairies. The vibe here is goofy fun dressed up to look fancy.
November 28, 2025 at 1:03 AM
fmacskasy.bsky.social
Lloyd Burr writing for Stuff saying essentially the same thing: Bishop is ignoring the lessons of history.

This vile govt chose to give $230 million to tobacco company Phillip Morris rather than spend the money on a new, potentially life-saving tugboat.

If people die,Bishop should be prosecuted.
November 25, 2025 at 8:56 PM
halvireal.bsky.social
I need ppl to not directly send me shitposts about not liking straight ships 💀 I write, read, and draw for them too so it's just awkward as hell for me every time bc I'd rather be told u think (specific ship)'s canon writing sucks so I don't feel discouraged from writing/drawing entirely. Ty 🫡
November 22, 2025 at 10:18 PM
sirosenbaum.bsky.social
This is a systemic problem I will be writing more about elsewhere, but there's a tendency to see medicine and medical research as a solution to defective people, rather than as the prerequisite for all other basic freedoms. The catch is that we then question whether defectives deserve the fix.
November 22, 2025 at 11:25 AM
kr00bs.com
Yeah, I’ll still be here to chat and help boost folks and etc, but I think I’ll be pouring way more into FurAffinity when it comes to my art/writing/etc.

I have it linked in my bio! I’ll still use this platform ofc, but I’d much rather support an art gallery site made by furries, for furries.
November 20, 2025 at 10:44 PM
sweetturtleberry.com
I think I'm just going to stop pretending to promote my books...

Like I'll talk about them when I think to talk about them... I'm just not going to stress myself out about book promotion...

I'd rather be writing...
November 26, 2025 at 1:46 AM
rickihirsch.bsky.social
Haven't watched the new defunctland but I am reading
Jorge Luis Borges and it seems like they might have some substantial overlap.
The other one, Borges, is the one things happen to. I wander around Buenos Aires, pausing perhaps unthinkingly, these days, to examine the arch of an entranceway and its metal gate. I hear about Borges in letters, I see his name on a roster of professors and in the biographical gazetteer. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typeface, the taste of coffee, and Stevenson’s prose. The other one likes the same things, but his vanity transforms them into theatrical props. To say that our relationship is hostile would be an exaggeration: I live, I stay alive, so that Borges can make his literature, and this literature is my justification. I readily admit that a few of his pages are worthwhile, but these pages are not my salvation, perhaps because good writing belongs to no one in particular, not even to my other, but rather to language and tradition. As for the rest, I am fated to disappear completely, and only a small piece of me can possibly live in the other one. I’m handing everything over to him bit by bit, fully aware of his nasty habit of distortion and aggrandizement. Spinoza knew that all things desire to endure in their being: stones desire to be stones, and tigers tigers, for all eternity. I must remain in Borges rather than in myself (if in fact I am a self), and yet I recognize myself less in his books than in many others, or in the rich strumming of a guitar. Some years ago I tried to get away from him: I went from suburban mythologies to playing games with time and infinity. But these are Borges’ games now—I will have to think of something else. Thus my life is an escape. I will lose everything, and everything will belong to oblivion, or to the other. I don’t know which of us wrote this.
November 26, 2025 at 2:38 PM
ourflagmeansbeth.bsky.social
I think most people find me to be a lot - I have a pretty forceful personality. I’ve been told I’m a good writer by some talented people so that’s rather humbling. I’m average looking at best.
Best feedback you’ve ever gotten on your looks, your writing, and your personality?
November 22, 2025 at 5:08 AM
polprofsteve2024.bsky.social
There are a lot of very silly people who claim expertise abt Labour & are determined to show it in their writing … My hope was Starmer would be like Callaghan in reverse i.e. start to create a new more radical consensus rather than defend a crumbling one. He is *possibly* stumbling towards that.
November 27, 2025 at 2:32 PM
aluino.blacksky.app
False alarm
Screenshot of Malwarebytes lab updated article that now says: Update November 22. We've updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail's smart features. The settings themselves aren't new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google's Al models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google's documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn't appear to be the case. Gmail does scan email content to power its own "smart features," such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn't the same as training Google's generative Al models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users' experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared.
November 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
machtaholic.bsky.social
I'd rather be writing fanfic.
November 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
steveklabnik.com
cloudflare themselves get it: blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-...

writing their code differently is only one of four steps here. because this kind of mistake should not be able to cause this much damage. that's approaching problems in a systematic way rather than via band-aids
Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025
Cloudflare suffered a service outage on November 18, 2025. The outage was triggered by a bug in generation logic for a Bot Management feature file causing many Cloudflare services to be affected.
blog.cloudflare.com
November 19, 2025 at 5:02 PM
politicaliverpool.bsky.social
It would be better if Alex was AI rather than just writing about it, because not understanding why people on a wage so low as to not be able to be classed as a living wage, while rent takes 50% of it, aren’t in the streets rejoicing is fucking embarrassing
hern.bsky.social Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 8d
Weird thing: the UK minimum wage has risen against inflation for years. It's now really high. Millions of people are earning more than they were as a direct result of this policy. And the impact on the vibes of the country is… entirely absent?
November 19, 2025 at 6:45 PM
dreadships.bsky.social
Later on - and in response to the Germans properly coming to the party - Keith Park replaced him because the big bosses thought they needed somebody more defensive.

Park promptly went even harder at his foe than Lloyd had.
Air Chief Marshal Keith Park, smugly writing some orders that will absolutely fuck up Herr Kesselring's day. Again. (As ever, disappear into Wikipedia for the whole story if you don't get the reference. I'm afraid it's a rather big tale even with trying to be brief!)
November 19, 2025 at 11:16 PM
daletudgehumor.bsky.social
Sometimes you write the feeling of a thing rather than the thing itself. If the feeling you have about the thing you're writing lines up with the feeling the thing creates—that's a good thing.

#DogTags #PoemsAbout
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@karenpgonzalez.bsky.social
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

#poem
I Misheard "Dogtags" as "Dog Tag" and Wrote This Instead by Dale Tudge @daletudgehumor The dogs chased each other through the park in that glorious, magnificent, absolutely essential ritual known as Dog Tag— having immediately forgotten who was "it," because who cares, really, when there's running to be done, friends to chase, and possibly something suspicious near that bin. One barked "Tag!"—or possibly "Run!"— or conceivably "I'm coming to get you in the most delightful way!"— and the other pretended not to understand, because the misunderstanding is half the joy, the chase is the other half, and the catching is definitely another half, and frankly, dogs have never been terribly concerned with fractions when there's this much fun happening right now. -Dale Tudge
November 21, 2025 at 1:54 PM
dlib24.bsky.social
We also think our work could be useful for writers across jobs, activist and advocacy work, and even academia to be more conscious of why they might write with numbers in certain ways rather than others. And, to consider new ways of writing in the face of such reflection.
November 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
mishellbaker.bsky.social
My writing is definitely *from* me -- it is authentic and based in what I care about and enjoy rather than trying to be someone else to please "the market." I write books I'd love to read.

But I write *for* others. Without the expectations of reaching and affecting others, I would not write.
November 18, 2025 at 10:00 PM
batariangal.bsky.social
(Alt text is slightly off, sorry, Peter only gestures at Phil to sit down rather than pushing him down. Can be difficult to describe when you can’t watch it whilst writing the alt-text)
November 18, 2025 at 2:06 PM