@stevendbrewer@wandering.shop

Doe and twin fawns at Fifth Street, in Southwest Michigan. #SilentSunday

The ol' Sprackler recommended this breakfast sandwich from Tandem in Hadley. It has a "wild cheddar" bagel (cheddar melted over everything) and hashbrowns with ketchup with egg and bacon or sausage. It's pretty good. #WesternMass

You can read more about Totemo Isogashii and Lambda in *The Better Angels and Lambda and Tau* in *Better Angels: Tour de Force* available from Water Dragon Publishing. If you purchase a signed copy directly from the publisher, you'll also receive a 'zine with snapshots and descriptions of each of the Angels including their vital statistics and "three measurements." https://water-dragon-publishing.square.site/product/better-angels-tour-de-force/354

Totemo's face momentarily broke involuntarily into a smile, but then she controlled her expressions. She had missed Lambda a lot more than she was willing to admit.
"Welcome back, Lambda. It's good to see you," she said, gravely. Then, turning, she slapped her thigh and said, "Let's go!"
Lambda wasn't fooled. She barked affirmatively and fell in two steps behind her, but her tongue lolled.

#wss366

Totemo Isogashii waited impatiently at the Holufinia spaceport security #border. She had seen the starliner arrive some minutes before and now she was just waiting for Lambda to dismbark and make her way through the red tape of customs and passport control. She hated waiting. Finally, she caught sight of Lambda loping easily through the other slower moving pedestrians. She passed through security and then sat obediently before Totemo.

#wss366

Tsubaki Factory has a cute song called ベイビースパイダー
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAapbqPqQQ #jpop

Stupid LinkedIn question of the day: Dealing with skeptical learners in e-learning: Are you ready to convince them of the power of gamification?

My answer: Gamification is a terrible idea and should be avoided at all costs. Gamification is merely an updated form of operant conditioning. Read *Punished by Rewards* or *Motivation* or other good books on why using incentive schemes like gamification are always a bad idea.

#WritersCoffeeClub What else competes for your time, and what strategies do you use to secure time for writing against those demands?

When I was Director of the Biology Computer Resource Center, I worked 50-60 hours every week & had little time for writing. When my position was rewritten as a teaching faculty member, I suddenly had summers & intersessions free & used that time to write. Now I'm starting phased retirement & will have even more time. In two years, I'll be able to write full time.

My son, who lives in our household, tested positive for COVID today. We are careful and mask everywhere, but he still got it. So far, the rest of us are testing negative. I made a Corsi-Rosenthal box for his room and will make a second for ours.

We had been scheduled to fly to Glasgow on Tuesday for Worldcon, but I had canceled my plans when they declined to make me a participant But now it appears I would probably have had to cancel in any event. Sigh…

The soldiers from Havelock approached the barricades, but suddenly, the lines faltered. Some of the men in the front started screaming. Cecelia saw the soldiers pause to lift up boards that had been concealed in the tall grass with nails protruding up. A dozen men or more were crippled by stepping on the nails. But the rest rushed forward and surmounted the barricades. And then the two forces were #locked in combat.
"Now! Pull back!" bellowed Sergeant Baker.
The defenders disengaged.

#wss366

Right now, we YASSIFY! h/t @yassie_j

I really hate how the NYT normalizes Trump. Instead of saying, "Trump refuses to debate Harris on ABC News," they say, "Trump Proposes a Fox News Debate With Harris." That's like instead of saying, "Man tries to rob bank," they said, "Man requests withdrawal at bank." You have to read 12 paragraphs down before they even mention the scheduled ABC News debate. Sheesh!

If you've never read Bukowski's *so you want to be a writer*: https://poets.org/poem/so-you-want-be-writer #writing

#WordWeavers Is there a genre you haven’t written yet but would like to try?

I don't really believe in genres. I just write what I want to write. Like "rural fantasy" or "steampunky romantasy" or "fluffy military space opera." Who knows what I'll come up with next?

#WritersCoffeeClub Do you agree with George Orwell, "Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent."

I believe you should always use the right word for a purpose.

So you want to be a writer (with apologies to Charles Bukowski) https://stevendbrewer.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer/ #writing

I'm not going to do work for you for the "chance" to "win" something.

There was an eerie calm over the field. Hillsong's men marched forward in their lines. As they approached the barricades, Cecelia heard the voice of Sergeant Baker call out: "Now, men!"
A hail of rocks flew out from behind the wall of spars & airship ribs. A few of the soldiers from Havelock were struck & a couple fell, struck in the head. Thinking ahead to make a report, Cecelia tried to keep a #tally of the fallen.
"On the double!" called Hillsong. The men quickened their pace.

#wss366

I've noticed something about how I use Mastodon. When I see a post that's a lot longer than 500 characters, I usually only read the first paragraph and then just skip the rest. I basically never read a long post in Mastodon. If someone posts a link, I might go to the link to read a longer post, but I basically never read one as a post in Mastodon. Is that weird?

Yes, really long posts are just fine to read.
No, I don't read them either.
What? Posts can be longer than 500 characters?
Just show me the answers.

Hillsong began to call orders to his men. They broke up into teams that formed lines as they approached the enormous building. From her position on the huge percheron, she could see that hastily-erected barricades had been set up around entrances to the factory. Cecelia realized they were formed of airship components: wooden beams, ribs, & spars woven together to form a barrier.
"How long will it take the Baron to get here?" Helia whispered.
Cecelia #shrugged. "I really have no idea."

#wss366