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Kudos to @system76! I just updated to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS and it was as smooth and seamless as I have come to expect. https://stevendbrewer.com/successfully-updated-to-pop_os-24-04-lts/

I've drafted my Year in Writing post for 2025. I'm not sure whether the glass was half-full, but it wasn't empty either. https://stevendbrewer.com/year-in-writing-2025/

LAX Hotel Hilton #FensterFreitag #WindowsFriday #Photography

I have submitted grades for the semester and run the last faculty senate meeting of the year. I have two meetings tomorrow and a meeting on Monday, and then I am DONE for the rest of the year.

An infuriating fluff piece about Anthropic using an LLM to run a vending machine at the WSJ (via @jacobsberg.bsky.social). The journalist uncritically accepted statements from the Anthropic flack like, "They maybe don't have the most sophisticated understanding…" No, no, no! LLMs don't "understand" anything. Pretending as though they do should be recognized as a category error with these systems. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claude-ai-vending-machine-agent-b7e84e34?st=V2XjZM&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

From *The Better Angels and The Complicated Camping Catastrophe* in *Better Angels: Tour de Force*, only at the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy! (And anywhere else fine books are sold…) https://truckstop.waterdragonpublishing.com/product/better-angels-tour-de-force/

Baggler ご! Baggler six!
Let's all play some Baggler tricks!
Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss!
Baggler しち! Baggler eight!
Let's jump through the Baggler gate!
Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss!
Baggler きゅう! Baggler ten!
Let's do the Baggler Call again! (2/2) #wss366

Baggler いち, Baggler all!
Let's all do the Baggler Call!
Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss!
Baggler に, Baggler two!
Let's get stuck in Baggler glue!
Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss!
Baggler し! Baggler five!
Let's get stung in a Baggler #hive!
Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! Pss! (1/2) #wss366

Some students have discovered that it's "safer" to post the original and the revised paragraph at the same time. That way, if they forget, they've already "locked in" completing the final step so they don't lose credit.
Using "points" to motivate student learning always results in people finding ways to game the system: to get the points without actually meaningfully engaging in the activity. Oh, well. The students who actually do it always comment on how helpful it was. I can live with that.

One of the most successful activities I ever developed for my student writing class has students post a "perfect paragraph" by Thursday every week, comment on three other student paragraphs to "suggest improvements," then take the feedback received and post a revised paragraph by midnight on Sunday. Many students have commented on how helpful the activity is at every level: learning to identify problems with writing, seeing the effect of waiting a few days to make revisions, etc. However…

Rory arrived at school carrying Tseluna in kitten form. He approached his gaming friends, Gabe, Larry, and Fred, who were in another class. 
"Well met, Milords," he said, following the Protocol.
"Well met, Lord RazorFell," they said in turn, using the name of his character in the game they played on Wednesday evenings. He inclined his head and continued on through the crowded hallways. #wss366 from A Familiar Problem https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/familiar-problem/

Mi ĵus eksekvis @eliecaser nova komencanto de #Esperanto. Bonvenigu tiun!

In the video description, though, it says, "Hi!! My dear Bokddungs!!!!" I was curious what a "bokddung" was so I tried Google Translate. It didn't recognize it. So I tried using DDG. It suggested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_lung So I tried Google and I found that Lee Su-Hyun always says that. But I still don't know what it means.

I recently discovered several series of recordings of Korean artists that appear to have been made during the pandemic that are outdoors and done with acoustic instruments (Sea of Hope, Begin Again Korea, and others). I also discovered Lee Su-Hyun, a charming vocalist with a beautiful voice. I found she did a couple of little videos of *Santa Tell Me* that are cute and fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ukfe1qr64c

I think maybe I like Nayeon's a tiny bit better. But these are fabulous and heartwarming. #Kpop

I saw someone commenting about the Brown University shooting, saying that they needed to have a lot more CCTVs because in British crime dramas they were always instrumental for solving crimes.

"That's fiction," I said. "Just like how in the US, crime shows were used to propagandize forensic science. By persuading jurors to uncritically accept forensic science, a lot of innocent people got railroaded."

I'm all for science. But let's use science — not fiction — for decision-making.

oh, no

#WritersCoffeeClub Give a shout-out to a resource or site you think more writers should know.

The @SFWA Contracts Committee helps authors identify problems with SFF publishing contracts and offers a lot of useful resources to help with negotiation. https://www.sfwa.org/what-is-sfwa/committees/contracts-committee/

#WritersCoffeeClub Do you have one format you write in, or many?

I write all of my manuscripts using Shunn https://shunn.net/format/

I prefer Shunn Classic.

When I submit manuscripts, I'll modify the format as necessary to match the submission guidelines. But most markets will accept Shunn Classic

I wrote this on Dec 16, 2003: Alisa tells me that at school the other day Daniel's kindergarten teacher was describing the story writing that they're going to be doing.
"You can choose the topic," he said. "You can write about whatever you want!"
"Can we write about toilets?" Daniel asked.
"Well, maybe there are some things you can't write about," the teacher clarified.
That's my boy!

I've been using Mozilla products since forever. But their monomaniacal fixation on AI may finally drive me away. I kept hoping they'd wake up. Sigh…