@stevendbrewer@wandering.shop

Thanks to all the #wss366 folks who came to our solstice meet up. I'm very gratified to have met all of you and to get to read your writing. Getting to chat with you in real time adds yet another dimension to the experience that I will always treasure. Thank you!

There's a new kind of sloppy writing… Or, why I don't use AI. https://stevendbrewer.com/sloppy-writing/

Waiting for the winter solstice sunrise at the #UMass Sunwheel. #SilentSunday #WesternMass

Bob and Al carried their drinks down to watch the sun set over the ocean. Shades of orange and red crept across the sky as the sun sank down toward the horizon.
"Today was a #perfect day," Bob sighed, sipping his rum punch.
"I dunno," Al said. "Just another beautiful day in paradise…" #wss366

#WritersCoffeeClub Do your stories come to you fully formed? Or do they only develop along the way?

I generally start with a character or a setting — rarely a whole scene — and then I start to write and see what happens. This was how I did all my writing originally.
I started to worry that I would write myself into a corner and began outlining to create a set of guardrails. But I found that I would still crash through the guardrails as I wrote. The outline still helps assuage my anxiety though.

From *Lady Cecelia's Trial*, Part 6 of *Lady Cecelia's Journey*. Subscribe to my newsletter for updates when it appears: https://author-sdbrewer.micro.blog/subscribe/

That night, Cecelia removed one of the boards supporting the mattress from her bed and made a ramp from the ground along the wall to the rim of the trash can. She dropped the last of the breadcrumbs inside. That night, she heard a thump and then a scrabbling sound from inside the trash can. She sprang up, placed her water glass over the mouse trapped inside and then concealed it using the crumpled up papers. She smiled to have part three of her plan now in hand. #wss366

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.