Matthew Graybosch

I'm a writer and musician by choice, a techie by necessity, and a metalhead by grace of the witch. 

My current WIP is Spiral Architect, a scifi thriller involving corporate attempts to enslave artificial humans.

I write with GNU Emacs and like Unix-based operating systems, but my preferences are not prescriptions.

I'm generally anti-authoritarian and irreligious. I'm actually autistic, kinda non-binary, and bisexual in a straight marriage. I'm not necessarily nice, but I try to be kind.

This isn't a bot account, but it's configured to pull posts from my website's RSS feed and mirror them to the Fediverse in addition to me interacting with other people's posts.

Public Key

npub1uvq49m5xe2tvk94aklc03urcdu5m3huqjygf5qujeg55cqf9k32spwg9gj

NIP-05 Address

starbreaker_at_libranet.de@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswxq2ja6rv49ktz67m0u8c7pux72dcm7qfzyy6qwfv522vqyjmg4gpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qs88y8f

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1uvq49m5xe2tvk94aklc03urcdu5m3huqjygf5qujeg55cqf9k32spwg9gj

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Last Notes

2024-02-19 15:43:45

#WordWeavers Feb 19
Which of your MCs would try online dating?
Claire Ashecroft has a /fuckme/ page on her website, as a companion to her /hireme/ page. It's got some photos of her, a brief description of what she's into, and what she's looking for in her partners. She refuses to use apps unless the companies behind them are paying her for her data and to put up with their bullshit.
Naomi Bradleigh considered doing something similar, but decided against it. She figures that if a man is worth her time, he will introduce himself in person and get past the fact that she typically wears a sword when she goes out (and knows how to use it). Also, if she sees somebody who appeals to her, she's not at all shy about making the first move. She has passive girlfriends who expect men to approach, and she's observed that these women limit their choices by their insistence on clinging to traditional gender roles.
Morgan Cooper has never considered online dating. In fact, the only reason he's dating at all is that Christabel Crowley did everything short of sitting him down and saying, "You're cute in that broody gothy way I like, despite being incredibly fucking dense, so I want to go out with you."
As a rock musician and swordfighter, he could have a different woman every night if he wanted to, but that's not what he wants. He's used to being the strong one, to asserting dominance because that comes easily to him as a war machine trying to be a man, but he wants a woman who can stand up to him and make him kneel before her. As Naomi observed in her diary, Morgan's the sort who appreciates the firm hand of an occasionally harsh mistress.

2024-02-14 16:17:41

#WordWeavers 14: If you had to date one of your characters, who would it be?
There are reasons I give my wife cameos in my fiction, and questions like this are among them.

2024-02-02 13:36:59

splcenter.org/hatewatch/2024/0…
Cahn believes Ishtar and other pagan deities were able to return to the earth because the 1969 Stonewall riots – which birthed the modern LGBTQ+ movement – opened a portal to another realm, the CBC said.
OK, who the fuck is Jonathan Cahn and how the fuck is he reading my old Shin Megami Tensei fanfic?

2024-01-23 17:27:25

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@npub1umy…45ap Nice work. I see you had read Parasite Eve back in 2020. Same year I read it, years after playing the Squaresoft game.

2024-01-22 21:06:50

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@npub1umy…45ap @npub1xu3…7ghd This is cool, but this seems to depend on being willing to use #GitHub.

2024-01-16 01:01:55

#WordWeavers Do you write about dysfunctional relationships?
I write about human beings. Of course their relationships are gonna be dysfunctional.

2024-01-09 15:26:32

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@npub10ee…6keq Then maybe that product shouldn't exist?

2024-01-07 00:00:59

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@npub1wfq…4a2f You might not understand or agree, but it's my empathy that drives me to be so blunt.
Maybe it's a cultural difference?
Being a New Yorker, I will often say, "It's your funeral", when I disagree with somebody's planned course of action, but I'm not willing to use force to stop them even if I think they are being unreasonable or willfully ignorant. Sometimes gentler statements like the following aren't enough:
I don't think this is a good idea.
I'm not sure you've thought this through.
Are you sure the risk is worthwhile?
Suppose I'm with a friend who's had one too many and is about to ask out a woman who we both know is married (or dating somebody with a violent temper). I'll try to talk him out of it, but if he insists I'll tell him, "It's your funeral." If he's not too drunk, the idiom might dissuade him where gentler language would not.

2024-01-06 20:21:44

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@npub1wfq…4a2f That's a fair point, but nevertheless that's how I feel. The internet is dangerous, and if you venture forth you do so at your own risk. You shouldn't expect website operators to protect you; your safety is your responsibility. I suppose I should have kept that to myself. I usually do.

2024-01-06 19:21:55

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@npub1wfq…4a2f @npub1q6d…fj6e I have server-side HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect disabled on all my sites because I don't want to make that decision for everybody else.
I expect other people on the internet to be adults and to understand their threat model. If you're in a situation where it isn't safe to surf the net without encryption, then don't do that. If you think you're safe, that's your business. If it turns out you were wrong, well, it's your funeral.
Finally, if you can't afford a current device that's capable of handling encrypted connections, or if such a device isn't available in your local market for whatever reason, it doesn't seem right to deny you access.

2024-01-05 01:40:05

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@npub1elu…590g This is mere pedantry. It doesn’t matter if the head of state is himself a clergyman if he’s taking orders from clergy.
What matters is that these dominionist assholes don’t realize they’re undermining the very legal protections that guarantee their right to engage in their preferred form of demon worship.
@npub1t23…adc2

2024-01-01 19:32:36

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@npub10ee…6keq I think you've got the seed of a new article: "Level Access Will Get You Sued".

2023-11-20 17:23:23

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@npub1yac…la7e Cool. I asked because for some reason I suspected you were a Primus fan.

2023-11-20 17:09:26

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@npub1yac…la7e Was "antipope" intentional, or a typo on "antipop"?

2023-11-16 11:43:28

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@npub10ee…6keq I only get paid for 0.9x.

2023-11-03 13:37:14

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@npub18zl…c5tu If you were to directly ask Morgan Cooper or Naomi Bradleigh if they had empathy, the most honest answer they could give might be, "Probably not, but hum a few bars and I'll fake it."
Morgan knows he's artificial and that he was made to be a weapon, but he's doing the best he can to be a man. That means cultivating empathy, or at least patience with other people and curiosity about their viewpoint.
Naomi is determined to not be wholly her father's daughter. Bit of a tall order when your dad's a dark lord who wears white, already rules the world, and is determined to "save" it.
#WritingCommunity #writing

2023-10-27 19:32:48

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@npub10ee…6keq I'd like to think I do know better. I've only been running personal websites of one kind or another since 1996.

2023-10-27 18:47:45

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@npub10ee…6keq I'm kinda jealous. Nobody is trying to sell me on "multi page applications". I kinda wish somebody would, so I could mock them.

2023-10-17 16:04:32

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@npub1ec6…7xfu Maybe for the same reason I sometimes watch those old Underworld flicks. Sometimes it's fun to watch actresses like Milla Jovovich or Kate Beckinsale pull of ridiculous stunts.

2023-10-17 15:58:48

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@npub1ec6…7xfu I haven't seen that one. I generally avoid movies based on video games.

2023-10-17 15:49:38

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@npub1ec6…7xfu Now that I think of it, Karl Urban might do pretty well in Roddy Piper's role. I mean, he was perfect as Dredd and fucking diabolical as Billy Butcher in The Boys.

2023-10-17 15:32:25

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@npub1ec6…7xfu Maybe if the same people that did DREDD in 2012 tackled the project? Even then I'd have doubts.
And speaking of shit from the 80s that still holds up because of the US' lack of socioeconomic progress (or outright regression), how about Queensryche's 1988 concept album Operation: Mindcrime?

2023-10-17 15:24:55

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@npub1ec6…7xfu I have a copy on disc that I regularly re-watch, and I disagree with you on the need for a modern remake. It still holds up as-is; it just needs a 4K remaster.
A full remake would probably dilute the message, I don't think there's a director in Hollywood today with the backbone to remake this movie without toning it down, or a studio capable of releasing a remake of They Live that didn't pussyfoot.
Likewise for Network. That still holds up today, even though it didn't anticipate 24/7 cable "news", parasocial media, or clickbait.

2023-10-17 15:17:31

I'm still convinced that John Carpenter was making a documentary about 80s yuppies and Republicans in this movie. I also suspect that the copy on archive.org is bootleg, but stealing from corporations is praxis.
♲ https://c.im/@jake4480/111246996054827414
#note1eyv…7tfr

2023-10-14 16:39:45

#WordWeavers 14 October: What are your characters' relationship to spooky things?
When things go bump in the night, Morgan Cooper bumps them off. it's a pleasant change from assassinating dictators and the summary executions of managers indulging in wage theft.

2023-09-11 21:04:33

#WritersCoffeeClub Sep 11
Advice to aspiring writers?
Don't work in tech. Sure, it can pay well, but it will steal as much time and energy as you allow it, always demanding more. Then again, that's just about any job, trade, or career under capitalism, isn't it?

2023-08-29 18:43:12

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@npub1hmh…satr Emacs has had that for years. It's just not the default. M-x cua-mode.

2023-08-27 05:02:30

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@npub1tf9…6ckj Will there be an audiobook for this? I think my wife would enjoy this since she's an Aussie married to a septic (me).

2023-08-26 14:53:58

I've had a #Kindle #paperwhite since 2013, and it's gotten some heavy use over the years. However, I think it's time I retired it with honors; the battery doesn't hold nearly as much of a charge as it used to and the firmware is janky.
Since my birthday's coming up I'm thinking of splurging and buying myself a #Kobo Elipsa 2E device. Does anybody following me use #Kobo hardware? Are you happy with it?

2023-08-25 15:51:27

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@npub1kdq…yrjv @npub127n…yf0u Well, damn. Should I work on this or play Armored Core? LOL
Seriously, though, thanks for posting these.

2023-08-24 22:45:58

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@npub10ee…6keq Wouldn't it make more sense to do a media query against pointer and assume (as a general rule) that mobile devices use a "coarse" pointer and laptops and desktops use a "fine" pointer?
developer.mozilla.org/en-US/do…

2023-08-24 14:51:29

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@npub10ee…6keq Somebody at my day job was asking about this and AccessiBe. They thought these overlays were accessibility testing tools, and I had to set them straight before pointing them to your posts.

2023-08-20 14:26:20

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@npub18g7…6mt2 Are you sure this person is actually a friend?

2023-08-19 04:48:30

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@npub1kdq…yrjv Well, Rob Liefeld never learned to draw feet.

2023-08-17 17:14:32

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@npub10ee…6keq @npub1lsc…08jp I'm just making popcorn while I wait for the Star Wars fans to notice that I implied it was fantasy and not science fiction. 😈

2023-08-17 17:05:00

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@npub10ee…6keq @npub1lsc…08jp It's just Californians being Californian. I'm just grateful they didn't decide to use fantasy villains.
macOS Morgoth
macOS Darken Rahl
macOS Thoth Amon
macOS Shai'tan
macOS Theleb K'aarna
macOS Golbez
macOS Palpatine

2023-08-17 16:52:16

#WritingWonders 8/17
MC POV: What's a deal-breaker in a friendship and/or relationship?
According to Morgan Cooper:
I'm not sure I actually have dealbreakers, and that's probably not healthy. My therapist has warned me that my reluctance to discard friends could cost me dearly.For example, Eddie Cohen has a tendency toward casual misogyny. He generally knows better than to air such opinions around me, however, because I won't tolerate it. I keep him around because he's always had my back, and if you need a good sharpshooter he's your man. Just don't ask him what he thinks of monotheists after his third drink. He's got some truly vile opinions formed by wartime experience.
Then there's my girlfriend Christabel. She offers no pretense that her love is anything but conditional, and makes it clear that she only keeps me around because Crowley's Thoth wouldn't be the same without me on guitar, bass, and backing vocals. Then again, she only keeps Naomi around because the band wouldn't be the same without her on lead vocals and keyboards. She doesn't particularly like either of us, and has even gone so far as to tell me that I was nothing but a machine pretending to be a man.
I should have dumped her for that, but she was drunk when she said it, dumping her would have broken up the band, and -- worst of all -- she's right. I just don't see why she has a problem with that, because being human seems to me an exercise in pretending to be more or better than what you really are. I pretend I'm not merely a weapon. You pretend you're not merely a chimpanzee's mostly hairless distant cousin.
Some of this might find its way into my #WIP, Spiral Architect
#amwriting #amwritingscifi #scifi #fantasy #WritingCommunity

2023-08-15 13:36:40

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@npub1a2l…s0vx @npub1xnz…fy8p At least we don't have pumpkin spice condoms yet.

2023-08-15 11:29:53

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@npub18zl…c5tu No, I don’t. The first time I published with Curiosity Quills Press (run by Eugene Teplitsky and Alisa Gus) felt like magic. The second time, not so much. They had started cutting corners around 2016, and had pretty much shut down and ghosted every author they had under contract in 2019 because they had decided to dick around with cryptocurrency and blockchain bullshit instead. I’m a bit sour on commercial publishing now. I’d rather just put fiction up on my website.

2023-08-15 11:25:27

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@npub1a2l…s0vx Mid-September? Isn’t that when they start in on the Xmas shit.

2023-08-15 03:06:53

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@npub10ee…6keq If somebody sends me a link to a video I just say “transcript or GTFO”. I can read faster than these people can talk.

2023-08-14 19:55:24

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@npub10ee…6keq Could the change in taste be psychological? As in you don't expect it to taste like the usual oolong tea because you're drinking it out of a different vessel?

2023-08-09 19:09:19

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@npub16j8…eu5e Not a story, but a song. "Into The Black Hole" by Ayreon (feat. Bruce Dickinson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Rdj6Me2dE

2023-08-03 16:49:52

Gonna join in on #thursdayfivelist. Blame @npub1a2l…s0vx. Current theme according to @neurothing is #TheSky.
"No Voices in the Sky" by Motörhead
"Watcher in the Sky" by Ghost
"The Hellion"/"Electric Eye" by Judas Priest
"Watcher in the Sky" by Gamma Ray
"Into the Void" by Black Sabbath
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqopDZaAJJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mGr5bMItQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGtwgYt_QnA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to6Gj5j4uWo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSSEzWXqGKY[/ul]

2023-08-01 13:54:08

I'm going to be late with this month's #WritingWonders, but since I'm not getting paid I'm not going to stress over it.
(I don't expect or want to get paid for this, but reminding myself that this isn't a side hustle helps me not stress out over it.)

2023-07-31 14:53:59

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@npub1kdq…yrjv That looks like a good cat.

2023-07-29 13:30:01

#WritingWonders 7/29: Antagonist POV: How do you feel about what you do?
according to Isaac Magnin:
Being the dark lord who secretly rules the world and has remade human civilization to bring it to a technological level suitable for the creation of artificial bearers for the Starbreaker is dirty, thankless work, but somebody has to do it. Otherwise, my species would have been obliterated by the ensof Sabaoth, and yours would be nothing but slaves endlessly praying to an imposter who uses your own belief systems against you.And it's not like the job lacks perquisites. Regency era rakehells recognized me as their patron saint alongside Beau Brummell, and dear old Prinny took the blame for the worst of my libertinism. I have more money than any man could reasonably spend in ten thousand years despite scrupulously paying every tax demanded of me. I have always paid my taxes on time and in full even though I can afford to exploit every available loophole in every tax code to which I and my operations are subject.
This is not virtue on my part, incidentally. When your country's leaders know that I am their top taxpayer, and that I can renounce my citizenship, close down operations in your country, and withdraw all participation in your country's economy at a whim it makes your leadership rather more amenable to my interests than you might prefer.
Nevertheless, it was great fun to walk into the Oval Office, show a newly elected President footage of what really happened to one of his predecessors, and remind him of who foots the bill for the North American Commonwealth's imperialism. And, yes, I did pay Oswald to assassinate Kennedy. It seemed only fair after Kennedy arranged to have Marilyn Monroe assassinated and to make it look like an accidental suicide by overdose. The things one does for love, though I must admit I liked her better as a brunette named Norma Jean...
All prompts for this month are collected on my website at <starbreaker.org/blog/writing-w…>.
prompts by @npub127n…yf0u @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv
https://libranet.de/photo/101491731364a0c1e71fa99152667662-0.jpg

2023-07-24 17:54:19

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@npub10ee…6keq That's no platform. It's the internet equivalent of a wall in the worst toilet in Scotland.

2023-07-19 21:20:59

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@npub1r5f…39wa Thanks, but Morgan did it to himself as he'll freely admit. He knew what he was getting himself into. He wanted to be a star, and Isaac Magnin promised to make it happen if he'd become an Adversary and do the Phoenix Society's dirty work. That's how the Society recruits a lot of people; put on the uniform and we'll finance your dreams.
That sort of thing happens in the real world, too. Poor/middle-class Americans often join the military because of G.I. Bill. It's called "economic conscription".

2023-07-19 12:40:01

#WritingWonders 7/19: Does your MC support the status quo in their world?
Only with reluctance. Morgan Cooper knows that the Phoenix Society is corrupt and that it doesn't live up to its stated ideals. He knows that a slave trade based on the involuntary transportation of political and economic criminals has fueled humanity's expansion beyond Earth.
Yet under its rule prosperity on Earth is more widely distributed, poverty is all but non-existent, and people are free to make what they will of their lives. They work far fewer hours while earning far more in exchange for their work. Outside the Society tyranny, corruption, and exploitation are swiftly and mercilessly punished, thus curbing the excesses of the pre-Nationfall neoliberal capitalist world order. Likewise, with the existence of people who aren't homo sapiens having become general knowledge, in-species bigotry is not nearly as prevalent as it once was. Merely starting a war is considered a war crime, and any government that attempts to maintain a standing military is immediately overthrown and replaced. And while monotheists of all denominations have become a small, frequently despised, and occasionally persecuted minority sectarian violence has also fallen dramatically.
Morgan also knows that if he were to expose the truth and bring the system crashing down, he'd be responsible for the destabilization of billions of lives as factions vie for the chance to fill the ensuing power vacuum, and there's no guarantee that by overthrowing the existing tyranny he's not helping to set the stage for something far worse. Nevertheless, he still feels that he ought to speak up. The people have a right to know and to decide for themselves.
All prompts for this month are collected on my website at <starbreaker.org/blog/writing-w…>.
prompts by @npub127n…yf0u @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv
https://libranet.de/photo/101491731364a0c1e71fa99152667662-0.jpg

2023-07-18 12:45:01

#WritingWonders 7/18: Do you have a muse in any sense of the word?
How many times to I have to mention my wife Catherine before you get the hint?
Here's a stylized image of the two of us from 2007.
All prompts for this month are collected on my website at <starbreaker.org/blog/writing-w…>.
prompts by @npub127n…yf0u @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv
https://libranet.de/photo/101491731364a0c1e71fa99152667662-0.jpg
https://starbreaker.org/media/matthew-catherine-stylized.webp

2023-07-14 20:56:13

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@npub1a2l…s0vx I remember Night of the Living Dead as the one horror movie where the black dude doesn't die first. Unfortunately, he goes through all of that shit only to get mistaken for a zombie himself and shot by some cracker sherriff. Poor bastard got fucked over hard.

2023-07-13 17:21:48

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@npub1wjd…y28h Why are so many writers so susceptile to this sort of woo? @npub1w2p…k6zx

2023-07-11 21:37:21

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@npub127n…yf0u I recall a bit in Stephen King's Danse Macabre where he discusses talent, saying that some people get a dinky little pocket knife while others get a machete, but they all need to be sharpened. I might only have a scalpel-sized blade, but I'm sharpening it until it can slice atoms.

2023-07-11 12:00:01

#WritingWonders 7/11: What about your writing would you like to improve?
Um, everything? It's not like I had any particular aptitude for writing. If I'm at all skilled a writer, it's because I worked at it. This is craft you're seeing, not talent.
All prompts for this month are collected on my website at <starbreaker.org/blog/writing-w…>.
prompts by @npub127n…yf0u @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv
https://libranet.de/photo/101491731364a0c1e71fa99152667662-0.jpg

2023-07-07 17:26:06

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@npub1r5f…39wa Worth a shot, if I ever finish the damned thing... @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv @npub127n…yf0u

2023-07-05 15:57:12

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@npub1a2l…s0vx Why in Baal's holy name is your company's IT department even allowing external email from non-client domains to reach employee inboxes?
I honestly hate it when shit like this happens, and it even happens when some dumbshit sends some innocuous but absofuckinlutely irrelevant email to a company-wide distribution list. There's no way to unsubscribe from these idiotic lists, and the company' IT department can never be bothered to rig these lists so that mail to them gets tagged with a "reply-to" header that goes directly to the moron sending email to the list.
And I find myself wanting to hit every motherfucker who hits "reply-all" upside the head and ask them, "Isn't email useless enough already without your help?"

2023-07-01 20:42:43

I thought I'd answer this month's questions in one place, and make them accessible outside of parasocial media.
Writing Wonders: July 2023 | starbreaker.org

2023-06-27 21:28:27

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@npub19qs…44zq This is a good size for a prompt card, and thanks for putting out the prompts a few days early.

2023-06-23 15:04:10

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@npub1hlf…qyuw @npub1ahw…gd0g @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv @npub127n…yf0u Part of that is my own conditioning; I grew up hearing that if you bring any sort of weapon to a fistfight to even the odds, you're a pussy. Never mind a gun; even if a kid fought several kids off by throwing rocks at them, he was still a pussy despite being outnumbered. Apparently he should have taken his beating "like a man".
However, if you discard the machismo demanding that the weaker participant not look for ways to even the odds, I think there's a certain wisdom in making it harder to dehumanize your opponent by attacking them at a distance.

2023-06-23 12:55:02

#WritingWonders 6/23: Would your MC/hero stand out in our world?
Probably, if only because he'd probably gain a reputation as a session musician pretty quickly and end up in a band again. Also, because he might decide that it's time somebody declared open season on fascists with no bag limit because who's going to stop him? The only reason he doesn't dodge bullets is that he has an aversion to collateral damage. He tends to bring swords to gunfights for similar reasons; he thinks violence should be personal, not remote. "Einherjar" supposedly means "army of one" or "one who fights alone" in Old Norse, and Morgan can live up to either definition if he ever decides to stop pussyfooting and go all-out.
All prompts for this month are collected on my website at <starbreaker.org/blog/writing-w…>.
prompts by @npub127n…yf0u @npub19qs…44zq @npub1kdq…yrjv
https://libranet.de/photo/1353319287647a6519d180e820628213-0.jpg

2023-06-16 14:24:55

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@npub13dl…xuyc The fiction page on my website lists a whole bunch of unfinished works. I kept going by starting a different story from a different angle, because disk space is dirt cheap.

2023-06-13 13:29:29

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@npub1kdq…yrjv If you pet them enough they'll get down. Annoy them with love.

2023-06-09 13:19:09

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@npub18zl…c5tu It’s a self-inflicted problem, though.

2023-06-08 21:31:54

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@npub1a2l…s0vx Oh, so Big Gay Satan has a new boyfriend? I wonder how Saddam Hussein and Fred Phelps feel about that.

2023-06-08 17:08:32

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@npub18zl…c5tu You mean aside from #autism and being a #workingclass schmuck who picked the wrong day job? /s

2023-06-05 15:28:18

I’ve always wanted a few dozen of these #spiderplants scattered throughout the house. Now I’ve got one.
https://libranet.de/photo/1998892986647dfea18aa88147959651-0.jpg

2023-06-02 18:40:25

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@npub18zl…c5tu Here's another one, courtesy of C. J. Cherryh: never follow a rule off a cliff.

2023-06-02 15:45:33

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@npub18zl…c5tu Mine is, "Don't quit your day job."

2023-05-31 13:41:03

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@npub18zl…c5tu I tend to favor a bare stage; unlike with Tolkien and his imitators my setting isn't a character in its own right, and I tend to only write about the setting when it's relevant to characterization or plot.
I don't know if you've read M. John Harrison (The Pastel City, Light, Climbers), but he once posted the following opinion on worldbuilding that resonates with me:
Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over worldbuilding.Worldbuilding is dull. Worldbuilding literalises the urge to invent. Worldbuilding gives an unneccessary permission for acts of writing (indeed, for acts of reading). Worldbuilding numbs the reader’s ability to fulfil their part of the bargain, because it believes that it has to do everything around here if anything is going to get done.
Above all, worldbuilding is not technically neccessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn’t there. A good writer would never try to do that, even with a place that is there. It isn’t possible, & if it was the results wouldn’t be readable: they would constitute not a book but the biggest library ever built, a hallowed place of dedication & lifelong study. This gives us a clue to the psychological type of the worldbuilder & the worldbuilder’s victim, & makes us very afraid.
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2023-05-26 13:22:31

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@npub18zl…c5tu I don't sneak. This is my house and I'm the one paying the mortgage, so I'll damn well assert myself and say, "You're great company, but I need some time to myself," and then take some time for piano practice and writing. Or I'll go to the gym if it's a lifting day.