Ben T. (Lucky #210,713)

Where is that button? I've needed to use it for a while but can't find it

Recall news footage of people weathering their own active hurricane collecting money for Katrina relief 🥲

In Ohio we had the occasional tornado. Never hit my area, thankfully, but it’s wild how storms can almost be like “F you in particular”

Also gonna see the effects of those NOAA and NWS cuts 😬

eBook Page Lengths How many pages should I write? - Find out here.

"Couldn't get past the first few hundred pages" is a pretty generous effort. The average Kindle book is ~300 pages, depending on genre k-lytics.com/ebook-page-l...

Makes me think of reviews for games "19 hours in it gets white hot" or TV "give it half a season"

What Is LitRPG for Writers (and How Do I Get Started Writing It)? Bestselling LitRPG author Matt Dinniman answers what LitRPG is (for those who don't know) and shares five tips on getting started in this style (not genre) of writing.

@michaeljpatrick.bsky.social yeah, that's the one I see cited most. 7 books, must be doing something right?

@mattsheridan.bsky.social Saw DCC author Matt Dinniman say it was a style not a genre www.writersdigest.com/write-better... Kinda sounds like watching a Let's Play. Maybe for the RPG-curious?

Question for my RPG-loving friends (@mattsheridan.bsky.social, @michaeljpatrick.bsky.social, etc.):

What are your thoughts on LitRPG?

YouTube video by johnrichy2k6 PS3 vs Wii

I remember having a PS1 and mostly playing demo discs

When the PS2 was on sale it immediately became the cheapest DVD player while I was in college. Had the best library of games, especially for renting

Last console I bought was a Wii

youtu.be/QDsqBeq64XI?...

DVD cover, "Stephen King's The Langoliers" on top, below we see the windshield of a plane's cockpit with shadowed hands pressed up against the glass. This never remotely happens anywhere in the miniseries

@ironspike.bsky.social RE:The Langoliers

Don't know why I love this horrible miniseries so much but I absolutely do. It's like Left Behind with religion replaced by scifi technobabble. Dean Stockwell going off about the JFK assassination out of nowhere, Madballs for creatures…

And that DVD cover!🤣

Are we talking targeted intimidation like "you better stop saying this" or sizing up the drunk guy at a bar?

Situational awareness is important. Being a guy at my size I'm about average for physically imposing. Zero hesitation to go crazy as needed. Not dumb enough to start but I am getting away

Photo from Back to the Future II of Biff Tannen’s Pleasure Paradise Casino neon sign with an image of Biff lighting his cigar with a wad of burning money in front of lit up building towers

Reminder we’re not even done with his first year yet

He’s already announced plans to build an arc while the government is shut down and demolished the East Wing without congressional approval

Things will look significantly different when he’s gone

The industry has really warped perceptions of what a bomb is. So-so, popular, or even successful productions don't have the results they should anymore

Didn't spawn a new franchise? Shutter the production house and no new installments for you!

Good reviews but financing a merger? Tax write-off!

Picturing you looking at your clock, the arms are dildos. The times all read variants of "dildos time" interspersed with reminders to hydrate, lubricate, sleep, etc.

Turned the fan off in my office for only like the 2nd or 3rd time this year and now it's upsettingly quiet

The kind of quiet where anyone with pets or kids gets suspicious

Watched Tron: Uprising on a whim and would legit recommend. Worried it'd be tie-in dreck but: has its own story that works well as a miniseries, new characters earn the focus, and guest stars aren't glorified cameos

Art is very stylized but feels intentional instead of cost-cutting

@ironspike.bsky.social Snuffy Smith and Li'l Abner are both remnants of the weird hillbilly obsession in popular culture that ran into the 70s

Early Barney Google, like early Blondie, is an interesting time capsule for the height of newspaper strips that eventually devolved into zombie comics

Which software did you try out and how did you like it?

YouTube video by Google Japan Gboard ダイヤルバージョン / Gboard Dial Version

I don't know anything about Google Japan but based on their thumbnails they seem like a pretty entertaining group www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgdW...

a man wearing a medal is sitting on a subway train Alt: Animated GIF from the show How I Met Your Mother. Barney, after running a marathon without training and receiving a medal, sits on the subway. When it’s his stop, he tries to stand and falls to the floor, having to use a standing rail to pull himself up as his legs have stopped working

It’s a trend to be Barney in that one episode of How I Met Your Mother?

Let's say I wrote some scary story books for the spooky season 🎃…

Where should I put them?

Kindle Direct Publishing? Lulu? Itch? Gumroad?

Funnily enough the scenario he's terrified of (rewriting his books if he ever went back in time) becomes less scary through outlining

I'm not going to pretend I know better than a critically acclaimed author. Just that I accepted my head can't hold everything some time ago and I'm happier for it!

Says he got used to outlining for Hollywood but never liked it

I can relate to the frustration of being analytical with creative work. Problem is it can become less Trust the Process and more Trust Me Not to Fumble

Feeling like you have to keep everything in your head is a horrible mental strain

YouTube video by Aegon Targaryen George RR Martin on Why He Doesn't Write Outlines

Watched this clip of George R.R. Martin explaining why he doesn't write outlines www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF1P...

It's a really backwards view of how they're supposed to work. (Basically he's terrified of rewriting because he's worried it won't turn out as good)

YouTube video by rubbermuck Craig Ferguson Why everything sucks

Things to consider:

A) Our concept of childhood is a result of the Industrial Revolution. Before that, kids were basically little adults expected to work

B) What Craig Ferguson calls the "Deification of Youth" www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROJK...

C) Infantilization by Baby boomers to consolidate power

Alesis USB-mic Podcasting Kit. “The quickest, easiest way to create professional quality podcasts and get them heard” with a picture of the microphone and headphones in front of a screenshot of an Audacity project. The included mic and headset are resting in front of the box

I remember seeing the first boxed Podcasting Kits and thinking “yeah that’s a scam”

My take is it’s a microcosm

Bellwether of elections, frustrated with options for candidates, apathetic about voting and disappointed in the government system in general

We’re the most “mid” of the Midwest, which would negate us being an extreme

Given some areas I’d argue there’s a Florida of Ohio

My wife likes to joke Ohio is the Florida of the Midwest

Ron DeSantis has called Florida the Iowa of the Southeast due to the conservative agenda. (Why else would they get excited about a straw poll?) He’s said the same about Utah when campaigning there, which is pretty on brand

Midwestern United States - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Being from Ohio I always thought we were East Coast since we used EST and Midwest meant the area between us and the West Coast. I guess it makes sense to lump that area together. I’m more used to thinking in terms of border states like Michigan, Kentucky, etc.
simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest...

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Immigration Enforcement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Tracking conservative villain arc by how they misunderstand Star Wars:

In 2006 the NRCC made a "Darth Nancy" spoof video for the House Republican retreat

Sequels were "too political" and "woke"

Now they straight up side with Vader

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfTB...

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

Anybody else spend more time on YouTube scrolling through thumbnails than actually watching anything?

GUY YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE: Well, I've done everything you can do here so it's time to move on…

OTHER GUY YOU DON'T KNOW: Hey, I'm back.

a cartoon character with the words time makes fools of us all below him Alt: Animated GIF of Fry from Futurama saying, “Time makes fools of us all.”

I appreciate the increasingly rare moment where we’re still the young kids killing industries with our avocado toast instead of being middle-aged.

Even if it’s meant for the generation behind us who are probably adults with their own kids now.

Just sitting here wondering if @ironspike.bsky.social or @mattsheridan.bsky.social have seen the Ned and Ariel Fulmer podcast