Patrick Regan

Which feels very relevant today, as we look upon a cruel and callous administration that, at the same time, seems to be full of self-pitying losers who talk about how they're the victim all the freaking time.

One of @stephenking.bsky.social's greatest insights is that almost all of his human villains are, at their core, kind of self-pitying losers.

Whenever you get a look into their thoughts, it's always a stream of grievances at the world that justify their actions.

AI is a Microwave “You know, AI is exactly like the Microwave oven”. My Mom said that at a recent family gathering, where my brother, my wife, and I were discussing whether AI was disrupting or helping o…

I'm genuinely not worried about AI replacing screenwriters or actors. Nor am I worried about it destroying the world.

My mom called it perfectly: AI isn't magic; it isn't the end. It's just like the Microwave.

So I ran with the metaphor.

patrickreganwriter.wordpress.com/2025/08/06/a...

And yes, I did have AI make me the microwave computer graphic with the weird-looking pasta/veggie burrito, both because it helped make my point and because it deeply amused me.

Dumb jokes being one of the best use-cases for AI, as my text chain of VHS boxes of fake Ernest movies will prove.

An addendum that I didn't have room for in my article: I do believe that the most disruptive promises of AI will not come to pass. That is, it's not going to put all white collar workers and writers out of a job.

But it is making for a nasty 2-3 years until things settle down.

AI is a Microwave “You know, AI is exactly like the Microwave oven”. My Mom said that at a recent family gathering, where my brother, my wife, and I were discussing whether AI was disrupting or helping o…

I'm genuinely not worried about AI replacing screenwriters or actors. Nor am I worried about it destroying the world.

My mom called it perfectly: AI isn't magic; it isn't the end. It's just like the Microwave.

So I ran with the metaphor.

patrickreganwriter.wordpress.com/2025/08/06/a...

AI and Work (Some Predictions) - Cal Newport One of the main topics of this newsletter is the quest to cultivate sustainable and meaningful work in a digital age. Given this objective, it’s ... Read more

When not writing great books about focus, productivity, and digital distraction, Cal Newport is also a computer scientist. He recently put up a post about AI, the likelihood of long-term disruption, and AGI.

Follow what's happening, not what people say WILL happen.

calnewport.com/ai-and-work-...

Underwoodfive's ★★★★★ review of Andor When all is said and done? One of the greatest sci-fi TV shows, one of the most interesting pieces of Star Wars fiction, and easily the most interesting thing Star Wars has done in almost a decade.…

Genuinely, Andor is one of the greatest TV shows I've ever seen, and one of the best works of Science-Fiction I've ever seen. This isn't a full review of everything - that would be a series of articles. But it is what I loved most about the show.

www.serializd.com/review/33608...

A ★★★ review of Azrael (2024) A delightful, if light-weight, little horror movie. It makes the most out of its gimmick, anchored by a powerhouse performance by Samara Weaving. Who, incidentally, is looking more and more like her…

For the horror fans out there, my wife and I recently watched Azrael, an indie horror darling starring Samara Weaving with almost no dialogue.

letterboxd.com/underwoodfiv...

Patrick Regan's review of Piranesi 4/5: What a delightful short novel. My only experience with Susanna Clarke was in the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel - which I quite enjoyed - so it was fun to approach this one…

I read Piranesi and quite enjoyed it. Have you read anything lately? Fiction or otherwise.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Review – Hobonichi Techo Planner. AKA: The Greatest Notebook I’ve ever Owned My brother James and I both have ADHD, and we’ve spent a lot of our lives looking for systems to help us manage it. Every ADHD person’s system has to, by definition, be unique to them. One of the f…

I just started Roland Allen's History of the Notebook, and they mentioned by beloved Hobonichi Techo in it! What makes it great?

Read on and find out!

patrickreganwriter.wordpress.com/2025/03/13/r...

Flash Fiction – “Sleepwalkers” My family have always been sleepwalkers. When my grandfather was still alive, he would sit my daughter down on the rug by the fire and light up his father’s pipe. Carved from the bones of pre…

It can't all be focus and fear. Take a moment to sleepwalk in the night and enjoy a little flash fiction from the dark side:

patrickreganwriter.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/1...

An idea that I've had rolling around in my head for a while. It's easy to feel like you have to pay attention to everything. But right now what the world it needs is for you to pay attention

When everything feels impossibly urgent, paralysis follows. I've discovered that choosing where you can give your focus isn't privilege—it's resistance against those who profit from your distraction.

Don't give them what they want.

patrickreganwriter.wordpress.com?p=154856090 #AttentionEconomy

White House walks back Trump's big Hollywood tariff announcement Trump said his administration would "immediately' begin 'implementing' a tariff on foreign films, but the White House said a decision isn't final.

Translation: The boss did something very stupid, so we're saying "We're looking into it" and hope he just forgets about it in a couple of days.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Also, he's not wrong. I believe James Gunn admitted that he wished he hadn't set up Adam Warlock in Guardians 2. Created a huge headache for making him work in Guardians 3.

Watch the Speed Racer episode right now on Nebula https://nebula.tv/videos/patrickhwillems-the-most-important-movie-of-the-21st-centuryGet 40% off of a full ... Post-Credits Scenes Aren’t Fun Anymore

I will always share work from @patrickhwellems - one of the sharpest cultural critics working today. Still finding a way to make a business model out of long-form, thoughtful content!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3y8...

My Grandfather Brought a Mysterious Sword Home from WWII Japan. Eighty Years Later, I Returned It. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by a traditional katana my grandfather had brought home from Japan in 1945. Years later, I decided it was time to find the heirloom’s rightful owner.

www.outsideonline.com/culture/essa...

The Dice — 035 America Needs You paired with solid lessons from Ikigai, Stoicism, Antifragility, Buddhism, and Ubuntu.

In these chaotic times - daily economic turmoil daily, rule of law in question - losing focus doesn't help you fight for a better day. As an ADHDer who's been practicing for this, I found G Storey's wisdom helpful: brilliantcrank.com/the-dice-035...

Dealing with Authors Who are Jerks, Bastards, or Downright Evil in Real Life (I originally wrote this entry in August 2024. I used "problematic" in the title in an attempt to cover a broad category of writers whose ...

Few writers had a bigger impact on a young Patrick than Neil Gaiman. Learning who he really was has been difficult. @timwaggoner post on the topic helped crystallize my thinking on it. These situations suck, and no reaction will change that.

writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2024/08/deal...

This Is A Tool – Rhoneisms Rhoneisms

When I'm home, it lives on my desk. When I'm out, it stays in my bag. Unless I'm using it, I introduce a little friction between my phone and myself. Patrick Rhone's "This is a Tool" article articulates perfectly why I've been doing this for the past two years.

www.patrickrhone.net/this-is-a-to...

Nothing in the whole of creative world makes me struggle with resistance more than starting. Once I get going, I’m functionally unstoppable, but that initial inertia? Man.

In other, related news, I started a new spec script. Think Silent Hill 2 meets As Above, So Below in a dead mall.

Sometimes I feel like a lot of writers are clearing their throats whenever they promote their work here. Like they need to justify doing it. Let me (and Mr. Wendig) reassure you: You do not need to justify yourself on that. You are worth promoting as well.

Please Promote Your Work In The Face Of Uninvited Nightmare I’ve seen people say they don’t want to share their books, their art, their work right now because it seems trivial in the shadows of these dark times, and I thought, I should talk abou…

Leave it to the great @chuckwendig, writer of the Penmonkey’s Paean, to give us the encouragement we need to keep telling stories in hard times. Hard times needs stories most of all, so we remember to keep fighting for the day to come:

terribleminds.com/ramble/2025/...

It's funny, I USED to have that super power, but I lost it at some point. I'm not quite sure why, but I theorize that my life was so chaotic for a period of time I kind of need a little more stability to get it in.

On a mobile app? Damn, I genuinely impressed. I cannot function without an actual keyboard.

Random question for the Writers who follow me - what are your actual writing schedules like?

That is - do you do a little hear and there throughout the day? Do you work regularly a few hours every day? Do you select days where you're doing nothing but churning out pages?

I'm curious.

This looks like how Aerith and Tifa would dress in a "The World Ends With You" Crossover cameo in the background.

This is meant as the highest possible compliment, btw, as their outfits totally capture their characters.

The way I see it, the day I stop learning new things, stop trying to improve my craft, is the day I'm dead.

What's the point of doing something you're already perfect at, after all?

Looks good! I think you could cut a few things just for purposes of tightening it up. Specifically, I don't think you need to mention the orphan's age, nor do you think you need to mention that the relatives are in Missouri. Neither matter much to get the user to read pg. 1, which is the main goal.