Chris Ford

idk about anybody else but i will, AND HAVE, quit jobs that clash with my morals.

A screenshot reading: "1. Em dashes feel slightly *anarchic* People have a pretty good sense of the function of the various punctuation marks. The comma gives a short rest, while the semicolon joins two related ideas. The colon often introduces a list. But the em dash? It’s weirdly all-fungible. It can be used in place of all of those punctuation marks I noted above, as the Punctuation Guide notes: “The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons — in each case to slightly different effect.” So it’s a shapeshifter, which makes it hard to pin down. Yet that also makes it exciting for me — because it suggests you can bust out an em dash, for, like, no reason at all except that you feel like it. As Ben Yagoda notes, “It’s the mark that — unlike commas, periods, semicolons and all the others — doesn’t seem to be subject to any rules.” Or as Kate Mooney of the New York Times puts it… […] the em dash is emphatic, agile and still largely undefined. Sometimes it indicates an afterthought. Other times, it’s a fist pump. You might call it the bad boy, or cool girl, of punctuation. A freewheeling scofflaw. A rebel without a clause."

Since "an abundance of em dashes" has become a tell for AI-generated writing ...

... I'm gonna re-up my essay: "In Defense of the Em Dash"

gift link: medium.com/medium-handb...

Just because AI over-uses 'em doesn't mean *we shouldn't too!*

it is a noble piece of punctuation

reason #1 (of 6)...

Our democracy is not a brand. Our country is not a retail store. At 18F, our inspiration was (and is) the American people.

IRS asks for public input on free tax filing options to inform congressional report | Internal Revenue Service IR-2025-85, Aug. 21, 2025 — The IRS invites the public to participate in an anonymous feedback survey on tax preparation and filing options, which will run through Sept. 5, 2025.

"it would probably cost the government $10-20 per return are you sure you want a free filling option? 🥺"

Yes dummy that's what my taxes ARE FOR.

Go take the survey folks and watch out for the leading questions.
www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs...

- Allison Russell
- Bright Eyes
- Janelle Monáe
- Brass Against
- Margo Price

hate how when ppl get older they lose their sense of child like fun.

Idc if im 56, im still watching cartoons and running around outside

Peduncles is a truly excellent word...

People posting about how they’ve never seen em dashes used before the rise of ChatGPT are really great at telling folks they’ve never read a book before.

An image with four panels of a man on a bus who says to Zohran, “How do you navigate making it free and also not being seen as a socialist?” “Well, I’m not really worried about that part.”

Choosing a meeting transcription tool right now and TBH the fact that only one of them doesn't consistently misgender me is why I've decided to give it my money...

Followed by "Can I try?" 🤣

A gang of youths doing wheelies on an ATV is the new 30-50 feral hogs...

"Youths doing wheelies in ATVs" sounds like the chorus of a bad pop-country song about drinking bad beer in a truck down by the river so I'm surprised he wasn't excited about it...

This website is for humans - localghost I don’t want Google’s shitty AI-generated ramen

This website is for humans. “I write the content on this website for people, not robots. I’m sharing my opinions and experiences so that you might identify with them and learn from them.” [localghost.dev]

hear me out here, what if none of it is a 'distraction' and they're just doing a lot of horrible shit simultaneously

I was prescribed Gabapentin as an off-label mood stabilizer that has the added benefit of helping w/ night sweats. There are mixed experiences with effecacy/side effects, but I can tell if I skip a dose bc I will wake up absolutely drenched Also got some cooling sheets (I peronally ❤️PeachSkin).

It's an exhilarating place to be in life when you realize, "You know what? I'm done with this." Whatever (or whoever) "this" is, and whether or not you know what comes next, making the agreement with yourself that "this" is no longer sufficient is magical.

Trying to learn the Dewey Decimal system in 5 minutes 😆

We view hoarding as a mental disorder except in the one very specific case of money, and it’s killing the planet

Watching your mom die while you're watching the world burn is a special kind of fucked up...

You ever just think about how much it sucks that Musk bought Twitter and absolutely destroyed it? Like man, that used to be where I'd meet new people, make real life friends, etc. Now, whenever I glance over there to check something, it's just unrecognizable.

In the "slowly and then all at once" spectrum, this feels closer to the "all at once" side.

"Ya-hooooooooo!"

Well, everything. The death of art. [Laughs.] A thing that I’ve been struck by in the last year of tech development around art is that what makes us human is making art, even if you’re not a professional artist. This is kind of corny, but I think about cavemen, right? One of the first things we ever did as a species was put our handprints on a wall, and it’s just this drive that has always been there. It’ll always be there. And I think it’s preposterous that these people are suggesting that they develop this technology, and the first thing they want to eliminate is art, so you have more time to…what, email? I don’t know what they think I’m going to do with my fucking day. Most of the population is not artists, but a lot of the population has artistic hobbies, and if you replace that with a computer doing it for you or whatever, it’s just pointless. I think there’s a death drive in these people, almost, and an actual hatred of artists; they are jealous of people with imagination because they don’t have one, and they almost consciously want to eliminate it.

My wife is in Vogue shitting on your AI-generated "art" 💜 www.vogue.com/article/matt...

It’s truly shocking how tech in general and AI in specific removes friction from the creative process, without understanding that friction IS the creative process.

Enjoy your quick, meaningless, derivative, planet-killing, plagiarized slop, kids.

This is my new favorite AI response 😍

man if i was still teaching i would assign this. about as clear and accessible a narrative of american censorship as you'll ever find

I’m tired of all the stupid people being in charge.

Oh noes!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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