JT Smithling

Third anniversary for me participating in WB Autumn Short Story Battle! One week to write a 2K short story, then a month to judge other stories. Join up! @writingbattle.bsky.social #WritingCommunity #writersofbluesky
www.writingbattle.com/join-battle

With Finnish names, a simple trick makes English speakers sound almost native: if the name has double consonant, put micro-pause between them, voice both consonants. Mik-ko, San-na, Os-si, Jan-ne...

think why that is, before I was able to give a useful answer to "how do you pronounce your name?". Because the better question is "how do *I*, a person who rarely even hears your language, pronounce your name?"

Just repeating the name often does not help, because human brain simply does *not hear* the relevant nuances of phonetics in a very different language. I had to listen where exactly English-speakers get it wrong, and

I've noticed (in academic and scholarly publishing policy & tech events) a marked increase in how often I'm asked. It's nice.

But figuring out how to answer that when English is not my native language took time!

Ha, scrolling down I read only the headline and immediately thought, hey I need to tag @eleanorlennox.bsky.social on this, she'd really like it! Then checked who posted it... 😄

Dancing Shadow Amorphis · Dancing Shadow · Song · 2025

At first I was surprised how light pop this new Amorphis song is. Without Tomi Joutsen's dark growling from the shadows, this could be a... dance tune?

Then I noticed the song's name. My bad. Is #metal. Well done. Carry on. 🤘💃🤘

open.spotify.com/track/76vjqp...

It also why I am not a fan of David Lynch's work [unpopular opinion, I know]: I am not convinced there is anything we're meant to understand, any epiphany he wanted to convey, any intended emotion, underneath the surrealist surface. There's no there, there.

This. Before getting invested in a TV-series I go find plot synopsis online to make sure the writers have indeed wrapped up the mystery (I don't believe spoilers spoil anything). And if it's in n-th season without resolution, I bail out immediately.

Never again will I submit to shit like Lost.

In Finnish, we may reply to a how are you with: "Nothing but standard misery".

It means everything is OK.

Mixed?

On one hand, usage of those tools is (for now) priced low enough for almost everyone to be able to afford to do stuff with them on their own.

But ability to build a LLM is absolutely in the hands of few uber-capitalists, so true ownership of "means of labor" is no different from 1800's.

The arrogance and (sinful) pride of evangelical missionary groups on display once again. Leave remote peoples alone.

Get to this roadside cafe near my home village. I mean, Finns don't talk unless under extreme duress, but the crowd there is *really* silent. (it's a somewhat spooky art installation of a large field full of scarecrows in donated clothes)

earth.app.goo.gl?apn=com.goog...

This was fun - helping @michaelboulerice.bsky.social global guerilla-campaign for his upcoming book. No, I have not read the book, but expecting it to be riveting, based on this wonderfully weird fever-dream dark western horror short story I have read: www.houseofgamut.com/magazine/in-...

YouTube video by Reigning Phoenix Music THE ETERNAL - When The Fire Dies (Official Music Video)

Jan Rechberger's drumming in Amorphis is mesmerizing, very happy to find he's also in another band, and credited as composer.
Dark, melodic, melancholic, progressive, doom metal. If that doesn't make you happy, something's wrong with you! Heal! Listen to The Eternal!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjmq...

I know you joke, but "patriotic rocks" actually on sale was literally one google search away. Screenshot from Etsy. Low on stock, only 3 left.

Dune: Awakening (Original Video Game Soundtrack) Knut Avenstroup Haugen · Album · 2025 · 26 songs

To spice (heh) up my music posts usually linking to metal with something different: the soundtrack to the new Dune-game is magnificent!
open.spotify.com/album/7ywGD6...

This guy consistently posts songs with incredible lyrics mere hours after events unfurl. This was a good one.

Well, because food and shelter depends on that writing, in that sense it's professional. Not necessarily good, but always desperate.

Happy World Goth Day! 🦇🦇🦇

Old joke, but more true than we'd care to admit:

Scientist write professionally in two genres:
1) non-fiction
2) grant applications

At age 10, I read the fantasy tome named "Old Testament". All of it. Probably had a personality impact, as at that point I thought (and the fundamentalist adults around me claimed) that it's not fiction. Imagine reading LOTR or Earthsea series, or indeed Hitchhiker's Guide, and thinking it's real.

YouTube video by Scarlet Records DEATHLESS LEGACY - Sanctified (Official Video)

More Italian blissful #metal! Again, a band that has been around a while, but I just found them: Deathless Legacy!

Very dark - and theatrical - aesthetics in videos. Which is good, but this is not just a shock act: new album is all good music: open.spotify.com/album/6WxQ67...

youtu.be/DS0CfBY2GZE

Is metal. (though new single Damocles takes until half-way mark to show that.)

Metal is an aesthetic. In music, or in lyrics. So, though nobody will agree with me, I say Smith & Thell have some metal songs. Like Nagilima: song about a suicide pact, and references The Brothers Lionheart book.

YouTube video by Rachel Hardy Gollum's Song - The Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers) | Cover by Rachel Hardy

I want to see Rachel Hardy cast in big-budget films. Incredible expressive power and storytelling in just the subtle changes in gaze - and never once does she look at the camera! Imagine what this woman could bring to cinema, say, in a noir movie?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=we4L...

Jack of All Faces - Small Wonders She told the press all about her narrow vanquishment of the dread magician John Coe and his apprentice Ruby.

My story “Jack of All Faces” is out now in @smallwondersmag.com and YOU can read it!! Hit that link for the most sentence you will read today:

Jack of All Faces has that sublime quality of good flash fiction - the feeling that I just got a glimpse of a vastly bigger story; not a hypothetical story that could be, but a story that's actually there, before and after and under and above the words on the page. Very good!

Sir Terry Pratchett and his daughter, Rhianna, at the launch of Dodger.

Happy birthday, Dad. Time to come back now, it’s all gone a bit rubbish without you. ❤️❤️❤️

This is incredible.💗🏳️‍⚧️ Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins spent the whole week digging through Sir Terry Pratchett's archives to find an incredibly rare signed first edition of Monstrous Regiment for the Genre for Trans Rights charity auction. bit.ly/genrefortrans. It's already over £1000!