Chris Neumann

22h

It's not like darkly/moody overcast, but it is relatively light-0diffusingly cloudy today, so maybe I'll walk early.

Did a search on Amazon for 4x6 unruled spiral bound. Barely 10% of the results actually fit those fucking perimeters.

I don't want ruled because I'm using the books SIDEWAYS, they need to be 4x6 because they need to fit in my pocket and 3x5 is fine but feels like I could do more with a bigger page size (and the ones I use now are of course discontinued)

Okay, new plan. Let's see if I can just get the paper at the right size and worry about binding it myself.

Did a search on Amazon for 4x6 unruled spiral bound. Barely 10% of the results actually fit those fucking perimeters.

So many are 5x7, which I would have ASKED FOR IT I WANTED. 4x6 is the biggest comfortable size for my pocket, which is what the fucking thing is for.

Some of these are fucking 8.5x11! Why the fuck would you show me that? Fuck these sponsored spots, give me what I fucking asked for.

Chris Neumann reposted

Ben Sears

@bensears.bsky.social

Now that this is out in the open, I can say that a certain book I did for a certain publisher affiliated with one of these people had generative expand used on my cover art without my permission, and it wasn’t removed before publication

Rodrigo Baeza@rodrigobaeza.bsky.social

Oh, shit. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Last bit of decent weather where I can sit outside and read so of course there's construction going on.

@hishamzerriffi.bsky.social

Barring some heat wave, I'd say my midnight outdoor writing activities are curbed until spring.

Chris Neumann reposted

Hisham Zerriffi

So much of what we take for granted in the world of computers is because of one or two people working on open source projects. As Surý notes companies benefit from this free labour. “I would like companies to realize that this is exploitation. Any exploitation is not sustainable.”

Charlie Warzel@cwarzel.bsky.social

70 percent of the internet was vulnerable yesterday to very bad security flaws inside a coding language. Turns out, *one volunteer* is mostly responsible for maintaining that code & helping push updates. Yesterday Ondřej Surý saved the internet. So I called him up www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

theatlantic.comThe Man Who Saved the Internet YesterdayOndřej Surý was a relatively anonymous volunteer working on PHP security. Then the internet exploded.

YT uploads like 10,000 hours of video a day. No other streaming company can hope to compete with those numbers. There's also no quality control, so not only does a lot of slop wind up there, a lot of weird esoteric stuff that no one would ever greenlight pops up and finds an audience.

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I'm sure I've also argued in the past that YT is part of modern day syndication, hosting official clips from movies and TV shows, as well as official hours-long supercuts. Easy to drop a few eyeball hours on that.

(one good reason you want more than 10 episodes a few years for a show, or a trilogy instead of a single movie, is it translates to more clips and more supercuts that you can syndicate and monetize)

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And I know maybe I'm an outlier (and I do spend a good amount of time making and fine-tuning playlists) but I feel like it's a good feature to have. The closest thing services have are profiles which isn't the same AND that they want to start charging more for.

I think YT also took over the "special features" of movies. Ex, after I watched Project Hail Mary, I watched Adam Savage's bts and set tour videos, then a bunch of animations and people talking about the book vs movie. Easily outweighs the eyeball time spent on the original movie.

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Custom playlists are the one thing I think other platforms should steal from Youtube. The more control you have over your viewing options, the more likely you are to watch them.

I can't tell you how often when I'm scrolling through the menus of services, I add something to my queue and then it's just this blob. On YT I have a specific box (or can create a new box) to put it with other similar things that I can more easily revisit later. That's not nothing.

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Netflix, Disney, Hulu, Prime give you one or two (movies, tv, and sometimes expiring). Going through them is tedious, and their menus are lousy. I think a reason Disney is forcing promos is cause their algorithms keep burying shit and users don't know what's new.

But a problem with YT is that it's so big and hard to maintain that competitors can't really jump in. That means creators are bound to arbitrary monetization and censorship rules, and are dependent on one outlet. Some made their own (Nebula, Dropoout) but that's not the same as a true competitor.

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Also the variety of content is absurd, from hours-long blocks of music or ambience to video essays about weird stuff to people showing off their cool projects to effects tests and just talking about their day. Not to mention movies and TV shows, both legit and recorded, popular and forgotten.

YT is also the only platform I can think of (I don't have Spotify) that gives you an up to date subscription feed, a history to reference, and the ability to make a zillion playlists to organize the things you want to watch, and you can share them with other people if you want.

"No you can't bring your laptop to the Hollywood Bowl to do you work!" "But it's Joe Hisaishi!"

Drew McWeeny@drewmcweeny.com

Joe Hisaishi is the new conductor/composer-in-residence for the Hollywood Bowl for the next five years?! Awesome.

How was this not animated by Terry Gilliam?

Rabih Alameddine@rabihalameddine.bsky.social

James Gillray, The Fall Of Icarus, Bohn Edition, 1851.

I still have not watched one horror movie this month.

Any time I leave my house, I return thinking I never want to leave the house again.

I'm expecting one of my externals to fail by the end of the year because it's exactly the kind of shit I DON"T NEED right now so of course it'll happen.

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(I keep deleting my skeets re: Trek fans/writers because I come off as contrary or even argumentative and that's not my intention)

@jenniferbrozek.bsky.social

It is rather embarrassing for a supposed writer to be so unable to articulate his opinion.

Chris Neumann reposted

Jennifer Brozek

As someone who has written multiple tie-in novels, yes...it is a very particular skill. (And has won multiple tie-in awards.) You need to have a really thin skin and understand the job.

John Scalzi@scalzi.com

Writing tie-ins is *a real fucking skill* and anyone who sneers at the people who do it can go piss up a rope. You think it's easy to write an entire novel to very specific order on an almost impossibly tight deadline? And have it be satisfying to read? Motherfucker, *you* try it. See how you do.

(I keep deleting my skeets re: Trek fans/writers because I come off as contrary or even argumentative and that's not my intention)

@simpsonsbooks.bsky.social

Probably would be better if I made my own thread

Chris Neumann reposted

Juan Carlos Fernandez

@obijuanca.bsky.social

Replying to @bitterscriptreader.bsky.social

One thing fans often overlook: franchises evolve, but so do audiences. What captivated you at 10 won't hit the same at 30. You see the generational divide in Star Trek, Star Wars and James Bond. People tend to be most attached to the version that shaped their first (often young) impression.

Chris Neumann reposted

John Scalzi

@scalzi.com

I've mentioned before I've updated my contracts to make sure everything in the production of my books is done by humans and not "AI"; if you're wondering what such a thing looks like, here's a clause covering that from a recent contract.

Chris Neumann reposted

Bob Chipman ("MovieBob")

@bobchipman.bsky.social

I wish more people knew the story about how George Carlin literally quit doing 90% of his original pre-80s material and developed a whole new presence because he saw Rick Moranis' **FLAWLESS** parody impression of him and panicked at the thought of becoming an imitateable persona character.

Jamie Smart@jamiesmart.bsky.social

It just feels weird doesn’t it. Like yer dad going ‘yeah baby’. I don’t get why he’s bothering.

Chris Neumann reposted

Simpsons Books

Lanterns (2026 tv series)

Nostalgic for some of my dumb old idea s and flimsy characters, anyone else get that? #scriptsky

(Side effect of making playlists for all your ideas is that they add that extra level of nostalgia because all those songs are from a specific era) #scriptsky

I almost felt like I had a creative impulse today. Almost.