J. Powell Taylor (Read The Inevitable Dr. Entropy)

@zachweinersmith.bsky.social My 8-year old stumbled on the copy of Bea Wolf I checked out from the library (I am delinquent in returning it) and devoured it before I could read it with her. Even the making -of chapter at the end has he enraptured. She's already excited for a sequel!

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.

It is not my birthday any more but the sale is still going on!

Today is my birthday! It is a big one too. I'm a half-century old today. To celebrate, I have made my book free on Kobo: www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/... and it is on sale for your Kindle for $2.99: www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3147V6 for the next few days! Please enjoy and spread the word.

Fall camping is cold but has its pluses.

This morning, the D&D team and Magic's Studio X informed our leadership of our intent to unionize. We love the games we make and the work we do, and unionizing is how we protect that work. unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/dnd-stu...

This joke is solid.

Technically this is a dinosaur

Go on a journey with this poor person. Hopefully a pleasant denouement is in the near future. What a stalwart bunch!

Short thread 🧵. Mars, huh, good god, y'all...

A close family friend, who is only 13, is in his first paid production, an original musical called Kidz in Space. It is aimed at young kids but has been entertaining and the cast are very talented! If you live in #ashlandoregon, check it out this weekend at the Ashland Armory.

I'm in the pocket of big Sometimes People Just Disagree With You, Man

In these discussions about ai/consciousness, one thing I am admittedly a bit sensitive about for personal reasons is that often when people try to define-in what it is to be a person, they (no doubt accidentally) define out a lot of people with cognitive handicaps.

Social media has been entirely about implementing behavior modification techniques.

Not true here. Writing is fun!

Sending this out to whoever needs to see it: It's okay if you read slowly, there's no great victory in being able to read quickly, everyone kind of has their own reading speed, and that's perfectly fine. I'm just really happy you're reading. I hope it gives you joy at any pace. Thank you!

Got my 2000 words in on the Cognitive Psychology textbook today. Still rough but progress is progress.

Gradual progress. Just plugging away to push the story forward. I like to hit 2000 words when I can, but even writing 300 words is progress. I've written about 1500 so far today, so I consider it a win.

Hotel breakfasts should be all day. You don’t know me, you don’t know my life

Spent the morning writing about the history of cognitive psychology. What better place to start than in mathematics, with Alan Turing? Written in Scrivener and, you'll note, I am just getting the narrative down right now. A lot will change in editing, especially the addition of dates and citations.

Do artists need to show their work to prove they don't use A.I.? Nah. That can be faked. It can be a fun behind-the-scenes, though! Here is my Chapter 13 opener in Scrivener. I'm expecting 25 chapters, so halfway there. I'm also writing an open-access Cognitive Psychology textbook in Scrivener.

Excuse me. I'm bathing here.

Martial arts camping trip, complete.

Anyway, support actual human artists and creators because they need to eat, and Sam Altman, Elon Musk and everyone else profiting from the wholesale theft of creative work to churn out "AI" nonsense already have too much money

An amazing jab at the whole red card controversy. No notes.

Accurate take on higher ed.

It's a party in the USA.

The anti-fascism part of the parade today was gloriously long. It was the most heartening thing I've seen in a long while.

Home improvement project initiated...

Savannah Bananas @ Party Animals in Autzen Stadium, Eugene, OR. A truly frenetic atmosphere.

Life: I'm all out of lemons. How about a blown tire.

These bath mat buddies get along pretty well. Roman (on the right) is the proud slayer of a housefly today. His sister, Calibri, often catches her own tail before she falls off the windowsill.

Father's Day baseball double header (a summer college league) with my kids and my parents. Happy dad's day to all!

90 degrees already. Oof.

Incidentally, when we're not run by anti-immigrationists, the US is pretty darn good at integrating the foreign-born into our social fabric. We've been doing it for a long time. Turning our backs on it will impoverish all of our kids while ruining lives of people who could work here productively.

At 20 frenetic keyboard mashing posts per day, Trump would need the entire lifetime of the universe to produce a Shakespearean work by accident.

Hanging out with Dash

Hey, I've achieved the vaulted status of my mom reading my novel and liking it. She liked the characters a lot, though the science was heavy for her. The biggest compliment though? She forgot her son was the author when she really got into it. Take that review as good, y'all!

Hey, y'all. I made a dumb little piece of flash fiction. I almost didn't post it because I thought it wasn't funny enough. Trusted readers convinced me it lands. Hopefully, you think the same. Please enjoy (and share!): The Alchemist - A Parable in Two Pages.

Earn the respect of your friend by recommending them my book, The Inevitable Dr. Entropy. a.co/d/0gfaundJ

A sunset from above the clouds on Haleakala. We're back home now, so this was yesterday before a red-eye back to the mainland. Pictures of cats can resume henceforth.

Science City, Mars -- I mean Maui.

Feeding time!

The chosen sting ray will save us all.