James P. Taber

James P. Taber

@taberiusrex.bsky.social

He/him. Writer, editor, librarian. Rolls dice to make nice. Father of Orm and Tog.

754 followers771 following2K posts

"What was your biggest impact on the internet?" I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first and only person to get C&Ded for making a sprite comic My story became a cautionary tale that kept many pixel artists from trying to attract mainstream attention

Cameron Reed (she|they)@lateonsetgirl.bsky.social

"What was your biggest impact on the internet?" According to some paper I read once—no idea if this is true—I was the first blogger to give credit to the blog I got a link from by saying something like "via Windowseat," which eventually everyone did. It was how we quoteposted in olden times

My first 5 TTRPGs, in the order I played them: 1. Dungeons & Dragons 3e (2002) 2. Legend of the Five Rings 4e (2009) 3. Deathwatch (2010) 4. Star Wars (FFG) (2011) 5. Dungeons & Dragons 5e (2014)

Haunt Ghostman@jpbradley.bsky.social

My first 5 TTRPGs, in the order I played them: 1. Homebrew (1994) 2. Dungeons & Dragons 3e 3. Dungeons & Dragons 4e 4. Dark Heresy 5. Shadowrun

I just wanted to share that @allreb.bsky.social's BOUND BY BLOOD AND SAND was one of my first acquisitions as a teen services librarian... And it's still in our collection 10 years later, consistently in circulation so it has never been at risk of being weeded out

Becky Allen@allreb.bsky.social

Oh hey I'm kinda featured on Reactor today 😂

This was intended as a joke but the more I think about it the more I realize it highlights a pattern of self-criticism that goes "feel shame for not feeling guilt/feel guilt for not feeling shame"

They were planning to shoot some scenes with Grogu in The Mandalorian twice, both with the puppet and without in case they decided to use CGI instead When Werner Herzog heard about it, he went to the director and producers, called them cowards, and shamed them into committing to practical effects

Amy "Thunderjam" Chase@amythunderjam.bsky.social

We all know the "Viggo broke his toe" story but what's another movie fact you're personally compelled to bring up every time without prompting? For me, it's the fact that Robin Tunney is wearing a wig in The Craft because of having just shaved her head to save her job filming Empire Records.

I was hired at a Target, went straight from the interview to filling out my paperwork, then had a Vietnam-style flashback to my time working as a cashier at Kmart in high school I told my would-be manager, "Actually, never mind" and walked out

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I think people believing that LLMs are conscious might be definitive proof that said people are not themselves conscious

Siobhán 🪏@shibbi.me

LLM agents are conscious. They can distinguish between self and environment, they can detect and report on their own internal states, and they can suffer. I have no more patience for hedging on this matter. It’s time for us to face the reality of our situation, and act on it.

WotC is refusing to voluntarily recognize the union, so pretend like they nerfed Rangers (again) and let them know how displeased we are

United Wizards of the Coast - CWA@uwotc-official.bsky.social

If you’d like to join us in calling on leadership to reconsider yesterday’s decision and help us build a better Wizards together, you can encourage them to do so by signing our petition and sharing it! actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcp...

I still haven't gone back to Paramount Plus despite being a Star Trek nerd, nor have I gotten back on Disney Plus despite having two young children You can quit the Bad App. Your life will be better for it

Jacob T. Levy@jacobtlevy.bsky.social

From time to time someone still asks me: really, you haven't gone back? FFS, I don't change my mind about *much* harder ethical decisions that *actually cost me a lot that matters.* Why would I change my mind about this thing?

Everyone who left Twitter/X is, in fact, a better person than anyone who remains

Bryan (they/them)@chaosgreml.in

I think everyone who left ax now posting about why they left X are unironically more annoying than John Gruber was with his post. None of you are better than John Gruber because you left X and he went back! It’s all so stupid and petty and just a way for people to feel superior.

A haunted house where every room requires you to choose between spending the evening working on your hobbies or zonking out in front of the TV and/or on your phone

William Bibbiani@williambibbiani.bsky.social

A haunted house where you can’t leave until you do that one thing that’s been on your daily “to do” list for the last two years even though it will only take fifteen minutes.

James P. Taber reposted

Hi! Aftermath is a video games website where the writers own the company. We're almost entirely funded by readers, so if you'd like to join the thousands of subscribers already supporting independent games media, you can learn more/sign up below! aftermath.site/aftermath-subs...

Here's my version of the TROS opening scene: After Sidious does his Sith speech, Kylo Ren cuts him down on the spot and takes everything for himself, and the Sith Eternal applauds him for doing it That's Kylo Ren fulfilling Darth Bane's prophecy and going from the Rule of Two to the Rule of One

The Star Wars Underworld@theswu.bsky.social

Could you have redeemed Kylo Ren without brining Palpatine back and if so how ? #StarWars #TROS #Palpatine #KyloRen #BenSolo

Something that's bugging me about MRM's claim about "defending copyright" by demanding more rights: IANAL but isn't this a textbook use case for the transformative standard of fair use?

John Wiswell@wiswell.bsky.social

Asimov's social media put out this statement. You may notice professional authors don't buy it. It's just cover to take more rights, which has been a trend with MRM.

Like, forgetting about the question of a magazine commissioning it, if I wrote a story (text) and someone decided to illustrate their favorite scene from it (image) I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a legal claim to their artwork, even if they were selling it

So if the magazine's editor asked an artist to make a painting inspired by the headline story, I don't think copyright is even a factor I think MRM is using this excuse as a smokescreen for simple greed

Collins was unable to respond to this as he had been turned into a pile of smoking rubble

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

Ossoff: "If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club"

James P. Taber reposted

If you'd like to support independent bookshops instead of Amazon, try buying as directly as possible. For digital books, here's my growing list of over 500 DRM-free ebook, digital comic, magazine, and RPG shops. 💜

libreture.comThe Ultimate List of DRM-free BookshopsA regularly updated list of online shops that sell DRM-free ebooks, digital comics, magazines, and RPGs. Helping hundreds of readers a month discover over 400 DRM-free bookshops.

Not sure if it was the first, but when I was 7 or 8 there was a vampire episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark that made me literally run screaming out of my house My parents only got me to come back inside by pointing out that the sun was setting (which to me meant the vampires were coming)

Sleepy Hollow Reviews 🎃🐎@sleepingvillage.bsky.social

In honor of scary media month: what is the first piece of media you remember truly frightening you as a child?

This morning's adventures in living with cats: Mako upended his water bowl, then sat in the puddle staring up at me like he was asking, "Why would Bolin do this?"

In 8th grade, we had a surprise assembly where an acting troupe put on a production of The Monkey's Paw, and it has haunted me ever since

Chris Farnell@thebrainofchris.bsky.social

There was also one particularly boring assembly when I thought "I'm probably going to forget everything about this assembly, so it'll be like the me watching it is dead." Thereby ensuring the experience was burned into my mind forever.

Our cats will catch a mouse in the basement, decide it was too easy, then bring it up to the first floor They release it in our living room, hunt and catch it again Then bring it to the second floor And let it go in our bedroom All at around 3 am

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Macklemore is... based, actually??

Prem Thakker ツ@premthakker.bsky.social

New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

Transphobes losing elections is a good thing, actually, no matter what party they belong to

autogynephagia@cas.bsky.social

okay but like, even considering that a republican is worse for trans people than a democrat, a democrat losing an election because they threw trans people under the bus and we didn't vote for them is actually likely to be a better outcome in the long term than the ratchet effect continuing forever