1. PR folks: Hey, can we send you a @mythic_quest swag box, which you will then talk about on your socials?
Me: I HAVE STANDARDS
PR: It comes with a T-shirt.
ME: THAT IS MY STANDARD SEND THIS SWAG BOX
The Mythic Quest Swag Box is here. Embark on this journey with me.
2. (For those of you who do not know, @mythic_quest is an @AppleTV workplace comedy series about life at a video game development company, which started its second season last month. Here is the trailer for Season Two.)
3. ANYWAY BACK TO THE SWAG BOX. First up: An Apple TV 4k streaming box, as @AppleTV+ is a streaming service; they want to make sure I can access the #MythicQuest series (as it happens I already have an Apple TV+ subscription, which I got to watch Greyhound. But it's still nice!).
4. Underneath the streaming device: A journal, a pen and the promised #MythicQuest t-shirt! Let's examine each more closely, shall we?
5. The @mythic_quest journal has deckled paper hand-stitched into a supple leather cover, and smells exactly like your favorite ren faire shop that *doesn't* sell a turkey leg the size of Dwayne Johnson's bicep.
6. The #mythicquest pen has a matte black surface that is silky to the touch, a futuristic clicky mechanism, and looks like it could probably write in zero gravity, although the swag box does not include a trip to space in it, so that's just speculation.
7. And finally the @mythic_quest T-shirt, fashionably "pre-distressed" -- neck and arms are frayed and the silk screening cracked like it's been your favorite t-shirt forever and you'll keep wearing it no matter how often your partner tries to sneak it into the trash. HOW DARE.
8. THUS ENDS OUR @mythic_quest SWAG BOX JOURNEY. I hope it was everything you hoped it would be. Also, #MythicQuest actually is pretty damn funny, maybe check it out (Also, I thought that before I got the fashionably distressed t-shirt WHICH I AM NOW WEARING, I swear).
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1. To reiterate this once again for everyone: If you see me blurbing a book, it's because I have actually read the fucking thing and I liked it enough to say so in public. I (and I daresay Neil) don't have to blurb a goddamned thing for self-promotion.
2. A blurb won't make or break a book, but they certainly can have an effect on the margins - several is the time where someone has told me they found a new favorite book because they saw my blurb for it and that helped them to take a chance on it. That makes me happy. It worked.
3. I think it's easy to be cynical about blurbs and I think it's reasonable to take them with a grain of salt (the bit about good authors sometimes having bad taste is... not wrong). But the heart of blurbing is authors being actual READERS and being excited to share new books.
I remember 4th grade being the year the kids at Ben Lomond Elementary decided they were incorporating swear words into their vocabulary, and I have never heard more and more consistent swearing before or since. So, yes, Texas parents, your precious children have let "fuck" fly.
Note to self: Write into appearance contracts that if I'm "disinvited" to an event, that I'm still to be paid my appearance fee plus all non-refundable expenses (air fare, etc). If nothing else, it will cut down on bullshit invites from snowflaky sorts.
1. So, a thread on where I am with Twitter right now, and how, at the moment, I'm going to be using it. Don't worry, there's a cat picture at the end of it.
2. First, I'm of two minds of Twitter's immediate survival. Anecdotally it feels like the follower bloodletting has subsided a bit, which is good, but the actual technological foundation is crumbling more rapidly, which is bad. Musk is closing data centers and not paying rent...
3. ... or paying key creditors, which means absolutely nothing good. It's entirely possible Twitter blows up simply from tech neglect and/or lack of capacity and/or employees getting sick of having to bring their own toilet paper because Musk fired the janitors...
THREAD: I've had people ask, given the general ridiculousness, mercuriality and fascist-friendly demeanor of Twitter's current owner, if I intend to stick around. So, here's the current state of my thinking, and why, for now, the answer is yes.
First, bluntly, I don't expect the current owner will remain the current owner for very long. He's losing too much money and he's damaged the product too much for it to become profitable for him. If he still owns it in a year, I'll be mildly surprised; in two, very surprised.
(If he still owns it in two years, it's because he's tried to use Twitter to become a kingmaker in the 2024 election cycle. While I don't think that's going to be great for anyone, I also suspect the body politic will have a few more antibodies against that kind of fuckery.)
1. Because I think it'll be fun, I'm going to do a daily advent-like calendar of AI images made from Christmas-themed text prompts, and make it into a thread. Also, to support actual artists and the impact their art can have, I have donated to @RxArtInc:
2. From the mission statement of @RxArtInc: "RxART commissions established contemporary artists to transform children’s hospital settings into engaging and uplifting healing environments." That seems like a worthy goal and worth donating to.
3. If you enjoy the thread of (sometimes weird but hopefully fun) images I'll be posting here, I hope you'll consider donating to @rxart and/or other visual arts-related charities near you, and also supporting actual artists and their buying their work. Support art and artists!