Stephen Childs

A series I slept on far too long.

I’m slowly working my way through it, reading a book in that series every once in a while, like a treat.

A bag of special edition Goldfish crackers featuring Pokémon held in my hand! Pikachu and a pokéball are on the front of the bag.

The side of the bag listing ingredients in English and French and also featuring Pikachu and the thee OG starter Pokémon (Bulbasuar, Squirtle and Charmander). They are all dancing and smiling.

Got these for the kiddo (but yes also for meeee!!!)

Google maps screen shot of the storefront of dearly departed Asteria Souvlaki Place in the Danforth in Toronto, its sign in blue letters with blue stars on a white background.

Asteria Souvlaki Place. It was between Chester and Boardview stations, a mom and pop place. They were so nice and the food was so good and the potatoes especially were perfection. Plus, they had a really nice little patio in the back ✨👌🏼

Twin Peaks title card but it says “The Hills of Tanchico”

“When one’s not enough and three’s too many!”

This is not fan fiction. Could have fooled me Now and again here at Wonkhe towers, we'll be sent a draft article with a heavy metaphorical hook.

Ngl, the odds that an 80,000-word book about university management using Warhammer as a metaphor is any good are pretty slim, but am I going to read this book? Yes. Yes, I am.

Ontario Arts Council logo: ONTARIO ARTS CONCIL CONSEIL DES ARTS DE L'ONTARIO an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l'Ontario

Government of Ontario logo featuring a stylized trillium in a black oval.

HUGE NEWS from me!!! ✨✨✨

I am honoured to be the recipient of a Recommender Grant from the Ontario Arts Council. This grant will allow me to work on my first ever novella, "Hyena Girl & Ostrich Boy," which is coming into nigh unspeakable life as we speak 😈

What to Do When A Demon is Talking Shit at You by Cindy Phan The demon rears on its splayed legs and slaps its naked thighs, leering as it talks shit at you with its long, forked tongue. So listen, and listen good:

Today I'm creating a new feed: five-star writing from the 2020s.

My first #20sRec is "What to Do When A Demon is Talking Shit at You" by @cindyphanauthor.com in Inner Worlds #8, because I felt like we need a reminder today to keep battling.

Short fiction, free-to-read at the link:

A store with a sign that says “ADULT NOVELTIES - BJORK ALBUMS - MAGIC POKEMON YUGIOH - AIRSOFT GUNS”

"thin places" are locations where the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds is said to be particularly thin.

A very large silver mixing bowl full of colourful fried rice, made up of carrots, onions, cube cut ham, eggs, mushrooms and peas.

Made some boss level fried rice for dinner and made a lot of it ✨👌🏼

Two panel comic. Panel 1: a museum display of a megalodon jaw fossil, with some museum goers standing around it. There is a graphic on the information tablet next to the fossil, depicting the approximation of the megalodon’s full size compared to a human. Panel 2: “3.6 million years ago:” we see the true megalodon as it existed, a small shark with ludicrously large, juicy lips.

Ford 'doesn't know what he's talking about' when it comes to basket weaving, Indigenous artist says | CBC News A third-generation Indigenous basket maker is setting the record straight about his craft — it's a part of his culture, it's valuable, and artists can make a living off of it.

Cheers to Spencer Lunham Jr. for doing beautiful work that also shows once again that Doug Ford is a fool 🧺

My hand holding up a huge, small apple sized red radish. Background: beige cabinets between a white dishwasher and white fridge.

1lb bag of radishes turns out it was mostly just this one

A yellow arch-shaped card with a blue cartoon triceratops on it that reads: “YOU’RE SO RAWR-SOME!” The triceratops is holding the stings of two floating heart-shaped balloons, one red (left), one pink (right, and slightly behind the red one). There is a palm tree in the background and some tufts of grass in the foreground. A few small hearts also decorate the card.

Going through the kiddo’s Valentines and we have a favourite ♥️

Some sort of big Ontario post-sec ministerial presser happening at 1030. Not sure if this is where we hear about tuition being unfrozen or the results of the funding formula exercise or what.

This is a great story, and the substance is amazing: "each dollar’s worth of economic activity heats the planet almost 10 times less than it did before."

But using the "10 times less" language is not great. What is wrong with saying "down 90%", or "one tenth of the previous level"?

Basically anytime you find yourself looking for a synonym for "stupid:"

1. You're probably about to grab an ableist slur, and
2. You should instead find a word that's more precise.

Do you mean ridiculous? Shallow? Specious? Absurd? Careless? Inconsistent? Obvious? Cliched? Watered down?

Today’s big decision: go to the tailor nearby or make the extra trip to go to the cool Goth lady seamstress a few neighborhoods over?

Reader, we went to the Goth lady (and she was so cool AND nice) 🖤

Oh, Kyle.

You know in Starfleet Academy when Jay-Den introduces himself and says what his name means?

And Kyle is like, “I’m Kyle. It means…Kyle.”

NOPE. WRONG KYLE

It means NARROWS, CHANEL, OR STRAIT

You’re a Gaelic skinny body of water

A funky wood carving of a horned owl perched on a curved branch. It’s made up of ridges and plateaus and very much looks like an owl somehow merged with a topographical map. Its eyes are large and composed of radiating circles and swirls. It does not have pupils. I found it on the sidewalk.

We love a superb owl in this house (just…try not to look too deeply into its eyes)

A tiny plastic Styracosaurus. She’s a very pretty translucent purple. I’ve placed her on the back of our faux-leather black couch. She’s posed with her head down, as if mid-charge, her back leg pushing her forward, her shadow doing the same. There’s a surprising amount of detail on her face and skin, wrinkles and ridges and scales, for one so tiny (she fits in the palm of my own tiny hand).

Cleaning up a bit and just swept up this little beauty up off the floor (she’s going to live in my office now)

photo of Worlds of Palladium exhibit with covers of their books on the wall and other various bits on the left wall

Detroit Historical Museum is having an exhibit on the ttrpg RIFTS?!?

Maslow's hierarchy pyramid filled with "games where your mouse turns into a little gauntlet"

*need*

A large black prop box with a white sign taped to it that reads: HAWAIIAN COSTUME PIECES • 5 Grads Skirts • 1 Coconut Bra

Only the essentials plz

I actually used the multimeter I got from the thrift store months ago. Yes, I used it to test a battery. 😀

sechilds.ca/digital-multimete...

Benjamin De Kraker O @BenjaminDEKR Follow OpenClaw is interesting, but will also drain your wallet if you aren't careful. Last night around midnight I loaded my Anthropic API account with $20, then went to bed. When I woke up, my Anthropic balance was $O. Opus was checking "is it daytime yet?" every 30 minutes, paying $0.75 each time to conclude "no, it's still night." Doing literally nothing, OpenClaw spent the entire balance. How?

The "Heartbeat" cron job, even though literally the only thing I had going was one silly reminder, ("remind me tomorrow to get milk") 1. Sent ~120,000 tokens of context to Opus 4.5 2. Opus read HEARTBEAT md, thought about reminders 3. Replied "HEARTBEAT_OK" 4. Cost: ~$0.75 per heartbeat (cache writes) The damage: - Overnight = ~25+ heartbeats - 25 × $0.75 = ~$18.75 just from heartbeats alone - Plus regular conversation = ~$20 total The absurdity: Opus was essentially checking "is it daytime yet?" every 30 minutes, paying $0.75 each time to conclude "no, it's still night."

I’m starting to think the people who are excited about “AI agents” have literally never used a computer in their lives

A Japanese-style teapot (I think, not 100% sure on it?) shaped like a pufferfish.

I know this means I've used up all my thrift store luck for the year already, but I couldn't leave this *teapot shaped like a pufferfish* at the store because look at her, she's perfect

I ask you. Whomst among us hasn’t fallen asleep in bed while reading their grandmother’s erotic diary?

Cowards step forward and deny it I dare you

Partner: We're low on vegetables and milk.

Me: We can make them last a few more days. We can subsist on carrots stubs and dry cereal.

Partner: We're out of little Diet Pepsi cans.

Me: *grabs coat and keys and runs out the door to the store*

Near bird’s eye view of a black standard poodle’s head, showing how her big round topknot tapers into the point of her nose on her snout. She’s sitting on a dark laminate floor.

Same view expect now the poodle is graciously balancing a hollow plastic toy Millennium Falcon on her head. It is a near perfect fit.

Oh wait hold on a sec