I have finally gotten around to painting my fencing mask. #hema
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Philip Brewer
@philipbrewer@wandering.shop
mastodon 4.7.3I write science fiction and fantasy stories.
I speak Esperanto, and use it to communicate internationally. Esperantistoj, legu mian esperantan hejmpaĝon.
For a while I taught Taiji.
For eleven years I was a senior writer at Wise Bread, writing about personal finance and frugality.
Before that I spent a quarter-century as a software engineer.
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Joined November 12, 2022
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Hejmpaĝo:
Replying to
Speaking as someone who has planted flax, harvested it, dried it, rippled it, retted it, dried it again, broken it, scutched it, and hackled it, let me just say it's way, way too much work. (I didn't spin or weave it. My wife did that. And she found that to be too much work too.) @catch56@kolektiva.social @akareilly@hachyderm.iohttps://www.philipbrewer.net/2013/10/14/flax-processing/
Replying to
@Lana@beige.party This is one thing Illinois gets right.
Libraries are created as "taxing districts" that put their own line item on property tax bills for property in the district. Generally the tax has to be approved once by voters, but then it's just included in the base rate from then on.
There's no opportunity for the city or the county or the village to redirect the money because of some shortfall elsewhere. It's the library's money.
My brother is retiring My brother and I think alike about many things, and differently about many other things. We also sometimes disagree about what it is that we disagree about, which is kind of funny all by itself. Although we agree about many things, we sometimes actually come at things from quite different perspectives. Source: Retiring to… Something […] https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/05/13/my-brother-is-retiring/
Boosted by @cstross@wandering.shop
Recent financial shenanigans have turned the AI bubble from the minor sort that just burns people who invest foolishly into the major sort that crashes the economy when it pops.
So I wrote an article about the difference, and about what to do to protect your finances.
https://www.philipbrewer.net/2025/11/18/prepare-yourself-for-the-pop-of-the-ai-bubble/
#AI #bubble
Welcome to the recession phase of the current stagflation: The result is going to be a recession, very possibly a severe recession, and one that goes on for a very long time. It’s not obvious yet, because businesses are still spending huge amounts of money on things like AI infrastructure, but a lot of that spending is illusory, so it will vanish all at once, rather than gradually. https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/06/28/welcome-to-the-recession-phase-of-the-current-stagflation/
Replying to
@FoxesInLove@social.neonpaws.digital You could probably have learned Esperanto in the time it took to draw a realistic fox.
Replying to
I generally don't click on a "Request to follow" button. I'm just a random person, so if you don't want pretty much any random person to follow you, you probably don't want me to follow you.
At least, that's what I assume.
I baked a loaf of bread with wheat, oats, rye, AND barley (the things I had been told I couldn't eat when I was a boy): https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/03/07/bread-with-all-the-gluten/
Replying to
2026-05-06 11:53 “Higher Gas Prices Are Hitting Lower-Income Americans the Hardest”
—Latest headline from the Petroleum Institute’s economics journal “Duh!” https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/05/06/2026-05-06-1153/
Markets are acting like once Trump chickens out, oil supplies and prices will quickly return to normal. But that is very much not true, so the world economy is much, much more screwed than current market prices suggest.
If I'm right, Iran has a much stronger hand than most people seem to realize.
https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/03/25/if-i-were-negotiating-for-iran/
"And there we were," the colonel said to a small crowd at the bar, "Benighted on the road—"
"Not so much benighted as #befogged," the lieutenant put in.
A number of quizzical voices from the crowd prompted him to continue. "I mean, we spent the night in a very nice inn. We paid the innkeeper extra to get up early, fix us a proper breakfast and have our horses ready for departure before dawn. Then, almost as soon as we left, a thick fog rolled in."
"Do you want to go on a quest?"
"I do!"
"All right! Let's start. Make a lunch, fill your water bottles, and grab your pack."
The boys hiked from home, to the small woods nearby, and then down the path.
"This is all kind of familiar. Isn't this the same quest we went on last week?"
"Yes. I admit it. This is a #request."
The Conservatory and the Krannert Art Museum—the venues for our artist date.
https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/03/03/artist-date-march-2026/
Replying to
@gannet@sunny.garden Esperanto has -il- for making an instrument out of a root tranĉi (to cut) plus -li- for tranĉilo = knife.
But I had no idea the same suffix used to exist in English!
@StefanoGaivota The full workout, with a 15 minute warmup followed by 6 30-second sprints along with several minutes of recovery, adds up to a 45-minute bout of exercise). Just that will enormously improve almost any bout of depression.
This is well-known. It's just not useful, because severely depressed people can't make themselves exercise.
But maybe anxious people can be motivated to exercise. A win at many levels.
It looks like maybe arm strength and endurance is no longer my biggest problem in longsword.
https://www.philipbrewer.net/2026/03/01/arm-strength-in-longsword/
Why push so hard for Próspera and the like, when your money and your stuff can be held out of the reach of governments easily enough with a family company incorporated in a special economic zone?
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@anne_twain@theblower.au @Nickiquote@mstdn.social The other classic solution to a lack of forests is to lie down on an ice floe.
Replying to
@stevendbrewer@wandering.shop @bram@gamedev.lgbt In the interests of full disclosure: I tease him anyway.
RE: https://mastodon.social/@donni/116503142752842009
It's always darkest starting about an hour after sunset, and then remains darkest until about an hour before sunrise, when it starts very gradually to get light again. Unless someone has a light on—that can mess everything up.
Replying to
@jan_mutable@mas.to @tobadzistsini@bonequest.net @FoxesInLove@social.neonpaws.digital It's pretty easy to learn, but only if you want to study it. Kinda hard to pick up from just a couple of random phrases.
Replying to
@martenson@mastodon.world Gee. To me that suggests that the copyrighted material is useful, and therefore should be paid for.
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@cstross@wandering.shop @stevendbrewer@wandering.shop Living in a college town with a lot of fraternities (and a lot of moronic frat boys), there's a steady stream of people showing up at the emergency room with alcohol poisoning.
I haven't heard much about people showing up with capsaicin poisoning, but I don't doubt that there are some.