![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Minnesota In My Thoughts
Jan. 25th, 2026 03:02 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
scalziwhatever_feedI’m away and mostly offline this weekend but I’m seeing the news. Minnesota, you deserve so much better than what this government is doing to you.
— JS
scalziwhatever_feed
BEHOLD I AM OLD
Jan. 24th, 2026 04:15 amscalziwhatever_feed
Today there was an ache in my knee even though I had not particularly exerted myself, and I wondered what that was about when it hit me: There was a storm coming. I am now one of those people who can tell when a storm is coming by aches and pains.
Excuse me, I’m going to go lay down in my grave now.
— JS
A Very Mid Attempt To Incorporate More Protein Into My Dinner
Jan. 22nd, 2026 01:00 pmscalziwhatever_feedI have never been one to care too much about the amount of protein a meal has, but sometimes I see a recipe on Instagram that boasts low calories and high protein and actually looks good, and I find myself tempted to try them out. I mean, if I can eat something healthy-ish and it tastes good, then it’s a win-win, right?
So, after seeing this Buffalo Chicken Hot Pocket recipe, I decided to give it a shot. It seemed like as good a place as any to start with higher protein meals.
Even though the recipe looks long, it’s all pretty simple ingredients, though I did have to go buy quite a few.
So let’s talk about how “quick and easy” it was to make this, how much I had to buy to make it, the time it took, how many dishes it made, and if it actually tasted good.
Diving right in, the first thing was acquiring the ingredients. I shopped at Kroger.
First up, I had to buy a pack of chicken, which ended up being Simple Truth Natural Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Family Pack for $16.52. I used all this chicken even though it was a big ol’ family pack. Next was Sweet Baby Ray’s Mild Buffalo Wing Sauce for $4.29. I used almost the entire bottle. A block of Philadelphia Reduced Fat Cream Cheese was $3.49. The recipe only needed about a fourth of the block. The recipe calls for a 0% fat Greek yogurt, so I picked Oikos Triple Zero Plain Greek Yogurt, which has zero added sugar, zero artificial sweeteners, and is zero percent fat with eighteen grams of protein (per 6oz serving). I used most of the 32oz container, which was $6.79.
Though I have all-purpose flour, bread flour, and gluten-free flour, I did not have self-rising flour, so I bought King Arthur Unbleached Self-Rising Flour in a five pound bag for $6.29. For the mozzarella, I usually like Sargento’s shredded mozzarella because it’s the only whole milk one I tend to find, but since the recipe specifies a fat free mozzarella, I just went with Kroger Low-Moisture Part Skim shredded mozzarella in the 4-cup size bag for $3.99. I picked Jack’s Special Mild Salsa for my “tomato salsa” which was $4.99 but I have most of the container left over. I also bought Simple Truth Organic Chives for $2.49. And last but not least I bought a Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning 1oz packet for a whopping $2.39.
I had Daisy brand cottage cheese on hand already, both the whole milk version and the low-fat version, but for this recipe I used the whole milk type since it didn’t specify. Oh, and I used actual whole milk for the quarter cup of fat-free milk it calls for. You’ll just have to live with my substitution.
So, in total, I spent $51.24 on stuff for just this one recipe. I always say you can’t cook dinner without spending fifty bucks, and boy oh boy does that remain true. I swear it’s a literal constant in my life.
Moving on from cost, the first thing to do was to add a bunch of stuff into the Crockpot and let it get cooking. That part was really easy, you just throw the chicken in and add all the spices and whatnot on top, give it a mix and let it cook on high for a couple hours. The only dishes I used for this portion were measuring spoons and a measuring cup. Disclaimer: I did not add the white onion, therefore I saved myself from using a knife and cutting board.
While that was cooking, I blended all the ingredients for the sauce together. I only have a very tiny portable blender meant for protein shakes and smoothies on the go (don’t ask why because I don’t even know), so I had to do it in three or four batches, which meant I mixed everything together in a bowl and then put a couple ladles worth into the blender, blended it and dumped the blended mixture into a separate bowl. Due to my unnecessary steps, you probably will not make as many dirty dishes as I did here. Or as much of a mess on your countertop.
After the sauce was completed, I got to work on the dough. This part was definitely the most time consuming, partially because I decided to be precise and weigh out my ten dough balls to make sure they were perfectly equal. The dough took some work to come together, but after enough kneading, it got there. This portion of the recipe really only took a measuring cup and a bowl, plus the rolling pin to roll out the dough. I set my dough discs aside.
Finally, when the chicken was cooked through, I was very surprised by how much liquid there was in the Crockpot. In the video, when he goes to shred the chicken after its time in the Crockpot, it’s completely dry. I was perplexed why there was liquid in mine, especially when I actually used 100g more chicken breast than the recipe called for. I didn’t want to add my creamy sauce to it while there was so much watery liquid, but I also didn’t want to dump the liquid out of the Crockpot and waste all the flavor that was probably in there.
So, I got to work shredding the chicken to see if it would absorb more as I went. Sure enough, the liquid did reduce quite a bit after the shredding, which took forever and gave my arms a workout. I decided to let the chicken and liquid keep cooking with the lid off for a little bit to see if some of the liquid would cook off or evaporate, and when it finally got decently reduced, I went ahead and added the creamy sauce mixture and all the mozzarella cheese.
It ended up shaping up nicely, and looked like the mixture in the video. All in all, it worked out, it just took extra time. To be fair, the video said cook on high for 2-3 hours and I only did two since the chicken was up to temp.
For the dough discs, I definitely overstuffed the first one, and some of the filling spilled out into the skillet while cooking it. After the hot pocket had been thoroughly browned on both sides, I figured it was done, but when I cut into it, the dough hadn’t cooked all the way through. Though the outside was brown and crispy, the inside was pretty much raw dough. If it had been cooked any longer, though, the outside would’ve burned. I wasn’t sure how to get the inside fully cooked without burning the outside, so this was certainly a predicament.
Plus, my hot pockets were much more oddly shaped than the ones in the video. I couldn’t get a consistent shape and kept second guessing how much filling to put in. It also was pretty time consuming trying to form the hot pockets, and I ended up tearing like two of them. I was definitely frustrated by now, it felt like nothing was working out and I was messing everything up.
After taking a breather and finally eating one of the hot pockets that was cooked through mostly well enough, I am sad to report it was pretty mid. It was fine, but definitely not as good as I had hoped, and definitely not worth fifty dollars and a few hours of work. Though if you consider the fact you get ten hot pockets out of this recipe, it’s only five dollars per hot pocket if you spend fifty on ingredients. I guess that’s not too bad, but I think my feelings of disappointment overshadowed the value of being able to freeze the majority for later.
I will say that there was a pretty decent amount of the chicken filling leftover, whether it’s because I filled the hot pockets the wrong amount or not remains to be seen, but I did like putting the leftover chicken mixture in a tortilla instead. Honestly my main issue with this recipe was the dough. Having the chicken mixture by itself or in a different carb vehicle actually improved my eating experience, I think.
So I would say if you make this recipe, don’t make the dough, and just find something else to put the chicken in, or eat it by itself. Though, there will be less protein in the recipe since the dough was made with protein yogurt. I think that’s worth the trade, though.
Overall, I don’t think I’ll be making this recipe again, but it wasn’t terrible or anything.
Do you like Buffalo chicken? Have you tried Oikos protein yogurt in any of their sweeter/fruitier flavors? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
The Music Studio 2.0
Jan. 21st, 2026 10:05 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Some of you will remember that as a pandemic project I went and made a music studio in my basement. It was a lot of fun, and very cool — but too cool, as our basement is endemically cold, even in the summer, and spending more than a half hour in there is liable to set one’s teeth a-chatter. It ended up limiting the amount I used my studio area; for the last in year in particular I was more likely to record something at my kitchen’s center island than I was in my studio space in my basement.
Fast forward to today, and now I have a new set-up, in the room that was previously Athena’s bedroom. She doesn’t need the room anymore — she has a whole house now — and the room is nicely heated (and in the summer, cooled) and also literally ten feet from my current home office. I’ve done an initial setup, which you can see above. There’s more to be done, including bringing up some more musical equipment from the basement, most notably the drumset, but the setup here is good enough to start recording.
That is, once I get the current novel done. First things first. I consider this a bit of motivation.
— JS
It’s Storytime: Wend-Way-Go
Jan. 21st, 2026 07:12 pmwwdn_feedIt is Wednesday, and that means there’s a new episode of It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton, waiting for you wherever you get your podcasts.
This week’s story is Wend-Way-Go by Tim Pratt. It was originally published in Uncanny Magazine.
I made a creative choice for this week that I haven’t made before on the podcast, and it was so satisfying, I wanted to talk about it a little bit.
When I was working on Star Trek, one of the adults in the cast — and I can’t remember who, no matter how hard I try — introduced me to the concept of “meeting the demands of the material.” They meant that our job as actors is to serve the writer’s intention, not the other way around. Before we start changing words or rewriting lines, it is our responsibility to do the work of understanding the author’s intent until the scenes work. And if the scene still doesn’t work after all of that, then it is time to talk about making changes. But you don’t go making changes because you’re 15 and don’t yet know what it means to be an actor, beyond following direction.
It took me awhile to process that, and it took me even longer to reliably meet the demands of the material, but I eventually got there and never left.
As a narrator of over 100 titles, my job is easier, more joyful, and more satisfying because I know to listen to what the author wants to say, and then do my best to communicate that through my performance. When it works, the listener doesn’t even know what I did; they just feel the story more completely than they would, otherwise. It’s a pretty great trick.
When we recorded this week’s story, Gabrielle (who directs and produces) and I both felt that the material was making a specific demand, that was also a gift to me: without saying so directly, Tim sets this story in what felt to both of us like South Carolina, for some reason. It was so clear in the text that the narrative character needed to speak in a soft drawl, that supported his fundamental gentleness.
It is a creative risk, to be sure. Accents are tough, and present a unique trap that catches me all the time when I discover I am doing an accent, when I should be performing with an accent.
So it’s exciting and a little scary, but I’m glad I did it. I loved this story, and I hope you do, too.
And now, links!
- Apple Podcasts
- PocketCast
- Spotify
- Pandora
- iHeart
- Amazon
- or grab the RSS directly from me right here.
You can also support the show on Patreon, where $5 a month gets you access to the show with no ads, a growing community of lovely people, live AMAs with me, and weekly insights behind the scenes of the show.
If this is your first time reading or visiting my blog, welcome! I’m glad you’re here. If you’d like to get my posts in your inbox, here’s the thing:
Ne Zha 2: The Best Movie You Haven’t Heard Of
Jan. 21st, 2026 01:00 pmscalziwhatever_feed
It would stand to reason that the highest-grossing animated film of all time would be more well-known, yet it seems that Ne Zha 2 remains unknown to practically every single person I’ve talked to about it. It’s especially wild to think how many people have never even heard of the film when you consider the fact that it’s #5 on the list of highest-grossing movies of all time, right underneath Avatar and its sequel, Avengers: Endgame, and Titanic.
Not only did Ne Zha 2 become the king of all animated movies, but sits proudly in the top five of all movies. Is that not absolutely wild? So why is no one talking about it?
And I know you’re probably thinking, well of course people are talking about it, haven’t you seen all the articles over it in The New York Times, seen the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, etc.?
Listen, journalists don’t count as people. What I mean when I say no one is talking about it, is if you go into work and you ask your coworker Becky if she’s seen any good movies lately, chances are she’s not saying she threw on Ne Zha 2 with original Chinese audio.
If you walk up to literally anyone on the street and ask “have you heard of Avengers: Endgame or perhaps Titanic?” chances are not only have they heard of it, they’ve probably seen it. So why is it not the same answer when you ask if they’ve heard of Ne Zha?
Anyways, I’m here to tell you about this incredible film, since I’m guessing even if you’ve heard of it, you might not have seen it yet, as it’s only available through streaming on HBO Max (and there’s no Chinese audio if you watch it on there).
Ne Zha 2 is an absolutely amazing film with the most spectacular animation and passion behind it. It is a true feast for your eyes, with practically every moment being worthy of being a desktop background. So often I found myself saying “oh my god that’s absolutely insane” in regards to the art and animation. Even if the story was downright terrible (which it isn’t), it would still be worth sitting through the almost two and half hours of the movie just for the art.
While I do really like Ne Zha, its sequel is better in every way. Ne Zha 2 has less childish humor that the first one suffers from, a more intricate and interesting story, develops its characters and their relationships better, and of course, superior animation.
Ne Zha is one of those movies where the last half hour makes sitting through the first hour of the film worth it, where as Ne Zha 2 is all gas no brakes. Ne Zha 2 had my jaw on the floor the entire time.
I want to talk about the story, but I don’t know how I can without just spoiling the entire movie! It’s such a… let’s say, involved plot. There’s a lot going on, and if you’re unfamiliar with Chinese mythos and gods, it can feel sort of overwhelming. Almost like when you start reading a high fantasy novel and you’re having a hard time keeping all the proper nouns straight in your head.
I honestly find it easier to keep names and places straight when the subtitles are on (which, if you watch it in Chinese, chances are you’ll probably have them on anyways).
I personally prefer the original Chinese, as I find the mouths not matching up with the English dub distracting and a lot of lines are delivered oddly in an attempt to make the mouths fit the words better.
One of the reasons I love Ne Zha and its sequel is because of its originality. So many movies that come out these days are revivals of old franchises, “live-action” remakes of old classics, and just stuff we’ve seen a hundred times before. Ne Zha and Ne Zha 2 feel so much more unique and interesting than any animated movies has felt for me in a long time.
I find it unfortunate that truly the only reason it feels like no one has heard of it is because it’s a foreign film. That’s really all it comes down to is that it’s a Chinese film, and Americans don’t consume a lot of foreign media. America pumps out so much media that foreign gems can sometimes get lost in translation.
I’ve been intentionally vague about the plot this whole time because it really feels like something you should just experience without knowing too much about it. It’s a wild ride, and one I went into pretty blind, and recommend the same for you.
If you want to watch it with the Chinese original audio with English subtitles, my best recommendation is to buy it on YouTube since HBO Max only has the English dub. I know, it sucks buying movies on YouTube, mostly because they can remove it from your library at any time and you don’t get your money back, but this is unfortunately the era of streaming monopolies and whatnot that we live in. Consuming media is difficult even though that’s all any company wants us to do.
Have you seen Ne Zha or Ne Zha 2? Did you manage to catch either in theaters? Are there any foreign films you like that you feel like most people haven’t heard of? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
the footsteps of a rag doll dance
Jan. 20th, 2026 09:57 pmwwdn_feedMarlowe and I were out on her morning walk, when we saw one of her friends.
“Hi Marlowe!” He said with a huge smile, while I struggled to keep up with her efforts to get her head under his outstretched hand.
While they enjoyed scritches, he and I had a long talk about the squirrels and birds in the neighborhood.
Y’all, I became a weird Bird Person so gradually, I can’t even tell you when it started.1
Marlowe looked back at me, letting me know she had finished Friendship and was ready to return to Walkies.
Her friend and I said goodbye, and continued our walks.
We were about halfway up the block when I started thinking about my blog. Every morning, and almost every evening, I sit down at my desk and open WordPress. I click new and spend some disappointing minutes trying to post … something. Usually, I get overwhelmed by options or current events or both, and close the tab in frustration.
I’ve been trying, and failing, to find my way back to writing every day, even if it’s about something that I have decided is silly or pointless. Not everything has to be Super Important, I tell myself, and then I look at the news. It’s so awful. It’s like America ripped off the mask, and the monster we always knew was lurking underneath it wasn’t just a monster, it was a cosmic horror, indescribable and incomprehensible in its violence, fear, and anger. I look at that and I’m like, how can I not do something about this? How can I not talk about it, if only for the record? And I get stuck there.
One of the local ravens, Little Kevin, landed on a branch in front of me. They did that corvid chortle cluck thing, which I have come to understand is a greeting.
“Hey, buddy,” I said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a couple of peanuts. I made my own clicking, clucking, chortling sounds as I tossed them into the middle of the street. Then I deliberately looked away, which I understand is a way to let corvids know we aren’t a threat.
I had only taken a couple of steps when their shadow passed across my face. I glanced behind me and watched Little Kevin pick up one, then two, peanuts, before they flew up into a tree. I made corvid sounds at them.
I love this, I thought. I’m going to mark this moment, so I don’t forget.
We rounded the corner, walking out of the shade. The sun was warm and welcoming on my skin. I am grateful for this. Everything is terrible, but I am grateful for this.
Maybe I’ll write about this on my blog, I thought.
And that’s when I got this anxious tightness in my chest, like I have a midterm in an hour and I haven’t studied. At all.
What the actual fuck is that about?
I don’t know, but It’s literally just a blog post, Wil. It’s not … whatever you’re making it.
I noticed that Marlowe was looking up at me, expectantly. I became vaguely aware of the jingling of dog tags. I realized that my body was on the corner, but my mind was someplace very far away. I realized that I was looking at a dog we call Marlowe’s Nemesis. Their Person waved to me, and I waved back. For the last three or four years, we have worked to convince our dogs that they don’t need to yell at each other when we pass on the street. Around a year ago, something changed and they both just … got over it. So now, when Marlowe sees her, she does a super good sit, just like I taught her. Her nemesis ignores us both, while their person and I exchange a silent greeting. None of us knows each other’s names.
“Better late than never, but waiting until you were 14 was certainly a choice, Mars,” I said as I gave her a treat.
Little Kevin flew over me and landed on the street light. They called, loudly, bowing their head a little bit and opening their wings. Almost immediately, another raven joined them. I was pretty sure it was their older sibling, who was a fledgling last year. We named them Kevin, after the bird in Up. Did you know that corvids live intergenerationally in the same nest? The older sibling will stay for a year and help raise the new fledgling2. We watched Kevin teach Little Kevin how to hunt and eviscerate baby birds last summer, for instance. There’s nothing quite like walking out into the yard and discovering an avian ritual killing, first thing in the morning.
“Hi Kevin,” I said. I tossed another handful of peanuts into the street.
I’ve been doing daily meditations with the Calm App, off and on, for a few months. I started using it to help manage my anxiety, and to help fall asleep. It was super effective, so I looked into a more regular meditation practice, averaging about ten minutes a day. I can’t tell you why, because I don’t know and I don’t understand, but holy shit does it WORK. I struggle with nervous system dysregulation almost every day, and CPTSD flashbacks is my Sword of Damocles. I’ve been working diligently for years with a trauma-recovery therapist to help me, well, recover from my trauma. I use EMDR and IFS therapy, and it is working more effectively than I ever thought possible.3 I’m so much better, you guys, than I was just a year ago,4 but recovery is a journey with no destination beyond the next step, so my work doesn’t really end (but daily life has gotten much, much, easier. I think I may have enough to write a book about the experience).
So. To support my therapy, and give myself a kind of booster between sessions, I do meditation. I don’t know how it works or exactly what is happening, but I do know that, starting in like … October last year? I think? … I have been able to slow down in my head. I have been able to quiet my racing, anxious, worried, hypervigilant brain. And I don’t even know how I’m doing it, just that I am doing it.
Slowing down has made a huge, significant, difference for me.
A lightbulb popped over my head.
“Marlowe, this is important,” I said. “When I was regularly writing in my blog like twenty years ago, everything was slower. We didn’t have smartphones; we barely had dumb phones. We didn’t have social media. We didn’t have Influencers. It was slower, quieter. I could spend a whole day thinking about what I was going to write that night or the next morning. I wasn’t distracted and pulled in a dozen different directions. Daily life wasn’t an endless string of compounding traumas while we all hoped with everything we had that it will happen today.
“A thought that is now one or two posts on a social network was developed into a whole post on a blog. There was a community of regular readers who commented every time, and I had no idea how much I would miss that when it was gone.”
Marlowe looked up at me and did her best to understand. The Kevins fluttered down to the ground and began picking at the peanuts.
“It is unrealistic for me to expect myself to write now like I did then, because Now is fundamentally different. I am fundamentally different.”
Is it really as easy as adjusting my expectations for myself? Is it really as easy as not judging myself, and hitting publish instead of cancel?
There’s nothing tricky about it! It’s just a little trick!
I need to unplug. We all need to unplug. We all need to take breaks from the horrors. We need to slow down, even if it’s just for a couple of minutes.
Everything won’t be terrible forever. There’s a reckoning coming and I, for one, want to be ready.
If I don’t write about the mundane, if I don’t exercise the muscles I use when I make a post about walking my dog, watching birds, and reflecting on who I am right now, because all I want to do is scream at the horrors until I have no voice left, then I have surrendered in advance. I have given up doing something I love, that gives my life purpose and meaning.
I keep forgetting that I am a Helper, which I know is silly since I literally just wrote about that. But, you know, trauma makes you weird sometimes.
The Kevins followed us for a few houses. I tossed them some more peanuts and a minute later they both passed close by me, carrying them in their beaks. I could hear the soft rustle of their feathers and felt the downdraft on the side of my face.
I’m not gonna lie, it was magical.
When we got back to our house, I took Marlowe’s collar off at the driveway so she could walk up to the door. She got there ahead of me, turned around, and looked at me with that great Pittie smile, her tail wagging.
“You did such a great job, Mars,” I told her. “A+.”
We walked into the house. She had what Anne and I call “one thousand times drinks” from her doggie fountain, then lay down, happily, in front of the couch. I kneeled down in front of her and kissed the top of her head. She thumped her tail twice and sighed.
“I’ll be in my office if you need anything, honey,” I said, “I going to go write something for my blog.”
Thanks for reading. I’m glad you’re here. If you’d like to get my posts by e-mail, here’s the thingy:
- Yesterday, I was on my way out the kitchen door, stopped with a gasp, and quietly called Anne over to see the California Towhee that was perched on the wire over the patio. We have tons of finches and sparrows, even the occasional cowbird, but I just love the Towhees, and this was the first time I’d ever seen one on my patio.
We sat there and made excited noises for a second. Then I looked at her.
“Still punk as fuck,” I said.
“Yeah, obviously. Still punk as fuck.”
︎ - I was one of the lucky ten thousand about a year ago. ︎
- Honestly, it works so well, it is indistinguishable from magic at times. ︎
- today is a terrible anniversary; one year since America pulled the trigger on the gun it put to its head in 2016 ︎
Reminder: Scammers Are Out There Pretending to Be Me (and Other Authors as Well)
Jan. 20th, 2026 07:50 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Three times in the last week I’ve gotten inquiries from authors, about email from an account purporting to be me. This account praised their book in a very “AI” fashion and tried to get them to write back to the account, with the end goal, no doubt, of scamming them out of money via “marketing services” or some such. These authors, quite reasonably, wanted to confirm that the email they got sent was a scam.
I was happy to confirm it, and was happy that they checked rather than allow themselves to be taken in. Nevertheless, this is one of those times where it will be useful to have a post dealing with it that I can point people to (and other people can point people to as well). So here it is, in convenient list form.
1. If I were going to contact you, about anything, it would be from my actual email address and not any other. If you get an email from “me” from any other domain, it’s not me. If you’re not sure, even though I just told you now, you can email me at my actual address and I will tell you. Actually what I will probably do is link you to this post. Hi! You’re not the first person to have a scam attempted on them!
(If you do get a suspicious email that appears to be from my actual address, and you want to double-check: one, make sure the actual reply address matches mine, and two, you can send me a brand new email, not as a reply, saying “hey, was this really from you?” I don’t mind you checking.)
2. No, I almost certainly have not contacted you to tell you privately how great your book is. I probably haven’t read your book (sorry) unless I’ve been contacted by your publisher/editor/publicist about the possibility of blurbing it. If that’s the case, the blurb would be going through that channel, not to you directly.
Conversely, if I don’t like your book, I’m not going to email you about that, either, because I’m not that kind of asshole. Similarly, I will never email you offering suggestions about how to make the work better, because that’s not my job, and also the book is already published, it’s too late for that.
The point of the scam person buttering you up (or negging you, depending) is to get you to start a conversation where they will segue into offering a “service” of some kind, which would entail you sending money, and them taking it and running off with it. Don’t fall for any of that.
3. If I had read your book outside of blurbing and thought it was terrific, it’s extremely unlikely I would contact you directly about it, and not just because I couldn’t be bothered to track down your email. What I would do is praise it publicly, through this site and/or social media. Why publicly instead of privately? Because that’s what would do the most good for you — to tell other people they should look out for your work, and maybe even buy it. That’s how you help other writers in the age of social media: Tell people about them.
4. Outside of you (or anyone else) purchasing my books, I neither want nor need your money. Likewise I don’t use any publishing, marketing or promotion services outside of my publishers. Additionally, I myself do not offer any editing/consulting services directly to other writers. To top it all off, I would never ever just randomly pull up in your email about any of the above. I am both too lazy, and have too much to do, for any of that. So if you see “me” doing any of that crap, it’s not me.
5. Nearly all of the above can be applied to pretty much any “big name” writers that scammers will impersonate to gain your trust and from there, your money. You know what, most of us just don’t have time for individual outreach, and if we did, we’re not going to segue into trying to offer you publishing-related services. We have books to write and our own things to deal with.
Now, some authors do offer consulting, or do workshops, or other things. What they are not likely to do, and what should be a red flag for you, is track you down individually and offer that service directly. They will do it via their sites, or announcements through social media, or through their newsletters, etc. Beware that “personal outreach.”
6. I don’t typically encourage writers to use “AI” for anything — do your own work, it’s better that way — but here’s one thing you can do: Go to ChatGPT, or Gemini, or any other “AI,” and enter the following prompt: “Write me an email to [Your Name] telling them in no more than 150 words how awesome their book [Your Book Title] is.” Put in your name and your book title where directed, and hit enter. There, now you have an idea a) what “AI” praise looks like, so you will recognize it in a scam email, b) how fast a scammer can now produce an individualized piece of praise.
It feels good to get praise! It feels even better to get praise from someone who is, to some degree or another, successful in the field! This is why these scammers do this. They want to get past your defenses and aim for your money. The better you understand how this fake “praise” is generated, and how quickly it can be generated, the better armed you will be against it.
7. Does it feel like a scam? It’s a scam. Are you not sure if it’s a scam? It’s a scam. Absolutely certain it’s not a scam? My friend, I have some real bad news for you.
8. This should in no way preclude you, as a writer or a fan (or both!), from sending a nice email to a writer telling them how much you enjoyed their work. Write it yourself — don’t have an “AI” do it, come on now — and I recommend being brief. It is actually nice for writers to get positive email about their work from real people.
Likewise, if you are a writer, you don’t have to mistrust every complimentary email you get. In a short enough time, it becomes clear which emails are from actual people, and which ones are “AI”-generated scams (hint: the real emails tend to be more endearingly awkward). But if that “big name” shows up in your email box, it’s not only okay to give it heightened scrutiny, it’s actually necessary to do it.
— JS
A Photo of Johnscalzi, No, Not Me, the Minor Planet
Jan. 18th, 2026 02:58 amscalziwhatever_feed
It comes courtesy of the Cline Observatory at Guilford College (I have used Photoshop here to lower the noise in the image and to raise the relative brightness of the asteroid). The folks there took it as a challenge to find the minor planet with my name on it (figurately, not literally), and having located what looks to be it, compared the image to an earlier image of the same patch of sky to make sure that what they thought as the asteroid was indeed wandering through. Johnscalzi is currently at magnitude 17 (extremely dim), so the fact they managed to image it at all is kind of remarkable.
If you’re looking for it yourself, it’s currently in the vicinity of the constellation of Leo, near the lion’s butt. The precise location, for this or any other day, can be had by going here, then clicking on the “Ephemeris” link near the top, and having done that, clicking the “generate ephemeris” button at the page you’re taken to. It’ll then generate all the information you need to find it. That said, again, it’s at about magnitude 17 right now, so you’ll need a big telescope, or the ability to do time-lapse image stacking, or, probably both.
I have neither at the moment, so I’m thrilled that the folks at the Cline Observatory took a little bit of time out their evening to give it view. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m hugely thrilled to have a minor planet named for me. Being able to see it, even just a little, is also hugely thrilling.
— JS
The Charm, Such As It Is, of the Charmera
Jan. 16th, 2026 10:23 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Kodak did a brisk business over the holidays with their meme camera, the Charmera, which is tiny enough to fit on a key chain and takes deeply lofi photos, especially in low light. But it cost $30 and as it happens I do need a keychain, so I thought I would try one out and see what I thought.
Inasmuch as every camera must be inaugurated with a picture of a cat, here is the very first photo out of the camera:
And here is a picture of me, with said camera, in my bathroom mirror.
These pictures are pretty terrible! But admittedly they are also inside my house where the lighting is not great. What happens when we go outside?
Nope, still pretty terrible.
Which is to be expected, as this thing comes with a 1.6 megapixel sensor (1440×1080), and the sensor itself is likely the size of a pinhead. You’re not taking pictures with this camera for high fidelity. You’re taking them for glitchy lo-res fun, in as good of lighting as you can get. This also had video, at the same resolution, but you know what, I’m not even going to bother.
In addition to the primary color mode the Charmera has other “fun” modes including ones that add frame and goofy pixel art to your picture, which, you know, okay, why not. You need to bring along your own micro memory card, and it’s a real pain in the ass to get it in, so you will probably never take it out (you can connect it to your computer via USB, which is also how it’s charged), but once it’s in you can take effectively infinite number of pictures because the individual image files are so small.
The UI is not great, the little screen on the back of the camera is too tiny to be of much use, and quite honestly I’m not sure what the use case of this thing is, other than to have it, and possibly give it to an 8-year-old so they can run around taking pictures without running the risk of them damaging anything valuable, like your phone or a real camera.
But, I mean, as long as you know all that going in, yeah, it’s kind of fun. And for $30(ish) bucks, not a huge outlay for trendily pixellated photos. I’ve made worse purchases recently.
— JS
The Academy Is…: 2005
Jan. 14th, 2026 04:35 pmscalziwhatever_feedThe Academy Is…, one of my favorite bands from this century (and yes, I feel old just typing that out), has recorded their first new album in eighteen years, titled Almost There, and will be putting it out in March. In the meantime, here is the first single from the album, “2005,” which is a paean both to that year and still being around more than 20 years later. Speaking as someone whose debut novel came out in 2005: Feel it.
Also if you want to preorder the album and merch, they have a shop.
— JS
A Minor Planet, a Major Thrill
Jan. 12th, 2026 10:16 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Our solar system has eight major planets, nine if you believe that Pluto Was Wronged. It also has literally thousands of minor planets, which are also colloquially known as asteroids, many of which reside in the “asteroid belt” between Jupiter and Mars. I learned some time ago that the International Astronomical Union, through its Working Group on Small Bodies Nomenclature, will give some of these minor planets, usually designated by number, an actual name. What kinds of names? Sometimes of geographical locations, sometimes of observatories, sometimes of fictional characters like Spock or Sherlock Holmes, sometimes of scientists (or their family members), and sometimes, just sometimes, they’re named after science fiction authors.
Like minor planet 52692 (1998 FO8), henceforth to be known as “Johnscalzi”:
This little space potato is a Main Belt Asteroid whose orbit is comfortably between Jupiter and Mars, has a diameter of about 10.7 kilometers, and has a “year” of about 5 years, 8 months and 10 days. If I start the clock on a ScalziYear today, it’ll be New ScalziYear’s Day on September 22, 2031. Plan ahead! If you want to look for Johnscalzi, the link above will tell you where it is, more or less, on any given day, but at 10km across and an absolute magnitude of 12.19 (i.e., really really really dim), don’t expect to find it in your binoculars or home telescope. Just know that it there, cruising along in space, doing its little space potato-y thing.
How do I feel about this? My dudes, dudettes and dudeites, I am so unbelievably stoked about this I can’t even tell you. It’s not an exaggeration to say this was something of a life goal, but not a goal that was in my control in any significant way. I suppose it might be possible to buy one’s way into having an asteroid named for you, but I don’t know how to do that, and I wouldn’t even if I did. How much cooler to be tapped on the shoulder by the International Astronomical Union, and to be told, here is a space potato with your name. I can die happier now than I could have a day ago. To be clear, I don’t plan to die anytime soon. But when I do, if they’re shooting remains into space that point, now they will have a place to aim me at.
Also cool: The name of the asteroid that’s in the catalogue next to mine. We geeked out about it on the phone just now. We’re Space Potato Pals!
Anyway, this is how my day is going. It’s pretty great. Highlight of the year so far, for sure.
— JS