Phil W. Bayles

@philwbayles

Serious ideas from a silly man. Connoisseur of Dad jokes. Fervent hater of generative AI. Words at 50-Word Stories, Silly Goose Press and more. Currently working on my first novel. If found, please return to the nearest multiplex. (He/Him)

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Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· 18d

I'm *obsessed* with the animation style they're using in #CoyoteVsACME. As far as I can tell, the toons are all 3D models, but with outlines laid on top to give the illusion of a 2D character — a bit like the wonderful Disney short Paperman — and it looks brilliant.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· 28d

We're at the stage where people are using AI-generated slop to post about how they don't want AI-generated slop. I am going to become the Joker.

Picture of Snoopy saying: "I don't want a city on Mars. I don't want AI in every app. I don't want data centres in space. I want clean water. I want affordable healthcare and I want bees to survive."

The image is clearly AI generated. The data centres in the background look completely out of scale, the rocket is nonsensical and somehow Snoopy's fishing rod is at a right angle like an MC Escher nightmare.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jul 1

QTP with your top 4 games you've played in 2026 so far! Cairn 007: First Light Mixtape Resident Evil 2 Remake

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jun 28

Finally, an answer to the age-old question... What if Olaf from Frozen were made entirely out of cocaine?

A cursed statue of Olaf with a massive grin and dilated pupils

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jun 13

Managed to sneak away to the café this afternoon and write a 2,000-word short story in two hours!

A photo of a writing device on a café table

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jun 7

This was the moment @drbayles.bsky.social and I realised that we had bought each other the same book for our birthday. Who says twin-telepathy isn't real?!

Two brothers at a table holding matching copies of Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jun 4

Horrible news that Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56. What a waste. Somehow I've never read the original graphic novel of Persepolis despite adoring the film. Need to change that soon. Also, everyone needs to watch The Voices, because it's seriously underrated.

Still from "The Voices", in which Ryan Reynolds feeds cereal to Gemma Arterton's decapitated head. It's a great movie.

Shot from "Persepolis", in which two older Iranian women accost a young girl wearing a jacket that says PUNK IS NOT DED.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jun 1

If it makes you feel better, I was once told my writing had the vibe of "the cool substitute teacher who lets the kids watch movies in class."

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· May 11

Played through #Mixtape in one sitting last night and it just about blew my socks off. Can't believe how much nostalgia I felt for a time and place I never knew, or that the game's final button prompt moved me to actual tears. Do NOT skip this one.

Screenshot of Mixtape showing a young woman skateboarding.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Apr 28

@johnfinnemore.bsky.social I know that rides like this aren't his usual medium, but I think this might be a Stanley Meadows original!

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Apr 13

Been playing the Resident Evil remakes recently and have been surprised by just how much I've enjoyed them. The RE2make is spooky as hell and the RE3make is full of big, dumb actions that made for a nice palate cleanser. Now for the really big one...

A TV showing the start screen for the remake of Resident Evil 4

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 26

It had to be done...

The words "Rowling" and "Harry Potter" have been muted in text and tags

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 20

What the hell is this shit.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 17

I caved and got myself one of those nifty little e-readers that I've been seeing all over the internet. It was so easy to set up (including a custom sleep screen!) and holding it in my hand just makes me very happy. Plus there's a robust and extremely friendly of Redditors who I can troubleshoot!

Picture of a hand holding a small e-reader (the Xteink X4), which has a protective cover and the words "DON'T PANIC" printed in large friendly letters on the screen.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 17

Et les jeux non-réalistes vieillissent beaucoup mieux aussi! Okami, par exemple — c'est un de mes jeux préférés, et il reste incroyablement beau 20 années plus tard!

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 17

QTS* with a game that has a 10/10 soundtrack Couldn't pick just one...

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 17

UPDATE: The people from #Claysplained sent me a DM on Instagram to have a little whine about me being mean to them. Frankly I'm not sure the message itself wasn't generated by AI. The response proves my original thesis: these people have zero understanding of the medium they're trying to emulate.

But in truth; materials we have made during our careers on real productions have probably been scraped in these models. We are the people this has pulled from. But it’s here. The technology is allowing us to exercise and idea that would otherwise be impossible.

Creating current affairs satire in this style at this speed using AI visuals. We cannot convince you to feel the same, but we can respond. We aren’t happy with where we are in the food chain (the bottom) but we are fighting to create and exist. But being one of the first to that table
we know we are also going to be targets.

It doesn’t feel nice to be attacked by people we look up to Phil. And as fellow creatives, it’s sad to see you putting us down as people. Hope this has shed some light. And please, if you don’t like our work; don’t watch it and don’t follow us. We’re an easy target for creative frustration, but as human beings, we don’t deserve this.

Thanks for your time Phil. Wishing you all the best in your endeavors.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 14

This has broken my brain. #Claysplained says they "refuse to let AI replace us". But they seem to have no qualms about using it to replace the work of real stop-motion animators (not to mention all of the other artists whose work has been fed into whatever slop machine shat this out).

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Mar 12

As part of my ongoing attempt to take my life out of my pocket (that is, stop using my phone for everything), I got myself a dedicated audio player. It's called a #SnowskyEcho and it's ADORABLE. Look at this little thing! Now I just need to find ways of getting all my music on it...

Photo of a hand holding the Snowsky Echo, a digital audio player designed to look like a cassette player. It's made of black metal with a bunch of plastic buttons on the top, and it the menu screen makes it look like there's even a tape in there!

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Feb 15

The life of a #WriterDad is a very glamorous one indeed... At least the soft play has decent coffee.

A table in a soft play area, with a portable word processor and a mug visible in the foreground.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Feb 14

Had the loveliest time with the girls today at Hardwick Hall, looking for snowdrops and making origami hearts!

An origami heart with the quote "Love sought is good, but given unsought is better" (Twelfth Night, Act 3 Scene 1)

A mother and daughter sharing a kiss on a wooden chair

A father and daughter sharing a hug on a wooden chair

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Feb 8

I recently got through with #Cairn, which might be one of the most stressful games I've played in a long time, so there's something oddly satisfying about revisiting Uncharted 4 for the millionth time and watching Nathan Drake dangle from his fingertips for minutes at a time with no problems.

Screenshot of Cairn, a very stressful climbing game where the player can easily fall to their death if they aren't careful.

A screenshot of Uncharted 4, whose protagonist Nathan Drake is basically Spider-Man.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Feb 6

Thought I'd lost my first (and favourite) fountain pen six months ago. Turns out it was hidden down the back of the sofa at my parents' house!

Close-up of a hand holding a brown fountain pen with gold trim.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jan 30

This arrived in the post today: a #PomeraDM250 I picked up on eBay because I decided that I needed a dedicated, distractionf-free writing device. (And yes, I'm aware of the irony of going onto Bluesky to post about my distraction-free writing device.)

A device called a Pomera DM250 sits on a desk. It's like a little mini laptop, but all it can do is word processing. They're apparently very popular with Japanese salarymen. The text on the screen reads:

"Here I am typing away on my Pomera DM250. Some initial thoughts:

- The keyboard is definitely going to take some getting used to. I'm making a lot of errors. But maybe I should just try to embrace them and power through.

- I've had to put stickers on a lot of keys to remove the Kanji and fit the US layout, and I've ended up with three space bars and two enter keys. Bit weird, but oh well.

- This thing is FAST. Just open the lid and you're away.

- Opening files on the PC is an absolute piece of cake. Just plug in and go.

- Whenever I start typing, I start smiling.

I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jan 27

Decided to start playing #Pathologic3 and this is a pretty good summary of my feelings so far...

Benoit Blanc saying "It makes no damn sense... Compels me, though."

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jan 27

I've been doing #morningpages for nearly a year now, and I'm always amazed at the insights they pull out of me.

"BOLLOCKS. Just remembered I forgot to defrost the spag bol last night."

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Jan 16

It's always nice when you find a book that feels like it was written for you, and #ThereIsNoAntimemeticsDivision is so far up my street that @qntm.org and I are basically neighbours. I started reading it on the train to work this morning and I'm already halfway through.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Dec 26

I recently posted in a fountain pen subreddit, because that's the kind of cool guy I am, and a commenter told me that my handwriting has strong "cool substitute teacher that lets kids watch movies" vibes, which might be my new favourite compliment.

A black fountain pen on a page of handwritten text. The text reads:

26th December 2025.
Lamy Safari - Blue ink, fine nib.
The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

I don't know if the handwriting really does ooze "cool substitute teacher" vibes, but I'm proud of it nonetheless.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Dec 26

Luxo Jr. was looking a bit lonely on my desk, but fortunately Santa brought him some new friends. Merry Christmas, everybody.

LEGO figures of WALL-E, EVE and MO sit on a desk, while the Pixar lamp lurks in the background.

Phil W. Bayles@philwbayles· Dec 5

If you see this, repost with your model of positive masculinity. I am only slightly exaggerating when I say that Bandit Heeler is the best role model for modern fatherhood that one could ask for.