James Stegall
@jamesaaron
Dad of daughters. Oregonian. Veteran. SF Novelist. Member of #SFWA, the Eugene #Wordos and #transfamilies. I like digging in the yard, building stuff, riding bikes and reading books. Trying to do good in my bit of the world.
It's strange how we go from "sit still and shut up" as kids to "why aren't you doing something all the time" as adults. This #essay resonated with me: How to Exist https://www.raptitude.com/2026/07/how-to-exist/
This is awesome for accessibility, but I'm immediately wondering what all I could do with it to make music, discrete communication, heads-up displays... more tongue dexterity for everyone. https://www.augmental.tech/ #accessibility #assistivetech #sf
Didn't know Google was marking AI content already: SynthID, launched in 2023, has watermarked more than 100 billion images and 60k years' worth of audio. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/31/ai-labels-to-be-compulsory-on-authentic-looking-content-under-eu-rules
Neuromancer illustrations by Billy Norrby, from the 2021 Suntup special edition. https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/1vaomsk/neuromancer_illustrations_by_billy_norrby/ #cyberpunk
Peter Dinklage as the Wicker Wizard. I'm in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjVMQ4TdPFc #basketweaving
I love these. Painter Jean Despujols (1886–1965), via Shiny Squirrel Dispatch. https://substack.com/@theshinysquirrel/note/c-294035086
reFrame: an experimental camera with a color ePaper display, built to capture and show one photo at a time. https://reframe.camera/ #eink
"This is a place of peace," Medwyn said, "and therefore not suitable for men, at least, not yet. Until it is, I hold this valley for creatures of the forests and waters...Do you not believe that animals know grief and fear and pain! The world of men is not an easy one for them." #fantasy #amreading
"In the #PacificNorthwest, the land is always the thing. No exertion of human will or industry will take away its precedence. The course of the population's lives are inexorably linked to the whims of an untamable land." --Ruby McConnell, Ground Truth
Tony Millionaire's Oddball's Odyssey is beatiful and weird. So many fun puns. Seems to be referencing a lot of comic history and other myth (beyond the Odyssey) that I'll need to figure out. #amreading #comics
Concept art from the future grimmdark Demon Hunters reboot, by a very talented young artist. #kpopdemonhunters, #huntrx
"they forget that Groussac, like every writer, left two works: first, his subject, and second, the manner of its execution." Essay: Blindness by Jorge Luis #Borges #amreading
This Fisher Price boat at the flea market unlocked some core memories. I loved this thing when I was little. Mine was usually half buried in some pile of dirt or mud puddle #xennial
Recent finds at Stringfield yarn store #SpringfieldOR #Oregon #yarnies
"Orizaola sees radiation in a way most people don't - far from harmful, it is something that life has grown up with, an environmental variable like temperature or water." --Super Natural, Alex Riley #amreading
As with the womb, the drive is not to annihilate oneself back to zero, but rather to expand one's circle of compassion out toward the infinite. In the words of the philosopher Blaise Pascal, the cosmos is a sphere whose boundary is nowhere and whose center is everywhere. --Saucer Wisdom, Rudy Rucker
Textures at the Springfield Yarn Collective birthday party. #springfieldor #oregon #yarnies #fiberarts #knitting
"Martyrdom is all very well, but we have a job to do first." --A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller
Found this gorgeous #Akira tribute art book in local book and record store Vinyl & Pine on Main in #SpringfieldOR
A stand of Douglas Firs beside the soccer field this weekend #oregon #springfieldor
Finally reading Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz after it’s been on my shelf for years. Didn’t expect the spanking around page 50. #amreading #sciencefiction
Reading Bullet Points Magazine vol 13 bulletpoints.nathantoronto.com #sciencefiction #amreading