-Some kind of exercise -Some kind of meditation/prayer -Turn off all the notifications on your phone -Touch some grass -Eat some vegetables
Former Philadelphian living in Montréal Supports public schools Wrote some short stories & then some even shorter ones https://stephanieking.net
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-Some kind of exercise -Some kind of meditation/prayer -Turn off all the notifications on your phone -Touch some grass -Eat some vegetables
Instead of uploading my English language test results, I'm going to start uploading the first page of one of my stories with a big arrow pointing to "Winner of the ________ Prize"
Lol have to take an English proficiency test again, for a job interview this time I just think if you have a degree in English literature and have literally been an English teacher, you should get some kind of permanent certificate that you can flash that's like I'M FLUENT; I WON ENGLISH
And/or change your Brita filter!
One time I was interviewing for a job there and the INTERVIEWER called it "Vanilla-nova" IN THE INTERVIEW I was like 👀
This reminds me of my favorite "bad French" meme of all time To this day, my daughter & I say "LE SPEECH ONE HUNDRED" to each other whenever one of us makes a boneheaded (see what I did there) mistake in French
BONE-PETITE
I liked this one recently electricliterature.com/two-poems-by... And I swear someone I follow wrote a chapbook about the 80s (or 90s?) that had lots of video game references, but I can't remember who (IF YOU SEE THIS, RAISE YOUR HAND)
philly is the center of the known universe & i missed hosting a reading series, so here we are 🥁 very excited to share the first event for the TRACK CHANGES series ft. special visitor @niina.bsky.social + local fave @olgamikolaivna.bsky.social on Oct. 7! 🎟️ tickets & info: bit.ly/45RFbxM
Hmm very interesting 👀
So cool! Was this a DIY writer retreat?
I think it's bc Democrats overall are in a "maybe if we soft-admit the Republicans have a point about whatever they're worked up over, we can win some voters in the middle" pattern rn So they keep apologizing for immigration or trans rights or public health instead of standing up for themselves
I love the way that just bc everyone is mad that schools were closed (in some places not even for very long!) we have collectively decided to forget that SCHOOLCHILDREN ARE PLAGUE DEMONS who bring home EVERYTHING & spread it around like LICKING A SUBWAY POLE And have destroyed public health thusly
Spectre by Radiohead is the best Bond song and they're stupid for not using it
BJORK Stupid autocorrect
Beastie Boys, Sabotage Bjorn, All is Full of Love Mystikal, Shake Ya Ass White Stripes, Fell in Love with a Girl
Proud of you for getting off Substack!
The BEST tale of King Family Movie Lore is that I took my sister to the local premiere of Jurassic Park & when we came out, there was a news crew asking kids if it was "too scary" My sister said "pshaw, it was nothing" & then they turned to me & I said "she leapt into my lap after the T-Rex scene"
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado The Ghost Sequences by A.C. Wise Tiny Nightmares (flash horror anthology) Never Whistle at Night (indigenous horror anthology)
My sister: 👀 Me: omg my mom is gonna kill me
Yeah all the ads were "you'll never guess the big surprise" and even teenaged me was like "idk I think I know what it is" but let's just say it was still very surprising during that scene with your 11yo sister!
One of the best stories in King Family Lore is that I took my 11-year-old sister to see The Crying Game opening weekend bc that was back before the internet spoiled plot twists for movies When we got home my mom asked how was the movie and my sister was like WELL I LEARNED SOME THINGS
"Gender did not exist in 1998" and that's why I invented a time machine to watch The Crying Game in 1992
Actually, Frankenstein is a doctor success at the Venice film festival
Not to be a big ol' crybaby bc I know a lot of ppl have it a lot worse, but a job I was about to be offered got cancelled entirely due to cuts in higher ed funding and I'm trying to enjoy the holiday weekend but I'm so bummed out about it Like I did the thing! And yet... still no! 😞
EPITOME CAN GO TO HELL
Maybe spell something on the map?
Is there some place you want to go that it would be ridiculous to walk there? Like a "I would walk 500 miles" type situation, that you could do it over many days and take a day off as needed, but when you arrived you could plant your flag?
Friends! Enemies! Acquaintances! Flight 1 is now live! Read our inaugural issue here: flight-literary.ghost.io
You nay be asking, "do you actually shake your booty while making the popcorn?" YES OF COURSE WE DO
I'm estranged from dad but one of the few good memories I have of him is that when I was little, he would make popcorn on the stove and sing Shake, Shake, Shake by KC & the Sunshine Band while he shook the melted butter onto it ANYWAY I have transmitted this family tradition to my children now
"We're gonna have a rebellion and/or be hot"
We've started watching Andor but our closed captioning always thinks it's two words and puts in a space so it's "And or" Now I think everytime, "wassup it's ya boi Cassian And/or"
I would watch The Akram Show
I also like it when it's "all the bangers plus that one song from the soundtrack of a movie that no one saw but they know the song"
Can you attach the goose meme "state's rights to do what"
I miss The Arcanist 😞
Checked CNN (no reason!) and this headline is specifically about FEMA but really is about all of America. The damage of this year has been simply catastrophic. And entirely self-inflicted.
Thank you for the update! I'll just be over here getting ready with my "STILL NOT WOODY ALLEN?!" jokes
Did something happen or are y'all just manifesting?
Biased bc I was a writing teacher, but this one bsky.app/profile/jose...
I am a Broke Grad Student so all I have is Boursin. But a good bakery. So at least I will eat it on good bread
Have you eaten any good cheeses lately
I read something today that said some companies were thinking about going back to paper resumes to weed out AI applicants Time is a flat circle
Anyway somebody give me a job so I can spend more money on cheese (And if any of you know someone at Cégep de Rosemont or TELUQ, slide into my DMs)
When ppl are generating 40,000 AI resumes for every job so you can only get one through "networking," so you're on the grind when all you want to do is chat about cheese
I haven't! I'm an American who is not deeply invested in the Montréal vs. Toronto beef, other than: 1. I strongly prefer MTL 2. I do not like the Leafs
My BFF from the program just moved to Toronto and we are planning to go visit her at some point bc my kids have never been, but also my kids are like "what is the point of Toronto" Lol they are truly from Montréal huh
Before you die, you see the ring
Immigration official: "Welcome to Canada, Miss Who"
Flipped my hair a little too hard with the round brush during blowdrying and ended up taking the most Cindy Lou Who passport photo
Will miss you but totally understand! Be well
Anyway here are The Roots doing Game Theory to the Action News theme Philadelphia Forever youtu.be/yDqcGB3QgGM?...
He said The Roots were wack (This was in 2004 and I didn't even live in Philly yet)
1. The Shining 2. Shawshank 3. Misery 4. The It TV miniseries 5. Carrie
The Sixth Sense (2025)
"I'm going to write every day, study hard to retake the French exam, run 3x a week, and do house projects!" Final score: -Ran 2x/wk -Hung up some paintings -Talked to some French people
GO US!
Did I finish all the projects I intended to over the summer? No. But am I feeling good about the upcoming school year? Also no
Show me the first image that burned into your brain when you first discovered the horror genre. I used to stay overnight w/my grandma so my parents could catch a date night (she had cable!), and that's how I ended up seeing The Shining when I was 8 (parents: do not do this)
There's one that parks on my street and my kids always stop to point and laugh at it when they walk by Haven't seen it in a while, come to think of it
My son asked me to paint his nails black for the first day of school tomorrow, "so they will know what's up"
I went back into Ye Olde Saved Emails folder to find pictures of my husband back into the day with long hair (lol) and found the date of The First Meme I Ever Made: April 2, 2009 on I Can Has Cheezburger (the link no longer works, alas)
"Travis Kelce is at a net -1 rings for 2025" - My son. Savage. 😂
It's so funny to me that some writers go off about how publishers /agents just don't recognize their genius after like a dozen rejections, when all the famous writers I've met are like "yeah my first three novels went straight into a drawer"
Anyway... go birds
My only comment on the recent news is that my immediate reaction was "Go Birds" and then laughing at myself bc it was so instinctual and yet I don't even think it works in this instance?
"I love the Constitution" and "I believe in the promise of America and its long tradition of immigration making us stronger" makes you a "domestic extremist" now
If you haven't already, we urge authors who believe their books may have been unlawfully downloaded by Anthropic to visit the website below and provide the requested information. www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au...
(However if I am in a situation where I must interact with an LLM, I am always very polite and say "please" and use "vous" if it's in French. Just in case.)
Oh so if we worry about the environmental devastation AI causes or the economic devastation from all the jobs lost, we're just a bunch of nagging luddites, but now we're supposed to worry if the bot has feelings?
YAYYYYYYY Philly stays winning!
When The Youth ask me for "career advice," I always tell them: make friends with the custodian, the mail people, and the printing/copy people. Learn their names and USE THEM. Those people will save your ass one day!
Ayyyyy félicitations!!!
Fund SEPTA. Fund our schools. Just... fund all of it. What are we even doing? We're making it impossible for our young people to do even the most basic stuff.
We were just talking about this at dinner last night (lol "kitchen table issues") and we all agreed that he must be dying to start something with Philly but is too afraid of getting shown up
Lol as a former baritone sax player, I hear you: the struggle is real!
Thankfully, one of them IS really good now and the other has at least lost that honking sound as he is learning clarinet
My car was ACTUALLY STOLEN and you still don't SEND IN THE NATIONAL GUARD ABOUT IT Why is the press accepting this framing and arguing that crime is down instead of yelling THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS at him 24/7
Love it, and now I feel like I won an internet prize for the day
Good luck to you! Graphic design question: is your logo supposed to be you successfully kicking a field goal or have I just spent too long in design class
Hannah I kid you not, I have assignments for this kind of thing. Let me know if I can help if you're serious
UPDATE one of these guys is AMERICAN and from BOSTON On the one hand I am SO MAD I'VE BEEN SPEAKING BAD FRENCH TO HIM FOR LIKE 6 MOTNHS and on the other I'm like maybe someday I will be able to fool fellow Americans if I just stand next to a francophone?
I like when the trigger warning is hidden/click-to-reveal, bc I'm not someone who feels like I need them/prefer to be surprised, but they're there if someone wants them bc there's something in particular they want to avoid
Both of my children are practicing their musical instruments at the same time, send help
How does he explain the lyrics of "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)" to children bc it was playing pretty loud in the park the other day while I was there with my kids
Okay but this is also me when I got outside and it's too hot
NGL Capillus was my favorite character this season The Mule? Who cares The Ferret? You have my attention
JUSTICE FOR CAPILLUS
Spent the last Saturday of summer vacation buying school supplies ($258 for those counting these things), eating a lovely dinner on the terrasse of a restaurant we've only ever gotten takeout from (poutine for the kids), and watching Elio (cute but muddled) A fine bookend for the summer
Having worked as a reader for a lit mag, I know that a tiered rejection means that it's definitely good enough -- lots of times that level of rejection means that at least one person voted for it. Taste is so subjective and a NQA means you're close!
Also if you're a non-writer person who's never applied for an NEA: imaging the MOST ANNOYING JOB APPLICATION you've EVER filled out, then make it 10x as many steps on a system that looks like it was coded on a Commodore 64
I actually thought about applying bc one of the longer things I'm working on is historical fiction set in colonial Albany but I didn't want to deal with whatever kind of loyalty oath they were gonna require
At first glance, I thought it was going to be an exposé about the book distributor
I didn't apply this year (bc I don't live in the U.S. right now) but this is INFURIATING Both the "art is cancelled" and the kind of art "prioritized by the Administration"
I debated writing this. It can feel tempting, upon encountering yet another instance of this administration’s racism, to let it be. How many ways can you say the same thing over and over again? And yet we have to write it down, if for nothing else, so those who come after us know we were against it.
Ya girl is about to wear SO. MANY. JUMPSUITS.
