Steven D. Brewer 🏳️‍⚧️

Author of #LGBTQIA+ #ScienceFiction and #Fantasy #Books. Co-editor of Elegant Lich. Emeritus Professor at UMass Amherst. Lover of natural history. SFWA Secretary. Straw Dog Writers Guild. Ekskabeinto. #WesternMass カワウソになりたい (he/him)

Website: https://stevendbrewer.com
Author Page: https://waterdragonpublishing.com/book-author/steven-brewer/
Faculty Page: https://www.umass.edu/biology/about/directories/faculty/steven-d-brewer
Elegant LIch: https://elegantlich.com

Public Key

npub1dg40kt2uwsew4du9l240u74fxwmwj9g5dplg9w0sn2skyz42294snpc26v

NIP-05 Address

stevendbrewer_at_wandering.shop@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsx52hm94w8gvh2k7zl42h7025n8dhfz52xsl5zh8cf4gtzp249z6cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsmvqcyz

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1dg40kt2uwsew4du9l240u74fxwmwj9g5dplg9w0sn2skyz42294snpc26v

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Last Notes

2026-09-08 11:22:04 UTC

#WordWeavers Which character would be the worst person to get trapped in an elevator with?
Probably Sssindy… (From *The Better Angels and the Complicated Camping Catastrophe* in *Better Angels: Tour de Force*.)
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/117/235/148/997/736/049/original/081ec52379116ecf.png

2026-03-11 07:07:40 UTC

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IT'S A SERIES OF TUBES!

2026-03-08 02:00:57 UTC

Tonight, I read a great article by @npub1fdr…lvhs about RSS: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/#personal-disenshittification
Best of all, I discovered the post in my RSS feed reader. About a month ago, I set up FreshRSS: https://stevendbrewer.com/finally-set-up-freshrss/
Having a feed reader again has been transformative. I realized something today: the Web seemed magical when it was a way to connect with real people. When the corporations moved in, it lost that quality. But now that they're enshittified, you can rediscover the open web where it's always been!

2026-02-14 12:30:53 UTC

No. Stop saying shit like this. AIs can't "betray" people.
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/116/068/985/263/940/649/original/287970b26ad563f2.png

2026-02-07 12:40:03 UTC

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Republicans, at least post George H. W. Bush, have tried to demonstrate — as an object lesson — that people must not trust or depend on the government. They want government to do nothing. Or if it does anything, to do it evilly and incompetently, to enrage people.

2026-01-05 03:30:31 UTC

The real difficulty isn't providing universal health care. All of the developed countries have shown that's feasible. But the US has an additional requirement, namely that it must not provide care to the "undeserving." Keeping people divided is fundamental to how the oligarchy maintains control.

2026-01-04 14:20:15 UTC

If you miss living in a country of laws, remember that anyone who is not cis-het and white has always known that we have never lived in a country of laws.

2025-12-14 13:41:24 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/115/718/202/533/562/839/original/5fa37155f6a74fe5.jpg

2025-10-06 20:56:25 UTC

To those newly here from Bluesky, the thing I've seen people struggle with most is getting started curating their feed. Other services have an algorithm that shoves stuff in your face. Here, you need to actively build an interesting feed yourself. A few ideas: (1) when you find interesting people, see who follows them and who they follow; (2) when you find an interesting instance (mastodon server), look at its public feed; & (3) when you find an interesting hashtag, you can just follow it.

2025-10-05 01:33:42 UTC

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When I started school in the 1960s, every playground had tetherball poles, but they'd removed the balls and ropes, so I never got to play it.

2025-09-24 00:08:03 UTC

It's hard to get non-blurry photos of Tanuki-chan with her fightin' ball. #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/115/256/355/742/468/410/original/8fc3f5bfcbbc9dd5.jpg
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/115/256/355/908/540/517/original/2fd55df9605c1066.jpg

2025-08-29 20:38:16 UTC

I'm feeling this one these days. https://despair.com/products/dysfunction

2025-08-27 21:05:31 UTC

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Unauthorized Bread by @npub1fdr…lvhs https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

2025-08-22 11:41:42 UTC

If money wasn’t an issue, where would you arrange a #WordWeavers writing retreat?
On a private train with luxury compartments that circumnavigated the earth, stopping frequently at interesting places.
Well, you said if money wasn't an issue…

2025-08-15 13:31:23 UTC

hieraŭ, mevoj, hodiaŭ estas korvoj… kion por morgaŭ? / gulls yesterday, and crows today… what's for tomorrow? #hajko #haiku #esperanto
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/115/033/020/403/595/655/original/78e9f68b0b91924e.jpg

2025-07-31 00:38:45 UTC

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said: "The web is open, apps are closed. The majority of web users have installed an ad blocker (which is also a privacy blocker). But no one installs an ad blocker for an app, because it’s a felony to distribute that tool, because you have to reverse-engineer the app to make it. An app is just a website wrapped in enough IP so that the company that made it can send you to prison if you dare to modify it so that it serves your interests rather than theirs."

2025-07-31 00:28:55 UTC

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They sure are desperate to get you to use their "app."

2025-07-29 20:58:57 UTC

I learned today that LinkedIn removed hate speech protections for transgender individuals from their policy on hateful and derogatory content. This is unacceptable for me and I won't use LinkedIn until these terms are restored. https://opentermsarchive.org/en/memos/linkedin-removes-transgender-hate-speech-protections/

2025-06-26 23:46:59 UTC

Tanuki-chan loves to roll on her back and tussle with me. She acts very fierce, but she's got a soft mouth and is actually very gentle. #DogsOfMastodon
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2025-06-16 01:09:08 UTC

Sunset at UMass Amherst #SilentSunday
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/114/690/363/925/529/815/original/49a4401d2e96a860.jpg

2025-06-13 13:39:58 UTC

The contact form on my website is basically only ever filled out by robots, so I added a checkbox that says, "I am a robot. Only check this box if you are a robot." https://stevendbrewer.com/contact-me/
Robots appear to find it irresistible.
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/114/676/329/865/031/262/original/d030f88a1e4d92ec.png

2025-06-01 15:25:11 UTC

https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/114/608/796/499/155/646/original/a3336435c7c69756.jpg

2025-05-14 17:25:09 UTC

Sign a petition to re-instate the Register of Copyrights: https://authorsguild.org/petition-to-reinstate-register-of-copyrights/

2025-04-25 15:11:00 UTC

“That’s when I learned why my VPN had gone down. It wasn’t the VPN. Someone had shut off my Wi-Fi,” Jackson speculated. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/04/trump-administration-authoritarianism-fear-deportations-threats.html
This is why you should have all of your important infrastructure connected via ethernet.

2025-04-17 17:57:15 UTC

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Probably *Draba verna*… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draba_verna

2025-04-16 14:58:18 UTC

**#UMassAmherst** posted the announcement of the inaugural Delphi award winners. I am number one! (Alphabetically…) https://www.umass.edu/news/article/winners-inaugural-delphi-leadership-award-announced

2025-04-15 14:10:34 UTC

Cybersecurity boxer prevents unauthorized computer access. #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/114/342/374/177/763/179/original/a594379bb866138e.jpg

2025-04-04 10:38:36 UTC

It's wonderful to see democratic countries that believe in freedom, like South Korea, France, and Brazil, hold corrupt, authoritarian leaders to account. It's enough to make one wish they also lived in a democratic country that believed in freedom.

2025-03-31 01:44:58 UTC

#SilentSunday near Missoula, Montana circa 1988
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/114/254/497/239/534/257/original/6413ae54d0eb7e74.jpg

2025-02-23 02:48:06 UTC

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That winter, the house ran out of oil and all the pipes froze. By the time anyone realized what had happened, the house was a total loss. The value of that house was probably five times the salary of the person who was supposed to be managing it.
There is going to be a vast number of things that the Federal government is supposed to do that aren't going to get done. Someday, perhaps we'll get an accounting of the damage done to the country in the name of "savings."

2025-02-23 02:48:06 UTC

With all of the sudden vacancies in the Federal government, I'm reminded of a sequence of events that happened at my University after a round of budget cuts.
There used to be a little house in my neighborhood that the University had acquired. They rented it out to a visiting academic for a while but then she left. The person who kept track of properties like that for the University left and, due to budget cuts, the position wasn't refilled.

2025-02-17 11:49:49 UTC

The thing that you don't understand about people who voted for the Leopards-Eating-People's-Faces-Party is that they really really like to see people's faces getting eaten by leopards.

2025-02-03 01:40:52 UTC

On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. But they can tell if you're an asshole.

2025-02-02 17:56:20 UTC

#SilentSunday View from Sequoia National Monument photographed using Kodachrome, January 1991.
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/935/569/348/738/149/original/cf5cb0442f21e6e4.jpeg

2025-01-28 20:53:01 UTC

Practically the first thing I did when I became a faculty member was to join the union. Some scientists don't because they believe their work is of inherent, indisputable value. Look at what the current political leadership is saying about science now and see if you still think that.
It's not too late to join the union. Unions can say and do things that Universities can't. And you're legally protected from retaliation when you work on things together with the union.

2025-01-21 01:52:34 UTC

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It was always eye-opening for me when I went back and felt like I was swimming upstream in a sewer of slop and ads. I'm not missing that at all.

2025-01-14 03:36:39 UTC

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I keep telling them and they keep using it with me anyway. :-/ Now I warn them before they begin the procedure that I will be alert and will have coherent memory, just so they don't imagine I won't.

2025-01-14 03:30:45 UTC

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The ones I've had since then have used propofol. That stuff works. I go night-night and wake up in recovery

2025-01-14 03:26:31 UTC

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The first colonoscopy I received used fentanyl/midazolam anesthesia which, I learned, has no effect on me. So I was alert and present through the whole procedure and can remember it all clearly. The prep *is* worse. But when they press on your abdomen to get the scope around corners is real bad. And there's a lot of friction when they remove the scope. A lot!
The bronchoscopy I received with the same non-anesthesia was *much* worse.

2025-01-10 01:26:33 UTC

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I wrote a program once that would take a phrase in a substitution cipher, do a letter frequency analysis, show the proposed solution above the cipher text, and let you propose changes (e.g. type "a=n" and it would put As above all the Ns.) This was back in the CP/M days…

2024-12-25 01:49:37 UTC

I attended a presentation by consultants advising my university about strategies for weathering the coming dark days. https://stevendbrewer.com/strategy-for-dark-days-ahead/

2024-12-20 04:41:05 UTC

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Gandalf actually used a short clay pipe, as described in the Hobbit. These are just fake pipes made by scam artists to get your money.

2024-12-08 02:46:20 UTC

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I love j-pop, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure. The femininity presented by j-pop girls is less packaged than k-pop, but no less artificial. I was particularly impressed by the recent Rosé k-pop song (Number One Girl) for its raw and heartfelt emotion, so different than most of what's on offer.

2024-11-23 15:08:03 UTC

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I'll admit that when I started writing queer fiction in English, I thought pretty carefully before deciding to publish it under my own name. I had come out to my wife (of 40 years) many years ago. But I'd never told the rest of my family.

2024-11-23 14:06:55 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub Do you write under a pseudonym? Would you?
I've only used pen names for writing in #Esperanto. One was Istvan Bierfaristo which @npub1dwe…fxlw and I used to write some possibly funny pieces in Esperanto many years ago. There is still a website with that stuff. I also wrote a piece of epic poetry, "La Romanco de l' Eminentulo," that I submitted under a pseudonym. But I never found a place willing to publish it.

2024-11-20 22:14:00 UTC

I just tried a "Sugar Bee" apple. Wow! And I thought Honeycrisps were sweet! Not as tart as a Zestar, but still a nice balance. I'll get these again!

2024-11-13 10:55:00 UTC

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I learned Esperanto in 1987. When I was a doctoral student, I was too busy to do much with it, but I would write a haiku everyday to share with @npub1dwe…fxlw, At first they were mostly joke haiku (senryu) but, over time, I studied haiku and wrote them more seriously. I published several books with original artwork and English translation. Here is one you can read online https://books.google.com/books?id=V51TBEhTHVYC

2024-11-12 21:12:40 UTC

Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has mistakenly accused me of opening a second account. Currently, my self-published books of Esperanto haiku are unavailable as I push back against this false accusation. It's a nightmare trying to deal with these big platforms that use automated tools that generate false positives.

2024-10-22 16:15:14 UTC

fantome palaj, funkioj ekforvelkas… same kiel mi / ghostly pale, the hostas wither away… just like me #hajko #haiku #esperanto
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/351/962/364/914/742/original/db5f192fed34e0ec.jpg

2024-10-21 12:48:24 UTC

Tanuki-chan has learned that she can peek through the crack of the refrigerator door to see if you're getting out something good for her. #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/345/486/392/870/607/original/da76e588b2ab1a05.jpg

2024-09-24 00:25:05 UTC

I wrote a bit more about the Head in the Clouds Amherst calendar (and how to buy it) and included the other photos I had submitted. I think they're all pretty good. https://stevendbrewer.com/head-in-the-clouds-amherst-calendar/

2024-09-18 12:48:42 UTC

Someone has a chew, and all is right with the world. #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/158/631/602/187/731/original/c33bf3602bb2e412.jpg

2024-09-17 19:24:43 UTC

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The Mossad killed someone with an explosive phone back in 1996: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/hezbollah-pager-explosions-if-caused-by-the-mossad-would-be-a-big-escalation

2024-09-15 12:44:46 UTC

Someone has a dirty muzzle. #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/141/628/207/880/800/original/f2394cfd4c9d2f51.jpeg

2024-09-08 16:10:00 UTC

Children don't go to school and come home a different sex. What happens is they gain enough confidence to tell others what sex they were all along.

2024-09-08 14:14:27 UTC

subita silent' inter la arbopintoj… falinta cikad' / a sudden silence among the treetops… fallen cicada #hajko #haiku #esperanto #SilentSunday
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/102/341/759/547/165/original/bc19b2b523660f98.jpg

2024-09-01 21:47:19 UTC

There is little that Tanuki-chan loves more than going for a ride in the car. #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/064/489/911/215/814/original/c7917781540058d4.jpg

2024-08-28 22:20:33 UTC

Come get the ball! I won't suddenly snatch it up! Trust me! #DogsOfMastodon
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/113/041/970/396/581/752/original/f07761512345bad2.jpg

2024-08-13 16:42:35 UTC

murmuras fontan' sub bunta rubandaro… arbara ripoz' / a fountain murmurs beneath an array of colorful ribbons… forest repose #hajko #haiku #esperanto
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/955/704/831/952/511/original/bf89ae37faf09283.jpg

2024-08-12 21:12:09 UTC

I went to Hawley Bog with @npub1dwe…fxlw and his wife. We saw sundews, pitcher plants, cotton grass, and lots and lots of sphagnum moss. #Mosstodon
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2024-08-04 15:08:23 UTC

Doe and twin fawns at Fifth Street, in Southwest Michigan. #SilentSunday
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