Alex, the Hearth Fire

Technical writer by day, novelist and yarn dragon by night. Spoonie knitter, hopepunk poet, queer Jew avoiding the news. Multiclassed into warlock for a living wage. Married to Canageek (npub16w3…ehy5). I am the hearth fire, not the Molotov cocktail. #nobot

Pronouns: he/they
Gender: dragon wizard
Tea preference: green
Website: https://wizardofdocs.neocities.org/obscure-joys

Last Notes

2026-04-24 15:58:21 UTC

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one syllable or two?

2026-04-24 14:53:37 UTC

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I did my linguistics undergrad in Pittsburgh, and briefly considered picking up "yinz" but decided it was too location-specific. If I'd stayed there, I definitely would have.

2026-04-24 14:37:10 UTC

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I use it IRL (PNW/western Canada), because it feels like a queer thing to me here. It's more gender-inclusive than "you guys."

2026-03-29 00:06:01 UTC

#Seattle folks:
I'm moving out soon, and looking to give away a bed and a couch to somebody/ies who can come pick them up the week of April 6. What are the generally accepted hashtags for #BuyNothing sorts of deals?
(adding them as I learn them) #FreeCycle

2026-03-26 01:05:06 UTC

so I got laid off again, for stupid AI-pilled reasons.
Anybody need a writer or editor with:
- 8+ years of technical writer/content strategist experience, mostly in software
- One published short fiction anthology (as editor)
- A master's degree in sociolinguistics
- A knack for learning new content management systems
- A love of working with invested SMEs
- A basic understanding of web dev
- Strong boundaries
- An aversion to generative AI?
Prioritizing remote work in Canada.
#GetFediHired

2026-02-22 16:55:15 UTC

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Sound symbolism: in a lot of languages, "ee" is associated with small/sharp/hard things, and "oo" and "oh" with large/round/soft things.
Advertisers use this a lot: consider Cheezits (a cracker) vs Oreos (a cookie).
I can get into more kinds of sound symbolism if y'all want, but here's the really weird thing: A recent study found that this particular distinction isn't unique to humans, and I'm hoping to see more science about this in the future.
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-bouba-kiki-effect-baby-chicks.html

2025-07-25 14:04:43 UTC

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What are some sites you wish everybody knew about?

2025-07-15 15:28:10 UTC

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though if anybody needs documentation for their FOSS project and lacks the spoons/skill/motivation/etc, I'm between jobs and looking for Things to Do

2025-07-15 15:17:26 UTC

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counting myself as "into FOSS" even though I'm not a programmer because I now have two computers running Linux

2025-06-01 18:23:30 UTC

Wrath Month is the other eleven months of the year. This is Pride Month.

2024-12-24 16:25:54 UTC

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I get that this is real inside-blaseball stuff, but the silly names have got me interested
(also just wanted to make a blaseball joke because we're here making a weird evil twin of normal math by adding Ls to things)

2024-12-24 16:20:28 UTC

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gotcha.
Is there a lemniscatic SOH CAH TOA equivalent I can use to better visualize sline and cosline? (is there also a tanglent?) Or is that just a right triangle inside one lobe?

2024-12-24 06:12:48 UTC

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are sl and cl pronounced sline and cosline? or sline and closine?

2024-09-10 23:44:34 UTC

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is that why they keep getting bigger

2024-05-10 05:36:07 UTC

https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/415/164/344/758/557/original/38e410351fab8fa1.jpg
https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/112/415/168/534/874/073/original/0dcc2e12cd164094.png