A Return to Anonymity

Pattrn itself is not the problem. It’s social media as a whole that needs to go. Every network that has come and gone in the last two decades has promised to revolutionize the way we connect with people. Instead, they’ve degraded an instinct that is vital to our survival as a species.

An Oral History of the Calle Cinco de Mayo Massacre

by Frank Gattis, Junior Aggregator, Banks Media Productions Living in America means taking things for granted. We assume there will always be water to drink, food to eat, and electricity to keep the lights burning. We expect roads to be in good repair, buildings to remain standing, and VNet to

State of the WIP: March 2025

Note to Self: How to Find Your Next Role

Congrats, Daniel. You landed a sweet new role at a tech company in Austin. That's great to hear because you were kinda losing your mind there for a minute, and by a minute, I mean for the last six months. But that's all in the past

The Vinestead Anthology is Leaving Kindle Unlimited

Cool Daniel has a problem with Kindle Unlimited (KU), and as a result, he has decided to pull the entire Vinestead Anthology from the KU program over the next few months. Most titles will disappear on March 24, 2025, with a couple of stragglers following on in May. After that,

Catch the Air

I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

Pixelfed - Like Instagram, but Not Owned by Billionaire Lizard People

I'm really pulling for Pixelfed. The app is lacking, the community is small, but it has an air of... not Meta to it. I've been wanting to write a blog post about how YOU MUST DELETE INSTAGRAM, using all my powers of persuasion and piety to

Daniel Recommends: Micomlan LED Desk Lamp

It would be embarrassing to tell you how many desk lamps I've purchased in pursuit of the one that would make it easy to see my printed-out manuscript and mark it up, but I'm going to tell you an abridged version anyway. I'm not

The Continuing Adventures of X

Rouge data fell through the net, unassembled and out of sequence, riding the currents between the virtual things that were meant to be. The probability of any one of these bits encountering another in a world so vast as the Net was remote but possible. All it would take was

At Least You'll Have Time to Write: Reflections on Five Months of Aggressive Unemployment

I know my friends meant well, but of all the things said to me after I was laid off in August of 2024, at least you'll have time to write was the silliest. I wanted to believe them, and I tried, at least at first, but as the

You Can't Spell Bias Without AI: Identifying the Invisible Guardrails That Shape Its Answers

I recently canceled my subscription to ChatGPT, mostly because I couldn't keep putting money (however minuscule) in the pocket of someone who would try to buy his way into Donald Trump's good graces. It's a sickening act of cowardice that I, sir, have no

Upload Complete: Short Stories

I'm happy to report that I've finished uploading all the short stories I care to share to danielverastiqui.com/short-stories. These include selections from The Sum of Memory, Destination Okinawa, and later stories that never made it into a collection. While I'm happy to