One if by land...
Perfect protest. No notes. Preserving for posterity. As seen on Reddit.
Latest
My Dinner With Andre Lunch With Carl
Let it not be said that I have a problem with the English. I don’t. They’re a lovely people—clever, polite, and adorned with delightful accents that sound like they were born in velvet robes and Oxford libraries. I find those accents hilarious, not in a mocking way,
The Code Basically Writes Itself: Using the Modern G(PT)LAMP Stack
At my last job, I built a web app called Central, and I loved it like a firstborn. It was a sleek, efficient, under-documented monstrosity that pulled customer data from disparate sources and unified it into a single, moderately coherent interface. Sales could use it to figure out why people
Leaving Amazon is Expensive
For the longest time, Amazon was all a self-published author really needed. Upload your book, let them assign you an ISBN, and boom—you're published. Simple. Easy. Almost too easy. But now that I'm stepping outside the walled garden and going wide, I'm running
March in Black and White
Daniel Dislikes: Razer Leviathan V2: Multi-Driver PC Gaming Soundbar with Subwoofer
If you're in the market for a nice soundbar to shove beneath your monitor to keep things nice and tidy, may I recommend you stay the hell away from the Razer Leviathan. Yes, it sounds fine. Yes, it has pretty colors that dance along to the music. But
Vinestead International Employee Bulletin
Issue #98-01 | January 1998 | For Internal Distribution Only Hello Team, Welcome to another edition of the Vinestead International Employee Bulletin, your official source for updates, reminders, and a few friendly words to help guide us through Q2 of FY98. As always, we remain committed to transparency, efficiency, and the continued
An Oral History of the Margate MESH
by Frank Gattis, Junior Aggregator, Banks Media Productions The more things change, the faster they change. At no time in our history was that more true than in the years between 2018 and 2026, when America and most of the civilized world were almost brought to a technological standstill by
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
For Readers
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,
Black & White Stories
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
For My Writers
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
For My Fellow Patriots
How to Add Your Participation in the January 6th Perfectly Fine Gathering to Your Resume Now That You've Been Pardoned
🫡 You're a patriot, and you deserve recognition. 🏆
Flashes From the Verse
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
For My Fellow Job Seekers
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
For My Political Activists
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
For Readers
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
For My Political Activists
Repost: Breaking Up With Amazon (2014)
Cool Daniel doesn't cotton to companies kowtowing, bending the knee, kissing the ring, or otherwise putting profits over morals to appease the human equivalent of a rotting Arby's roast beef sandwich.
For My Fitness Fanatics
This Workout Could Have Been a Cake
Cool Daniel believes in physical fitness and has decided to return to the only fitness option that doesn't technically promise it works: Orange Theory Fitness. Granted, it's a decent, colorful theory: spend an hour lifting, running, and rowing three times a week and just see what
Flashes From the Verse
Protector of the Faith
Cal Emerson was in bed, lightly treading the border between wake and sleep, when the call came in.