Sterf, perhaps

@msteph.bsky.social

237 Followers 732 Following

@mstephm's June 2026 reads cover collage from Storygraph Provenance, Ann Leckie Translation State, Ann Leckie Radiant Star, Ann Leckie The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith On the Calculation of Volume, Vol. 2, Solvej Balle, trans. Barbara J. Haveland The Need, Helen Phillips The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell Unravelling, Karen Lord
Photo of a southern Arizona desert ridge with a tall saguaro, a bushy mesquite, and a bunch of scrub. A palm peeks into the foreground and the sky is scraped with thin scruffy clouds.
Screenshot of @mstephm's May 2026 Reads Weather, Jenny Offill Slow Gods, Claire North Wilder Girls, Rory Power Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie Ancillary Mercy, Ann Leckie
@mstephm's April 2026 Reads Cover collage of: Evil Genius, Claire Oshetsky The Employees, Olga Ravn An Everlasting Feast, Tamar Adler Frankenstein, Mary Shelley What We Are Seeking, Cameron Reed Full Speed to a Crash Landing, Beth Revis Poor Deer, Claire Oshetsky The Membranes, Chi Ta-Wei
Close-up of lilac buds and leaves
@mstephm’s March 2026 Reads Cover images of: Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina, Zoraida Cordova The Fortunate Fall, Cameron Reed The Hounding, Kenobe Purvis Catherine House, Elisabeth Thomas The City in Glass, Nghi Vo
@mstephms's February 2026 Reads Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir When the English Fall, David Williams When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamin Labatut Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
@mstephm's January 2026 reads from Storygraph Strange New World, Vivian Shaw The West Passage, Jared Pecacek Agency, William Gibson Automatic Noodle, Annalee Newitz Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino
Ebay listing for "Horse Whistle Solid Brass Dispells Evil Warning Gold Pendant Jewelry" for $20.00 with Free Delivery
Photo of a Collins glass filled with ice and cola and a pink straw. Lego flowers are in the background
mstephm’s December 2025 reads cover collage Universality by Natasha Brown There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm Pattern Recognition by William Gibson A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi On the Calculation of Volume Pt 1 by Solvei Breen Tilt by Emma Pattee The Compound by Aisling Rawls Queen of Swords by Jazmine Barrera
Storygraph Month Summary @mstephm's November 2025 Reads Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt Your Name Here by Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik
Circle sticker with the Pittsburgh skyline that reads "I VOTED N'AT!"
Storygraph cover collage for @mstephm's October 2025 Reads The Writing Retreat, Julia Bartz Will There Ever Be Another You, Patricia Lockwood Grave Importance, Vivian Shaw Death of the Author, Nnedi Okarafor Certain Dark Things, Silvia Moreno Garcia How High We Go in the Dark, Sequoia Nagamatsu Remember You Will Die, Eden Robins Graveyard Shift, M.L. Rio The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy
Illustration of a dark-haired woman with a That Girl flip, wearing a red textured dress, pink gloves, and orange heels. She holds an orange chainsaw in both hands like a handbag.
I live in Portland, Oregon, where protesting is a municipal pastime. Still, some people are more likely to protest than others. We expect to see the young and nonconformist at a protest; we expect to see the friend who never shuts up about politics in his Facebook posts. It’s great that they’re there, but it’s not surprising. You showing up to a protest might be. Are you not particularly vocal about politics? Do you have a comfortable job or home life that’s not directly threatened by Trump in any obvious way? Do you have lots of other things you could be doing instead? Great! That makes you the perfect kind of person to send a message by joining a protest.
A collage of book covers: Dreadful Company by Vivian Shaw The Last by Hannah Jameson The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab The Sky Is Yours by Chandler Klang Smith Endling by Maria Reva Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
-Ability to critically analyze and articulate what distinguishes high-quality poetry
LinkedIn job posting for Mercor for "Poet United States" and says the pay scale is $100/hr-$150/hr.
Photo of a pale woman with a swoopy thing happening in the front of her mostly brown hair.
Close-up of a manuscript illustration of a monk(?) holding a speech banner(??) wrapped behind his back. It looks like he's lunging, but his head is turned back and up, making him look very dynamic.
"Takeaways by Bloomberg AI The author is confused by current trends, such as Labubu and Dubai chocolate, and notes that kids and adults alike are baffled by many of these trends. The backstory of many current trends, including why they exist and how they became popular, is not material to their popularity, and some seem to have no backstory at all. The author suggests that the current trend environment is driven by the logic of the social internet, where stimulation is the primary attribute required for a trend to spread, and that this has led to a culture of instant gratification and impulsivity.
An incredibly perfect grey cat
Photo of a chocolate chip cookie in a plastic clamshell that once held he and his brethren. It looks like the cookie has a Winnie the Pooh face.
The top half of a person’s head with tiny black antlers
A photo of a saguaro on a ridge, against an achingly blue sky.
Sketchy pen drawing of a taco shop
A somewhat faded photo of a piece of a jaw and some teeth.
Reddit headline: "Hormones left. Sanity followed. Now I'm just vibes and violence."
The following comments: Commenter 4: I'm often a hostess, and depending on what the balloons said, I'd be charmed that someone brought something unusual and fun over. Also, deflated balloons aren't exactly jamming up the capacity of our landfills. Commenter 5: Partially inflated balloons go like hotcakes on buy nothing! Thinking the only option is the trash feels like a niche thing Commenter 6: it may seem like that to you but fun is definitely not niche. This way of thinking is decidedly NOT fun.
Comments from a Strategist post: Commenter 1: As a hostess I wouldn't expect my guests to bring me anything, and I'd happily thank them for anything they did bring. But if I got balloons I would secretly think it was rude as hell. Wtf am I supposed to do with them when she leaves? I'll put it in the trash, and now what a waste of material that's just going to sit around in a landfill. Thinking balloons are nice to have seems like a very niche thing that only a few people would share. Commenter 2: Yikes! I was going to comment "you must be fun at parties," but given this comment I'm pretty sure you've never been invited to one. Commenter 3: This is such a tired brand of comment, someone needs to come up with an alternative if people are going to keep responding to reasonable concerns in this manner.
A video of a small round puppet head with googly eyes and a sparkly crown.
Illustration from a pizza box of a round lil red guy with skinny arms and legs and big eyes. I'm a meatball reads the text arched above their head.
A one-page zine titled INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS BELONG HERE and including information on securing electronic devices, carrying copies of immigration documents, and sharing your information with trusted contacts.
A sketchbook page with bluish m, pinkish, yellowish, and purplish circles and rectangles with ink drawings of distorted faces over them. Be
Ad asking us to "Join Senator Dave McCormick & Dina Powell McCormick Senator John Fetterman & Gisele Barreto Fetterman Saturday March 29 Pittsburgh PA" Circular photos of both couples, cover of a book titled Who Believed in You?
Drawing of a woman in a 1960s style formal dress, with a pink bodice, purple waist bow, and aqua skirt. She has a dark beehive hairdo and is holding a highball glass with brown liquid in one hand and a knife in the other.
An email to newsroom@fetterman.senate.gov Subject: Unable to contact Senator; is everything ok? Hello, I am a citizen from Pittsburgh and I've been trying to contact Sen. Fetterman's office to share my thoughts on the vote for cloture on the Continuing Resolution in the Senate today. Unfortunately, none of the Senator's offices are connecting to anyone, not even voicemail! I'm becoming concerned! Is everything all right? The news phone number has also been disconnected! Has Sen. Fetterman's office been hit by DOGE cuts?? I do hope there will be a statement soon to clarify that all is well in the Senate! Best, [signature cut off]
Two cats sitting on a windowsill, with leaves visible outside. The grey cat on the right is visible, while the black cat on the left looks like an impossible shadow.
A pair of hand-knit socks in a white, blue, and burgundy color way.
The foot part of two socks on a circular needle, in a cream colored yarn variegated with blues and burgundies. One stitch marker is in the shape of a tiny Smiley cookie from Eat & Part, one stitch marker is in a keystone shape and reads STEEL CITY.
A small printing press, about a foot tall, made of a light-colored wood.
Hello again from Pittsburgh! I'm writing today because I've seen many suggestions for the best ways to reach one's representatives to express citizen concern over the actions currently happening in the federal government. Most say that emails are ignored and calls matter most. In addition, your office does not accept faxes. While I understand that running a senatorial office must be incredibly complicated, I can't imagine not accepting emails in any office at this point. If I decided to ignore the emails I receive in a day, I would not be doing my job at the most basic level. I'm going to keep writing because it allows me to think through exactly what's happening and why it is wrong. Right now, NIH grants are being withheld from valid, approved, and necessary research endeavors because the administrators are more scared of Musk's little flunkies than they are of the United States Courts. That's weird! This truculence seems, again, like cruelty and performance rather than a righteous effort to reform government spending. This is punishment for the people who are less willing to go along with the kleptocracy in motion right now. I've heard exactly nothing from you, Senator, in the news. Pennsylvania relies on NIH funding for employment, innovation, and building a future for everyone. I call on you to stand up for health and our future. Talk to you again tomorrow!
PRELUDE THIS IS THE ROOM of the wolfmother wallpaper. The toadstool motel you once thought a mere folk tale, a corny, obsolete, rural invention. This is the room where your wisest ancestor was born, you Christian, Arab, or Jew. The linoleum underfoot is sacred linoleum. Please remove your shoes. Quite recently, the linoleum here was restored to its original luster with the aid of a wax made from hornet fat. It scuffs easily. So never mind if there are holes in your socks. This is the room where your music was invented. Notice the cracked drumhead spiked to the wall, spiked to the wolfmother wallpaper above the corner sink where the wayward wife washed out her silk underpants, inspecting them in the blue seepage from the No Vacancy neon that flickered suspiciously out in the thin lizard dawn. What room is this? This is the room where the antler carved the pumpkin. This is the room where the gutter
Hello again, Senator! It’s Stephanie from Pittsburgh again, and I’m still absolutely livid that Elon Musk’s lackeys are in positions within government buildings that put our sensitive personal information at risk. It’s so strange that you haven’t made a statement on this situation—are you ok with unauthorized personnel having access to your own information? That of your family? I would think that even if you have less concern for your constituents, you’d want to protect your own interests. It’s really strange that you don’t want to protect anyone, really, other than the Li’l Muskies dismantling systems. It makes me wonder if you know what’s happening at your own job. I’d love to hear directly from you why you aren’t concerned and what you think is happening in, for example, the Treasury. I’m sure the news would also love to hear from you!
A pair of grey striped socks, still on metal-tipped knitting needles, lies on the keyboard of a laptop. I'm also watching Bob and Jujubee on Dungeons and Drag Queens and Bob is wearing Malificent horns.
Screenshot of a Temu ad showing a Vintage Wooden Entryway Cabinet and 1pc Portable Metal Tool Box. Neither image has any context for the size of the objects.
Screenshot of the M-W post that reads "spaghetti"
A colorful plate holds an Indian fry bread with beans, ground beef, salsa, and crema
Drawing based on the Ditchley portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, but she has a black bob and is holding a cigarette in one hand and a syringe in the other. Captioned: Court Fiction
Photo of a light-skinned woman wearing a grey knit cap, glasses, and earrings that are a doll-sized hand reaching out.
A drawing of a woman with pale skin and orange hair in a short flippy bob. She wears a blue shirt with woven pattern and a green skirt, sunglasses, and green shoes, and holds a mallet.
A drawing of a woman with pale skin and brown hair, wearing a orange top in a mid-century star print, orange box-pleat skirt, and green pumps, and holding a rolling pin.