Now I am become Jeff, the destroyer of Whorls

Spanked, not punched. We spanked the monkey.

Geesh... I forgot how much double entendre is involved in that game's name.

Fingers crossed! (and hugs to you as well, you need them)

I think I just got the same one. They must be spamming everyone to try and get that 0.1% who will click on it.

It takes five minutes to leave a comment. Please help save our forests.

If you haven't checked out Trollbreath 7 yet, there's an amazing story by Amy Kitcher, right before mine, "The Messenger of Budapest" about a pigeon who brings messages back and forth between sentient statues in Budapest. Deep work on memory, resistance & history.

@trollbreathmag.bsky.social

It's a truly wonderful story and it has that "rule of three" that can work so well in good fantasy tales. And it'll be freed from the paywall on May 8th for everyone to enjoy!

Trollbreath Magazine Issue 7, Spring 2026 Free Fiction Fridays 3/6 The Messenger of Budapest 3/13 Istani 3/20 A Study of Cats in Low Gravity Mining Stations 3/27 "Icarus, in Darkness" & "The Comet" 4/3 We Die in Snowfall 4/10 Ghosts of Rouyi 4/17 Inheritance 4/24 "Descent" & "and a pocket full of posies" 5/1 Schema 5/8 The Frayed Edges of Souls 5/15 The Physics of a Gunshot 5/22 On the Subject of Moonwhites Image of the Trollbreath Troll in the bottom left corner, background is gold fading to brown from upper right corner to lower left corner

Here it is, the lineup of Free Fiction Fridays from issue 7!
magazine.trollbreath.com

My latest story is out today in Trollbreath. Cats in space! (sort of).
Lots of good stuff in this issue. Plus, it's cool that each issue starts things off with an interview of the artist - in this case, Aimee Cozza.

I know, right? :)

She kept saying the world was "6,000 years old," which is why I asked the question about dinosaurs, which I had learned were millions of years old. I think that was the first time I ran into a religious belief at complete odds with science and facts.

I've seen WAY more since. 🙃

I open adopted agnosticism, although deep down I knew I was atheist. But admitting that at the time in the United States was difficult given the political climate.

But yes, I'm atheist. And it started at nine. 15 was when I broke from the church officially.

END

He really disliked being reminded of his own words. He finally said "if you wear it, you can't come to church."

I said, "Fine. I won't come to church."

My mom, bless her, took my side. "No one's telling my kids what they can do." One of the few times she agreed with me on a religious topic.

He called my house after school on Monday, and spent 45 minutes trying to convince me the earring was a sin. Insisted "people might think you're gay."

Meaning HE thought I was gay and wanted to "save" me.

My answer: "I don't care. God knows what I am."

He hated that answer. 4/?

My sophomore year, we all got earrings (boy's team). In the 80's, it wasn't that acceptable for men to have earrings, and when the pastor of my church saw me wearing it, he decided he needed to intervene.

Mind you, my mom HATED the earring. Because reasons. 3/?

But I was 9, what did I know? Mom and dad made us go to church, so I did. And I was super into it at the time, the way I was learning anything. I can still recite all the books of the Bible. Kids are impressionable, and I just as much so.

Then I hit high school and joined the cross country team 2/?

I got an earring.

Okay, back up. I was already questioning religion since my Sunday School teacher told me, when I was nine, that dinosaurs were "never real" and their fossilized remains were "God's way of testing us."

I was super into dinosaurs at the time, and her answer felt so wrong. 1/?

I'm going to recommend an older title, "To Say Nothing of the Dog," by Connie Willis, who remains my favorite SFF author of all time. It is the perfect time travel romantic dramedy of errors novel, which I've only read oh... seven times now?

You know, I haven't seen this much email spam since the late 1990's. My email accounts are getting flooded lately, and lots of it lands in the inbox instead of the spam folder. I suspect email providers have been cutting back on backend spam protections (enshittify for the win!).

9 Games (or 10) - Jeff Reynolds 10 Games

The whole "9 very important games to me" convinced me I needed to wrote a new blog post, looking back at a list of games from 1999 that someone thought worthy of remake (and if they ever were).

www.trollbreath.com/2026/03/06/_...

A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council

Norway for the goddamned win.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...

It was a surprisingly detailed and deep game for 1987. Star Trek with the serial numbers filed off. I also played the sequel (though not as much), and a few of its immediate descendants, like Star Control.

I consider No Man's Sky as near to a modern spiritual successor to Starflight as any game.

9 very important games to me
my9games.com

I'd might have included Gran Turismo 3, or Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I should definitely have included Battlefield 1942, which I made mods for and which influenced my choice of degrees.

There's just too many I've loved to include on one list.

One down, about 500 more in this feckless, corrupt administration to go, including the one at the top.

Take all the trash out.

There is no way in fucking hell they intend to create newer, better, higher paying jobs. That's the lollipop they dangle in front of you, hoping you'll believe the lie one more time. They want to slash salaries and benefits to the bone, because all they care about are profits.

Remember that.

How can you tell?

Well, are wealthy industrialists/tech lords making you pie in the sky promises about your wages and benefits... again?

That's how you can tell. It's the same lies they've been spewing since the industrial revolution began.

Gig lords have promised for two centuries that their "revolutionary technology" will create new, better jobs. Every time, real good jobs are wiped out and replaced with shittier options.

The Managers are itching to replace you. AI is just the latest excuse to make workers beg.

The promise of AI: "Amazing artwork! Plus, it will liberate us from drudgery!"

The reality of AI: "You must carefully scan every image and video to determine if it's real because everything is fake now. Oh, and also all the good jobs are dead, all that's left is drudgery with no benefits."

Fortune Magazine headline for an article says "Bernie Sanders' billionaire tax would soak about 900 people to fund $3,000 checks for the middle class."

Fortune clearly didn't get the memo when they wrote this headline. Here's the accurate one:

Sanders' Billionaire Tax would restore $3000 In stolen wages to Working Families, making a first dent in the affordability crisis.

Does that make Godzuki the teenage gothic-angst form?

It's the best farmating, Rachel! The blest! Teh belestest!!!!

No, an AI-focused "Windows 12" is not coming this year — here's the plan A new report has caught the internet's attention, claiming that Windows 12 is coming this year and will be a modular, AI-powered OS. Here's why that's wrong.

There's been some rumors swirling about "Windows 12" releasing later this year and being an all AI based operating system with a subscription payment model. Seems that was itself AI slop, but the backlash to such rumors will hopefully remind Microslop that we despise generative AI in our products.