Brendan Halpin

I'm EGGBoston#6595 on Discord if you wanna invite me to your server. Check out bhalpin.gumroad.com for pay-what-you-want ebooks! And if you're the last one out of Twitter, make sure to turn the lights out!

Boston's Charter Schools in Crisis. Original reporting by me! #MApoli #Bospoli #MAedu brendan-47137.medium.com/bostons-charte…

@MassPolProfMo better.boston

What Mastodon server do you recommend?

@bportersailing Love to have a functional health care system!

My doctor's office didn't offer paxlovid or even tell me to get it. But it's INCREDIBLY easy to access. Send this link to folks in MA who might need it. Free telehealth appointment, free Rx. Took me about ten minutes. mass.gov/info-details/f…

@katemicucci @netflix It's a fantastic episode--funny and deeply unsettling. The effectiveness of the whole thing hinges on your performance. All the phases of the character's journey felt completely authentic. Really great work.

Out today! On @netflix!

BTW, I do have a Discord server where cool people talk about music and movies and books and food and drink. Good vibes only. DM me for the link

So: me being off Twitter is not going to sink the platform. But I won't be contributing to Elon's right-wing dystopia. I won't be feeding the lie that this person is some kind of genius. It's not much, but it's what I can do.

A lot of my attempts to live closer to my values center on this question: "Am I contributing to harm?" I can't stop most kinds of harm by myself. But I can try not to contribute.

@melnickjeffrey1 I'm gonna say go ahead and do it. It's not gonna cost you anything and might get you some new readers. If it sucks and it's unlistenable, well...it's no worse than the current audiobook, right?

OK people: I just heard from the press that published my first book (which is now old enough to drink!) that they want to produce a "machine learning" generated audiobook of it if I give the go ahead. Yay or nay?

Ugh, so the Musk deal is actually happening, huh? Well. Start dropping those Discord/Mastodon/Whatever links!

Further (and hopefully final) thoughts on yesterday's Matthew Perry thing. Addiction is a disease. Being an asshole is not. Addiction intensifies assholiness, but having your addiction in remission doesn't cure you of being an asshole. They're ultimately separate problems.

Saw Better Off Dead on a first date, which was actually pretty awesome. Got dumped after Jagged Edge, which, looking back, seems pretty appropriate

What Josh said! (Also: thank you!!)

@linuxlibrarian Thank you! Yeah, I'll take this yucky taste over serious complications. Fun-sized halloween chocolates haven't done anything for the taste, but maybe I just haven't eaten enough yet

@bhalpin My mother in law said it was a pretty vile side effect and she chewed a lot of gum, but she figured it beat the shit out of more serious symptoms. She was feeling better pretty quickly. Hope similar for you

Paxlovid update: they warned me of a bitter taste in my mouth, and hoo boy do I ever have that.

@HillaryMonahan I feel like he must not have any friends. Cuz if he did, one of them would have told him to take the anti-Keanu stuff out. It's just so spectacularly dumb.

@matress_island Well, Leno was actually considered edgy in the 80's. But by season 9 he hadn't been edgy for years

@RookTheBird @sdhouseholder45 I don't. The NP who prescribed it said the same thing, tho

@sdhouseholder45 @bhalpin Do you have any literature about Paxlovid protecting against Long Covid? I can’t get my doctors to listen to me.

Well, I held out for 30 months, but I finally got covid. Vaxxed, boosted, bivalent boosted. Feels like I have a bad cold/mild flu, which is a good deal but still not tons of fun.

@normwilner So sorry to hear this.