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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

@hiyaaya.bsky.social

300 followers 310 following 1.4K posts

Writer, reader, consumer of culture, an occasional voicer of opinions. Sometimes, I like to make up words. You can support me on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/ayavandenbussche

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 4d

I write a lot about reading Terry Pratchett, because I love reading and I love learning. Have a read, and if you like it, you can buy me a Ko-fi (or share and spread the word).
#Discworld #BookSky 💙📚🪐📚
#writing
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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · Sep 2

I thought I'd create this thread to occasionally share more realistic writing life of a slow-to-start, but still a writer. You know, for posterity 5/5 #writing #realisticwriting #writerslife

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Reposted by Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · Sep 2

Sometimes you realise you're a writer late in life, after you thought you were all kinds of other things. This means that you weren't born with a pencil in your hand, instead you spent a long time learning how to write, and by the time you become a writer, no one uses pencils anymore. 1/5 #writing

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 1h

I just lost a huge amount of edits and corrections I made, because I have had an argument with technology about saving my text, and technology won. Which words should I count? The ones I lost or the ones I am now trying to recover? Both? Another reason why counting your words is stupid. #writing

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · Sep 2

Also, who decides the daily word count? Based on what? If there are days you can't write because you have a day job, or family and friends that need you, do you get kicked out of writing club? 4/5 #writing #realisticwriting #writerslife

Reposted by Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 16h

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 5h

The university of Oxford is older than the Aztec empire. However, unlike the university of Oxford, the Aztec empire is the only pre-modern civilisation that provided education for both boys and girls.
Things I learned from reading Eric. #Discworld #terrypratchet 📚💙🪐📚
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What I Learned From Eric

Aya Vandenbussche published a post on Ko-fi

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 15h

He's never 71, is he?! He's gorgeous.

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 18h

The autographs on vegetables prize task at the beginning series four of Taskmaster is quite possibly one of the best prize tasks. 😍

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 1d

Thank goodness for interviews like the one he did with Jo Brand, which keeps the podcast worth listening to.

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 1d

The AI bits in the Adam Buxton podcast feel lazy and cheap. It's not funny and it's definitely not worth the damage it's causing. It feels like a desperate attempt to remain relevant in all the wrong ways, and it fails.

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 1d

This is particularly upsetting when he has great guests like Sam Campbell, Louis Theroux, and Tim Key, all of whom can 'generate' great, funny, engaging content all by themselves without destroying the environment with shitty AI bulshit.

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 1d

I love Adam Buxton. I think he's a great interviewer, charming and lovely. This is why I get genuinely angry when he uses AI in his shows as a light-hearted jovial bit. I hate it so much that I find myself shouting at the podcast.

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Reposted by Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 4d

New post about Eric, where I learned about the real Faustus, the Aztecs and the wheel, and about sandwiches, obviously. #Discworld #teerypratchett #booksky #writing 💙📚🪐📚
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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting. Lede was the one word I didn't really understand in today's connections, not being a journalist and all. (I still got them 😋)

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 1d

Thing I just learned. “Lede” as in “bury the lede” is a deliberate misspelling of “lead”. It’s part of a lexicon of misspellings used for annotations by journalists and subs so that notes on copy are removed, rather than included in the body of the text by accident. Others include “dek” and “hed”.

Reposted by Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

David Ziggy Greene (Jam bookshop) @jambookshopuk.bsky.social · 2d

A cool charity in Hoxton that teaches & gives disadvantaged kids skills in filmmaking has asked me a question:

Any female animators want to take part in a mentorship programme they run?

They've been doing good work for 25+ years.

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Reposted by Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 1d

A great article from Rachel, who really understands the heart and soul of Dad’s work.

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 2d

When I was doing my MA, my tutor did not want to approve my dissertation because he did not like Terry Pratchett (it was about Feet of Clay and the Golem, amongst other things). I changed my tutor, got a distinction, and was published in an academic journal.The snobbery of it infuriates me.

DiscordianKitty⭐ @discordiankitty.bsky.social · 2d

Pratchett's books are some of the most intelligent, insightful and well-written literature of our time. The idea that it's not appropriate for adults is such an unbelievably shallow take it actually manages to outdo the Kemi Badenoch thing.

Padraig Reidy @padraigreidy.bsky.social · 2d

My probably-get-me-banned-from-Bluesky take is that a 45 year old woman saying her favourite author is Terry Pratchett is embarrassing for everyone concerned

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 2d

Please excuse me while I go scream into a pillow. It's the only way I can handle the kind of ignorance that makes people think that fantasy is childish or that childish is somehow negative. Urgh!

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 4d

Buy Aya Vandenbussche a Coffee

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 2d

Powerful stuff.

Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 2d

I don't think you're ever too old to read great books. I discovered Pratchett, Ursula le Guin, and Philip Pullman late in life, and I love them. To quote the fourth Doctor, 'there's no point in being a grown up if you can't act a little childish sometimes.'

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Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 3d

Badenoch reading Vimes' Boots Theory of Socio-economic Unfairness and thinking how much more economic growth comes from making poorer people buy cheap boots over and over

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Internet Archive @archive.org · 2d

🐹 Before viral videos on TikTok or YouTube, there was Hampsterdance.

Full of dancing hamster GIFs & a sped-up tune, it became one of the internet’s first viral hits.

You can still dance to it on the #WaybackMachine ➡️ web.archive.org/web/19991222...

#Wayback1T

🧵

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 2d

My talented colleague drew this for a film quiz. Can you get the film?

A series of black and white pen sketches for a pictures round in a film quiz: top left square the number eight with hands, one on its hips one waving in anger, it has angry eyes and a speech bubble with swearing symbols in it. It looks like it's shouting at the cowering number 9. Middle to square the Eiffel tower in top of a piece of map (it's a map of Texas). A man shushing a bunch of lambs. Bottom left: a hunched man holding his back in pain, 'crack' is written where the mac is holding his back, in the background a scenery of mountains. In the bottom right, a bird with a cap holding a baseball bat with glasses, mustache and a tie.

Reposted by Aya Vandenbussche (she/her)

Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 2d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 3d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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Aya Vandenbussche (she/her) @hiyaaya.bsky.social · 4d

God I love Jo Brand so so much! Just thought I'd pop and say that, as I'm listening to an interview with her. I want to be her friend and talk to her for hours. Thank you for your attention, carry on.