Ed Stern
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edstern.bsky.social
Ed Stern
@edstern.bsky.social
3.3K followers 1.1K following 1K posts
Basic Prog Brit Woke Remoaner Centrist Dad.
He/Him, Bi, ADHD, the usual.
Former Splash Damage game dev.
Full-Stack Narrative Designer/Game Writer available for hire:
https://www.sternword.co.uk/
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edstern.bsky.social
VERY much that kind of day.
Photo of some rather battered chairs, such as could be found in an under-funded community hall. Nevertheless, they persist, keeping bums off floors, sometimes stacking when there are sufficient of any one type to form a tower-cohort. Keep on keeping on, old chairs.
December 7, 2025 at 6:37 PM
edstern.bsky.social
YOU SEE? IT’S ah actually nothing like ok sorry false alarm
Image of the Michel Granger’s cover art for Jean-Michel Jarre’s 1979 album “Oxygene”, picturing a human skull overlaying a fractured planet Earth, which doesn’t look nearly as similar to the previous O’Keefe painting as I’d hoped.
December 5, 2025 at 3:06 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Get in, loser. We’re going to cache some sunflower seeds.
Photo of a surprisingly determined-looking hamster resting upon a human hand.
December 2, 2025 at 8:06 PM
edstern.bsky.social
This, by @ianmcque.bsky.social and @rossignol.bsky.social, is one of the most beautiful things I own. It’s infuriatingly good.
Photo of artist Ian McQue’s gorgeous book “Mileships”
November 29, 2025 at 10:21 AM
edstern.bsky.social
An arse of a day so breaking out the big guns.
A cheering reminder that there’s also joy and excellence.
A screen grab showing a mobile app playing the “Miyazaki’s Spirited Away” episode of the Blank Check podcast.
November 25, 2025 at 7:18 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Photo of wet green artificial turf lying obliquely on various sodden brown wood chippings, forming a geometric image, like unto a damp national flag. Another photo of bright green artificial turf lying on brown damp muddy wood chippings, this time arrayed horizontally. The general impression is of a tissue-thin layer adorning a bottomless quagmire, as spiritual as literal. What even are we?
November 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
edstern.bsky.social
At the winter fair.
A photo of muddy, wet metal planking.
November 22, 2025 at 12:28 PM
edstern.bsky.social
So I no longer comprehend maths for seven year olds.
A school poster demonstrating a subtraction sum with the “subtrahend” subtracted from the “minuend”, terms the author has never seen before and fears, as one would fear serpents, or being smote with fire.
November 19, 2025 at 11:11 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Bovril really did have some unbeatably Victorian weird-grim advertising slogans. I somehow get Alan Moore vibes off these.
Nineteenth Century advertising image reading “THE TWO INFALLIBLE POWERS: THE POPE & BOVRIL” Nineteenth Century advertising image proclaiming “BOVRIL BY ELECTROCUTION” portraying two stupefied oxen about to be electrocuted by men in frock coats, somehow in human-shaped electric chairs. Advertising image proclaiming “The important thing is IT MUST BE BOVRIL…Bovril is British to the Backbone”
November 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Bovril Castle, OBVIOUSLY.
Photo of a blue plaque on a stone building, reading “John Lawson Johnston 1839-1900 Inventor of Bovril Owned and lived here at 'Bovril castle' Kingswood House” Photo of Bovril Castle, a fairly grand stone building in a severe Victorian neo-Gothic style.
November 15, 2025 at 10:28 AM
edstern.bsky.social
Fonctione!
Political sign reading “Zorro for Los Angeles” Political sign reading “Oh for fuck’s sake”
November 8, 2025 at 8:39 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Dese guys gonna hallow your weens right up.
Photo of two vigorously if inelegantly carved pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns, lit internally by candles, luminance thence issuing forth from their facial apertures. One looks mean, the other malevolent and brutal. For a pumpkin, that is.
November 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, finna work out if he’s peckish or just thirsty.
Selfie of middle aged bearded white man (the author), wearing glasses lightly accessorised with crude cardboard cut-out very mildly reminiscent of classic Marvel Comics character Galactus, styled “Devourer of Worlds” due to his unfortunate planetophagic dietary habits. The overall effect is one of leaden whimsy.
November 1, 2025 at 3:39 PM
edstern.bsky.social
I mean, sure.
Photo of greengrocer basket of potatoes marked “SPOOKY POTATO MIX”
October 31, 2025 at 11:11 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Found the fabled lac de guac.
Photo of a large pond completely covered in green pond weed, thus appearing to be about thirty tons of guacamole.
October 25, 2025 at 7:07 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Hypnotoooooaaaaadddddd
Photo of a large colourful swirling psychedelic graffiti painting of a frog or toad, its face obscured by a circular mat patterned with concentric circles as if radiating hypnotic energies.
October 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Mods asleep yet?
Close up blurry photo of bright-eyed pet hamster inside tastefully appointed cage.
October 21, 2025 at 9:15 PM
edstern.bsky.social
The hamster wheel wasn’t spinning right so I took it apart and the ball bearing races seemed knackered so I need replacement parts so I got out my little plastic vernier callipers and checked the interior and exterior dimensions and this is my life now and it is in every way about the small things
Photo of man’s hand holding a black plastic vernier measuring tool to check the interior diameter of a rusty-looking ball bearing unit taken from a hamster’s exercise wheel.
October 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM
edstern.bsky.social
We recently established that dragon fruit is Not All That.
Photo of kitchen chopping board bearing knife and roughly sectioned exotic-looking dragon fruit, with bright magenta exterior scales, green and yellow leaves and a white interior flecked with tiny black seeds, barely gnawed upon.
October 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM
edstern.bsky.social
From Christian Wolmar’s brilliant history of the US railways “The Great Railway Revolution”, this is like a parade of writing queues for a farce competition.
Screengrab from Christian Wolmar’s excellent history of US railways “The Great Railway Revolution”, on Nineteenth Century luxury railcars. “…to marble baths, hidden safes, Venetian mirrors, an open fireplace burning balsam logs [this was John Pierpont Morgan's] and even an English butler to supervise the car's private cellar and the Lucullan output of its kitchen'. J. P. Morgan's efforts, though, were bested by the train built for the railway baron Jay Gould (of whom we will hear much more in the next chapter), which consisted of four coaches, one of which housed a special cow to produce fresh milk with just the right proportion of butterfat to meet the needs of the ailing magnate's digestive system. A doctor, too, was permanently on board. But neither the proximity of the cow nor Gould's precarious health prevented every evening from being an occasion, with guests expected to don full evening dress and the whole train teeming with footmen, butlers and ladies' maids, all in appropriate uniform. While the service in Pullman cars may have been solicitous in the extreme, that was not the case for those unfortunate enough to breathe their last in one of Gould's cars. The company rule was simple and immutable. The corpse had to be taken off at the next station stop, even if there were no undertaking facilities there. The conductors, more humane than their employers, were on occasion known to break the rule surreptitiously, allowing the deceased and their companions to continue to the next town that had an undertaker's rather than leaving them with the body of their loved one at some godforsaken, lonely halt…”
October 9, 2025 at 6:53 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Temu product description/disclaimer, I feel you.
Screenshot of Temu dimensions image for a pair of socks. Explanation/disclaimer text reads “Socks are all one size fits all and can be worn by adults, suitable for everyone. The measurement of socks is manual tiling measurement, and there may be some errors. Please do not care.”
October 5, 2025 at 11:13 AM
edstern.bsky.social
I think I just made the flop from old young guy to young old guy. It’s good. Especially considering the alternative.
Selfie photo of author, greying beard, glasses, flat cap, red fleece jacket, standing in front of a shed (not his, but it fits the genera old guy/dad vibe)
September 30, 2025 at 11:09 AM
edstern.bsky.social
SOON I SHALL JUST BE BIG CHIN
Selfie showing author, a bearded balding man in his fifties, whose beard appears larger than is usual or permissible or entirely safe.
September 19, 2025 at 5:21 PM
edstern.bsky.social
Phrysalisesesssesssss
Close up photo of a paper bag full of bell-shaped orange phrysalis flowers.
September 16, 2025 at 9:26 AM
edstern.bsky.social
Do pomegranate seeds freeze? Is this going to be my superpower origin story?
Photo of lots of bright red pomegranate seeds lying on shiny gold-coloured baking paper. The colour clash is pleasingly riotous.
September 14, 2025 at 6:28 PM