@seanpatrickphd@mastodon.social
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seanpatrickphd

@seanpatrickphd@mastodon.social

#DataScientist, #poet and SF/F #writer.
#Neuroscience PhD, electrical #engineering B.S.
#nonbinary - please call me Dr. or they/them.
🏳️‍🌈 #bi #asexual

Profile pic: A portrait in profile of a person with a dark beard, green-dyed mohawk-cut hair, and round glasses looking to the right, painted in bright neon colors.

#nobridge

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seanpatrickphd, (edited ) to random
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I'm currently looking for employment in data scientist or similar ML engineering roles.

I have a Ph.D. in computational neuroscience (reinforcement learning), and a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering. My recent industry experience is in using GP models for HVAC optimization. Most comfortable in Python but also capable in C/C++, Java, and MATLAB. Core competencies include signal processing, technical writing.

Boston/Providence area or remote preferred.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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10/13 How are the beta readers working out?

"Here's where I'd put my beta readers....if I had any!!"

Have not had luck finding beta readers for my writing. The one person who read and gave me feedback on my novel was my dad...who thought it was boring and had too many characters. He tends to read pulpy novels with lots of action so I didn't take that too seriously.

seanpatrickphd, to Anime
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Can anyone recommend some that will give me and my spouse The Feels™? We watched Maboroshi last night and really enjoyed it, and we're now watching Orange with a plan to move on to Your Lie In April after that if we can still take it. We've also recently enjoyed Toradora!, Violet Evergarden, and Your Name.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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1/11: Dream sequences, how do you feel about them?

I love dream sequences. Which is odd, because most of my dreams are kaleidoscopic nonsense. But it seems that some people really ascribe meaning to their dreams, and I simply love the weird other-worlds that dreams bring us to. I'm a fan of Jungian psychology, archetypes and that sort of thing, and I often try to approach dream sequences in my writing as encounters with the collective unconscious.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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NGL, feeling disheartened by the answers to today's that say things to the effect of "you need to be able to feel your characters' emotions to write them well". It definitely touches a private anxiety of mine that I'll never be able to write convincingly because of my neurodivergence or whatever else to call it. People assume you need visceral empathy for a lot of things, sometimes even for morality. I don't think it's true, but I worry that it is.

seanpatrickphd, to Haiku
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individually
a raindrop changes little
yet the flood still comes

seanpatrickphd, to random
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2/12: Where does your antagonist feel safe?

Look, what's the point of a lair if you don't feel safe?

The ruins of Kyiv are littered with murderous robots and the spaceport's underground access tunnels are a labyrinth. The perfect place for the man who destroyed the world to hide from what's left of it.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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2/24 Has reader feedback ever changed the way you write?

Yes, certainly. One thing I have come to appreciate is that most people have a relatively short attention span and need there to be action and direct involvement of the principal characters as soon as possible. My writing tends to wander, most of the people who have read my querying WIP say the first chapter is boring but it gets better later on. Well, I haven't written any more chapters like that first one since.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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"Is this cough from the deadly pandemic or just the wildfires polluting the air" is the most dystopian question I've asked myself in a while

seanpatrickphd, to random
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213: How meticulously do your chars look after their physical appearance? Do they spend time on hair, makeup, grooming, clothing? Why or why not?

Most of the time Catriona's body is obscured by her clothing. She doesn't have any hair, nor does she wear makeup, and she doesn't need to bathe - because she is a living piece of metal.

However, she does pay close attention to the intricate carvings on her skin, which protect her from psychic intrusions; also, her magic jewelry.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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10/1: What's your WIP and what's it about?

There are two I'm kind of bouncing between at the moment.

"Singularity's Edge" (just shy of 10k words so far) is about a bomb disposal robot that gains sentience just as the human world is beginning to collapse. It's dark, and depressing, and not fun to write.

"The Scrimshaw Sorceress" (24500 words so far) is more fun, it's a post-apocalyptic story that takes place about 1000 years after aliens colonize Earth's oceans.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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Do you ever think about the fact that if he were alive today Shakespeare would probably be posting dank memes?

seanpatrickphd, to gaming
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I am utterly dismayed to find out that they've been adding new words to the Scrabble dictionary this whole time. Just lost a game with four (4) unsuccessful challenges on words that were added in the last 20 years.

seanpatrickphd, to poetry
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So it turns out that post about having a blog was enough impetus for me to create a blog. You can find it here: https://seanpatrick.phd/

I'll probably use this platform to host longer posts like sonnets moving forward.

First posts include some I haven't shared here before, including one in dactylic hexameter just for the hell of it.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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2/6 Is there a color in your poetry?

I try to involve colors as often as I can. I love archaic dye words like "helianthine", "alizarin", "indanthrene".

I think the most common one for me is "red" or some variation thereof. The other most common one would be "black". Hmm, reminds me of a song...

https://youtu.be/PT8N98UdBbA?t=145

Anyway, here's a colorful poem I wrote some time back. https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/01/22/ardor-and-ash/

seanpatrickphd, to random
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Finally got a collection of 50 sonnets (+1 bonus "joke" sonnet) put together and edited to my satisfaction. I'm looking forward to this being my first experience, as there's no way in hell a publisher will take a sonnet cycle in 2024.

Next step is cover art...really tempted to try doing it myself.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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Woke up at 5:30 thinking about taxes and I'm really starting to re-think this whole "being an adult" thing

seanpatrickphd, to random
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1/29 Saddest moment, describe + share

I think this one goes to an old novella, "Elegy for Absalom". In a dream sequence, the MC pleads with his dead lover to stay before she leaves him forever to move on to the afterlife.

"Please, even if it means I have to hallucinate about you, if it means I have to live with a projection of you onto the plane of the real, if it means that I can never touch or smell or hear or see or taste your ghost...

I’m begging you. Please don’t go."

seanpatrickphd, to random
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Just sent a letter to a dear friend that ended with some words I am rather proud of.

"I think now more than ever, things like poetry are so important for us to cling on to. Beauty is everywhere, even in the dark places, if one is willing to look for it...I think people have a responsibility to show whatever beautiful things they can find to others. We live in a world that has forgotten its humanity. If we want to be able to live there, we must remind ourselves to be human."

seanpatrickphd, to random
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2/4 What software do you use to write?

I'm boring...Microsoft Word. I'm just so used to it at this point that it's difficult to switch to anything else. I have a copy of Scrivener from nanowrimo, but it just didn't click with me.

I've been tempted to set up version control for my writing but that feels like it would be a) a whole thing and b) self-indulgently nerdy.

I use wordpress for blogging and I have nothing but nice things to say about it so far.

seanpatrickphd, to random
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1/20 Do you have a blog?

No. Social media's the closest thing for me. I've tried to start one a couple of times but never stuck with it. I can't get past the thought that nobody cares what I think.

I'm thinking of putting together a personal website that would have a blog or something like it, but it's just an idea at this point.

seanpatrickphd, (edited ) to random
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Would you ever buy a book of 100 poems for $15 from an unknown author?

seanpatrickphd, to random
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A bit of a personal essay on the blog today, about empathy and faith and morality and how I've come to experience those things. As with most of my writing, I don't know if anyone will want to read it, but I enjoyed writing it down.

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/07/on-the-visceral-experiences-of-empathy-and-faith/

seanpatrickphd, to Blog
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"If I could show the worlds inside of me the world without, how grand the sight would be…!"

Happy ! Here are links to the sonnets I've posted this week:

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/11/sonnet-from-a-common-stone/

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/10/sonnet-for-a-love-song/

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/09/sonnet-for-a-blindfold/

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/07/sonnet-from-a-tormented-writer/

https://seanpatrick.phd/2024/02/05/sonnet-for-catullus/

seanpatrickphd, to random
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I don't know who needs to hear this but if you use a can opener with the blade facing sideways from the outside, instead of facing downward from the inside, you'll never cut yourself on a can lid again

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