I’m Matthew Graybosch, originally from New York in the United States. When I can, I typically use the alias “starbreaker”. I’m a writer and musician by choice, a programmer by necessity, and a metalhead by the grace of the witch. You can reach me at contact@starbreaker.org.
I’m not a polymath; I’m just a working-class college dropout with delusions of erudition.
starbreaker.org is my personal website and digital garden, and I often syndicate blog posts to the Fediverse and to a mailing list. It is mostly readable in ancient browsers. If you’re here it’s probably for one of the following reasons:
- You’ve read some of my fiction and want to see what I’m writing now.
- You’ve read one of my blog posts and want to subscribe for updates.
- You’re interested in what’s on my bookshelf or my stereo.
- You want to know more about me or where else you can find me.
- You’re just exploring the World Wide Web. If so, my button wall and web rings might be of interest.
contents
caveat lector
Any opinions I post are mine unless attributed, and should not be mistaken for my employers' views or those of their clients or partners. Nothing I post here should be considered factual unless independently verified. Read at your own risk.
work in progress
Spiral Architect is a new Starbreaker novel in progress, with drafts available online.
When attempts by a biotech startup to claim artificial humanoids as corporate property draw the Phoenix Society’s attention, they put Morgan Cooper on the case even though he’s supposed to be on vacation. That alone would make it personal, but Morgan himself is a potential target. When the law is no shield, only the sword remains.
If you want, you can always download the current drafts with the following links:
thaumaturgy
I find it amusing to refer to my personal computing projects as dark magic. Sometimes it also amuses me to explain my tricks. These pages are generally works in progress.
recent posts
| date | title | summary |
|---|---|---|
| Adam Winfield Needs a Mirror | This little shit doesn’t realize that he’s one of the “small-souled bugmen” he claims to detest. | |
| Cathedrals on Quicksand | Some thoughts on a recent Minutes to Midnight blog post from the opposite perspective. | |
| Web Environment Integrity: Expectations, Reality, and Entitlement | Google's latest attempt to respectively exploit and protect its dominance in the browser and advertising markets puts the company's effrontery on full display and cries out for the sort of antitrust enforcement not seen since Uncle Sam brought the hammer down on AT&T. | |
| Silence Implies Consent | My efforts to thwart commercial use of my website may come to nothing, but I will make them anyway for my own sake. | |
| They Abandoned Their Children to Fortnite | If children are obsessed with video games to the point of throwing tantrums when they can’t play, I blame the parents. They failed their children, and these children will spend their lives paying the price of their parents’ negligence. | |
| From The Archives | a list of restored posts that might prove of interest to somebody looking for a quick read | |
| Spiral Architect: Patient Privilege | I should be writing this chapter, but I'm not quite ready yet. | |
| No Bottling the Genie Again | As much as I sometimes want to become anonymous again online, I suspect that it's too late for me. Learn from my mistakes. | |
| This is Not My Side Hustle | I got an email from a guy who doesn't understand why I'd run a website without trying to monetize it. My response became a manifesto. Oops. | |
| Stormageddon, Fluffgoddess of the Next Apocalypse | a bit of flash fiction featuring Claire Ashecroft and an AI “on the fritz”. |
featured posts
| date | title | summary |
|---|---|---|
| This is Not My Side Hustle | I got an email from a guy who doesn't understand why I'd run a website without trying to monetize it. My response became a manifesto. Oops. | |
| Creating YouTube Thumbnails with a Shell Script | It's almost as good as an embed, but without Google's spyware. | |
| Party Like It's 1989 | a Web Zero Manifesto | |
| Personal Websites as Self-Portraiture | The personal website is both medium and message, a self-publishing technology and a new visual arts medium, and every website is its operator's self-portrait. | |
| Questions for Your Cast | a brief guide to character creation without prior worldbuilding | |
| Unpleasant Truths About Culture Fit | If somebody wants to discriminate against you when hiring without getting sued, this is the excuse they'll use. | |
| Cobra Kai at Work | a defense of wildcat strikes, legality be damned | |
| The Cop in My Head | All cops are bastards, especially the one in your head. | |
| Making Meaning | inspired by a Gemini post by Case Duckworth | |
| Choose Life? | the problem with video games is that reality sucks | |
| A Decade in Review | a summary of what my life has been like this past decade | |
| Real Sex Education | Compared to what I got in the 1990s, PornHub was an improvement. | |
| Containment, Social Media, and the Dangers of Imitation | Deplatforming wasn't a major issue before social media, and it still isn't even though social media more often creates cacophony than community. | |
| I Want My BSD! | my autobiography as a Unix fan, with apologies to Dire Straits... | |
| Harry Frankfurt: On Bullshit | I've some to suspect that understanding and containing the spread of bullshit is the defining issue of our time. | |
| Turning Forty | looking back from the top of the hill before I go over it | |
| The Definitive Count of Monte Cristo | opinions on Robin Buss' translation for Penguin Classics | |
| Finding the Sweet Spot: Purple Prose and Fire Emblem Fates | What if purple prose, used in moderation, wasn't the aesthetic atrocity that style fascists and writers even more pretentious than I am make it out to be? | |
| C.L. Moore: Queen of the Pulps | one of the great 20th century originals and a worthy heir to Mary Shelley | |
| I Know I'm Fat. Did You Know You're An Asshole? | I don't want or need your acceptance. You can think whatever you want; just don't make your prejudice my problem. | |
| Programmer Passion Considered Harmful | I might have been drunk when I posted this on Medium, but I meant it and I stand by it today. | |
| Review: The Winter Boy | I had gotten a free copy in my World Fantasy Convention 2014 book bag and had the pleasure of meeting Sally Wiener Grotta and attending a reading. | |
| Derelict by L. J. Cohen: a YA Worthy of Heinlein | a review resurrected and expanded from the archives; I had bought the book and gotten my money's worth | |
| Post-IPO Facebook: Echoing the Dot-Com Boom | From my archive, a prophecy that went unheard but not unfulfill’d: I saw Facebook's enshittification coming, but didn't think it would be this bad. |
posts in progress
| date | title | summary |
|---|---|---|
| John Daker has seen some shit | a commentary on the Eternal Champion novels by Michael Moorcock | |
| Spiral Architect: Synopsis | a summary of where I intend to go with my next novel | |
| Persona 4 GOLDEN | I played the original on the PlayStation 2, and I'm feeling nostalgic. | |
| Living for Pleasure - an Epicurean Guide to Life | notes on Emily A. Austin's book about the Greek philosopher Epicurus and his teachings |
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If you can read this, you probably don’t need glasses.