{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Photos on F L O T I S S E R I E", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2026/32/1504092.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/", "feed_url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/04/testing-a-new-feature-i.html", "content_html": "

Testing a new feature I created using a mix of open source code and Claude, hoping I didn’t break my own site. I pulled together a dynamic link library using a Hugo partial and some shortcode that automatically catalogs all of my outbound links into sortable lists.

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\"A\"A\"A\"A

\n", "date_published": "2026-04-04T10:36:44-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/04/04/testing-a-new-feature-i.html", "tags": ["Higher Ed","Blogs","AI","Platforms","Photos","AI in Practice"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/03/06/applying-a-claude-writing-skill.html", "title": "Applying a Claude writing skill", "content_html": "

LLMs have a default house writing style with identifiable patterns: sentence fragments for emphasis, “not X, but Y” constructions, lots of hard contrast, atmospheric openings, heavy use of em dashes, and heavy use of marketing language. This reflects the semantic construction of an LLM. Custom instructions can override these defaults. A custom skill is a set of instructions within your account that modify how the model generates text. When you paste instructions into your profile settings, Claude reads them at the start of every conversation and adjusts its output accordingly.

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I began using Claude daily for light writing tasks about six months ago, and over that time I started cataloging the patterns I was consistently editing out, including the terrible “not X, but Y” construction that showed up in nearly every response, and persistent em dashes used as all-purpose connectors when other punctuation is more appropriate.

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I went through several iterations of bullying Claude into submission, narrowing the scope each time, before arriving at this version, which focuses specifically on writing mechanics and hard prohibitions.

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You’ll need a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise). Free-tier accounts don’t have access to custom skills.
\n\"\"
\n• Within the app, navigate to Customize > Skills and Create new skills
\n• Select add a new skill and Write skill instructions
\n• Copy and paste the copy from this file into the skill, making note of the name and description boxes. Feel free to tinker.
\n• Save your changes.

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Note: The instructions in the linked file are Claude’s work, not mine. They came out of months of conversation, where Claude would analyze my style notes, and the file evolved from there. They read a little strangely because of that process. If I’d written them from scratch, they’d sound different. But looking at the file you can see what Claude responds to and how it works.

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Claude will apply these instructions to every new conversation going forward. Existing conversations won’t pick up the change, so start a fresh chat to test it. If and when Claude struggles to apply the skill, call it out specifically in the prompt, such as, “Revise this for length using the good writing skill.”

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The skill specifies constraints in a few categories and the instructions are plain text. As you go, you can also ask Claude to analyze previous conversations for suggested additions to the skill, which Claude will produce and implement within the chat. Each rule operates independently, so removing one doesn’t affect the others.

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Claude processes custom instructions at the start of every conversation, before it generates any output. The instructions function as constraints on the model’s default behavior. The model doesn’t always follow every instruction perfectly and the results vary by task. You will still need to edit.

\n", "date_published": "2026-03-06T00:47:00-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/03/06/applying-a-claude-writing-skill.html", "tags": ["Blogs","AI","Platforms","Photos","Writing \u0026 Language","AI in Practice"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/02/19/the-last-time-i-went.html", "content_html": "

The last time I went truly viral was in April of 2020 in the height of the COVID shutdown. I posted a tweet and walked away from my phone. By the time I checked back, my notifications were out of control.

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The next morning, I got a message from an old friend familiar with my handle. “I think I saw your account on Good Morning America?” Hilariously, there I was, and I couldn’t even claim responsibility for the meme.

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I’ve spent most of my time on the internet as a pseudonymous account, using my first name only, or using a handful of handles (incl feministe, fauxrealtho, flotisserie, paired with punny names like “Petty White” and “Frieda People,” a convention from the Tumblr years). Even as a visible personality online, I was only known by my first name and URL and/or handle. In recent years I de- and reactivated some of my socials, so some of these breadcrumbs no longer exist, but I’ll do my best.

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Pseudonymity allows writers to explore complex ideas in digital spaces while protecting their identity, location, and other identifying factors, while also maintaining a throughline of identity and storytelling.

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There are a lot of trade offs in using a pseudonym, especially around how to claim credit for your work. But people use them because they give you the privacy to be honest, real, weird, authentic, and to escape the creep of modern social media presence into high stakes spaces like the workplace. This dynamic was kind of the impetus behind the era of “weird Twitter,” where people using pseudonymous social handles routinely threw out funny, absurdist one-liners to impress their friends and followers, while taking a turn at the social media slot machine. Not every post or joke lands in a way that converts to numbers, but some do, and it’s fun to try.

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I’ve written a little previously about how the English program I was a part of used fiber arts to illustrate the fundamentals of technical writing, but one of their other methods of teaching the internet was through board games. Games, like the internet, and much like writing, provide rules and structure for communication and engagement, but everything that happens inside the container of game board and game play is a mystery until it emerges through human interaction. So goes the internet (and to some extent, so goes AI). Games and gaming were used as a method to think through what it means to create rules of play, then let a community rip through the model – and many of the thinking and skills involved around game design apply in social digital spaces, from chat rooms and Teams channels to the open seas of the WWW. The longer you’ve been playing the slot machine, the more you get a feel for the kind of thing that will get seen and read, and who among your readership will take your content to the next level.

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Why does it matter? Because understanding what “works” to make ideas travel further online, the more you can tap into it. Big Tech is under fire right now for amplifying some of the worst impulses of the internet, by cranking engagement algorithms to exploit messages that produce outrage. Yes, big emotions create virality, but so do relatability and sharability.

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So back to the meme: here’s how it went down.

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The meme was a list of six hypothetical celebrity households: pick one to quarantine in.

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It had been circulating on Facebook, started by a Christian influencer named Savannah Locke. I encountered it deep in a Real Housewives fan group, and felt the pull of a good parlor game. In April 2020, everyone I knew was sitting at home, fretting about the COVID-19 pandemic looming over all of us, so I shared it with minimal ceremony, a couple of buddies with a slightly larger following hit retweet, and within two days the tweet was being cited by The Cut, Time, the Washington Post, CBS, and others. Know Your Meme documented it for posterity. Several outlets named me as the originator, but trust, I was only trying to delight my friends with low grade Facebook content. I couldn’t find the original meme at the time – Locke appears to have had a name change that scrambled my search. But hey, as these things go, nobody earned a dime or promoted anything weird, so no harm, no foul. Business Insider managed to credit it correctly, so a special kudos to their editor.

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The core game mechanism behind the meme is forced choice: constraints generate opinions and opinions generate activity. Each “house” also represents a personality type. House 3 is chaos, House 6 is aspirational, House 5 is the one where someone is definitely cooking and someone is definitely yelling about it. The choices are arbitrary, which invites curiosity about who grouped what and why. In short, this meme offered a light conversation starter at the right time, with low stakes, high personal reveal, and endlessly discussable combinations. It also drew from existing memes and games that are popular online, like “where you sitting” in the proverbial lunch room. This one became news because of the timing and gamability, not because I was particularly clever, but hey.

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What does it feel like to go so viral? It’s hilarious, strangely affirming, and also a little crazy-making. It opens the door to a whole lot of wild people and ideas on the internet, not all of them flattering or welcome. Virality is sometimes paired with incredible harassment and requires “more condolences than congratulations.” But as far as this particular experience went – hilarious, whoops, and wow. It just felt like a Lebron James, Post Malone and Jennifer Aniston hang would be a good time.

\n\"A\n", "date_published": "2026-02-19T16:14:15-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2026/02/19/the-last-time-i-went.html", "tags": ["Art and Craft","Blogs","AI","Gender","Photos","Digital Rhetoric"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/11/11/posting-about-my.html", "title": "🧶 Wonky Star quilt ", "content_html": "

Posting about my latest quilt for posterity. This is a “wonky star” quilt using 10” precuts, measuring about 60 X 70”. I completed the sides last night and will hand quilt all of it with a mix of big stitch quilting.

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\"Wonky\"Back\"Quilt\"\"

\n", "date_published": "2024-11-11T10:52:03-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/11/11/posting-about-my.html", "tags": ["Art and Craft","Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/09/25/been-playing-with.html", "title": "Ephemera", "content_html": "

Been playing with micro.blog for a bit now and very much recommend the experience. The interface is friendly and the team behind the app is ultra responsive. My fav features are Bookshelves - and the ability to push new posts to Bluesky and Mastodon.

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In other news, I got a new bike.

\n\"Totally\n", "date_published": "2024-09-25T20:22:08-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/09/25/been-playing-with.html", "tags": ["Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/02/22/halloween-quilt-finally.html", "title": "Halloween quilt, finally ", "content_html": "

I finished my latest quilt on my birthday, a Halloween quilt made from precuts (no pattern) that I started in 2021? 2022? I don’t know how old it is. It’s been languishing.

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I don’t love shoving a huge quilt through my lil sewing machine, so I still hand quilt these puppies using 6-strand embroidery floss. It’s hard on my hands but gives the final quilt so much texture and weight.

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These photos are of the quilt fresh out of the washing machine. Super crinkly and cat-approved.

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\"Large\"\"

\n", "date_published": "2024-02-22T13:46:07-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/02/22/halloween-quilt-finally.html", "tags": ["Art and Craft","Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/02/01/v-proud-of.html", "content_html": "

V proud of myself because, despite going to the quilt store yesterday and getting everything BUT what I went there for, I found enough batting scraps to put together a quilt sandwich and began hand quilting it last night. She’s going to be cute.

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\"\"\"\"

\n", "date_published": "2024-02-01T10:08:39-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/02/01/v-proud-of.html", "tags": ["Art and Craft","Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/01/09/big-fat-snowflakes.html", "content_html": "

❄️ big, fat snowflakes ❄️

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2024-01-09T15:34:05-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2024/01/09/big-fat-snowflakes.html", "tags": ["Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/11/23/looming-projects.html", "title": "Looming projects", "content_html": "

I was invited to submit to the pop culture fiber craft show at Gallery 1988 again this year. Last year I sold a large Kris Jenner meme quilt. I was delighted to be included and nervous about how my work would be received, and was chuffed to be one of the first artists whose work sold.

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I immediately took that money and bought a rigid hettle loom. I had recently taken a class and loved it, and also needed a new way to use up some of my growing yarn stash.*

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I’ve had the loom in a box since this summer and finally got it put together this week.

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It took me a book, several hours and Youtube videos to properly dress the loom, and I got it mostly put together - with some tension issues, but good enough to start weaving - last night. I would guess I’ve had the yarn I put on it for twenty years, and it feels good to finally put it to use while I get started.

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I’m still debating what to do for this year’s show. I want to do a Dril quote, but I’m also thinking of something more commercial. 🧶

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-11-23T15:22:30-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/11/23/looming-projects.html", "tags": ["Art and Craft","Blogs","AI","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/29/cat-in-a.html", "content_html": "

🚨 Cat in a basket 🚨 🐱

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-10-29T21:40:02-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/29/cat-in-a.html", "tags": ["Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/26/here-are-some.html", "content_html": "

Here are some pictures of my cat sleeping like a weirdo. 🐱

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\n", "date_published": "2023-10-26T12:27:15-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/26/here-are-some.html", "tags": ["Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/24/my-daughter-is.html", "content_html": "

My daughter is into block printing at the moment, so I am too. I started carving this shrimp past weekend without a plan, and now I wish I had some background to it, so I’m going to play with making a second stamp that implies water. A shrimp’s gotta shkrimp. 🎨

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-10-24T12:18:26-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/24/my-daughter-is.html", "tags": ["Art and Craft","Blogs","Photos"] }, { "id": "http://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/23/im-a-new.html", "content_html": "

I’m a new poster posting.

\n\"\"\n", "date_published": "2023-10-23T18:08:14-05:00", "url": "https://flotisserie.micro.blog/2023/10/23/im-a-new.html", "tags": ["Blogs","Photos"] } ] }