Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social

Writer, father, daydreamer. Not very good at Twitter. #amediting and I do #vss365 on the daily, follow for fantasy/sci-fi flash fiction.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@KokopelliBFree How bizarre! 🤨

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

I am 100% sure I was exhausted when I last added to my WIP because I do not understand what the Christ I was on about with some of these sentences.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@OhMyEmz It's immense. I haven't been this excited by an entire album in ages, and the fact we didn't get any singles beforehand was a great choice IMO.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

I have no notes, this is what living should feel like

[ENTER SHIKARI @ENTERSHIKARI]

the new album LOSE YOUR SELF out now.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@fizzyfizzytwiz @lizzyjperkins ‘DogeReeveElon’ 🤢 what a moron. Reporting them.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@allenns_art Everybody turning up from their notif

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@Bulbagarden It's got to be Golurk. Automatons built to serve as labourers and protectors of an ancient people, running on an unknown and unstable source of energy that's thought to be a perpetual motion machine...sick.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

Muted sky. Flat, lurking twilight taking its time.
Perfect. The best days to burn a little fuel.
Jae fired up the makeshift launcher in her back yard. Wasn't up to code, but she hadn't been caught yet.
Flying over the #overcast, she was free. Nothing could dull her here.
#vss365

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

Muted sky. Flat, lurking twilight taking its time.
Perfect. The best days to burn a little fuel.
Jae fired up the makeshift launcher in her back yard. Wasn't up to code, but she hadn't been caught yet.
Flying over the #overcast, she was free. Nothing could dull her here.
#vss365

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

I think it's so essential NOT to drop the books you read as a kid just because you've grown up. Remembering how your love of reading started is too powerful to discard.

What books from your childhood do you still revisit now?

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@bernardtjoy Quite surprised at the overwhelming answer. Important, maybe, but 'essential'? I suppose it depends on the tradition.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

Depends. If the book itself is the blood, sweat, and tears of a beautiful but penniless soul just shooting their last shot out into the world, and the AI cover is to make up for no money to pay a commission, then maybe not.

Otherwise it's a massive turn-off.

[Morina Imelda ❤️ @justfredimelda]

Will you refuse to buy a book with an AI generated cover providing that everything else is human written? #writingcommunity

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

I join the stream and slip into its warm embrace.
My skin feels cloth; my mind, tepid void.
Here I #mediate myself, exploring the depths without aim or purpose or time.
Each pearl I find is unique, but I clutch none, let them drift away.
Until morning sun dredges me back.
#vss365

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@blsamaddar I understand this need completely. Social media feels more draining than ever. We need to keep our distance and protect our minds. See you when you're ready to come back 😊

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@KMFollett Yes, but has to be stuff without lyrics. Chill lo-fi or smooth jazz. Otherwise I'll get drawn into actually listening!

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

@aki_korhonen @exec_sum Think what could be done with $80bn... ��

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

Yeah and how come da Vinci gets all the credit for the Mona Lisa when his paintbrush made the painting, not him?
Strip Stephen King of all his royalties, they belong to his laptop.

[Youssef El Manssouri @yoemsri]

@ToonHive A photographer owns a photo even though the camera took it. That argument is coming and it's a good one.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

One last visit to the Speaker of the Forest before its cycle drew to a close.
Its eyes milky with #cataracts, it could only vaguely follow my movements.
Meandering words ventured into nonsense, but I listened patiently, nodding slowly.
Held its paw until the final breath.
#vss365

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

The 'best performers' were the people who waited for the brand/manufacturer keyword and just forwarded their caller over to that business's line instead.

It was just endless churn that created a cycle of anger by it's very design.

[Ethan Lee - @ethan-lee.bsky.social @ethandavidlee]

Worked in their customer service centre many moons ago, back when it was 'Team Knowhow'.

You were given KPIs that heavily revolved around customer satisfaction (lmao) but also time spent on calls.

So, totally resolve stuff, but also do it rapidly. Absolutely impossible task.

[Charles Archer @that_stocks_guy]

#ConsumerRightsAct #Currys #KnowYourRights

A rant for @currys, who are currently breaking the law.

Normally I'd let it go, but your customer service is a shitshow and your desire to wash your hands of the faulty items you sell is illegal.

On 10 October 2025, I walked into your Exeter shop and bought a PCSpecialist computer.

This was the birthday present for my 12-year-old.

A present they'd been dropping hints about for months with the subtlety of a child who remains terrible at poker. They'd saved their own pocket money towards it. I topped it up.

It was, genuinely, a lovely moment.

For four months, it was perfect. Homework. Games. The full experience of being 12 in 2025.

On 22 February 2026, four months and 12 days after purchase, it stopped working.

No final farewell.

It just… stopped.

My child sat there pressing the power button with increasing desperation, and nothing happened. The machine that had cost a significant amount of adult money, and a not-insignificant amount of 12-year-old pocket money, was dead.

Fine, I thought.

This is what a receipt is for.

I'll call Currys (the shop I bought it from, with my money, as a birthday present for my child) and they'll sort it.

Your staff told me that my contract wasn't with Currys, and that I should contact the manufacturer.

They also told me to go in-store with the machine to have it looked at.

I went in-store.

The in-store staff told me to call the number I had just called.

I called again.

I was given the phone number for PCSpecialist.

Phone → store → same phone → manufacturer.

A perfect circle of not helping.

A masterpiece of redirection.

If it weren't happening to me, I'd almost admire it.

Now let's talk about the law, because I think someone at Currys may have forgotten it exists.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is not a suggestion.

It is extremely clear on this point: when you buy something from a retailer, your legal contract is with that retailer.

Not the brand on the box.

Not the manufacturer.

Not some third party you've never met.

The shop. The one that took your money and handed you a receipt.

Within the first six months of purchase, the law presumes the fault existed at the point of sale.

I don't have to prove the computer was faulty when I bought it. Currys has to prove it wasn't. The burden of proof sits entirely with them.

During this window, I am legally entitled to a repair or a replacement, and if either of those fails, a full refund.

We are currently inside that six-month window. I bought it on 10 October 2025. I complained on 22 February 2026. I am four and a half months in.

The law is not ambiguous about what happens here.

What makes this particularly spectacular is that Currys' own published policy acknowledges the six-month framework.

It is written down on their website. They know the rules.

They have typed them up and put them on the internet.

They are simply hoping that their customers are too tired from the runaround to actually enforce them.

PCSpecialist are entirely blameless in this story. They manufactured a machine.

Currys sold that machine to me.

My dispute is with Currys.

Directing me to PCSpecialist is the retail equivalent of Tesco selling you a gone-off chicken, and when you try to return it, handing you the farmer's phone number.

The farmer didn't sell you the chicken.

You don't have to knock on the farmer's door.

You go back to the supermarket.

This is not a controversial legal position. It is just how shops work.

My 12-year-old has been without their birthday present for a few days now. They have been, I have to say, considerably more gracious about this than I have.

They haven't complained. They've been patient. They are, in this situation, the bigger person — which is a sentence I never expected to write about a primary school leaver, but here we are.

They shouldn't have to be patient. They should just have a working computer.

So this is where we are, @currys.

I know my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

But before I go down the small claims court route, and start contacting every journalist in my network on a slow news day, I am giving you the opportunity to do the right thing, in the hope that public accountability is more efficient than your customer service helpline.

A child saved their pocket money for this. Sort it out.