Make A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul!

National Poetry Month continues!  I saw this recently, and it seemed like the perfect companion piece to Shel Silverstein's Invitation.  Here is a Monstrous Manifesto by Catherynne M. Valente.  Stand up!

Thank you to everyone who voted!  Even if the race wasn’t as close in your area, your vote made a difference.

Here is a neat thing to think of forever: look at “maximum room occupancy” signs — they are everywhere in offices and hotels and restaurants and shops.

If you see one at or around 63, take a good, long look at how physically small the room is!

May this haunt you forever should you think “my vote doesn’t matter. Even though I can vote, I won’t.”

Via

I love this idea!  However, I think you could do Midsummer Night’s Dream if you start and end the play outside (or next door, whatever) and use the large, labyrinthine coffee shop from Tempest for the woods.  Bonus points if the mechanicals do Pyramus and Thisbe as if it were set in a coffee shop!

Coffee shop AU, except the original media’s setting is otherwise largely unaltered – it just has a coffee shop in it now, or the nearest remotely plausible equivalent.

If you don’t think this makes a difference, look at what the Minnesota legislature accomplished so far this year:

Set up free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students

Implemented automatic voter registration and a number of other reforms to increase voter access

Made abortion access and reproductive care a fundamental right

Provided up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave

Banned conversion therapy and made Minnesota a safe state for trans people

Indexed school funding to inflation

And much, much more

Our cities, our states, our country -- they can do this, too!  The Minnesota legislature isn’t filled with perfect people, but it has enough people who are willing to work together to get things accomplished.  

Vote for people who will make progress.  If you don’t have that option, vote for people who won’t push us farther back!

We are not going to let that fuckwad DeSantis gain a foothold in the 2024 election.

You are going to fucking vote for Joe Biden, and you are going to give us a fucking chance to save our country from fascism, and you aren't going to fucking complain about it, because there is literally no other choice.

We will not let another election be a close call. Are you listening?

Vote for Biden. Vote for whatever Democrat is most popular in your local elections. Our system sucks, but this is what we're working with. Just fucking vote.

Sad but true.

Thank you!

Thanks to the person who sent me The Patriarchy Isn't Going to Smash Itself from TeePublic!  (Hooray for geeky, nerdy goodness with strong females!!)  Unfortunately, the package arrived without any indication of the sender. :(  If you let me know who you are, I will happily shower you with direct appreciation as well as indirect.

This is so frustrating.  Have any of you wondered why your local library doesn’t have eBook versions of your favorite book?  It’s crap like this.  All of the major publishers (and their subsidiaries -- so this covers a lot more books that you might think) put some sort of major block between libraries and their eBooks.  This can include jacked up prices, limits on the number of checkouts, limits on how long a book can circulate before the library has to buy it again, embargoes, or some combination of those.  Oh, and in most cases, the library can only check an eBook out to one person at a time.  If several people want to read it, they have to wait, or the library has to “buy” multiple copies.  (Yes, even if the limit is on the number of times a book can circulate.  Doesn’t that make sense?)

What do I mean by jacked up prices and limits on use?  Let’s take a look at some books that are popular now, just as examples!

The President is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton -- $90 for libraries to buy the eBook.  You can get it on Kindle for $14.99.  You or the library can buy the hardcover print version for $15 or less.  For that matter, you could buy the print version, read it, and give it to the library.  That’s right out for eBooks.

The Outsider by Stephen King -- just $20.99 for libraries.  That’s not too much more than the $14.99 Amazon is charging people.  However, the copy that you buy (probably) won’t disappear after 12 months.

The Other Woman by Daniel Silva -- $28.99 for libraries.  Again, $14.99 for ordinary mortals on Amazon.  Do you think you and your friends could read it more than 26 times?  Not if you’re checking it out from the library!  After 26 checkouts, it goes away.  But it’s still limited to one reader at a time -- even if ten people want to read it today (and use up almost half of those checkouts), they have to wait in line to get it.

Feared by Lisa Scottoline -- Are you ready for this?  $60 for libraries AND it goes away after the earlier of 52 checkouts or 24 months.  (Still just $14.99 on Amazon for individuals though!)  

I could go on and on.  (Just ask my family and friends who have gotten to hear this rant in person!)  I just checked the top 5 New York Times bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction.  All of the eBook editions suffer from these higher prices and/or restrictions on use for libraries.

Why?  Because we cut into sales?  Libraries buy a lot more print books than eBooks, even now, but we get discounts on the print editions.  Publishers know that library sales mean more people reading their books and reviewing those books, talking them up to friends, buying them for family members, even buying their own copies later.

Because people might crack the DRM on the library’s eBook?  It’s possible.  However, it’s probably easier with a regular commercial copy because library eBooks are actually locked down more than individual eBooks.  You can’t access an eBook that you’ve checked out once the loan period is over -- it’s automatically “returned” to the library.

Could libraries spend their money on smaller publishers that are less restrictive?  Absolutely!  However, those eBooks aren’t on the bestseller lists.  They usually aren’t the ones that our patrons are asking us to buy.

I’m afraid I don’t have a great way for individuals to make a difference.  (Mostly, I just wanted to rant because this is a topic I find extremely frustrating.)  Joining Readers First and letting publishers know that you support libraries will help.  Being patient when your local library can’t get the books you want as an eBook is great, too.  If you have a way to talk directly with someone high enough in one of the big publishing houses, let them know that these restrictions hurt libraries, hurt readers, and ultimately hurt sales of eBooks.

Tor Publishing Issues a 4-Month E-Book Embargo on Libraries, Cites Retail Sale Concerns

If you’ve been to the library recently, you might have noticed something strange. New e-books from Tor Publishing are nowhere to be found. Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu. Cathy Clamp’s newest novel in the Luna Lake series. The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark. All missing. That’s because Tor is refusing to let libraries have them.

Several library organizations and advocacy groups, including the American Library Association and ReadersFirst, have come out against Tor’s embargo. In a phone interview with io9, ALA president Loida Garcia Febo expressed her concerns that it could mean more trouble for libraries and their relationships with publishers, taking into account how hard they had to fight to get e-book access in the first place. She also said how unfortunate it is that the embargo is targeting sci-fi and fantasy readers, given how dedicated and passionate they are about the written word.

It’s horrible that this is necessary, but I’m glad there are people who do it.

Three cheers for these guys [x]

Among others.

And every other sexuality

I think most of the people following me know me well enough to know that I’d be fine with questions, but I’ll reblog just in case.

I feel like a lot of people don’t want to ask questions they have about gender/sexuality to LGBT people because they don’t want to offend them because we talk about cishet people asking stupid or intrusive questions a lot

But actually when you’re questioning it’s really helpful to be able to ask some ‘stupid’ questions although you’re too afraid to

So can y'all LGBTQIA+ people reblog this if you’re totally fine with people asking questions about your gender/sexuality, as long as they do so respectfully