Random stuff I have collected. All opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer. (Icon by Freepik: www.freepik.com)
263 posts
Latest Posts by bibliofran - Page 4
Are you kidding? I’d let my sister slap me if we could split the $1.5 million! I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t seriously injure me, and we could both do a lot with $750,000.
Canada geese are weird. On the one hand, they’ll stand up to huge, scary animals. On the other hand, I’ve seen a whole flock take off when a single small dog runs at them.
This is the Goose of Outrageous Self Assuredness. Take from her example, her ludicrous and excellent poise in the face of bullying, and be confident in your place, your course, your equal validity.
The one and only time I used a voting machine (I don’t remember what brand), it didn’t actually display the votes it registered so that I could confirm them. I think the instructions said that you should be able to see your vote, but that area was blank. Ever since then, I’ve stuck with the paper forms -- at least that way I know that there was a physical record of my vote at some point, and I can confirm that the right spots are marked before I submit the ballot.
Hey there US friends! If you’re voting using these machines (Hart eSlate) or similar ones right now or in the near future, make sure that the machine has NOT changed your ballot before casting it, ‘k? It’s apparently an already known problem, and has been for years, but has never been fixed.
Additional Source: https://abc13.com/politics/straight-party-voters-reporting-their-votes-were-changed/4556377/
If you’re in Wisconsin, go to https://myvote.wi.gov/ to find out if you’re registered, make sure you know where to vote, and see the ballot in advance so you can decide who/what you’re voting for before you go to the polls. Go to https://www.bringitwisconsin.com/ for information about the required ID to vote. Whether you approve of the requirement or not, make sure you have what you need to vote!
You can also request an absentee ballot if you don’t know whether you will have time or spoons to vote on November 6. “Under Wisconsin law, voters do not need a reason or excuse, such as being out of town on Election Day, to vote absentee. Any voter who prefers to vote by absentee ballot may request one.” (https://elections.wi.gov/voters/absentee) Even if Tuesdays are your day off and you want to spend them at home in your pajamas, you can get an absentee ballot and vote!
REPOST @TinySnekComics - you know what’s cool? VOTING THIS NOVEMBER!!! if you retweet anything today, make it is!!
I forgot to reblog this when @awfulhorrid originally posted it! We came home one day to find a flier for a Republican political candidate on our door. Apparently, the “We’re Glad You’re Our Neighbor” yard sign was too subtle. I hope this gets the point across because it’s going to be a little while before we can afford to paint the whole house in rainbow stripes.
Our Flag Proudly Flying
Slowly, but surely, we’re making this house our home. Today I installed a new pride flag (Philadelphia version) on the front of the house. This makes me happy! There’s also a smaller “shadow heart” garden flag with the six color pride rainbow out in the yard.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to fail my saving throw on Minority Monsters again. They’re just so adorable! I already have the hardcover edition, but the softcover is going to have some updated sections. It also helps fund an audiobook version, and I know people who could use that.
If you missed out on the hardcover Minority Monsters, consider backing this Kickstarter to get the softcover edition! How can you resist Queen Ravishment the polyamorous dragon and all the others??
I’m doing a giveaway of 4 MASSIVE monster plushies to celebrate the mini minority monsters book kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/khaoskreator/mini-minority-monsters)
To enter just comment with your favourite monster or share this post. No limit to entries but don’t be a spammer. KS Backers get automatically entered!
Winners gets chosen randomly when the kickstarter ends 29th september, 1st winner gets first pick and so on. Make sure your dms are open so I can contact you!!
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.
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.
@ladythmpr (Just in case you need another reminder!)
Have you taken your medication today? Do you need a refill soon? A new script or referral? What about a phone background to remind you? This kitten’s got you covered! 👌
This is kindof weird. My likes and pictures from my posts and reblogs were on there, but it removed them pretty quickly when I went through the remove page. @awfulhorrid discovered that it made browser security add-ons (like Privacy Badger) light up with warnings, and they saw some fishy things when they looked at it more closely. Bleah.
tumblr mirrors on ‘photosugar’
So idk if others have noticed this before - but it’s the first time I’m seeing this, hence the post.
There’s a website, https://www.photosugar.com, which apparently mirrors all pictures, gifsets etc. people post on their tumblrs (and also other social media sites like twitter and instagram, if I understand it correctly). An eample for a tumblr user, with my name: https://www.photosugar.com/tu/lordhellebore
Now it won‘t turn up anything but a 404 error in my case, because I sent an e-mail to the contact address, which is darius@photosugar.com with the title “My content on your website”:
Hello, it’s come to my attention that you are mirroring all of the posts containing pictures/gifs that I post on my tumblr. I am asking you to stop pulling the content from my tumblr and to delete me from your website. tumblr username is „lordhellebore“ Thank you.
I got a reply consisting of the single word “removed” after just one day, and as you can see, it worked perfectly fine with the informal mail I sent. So if you want them to stop mirroring your tumblr, it seems all you really need to to is this.
I can’t test the site for all of my mutuals, but I’m tagging a few whom I found on there by random trial & error, and I suggest you look yourself up if you see this post and dislike tumblr mirrors (even if this one is only for pictures, not text).
@janiedean, @ladytp, @vaysh11, @lunavagantt, @einemelodieimwind, @robb-greyjoy, @youbuggingme, @ysilme, @rex-luscus, @bai-xue, @viendiletto, @electricalice, @contessa-de-leusse, @memetic-mutism, @bluecichlid, @mrs-storm-andrews, @ladymothwing, @prismatic-bell, @kittykatknits, @tinkili
….basically, whomever I’m trying at random, it seems that you’re on there.
Please reblog so others can know and ask for removal if they want to.
Swoooon!
@the-other-sandy
Hereford Cathedral Library. The library was formally established in 1611, but the cathedral’s manuscript collection dates back to the medieval era. It is still a working library, and is notable for its collection of chained books (a common practice in the early modern era), and is the only library of this type to survive with all of the chains, rods and locks still intact. The chained library contains 229 manuscripts, mostly medieval, and the earliest book in the collection, the Hereford Gospels, is from around 780.
Two of my sweeties and I braved the heat at a Families Belong Together demonstration today. The speakers were good, and it was heartening to see so many people coming together to protest the cruel treatment of children.
#keepfamiliestogether #familiesbelongtogether
Woo-hoo -- more socks for my wish list! I love the Dreamer line from Sock Dreams. I have both over the knee and crew socks in ace pride colors. They are very comfortable and sturdy, and I highly recommend them! Their pride collection has a wide variety of other designs, from subtle to in-your-face. I have gotten a lot of socks for myself and others from Sock Dreams, and I’ve always been very happy with them.
(Also, for people concerned with the commercialization of pride, Sock Dreams is not doing that! They may promote their LGBTQ+ designs more during Pride month (because they’re a business, and it makes sense to promote things when people are looking for them), but they don’t just slap a rainbow on something for June and ignore the community the rest of the time. The Dreamer line and other LGBTQ+ designs are always available, and new designs are added throughout the year. Sock Dreams also donates to various LGBTQ+ charities and is generally supportive of the community.)
Dreamer Short Proud Stripes Tube Socks | Dreamer Socks
We just got in the same great pride flag colorways as our Dreamer Long Proud Stripes Tube Socks, only in shorter version!
Because Pride is all about celebrating diversity, we designed these to fit as wide a range of feet and legs as possible. Tube style feet mean that these will comfortably fit most shoe sizes, and will end up being knee high, crew, or somewhere in-between, depending on the length of the feet wearing them.
Unlike traditional tube socks, we designed these to have a low-profile toe seam on the top of the foot, instead of at the end of the toe, for improved comfort. If you’ve been considering sending Pride socks as a gift, but weren’t sure which style to get, these will be your safest bet! Proudly made in the USA.
Length: about 23 inches from toes to tops Stretch: 22 inches at cuff, 18 inches mid-sock
Note: Alas, we do not have stock for the Nonbinary striped version yet, but we do have it in a longer tube, over the knee sock, and crew!
~♥~Rosalind Socks by Sock Dreams • Free Shipping in the US • $5 International Shipping Find us on facebook | twitter | pinterest | instagram | sock journal | g+
Pride dragons (part 1) -- SWOON!
The pride dragons are back for pride month again (now with more bc there was a few I didn’t get around to last year heck)!! Happy pride month everyone!!!!!!!!!
(Part 2) (Stickers available Here) (Last year’s posts: X X )
Is anyone else on PillowFort? I know I heard about it from someone on Tumblr, but now that I’m able to create an account, I can’t remember whom. Let me know if you want to connect up there. My username is the same, and I’ll probably post about as often there as here.
This is one of the big reasons why I am a librarian.
As a library worker, there’s something I want to say to you.
You do not have to apologize for the books you choose to read.
At all. To anyone. You owe nobody any explanations; you need no excuse or “good reason” to be reading the book.
You do not have to be ashamed for wanting to read “bad” books. You wanna read Twilight? We got Twilight. Need a banal, cookie-cutter-plot mystery or thriller? Those are always fun. Our regulars check them out by the towering stack. Ask Betty for recommendations; she’s read them all. 50 Shades of Oh Fucking No? We’ve got it, we even got it in large print. Have fun. Check out the rest of our porn too. Oh, and the sex manuals are a MUST if you want to “experiment” yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask; they’re here for a reason.
Want to read a book written by a huge asshole everyone hates and agree was a monster? Yeah, we have those. No, we don’t think you’re an asshole for wanting to know what was actually written in there, or judging things for yourself.
You are not too old for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Babysitter’s Club, or Captain Underpants. You are not too young for Sherlock Holmes. There’s nothing wrong with a boy reading The Princess Academy or Sweet Valley High. There’s nothing wrong with a girl being into The Hardy Boys or Artemis Fowl instead.
You do not have to pull the shame face and offer me an excuse when you check out your books. I don’t care if I got so angry at that book I threw it against a wall when I read it: you have the right to read it, and enjoy it if it’s enjoyable for you. THAT’S WHY THE LIBRARY HAS IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. If we only stocked pure, unproblematic literature everyone approved of, by authors of unquestionable virtue, we wouldn’t have any books at all. Or music. Or movies. It would be utterly fucking boring. And it certainly wouldn’t be a library.
Well, crap. Raven is a great comic with lots of action, drama, and humor. I would be very sad to see it end. If you can’t or don’t want to buy it yourself, check it out from your local library! If they don’t already have it, please recommend it.
Raven the Pirate Princess is Sinking
I despise doing posts where I ask for help, but here we are.
About two years ago I started a new creator owned project. It began as a spin-off of Princeless, but the reality is this - Raven The Pirate Princess is its own thing altogether. I knew this from the first issue and if you’ve been reading, so have you.
Sure, the first few issues of Raven: Pirate Princess had that heroic lady feminist banter for which Princeless has become known both among its fans and detractors. I mean, Raven had this scene:
and issue 1 had this scene:
But perhaps much more importantly, the first issue of Raven had this:
but that wasn’t where that ended. This is a book about a community of diverse queer women actively claiming their place in the world and taking what’s theirs. It’s about Raven, who is desperately in love with her childhood best friend Ximena
It’s about Ximena, a girl who was held captive for years by a pirate king who pretended to be her liberator. Who fell in love with the pirate’s daughter, only to be left behind by that father when she outlived her value.
About Sunshine, the thief that chose the wrong target and ended up falling in love with a woman already hopelessly in love with somebody else.
It’s about Katie, the bisexual second in command who’s motivated by honor…and occasionally beating the snot out of a dude or two
Oh and in case I forgot to mention, Katie is also incredibly muscular:
And Jayla, the asexual science genius who’s tired of being treated like a little sister
and Cid, the deaf engineer who quietly keeps the ship running
and of course, these two:
The socially awkward poet and the angry sword fighter who couldn’t stand her who have somehow become these two:
But here’s the thing: this comic is failing. It has a very dedicated and exuberant but at this point SMALL fanbase. Today I had a hard conversation with Action Lab about the reality of the numbers on this book versus what it costs to produce this book and, suffice it to say, Action Lab isn’t ready to cancel the book, but they aren’t ready to greenlight year 3 either. After Year 2 #13, Raven is set to go on the shelf until numbers can support continuing it.
This is where I need your help
If you care about this book full of queer pirate ladies and you want it to continue, we need to find a way to spread the word about it. We don’t need to sell single issues (it would be nice) but ultimately we need the trades sales that back up the continuation of this big YA Pirate/Revenge/Adventure/Romance thing.
Digital copies can be bought instantly right on Comixology: https://www.comixology.com/Princeless-Raven-The-Pirate-Princess/comics-series/46971
You can buy the physical volumes on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01BF7U91Q
In fact, if you’ve already purchased volumes 1-4, volume 5 is available for preorder there right now!
Maybe you’ve bought all the issues already. Thank you! If you still want to support Raven, you can review the books on Amazon or other retailers, you can share, reblog or retweet this post. You can tell a friend about the book!
If you have a comics review site or, say, a blog where you talk about LGBT media, contact me for review links or interviews. Please, help us save our ship.
I kindof want to see all of these. I’ve seen enough Shakespeare and adaptations of Shakespeare that they sound ridiculous but also like they could be really good if handled well.
Six Shakespeare adaptations
1. Titus and Ronicus. Somewhat like Titus Andronicus, but with the addition of Titus’s wisecracking brother, Ronicus Andronicus. Known for that one wild slapstick scene with the pie at the end.
2. The Complete The’s of Shakespeare. Consists of every ‘the’ that Shakespeare wrote, delivered in an appropriate manner for each instance. Has the advantage of being much easier for a million monkeys to type. Is therefore much kinder to monkeys than the alternative. Please consider the monkeys.
3. Henry V in space. We begin the play awaiting the arrival of the French Ambassadors. They are coming from France, which is seven light-years away and several hundred metres under the newly-risen Atlantic. It may be a long wait.
4. A Twelfth Night’s Hamlet. In which Hamlet is shipwrecked on the way to England and has to dress up as a woman dressing up as a man to in order to evade detection whilst avenging his father’s murder, but comedy strikes when he vacillates a little too long in an oddly-mislocated enchanted forest. Everyone ends up both completely heterosexually married and also dead.
5. The Scottish Play, a theatre-safe version of Macbeth which avoids bad luck by never mentioning the title character’s name or indeed anyone else’s name either. Explores issues of identity and confusion. Usually there is at least one murder, but nobody is quite sure of who by who. In fact, because nobody is sure who is king, or indeed what the succession actually is, it naturally follows that the only way to ensure kingship is to kill everyone.
6. Juliet and Cressida. It may have been that Cressida found some way to take advantage of Shakespeare’s not-always-consistent time periods to perform an audacious act of time travel. We are still not entirely sure. In any case we tracked down Juliet and Cressida to ask them what the plot had been, since they were both notably still alive in the present day. But Juliet made a rude gesture at us and slammed the door. It may be that only the protagonists know the plot.
Please add your signature to support Sen. Duckworth and all women who should not have to choose between their families and their careers.
“She will also be the first senator that U.S. Senate rules will punish for giving birth. If she takes any maternity leave, she will be barred from voting or sponsoring any legislation. And even if she doesn’t take leave, she’ll likely be forced to miss voting times because her nursing infant will be barred from the Senate floor. Really.“
This is totally a feature! We should exploit the coat hangers out of it.
Does anyone know if it works the same for different flavors of English? If a group of people from the US, Canada, Britain, and Australia are all absolutely coat hangered, are they all in the same condition, or are some of them drunk, some of them shocked, and some of them just confused?
you can make nearly any object into a good insult if you put ‘you absolute’ in front of it
example: you absolute coat hanger
I know so many people for whom this is appropriate, but the first one I thought of is @ladypoetess. Hugs to all of my spoonie friends! (Is this how you really play “Knifey Spoonie”?)
Swoon! @winterhawkkisses did an adorable story for my prompt. Isn’t it wonderful? (If you’re curious, this is the cake.)
I love your stories! Even when they don't have kisses, they brighten my day. Do you take image prompts? I saw a heart&arrow cake on Cake Wrecks and thought, "Bucky would definitely get that for Clint!" I'm torn on whether it would be a joke or an actual attempt at a romantic gesture though. I can't include a link to it here, but it's the last picture on the Feb. 8 post of Cake Wrecks.
“Mmph?”
“It is Valentine’s day, Clint.”
Clint attempted to unstick his eyelashes, shuffled his legs up so he was almost kneeling, considered shifting his face away from the pillow and then dismissed the idea.
“Tony?”
“I can hear the question, why is there a question? Like you don’t live for my dulcet tones in your -”
“It’s four in the fuckin’ morning, Tony, what’n the hell’re you -”
“Okay first, it’s ten, and I don’t want to know what you were doing last night unless pictures are likely to surface. Second, it’s Valentine’s day, and instead of snuggling up to my boo I’ve been called down to security -”
“How is that my -”
“- because your boyfriend is deeply inappropriate and possibly insane.”
“Boyfriend?” Clint kinda flinched at the word, hard enough that he was scooted forward, further up the bed, hard enough that his skull made noisy contact with the headboard. “Woah, who said boyfriend? I didn’t say boyfriend. Did he say boyfriend?”
“Oh this is just - this is sad,” Tony said.
“No, seriously, Tony, did he - ‘cos you shouldn’t just go throwing words like that around, okay?” Mostly Clint had got through this - whatever it was - by not thinking about it too hard. Like if he handled the thought too much he’d smudge it, somehow screw it up.
“Get down here,” Tony said.
Clint shuffled out of bed. He stepped into his sneakers, figured the reception staff had seen him in weirder get-ups than the shirt and sweatpants he’d slept in, ran a hand through his hair and squeezed some toothpaste onto his tongue. If he had any say in this he was getting straight back into bed when they were through, so that was as much effort as he was willing to put in.
“ - sorry, Mr Stark,” someone was saying when Clint pushed open the door to internal security; someone fairly important by the sharp creases in their suit. “Obviously cakes don’t usually have bloodstains, so my crew wanted to be sure -”
“It’s fine,” Tony said, flapping a hand at them absently. He squinted up at Clint, then gestured at the cake that was sitting in a box on the table. “Seriously?” he said. “This is your type?”
The cake was in the shape of an anatomical heart, colored like it’d been bled dry with stark red veins scrawled over the surface. Piercing it, at an angle, was one of Clint’s arrows, purple-fletched, and there was dark icing blood spatter covering the baked pillow.
It was a little terrifying, and a little beautiful, and somehow exactly fuckin’ right. He had no idea what the hell his face was doing, but something in Tony’s expression softened.
“Maybe you should have the ‘boyfriend’ talk, huh?” he said.
I better support poly relationships -- I’ve been in them for years!
Reblog if you support poly relationships
I need to convince one of my friends they exist
This is one of many reasons why it is very useful to be friends with someone who is a little more extroverted or has less social anxiety than you. If that isn’t an option, many places now allow online ordering so you have less human interaction!
wait… if you have social anxiety… and i have social anxiety…
then who’s going to order the food?