*Scrolls past*

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*

*rebogs*

Remember that if you want to do more of something, you have to do less of something else. It's that time of year where people set goals for the new year and they have plans and hopes and it's always focusing on what they want to do more of. More studying, more exercise, more crafting, more socialising, more making things from scratch. Okay, great. What are you going to do less of in order to have the time and energy to do more of those things you really want to do?

This is even more the case if you are Already Tired.

If you are Already Tired, you probably actually have to do TWICE as much "less" in order to add any new More, since you should probably already be doing "less" in order to not be so fucking Tired.

happy april foold everyone did you know about………………… bofa

haha… bofa them 

Hey if you own a business I need you to repeat after me:

webdev account perfec t size to put domain in to store! inside very ssafe and secure domain be safe put domain in webdev account. put domain in webdev account. no problems ever in webdev account because no mfa for quick access make domain changes fast with no review. awebdev godaddy yes a place for domain put domain in webdev account can trust webdev for giveing good love to domain. friend webdev

If you need your car fixed and you call a mechanic you are mechanically illiterate, any idiot can drop a gas tank.

If you need your clothes altered and you call a tailor you are textilely illiterate, any idiot can take in a sleeve.

If you need a your bathroom fixed and you call a plumber, you are piping illiterate, any idiot can replace a toilet.

If you want a lasagna and you don't make it from scratch you are culinarily illiterate, any idiot can make a lasagna.

If you need to pay your taxes and you have to use an app you are financially illiterate, any idiot can fill out a form.

If you need a logo created and you don't make it yourself you are graphically illiterate, any idiot can draw a picture.

Shut the fuck up. People are busy. Not everyone has the time or inclination to become "technically literate" enough to build and maintain a website. I work with dozens of people more technically literate than I am, and not a single one of them went beyond wordpress/shopify/a developer to set up their own websites.

You are not an idiot if you choose not to cultivate specific skills or if some skills are not a priority in your life.

"any idiot can set up cpanel" lmao I just know this person watched one (1) YouTube tutorial and is now serving a static site from an unsecured public s3 bucket that's somehow still vulnerable to Heartbleed.

If you're talking about cpanel you are not "technically literate", you're using a nice clickops UI that a technically literate person built for you. There's no shame in that but don't condescend to other people about it.

And yeah, even learning how to register a domain and set up cpanel takes a level of expertise that most people don't have, and at that point you've learned just enough to get you and your unlucky colleagues in big trouble with an accidental misconfiguration. Messing around with a little personal project is different from building something that serves customer needs securely.

This is a fantastic point because YES, most people can learn to do basic car maintenance, but you don't want the person flying the airplane and the person FIXING the airplane to be the same person because you want to make sure that both of those jobs are being done by experts.

Creating secure websites for enterprise environments, or for professions subject to a high degree of privacy regulation that handle sensitive data, or that will be storing customer information is something that requires expertise beyond what you can pick up by tinkering and are a fantastic reason to call a professional to do the job for you.

(But you should still be the one that your domain is registered to.)

I have bad news about pilot mechanics but that’s not generally commercial aircraft

hobby Aircarft perfec t size to put self in to fly! inside hobby aircraft very Safe and Comfort to fly be safe fly local in Hobby Aircraft maintain by pilot put body in hobby aircraft. put bodyFamily inhobby aircraft. no problems ever in hobby aircraft because no high cost specialist pilot do maintenance alone good of skills pilot mechanic. asecondhand cessna yes a place for your body put your body in hobby aircraft can trust pilot mechanic for giveing good love to body and family. friend pilot mechanic

Your gums are not supposed to be tender and the instrument used by dentists to assess your gums is BLUNT. It is this thing it is a blunt object:

(image ID: A periodontal probe, a small BLUNT object used to assess gum health).

I know everyone hates the dentist but if you poked your skin with this and your skin hurt and started BLEEDING it would be a sign of something wrong. If your gums bleed when poked with this it means there's bacteria and plaque trapped between your teeth and your gum. This isn't something to feel ashamed of but it is an issue and it is a FIXABLE issue.

The main fix for this is flossing!! String floss is great but if you struggle with string floss you can get floss picks that hold it in place, or water flossers that don't require you put your hands in your mouth at all, or interdental brushes which basically do all the work for you.

Flossing is so often just totally ignored when it comes to dental health because it's annoying and seems like an unnecessary extra step but your brush only hits like 70% of your tooth!!! The rest of the bacteria is between the gums!!!! FLOSS.

If your gums hurt and bleed when you first start flossing that is okay!! It's because they're irritated by the trapped plaque. Keep going for a few weeks and the bleeding and pain should stop, it just takes time for the irritated gums to repair themselves once they're clean!

(also paging @brosser-les-dents because I KNOW you'll have things to say about this lmao)

By and large, your dentist is not your enemy. They're just trying to keep your mouth healthy. You're both on the same team! And I had no idea that was the thing they were poking with. Lol.

It's so important to clean your interdental spaces. I know it seems like such a pain, but the effort is worth it and you're absolutely worth the effort. And that initial bleeding should go away in 3-7 days. Just start and be gentle. You got this.

Have you ever looked closely at a car windshield?

The edge of the glass is painted where it is glued to the car but it has these small dots between the clear and painted glass.

These are there for a reason. When the sun hits the glass the painted areas and the clear areas will absorb heat at different rates. This causes the glass to expand and contract differently putting stress on the glass.

These dots help the glass to warm up more evenly over a larger area so the glass does not suffer stress that could cause it to spontaneously explode.

Fun fact: the Tesla cybertruck doesn’t have these.

Yes, the glass will spontaneously crack or explode in the sun.

meirl

I’d like to add dickey collars for consideration.

I can picture him having an entire drawer devoted to an assortment of these, right next to his drawer full of ascots.

May I present this image from Legend of the Vampire?

what is the FUCKING truth

He has multiple outfits that all look identical while having completely different construction

*steps one degree of separation outside my normal tumblr orbit* oh wow you people are all out of your minds

#i'm quietly ice fishing with my mutuals but sometimes i perceive the shadows of lovecraftian discourse monsters passing below the surface

If your goals basically amount to "after The Revolution everything will be great because people will all have the Good Ethics and work together in my Perfect System and the Evil People with Bad Morals and Bad Behaviour who are making this world bad will be gone (killed/imprisoned/exiled/all converted to agree with us when they see our Perfect System)" then that's just fascism. I hate to say it but you've put a gay socialist hat on fascism.

The MAGA people are still gonna be around in your Perfect System and a very large proportion of them are still gonna be Like That. We can discourage antisocial behaviour through laws and education and changing cultural norms, but if plans for future society involve [group I'm opposed to] magically not being part of it so the Good People can Do Things Right, well.

✨No Bad Guys Here✨ - how do you want to enforce that.

Honestly, I think this concept of The Revolution is to some leftists what Armageddon is to some Christians: an easy excuse to not try and grapple with difficult problems like hunger or poverty or injustice or climate, because any day now the Great Reckoning will come and wipe the slate clean.

#well you see america was founded on [original sin] which makes it irredeemable and any effort to improve it ultimately pointless#the only hope for salvation is to wait for [armageddon] to destroy it and cast down the unrighteous so the rest of us can [reach paradise]#voting for example is an act of interacting with and investing in this world which is too evil and tenporary to be worth it#not when The Great Reckoning is on its way to wipe the slate clean

@blujayonthewing you can't leave these in the tags

I don’t mean to be old but computer used to just have games. U didnt have to pay for em either but if u wanted u could get a little CD that put the game onto the computer and you could play it forever and ever even if the company that made it went to hell and shit. You didn’t even need the internet or wifi or anything. And it was pretty neat

AI defenders will make it seem as if art is this gatekept pastime that only the most elite can partake in and they’re making it possible for the “normies” to create meanwhile one of the most memorable pieces of recent art I’ve ever seen is “My son’s drawing of safe”

happy april fools. please take this egg

hahahahahha………………..

youve been fooled………………by the april fools beeper……………..it was a fully grown bird the entire time…..no egg………………it tells u it hopes u hav a good april 1st

“Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated—with one another; with the rainy, sleety weather; with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here.

But as the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the driver got on the intercom. “Folks,” he said, “I know you’ve had a rough day and you’re frustrated. I can’t do anything about the weather or traffic, but here’s what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don’t take your problems home to your families tonight—just leave ‘em with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I’ll open the window and throw your troubles in the water. Sound good?”

It was as if a spell had lifted. Everyone burst out laughing. Faces gleamed with surprised delight. People who’d been pretending for the past hour not to notice each other’s existence were suddenly grinning at each other like, is this guy serious?

Oh, he was serious.

At the next stop—just as promised—the driver reached out his hand, palm up, and waited. One by one, all the exiting commuters placed their hand just above his and mimed the gesture of dropping something into his palm. Some people laughed as they did this, some teared up—but everyone did it. The driver repeated the same lovely ritual at the next stop, too. And the next. All the way to the river.

We live in a hard world, my friends. Sometimes it’s extra difficult to be a human being. Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you have a bad day that lasts for several years. You struggle and fail. You lose jobs, money, friends, faith, and love. You witness horrible events unfolding in the news, and you become fearful and withdrawn. There are times when everything seems cloaked in darkness. You long for the light but don’t know where to find it.

But what if you are the light? What if you’re the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?

That’s what this bus driver taught me—that anyone can be the light, at any moment. This guy wasn’t some big power player. He wasn’t a spiritual leader. He wasn’t some media-savvy “influencer.” He was a bus driver—one of society’s most invisible workers. But he possessed real power, and he used it beautifully for our benefit.

When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world’s troubles, I think of this man and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light? Of course, I can’t personally end all wars, or solve global warming, or transform vexing people into entirely different creatures. I definitely can’t control traffic. But I do have some influence on everyone I brush up against, even if we never speak or learn each other’s name. How we behave matters because within human society everything is contagious—sadness and anger, yes, but also patience and generosity. Which means we all have more influence than we realize.

No matter who you are, or where you are, or how mundane or tough your situation may seem, I believe you can illuminate your world. In fact, I believe this is the only way the world will ever be illuminated—one bright act of grace at a time, all the way to the river.“

–Elizabeth Gilbert

I think it’s time this got another airing.

we need to get more normal about nonsexual nudity i think

kind of missing the point pretty badly actually

i mean i kinda think insisting on not seeing boobs at all is kind of lame weenie behavior is the thing

this might sound harsh but imo that's just not a realistic accommodation to expect in a scenario where we're trying to destigmatize naked human bodies

people will come up with 10 thousand excuses on why they don't actually agree with something when they pretend to do so. anyway I hope people realized that a lot of the stigmatization against nudity/nude bodies is quite literally the result of colonization/imperialism and overall fascism.

what I mean by that is colonizers viewed the nudity of black and indigenous people as "obscene" and inherently sexual because of the avid dehumanization of them. it's literally just fascist bullshit spread in people's brains SPECIFICALLY AMERICANS. (my European gf has told me many times that America's weirdness about nudity was strange and I agree)

another point: second hand dysphoria, while it is a thing, is entirely on you and is 100% manageable and saying other people's bodies, especially if they are other trans men with breasts, makes you "dysphoric" you need to genuinely push pass that and grow up and stop getting uncomfortable over other bodies. as harsh as that is I'm sure other people don't like being told they're dysphoria inducing.

#like if i as a trans woman said that seeing a beard makes me dysphoric#no one would think its acceptable for me to go around asking everyone to tag every pic of a beard#the fact that were even having this conversation shows yall still view breasts as special sexual objects - and thats exactly the problem#anyway trans ppl gotta stop using dysphoria as a replacement for “this makes me uncomfortable and i wish it would go away”#sometimes ur gonna be uncomfortable. sometimes ur gonna be dysphoric. keep it to urself and dont police everyone elses behavior over it

Excellent tags.

I wanna add that a big part of the world is also a whole lot less weird about naked genitals. Like, seeing vaginas and penises in an all ages, all genders space like a beach, sauna, pool etc. is totally a total normal experience in many places and it's not seen as sexual or as something that violates the person that sees the genitals. That is also puritan & fascist bullshit.

Spoke to a gen z person the other night and apparently the young folks don't know about the very legal sites from which you can access public domain media (including Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and other Victorian gothic horror stories)?

Like this young person didn't even know about goddamn Gutenberg which is a SHAME. I linked to it and they went "aw yiss time to do a theft" and I was like "I mean yo ho ho and all that, sure, but. you know gutenberg is entirely legal, right?"

Anyway I'm gonna put this in a few Choice Tags (sorry dracula fans I DID mention it though so it's fair game) and then put some Cool Links in a reblog so this post will still show UP in said tags lmao.

Spreading the news to my followers - if you weren’t aware of this before, here’s the link to Project Gutenberg - https://www.gutenberg.org/

Project Gutenberg is a gigantic collection of books that are in the public domain.  You can read the books through the site or you can download them in various formats so you can get the format you prefer for your eReader of choice.

It is free. 

It is legal.

I was reviewing the list of the top 100 books downloaded yesterday and I saw a fair few that I had to read for college classes - so if you’re a college student and your professor assigns you to read Plato or any number of older works, check here before you buy a copy.

I reread the Anne series several years back - they were free through this.  I need to reread Pride and Prejudice at least once a year, and my e-book version is from this.  Someone recommended Jekyll and Hyde to me a few weeks back and I got a free copy from this.  When I went to Haworth on my last holiday before the plague times, I brought books by the Bronte sisters with me to read or reread that I downloaded from here.  It’s a great resource.

Yes yes yes! I was honestly so flabbergasted that this young person hadn't heard of the gutenberg project! It's been around for AGES, maybe longer than the kindle has? And it's such a huge project and wonderful resource! It used to be a household name (or maybe that's just my family, thanks to my dad being a cheapskate nerd [affectionate]). I was so glad to be able to share this resource and others with them though, and I wanted to make sure no one else was missing out!

If you look at the first reblog from me I also recommended a few other resources, most of which were from www.archive.org, home of the Wayback Machine! They run openlibrary.org, where you can check out ebooks of some public domain titles! They even have the Bone series by Jeff Smith!

And archive.org itself has all kinds of public domain media including music and movies! For Dracula fans, here's a radio show adaptation of the book, starring Orson Welles! And here's a 1920 movie adaptation of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," starring John Barrymore, the grandfather of Drew Barrymore!

I'm so excited to see people falling in love with classic media through Dracula Daily! Let's keep that fire blazing!

Also, if you can't handle reading things, check out libirvox.org! it's a free audio book project taking public domain works and people doing free audiobooks! there's a lot of great stuff on there, but it takes things in the public domain and makes audio books out of them!

it's a super nice project, and you can find some really nice readers there!

Also don't think a book is old because it's in the public domain

lots of writers and publishers are prepared to waive future profits for entirely petty reasons

because of this the entire works of Philip K Dick [petty writer who found himself with lots of hangers on during his life] and HP Lovecraft [his publisher - who was his wife and hated him] became public domain on their death

Sherlock Holmes entered public domain this year, it's always worth checking because you can save a fortune

and the more popular the classic - the more likely someone has uploaded it

Also don’t think a

book is old because it’s in

the public domain

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Want audiobooks instead?

LibriVox has free public domain audiobooks.

Public domain works in the US are:

(Don't go looking for things in that third category unless you've studied a LOT about copyright law. Mostly that covers things like "weird little newsletters" and "self-published booklets" and sometimes fanzines. But most publications have a copyright notice in them.)

There's also some oddball exemptions here and there; copyright law is a tentacled mess. But those are the basic guidelines. (Except for audio. Audio has its own set of rules. It's weird.) (I mentioned tentacles, did I not? Double the amount of them you were thinking of.)

There are a lot of works from the 50s and early 60s that were not renewed, especially short stories published in magazines.

Project Gutenberg began in 1971; the first text was the US Declaration of Independence, shared through the university computer system. That was the start of "hey computers + public domain text = FREE BOOKS FOR EVERYONE."

Adding on that Project Gutenberg is not just Eng language texts either! I know specifically about the French texts because I did independent study French lit in high school and all my sources were Project Gutenberg acquired (Candide my beloathed) but there's many open source texts available in a number of languages.

browsing the top 100 books downloaded in the last 30 days can be really fun too, interesting to see how things change

https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/scores/top#books-last30

heads up that the libravox may have different narrators from chapter to chapter, since its all volunteer work. I read Phantom of the Opera that way and man it *really* fucked with me. Not a "dont use this service!" but rather a "be prepared for this potentially"

i’ve been told by various european friends that the most american sentence i’ve ever said is “sophomore year of college, some friends and i road-tripped thirteen hours to florida for spring break.”

and now i can confidently say this is the most guy-who-lives-in-paris sentence i’ve ever said: “today i was cycling to meet a friend at buttes-chaumont and i went over some cobblestones and my baguette got launched out of the bike basket into the middle of the roundabout”