random main blog

“E-books are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Audiobooks are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Video games are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

“Subscriptions to magazines/newspapers are too expensive” -> GET A LIBRARY CARD!!!

For real, get a library card for your local public library and you will have almost unlimited access to all kinds of media for free. Libraries also often have many different kinds of classes you can take, often for free or very cheap. Oh, and don’t forget the computers and internet access you can also use for free.

In conclusion, yet a library card.

In the US (idk about other places but I'd assume it's somewhat similar), public libraries have three main sources of funding, which are:

The annual budget from their parent agency (usually a town/city or county government)

Funds from the state government - for my library, this comes through the state library system

Grants from federal & state governments/nonprofits/corporate partners (I have personal feelings about that last one but that's another post)

ALL of these funding sources are more likely to give us money if our services are used more heavily. At my library, we're required to collect statistics about things like program attendance, computer use, and how many people come into the library each day, and these statistics directly impact how much money we get from the state library.

If you check out a book, forget to read it, and ultimately return it unread, it's good for the library. If you download an audiobook, get partway through, decide you hate it, and don't finish it, it's good for the library. If you sit at the library computer and watch cat videos for two hours, it's good for the library.

Random Wang: What the- you can’t be here. You’re dead. I literally killed you.

Hei Xiazi: Sometimes I can even still hear her voice.

Because of *course* Hei Xiazi and Death from the Endless are buddies. It’s what happens when you see each other that often. Neither of them will talk about whatever shit it was that went down with them, probably back around the time Dream was off getting himself kidnapped, but the end result is that Hei Xiazi gets a bro-nod from Death every now and then before they go their separate ways. Sometimes they’ll stop and chat for a bit, but in the end, Hei Xiazi always slides his glasses back on, and while he’s looking away, he hears the rush of birds’ wings, and she’ll be gone.

(There have been times, over the last century or so, when he has been convinced she hates him. That that’s why she never takes him. The only time he ever managed to ask her, gasping a little through tears his eyes would not shed, why she hated him so much - that time was also the only time she’s ever hugged him.)

But, yeah. They run across each other lots. She never begrudges him the number of people he sends her way, always greeting them with a warm smile. Hei Xiazi never knows which is better or worse: killing someone when he can’t see her, so that he is left staring at the meat of what used to be a person, or when she does choose to let him see her, when he gets to watch a person who just tried to kill him (well, usually) soften, the way everyone does when they see her, when they greet her with open arms, or tears, or joy. In the end, everyone is glad to see her.

Hei Xiazi is fairly sure the Zhang clan as a whole only see her the once, just like everyone else, even if it’s a lot later than most. But ever since Yaba Zhang came back from behind the gate, Hei Xiazi is less certain of a lot of things. But Yaba Zhang is never going to talk, even if he did remember, and he’s never been foolish enough to ask her.

C’mon. You gonna tell me these two aren’t kindred spirits? Aren’t linked in some way? Don’t you think that line about a lifetime makes Hei Xiazi laugh and laugh?

Wangxian ❤️ Yizhan

google how-tos - wangxian edition

So I was talking to @litescheme on Twitter and I decided to pour my heart out about how I hated the general fandom consensus that Wei Wuxian going to Gusu when Lan Wangji asked him to would have solved all of his problems, primarily because the idea of just straight up going to Gusu is incredibly flawed. Lo and behold, they agreed wholeheartedly. We had a great discussion and now I’m here to relay the discussion onto Tumblr in essay form uwu.

(By the way, this is based mostly on CQL with a good bit of novel added in, as well as a few hints of the donghua.)

Part One: “Come back to Gusu!” is a great romantic notion but a terrible plan of action.

First of all, one must ask the question: what on Earth was Lan Wangji’s game plan with the whole “Come back to Gusu!” thing? I think we can all agree that most of the Lan Sect hated Wei Wuxian - by the end, at least. Lan Xichen certainly had less than charitable feelings toward him. With such a hostile environment, the only way I can see Wei Wuxian surviving within the Sect is while being forced into a Madam Lan-type situation. I find that prospect more reminiscent of a horror movie than a heartwarming fic about healing.

Luckily for us, we can safely say that canon Lan Wangji would not have done that! Due to certain childhood trauma, Lan Wangji definitely would not have forced Wei Wuxian to do anything, go anywhere, or stay anywhere that he didn’t want to. That isn’t even touching on how much Lan Wangji genuinely wanted Wei Wuxian to be happy, and forcing Wei Wuxian to do anything had generally been proven to not make him happy. Good on him!

Lan Wangji: What??

Wei Wuxian: I said I love you!

Lan Wangji:

Wei Wuxian:

Lan Wangji: