It's a Tumblr, Harold

More context:

It's not that I don't enjoy the things I learn researching the answers to these questions (it is interesting that TGG's portrayal of the ríastrad maybe doesn't reflect the bits of TBC in between the Boyhood Deeds and Comrac Fir Diad, I need to come back to that when I work more on TGG's sources), but, uh, I have spent Several Hours today on that and not on my actual work, so I think I'm going to turn off anon for a little bit. Sorry!

A couple of years ago I shared a piece of marginalia written by a 21-year-old scribe and law student who was living through the plague: "May this great plague pass over me and my friends, and restore us once more to joy and gladness," he wrote on Christmas Eve around 1350. He came back a year later to tell us he survived: "May we reach the anniversary of this night many times."

Every so often I catch a glimpse of the book drama going on over on the Insta/Threads sphere of the Internet, and it makes me so glad I’m considered too Tumblrina to sit at their tables.

“But if people read it for free they might like it want to buy the rest of my work!”

I am staring directly into the camera like I’m on the Office in Librarian. Libraries are literally an author’s best friend. We get books to people they never would have known about otherwise, & create Fans out of disinterested bystanders. And! Libraries are often paying MORE for a book than the average user, at least for digital editions, because it is expected that the library will lend it to more people, so theoretically we need to pay more to compensate the authors! (This is not I think how it works in practice, it more often just benefits the digital lending company instead of the actual author but. Greed is ever thus). Also, in some countries (sadly not the US, boo hiss) authors get paid for every checkout of a book. So, you can literally get royalties on those “free” books. (Also, they’re not free, they’re paid for with tax dollars for the good of everyone). How some fool can think temporary freeness on Amazon Kindle is superior to libraries I cannot fathom. Like, how does this person even manage to function in the real world?

Concept: one of those standard plots where a magic user and a tech expert are arguing over whose purview the weird thing of the week falls under, but it's the magic user who's insisting this has to be a science thing and the tech expert who's insisting it has to be a magic thing, because they're not arguing over worldview, they're arguing over jurisdiction and neither of them wants to be the one who has to deal with it

"Look, it's an evil lab! That's your circus!"

in happier pride news i actually found this deeply heartwarming

Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.

alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.

Question 2/3

Question 3/3

when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

oh no is this what we’re doing now

😮

Alicia Archer

😮

Alicia Archer