✨Future Reference✨

Р isnt P

You've probably heard a little about what was brought over from the New World, corn, potatoes, cocoa, cassava, peanuts, chili peppers, avocadoes, cranberries, pumpkins, and the like. Imagine cooking without chili! Without potatoes! Modern Indian cuisine contains enormous amounts of potatoes and we just didn't have those for the vast majority of history. The best of the nightshades all on one contiguous hunk of land. Hell, tomatoes! Almost forgot about those.

But we don't often look at what the Old World had. Wheat! Barley! Rice! A profusion of incredible grains, really, the finest poaceae has to offer. Carrots! Tons of rosaceous plants like apples and cherries and pears and peaches and apricots! Grapes! Soy and Bamboo! Okra and watermelon! All these things were simply never found in the Americas. The grains one is the wildest for me, the variety of grains available across Eurasia and Africa was truly astounding.

They do not offer paperbacks or hardbacks at this time.

But their digital market has the same e-book and audio market reach as D2D/Ingram and allows for library lending. So if you are an indie author who was mostly using D2D for that library access, and for whom the maintenance fees would be prohibitive against your earnings, you can use Kobo for free.

I haven't used it, because I'm not affected by the D2D fees and I didn't want to mess up my market listings by having duplicates, but when I heard about the D2D fees, I started researching so I could hopefully find a free alternative with comparable market reach. And good old Kobo was there.

It allows for the same subscription model as KU, but doesn't enforce an exclusivity clause, so you can still mass sell through the global market and also be hosted in libraries.

I know it seems risky when KU is so established, but Kobo+ subscriptions are increasing quite a bit as even the most stalwart of Kindle fans get sick of Amazon, and my Kobo+ numbers are starting to eclipse Kindle, which is delightful.

The more we as authors push readers to Kobo+, the more freedom we'll have, so I think it's a worthwhile endeavor, for us and them.

I know copperbadge uses Lulu Printing, and while they do have some access to the global distribution market, I don't think it's as wide as either Ingram/D2D. (I also think the global pricing with Lulu is a bit bonkers in comparison, but I haven't looked at it in a while, so it might be different.) And before anyone suggests Lightning Source or whatever, they're owned by Ingram. A lot of print houses people recommend when this comes up are owned by Ingram. They have monopolized a huge chunk of the market, for better or worse. Usually worse.

If you want to get your ISBN's back from Ingram, you need to go through customer support to get your books de-listed. If they fight you over the ISBN's (like they did me) those ISBN's belong to you. You paid for them, they are yours. You are within your rights to use them with a different printer. You just need to get it decoupled from Ingram.

They are starting to limit how many books you can publish with them to combat AI slop.

The new max is 100, which I think includes ebook and paperback and hardback of the same book, so there goes three of your allowed books off the bat.

Make your own - hate free chicken instead.

Thank you for your suggestion! We all go through weight fluctuations in life, so it stands to reason our clothes should be able to fluctuate with us.

Resizing your clothes used to be a very common practice before the advent of fast fashion. Fast fashion sizing is extremely flawed, especially when it comes to plus size fashion, and we’re stuck with a lot of vanity sizing, so it’s a good skill to have regardless of whether you’re looking to mend something old or buy something new.

How to upsize clothes:

Introduction:

There are many different ways to make a garment larger. The following list is not exhaustive, just a few ideas to get you started.

Grading patterns:

If you’re making your own clothes, it’s always useful to know how to modify a sewing pattern. The easiest way to adjust a pre-existing pattern to your size is slash and spread grading. First, you need to define which spots on the pattern need extra space. You then cut your pattern in that spot, and slide the resulting pattern pieces away from each other until you’ve got the size you need. Use paper to fill in the gaps. To ensure the resulting pattern makes for well-fitting clothes, make a mock-up and add, move, or remove darts where necessary to adapt it to your body type.

The image below shows potential slashing lines on pattern blocks for an AFAB body. Unfortunately this was the only diagram I could find, but know that other types of patterns use similar line placements. Each line is a spot that allows you to add extra space. To read more about this process, check out the corresponding article by Threads Magazine.

(Image source)

To make your clothes easier to let out in the future, make sure to provide ample seam allowance when cutting out your pattern pieces. This surplus fabric has several different uses, including giving you some wiggle room for when you need to size up your garment.

Now, let’s take a look at pre-made garments.

Lengthening clothes:

A garment that’s too short on you is easy to modify. Just add more material!

If it’s a skirt or a dress, add ruffles to the bottom. Ruffles are easy to make by hand or with a sewing machine. You could also add lace, or wear the item with an underskirt.

For pants, let down your hem or sew on a new cuff. If this isn’t enough, maybe consider turning your trousers into capri pants or shorts.

As for shirts, sewing an extra layer to the bottom edge is the easiest way to go, too. You could even combine two shirts into one to get an extra long shirt.

Another option is to cut your item in two and insert extra fabric between your separated garment parts.

(Image source)

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Letting out seams/darts:

Remember how we made sure to have ample seam allowance earlier? When a garment has surplus fabric in the seams and you only need a little extra space, you can undo the seams of your garment and sew them back together again, this time with a smaller seam allowance than before. The Spruce Crafts has a pretty good tutorial on how to let out seams. You won’t be able to make major size changes using this technique, but if you only need a few centimetres, this is a good way to go.

A lot of garments also have darts. Darts are fabric folds that are sewn down in strategic places to help the fabric follow the body’s curves. If a dart doesn’t fit you the way you want it to, then unpick the dart and try on the garment. Either leave the dart open, or pin the dart in place however you want it, then take off the garment again and sew the dart back together.

Be careful not to rip the fabric when using a seam ripper. Also note that removing entire darts may change the garment’s fit.

You can also add custom darts to achieve a better fit, but that’s a topic for another time.

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Adding extra fabric to your garment:

If we need to add more room than seam allowance or darts can provide us with, we need to add extra material. Remember those slashing lines we looked at earlier? If you’re working with a pre-existing garment rather than a pattern, those are the perfect places to chop up your clothes and add in extra fabric.

Check your sewing stash for fabric that’s similar in weight and material to your original garment, or go thrift shopping for an item you could use to upsize your garment. Long skirts and maxi dresses are a great source of fabric for alterations like these!

Lace inserts are also a fun choice to add some room, and if you’re working with a knit item, you could even knit or crochet your own custom insert.

Define the area where you want to add extra fabric on your item, and measure how much you need. Draw a straight line on your garment with chalk/soap. Make sure the line doesn’t cross any important structural or functional parts of your garment like darts or button holes: refer to the slashing diagram we saw earlier if you’re not sure what spot to pick. Cut the line open (or unpick the seam if it’s situated on a seam), and add in your extra fabric. Finish off your new seams so they don’t unravel later on, and you’re done!

You can add straight strips of fabric for extra width or length, or you could use flared panels or even godets to make your item flair out.

Want to see this technique in action? Check out this video by Break n Remake:

Some ideas:

This Pinterest user cut a straight line down the front of a t-shirt and inserted a lace panel to add extra width in the front of the garment.

(Image source)

Busy Geemaw cut open the side seams of a shirt and used flared panels to add some extra width in the bust and hip area.

(Image source)

This person added a panel to the sides of a pair of jeans to give them more space in the hip area. You could easily use a long straight panel or a panel that flares at the bottom to resize the entire garment instead of just the hips, or use a wide piece of elastic for extra stretch.

(Image source)

This person added a godet in the back of their shirt in order to get more space in the back.

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Blue Corduroy enlarged a pair of shorts by opening up the side seams and adding in strips of fabric.

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You don’t need to resize the entire garment if you don’t want to. For example, One Brown Mom turned this ankle-length skirt with a too small waistband into a well-fitting knee-length skirt by taking advantage of the skirt’s flared shape.

(Image source)

Conclusion:

Throughout our lives, our weight will fluctuate and our bodies will change. There’s no shame in this: it’s just a fact of life. Therefore, knowing how to upsize an item that is too small for you is a useful skill to learn.

The writer of two of the most well known stories worldwide, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo was a black man. 

chose to take on his slave grandmother’s last name, Dumas, like his father did before him.

grew up too poor for formal education, so was largely self-taught, including becoming a prolific reader, multilingual, well-travelled, and a foodie, resulting in his writing both a combination encyclopedia/cookbook (which just— is fucking outrageous to me) AND the adaptation of The Nutcracker on which Tchaikovsky based his ballet

he also wrote a LOOOOT of nonfiction and fiction about history, politics, and revolution, bc he was pro-monarchy, but a radical cuss, and that got him in a lot of hot water at home and abroad.

even beyond that, he generally put up with a lot of racist bullshit in France, so he went and wrote a novel about colonialism and a BLATANTLY self-insert anti-slavery vigilante hero (which he then cribbed from to write the Count of Monte Cristo, the main character of which, Edmond Dantés, Dumas also based on himself).

(…a novel which also features a LOAD of PoC beyond the Count, and at LEAST one queer character, btw, bc EVERY MOVIE ADAPTATION OF ANYTHING BY DUMAS IS A LIE; seriously, at LEAST one of the four Musketeers is Black, y'all.)

famously, when some fuckshit or other wanted to come at Dumas with some anti-Black foolishness, Dumas replied, “My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.”

for the bicentennial of his birthday, Pres. Jacques Cirac was like, “…sorry about the hella racism,” and had Dumas’s ashes reinterred at the Panthéon of Paris, bc if you’re gonna keep the corpses of the cream of the crop all together, Dumas’s more widely read and translated than literally everybody else.

and they are still finding stuff old dude wrote, seriously; like discovering “lost” works as recently as 2002, publishing stuff for the first time as recently as 2005.

ALSO IMPORTANT:

daddy general dumas was an immense fierce french warrior who was a 6 foot plus, stunningly gorgeous and charismatic Black gentleman 

he invaded egypt

the native egyptians said “is this napoleon? this must be napoleon. we for one welcome our majestic new overlord”

then napoleon showed up

napoleon has all the presence of yesterday’s plain Tesco hummus

the native egyptians were like “… no… no, we’ve thought very hard and we’ll have General Dumas actually”

this did not make napoleon happy

in fact it made him jealous

…and like this…

…while “Napoleon has all the presence of yesterday’s plain Tesco hummus“…

:-D

I suspect Alexandre Dumas would have laughed at that, because besides looking like someone who laughed a lot…

And for those of you who would like to try audio versions, this is what is on LibriVox, the free, volunteer run audiobook version of Project Gutenberg:

Free Harvard courses. Free Courses from Stanford. Free Courses from MIT. Free courses from Yale. Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

The basic types of skirts in Chinese Hanfu: ↑Po Qun破裙, also known as Jiaoyu Qun交窬裙, was one of the primary skirt styles worn by women in historical China. Its distinctive feature is that it is sewn together from multiple trapezoidal fabric panels, creating a unique patchwork effect. This style dates back to the Warring States period, with the earliest known example being a plain silk skirt unearthed from a Chu tomb at Mashan in Jiangling. It gained popularity starting from the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) and Jin Dynasty (266–420 AD) and continued to be worn into the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD). "Jiaoyu" refers to a cutting technique that uses right-angled trapezoidal panels. This method is documented in the Qin-era bamboo slip text Zhiyi ("Garment Making"), held by Peking University, which provides details for its reconstruction. Poqun bears some resemblance to a modern A-line skirt, making it easier to integrate into contemporary fashion. Many people now incorporate Poqun into their outfits by mixing it with modern clothing pieces.↑

↑Jianse Qun间色裙(Alternating-color Qun) is a type of Po Qun distinguished by its construction, which involves splicing together strips of fabric in two or more alternating colors. Jianse Qun originated in the Wei and Jin Dynasties (220–420 AD) and reached its peak during the Sui and Tang Dynasties (581–907 AD), becoming a popular garment for women at the time. It typically featured two alternating colors, though combinations of three or more were also used. The skirt was characterized by a wide hem, formed by joining multiple panels of fabric—the more panels (or "breaks," pò), the wider the skirt. During the Tang Dynasty, broad and long skirts were fashionable, with most skirts made from six panels of cloth. When worn, Jianse Qun was wrapped around the body with a certain amount of overlap. Common variations seen today include the Eight-Pò Skirt, Twelve-Pò Skirt, as well as more complex versions like the Thirty-Six-Pò Skirt and Forty-Eight-Pò Skirt.↑

↑Xuanqun旋裙 (Whirling Skirt) was a popular women's skirt style in the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), also known as the "Two-Panel Skirt" or "Open-Hip Skirt." It is considered a classic example of Hanfu that balances functionality and aesthetics in historical China.

Structurally, the skirt is made by cutting and sewing four fabric pieces into two main panels. These panels are not sewn together along their length but instead overlap only at the waistband, creating front and back open sections known as the "overlapping hip panels."

Every two pieces are first sewn vertically into a block. Three such blocks are then arranged with the middle one wider than the two on the sides, overlapping vertically in an offset manner. The top edge is sewn together, while the hem remains unstitched, allowing the two skirt layers to move and separate freely. A separate waistband is added at the top, with ties attached at both ends for fastening.↑

↑Sanjian Qun三裥裙(Three-Pleat Skirt) rose to prominence during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD). Its full name, "Four-Panel Three-Pleat Skirt" (四破三裥裙), refers to its construction from four square pieces of fabric skillfully joined together—hence the term "four-panel" (si po). The "three-pleat" element describes the three distinct pleats, each arranged in a box-pleat style and positioned at the top section of the skirt. These pleats could either be sewn down or left unstitched for movement.

This design has been verified through artifacts excavated from the tomb of Lady Zhou of the Song Dynasty in De'an, Jiangxi Province. ↑

↑Mamianqun马面裙 (Horse-Face Skirt), which evolved from the Whirling Skirt of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), became the dominant style of women's skirts during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD). The skirt consists of several components: the waistband, skirt panels, decorative borders, and patterned ornaments.

The waistband is typically made of white fabric and fastened with cords or buttons. Decorative motifs are primarily concentrated around the skirt's lower section, frequently depicting flora and fauna that convey auspicious wishes. The most distinctive feature of Mamian Qun is that it appears extremely narrow from the side, while the front and back have rectangular, flat panel sections.↑

↑Manzhe Qun满褶裙(Full-pleated skirts) had already appeared in the Tang Dynasty. A one-piece pleated skirt excavated from the Famen Temple existed alongside the Jiaoyu skirt. By Song Dynasty, the one-piece pleated skirt had become very popular, with increasingly diverse styles. Compared to Tang skirts, those of the Song Dynasty used more fabric panels and featured finer, denser pleats. The full-pleated skirt had no front panel and was entirely covered in uniform pleats. In the Ming Dynasty, Manzhe Qun was also highly popular and, like the Mamian Qun, became a basic style for daily wear.

As recorded in the Song text Qingyi Lu: "During the Tongguang era, the emperor ascended the Xingping Pavilion at dusk, admired the charming colors of the sunset, and ordered the dyeing workshop to create gauze in sunset hues, which was then made into thousand-pleated skirts and bestowed upon palace ladies. From then on, the style became popular among the common people."↑

↑Baidie Qun百迭裙 (Hundred-Fold Skirt) was one of the most common skirts in the Song Dynasty, wearable by both men and women. Designed as a one-piece garment, it features pleats in the middle section and flat panels on both sides, with all pleats facing the same direction. It offers versatile styling—the flat panel can be worn at the front or the back. In contrast, the Mamian Qun is designed to be worn only with the flat panel positioned at the front and back. (cr 糖叔)↑

This is a simple demonstration include jiaoyuqun(poqun), manzhequn, jianse poqun, baidiequn, qixiong poqun, qixiong zhequn:

I didn't even know a cutting pendant was even a Thing

It was like a decorative and often very elaborate chain of useful knicknacks, because women have always wanted to carry sharp tools with them without tearing up their pockets or stabbing up their thighs. It's sort of like a foot-long charm bracelet, but the charms are useable notebooks and tweezers and stuff.

You can get everything from local craft shops apart from possibly the pendant. I got mine from Clover as I like the brand, but there are so many other places that make them. Just search online for 'circular cutting pendant' or 'yarn cutting pendant' and there will be tons of options!

The clasps are basic lobster jewellery clasps. Two are attached to a jump ring. One clips to the cord, the other to whatever you want to attach. Minimum of two clasps on the ring is important. This means you can remove the whole section from the necklace, or just take off the item itself off one clasp, leaving the other clasp on the cord. I only needed two sections, but you can make as many as you like!

2mm waxed cord fit the clover pendant perfectly, but you could use any cord, nylon, leather, whatever you like. The closure is a simple sliding knot to allow it to be worn higher up the neckline when not in use.

clean/wholesome vs dirty - obviously this one is bullshit, we don't need to talk about why

smut/smutty - a classique. Pretty good, but feels like its falling out of favour.

steamy - as above, really. feels slightly more vague, makes me assume it's sexy but not explicit. More dated - been replaced by spicy.

erotic - erotica is a whole genre to itself, with different parameters to romance. Conflating the two weakens genre defninitions for both.

explicit - does what it says on the tin, but risks sounding a bit clinical. If steamy is make outs and fondling, explicit is genitals getting described up-close.

spicy - gets a lot of complaints, but lends itself well to a rating scale and is very popular

open/closed door - this is a good shorthand, but not very familiar to people who aren't reading romance. Again, doesn't rate very easily - a closed door is a closed door, but the open door could lead to either slow vanilla missionary or a full-on BDSM scene.

porn/pornography - comes with a lot of assumptions which makes it harder to use in certain spaces. Sits at the 5/5 end of the scale in my head. Similar to erotica in that its a distinct genre.

saucy - this is just a Carry On film. no one is aroused.

sexy - too vague. colin firth fully clothed in a pond is sexy. gwendoline christie in plate armour is sexy. that one fish from finding nemo is sexy. brushing hands described in the right way is sexy. could mean anything.

this book has sex in it - literally no

Then you've got the problem that websites like tiktok and instagram, which is where most marketing happens, can surpress content that's too sexy, especially if its queer, and authors are being forced to be over-cautious with the words they use.

dollar tree dinners on tiktok

youtube

facebook

If you don't know why Foss is awesome its not just that its free. Open source software has a huge set of advantages. Most software is proprietary meaning that its code cannot be viewed by other people. Open source softwares code can be viewed by everyone and people can contribute their own code to make it better. Open source is often more secure than proprietary because more people have more eyes on it and more people have contributed to it's security. Its also easy to know how much privacy you have with every software because you can read the code. No more "trust me bro I'm not harvesting and selling your data" you know if they are collecting and selling because the code is publicly available.

In the last two months I have been switching almost completely to Foss. I was worried at first because when I stopped using Foss over 10 years ago the average Foss software was genuinely worse than the paid proprietary alternative. Thankfully things have really come full circle. 90℅ of the software I have tried in the last 2 months works better than the proprietary alternative and is 100℅ less obnoxious.

So here is a list of every Foss software I have tried and recommend. There is way more than this available. This list is just what I have used and like personally. Anyone can feel free to add and we can turn it into a master list. Please just take these as a place to start and do your own research to see if these softwares will work for your use case before you fully ditch your proprietary software.

Operating systems

Graphene os: android alt. Security and privacy focused. The most secure and private smartphone currently available.

Linux mint: easy to use linux, 100℅ better than windows.

Pop!: The Linux distro you should use if you have nividia hardware and want to play games using said hardware. Very intuitive and easy to use.

Kubuntu: Ubuntu Linux with KDE desktop. This is the linux distro one I am currently using and I don't have any plans to jump ship again. Better than windows and better than Mac. The companion app for your phone makes life soooo easy. Its pretty and easy to customize to a ridiculously granular level. No fucking notes.

Kindle jailbreak- ko reader: use jailbreak to free your kindle from the tyranny of the bezos. It will download ko reader which is a Foss OS that has every fucking feature you always wished kindle had and let's you read whatever the fuck you want, and have whatever the screensaver you want (no more ads!). Soooo fuck amazon and use this. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough.

Linux FOSS: (some available on windows and android as well)

Calibre: Foss desktop eBook library. Packed with features. You will want to use this with koreader to make managing your kindle easy.

Manuscript: skrivner alt. Does absolutely everything I need.

Bitwarden: password manager (use a keepass fork if you want self hosted)

Next cloud: private google drive and cloud alternative that you can self host if you want but it's not required. App available

Proton VPN: to the best of my knowledge it is the only Foss no log VPN you can get. You can pay for higher speeds. App available

Quad9dns: free encrypted DNS provider. App available.

News software:

Use any Foss RSS reader and for the love of god stop getting news from social media. Take control of your feed!

Apps (I only know for android)

Fdroid: great app store to find Foss android apps and download them.

Antennapod: you can get all of your podcasts fetched to one feature rich app via RSS feed. No need to rely on spotify or music steaming services.

Openreads: it's good reads but private and 100℅ stored locally. No amazon, no social media aspect, it just tracks your reading, you can import your good reads but if you want to import from storygraph you have to make a good reads burner account, import to good reads, then import to openreads. The menus Navigation on this one is a bit cumbersome but honestly good reads app is worse.

Newpipe: YouTube frontend that let's you have YouTube subscriptions, watch YouTube in the background, and blocks all ads, without logging in to YouTube. You will want to use this one with a VPN set to Canada (or any other country) so YouTube doesn't keep blocking it in order to force you to sign in. But even with that extra step its worth it for the privacy and the lack of ads.

Proton mail: one of 2 more private gmail alts. But you should note that email cannot be 100℅ anonymous or private.