Cold, hard logic... maybe

I have fourteen microwaveable heating pads up for sale on my shop! They're soft flannel, and stay warm for quite a while! I know it's warming up here in the northern hemisphere, but they're great for achy joints or cramps too.

Every now and then a difficult period like this comes along: so it's time to request some assistance.

I've kind of been neglecting my vision for the past year or so, aware that I needed new glasses (and to go have a consult for possible eye-related surgery), but putting it off... and now the situation has, as it were, come home to roost.

The other day, when I was typing something and then (to check it before posting) had to pick up the Mac and hold it up to my nose to see what I'd typed... I realized that if this went on much longer, even with dictation (because after you dictate, you still have to edit...), I wouldn't be able to write.

That would be bad.

I need to go see my Eye Lady, get examined, and get both sets of glasses re-fitted with new prescriptions. This—as usual, each time it needs to be done every year and a half or two years, due to Weird Eyes—is going to run into a low-four-figure-ish kind of money. And due to other recent unexpected medical expenses, right now there's not enough dosh around (or spondoolicks or whatever term you prefer...) to get things sorted.

Therefore: can I get people interested in keeping a writer, you know, writing (as I've got three novels working at once at the moment...), to consider doing one of these things?

(a) Go over to Ebooks Direct and buy a book. (Or a bundle. Or a gift card for somebody else who might like my work.) And if you do: thanks so much!

(b) Stop by my Ko-Fi and drop a little something in the pot. It'll be most appreciated.

And if you can't do either of the above:

(c) Reblog this and let other people see it?

If you have a yard and need mulch, the garden centers charge a fortune. But you can get mulch FOR FREE from Chip Drop.

If you are one of those people who think fancy, evenly chipped, dyed mulch is the only thing that will do, alas for you. That's not what you will get. And you shouldn't use dyed mulch anyway.

What you will get from Chip Drop is the detritus that arborists need to dump after they've done some tree clearing. I just got a pile of FREE mostly pine mulch over 6 feet high. It should be more than enough to meet my needs to suppress weeds on pathways and mulch around winter plants.

And it's FREE, though I paid the optional $20 fee.

All you have to do is sign up, and when there is an arborist in the area, you get your mulch. You can add your preferences as well, but if you are too picky, it will take longer to get what you want. It took me about a month to get my free mulch, and with a spate of warm weather coming this week, I'll have plenty of time to make use of it.

I use the Back to Eden and no dig gardening methods, and mulch is essential to my needs.

I highly recommend Chip Drop.

POV: mister Devon Price, PhD, telling me that I am right about everything

I've entered the final phase of my graduate degree program in Folklore and Ethnology. My coursework and fieldwork/data collection complete, I am now in the process of writing my thesis during this summer trimester.

As planned, the support so many of you so generously provided, in addition to an education stipend I earned through environmental work, enabled me to enroll in and attend courses in my program, afford housing, and generally live everyday as a student for the duration of my course modules.

The funds lasted exactly as long as planned (literally to the day, I couldn't believe it lol!), and I could not be more grateful for every cent and word of support I received over this last year and a half.

In the final leg of my program, I must ask for support of one final need: There are quite a few books I need which I cannot access through my university, from friends and classmates, my professors, online archives & epublications, or any other means. Some are difficult to find in the first place to be able to purchase at all.

Put simply: I need some help buying books!

Many of them have Ebook editions for as little as €15,00! Others I have to actually email the authors and ask for personal PDFs, but they still aren't too expensive.

I began a new job recently and am on my way, but I won't have the couple hundred euro it will ultimately cost to purchase all of these books this month in order to have them while I work on my thesis.

Equiping an armor tutorial

Hi there 💕 *blinks faux-innocently* Got away with what, though? Whatever do you mean? Crowley just put a pen in his mouth and spat out the cap, is all. 😉 You know what etymology I'm going to repeat for this lol... Euphemism: from the Greek euphemia, meaning: words of good omens. Did you also notice the paralleling to the Diana sculpture?

Top shelf use of set, that was. You can hear in Aziraphale's subconscious making this dream there the echo of "And when it's all over, The Almighty's going to put up a new thing called 'a reign bow...'"

How did they get away with this scene? Same way they got away with lots of things, probably. You and I understood it but I can guarantee you not everyone did. For a related example? I don't think most people have noticed Aziraphale!DavidBowie going down on his microphone yet either 😂... His "petite phone", yeah? 😉

also, on web, we just launched an advanced search dialog that should help folks use all the new operators we added.

Do you like tea and supporting queer spaces? Phoenix Pearl Tea Company is a small, independent LGBT-owned tea store in Great Falls, Montana that is a tea shop and gaming nerd hangout and also the only place in town that is explicitly welcoming to Queer and Trans people. They also practically saved my life when I was having an episode of hypoglycemia while on a road trip a few years ago. The staff saw me staggering around on the sidewalk, called me in and fed me pretzels until I was coherent again.

I've been buying their loose-leaf tea for years now but it's only occurring to me now to promote them here because my AuDHD memory problems are SEVERE.

See that book under my arrow? That's Aziraphale's very distinctive copy of Professor Hoffman's Modern Magic that we first saw in 1941. If you've read my post about this book in the past, then you know exactly why seeing it in Derek's Bookshop proves that this world isn't real but I'm going to briefly summarize it again here so you all can see what I mean, and then show how we know that it's this book.

In 1941, we are shown the note that "Professor Hoffman" wrote to Aziraphale in the front of this book. When we look at the writing, though? We can recognize it as really being Crowley's, which would mean that the book should not exist in the world of Derek's Bookshop. How do we know that it's Crowley's writing?

Because the capital letter F in Fell and others in the note are written in a very recognizable and unique way-- made out of a cursive capital letter L, presumably for love. That letter? Is the same thing that we saw Crowley write when he signed for the baby in 1.01, in a shot that the story had us see so that we'd recognize it in this book come S2.

The point is that Crowley gave Aziraphale that copy of the book and, because he couldn't write his own name in it while they were a secret, wrote a note for him in it and signed it as The Hoff-- a bit of wordplay that actually does describe Crowley himself, as you can read more about if you read the linked post above. Not only this but we know for sure that this is Aziraphale's copy in Derek's Bookshop because the show made sure we would. How did they do that?