There's something on the roof

an elf, a cat, and a violinist are having a meeting

where are they?

alas, the meaning of "enshittification" is already getting diluted

one might even say - no, I daren't -

incheptification

Better late than never

The comedic timing of this strip fits the tone of the show perfectly, right down to Stan putting a quarter in the meter after ramming it through the wall.

I'm already seeing advice from people in the US to purchase queer books and other banned or "controversial" books on paper as a way to combat the wave of government censorship that is coming. While this is a good idea (it is! absolutely!), it's not accessible to everyone, and truly, we're not going to be able to consumerism our way out of this one.

If you can buy the books, do. Whether you can buy the books or not, borrow them from your library.

Borrow the paper versions. Borrow the ebook or audiobook versions. Request the titles you want that your library doesn't have. The more a title circulates or is requested, the better librarians are going to be able to defend keeping it if and when it's ever challenged.

Use libraries like @queerliblib too. The more members they have, the better they'll be able to fundraise.

Your community resources depend on you using them. Borrow the books before they go away.

InB4: Piracy is not the solution here. We're trying to keep community resources available, not make sure individual people can read individual books. Different problems.

The books are still available. Borrowing them from your library and returning them on time and in good condition will help keep them that way.

This this this!

Libraries and librarians are going to be under attack in the coming years.

Please help us by showing the people in charge that these materials are important in the only way they really understand - the number of checkouts.

We need your help now more than ever.

For some additional context, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is the primary funding mechanism for libraries on a national level. It distributes grants to State Libraries (every state has one, though it may not be called exactly that) who then distribute that money further to individual libraries in their states. It's a federal entity that has to be reauthorized every year or that huge chunk of funding goes away, and every year of the first Trump administration the fight for reauthorization was a white-knuckle event. We got it through by the skin of our teeth each year, but it was harrowing.

Libraries are mentioned on page one of Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership (the big book of horrible policy plans). Choosing not to reauthorize the IMLS will be an easy way for the incoming administration to gut library services nationwide, especially in small communities that don't have a thriving donor base to fill those budget gaps. They'll be able to stop the "porn peddlers" and "groomers" at the cost of vital services to those communities.

One of the best tools we have to try and avoid that outcome is to prove, definitively, that libraries matter by presenting robust use statistics. Checking out books, using library spaces, attending library programs, all of that gets captured and reported to the IMLS each year. They're imperfect measures of the value the library provides to the community, but they're what we have.

At the local level it's going to be just as, if not more important to educate the community about what the library does. Your local governing authorities aren't going to be persuaded by the librarian alone, but they can be persuaded by vocal community support. That will also inoculate your community against "grassroots" attempts to shut the library down, like almost happened in Dayton, Washington in 2023.

To bring it back around to OP's original point, the imperfect nature of the stats gathered can work in libraries' favor on both fronts. It might actually be detrimental to present record-breaking circulation numbers for queer titles to the incoming administration, but the IMLS doesn't collect that level of detail. Any book you check out adds to the bottom line total that gets reported, queer or not. At the local level librarians have more control over the stories they tell with their data. If you're in a progressive community, they can be open with those more granular numbers as a way to underscore their importance as a resource to queer community. If you're in a conservative community they can lean on the bigger picture to show the impact on everyone, while knowing internally what materials are actually circulating and how best to curate the collection to serve their patrons.

Do you think in Narnia, instead of "trans woman" and "trans man", they say "daughter of Adam" and "son of Eve"?

I wonder if nonbinary people would be "child of Eden"

i don't think the Jesus-Lion would like trans people

i can't point to anything specific but christians gonna christian ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Plan B has a shelf life of 4 years

Plan B has a shelf life of 4 years

Plan B has a shelf life of 4 years

(Also, you can get 4 months of over the counter birth control (progestin-only pill form) at Costco for $50. Or 3 months on Amazon for about $45.)

If you're planning to keep medication at home - please do your research and check the conditions the medication needs to be stored at, bevaise the shelf life given to medication assumes that the meds are kept in a climate controlled pharmacy.

My pharmblr buds will be able to say more, but Contraceptives can lose efficacy if stored at higher temperatures than expected. When I was working in my sexual health job, we had to adjust the expiry dates on a ton of contraceptive rings, for example, because the heatwave and lack of AC had meant we could not guarantee that they would be functional. Store contraception exactly how it states on the packet, and never let anyone else have access to your medication. If you have a partber who could tamper with it, keep it out of their reach.

Take plan B as soon as you can after the PIV - it's more reliable the sooner you take it - take it within 72 hours if you can. The planned parenthood website explains it in more detail.

On a more general note, copper IUDs are the most reliable EC and you can keep them in after using them for emergency contraception.

Also, if you can get a copper IUD they can last for 5 years. Some types will last as long as 10 years. They can make your periods heavier or more painful, unfortunately.

On the other hand, hormonal IUDs can last for 3 or 5 years and can make heavy or painful periods better for a significant portion of users. They are the first line treatment for heavy or painful periods.

Likewise the contraceptive implant lasts for at least 3 years, in the pandemic we received guidance to extend that for 4 years. It can also make periods lighter or make them go away. They don't work well for everyone- some people get heavier bleeding or other side effects, but if it doesn't work for you, you can get it removed.

You can get extremely reliable contraceptives - as reliable as getting your tubes tied - that will outlast a Trump presidency.

And if you aren't safe, your partner doesn't even have to know you've got one of these forms of contraception in place. Though it is still important to try and leave them in a safe manner when you can. You can't see the implant and you can only feel it if you know where to look, it leaves a tiny scar after the initial bruise fades.

And for IUD strings, if you leave the strings a little longer, they generally can't be felt - they just curl up around the cervix. Short strings are more poky and more likely to be felt.

As your friendly neighborhood O+G doctor, I second this.

I would just add that regarding the hormonal IUD that cramping and spotting is expected for the first month or so, so bare with it (obviously if it's too painful, get it removed and tey something else)

The implant also has an approximate contraceptive rate of 97.5% (compared to the implants 99%) and also lasts for about 18 months (depending on brand).

I would also reiterate that if possible condoms should still be used because none of the above protect you from STIs (the should also be used for at least the first week commencing a new contraceptive to ensure therapeutic levels of the medication have been reached).

For anyone who may need it: look at the following website

https://www.nhs.uk/contraception/methods-of-contraception/

*especially those in countries where misinformation is allowed to be rampant/peddles by health care workers with an agenda. The NHS is a lot of things, understaffed and underfinded for a start; but it legally cannot knowingly peddle false information or have a religious agenda, the advice is also research evidence based (where possible).

The above website also has generally good advice for most chronic conditions and minor illnesses. Please use regardless of what country you are based in - I know how hard it can be to get reliable medical information in a simple format.

Look after yourselves. Especially now.

Yes to all of this good stuff from my medblr buddy @bluestarsandcomets !

Also contraception choices by the FSRH breaks down each method nicely, especially the pros and cons and the effectiveness.

(Tw for the infographic showing woman-in-dress stick figures that may be triggering for trans men and enbies. I do wish they'd change it but I think the site is useful despite that).

If one method doesn't work for you, another method may work well - and for some people for whom all hormonal methods are rubbish/dangerous/have too many side effects, permanent surgical options and condoms or diaphragms should be an option.

Fertility awareness is a hormone free method CAN also be effective if your periods are regular and if you learn how to do it effectively and are extremely cautious/use condoms around your fertile time. However; it's not a great choice for most people as we tend to stop thinking about risk when horny, and the tune around when we ovulate makes many of us hornier.

I track a lot for conceiving purposes and my bloody apps are always updating my fertile window based on my LH testing, CM and basal body temperature data. The same thing happens if you aren't trying to conceive, so days you thought were safe may be revealed to have been fertile days if you ovulate a bit sooner or later than expected.

Also, please note that the majority of the apps that track periods are not calibrated or trained on data to prevent pregnancy and may not be accurate. It tents to be a better method for people who won't mind if they do get pregnant- like couples who are hoping to wait for a year or wo and are re-establishing their cycle post birth control in preparation.

You can only really get pregnant in the fertile period- but it's hard to always accurately predict when that is. And every once in a while if you have a very short or long cycle it might be much earlier or later than you expect. Which is why some people incorrectly tell you that you can get pregnant outside the fertile window - they mean that you can get pregnant outside of the predicted window your app gives you. Because you may have the wrong information about when your fertile window actually is.

Diaphragms and discs with spermicide have fallen out of fashion but they go in before sex and aren't easy to feel during sex. If they fit you well they can be pretty secure. They are more reliable than condoms, with 12/100 pregnancies each tear to.condoms' 15, with typical use.

I'm saying this explicitly if you are having sex with someone with a penis who refuses to use condoms and want to avoid pregnancy but struggle with hormonal contraception. I would recommend leaving such an arrangement when you are safe. But I want you to know there are options to protect yourself.

having a lot of thoughts about "Things being Hard" and what that means

Being told that I need to do hard things in life, with no further elaboration of what that meant, has always been very distressing for me. Even when I was a tiny kid, I felt everything was so hard, and the future felt exhausting and terrifying

I have had this intense dread of what i might be made to endure, and worse, what I might be capable of surviving—because not being externally damaged by my suffering would mean it was normal and I had to feel it forever

Recently I did something HARD, but it was not the kind of HARD i always imagined people's advice to mean.

The kind of hard I always understood: going to a doctor's appointment, ignoring my own feelings to force myself to do a procedure that seemed horrible and unacceptable to me. The task of experiencing incredible suffering. (I always felt incredible guilt and shame when I could not force myself to do something.)

The new and unfamiliar kind of hard: making the doctor's appointment, carefully exploring my own feelings to determine what I want from it and what procedures I would and would not be comfortable with, writing down my feelings and boundaries and preparing to communicate and defend them. The task of opening the box where the trauma is locked up, feeling those feelings physically, accepting that the negative experiences and feelings of aloneness in that were traumatic, and setting out with determination to make a positive experience where I feel safe.

The first kind of hard is where enduring it feels like a deep erosion of my right to be a person, a torture where I have to feel ashamed and guilty forever that I want everything to not hurt as much

the second kind of hard feels like working on a skill with intense effort and frustration, feeling a crude beginning of mastery form—and experiencing it in relation to mental health is NEW.

I went to the appointment, when for so long I couldn't go to the doctor cause I was too scared! It was possible because I went to extensive lengths to make sure I was comfortable and felt safe.

In the past, it would have seemed that was AVOIDING the hard thing, and shameful, but it was still a hard thing—but it was a completely different hard. It was the hard of self-compassion, not the hard of self-cruelty.

I thought...When they said doing hard stuff is good for you, is this the kind of hard they meant all along?

This emerged, over the past several years, alongside my environmental philosophy, and they feel deeply connected in this moment?

Like so much environmental writing has taught people to face a dying world, to mourn a mass extinction, to comprehend and grasp climate doom

...and to value the strength involved in despairing, because it's painful and feels bad and is hard

But not enough has engaged the task of choosing hope, working on building a future, choosing to LIVE

...and people are actually aggressive towards it, because it feels like "cheating" out of the HARD thing of being miserable all the time, it sounds like comfort and coddling and weakness...

...but it's not. Hope is the Second Hard. Hope is when we start with "It is necessary for there to be a future where we are okay," and must figure out, "But HOW?"

This is like "any idiot can die for a cause; what takes real courage in living for one."

I just got described as an "ad hating commie" by someone because I said a minute of youtube ads is unpleasant. fully spent 5 minutes arguing and defending youtube ads. insane stuff

reblog if you are an ad hating commie

official linguistics post

@copperbadge

[ID: A tweet from user CSMFHT, reading "Latin has no exact word for 'yes' but some phrases give the same effect, like 'ita vero'. One of my students translated it as 'so true' today and I can't stop imagining all the Romans now saying "so true bestie" all the time."]

It's one of my favorite things about Latin that it has no direct word for yes and no direct word for 'please' -- you say "amabo te" which translates to "I will love you" (implied: if you do this).

We were taught in my course to use an affirmative verb -- we learned ita vero, but we were taught it was fairly rarely used, so if someone for example asked "Are you going?" instead of saying yes, you would say "I am going".

Mind you, the romance languages do have a yes, they have forms of "sì" and I just had to go down a little rabbit hole, because I was like "Well, the romance languages heavily lean on Latin, and they all have a very specific word for yes, so where did that come from" and it turns out it comes from Latin anyway -- it's derived from "sīc" which is a conjugation of "est", the "to be" verb. It translates roughly as "thusly" or "in this fashion" so when you say si to someone you are grandly declaring it is thus. :D That's fun.

i was skeptical of The Onion buying InfoWars

until i read about it on NPR

lemme tell you, that was surreal. they took everything in his media company including his line of vitamins. they only thing semi-related he got to keep was his twitter account

I should probably clean this computer more often

The pop up mixed with all the labeled space objects make it look ominously like you're deleting a galaxy or something

We don't need them all

the real reason for the Fermi Paradox is that op keeps deleting the aliens

yesterday I sarcastically made up the tech company names "Trimble" and "Plinq" and then to my horror discovered that both actually exist

one of us is having a stroke and I'm worried it's me

What do you mean Trimble is part of the US military industrial complex

i was playing pokemon blue on stream earlier at 350% speed and i got to thinking

what if the reason nobody in the pokemon world has any good teams is because its considered a dick move to have a proper team comp

like culturally everyone is like “haha pick the pokemon you want! if you’re happy with three geodudes, thats you and your life!” and then you’re supposed to just have a friendly battle with any other pokemon trainers and whatever pokemon they just happen to have

like the average trainer is probably just walking around with a growlithe because that’s their pet, or a hiker has three geodudes because the geodudes help him with hiking. and if this pet owner and geodude hiker meet, you’re supposed to have a friendly battle but nothing too serious

now imagine the 10 year old kid that has six pokeballs on their belt comes up. you’re like “haha, we’ll have a friendly battle!” and you throw out your geodude 

and they throw out a fucking gyarados, and it one-shots your geodude 

and then you throw out your pidgey you have because the pidgey helps you navigate mountains because you’re a hiker

and then electricity crackles around the gyarados and a thunderbolt flies off of this giant dragon and evaporates your pidgey 

so you’re down to your last pokemon. you tell them you’re gonna send out your bulbasaur. the ten year old is like “oh okay in that case i’m gonna pull out my vulpix.” like not only is this kid walking around with an amped-up super dragon, but theyve also got multiple pokemon specifically for making type advantage counter-picks?

this kid’s a fucking asshole! really, kid? what are you trying to prove here? this is a friendly match between strangers for fun! why are you composing real-ass competitive teams? what a fucker! 

i mean if you look at how npc’s talk about their pokemon, they’re service animals mostly. some of them are just pets. apparently they really enjoy sparring, so you let them battle other people’s pokemon for socialization, it’s like going to the dog park.

hell yes i’d be mad if i took my chronic pain support chow-chow to the dog park and some asshole with four rottweilers and a husky was like SIC EM THUNDERNUTS even if my dog enjoyed the tussle at first.

look, kid, the paras helps me weed the garden. it’s not a special forces attack paras. it’s just a bug that eats dandelions. please calm down.

This is precisely why Cooltrainers are exiled to the mountains

It’s not the trainers’ fault, they’re going about their god damned business trying to get badges and go to the Pokemon League and stop legendary Pokemon from fucking shit up and save the world, but they’ve got fuckin’ Hiker Willy stopping them on the path and running over here like;

“PLEASE WILL YOU STOMP MY TWO GEODUDE INTO THE EARTH!”

Like, fuck off, if Willy didn’t want my Swampert to one-shot his hiker helpers then he shouldn’t be trying to harass unaccompanied 10-year-olds halfway up a mountain. I mean, at some point, ya gotta know what a trainer looks like, and the majority of them are little tweens running around by themselves. These are little twerps trying to go up against the Elite Four, they’re not messing around.

Hiker Willy is asking for it. He’s asking me to kill his Pokemon. 

The notes on this post are an absolute joy.

Getting back to serious topics today.

prominent role

who else is gonna make aragorn's sword

i made a variant of [link: two cakes] to illustrate a related principle

The bay is the gate to the golden state. Why I oughta…

Also while I’m here it’s called the golden state because of the golden fields of poppies not the gold rush or the golden hills

California poppy:

Orange.

Dwarf California poppy:

Yellow.

California poppies are my favorite flower. I don’t mess around.

didn't all the gold rush away from california?

the children of hurin (2007)

he died as he lived, happy and horny

... what do you mean i've misunderstood the phrase "wood, chipper"?