A Dragon's Lair

A mashup of social justice, science, and cute animals. I'm in my mid 40s and queer as hell (he/him/his)

[ahedderick]

This is the most beautiful scientific diagram I've ever seen.

Also a great example of why pink is a tint of red, but also a completely different color. Erbium? Neodymium? So beautiful.

[foone]

my personal unabomber-style typing quirk that's gonna get me caught someday is my refusal to put the currency sign at the start of the number.

I don't say "dollars 200", I say "200 dollars", so it's "200$" not "$200"

I don't care that it's wrong. YOU'RE wrong, english

[unisex-muffin]

Things you can watch/do instead of YouTube, For those who may have trouble finding things to do.

1. Internet Archive. Has plenty of videos to watch, plenty of games you can play that are emulated right on the website. You can also find entire collections of roms. For emulators, check out Emulation General Wiki to find the best emulator for the system you want to emulate.

2. r/piracy has a wiki full of safe places to read comics and manga, to watch anime and cartoons, and to watch movies.

3. Virtualbox, you can set up a Windows XP virtual box and get old PC games from Internet Archive. You can also check out CD Game World if you need a no-cd patch.

4. Saltybet. A Livestream of MUGEN with thousands of characters fighting against each other, sometimes things get hilarious. Runs 24/7.

5. The Cutting Room Floor, spend hours reading up on cut content from your favorite games.

6. Lost Media Wiki, read up on lost movie, books, animation, video games, etc.

7. Neocities, learn coding and make your own website!

8. WebDSR, explore shortband radio

9. Radio Garden, listen to radio stations from around the world

10. Every Noise At Once, explore the widest archive of music genres, with samples and Spotify playlists

11. My Retro TV, pick and era and watch popular television from that time period

[a-very-cute-snake]

[jeypawlik]

Might I recommend RSS then?~

There's so many readers out there you can try out (I like Feedbro and Ukagaka Ghosts)

I've got a bunch of comics, a video panel and a written version of said panel you can check out:

Art by Jey Pawlik

Ooop, maybe I should reblog my RSS comic again with my talk on RSS addition. Y'know. Just in case. Oops I dropped my art blog that I update

Art by Jey Pawlik

Did you know the wonderful Filthy Figments commissioned me to draw a NEW RSS COMIC?! Go check it out and get an updated look on RSS from me

RSS & You

Back in May for the Cartoonist Coop's Nib and Ink Fest, I did a pretty in-depth talk on RSS. You can still watch the talk here on youtube, b

[samreich]

thank me later

[scribefindegil]

I'm still thinking about the guy who saw me realize my wheelchair wouldn't fit in the elevator because he (also a wheelchair user) was already inside it and immediately quipped, "This elevator ain't accessible enough for the both of us."

[fansplaining]

African countries remain largely absent from [K-pop] world-tour schedules. “It’s something we as fans in Nigeria constantly question,” Yusuf told me. “The fan base and the community is getting bigger and bigger in Africa, but every year we don’t get listed for concerts. We don’t really know the reason behind it.” Yusuf’s frustration echoes a wider sentiment expressed by fans online across Reddit and Facebook. “I guess Africa is not part of the world,” one Facebook fan wrote in a discussion about the lack of K-pop concerts in the continent. “It's not that we don't have the infrastructure, but it comes across as ‘Thank you for supporting us, but the company/organisers say we shouldn't tour you guys,’” Reddit user Tiny_Ad6695 posted on the kpop_uncensored subreddit last year. 

In our latest, Tabby Kibugi reports on K-pop fandom in Kenya, Nigeria, and other African nations. As fannish interest skyrockets and fan-led gatherings are popping up at a rapid pace, the industry continues to ignore African fans, rarely scheduling concerts or official events there.

Read the whole piece or listen to an audio version:

African K-Pop Fans Are Building Their Own Spaces

While the K-pop industry largely ignores them, fans in Kenya and Nigeria create K-pop communities for themselves.

[roughentumble]

old man logan with a lesbian border is a GREAT icon

[jobeeart]

best part of making a comic is seeing how much you can abstract expressions in the thumbnails

[jobeeart]

this gonna be the rothko chapel dm comic btw

[jobeeart]

this shit is so hard

[pangur-and-grim]

I won't publish the ask (they asked me not to), but I thought I'd still answer it publicly!

no, royalties are not a significant source of income for most authors. if you wrote something like Project Hail Mary, then absolutely, the royalties would be substantial! but that's like winning the lottery. Ryan Gosling is not starring in the movie adaption of most books.

when you sell a book to a publisher, you get what's called 'an advance against royalties'. it's usually split into multiple parts, so you might get one third for the initial sale, one third for the final revised manuscript, and one third on the publishing date.

an advance against royalties is the publisher saying "we believe you will eventually make X amount in royalties, so here it is ahead of time." and then you don't actually see any money from royalties until the advance is paid off. most books do not make enough in royalties to pay off the advance (I have two children's books and one fiction book, and have yet to see royalties for any of them).

advances are still great, but you need to make them stretch! for instance, last year my net income was about 30k Canadian (21k USD), which is fantastic when you consider that I mostly made it through writing. but I'm definitely not a millionaire. I can live off my writing (not trying to undersell that!) but I'll probably remain in a low income bracket for the foreseeable future.

this isn't meant to discourage anyone from seeking out writing as a career! however, there is a reason that many authors have alternate jobs with writing on the side. or, you know, rich spouses.

[pangur-and-grim]

this isn't me making a fuss about pirating (I've pirated way too many shows to run my mouth on that lmao), but there IS actually a financial incentive to having people buy your books!

buying books shows the publisher that they can make money off you, which means they're more likely to give you advances for future books. and advances are what authors live off (if they don't have a side job). that's why I always push pre-orders so hard! you have to be a racehorse worth betting on, or else they send you to the glue factory....

if I can offer one alternative to pirating: asking your library to stock the book also helps authors, and doesn't cost anything. the only downside is the patience required.

[pangur-and-grim]

OOPS yes, @stjohnstarling makes a good point! everything I'm saying is from the perspective of traditional publishing, but it's a very different game if you're a self-published author

[gollancz]

I will also add that this is why pre-orders can make a HUGE difference to authors - because if there's enough hype, publishers can pull more levers to build that momentum and reach more readers to help authors earn out their advance faster.

[systembomb]

TBH this whole thing is also about why we *need* to be pushing back against "write from the heart, wanting to get paid is clout chasing/immoral/scamming/whatever" takes.

[mysillycomics]

lalalalala

[blackwatersinkingship]

When I finish this whale shark lamp all 4 of you are gonna be So I'm pressed

[blackwatersinkingship]

She glows now, just so you know, and she's full of string deliciöusee string

[god-sent-gender-bent]

Are you gonna show us the lamp? 👀

[blackwatersinkingship]

Good news! Whäle shark lämp 🥰

[hollyevolving]

A lot more than 4 of us are impressed

[makingqueerhistory]

Is there a master post somewhere of all the stuff you have related to trans men and transmasc people? Or queer masculinity more broadly? I'm finding reading history to be therapeutic in key ways for me lately and am always looking for new things to add to my personal reading list, so I figured I'd ask. Thanks for all you do!

I don't have a masterlist premade, but I can make one for you right now!

For books:

The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist

The Other Olympians

For articles:

Amelio Robles Ávila

Karl M. Baer 

Zinaida Gippius 

Ferdinand Andreas Bruce 

Edward De Lacy Evans 

Zdeněk Koubek 

Victor Barker

Lou Sullivan 

Billy Tipton  

Alan L. Hart 

Anderson Bigode Herzer

Sir Ewan Forbes 

We are always exploring, so if you ask me in the future, I will have some more!

[theonion]

Tate Brothers Arrested In Florida

Influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Florida on rape and sex trafficking charges and now face potential extradition to the U.K. What do you think?

[theonion]

Tate Brothers Arrested In Florida

Influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Florida on rape and sex trafficking charges and now face potential extradition to the U.K. What do you think?

[kitkatmoose]

"You used words used by AI or spammers!"

Excuse my degree having ass all to hell... How are those words for you?

[shiftythrifting]

Shirt you can only wear at 3pm on a Tuesday

queue'd for 3 on Tuesday