Books and Berries

On storytelling: books, collaborative, fairy tales, mysteries, how-to, and such and so on and what have you Call me Bee or Berry or whatever! Pronouns are also whatever

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

Everyone else talked about outdoor cats, it's time for me to talk about offleash dogs

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

Reasons not to have your dog offleash at a public park:

1) roads (this one is self-explanatory)

2) it makes the park inaccessible to like, entire swathes of the population. If you have experience with police dogs or guard dogs in your neighborhood, or you're a new immigrant from somewhere with a large population of feral dogs, it sucks ass going to the park and having someone's massive lab bound up to you!

3) If, for example, you are in a protected wetland area plastered with friendly signs asking you to please leash your dog to avoid causing an ecological impact, having your dog offleash might cause an ecological impact! "Oh no, my dog is well-behaved, they would never bother the wildlife" wrong! your dog is in the pond trying to eat the endangered Blandings' turtles!

4) Non-zero chance of a jokerified park guide (me) just clipping your dog to a leash and stealing them

[notgreengardens]

5) "Oh but my dog is sooo well-trained, there won't be any problems." Every dog owner who unleashes their dog is convinced of the same thing but almost all of them are wrong. I do not care to find out if your dog is the exception to the rule.

[ukulelegodparent]

6) It doesn't fucking matter if your dog is well-trained and friendly. If it goes near an impulsive, unfriendly dog on a leash, there will be issues. And if it happens to stumble upon a boar with piglets or a scared horse etc, and you aren't close by, that dog is fucked.

[aropride]

please god let chatgpt die out like nfts did. With a fast and graceless fall into irrelevancy

[bladespark]

Like to charge, reblog to cast.

[atwotonedbird]

This spell has a very low hit ratio, so we need a lot of us to do it.

[something-existing-somewhere]

Sorry I Spent all mY spoons this week already and it's fucking Tuesday. We're heading to the knives

[wizard-laundry]

The KIDS act (which contains KOSA) passed the US house, so I would recommend calling your senators and telling them to vote in opposition. I don't think I need to stress the importance of being able to use the internet freely and without privacy barriers being breached.

There are many scripts online you can follow, many ways to tweak your message to fit your senator (ESPECIALLY if they are up for reelection this year). Whether it's a recording you reach or a real person, be straightforward, don't argue, just let your rep know that you are a constituent and you oppose the KIDS act, etc.

Here is where you can search for your senator... call, email, fax, bring them physical letters, show up in person to their offices if you are able.

[deervsheadlights]

wish everyone could perceive the Vague Concepts in my head because i just know you would looove my Vague Concepts. you would think im so smart if you saw the misty clouds of Vague Concepts floating around in my head. #MyVagueConcepts

[jabberding0]

Wei Weaving is a Chinese artist

[toastbutteregg]

[random-jot]

Standing directly in the doorway to achieve peak mental health.

[meowtalhead]

[linolinoing]

guys pls don't die from the heat i love playing tumblr with you

[stevebucky-deactivated20221119]

[catgirl-greatsword]

its wednesday

[thecrimerat]

Irrelevant

[just-petty-thoughts]

End of my rope tuesday wednesday

[tls12lessthan3]

it is so genuinely meaningful to me that kaizenix includes a romance route, that is the easiest route towards safety, that the characters completely reject. (a route which, by the way, results in the main female character being left behind and excluded by the rest of the narrative). these characters mean the world to each other, quite literally the world, and that means they stay together platonically. kim dokja looks at han sooyoung and says this is a love story but not a romance, and yoo joonghyuk backs him up. thats everything to me! that's love, baby!

[dirtbra1n]

Just read chapter 3 of the 2nd years novel for the first time and i remembered a post from like a year ago that i saw talking about the miso soup metaphore and the way tashiro makes intimacy for himself in his own home.

(I dont even think you made the post lol, i just came to you bc your the Hanzawa & Tashiro guy in my mind)

CONGRATULATIONS ON READING CHAPTER 3 OF SECOND YEARS NOVEL FOR THE FIRST TIME. also presumably the second years novel at large for the first time. it is sooooo good. I am actually so glad you came to me for this because it gives me the opportunity to highlight @sunnnfish’s miso soup document post from last year that it turns out I apparently never reblogged. I’m sorry sunnfish. my dear friend sunnfish. it is such a good document post. and there’s a weird love mention in there too and everything :)

I’ve been just awful about posts and asks lately but I remember halfway recently I said something about tashiro being a surprisingly, astonishingly stoic guy. and I think that truth is related to the weird bubble of practical homeliness he creates for wholly himself with those cheap packets of miso. It really just was the craziest thing harusono shou could’ve said about tashiro. his folks ask him to get the expensive stuff but he just keeps making that soup…

in thematically appropriate fashion I feel really inclined to get into the relation between the effort it takes to make food and looking after oneself and looking after others and suspiciously adhd tendencies. in tashiro’s case. but I just can’t get myself to do it. because of adhd tendencies in my case. so forget I said this but also don’t. great thank you. for the forgetful remembrance and also the ask on the whole

[sunnnfish]

everybody remembers the hanzawa guy but what about the tashiro guy.... kicks rocks.... but i jest. my friends do a better job at advertising for me anyways. my miso soup linked above is Fine but ultimately inconclusive and lacking i think. i have come to rectify that. though i fear it may take the rest of my mortal life to properly convey miso soup scene. but every day i try. its 15 to 1am, i am typing one handed due to cat laying on me awkwardly, and we will check back in with this situation at the end.

so i think my main point in the above document is positing the question: Why Would Harusono Shou Add This Scene. and what that therefor is telling us. i feel like im using crazy vocabulary but its unfortunately coming entirely naturally to me right now. whatever. What Is Harusono Shou Trying To Tell Us. tashiro's perspective here clearly juxtaposes everything miyano and kuresawa have going on this chapter. they clearly Get something that he doesn't. what is so romantic about making miso soup for someone. and the way miyano explains it--a set expression in the romance genre referencing the way a family member makes miso soup for you every day, thus implying the desire to be family (aka marriage).cat just laid further on my arms making it evenharder to type Okay readjusted. still one handed and it's 1am now Nevermind he left okay two handed touch typing locking in.

so. tashiro takes miyanos explanation Extremely literally. which could say a lot about the state of his brain but this isnt about that right now. he takes it so literally, wondering Well my family doesnt even eat miso soup every day and my parents dont even make it i just make it myself with instant packets and sometimes make enough for them too. and narrator kuresawa is commenting the whoooole time about how tashiro just isnt getting it. something isn't clicking. and he also comments on how tashiro seems shockingly domestic Putting kureshiro aside . it's true. it'd be a long shot to guess that tashiro is the one making dinner at home. and that little glimpse into his home life makes me insane harusono shou let me in. but i digress.

it kind of all seems to imply that tashiro's family situation isn't exactly.... loving ? and dear tumblr user imadethisjusttolookatssmyposts i'm really latching onto the way you said that tashiro makes intimacy for himself in his own home. and it's not that his parents don't love him it's just - they don't get to cook for him and they maybe seem worried about money (his mom always says laziness is the root of wasting money) and i overall get the impression that they just aren't home a lot. and maybe home and family just aren't things that he's particularly attached to. he seems to spend a lot of time in other places. but he keeps making that soup. for himself. for his parents. making intimacy for himself.... and none of this is to say i think he's depressed or secretly very angsty or anything of the sort. i think it's like. he is fiercely defiant of a loveless environment. he keeps making that soup.

its just. such a specific family situation that harusono is laying out here. and that's kinda the literal interpretation right. the glimpse into his home. and then we get this second layer of Miso Soup Is A Metaphor For Love. and i think the thing that i want to make clear is like. tashiro is not conciously talking about it like its a metaphor. none of them really are. he really is just talking about soup. but in the context of a Book that one of it's main themes is Boys Life and #Romance it becomes insanely metaphorical.

so you lay out miyano and kuresawa who understand this metaphorical phrase perfectly and even relate to it and apply it to themselves on multiple levels. and you put tashiro next to them who doesn't connect with it at all. and for a guy who says he wants a girlfriend, he doesn't actually seem to want that kind of relationship out of it. the kind where someone you love makes miso soup for you every day. he doesn't even make it himself every day. wouldn't you get sick of it? the same thing every day. it is 1:30am.

and so ultimately, again, it is weird love.

perhaps.... i have said everything that i've already said. i hope i've conveyed something new here. at least i've worn out a little energy that's been keeping me up tonight. thanks for thinking of probably my post even though you didnt remember it was my post. peace and love. 🌅<-beautiful emoji sunset for you to look at

[dirtbra1n]

Just read chapter 3 of the 2nd years novel for the first time and i remembered a post from like a year ago that i saw talking about the miso soup metaphore and the way tashiro makes intimacy for himself in his own home.

(I dont even think you made the post lol, i just came to you bc your the Hanzawa & Tashiro guy in my mind)

CONGRATULATIONS ON READING CHAPTER 3 OF SECOND YEARS NOVEL FOR THE FIRST TIME. also presumably the second years novel at large for the first time. it is sooooo good. I am actually so glad you came to me for this because it gives me the opportunity to highlight @sunnnfish’s miso soup document post from last year that it turns out I apparently never reblogged. I’m sorry sunnfish. my dear friend sunnfish. it is such a good document post. and there’s a weird love mention in there too and everything :)

I’ve been just awful about posts and asks lately but I remember halfway recently I said something about tashiro being a surprisingly, astonishingly stoic guy. and I think that truth is related to the weird bubble of practical homeliness he creates for wholly himself with those cheap packets of miso. It really just was the craziest thing harusono shou could’ve said about tashiro. his folks ask him to get the expensive stuff but he just keeps making that soup…

in thematically appropriate fashion I feel really inclined to get into the relation between the effort it takes to make food and looking after oneself and looking after others and suspiciously adhd tendencies. in tashiro’s case. but I just can’t get myself to do it. because of adhd tendencies in my case. so forget I said this but also don’t. great thank you. for the forgetful remembrance and also the ask on the whole

[sunnnfish]

everybody remembers the hanzawa guy but what about the tashiro guy.... kicks rocks.... but i jest. my friends do a better job at advertising for me anyways. my miso soup linked above is Fine but ultimately inconclusive and lacking i think. i have come to rectify that. though i fear it may take the rest of my mortal life to properly convey miso soup scene. but every day i try. its 15 to 1am, i am typing one handed due to cat laying on me awkwardly, and we will check back in with this situation at the end.

so i think my main point in the above document is positing the question: Why Would Harusono Shou Add This Scene. and what that therefor is telling us. i feel like im using crazy vocabulary but its unfortunately coming entirely naturally to me right now. whatever. What Is Harusono Shou Trying To Tell Us. tashiro's perspective here clearly juxtaposes everything miyano and kuresawa have going on this chapter. they clearly Get something that he doesn't. what is so romantic about making miso soup for someone. and the way miyano explains it--a set expression in the romance genre referencing the way a family member makes miso soup for you every day, thus implying the desire to be family (aka marriage).cat just laid further on my arms making it evenharder to type Okay readjusted. still one handed and it's 1am now Nevermind he left okay two handed touch typing locking in.

so. tashiro takes miyanos explanation Extremely literally. which could say a lot about the state of his brain but this isnt about that right now. he takes it so literally, wondering Well my family doesnt even eat miso soup every day and my parents dont even make it i just make it myself with instant packets and sometimes make enough for them too. and narrator kuresawa is commenting the whoooole time about how tashiro just isnt getting it. something isn't clicking. and he also comments on how tashiro seems shockingly domestic Putting kureshiro aside . it's true. it'd be a long shot to guess that tashiro is the one making dinner at home. and that little glimpse into his home life makes me insane harusono shou let me in. but i digress.

it kind of all seems to imply that tashiro's family situation isn't exactly.... loving ? and dear tumblr user imadethisjusttolookatssmyposts i'm really latching onto the way you said that tashiro makes intimacy for himself in his own home. and it's not that his parents don't love him it's just - they don't get to cook for him and they maybe seem worried about money (his mom always says laziness is the root of wasting money) and i overall get the impression that they just aren't home a lot. and maybe home and family just aren't things that he's particularly attached to. he seems to spend a lot of time in other places. but he keeps making that soup. for himself. for his parents. making intimacy for himself.... and none of this is to say i think he's depressed or secretly very angsty or anything of the sort. i think it's like. he is fiercely defiant of a loveless environment. he keeps making that soup.

its just. such a specific family situation that harusono is laying out here. and that's kinda the literal interpretation right. the glimpse into his home. and then we get this second layer of Miso Soup Is A Metaphor For Love. and i think the thing that i want to make clear is like. tashiro is not conciously talking about it like its a metaphor. none of them really are. he really is just talking about soup. but in the context of a Book that one of it's main themes is Boys Life and #Romance it becomes insanely metaphorical.

so you lay out miyano and kuresawa who understand this metaphorical phrase perfectly and even relate to it and apply it to themselves on multiple levels. and you put tashiro next to them who doesn't connect with it at all. and for a guy who says he wants a girlfriend, he doesn't actually seem to want that kind of relationship out of it. the kind where someone you love makes miso soup for you every day. he doesn't even make it himself every day. wouldn't you get sick of it? the same thing every day. it is 1:30am.

and so ultimately, again, it is weird love.

perhaps.... i have said everything that i've already said. i hope i've conveyed something new here. at least i've worn out a little energy that's been keeping me up tonight. thanks for thinking of probably my post even though you didnt remember it was my post. peace and love. 🌅<-beautiful emoji sunset for you to look at

[dankmemeuniversity]

[iamoutofideas]

[darlingofdots]

ten years ago as part of my creative writing degree we had a class on professional development where we learned how the publishing process works for different mediums and how to choose an agent and what the role of a publishing house is and back then, the advice was "self-publishing has its advantages but a traditional publisher will provide editorial support and market your book and if your book sells well enough they want to invest in your future" and now basically none of that is true anymore. books make it to shelves with noticeable errors and structural issues that could be addressed with one or two more rounds of developmental editing, authors are expected to do more and more of the marketing themselves to the point that they are expected to be social media influencers in their own right, and publishers appear to be prioritising flashy debut novels with huge advances they don't outsell, which means the author is less likely to get a follow-up deal.

Obviously a publisher is a business and a business needs to make money, but the idea used to be that you'd have a couple of very successful authors who bring in so much cash that they subsidise the new kid who is building a back catalogue of books that sell okay until they get name recognition and pay for themselves. I was told back then that a couple thousand pounds was very reasonable for a debut novel because you want to get royalties for the sales exceeding your advance and that way the publisher sees you as a profitable investment. The last couple of years I keep hearing about six figure book deals for debut (!) literary fiction (!) novels, what on earth?

I'm not saying that the publishing industry is uniquely awful or that it's worse than it's ever been or whatever, but especially in a time when reading and talking about books is trendy and there is so much money in books, it feels very, I don't know, symbolic? Prioritising flashy one-time projects over sustained and sustainable growth. Investing only enough resources to make your product fit for sale but not enough to make it good because people will buy it anyway. It's frustrating to me as a reader and as an aspiring writer and as a person existing in a capitalist system.

[poorshadowspaintedqueens]

One of the tags referred to people thanking their editorial teams in acknowledgments, and I want to point out the growing prevalence of people thanking beta-readers and writing groups, both of which usually rely on a pre-existing community or relationship and, just as importantly, are unpaid.

My day job is as a freelance editor for nonfiction books, and I can safely say that if the publishing industry were operating as intended, I would either not have a job at all or be working for a specific press. Authors pay me directly to do the work that a press editor used to do as part of publication contracts. This is because so many presses have started outsourcing all their editorial work to either third-party contractors or, even worse, to genAI.

In short, venture capital has broken the publication industry the same way it's broken the retail, restaurant, and travel industries.

[darlingofdots]

I didn't go into this side of it in my original post but YES! Fuck! I know this is a huge issue for translators too because they're being asked to do more work in less time for less money and I've heard rumblings about human translators being brought in only to essentially proofread work done by AI, which is so disrespectful to the sheer skill and artistic abilities of (literary) translation...

Anyway, I love editing. I think I love editing almost more than writing, and I'm pretty sure that I'm better at it. Last year I edited an academic article from 11k to 9k words for my supervisor and I felt like a god when I finished it, but when my supervisor asked if I'd thought about doing this professionally, I had to tell her that there's just not a viable career in editing anymore. Publishers used to employ! editors! Several different kinds of editors for different stages of the process! That used to be my dream job!

Editing is so essential to making a text good. It doesn't matter how talented or dedicated you are as a writer, you cannot achieve the level of quality by yourself that you could achieve by working with a skilled editor. That's normal! The lone genius who comes out of the cave with the perfect novel does not exist! The manuscript that gets sold to a publisher is supposed to be handed off to an editor who tells you to tighten up that plotline and reminds you that every day can't be Tuesday and sharpens your prose so your voice really shines. Skimping out on that part of the publication process takes money out of the hands of skilled professionals, leads to consumers (ew) receiving subpar products (ew!), and is such an injustice to the writers whose work can't reach its full potential (and the writers who won't get published because they can't afford to pay an editor out of pocket!).

It drives me up the wall. I hate reading a mediocre book and knowing that a skilled editor could have easily raised it from 3 stars to 4. We should all be way angrier about it, frankly.

[coffee-without-anesthetics]

BORN TO IGNORE NOTIFICATIONS MEMORY IS A FUCK ショートメール Forget them all 2025 I am didn't reply man 454 157 892 348 UNREAD MESSAGES

[barbatusart]

HEADS UP im starting on a how-to googledoc for absolute beginners on music making!

[barbatusart]

HEADS UP AGAIN 2 HOURS LATER THIS IS BASICALLY DONE it looks ugly as shit but has a Reaper follow-along tutorial & tons of links. i hope this is helpful!!!

[barbatusart]

got a little update!

[smolwriter]

i went at not writing island and saw all of you there

[starknstarwars]

Me on not writing island, looking at you on not writing island knowing we’ll both be here tomorrow.