Collection

A fantasy author's srs bsns tumblr. fan tumblr: ceeainthereforthat. she/her INFJ. Libra. Chronically ill. Fabulist.

[phillybabay]

this is doing something to my brain like

[spinus-pinus]

Common Raven Corvus corax

1/21/2024 Orange County, California

[shamebats]

From the OP: "If you sit at a desk or stare at your phone all day, this is for you. Here's how to undo the damage: - Banded Chin Tucks - Strengthen your neck flexors and fight forward head posture - Banded Pull-Aparts - Target your rotator cuff and improve shoulder stability - Banded Abduction - Activate the midline of your scapula for better posture - Lateral Deltoid Raises - Build shoulder stability and control - Banded Up-and-Overs – Boost scapular mobility and range of motion These simple banded drills will help you stand taller, move better, and feel stronger - even after hours at a desk."

Some of these are the same or similar to the exercises my physical therapist taught me.

[lux-scriptum]

No, you see, I wish to be an author. Not in marketing. Or an influencer. I wish to tell my stories, be told I did a fantastic job, and then go back to my hovel to scribble some more. I am delicate of constitution and awkward in crowds.

[robertreich]

Some thoughts on Tax Day…

[lannegarrett]

[parkercopeland]

LMAAAAOOOOO

[sistahscifi]

📚👉🏾 Preorders are open. Swipe through and pick your next obsession.

🩸 They Made Us Blood and Fury by @litchickbw Anyi is carrying a secret that could end her life. Book one of Chronicles of the Countless Clans. We are not ready but we are ready.

🔍 The Search for Sadiqah by @greg_burnham7 Thirteen years old. The Black Wall Street Massacre just took everything. Now Sadiqah runs. This one is going to hurt in the best way.

🌑 House of Margins by @tlotlotsamaase Body horror and sci-fi from a Nommo Award-winning author. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review. That's all we need to say.

🃏 The Feywild Job by @clpolk Con artist. No strings attached. The Feywild. If that doesn't sell you, check your pulse.

✨ The Broken Hearts Agency by @clarenceahaynes Ghosts, heartbreak, and a mystical detective who feels everything, The Broken Hearts Agency is not slowing down.

Five preorders. One cart. You know what to do. 🤎

👉🏾 www.sistahscifi.com

[polybius-on-gameboy-deactivated]

“I think America should be taken by Canada instead” No, I think America should be returned to its Indigenous tribes, while Canada should return to the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis.

“I think America should be taken by Denmark instead” No, I think America should be returned to its Indigenous tribes while Denmark returns Greenland to the Kalaallit, the Tunumiit and the Inughuit.

“I think Texas should be taken by Mexico” No, I think Texas should be returned to the Apache.

“I think Florida should be taken by Cuba” No, I think Florida should be returned to the Seminole.

“I think the Blue states should form their own country” No, I think the Blue states should return to the Chinook, the Yakama, the Nimíipuu, the Pomo, the Chumash, the Diné, the Wôbanaki, the Massachuset, the Haudenosaunee, the Pequot, the Lenape tribes, and the Inuit, the Unangax̂ and the Tlingit tribes of Alaska.

Stop roleplaying colonialism with a leftist coat of paint and give land back to its fucking Natives.

[starcut-sand]

When I was in college, my Creative Nonfiction professor would regularly have us do something she called "hotspotting" (she didn't know that this was already a term tbc) with our rough drafts. Basically, hotspotting is when you look at your draft and pick out your favorite sentence, or one of your favorite sentences--one that you're really proud of--and write it down in a blank sheet in a notebook. Not a new document, a physical notebook. (You are not allowed to use technology for hotspotting.) And then you set a timer for however long--like maybe ten to twenty minutes--and you elaborate. You treat that one sentence as if it's the opening sentence to a new draft, and you write from there, until the timer is up.

It sounds like a gimmick, but honestly, some of my best writing in that class came from hotspotting. Usually, the sentence you consider the "best" is the one that really gets to the heart of something you're trying to convey. In a rough draft, it tends to be that you're fumbling around a bit before you really hit on the heart of things. So with hotspotting, you're starting from a less fumbly place, which means you're able to dig into your subject in a much deeper and more precise way. It makes you feel like a surgeon, a little bit.

So I do recommend trying it, even just for fun, even if you think the rough draft you have is already good. You might surprise yourself with what you come up with! :)

[ellipsus-writes]

A little Google history lesson 🍵

It's 2004. Google has just announced an exciting new venture: Google Print. With the blessing of five major libraries, Google sets out to digitalize the world's print material. Its search function, which will allow people to read and review print books digitally, is set to revolutionize information forever.

There was only one, teeny tiny problem... they didn't ask permission.

None.

At all.

Authors were gobsmacked. Nothing like this had ever happened before. What right had Google to scan, copy, and save copyrighted books to its databases... and at this scale? Lawsuits mounted. Google backpedaled, then talked of settling. Eventually, Ursula Le Guin spilled the tea. It was a whole thing.

Back then, the point many authors (including Le Guin) were making wasn't directed against the digitization of print books as such (widening access to the world's knowledge? Who doesn't want that?)...

No, authors were concerned with how Google went about it, and the threat it posed for intellectual property. Google's actions tossed aside the custom, long enshrined in law, that writers and publishers should have control over how their material is used and distributed—a tradition that many believe... exists for good reason.

(We'll get to it.)

What Le Guin and others realized is that Google's message of "democratizing the internet" (a platitude often used by techno-libertarians and broligarchs who, it turns out, aren't so keen on the whole "democracy" thing...) masked a sinister intention: to wrangle the world's commons under its own private control.

From where we're standing now (🥲), the scandal and ensuing lawsuit have a little too much familiarity: Google learned what they could get away with and how.

Then they kept doing that.

Move fast; break copyright; settle later (if ever).

The point is: the Print drama wasn't your average copyright scandal—it was the world's first ever mass data-harvesting event.

The training of Google Gemini began 22 years ago, on the day Google started claiming the world's knowledge for itself.

To understand our present predicaments, we have to know our history. Google Print was virgin soil. What followed—the scale of the data theft, the absolute skeeviness/grift of it all—felt unprecedented at the time.

But apparently, you had to be a writer to see it. 🤷‍♂️

[visenyaism]

hey did anyone hear a single discordant note in the leitmotif just now

[tjalexandernyc]

Now that gay ice hockey is trending like wild I'm imagining a world where homophobia is over and it would really behoove a small franchise, say, a team that hasn't won a championship in decades, to encourage two of their more conventionally attractive players to pretend to be in a relationship to boost ticket sales. A flawless plan that I'm sure won't result in anyyyyyyone falling in love

[tjalexandernyc]

imagine the discourse following the end-of-2nd-act reveal that they've been smooching as a contractual obligation. imagine queer baiting as a literal national sport

[tjalexandernyc]

everyone reblogging this to say "someone needs to write this!" No. We've written enough. It's time for the National Hockey League to start pulling its weight in this house

[liivn]

Three Barn Owls at a quatrefoil church window. Photographer: Richard Brooks. Date: July 2009. Shot at a local church in North Norfolk, England.

[ashberrrry]

I respect the moon's unwillingness to be photographed on a phone

[clpolk]

I want to learn ASL.

Actually, I think I need to learn ASL

Actually, I think I’ve been putting it off too long

Actually, I am pretty mad that I don’t know how Canadians learn ASL. Do we get referrals from our doctors to go learn it because it’s a disability support, therefore medical care, therefore free at point of use?

(Somebody knows the answer to this and It’s going to make me real mad, I’m sure)

(Also why am I such a dumbass about disability when I’m disabled arrrrrgh)

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[prokopetz]

Carl Jung isn't exactly less full of shit than Freud, but he's admittedly full of shit in a much more entertaining way. "Guy who's basically a practising wizard but gets super annoyed if you point that out and loudly insists he's a Man of Science" is a type of guy you just don't see much of these days.