BLUE BLOG @eight-equals-capital-d - Tumblr Blog

dear everyone on tumblr who needs to host images elsewhere (e.g. to embed on ao3 etc), please give squidge a go!! it's free, it's nonprofit and it's geared towards fandom so nsfw images won't get deleted!! and please stop using imgur if you can because they blocked the uk rather than acquiesce to the fucking internet safety laws, which I can't really hold against em but it does mean all imgur pictures just show up as big purple boxes now

blogquantumreality

Squidge! Holy blast from the past, Batman. The last time I remember even looking at that site was... eons ago.

( Oh, what was I reading? The Quartz Key. Yes, it's m/m. )

beatrice-otter

Not only is Squidge still around, it's expanded and grown! It is still run by the same guy, though now it's a nonprofit with a board and everything, and while they maintain all the old squidge sites as static archives, they have a new multifandom archive using the AO3 code at squidgeworld.org. They also host podfics and fanart.

For those younguns in the crowd, back in the day erotic fanworks--especially slash--was not welcome very many places. Walter was willing to host it, and has been a haven for NSFW fanworks since 1994. The various archives and so on hosted at squidge.org were never very large, compared to lots of other archives, but they were a necessary part of the fannish ecosystem, and I'm really glad that there is now a structure in place to keep the whole system running beyond just "Walter's a great guy willing to donate lots of time and money." Walter is a great guy! but like. it's good to have other people to help out and keep things going in the long run.

desolationlesbian

I don't want to buy mass-produced garbage from a big box store so I go to etsy but half of etsy is now dropshipped mass-produced garbage or AI slop so I go to the local arts and crafts street market but a ton of those booths are also selling the same generic plastic objects or identical stickers or 3D printed dragons so WHERE do I buy real trinkets and art from sincere freaks

moonlume

Curated directories will probably become more and more popular now, atm the only ones I know are:

Marmalade Handmade: https://marmaladehandmade.com/

and Sapling: https://shopsapling.com/

Please add more if you know any, it's hell out there 😭

(Oh there's also tumblr user @littlealienproducts who is curating nice Etsy finds!)

Edit: some more I wanted to add! These are mainly physical locations, not directories, but they either have international shipping available or at the very least a list of artists with links to their socials and stores. All of these have a strict anti-genAI policy:

Pixel & Paper (Hereford, UK) - just opened last month! Lovely people.

Art & Soul (three locations in the UK) - online catalogue available!

Kaiju Kreatives (Norwich, UK) - not open yet, opening in August!

Artist Alley Shop (Toronto, Canada) - huuuge curated artist alley shop, doesn't look like they do shipping, but at the very least you get a cool artist list!

ao3commentoftheday

I'm browsing through greasy fork looking at ao3 extensions and folks, someone tell me that I shouldn't try to learn javascript?

ao3commentoftheday

While I'm here, I might as well share some extensions that folks might be interested in:

Filter bookmarks by word count or chapter count

Only show fics where your favourite ship is the first one tagged

Hide works based on tag, author, title, or words in the summary

Add a download button to work blurbs (download while you browse)

Track your favorite, finished, to-read and disliked fics

Automatic bookmark description creator with title, author, status, summary, and last read date in a collapsible section

Only show the fics written in languages you want to read

Hide or highlight fics that you have kudosed or marked as seen

There's a boatload more, but that's probably a good start?

bookgeekgrrl

adding some of my favorites

ao3 rekudos converter: automatically comment on a fic when you've already left kudos

AO3 Floating Comment Box: create a floating comment box at the bottom of the page so you can comment as you read

AO3 Random Nice Comments: lets you Leave a random nice comment with the click of a button

and this isn't on greasyfork but is a life-changing bookmarklet that allows you to export the contents of a works listing (history, bookmarks, marked for later, series) as a CSV.

only-tiktoks

kawree

Y'all for real please do these. Even if you're certain your posture doesn't suck. One day you will wake up with impinged shoulder pain like I did and let me tell you it fucking HURTS. Do these exercises even just once a week and it will make such a difference. Especially my fellow creatives out there, stop shrimping over your work and go do these right now. RIGHT NOW.

symptomesper

Also, if you’re even a little concerned about getting a hump or having trouble standing fully upright in your old age, this is how you prevent that. If you want to be up and about when you’re old you have to start when you’re younger. And keep in mind there is no bad time to start and it’s never too late. Starting today is way better than never starting at all.

emilysidhe

Knitting finished as of last night! Still need to weave in a few ends, wash, and block.

Was aiming for 48” x 60”, came out 39” x 60” so far, but I’m hoping to be able to block it to a little wider and I’m ok losing a few inches of length for that

emilysidhe

Thank you so much for all the nice things everyone has said about this blanket! Unfortunately, I do not have a pattern, so much as I have several patterns and some back-of-the-napkin style math notes that won’t make sense to anyone but me - but I do have a picture of this planning piece (since frogged to reuse the yarn in the blanket itself.)

As a few people in the notes pointed out, the dragon pattern is Tahesha the Dragoness by Ina Wendrock

Skill level: Advanced cable knit / Zopfmuster für Fortgeschrittene

But it's on a plain reverse stockinette background, and I wanted this as part of a complex cable afghan. It's going to be a wedding gift for two friends in my DnD group, so I knew I wanted it big enough that two people could reasonably share it while watching TV together on a couch, and for a dragon to still be visible when folded and draped over the back of a couch or chair, in case that's how they store it. So I knew I was committing myself to knitting 5 dragons (one in the center and one in each of the four corners), and figuring out myself how to plop the dragon in to a larger cable blanket pattern.

Back in November, I bought the dragon pattern and knit a test version of it so I could see how it worked and measure the dimensions. (You can see from the curled up edges that I did this before I found the part in the pattern notes where Ina Wendrock helpfully informs us that the dragon is knit over 45 initial stitches, to help us add it to our own projects, but ah well.) Then I started trying to figure out the other cables.

I knew I wanted some traditional cables so that it had an heirloom look to it (but with dragons), but I thought that the dragons would look too out of place if everything else looked copy-pasted from a classic fisherman’s sweater. Fortunately, there are a number of knitting designers right now doing cool things with trying to make cables that resemble Celtic knot motifs, so I went to the public library and borrowed a bunch of cable knitting books and started bookmarking what I liked. My favorite patterns were all coming from this book:

Mention the phrase ?cable knitting,? and most people?knitters and non-knitters alike?envision textured ropes, twists, and braids winding up

Which looks like it's out of print now, but wasn't in December and I was able to ask for and receive it for Christmas. (Designer Melissa Leapman's ravelry store is here in case anyone wants to check it out):

I narrowed my bookmarked cables down to patterns that had 1) an odd number of stitches; 2) a central "crossover" cable in multiple parts of the pattern so that I could "open" it up to create the medallions that the dragons would sit in; and 3) a stitchcount of less than 45, by enough that I'd have room to drop a traditional cable on either side. My favorite two would then be the center cables for the central dragon panel and the left & right dragon panels (when I wasn't doing the dragons), and then I decided on a very simple c4b twist between the panels and a tight 5-rib cable braid on the edges. I loved the first two patterns from the book that I tested and didn't have to try any of my runner-up bookmarks - but if you zoom in on the picture, you can see that for the traditional cables around the Melissa Leapman cable for the center panel, I tried and discarded a honeycomb cable and an Xs and Os variant before deciding on the one that I'm not actually sure of the name of that made it into the final pattern. For the side panels, I had thought it might be nice to incorporate a hearts cable since it was for a wedding blanket. I'm not sure how traditional these heart cables are, but I've seen them unattributed in more than one published pattern from different sources, and they're published in a number of cable pattern guides online. They worked next to the Melissa Leapman cable I wanted for the side panels, so they went in the pattern without me trying anything else.

While practicing the dragon cable, I had noticed that many of the cables started with an increase, so on the back of one of my chart print-outs, I graphed a rough plan for what I had decided to put where in terms of the traditional and Leapman cables that would go around the dragons, and numbered out the stitches if I worked the first cables in each pattern as increases instead of cables to mimic the start of the dragons. Then I added up the total number of stitches and cast on, and it worked surprisingly well! After completing one repeat of the side-panel central cables, I started "opening" up the circles where the dragon would be through improvisation (the left and right panels that were parallel always matched each other because I was doing the same thing in each row - other than that, I wound up doing it slightly differently every time, and that was ok. They look the same enough.)

I had planned to either leave it un-bordered or add the full mitered border that Ina Wendrock (who designed the dragon pattern) has on her store depending on how it worked up, but after I'd knit enough to see what it looked like, I decided that the mitered border was overkill, but it did need something, so when I finally got to the end I did an I-chord bind-off and then went back and picked up stitches along the cast-on to do an I-chord bind-off there too. If I had it to do over again, I might have done a folded hem on each side instead, but we'll see how the I-chord blocks.

So, that's how you make the dragon blanket. Either get the patterns I mentioned and try to duplicate, or just buy the dragon and add your favorite cables for the rest!

[Sorry I'm not more help, but I cannot stress enough - I did not write any of this down as I went.]

[[For the patterns that were from the Continuous Cables book, I used panel 10 from page 136 for the center and panel 27 from page 146 for the sides]]

emilysidhe

It’s blocked! The dragons came out so nicely after blocking, and you can see the hearts better.

(DVD for scale)

doodlemancy

hello fellow artists. google has fallen. pinterest/duckduckgo AI filters don't work. do not despair; here is a list i made of places to find reference images without having to sift through piles of worthless garbage. (for future editing convenience i am just linking my blog post on dreamwidth.)

✨ good places to find art reference that are not full of AI trash 🌈

zanthiakhalaplace

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have been despairing as it is so hard now to find references and photos of succulents and other things for my designs!! T_T

le-dreadmau5

It’s literally that simple

Friend: “hey my son can’t concentrate on his homework. He chooses to do literally anything else everytime. He said his head doesn’t feel like it.”

Me: “Did you give him music?”

Friend: “No! No tech until he’s done! He doesn’t need more distracted.”

Me:

“k, bring me the child”

*Go to her house*

*points to the obviously ADHD boy struggling with his homework*

Me: “so your head doesn’t feel like doing homework?”

Son: “yeah. It would rather do ANYTHING else.”

Me: *unwrapping earbuds* here, listen to this for an hour while you do it.

French voice: 1hr later

Son: “k I’m done! :-)”

Friend: “wow, what’d you give him? Concentra, Adderall, Ritalin‽”

Me: “Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics” and some lo-fi.

fckingowlnerd

I-I’m gonna try this for myself

le-dreadmau5

Go for it! From what I’ve seen, everyone has a different genre but instrumental (no words) seems to be key. I guess Sweet Dreams words are so ethereal, ADHD just rolls with it????

For me, orchestral covers of songs I know work best since my ADHD is using the extra hyperfocus to remember and keep up with words. Have fun experimenting!!

avatar-of-the-vast

I have some arrangements of songs I did that I just loop. Mind you, these are, like, 1-3 minutes long, but the drone really helps with focus

a-dumb-bitch-apparently

Y'all I just listen to Lana Del Rey. Would recommend because with instrumentals I tend to focus on where actual words would be but with Lana’s stuff her vocals sound like music but it’s words

mbrainspaz

really wish I could’ve done this when I was spending 4 hours on every page of math homework in the 90′s. Fast forward to my last year of college when I finally figured out I could just listen to Blackmill and blaze through an entire semester of college math like it was nothing. Find the study methods that work for you!!! Help kids find the study methods that work for them!

heywriters

It takes me all day to do simple chores because i keep getting distracted. If i put in earbuds with upbeat music I’m done with everything in a couple hours AND i feel really good and probably danced a little i.e. exercised.

abadbowlofsoup

Try songs in another language - one you don’t speak. The idea is that since you don’t understand the words, your brain doesn’t go “Oh hey, someone is talking to me” and thus you can maintain your focus. Although, this is something probably best suited to writing. But on the other hand, if it works, it works. Personally, I like Opera. BUT, I advise against using Pandora’s Opera Station. At least in the free version, it either cycles through the same ten Singers/Albums or drifts off into instrumental covers. On the other hand, it’s great for background noise when gaming. Just be sure you have an ad blocker running. You will also have to confirm that you are listening every hour or so.

abadbowlofsoup

Followup on the lofi front: I recommend the following channels. Chillhop Music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOxqgCwgOqC2lMqC5PYz_Dg

In particular, I recommend the relax/study livestream radio. Or just about any of their mixes. Fantasic Music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZyyXrEF2WCZbI653PFNBbA Both the Chill and the Jazz playlists are excellent. Jazzhop Cafe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi8wqezBudeAiTdKOX571ug

Their ChillMix videos are the best. Jazzhop Cafe Archive: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKbD–QKXKosHmSXarqYUeg Name is self-evident. I believe ChilledCow also has a livestream, but I honestly prefer Chillhop. YMMV https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ4gkVC6NrvII8umztf0Ow

EDIT: Oh, Pandora’s Vitamin String Quartet IS good, but it tends to drift off into New Age type stuff. Adblocker thing still applies though.

misfiterators

I’ve seen is said elsewhere but I also highly recommend video game soudtracks! Especially if you don’t tend to enjoy the more orchestral music. They are usually engineered to make you focus better (ie. not want to stop playing the game)

“portal 2: songs to test by” got me through all my college math classes

saiyanshewolf

I’ve got an entire massive playlist of video game soundtracks on Spotify for this exact reason.

shamebats

The (European) sun is a deadly laser, stay safe everyone

unfuckablebogtroll

☝️🤓 it’s because the further you move toward the earth’s poles, the lower the angle of the sun is at the hottest parts of the day, meaning the radiation hits your whole body, causing it to feel 10-20 degrees warmer than the thermometer reading will tell you. People from tropical climes, aka close to the equator, are used to the sun’s radiation hitting a much smaller target- their head and shoulders.

Also the further you move toward the poles the more pronounced the difference between the length of day and night is. Worst part of a far-north (or south) heatwave is it doesn’t get dark long enough for meaningful cooling.

It’s not the heat. It very literally is the sun.

unfuckablebogtroll

People keep saying the humidity, and yes a humid heat is a specific kind of misery and can be dangerous… but critical to remember, many many tropical climes are humid as well.

Infrastructure and citified heat islands also very much play a factor. And here the angle you’re at on earth also makes it worse. The sun being lower on the horizon can double the amount of solar energy affecting your house. The sun beating through your windows for 16+ hours a day when you have a house built for cold and no AC adds to the misery.

But what I’m talking about here is how hot you feel in your body when experiencing solar radiation from a lower angle. On the upside the sun’s rays have to pass through more atmosphere, weakening the UV strength, hence why populations that migrated north eons ago lost melanin (you still need SPF though). And in general the warming effect on the atmosphere is lessened. The warming effect on your body is magnified. To the tune of 10-20 degrees (yes Fahrenheit) above ambient. Winter gear prioritizes insulating your torso because that’s where all your vital organs are. It follows that the sun beating on your chest and back warms you up fast and with little relief except to get in the shade.

Visitor to Alaska are often surprised at how warm temperatures in the 70°s and 80°s feel. Read about how this phenomenon occurs.

My eye doctor also told me living in Alaska made you more likely to get cataracts younger because the low-angle sun gets directly in your eyes in the summer (unless you’re big on sunglasses) and the snow and ice in winter reflect a lot of UV back up, doubling your exposure. Though the prevalence of cataracts in Alaska and other far-north locales is contributed to by other factors, notably poverty and the resulting lack of medical care. And is still not as likely as in people who live in equatorial climes or high altitudes and get the super-strength UV exposure all year round.

jingerpi

hate hate hate how sites are increasingly trying to make right click saving images impossible. facebook, instagram, reddit (app), pinterest*, etc... all make you jump through hoops just to save an image. can you guys not please. how ddo i make them stop. can we get one of those EU regulations or whatever that makes them all comply, or are we going to have to wait for global socialism for that. ugh

desktop-assistant

List all images under your cursor, even ones hidden by other elements

Download Right-Click Borescope for Firefox. List all images under your cursor, even ones hidden by other elements

acanuk

oh look, the exact tool that would have saved me SO much time and energy trying to find images hidden in the source code 🙃

lets-steal-an-archive

ALT

View on Twitter

https://archive.org/details/vhsinstructionals

Instructional and Educational VHS Tapes : Free Movies : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive

berlynn-wohl

me browsing this folder: omg omG I don’t know which one I’m more excited to watch, this Frontline episode from 1992 or this NOVA episode from 1984!!!

the NSA agent who can hear everything through my phone:

digital-magus

Yes… YES! fucking hell I LOVE this! Give them all to me!!

roach-works

IMMEDIATELY hit gold, thank you OP, i am respectfully stripping for you (1987)

roach-works

tobiosty

General useful stuff!

Guides

How to make Crumbl Cookies!

How to bookbind!

How to pirate movies/shows

How to make frog plushies

How to make a Go-bag for emergencies

How to repair clothing

How to make different a03 kudos!

How to download videos/pictures/gifs from a website

How to make various chocolate desserts!

Tips and Tricks!

A03 formatting

Back stretches!

Depression tips

Adult cheat sheet

How to regulate and understand your emotions better

Disabling Windows 11 web search in search bar

Resources

Horror game recs!

Dca fic recs!

Hand references

Free Adobe photoshop

Artist resources

Free spotify

Pirating sites

Artist resources pt 2

Helpful random sites

Homemaking, gardening, sustainability

Free libraries!

Making stuff and doing things (free book pdf)

Healthcare (medicine discount websites, guide on how to pay hospital bills)

Alternative stuff to mega corporations

lee-romee

this is a great time of year to buy from native stores or donate to native organizations. you can figure out who's land you're on here, and below i've listed some (of many) businesses you can support ♡

B.Yellowtail --- jewlery, clothing, and home goods designed by Bethany Yellowtail, citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and from the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation

Cheekbone Beauty --- sustainable, low-waste beauty products from Jenn Harper, an Anishinaabe artist based in Canada

Trickster --- atheletic products from Tlingit and Deg Hit’an Athabascan siblings (Alaska)

NativeHumboldt on Etsy --- the artist, Shayna McCullough, and their fiancé make designs inspired by traditional designs from their culture; she is from the Yurok tribe and descended from the Hupa, Karuk, Redwood Creek, Pit River, Yuki, Wintun, Pomo (tribes in California), and Chetco tribe (in Oregon)

OklahomaThirtyNine on Etsy --- they mostly sell beaded work, particularly earrings, as well as some necklaces

xBeadsByMandyx on Etsy --- handmade beaded earrings, from a Cherokee veteran

food products, from wine to sauces to teas to mixes to fish to jerky and nuts, sorted by store with details beside each store

grison-in-space

My favorite shoes in the winter are my Manitobah mukluks, which are Metis-owned and participate heavily in community initiatives with other indigenous nations to train and support artists. They also partner regularly with artists from other nations on their shoes to create custom editions. Currently they are collaborating with Rosa Scribe (Cree), Janae Grass (Sac & Fox), Atheana Picha (Salish), and Melissa Peter-Paul (Mi'kmaw). They also host an indigenous market that showcases and promotes indigenous artists.

Plus they're warm as hell and the sheepskin lining means I don't have to wear socks, which is extremely nice sensory comfort. So that's nice as well.

cactusspatz

Eighth Generation (Snoqualmie Tribe) has some beautiful stuff - I've bought a huge beautiful beach towel and cool socks from them personally, but they have jewelry, art, housewares, lots of great work.

lee-romee

image is one of my favourite blankets from Eighth Generation

Beam Paints --- watercolour paints by Anong Migwans Bean, M'Chigeeng First Nation (located in Ontario), who was taught to harvest pigments by their parents ((recommended by @airbenderinalbion))

Beyond Buckskin --- created by Jessica Metcalfe, who is Turtle Mountian Chippewa, they feature and sell works such as moccasins, jewelry, clothing, and blankets from over 40 artists --- featured is a beaded Yakima Plateau bag ((recommended by @sassytail))

Haipažaža Pĥežuta --- a couple, Lakota and Dakota, from Ocheti Sakowin Tha Makhoche (Sioux Nation) who make soaps, shampoo bars, bath and body products, salves, & more herbal products, incorporating traditional knowledge and using minimal packaging + natural ingredients ((recommended by @wittywallflower))

Sequoia Soaps --- soaps, candles, lotions, body mists and body scrubs, founded by Michaelee Lazore, who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesáhsne and Northern Paiute (in Nevada) ((recommended by @trialofasphodel))

lee-romee

a couple new additions:

Only Child Handicrafts --- beadwork created by a 30-year-old beadworker, which they learned while growing up near the Great Lakes from the Anishinaabe; their paternal family is Ojibwe from Fort William First Nation & their patterns are both based on traditional patterns & contemporary ((recommended by @fruityshirts))

Sage & Oats Trading Post --- based in Montana, but selling products from native artists across the country, including beadwork, candles, foodstuffs, books, textiles, jewelry, & so much more ((recommended by @samwisegamgeeee))

Sea Wisdom Design --- jewelry by łlilawikw ("gatherer of the people"), who is Kwakwaka’wakw, from the Pacific Northwest, whose beautiful historical designs are featured in her art ((recommended by @fruityshirts))

middle picture: blanket made by Rachel Twoteeth Pichardo, a Little Shell artist from North Carolina

smokingtigerhiddengun

It's not a small creator, but Prados Beauty is indigenous-owned and partners with indigenous designers. They're pretty mainstream now but I've only heard good things about their corporate practices.

Discover Prados Beauty, featuring high-quality cosmetics at affordable prices. Embrace all of your beauty with ethically made cosmetics, too

lee-romee

Thunderbird Skin --- skincare made Mooretown Rancheria Maidu women from Northern California, who now live in the UK. they also make products specifically for eczema & psoriasis & have trial sizes of nearly all their products ((recommended by @a-wild-haggis))

Mistahiminis Beadwork --- beautiful art, beaded earrings & embroidery works & sewn bags, made by a nonbinary Nehiyawak (Cree) beadworker in Canada ((recommended by @thymeforeverything))

Choke Cherry Creek --- clothing created by Angela Ikūalasaash ("persistence"), a Apsáalooke (Crow) & Pikuni (Blackfeet) woman who incorporates symbols from her heritage into her work ((recommended by @alcidesire))

Good Medicine Clothing --- an Apsáalooke-owned (Crow Nation) clothing store, founded by a Native American dancer & hip hop artist (his music links here) ((recommended by @alcidesire))

The Wandering Bull --- they carry a huge variety of pow-wow supplies & whatever anyone might need to make their own pieces ((recommended by @lugarn))

Medicine Man Crafts --- goods made by people on/near the Eastern band Tsalagi Nation (Cherokee), such as traditional baskets & jewelry, craft supplies, masks & pottery, & so much more ((recommended by @lugarn))

spankerella

@ goodgoodgoodco

h00pqueen

https://wigreenfire.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Big-Tech-Unchecked-Toolkit_final_rev19Dec25-resized.pdf

Link to the pdf of the tool kit

Love you guys, stay safe!

kafkasapartment

artistsuniversum: “Kathin Marchenko is a textile artist and designer known for her expressive embroidery on delicate tulle fabric.

Using a "painting with thread" technique, she creates portraits, anatomical forms, and ethereal figures that seem to float within wooden hoops, blending craft with fine art.”

Artist: @kathrin_marchenko

#art #embroidery #artist #textileart

missanjiarabegum

Dear Friends and well-wishers, Assalamu alaikum Welcome to our hand embroidery channel! We are a team of embroidery enthusiasts who are pas

ao3commentoftheday

Hello! I'm very interested in making podfics but I can't seem to find anywhere that explains how to put the audio file into ao3. I'm not the most tech savvy person so I'm hoping you or your followers know. Thank you in advance, I love your account!

There are two ideas you need to understand when you're trying to post media on AO3. Those two ideas are hosting and embedding.

hosting means (basically) storing and sharing. You upload a file to a host and that host then serves your file to the people or websites that try to access it.

embedding is (basically) displaying or presenting.

The host holds the file and shares it with AO3 when you embed it in your work. It then gets displayed when you post.

Both archive.org and soundcloud.com are hosts that can embed directly into AO3. Other hosts might not work but I know that those both do.

Since you're new to podficcing, I'm also going to recommend Azdaema's Newbie's Guide to Podficcing and GodofLaundryBaskets' Keep it Simple: A Highly Biased Podfic Guide for Absolute Beginners.

Podficcers - please add in any other resources you think might be helpful!

(shoutout to @hullomoon for reccing those two guides to me when I was looking for info before)

flamingwell

A great guide for different hosting options is @godoflaundrybaskets ' amazing Podfic Hosting Guide! I highly recommend it.

I also want to extend an offer to anyone interested in maybe dipping their toe into podfic waters (or who is already a podficcer) to join the Podfic community on Tumblr and also the Podfichat discord server. Lots of super knowledgeable and super friendly podficcers would love to welcome you and help you out with any questions you have!

duckprintspress

I learned, some years ago, from this post by @emilianadarling

Podficcers who work with Duck Prints Press also threw together some tips we have here:

💬 0 🔁 13 ❤️ 22 · Roundtable: Tips for Podficcing · Press author and editor Shea Sullivan is looking to begin podficcing, so she asked th

lifehacksthatwork

Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023

Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!

Sejda - Free online PDF editor.

Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it'll give you recipe ideas.

Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.

Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I'd recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.

12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.

Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.

TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn't read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.

OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can't for the life of you remember the actual word.

My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You'll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.

Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.

Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.

PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.

Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.

Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.

LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.

Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.

Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.

CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.

Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.

I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.

Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.

Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.

Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.

My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.

Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.

Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.

Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.

Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.

Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.

Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.

This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.

Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.

BitWarden – Free open source password manager.

Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It's genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.

Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.

ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.

Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.

Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.

Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.

myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.

DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.

Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.

For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.

hussyknee

The main Lib Gen site (the .li and .rs domains) seems to have been taken down for good, but the mirrors .bz, .la, .vg, and .gk still work. The beautiful site functionality and interface of the original is gone forever though. It's a lot harder to filter results on the mirror sites, and more risk of spam links and malware.

Anna's Archive is the largest repository of free document downloads on the web, that links to libgen, zlib, sci-hub and other shadow libraries. If you can't find your book or paper on AA, chances are slim it'll be anywhere else. A lot of their old domains got taken down last year but .gl .vg, .pk, and .gd still works. If you can't access any of those URLs, it's probably because your ISP is blocking it. In which case, here's a handy guide to changing your DNS yourself.

And finally zlibrary. It has the best interface, almost no risk of malware, most limited downloads, and most likely to have individual downloads taken down by publisher DCMAs. It's also the one with the most scam sites, so please refer to the guide in the Reddit community. They have an app, which is the most sure way to access the site without link hopping every time the Feds try to play whack-a-mole with the domains, but it takes about 14 dog years to load. This link has never failed me though.

You can check the URL health of all these sites and their mirrors through SLUM.

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