My favorites (formerly Tigglette)

Into fanfic and people enthusiastically loving things. And complexity I fill my queue with things that make me smile, or have lots of feels and generally what I want to see again.

[heatherwitch]

Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” that was written in 1950 is set on the day of August 4th, 2026 (tomorrow)!! Now’s your chance to read it around the time it’s based in!

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Graphic Novel: On Internet Archive.

[teaboot]

My mom likes to tell me about how when I was a little kid riding public transport with her I'd always smile and giggle and chat with weird old ladies who smelled like cat pee and homeless folks and strangers dressed in bizarre outfits but any time a tidy and respectable businessman in a suit and tie waved at me I'd immediately clam up, and she takes a great deal of pride in my supposed inherentability to clock personalities but the truth is I do vaguely remember those bus rides, and it was never about the clothes or the hair or the smell, but more because everyone "strange" asked interesting questions and listened to what I had to say and seemed to think about what I said while the neat and tidy and rigid folks only ever acted like they were going through the motions, which was boring as hell and also pretty annoying

[teaboot]

Well-to-do finance manager with tidy shoes: "Why hello, sweetheart. Can you say 'hi'? Aren't you cute. Are you on a trip with your mom?"

4 year old me: why must we do this

Fantastic old woman in the leopard print coat: "Why yes, my tooth IS real silver! Nobody ever asks me that. Do you like cats?"

4 year old me, suddenly paying attention: Finally, A Person Of Intellect

[juney-blues]

that "pear shaped" is an idiom meaning "something has gone wrong" is a scathing indictment of the british people, and their lack of proper respect and appreciation for a "thick bitch"

[blamebrampton]

As someone who’s been learning to throw pots on a wheel lately, I read that and thought, ‘Ha! You’d call a cockup pear-shaped, too, if you’d ever had a pot get a torque twist and go from lovely cylinder to fat-bottomed mess!’ And then I realised that was too perfect to be a coincidence and looked it up and that is 100% the probable origin of that phrase.

[lavenderlemniscate]

(tags by @neproxrezi)

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Visiting family for the weekend, including my seven year old niece, who is obviously the most special and incredible child on the planet

Anyway, she really, really loves it when I tell her stories. She loves stories anyway, and at first this manifested as "stories about Tad-Cu Bryn", aka my father (her grandfather) who died before she was born. This has been a lovely way to keep his memory alive, and she adores every story - she has her favourites, which she will request.

Then it became apparent that she specifically loves me telling her stories. She'll happily ask others for them too, but from me she just wants any anecdote at all; which of course is wonderful and demonstrates that she is a child of impeccable taste and wisdom and brilliance, but also she has ADHD and the energy reserves of a seven year old and so this gets Tiring very quickly

Yesterday, in the car on the way back from the wildlife centre, she asked for one of my longer stories, and I was like hey, how about we try something different?

And she was like, no, tell me a story about Tad-Cu Bryn

And I was like, this will be a brand new story and you get to play it and help me tell it

And she was like, explain

So I gave her three characters to choose from. The first was a warrior with a sword she could name, who was nonetheless dyspraxic. The second was a gymnastic elf who could commune with trees but was afraid of heights. The third was a dyslexic witch whose spells sometimes go wrong when she spells the words wrong.

She picked the witch. I pulled up an online d20 on my phone. I went to start, and she insisted my mother had to play as the elf.

So I told them that the new queen of the kingdom had called for them, because their palace treasury had been robbed - specifically, a single enchanted coin that brings luck and wealth to a ruler's reign had been stolen. And tales of enchanted coins were suddenly emanating from across the land, so each one needed investigating until the right coin was found.

It turns out kids who like stories will absolutely lap this shit up. She was enthralled. It was the simplest story - they had to get into a bank, revive some unconscious gnomes, then enter the vault, find the coin that had been deposited into it, then get back to the queen. Enough to fill a half hour car ride, basically, but she managed to fill it with all the wacky hijinks you get from a ttrpg, particularly when she tried to smash a door down with a hammer but rolled a 1.

We finished with the queen saying it wasn't the right coin, and then my niece demanded we go again, this time with her playing as a sapient reticulated python. That time we made it all the way to the final boss fight, which was a sorcerer who created a big coin monster out of loads of coins; I asked my niece what she wanted to do, and she described graphically how she wanted to constrict and eat the sorcerer and immediately rolled a 19. So, sure! Okay. The sorcerer is now very dead. The coin monster, though, was still there, and as my niece tried to say she would do the same thing, I was like, no, you're a snake and you just ate. You're now immobile.

At this point, my sister advised her to regurgitate the sorcerer.

Great! said my niece. I'm going to do it at the coin monster.

And rolled a 20.

So she projectile vomited a dead sorcerer into the coin monster, and won the day.

Anyway, today she immediately demanded we play "the game with the story where we choose", and my brother in law is now asking me how he can do this with her ("Are you making it all up as you go along??"). But yeah, turns out, this is a fantastic way to entertain a seven year old. Vague ongoing quest, then three steps: get into (place), resolve (minor puzzle), boss fight to finish. Boom. Easy.

So far I've done a bank, a tavern, and an art gallery (it featured an exhibit that was just a room full of slippery banana skins). I'm going to do a pirate ship next

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

A few people have asked so. The best bits:

The aforementioned snake regurgitation bit. What I didn't mention was that at first, when I said she now needed to lie down and digest, her attempt to resolve it was "Nana, you need to find me a heat lamp" and I had to be like, "Nana has bigger problems right now because she is fighting the coin monster, and also you're both trapped down here." Why were they both trapped? Because rather than finding the stairs down to the basement, they chose to hack a hole in the floor and drop through

When they found their first enchanted coin, Niece picked it up with her bare hand. This made her hand swell up to five times the size and turn blue with orange polka dots. Her response? To immediately pick up the coin with the other hand so they could match

Niece decided very suddenly and randomly that slipping on banana skins was funny, and periodically she would competently enter a new room and she'd interrupt me to say "And then I stand on a banana skin!" This is why I made the banana skin modern art installation. Purely for her to enjoy getting through the room

At one point as the witch they decided to jointly fly on the broom to a new location. "You don't need to roll for that," I said, but Niece was enjoying rolling by then, and so did anyway, and somehow rolled a 20. It was the world's greatest broom ride. They had in-flight entertainment, free snacks each, they napped, and they landed 20 seconds before they took off

The morning I left, she saw me and asked if we could play "Dungeons and Dragons", so her father has definitely been discussing playing with her because I never used that name. Delighted to have offered this new past time into their lives, and next time I'll try and write a little detective campaign, I think

[exlibra]

ziyal survives the war -> is unofficially adopted by both garak and kira separately (Very Separately.) -> asks to spend time on cardassia during the reconstruction -> kira comes along because it’s a disaster out there and she’s not letting ziyal go by herself -> comedy of errors where kira keeps getting mistaken for garak’s quite young wife (but what a lovely daughter you have together! she looks so much like you! divorced, you say? what a shame…) -> kira’s head explodes. the end

[the-writing-goblin]

At some point, whether or not Garak and Bashir are actually together, Bashir gets called a home wrecker by an elderly Cardassian grandmother.

Kira and Garak both agree that Bashir’s ensuing outrage is hilarious, making this the first time they ever agree about anything besides Ziyal.

[katbelleinthedark]

This should be how they GET together. Julian gets accused of being a homewrecker despite the fact that he and Garak are only friends -> gets so upset in a crowded restaurant that he very loudly says that he's sorry he ruined Garak's fake marriage and that maybe he should leave and they shouldn't be together -> Garak (who finds it hilarious) fake-sniffs and says that Julian's words would be more effective if they ever were together to begin with -> Julian goes quiet and sits back down, "umm... would you... would you like us to be together?" -> Garak scores a boyfriend

[unamccormack]

Flawless romcom plotting, no notes, though I suspect Garak wouldn't be able to resist, "Well, I don't know, Doctor - Nerys and I have been talking about couple's counselling--"

[fluentisonus]

it feels so evil that you can't still access your university online library after you graduate *remembers my principles* it feels so evil that everyone can't access to that stuff all the time

[hollyevolving]

That is very true.

If it's of any help, jstor allows individual users to register for free Independent Researcher accounts with access to 100 documents per month.

[muffinlance]

it WHAT

[sandersstudies]

Hey you can’t really like. Do anything about somebody perceiving your behavior as rude. Like they’re not telling you you’re doing something illegal they’re just saying hey you’re kinda being a shithead. It’s not discrimination or oppression for somebody to tell you you’re acting like a shithead rn.

[sandersstudies]

“Wahhh why can’t I blare my TikToks in a shared public space!”

You CAN dude. In fact you ARE. You’re just going to be perceived as kinda shitty for it.

[moonmargaritas]

I’m pretty sure this is also the same kind of person who is physically compelled to get on someone else’s post and explain why THEY PERSONALLY have the One Correct Reason to not listen to rap or eat at Chik-fil-A or use ChatGPT or or or or. They obsessively crave universal validation so they don’t have to confront the fact that their actions have consequences and also say things about their character.

[maybeasunflower]

There is a really huge gap between "illegal" and "socially unacceptable". It's actually a mark of a free society that people can legally do things that don't cause significant harm to others, even though most people hate those things. Examples include cheating on your spouse and playing TikTok videos loudly in public spaces.

[natalieironside]

Mad At You Island is where the events of William Shakespeare's The Tempest take place

[belladonnaprice-deactivated2025]

[yuttikkele]

hey gamers I’ve started watching star trek does anyone else see the romantic tension between captain kirk and mr. spock

[self-made-purgatories]

watching the realization publicly dawn in real time in the comments is fucking amazing

op's tags:

comments:

[yuttikkele]

I DIDN’T KNOWWWW

[existentialterror]

Sometimes I’m looking for something online - often “how to” articles - and I want to filter for - like - a website that was clearly built in 2010 at the latest, which may or may not have been updated since then, but contains a vast wealth of information on one topic, painstakingly organized by an unknown legend in the field with decades’ worth of experience. I don’t want a listicle with a nice stolen picture in a slideshow format written by a content aggregator that God forgot. I want hand-drawn diagrams by some genius professor who doesn’t understand SEO at all, but understands making stir-fries or raising stick insects better than anyone else on this earth. I don’t know what search settings to put into Google to get this.

[greenjudy]

thank you for articulating this cri de coeur for me

[jumpingjacktrash]

ngl these days i’m just happy when it’s not a video

[averixus]

search.marginalia.nu is the search engine you want!

The search engine calculates a score that aggressively favors text-heavy websites, and punishes those that have too many modern web design features.

This is in a sense the opposite of what most major search engines do, they favor modern websites over old-looking ones. Most links you find here will be nearly impossible to find on a regular search engine, as they aren’t sufficiently search engine optimized.

[ashby-santoso]

“It is a search engine, designed to help you find what you didn’t even know you were looking for. If you search for “Plato”, you might for example end up at the Canterbury Tales. Go looking for the Canterbury Tales, and you may stumble upon Neil Gaiman’s blog.

If you are looking for fact, this is almost certainly the wrong tool. If you are looking for serendipity, you’re on the right track. When was the last time you just stumbled onto something interesting, by the way?

I don’t expect this will be the next “big” search engine. This is and will remain a niche tool for a niche audience.“

[ms-demeanor]

i clicked around for a few minutes searching various things and I now have two fourteenth century pie crust recipes and an apple filling recipe i want to try, so thanks!

[ms-demeanor]

it has been twenty minutes and I am deeply in love with this search engine.

INCREDIBLE. I *do* want to know how to test Windows 95 for Y2K Compliance and I am glad that someone is still hosting step by step instructions for that.

[workfornow]

tl;dr: search.marginalia.nu for the old or old looking and just plain serendipitous stuff that google or Duck duck go are gonna not find/bury on the 20th page. For perfectly good reasons, but …

[existentialterror]

My absolute favorite part of having made this post - other than causing people to be introduced to this site - are the people in the tags/comments talking about their interests and stuff they found about their hobbies.

Good luck out there surfing the cyberweb, you crazy cats. I love the shoelace website too - Ian’s Shoelace Site [link], unless there’s another. My personal favorite old-school site is Alysion’s string figure collection [link].

[dinomoder]

More progress on my paleoart embroidery piece 🪡

[crafblr]

btw I’ve found these stretches from the WAK blog very helpful when knitting a lot:

Plus make sure to take breaks regularly - and stop if anything starts to hurt!

especially with gift knitting I know it can be tempting to push through it for a deadline, but it’s really not worth causing long term injury. (And anyone knit-worthy should be understanding of that, imho.) Stay well :)

[gingersnappish]

Also good for artists drawing with pencils/on a tablet/with a pen!

[not-poignant]

Also good for writers

[sageiswherethemageis]

And crocheters (that word looks wrong)

[eyesinthecrypt]

Say hookers coward

[movementnudge]

Movement nudge! More hands!

[enki2]

[topdiaz]

absolutely hate it when the pleasurable activity procrastination hits. i’m going to do something fun that brings me joy but not yet. yeah, not yet. not yet. maybe i shouldn’t do it at all, it’s not that fun

[chilewithcarnage]

[nattousan]

i'm in agony, SOMEbody please help me remember what the childhood book series was that centered around critters that looked like this:

IM IN HELL WHAT WAS IT

[hrrkikshoard]

Little Critter?

[nattousan]

THATS THE BITCH

[nattousan]

alright smart-aleks, what about THIS one huh?? the dude had a really cool shading technique where he just swirled (colored pencil?) around??

[cosmignon]

Parts :)

[nattousan]

YOU GUYS ARE TOO GOOD AT THIS WHAT THE HELL

[nattousan]

ok my partner wanted in on this, I have no idea what this is

[thecrabscycle]

I GOT YOU

[nattousan]

i'm never leaving this fucking site i stg i love you all.

OK

final one

for all the marbles,

this one doesn't have an illustration bc i think it was just a kids novel but i haven't been able to find ANYTHING about it on my occasional internet queries:

kids is staying with his (grandmother?) in the woods and she warns him not to look a fox in the eyes bc they're tricksy and will swap places with you. obviously that's the first thing the little boy does and gets body snatched by a fox who uhhhh proceeds to pig out with his new little boy human hands and the boy has to trick the fox into looking him in the eyes again to switch back...

thats all i got, it's an older book i wanna say from the 60's?? 70's?? kinda the same jist of "Little Rascal"

[dyketennant]

perhaps this?

[nattousan]

A DECADE OF SEARCHING THANK YOU @dyketennant IM ORDERING THIS IMMEDIATELY

[nattousan]

ok i lied i'm back bc this is fun and i get to share some of my most deeply cherished childhood books with you all

i cannot express how much these are from memory, that's how internalized these artists and writers have become, they're a part of me now

[makesmehappy-tiggs]

the middle one is Stellaluna

[snek-panini]

Are you all ready for this? This is maybe the prettiest book in the entire batch of 12. I've made some damn pretty books but this one? Oh my god. Look:

This is Innocuous by flamethrower and it is a canon-compliant, post-s1 Good Omens fic from 2019. Without getting too spoilery, Heaven and Hell are getting up to mischief again and our favorite pair are not nearly as at-liberty as they think. They have to think their way out of a trap that they don't even realize at first that they're in.

Alright, for cover materials we have lineco tan book cloth on the spine, textured turquoise cardstock for the base, chiyogami with a floral mosaic pattern for the ornamental parts, and gold foil HTV for the title. I included two photos to show off how shiny it is. The chiyogami is actually a couple of scraps from way back when I bound The Rose and the Serpent back in 2024. I used it for the endpapers in that one and this is nearly every bit of what was left. There's more on the back, so have a look under the cut!

This is the back. It was a painstaking process to cut this out with a fine-bladed xacto knife but it was worth every second. The scraps I had were identical, but it was really important to me that the front and back were not the same, and this is what I landed on. The cover (and the endpapers too, when we get to those) were inspired by a scene later in the fic when Crowley is showing off a rooftop garden paradise that he's made. This seemed like the kind of cool, lush, luxurious thing he might have in there. And I have to say it exceeded my wildest expectations. I didn't know I had it in me to make this.

And then the HTV got warped going onto the spine and I ended up with a wonky "o". We must remain humble. It's honestly still lovely though, I forgot it was there until I started writing up this post. I got a very good round on this text block, almost no swell (even after rounding, my books often have some swell, though it's only noticeable when I stack them). And the endbands came out unusually well. Those are, as always, custom made. They look good with the cover, though they were designed to match the endpapers:

These are that thick soft artisan paper that Joanne's used to sell. The gold bits are shiny foil. Again, secret rooftop Eden luxury vibe here. I have no regrets about this bind, though if I had it to do over again I might choose a solid color instead of a pattern here. Maybe. Maybe not. On the one hand I really like the pattern but on the other it is kind of a lot with the cover.

Couple of quick shots of the interior. I kept it a bit simple, honestly, which makes a nice contrast with the cover. That wasn't intentional but I can't say it doesn't fit. Feels balanced. Let's see, what else? There are, I kid you not, over 450 footnotes in this fic and those took some wrangling to get in line. I think that's the most footnotes I've ever dealt with in one story. Oh, and there's an extra chapter at the end which is a deleted scene that I had to track down on the author's other fanfic account (listed in the notes at the top of the fic) because they'd removed it from Ao3. It's public, it just needed a bit of extra leg work.

And there we have it! This was one of the earliest long fics I ever read and it is really pleasing to give it the fanbinding treatment. It was interesting rereading it after several years and seeing how trends had shifted in things like characterization and the types of plots chosen. I'm not sure if that's a wider fandom trend or a shift in my reading taste or both. Gave me some perspective, anyway.