This Is An Excellent Set Of Explanations Of Many Of The Dangers Of Making Abortion Illegal.  If You

Vote in every election, for every position!  Some really horrible racist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups are getting power on school boards, library boards, city councils, and other local legislative bodies.  One of the reasons they can do it is because it doesn’t take many votes to get them in office.  Once they’re in, they can start supporting book bans, curriculum changes, anti-trans measures, and more.

Finding out who you want to vote for takes time, and it can be hard at the local level, but it’s incredibly important.  If you can, register to vote by mail so that you have more time to look at your ballot and research the candidates.  If not, try to find ballot information online or see if your local paper runs any information about the candidates.  If you need help, ask at your local library!  (You don’t have to tell them how you plan to vote, just ask for help finding out who is on the ballot.)  

Collect up the junk mail that candidates send out.  Some of them share mailers, so figuring out one of them will give you an idea on the others.  Contact organizations that you approve of and find out who they support.  If you’re really desperate, contact organizations that you don’t approve of and find out who they support, so you know who to vote against.

Start learning the dog whistles and warning signs.  “Parental rights” is starting to mean “the right to say what other people’s kids can read and learn.”  Moms for Liberty wants the liberty to deny the existence of LGBTQ+ people.

It’s “just one more vote” the same way a tough journey is “just one more step.”

If you have shared a post with Spanish advice on what to do if ICE agents come to a person’s home, please check the Spanish advice carefully or have someone who can read Spanish check it for you!  Some posts designed to look like ones from the ACLU have bad advice that basically encourages people to give up their rights.  I’m disgusted that people would do this deliberately and heart-broken that others are unwittingly sharing this false information.

Please confirm that information you share is correct!  (English information in the picture on the right in the initial post from vaspider and Spanish translation by funkylittlegoblin)

False memes

Okay, friends, I need some help.

A friend of mine saw a friend who does not speak Spanish circulating these two memes, trying to be helpful. Here’s the problem - the advice in Spanish DOES NOT MATCH the English AT ALL. In Spanish, the people are advised to invite ICE in, be honest and calm, and to instruct all family members to tell the truth. At the end, they are told their cooperation is appreciated. They are not advised of their rights, to request a warrant. The advice amounts to giving themselves up.

If you look closely at the bottom, you’ll see that the English version is from the ACLU. The Spanish version says “ALCU”.

Be aware of the information you share - it may not be helpful!

THAT SAID, the help I request is this:

I do not speak enough Spanish to translate the above into Spanish. I would like to give her the Spanish translation of this message to add to her post. (And this one.)

Help?

If you don't have the manual for your car, you can probably find it online. Once you find it, download it! That way, if it gets moved or taken down because your car is older than the company wants to deal with, you still have a copy of the manual. (If your car is relatively new, you may be able to get a physical copy from a dealership, but they will probably charge for it.)

If possible, put the file on your phone so you have it available when you're away from home. Even if you only have access at home, at least you can look up things.

If you can't get a manual or your manual doesn't have instructions on changing a tire, print out instructions and put them with your spare tire. As other people have mentioned, having to change a tire almost always happens in miserable conditions. Having instructions easily available makes it less bad.

in the same spirit as those posts reminding you to drink some water and take your meds:

if you have a car, when’s the last time you checked your spare tire? because i know at least two people who’ve recently discovered that they couldn’t actually access their spare because they’d misplaced the necessary tool or some other thing. check your spare tire!! make sure you’ll be able to use it when you need it!!!

I love InspiroBot!

someone created a random generator that creates randomized inspirational quotes overlaid on random images in a soothing fashion and each and every image is comic gold

it’s pretty much the best thing ever and here are some of my favorites so far

so good

I’m getting this one made into a motivational poster for my home office

PLEASE GO MAKE SOME OF YOUR OWN RIGHT NOW

Woo-hoo!  Whoever you are, you deserve to feel bold, rebellious, and happy!

On Shopping While Fat 2: Son of Fat

This explains the situation of e-books in libraries much better than I did.  It’s incredibly frustrating for librarians, most of whom just want to connect people with books!

It’s been an increasing source of frustration for many library users: waiting weeks, sometimes months to get to the top of the waiting list for a popular eBook or e-Audiobook.

Why does it take so long? After all, it’s not a physical object, it’s a digital file that lives in the “cloud”, why can’t multiple people access it simultaneously instead of only one at a time? Barring that, why doesn’t the library just buy more copies so that the waiting list is shorter? Getting people access to books and information is what libraries are all about, but the struggle for acquiring lendable e-content is very real, and it’s getting harder all the time. Why? What’s the big hairy deal? For that answer, you have to look to the “Big 5” Publishers, who are responsible for close to 80% of trade book sales. 

Publishers have been extremely wary about allowing library users virtual access to their books. After all, digital copies of books never wear out or have to be replaced, and are more vulnerable to unauthorized copying (“pirating”). Publshers were afraid if they allowed libraries access to their books digitally, they would be losing money. Individual publishers came up with their own sets of rules for libraries to access their e-content, and they have been tweaked many times since 2006.

In addition, the prices libraries must pay for ebooks and e-audiobooks is very high. Libraries must pay up to 4X the retail price for digital versions of books (which only one user can have access to at a time).  Meeting the library patron’s needs for downloadable content is a very expensive enterprise, indeed! Take a look at this comparison of the prices for various versions of the same book:

It becomes easy to see that acquiring ebooks for public use is a very expensive endeavor…

Read more on The Cheshire Library Blog.

Awwww, this is adorable!

“hello,” the dark lord said, “i need a library card.”

“everyone needs a library card,” the librarian said brightly, sliding a form across the desk. “fill this out.”

the dark lord produced her own elaborated plumed quill from the depths of her robes and scrawled her name in handwriting that was completely illegible but seemed to whisper the secrets of the dark from the blinding white page. “yes, but i need mine in order to take over the tri-kingdom area.”

the librarian’s polite smile barely faltered. “funny, the last dark lord to try that didn’t bother with a card.”

“yes, and do you see that fool currently ruling our kingdom? no. of course not. utterly ridiculous, to attempt to take over any size country without a library card, much less an intermediate-sized one like this.” she accepted the thin plastic card with a gracious flourish of her gloved hand.

the librarian, adding the new card’s number to the database, privately agreed, but chose not to say anything.

the librarian balanced the pile of pulled books under one elbow and held the list of call numbers in their hand for easy consultation. “intermediate spell casting for grades three and four,” they murmured, running fingers along the peeling spines until they found it. “willing to bet that’s sorrel’s request.”

they fit the large, paperbound book under their elbow and moved on, checking the list again. “magical creatures encyclopedia, L through M. that’s jackaby trying to finish the entire set by midsummer.” they would get that one last to carry it around the shortest amount of time.

“next — the complete guide to raising the dead.” they paused in front of the row of shelves with the right call numbers. they could guess the requester of that one too, but knew better than to say it out loud.

the return slot thunked loudly as it swung open and closed, having swallowed the returned books with a wet gulp.

“good morning,” the dark lord said pleasantly as she looked up from sliding her books in — or as pleasantly as “good morning” could sound when it was uttered by a voice that sounded like gravel being chewed to pieces by the jaws of a large monster.

“it is, very,” the librarian said crisply, conjuring a clean handkerchief for the still-slobbering return slot.

the mouth just visible under the dark lord’s enormous cloak hood curved into a scythe’s blade smile, but she said nothing else.

“did you enjoy your books?” the librarian asked, since she wasn’t moving and there were no other people waiting (most likely because of the dark lord standing there).

the hood nodded up and down. “extremely. especially the taped lecture by doctor dramidius ardorius of the dark arts institute.”

“well, we have many more taped lectures. i especially recommend the one on the healing powers of tea.” they tilted their head in a now get out sign. the poor steam-powered self-checkout contraption would get overheated if people were too scared to check out at the front desk.

they didn’t really expect the dark lord to take the recommendation seriously, but the next day they noticed the cloaked, hooded specter glide out the door with the taped lecture on magic-infused herbal teas tucked between a CD of dark chants and a step-by-step art book on drawing occult symbols.

“you give good recommendations,” the dark lord said with a shrug when the librarian raised their eyes from the front desk’s computer to the shadows of her hood.

the librarian wasn’t sure what to say. “you seem to take up quite a lot of my time.”

“i’m only a simple library patron,” the dark lord replied in a saintly voice that resembled a dragon coughing up a partially digested house. “do you enjoy mermaid song?”

“yes. you can find the library’s collection in the CD section over there.” they looked pointedly back down at the computer.

“i hear there’s a concert on the shore tomorrow evening.”

“perhaps we’ll get a recording of it.”

the dark lord continued taking out books on various unsavory topics. the librarian continued suggesting books on healing, positive thinking, and community service. the dark lord seemed more amused with each visit. her smile was almost charming, when you got past the long, sharp teeth.

the librarian was trying to go about their usual morning ritual of pulling books that had been requested the night before, but the dark lord wouldn’t stop making faces at them from behind gaps in the shelves. she seemed to find it hilarious. the librarian hadn’t decided yet if they were amused or annoyed.

“ooh, look at this,” the dark lord said, pulling a sturdy but beaten up board book featuring a werewolf mid-transformation on the cover from the shelf. “this was my favorite when i was just a little menace.”

“somehow i’m not surprised.”

the dark lord tucked the book into the ridiculous basket made of a large skull that floated alongside her. “didn’t you have a favorite picture book when you were little?”

“Barker the Sentient Book End,” the librarian said promptly. “i screamed for it every night until someone read it to me, long after i’d already memorized each page.”

the dark lord cooed, sounding like a cross between an owl and something eating an owl. “adorable. i knew you had a little monster in you somewhere.”

the librarian crossly debated denying being a monster at all or pointing out they had actual kraken blood in them.

they should have guessed how close the dark lord was from how good her mood was, but it wasn’t until they arrived at work on monday that the librarian heard the news.

“the newest dark lord managed to overthrow the faeyrie monarchy last night. something about combining traditional herbal spells with a newfangled mental magic based on the power of willful thinking… or something. the news reporter mentioned the use of mermaid song in a mild kind of mind control, i think? i wasn’t listening. the good news is, our budget stays in place.”

the librarian contemplated hurling the can of bookmarks across the room, but concluded that it would be both unprofessional and unsatisfying. they settled for aggressively stamping returned, only slightly saliva-covered books with red ink.

the phone clicked loudly. “public library, how can i help you?”

“by taking my offer,” the dark lord said, slightly hesitant voice like a rock slide that wasn’t sure it was ready to slide. “the royal library in the capital needs a new head librarian.”

“why’s that?” the librarian spun in their new swivel chair, tangling the phone cord while they were at it, thinking they wouldn’t want to leave so soon after getting it.

there was a cough like the ocean spitting out a new island. “erm, hmm, last one got… eaten. tragic. these things happen when you’re very, very small, you know.”

“so i’ve heard.” the librarian stretched the phone cord and watched it bounce back. “well, i’m happy where i am.”

“well.” her voice was more disappointed than they’d expected. “it’s a very nice library, you know. large selection of mermaid song in the CD section.”

“the royal library is part of our system. i can request any materials from there that i want to be delivered here.”

a pause. the dark lord had not considered this. “well, maybe i’ll take the royal library out of the system.”

“you wouldn’t dare disrupt the workings of our very intricate library system set up at the dawn of time.”

“maybe i would!”

“no.”

“fine. i wouldn’t.”

the librarian swiveled some more, wrapping the cord around with them until it ran out of give and spun them in the other direction. “would you like to grab a coffee sometime?”

“yes,” the dark lord said, voice too surprised to resemble anything in particular. “i can travel down meet you tomorrow morning.”

“don’t you have things to do?”

they could sense the shrug from the other end of the line. “i’ll move the capital to your town. i can do that, you know. i’m the supreme ruler of the tri-kingdom area.”

“yes,” the librarian agreed, un-spinning to return the phone to its cradle. “just don’t forget who gave you the library card.”

As a current librarian, I 100% agree with this! Libby also lets you "subscribe" to a magazine, so you get notifications when a new issue is available.

If you don't like reading magazines (or eBooks, for that matter) on your phone, you can log into Libby on your computer at libbyapp.com.

As a former librarian I'm actually required to remind you that many libraries that subscribe to Libby are opted into a program that lets you subscribe and access magazines for free with no wait

And that this is actually a really fun, low cost way to not only access news and larger cultural magazines, but also to get free patterns for many different crafts that you can screenshot if need be and that lower the financial barriers to entry for trying new things

From my experience working in both academic and public libraries, many libraries are use it or lose it funding-- I have to say this because a lot of patrons feel guilty for how much they use the library and how often they're using it funny enough, but the worst thing you can do for libraries is not try out new features and not use what's already given to you as much as possible.

The numbers that come as a result of your patronage are how most libraries justify their continued existence in times of financial hardship, which sucks but, go check out some magazines on Libby!

ACA open enrollment starts soon!

Two of my sweeties and I braved the heat at a Families Belong Together demonstration today.  The speakers were good, and it was heartening to see so many people coming together to protest the cruel treatment of children.

#keepfamiliestogether #familiesbelongtogether