You Guys Know You Can Get USB Connectable CD, Dvd, And Blu-ray Players Right. And You Can Buy External

you guys know you can get USB connectable CD, dvd, and blu-ray players right. and you can buy external hard drives with crazy amounts of space for an amount of money that would make the average person from 2009’s head explode bc of how cheap it is. and if you do this and get ripping software such as handbrake for CDs and DVDs and makeMKV for blurays you can both own a physical copy of whatever media you want and make it accessible to yourself no matter where you are. do you guys know this

BookMaven — Collectable Paperbacks, Hardcovers, Digest Magazines, and Pulps.

The Beautiful Book — Illustrated books, Art & Vintage bindings, Illustrations

ABookPlace — Beautiful Libraries, Independent Bookstores (physical), Book Plates, etc.

Banned Library — Books that have been challenged/removed from libraries.

BendingLight — Surreal images to jump-start your imagination.

Most, but not all, of the artwork shared here is in public domain. Copyrighted material is shared through Fair Usage and is intended for promotion of the book/author/artist — not profit. Please check individual artwork before using. If you prefer your work removed, or if you find a mistake, please contact me. My blogs are for fun. Comments/Requests welcome. Bookmaven —Lydia Marano

Click for larger images.

EARNEST POSTING. while everyone is still working on new year’s resolutions i want to make sure everyone knows about the FREE serial reader app.

if you are trying to read more classics/public domain works but for whatever reason struggle with incorporating reading into your daily life, or you’re just intimidated by huge books, serial reader is a great tool to make reading more approachable. it works much like dracula daily in that it sends you one excerpt at a time (usually about 10-15 minutes of estimated reading time). awesome for commutes, lunch breaks, quick bedtime story, etc.

it’s very customizable. you can change fonts, themes, and you can even take notes and highlight. you can also sync with other reading apps like goodreads (no storygraph yet……. we can hope!). the base app is completely free, but there is a one-time optional upgrade fee of $2.99 USD if you want some extra features. this is all developed by one guy, so the money goes to supporting the creator - although i’m sure apple takes their cut 😑.

there are a ton of works to choose from, currently something like 800+.

you can now also add your own .epubs to break up your own books into daily serials! very cool, serial reader!

this was the best app i added last year so i just want to pass it on. happy reading! :)

I used to work for a trade book reviewer where I got payed to review people's books, and one of the rules of that review company is one that I think is just super useful to media analysis as a whole, and that is, we were told never to critique media for what it didn't do but only for what it did.

So, for instance, I couldn't say "this book didn't give its characters strong agency or goals". I instead had to say, "the characters in this book acted in ways that often felt misaligned with their characterization as if they were being pulled by the plot."

I think this is really important because a lot of "critiques" people give, if subverted to address what the book does instead of what it doesn't do, actually read pretty nonsensical. For instance, "none of the characters were unique" becomes "all of the characters read like other characters that exist in other media", which like... okay? That's not really a critique. It's just how fiction works. Or "none of the characters were likeable" becomes "all of the characters, at some point or another, did things that I found disagreeable or annoying" which is literally how every book works?

It also keeps you from holding a book to a standard it never sought to meet. "The world building in this book simply wasn't complex enough" becomes "The world building in this book was very simple", which, yes, good, that can actually be a good thing. Many books aspire to this. It's not actually a negative critique. Or "The stakes weren't very high and the climax didn't really offer any major plot twists or turns" becomes "The stakes were low and and the ending was quite predictable", which, if this is a cute romcom is exactly what I'm looking for.

Not to mention, I think this really helps to deconstruct a lot of the biases we carry into fiction. Characters not having strong agency isn't inherently bad. Characters who react to their surroundings can make a good story, so saying "the characters didn't have enough agency" is kind of weak, but when you flip it to say "the characters acted misaligned from their characterization" we can now see that the *real* problem here isn't that they lacked agency but that this lack of agency is inconsistent with the type of character that they are. a character this strong-willed *should* have more agency even if a weak-willed character might not.

So it's just a really simple way of framing the way I critique books that I think has really helped to show the difference between "this book is bad" and "this book didn't meet my personal preferences", but also, as someone talking about books, I think it helps give other people a clearer idea of what the book actually looks like so they can decide for themselves if it's worth their time.

...Anyway, I created a Userscript for the Chrome/Firefox Stylus Extension that reverts the new dashboard to the old format. This took a lot of tweaking and it's not perfect at all, but if anyone wants it I'll be uploading it soonish now!

userstyles.world

Old Tumblr Dashboard (July 2023) by Pixiel

A fix for the new Tumblr dashboard! If you don't want the sticky header you can remove the labelled script at the top of the css below /* St

You need to have Stylus installed. So if you don't have it:

Install the Stylus Firefox Addon or the Chrome Extension

Once it's installed into Firefox/Chrome you can proceed with adding this style or any other.

To add the style, follow the instructions:

Go to this link: https://userstyles.world/style/11286/old-tumblr-dashboard-july-2023

Click on "install".

Style will open a tag with it and in the left side you'll have a button that says "install style", click there. (Step-by-step copied from the lovely dorothyoz39 who wrote this in a reply!) If you don't want the sticky header you can remove the labelled script at the top of the css below /* Sticky Header*/

Be sure to check for updates, I'm fixing things as I go! To update click the Manage button on Stylus and click the check for update button below! If you experience any bugs let me know - feel free to edit it yourself as well! P.S. Works just fine alongside Xkit!

Check under the cut for the changelog and known issues!

NEW UPDATE as of 16/08/23, 20:12 BST v6.5

----- Known issues:

The activity count in the Accounts Menu is blue (it uses the same code as the header buttons notifications) for some reason, still trying to figure out how to make it match the rest of them.

The search bar moves out of place on bigger monitors when not using the sticky header. You can adjust its position yourself under "/*Moves the search bar*/" by changing the "Left" numbers. I can't think of a way around that just yet without adjusting it yourself!

Search bar doesn't appear on some pages (like viewing a post), this is because Tumblr removed the search bar on those pages completely. Unfixable!

Post button disappears on very small monitors! (1 person with this issue so far) Might be hard for me to replicate and fix without messing with regular-size monitors - My recommendation if you are having issues with smaller monitors, is to adjust the labelled numbers (Left, Right, Top: [Value]) for the issue you're having in the code!

Only two columns in Masonry view. May be unfixable, I can't figure out how to add another column in smaller screens. Even the Tampermonkey style only has two columns! Tumblr creates columns based on monitor size, if I try adding another column (because it doesn't exist) it just perpetually loads on screen.

The Account and Settings button move when the menu is open - See number 4 of Solved Issues for solution to this problem! SOLVED

Tumblr has ONCE AGAIN CHANGED THE ACCOUNTS MENU. The menus are now shorter and have less information on them. This is unfortunately permanent. I do not see any way to fix this. Unfixable.

Users' icons and who they've reblogged from disappear - This is 100% something Tumblr themselves broke and not the userstyle, hopefully they'll fix it themselves shortly!

Solved issues: (Update)

Menus need to be manually closed SOLVED! in V.4 and updated in V.5! The menu & icon WILL scroll with you if you have removed the sticky header CSS, however, clicking anywhere on screen will make the Menu disappear still. DISCLAIMER: If you remove any of the header icons with Ublock the Account or Settings icon will disappear off screen or overlap with other icons. This is just cosmetic and the menus will still close - see option 4 for a solution to this problem!

Masonry view in searches is now fixed!

Removed Xkits new text for xkit users (update)

Added a new guide to make moving the Settings and Accounts buttons easier if you remove icons with Ublock. Example: /*If there are none icons on the right (of the settings icon), right: 120px;*/ Now you don't have to fiddle around moving the icons yourself, you can just choose the number value that works for you! Ctrl-F Search for Accounts Icon or Settings Icon in the code to find this!

Resized Messenger Chat Box!

NEW UPDATE 16/08/23, 23:55 BST v6.5: Figured out how to reorganise the icons in the header. Let me know if you have any problems with it and make sure to update your Userstyle! Some icons are hidden with Display: Block; you can hide more icons with this method but be aware it may break other features!

If your Tumblr DOES NOT HAVE TUMBLR LIVE OR YOUR TUMBLR LIVE IS 'SNOOZED' making your header out of order, click the pencil to edit the style - it has the Tumblr Live numbers set by default - replace the numbers under 'Reorders the Icons in the header' with the ones listed below Inbox, Accounts, Settings, Domain and Ad-free e.g. */No Tumblr Live: (number)/* For example

*/Inbox/* ul li.g8SYn:nth-child(7) */No Tumblr Live: (6)/* will become */Inbox/* ul li.g8SYn:nth-child(6)

I’m actually serious about this, if at all possible, right now is a very good time to request queer books from your local library. Whether they get them or not is not in your control, but it is so important to show that there is a desire for queer books. I will also say getting more queer books in libraries and supporting queer authors are pretty fantastic byproducts of any action.

This isn’t something everyone can do, but please do see if you are one of the people who has the privilege to engage in this form of activism, and if you are, leverage that privilege for all you’re worth.

For anyone who can’t think of a queer book to request, here is a little list of some queer books that I think are underrated and might not be in circulation even at larger libraries:

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco     

Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals by William Wright    

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower by Erica Ridley   

God Themselves by Jae Nichelle

IRL by Tommy Pico        

The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers by Mark Gevisser

Passing Strange by Ellen Klages             

The New Queer Conscience by Adam Eli

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom          

Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow              

Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser

Queer Magic: Lgbt+ Spirituality and Culture from Around the World by Tomás Prower            

Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam   

Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon 

Hi Honey, I’m Homo! by Matt Baume      

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Homie: Poems by Danez Smith

The Secret Life of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw  

The Companion by E.E. Ottoman 

Kapaemahu by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu

Sacrament of Bodies by Romeo Oriogun     

Witching Moon by Poppy Woods 

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt    

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman    

Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist           

Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi             

Peaches and Honey by Imogen Markwell-Tweed      

Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color by Christopher Soto