It's that time again! Tonight I pick up my Bike MS packet for the Pedal to the Point ride. If you haven't already, think of donating to my ride. events.nationalmssociety.org/participants... 1/3

Since we are already cutting out all extra spending (DH is a government employee whose job could vanish), I have added a Facebook blackout to my “spend nothing” protest—and I’ve opened FB twice already. Damn you automaticity!

A heads up, I like BlueSky but everything here is functionally publicly viewable. Other apps accessing the underlying data can see your posts even with “logged on only” accounts turned on. What makes BlueSky unownable, decentralized and open, is also what makes its data publicly accessible.

Pedego Electric Bikes Peninsula NE Ohio will be helping me complete my MS Pedal to the Point ride by loaning me a battery. This is the third year they have pledged to help me complete this very long ride. events.nationalmssociety.org/index.cfm?fu...

events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/... I doing the 150 mile MS Pedal to the Point. I will give a crochet amigurumi for every hundred dollars donated. A random roll of the dice will determine winners. No upper limit to how many winners there can be. Donate $5 or $100. Help me fight MS.

I have things I should be doing, but since checking the news casually at 11:30 am today, I've been unable to shut the panic part of my brain off.

My son and I are doing the MS bike ride in August. Help us raise funds to fight this horrible disease! events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/... and my son's events.nationalmssociety.org/participant/...

My third grade English teacher pre-ordered my book and says she can't wait for some monster romance.

“I don’t kill my darlings was much as recycle them” - Marie Vibbert, “Structuring your Story” panel Cleveland ConCoction 2024 Convention

For the CLE peeps, Darrin Bright & I are at ConCoction again this year, running www.artemisspaceshipbridge.com/buy-cosmos-n... . Stop by and play a game or two. It's free to play at the con. We will be running Cosmos, so many many nifty changes. www.clevelandconcoction.org?fbclid=IwAR2...

On Facebook, I posted a picture of a lamb I crocheted and said it was an insane amount of work. Got a reply, "You could sell these!" I mean, I could if someone was willing to pay $320 (minimum wage, not even with the cost of yarn). Not every craft/hobby can (or should be) a side hustle.

Just heard the Dept of Education won’t be transmitting the FAFSA to colleges until mid-March. Dudes, the end of January was insanely late this year to start with, but…6-week further delay? If you know people who work in Fin Aid or Admission, they are having a bad bad bad enrollment season.

The latest crochet project

Important safety tip: if a person with a generalized anxiety disorder or C-PTSD asks you to stop talking about a subject, stop. If they directly ask you to stop, stop. And, at that moment, is not the time to try to tell them about a “simple solution to anxiety” you read about.

Reading the graduation information for the kid: "Traditionally, the girls wear white [gowns] and boys wear orange." It is 2023. Making girls wear a different color was old-school sexist 30 years ago. Nowadays we acknowledge non-binary folks exist. Treat all scholars the same for goodness sake.

OMG why didn't I think of that

The quote of the evening. Writer says of her husband, he’s “enjoying the fruits of many assholes.”

The husband wrote a lovely essay about the Depeche Mode concert he went to and about, well, life. I'm sharing it with you: nylabright.com/2023/11/13/m...

Mom (former Cobal programmer) buys a new computer monitor; plugs it in and tries to set it up. It isn't working so she calls me (from NM to OH) to help. This is not a monitor I've ever seen before. [primal screen]. We get it working. She then THEN THEN! finds the setup instructions on the box.

Every time I click a news article only to be hit by a paywall I think about how every conspiracy website is absolutely free to read.

I "told ghost story"

I have eaten the razorblades that were in the candy and which you were probably saving for the children Forgive me the children never came so afraid of the razorblades apparently

The hardest thing for me is being ok with things not being ok. The idea I can do everything right and still might not have a good outcome is crushing.

The husband’s Halloween costume.

My mom calls me for tech support. Halfway through the call she tells me she needs to call me back to put in her hearing aids. Then, she ends the tech support call explaining how she is working on listening better. I mean—step 1, wear your hearing aids when asking someone to give you instructions?

Gordon is loving the new sofa

day 23- #celestial :“hungry”- #inktober #inktober2023 - #viseu #porto #portugal @evaonirica . autumn Outubro 2023 . #inktober2023day23 #inktobercelestial #inktober2023celestial #inktoberportugal #sketch #art #arte #drawing #draw #desenho #illustration #ilustração #lineart #ink #artwork

would love to abolish the notion that making your audience feel joy is inherently intellectually and artistically inferior to making them feel pain, a cheap and cynical attitude which poisons everything from misogynist disdain for romance to why it’s harder for comedies to win Best Picture

Yesterday I went to an exhibition and this part impressed me a lot. It is called “House of Culture” and it represents all the cultural places in Ukraine destroyed by russia. It is made of a metal booth the artist found in Kherson region that was damaged by russian constant shelling. #UkrainianView

I just think Scholastic's CEO, Peter Warwick, who makes more than $3m/yr should donate his annual bonus of $1.25m to the fight against censorship. Maybe even directly to libraries or schools directly impacted. We're past the point where a milquetoast press release about company values means shit.

“Human rights should, can, and do apply to all humans” is not and should not be a radical statement. The amount of effort that some people go to try to obscure this basic concept is truly wild.

This article is EVIL. Two different execs basically saying "people are taking sick days and it's bad, nobody wants to work anymore." Anyway let's check out Fleecor and Culture Amp's Glassdoors!

As I get older I'm less and less tolerant of things that make me uncomfortable for stupid reasons (like the viewing pleasure of men I don't know or for "social rules" reasons). It occurs to me this might be why people come out as LGBTQ in middle age. Fuck expectations!

Lurker in the woods, watching, always watching you.

#scarycute

The thing about the neurodivergent is that some people don’t hesitate to be intolerant and cruel to the divergent, and others will support them in the meanness without hesitation, because they were “annoying.” 1/2

A haunted house, but it’s the ghosts of characters from all your unfinished novels and shorts stories.

Next Tuesday I'll be at the Norwalk Public Library! Yes, the break from appearances is over already. See where I'll be: https://www.marievibbert.com/im-out-and-about-again/

First day of school was canceled due to excessive heat. I can tell the neighbor kid is bored off his gourd because he’s texting me, the 50 year old, about pets.

My husband lost the charger to his model plane and I, a person who isn't participating in the hobby, feel guilt for not making sure he put it away and anxiety that he can't find it. As a child, I was told feeling this way was wrong. I was too sensitive and made everything about myself. (thread)

Beowulf taps into the primal human of fear of defeating someone in combat and then being forced to fight their mom

This is my regular reminder to myself that it's useless to argue with people who don't think I should be paid for my work because art is supposed to be a magical thing that is destroyed by the artist not starving. It's an article of faith or them and facts don't matter.