(1/2) Whittlesea straw bear

Ridiculously chuffed with this free decoration from @britishlibrary.bsky.social with my tales of the weird subscription. Delighted to say that brings my Christmas tree skulls up to seven 😁💀🌲

Eh, death is inevitable, so why not die on this hill?

Grillfest is Norwegian for barbecue We can only aspire to such greatness

26-30/52 three of the Brothers Sinister books and two of the Worth Saga, all by Courtney Milan. It hasn’t been a *productive* weekend, certainly, but it hasn’t ‘alf been a fun one.

25/52 a beautiful story, or a collection of stories, about what it means to be a family, what it means to be a community, with all the love and the hate and the longing and the resentment that’s inextricable from it and from you. Hell of a read.

Going for hospital tests on Wednesday. I need to find my ‘I need clear instructions’ badge because I am remarkably stupid when I’m overwhelmed and scared. Pawsitive Pins on Etsy do great badges for the #neurodivergent among us 😁

Happy Sunday! 🎃👻🎃

24/52 Mr Collins in Love: @leewelchwriter.bsky.social. Golly but that was a delight, and hurt my heart with the happy ending of it. I long for communication so easy and honest - or, not easy, but *brave*. A gorgeous read that salvaged Austen’s unsalvageable and made it something beautiful. #BookSky

Reading @leewelchwriter.bsky.social’s Mr Collins in Love and I see myself so much in his evident neurodivergence and I am fairly certain I won’t make it through this book without weeping. This is standard for Lee’s books, I won’t lie.

I see duo has enshittified in pursuit of more cash 😡

23/52 everyone recommends this one for a reason. Everyone should read this one, too. (Trying to read again. Sometimes you have to name the cycle to escape it.)

Occasionally I am articulate 😁👍

Prolonged absence because I have been sick for a month and have to get tested in the hospital and what does that mean? That means Prolonged Comfort Fanfic Reading, folks. How to be an antiracist, Silk and Power are all languishing unread by my bedside while I languish upon it 😁👍

In a stunning moment of carnal desire, my calculator said “BOOBIE5”

Browser crashes keep you humble

Me too, clouds, me too.

Have decided to start calling life admin ‘arcane rituals’ so it sounds better when I cancel plans 😁

Simultaneously bemused that it is ALREADY Thursday and that it is ONLY Thursday

Age verification: birthday twin!

Work smells like custard today 👍

Sometimes I run out of life for a bit - the plans run out, as does the energy for making them, and everything winds down. It’d be good if I had a better strategy for restarting the clockwork than self-flagellation but hey, at least I’m awake again. 🌞

The crowdfunder to provide improved premises and access for everyone to The Folklore Library and Archive @folklorelibrary.bsky.social is approaching 10% funded. Can you please help it get there with a small pledge? There are rewards in return for your help too! Thank you gofund.me/d64b9577

You tell ‘em Duo!

Taproot by @keezyyoung.bsky.social (22/52) utterly adorable story in a gorgeous art style, and the hinted-at universe is absolutely *fascinating*. Queerness and necromancy and inept romance, it’s like this was designed precisely for me 😍 I’ve ordered their other books, can’t wait to read them!

Ngl I think I’ve found my Halloween costume but I may need to bring a print out of a very specific 1936 political cartoon so it makes sense 🤣 (is this an excuse to buy myself a widow’s robe? IS IT EVER)

A kiss for midwinter by Courtney Milan (21/52) - this is the reason I started the series in the first place, because it’s referenced in her essay Pride and Predators (linked) about Wickham and the dangers of civility. Painfully deals with learning to hope. 💜 michiganlawreview.org/journal/prid...

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan (20/52) - an excellent read with layers of growing tension that resonate with the endlessly peelable layers of helpless wanting on the part of both MCs. The characters are nuanced and flawed and the happy ending is well-earned. Good read!

the poor keep pointlessly targeting the sort of rich and the sort of rich hate the poor for some godforsaken reason (fear) and what we really need is the moment in a bug's life when they realize there are only like 5 grasshoppers

*side-eyes @courtneymilan.com's The Governess Affair (19/52) (which was exceptional)* *side-eyes her bibliography* Oh lord, this is gonna get expensive.

A fun dig at a genre I haven’t much ventured into, and an example of unreliable narration that might be fun to teach, but not great. Austen’s tendency to skim over moments of great emotion - which worked well because of the characters in P&P - makes this unfinished and kinda disappointing. #BookSky

movie you've watched more than six times using gifs (hard mode, no sw, st or lotr)

This is an INCREDIBLE book that I have been dying to squee about for OVER A YEAR.

Omg the Nimona soundtrack/playlist is so full of exceptional bangers - anyone who crosses my path today is going to REGRET IT* *because I will immediately explain in excruciating detail why they need to watch Nimona immediately and often

Apparently Spotify has Plans for me this morning…

I aimed to read 52 books I haven’t read before this year, but we’re nearly at the halfway mark and I’ve managed under 20. Still, I’ve been making more time, and definitely reading more - I’m on my ninth @kjcharleswriter.com book reread in a week and a half - so I’m still winning 😁

Win a signed copy of the wonderful new book Stone Lands by Fiona Robertson. To enter please repost and like this post and follow us on here if you haven’t already. More… 1/

The thing about the strange emptiness of Dungeness, the width and the weird and the wastes, is that it somehow trains you to look closer and listen harder - to see flowers on scrubby brush, and butterflies chasing between shingle-thrust plants; to hear the dislodged stone-fall click of beetles

Dungeness

Look it has been a TOUGH WEEK okay and I think Bingo and Bluey will do an AMAZING JOB

Have been chased out of work for being Gross which is probably for the best because I feel like the mildest inconvenience will have me at my most weepy and my dudes I am FULL of snots

I just need a dnd to have characters in (500 million dollars would be cool tho)

corporate diversity training

Oh look, the thing that literally all of us have been saying for years turns out to be true, and it's not just some giant conspiracy and the load of "over-diagnosis" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Buying a house is a deeply Sisyphean process

Yeah not to be over-reactionary about this but I really think adverts like this should be illegal. This is plastered all over Old Street station.

Recommend wholeheartedly!

I would like a move past 'students cheat with AI' and into 'why do students feel they have to use AI'. Uncertain what to do? How can we improve instruction, increase modelling, indicate openness to question? Fear of failure? Are there ways to teach through low-impact opportunities to fail?

I find this so disturbing because of the 'yes-and'ing that generative AI is programmed to do, and how it's really easy to miss the untruths until they're exceptionally clear; easy to see how people get suckered. Not to mention the obscene humanisation in the language. tw: sexual assault mention

Yesterday was the first time I’d ever had a cream tea at a metal festival 😂 #fortress2025