Yuletide greetings from sweet Millie

For Patreon backers: We have a bonus episode where we let Emily and Dr. Sierra just go nuts about Bethesda for 20 minutes, because there was a LOT more to cover. (Want to hear what a scholar of Bethesda history thinks about Starfield? See you on Patreon!)

This was a blast and I am so thankful to have been included! Always up for chatting about Elder Scrolls (and Fallout 😅)

Saying something weird and logging off for it is out of my head and no longer my problem

When they ask me what radicalized me

If you're an academic who is protective or defensive about your own area of expertise (understandable, in this day and age), but are offended when it's suggested that professional archivists & librarians have unique expertise outside your own experience, that's worth some self-examination

Torrenting darude_sandstorm_remix.mp4 only to discover that the file is a bootleg episode of 60 Minutes.

We’ve posted an update on Fobazi here: gofund.me/e475efa5c

I love women

As someone who’s probably on Bluesky blocklists for saying something other than "burn it all down" about AI, it also seems clear that asking for more nuance in these discussions in Dec 2025 is like asking for more nuanced discussion of immigration as masked ICE agents toss people in unmarked vans+

agree with this thread and reminds me of a historian I knew who thought archivists were witless bureaucrats because they wouldn’t let him rearrange a processed collection into an order more guided by his particular research query

My mom: I met this guy on vacation that I think you might know Me: oh cool, is he from our hometown or something My mom: I don’t think so? His name is Carson Kressley

As a (sadly now lapsed) archivist, I think too there’s a misconception about what an archive is. It’s not just a library for old stuff, but the its role is to provide the context and provenance of where items and series come from and were used within. Outside this, an item is kinda meaninglesss

stop having the same arguments with the same people you know aren’t willing to listen to you, log off, make weird art, eat something delicious, maybe take a shower

they should invent a getting old where you get younger

Ask your friendly academic librarian about all the times we tried to tell you that what we do is important and you should fund it. You get the services you pay for, friends.

Even in these difficult times we must continue making art. That's why I will always post things such as "The ass is the window to the soul"

I’ve been thinking about it, and my favorite parts of the human experience are the wondering and also the little games

A dead silent library the Friday before campus closing. The veil is thin here

There should be a rite of passage/life ceremony to celebrate when a woman officially becomes a crone. It should be the most revered occasion possible

If you’re so inclined, please say a quick prayer for my dog Agnes. She found a whole slice of pizza hidden under the snow, but it was too frozen solid for her to eat. What should have been the best day of her life and she‘s having a really hard time with it

Hi friends, in case you missed it, I am offering some writing and editing services in the new year. If you are feeling stuck on your academic writing project I might be able to help. ✨ halperta.com/categories/e...

🐱

one of my longest-standing and deepest-held grievances in this profession is that we should stop naming all of our systems cutesy things that obfuscate what they actually do

I would save myself a lot of time trying to hunt down documentation if I remembered that 98% of all organizational policy is set because some guy perceived a slight to his ego one time

I wrote this a few years ago now, but it's still very relevant sadly. Constant redundancy has been the norm for many of us since we began our careers. Sorry for everyone who is now facing it unexpectedly. Logging off for a bit. #UKHE #UCU hagenilda.wordpress.com/2022/01/31/a...

I think books are cool

“You can't offer poverty wages to staff who kept the British Library running through the cyber-attack, then offer bonuses to directors who benefit from their hard work.” @graceblakeley.substack.com asks: who are Britain's cultural institutions really for? graceblakeley.substack.com/p/you-should...

I’ve said this before but the only type of multiplayer I want to play is when me and the boys are all down in my mom’s basement. I want to see the last flickers of hope in your eyes die as I turn Kirby into a brick for the 40th time and send your ass out of the stadium

Let It Snow - The Donner Party Remix

i know my body is not the right shape for it but i would still love to have it thrown and skipped across a waveless lake

I do think that continuing to outsource all parts of the research enterprise to the same 3 mega-corporations is how academia is currently hammering the last(?) nail into our coffin

This may be conspiratorial thinking, but I wonder if the campus Wellness Fair set up in the library right outside my office specifically because I was once quoted in Bitch about how much I hate workplace wellness initiatives

To propose that GenAI can compensate for "archival silences" perverts Trouillot's work. It's is a contradiction to say that a product whose logic exacerbates power imbalances--creating a most-likely guess based on the existing record--can restore absences that are the product of those imbalances.

consensus-based decision making does not work when people have different levels of access to relevant information

One big effect of AI hype and promotion of unreliable chatbots is that a significant amount of additional friction and labour is being injected into our knowledge-making and -maintaining systems. At a time when these systems are already contracting and being starved by growing austerity.

I'm giving bookshop.org gift cards and a list of personalized recommendations to most of the folks on my list this year. If you have any books you've read recently-ish that are "generally recommendable" please let me know, my reading tastes are WAY too weird and horror-heavy for my sister-in-law

Mislead on your scholarly journey by the allure of illusory gifts? You, my good sir, have been 𝓕𝓪𝓮walled

In a very brave reversal of past policy, I have decided that I have purchased enough Skyrim and probably do not want or need a seventh copy

IT’S FINALLY FRIDAY

but i mean also, how does anyone survive life if you’re not looking at every single event that happens to you through a sitcom lens how do you survive being sad or uncomfortable lmao

Unfortunately, we have moved past the Cyberpunk dystopia directly in Cyber-ska. I'm as confused as all the rest of you about the implications.

Humpback whales sing to find others — after the recent population rebound, they’re singing less because they’re less lonely. 🐋 www.biointeractive.org/planning-too...

Hi library 📚 colleagues! There are 12 days left to apply for two tenured, unionized positions at my academic library in Upstate New York. These are management positions that require supervisory experience, and the salary range for each is $85k to $115k. Details below, reposts appreciated! (1/4)

Obviously this is funny and short-circuited my brain, but I also think there’s something deeply interesting about describing shared folklore as “open source”

The cat distribution system really just gave me a lil guy who wants to be on my lap while I play video games, 10/10

I’ve had a lot of good advice from teachers, but my archival processing professor told me “It can be perfect, or it can be done. It cannot be both.” And that has really stuck with me!

I graduated college in 2016. I have stories, as do the majority of my women friends. As much as we’d like to pretend academia has changed, it really, really hasn’t. You still have predatory colleagues. They’re still getting away with it.