Fascinating article on the lightfastness of modern fountain pen inks, primarily for a museum / archival context www.nature.com/articles/s40...

Because I'm feeling lazy, anyone can point me to a written text review of the Pilot Lightive fountain pen? Skeets are welcome too, I'm just lazy to look it up (the transparent one looks dangerous to my wallet). Bonus if it talks about eyedropper possibilities

Does anyone in the fountain pen community own a Tom Hessin pen? It's a family business through and through. Living in Edinburgh I naturally gravitate towards their Edinburgh pens in Stockbridge stone and Forth Bridge red. cultpens.com/collections/...

Happy Holidays! Day 25 of the 2025 Diamine Inkvent Calendar: Myrrh the Merrier. Thank you for going on this journey with me everyday. It’s been a marathon, but I look forward to it every year! . scribo feel Saragozza #inkvent2025 #fountainpenink #inkswatch #fountainpencommunity #diamineinkvent

Oh hey, for people who are curious about me (& just followed me - because starter packs). I write kidlit, sff & (sometimes) games. I am also a fiction and nonfiction editor (Strange Horizons, COS) etc. I also draw/illustrate and yes, I love fibre crafts. (I don't bite, contrary to popular belief).

If you’re in the UK & are so inclined, from Dec 25 to Jan 5 you can get the Kindle edition of THE RIVER HAS ROOTS for 99p as part of their 12 Days of Kindle event! This means in the UK you can also get that price matched at other etailers, like Kobo! Merry Christmas! www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/...

Actually if someone has a nice atmospheric shot of flooded modern city ruins / a subway especially that would also serve.

Sir Terry Pratchett is best understood as one of the most interesting, deeply ethical practical (I would say Pragmatist but I cede to actual experts) philosophers of the late 20th Century who just happened to work in deconstructed fantasy literature as his medium.

For fountain pen peeps, this is the reason why I've stopped recommending Lamy and plain ignore Fountain Wheel Press

The lessons to take from this: 1) If you're in the US, leverage that legal protection to say these things for your UK friends who can't! 2) Stop fucking giving Head Bigot JK Rowling money to finance legal terrorism against people who identify raging bigots as raging bigots.

This is because for every dollar you spend on Harry Potter media or merchandise, a large portion of it goes to Head Bigot JK Rowling, who specifically uses that money to finance her fellow raging bigots threatening ruinous lawsuits against UK people who point out their raging bigotry.

Oh hey look, it's Sarah Ditum, a raging fucking transphobic bigot who has been a major player in the UK "gender critical" multi-year public campaign to manufacture consent for stripping trans people of their legal rights because she's a raging transphobic bigot!

So if folks are wondering why they’re suddenly seeing activity or follows, there was a thing rolled out to Twitter that lets anyone apply GenAI to images Artists are understandably unhappy with this, and folks in countries like Japan take this pretty seriously Hence the incoming wave here

if you’re new to bsky and look for a french lesbian artist who draws women and also likes mecha, I got you covered

I’m a trained social worker. I worked with cases of CSA and other horrifying traumas. I didn’t learn til 6 months before I burnt out how dangerous and cumulative vicarious and secondary trauma are. You don’t want this in your head and you don’t want it to live in your body. It doesn’t leave.

Merry Christmas to everyone!!! I hope you all have a joyful celebration and be blessed by kindness 💖💖💖

Hey Bluebies! (that's what we call Bluesky Newbies 'round these parts🤠) We do things a lil different then Elmos Hecksite. Each post creates a "shard". 50 shards makes a Sky Gem 💎. Gems can be spent on swag like custom hats for ur PFP...but you mustnt wear hats in the Cloud Level or a Bird may attack

have yourself a leggy little christmas

The next time someone tells you Coca-Cola invented modern Santa, you can lay one helluva WELL ACTUALLY on them.

Happy #InverteFest to everyone who celebrates. Post your invertebrate art.

For the #invertefest folk.

Evergreen:

Dude here clearly has no idea what Holy Week is like.

if the japanese artists come over here that’s a genuine tipping point

QUICK PSA: If you want a "Discover" Feed that ACTUALLY WORKS. This "For You" Feed is GREAT. It finds others who liked the same posts as you and filters in more posts they've also liked. I've tried it and so far so good! Pin it in place of "Discover" and try it! 💫 bsky.app/profile/did:...

"The Harvest Beast of Sekot Runs Amok!" Last post of the year for me, I made it with posting weekly till the end of the year! I hope the harvest beasts of you kind folks run amok with many awesome things this coming year. Happy holidays!

X/Twitter has officially added a single button that appears on EVERY image that allows users to have Gen AI change the original image in real time with prompts and then download the modified image, allowing users to blatantly mildly edit (plagiarize) artist's work & or potentially doctor photographs

"School and district leaders should encourage continuous discussions about AI fairness and bias to help students combat inequality that is perpetrated by technology." Again, you are asking schools to do the impossible job of cleaning up toxic waste created by corporations.

"Students will have the responsibility to ensure the accuracy of any content they retrieve or generate." STUDENTS will have the responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the falsehood-generation machines you've thrust upon them? Students who have not learned through actual instruction what is real?

At various points, the document gives lip service to the need to educate students about the possibility of disinformation or other harms. But it puts all of the responsibility for this on teachers, not on the billionaires pushing this miserable tech. This is an anti-teacher document, in my opinion.

Courtesy of @gamesam.bsky.social’s newsletter I’ve learned of THE DAILY SPELL, a very charming game that unlocks narrative content when you solve a scrambled headline Breaking news from ✨The Daily Spell✨! I solved the Monday, November 10 puzzle in 3m 18s. the-daily-spell.com

For further context twitter added a button that allows users to generate ai images using existing art posts from artists. It removes glaze and it basically reskins the artwork by using the existing work as a base. Twitter is no longer a safe space for art

Heads up to artists still using Twitter- Twitter is now adding an "Edit image" button under all images posted on the site that allows everyone to feed it into genAI and modify it as they wish with a prompt

Psst did you know that Vietnamese udon (bánh canh) exists? And you could get it for 1/3 of the price of Japanese udon and it tastes just as good?

#DEAL ALERT! Calling all one-clickers because THE WIZARD HUNTERS @marthawells.com is on #sale on #Kindle for a limited time only! amzn.to/3YdcibX #TheWizardHunters #TheFallofIleRien #ad

Ah this is good. It’s shameful how this disease has been psychologised over the years. I’m happy to have campaigned on Long Covid if it contributed in any small way to ME being taken more seriously ❤️

3) rest is part of the process. the act of stopping allows you to recharge and approach your next session energized 4) while it is tempting to let inspiration carry you until the muse stops dictating, stopping while you still have more to say is a decent motivator to make you want to get back to it

Just adding to this: I remember during a stationery talk some time ago, Szetoo of Stickerrific pointed out that journalling is the *end result*, NOT the process. If you’re not living your life or even observing things around you, then there’s nothing for you to draw upon. LIVE.

here are some actual, really useful pieces of writing advice that i've read from other people + some of mine. these really reshaped how i viewed writing 1) living your life is research. anything you listen to, watch, overhear, read, experience, survive, that can become material.

Available in various forms, often on HOOPLA!

I have been and will continue to be emphatic and declarative about how much I love this poem. Go vote for it!

I used to hate Christmas in Vancouver because I grew up in Ottawa where December is usually snowy. Here, it's usually raining. But now I think it's kind of charming that everyone here still does Christmas activities in the rain because they're so determined to have a good time.

I’d say this advice can be transposed to any creative practice, not just writing. And it’s great advice. 🧡

Liza Minnelli — David Lachapelle, 1989

Good lord

This has happened before. In the late 1930s, Eddie Bauer doctored a photo of their original store, removing the animal carcasses. This was to appeal to urban lifestyle customers drawn to the idea of outdoor life, but didn't like the idea of hunting. Hence renaming hunting coats to barn coats postwar

read some GamerBro™ whining about how his co-op games weekend and holiday sessions were filled with randos who sucked ruining his experience skill issue bro. one of my favorite hobbies is scanning the helldivers 2 map for low level players, hot dropping in and carrying the fuck out of the mission

Almost.

Most publishing workers don't want to use AI, and being able to point to public outcry and contract language helps us push back against it 👇