Punk-Ass Book Jockey

Pinboard needs help!

2021-03-05T00:04:15Z

Hi friends -

Dropping back in after a long absence to post a note about bookmarking site Pinboard, which needs your help! I'm posting to amplify this request from owner Maciej Cegłowski, in case some of you (like me) set up your Pinboard account with an old email that you may not check frequently.

Some background:

Many of us migrated over to Pinboard for fanwork bookmarking after Del.icio.us imploded (post Yahoo! sale). I was extremely grateful for the way that Maciej consulted with fandom to build the site so that it would serve us well. (Here's an awesome talk he gave in 2013 about the process.) He basically earned goodwill for life from fandom.

I was an early adopter, and paid something like $9USD in 2009 for a lifetime subscription. (Maciej offered this tier for a few years, then switched to new users needing to pay an annual subscription fee.) Apparently 2/3 of the Pinboard fanbase are also early adopters who paid a single lifetime price. This means that the site is making very little money.

Pinboard generates juuuust enough revenue to be sustainable ... in a stasis sort of condition. However, as with any webware, some growth is necessary (code updates!), and some would just be nice because why not improve as users needs change?

The Ask

Maciej is asking Pinboard old-timers to voluntarily convert to an annual subscription. You can do that here: https://pinboard.in/convert. There are many choices - I went with a 10 year fee, both to save money (since I'll definitely continue to use it) and also so that I could offer him a cash infusion right away since he has things he'd like to do, including hiring a developer.

Please consider doing this! Pinboard has been a quiet staple of my fan life, and I use it daily. I know many of you do the same (because I follow you there heeeeeyyy). Help it stay viable!

( Read Maciej's letter in full )

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Still alive, just not on here much

2020-03-22T15:13:08Z

Hi friends - I hope you're all hanging in, in these earth-shaking times.

I still check into my newsfeed here, but I am mostly over on Tumblr. Come say hi there!

XOXO

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Following The Hip Around The World

2016-05-25T00:46:40Z

Hey, who was the fandom friend who used to follow The Tragically Hip around the world? (Shifting from LJ to DW to Tumblr has more or less made me forget everyone's current usernames.)

I read today's awful news and cried a bit, and then I thought of you.

Just wanted to say - my Toronto couch is yours if this ends up being a stop on Gord's last tour, and you'd like to come to the show. (I will probably go too, but we don't have to go together; I was only ever a casual fan, and I don't want to get to the venue as early as is your wont.)

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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT - FANFIC WRITERS, YOU ARE PROBABLY BEING STOLEN FROM

2015-04-14T00:01:53Z

Well, this fucking sucks.

TL;DR summary:

Ebooks Tree - an ebooks website with a paywall - is using a bot to harvest work from AO3. They are not asking permission from authors.

If they have taken your work and posted it, it will say that it has 612 downloads and 41 comments. These figures are fake; however, it is accurate that your work is archived somewhere that you didn't give permission for.

You can file a DMCA complaint using their contact form here. Put "DMCA complaint" in their subject line.

~~You can also submit an abuse notification to their host server, Moniker, at abuse@moniker.com. (I used WhoIs~~ ~~to find their host server info~~.) [EDIT - Moniker got back to me and said they aren't hosting ebooks-tree, they just registered the domain name. So don't do this.]

And then, like me, you can BE ANGRY and FUME ABOUT IT.

Why are we never rid of assholes who look at our gift economy and think "hey, I bet I can make money from that"?

UPDATE: fyeahcopyright - ie, Heidi Tandy, fan and lawyer and legal counsel for OTW (publishers of AO3), is on it.

UPDATE 2: It looks like all the AO3-harvested stuff is down. This might be a good time to mention that here is where you can donate to the OTW, who always has our backs about this kind of bullshit.

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merrily @ 2015-01-21T19:26:00

2015-01-22T00:38:20Z

Uuggghhhh.

I have a new dermatologist, who I met in early November. After five minutes of conversation, she prescribed me Accutane.

I wasn't totally keen on this plan of action. Accutane has lots of terrible side effects, like crackingly dry skin and joint pain. Also if you get pregnant while you're taking it, chances are good that your fetus will end up with horrible, horrible birth defects. All of these things point towards it not being a good substance to ingest, generally speaking.

However, I have stubborn and persistent acne, even as a 35 year old adult. At the moment, it is completely masked by my current medical regimen. I hate my current regimen, though - it's a birth control pill which has some weird side effects for a small portion of the population (not me), including death (thank goodness, not me); and for everyone else (yes me) does things like squash one's libido entirely, and generally limit one's emotional range.

So I'd like to stop taking it. Except I've tried that twice before - in 2003, and then again in 2013, and both times my skin erupted into unbelievably awful cystic acne. It was in my scalp! It was INSIDE MY NOSE. I more or less stopped going outside.

And so, since no one has come up with a better plan, I said yes to Accutane. (I did ask if there were other options. She said no.)

It took until now for my medical insurance to kick in at my new job, so I just filled my scrip tonight.

And on the medication information form, third paragraph down, is a warning that neither my derm nor my pharmacist bothered to double-check with me: Do not use this product if you are allergic to soybeans.

Guess what I am allergic to.

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merrily @ 2014-10-04T16:31:00

2014-10-04T20:34:13Z

I love it when someone on my Pinboard network gets all nostalgic and goes on a bookmarking spree among Harry Potter or SG:A fanfics. Or recipes! It's so awesome when someone decide it's time to find THE BEST CINNAMON BUN RECIPE OF ALL TIME and then I benefit.

Basically - fannish, foodish Pinboard is the best. I'm so glad that it was around to take over when the clock hit midnight and Delicious turned into a pumpkin.

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merrily @ 2014-08-21T17:40:00

2014-08-21T21:47:53Z

Oh man.

I just saw some poor cyclist get the door prize. And in the aftermath, as witnesses (including me) rushed over to check on him, and make sure he was walking & talking & not bleeding internally and that he got the driver's details & insurance info, the driver made repeated complaints that she didn't mean to do it and everyone was being rude to her.

Like, holy fuck, lady. No one needs to soothe your feelings. You didn't just get hit by a car.

I finally ended up calling the police & giving them her license plate # because she kept making noises about not having time for this and how she needed to leave now.

The phrase "impact matters, not intention" is not about car accidents, but jeez, in this situation it really truly applied.

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merrily @ 2014-07-14T16:39:00

2014-07-14T20:41:34Z

I returned a cell phone that I found, and, to say thank you, the dude gave me a lottery ticket. Which was a delightful thing to do.

It is completely impractical, but I AM HOPING that I will win millions of dollars with this ticket, and thus can stop jobhunting. THAT WOULD BE GREAT.

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merrily @ 2014-06-13T22:25:00

2014-06-14T02:30:13Z

I'm going to an all-day meeting tomorrow, re: the choir I sing with and help to run, and I made two quiches (this bacon gruyere one, and this shallot mushroom one) to take with me.

And then, because every quiche recipe I've ever used makes far far more filling than can go in a pie crust, I made a third quiche, combining all the leftover bits and pieces.

Sweet jesus, is the frankenquiche delicious. SWEET EGGY JESUS.

Of course, this means I'll never be able to replicate it, not least because I don't spend $12 on cheese when I'm the only person eating dinner. But it's dang good.

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merrily @ 2014-05-23T18:32:00

2014-05-23T22:33:00Z

The company that laid me off two months ago has now offered me a job.

What even.

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Fully Booked

2013-12-23T02:52:16Z

I've worked at the bookstore for the last 12 days straight. Unlike last year, this year's bestsellers aren't quite as odd. They are diverse, though!

Our top sales slots go to:

1. Stoner by John Williams, first published in 1965, but mentioned in a Globe & Mail article a month ago, which means we can't keep it in stock. I sold 12 copies in 20 minutes on Friday!

2. Every Alice Munro book available, with a slight edge given to My Best Stories, a collection she picked for Penguin in 2009.

3. All three Ottolenghi books, and I am keeping the information that My Best Stories and Jerusalem: A Cookbook are actually the same book to myself, since no one else (including the North American publisher) seems to notice or care.

4. Joseph Boyden's The Orenda which, frustratingly, is out of stock until Random House can rush through another print run

5. The Luminaries

6. Hyperbole and a Half, which thrills me. Yay for Allie!

Two more days, you guys. Two more days and then I can collapse and cuddle babies and not worry about the bookstore for an entire blessed week.

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merrily @ 2013-10-23T15:38:00

2013-10-23T19:40:42Z

OK LOOK.

Can we please talk about how Benedict Cumberbatch deleted his Facebook account?

I know this is a thing that I'm not supposed to know about, BUT I DO.

Discuss.

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State of Me

2013-07-18T17:24:22Z

Hi guys, hi!

a) I graduated! I now have an extra Bachelors degree, and I really am not certain why I bothered? but the proof is now framed and on my wall.

b) I have a place to live! A friend is moving for a year to do a postdoc, and I'm subletting her place. The thought of living on my own gives me a warm glow of satisfaction - especially since yesterday one of my roommates brought vegetables into the living room and started preparing them for dinner ... on the floor. (With a cutting board, but still.) The thought of having my own kitchen, my own fridge, and generally not having to clean up other people's messes is amazeballs. Also, I am looking forward to not having to wear pants.

c) It has been hellishly hot in Toronto (felt like 43C yesterday w/ humidity! That's 110F! W. T. F.), and yet I have tried to go out and do stuff in it anyway, and as a result I now have a large and uncomfortable cold sore. Turns out sunlight can precipitate them! Gross!

d) I spent a couple days with my small niece and it was lovely, although she finds it frustrating that I don't sign, and I don't properly understand her signs. I figured out "more" pretty quickly, though.

e) I recently read this memoir about a queer woman trying to get pregnant, and it was really good - painful, honest, well-written, and has a happy ending. Recommended! I picked it up a few nights ago intending to read a couple chapters before bed, and then it was 2AM and I was on the last page.

I think that is all for the moment? How are you guys?

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Help me not end up homeless, you guys!

2013-06-05T04:25:37Z

Hey internet friends,

My landlady recently passed away, and the house is being sold. Since I have now had 30 roommates in 15 years, I'm calling it quits on sharing, and am looking for either a bachelor or a 1 bedroom for Aug 1 or Sept 1.

Please let me know if you have any leads!

My requirements:
- in Toronto
- on the subway line
- with a full kitchen
- under $850/month

I need to be out by the end of August, but I will move earlier if something good comes up.

Thanks dudes!

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in need of shelter. also, pie.

2013-01-19T23:23:47Z

Hey, fannish people, I need a place to live!

As per this post, I'm vacating my current apartment at the end of March. I'm looking for a decent space for one in Toronto starting April 1. I'd really really appreciate it if you could let me know if you come across anything appropriate. Having now had 28 roommates (no lie), I've decided it's time to live on my own, so no shares, please (by which I mean, 1 bdrm, jr 1 bdrm, or a spacious bachelor). I also need it to be aboveground, with a full oven+stove (ie no hotplates) and within easy access of the TTC.

Please let me know if anything like that crosses your radar!

Also, if pie crosses your radar, tell me about that, too. I dunno. I just have a craving.

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January is the season of impending sprog!

2013-01-18T22:10:22Z

If anyone's looking for baby gifts, my friend Donna's having a sale at her Etsy store, Three Fine Woods. She makes lovely receiving blankets and the cutest teeny tiny hats, as demonstrated in this picture:

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ARGH

2013-01-17T03:37:49Z

Things that happened today:

1) Roommate N- woke up at 4 in the morning to see a mouse on the floor
1a) and freaked out
1b) and fled the house, and wandered the streets of Bloordale ~~weeping and wringing his hands~~
1c) and then wrote us a letter, explaining that he had seen a mouse and now he had to ~~burn the house down~~ move out
1d) and later, came home from work, put all his stuff in two garbage bags and left.

!!!!!

2) Roommate A- and I talked about what we wanted to do
2a) We made a list of required qualities for a new roommate
2b) and then looked at each other in despair and then said, in unison, "fuck this".
2c) We've decided it's time for us to move out and into our own apartments
2d) We're giving our landlord notice on Feb 1, and leaving April 1.

What. The. Hell.

Aside from the sheer ridiculousness of "I saw a mouse and now I must ~~leave the country~~ find new, hermetically sealed dwellings" (which, seriously, I can't even), this is a LOT to take in.

I mean, it's probably time? A's lived here for 8 years, me for 5, and we agree that we are both in a rut and want a change. Also, A has bought a condo, and takes possession in Sept.

And I would like to have sex with a dude, kind of? And it's hard to do that in an apartment with thin walls that you share with two other people.

But I can't afford my own place! Not one that's aboveground and has a full kitchen and is at least a jr 1 bdrm. I mean, I will figure it out, but GODDAMN craigslist is not giving me hope right now.

Just, whoa, you guys. I could really use a stiff drink right now.

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merrily @ 2012-12-18T22:28:00

2012-12-19T03:29:53Z

Toronto Christmas bookbuying public update!

Today I had one lady buy all our copies of "The Multiorgasmic Man" for Christmas presents, and another buy all our copies of "A Grief Observed", presumably for the same reason.

I amuse myself by thinking that they are going to the same recipients.

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merrily @ 2012-12-15T00:22:00

2012-12-15T05:37:27Z

Can I just say? the bookstore is bloody insane this time of year.

I mean, I love it, since it means that we're still hanging in there, and also I can handle it loads better now (in my 12th year of bookselling) since I've hit on the very sensible remedy of a) taking pre-emptive Tylenol before work and b) coming home and immediately applying copious amounts of alcohol.

Still, Christmas is when everyone decides that they need that kids' book they loved in the mid-80s whose name they don't recall, and then they're Put Out when I explain that our last set of orders has already been sent, and there shall be No More until after inventory, sometime in January.

Also, this and this are the hot sellers this year, to which I say W T F. They are both great! But really, an obscure graphic novel the size of a house, and a huge doorstop about disabled children born to abled parents are the must-haves?

The Toronto book scene is wacky, though. There's always something that the general bookbuying public hits on as a fun Christmas read that blows my mind re: cognitive dissonance between my ideas of popular publishing and stuff people actually buy. Last year it was Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall - which, true, won the Booker, but I don't generally think that the average joe reader really feels like curling up with a big stack of Cromwell.

Also, the second runner up for big seller this year is this, which, again, awesome, but why.

Oh, also someone ordered (as, I think, a Christmas present) "Solitary Fitness" which was written by a serial killer about the fitness routine he worked out to keep him pumped while in prison, in - you guessed it - solitary confinement. It now runs a tied first place for weirdest thing I have ordered on request, along with a book on how to drink your own urine, of which the buyer requested 6 copies ... also at Christmas.

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You know you want my aminos

2012-11-25T00:55:22Z

Things I Have Learned Since I Let Grad Students ~~Seduce My Helixes~~ Type My DNA 4 Years Ago

1) I have a genetic variation that makes me more likely to crave sweet stuff
1a) This may or may not have an impact on the number of dental caries I have had/will have
2) I'm a supertaster.
3) There's a mutation in one of my genes that is probably related to improved memory function
4) Also, like various members of the Drosophilia family (that is, fruit flies), I don't like traveling far for food.
5) I have a hard time staying awake in MRI machines

Probably I didn't need to know any of these things? but now I do.

Also, next week the nutrition department is sending me scans of my brain! I am considering putting them on the fridge.

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Tumblr: I Hate It & I Love It & I Hate It

2012-10-24T01:06:58Z

I've been hanging out on Tumblr a lot lately (here is my feed) and it is, indeed, like delicious candy.

However, there are some things about it that suck balls.

1. It is full of people who are new to fandom and are flailing around

This is not so bad as a thing in-and-of itself (we were all new to fandom once; I certain flailed about) but because there is no adequate comment system available, there is no way to offer helpful ways to exit "flail" and enter "being fluent at internet". They don't know how to torrent! They don't know how to google how to torrent! They are just finding out now that Benedict Cumberbatch is going to be in The Hobbit and want to tell everyone! They are going to reblog something that is a)a hoax b)plagiarized c)misattributed and no one will be able to point it out to them!

ARGH.

2. It is full of fan artists who want to tell me how many hours it took for them to make their shitty piece of fan art (or possibly this is just in the tags I'm following).

I won't like your Troy & Abed portrait that is unintentionally reminiscent of Dali's melting clocks better because I know you spent 5 hours on it. Sorry. Amount of time something takes is not an indication of quality.

3. It is full of people who want to tell me that they had the craziest sex dream about Tom Hiddleston last night.

This is information I only want if a)I know you (and even then probably not) b)your crazy dream turns out to indicate a psychic link and you have verifiable proof that such is so or c)it involves a wizard turning into a whale.

Also I'm pretty sure 9/10 of the time it is in fact not a dream, but some lady relating a Mary Sue fantasy and couching it as "a dream" because that makes her feel bold and naughty.

4. It is full of people who insist on posting their fanfic there and only there.

Which, seriously. Stoppit. Stoppit now.

And yet, there is no denying that it is super fun. Yay for gifs! Just, man, it is not as functional as a new emerging fandom super portal should be.

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merrily @ 2012-10-19T14:06:00

2012-10-19T18:09:01Z

Dudes: contribute $500 to the Headstones' new album and get a PHONE CALL FROM HUGH DILLON.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH.

Sadly, I still don't have a spare $500 bucks. But if you do, I can think of no better way to spend it.

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merrily @ 2012-10-11T13:55:00

2012-10-11T17:58:15Z

Okay, I give up: Elementary is completely delightful. I love Joan. Sherlock is adorable. Their relationship is great. And yay for bees!

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Sunday Links Post: Zombie Links Post Lives

2012-09-30T14:13:18Z

Disclaimer: No zombies are included in this post.

Hi! I haven't done one of these in ages, but I love you all, and I have things to share! IT LIVES. THE LINKS POST LIVES.

Happy Sunday!

( Links: Happy-making Vids )

( Links: Things to Make & Do )

( Links: Science! )

( Links: Misc. Neato and/or Silly )

( Links: Stuff I Want )

( Links: Fannish Misc. )

And that has been the Sunday Links post! Back again (maybe) next week.

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bake this meme at 425 for half an hour

2012-09-26T02:25:20Z

At first I wasn't going to do this, because I thought I didn't have many of the items, but no, no I do.

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don't use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of.

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic presses, margarita glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, food processors, ice cream makers, takoyaki makers, fondue sets, and mandolines languish dustily at the back of the nation's cupboards.

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