hillbillyoracle - Tumblr blog

[hillbillyoracle]

Are you really John Green? Or someone he hired to deal with us? Which is a decision I would respect lol

Like I'd pay someone to be on tumblr for me when I can get those fresh hits of dreadrenaline myself.

[hillbillyoracle]

Three of Wands. Art by Ivy K, from the Mythos Tarot.

THE PYTHIA

[hillbillyoracle]

Kindness is love with its work boots on

[hillbillyoracle]

[hillbillyoracle]

Taurus. Art by Mike Willcox, from the Mike Willcox Tarot & Oracle.

[hillbillyoracle]

If you have a chronic pain condition, get a rice cooker. They're decently cheap, you can often thrift them, and they make so many meals.

My go to is "garbage rice" - toss in rice, a frozen veggie mix (usually peas, corn, and carrot), add spices (usually curry spices) and water then cook. After about 10 minutes of cooking crack and egg or two in and cover until done. Add some tamari sauce or similar and top with a slice of cheese.

Takes me less than 5 minutes of standing time.

I've skipped the egg in favor of canned chicken then added jarred sauces (usually curries) and that's excellent too.

By using all frozen or shelf stable foods, I don't have to meal plan. I just stock a set list of ingredients and mix and match. I can just throw something together when I'm hungry.

If you have more energy, I've baked cookies in mine, made Mac n cheese, and made hot pot like soups (I fell in love with mine in my dorm room).

I know people sing the praises of the slow cooker and instant pot but I think nothing beats the simplicity and ease of cleaning of a rice cooker. Just feels more manageable.

[hillbillyoracle]

...

[hillbillyoracle]

Engaging in minor, seemingly effortless acts of kindness, individuals gradually align themselves with the essence of goodness, embedding their existence in a realm characterised by benevolence. This transition to a life rooted in the soil of goodness is natural and becomes indispensable for the soul, illustrating the adage that significant outcomes emerge from minor beginnings.

Archbishop John (Shahovskoy) of San Francisco

[hillbillyoracle]

So you want to print and distribute a free zine...

I wanted to throw together a short tutorial on how I print zines using this excellent COVID safety zine by @newlevant as an example.

Printing

First make sure you are clicking on the printable file. When you open it, it should look slightly jumbled. I always look for seeing the front cover and the back cover on the same page.

Then click "print" (usually a printer icon) and open "more settings".

The key things people tend to get wrong when they try printing zines is they forget to make sure that it is double sided and flips on the short edge. If you tried printing one and it came out looking wonky, make sure to check this.

Also, it will make your life infinitely easier if you use the collate option should you have it available to you.

Fit to printable area is a helpful setting to have on if you're printing zines who use a different paper standard than you. This zine didn't for me but I leave this on out of habit.

When you've got this all set up - print as many copies as you want to assemble.

Assembling

When you get them out of the printer they'll look like this. Just a big old stack. I highly recommend parsing out each individual copy before you try assembling any. I have made that mistake before.

This is how I stack mine.

I like to leave the cover side up as it makes for a clearer division as I'm assembling.

As you're flipping through these to parse and stack them, check them over for any issues with printing. I ran out of printer toner on the first three so I'm glad I checked.

Imperfections are fine but you're looking for anything that makes critical information unreadable.

To assemble a copy, get them lined up by tapping them on the table along a short and a long edge.

Both hands is a lot easier but I was trying to take a picture lol

Then fold them hamburger style and smooth down the spine as best you can. If you have a bone folder or similar use that.

Again, let go of perfection. We are looking for good enough here. Minor errors here should not make info unreadable so don't sweat the small stuff.

I recommend doing all your folding in one go to prevent errors. Or at least it really helps me.

Now it's time to staple. You will see my fancy stapler in the background - you do not require it and I would not recommend it. Unhinging a normal stapler is way easier to use in my opinion and this one gets jammed fairly easy. Use what you've got.

If you don't have staples, but you do have sewing supplies - check out this tutorial for a way to bind it with thread.

If you have no staples and no thread, you don't have to staple every zine. Smaller ones (~5 pages or less) do fine with no staple. They can be a little tougher for some people to use and don't hold up as well being taken in and out of places so I would consider that when thinking of where to leave them. They're still well worth printing and putting out.

This zine is small enough that one staple in the center should be enough to keep it together.

I opted to staple in two places - one about an inch in from either edge - mostly out of habit. It does add a little stability and will make them a little better for putting in Little Free Libraries and other places where they'll be removed and placed back.

Here is my partner looking over the zines to make sure my stapling didn't cut off any important information in each copy. It's a little tedious but it's pretty important. A quick flip through can mean the difference between someone getting the info you want them to have or not.

And here's the finished product

I made 15. I'm pretty privileged and have been making zines for over a decade now so it's almost like knitting or crochet for me. Feel free to make fewer copies or just one for yourself. It still counts.

I will stick some in each car and my bag. I have some medical appointments coming up so I will for sure be leaving some of these in the waiting room.

I'm also going to keep an eye out for Little Free Libraries and other place where people are looking for something to read. I might also toss some on the tables of a coffee shop I pop into sometimes (masked, take out only) and the library to pick up books (also masked).

I tend not to give them to specific people, even people I know, because people are way more open to information they've picked up themself than something it feels like someone is pressuring them to read. But if people bring it up in conversation, I'll be sure to offer a copy to anyone who is interested.

Hope this is helpful!

Go out there and print!

[hillbillyoracle]

When I was in my 20s, I'd wonder what it was like to date the people I saw in the content I watched; what it's like to go places with them, what sorts of sweet things they might say late at night, what deep secrets they kept.

Now I wonder what it would be like to be invited over to their house for a nice dinner with them and their spouse, maybe their kids are running around playing. We drink something nice on their porch and chat about all sorts of mundanities as the sun goes down.

What is "romantic" to me has changed in every sense.

[hillbillyoracle]

So you want to print and distribute a free zine...

I wanted to throw together a short tutorial on how I print zines using this excellent COVID safety zine by @newlevant as an example.

Printing

First make sure you are clicking on the printable file. When you open it, it should look slightly jumbled. I always look for seeing the front cover and the back cover on the same page.

Then click "print" (usually a printer icon) and open "more settings".

The key things people tend to get wrong when they try printing zines is they forget to make sure that it is double sided and flips on the short edge. If you tried printing one and it came out looking wonky, make sure to check this.

Also, it will make your life infinitely easier if you use the collate option should you have it available to you.

Fit to printable area is a helpful setting to have on if you're printing zines who use a different paper standard than you. This zine didn't for me but I leave this on out of habit.

When you've got this all set up - print as many copies as you want to assemble.

Assembling

When you get them out of the printer they'll look like this. Just a big old stack. I highly recommend parsing out each individual copy before you try assembling any. I have made that mistake before.

This is how I stack mine.

I like to leave the cover side up as it makes for a clearer division as I'm assembling.

As you're flipping through these to parse and stack them, check them over for any issues with printing. I ran out of printer toner on the first three so I'm glad I checked.

Imperfections are fine but you're looking for anything that makes critical information unreadable.

To assemble a copy, get them lined up by tapping them on the table along a short and a long edge.

Both hands is a lot easier but I was trying to take a picture lol

Then fold them hamburger style and smooth down the spine as best you can. If you have a bone folder or similar use that.

Again, let go of perfection. We are looking for good enough here. Minor errors here should not make info unreadable so don't sweat the small stuff.

I recommend doing all your folding in one go to prevent errors. Or at least it really helps me.

Now it's time to staple. You will see my fancy stapler in the background - you do not require it and I would not recommend it. Unhinging a normal stapler is way easier to use in my opinion and this one gets jammed fairly easy. Use what you've got.

If you don't have staples, but you do have sewing supplies - check out this tutorial for a way to bind it with thread.

If you have no staples and no thread, you don't have to staple every zine. Smaller ones (~5 pages or less) do fine with no staple. They can be a little tougher for some people to use and don't hold up as well being taken in and out of places so I would consider that when thinking of where to leave them. They're still well worth printing and putting out.

This zine is small enough that one staple in the center should be enough to keep it together.

I opted to staple in two places - one about an inch in from either edge - mostly out of habit. It does add a little stability and will make them a little better for putting in Little Free Libraries and other places where they'll be removed and placed back.

Here is my partner looking over the zines to make sure my stapling didn't cut off any important information in each copy. It's a little tedious but it's pretty important. A quick flip through can mean the difference between someone getting the info you want them to have or not.

And here's the finished product

I made 15. I'm pretty privileged and have been making zines for over a decade now so it's almost like knitting or crochet for me. Feel free to make fewer copies or just one for yourself. It still counts.

I will stick some in each car and my bag. I have some medical appointments coming up so I will for sure be leaving some of these in the waiting room.

I'm also going to keep an eye out for Little Free Libraries and other place where people are looking for something to read. I might also toss some on the tables of a coffee shop I pop into sometimes (masked, take out only) and the library to pick up books (also masked).

I tend not to give them to specific people, even people I know, because people are way more open to information they've picked up themself than something it feels like someone is pressuring them to read. But if people bring it up in conversation, I'll be sure to offer a copy to anyone who is interested.

Hope this is helpful!

Go out there and print!

[hillbillyoracle]

Hey! I saw a post of yours earlier mentioning dnd dice divination, do you happen to have a link or anything for more info?

You can print out any of the three zines/resources I've made on polyhedral dice for totally free here.

Hope this helps!

[hillbillyoracle]

[hillbillyoracle]

New zine that's free for anyone to print and distribute! Read the whole thing at newlevant.com/COVIDzine or in the rest of this post.

[hillbillyoracle]

Thank you to everyone who's sent me their tips on how to deal with health anxiety. I can't keep up with replies but know all of it has been read and I've been trying to implement a lot of it. So thank you, just seriously, thank you.

[hillbillyoracle]

House (1977) Dir. Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

[hillbillyoracle]

A saint is a sinner that keeps trying.

— Josemaría Escrivá