lilithsaintcrow

[lilithsaintcrow]

Brain-Facets, Exercised

Well, Human Tales is officially out in the world now. Next month More Human Tales will drop, then I will be able to say I’ve collected the bulk of my short stories into one place. I might even have to do a third volume, since apparently I keep writing shorts for my beloved subscribers, but that’s a problem for next year or so. The rain has fled, though humidity lingers. Today will be far too…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Forego the Treatment

Woke up to a surprise nosebleed, so that was fun. The weather hasn’t shifted enough to provoke such things; I’m going to call it stress-induced and leave it at that. Clearly recovering from stress is just as hard on the body as the actual nastiness. We had torrential rain and even some thunder over the weekend, which pleased me but certainly not poor Boxnoggin. On the bright side he has by now…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Three of Swords and The Star

If you've been endlessly thinking about how awful everything is, now might be a good time to take a break and do something nicer.

[lilithsaintcrow]

Tansy-Maybe

Growing in the cracks. I call this tansy, though it probably isn’t. It clings in the oddest places and is green in late summer when grass and more tender plants become sere. This one may not survive the bumbling attentions of streetsweeping machines… but for right now it’s blooming, and vigorously too. So far I’ve hit wordcount goal every day this week, which is an amazing state of affairs and…

[lilithsaintcrow]

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

[lilithsaintcrow]

decentralize and clean up your life!!!

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

last updated: march 18th 2025

[lilithsaintcrow]

It is simply not fulfilling to enjoy media in the height of its popularity. You need to show up so late to the party that everybody else is gone and the hosts are asleep so you can rummage through their trash for chip dip and stale hors d’oeurves to eat alone in the dark like a dirty little raccoon secret

[lilithsaintcrow]

Joan of Arc by jinglin Xu

[lilithsaintcrow]

“. . . they with speed. Thir course through thickest Constellations held Spreading thir bane; the blasted Starrs lookt wan . . .”

John Augustus Richter (c. 1730–c. 1809) - Sin and Death

illustration to John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’

stipple etching, 1794/96

[lilithsaintcrow]

United Healthcare getting sued by its investors, because it didn't warn them that the CEO getting murdered (by the tendrils of their unmitigated greed) was going to lead to them approving more claims (for covered services that they had no right to deny) is a cartoonish example of exactly why their CEO got murdered.

Their argument is essentially "You promised us a specific profit margin that is not possible to achieve under this increased public scrutiny of your unethical practices. We only agreed to invest because of those unethical practices. So we demand compensation because you didn't warn us that you'd be behaving more ethically"

And idk. Satire isn't just dead. We've pissed on its corpse and now it's dissolving in lye.

[lilithsaintcrow]

The most human thing a character can do is contradict themselves.

The cynic who still carries a childhood stuffed animal.

The liar who craves honesty.

The overthinker who makes reckless decisions.

The heartbreaker who believes in soulmates.

The pacifist who holds lifelong grudges.

The tough guy who cries during old movies.

The thrill-seeker who's terrified of commitment.

The grump who’s unfailingly polite to waitstaff.

People aren’t consistent. Your characters shouldn’t be either.

[lilithsaintcrow]

[lilithsaintcrow]

Leonora Carrington

[lilithsaintcrow]

The Phantom, by Henry Scott (1911 - 2005)

[lilithsaintcrow]

Remedios Varo (Spanish/Mexican, 1908--1963)

[lilithsaintcrow]

who let this bird on the train

[lilithsaintcrow]

The summons is always violent and impossible to anticipate. One moment I am running standup or drinking in the loo, and the next I am torn across the diaphanous, scalding hot fabric of reality, plunked unceremoniously before a mechanical horse, quarter in hand. The precondition is always the same: the presence of some snot-nosed kiddie, too small to dismount, has been left unattended.

Throughout the rest of Creation, the song is arrested mid-beat; but here, we continue doggedly on. There are only four things left: a Fool (child), a Devil (me), a Pentacle (the quarter), and a Chariot (horsie). There is only one way forward and it is through. If I attempt to disobey the Divine Order, my spine undergoes a tremendous pressure and my body accords itself with the plan and not my will. I pluck the child from the ground that loves it so, place them on the horse (or narwhal or whatever), insert the coin, and let the damn thing unwind. It is crucial that the child cannot dismount on their own, and that I am gone by the time they realize this. I believe I am intended to provide the first intimation most receive that the world is not averse to putting you into trouble you cannot get out of. It's a grim but probably necessary job, and it beats being a psychopomp.