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Remember to donate some eSims for people in Gaza to remain connected.

This is how they can keep finding resources, manage their donation campaigns, and get contacts to evacuate.

Palestinians in Gaza need our help, they need funds for food and water and power and shelter. We must not let them be cut off from the world.

If you don't want to go through the process of buying and gifting eSims to Palestinians yourself, the Crips for eSims crew will do it for you with the funds donated to the campaign.

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Paying Bills from the Other Side of the Sky

GOOD NEWS: I finally moved in with my partner in Australia.

BAD NEWS: she can't help with bills because money is that tight for her, too, and I can't work yet because of visa silliness. As a result, and I am fully broke and could use some help.

I don't have a set goal, I'm just trying to make enough money so I can pay for my few monthly expenses, and maybe, just maybe, afford a takeout pizza again someday.

The ko-fi link for a direct dono is honestly the best to directly help, and if you want while you're there, and you'd like to support queer artists making queer art, I've also got a book for sale.

Link below goes to the ko-fi page, and the book is available on Amazon, as THE REDWOOD FILES, where you can get it in print or Kindle formats.

Thank you for your help, I'm immensely grateful.

And here's the Amazon link for the paperback!

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Did you know my wife wrote an entire book? 👀 Yes, really.

The Redwood Files, written by @thejollywriter, is a queer cyberpunk sci-fi anthology about Delilah Jones, the unflinching defender of the fictional city of Redwood, California. She's a detective, she's a tank, and she has great taste in women.

Available in ebook (Ko-fi store or Amazon) and paperback (Amazon) 📕

You can also support Jolly on Patreon and receive monthly updates and read book chapters ahead of publication.

Jolly also hosts writing streams on Twitch and plays video games while exploring their themes and writing craft. Also, she has an encyclopedic knowledge on the history of aviation and can give you a rundown of virtually any air craft you can think of. It's amazing to behold.

Pick up a copy of The Redwood Files this pride month!

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Colors and waves, feelings and mind. Painter: Jeanne Rosier Smith.

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Hey there ! In one week the sign ups for my online course at the Underpaint Academy will open ! If you wanna learn more about composition and colors, join me ! https://underpaintacademy.com/

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"i don't care if they make their whole way though uni with chatgpt" i think you guys are so internetpilled that you have forgotten there are actual jobs out there that require people to know what they are doing in any way possible or else people die

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its crazy that a lot of what we call 'video essays' these days are basically low budget documentaries on increasingly weird and niche topics. no network approval no tv budget just one guy with maybe a hired editor/writer and a couple of friends willing to read voice lines. and then they put it on youtube like its no big deal. insane.

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Fight the power

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ConCurrent Seattle, or, What Happens When I Get Cranky

I was going to do this whole post about how genAI is ruining so much of what makes us human - human thought, human creativity, human connection - but as it so happens, I am also tired. So let's run this down:

On April 30, the con chair of WorldCon posted a statement answering questions about whether WorldCon had used ChatGPT in any of its processes. The answer was yes. It was used in panelist vetting.

The reaction was immediate and negative. Writers in general don't like genAI, especially writers who've had their work stolen for the LLM to train on (which is most of us). We also dislike the environmental impact of this!

Because it was used for vetting, a lot of panelists chosen for WorldCon began doubting whether they were chosen fairly.

On May 2nd, an apology was issued. The chair promised another update on what actions WorldCon would take to remedy the problem. Unfortunately, WorldCon had already lost a lot of trust in the community.

An explanation of what ChatGPT was used for and the prompt given to it dropped on May 6.

I was one of the authors who'd applied to WorldCon but got ghosted (I don't even get newsletters from them despite signing up). I'm not on the panelist list. Neither were some authors whose voices I thought truly belonged at WorldCon. Well, when I get cranky, I move. I decided that I was going to create a fringe con to run during one day of WorldCon, with stellar programming and wonderful panelists - and I'd do it with no genAI. No LLMs, no GPT, nothing but human brains and human work.

I present to you: ConCurrent Seattle.

Credit goes to @inkcurlsandknives for the logo design!

ConCurrent is a one-day, in-person only, masks required SFFH programming track intended to be an alternate to WorldCon. If you're in Seattle on Thursday, August 14, 2025, please drop in to see us! Admission is free, but registration is required (we'll have that process sorted out soon). I've got a bananas lineup of authors, I can promise you that. The sparklecorns will be sparkling.

But to make it run, ConCurrent will cost us 5000 USD. I've been crowdfunding for the last couple of weeks and we're halfway there! That's the good news. So now we need another push to get fully funded. If you wanna put your middle fingers up at genAI, I'd super appreciate it if you could send some dollars my way.

Yeah, that's it. This con is happening. It's gonna be a blast. I'm hyped for these panels. Please help defray the cost and I'll see you in Seattle!

(And after you go to ConCurrent, you can go see @charliejaneanders with Annalee Newitz, Cecilia Tan, Becky Chambers, Darcie Little Badger, and Andrea Hairston at Writers with Drinks at 7 p.m. at Town Hall Seattle!)

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source

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"Firefox sucks" "firefox is clunky" "firefox doesn't work" with all due respect what the fuck are you talking about

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Help Wafaa and her family

Wafaa's old campaign was shared by 90-ghost

Wafaa's account: @wafaaabd2

Wafaa is Mohiy's ( @mohiygaza21 ) sister. She's one of the many people who have had their gofundme accounts deleted and lost the funds that were waiting to be transferred to her.

If you previously donated to Wafaa's campaign and have received a refund, please donate it to either the chuffed or paypal linked above. Or if this is your first time hearing about Wafaa, please consider donating to her. Even the smallest donation can help Wafaa be able to afford food, water, and evacuation for her family.

Tagging for reach. Please share if you see this. Thank you

@monsterbutch @kindestegg @a-hopeless-aromantic @badgirlsrus @atlasandheracles @emsreblogs @miscellaneums @jophiares @housesunstone @littlelatinboyindragv @aquariumgirls @myukuw @chlotual @ma3moul @croutonnet @xiaofiaan @eternal-moss @chocxy-prince @writerqueenofjewels @paradoxpenrose @blockcat17 @decadentdandelion311 @rudeworm0 @eldritchdyke @ronniemity @mads-byttyrs-viande @silver--magpie @veri-berri

@issues-oclock @meltymoths @wolstinien @fienfuryypolarbear @wamly-the-crab-god @stealthjet @chronicowboy @italofobia @swimzreblogs @golvio @nb-marceline @cicadaland @2blushie @antiauteur @acnologia-is-best-dragon @bitchmael @penelopiaad @laughtracklesbian @legallymean

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Remember to donate some eSims for people in Gaza to remain connected.

This is how they can keep finding resources, manage their donation campaigns, and get contacts to evacuate.

Palestinians in Gaza need our help, they need funds for food and water and power and shelter. We must not let them be cut off from the world.

If you don't want to go through the process of buying and gifting eSims to Palestinians yourself, the Crips for eSims crew will do it for you with the funds donated to the campaign.

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liberals be like he bombed a country…. without congress approval

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On one hand I understand not teaching cursive in school anymore, because it actually is slower than regular handwriting and almost everything is typed on a keyboard now anyways.

On the other hand, so much of our (even recent!) history was written in cursive, and having a whole generation of kids who can't read letters written by their grandparents, momentos saved by their great-grandparents, or even photo albums from theur immediate family seems like a dangerously quick way to detach us from previous generations.

And on the third, related but slightly malformed hand, I feel bad that yet another form of small, everyday art that brings joy in the middle of mundane tasks, which celebrates personality and individual style and self-expression, is about to fade into obscurity because it wasn't efficient enough for today's world to put up with.

Like... if we continue to whittle away the small arts out of every day life, what's going to be left except stark, ruthless pragmatism?

Maybe writing a grocery list is less mundane when you get to feel elegant for a moment. Maybe you're a little more proud of what you write when you see it flow together like a painting

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Numenius borealis

Reduction relief print for Patreon members April 2025

"At one point, the Eskimo Curlew, Numenius borealis, was the most numerous shorebird in the tundra of western Canada and Alaska, and possibly the most numerous shorebird in North America. Historic reports of their migration from South America to their nesting grounds in the tundra talk of skies filled with the birds, and one report described a single flock covering an area of 40-50 acres of land in Nevada.

The Eskimo Curlew was a fairly large bird, and thus was seen as an ample food source for hunters. Between 1870 and 1890, the species was hunted relentlessly, much like the Passenger Pigeon years earlier. They made easy targets not only due to their size, but due to the tendency to travel in large flocks and their lack of fear of humans.

Despite the 1916 migratory bird act protecting the species from hunting, the population of Eskimo Curlews never recovered. Four photos of the bird exist, all taken by Don Bleitz on Galveston Island in 1962. The last individual harvested and confirmed sighting was in 1963 in Barbados. There have been a handful of supposed sightings since, but none are substantial enough to be considered more than hypothetical. The Eskimo Curlew retains the title of critically endangered and possibly extinct."

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Looking for Black artists participating in Artfight!

If you are a Black artist and you would like to share your link here, please! I want y'all to show off, to get attention and praise for the hard work you do. You deserve to participate!

Also: You deserve to see your characters done RESPECTFULLY. Remember that, guiltlessly! Feel free to drop my page if you think it's worth it to recommend some tips for your beloved characters.