rivqa

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Do you have trouble concentrating?

Do you find it hard to stay organised?

Do these challenges significantly impact your daily life?

We are seeking participants who might be interested in volunteering for an anonymous online survey on ADHD. This research is being conducted by the University of Technology Sydney to learn more about experiences with, and barriers to, diagnosis and support for ADHD. The research team includes a researcher with lived experience of ADHD.

To be eligible, you must be 18+, live in Australia, and experience characteristics of ADHD. The survey will take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete.

To access the survey, visit: https://redcap.link/adhd_uts

For further information please contact Dr Bethany Wootton, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at bethany.wootton@uts.edu.au. This study is approved by the University of Technology Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee. Approval Number: UTS HREC REF NO. ETH24-10011 Valid to: 29/01/2030

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The Backyard Bestiary. Written by Ton de Joode and Anthonie Stolk. Illustrated by Kees de Kiefte. 1982.

Internet Archive

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The Backyard Bestiary. Written by Ton de Joode and Anthonie Stolk. Illustrated by Kees de Kiefte. 1982.

Internet Archive

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RUN

(via)

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I've seen a lot of posts welcoming new Tumblr users, but I haven't seen any welcoming old users BACK. So, if you're returning, here's some fun new stuff Tumblr has added. Some of this may be desktop only right now, but Tumblr has been very good about migrating features to mobile without too much delay. I'm also primarily a desktop user, so some buttons may be in different spots on mobile.

You can now turn off reblogs on your posts, even the old ones. Click on the little gear icon at the top of the post window and towards the bottom to set reblogs to "anyone" or "no one."

You can have up to 30 images in a post now! Just be sure to be respectful and tag it as a long post.

Speaking of long posts, you can now set tumblr to automatically shorten anything over a certain length. It's under Settings>Dashboard.

Tumblr now has content labels, which is what has allowed them to bring back mature content art. These are important, so please use them. You can turn them on on each post individually by clicking the "everyone" drop down next to the "post now" button. And you can control how your dashboard shows or doesn't show labeled posts by going to Settings>Account.

You can now filter tags and post content via tumblr itself without using something like XKit! This is also under Settings>Account.

Tumblr offers an ad-free subscription now. $40 a year. If you love this little hellsite, this is a great way to show support!

Tumblr also allows users to pay to turn their posts into ads now. It's called blazing a post. It is great fun and generally hilarious. You have no control over your audience. You're just yeeting your post, of any sort, not just advertising, off into the void. An ad-free subscription hides these posts, but you can in fact turn blazed posts specifically back on while blocking the rest of the ads. Blaze a post by clicking on the little flame icon at the bottom. You can only blaze your own posts.

You can buy fun little tchotchkys for your dashboard and, sometimes, the dashboards of others. Right now we've got crabs, a horse that shits everywhere, and the super special double blue checkmarks. These are just fun little things to play with.

You can now enable tipping on your blog/individual posts. Totally optional, of course, but can be useful if you're a creator.

Staff has been a lot more active this last year, so if you want to keep up with what is going on be sure to follow @staff, @changes, and @wip.

That's all I can think of. Everyone else is free to add to this!

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good news!

why is this so fucking comical

yeah you must fucken .... you stress out the toad and then give it a rinse, voilah

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I’m not sure yet if I’ll use Tumblr more with Twitter dying, but I’m here in theory and I should get private messages at the very least.

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ADHD and hyperfocus: call for study participants

ETA: STUDY NOW CLOSED!

We are running a research study about hyperfocus, a state of intense concentration experienced by some people with ADHD. To do this, we need participants both with and without ADHD.

Participants must:

- Be aged 18 years or older

- Be proficient in English

- Be able to complete the study on a computer with a keyboard

- Have computer administrator privileges to download a small program (Inquisit, a research platform: learn more at https://www.millisecond.com/products/web)

You do not need to experience hyperfocus to participate. The study will take about 15-20 minutes. No identifying information is collected, participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw at any time (further informed consent details are listed on the study launch page).

Participate or learn more at https://mili2nd.co/5j6b

To view the full information sheet before downloading Inquisit, visit https://tinyurl.com/adhdhyperfocus

Research approved by the University of New England Human Research Ethics Committee under approval number HE19-HE22-040, valid until 1 October 2022.

For further information, contact Rivqa Berger, rberger3@myune.edu.au; Dr Bernadine Cocks (supervisor), bcocks3@une.edu.au

Thank you,

Rivqa

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Brief internet appearances

In which I share links to places I've visited recently to talk about writing, and other news.

This year will probably be a quiet one in terms of my fiction, since I’m doing honours in psychology this year (reputedly the hardest part of the whole process). Still, I have a couple of things coming up soon. In the meantime, I have managed to share opinions about Jewish Australian speculative fiction on a panel with Gillian Polack, Jack Dann, and Jason Franks. This was run by Bettina Burger…

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The art of strange fire

The art of strange fire

I’m pleased to announce that “Love Thy Neighbour”, my cheeky Eve + Adam + Lilith Torah fanfic short story is forthcoming in Ben Yehuda Press’ Strange Fire: Jewish Voices from the Pandemic anthology, edited by TS Mendola and out later this month. The paperback is available for preorder now, and the ebook should be available soon. Warning: my story is in the SEX section (yes, there’s a sex…

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CoNZealand schedule and Ditmar nomination

CoNZealand schedule and Ditmar nomination

[insert unnecessary apologies and obligatory platitudes about COVID-19]

I’m on two WorldCon panels this year, which is next week! One on science fantasy and one on medicine of the future. I’m looking forward to these. If you’re interested in joining in, you’ll need a CoNZealand membership.

I’m also pleased to announce that my story “Whom My Soul Loves” has been nominated for a Ditmar Award

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November news

So much going on this month!

Little Blue Marble has reprinted my Far North Queensland epidemiology adventure story, “Trivalent,” originally published in Ecopunk (Ticonderoga Publications). I still love my grumpy virologist and I’m glad this story is free to read now.

And Strange Horizons has published my very personal dybbuk story, “Whom My Soul Loves.” It’s not only queer and Jewish, but…

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The above is the preliminary front cover for our new anthology, Rebuilding Tomorrow. We just had a reveal of the full wraparound cover over at The BookSmugglers, so head over there to check it out in its full glory. We’re currently crowdfunding Rebuilding Tomorrow, so you can pre-order a copy (or some pins or a mug) over on Pozible and help us make this book a reality! To recap: Rebuilding Tomorrow will focus on disabled and/or chronically ill protagonists and it will have a post-apocalyptic theme. But! Rather than focussing on survival in the immediate aftermath of an apocalypse, the stories in Rebuilding Tomorrow will be set a significant time after whatever apocalyptic disaster. These will be stories that show society getting back on its feet and people moving past subsistence-level existence into a new, sustainable world, even though it’s one that has been irrevocably changed by an apocalypse.

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Mother of all award ceremonies

Mother of all award ceremonies

(Yes, I am going to beat that pun into a dead mixed metaphor.)

This week I returned from Continuum 15, where I had the usual fabulous time of attending and presenting on panels, and hanging out in the bar with friends. The undeniable highlight, however, was Mother of Invention taking out three awards:

the Norma K. Hemming Awardfor excellence in the exploration of themes of race,…

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The obligatory award eligibility post

The obligatory award eligibility post

First, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. I had just one story of my own published in 2018, ‘To Rain Upon One City’ in Resist Fascism (psst, have you seen this gorgeous cover by Geneva B?) It’s eligible for the short story categories of the Locus, Hugo, and Ditmarawards. I was deeply honoured that my editors Bart Leib and Kay Holt saw fit to open the anthology with my far-future, Jewish…

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Mother of all updates

Mother of all updates

At long last, Mother of Invention is on sale! You can pick up a paperback or ebook from Twelfth Planet Press directly, or via Amazon. If you’d like an idea of what Tansy and I were trying to do with this anthology, Tor.com very kindly reprinted the introduction. Also on Tor.com, Tansy and I waxed lyrical about books that give voice to artificial intelligence. This is the first book that has my…