Looking for cheap but meaningful christmas gifts? What about digital download art workshop booklets that let people learn new skills that are not just creatively fun, but also meditative and relaxing!

How to draw mandalas: https://ko-fi.com/s/056aaec512

How to draw Celtic Knots:
https://ko-fi.com/s/f1a74eaf4b

How to draw Illuminated Letters:
https://ko-fi.com/s/588630ab7a

#FediGiftShop #ChristmasShopping #SupportArtists #ArtForSale #IndieArtist #workshop

“At a live gig in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in early 1958, Link Wray & His Ray Men came up with the instrumental ‘Rumble’, which they originally called ‘Oddball’. It was an instant hit with the audience, which demanded four repeats that night. The host of the sock hop, disc jockey Milt Grant, paid for the track to be recorded in Washington, D.C., and released as a single; in turn, Grant would receive songwriting credit.

“Eventually the instrumental came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it. But Bleyer's stepdaughter loved it, so he released it despite his misgivings.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_(instrumental)

It's bad and some of the ways that it's bad cannot be addressed via individual choice

* Ecocide: No matter how hard *I* choose not to not use AI, the data centres will still boil the oceans
* Privacy violation: No matter how hard *I* choose not to own an Apple watch, the guy next to me can still have always-on listening

You can just say "Yeah that's terrible" without the exhausting contrarian "Actually, that's a special double-backward uno-reverso 3D chess move checkmate for us"

And I say this as someone who has been a user of Linux since the 90's, who self-hosts and writes FOSS for research

People who use proprietary software shouldn't get fucked over and we shouldn't have to jailbreak devices or be constantly "voting with our feet" to avoid predatory behaviour that should just be regulated

FOSS bros come into my mentions like:

"Ha ha good, I'm GLAD actually that $bigtech is making their product worse. It's GREAT that they're infringing on people's freedoms. I LIKE IT when they destroy the biosphere or whatever because this will finally make the normies switch to Linux or Nextcloud or Libreoffice or whatever"

What they don't realize is that

Almost no one will switch/self-host/whatever and a lot of people will just have it worse and all they're doing is celebrating that

Mum wants handcream for Christmas. I would quite like to get her something from an independent place.

Recommendations? Feel free to pimp your own shop!

I'm based in the UK and ideally want something around the £10-15 mark.

#gifts #handcream

No one seems to have told parents that newborn babies cannot read. Only in this place (Ireland Upper) would a political party - the #DUP regard it as an election plus to promote this. And the unmitigated gall that you can sign up some other persons child for this indoctrination, without asking the parents first. #BiblesForBabies #Brainwashing #Indoctrination 🤮😱🤬

Yesterday was #AskAConservator day and I didn't really get any questions on my other platforms. Let's try the Fediverse!

What would you like to ask a conservator?

(I try not to say "art conservator" because I don't usually work with art in the traditional sense. I'm an objects conservator so it's easier to think of it as "all things old and crusty" rather than fancy art.)

#conservators #conservator

You: Remember remember the 5th of November

Emmett Brown: Of course! November 5th, 1955—that was the day I invented time-travel

I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for some chefs to have thoughtful, tasty plant-based options on the menu.

You're a chef. Figure it out.

CVE-2026-83844 is a High (8.1) vulnerability for Microsoft Paint.

Might have to make the logo in ascii

Ok sooo apparently we need $1783 to catch up on rent, or we'll have to gtfo and give our camper to our landlady. didn't know that was part of the contract, but i wasn't the 1 who signed it. so...

We've got literally nowhere else to go. It's either here, or in a car. & we dont even have a working car, so it's really just "here."

i don't expect to get anywhere near enough, but anything would help atp. i wish life were endurable

https://venmo.com/u/p1nktapeluv
https://cash.app/$p1nktapeluv

#mutualAid #mutualAidRequest #disabilityMutualAid #transcrowdfund

Advice for anyone who wants to make art:

Make art.

I've been focused on paper quilling for a few days & new ideas for designs keep popping into my head. I close my eyes & see swirling paper.

This is what happens when I consistently do creative work. I go from having no ideas to having too many.

When I sit down & start working on something at random without knowing what I want to make or what it could look like, it gets my brain in gear, & THEN the ideas come. To make art, you gotta make art.

Pineapple on pizza?

I run this fediverse instance, our toy manufacturing outfit, a couple of peertube instances, a makerspace, streaming radio and a streaming television network out of my own pocket, since they cost more to operate than they make.

I also have a cafe and bookstore.

I have a crew of twelve(ish, depending on the week) folks working on these things. We break even most weeks, but we're losing a little more often than we have a little left over right now.

We're about to remove several of our biggest regular expenses from the books, and that'll shift the balance in the other direction (so we'll have a little left over more often than we're losing a little, and can give everyone on the crew a raise) but I have to get through these coming lean months in order for that to happen.

If you're feeling generous, and want to help me and my little north Georgia mountain community navigate some rough waters, you can:

- give me money: https://paypal.me/MountainTownFM
- go check out all the stuff I do: https://joyfulrevolution.ghost.io
- get some books: https://hemlockbazaar.com
- get some toys: https://mountaintowntoys.com

Thanks.

TIL that DuckDuckGo will allow you to block particular sites from search results — select the three dots to the right of a given result.

Goodbye from my search results to Etsy, Pinterest, and Amazon!

Edit:

1. there’s a limit of five permanent blocks.
2. I’m told other search engines have this feature, so check your favorites.
3. I’m muting notifications for this post. (I’m not surprised that people want to know this!)

#library holds are fucking metal, what do you mean I click a little button that says "yes I would like to read this book" and then little trucks drive all around my city so I can pick up said book at a convenient location close to me???

I am reminded of "if libraries didn't already exist, there's no way we'd get them today". WE MUST PROTECT THEM AT ALL COSTS

is anybody in #prague willing to welcome me as a roommate, fedi? i am getting desperate.

i am a queer asian student who fled my home country because of anti-queer persecution and i am stuck in an abusive dorm environment with violent and bigoted roommates. i am genuinely feeling depressed and suicidal and i need to move out as soon as possible to preserve my sanity. i need people i can be safe with. please help

#askfedi #mutualAidRequest #mutualaid @mutualaid #cz #czechia #czechrepublic

An abandoned motorcycle repair and salvage shop
More at https://www.abandonedamerica.us/kohls-motorcycle-salvage

Life is too short to spend it being miserable, or anxious, or angry, because of what someone else did or said. Don’t grant people that kind of control over you.