#Online Book Formatting Service

[genericpuff]

Update regarding HRT: I had my assessment today! It went very well! The nurse practitioner is a very sweet lady who I'm definitely gonna have a great time working with! And it's gonna take way less steps than I thought it would to get started on T! (largely owed to the fact that the nurse practitioner I'm working with is working independently now, so while that does unfortunately mean I have to pay for appointments with her out-of-pocket, it ALSO means she doesn't have to put her clients through the unnecessary and traumatizing hurdles and gatekeeping of institutionalized trans healthcare that are merely designed to wear people down / discourage them from transitioning)

Only thing that's an apparent hurdle at this time is trying to book bloodwork, as I currently don't have a health card for the province I live in, just the one I was born in (the plan was to get an updated health card once my legal name change went through but the postal strikes currently have that process in limbo so I'm waiting on an update from head office, hopefully they'll have good news and I won't have to go through that entire process again lmao) and that presents issues when trying to book with our online healthcare services because they're traditionally expecting the format of my current province's healthcare information, which differs from my birthplace.

That said, I have gotten bloodwork done in the past with my older health card, it just usually requires in-person trips with an actual human being who can file my health card info without any of the technical limitations of online bookings. Worst case, I have to wait for all that legal name change shit to go through, but hey, I waited this long, I can wait a couple months. Best case though, I just have to find time to book an in-person appointment for bloodwork, which is annoying, but doable.

It also turns out my ADHD practitioner and my new HRT practitioner are besties, so they're gonna work together to make sure I get the care I need and I'm just... so freaking thankful for that, because they're both so great and knowing that I now get to work with both of them throughout this journey is giving me so much more confidence and reassurance.

It's still scary, especially now that everything is moving along (and so quickly, too) but it's a good kind of fear, like conquering the big loop in a rollercoaster. Ultimately, no matter what I have to worry about regarding starting HRT, those fears are nothing compared to the fears of remaining the same, in a body that I don't feel comfortable in, with the side effects I have to cope with every single day simply because I was born female. Those side effects were always inflicted upon me, I never got to choose. Now I have a choice, and with that choice, I can embrace the side-effects of change, because it's change that's moving in a positive direction.

It's giving me such an adrenaline boost knowing that I'm finally making steps towards something that I had let sit within arm's reach for so long.

I'm just really happy, y'all. I expected literally nothing going into 2025 and while I'm still keeping those expectations low, my hopes are the highest they've ever been <3

[greater-than-the-sword]

Commissions Open!

Hello everyone! I'm struggling to get work these days due to my inflammation limiting my driving and standing ability (especially during the winter X( ) and I've recently finished all my other contracts, so I am once again open for commissions.

Pricing:

Single character portraits with standard digital reproduction (online posting) rights run between $30-40 with $10-$20 per additional character.

Background / concept artworks range $40-$150. Additional fees apply for combinations.

Still life is on discount!!!

Still lifes are $25-$40 depending on complexity. I love doing them so please ask, I will cut you an additional deal if it sounds fun.

Black and white animation as seen in the gallery is also available with pricing starting at $28 depending on number of frames and complexity (about $7 per frame)

For book covers and print or merchandising rights, please contact lilliterra@outlook.com or message evelynmlewis.tumblr.com and we can work something out that works for your budget. I have experience with cover formatting for multiple published books & meeting file compatibility standards with various publishers, and can offer a full cover design service or an illustration for your use depending on your needs.

My website:

https://evelynmlewis.com/

Ask box is open to start a conversation, or email lilliterra@outlook.com :)

[cartoonsforallbeings]

Coming soon!! I just got the proof / a small batch to see how it felt in print and I'm really happy with it.

Such a strange feeling seeing years of your life condensed into a little book! But it's exhilarating, and trust me you wanna read it.

I think I'll probably self-publish using a print-on-demand service while it slowly gets posted online in a webcomic format. Unless someone with more experience has a better idea haha. Thank you I love you

[professorlaytonarchive]

Luke’s Puzzle Book (ルーク少年のナゾブック)

Luke’s Puzzle Book (ルーク少年のナゾブック) was a playable game on the Professor Layton Mobile and Professor Layton Mobile R services. Little is known about this game besides the fact that you could buy puzzles and that there was some kind of online leaderboard.

Later on, a sequel was released on the Layton Mobile R service called Luke’s Puzzle Book 2 (ルーク少年のナゾブック2). At the moment, there is no information on this sequel besides screenshots. It is assumed that the game followed the same format but was simply an updated version for Layton Mobile R.

Translation from the Professor Layton Trilogy Book:

Not only can you enjoy the ported version for the DS, but also original mobile-exclusive games. The first of these is this ‘Luke’s Puzzle Book.’ It is a puzzle game specialized in puzzle-solving play, and the number of questions increases. You can also check your data and see where it ranks among users nationwide. It is truly an irresistible game for puzzle-solving fans.

Wiki Article I wrote for it!

[serqphites]

hiii i saw u needed requests to blurbs/ headcanons so here i am 🤭 could u write julien x reader where julien has a crush on a random youtuber (that like talks about books and stuff) and phoebe and lucy makes fun of julien bc she wasn’t this type of person before and then one day this bookworm youtuber says that she’s going to a boygenius show and julien tries everything to meet reader?

pls and thank u

i hope this isn’t too long

julien baker x yt!crush ღ

format: blurb

warnings: none!

a/n: i literally fell in love with this the second i saw it omg it’s so cute<3 been working on some anxiety comfort ideas but can’t choose a member of muna or boygenius to do first so if there’s one anyone would like to be first please do request it!! thank you so much for all the likes on my stuff it means the world 💞

okay so, the boys are on tour but tonight is a very special night for them becauseeeee… they have a night off!! they go out, have some nice dinner then decide to just chill in the tour bus for the rest of the night because they don’t need to wake up extra early to go to their next tour destination

so julien is in her lil bunk (pls i can just imagine how snuggled up she is) and she is so beyond bored

so what do you do when you’re bored? you browse tiktok until you fry your brain!!

she’s scrolling on her fyp not really bothering to actually watch through any of the tiktoks she's starting, that is until she sees…you

she mutters a barely audible “woah”

within a minute she’s followed you and is now stalking your whole account

cut to around 20 minutes later and she’s holding her phone sideways (pretty close to her face but not that close that she can’t see) watching one of your youtube videos.

this spiral continues until she is that exhausted she physically can’t keep her eyes open anymore

for the next few weeks this is her new routine: getting ready for shows watching your videos, buying your favourite books online and reading them on her phone when she gets the chance. she never falls asleep without watching at least one of your videos & a few tiktoks

one time she’s watching your newest video after having to wait a whole excruciatingly long day, she’s got headphones in, she’s never been so relaxed until…

you say you HATE people who read books online

“just buy the real book? why can’t people put down their screens anymore” and you’re clearly not being serious as you laugh and continue to joke about how all millennials are just taller ipad kids

but julien? it is no joke to her. in an instant she has removed her online books and has planned to go to the nearest bookstore when she’s next free and buy them all ‘for real’

i feel like the moment phoebe and lucy find out is SO FUNNY like i can picture them all sat together before a show, lucy just talking about the most recent book she’s been reading when julien chimes in with “oh yeah i just finished reading that, so good”

silence fills the entire room… phoebe and lucy share a look of horror

“where’s julien and what have you done with her??” phoebe would joke absolutely cackling with lucy about it

this is where the ‘bullying’ starts and never ends!

somehow they manage to convince julien to give them your name so now all of boygenius + katie gavin follow you on tiktok AND instagram

after seeing this you obviously have to make a tiktok about it. your favourite band members of all time just followed you back! you continue to rant and rave about it in your tiktok, also choosing to mention that you are seeing boygenius the following week and how crazyyy it is that they have followed you for a reason unbeknownst to you

this causes julien to go into panic mode. she was going to be performing to you NEXT WEEK

jump forward a week to the show, it’s going great! julien spent the whole day checking your instagram to see where you were at and when you’d be arriving. there’s barely and service in the venue, so unfortunately, her last update was a photo of you in the queue (she definitely took a screenshot because you look amazing)

so, they’re around 5 songs into the show, then she spots you. you’re standing only one row back from the barrier. julien can’t help but stare because you look beautiful

phoebe and lucy take notice of this but play it off cool. they share a menacing look before phoebe leans into the mic and says, “so, anyone got a crush right now?”

julien swears she nearly puked the second she heard that.

the conversation drags on for what feels like hours to julien when in reality it was only really around 5 minutes, majority of it being taken up by the crowd screaming in response to their several questions about crushes

it goes quiet for a second

“jb has a crush… she’s actually here tonight” the crowd starts SCREAMINGGG. people literally praying it’s them (so real)

julien has now sat on the floor of the stage with her face completely buried in her knees, lucy is still standing in front of her microphone dying with laughter over how embarrassed julien is getting.

little did she know though, it was about to get so much worse!!

lucy had dmed you the night before and basically just told you that julien had like changed her whole personality because of her crush on you. she also very sneakily organised for you to come backstage after the show and meet for the first time ever!

PLEASEEE imagine LUCY DACUS messaging you randomly and telling you that JULIEN MF BAKER HAS A CRUSH ON YOU.

lil time skip to that but imagine julien stood there fiddling with her fingers while she waits for you because she’s so nervous

you asking her the best books she’s read because of you<33

i can perfectly picture lucy and phoebe just stood there like ‘😁’ before having an “oh shit” moment and realising they’re intruding LMAO

your first date is to your favourite bookstore btw

I LOVE SOFT MASCS. (i am one)

a/n: this is my first blurb ever 😮 i’m so sorry i didn’t see this until now! hope you liked it :) again please feel free to send any other requests you have i love munagenius 🫶

[em-dashes]

✨YOU ARE NOW ENTERING SUDDENCE is now available for purchase!!✨

While Suddence has been free-to-read online for a while now, perhaps you prefer the comfort and convenience of an e-book or physical book. Now, you can have exactly that!

You can find Suddence on a number of vendors, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and more!

Plus, if you order between now and May 19th, you will receive some extra goodies!

If you purchase an e-book, you will receive a digital advanced look at the bonus comic, THE RABBIT INCIDENT, and a high-quality version of Suddence's back cover, which has woefully been covered up by the blurb and ISBN.

If you purchase a paperback, you will receive these pretty stickers and a print of the back cover.

The goodies will also be available to purchase on Etsy*!

To receive these gifts, please fill out this Google form! The gifts will be sent out in batches, so don't worry if you don't receive them right away!

There will also be a giveaway announcement in a bit! Keep an eye out for that 👀

As usual, reblogs are appreciated! The very existence of links in this post means it most likely won't show up in the writeblr tags.

Notes below the cut:

*To be uploaded in the coming days! E-book goodies will be $5 CAD, and paperback goodies will be $10 CAD.

Also, as a general note, this is my first time creating e-books, and I used Draft2Digital's automatic formatting software to create them. If you notice any egregious issues with them, please do let me know and I'll see about having them fixed!

Suddence is also reportedly up on a number of online library services, such as Bibliotheca, OverDrive, and Baker & Taylor! Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with online library services. I've checked OverDrive and was told the book was not available despite it technically existing on there.

If you live in/around Vancouver BC, I will be at VanCAF on May 18th and 19th with some copies of this book (with the freebies too)! If you want to bypass the shipping fee or you just want to see cool art, come on down! It's a free event :^D

[writingquestionsanswered]

Is there a way for me to figure out speech & expressions in a specific past century? I've been trying to write a novel set in the 16th century but there are alot of expressions & idioms that I don't know if they existed back then or not. Do I just cut them out completely?

Researching Historical Lingo, Slang, and Grammar

Here are some things you can do to research the proper lingo, slang, and grammar for a historical setting:

1 - Google "slang (or phrases, lingo, grammar) of [era/decade] [location]" - I don't know where your story is set, but as an example, I Googled "slang of 16th century England" and got back 13 million hits, including things like "9 Elizabethan Words to Bring Back," "English Slang 1400 To 1680," "Elizabethan Swearing, Cursing and Vocabulary" and others. If you Google the era/decade and location of your story and take the time to sift through the results, you can get to know the lingo, phrases, slang, and grammar that would make sense in your story. (Just remember not to over rely on it... you want to avoid obviously modern phrases or words... no one in Elizabethan England would call something "freakin' sweet"... but you also don't want to write something so archaic sounding that it annoys the reader.)

2 - Go to YouTube and Search "slang (or phrases, lingo, grammar) of [era/decade] [location]" - YouTube can be a great source for learning how people spoke in a particular time and place. And in video format, this information is usually presented with additional information about the people and place that helps you understand why they spoke the way they did.

3 - Look for Books About Your Time Period and Setting - There are a lot of time/place settings that are popular enough to have books written about them. There's no shortage of books dedicated to life in Tudor and Elizabethan England, for example, and there are books dedicated to writing stories set in that time and place as well. Whether you go to your local library and ask, go to a local bookstore, or look on Amazon, books about your setting and time period can be a really helpful resource for learning about how people spoke.

4 - When In Doubt, Ask Google - If there's a particular expression, idiom, slang, or lingo you want to use but you're not sure if it existed in your story's time and place, try Googling the phrase plus "origin" or "etymology." That will almost always bring up something that will tell you the history of the expression, idiom, slang, or word that you're curious about. For example, let's say I wanted to know if they would have said "right as rain" in Tudor England. The very first hit on Google told me that while "right as rain" did originate in England, it doesn't seem to go further back than the 1800s. So, it wouldn't make sense for my Tudor character to say it. Some articles will suggest earlier variations, too, which can give you a fitting alternative. @definitely-not-julio suggested the OneLook online thesaurus which has an origin tab... and that actually leads to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which is a fantastic resource.

You can also use any number of idiom search engines or the dictionary to learn the origin of a particular phrase or word.

5 - Curl Up and Watch Stuff - One last helpful resource I want to mention is the great and powerful screen, whether that's the TV screen or device screen. There's a whole world of period dramas out there that take place in just about every possible time and place, so if all else fails, try watching a TV series or some movies set in the time and place of your story, and take notes! Just be aware that TV and movies aren't always super accurate, so it's a good idea to still double check anything you use, but they can be a great way to learn all kinds of potential words, phrases, lingo, etc. The Willow and Thatch web site has a list of period dramas by era (click on "best period dramas list") and it also has lists of period dramas by streaming service.

Have fun researching your story!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

Learn more about WQA

Visit my Master List of Top Posts

Go to ko-fi.com/wqa to buy me coffee or see my commissions

[racxnteur]

Incomeless; will proofread your fics! (Or anything else.)

I'm not sure how to head this with a snazzy, attention-catching image given I'm not offering an obviously graphic service like art commissions, but let's give it a go...

Hello, I'm your friendly neighborhood disabled unemployed transgender queer on the internet. I have not posted a great amount about the details on this blog for privacy reasons, but I am currently in an untenable familial/financial living situation, which I am actively working to get out of. My primary barrier to disentangling myself from the pertinent parties is a lack of income. I've been unable to pursue traditional means of work due to being multiply disabled (slash chronically ill, slash treatment-resistant, et cetera...), but I do not qualify for SSI or unemployment, so I am stuck trying to find other ways of making money.

This is where you come in... If you'd like to help, you can:

$$ Hire me $$ to proofread your fics, essays, and more!

Click below for info! (I also may add separate posts for diversity reading and/or other writing- and editing-related services.)

For $0.00855/word *OR BEST BID*, I will vet your work of writing before you publish it, checking for mistakes in spelling, capitalization, & punctuation, missed words, inconsistencies of tense, formatting, & POV, and miscellaneous grammatical errors. Never again need you fear posting a finished chapter and discovering a slew of typos after the fact; no matter how sleep-deprived or late at night the state of writing, I will ensure your text is ship-shape. Or, if you happen to be interested in having other types of writing proofread before submission--essays, comics or webtoons, letters, transcripts, compositions of a personal nature, so on--I will happily take these on at a comparable rate.[1]

Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in English with a minor in writing

Initiate of international collegiate honors society for English scholarship, Sigma Tau Delta

Active member of the International Association of Professional Writers and Editors (IAPWE)

Former lit editor for award-winning university literary arts magazine

Prior employment in tutoring and teaching English, as well as copy-editing and content writing

Nearly 20 years' writing experience

Previous experience as both fic writer and beta

Incisive eye for typo-hunting and tenacious attention to detail (I have high standards and will make those everybody else's problem... now for pay!)

I will read for content of any genre and all ratings, and am broadly[2] open to any subject matter, kinks, et cetera. I'll also post more detailed guidelines (booking process, any exclusions, additional criteria) on a separate, unrebloggable post so that any edits and updates are always current.

Message me via the chat feature on Tumblr, or send me an e-mail (I will post it on my more info post) to request a quote, bid for a slot, or just to see what I can offer for whatever project you have in mind. And please feel encouraged to share or boost this post! I am in urgent need of any income I can get, and every share counts 😭🙌

. . . . . . . . . .

Proofreading Full Details · Other Services · Support Me (alternatively, Tip this post!)

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

[1] There will be some exclusions to this, such as academic assignments/papers that have style guide requirements; i.e., I will not be your online MLA style checker or anything.

[2] As with anything, there will be sporadic exceptions to this as well, but I will always be up-front about such cases.

[velkynkarma]

The book you binded looks so cool!!! I've been meaning to get into book binding as well, especially for One Piece fics and I love the format you did it in with Zoro's logo. How did you edit it? Would you be willing to share tips on how you did it? Did you watch book binding YouTube videos?

Thanks, anon! I'm glad you enjoyed! And I'm absolutely willing to share what I learned!

For the general book-binding, I used a couple book binding how-to videos.

Turning Fanfiction Into the Hardcover Book it Deserves by Jess Less

This one helped with:

How to use an old book cover/used book for the cover of the fanfic (you can also MAKE covers, and she has another video on this as well, but I love the idea of recycling old unwanted books into something new and loved)

The basics for formatting the pages (her bit about adding a compass design for the chapters is what inspired me to use Zoro's flag logo)

How to print and prep the pages/signatures

How to finish putting the whole thing together and add some interesting design elements

I especially liked this video because it's very beginner-friendly and casual, which helped the whole project feel a little less daunting. You can get special tools for book binding (there are kits online) but as shown, it's also simple enough to do with a thumbtack and some corkboard if you're low on cash.

That said, I found the stitch in this video a bit confusing, so I used the stitch from this video instead:

Folding & Sewing - Rounded and Backed Cased Book // Adventures in Bookbinding by DAS Bookbinding

Stitch prep is specifically around 7min in if you just want to skip to that. But the whole thing is an interesting watch too. This is more professional bookbinding and he has a lot of other interesting videos if you want to do some more complex things. However I found this stitch to be very straightforward and easy to follow and assemble, so I ultimately used this one when I put together Seven Deaths.

As for my personal tips and things I learned while doing this project?

Turns out Google Docs is kind of useless for this. You'll want actual word processing software like Microsoft Word. If you don't have the cash to spend on Microsoft's ridiculous subscription policy, you can use LibreOffice which is free (I did, and it works very well).

Fics are way longer on paper than they are digitally. Seven Deaths is 'only' about a 50K fic (less, in fact). But it still makes a 200+ page book. Pic a smaller fic to start with while you figure out everything you want to do.

Do some research on good book fonts for the body of your text. You can get crazy with other things (chapter headers or title pages) but pic something recommended for your text body so it's legible.

To add character symbols (like Zoro's flag) you'll need a transparent copy of it to save as a png. Once you pull it into the word doc you can resize and arrange as needed.

Also look at other "real" books you have lying around for ideas for things to add to your book! I turned an author's note into a "Forward", added an "about the author/publisher" section at the back, put in a table of contents, etc. There's other things I want to experiment with next time. Go wild! Have fun!

Test print a couple pages before printing the full project, just to be sure it's actually the right page size, your font is legible and spaced well, etc. If you don't have a printer and you don't want to pay a print shop for some expensive test pages, try your local library! Many let you use their computers and printers for an extremely low cost.

If you don't have a printer (or not one that can do quality printing for 200+ pages) you'll need to go to a print shop. DON'T bother with places like Staples or OfficeMax. I tried this, but their machines automatically staple "booklets" out of your signatures, which messes up your paper and costs extra for this "service." Instead, track down a local print shop in your area. It's easier to talk to them directly about what you want and the quality is better anyway.

On that note, this is an expensive hobby! Printing for Seven Deaths was about $87USD. The quality was worth it, but definitely do not start if you don't have your own printer or a little bit of spending money.

You do not need as much glue or thread as you think you need. Go less. Waste not.

A lot of the end stages is just...waiting...for...glue...to...dry.

You will inevitably, invariably, mess things up on your first project. I sure did! I underestimated the sharpness of some tools and put holes places I didn't mean to; some things glued in a bit sloppily; I didn't set up my page organization exactly right my table of contents ended up on the left page when I envisioned it on the right. But you know what? It doesn't matter! Because at the end of the day you have a book that YOU MADE. And it's still fucking awesome! And now you've learned some things for next time. Do it anyway and have fun with it!

Happy crafting, anon. I hope you are able to add some personal favorites to your bookshelf soon :)

[tanaor]

Tired of writing your wips in Google docs?

(✨Free resources for writers 1: Reedsy book editor✨)

What is Reedsy book editor about?

Reedsy is a free web where you can peacefully write your books, similar to Scrivener or Dabble. It has the option to divide your writing in chapters and parts, and you can also insert scene breaks. It's easy and intuitive to use, and apart from the book editor, you can also read Reedsy's blogs, attend writing lives with professionals or look in the marketplace for writing-related services (you can access Reedsy marketplace for free, but if you are willing to hire any of the services in it you will have to pay the professional).

Other features:

It has word count and word goals (you can also see an approximation of the time it'd take to read your work).

Space for your notes and outlines, or whatever you need while you're writing (character sheets, an image, some link...).

Possibility of sharing, but the other person can only read. You can select which chapters they can see.

You can access your work in any device.

Version history for your manuscript.

You can create as many projects as you want.

You can upload your existing manuscript to Reedsy and continue working there.

It has spell check.

Downsides:

Reedsy it's only accessible online, so you'll need internet connection.

It gives you little formatting options, with three different fonts.

I have a lot of resources like this, so stay tuned if you don't want to miss out!!

Hope you like it and happy writing :)

Other free resources: next

[thoughtportal]

Librera Reader is a highly customizable and feature-rich application for reading e-books in PDF, EPUB, MOBI, DjVu, FB2, TXT, RTF, AZW, AZW3, HTML, CBZ, CBR, DOC, DOCX, formats.

With its intuitive, yet powerful, interface, Librera makes ebook reading a veritable pleasure. It even features a unique auto-scrolling, hands-free Musician's mode, with controllable speed.

F-Droid version is based on the latest MuPDF and support Android 4.1+.

The only difference between Librera FD (F-Droid) and Librera PRO is the absence of Google Play services and Google Drive book synchronization in Librera FD.

Just a few Librera main features:

Easy document discovery by configurable criteria:

Auto-Scan (user-specified folders)

Browse folders (using an in-app file explorer)

Recent (featuring a reading-progress indicator)

Support for bookmarks, annotations, and EPUB3 tables of contents

Configurable Day and Night modes

Configurable link color (hence, footnotes and endnotes color)

Support for many popular offline dictionaries

Vertical-scroll lock

Auto- and manual centering of documents

Custom ad-hoc CSS coding

Single-page view of two-page documents

Musician's mode with configurable scroll speed

Customizable TTS reading and built-in media player

Page-wise TTS recording to MP3 or WAV

Multi-word text search

Support for archived (.zip) documents

Support for RTL languages (Thai, Hebrew, Arabic, etc.)

Import and export of settings, auto-backup of current session

Leading initials in FB2 documents

RSVP reading (à la Spritz)

Movable bookmarks, w/ a floating indicator

And a whole bunch of other features for you to check out.

You can read books in your web browser with the Librera Book Reader https://librera.mobi/online-book-reader/

The best way to fully appreciate Librera Reader, however, is to use our restriction-free Librera PRO version from Google Play.

If you enjoy Librera, please consider making a donation: https://www.patreon.com/librera

[rinnystee]

2.06.2024 — finals season

had a thunderstorm and the power went out, which means that the formatting of the course paper will be postponed again, as i have almost everything for it online. started to revise the material for the business planning exam, which is in a week, and to do revision tests in english, because the exam is also very soon. spent some time in the vegetable garden, got some fresh air, tried to plan the week, but in the end i could only write down a few important things and just gave myself a lot of free time.

so the big things for the week:

consultation before the marketing of services exam

marketing of services exam

consultation before the business planning exam

business planning exam

consultation before the english exam

finalize and send the course paper by 7.06.

(possibly) to participate in a marketing research in the behavioral laboratory at the university

buy new books to cheer myself up

respond to all letters on slowly

thinking about getting back into sports, but ш don't know which one yet. i'll probably just start with a basic dance workout tomorrow and see how i feel from there.

p.s. my cat says hi :)

🎵: i know the end — phoebe bridgers

[unfriendlymoth]

Hey I saw a rb of yours about having mental health struggles and I try to send people resources when I think they could use them soo: You'll benefit from looking at them right away, but you can also save them on your desktop and schedule yourself or give yourself reminders to use them. Even chipping away at them bit by bit is good.

https://integralguide.com/%E2%AD%90%EF%B8%8F+Start+Here/About - A great wiki and tree/CYOA format guide and resource for treating things like anxiety, trauma, CPTSD, depression, ADHD and OCD, and for improving overall wellbeing. If nothing else, read the short intro because it demonstrates what it is.

Mental Health Resource List https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jbAxPB8QKG3NLUKNZB8h1fNUjzcXaNrZ/view - Problem, minority and area specific international resources.

https://www.therapistaid.com/ - Accessible mental health and therapy education, resources and worksheets.

https://www.verywellmind.com/about-explanatory-styles-3145110 - A very short read but very useful.

https://positivepsychology.com/mental-health-exercises-interventions - A good in-depth guide and overview for treating and managing anxiety and depression and their symptoms, with references and links to other resources.

Mental health apps like Wysa and Sanvello - Accessible and low effort, recommend to use alongside other resources.

https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/resources/self-care-starter-kit/developing-your-self-care-plan.html - Functional, kind, well-communicated and succinct resource for taking care of yourself and all your needs, both long-term and in crisis.

https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/resources/self-care-starter-kit/self-care-assessments-exercises/exercises-and-activities.html - Guidance on resting and relaxing effectively, time management, physical health, lifestyle and mental health maintenance.

https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/resources/self-care-starter-kit/additional-self-care-resources/developing-your-support-system.html - Once again practical, kind and wise guidance and tips for how to find, develop and maintain a comprehensive support system and what to avoid.

Books by Babette Rothschild, particularly 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery - She's a therapist with experience with mental illness (including PTSD) and her books contain much of the same therapy and education you get in a therapist's office - they're very well written, informative, accessible and gentle and if you can't afford buying you can get them from online or physical libraries.

And last but not least - seriously pursue therapy or other help if you're not doing so already! You should try googling "[country/city/county/state] (health condition/circumstance/demographic) (financial/medical/therapy) [aid/assistance/program/services/benefits/discount]" or similar to find help or guidance - there's a lot of help out there but a lot of it is just obscure and underadvertised.

I’ve been selfishly keeping this to myself for too long. I hope this can help someone else out there too

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Two principles to protect internet users from decaying platforms

Today (May 10), I’m in VANCOUVER for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and later a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall; on Thurs (May 11), I’m in CALGARY for Wordfest.

Internet platforms have reached end-stage enshittification, where they claw back the goodies they once used to lure in end-users and business customers, trying to walk a tightrope in which there’s just enough value left to keep you locked in, but no more. It’s ugly out there.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/10/soft-landings/#e2e-r2e

When the platforms took off — using a mix of predatory pricing, catch-and-kill acquisitions and anti-competitive mergers — they seemed unstoppable. Mark Zuckerberg became the unelected social media czar-for-life for billions of users. Youtube was viewed as the final stage of online video. Twitter seemed a bedrock of public discussion and an essential source for journalists.

During that era, the primary focus for reformers, regulators and politicians was on improving these giant platforms — demanding that they spend hundreds of millions on algorithmic filters, or billions on moderators. Implicit in these ideas was that the platforms would be an eternal fact of life, and the most important thing was to tame them and make them as benign as possible.

That’s still a laudable goal. We need better platforms, though filters don’t work, and human moderation has severe scaling limits and poses significant labor issues. But as the platforms hungrily devour their seed corn, shrinking and curdling, it’s time to turn our focus to helping users leave platforms with a minimum of pain. That is, it’s time to start thinking about how to make platforms fail well, as well as making them work well.

This week, I published a article setting out two proposals for better platform failure on EFF’s Deeplinks blog: “As Platforms Decay, Let’s Put Users First”:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/platforms-decay-lets-put-users-first

The first of these proposals is end-to-end. This is the internet’s founding principle: service providers should strive to deliver data from willing senders to willing receivers as efficiently and reliably as possible. This is the principle that separates the internet from earlier systems, like cable TV or the telephone system, where the service owners decided what information users received and under what circumstances.

The end-to-end principle is a bedrock of internet design, the key principle behind Net Neutrality and (of course) end-to-end-encryption. But when it comes to platforms, end-to-end is nowhere in sight. The fact that you follow someone on social media does not guarantee that you’ll see their updates. The fact that you searched for a specific product or merchant doesn’t guarantee that platforms like Ebay or Amazon or Google will show you the best match for your query. The fact that you hoisted someone’s email out of your spam folder doesn’t guarantee that you will see the next message they send you.

An end-to-end rule would create an obligation on platforms to put the communications of willing senders and willing receivers ahead of the money they can make by selling “advertising” in search priority, or charging media companies and performers to “boost” their posts to reach their own subscribers. It would address the real political speech issues of spamfiltering the solicited messages we asked our elected reps to send us. In other words, it would take the most anti-user platform policies off the table, even as the tech giants jettison the last pretense that platforms serve their users, rather than their owners:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

The second proposal is for a right-to-exit: an obligation on tech companies to facilitate users’ departure from their platforms. For social media, that would mean adopting Mastodon-style standards for exporting your follower/followee list and importing it to a rival service when you want to go. This solves the collective action problem that shackles users to a service — you and your friends all hate the service, but you like each other, and you can’t agree on where to go or when to leave, so you all stay:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

For audiences and creators who are locked to bad platforms with DRM — the encryption scheme that makes it impossible for you to break up with Amazon or other giants without throwing away your media — right to exit would oblige platforms to help rightsholders and audiences communicate with one another, so creators would be able to verify who their customers are, and give them download codes for other services.

Both these proposals have two specific virtues: they are easy to administer, and they are cheap to implement.

Take end-to-end: it’s easy to verify whether a platform reliably delivers messages from to all your followers. It’s easy to verify whether Amazon or Google search puts an exact match for your query at the top of the search results. Unlike complex, ambitious rules like “prevent online harassment,” end-to-end has an easy, bright-line test. An “end harassment” rule would be great, but pulling it off requires a crisp definition of “harassment.” It requires a finding of whether a given user’s conduct meets that definition. It requires a determination as to whether the platform did all it reasonably could to prevent harassment. These fact-intensive questions can take months or years to resolve.

Same goes for right-to-exit. It’s easy to determine whether a platform will make it easy for you to leave. You don’t need to convince a regulator to depose the platform’s engineers to find out whether they’ve configured their servers to make this work, you can just see for yourself. If a platform claims it has given you the data you need to hop to a rival and you dispute it, a regulator doesn’t have to verify your claims — they can just tell the platform to resend the data.

Administratibility is important, but so is cost of compliance. Many of the rules proposed for making platforms better are incredibly expensive to implement. For example, the EU’s rule requiring mandatory copyright filters for user-generated content has a pricetag starting in the hundreds of millions — small wonder that Google and Facebook supported this proposal. They know no one else can afford to comply with a rule like this, and buying their way to permanent dominance, without the threat of being disrupted by new offerings, is a sweet deal.

But complying with an end-to-end rule requires less engineering than breaking end-to-end. Services start by reliably delivering messages between willing senders and receivers, then they do extra engineering work to selectively break this, in order to extract payments from platform users. For small platform operators — say, volunteers or co-ops running Mastodon servers — this rule requires no additional expenditures.

Likewise for complying with right-to-exit; this is already present in open federated media protocols. A requirement for platforms to add right-to-exit is a requirement to implement an open standard, one that already has reference code and documentation. It’s not free by any means — scaling up reference implementations to the scale of large platforms is a big engineering challenge — but it’s a progressive tax, with the largest platforms bearing the largest costs.

Both of these proposals put control where it belongs: with users, not platform operators. They impose discipline on Big Tech by forcing them to compete in a market where users can easily slip from one service to the next, eluding attempts to lock them in and enshittify them.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: A giant robot hand holding a monkey-wrench. A tiny, distressed human figure is attempting - unsuccessfully - to grab the wrench away.]

Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/files/banner_library/competition_robot.png

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/