N. K. Jemisin is an amazing author. If you like her work as much as I do, please feel free to support her Patreon. You can get pictures of her cat. We love us some Seanan McGuire around here too; here’s her Patreon. She needs a toaster.
Our friend came over and we were talking about the current political situation. His analogy was, “Do you want ants? This is how you get ants!”
So here are some political links sectioned off in an ants-only section, because of #1’s Outrage Fatigue.
~~~~~~~~~here be ants~~~~~~~~~
If only this had happened sooner. Orange baby-hands idiot. In case you missed anything about the shriveled yam in a toupee.
Since it seems like a lot of people didn’t get this (politics): http://www.salon.com/2016/06/23/everyone_calm_down_the_no_fly_no_buy_bill_was_designed_to_embarrass_republicans_not_to_pass_and_its_working/ Like, don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, not being able to get on a plane is a much much bigger deal than not being able to buy an AR-15?
fact checking a subset of Trump’s most talked about lies: http://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/fact_checking_trumps_garbage_truck_of_lies_his_speech_accusing_clinton_of_corruption_is_riddled_with_fiction_and_conspiracies
In case you don’t spend enough time thinking about gender and double standards. Being a female politician sucks. Being a female doctor sucks. More on abortion.
This is why everyone has to vote. Texas needs these.
This cartoon, which sums up #1’s attitude, is from the wonderful Sarah’s Scribbles.
Let’s hate republicans together.
~~~~~~end of ants~~~~~~~~
And here are some other things not to miss!
We need better medicine. Patriarchy is depressing. “I love getting stalked,” said #NoWomanEver.
Juneteenth. False narratives– hey, more woman-shaming. Maybe the ants weren’t over after all.
Productivity, and an excuse to buy new notebooks.
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
June 25, 2016 at 12:28 pm
I have to admit, I find the crowdsourcing of people’s lives both fascinating and confuslng. It says something that most authors can’t make a living writing, but that’s been the case for most authors all along.
June 28, 2016 at 1:33 pm
I have to confess, I don’t get it. I’ve been a writer, and wanted to be a writer, all my life; but it seriously would never occur to me to ask anyone else to pay my living expenses so that I could be a writer. I have a full-time job to pay the bills, and I am a writer. I realize that the US economy is looking more and more like the economy of Georgian England, but still … a lot of people supporting Kickstarters etc do not have their *own* financial bases covered. They should not be patrons of the arts just yet.
That said, I have contributed to artistic friends’ fund drives for a) buying a used RV to live in after being evicted from an apartment after having Social Security disability benefits denied even though the disability was well documented; and b) getting a kidney transplant pre-ACA.
June 29, 2016 at 10:58 am
But artists used to be supported by rich patrons, right? A lot of people doing scientific work also used to be supported either by their family’s own money, or a wealthy patron, since the work doesn’t have a commercial reward soon enough. We crowdsource that to taxpayers to fund government grants now.
The Patreon idea is if someone’s work is of enough value to you that you’re willing to help them focus on that full time to get more of it. I’d rather pay them directly than have to look at ads alongside their content.
June 25, 2016 at 2:03 pm
Have you tried a bullet journal? I read about them a while ago, but disliked the idea of the analog (unsearchable) nature, and I need monthly/yearly calendars laid out in calendar style, so I’d have to draw it myself? I tried to use evernote to implement one, but reverted into my usual use of evernote (which is largely just a mess, but the place where I take detailed meeting notes). My todo list is haphazard and lives mostly in evernote (or just my head, or worse, e-mail in box). Maybe a bullet journal would make sense for tasks and brief notes, and evernote can retain its purpose to keep detailed searchable notes on work related stuff. The fact that i don’t have a good system pains me. My system does work in that things don’t fall through the cracks, but it is messy and feels haphazard (and maybe I”d be more awesome if I had a real system). Hmmm… Ask the Grumpies: What productivity tools do you use to manage your life?
June 25, 2016 at 2:09 pm
That is actually already a post in drafts. We’ve done a lot of exploring this year but still have no good answers. You might like clouds beyond management blog.
June 25, 2016 at 2:14 pm
Also, that article about sexism and millennials was super depressing. I clicked the one study that provided the most depressing stats, and Im not convinced by this single study (~2000 people, agreed to participate) that it is really as bad as the stats say… but the overall direction is still depressing.
June 27, 2016 at 1:25 am
I was reading a sample of Zen Cho’s Sorceror to the Crown and it suggested N.K. Jemison so I feel comfortable suggesting Zen Cho to you in reverse. Yay for great writers.
I have politics and outrage fatigue too, so I’m taking breaks from it. Focusing on good stuff before the evil so there’s something left of my soul. Especially after those neo-Nazis today in Sacramento.
June 27, 2016 at 9:11 am
Oh we are SO all over Zen Cho. Thanks! People should check out both those authors. Woo books woo!
June 29, 2016 at 7:17 am
Re: Better medicine — The company I work at works with customers that are working on the “future of medicine” which we expect will be stem cell therapies and implanted devices. For pain issues, for example, if you can manage pain by regulating the nerves that transmit pain signals to the brain, you can avoid treating with a medication that’s also addictive. For brain diseases where brain tissues decay, there’s the possibility to “re-grow” brain cells instead of only using medicine that might just slow the death of brain cells. Much research is going on to understand these functions better too, of course, to result in better treatments. Exciting stuff.
June 30, 2016 at 1:51 pm
I’m SUPER in favor of regulating pain without medication which is ineffective and has unbearable side effects anyway.