aka how to support libraries and get books and audiobooks for free without pirating them.
disclaimer: this is so easy. it is also really fun.
one: download the libby app. you'll open it and it'll ask you to add a library.
two: get a library card. don't have one? good news, it's really easy and i am saying this as the laziest person on earth. it varies what you need to have to get a card library to library but almost all libraries will let you get one online. i have a card for my home town and for the town i moved to. sometimes you only need an email address, sometimes you need an area code. to get mine it took me about 5 minutes of lying on the couch aimlessly tapping on my phone. follow your heart. you can get cards for places you don't currently live. i will leave the ethics of that up to you but it's probably better than pirating and either way you're creating traffic for libraries which is what they need to exist.
three: add your card. you can add multiple cards for multiple libraries. you need the number. i have never had libby fail to recognize a valid account.
four: search for your book! some will be ready to borrow right away. others have an estimated delivery time. libby will always pick the one that's the fastest from the options available at all the libraries you have cards at. you can borrow audiobooks and ebooks. libby will send you a notification when you're book is ready to borrow. in my experience it's a lot faster than the estimate. if you aren't ready to read it, you can ask to be skipped over in line so you keep your place at the front but let someone else read it first.
five: read it!!! kindle is the most common way to do this. you can go to your loan and click read with kindle. it'll download it to all your devices where you have kindle. as long as you have the loan, it'll act like your book. when the loan ends, if the device is connected to the internet, it'll automatically be returned. it will save all your notes and highlights. (if you disconnect your device from the internet, it won't return the book. weewoo.)
anyway in case anyone else has been wondering about it, i really love it. is a nice surprise to see what i'm going to get and it's cut my reading costs down big time! it's also neat because i get to synch my books between devices unlike downloading books through cough cough other means. good luck!
you're laughing. charles dickens had a son named plorn and you're laughing
I wish that ao3 had an option to filter warnings (and tbh certain authors) out like I will never ever want to read it and just seeing it puts me off so much that often I end up closing my browser because that content upsets me so much lmao
Do you have any insights into the different candidates for the upcoming otw elections?
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Not as yet.
for writers new to AO3—you know how people sometimes leave comments in their bookmarks? did you know you can search for other people’s bookmarks of your own fic, so that you can view them all at once and don’t have to manually go through each fic’s individual bookmarks page? and even better, if you don’t want to figure out the search parameters for that, you can just go to this handy lil web page;
^ just enter your username, click the second box for ‘bookmarks with notes only’, and there u go. all* bookmarks of your fics with comments in one easy to view space
*obviously private bookmarks won’t show, but it also won’t show bookmarks that only have added tags and no comment
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (horror)
Lamb to The Slaughter by Roald Dahl (horror)
We Ate The Children Last by Yann Martel (satire/horror)
The Empty Prison by Matt Dymerski (horror)
The October Game by Ray Bradbury (horror)
I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (horror/sci-fi)
A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O'Connor (horror)
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov (sci-fi)
For anyone who hasn't seen them before, Hidden Search Operators are handy tricks you can use when you're either searching or filtering AO3.
summary: string is a generic way of explaining that you can search AO3 for a specific word that appears in a summary. You can do this from the search bar in the header, from the Any Field box at the top of the Advanced Search form, or from the Search Within Results box at the bottom of the filter menu.
Examples:
summary: Bruce
summary: "Bruce Banner"
summary: Bruce OR summary: Banner OR summary: Hulk
You need to put quotation marks around your search term if it is more than one word. The quotes make sure that the site searches for those two words together.
The other two operators listed work best in the Search Within Results box.
expected_number_of_chapters: 1 will return results where every fic has only 1 chapter currently posted.
You can use expected_number_of_chapters: -1 if you want results where every fic has more than 1 chapter currently posted.
otp:true will return results where there is only 1 relationship tag on the fic. If you want results where there are 2+ relationship tags (and no fics with only 1 relationship tag) then you can use otp:false
There’s some fluff, some smut, some angst, and some funny prompts all mashed up from a bunch of prompt lists I’ve found. Absolutely none of these prompts came from me, I just threw a bunch of ones I liked together.
“Come over here and make me.”
“Wait a minute. Are you jealous?”
“I almost lost you.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Don’t you ever do that again!”
“Kiss me.”
“It could be worse.”
“Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while…”
“You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.”
“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.”
“Just once.”
“I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified.”
“If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed.”
“You heard me. Take. It. Off.”
“Wanna dance?”
“You fainted…straight into my arms. You know, if you wanted my attention you didn’t have to go to such extremes.”
“You did all of this for me?”
“I swear it was an accident.”
“YOU DID WHAT?!”
“If you die, I’m gonna kill you.”
“I fucking hate you”
“He’s dead, again.”
“It’s hard to get used to…” “what is?” “Being someone that someone cares for…”
“The first time you smiled it felt like the universe aligned.”
“It hurts…” “what?” “Loving someone who doesn’t love you…”
“Let me do this, please.”
you’re not as funny as you think you are
i’m just getting comfy
just because you can doesn’t mean you should
how don’t you know the difference between your left and right?
thank you for being in my life
text me when you’re home
you are such a nerd
why are you so cold?
stop laughing at me
you were put on this earth to give me a headache
you’re ticklish
can we go home yet?
you are a terrible influence
one of us is clearly smarter than the other
you need some sleep
how have you survived this long by yourself?
are you just quoting song lyrics?
i’m only here for the dog
sleep is for the weak
that was you?
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“What? I have never-”
“I do not have an answer for you.”
“In my defense, I really wanted to.”
“At least I didn’t break any laws.”
“What did you do this time?”
“How do we get out?”
“I don’t hate you.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Just marry me already.”
“Did I stutter?”
“Did I just say that out loud?”
“H-How long have you been standing there?”
“I’ve never felt this way before and I’m terrified to be honest.”
“Is that what you call an apology?”
“Is there anything you want to tell me?”
“Somebody’s in love!”
“Can I hold your hand?”
“There is no way this much stupid can fit inside one person.”
“I’m never leaving…I promise.”
“Uh, am I interrupting?”
“I like you, like like you like you.”
“Be my Valentine?”
“Can I kiss you?”
“God, I love you.”
“You’re so fucking cute.”
“Stop being a fucking prick.”
“Do you want me to stay?”
“You’re my everything.”
“I love seeing you smile.”
“i’ve been thinking about you all day.”
“ i can’t get enough of you.”
“i like being close to you. you’re warm.”
“i’m not wearing any underwear. thought you’d like to know.”
“is this okay?”
“this is a one time thing.”
“you know where to find me.”
“you’re really good at that.”
“here’s my hotel room number.”
“don’t be shy now, sit on my face.”
“Wanna join?”
“Stop doing that”
“YOU SENT ME PICTURES OF YOU NAKED WHILE I WAS IN A WORK MEETING!”
“If I ask you to kiss me in front of all these people, will you do it?”
“Don’t go on that date.” “Why?” “You know why.” “Say it.”
“ i think i might be in some kind of love with you.”
“say you want me, and i’m yours.”
“you need a place to stay for the night”
“i want to taste you”
“i love it when you talk dirty
“if you interrupt me one more time— so help me god”
“if we weren’t in public right now i’d have my head between your legs”
“i don’t know what to do” “then let me teach you”
“i forgot my towel”
“this feels dirty” “that’s because it is”
“don’t cover you’re face, i want to see you”
“are you sure about this?”
“ive never wanted to fuck someone as badly as i want to fuck you rn”
“do you want help with that?”
“im going to fuck you until you forget that assholes name”
“bend over the desk love”
“is that my shirt?”
“my mother adores you.”
“is that a drawing of me?”
“i didn’t mean to say that but yeah, i love you.”
“i’ve never seen anyone look so cute and ridiculous at the same time.”
“stop looking at me like that!”
“i didn’t know you could sing.”
“you weren’t supposed to hear that!”
“you wrote me a song?”
“i’m not scared but if you are, you can hold my hand.”
“this isn’t adrenaline, i want to spend my life with you.”
“do you think of me when you touch yourself?”
“Take my jacket, it’s cold”
“My friends get annoyed by how much I talk about you sometimes”
“I’m not going anywhere”
“fuck you.” - “when?”
“no one’s ever made me feel like this.”
“here, let me help you.”
“we’re quite literally fugitives of the state.” - “so no pizza?”
“you’re insane.” - “people keep telling me that.”
“you’re pretty.” - “you’re drunk.”
“i told you i’d come home to you.”
“i’ll keep you safe.”
“i’ll spend a thousand lifetimes coming back to you.”
“i didn’t think it was possible to love someone this much.”
“please never stop smiling.”
“Touch yourself for me.”
“Shut up and take your pants off.”
“Wanna see what I’m wearing underneath all this?”
“Do you know how beautiful you are? It’s truly distracting.”
“How are you this perfect?”
“I’ve waited so long for this.”
“Would you just shut up and kiss me already?”
“Tell me what you want.”
“Could he make you feel as good as i do?”
“Are you trying to turn me on or are you really just that oblivious?”
“Just let me finish this/this level and I swear ill go down on you until you cum at least three times.”
“I haven’t even touched you and you’re already this wet.”
“Were you just masturbating?” “U-uh..no, I was just..” “Want some help?”
“Tell me again.”
“I really want to kiss you right now.” “Then do it.”
“I don’t care what you do just fuck me.”
“Stop distracting me.”
what addons do you use for firefox? i've just downloaded it to switch from chrome (derogatory)
firefox (affectionate)
UBlock Origin obviously. out-the-box works just fine but has a bunch of extra privacy/tracking/spam filters you can enable
Decentraleyes protects you against tracking through “free” curated content delivery and works alongside UBlock (or any of the other common adblocking addons)
I Don’t Care About Cookies good for EU users where GDPR made it so every site ever in the universe asks you to accept cookies and privacy terms seventeen times a day. will just auto-accept for you. never see an annoying popup again! but only use in conjunction with…
Cookie Auto Delete does what it says on the tin. will automatically flush cookies, cache, and data when you close a tab. those cookies you just auto accepted? they’re gone now. whitelist any sites you wanna stay logged in on and let the rest fucking perish
Don’t Track Me Google removes that annoying link conversion when you copy google results. you know when it changes from “site.com” to “encrypted.google.com/randomnonsensefor200charactersblahblahblah”? yeah. this stops that happening. fuck off, google.
Don’t Accept image/webp blocks sites from using the most useless file extension known to mankind so you can save as .jpg or .gif as god intended. fuck webp. seriously. what even is that.
Bypass Paywalls Clean exactly what you think it is
HTTPS Everywhere automatically adds ecrypted security to any site that supports https (you can do this manually by adding the s yourself to any url but… who can be fuckin bothere amirite? this does it for you)
New XKit …duh
Google Search Filter allows you to remove domains from your searches forever. pinterest? gone. weheartit? nuked. also works on duckduckgo. never type “-pinterest” into a search again.
Simple Tab Groups allows you to group tabs together and shove them out of sight, which is nice if you’re researching something and don’t want 50 bajillion jstor tabs clogging up your normal browsing session
A side blog dedicated to all those cool info posts i find
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