Want an easy, low-effort New Years resolution that will actually have a tangible, exponentially positive impact on your life and your community? Resolve to start wearing a mask again in public in 2026.
Give a big Fuck You to the fascists who want to control you, the capitalists who want to exploit you, and the vultures who want to make money off your insecurities by ignoring the “Time to get working on your beach body!” bullshit and instead committing yourself to something that is 100% proven to actually improve your health by protecting yourself from catching and spreading respiratory illnesses.
2026 is going to be hard enough. There are a lot of things that are out of our control, and a lot of us feel pretty helpless. This is one thing you can do to take control of your health and actually protect your community. Make 2026 a little easier for yourself and everyone around you. Wear a mask.
It’s so funny to me that Mary Shelley, her husband, John Polidori, and Lord Byron had a competition to see who could write the best horror story and she wrote fucking Frankenstein. Imagine losing a competition that badly. Imagine just doing a silly little competition with your friend and she basically invents a new genre and creates one of the most famous characters in fiction. Imagine being proud of your little story and then she shares one that people will still read every day in 200 years. Imagine doing a writing competition with your wife and she becomes so recognizable that you’ll always be known as Mary Shelley’s husband
the phantom of the opera by gaston leroux reads like an intense true crime podcast with a host super into this specific story, frankenstein by mary shelley reads like the most intense AITA reddit post you’ve ever seen and dracula by bram stoker reads like an unhinged discord server dedicated to calling out one creepy sus dude
this is why they’re classics and they still slap, context can vary but good stories are forever
As a former librarian I’m actually required to remind you that many libraries that subscribe to Libby are opted into a program that lets you subscribe and access magazines for free with no wait
And that this is actually a really fun, low cost way to not only access news and larger cultural magazines, but also to get free patterns for many different crafts that you can screenshot if need be and that lower the financial barriers to entry for trying new things
From my experience working in both academic and public libraries, many libraries are use it or lose it funding– I have to say this because a lot of patrons feel guilty for how much they use the library and how often they’re using it funny enough, but the worst thing you can do for libraries is not try out new features and not use what’s already given to you as much as possible.
The numbers that come as a result of your patronage are how most libraries justify their continued existence in times of financial hardship, which sucks but, go check out some magazines on Libby!
while i hope the AI boom dies out i also hope we start acknowledging data center water overconsumption as it’s own unique issue because like. it’s not AI itself that harms the environment it’s the hardware hosting it, right? same reason nfts and cryptocurrency were also bad for the environment. the root problem isn’t going away so long as we allow big companies to continue hitching their wagon to the next big tech trend. i worry if they don’t get stronger regulation we’ll just be repeating the same issue whenever the next toy comes along.
if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it being the last line of the brokeback mountain novella is so crazy it makes me feel like my guts are falling out. if you can’t fix it you’ve got to stand it. jesus fucking christ
