1. My laptop power cord suddenly died last night (instead of slowly dying, like my last several) so I shall probably be rather less online until I figure out what I'm doing about that (not entirely not-online, because phone + work computer + backup laptop, but less.)

This is probably good for me and hopefully I will get a lot done? :D Maybe?

2. Speaking of I went and found my copy of the Silmarillion this morning since I couldn't just stare at the internet. (It's a First American Edition with a foldout map in the back that my uncle stood in line to buy on the first day.) I've only ever read the Ainulindalë and the Valaquenta out of it because tbh the Feanorians always seemed just boringly overwrought. But sathinfection is trying to get people to write Akallabeth-based Sauron slash and well. Usually I am strong against that kind of thing. But. someone needs to stop me I own a Ring that I haven't put on once in ten years why is this so hard to resist

2. You've probably seen the stuff about the site that has scraped large amounts of fanfic from Ao3 and reposted it under a paywall, probably in order to phish for credit card numbers and maybe personal info from takedown notices. I am kinda flattered tbh because nobody's ever pirated my stuff before.

It is going to be interesting to see what happens because iirc this is the first time those kinds of sites have targeted fandom large-scale, and I doubt it's going to stop now that the box has been opened, and now that it HAS been opened, it's going to bring all kinds of copyright questions out into the open that we've just been letting sit.

...unless we-as-fandom just collectively ignore it and let the pro authors who are also on the site handle it, which tbh is what I'm leaning toward.

3. Oh speaking of boxes that once opened cannot be closed again, I'm seriously considering buying a Hugo vote this year. I've actually been seriously considering it for several years, because a corresponding Worldcon membership is a pretty good deal in return for a collection of what's currently hot in SF, but I was stopped by the fact there was no way I'd actually get around to reading all the nominees in time to vote. This year, though, some thoughtful fans have conveniently reduced the number of nominees I'd need to read by over half, and that might actually be doable.

4. I am seriously considering starting another side tumblr titled "This book actually exists?" because I am stumbling on them ALL THE TIME now that I work at a library. Examples from the past week:
-An Easy Reader picture book titled Can You Spot a Jedi with a sinister-looking Yoda on the front cover that is definitely not Imperial propaganda, nope.
-A kids' series in which Sherlock Holmes' American great-great-great grandchildren, Xena and Xander, solve crime together.
-A book that retells Tom Sawyer from the POV of Becky Thatcher and her girlfriends who were having WAY better adventures than he was.

5. For Camp Nano I am currently playing with a set of characters that originated in a text-based adventure I programmed for my TI-83 when I was 13*. IT HAS BEEN SUPER-FUN. 13-year-old me had great OCs. But also I am remembering all the way that original fic is way harder to write than fanfic. (There's currently a Jupiter Challenge going on Tumblr to encourage people to write the stories they've had laying around in the back of their minds since they were preteens. I don't think I'm going to do it because tbh I never actually needed the extra encouragement to hang on to my old OCs, but it sounds pretty cool!)

*they live in a world that's like the Early Bronze Age except the glass tech is further advanced because the desert dragons like to chew on sand like bubblegum and thus taught people glassblowing v. early on. Sadly though I haven't figured out how to work this fact into any actual storyline so I am telling y'all instead.

6. Steven Universe. That is all.