@hauntedhideaway@babka.social
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

hauntedhideaway

@hauntedhideaway@babka.social

Library director and author of Sherlock Holmes AU pastiche The Twisted Blackmailer. Into fundraising, nonprofit management, Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, Batman, The Phantom of the Opera and more. Convert to Judaism. HMU if our interests align. North Eastern USA.

Profile photo: a fat white woman in three quarters profile with short hair, purple glasses and a blue beaded necklace.

Banner: An amusement park ride with a brightly lit central spinning unit.

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hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Someone dear to me changed their pronouns for a while then changed them back. No harm done. Experiment terminated successfully. They know what they don’t want. It was easy. It was FREE. It left no lasting changes. This should be a normal part of finding yourself. That doesn’t mean everyone has to do it. It means it’s no longer outside the range of possibilities for actions when you’re trying to figure out where you are and where you fit in. Respect when someone changes their pronouns. And respect if they change them back without harassment and “see I told you sos.” It’s simple, it’s empathetic, and it doesn’t cost you a damned dime.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Fight for your libraries. Don’t let them take away your library by defunding it out of providing vital services. Don’t let them shackle the library with rules meant to prevent the right people from getting the right book to change their life. Don’t let them close the doors, because you know they will never open again. Fight for the freedom to read and explore new ideas. Fight against censorship and denying people the materials their souls need. If a library closes, it will never open again. You couldn’t create libraries today. You want to loan out books? And people will just willingly give them back? Are you mad? Naïve, perhaps? Once a library closes its doors, it’s over. The book banners have won. Do not let them win. Fight for libraries. Fight for library workers. Fight for patrons. Fight for free people reading freely.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

It's been said before: Don't pay it forward in the coffee line. The person behind you has enough money for coffee. They were in line for coffee. You want to know who doesn't have enough money for a coffee, possibly? Your barista. Tip your baristas well, instead of paying for the guy behind you's coffee who is now locked into an order because that's what you paid for. Think about who would benefit more, and who would appreciate it more.

hauntedhideaway, to random
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When I was a kid, I never thought that we would get to a point where saying Nazis are bad and genocide is bad and slavery is bad would be controversial positions, but… gestures wildly

hauntedhideaway, to random
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If I could do expensive PR, I would tell everyone how valuable libraries are. Not just how much they save you. But how valuable they are toward building community and preserving democracy. Everyone should be using the library!

hauntedhideaway, to random
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“When did Doctor Who get woke?” Excuse me, are you FUCKING NEW?

hauntedhideaway, to random
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Muffin is learning the blessings. He’s almost ready for his bar meotzvah.

hauntedhideaway, to random
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I think we need to back up and say “books are important.” “Literature is important.” Deep down, the book banners know that books can change lives, that’s why they want them banned. But I think we need to openly acknowledge this. Science is also important. It teaches us WHY we are. But books and stories teach us HOW we are. HOW we can be. I’m sure you’ve already heard this: stories should be mirrors that reflect ourselves and they should be windows, so we can see out into the world. We see HOW we are, and HOW the world is. We explore how we are and how the world. Empathy is one of the many things borne of reading. Empathy for others, yes. But for ourselves, too. Books and stories are so important. It’s why I work in a library, and why I have 57 streaming services. I’m addicted to stories. I’m addicted to knowing both WHY and HOW. People who are not are genuinely uncurious about the world. They’re happy in their bubble. And they want to pull everyone else into it. Stay curious.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

I once read this article where some (white) dude criticized Jane Austen for not talking about the Napoleonic Wars in her books. I've seen other instances of people judging art and media not by what it is, but by what they wish it were. It's happening a lot with The Marvels. A lot of people want it to be serious, or deep, or a movie with (white) male leads, instead of looking at what it actually is--a fun romp that may not be intended for the traditional super hero demographic. Yes, it bombed by Marvel standards. But it was the highest grossing movie its opening weekend. It was never meant to do Endgame numbers. It was never meant to be a treatise on the Napoleonic Wars.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

My sister was at work when an old man came up to her and told her she should get on Ozempic and lose 100 lbs. Like you can’t even exist while fat now days. I bet this guy thought he was doing her a favor because she probably never thought about losing weight before and it was his good deed for the day, which makes it more vile.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

A Waffles for you today?

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Whoever designed necks and backs and knees has a lot to answer for.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

I was in school before most schools had a free breakfast program. This meant most mornings I did not eat breakfast. By mid morning, it was hard to concentrate. I'd be watching the clock until lunch, which I got for free due to financial hardship. This was alleviated when I went to a school with free breakfast, for which I qualified. I still had ADHD struggles, but at least I wasn't watching the clock anymore, waiting for lunch. There was a brief time where I didn't qualify for free lunch. Lunch looked like a peanut butter sandwich, often without jelly, or buttered bread, and sometimes just a carrot. Subsidized school meals was a lifeline for me. Now some people want to grow the program, so that kids don't fall through the gap like I did, and others want to take it away completely. Children can't learn when they're hungry. And sometimes, those school meals are the only decent meals they have. Summers can be rough.

hauntedhideaway,
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Food insecurity is a huge issue for many families, and it's a growing issue as things become tighter and tighter with out of control inflation and depressed wages. I don't think there would be so many children in need of subsidized meals if we stopped people from falling in the river and created a system whereby their parents did not fall into poverty and need to begin with. I acknowledge that school lunches are a bandaid on a societal problem. But right now, they're what we have, until we're ready to seriously make sure food insecurity is no longer an issue for ANYONE, up river. Until then, we'll just keep plucking people out of the water down stream. It hurts to know there are people who would let children drown, rather than pull them out of the water.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

While I'm thinking about it--folks are good about image descriptions, which is great! Let's see everyone capitalizing every word in their tags, too! Screen readers can read each word if they're capitalized. Otherwise they just smoosh all the words together into one incomprehensible super word. is way more comprehensible than a word salad. And yes, capitalize those prepositions and articles even though you wouldn't in other forms of writing. Let's keep things nice for everyone.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Here's the thing: the censorship issue doesn't just affect school and public libraries. It affects you too. If they succeed in getting books pulled from libraries and librarians fired or prosecuted, they won't stop at libraries. They're going to move on to book stores and your home book shelves. And then they're going to move on to speech outside of books that they don't like. They're not going to be satisfied at just stopping a few book checkouts and taking a few jobs at the library you don't even use, so it doesn't affect you. When your speech on the internet is monitored and "corrected," and when what you say out loud is criminalized, maybe you'll see that it affects you. It starts with getting an LGBTQ book off a public library shelf. It ends with the death of free speech. Don't let it come to that.

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Mastodon never steers me wrong with book recs. Looking for something on Jewish topics. I don’t really have anything in mind. Ready, set, go!

hauntedhideaway, to random
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

Today, I learned that there are two Ts in “enshittification.”

hauntedhideaway, to random
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Many thanks to Biscuit, who jumped over my keyboard, instead of walking on it, and landed right in my plate of food. Good job, little buddy.

hauntedhideaway, (edited ) to random
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This is all the peace I’m going to get tonight. When she wakes up, she is going to be on fire.

hauntedhideaway, to random
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I feel like we need to save Marilyn Monroe’s clothes from Kim Kardashian. Some kind of intervention or something.

hauntedhideaway, to random
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Sex is not inherently obscene. It's a normal part of life. Being LBGTQ isn't inherently obscene. It's a normal part of life. In fact, I would prefer that children and young adults grapple with these mature issues and where they fit in with these issues between the pages of a book, as opposed to real-life situations for the first time. Ignoring adult issues that children and young adults are on the cusp of being asked to face on their own is not going to make them go away.

That said--if you feel these themes are not appropriate for your child--you are the parent! Don't allow your child to read these materials. But you don't get to say what's appropriate for OTHER people's children.

https://www.al.com/news/2024/02/alabama-library-ordered-to-stop-buying-childrens-ya-books-with-adult-lgbtq-themes.html

hauntedhideaway, to random
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Transphobes are losing their minds over the most recent episode of Doctor Who. Good. Go away. Leave my fandom alone.

hauntedhideaway, to random
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Pancake made a new friend.

lonestarplate, to random
@lonestarplate@babka.social avatar

Whenever you see a news article about that seems unfathomable to you, it's something like this. Something that challenges rigid views on gender, sexuality, or race.

The days where book banning was about bad grammar in Junie B. Jones or potty humor in Captain Underpants aren't what we're dealing with now. Don't let book banners control the conversation by categorizing their efforts as absurd.

https://masto.ai/

hauntedhideaway,
@hauntedhideaway@babka.social avatar

@lonestarplate Get on your library boards and school boards! The opposition certainly is!

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