You may have heard that Houston schools plan to convert libraries to disciplinary centers and fire the librarians.

What you may not have heard is that the State of Texas took over the Houston school district and installed its own superintendent.

That's the guy who is closing libraries. This is not something local residents want, and the superintendent is not locally accountable,

#txpol #texas #houston #library #libraries

I'm gonna put this out there: If you are new to #Mastodon and have found people to be hostile, or nitpicky, and just generally unhelpful please @ me and say hi. I am happy to walk you through this place, get you comfortable, be non-judgy about helping you, and help make this place your new home. I'm gonna call this #MastoHelper If others want to help newbies, lets do it together!
We need to do more to make people feel welcome first, that's how you create a culture people want to be part of
#help

"The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a proposal meant to force health insurers to cover mental health and addiction care as comprehensively as they cover treatment for physical health conditions." Good. https://www.statnews.com/2023/07/25/mental-health-addiction-insurance-biden/

Beware those who are good at both sucking up and punching down. Their loyalty is an illusion, but their cruelty is not. A true warrior licks no boots, nor uses theirs to step on others to get ahead.

This is amazing so please boost

The Banned Book Club is a project of the Digital Public Library of America. You download their Palace e-reader and choose Banned Book Club as your #library. It gives you access to all (most?) of them plus others

I guess if you live in a liberal state you might not need it but it's worth checking out
#bookstodon #books #reading #BannedBooks

https://lithub.com/the-banned-books-club-is-an-e-reader-app-that-can-get-you-over-the-firewall/

This is *amazing*: a #CrossStitch tribute to the legendary #TextAdventure game #Zork with two of its most iconic lines.

Be sure to click through for the heartwarming story behind it.

https://www.tumblr.com/theclueofthebrokenneedle/722758344968912896/this-is-my-pride-and-joy-a-gift-for-my-dad-who

You can buy a PDF of the pattern (not the physical product!) from its creator here: https://brokenneedle.gumroad.com/l/westofhouse

#gaming #VideoGames #Infocom #InteractiveFiction #RetroComputing #RetroGaming #PDP10 #PDP11 #TRS80 #AppleII #Apple2 #Commodore64 #C64 #Commodore #Atari #CPM #DOS #MSDOS #IBMPC

The Louvre Is Thrilled to Announce It Is Rebranding to "UVR". "Is that an acronym? Maybe. Is it a meaningless assemblage of letters? Perhaps. Is it memorable? Searchable? Do we even own the IP? I'm not telling." https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-louvre-is-thrilled-to-announce-it-is-rebranding-to-uvr

This meeting could have been a nap

Great news! The Digital Public Library Of America has teamed up with The Palace Project e-reader app to make books banned in American communities accessible for free!

See here for more info - and please boost this:

https://www.lbbonline.com/news/digital-public-library-of-americas-banned-book-club-ensures-access-to-banned-books

#stopbookbans #bookbanning #antifacism #literacy

“Helpless is a shitty feeling, but it’s not forever, and it doesn’t make you any less capable.” - Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), Star Trek: Discovery

Son: Daddy, what’s the biggest fruit?

Me: I don’t know, buddy. Let’s ask Google. Hey Google, what’s the biggest fruit?

Smart speaker starts talking about jackfruit.

Son, looking confused: No, what’s the biggest fruit in our house?

Me: Oh. We have some big apples.

Son: I’ll just have a banana please.

twitter is rebranding as X and my only response to that is Y

"It's amazing anyone ever had any fun in the old days," I said, shaking my head at the documentary.

"I know, I just can't imagine living so... brutally," Rua agreed, flexing her wrist to let her stress-monitor know she was fine.

"I mean, I know people who work at least thirty hours a week; but they mostly enjoy what they do," I added.

"But working for food and shelter," Rua blanched, "It's amazing humanity got past the two-thousands."

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Writing #TerylsTales #SFF #SciFi

After Twitter rebranding to X, Mastodon has announced they’re rebranding to Wayland.

When you're against social welfare supports and universal basic income.

#UBI

Now that we’re (bascially) three episodes in on everything for the #Summer2023Anime season, I’m curious what everybody’s digging right now. Is it what you expected it to be?

Poll below the original “excited for” quote post. #anime #animastodon #BleachTYBW #MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation #RebornAsAVendingMachineINowWanderTheDungeon #TheMasterfulCatisDepressedAgainToday #Helck #Zom100BucketListOfTheDead #TheGirlILikeForgotHerGlasses #UndeadMurderFarce #JujutsuKaisen

From: @blackestclovers
https://sakurajima.moe/@blackestclovers/110656863199006530

In the internment camps we learned valuable skills! Like how not to get shot for trying to escape, when we just running to use the public latrine on a freezing cold night.

Marty McFly played the 1958 song Johnny B Goode, in 1955, to an audience that already knows what Rock is, but he accidentally threw in an insane Hair Metal solo from 1985, and stunned the crowd into silence.

So you need something that would have come out in the late 90's, something new but recognizable, but ending with some anachronistic 2020's, off-key, lunatic solo.

So... You play The Impression That I Get from 1997, but you accidentally throw in a Pandemic-era drunken sea shanty, e.g. What Do We Do With A Drunken Sailor, where you get absolutely plastered and kick over an amp.