PSA! gfycat.com is shutting down and deleting all content and data on the site on September 1, 2023. if you have any fav gifs hosted there, grab them NOW!!!!

I'm calling this monster liker. Not even, like, monster lover.

literally @naffeclipse Cryptid Sightings and Deep Dreams

I love that two people have tagged me in this post, makes my little monster loving heart soar!

peace and FUCKING love on planet earth

Time to drop some links again.

– https://searchmysite.net/
Search engine for the indie web, personal websites, digital gardens. You can also find them in websites like Neocities, Indieweb, Blogarama, and write.as. There is also a big list of personal websites.

– https://search.marginalia.nu/
Search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and promotes websites that aren’t usually at the top of the list.

– https://www.worldcat.org/
Search engine for items in libraries (books, but also maps, articles, sound recordings, theses, etc.)

– https://scholar.google.com/
Search engine for scientific papers, reviews, etc. It’s still google, but a lot better than the normal search engine counterpart.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines
A list of search engines sorted by subject, area, and more. If you’re searching on a specific area, it might be worth checking if there is one focused on that area.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines
A list of academic databases and search engines.

– https://tineye.com/
Reverse image search alternative to Google’s.

Also, P.S.: Please stop using Google, and start using more privacy focused search engines, like DuckDuckGo or SearchX (opensource; personally haven’t used it yet, but it looks promising for privacy-focused users)

That Google and Meta can get away with this during an era of intense misinformation and disinformation signals that we cannot rely on large tech companies to provide reliable access to information and news:

The writers' strike is ongoing and the studios are still not returning to the negotiating table. Unfortunately a lot of the coverage has tapered off because we're on 50+ days of striking and it's not new anymore. The last strike in 2007 lasted 100 days, so don't be surprised if this strike lasts as long, or even longer.

The biggest recent news is that the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) voted to ratify their new agreement with the studios (article from June 23), and it appears likely that the actors' guild (SAG-AFTRA) will also take a deal instead of striking (article from June 24). Although this is disappointing news, it's completely expected. During previous strikes, the WGA held its own without other unions going on strike. Which is to say—don't be disheartened by the news that there won't be a triple strike. The WGA is strong enough!

Please keep vocally supporting the WGA online to keep the pressure on the studios & to keep WGA members motivated and encouraged! There are many ongoing donation drives, such as the Star Trek fan snack squad (Twitter account required to DM the organizer) and the Our Flag Means Death snack squad (opens the PayPal fundraising page—no Twitter required). There's a longer list of ongoing donation drives here.

The Entertainment Community Fund is also always accepting donations to support entertainment workers affected by the strike. Please boost and encourage your friends to keep supporting the strike. Hashtag #IStandWithTheWGA #DoTheWriteThing to boost the cause!

Hi, WGA strike captain here, and I just want to say that the other unions taking contracts is NOT disappointing news. I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that the point of this isn’t to take a strike, it’s to get a good deal.

DGA, we can quibble over whether it’s a good deal or not. (I personally think everyone got too excited about a triple strike summer and forgot that the DGA was simply never going to strike)

But SAG-AFTRA? They got an absolutely killer strike authorization vote. They walked into negotiations with a loaded gun. That plus the fact that with everything shut down most actors aren’t working right now anyway, their leadership is incentivized to hold out for a deal with everything they want in it. Many of those demands overlap with ours, especially concerns about AI, which SAG membership is VERY fired up about.

If SAG gets a great deal with everything they want, then that’s GOOD for us. If the AMPTP were still fucking with them the way they fucked with us, “rejected our offer, refused to counter,” then that means the AMPTP isn’t feeling the pain of strike and doesn’t care how long this strike goes and is happy to stonewall indefinitely. But if they’re giving into the actors? Fuckkkk they’re hurting and this means they might actually come back to the table with us and negotiate in good faith finally. And if SAG gets strong language about AI, you bet your ass we’re going to argue for the same thing.

The DGA built on the writers strike to get a better deal. SAG is hopefully building on the writers strike and what DGA got to get an even better deal. And we’re hopefully going to build on our strike and what DGA and SAG got to get an even better deal. We’re all working together!

The point is not to strike, the point is to get a good deal. I think SAG will, and in my opinion that’s a massive win for us.

He is perfect