Jessamyn

Rural tech geek. Researcher. Librarian resistance. Moss collector. Postcard enjoyer. ✉️ box 345 05060 USA ✉️ (she/her)

Loosely anti-IOT. Keeps a hammer by the printer in case it ever makes an unexpected noise.

Public Key

npub17l342afnwq0u8d6v7h320t52rys8m3hw45kl47jmgd4m3dtrw2vsnzgx3s

NIP-05 Address

jessamyn@glammr-us.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs00c64w5ehq87rkax0tc48469pjgracmh26t06lfd5x6ack43h9xgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds53rma3

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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npub17l342afnwq0u8d6v7h320t52rys8m3hw45kl47jmgd4m3dtrw2vsnzgx3s

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Last Notes

2026-05-14 00:06:02 UTC

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@nprofile…xpxu That is definitely a bird that should not be hard to ID but yellow warbler is my guess as well even though I agree the pictures really don't match.

2026-05-12 16:50:45 UTC

In anticipation of no longer being a Justice of the Peace--I am not running for re-election in 2026, 14 years is enough--I got ordained in the Universal Life Church which means that any weddings I perform after my JP term expires shall be considered "religious" ceremonies. While this feels weird, there's nothing I like more than cheap or free loopholes which help me harness the power of the state. Free Vermont weddings for anyone (who is qualified to marry)!

2026-05-08 20:00:11 UTC

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else. I carpooled with someone who had a cough (unbeknownst to me until later) and now I have the sneezes. Hoping it's just allergies. This will be a weekend of masking up, resting up, and very little typing. Schedule that message for when my sinuses have dried up and have a good weekend.
Image credit: National Library of Medicine, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlmhmd/49679741503/
https://glammr-us.s3.de.io.cloud.ovh.net/media_attachments/files/116/540/729/563/163/138/original/a66dfc18e83b1da0.jpeg

2026-04-28 03:08:52 UTC

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Book 33: Carl's Doomsday Scenario. Book two of this goofy LitRPG series. I enjoyed it a lot, maybe not quite as much as the first one because there was a lot more "WTF is going on?" in the first one. This book introduces quests and some other kind of important dungeon beings. The cat gets a pet and there's a big fight against evil clowns and knife-wielding lemurs. You'll know if you'll like this book or not by how you feel about the previous sentence. I enjoyed it.
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/480/117/609/886/951/original/074c1095fb168ed6.jpg

2026-04-24 00:14:14 UTC

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I talk her through setting it up and dodging 15 different ways for Google spy on her, install more crapware. I also have a private chat about ways to make her devices more impervious to hackers (her partner doesn't seem to be the problem, but you never know) and I email her a few links to her personal email address.
Everyone goes home. I go home. I pass Bill going home in his BMW. I am whooped. I read over my partner's possible new lease so he won't have ChatGPT summarize it. Busy day. EOM

2026-04-24 00:11:08 UTC

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She begins talking about how she got hacked and her stuff "retroactively deleted" from her Chime account and how an unspecified "they" have been spying on her through her devices.
The two of them start talking to Bill, who lives off-grid and comes to the library to charge his iPhone 8. I talk to him about how to tell if it's unsupported. They all have a hearty conversation about how you can be talking about a thing and then BAM, you see an ad for it. She decides to wipe her device entirely.

2026-04-24 00:10:23 UTC

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Quinn and Paula were waiting outside. They have a new tablet which is a Lenovo Gen 3 tablet, but she says it's saying it's a Gen 2 and she wants "to update it." They have enough language to talk about tech but also a lot of misunderstandings. I ask where she saw that it was a Gen 2. There is a LOT of clicking around and "I saw it here somewhere..." I'm patient because she feels how she feels, but I also notice that the camera/microphone are covered with tape, some of her stuff doesn't add up.

2026-04-24 00:09:07 UTC

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Ed was waiting behind two other people to talk to me. He's a motorcycle mechanic and has a lot of questions but there are other people behind him so he settles for the most pressing one which is getting a copy of his business insurance to some supplier or other. He has it on his phone. He needs it on his laptop. There are other ways to do it but the one I show him is "Email it to yourself." He does. It works. He can do this himself too.

2026-04-24 00:08:54 UTC

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He accidentally set himself up with a passkey in Outlook and it's confusing and bothersome to him. We have to sign in to Microsoft approximately six times to remove this passkey which he never wanted and did not understand. Also his phone requires his six digit unlock code every time he puts it down and I ask if he wants it to not do that. Promises to love me forever if I can do that. This is actually a thing I know how to do pretty well. Maybe now Neil will remember my name.

2026-04-21 16:25:52 UTC

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Because of rules about non-profit status in the US and ALA's nervousness about it, advocating for *workers* is done by a separate, linked, organization called ALA-APA.
This organization has been around for over two decades but ebbs and flows in its impact. It's been ebbing lately which is too bad, library work can be challenging and poorly paid, even as people are generally very supportive of libraries and their workers.
https://ala-apa.org/nlwd/

2026-04-21 16:21:30 UTC

Today is National Library Workers Day. The library where I work has a knitters group that meets on Monday. I've never been interested in learning to knit, until now.
https://ravel.me/library-card-vest
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/443/605/332/435/306/original/e5aba8351a35390e.png

2026-04-21 00:51:37 UTC

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@nprofile…kvw5 The thing I'm really concerned about as a working public librarian is that I think most librarians still treat each book challenge as if it is authentic and worthy of going through the process. And this may be true if there's a parent in the community that has a concern even if it's kind of a bullshit concern (homophobic, transphobic, "there is swearing" &c.) but it's absolutely not true if it's a coordinated national campaign.

2026-04-20 22:28:59 UTC

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@nprofile…kvw5 "Less than 3 percent of challenges originated from individual parents." It's just all pressure groups and.or the government.

2026-04-20 00:41:49 UTC

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@nprofile…r3v4 Thank you very much. Just now learning the limitations of my Wordpress-to-Mastodon plugin.

2026-04-19 20:40:06 UTC

Librarian.net: social media is real life, make it accessible
me banging on about alt text like every librarian should.
https://www.librarian.net/stax/5838/social-media-is-real-life-make-it-accessible/
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/433/302/719/578/299/original/8da8441fefa10199.webp

2026-04-17 16:16:59 UTC

One short drop-in time story this week. An unfortunate downside to working with very old people is that they sometimes die. We have a local newspaper and I sometimes see my students in the obits. Dwayne and Ginny were joined at the hip, ran a local apple orchard since forever, and were fun to talk to. Dwayne passed away last month. I sent Ginny a condolence card and told her to please not be a stranger at the library. She stopped by yesterday, my only drop-inner, and we chatted.

2026-04-15 20:10:05 UTC

I went to Hampshire College for undergrad and now it's closing. I have the usual not-interesting-to-me thoughts about what this may portend about the country, but here's a personal reflection on how this does or does not affect me, and how Hampshire affected me.
https://www.jessamyn.com/journal/2026/04/on-hampshire
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/410/531/945/399/810/original/e63b44e5bb41bdf8.jpg

2026-04-14 17:18:37 UTC

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Book 32: This Book Made Me Think Of You. A woman's young husband dies and he leaves her a gift of one hand-picked book per month from the local independent bookstore. This is an engaging and basic romance novel which has at its core the idea that books can change lives. It goes pretty much exactly where you think it's going to go. It's nice, it's bookish, the characters are likable and I did not at all mind being in this world for a while, even though romances are not usually my thing.
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/404/184/182/484/185/original/25253a9df70635fb.jpeg

2026-04-08 20:06:04 UTC

Walked downtown and paid for my annual subscription to the local newspaper (print and digital) with cash and then had a nice chat with the editor who is also my neighbor.
Here's a photo from the town's historical society (basically me and a few others) of the newspaper's offices--same building I was in today--with women seated at typesetting desks getting the paper ready, back in the day.
#Vermont
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/370/865/099/555/017/original/215ed290909f7cb7.png

2026-04-08 15:29:20 UTC

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Book 31: The Bear at the Bird Feeder. As someone who has had a bear at her bird feeder, I read this book with interest. The author is an outdoorsy type who talks about the various kinds of animals you might see if you live near their habitats and what, if anything, you can and should do about them. The animals she discusses range from bears to alligators to foxes to skunks to wild turkeys. It's sensible advice which acknowledges the complexity of these situations.
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/369/764/673/863/859/original/b16a9b6ce06b8442.jpeg

2026-04-07 23:16:32 UTC

I don't talk about my home life too much here but me and @nprofile…qe8y celebrated our 18th anniversary of when we met this past weekend. Here's us at anniversary #1 (at Walden Pond) and a pic from a few weeks ago. 💑
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/365/939/132/855/581/original/47a1c32b67a33df0.jpg
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/365/940/460/409/840/original/256c78d283c34cdc.jpeg

2026-04-07 15:46:18 UTC

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@nprofile…v2yy Oh that was good, but I am not do audiobooks for whatever reason. My commute is two minutes and dish-doing time is taken up by podcasts, but I'll keep that suggestion for other folks who are more audiobook inclined.

2026-04-07 15:06:15 UTC

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Book 30: Dungeon Crawler Carl. I put off reading this because the cover is so dumb. I'm glad I persevered. It's a "What if an RPG was in novel form and was funny?" book with Carl who survives a weird apocalypse only to wind up in a dungeon RPG along with his ex-girlfriend's cat who gets some buffs so that she can talk. There's a complex ruleset and a lot of funny bits while there's also a lot of boss battles complete with weird monsters and a lot of gore. Part of a longer series, will read more.
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/364/021/696/944/705/original/085cbffec4ab98e4.jpeg

2026-04-06 19:12:19 UTC

Librarian.net: Finally got an Apple Watch, it’s okay
Someone finally got an Apple Watch. How’s it been?
https://www.librarian.net/stax/5825/finally-got-an-apple-watch-its-okay/
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/359/347/438/808/386/original/16d4c5fdaf3342f5.jpg
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/359/347/504/242/136/original/3c37f8536c5431ff.jpg

2026-03-30 16:04:21 UTC

Book 29: The Body, a Guide for Occupants. A fun book about what we know about the human body based on science. It talks about the body section by section. The book is filled with trivia including a lot of mentions of people who are not well-known by folks (including some scientists whose research was co-opted by others who took all the glory). I knew some things, I learned some things, and I thought "Oh I think that's changed" about a few things (book is from 2017). Readable and fun.
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/318/962/369/552/621/original/319a790ec9f5f8cb.jpeg

2026-03-27 19:42:14 UTC

Made a short post on my blog about Tracy Kidder and the nostalgia hole I've been in over the past few days.
https://www.jessamyn.com/journal/2026/03/tracy-kidder-rip
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/302/840/814/487/532/original/0b1d95ff8785fdb5.png

2026-03-25 17:46:28 UTC

I am doing the racecar thing again. One car, hood and bumper. Total cost $600 for Andrea's racing season.
If you'd like to chip in either with money or good librarian slogans (can not be outwardly political, could be secretly political) that would be grand.
Paypal: first name at gmail
Venmo: iamthebestartist
Rest assured, this is not my only philanthropy but while we're all helping folks in Minnesota with their rent and folks in Vermont get out of ICE detention, we can also do this.

2026-03-23 21:11:58 UTC

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@nprofile…3h99 As more of an aside. There are two things that come up often when I talk to people about fines.
1. But how will people learn responsibility? (this is where I start taking my rings off)
2. Some cash strapped libraries need those fines are part of their operating budget. (I am very sorry this is the case)
Both of those things are pointing towards issues MUCH larger than ones that a public library can reasonably address with a single policy.

2026-03-23 21:10:11 UTC

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@nprofile…3h99 Most libraries in Vermont do not have fines. They do charge for lost books (a flat price based on the type of book iirc). The data is really clear that fines don't really do anything except punish those least able to pay and create animosity between people and their libraries. The books BELONG TO THE PATRONS, we just try to keep them available. I know not everyone is tech-savvy but being able to put a hold on a checked-out book is a game changer in this space.

2026-03-22 03:05:00 UTC

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@nprofile…6alm Me and the Mister have breakfast in one every time he's up.

2026-03-22 00:10:54 UTC

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@nprofile…y68a I sometimes feel like the random things that I am doing my goofy research on will engender teasing that I do not feel like dealing with, so I am pre-emptive.

2026-03-21 22:03:55 UTC

"This must be one of the most valuable collections known"
I do not know the story here, but while I was browsing the three-volume "Scrapbook of early aeronautica" (shut up) at the Internet Archive, I noticed that there was one page where people just wrote on it, IN it, that they appreciated it. Unusual.
https://archive.org/details/Scrapbookearlya1Upco/page/n4/mode/2up

2026-03-05 04:55:44 UTC

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@nprofile…cs94 NanoRFID which allows you to trace all meat from its point of origin (🐄🐑🐓) to individual store packages.

2026-03-01 23:20:36 UTC

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@nprofile…9uv2 In case you have not seen this...
https://howardbesser.name/T-Shirts/
This is Howard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Besser

2026-02-27 03:55:46 UTC

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@nprofile…r6lk PIPE ORGAN IN THE WALLS

2026-02-26 20:28:26 UTC

For no reason at all, I am trying to track down a folk song I think I've heard recently which ends with a wry joke about the Bay Of Pigs. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
https://www.reddit.com/r/NameThatSong/comments/1rflbx9/folkprotests_song_with_whoops_bay_of_pigs_in/

2026-02-25 19:51:22 UTC

Town Meeting day and local elections are coming up. I'm the co-chair of the Board of Civil Authority and, along with the Town Clerk, we run elections. In order to try to make voting more accessible and less onerous (and to get younger people vaguely interested in the process), we have a Kid Table where parents can park their kids while they vote with sample ballots and coloring pages. Here are this year's contests. Past contests included dog vs. cat and pie vs. creemee.
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/133/002/320/501/995/original/5d88d7e0fac2a59e.png

2026-02-24 18:59:09 UTC

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@nprofile…v2yy I'm going to go see the rest of the exhibit today.

2026-02-24 18:53:32 UTC

Sunday a team of civics nerds including me worked with the local newspaper (host), the town moderator (moderator), the local music hall (venue) and the local public access channel (streaming) and organized a Selectboard candidate forum with the four people running for two seats. 100 people showed up either in person or online. Additional bonus of a quilting exhibit happening at the venue meant all the photos look cool. It was tedious work getting it all set up but very very worth it. #Vermont
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/127/115/307/195/522/original/eed4a087c4c563d4.jpeg

2026-02-22 00:05:08 UTC

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@nprofile…kt0j The mini-arguments me and my partner get into about who needs to walk through the door into the party first.

2026-02-21 01:26:07 UTC

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@nprofile…32kv Starts 10-ish usually wrapped up by 1. We'll see this year!

2026-02-20 21:21:03 UTC

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. I've got the cold that is going around. At least three of my friends have it too. We're expecting eight inches of snow. Car's in the shop. And while this might be a prime time to catch up on my correspondence, it also might not. Gotta rest up before Town Meeting next weekend.
Image credit: National Library of Medicine, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47756470@N03/54059775063/
https://glammr.us/system/media_attachments/files/116/105/049/693/576/633/original/d260bcaa23053dd7.jpeg

2026-02-19 17:35:05 UTC

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@nprofile…n00n Wow, I nodded along to all of that and then got to Infinite Jest and was like "Wait a second..." but maybe it's just that Gen X people claim him?

2026-02-18 02:46:03 UTC

I got to talk to the librarypunk folks last week about the public domain, digitizing zines, Flickr Commons and other library nerd shit. Big fun. Also, there's a transcript link!
https://www.librarypunk.gay/e/158-flickr-commons-feat-jessamyn-west/

2026-02-07 04:25:57 UTC

There are four athletes with hometowns in #Vermont who are competing in the #Olympics. They are from four separate towns with a combined total population of 3666.
As far as I can tell this is the smallest average (916.5) hometown population size with the next smallest being Indiana at 5129 (one guy!), for any of the 32 states which have a hometown of an Olympic athlete.

2026-02-06 18:46:54 UTC

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@nprofile…ummy Did you already purchase it? I have a copy to give away. I enjoyed this book but don't need to keep it around.

2026-02-06 02:27:18 UTC

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It was the middle part of a long day that also involved working with the newspaper (hi Tim!) to host a Selectboard Candidate Forum, get a slide scanner set up for our Library of Things, do my laundry at the laundromat where I run into the guy who might take my book scanner and put it somewhere available to the public, and then home to notarize some documents for a friend before dinner.
There are a lot of little jobs that need doing in this town, it's good to have some little jobs. EOM.

2026-02-06 02:23:53 UTC

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5. "My phone is nearly out of space, how do I get stuff off of it? My daughter says I need a new phone but I like this one" (broken screen held together with sticky tape)
"We can probably extend the life of this one, let's see what's taking up all the space" (videos, facebook)
"Do you use facebook much?"
"Mostly on my laptop"
"Oh, you have a laptop? We can move the videos off of this phone to there, then delete them"
"That would be great!"
"Come back next week. You don't need a new phone"

2026-02-06 02:22:21 UTC

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4. Man comes in with two iPhones. "I need to get my wife's phone on our Family Plan so I can use FindMy iPhone." "Looks like your son set this up, you'll have to get ahold of him. Are you in touch?" "Sure am" (I breathe a secret sigh of relief, so often techie children set their older family members up w/ complex solutions but are not great at supporting them) "Anything else?" "Can I make a custom text tone for my wife" "Sure can" We practice texting back and forth between the phones. Great fun.

2026-02-06 02:20:53 UTC

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I am confused by this. Amazon might change everything overnight but I bet they didn't.
We try to fake-return another item just to see if we get another option but can't make it work (can't return food, can't get all the way through the process).
Woman is also mad because the post office is handling a lot of Amazon deliveries and she apparently dislikes the folks at the post office. They are some of my favorite people so...

2026-02-06 02:20:04 UTC

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3. "I am trying to return this kid's costume I bought online and Amazon sucks and I can't return it and Central Supply [UPS Drop Off place] says they can't read a QR code!!"
"Well, let's look through the app, I think you may need to return it using a different method, the one you used is for a UPS Store and we have a UPS Drop-Off place"
* cancel return *
"Amazon now says item can't be returned because the return window has closed!"

2026-02-06 02:19:26 UTC

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2. Woman trying to return sneakers bought online. She was in last week b/c she paid JustAnswers.com $5 and was worried she'd been scammed. She hadn't.
"This email says to return them?"
* reads email to myself * "Seems legit"
"How do I return them?"
"See that email they sent you? Do what it says"
"Just reply to this email?"
* reads email out loud * "Would you like help"
"Nope, I think I've got it"
"Great, let me know if you have questions"
"I may be back next week"
"I'm here every week"

2026-02-06 02:17:30 UTC

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1. "My phone stopped ringing"
"Flip this switch, fixed!"
"Really?!"
"Sure, let me call you"
* phone rings *
"Oh, wow, that was stupidly easy"
"Second time I've shown people how to do that this year; people don't know what they don't know"
"I also wanted to thank you for all those wonderful books you've written
"I have some bad news about the other Jessamyn West"
"I thought you looked a little young"
"Bless you, sir"

2026-02-06 02:17:02 UTC

Drop-in time at the library has been so hectic in 2026 that I haven't really had time for summaries. I work from 2-4:30 every Thursday, first come, first served. There have been six people per week except for today when I had only five. I try to loosely keep track of my W-L record and today I went 4 for 5 which is the best I've done so far in 2026 so here's the recap.

2026-02-03 19:55:45 UTC

Boston area old tech people: my partner has two 8-track cassettes that he'd like to listen to and/or see if he can digitize. We're looking for a place or person who has an eight track player locallish to him, optimally.
This is a one-time thing, we do not want to buy a player. We might pay for a digitizing service.
Ideas or leads? Harvard's library system does not have what we need, amazingly.
For the youth: these things...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_cartridge

2026-01-25 18:45:26 UTC

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@nprofile…8atu This is a great tool. Feedback: the tool asked me to download and then re-upload an image that was already on Wikimedia Commons. It's possible someone is just ahead of me in trying this, but also possible that this is a bug.

2026-01-08 16:03:18 UTC

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@nprofile…kkfs @nprofile…n00n This was great to read along with and thank you so much for asking my question and also offering a transcript.

2026-01-07 03:49:17 UTC

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@nprofile…cydl @nprofile…kt0j I read Hyperactive Detective Agency and enjoyed that whether it was real or not.

2025-08-15 16:26:55 UTC

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@nprofile…sqsx I do find that sometimes Bluesky can be good for this sort of thing.

2025-08-15 01:29:14 UTC

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@nprofile…4y4j It may not be possible! But I know it's possible to do it on Macs in general so I figured why not?

2025-08-15 01:13:58 UTC

Trying this again like Charlie Brown with some goddamned football.
It went about as well as it ever does.
Advice not needed, thank you for wanting to give some. My thought process is that if this takes someone with your knowledge and not my knowledge in order to make this OS install work (using very good online instructions), then this operating system is probably for you, not for me.
I will give it another two hours of my time in another few years, as per usual.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/115/030/097/638/099/524/original/a05dc8dd3a5cc248.jpeg
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/115/030/098/093/911/831/original/d676a7b0415e7add.jpeg

2025-08-11 17:37:14 UTC

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Book 82: Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. This was another of those "cat books." I loved the last one and did not care for this one as much. There was so much unspoken tension where I was like "JUST TELL THEM THAT THING" that it was a stressful read even though it's a gentle story of a (maybe depressed) woman in Japan who is not sure what to do with her life and spending time at a family-owned bookstore helps sort it all out.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/115/011/331/777/649/046/original/f852fe58bbcd8abf.jpeg

2025-08-08 16:57:23 UTC

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@nprofile…vlqx Donated.

2025-08-08 15:46:06 UTC

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Book 81: The Bezzle. I liked the original Marty Hench novel, this one didn't do it for me as much. Cory clearly knows a lot about ways that rich people can fuck over basically everyone else, as well as how terrible the US prison-industrial complex is. However, the plot gets a bit lost in his explanations of these things (things I mostly already knew). It was good to see Marty, and Catalina Island, but there was only one woman with any lines in this book and that wasn't quite enough for me
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/993/904/542/354/346/original/5c8ed52a0071a768.jpeg

2025-08-08 00:16:56 UTC

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I no longer help people buy cell plans (I try very hard to not get involved with their money) but I did give her the rundown on some cheap options--Mint, Visible, Consumer Cellular, TracPhone--and which networks they were on which is a thing that matters a lot around here.
Ann showed up with a thumb drive that has "important stuff" on it but whch was unreadable in a "You need to format this" way on both her PC and my Mac. Tried a number of different things, but it's a bit outside my wheelhouse.

2025-08-08 00:16:35 UTC

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This is Marlys and the tortilla bag she keeps her phone in. Marlys is pretty down on technology but a friend gave her an iPhone XR and she wanted to know how to best get it set up as a phone. Her mom has a landline and no tech so none of the usual "Eh you don't need a cell plan" answers were going to cut it. She's also starting a job as a high school teacher in a few weeks and thinks having a cell phone might be helpful.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/990/262/312/473/278/original/7c107129c4267c01.jpeg

2025-08-08 00:15:32 UTC

Feeling like maybe I only post about Drop-In Time at the library when things go well. Today was an in-between day (and I have pictures).
You remember Tom from a month ago? He's been helping my friend paint his house a few doors down. He saw me outside and shouted down from the roof that his email wasn't working. I said we could work on that, but not now. This is him checking his text from me so that he can be sure I'm in his phone. Totally safe behavior.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/990/258/508/011/072/original/93b9535c3bb1d951.jpeg

2025-08-07 16:58:34 UTC

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@nprofile…xhte I'm a librarian who uses Apple. My other options are, basically, Google. I'm fine with this at the same time I am NOT fine with this weird sycophancy just like I'm not okay with the bulk of what the high profile US government has been doing (many other public servants within the govt are doing their best and it sucks for them). I don't have a life that can accommodate a Linux world right now. And I don't have a personality that can work within the Linux community.

2025-08-03 17:28:17 UTC

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@nprofile…fw54 I added the ones in that seemed to have a natural place. Did not watch YouTubes. Would love to know more about her earlier life (where she was born, her folks etc) but I think it's pretty solid now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Butcher

2025-07-31 20:52:50 UTC

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@nprofile…fw54 Looks good, thank you.

2025-07-31 20:19:28 UTC

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@nprofile…fw54 If you can copy/paste them into an email, great (I don't have word and that's an easier process for me)

2025-07-31 16:59:59 UTC

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Barbara Butcher worked for the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York where she has seen some shit. She worked on 9/11 as well as many other high profile cases. She lost her position when de Blasio became mayor. She wrote a memoir about the shit she'd seen and how it affected her personal life and I think it will be a good book. No Wikipedia page? Not anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Butcher
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/948/907/513/114/346/original/5ca1b7e796b56d61.png

2025-07-28 17:29:29 UTC

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@nprofile…wtwk Right?! That was the part that really stood out to me.

2025-07-28 16:23:42 UTC

I'm the lackadaisical maintainer of a website about the Carnegie libraries of New England, one of those inherited projects. Was just informed by the Carnegie Corporation that they now have an interactive map of all the Carnegie libraries in the US.
https://carnegie-libraries.carnegie.org/
I dropped down IMMEDIATELY to Meridian MS where Carnegie funded two separate and unequal libraries.
https://carnegie-libraries.carnegie.org/map/?lib=cul%3Ahmgqnk9b9q
The primary source material is a journey.
https://dlc.library.columbia.edu/carnegie/cul:hmgqnk9b9q
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/931/770/398/353/547/original/8b5f0b1cab0577c2.png

2025-07-26 23:18:30 UTC

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@nprofile…sqsx I have So Many Feelings about this. I feel like maybe I *should* like it? But I feel intimidated even though I know perfectly well what all those words mean. I think maybe I spent too much time around pompous people who would quote Shakespeare and be snooty about it that I have some built in very very visceral distaste when people do it. This author seemed like a really nice person! But then she quoted Hawthorne (and Dickinson, and Shakespeare &c &c) and I was just :blobcattableflip:

2025-07-26 22:41:09 UTC

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Book 76: The Science of Last Things. I somehow misread the blurb and cover and thought this would be a very different sort of book. It was essays about the author's life in the context of "the bigger picture" for lack of a better phrase. She discusses religion, her father's death, her cancer, prozac, the birth of her children. Many classic texts were cited and quoted from at length. It was very much not my thing, too "literary" by half, using words like chthonic when many simpler ones would do.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/921/913/726/374/798/original/ffe8777553ea187f.jpeg

2025-07-24 15:00:13 UTC

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Book 75: Woodworking. Emily St. James has written one hell of a first novel. A teacher in rural SD has decided, mostly, to do something about the fact that she is trans. The only other trans person she knows is a 17 year old girl who had to threaten the school district to be able to go to school--they form an unlikely alliance. She goes to support groups. She gets in her own head a LOT. She wavers. She has moments of bravery. She meets others like and not like herself. A masterful novel.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/908/780/903/523/339/original/5fe2b2b650b1a753.jpeg

2025-07-23 21:11:51 UTC

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I tell him that I'll bank a favor with him if that's OK (he and Phil are forever exchanging favors, I know this works for him). He says sure. We shoot the shit for another 20 minutes because he's led an interesting life. His daughter and grandson live in the Spain, they talk on the phone once a week and email is how they interact the rest of the time. He's never video chatted. I tell him maybe I'll show him how that works sometime, if he wants.
It honestly barely feels like work some days. EOM

2025-07-23 21:10:29 UTC

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I look at this PC. He's got some filter shunting all his Yahoo mail directly out of the inbox and into the Archive. He's got some Firefox "search" extension I don't recognize. We go through all his apps, remove a few games and a few others I don't recognize. He tells me about something hinky YouTube is doing. I install Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin. We load his Gmail and it's good. I tell him his computer is fine. He tries to pay me, I tell him the library pays me which is mostly true.

2025-07-23 21:09:31 UTC

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I talk him down to $199. I go get my credit card. [I gasp].
Visa blocks the charge. He tells me to call Visa and say it's OK. I say I can't because I'm on my only phone with him. He says call them and call me back. I decide to go have supper first. He calls me again! I tell him I am eating dinner and will do it later. He starts acting weird about it, so I hang up and he never called back. Now I'm worried I still have a virus because we never removed it.

2025-07-23 21:09:07 UTC

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(I paraphrase here, imagine my face as this story unfolds...)
My Yahoo's been weird for a while, email wasn't showing up so I switched to Gmail. Then I was missing emails and I tried to Google to find tech support. I find a phone number and call it [I inhale sharply] and the guy I talk to tells me I have to install software to let him run my computer [my eyes widen]
He shows me some stuff on my screen I don't understand and says there's something wrong and I have to pay him $499 to fix it.

2025-07-23 21:08:40 UTC

Small town tech support. Phil rings my doorbell (BEFORE NOON) to say his cell-phone-less pal Pablo, age 76, is having urgent laptop issues. Doesn't want to come to drop-in time and wait. I tell Phil to tell Pablo to come over (b/c I am a prima donna who won't use the phone for tech support) and ask what kind of laptop he has "A Mac"
Pablo shows up around 12:30 with his 9 year old PC (Phil's not great with computers either) and we take a look. He tells me one of those spooky computer stories....

2025-07-23 17:59:37 UTC

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@nprofile…25cu Kate Zwaard did great things during her tenure at the Library of Congress, getting them on an open source ILS, helping jumpstart their crowdsourcing project, overseeing Newspaper Navigator and being their first director of digital strategy. Now she has a new job as the executive director for the Coalition for Networked Information, succeeding the legend, Clifford Lynch. I wrote this Wikipedia page yesterday and it's already been improved upon. Good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Zwaard

2025-07-21 15:53:23 UTC

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Book 74: Trans History From Ancient Times to the Present Day. A good "talking heads" style graphic novel about the history of trans people and trans identity based on actual "what we know" history (which is often, sadly, not much b/c of colonizers and active suppression). Not all the history is great, of course, but the authors emphasize the positive and also try to get more than just the usual voices, actively reaching out to many kinds of transfolk to create this wide compendium of histories.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/892/005/850/383/329/original/869318ba3d5f7b99.jpeg

2025-07-21 14:52:14 UTC

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@nprofile…hauc I almost went there for law school and then decided on library school instead. Never been there. enjoy!

2025-07-20 18:25:30 UTC

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Book 73: The Library at the Edge of the World. A nice small town novel about a peninsula in Ireland which is slowly losing the population in its smaller villages and the Council is thinking of ways to centralize which the villagers mostly don't want. The librarian, a woman who came from London after a messy failed marriage and lives with her hard-to-please mother is the central character, driving a mobile library and meeting all the locals and trying to figure out what to do.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/886/945/150/007/902/original/a18e75932451b04f.jpeg

2025-07-18 20:20:53 UTC

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@nprofile…ryax I grew up in more-central MA in a house built in 1785 and it was very very similar.

2025-07-18 15:12:28 UTC

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Book 72: Big House Little House, Back House, Barn. A book about connected farm buildings of New England, though focusing primarily on Maine. I grew up in exactly this sort of place, one that my folks bought from the original farming family. Never thought much about it. Apparently the way it was arranged was like that for a number of interesting reasons, very few of which were "Because it's cold in the winter." and having to do with New England history. An absolute delight to read and learn from.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/874/862/584/796/510/original/47f0f5360fa0dfb9.jpeg

2025-07-18 01:32:22 UTC

My dentist says he has never heard of the Wu-Tang Clan. #vermont
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/871/642/498/088/603/original/f0ce419b74a9649b.jpeg

2025-07-15 22:56:21 UTC

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More old cables! A neighbor just moved across the street from her old place. DSL installer (I know...) ghosted their appt but DID manage to disconnect her old service. She "broke" her old laptop, bought a new one, called me at home (got my number from my plow guy, I will talk to him) wanting help. Turns out 1. it was only a broken charger 2. a mac. So I walked over in This Heat with a backpack of cables, found the right one, got her on the neighbor's wifi, now she's got the internet. 💪

2025-07-14 21:50:32 UTC

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Book 71: The Outcast Dead. Another in this series of a forensic anthropologist often called in to work on a dig that happens to mirror some real life crime situation. She's a frazzled working mom. Her daughter's dad is married to someone else. There's a whole cast of characters who live and grow through these stories. This one is about motherhood and the tension between doing your job, having childminders (babysitters), and balancing what's in your heart with what's right in front of you.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/853/781/548/909/122/original/60dcc99ef00c95e9.jpeg

2025-07-14 21:00:40 UTC

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I am such a goof here but I took a perfectly good joke from @nprofile…25cu and ruined it by making a Wikipedia page about Yoichi Hori
https://dads.cool/@kfan/114843092360048766
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoichi_Hori
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/853/596/149/849/738/original/df07c729fe12cec1.png

2025-07-13 17:35:39 UTC

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Book 70: The Medusa Protocol. This is the sequel to Assassins Anonymous. One of our recovered assassins has been remanded to a dark prison for reasons unknown and the remaining ones have to decide what to do and see if there are any non-lethal ways to get their colleague out. A little too much fight blocking for me in this one (I return a high kick to the right side of his head making him fall down and to the left...) but it's a small nit to pick, another fun book about dark topic.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/847/129/175/139/421/original/deed83254901b7b9.jpeg

2025-07-12 15:35:44 UTC

I'm leaning in to nostalgia tech this week. Got a landline phone and a little thingie called Cell2Jack and now I can make calls from a phone with a curly cord using bluetooth from my cell phone.
Interestingly, as a GenXer who generally dislikes talking to strangers on the phone, it's made me enjoy using the phone again. I had people call me to test it out and we wound up chatting... people I rarely do anything other than text with.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/840/987/382/893/683/original/e174c922c9d53a93.jpeg

2025-07-10 17:40:33 UTC

2025-07-09 19:03:09 UTC

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I'm not sure if there is anything else to the story except that this was really difficult and I'm really glad that Tom is good company (he's got a loud voice and a decent sense of humor and we've both been in a lot of the same places in MA) because we had to move a lot of numbers back and forth to each other, to chat bots, to text boxes and even me, a certifiable Good at Computers lady was still not sure how or why exactly when things started working. I'm just glad they did.

2025-07-09 19:00:50 UTC

This is Tom, my neighbor. He got a new phone because his old phone was nearly broken. He uses Straight Talk as a carrier, Google for most things, and has a password based on the name of his cat. He does not know his Google password. He has never heard of an IMEI. Getting him all set up transferring his number, his Google stuff, and his voice mail took him and I working together nearly 90 minutes, two chatbots, one subreddit (and linked Google doc), eight texted codes, one app and one phone call.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/824/799/547/743/118/original/abf9670698db3636.jpeg

2025-07-07 20:59:47 UTC

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Book 69: Assassins Anonymous. Kind of like what it says on the cover. A guy who used to be an assassin enters recovery and finds it difficult because there are still some people who are trying to kill him. There's some violence, some 12 stepping, some light romance interests, a cat, and a lot of figuring how how you can actually make amends in this life if you did some pretty difficult stuff. I found it compelling and funnier than I was expecting.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/813/947/921/359/608/original/050f2fedea8de9bb.jpeg

2025-07-03 16:18:19 UTC

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Book 68: A Grave in the Woods. I have liked these books in the past, a little bit of French history, a little bit of delicious food descriptions, a nice cozy community where people get along, a mystery somewhere along the lines, moral law enforcement. This one is not great and maybe that's a me thing, but there seemed to be walls of "tell me don't show me" about French history, not much of a mystery, a big dramatic flood which was a nice story of civic engagement but otherwise felt bolted o.
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/790/191/296/339/880/original/e25253acb1cca761.jpeg

2025-07-02 19:21:41 UTC

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Not a lot is publicly known about Jessie Telfair except that she was a quilter, working as an elementary school cafeteria worker in the town where she was born in Georgia. She was inspired to register to vote by SNCC. When her employer found out, they fired her. She was then inspired to make this red, white, and blue quilt saying FREEDOM. It was purchased by a folklife collector and, further inspired, she made two more. They now all hang in museums.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Telfair
https://cdn.masto.host/glammrus/media_attachments/files/114/785/251/861/751/565/original/f20d4b426163b430.png