Notices by Jessamyn (jessamyn@glammr.us)

@eloquence @wikimediafoundation Thanks for sharing this. Are there good places to meaningfully and constructively engage with the other chapters to encourage them to exit X?

@eloquence @wikimediafoundation Thanks -- I did find this list which is out of date but may be a good jumping off point for people who don't have X accounts who want to know who is on there in the Wikimedia space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_Wikimedia-related_Twitter_accounts

@molly0xfff You might enjoy this photo of my friend in 2006 who wanted to work from bed and... built this thing.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/iamthebestartist/219359139/

@lzg That's a really strong cover.

@molly0xfff fantastic, I have definitely read most of those (and should probably read the others) and I am actually surprised you could find that many space operas but maybe that's just me reflecting on my library's own deficiencies in the space opera category.

Friday afternoon reminder to not empty your inbox at the expense of someone else's. Many people in the US and elsewhere have taken Thursday and Friday off if they are able. This means an epic weekend (of reading, for me) and less attention to whatever it was you were going to tell them. Schedule that email. Happy New Year.

Image credit: Library of Congress, on Flickr Commons
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/6629873199/

Book 1: The Midnight Club. What if there was a way to see the future when you were younger, or see the past when you were older? And what if there was a thing in your collective past which made you really really want to do those things? This is about a group of friends who went to college in Vermont in the late 80s and get back together there in 2014, looking for answers. It's about the fallibility of memory and the curse of nostalgia. I liked it.

Previous year's books: https://glammr.us/@jessamyn/113751186380306485

@danyork Thanks. A lot of my work there was inspired by... my other work. Basically I'd see a photo that was new on Flickr Commons and then I'd be like "Oh hey who is that?" and go from there. Recently following @SmithsonianRoulette has been the same kind of thing.

@danyork Do you use Wikipedia Library's resources at all? I've found my newspapers.com subscription can help a lot with filling in those blanks, that and searching full text at the Internet Archive (or Trove for Aussie stuff)

I have discovered @SmithsonianRoulette and I am both excited and doomed. This article about an itinerant folk artist and farmer from New Hampshire grew out of seeing a piece of his artwork and noticing that his home was in Wikipedia but he was not. It's fun to learn about early New England and its quirky decorative arts and the people who try to preserve them. Here's Moses Eaton Jr. He did stencils of pineapples and fancy walls for fancy people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Eaton_Jr.

Here's my wrap-up of 2024 #Wikipedia stuff I did.

- uploaded 81 images to Wikimedia Commons
- uploaded 15 images to Wikipedia (usually for obits, or logos)
- wrote 33 articles
- made 755 edits

A decent year. It didn't feel like too much bored (or grumpy) editing and a lot more "Hey this neat thing should be in there"

Book 134: There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job. This was a story about a middle aged woman who burns out of a job and goes to an employment agency and takes a string of odd jobs: bus ad writer, surveillance footage reviewer, park hut space-filler &c. It's quirky and goes places you wouldn't expect. It's translated from Japanese into British English which took me a few pages to get used to, but overall it was a good relatable read.

Book 125: Milk! A 10,000 Year Food Fracas. Kurlansky writes nice predictable books on broad topics, full of trivia that is interesting and not too judgey. That can be tricky to do with a topic like milk which has a history which is full of drama! He goes to places where they make artisanal cheeses, talks to people who are raw milk enthusiasts, talks about the history of "swill milk" (did you know about this? I did not) and includes a lot of hand-drawn pictures of cows.

(whoops, screwed up threading and I'm going to just add the last four books again because I Like Things A Certain Way, sorry about the little firehose....)

Book 126: The Deep Dark. A mildly supernatural story about growing up and figuring out that the boundaries which you make for yourself don't have to be the ones which other people made for you in the past. Gorgeously drawn with a lot of queer characters just being themselves but the metaphor about figuring out what you want is told in another way entirely. I really enjoyed being immersed in this story and even though it was 500 pages long, it went by so quickly.

Book 127: The Naturalist Society. This book goes a bunch of unexpected places. Nominally about a woman whose husband dies, the man who has been promoting himself as a great naturalist when she does all the work (and the only way she can get her work out there). He has some "friends" (one in the more-than-friends sense) who become her friends. There's a background of Arctic exploration and old New York City. And wonderful birds, many of them, and a small bit of magic. Memorable, miss it already.

Book 128: The Noble Hustle. I picked this up thinking (somehow) that it was fiction by Whitehead. It's actually about the time he got staked to play in the World Series of Poker. It's interesting in that it talks about poker culture. It wasn't interesting in that I don't entirely know how to play poker and the book claims it tells you how to play but doesn't really. I liked getting to know more about Whitehead (just out of a relationship at the time, and in his feels about that and other things)

Book 129: Transitions. A graphic novel translated from the French mostly about a mother trying to come to terms with her 19 year old son who has come out to her as trans. She gets there, but it takes her a long time. This book may not be for everyone because there's a lot of using the wrong pronouns/names and "...but what about MY feelings...?" but I think it's also honest and real and may resonate with some people who are less far along in their acceptance journey. Beautifully drawn.

Book 130: The Future. A story about some overly-powerful billionaires, the potential end of the world, and a possible way around it. Hard to tell more without giving away some story arcs. It was a bit tough to hang with some parts of this because there are both truly awful people as well as some lengthy reddit-type-posts-as-exposition which would not have been my choice. But! The way it all "works out" is fun and ingenious and kept me happily reading.

Book 131: I'd Rather Be Reading. This was a fine short collection of essays by a woman who likes to read and also just likes to immerse herself in the possibilities of books. As a person who reads a lot of these books, there wasn't a lot that was new for me here, but I always appreciate someone's fresh enthusiasms. Apparently the woman has a popular book blog which is well liked though i had never heard of it. A nice gift-y sort of book.