Molly B

Books, tech, animals, old stuff. Ex-librarian, ex-editor, current ed tech manager. Keeper of paperbacks (http://mapbackindex.com). You might know me as VintageReader. She/her.

Web: http://www.mjibrower.com
Cats: Yes please.
Generation: X

Public Key

npub148cvt05a0gdh99pf4pqt5z5mnfkrz3cptpa52um5s7zrqalyzwsq8nehng

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs2nux9h6wh5xmjjs56ss96p2de5mp3guq4s769wd6g0ppswljp8gqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntmhhern

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub148cvt05a0gdh99pf4pqt5z5mnfkrz3cptpa52um5s7zrqalyzwsq8nehng

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Last Notes

2025-06-12 23:33:10 GMT

OK, folks, drop your favorite #protest signs. I’m looking for some ideas. My favorite protest companion is home for the weekend and we’re gathering our markers and cardboard.

2025-03-30 08:15:32 GMT

I keep reading this headline and just can’t parse it. It feels like a clue for one of those British cryptic crosswords.
RE: https://mastodon.green/@Beedazzled/114250204598507981

2025-03-23 23:20:22 GMT

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I think the fact that you snagged the domain “librarian.net” is a pretty good indicator too. :-)

2025-02-16 17:49:04 GMT

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I saw that! I have a 1992 Performa that still boots, so when you finish your game I'll be able to play it without an emulator... if the monitor will stay on (when it gets tired, it quits). :-)

2025-02-16 17:42:05 GMT

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I used to be. :-) I got distracted by the internet ca. 1996, but often wish I'd stuck with libraries.

2025-02-16 17:32:06 GMT

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I tried to get my kid interested, with some No Starch books and scrounged computers. They love hardware (built a gaming computer out of garage-sale parts in middle school, as just one example) and did a little Roblox modding, but just have never had any real interest in coding.

2025-02-16 17:26:31 GMT

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I got that answer too (my kid's school had AP Computer Science for a while; it was impossible to get into, because everyone wanted to take it and there was only one teacher, who died unexpectedly and was never replaced). My friend whose kid went to a much better school had the same experience you had--Java, taught by a math teacher who didn't know it and didn't want to teach it, but had to because of AP.

2025-02-16 13:42:17 GMT

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Right? I love some of the HyperCard fan projects like Decker, and I'm sure there are modern no-code app development products that do a lot of the same thing. But they don't seem to have the same vibe. https://beyondloom.com/decker/

2025-02-16 13:32:58 GMT

Sometimes I tell young people about #HyperCard and they don't fully believe me.
http://scripting.com/2025/02/15/131146.html

2025-02-15 16:44:55 GMT

In context this sign makes sense. But I’m not going to give the context, because it’s funnier without it.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/008/902/444/651/356/original/730a62ec83a6a995.jpeg

2025-02-09 14:17:50 GMT

My favorite #SuperbOwl video of all time: https://youtu.be/3G1PFLuTrgM?feature=shared
(It is likely that @npub1v9n…0kj7 is the person I got it from, back in the Olden Times, in the other place)

2025-01-27 18:43:27 GMT

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That was my experience too. Every once in a while I hear that it’s changed, but... I’m doing other things now. I love transcribing for the LOC’s By the People project, for example.

2025-01-08 23:19:21 GMT

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Also: "I don't believe this because it isn't MY experience" is such a lazy argument I don't even know where to start.

2025-01-08 23:14:40 GMT

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Look: If you just can't BELIEVE that school districts do this--even if it's the kind of thing where *official* communication takes place via email but the actual information that you need to know is in a Facebook group--then you have exactly the kind of privilege I'm talking about. Go enjoy it and accept that it's not the case for a LOT of us out here in the places that don't fund their public schools very well.

2025-01-08 14:11:06 GMT

Deleting your Facebook account is the privilege of those who don’t have kids in school, and don’t have to communicate with groups of people over 40. Instead, maybe we should be working with schools (pre-K through 16) and community organizations to help them find an effective mass communication platform that isn’t run by the worst people on the planet.

2025-01-07 12:14:42 GMT

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I've noticed a somewhat alarming trend among people I know IRL to *talk* like they're writing on their LinkedIn feed. Like:
"So how's work?"
"It's great! I feel like I'm really creating synergy with my team when I help them optimize their work/life balance."
(Dude. You approved somebody's PTO request.)

2024-12-10 12:33:32 GMT

I know that AI-generated awfulness is “slop.” What’s the word for bad artwork bought for $2 on Creative Fabrica and slapped on print-on-demand products to sell on Etsy?

2024-12-04 01:25:37 GMT

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Oh, and also to live in an a-frame house in Colorado with lots of plants and macrame, and every single John Denver album. My 1976 dreams were AWESOME

2024-12-04 01:21:09 GMT

I bought a pair of Earth shoes, and they are clogs. Livin’ my mid-70s dream, now I just need a light blue Schwinn and Amy Carter for a pen pal/best friend

2024-11-09 03:39:15 GMT

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I mean, I’m not an expert, but I have tried to do this thing she wanted to do before, and I knew what I was talking about. It was depressing to keep being told “but the AI said to do this!” like it magically knows more than I do.

2024-11-09 03:35:38 GMT

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Today my boss sent me instructions for a thing. They were generated by Copilot. I gently explained that they wouldn’t work for us bc step 3 required a product (a Premium integration for Power Automate) we don’t have. So she sent me the same instructions, generated by ChatGPT. I once again explained that we don’t have the product it says to use. I recorded myself following the instructions & hitting a wall at step 3. 🤷‍♀️

2024-10-28 23:46:51 GMT

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I do often find these podcasts by Millennials a little... too ironic? I want them to take the past more seriously, somehow. I like this podcast, particularly, but I feel like they should know about things like the Civilian Conservation Corps (which Richard Nixon was in) and how “conservation” did include the environment before the 70s. For example.

2024-10-28 23:34:32 GMT

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Wow, the Pixie Stick story on this episode is GRIM

2024-10-28 23:30:01 GMT

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https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/387/645/376/754/637/original/0a451b4b13ca5883.jpeg

2024-10-28 23:27:55 GMT

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My kid and their partner carved Jack o’ lanterns last night and left them here, and I’ve lit the candles, so even though it’s like 90 degrees outside at least the house smells like singed pumpkin.

2024-10-28 23:25:03 GMT

Listening to the Halloween ep of You’re Wrong About and suddenly craving caramel apples

2024-10-23 02:21:09 GMT

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Wasn’t he the one who first started calling them “spoonheads”? Or is that just a running joke my husband and I have had for 30 years? It’s all a bit of a blur at this point.

2024-10-12 23:27:26 GMT

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I have prescription sunglasses for driving (also unshaded ones for night driving) and they’re such an improvement that I get nervous thinking about all the people out there driving around *without* driving glasses.

2024-10-12 02:32:35 GMT

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I did it online, but still have to go in person to provide documentation.

2024-10-11 17:57:36 GMT

SSA: To get your replacement card, you will need to appear in our office no later than 45 days from today.
Also SSA: Schedule an appointment! Next available: Dec. 5

2024-10-11 02:06:59 GMT

This morning I was looking through the hacktoberfest tag on GitHub, as I do most years, bc it’s a really good way to find cool projects. I was surprised at how many of them were lists of links--free online classes, places to find remote jobs, etc.--and wondered if GitHub has taken the place of small one-off sites that used to do this. It makes sense--it’s collaborative, and a lot more visible than an individual website.

2024-10-01 20:33:07 GMT

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I liked IQ, but after book 2 the series gets even more violent and less detective-y.
Have you read anything by Attica Locke? Bluebird, Bluebird gets all the raves, but Black Water Rising is my favorite.

2024-09-29 14:31:46 GMT

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I remember web portals in the mid-90s being very good. Yahoo had actual human catalogers. The Mining Company (which became about.com) had dedicated sites for tons of topics. That model--a network of sites--got unwieldy, but I liked it when it was just articles and curated lists.

2024-08-16 01:31:58 GMT

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It’s the perfect September beer--when you’re tired of summer ales and shandies, but it’s still too warm for vanilla porter or cider.

2024-08-16 00:08:17 GMT

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Yes!

2024-08-16 00:01:02 GMT

Found the Southern Pecan Ale at the actual liquor store (the one that was Parkhill’s Party Pantry, next door to Sound Warehouse, throughout my childhood) and stocked up. Last year, there was none to be found anywhere in town by September.

2024-07-30 21:10:38 GMT

All of us out here wishing we’d dropped $80 on friend.com back in the 90s when you could only buy domains in one place
RE: https://www.threads.net/@kylie.robison/post/C-D6mPjPckU

2024-07-03 22:22:29 GMT

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I think that’s part of the plan. Back then, at least, the footsoldiers weren’t very organized (or informed). They’d take the form and fill it out and go away, feeling virtuous. It might be different now that they organize online instead of with newsletters mailed out to elderly do-gooders. I haven’t worked in a public library since 1996, so I have no recent experience with this kind of challenge.

2024-07-03 22:10:31 GMT

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The way our system stood up to them was to cite our policy, though. :-) The front line was often circ clerks who weren’t paid enough to have to deal with an orchestrated attack (which was part of the FFL plan, I assume). iirc the standard procedure was to give them a form to fill out to start a formal request.

2024-07-03 17:55:30 GMT

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That was the norm during the "Family Friendly Libraries" campaign in the 90s. I worked at a small branch of a large public library system then, and people who clearly had never been to our branch before would come in with a list of books *the system* did not own, insisting that they be removed IMMEDIATELY. They were working from a script from FFL.

2024-06-19 08:29:27 GMT

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If you sign up for their newsletter, they send lots of goodies, too. I recently got the full SoftMaker suite for $7.99 from their email.

2024-06-07 20:59:05 GMT

This is not a drill. Affinity is having a flash sale--50% off EVERYTHING. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/?utm_id=us If you're looking for excellent, reasonably priced graphics software, here's your chance. All the apps--Mac, Windows, iPad--for $83.
(The jury is still out on the Canva partnership, tho)