Bilbo Yaga

@bilboyaga

Somewhere between a hobbit and a hag. PhD, HCW, writer, organizer, displaced Appalachian. Loves books, nature, science, & all things nerdy, cozy, queer, or spooky. Loud about disability justice & collective liberation. 😷

665 Folgt9.717 Follower2.798 Posts

Bluesky

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Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· 18d

Me after I reject AI, get left behind, and embrace the work of real writers and real artists who have helped me dream up the life I really want since I was a little kid:

An illustration from Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are depicting the protagonist escaping into the wild forest of imagination.

An illustration from Milne’s Winne the Pooh, depicting the Pooh, Piglet, and Christopher Robin playing on a bridge.

An illustration from dePaloa’s Strega Nona, depicting her happily presiding over her cooking pot.

An illustration from Lobel’s Frog and Toad, depicting them riding a two person bicycle through nature.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· 24d

This just a reminder that despite the world being very scary and many things very bad, hummingbirds exist. Tiny, dazzling, magical. This is a male Costa's hummingbird. Birds and nature motivate me to fight for a better world, and they’re where I find my best rest so I can keep fighting. 🪶 🌿

A public domain photograph by Jon Sullivan that depicts a small hummingbird on a branch. It has a long, pointed beak, a black face that transitions beautifully to iridescent, deep purple feathers, and a gray and green body.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jun 5

The horrors persist, but I made a strawberry rhubarb pie. Tomorrow I’ll eat it on a lakeshore with friends who care about justice, art, & nature. We will swim, rest, & listen to birdsong. Then we’ll resume fighting for a better world. The fight is long. Remember to rest, connect, and eat pie.

An overhead shot of a strawberry rhubarb pie with a golden brown lattice top.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· May 17

The spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) brumates underground all winter and emerges each spring for an annual, nocturnal event called Big Night, when they travel en masse to vernal pools to mate. #SciArt #embroidery #addherper 🌿 🦎

A piece of embroidery art depicts a realistic Spotted Salamander, a black amphibian with bright yellow spots, crawling through a lush, mossy landscape. The moss and salamander utilize stump work techniques so that the salamander is subtly three-dimensional, rising above the moss, while patches of pincushion moss and arching brown roots emerge more boldly. The embroidery hoop is held up in front of a wide, cascading waterfall in a forest.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· May 5

“If you don’t embrace it, you’re going to be left behind by AI.” Don’t threaten me with a good time. Pictured below, me and my friends after being left behind by AI:

Warren B Davis’ painting “Women Dancing in a Circle” depicting sylph-like figures holding hands and frolicking in a circle in a lush green forest that hasn’t been destroyed by an AI data center.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Mar 25

In case it’s helpful in solving the mystery, this is the WoW screenshot I glimpsed in my partner’s game that made me think “oh, that green monochrome filter look makes me think of the flashbacks/alt reality scenes from… what was it from??”

World of Warcraft landscape with a green tint, depicting a grassy forest. The light coming through the tree tops is also a greenish-white color.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Feb 28

Here it is!

A rectangular two-layer carrot cake with thick layers of pistachio cream cheese icing and topped with honey-roasted pistachios

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jan 11

I am sending you good vibes and also this photo that always makes me smile, along with the reassurance that she would bite your dad and your grandpa for you

An uncomfortably close-up photo of a white cat with her tiny, gappy front teefs growing

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Dec 29

My Sunday reminders of good this week: winter hikes with sparkling snow, cozy and cuddly holidays, making family recipes that date back generations, mouse tracks with tail drag paths in the snow, covid aware event dreaming, Sunday naps, buying so many disability justice books More good will come.

Photograph of a snow-dusted tree line against a blue sky, with a winter sun bright above and a haze of snow stirred from the branches by the wind.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Dec 7

I don’t even have a Reddit account, but I feel it is my duty to make bluesky aware of the Real Bees Fake Top Hats subreddit so that y’all can enjoy and/or contribute. This is what the internet for. Not fascism and generative AI. 🐝 www.reddit.com/r/RealBeesFa...

Reddit post by user longbourblooms reads, “I heard you like bees!”

Post contains a photo of a peachy-pink flower being visited by two bees who are wearing photoshopped top hats. They are so distinguished and snazzy.

Post by Reddit user u/litixchopstikz reads, “Bee n' Roses - flirting with petals.”

Post contains a photo of neon pink flowers being visited by bee who is wearing a photoshopped top hat. She is dapper AF.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Nov 3

My Sunday reminders of good this week: the last vibrant autumn leaves, long phone calls with old friends, n95-clad pals who’re down for Halloween shenanigans, lazy weekends, smoked cardamom black tea, epic D&D battles ended by a desperate hail mary cantrip, compression gear More good will come.

A photograph taken in a forest, looking up at the canopy. Yellow leaves and pine trees reach toward an overcast, gray autumn sky.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Oct 31

Update: they are glorious!

Photo of a falafel wrap and curly fries on a gray plate

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Oct 15

A fearsome beast with vicious teefs looms large

An uncomfortably close-up photo of a white cat. Her mouth is slightly open so that her tiny, gappy front teeth are visible. She stares into the distance in a derpy, transfixed way. You can practically hear her mouth breathing.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Oct 10

Today I saw six species of woodpecker and so many gloriously mossy logs.

A closeup photograph of a mossy log bathed in golden afternoon sunlight. Pine needles, lichen, and mushrooms are visible amongst the moss.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Oct 6

Link & I were mutuals. While he’s gone, I encourage you to support some of his causes: 1) Use alt text on all images to support disability justice. Adjust your bsky settings: settings > accessibility > require alt text. 2) Reply here with mutual aid requests. Donate if you can, boost if you can’t.

Infographic featuring a photo of a capybara.

Writing Alt Text: identify who, expression, description, color, and interesting features.

The completed example reads, “A capybara looking relaxed in a hot spa. Yellow yuzu fruits are floating in the water, and one is balanced on the top of the capybara’s head.”

Screenshot of the bluesky accessibility settings that shows the “require alt text before posting” setting toggled on and underlined for emphasis.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Oct 6

My Sunday reminders of good this week: walking in the woods with a friend, crispy curly fries, the boost of new running shoes, spooky books, queer art at sunny festivals, identifying mushrooms, Over the Garden Wall with pumpkin treats, meeting a corgi in a doggie wheelchair More good will come.

Photograph of a autumn forest. The morning light is golden and so are most of the leaves.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Oct 3

If you can get into the woods and look at cool mushrooms today, I highly recommend doing so. 🍄📷 🌿 Things are bleak. But there are still things worth enjoying, slowing down for, fighting for.

A bright red-orange mushrooms grows from beneath a log among dead leaves. The cap is rounded and shiny, and the stem is a softer shade of red-orange. It is Hygrocybe miniata, commonly known as the vermilion waxcap.

A mushroom with a bright yellow stem and cap grows among dead leaves. It has a distinct protruding tip on the cap which gives rise to its nicknames. Entoloma murrayi is also commonly known as the yellow unicorn Entoloma or the unicorn pinkgill.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Sep 30

I decided to start my spooky reads in Sept rather than wait until October. So far these have been particular highlights of my annual spooky reads… What books are you enjoying this season? 📚💙 👻

Cover art of In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt. Cover is orange with a wolf’s head wreathed in interlocking, disembodied human arms. A quote on the cover reads, “Wonderful, luminous, sly... A stunning contemporary fairy tale."
-Brian Evenson, author of A Collapse of Horses

Cover art of Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C Van Alst Jr. The artwork is vibrant flora and fauna in neon colors on a dark background. Spooky details are included—an eye pulled from a socket lays on a leaf, flies and spiders in the corners, glowing yellow eyes peering through grass.

Cover art of The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. The artwork depicts of small church, overshadowed by moss-draped trees, in a misty, swamp-like environment. The color scheme is purple and orange.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Sep 28

My Sunday reminders of good this week: glimpses of adorable warblers, pho dinners with covid aware pals, the meditative nature of embroidery, pumpkin pie iced chai, spooky reads for spooky season, lakeside bagel snacking, falling asleep to the sound of rain, access to vaccines More good will come.

A photograph of a lake under a blue sky. There are few clouds in the sky, and the trees are mostly green, but a few trees show signs of early autumn color. In the foreground, a dead tree drapes horizontally across the shoreline, hovering over the reeds and dark in an otherwise sunlit scene.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Sep 21

A tutorial on how to use the “notify me” tag to request that your library add a title. Here’s me requesting an audiobook by @charliejane.bsky.social: 1) Use “deep search” at the bottom of the author’s page 2) Click “notify me” 3) Click through info page 4) The bell icon means you did it right!

Libby screenshot at the bottom of an authors catalogue reads, “deep search

Deep searching is available for this list.
It looks for titles that your library doesn't have.”

Screenshot of Charlie Jane Anders’s audiobook, “Lessons in Magic and Disaster” which shows the “Notify me” tag next to the preview of the book cover.

Book cover is purple with yellow text. Below, a book summary begins, “In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a multicast audiobook full of love, disaster, and...”

After clicking “notify me” the Libby app reads:

This title is not in your library's catalog.
Tag it to receive a notification if the library acquires copies.

Tagging a title with Notify Me doesn't guarantee that a library will acquire it, but Libby shares your interest (anonymously) with your libraries. If they add the title to the collection, we'll let you know right away.

Screenshot of Charlie Jane Anders’s audiobook, “Lessons in Magic and Disaster” which shows the “Notify me” tag next to the preview of the book cover but now also shows a bell icon, highlighted pale yellow, which means I’ve successfully requested the title and will be notified if my library gets it.

Book cover is purple with yellow text. Below, a book summary begins, “In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a multicast audiobook full of love, disaster, and...”

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Sep 18

personsonable-deactivated201908
me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit

mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters

me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I'M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU

miaislying
Hey OP? What the FUCK does this mean?

personsonable
decay exists as an extant form of life

miaislying
That's a terrifying answer, have a nice day

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Aug 31

Have you ever read a book description so perfect that you immediately call local bookstores to find a copy, rearrange your weekend plans to enable a binge read, and spend all day picnicking and reading in the park? Just did so for Simplicity by @mattielubchansky.com. I recommend the book. And pie.

Photo of the graphic novel Simplicity by Mattie Lubchansky. The book is on a picnic blanket spread in lush summer grass, and next to the book is a slice of pie and fresh strawberries.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Aug 27

Took my own advice and went for a post-work walk through the woods followed by meandering around a garden. Saw a bee friend! 🌿 🐝

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Aug 13

Things are bad. But it’s tomato pie season, y’all.

Overhead photo of a southern-style tomato pie fresh out of the oven. The top layer is golden brown seasoned cheese, and there are two slices of heirloom tomato—one yellow and one red—placed in the center for aesthetics. Inside there are layers of heirloom tomato, herbs, spices, and cheese.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Aug 8

They seem similar to flat aviary clips. I don’t think they are exactly that, but maybe a similar clip name will help you find them? Or maybe flat aviary clips will do the job you need?

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jul 26

Pollution travels. Quebec to NYC is now in the red. Fascism is rising. Healthcare systems are collapsing. Now is not the time to FAFO with illness & disability. An n95 protects from this & illness. Covid, btw, is breaking records again overseas. Mask for self & community. Resources in thread.

Updated map from AirNow.Gov shows a wide swath of unhealthy air quality stretching from Quebec, Canada to Atlantic City, NJ.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jul 26

Clean air is a human right. New England & Quebec, wear an n95 mask outside to stay safe from PM2.5 pollution. It causes heart & lung disease & premature death. But the problem is global: 99% of humanity lives in places where air pollution exceeds WHO limits. Give/get mask mutual aid: maskbloc.org

Screenshot from AirNow.Gov shows unbeaten levels of air quality in much of New England and Quebec.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jul 20

This weekend I’ve gone on four walks through forests, read and wrote under a tree for hours, and had a picnic in the sunshine on a breezy day. It didn’t fix the injustices of the world, but I’m replenished in a way that will help me fight them longer and better. Remember to rest, friends.

A creek meanders away, into a pond awash in sunshine. The surrounding grasses and trees are verdant and yellow-green in the haze of bright summer light.

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jul 18

“No one in history has ever been an instrument of change. Each of us is a single key. But to be human is to think you are playing a solo… when it is never not a harmony.” Thinking about these words from Andrea Gibson, about collective liberation, and how a better world is possible.

Screenshot from a TikTok video posted by the poet Andrea Gibson. They are playing a white piano, and a quote from later in the poem is on the screen. The quote reads, “Your lifelines are braided with mine.”

Bilbo Yaga@bilboyaga· Jul 14

Two stories from his week illustrate the US’s commitment to ensuring disabled people get no dignity. Here you can pay disabled folks subminimum wage! And when they can’t afford heat & their feet get frostbite, a nurse can chop them off for taxidermy and only be fined $443! Disability justice now!