I would just like to both validate and challenge your view of the UK. I lived in Torquay (Devon, so the southwest) for a good long while, albeit during the height of lockdowns, and community felt nonexistant. There were some punk-type-folks attempting to get stuff started right when I moved away, but only just then iirc.

I moved to Inverness (Scottish Highlands) and it’s night and day. There’s a queer community doing hella shit, there’s a tool library popping off, lots of good local initiatives are being organised and taking off.

My kneejerk response is to say that Inverness beats the hell outta Torquay. But the thing is, about 4-5 years ago NONE OF THE STUFF I mentioned was going on. The queer meetup was organised by one dude who moved up from London and was gobsmacked that there wasn’t an active community. Now it’s consistently a huge, weekly event. There are even offshoots of quieter meetups that had to be created because the main one is So Successful. But all the local queers will tell you that before this started, they thought they were all alone up here.

And the tool library is only about a year old, but keeping on well.

So on one hand, yeah, I think the UK has a very… independent culture. But once someone identifies a need in a community and fills that need, people tend to show up and appreciate it.

Also, i reckon this is a good time to be an organiser. People are tired of being alone during a pandemic, people are tired of seeing what other communities do via the internet and want their communities to do the same.

Tl;dr be the change! There’s an appetite for it.

I like option 2, I thought I would prefer Option 1 before I saw 2 but it’s executed really well in 2! Also, that illustration is gorgeous, and thank you for sharing the illustrator’s details. I want my next novel to be solarpunk, and I am definitely in the market for a new cover artist…

I need to add this and Murder in the Tool Library to my storygraph. And preorder/buy a copy of both tbh.

UK based Senior software engineer here (by title anyways, I have a little over 3 years experience iirc so I’m more a mid stage-wise). I kinda use indeed, mostly use linkedin and recruiters though. My last two jobs, a recruiter just reached out to me with companies I’d never heard of or looked for. But I got on their radars by applying to postings on linkedin.

Oh I feel you on the “how do I afford living” bit. I’m a senior software engineer—arguably the career people say makes some of the best money—and I still feel broke as fuck constantly.

(I mean I’m in the UK so it’s not Silicon Valley Monopoly money but STILL)

Seconding the question on what kind of PT stuff you’d go for, because I often consider the same.

We’re not talking about hair colour though, this is obviously reducing a pic of some friends to “haha big booba small booba”. That’s kind of textbook objectification.

Moving to a city with a tool library. For an annual £20 fee I can borrow any of a myriad of power tools. Currently using an orbital sander for some DIY, previously borrowed a hedge trimmer for the garden, it’s freaking great.

I just want to say that I love that this book isn’t on Amazon (or is but I just can’t find it). I’m an author as well and the amount of focus there is on “get your book on Amazon!!!” drives me bonkers. Evil evil corporation, as we know (here anyways).

Anyways that aside, cover is gorgeous, and the blurb is super intriguing. Like, a murder in a place full of things you can murder someone with? That’s a neat premise.

I’ll set a reminder to grab it from smashwords on the 8th!

I’d never heard the term manarchism but god yeah this resonates. I have some immediate reactions, as much as I want to sit with this material longer before commenting. All I can think of is all the cis dude activists I’ve seen who just seem to be there to be angry. Like it’s an outlet, like it’s one of those rooms where you pay to go in with a sledgehammer and break junk. The anonyminity is just the fee they pay to rage.

I don’t necessarily want anonyminity. I want connection and humanity. Anonyminity is for safety in a world that criminalises change and protest. Maybe I’m clinging to random threads of thought in that article, but I feel like cis men have a lot less to lose when they shed their identities. They didn’t have to fight for them. On one hand, I’ve had to assert my identity as a trans person to a world that thinks I don’t exist. On the other, if I DO go anonymously, then some cis dude is gonna take credit for my actions. Do I need credit? No, but neither does he.

Anyways, long ramble over, this made me think a lot and I appreciate it.