#solarpunk

See tagged statuses in the local Rambling Readers community

My son is looking to get into sewing machine repair as a business. There's demand for it up here. But search engines in 2025 are shite.

Does anyone know any good resources? Things like old manuals, online communities, forums, wikis, YouTube channels.

For example, he's got a 1928 Singer that's binding. He seems to have good instincts about what's wrong with it, but he's been unable to find a manual. He's got several others he's tinkering with, and wants understand them and become the go-to person in this area with all the knows.

I've directed him to archive.org but I suspect it might not be organized on this topic and it won't offer much community.

Any resources would be appreciated!

[Tagging him: @bamboy ]

replied to Mallory's Musings & Mischief's status

Imagine living in a society that you knew put their best effort into minimizing the amount of suffering and harm it inflicts on everyone and everything. A society where every person could live their best life without guilt about their material impact to the rest of the planet.

I sure as fuck would feel a thousand times better than I currently do.

I suppose this is the goal/point of and

At the local library where they're having a "Read to Dogs" event.

Kids will come in and read outloud to dogs. It's a way to learn reading and pronunciation and public speaking. Parents will bring in very young children and read to both the kids and the dogs. The dogs love the attention. Local towns folks volunteer and bring their very calm and trained dogs in to be read to and give attention to children. The librarians facilitate through scheduling and handing kids coming in and out.

It's a relaxing day at the library.

A woman sits on the ground petting her dog while a young boy reads to both of them.
Children reading to dogs under the attentive and caring eyes of the town's neighbors. A golden setter lays lazily down next to a child with a long pony tail listening to her read. Beside this group a young boy pets a tiny chihuahua while holding a book in his lap.
An older boy sits in a chair, flipping through pages of a thick book while reading to a dog laying beside him. An older lady leans forward, attentive and encourage. The doggo is a good boy.

The problem with dystopian satirical fiction is that it's too real nowadays. You can sit around coming up with an idea for a short story but it just ends up being something like "DraftKings Jr: Sportsbooks for little leagues" and then you start to get terrified the silly idea you just had will actually become real in under 5 years

The people are on the right track I think with the idea of writing utopian fiction instead because it's genuinely more bold to imagine things actually being good. We're all cynical now so actually envisioning something worth fighting for is the real bitter pill we need now and not depresso wallowing in our pessimism.

The real opportunity I think is in the liminal space between the two. Write about a revolution in progress and the sorts of conflicts between now and what we want by 2050 or so.

Looking to replace Duolingo?

Your library might provide you free access to Language Learning Apps.

No, not CDs or cassette tapes (when was the last time you were at the library? ).

Actual apps. That you download onto your phone.

My library provides me access to TWO language learning apps that compete directly with Duolingo. Mango Language App and Transparent Language App.

What apps does your library provide?

A screenshot of my library's web site showing the two language learning apps that they provide.