Bilbo Yaga
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bilboyaga.bsky.social
Bilbo Yaga
@bilboyaga.bsky.social
9.6K followers 670 following 2.6K posts
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, evidence-based healthcare, & collective liberation. 😷
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bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
November 3, 2025 at 1:53 AM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
Update: they are glorious!
Photo of a falafel wrap and curly fries on a gray plate
October 31, 2025 at 12:07 AM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
October 15, 2025 at 2:53 AM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
October 10, 2025 at 7:14 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
October 6, 2025 at 10:52 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
October 6, 2025 at 12:47 AM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
October 3, 2025 at 7:12 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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. Coverage for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. Artwork is a buffalo in profile with a beige background and bold red text of the title covering half its face. 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.
September 30, 2025 at 10:55 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
September 28, 2025 at 10:58 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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...”
September 21, 2025 at 11:23 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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
September 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
August 31, 2025 at 4:59 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
Took my own advice and went for a post-work walk through the woods followed by meandering around a garden. Saw a bee friend! 🌿 🐝
A bee enjoying some flowering sage.
August 27, 2025 at 9:49 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
August 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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?
Bag of Jack brand flat aviary clips, which are wide strips of stainless steel, flatter at one end and curved at the other.
August 8, 2025 at 1:17 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
July 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
July 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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.
July 20, 2025 at 5:13 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
“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.”
July 18, 2025 at 5:40 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
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!
Headline reads, “Hospice nurse who amputated patient's foot without permission for use in sickening taxidermy display escapes jail sentence.” The nurse, a white middle aged woman, is photographed standing in court, looking stoic. Mother Jones article by Julia Métraux “Trump Just Made It OK to Continue Paying Disabled Workers Peanuts In many states, the push to end the subminimum wage continues.” Image shows an employee working in a factory type setting, wearing a reflective safety vest.
July 14, 2025 at 9:49 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
Surely I’m not the only one who thinks this every time I glimpse her hateful, vacant eyes at a press conference…
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference, with the American flag behind her. She has embraced the orangey makeup of the president but her appearance is most notable for her oddly hollow, glassy, intense eyes that are reminiscent of special effects contacts. Linda Blair in costume as Regan MacNeil, a young girl possessed by a demon in the 1973 horror film "The Exorcist." She is disheveled, with wounds on her face and is wearing contacts that make her eyes seem especially hollow and soulless.
July 13, 2025 at 1:05 AM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
I feast on news of billionaires losing. May the orcas take down another yacht for my dessert.
Headline reads: Jeff Bezos alters Venice wedding plans after threat of inflatable crocodiles Amazon founder reportedly forced to change venue for his wedding celebrations in Italian city Photo shows a massive banner protesting against Amazon founder Jeff Bezos lies on the ground, placed by Greenpeace Italy activists and UK activist group Everyone Hates Elon, in St. Mark's Square, ahead of the expected wedding of Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, in Venice, Italy, June 23, 2025. Banner features Bezos laughing evilly and reads “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.” Business Insider article: The billionaires who bet big on the NYC mayoral primary — and lost By Bryan Metzger Photo at the bottom is of Mamdani smiling at a microphone on election night.
June 25, 2025 at 7:40 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
‼️PSA: Heat intolerance is a symptom of many conditions including long covid & a common meds side effect—heart meds, antihistamines, psych meds, &c.

Do not risk illness & disability during climate change, fascism, & the spread of a new COVID variant.

Be heat aware & wear an n95. Resources in 🧵
CBS News temperate maps for Sun Jun 22 and Mon Jun 23. Map shows predicted temperatures and departures from normal. From the misery to the east coast, many cities expect temps in the 90s and 100s, with dramatic deviations from normal in places like Omaha (100F, +14 on Sunday) and Detroit (97F +17 on Monday). Infographic about heat exhaustion and heat stroke with a human figure in the middle, divided in two to compare the symptoms and appropriate response to both conditions. Heat Exhaustion: Faint or dizzy Excessive sweating Cool, pale, clammy skin Nausea or vomiting Rapid, weak pulse Muscle cramps Get to a cookout, air conditioned place Drink water if fully conscious Take a cool shower or use cold compresses Heat stroke: Throbbing headache No sweating Body temperature above 103° Red, hot, dry skin Rapid, strong pulse May lose consciousness CALL 9-1-1 Take immediate action to cool the person until help arrives 6 types of medications that make you sensitive to the heat • Blood pressure medications • Antihistamines • Decongestants • Overactive bladder treatments • Stimulant medications for ADHD • Psychiatric medications Chart of mental health medication classes and associated heat-related symptoms Heat Intolerance: TCAs, SSRIs, SSNIs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines Hypotension: TCAs, SSRIs, SSNIs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines Fainting from heat: TCAs, SSRIs, SSNIs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines Excessive Sweating: SSRIs, SSNIs Decreased Sweating: TCAs, antipsychotics Reduced alterness in heat: TCAs, SSRIs, SSNIs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines Lethargy and confusion in heat: TCAs, SSRIs, SSNIs, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines
June 20, 2025 at 2:21 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
It’s world pollinator week! 🐝 🌿

These little guys have massive impacts on ecosystems. We need them.

You can protect them by growing native plants, refusing to rake/blow leaf litter, and rejecting pesticide use. Ask your local elected leaders to make these practices policy in public spaces, too!
A monarch butterfly lands on a white person’s hand. Its wings are vibrant orange with striking black lines. Flowers grow in the background. A fuzzy bee crawls on the vivid pink petals of a zinnia. The photo was taken near dusk and therefore has a slightly cool-toned tint from the funky twilight lighting.
June 19, 2025 at 9:48 PM
bilboyaga.bsky.social
I thought I was going to have to buy a wrist rest for my new keyboard to be comfy to use…

But then I remembered I have this heating pad that’s the right size, is cozy and cute, AND can be heated or chilled for joint pain. Also it has lavender and chamomile in it, so it smells nice.
A 75% keyboard with Studio Ghibli keycaps sits on a dark wood desk. A mug featuring The Green Dragon Inn from Lord of the Rings is visible in the upper right corner. A rectangular heating pad covered in a dark green botanical print with foxes, birds, and porcupines among the plants rests before the keyboard, in the place of a wrist rest.
May 26, 2025 at 9:38 PM