Dear Internet,

After five long months, we got our car back on July 30th.

To recap:

I plowed into a snowbank end of January. Body shop wasn’t going to have room in its calendar until mid-April. No big deal; it’s all cosmetic. At the end of February, Mr. Lisa hits a deer and totals the car. The car is undriveable. Mr. Lisa has the car towed to the body shop and the calendar remains the same. We get a rental car for a few weeks, return the rental car, and then go on vacation for a few weeks.

Back in April, I recounted how getting that second rental car was an EVENT.

At the end of May, we pick up Mortimer only to have the check engine light come on and power to the engine is halved. Body shop recommends a mechanic who is a few blocks away. They specialize in foreign cars. Mechanic looks at it and sees oil leaks in a few places and the car is not safe to drive. Their schedule is booked until mid-July so we towed Mortimer back to the cabin where he sat in our driveway for nearly two months.

Last week we towed him back to the mechanics and the work was completed in less than a week. Mortimer had to go back to the body shop to get his decals put back on (paint had to cure). At 2:30 p.m. on July 30th, we picked up Mortimer and returned the ghastly Nissan Sentra we’ve been driving for four months.

I’ve hugged Mortimer several times since we got him back. Getting adjusted to his controls and moves is muscle memory. We’ve gone on a few long drives with him and it felt good to be in his cockpit again. As Mini says, Let’s Motor.

P.S. Mini on the Mack is in August 2027! After owning Mini Coopers for nearly two decades, it’s time we went!

Mr. Lisa and I have been concert buddies for the last week. In a span of six days, we saw Renee Flemming (classical), Stray Cats (rockabilly), and a Tribute to ABBA (disco). At the end of the month I’m heading to Detroit to see Peter Hook (ex-bassist for Joy Division and New Order, post-punk). Hook plays JoyDiv catalog as well as some NO tunes. This will be the closest I’ll ever get to seeing JoyDiv in my lifetime.

(I cannot believe it’s been nearly 50 years since Ian Curtis killed himself.)

Hook toured a few years ago and was in Detroit. I bought tickets and then didn’t go for some unknown reason. I think the person who was to come with me had to bail and I didn’t want to go alone? No idea. While I’ve done concerts solo in the past, it had been a long time so I, too, bailed on that show. Last year Elbow came to Detroit and while friends of mine also went, they were in seating while I was on the floor. I felt fine walking to and fro the venue alone (hotel is a block away) and being on the floor with my fancy drink solo (though I did strike up conversations with others), so for Hook, I thought why the hell not? I am a middle aged hag, I can do a concert solo.

Before the show, I’m heading to A2 to see a friend from college I haven’t seen in at least a decade. I’m not over in her neck of the woods often so this will be nice to see her and the fam. I’m staying at her place and then heading to my hotel the following morning. Nice drive that weekend which will be fun now that I have Mortimer back!

Also happening in August is this upcoming weekend I’m heading to downstate for BarCamp. It’s an unconference where you have 20-25 minutes to present on something. Here is a list of previous years topics. I’m going to present on Mary Frith aka Moll Cutpure. Frith was a 17th C pimp, fence, pickpocket, and highway woman to name a few things. She also was the first female comedian in England, the first woman to smoke tobacco (according to her), and she also wore men’s clothes. She’s a card. A friend of mine is one of the organizers for BarCamp and somehow I got chatty about Frith and he said, “You should do this for BarCamp!” So, I am! He also said that some people do more than one presentation so I might do one on librarianship that I’ve done before. Both presentations are already at a slimmed down 20 minutes so this will be easy peasy.

(I love doing deep dives and presenting on topics. Mr. Lisa says I enjoy this so much, I should create presentations and sell them for people who want to do off the wall topics for events.)

I’ll get downstate early Friday evening and have girl time with Steph, spend all Saturday with her husband at BarCamp, and then head to my brother’s for a night. Sunday I come home but not before I stop mid-state to see Kristin for lunch. Then home! Then! The Peter Hook concert is the following weekend.

August is fucking busy!

Since we last spoke, I’ve been getting more riled up about things than usual, mostly over on Bluesky, which is the new Twitter and I’ll stand on this ground until I die.

The topics I’ve been getting riled about in no particular order:

• Spread of misinformation

• Aggravated use of Gen AI

• Women’s treatment through history

• Current political climate, especially local

• Cybersecurity for the every person

• People standing up in concerts when the venue is seating only

• The fact my state library association charges double the membership cost if you’re not affiliated with a library, which is extremely prohibitive for those who work part-time or are unemployed

• Purity politics

• People who expect unpaid labor

• Zionist assholes

That’s..a lot!

If you look at the time stamp of my links in that list, it’s all been within the last two weeks. 😂

But I did have some upswings thanks to my riling up:

• I created a list of books over on bookshop.org on the topic of Gen AI and how it is the worst gleaned from several sources. (I credited the sources.) The list went viral-ish and I earned $30 in commission from people buying titles from that list!

• Spawning from that conversation, I went on a riled up rant about the idiocy of my profession and their lack of due diligence when it comes to misinformation and Gen AI slop. I then sent an unhinged letter to the Library Freedom Project summarizing this and I wanted to get involved. Turns out the Exec Director knows who I am and invited me on their workgroup for AI. Soon, I will be a member and can contribute to the good work they do!

It pays to bitch.

On the topic of being expected to work for unpaid labor, I wrote an article over at BookLife (a subsidiary of Publishers Weekly geared for small press and indie authors) on getting your books into bookstores and libraries. I got this gig because I pitched to the editor their current article on the topic was out of date and had a lot of wrong information. She agreed and tada! I have a semi-regular column in BL!

Anyway, since the article published I’ve had readers reach out via my website, Facebook Messenger, and LinkedIn. All of them complimented the article and said they found it helpful. That was the lede. After the compliments, they wanted me to essentially give them my workshop on the topic for free. When I pointed them to buying the resource guide which has all the information, resources, and links in one slimmed down PDF, I get crickets. Of course. BL is paying me for this column. I am not doing work for free. I’m over that.

I was on a podcast recently also talking about this very topic and a listener reached out and wanted me to come to their weekly author talk. It sounded like I would be giving a variation of this workshop so I told her my fee. Also, crickets.

When I started Nerd Girl Industries, I would have jumped at these chances but I’ve gotten better and setting boundaries and knowing my worth. I cannot even tell you the dozens of hours that go into creating the decks, practice, research, and then creating the resource guides.

Anyway, comrades, do not ask for unpaid labor!

Til next time!

lisa x

I’m fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for the Out of Darkness walk again with the walk on September 19, 2026. As most of you know, a very beloved person in my life, the selfish bastard Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. He would have been 47 this year.

(Note: Last year they had bibs for your back for you to write down who has suffered or died from suicide. I had ten people written down including me, my mom, and others I knew. This is a fucking epidemic.)

My goal is to raise $1250 USD. I’ve got around a lot more more to go as I’ve been a lazy git and haven’t been fundraising as I should have been.

This year I’ll be wearing my Team Otter Lee Ridiculous (name of Brendan’s Corgi) in solidarity. I’m also walking in N. Michigan rather than in Grand Rapids (if you’re in the area and want to come say hi!).

Even if you only have $5, please consider donating via ASFP’s website or Facebook (if that’s your jam). Since AFSP is a non-profit, you can write this of on your taxes if you itemize.

Note to Lee: You’ve already donated. Twice! Put the credit card down.

And in the grand words of Bartles & Jaymes, thank you for your support.