This Week in Self-Hosted (4 April 2025)

#AprilShowers bring new projects, software updates and launches, a spotlight on #BookLore -- an ebook management and reading platform, and more in this week's #selfhosted recap!

https://selfh.st/newsletter/2025-04-04/

Goblins are the least centralized of the 11 Foke. Their warrens usually house fewer than 300 individuals, and almost never more than 500, and these warrens are scattered around the continent.

This is tangentially related to ADHD. A lot of goblin culture emphasizes consensus, custom, and a sort of honor system. These feel more workable in smaller communities. I don’t know if this also applies to ADHD, but I can see why it might. #booklore

One favorite bit of goblin culture I made up is chew toys. Goblins, even adults, tend to carry around nice-tasting roots, and they chew on them when they’re bored or need to concentrate.

This derives from my resentment that cigarettes are unhealthy. The ritual of taking out, lighting, and smoking cigarettes sounds so soothing to my ADHD, but I want to live and not smell bad.

So chew toys are a cross between cigarettes and fiddle toys. They’re not addictive, but they’re soothing. #booklore

Another ADHD/goblin overlap is fluid time. Goblin astrologers use “overside reckoning,” geometers use “underside reckoning” and most goblins don’t keep track of either.

Instead, goblins go by the “jibe,” a semi-conscious consensus. Morning is when enough goblins are up that the rest get up too. Supper is a communal meal that starts when enough goblins are hungry. Accommodations are made for those goblins out of jibe or who just follow their own clock.

Here’s one way goblin deconstruction and ADHD overlap: Goblin society works on a “need a penny take a penny have a penny leave a penny” basis for small everyday objects. In their view, what’s the point of “owning” something no goblin can be expected to keep track of, like cups and styluses?

So, because goblins have a habit of grabbing what they need, they get called thieves. And because they leave stuff behind, they’re labeled slovenly. But in goblin settlements, it’s a good system. #booklore

When I decided to write from the point of view of a goblin, I didn’t want to just make him a stereotype. I thought it would be more fun to create a goblin culture that explained why the stereotypes exist.

This bumped up against a question I’ve asked myself before: “What would society look like if ADHD was normal and neurotypicals were the odd ones out?”

So it would be oversimplifying to look at the book and say “goblins have ADHD,” but you wouldn’t be completely wrong.

More later. #booklore

I’m gonna try something. If it works out I’ll do it more, and probably on other social media platforms as well. I’m gonna share some worldbuilding from Ogrecrantz and Goblinstern that might not be explicit in the book when it’s finished, or might only be glossed over. I’ll use the tag #booklore. I’ll probably write the first installment around lunchtime.

Unnecessary disclaimer: It’s all a work in progress, some of it will no doubt change before I finish the first book.