Kate
So the tree that shades us in summer has been eaten from the inside out by borers and needs to come down before it falls on us. The tree remover came to give a quote, invited himself in for coffee, opened a folder and asked if he could talk to me about an important issue.
I flinched. Here comes God or anti-immigration, I thought.
But the passion of the man who’s has been tree cutting for 23 years is: West Papuan independence. Never think you know.
DJ Sundog - from the toot-lab
Fun fact: everything about any of the geegaws and doodads that make the fediverse go is nothing at all compared to the wild dynamic energies evidenced in some of these clusters of people finding themselves.
Damn impressive individually and collectively at arbitrary scales, you lot.
Muninn 🍃
I'm realizing that a significant proportion of white middle class Americans have little to no concept of hospitality, and thus their isolation is no surprise. My parents were like this and I chalked it up to them being weird, but it's apparent that this is actually the norm for many people.
Such people may have parties, guests even for the long term, etc etc, but there's something missing and hospitality is the best way I can name it. It seems like a learned skill that's missing.
zigg 💻
This is a Very Important Sign https://cybre.space/media/xM1ExDf8nx-OhdwkubY
Kate
They really just like hair. And regular hair conditioner combed through thickly over and over will defeat them in the end. It’s a war of attrition.
Kate
So the local supermarket in our small community accidentally overbought strawberries at market and are now more or less giving them away.
Everyone’s talking about it, strangers are overheard saying “do you know about the strawberries?” It’s a race to find ways to use them up.
Not a bad thing to be treating as urgent, what with Australian politics and everything.
Kate
My daughter is at a vintage motorcycle show checking out the wares. I’m in the car park learning that this is a very diverse demographic.
But beards. So many unironic beards.
Kate
@lauraritchie @Altruest I feel the same. Thank you!
Kate
@RussSharek @welshpixie Also negativity in scare quotes is only to quote it, not at all to make it small. Your reasoning about preparing for what to read makes 100% sense to me. That’s email’s underappreciated design asset.
For me the precise zone of difficulty is in figuring out where politics ends, whether what I think others mean by politics is what they mean, what politics is shorthand for in our times.
Kurt Mosiejczuk :flan_cleaver:
Sysadmins often like to take pride in how much they get done and how overworked they are. How that is "just how things are".
It's dangerous thinking. It normalizes being given too much work.
It leads to burnout. You won't generally realize you are burning out until you are well in the hole.
Dr. Dan Killam
I am a PhD candidate at UCSC. I study the tiny growth bands of clam shells (kinda like tree rings) to answer questions about their physiology and environment.
Kate
Russ, would this example fall into the category of “negativity” for you?
Kate
So for example I just boosted something from the incarcerated workers union who are exploring mastodon as a platform in the North American prison strike.
It’s about prison, and labour organisation, and that’s textbook politics right there. Something in me feels really uncomfortable CW-ing that struggle.
I’m totally open to rethinking. I’m just presently stuck on this kind of thing.
Kate
@RussSharek I agree. This is a community that really takes care with stuff.
Most of my thinking on specific CWs has been driven by noticing a post that explains why it’s helpful to that person. And I think “sure thing, happy to help”. I don’t feel policed or scolded, I feel like someone’s handed me a tool and invited me to build.
But, and this is my ongoing wrangle, I struggle with some of the politics requests.
Kate
Here are some suggestions for people I love to hear from:
@RussSharek @naugeleh. @Avalon #clowns, seriously.
@lauraritchie @steckerhalter @compostablespork @tdorey @tellio @actualham @ghost_bird @paralithode @aparrish @Damage @silverspookgames @skiring
I found that people found me, I'm not sure how. Different people. Friendly faces.
Kate
Mastodon isn’t perfect but it’s some kind of evidence of human willingness to try to patch things up, at scale.
That’s not nothing.
Kate
At the beginning of the week it was so windy that branches fell right out of trees. The workplace owls were nowhere to be seen. All week I've been waiting for them to come back, worrying they'd been hit by flying branches. (Does that even happen to birds?)
Finally today they showed up on the branch outside my window, leaning on each other in the sunshine. All day, just leaning quietly, being owls.
Kate
@ginnungagap The only other thing that stops me like this is whales.
Kate
@ginnungagap it’s strange, that sense of being willing to make an effort to witness this rare event.
I was just thinking: I’m a person without faith, there’s no god or otherwise I need to show up for. But I think I show up for things like this in an almost spiritual way. Something like reverence. Or at least contemplation.
the yawning void
i had to see this despite feeling poorly, so i trekked a bit across the field to see the moon. took me a while to find, but there she was - a very faint, pink orb hovering just above the treeline. the sky is too light, still. was strange to see such a translucent moon.
i stood there watching her a while, joined by crickets and an owl calling, which made it immensely more significant. this feels like a start of something new, i just don’t know what that is. my intentions are set for creativity.
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