lavendertook

Happy Birthday, sweet shirebound!!!!




I got me some roses for my birthday last week, so I share them with you!!!

I hope you have a cozy birthday weekend with your cute Pippin and some yummy treats!!!

Hugshugshugshugs!!!!

Happy Birthday, hanarobi!!!! I hope it's a good one with kitties and cake and no paper grading!!! Hugs and <3!!!!

I read a lifestyle advice article on my home feed on FaceBook that listed a few of my friends on top. It was from a credible source, the NYT, but not a section of the NYT I would have picked out myself. I had some thoughts about it and looked around trying to see how it got on my home feed--which friend it came through, with no luck. In fact, I really don't know if the friends listed on it had read the article or had negative or positive reactions to it. When I went back to my feed to look closer at this info, the article had disappeared. Granted, I am still a FaceBook novice, since I avoid posting there, and perhaps savvy old timers can track these things with ease, but I have my doubts. I don't know how this article really got to my home feed. And if a casual attempt to track it doesn't reveal these answers readily to me, then it probably doesn't reveal those answers to most FaceBook users. Most likely, the question does not even occur to many FB users.

My friends on Facebook are all very bright, liberal or progressive. My home feed is full of news articles filtered through opinion pieces, but it is often not clear if the opinion is from my friend or one of their friends or a more removed pundit. Though I agree with the anti-Trump, progressive point of view of most all of my FaceBook friends, I find the difficulty of tracking who is making the comments very troubling. It's no way to get your news or to discuss news, and it is so easy to game and to slip in bots. Today I saw friends perhaps passing on the complaints of progressive groups about changes FaceBook is making to its news dissemination process, though I am not certain this came with my friends' approval, but whatever changes FB makes, they will not be worse than how it currently works or solve these problems and make it better.

Why are smart people using FaceBook to discuss politics when attributions are so fast and loose there? Why have they left behind other forms of social media blogs (like dreamwidth and LJ) where what articles you pass on are ones you have clearly linked to with your own html links and where your words are published on your own blog? More importantly, why are smart people using FaceBook to get their news feeds instead of going directly to news and blog sites they trust? FaceBook obscures the pathways the articles take and the attribution of commentary. It's horrible.

Why put your trust in FaceBook? The convenience is not worth the power you give this one web source by depending on it.

So yes, this is another futile anti-FaceBook screed. The only reason I look at FB is because so many smart people have left our social media homes for that horrid interface, and many people I know from various walks of my life have made it their social media home. In the last year I have been clicking there more because it is the only website where they congregate, and I give thumbs up and heart emoji's, but its not a place I want to put my words, pics, and time. It's a good interface for advertising events--concerts, meet-ups, and book launches, and should be used for such. But I worry about so many smart friends using it as a newsfeed--and how little use it has for the kind of productive political discussion you can still have on blogs.

It's not the internet as a whole that is making our society more stupid--it's FaceBook prime and center, more than any other site. And if we don't want FB's diffusing of attributions and ways of giving room for bots to play, then we have the power of keeping it from being so ubiquitous by not making it a prime source for news and political discussion, if not personal posts.

FB is a wrong turn in the evolution of social networking blog interfaces.

Dreamwidth and LJ are still my prime internet homes and will continue to be, and I will keep hoping my friends will come to their senses and come back or migrate to other old style social networking blogs that foster better interaction and political thought. But I really hope most of all they will stop using it as a news aggregator--by the way it is set up, it can easily mislead you about who is recommending the articles that appear before you, and narrow instead of broaden your news sources in the process. What looks like convenience on FB wastes your time (and synapses) instead of saves it.

I am so sorry, but I am woefully behind on getting presents and cards sorted and out. Don't expect anything from me until January. Meh. And when the end of January comes, I will accept defeat for whatever didn't get done and turn toward trying to get things out for the next year end. Like every year.

I've wanted to be more of a presence here on my journal and posting pics, but life keeps feeling like a boat being rifted away from shore and I feel like I can't get anything done.

But I've gotten to do some fun things this year too I've wanted to tell ya'll about and haven't. Maybe I can do a year in review. What a year we've gotten through; on the macro level it has sucked rocks and spit them in our eyes. I am shaking less than this time last year, though--what new lows we've become accustomed to.

I'm starting working in a new department at work, and work and pressure is slowly revving up--both good and bad.

Nothing majorly bad has occurred so far this year for the cats and me, on the personal/health level, so I am grateful. And I am grateful for all of you being here, carrying on and reminding me I am not alone. <3



Great Blue Heron on Greenbelt Lake in October

My Eclipse Trek was a short 3 day there and back again kind of trip that I started hopefully planning through google wanderings 2 months ago and really came together the end of July when Debra agreed to come with me and introduced me to her petsitter D at her party. I read an article on the upcoming eclipse, probably from the Washington Post 2 months ago and learned the term the "Path of Totality", that the eclipses I saw as a kid were only partial, and that all kinds of cool special effects I missed could be seen only if you are in the Path of Totality. So my desire to see this astronomical wonder only started then.

The closest route to the Path of Totality was straight down I-95 to South Carolina. I knew motels in the Path of Totality would have been sold out long already, so I looked at availability in Florence, SC, which also had the advantage of being on the cross roads to the closest point of totality straight down I-95 to Santee, SC, east to Charleston, SC, or west to Columbia, SC. I'd aim for Santee, but tried to do research for good viewing spots around Columbia and Charleston if clearer skies were predicted that morning in either of the latter places rather than Santee. Florence had plenty of vacancies in July, but started filling up fast in August.

I made a reservation 2 weeks before at the Thunderbird Inn , a basic economical 2 star hotel, much like most of the places my family stayed at during our family vacations. It had definitely seen better days, but was plenty comfortable, and yet seemed to put a lot of its budget into landscaping, which was a big attraction for me, because seeing palm trees out the window in the morning would be my solace if clouds spoiled the view we were traveling to see. I could take palm trees and Spanish moss as my consolation prize, as it's been more than a decade since I've seen them. Stretching my back swimming in a pool looking up at palm trees would help make the long drive more doable.



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It's been so long since I've given a good update and I've missed so many birthdays. I keep hoping to post belated birthday pic spams, but I'm just going to give a shout out now before it's next year:

Happy Belated Birthdays to my dear friends hanarobi, addie71, jan_u_wine, julchen11, and any of my flisties I missed the last few months!

The US Coast to Coast Total Solar Eclipse on August 21st! So has everyone in the US gotten their eclipse glasses? I got certified American Paper Optics glasses on eBay and they came in the mail this week. Is anyone in the Path of Totality? Is anyone making plans to travel to it? I've seen partial eclipses before and wasn't impressed, but only learned the last few months that you only get the good special effects if you are in the Path of Totality and even 99.999% won't compare. The closest vantage is 8 hours south from where I live and I've been making tentative plans to drive down. But it all depends on the weather, kitty health, and the shape my achy foot is in. Anyone else planning on traveling to see it?

Much to report but I'll suffice with telling you about my friend D's 65th birthday bash last Saturday in the yard of her farmhouse out west of Baltimore. She hired our favorite local band ilyAMY to play a 3 hour set, and they were wonderful as always and enjoyed the Shire-like setting. I've been meaning to see them for years, but only first saw them last November, when I really needed them, for national reasons you can guess, and it really helped. Anyway, there were tons of cake and food, and more wine and beer, and to top off the hobbitiness, she had some grand fireworks, and people sent off burning lanterns into the sky. It was beautiful. Thank goodness we had a deluge for a couple of days that only ended a couple of hours before the party to keep all foliage moist and keep the celebration from burning the whole damned countryside down, because they would have sent them off anyway if it was dry--yoy! The party was in the middle of my Tuxie-medicating time, so I missed the first couple of hours, unfortunately, but I still had a really fun time. I enjoyed helping break things down and cleaning up and got to chat with some of the band and D's friends at the end. Most fun I've had in a long time. It was glorious.

Also glorious were the peach melba bonbon's that just came in the mail from the most generous and talented chef minoanmiss. <3 OMG, they were yummy and it's astonishing how quickly they disappeared! Those sweets made up for a really frustrating week of customer service annoyances, scam artist encounters, foot aches, and such draws on my time and energy, and together with the spring-like weather today in my beautiful town and purring kitties, life is good.

And thank you to everyone who gave me suggestions on getting a new cellphone a while back. I got an iPhone 7 Plus I am happy with. if you'd like to call or text me, please send me a PM or email and I'll give you the number.

Lots more to tell, but time for bed. Goodnight!

Happy Thanksgiving Day! I hope all who celebrate are having a good one. And to those who don't, OK, you can have a good day too. I'm so grateful to have all my friends here--I'm not sure how you all fit yourselves into my tiny macbook air, but I'm glad you did. <3


Another October pic I took by the lake.

I had a yummy T-Day meal with zlabya and her DH and her BF. I made my signature salad, and she made a yummy chicken, sweet potato casserole, and apple crisp. Excellent company to hang out with.

Auditing the Vote

If you missed the news, Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for US President started raising funds yesterday to audit and recount the votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Best comment ever reported as seen on twitter by ambree40: lanyard @lanyardigan 8h8 hours ago: Please, God: like Gollum, let Jill Stein have a totally unforeseen and critical purpose. :-D

I contributed yesterday and watching it grow has been so exciting--they're up to $4.3 million and counting. Go here if you want to contribute or just watch the donations flood in.

A decade back I was following the voting integrity push, belonged to Common Cause, and presented a paper to Congresspeople involved in the movement. When I canvassed for John Kerry down in Florida on election weekend, I listened to poll workers who saw voting machines flip their votes from Kerry to Bush.

We've made great strides in creating a paper trail in many districts in this country to check these problems, but paper backup ballots don't do any good if you never audit and take a look at them. It's just a gigantic green flag to hackers, Russian gov't connected or from anywhere, if they know we're not verifying the optical scanners by checking some of the paper ballots. We should be auditing a sampling of ballots in every state before we announce the count, and we should get used to not having instant gratification and wait a week or 3 before announcing a winner, as grueling as it would have felt to do that this year.

So, without getting my hopes too high that they will find something that will overturn the horrid results of this election (but seeing that Trump has a pattern of doing the things he accuses others of and Bannon is involved with data-mining operations, how could we not check this out), the recount here is just a needed thing to ensure the integrity of the vote. As long as we're having elections close enough that one side wins the electors and the other side the popular vote, vote audits should be made an automatic procedure through legislation. We're doing a good thing here, whatever the outcome of the recount.

Moo and Tuxie planned to do a little dance for your birthday, febobe, but as you can see . . .


. . . they are very, very busy cats. It takes a lot of work and dedication to prepare to win the only feline Olympic sport and they are working very hard at their form here. They hope to bring back the gold in the synchronized team division.



Happy Birthday, dear febobe!!! May you have a gold medal birthday with fun, yummies, and love today with your folks!!! (((((You)))))

Also posted at http://lavendertook.dreamwidth.org/201841.html with comments

A very happy birthday to dear mews1945!!! I hope today is filled with love and all good things and that you feel a little stronger each day. Here are some pretties and fuzzies from around Greenbelt Lake, and thereabouts for you.


A sweet william in all their variety of colors that was blooming in May by the lake.


A deer in the woods behind my apartment building who was very fascinated by my talking to him in baby talk--so many critters seem to just love that.


A squirrel by the lake feasting at a lakeside house's yard where they put out bird seed.

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Also posted at http://lavendertook.dreamwidth.org/201138.html with comments

KVETCHING

A lot of annoying times for me these past 3 weeks, in addition to the upsetting world angst. Nothing life shattering for me--I'm just bent out of shape like it was--shape up self! Car repairs that took 2 days and resulted in having to replace the radiator and fan assembly. At the same time, I had a maintenance person in for 2 days working on the drip that had become a stream from my bathtub faucet and had to keep calling on him when the first days work resulted in not all the water going up to the shower head when switched, until he came up with a makeshift solution, which I hope holds.

Then the next week my bedroom ac stopped working. That took a week and a lot of calling, waiting for contractors who did not show up, hot nights, then the maintenance man making my sunroom into a mess when he brought in a portable ac. It was finally fixed Tuesday.

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My fandom friend morgan_dhu is short of funds for transport so she can get needed surgery. You can find her post here on LJ or on DW to learn more about her situation and go to her go fund me site here. <3

Also posted at http://lavendertook.dreamwidth.org/198530.html with comments

Very Happy Belated Birthdays to blslarner and kittyfosterami!!! I hope it was a great birthday week for both of you.

I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. Things have been feeling hectic and busy--some good things, but a lot of stressful things.

But of the good things was the beautiful weather the last couple of days, and the gorgeous hike I went on today with the fun company of zlabya and a local women's hiking group to the McKeldin area of Patapsco Valley Park, about half way between Baltimore and Westminster.


So let me take you on the trail:

It's lined with little wild flowers, though you can't see them too well in this pic--lots of violets and spring beauties, among others.

And here's the Patapsco River we walked along most of the way:


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I had a great trip for a couple of days visiting my awesome and lovely best friendmererid. She picked me up in Phoenix and drove me down to Tucson to stay with her and her excellent partner R and their exuberant and well-coddled quaker parrot, Baby. Sunday we drove into the Tucson Mountains southwest of town to the Tucson Desert Museum.



There we saw nicely landscaped local flora, and fauna in enclosures, but I especially enjoyed seeing the fauna not in enclosures, and I'll show you lots more pics in another post. My hobbit dolls had fun there, too. We also drove around some of the neighborhoods of Tucson and its signature murals.

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Today is 2 months since I lost Saki. I'm doing a much better job this month of focusing on being grateful for the 16 years I had in the company of that magnificent cat-being than on the sadness of her ending. There are days, and times, but it's not as raw as last month. I am so grateful for the support from my flist friends who held me up during the worst of it. I couldn't get through without you. Thank you. (((((((FLIST)))))

Below is another favorite pic, this of Herself with a wool catnip-filled mouse an old friend made and sent for her. She tended to love her newest toy and her newest bed most, but her fondness for this mouse lasted many years and it stayed in her latest beds.

It's also 9 years today since my dad died--tomorrow would have been his 88th birthday. The 15th will be 5 months since Mom died. He and Mom have 4 siameses tucked around them, but maybe Saki is visiting with them tonight, too.


Is that a smiling kitten cat, or is that a smiling kitten cat? So fluffy sweet and soft, but look at the strength in that possessive paw. THIS MOUSE. IS MINE. GO ME! LOVE U.

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Also posted at http://lavendertook.dreamwidth.org/188651.html with comments

Last Sunday I drove up to New Jersey to meet my friend lbilover at the Franklin Preserve State Park in the Pine Barrens. It was a long drive and totally worth it for her warm and comfortable company, along with the company of her sweet deerhound Gandy, the adventuresome Pippin, who I was very glad to get to see again, and the silky Clementine who joyed to show us the meaning of haste, and for the beauty of the pines. I sure miss living in an area well covered in evergreens, like there was in Carrboro, NC. Our hobbit dolls were also happy to see each other again. It was a gorgeous cool, sunny day, perfect for a 3 hour hike.


I tried to get a pic of lbilover with her whole pup family, but , being very busy pups, they were impatient with the whole process. Gandy here is blocking Clem and giggling about it, too.

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I am so glad to kick 2013 out the door. Happy New Year to all my dear flisties. I couldn't have gotten through the year without you. *hugs*


I wanted to thank addie71, ancalime8301, baranduin, browngirl, claudia603, ladyjax, and shirebound for the pretty and cute cards, ladysnaps for the wonderfully creative, as always, EW manip card, llinos for keeping me up with the wonderful adventures of the knitted hobbits, lovethosehobbit for the cute card and ewey magnet, aliensouldream for the gorgeously glittery card and ornament, and jan_u_wine for the thoughtful card and gift of hobbit music. Thank you for brightening my room during a dark time for me.

If I forgot anyone who sent me a card, please do let me know in comments so I can have the pleasure of thanking you.

2014's arrival is most welcome. I'm looking forward to a better year.