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D.O.P.-T.

Saw all three cats today. Mama Violet waited in silence while I took the water bowls away and changed the water, then started efficiently engulfing her breakfast. Monty prevented me from finishing the watering by hosing down near the tall fence. I left him food, which he ate despite hissing at me. I went out again in the evening after walking the dog, and he'd moved enough for me to get to my flowers, but Prudence was also there, as usual panicking and running exactly where I needed to step. I managed the watering and they both emerged and followed me into the back porch room to stare at the door, so I fed them.

The fluffy little trees that were planted along that tall fence all died of neglect, except for a couple where my watering appears to have given them enough water under the fence. The dead ones have been ripped out and replaced with a couple of ornamental trees of a different kind, with little bell-shaped flowers. The switch involved dust clouds rising over the fence from power tools opening up the hard-packed soil. I wish the little trees well; I hope an automatic drip system has been put in.

Happy Birthday

ravan!

Middle Summer and Bear's Day!

Hi! Around 13th of July has been the "middle of summer" in Finland and Estonia at least historically (because it's the warmest time of summer, not related to sun's movements) and in Estonia it's also been called the Bear's Day. That's why I wanted to share a little bear related runosong (traditional Finnic oral poetry) if that's okay by the rules! With my clumsy translation. It is a spell or chant or prayer so a bear wouldn't attack cattle :]

( Read more... )

D.O.P.-T.

It would have been Wulfy's birthday today. In his honour, when the housemate and I took a walk around the park at 9'ish to beat the heat, hordes of dogs were out.

Ours declined to walk past the end of the front lawn this evening.

D.O.P.-T.

Yesterday after dinner the dog decided she wanted to take a real walkies, and led me around the corner. Then she suddenly stopped dead, turned tail, and towed me all the way home. No idea what spooked her. Today she started off the same way, but stopped and instead demanded to cross the fairly busy road. I managed to effect this without getting us run over. She found a lawn to make a deposit on, I did the pick-up—and almost immediately, she was racing again. But this time continuing away from the house. So we went around the block in good time, including crossing at a crossing this time, and I think she was all calmed down when we got back. If it's a sound, I can't hear it.

D.O.P.-T.

The housemate has periodic social engagements. The other evening, I took advantage to vacuum out the house (she can't stand the noise). The dog has been shedding; I almost broke the vac by over-filling its cylinder beyond the point where the stirrer inside it could move. Fortunately it worked when she went off at short notice for another in-person thing this afternoon and I vacuumed out the back porch room. There was dog hair in there, too, though, mostly from the top step where the dog lolls outside the back door.

And yes, it was hot.

D.O.P.-T.

It got hot, as promised, but not as hot as I'd feared. The dog took me for a long walkies after dinner, all around the block. We twice had to get out of the way of a lady walking with a cane, who I think was amused by my telling the dog to be polite. And we left and came back via the front door, because Prudence brought Monty with her to cadge food by the back door.

I think I may be done with Paul Krugman's Substack

Today's offering: Should We Politicize the Texas Flood? Absolutely: When it comes to disasters, accountability delayed is accountability denied

I responded to this post, based entirely on the title, as follows. The response pretty much immediately disappeared, in what amounts to a sea of vitriol.

In common decency, people should refrain from casting blame while victims and bystanders are still reeling, and delay even longer before anything that smacks of blaming the victims.

In the news today, we have a person who lost her job for a social media post saying that the victims got what they deserved, given the voting records of part of the area affected.

I can't find it in me to be annoyed at those consequences.

It's just too soon to say things like that. At least wait until the bodies have been found and buried.

A chat board I once frequented imposed a 3 day delay for comments about disasters. It helped a lot to keep the furor down.

Parts of Krugman's actual text make good sense, and he's right about Trump et al politicizing disasters in "blue" areas. But that politicization was treated - and seen - as shocking at the time. Why does he choose to demonstrate to all and sundry that Democrats are not only just as bad as Republicans, but just as bad as MAGA? At least he managed to avoid blaming anyone except political figures, from county level on up, unlike the doctor who lost her job I referenced in my response.

Yes, the news cycle is likely to move on, forgetting about these floods as soon as some celebrity breaks up with their significant other, or whatever else occurs they think will drive clicks better than "old news". But a delayed furor about these deaths - complete with concerns for future deaths - ought to get news attention, especially if it comes with decent proposals for preventing or at least reducing future deaths.

D.O.P.-T.

Better on the animals front. When I took out kitty breakfast, Monty was there; he looked under the car, probably checking neither of the calicos was skulking under there, then fitted himself under the front bumper with his tail sticking out. I just got done vacuuming out the house, and when I took the vacuum cleaner out, Prudence was peering at me hopefully from the garden. When I returned with food, she was stropping her claws on the carpeted steps. Like old times. In between, the dog was quite spry about her walk across the street, although she couldn't be persuaded to prolong it past more than 2 front gardens. As we came out, Mama Violet fled from under a bush, but the dog made only a half-hearted attempt at a lunge towards her. And Mama Violet had already licked the wet food bowl clean on the porch.

Let Me Introduce Myself

These last few years it seems all this astrology and, as the kids say, "woo-woo", have become ever more popular. People seem to be practicing more and more. That's cool so long as people don't turn their backs on science and reason.

( Do you really wanna know more about me...? )

Currently, I'm focusing on walking The Red Road, delving back into the occult, green magick, and my own mix of Indigenous spirituality and Satanism.

thefreaksclub Sibling Community

the_magick_circle is where I talk about that. I also help run a few others.

ethical_society_of_satan which is about society, ethics, philosophy, humanism, non-theological satanism, and other such related things.

veg_life which is about vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, animal rights, the environment, and all that.

first_nations_freaks for all Native American news, culture, discussions, and whatnot.

openhearts_openminds ...polytheism? Maybe! Polyamory? Definitely. All about your less commonly discussed relationship types and other topics relating to relationships.

X-Posted in

the_magick_circle (dark theme!)

D.O.P.-T.

We went to Safeway and did the normal fortnightly shop. I bought 2 tubs of peppermint icecream. And some healthy food.

D.O.P.-T.

I disturbed Mama Violet again. This time, watering near where she was invisibly lurking. (Well, I now wear sunglasses, intensifying the gloom of the undergrowth and her face.) However, progress is: I found Monty lying in the corner of the garden and was able to provide him with food, and I walked the dog after dinner and she crossed the street, which is more than twice as far as she went yesterday and the day before.

In other news, we went to Costco. I bought 2 pairs of trousers that should be cooler to wear, but that I won't be able to wear unless I keep on losing weight or at least stay at my current size. I don't like losing weight, but I may as well make use of it to buy trousers I don't have to roll up the legs on.

D.O.P.-T.

The dog refused to walk, again. But I did see Mama Violet, twice. It was Sunday, so after putting down kitty breakfast, I walked down the steps to get the newspaper; she was at the bottom and was vocal in her displeasure. Later I took advantage of what they say will be the last mild day for a while, and continued trimming that privet-like bush in the driveway, since it's finished flowering. After I brought the greenwaste bin over to the debris, she shot out from under the adjacent bush. No sign of either Monty or Prudence.

I collected a lot of plant matter on my clothes (and had to take a break to wash a bit out of my eye). I already had a bug bite on my arse and have likely amassed more in a variety of locations. The bin is almost full, but the bush is by no means fully shorn.

D.O.P.-T.

... And today the dog was back to only wanting to walk as far as the end of our front lawn. And I didn't see a cat all day. But catfood got eaten, and I saw an illegal corgi at the farmers' market. (Signs say pets are forbidden, including emotional support animals. The corgi was well behaved, but was not wearing an assistance animal uniform.)

D.O.P.-T.

Another nice walk with the dog, although not so far. But then it was Independence Day evening, and she came into my room in distress from fireworks I couldn't hear. An hour or two of distressed barking and attempts to escape followed. It wasn't as bad as last year, and so far it's been shorter, although she's just resumed trying to hide under my desk.

Fireworks are supposedly banned in this city (and it's a city with an extraordinary number of dogs). But I used to be able to hear the official show over in Mountain View from our back garden, so maybe she's hearing legal fireworks, poor thing.

D.O.P.-T.

The sky was dramatic all day: intense blue with racks of broken cloud lines overlaid with whisps like arcane symbols. It was never intensely hot and this evening became cool enough that I closed windows against the chill; most days the a/c has been firing up in late afternoon, causing me to close them and then later reopen them. But the forecast is for a heat dome next week, although we should be on the edge of it and less baking than across the Bay. Here's hoping.

D.O.P.-T.

The dog took me on a long walk today: all the way to the park and looping back through part of it. That was after insisting on lying in the grass for much of the afternoon.

No cat sightings, unfortunately.

Entry tags:

commercial behavior

Google Enshitification

Long ago, in a fit of "they need to hear from more boomers" I signed up for Google User research.

The last time I clicked through to sign up, they wanted me to produce a video of myself and send it to them, to be considered for participation.

Today I clicked through again. The can-you-participate survey first had a field to be filled out only by those living outside the US (per the text) that proved mandatory when I tried to go to the next screen. On the next screen, I discovered that July 14th of this year is a Tuesday, July 15 is a Wednesday, and July 16th is a Thursday. (They did correctly identify July 8 as a Tuesday, in the same question.)

Two stupid errors in one survey. The second one's a killer - I can't correctly tell them what days/times I'd be available when I don't know what date they meant.

I wonder what kind of chat bot or overworked human peon created this survey.

Amazingly, I now have even less interest in donating my time to educating them about the capabilities and preferences of older users. (Yes, there's a gift card if selected and actually participates, but that never was my motivation.)

If they can't avoid multiple errors in their screening instrument, the research is presumably pro forma, and/or equally addled.

D.O.P.-T.

The dog didn't get a walk yesterday, though she did muck about in the back garden for extended periods (mostly lying on the grass; this is why we have grass). Today I managed to take her for a walk after my and her dinners, when it was pleasantly cool and not too windy. She led me quite a way up the block and back.

Hi from Southwestern Quebec!

I'm Kraka, I've been on Dreamwidth before under a different account that was mostly for fandom, but created a new account to journal and share about myself and my path. I'm past mid-40s and used to be on LiveJournal until they sold. I've been a pagan of some stripe for nearly 3 decades. Also am disillusioned with the Book of Faces and other more recent social media.

I'm currently solitary, but I worship mainly Greek and Norse (I know, no relation at all between the religions) with some French-Canadian folk magic and practices thrown in and a heavy dose of animism. I will be studying with a group, starting in September. I used to be part of an Eclectic Wiccan "tradition", had my elevation to 2nd Degree and was teaching, but left due to realizing how toxic a group it really was. Funny how experience makes you realize people aren't what they seem to be on the surface. I've been sort of adrift since, and trying to find my footing again.

I love reading, writing, drawing and painting, learning new things, hiking and camping. I am obsessed with fountain pens and the inks for them, but don't have that extensive a collection because those things are not exactly cheap. I'm nostalgic for the 90s and early 2000s.

I am queer, happily married to my wife since 2017. We have a jenday conure who is almost 3 years old and is named Freyja (she is DNA tested female, since that species of parrots is not sexually dimorphic). She is a veritable toddler with wings.

I don't have icons yet, since I have just set up my account, but I intend to have some soon.