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Stuff going on in my life:
The daily commute is wrecking me. Unfortunately, it seems it may be necessary due to the system I work on only being accessible on site. And it really is: you cannot access any part of the system while not on-site. Not even the basic monitoring. It's technically blocked. Which is understandable, yeah, but also annoying.
Work is its own degree of effort right now. Apart from the commute, the people at this job trust me a lot less than the people at the last job, where they would listen to me and go, "oh, yeah, that makes sense, make it so."
Don't let me start about the bureacracy either. *SCREAMS INTO VOID*
Anyway I'll put all that into another post.
On the 'plus' side of things...a train strike on Friday means I'm not going in to the office on Friday. Working from home - WOO!
--
Garden is coming along pretty okay - a few things looked good in the starting phases and then failed in later stages. I didn't always manage to stay on top of the maintenance phases. *sigh*
Currently, though, I'm getting little bits and pieces from the garden, including raspberries, tomatoes, beans, and stonefruit. I had a friend come over on Tuesday afternoon to help me sort through peaches, and it was great to have someone to talk with while doing all the peeling and boiling and cutting. It only took me a couple of hours instead of the usual half-a-day! And it was lovely doing it with someone else. I sent her away with a jar of a spicy nectarine relish for her pains.
Nectarines are entirely done, peaches are well on their way to being done. Of the apples: Tropic Dorsets are ripe now.
Still growing: Golden Delicious and Galas have just formed. No apricots at all. One cherry, invaded by fruit flies. One Mariposa plum, a handful of the softer multi-stone plums. Avocadoes, but not as many as last year. Heaps and heaps and HEAPS of persimmons and pomegranates. A few blueberries. Some raspberries.
--
Pre- and post-election I spent a lot of time on Threads. I quite enjoyed the camaraderie; it feels a lot more fluid and comfortable than FB or Twitter or even BlueSky. I know nearly everyone is gone to BlueSky and I've made a couple of accounts over there, but it doesn't really speak to me the way Threads does.
That said, I'm thinking of going back to Mastodon, because Threads is owned by Meta and they're about to introduce ads. Since a lot of companies/people-of-fame are deserting X for other sites, the other sites have become increasingly inundated with bots and assholes. I like Threads' method for dealing with you (you can block them from not only being seen, but also hide the comment threads they leave), but also, I'm aware that all technology giveth and taketh away. And apparently advertisements are coming to Threads in 2025.
I know Bluesky is billed as a good place to be, but as someone pointed out (i'll have to hunt down the article), it's still run by venture capitalists, and one is unable to pick up and move entirely without losing one's audience. (Okay, so losing an audience is not a problem for me, I don't have one to start with.)
Mastodon is, at least, a diffuse set of networks, and one can pick up and move fairly flexibly without losing the network one has acquired...unless...
I started using Mastodon about three years ago, and was quite enjoying it until I got in trouble with the mod of an active politics server who desperately adored RDJ, and when I said something snarky about the actor, my traffic from everyone on this server completely vanished. I went from people chatting and encouraging me every couple of hours to zip, zilch, nix, nil, nothing. I'm guessing she banninated me for not having the "correct opinions" about her beloved actor. I could go and look at individual profiles on the server, and comment on their posts, but none of it got served up to me on the FYP equivalent and I'm not even sure they were able to see me if they didn't have me followed directly.
Anyway, I didn't mind Mastodon, but it seemed to rely on you being part of a community, and after the RDJ-stan dumped me from her server, I wasn't. Granted, there are other communities building and developing, but I got tired and simply retired to Threads.
I might try going back? IDK. Need to work out what I'm going to interact with where. That's always a bit of a trick. I am not what one would call a "personality that people are attracted to online". In the flesh, in real life, people generally like me, I think. At least, people don't try to exclude me out of stuff they're organising, so I'm going to presume that they don't object to me!
But, yeah, internet community can be difficult to build, and can vanish at the drop of a hat. Or at the bannination of one.
--
I can't remember if I've posted this link before: The Sad Bastard Cookbook: A completely free cookbook for the zero spoons crowd.
My thought is: it might help some of you guys out there?
--
Social life has gone a little cray cray. Maybe it's the pre-Christmas run, or just a busy time of year? Might just be luck of the draw or something?
Saturday lunch: permie birthday party
Saturday night: church birthday party - curry
Sunday: The Great Train Write In for not!NaNo (a.k.a. "The Month Of Writing Dangerously")
Sunday night: church friend distraction getaway
Monday: church friend distraction getaway - all day
Tuesday: work, then peach-processing with permie friend
Wednesday: work, then bible study
Thursday: work, lunch with a Spidersgroup (writer's group) friend, then trivia night
Today (Friday): work from home (thank you, God), then a Write In near home (Month of Writing Dangerously)
CRIIIIIPES. Are you tired just reading that? Because I actually did it! And I met with an old Spidersgroup (writer's group) friend in the city for lunch on Thursday. And then went to Trivia night My battery is all socialled out.
AND I was going to a sewing social this weekend, but the train strike disrupted that, so I withdrew. Except now it's Friday morning and the train strike is cancelled.
But I'm still not going! I need recovery time PRONTO. Sit around and potter in the garden time. Honestly, at this rate, I'll be trying to take every second or third Friday off through the summer just to have some time at home.
I love people, but my social battery is nigh on flat right now. My social tank is beeping the warning sign at me. Maladicta is yowling that very miserable "I am not where you are, mummy" sound which appears that she wants to wuff me, but mostly she wants food. Ah well, I'll go cuddle the furry stomach and hang out the washing and then actual work.
Or possibly a work rant.
--
The daily commute is wrecking me. Unfortunately, it seems it may be necessary due to the system I work on only being accessible on site. And it really is: you cannot access any part of the system while not on-site. Not even the basic monitoring. It's technically blocked. Which is understandable, yeah, but also annoying.
Work is its own degree of effort right now. Apart from the commute, the people at this job trust me a lot less than the people at the last job, where they would listen to me and go, "oh, yeah, that makes sense, make it so."
Don't let me start about the bureacracy either. *SCREAMS INTO VOID*
Anyway I'll put all that into another post.
On the 'plus' side of things...a train strike on Friday means I'm not going in to the office on Friday. Working from home - WOO!
--
Garden is coming along pretty okay - a few things looked good in the starting phases and then failed in later stages. I didn't always manage to stay on top of the maintenance phases. *sigh*
Currently, though, I'm getting little bits and pieces from the garden, including raspberries, tomatoes, beans, and stonefruit. I had a friend come over on Tuesday afternoon to help me sort through peaches, and it was great to have someone to talk with while doing all the peeling and boiling and cutting. It only took me a couple of hours instead of the usual half-a-day! And it was lovely doing it with someone else. I sent her away with a jar of a spicy nectarine relish for her pains.
Nectarines are entirely done, peaches are well on their way to being done. Of the apples: Tropic Dorsets are ripe now.
Still growing: Golden Delicious and Galas have just formed. No apricots at all. One cherry, invaded by fruit flies. One Mariposa plum, a handful of the softer multi-stone plums. Avocadoes, but not as many as last year. Heaps and heaps and HEAPS of persimmons and pomegranates. A few blueberries. Some raspberries.
--
Pre- and post-election I spent a lot of time on Threads. I quite enjoyed the camaraderie; it feels a lot more fluid and comfortable than FB or Twitter or even BlueSky. I know nearly everyone is gone to BlueSky and I've made a couple of accounts over there, but it doesn't really speak to me the way Threads does.
That said, I'm thinking of going back to Mastodon, because Threads is owned by Meta and they're about to introduce ads. Since a lot of companies/people-of-fame are deserting X for other sites, the other sites have become increasingly inundated with bots and assholes. I like Threads' method for dealing with you (you can block them from not only being seen, but also hide the comment threads they leave), but also, I'm aware that all technology giveth and taketh away. And apparently advertisements are coming to Threads in 2025.
I know Bluesky is billed as a good place to be, but as someone pointed out (i'll have to hunt down the article), it's still run by venture capitalists, and one is unable to pick up and move entirely without losing one's audience. (Okay, so losing an audience is not a problem for me, I don't have one to start with.)
Mastodon is, at least, a diffuse set of networks, and one can pick up and move fairly flexibly without losing the network one has acquired...unless...
I started using Mastodon about three years ago, and was quite enjoying it until I got in trouble with the mod of an active politics server who desperately adored RDJ, and when I said something snarky about the actor, my traffic from everyone on this server completely vanished. I went from people chatting and encouraging me every couple of hours to zip, zilch, nix, nil, nothing. I'm guessing she banninated me for not having the "correct opinions" about her beloved actor. I could go and look at individual profiles on the server, and comment on their posts, but none of it got served up to me on the FYP equivalent and I'm not even sure they were able to see me if they didn't have me followed directly.
Anyway, I didn't mind Mastodon, but it seemed to rely on you being part of a community, and after the RDJ-stan dumped me from her server, I wasn't. Granted, there are other communities building and developing, but I got tired and simply retired to Threads.
I might try going back? IDK. Need to work out what I'm going to interact with where. That's always a bit of a trick. I am not what one would call a "personality that people are attracted to online". In the flesh, in real life, people generally like me, I think. At least, people don't try to exclude me out of stuff they're organising, so I'm going to presume that they don't object to me!
But, yeah, internet community can be difficult to build, and can vanish at the drop of a hat. Or at the bannination of one.
--
I can't remember if I've posted this link before: The Sad Bastard Cookbook: A completely free cookbook for the zero spoons crowd.
My thought is: it might help some of you guys out there?
--
Social life has gone a little cray cray. Maybe it's the pre-Christmas run, or just a busy time of year? Might just be luck of the draw or something?
Saturday lunch: permie birthday party
Saturday night: church birthday party - curry
Sunday: The Great Train Write In for not!NaNo (a.k.a. "The Month Of Writing Dangerously")
Sunday night: church friend distraction getaway
Monday: church friend distraction getaway - all day
Tuesday: work, then peach-processing with permie friend
Wednesday: work, then bible study
Thursday: work, lunch with a Spidersgroup (writer's group) friend, then trivia night
Today (Friday): work from home (thank you, God), then a Write In near home (Month of Writing Dangerously)
CRIIIIIPES. Are you tired just reading that? Because I actually did it! And I met with an old Spidersgroup (writer's group) friend in the city for lunch on Thursday. And then went to Trivia night My battery is all socialled out.
AND I was going to a sewing social this weekend, but the train strike disrupted that, so I withdrew. Except now it's Friday morning and the train strike is cancelled.
But I'm still not going! I need recovery time PRONTO. Sit around and potter in the garden time. Honestly, at this rate, I'll be trying to take every second or third Friday off through the summer just to have some time at home.
I love people, but my social battery is nigh on flat right now. My social tank is beeping the warning sign at me. Maladicta is yowling that very miserable "I am not where you are, mummy" sound which appears that she wants to wuff me, but mostly she wants food. Ah well, I'll go cuddle the furry stomach and hang out the washing and then actual work.
Or possibly a work rant.
--
no subject
Sorry about work.
no subject
I'm finding my social batteries are draining faster the older I get. Yet we still need social interaction to thrive and keep the brain healthy.
no subject
no subject
Personally, I'm finding I need more social time right now, so I've started going out to the bar after band practice--it's pretty quiet, usually just ten or so of us from the band for about an hour. (The bar stays open specifically for us.) Most of us are middle aged and just interested in quiet chatting. It's nice.
no subject
I miss old school Twitter's writing groups. I've tried both Bluesky and Threads with the latter feeling the most comfortable (though I didn't know about the ads damn it), but neither feel quite the same. It's a bit like Discord's community compared to the LJ one - just not quite the same. Mastadon honestly confused me so I gave up.