A blogging experiment that started with a bang of excitement but ends with a whimper A story which begins with me excitedly experimenting with building a static blog for a client then dreaming of doing the same for myself only to realize I’m likely stuck. After finally adding dark mode to my Beardy Guy C... beardystarstuff.net

Tiny Life Journal - Sunday morning health notes My first encounter with Covid seems to be finished. Feeling better today, much improvement. Sore throat mostly gone and I feel mentally alert. So, assuming continued improvement, Covid symptoms will have lasted a full 5.5 days, Monday night till Saturday eve... beardystarstuff.net

A reminder: Do not assume that the technology and building methods of the Global North are “better” or the ideal.

Thesolarpunkgardener on Tumblr

Another video from the original creator on TikTok.

Exposed to Covid on Saturday afternoon. Symptoms set in last night. My first time with the Rona and in a way I guess I’m strangely relieved to have finally caught it so I can get it over with.

Writing for The Conversation, microbiologist Jennifer DeBruyn describes how our microbiome lives on after after we die, becoming a “necrobiome” to recycle our human cells into new life. I find a kind of deep comfort in knowing that my body is a community of organisms. It is a biological fact that affirms my feeling and understanding of connection to the life around me. It’s not just comfort I feel in knowing these things but a kind of deep connectedness. Biological life is a beautiful continuum. We, in our current human forms and consciousness, only get to glimpse the briefest of moments in that con... beardystarstuff.net

I’ve spent the past week experimenting a bit with a more active process of seeking out new blogs and have been pondering writing a post about the process as well how I’m logging discoveries. First though, I’ll share this post because it prompted me to actually start writing the post I’d been thinking about. Discovered via BearBlog’s Discovery page, it was just a brief recounting of several real-life experiences of social discovery that began with this late night encounter on a city street: you’re not the only weirdo | hanki.dev: "I met most of my friends because I spotted them doing “weird” things.... beardystarstuff.net

Tiny Life Journal - Treating myself to a cup of iced sumac tea! Though, really, it’s very tart and tastes far closer to lemonade than tea. A fairly common small tree around rural Missouri and much of eastern North America, sumac produces large bunches of seedy red berries that hang from the branches by mi... beardystarstuff.net

This. Well said.

Ben Werdmuller: “Reeeeeally wish there wasn’t a…” - Werd Social

Reeeeeally wish there wasn’t an American imperialism part to this speech. But it’s too much to ask for there not to be. She is still a universe better than Trump, and than most Democrats. I’d love for America to think of the world in a different way, where America is a participant rather than the enforcer of a Pax Americana.

I do appreciate the applause for the Palestinian people. And I am excited for this vision of the Presidency more than any other official candidate in my lifetime.

Tiny Life Journal - I took a walk in the woods yesterday in search of pawpaws. I didn’t find any but I did come across a few Cardinal flowers in and near the dry creek bed. A nice surprise! I’d seen one several years ago in the area but not since. What’s notable is that these flowers are a favorite food s... beardystarstuff.net

This seems important:

Major Union Backing Harris-Walz Joins Call for Palestinian American to Speak at DNC | Common Dreams

The United Auto Workers—a major union backer of the Harris-Walz presidential ticket—added its voice Thursday to the growing chorus demanding that a Palestinian American be invited to address the Democratic National Convention in Chicago over Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip.

“If we want the war in Gaza to end, we can’t put our heads in the sand or ignore the voices of the Palestinian Americans in the Democratic Party,” the UAW said on social media.

Do the Democrats believe Palestinians are lesser humans? That seems to be true given the difference in who is being allowed to speak inside the DNC. Israel gets a voice. Palestine does not.

DNC Tells Uncommitted Delegates There Won’t Be Any Pro-Palestinian Speaker | Truthout

Tiny Life Journal - While on a bike ride back in June I noticed that there were paw paw trees growing along the road. I have no idea why I’d not noticed them before. They were right there! In any case, I kept a lookout for flowers and fruit. I didn’t see any flowers but finally spotted a few fruit recently... beardystarstuff.net

I wonder about the folks that are still praising Biden, what will you say when the ICJ changes its ruling from plausible genocide to genocide. At what point, if ever, do people acknowledge that Biden knowingly, willingly supported and aided genocide? Do Palestinians not count as people?

Democracy Now reports that during President Biden’s speech on the first night of the DNC, a few delegates were able to briefly unfurl a banner that read Stop Arming Israel.

Other delegates attempted to take the banner which was then taken away by convention staff. The delegates were then forced out.

So, that’s democracy in action huh? Only approved signs and cheerleading? No dissent, not even from delegates?

Got it.

We were there specifically to confront President Joe Biden. He’s the one who can stop this genocide by picking up the phone and making a phone call, and he has chosen not to do that.

Morning porch time. Unconventional use of the Logitech Combo Touch Keyboard with back kickstand resting on the keyboard as a stand. Easily balanced with weight on the pillow. Perfect for reading, screen at eye level. If I want to type, it only takes a second to attach. iPad modularity for the win.

Love this post and the whole site. So personal and cozy. TheSmallWay.txt | the library of alexandra

i like “the small way;” it fosters my need and desire to contribute and grow the personal web. i want more people to understand that interacting with other websites doesn’t have to be based on comments or reactions or likes. i like showing folks how to trade pixels with one another, how web cliques work. your website can be a slice of your personality, what you do, what you value about yourself and life in general.

Tiny Life Journal - I have a large forehead. It’s not a receding hairline, always been like that. I won a jar of mayonnaise at a party once for largest forehead. True story. And my eyes are not symmetrical. My eyebrows are out of control. I am unkempt. Year-by-year I am disappearing into the surrounding wo... beardystarstuff.net

A harrowing recounting of Antifa activists countering fascists and thoughts on the bigger picture of America pre-2024 election.

CrimethInc. : Charlottesville, Revisited—2017 to 2024 : What Can a Moment of Peril Tell Us about Our Own Dangerous Times?

Seven years ago, anarchists and other anti-fascists converged in Charlottesville, Virginia to oppose the “Unite the Right” rally. The organizers of the rally intended to bring together Klansmen, neo-Nazis, far-right militias, and fascists from the so-called “alt-right” to build a unified white supremacist street movement.

Rosie enjoying the porch on Caturday (though technically from a week ago, whoops). Also, Cosmo looking into the distance wistfully, my guess wondering about his lunch.

This is disgusting. These people are terrorists and racist colonizers. It fits well with the history of genocide and land theft perpetrated by the US. Our support is the US doing what it always has while pretending to advocate democracy.

Israeli Settlers Rampage in West Bank Town, Killing 1 and Setting Houses Aflame | Truthout

Dozens of masked and armed Israeli settlers descended upon the Palestinian town of Jit in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, setting houses aflame and killing at least one Palestinian in what human rights advocates and the president of Israel have labeled as a pogrom.

Never. They won’t ever admit it. On micro.blog and elsewhere there were a few folks insisting Biden was totally fine. It was a very bizarre loyalty play we see with MAGA loyalists. Shut up and get in line, no time or space for disagreement.

They were wrong. It’s a problem of denial of reality that we still see on other issues like the genocide they want to pretend isn’t happening.

When Will the Biden Dead-Enders Admit They Were Wrong? | The Nation

Hey, can we circle back to when many supposedly intelligent people were making one of the most obviously ridiculous political arguments of all time?

Tiny Life Journal - A view of the countryside from my morning ride. The mix of fields and forests over the gentle rolling hills of Madison County never disappoint. Not in the image, an immature (2-3 years old) bald eagle seen in a nearby field.

Finally got around to updating my Beardy Guy Creative website with a dark mode last night. Switched to a more playful, updated logo. Noticed I’ve got some really out-of-date pages that I need to update. I really should stay on top of those.

To summarize:

1. Companies have not actually reduced emissions.
2. Companies pretend to reduce emissions by purchasing carbon offsets.
3. Carbon offsets are shown to not be effective in actually reducing emissions.
4. Companies say, well, we won’t even pretend anymore and continue making no effort to reduce emissions and also stop purchasing the offsets that weren’t actually working.

Capitalism cannot fix the climate emergency.

Stalled efforts to expand companies' use of carbon credits to offset greenhouse-gas emissions are raising the prospect that some will backtrack or abandon targets…

Reuters reports that there were more than 47,000 heat caused deaths in Europe in 2023. It was 60,000 in 2022. Deaths would have been significantly higher but were mitigated by a variety of adaptive measures put in place over the past 20 years.

Last year was the world’s hottest on record. As climate change continues to increase temperatures, Europeans live in the world’s fastest-warming continent, facing growing health risks stemming from intense heat.