Scraps

My virtual commonplace book & cabinet of curiosities.

Or, if you prefer, a microblog.

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Vintage bar border with curved detail at the center

  • I’ve had a tab open for kening zhu’s post about rituals vs. sprints for nearly a month. It reminds me about something Katherine May once said on a podcast* about the cycle of neurodivergent hyperfocus and recovery. Versus a neurotypical ideal of consistency. It’s something I am still figuring out. Having experienced burn out I find I need to be careful of flying too close to the sun. But trying to force a structure that doesn’t align with my capacity is also not right. I’d love to hear other thoughts on this.

    * I can’t seem to find the podcast episode I’m talking about. 🤦

    Read more: untitled post 156078307

  • “a conscious choice to be happy is a form of resistance…”

    “You’re allowed to cultivate joy. In fact, you need to, because our job is to build the world that we want.”

    — AOC via Amelia Greenhall

    Read more: untitled post 156078303

  • “I believe in the core of my being is that art can help reach people where political rhetoric and facts can’t. There’s something magical about identifying with a fictional character, or getting swept up in a story, or just being shocked by a piece of weird art into seeing things in a different way.”

    Charlie Jane Anders

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  • “How can queer art help us to survive, and maybe even fight back, during this bloody awful moment in history?

    I’ve been asking myself some version of this question non-stop for ages, but I still don’t have any clear answers. What I do have is a bone-deep sense that we need to be twice as wild, twice as flagrantly ourselves — and at least three times as experimental, honest, and weird as before.”

    Charlie Jane Anders

    Read more: untitled post 156078299

  • “The best time to establish alternative, non-algorithmic networks of communication & affinity was five years ago.

    The second best time is today!”

    Robin Sloan

    Read more: untitled post 156078297

  • One of the many reasons I love The Wheel of Time.

    “There are a few basic themes that I think are pretty immutable, however. And the biggest one is: sometimes it is hard to understand people who were raised in a culture totally different from your own, but it is vital to try because we all fight together or we shatter.

    The show gets this 100%.”

    Bree via Bluesky

    Read more: untitled post 156078835

  • “The best time to establish alternative, non-algorithmic networks of communication & affinity was five years ago.

    The second best time is today!

    Over the years, I’ve distributed many zines through the mail. Those have been one-off productions, which is to say, pageants of minor chaos, always with the sense, as the last zine went out the door, of skidding into home plate.

    The best time to estab­lish alternative, non-algorithmic net­works of com­mu­ni­ca­tion — to forge durable links in phys­ical space — to insist upon the demo­c­ratic neces­sity of a muscular, uni­versal postal ser­vice — was five years ago.

    The second best time is today.”

    Robin Sloan

    Read more: untitled post 156078831
  • Green pipes in the shape of a gazebo with one clematis growing up the side. You can also see my green gardening stool, gloves, watering can, metal shovel, and an empty plant pot.

    I’ve always wanted one of those living willow houses. I finally realized it was beyond me and ordered this gazebo greenhouse kit – assembled it without the plastic exterior and grow vines on it.

    Last year I didn’t put down enough seeds, but this year we planted many more and I bought a clematis (the green vine you see here.)

    It may take some trial and error to get the right effect.

    Read more: untitled post 156078828

  • Rand’s face took on a pained expression. “I don’t know.” He sounded embarrassed. “When I want fire, for a lamp or a fireplace, I just make it, but I do not know how. I don’t really need to think to do things with fire.” That almost stood to reason. Of the Five Powers, Fire and Earth had been strongest in men in the Age of Legends, and Air and Water in women; Spirit had been shared equally. Egwene hardly had to think to use Air or Water, once she had learned to do a thing in the first place. But the thought did not further their purpose.

    The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time Book 4)

    Rand is pretty much every author trying to explain how they write fiction.

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  • Rare Roots – a resource to find native perennials by US State.

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