pshaw_raven: (Flying Raven)
 Alone, Not Lonely: On Modern Hermits - Modern Farmer

While being a hermit has its obvious spiritual roots, I believe it's also something that certain types of people are drawn to. And there's a big difference between hermits (hermiting? Is that a word? It is now.) and the anti-social. Your misogynistic basement-dwellers and Ted Kaczynski types. I believe it was Thomas Merton - a man who ought to know a thing or two about it - who said that anyone who goes into the wilderness merely to escape society will find him- or herself keeping company with an army of demons. So there's a gap between "I need to be alone in order to flourish" and "I hate people."

And as much as I like to put on my Grumpy Raven persona, I don't really hate people that much. I find that my threshold for being out and about, around people, talking and interacting, is much, much lower than what most peoples' seems to be. I'm not sure how deep introversion influences the ability to thrive as a hermit, but it would obviously be much harder if you're the gregarious type. For me, being around people even in the most ideal and pleasant of circumstances can be incredibly exhausting. It's rare to find people who aren't draining - Fox is one. I think and hope I am also one - I'd hate to think I am a drain on others. But even doing fun things can really take a lot out of me emotionally, sometimes even physically. My battery gets run all the way down and it takes a longer time to recharge.

In non-hermit news, I forgot to buy raw cashews so I am not making that matcha peppermint cake-thing today. But since I have a sweet potato I make make a pan of scones. The joke around here is that "it's vegan so it's practically a salad." Yes I'm aware that vegan junk food is just as much junk food as regular junk food, LOL. But I prefer to, when I am going to eat sweets and baked treats, to make my own.

DisLike

May. 19th, 2019 11:32 am
pshaw_raven: (Poe - LOLZ)
 Can "Indie" Social Media Save Us? an interesting article by Cal Newport - soft paywall

I think there's a lot to be said in favor of recent ideas like the much-touted one of "break up Facebook," but to me the better question is "do we even need social media at all?" And I think the answer is "Nope." Jaron Lanier is correct in his assertion that social media is basically ruining everything - civilization, discourse, free time, and our brains. And the remedy for that may not be better social media platforms, but personal-level decisions to abandon it altogether. I don't know where this would leave things like Dreamwidth - though to be honest I see a difference between blogging platforms and social media ones.
pshaw_raven: (Hell of a Butler)
 1. Topping the Random Notes list this weekend, a guide to self-managed abortion. This is a fairly detailed read but a good one, which hopefully none of us will need, but it's always good to have the information available.

2. In much less important news, my treadmill died. Not entirely - it's erroring out when Fox runs, so effectively HE doesn't have a treadmill. Since all of our other efforts at repair have failed, we're going out shortly to look at buying a new one. The motor will be salvaged - it's fine and hey, how often do you come across 2.5 hp electric motors? We think the circuit board is bad, but everything testable by a couple of reasonably electronic-literate people is testing normal.
It seems like a combination of weight and speed. When I weighed the same as Fox, I was not able to run nearly as fast as he can, so I was not pushing it too much. I'd maybe make it up to five mph for a few minutes but that was taxing my heart and lungs more than it was taxing the treadmill. 

3. Recently we both became interested in testing our blood sugar levels. Fox sometimes bonks hard, and a blood glucose meter seemed like a good tool to have for tailoring his fueling needs, pre-run, post-run, and during. We have an assortment of gels, jelly beans, and chewy blocks, along with whatever homemade energy bars I'm making. I feel pretty confident in my own eating and fueling habits, or I did. Because my fasting sugars consistently test in the "diabetic" range. There is little I can do to bring them down, either, so I'm always getting these 120s in the morning, 140s or 50s after eating, and it's stressing me the hell out because the usual advice for bringing glucose down is "lose weight, exercise, and stop drinking sugary sodas." If I lose ten percent of my body weight, I'll end up in the hospital - this is a patently Bad Idea. Exercise more? I mean, I was considering training for a fifty-miler so I guess that counts. And I haven't routinely consumed sodas since the mid-1990s. I don't put sugar in my coffee or tea, I stopped drinking wine, and I normally operate on an "earn my treats" mentality that allows me to have dark chocolate or nice cream if I worked out that day. 
On the other hand, these meters can also have a margin of error that throws readings off by as much as twenty points. 
I started checking on the hour for a while after eating, and rather than spiking, my sugars dip within an hour, then slowly climb back up to fasting levels. This happens pretty consistently. I rarely test out of a sixty point range, even though according to this meter, that range is high. I've decided for my own sanity to stop doing this unless I feel unusually bad and need a reading, because I suspect the meter is way off, and the "high" readings are stressing me out badly. As in panic-attack bad. Fox thinks this is a good idea.
He knows a lot more about diabetes than I do because he attended classes and such along with Kitty. He says since I'm not experiencing rollercoaster highs and lows, spiking into hyperactivity and then crashing out, only to do it again, I'm not diabetic. He thinks the meter is wrong as far as that goes, and it's mainly useful for seeing swings up and down, and that I should ignore the base number and just look at the range of the highs and lows. So, in the interest of not spending any more days losing my shit over this and swinging between trying to find out how to further improve my diet and shopping for prosthetic legs (because that's how bad my Anxiety Brain has been getting with this) I'm going to just drop it for now.

4. This one-shot comic I did. Just FYI, the ravens are mechanical AI constructs. Ruby was programmed (badly) to believe she is a real, living bird. Whirr is a longer-running one that has been "interactively programmed" by watching and responding to the behavior of humans around him, and one of the traits he's picked up, for better or worse, is sarcasm. Partially inspired by Google Home, Alexa, and this. 

5. So Delicious makes a no-sugar-added vanilla frozen dessert from coconut milk that is amazing. It tastes like vanilla and coconuts. That's it. I am all about this stuff right now. 
pshaw_raven: (Bergman)
So apparently A Canticle For Leibowitz is going to be a real thing. From a summary:

This study discusses the semiotic techniques suitable for prevent intelligent creatures from intrusion into nuclear waste depositories. It advocates the cultural option, examines the appropriate nature of message, source, channels, and context, and makes a number of recommendations. Its central proposal is to transmit the necessary information within the framework of artificially created ritual and legend passed on from generation to generation. The task is to be followed by an atomic priesthood. 

In other, significantly less important news, I picked a bunch of blackberries from the brambles around my house. I guess I could make pie or something but nice cream sounds a hell of a lot better.

Well Baked

Jan. 4th, 2019 11:42 am
pshaw_raven: (Hannibal with Skull)
 Today I am making plantain-chocolate chip muffins. I bought some plantains on impulse and then couldn't remember what brilliant idea I'd had in the grocery store, so they sat around on the counter getting blacker and blacker, until this morning when I thought, "These are almost entirely black on the outside. Should be perfect for bread or something." Normally I am kind of uncreative with plantains and just spritz them with olive oil, dust them generously with Tony Chachere's and make chips. 

I used this recipe from Plantains and Challah - and combined it with another recipe linked at the top for spinach and zucchini muffins. I didn't have any spinach and I'm trying to use up food before we leave. I DID have zucchinis so I grated them up in the food processor (the extra grated zukes went into the freezer for use in smoothies) then added the oil and processed until fairly smooth, then threw the peeled plantains in and gave it a few pulses. My muffins have some chunks of plantain in them but it doesn't detract. Actually I wish I'd added some chopped walnuts or something for more texture, but next time.

This list of 100 SF/F Novels You Should Read This Year is going around, apparently partly to undermine my decision not to buy new books, and I'm a little surprised at how few of them I've read. But then I'm also kind of NOT surprised because my reading habits have spread out from just scifi and fantasy and there's only so much I can read at once. There's also a certain creative self-protection there, because it's difficult for me to focus on developing my world when reading about someone else's. Also, there's the obligatory dude in the comments pissing and moaning about how many of the authors featured are feeeeeeeeeeemales. (Yes, you should hear that as if it were spoken by a Ferengi) 

Tomorrow is my last training run for Disney and I am so tired of training and I just want to get to the race .... *whine* Eight miles at an easy pace should take me four or five episodes of Attack on Titan. I know from last year I'll have some down time for reading and chilling, so I'm bringing my Chromebook along to read KA: Dar Oakley in the Ruins of Ymr by John Crowley. I'm already familiar with Crowley's writing style so I'm finding this a very engaging story. Crowley's work also rewards careful reading so I'm taking my time with it. If you're into dark mythopoetic works and crows, this may be something you will like.
pshaw_raven: (Lone Watcher)
I don't know about Pantone's Color of the Year for 2019. It's not really to my taste and I don't like the way warm colors look on me so I'm skipping out. Here's my personal pick for MY color of the year - and a nice complementary color!

This woman stopped coloring her hair and allowed it to naturally go gray. Or silver, whatever word you prefer for it. Fun story - when my first husband discovered I was starting to get more silver hairs in the back of my head he said, "You're going to want to start coloring your hair." I laughed and said something to the effect that I'd earned that silver hair thank-you-very-much, and he responded, "That wasn't a question." Currently part of my hair is actually purple but I've taken zero steps to cover the silver, which seems to be coming in gradually, all over, rather than in streaks or all at once.

I don't know about y'all but I love Brussels sprouts. So tonight I'm trying this recipe for Crispy Miso-Roasted Brussels Sprouts. Fox sometimes refers to sprouts as "little green globes of happiness," especially the way I make them which is typically roasted with a little bacon, dijon mustard, maple syrup, and red wine vinegar. Try to make sure your sprouts are as dry as possible so they roast, rather than braise.

YouTube's Rewind is the worst video ever. The article addresses some of the reasons, and "authenticity" is a major one. As I saw it, a big problem was that Rewind this year wasn't about the content creators, but about YouTube patting itself on the back for being inclusive and diverse. Personally, I like inclusiveness and diversity, but this was like the Pride Month bullshit where companies drape themselves in rainbow colors but it's all a disingenuous attempt to make more money by appealing to a "larger consummer base." And then as soon as that's over it's business as usual. Substitute blacks, women, or any other group for LGBTQA and it's the same story. It's all exploitation for profit and it's all crap.
pshaw_raven: (Lawrence - LOL)

 
Nothing serious on my mind this evening so I'll leave you lovely people with this. 


pshaw_raven: (Buddha)
You're Hardwired to Love Social Media - It's Time to Deprogram.

This is a premium Medium article, so if you're having to mind your free reads each month like me, be aware of that before clicking.

We know shit like Facebook is helping accelerate the destruction of humanity. The question is, can we (human beings) use social media in an ethical way, and what can we do now to stop this and begin to at least try to repair the damage that has already been done.

June 2025

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