Welcome Stranger. The paths are treacherous today.

the stress of everyday life is overriding my sense of humanity again so i am once again playing "everyone's first day" to readjust my empathy levels. the rules are simple: for every stranger i interact with, i pretend it's their first day at their job. it makes me appreciate how much tacit knowledge everyone around me has learned and applies, and imagining how they fared in the beginning - how i would have fared - makes me see everyone as a singular person full of life experience again instead of an environment i fight my way through. the coffee shop employee making my order makes it quickly despite a huge menu, its impressive they memorised that on their first day. the bus driver gets us there safely and memorised all the routes and still nods at me in approval, and that's all on his first day! and the person who ran into me without apologizing is just in a hurry, wouldn't wanna be late on their first day. and after a while, you realize that all that is still true on a second day or the hundredth, and even if you give up the pretense the forgiveness stays. try it some time!

best thing about tumblr is seeing pictures of Weird Creatures I’d never heard of before

Tufted Pigmy Squirrel. I learned of it recently and was immediately delighted

Oh my goodness!! I’d never heard of it either, and am also delighted!

Reblog to delight your mutuals

If I may delight you further with more unusual squirrels?

The tufted ground squirrel or groove-toothed squirrel (Rheithrosciurus macrotis) native only to the island of Borneo. They have the largest tail-to-body ratio of any mammal- their tail is 130% of it own body. Local legends call them “Vampire Squirrels” and say that they wait in trees for deer to pass beneath and then fall upon them and drink their blood (They actually eat nuts).

The Indian giant squirrel or Malabar giant squirrel (Ratufa indica), native to India. Looks like it was drawn by your favorite sparkle artist with rave-ready colors of gold, magenta, and blue-black/purple.

You may think you’ve seen some cute flying squirrels before… but have you seen the Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel (Petaurista alborufus)?

This… this is a pokemon you guys…

Supposedly a real animal that lives in China.

I had seen the first 2, but I don’t think I’d seen the red and white flying one! It’s lovely! It looks like it’s wearing a fancy mask, or perhaps skull makeup.

Glow in the dark - Baiona, Spain

I would like to tell you about a time when my mental health was absolutely trash and I developed a sort of code with a few friends, in case anyone else might benefit from it.

There is a type of task which I would call "washing a dragon." There were a variety of specific things that would fall into this category but broadly it meant something like, I need to do this thing and I have been putting it off because it will be hard but the longer I put it off the harder it actually becomes.

Like if I really need to wash a pet dragon, well the dragon doesn't really like to be washed so it's hard to fight with the dragon to get it washed but also the longer I put it off, the dirtier the dragon gets and so the harder the washing and fighting will be once I do it.

And for a real life example, I needed to email a professor whose independent study I was in, to tell him I needed to drop it or find some other solution because it was going to be so hard to catch up because we hadn't met or worked in weeks, but this was a hard email because I was embarrassed and I wasn't sure what the solution was going to be, but obviously the longer I put it off the harder the problem is to solve and the more embarrassing the email was going to be.

Washing a dragon was often something of this form, asking for help on something where the longer I wait the more help I need to ask for and the more embarrassing it is to admit I need it. But there were also other kinds of dragons to wash. And since they often had some amount of embarrassment to them (it's embarrassing to leave the dragon unwashed for so long) it is hard to ask someone to help hold me accountable for finally doing the thing, or to ask them to make me sit with them until I do the thing.

But once I had this code in place I could just be like "hey I need to wash a dragon" and I didn't need to say what the dragon was but a friend could say oh okay I will now pester you about washing the dragon multiple times a day until you do it, or I will make you sit next to me with your laptop until you have washed the dragon, if the dragon washing is a laptop-based task (forms, emails). This was very helpful. I washed a lot more dragons when I could have my friends hold me accountable, and I was more willing to do that if I didn't actually have to tell them what the dragons were.

I need this.

Being nice to someone you don't like is not manipulation btw it's being civil

Mmm no, this is like seeking validation. Ofc it's best to be nice but if I don't like you or we both dislike eachother, then there's no reason for us to communicate or be around eachother. It's not about being immature, I would much rather not put myself in such a situation.

Have you ever had a job

I think I have figured out how to make the furniture fit in the living room. Maybe. Need to measure things some more the next time I'm at the house.

I just don't know how we're going to get the couch into the living room. Maybe we can get it through the window?

Tomorrow we're meeting with a plumber to discuss our bathroom plans. Although calling them "plans" makes them sound far more solid than they are.

And we'll probably have to tear down this wood thing to find out what (if anything) it's hiding.

There is nothing to be seen on the outside wall or the roof, in the other room or in the attic that would give any hints.

I hate to damage the nice wood needlessly (and it's nailed together so tightly and solidly that I don't see a way to get the boards apart without damaging them), but we want to partition this corner off for a second toilet, and I would prefer to not always hit my head on this when I get up off the toilet...

Anyway, if you have any guesses what could be behind the wood, let me know.

Ductwork would surprise me, as that's not a common thing in Austrian houses, especially such old ones. And there's nothing on that side of the house for it to come from or go to.

Same for plumbing, that's all in the inner walls.

Echoes

Not feeling great today. Maybe I'm just sleep deprived and hungry, or maybe it's hormones, but...

- might not be allowed to sell at the plant market after all

- so much stuff to clear out of the house, and always the fear of encountering spiders

- so much stuff that is too nice to throw out, and it would be nice if we could make a bit of money with it, but selling it is also a time-consuming hassle

- there are some really pretty pieces of furniture that we want to keep, but they are too big/too many of them to fit well into the room (and they don't fit well anywhere else either) and I can't figure out a way to make them look non-awkward without getting rid of at least one, which LG won't agree to...

- best friend is back to taking weeks to reply to texts and oddly curt when she does so...

Had food and a nap (or a series of micronaps, interrupted by my child).

Still sad, but also, whatever. If they really decide I can't be at the market, I will go ahead and have our garage sale on the same weekend, and see if I can sell something there.

And with Easter coming up, I will go ahead and drop the birthday presents for best (?) friend and her kid off at their door with a bit of Easter candy. (Or rather gift cards for the things I wanted to take them to, back in January.) And they can do with them what they want, go alone or with someone else... It hurts, but I don't think there's anything to be gained by waiting...

Actually, you know what, now I'm fucking pissed. Going "actually, we're not sure you can come" less than three weeks before the market is an asshole move. Especially for a reason I explicitly asked about at the very beginning.

And it's especially assholey for a plant market, because now I've sowed the seeds and used the potting mix I've bought, I can't save them for another year. I can't do that with the plants either.

And yeah, I'm planning to call Market Organiser Dude tomorrow and tell him that.

And then when I called him, he was like, "but I called you yesterday! Didn't I call you? I could have sworn I called you!"

And it's fine, I can come, but man! My nerves!

I was reading one of my childhood diaries the other day and there was a whole paragraph saying how hopeful I was that my writing will help the archeologists in the far future. Then it proceeded to describe my lunch that day and how my dog was probably secretly able to talk. 

#it IS of historical value#children's experiences are underrepresented in historical sources#it doesn't need well written or profound to be of historical value#comic#funny#art

there is a fucking statue of a kid who lived sometime in the 1200s, around 800 fucking years ago, because we have pieces of his homework that he doodled on while learning how to write. this is one of his drawings:

when I was googling him (because I couldn't remember his name), I stumbled across this twitter thread about him, which includes a different doodle by an italian boy in the 1400s of knights besieging a castle:

It's at the back of one of his schoolbooks for learning Latin.

ALL WE KNOW OF THESE KIDS IS STUFF THEY DREW WHILE THEY WERE BORED AND IT'S STILL HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT.

Not feeling great today. Maybe I'm just sleep deprived and hungry, or maybe it's hormones, but...

- might not be allowed to sell at the plant market after all

- so much stuff to clear out of the house, and always the fear of encountering spiders

- so much stuff that is too nice to throw out, and it would be nice if we could make a bit of money with it, but selling it is also a time-consuming hassle

- there are some really pretty pieces of furniture that we want to keep, but they are too big/too many of them to fit well into the room (and they don't fit well anywhere else either) and I can't figure out a way to make them look non-awkward without getting rid of at least one, which LG won't agree to...

- best friend is back to taking weeks to reply to texts and oddly curt when she does so...

Had food and a nap (or a series of micronaps, interrupted by my child).

Still sad, but also, whatever. If they really decide I can't be at the market, I will go ahead and have our garage sale on the same weekend, and see if I can sell something there.

And with Easter coming up, I will go ahead and drop the birthday presents for best (?) friend and her kid off at their door with a bit of Easter candy. (Or rather gift cards for the things I wanted to take them to, back in January.) And they can do with them what they want, go alone or with someone else... It hurts, but I don't think there's anything to be gained by waiting...

Actually, you know what, now I'm fucking pissed. Going "actually, we're not sure you can come" less than three weeks before the market is an asshole move. Especially for a reason I explicitly asked about at the very beginning.

And it's especially assholey for a plant market, because now I've sowed the seeds and used the potting mix I've bought, I can't save them for another year. I can't do that with the plants either.

And yeah, I'm planning to call Market Organiser Dude tomorrow and tell him that.

Not feeling great today. Maybe I'm just sleep deprived and hungry, or maybe it's hormones, but...

- might not be allowed to sell at the plant market after all

- so much stuff to clear out of the house, and always the fear of encountering spiders

- so much stuff that is too nice to throw out, and it would be nice if we could make a bit of money with it, but selling it is also a time-consuming hassle

- there are some really pretty pieces of furniture that we want to keep, but they are too big/too many of them to fit well into the room (and they don't fit well anywhere else either) and I can't figure out a way to make them look non-awkward without getting rid of at least one, which LG won't agree to...

- best friend is back to taking weeks to reply to texts and oddly curt when she does so...

Had food and a nap (or a series of micronaps, interrupted by my child).

Still sad, but also, whatever. If they really decide I can't be at the market, I will go ahead and have our garage sale on the same weekend, and see if I can sell something there.

And with Easter coming up, I will go ahead and drop the birthday presents for best (?) friend and her kid off at their door with a bit of Easter candy. (Or rather gift cards for the things I wanted to take them to, back in January.) And they can do with them what they want, go alone or with someone else... It hurts, but I don't think there's anything to be gained by waiting...

We now have keys to Hornbeam Hedge House.

Aka the keys to a whole lot of junk and too many, too large spiders.

I'm fascinated by the kind of person who must have lived here, who kept every power and charging cord and plug he ever met, and owned a meticulous handwritten manual for their video recorder, and the only videos he actually owned were two parts of LoTR, one of Star Wars, Der Schuh des Manitu and something about a cathedral somewhere in Italy. He was also apparently diabetic.

And the woman who lived downstairs kept every single plastic bag. Stored neatly and smoothly, looking like she'd ironed them (which cleat she didn't because, you know, plastic.)

Someone also appears to have been incontinent, but I can't tell which of the two. Or if it was another person entirely, as the supplies are stored in the attic, so I don't know if they belonged to the upstairs or downstairs rooms.

In the attic, there is also enough sugar for several years, and coffee with a best before date from 1992.

On the plus side, I haven't yet met a spider. But I also haven't been in the cellar, garage or shed yet, and I know the shed has at least three huge ones, and another one lives under the garage light switch.

Also, haha, the shock I got when I unwrapped some paper and suddenly my hands were full of hair! It was just a hairpiece, but I so was not expecting it!

Funnily enough, at the dance on Saturday, one of the visiting dancers assumed that I must be using a hairpiece. Nope, I just have a lot of hair!

We now have keys to Hornbeam Hedge House.

Aka the keys to a whole lot of junk and too many, too large spiders.

I'm fascinated by the kind of person who must have lived here, who kept every power and charging cord and plug he ever met, and owned a meticulous handwritten manual for their video recorder, and the only videos he actually owned were two parts of LoTR, one of Star Wars, Der Schuh des Manitu and something about a cathedral somewhere in Italy. He was also apparently diabetic.

And the woman who lived downstairs kept every single plastic bag. Stored neatly and smoothly, looking like she'd ironed them (which cleat she didn't because, you know, plastic.)

Someone also appears to have been incontinent, but I can't tell which of the two. Or if it was another person entirely, as the supplies are stored in the attic, so I don't know if they belonged to the upstairs or downstairs rooms.

In the attic, there is also enough sugar for several years, and coffee with a best before date from 1992.

On the plus side, I haven't yet met a spider. But I also haven't been in the cellar, garage or shed yet, and I know the shed has at least three huge ones, and another one lives under the garage light switch.

I’m a huge fan of how rhodochrosite can either look like beautiful pink flowers, like pointy red crystals, like little Barbie-pink orbs, or like meat

[ image description: rhodochrosite in each of the previously described forms, ending with some rhodochrosite stalactite chunks that look like breaded hams and one piece that looks like a raw steak growing out of a rock. ]

meat crystal

Busy weekend.

Saturday evening we went to a historical dance event, and didn't get home until about 1:30. No pictures, sadly, as I forgot my phone, but picture somewhere between 50 and 100 people in historical garb of varying degrees of fanciness and authenticity, including a "Scottish" clan (they are really from two villages over) with the cutest tiny tartan-dressed girl - I guess she is about five, but wow, she danced like a champ!

Anyway, this is one of the things I love about historical dance, the wide range of ages, from children to people in their eighties. (There were some jokes about a circle dance/Kreistanz being an old man's dance/Greistanz.)

But I also love the music, I love the movement, I love the partner changes and getting to briefly talk and joke with many different people before I get whirled away again, I love that you mostly just touch hands (I mostly don't like closer physical contact outside of my family), I love how automatically my body moves through the steps, I love how people look in garb (so colourful!), I love how I feel in garb, how my skirt swirls when I spin...

Anyway. Dancing and eating and talking with friends and friendly strangers, and I want to ramble more about it but now LG is talking to me, so just briefly before forget:

Sunday I still got up early and went to a garden fair, ran into a lot of acquaintances and bought a few plants, then home to nap and cook and eat, and then we walked over to Hornbeam Hedge House to plant the new berry bushes and clean out some of the stuff that was left behind. Tomorrow I need to order a skip so we can actually throw it out.

LG went to bed, so I will add that I bought a purple raspberry (Rubus "Autumn Passion") and a balloon berry (R. illecebrosus).

And that I'm a bit frustrated because while LG and I agreed that we want to keep some of the nice old furniture in the house, it has come to light that he wants to keep significantly more than I, and thinks we can just mix it with our stuff which is a different wood and style, which I think would look awful. And I also don't want to live in a museum of someone else's life.

(And since I have recently been told (again) that I can be too bossy, I try to compromise. But some things I just can't be comfortable with.)