Farming & Gardening
I remember a time when True Greens wanted a federal Environmental Protection Agency. That was fifty years ago and I'm not sure exactly why.
Even more reasons to break any addiction your local ecosphere may have formed to "pesticides":
Frugal
Is a repair cafe a religious thing? Only if the participants want it to be. But it's fun and frugal.
Technology
Regular readers may remember when this web site linked to the nostalgic sound of a vintage computer spinning a floppy disk. Did that technology ever beg for upgrades. "A floppy disk leads a sheltered life...and usually leads a short one, anyway."
But y'know what I'd like to add to that file of nostalgic sounds computers don't make any more? What about that whir that means that either five minutes have passed, or you've typed or clicked, so in any case it must be time for another "update"!
Meaning Microsoft basically barges into your office, yanks your computer out of your hands, whacks it against the wall, and then throws it back to you so you can find out how much damage they've done to whatever you were working on.
Hello? How is that legal?
The computer is your property, or your client's, school's, whatever; some person bought it. Microsoft does not own your computer.
The Internet time is your property, or your client's or whatever; some person is paying for it. Somebody is paying for that connection. Microsoft is not paying for your Internet time.
Your time is your property, or your client's or whatever. Your time is worth money. Microsoft is not paying for the amount of your time it's using up.
The amount of time Microsoft and other tech firms are demanding to "update" and tweak and mess up things on your computer, your connection, and your time, is not just a few minutes now and then. It adds up to hours--sometimes hours in a day.
We need a federal law: If Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Mozilla, Linux, whoever, does something that interferes with your computer's responding to your commands and working on your project, even for a "moment," that could potentially affect your entire day. They need to pay for that day when they arrogated unto themselves ownership of your computer, your connection, and your time.
Writing
I can do SEO writing, for those who pay for it. But here's why this web site is not "search engine optimized." David B. Clear doesn't talk about how search engines handle Blogspot or Live Journal blogs but, basically, search engines lump them together as (name of host's) personal blogs and suppress them from search engines, bar the occasional niche post that is so informative as to be naturally SEO and frequently revisited and linked back to. Consciously using SEO to write about butterflies wouldn't boost this blog up Google; lots of people write about butterflies (though not some of the ones we'll be meeting this spring). But, hello, nobody else writes about stingingworms--which is why those Hemileuca moth posts, which are obviously gross-outs for a lot of people, are actually this web site's big attraction! So few people want to think about that horrid topic that the ones who do are going to gather here. Because just about anything informative that can be said about stingingworms is going to rank in the top 500 search results, in spite of Google. SEO apps might not even find any secondary keywords for Hemileuca stories, but if people were searching for that topic, the secondary keywords they would use are all naturally lined up right in the moth articles.
Y'know, I do my share of complaining, but I actually love my job. I only wish it paid better. The paid moth posts are all live now. Someone will have to sponsor a few more so moth enthusiasts can read about Hemileuca juno.
Now, if you readers want a topic that will be your blog's attraction....don't pick stingingworms, because I'm already doing them. There are all kinds of other obscure creatures you could feature--mosses, say, or seaweeds, or snails. Or you could pick some esoteric aspect of history, science, technology.
Anyway, here are some considerations for those who are and are not trying to do or learn SEO:
Politics (Election 2024)
In which Trump sounds "old."Dithering. Doddering. He's about the age Biden was in 2016, an age where he might even feel fit to run now, but be looking unfit by July. Said it before and I'll say it again: Trump needs to choose a vice-presidential candidate whom his fans will want to see in the Oval Office. So does Biden, and unfortunately he's stuck with a Veep whose career in Washington, I'm told, was based mainly on "dating" married men. And Kennedy--who is younger than they, but did himself a lot of damage in his rich-brat stage--needs to do likewise. No Vice-Presidents as Life Insurance in this election.
Zazzle
What will Zazzle think of next? Their new thing is reversible foamboard posters. These posters can be displayed on stands outdoors or hung on walls indoors. They're two-sides, and you can choose which image to display on each side. Shown are two butterfly photos. You could substitute flowers, or prints of classic paintings, or digital photos of your children's artwork.
Not mine, but you could substitute the picture for mine and still support "Save the Butterflies." (We are talking about a campaign to save butterfly habitat by banning glyphosate spraying.)
Here's a butterfly lampshade...mine:
Not mine. You may never get another chance to buy a Morpho in support of North American butterflies.
People who shop online really should visit the Save the Butterflies Collection. I've tried to put a butterfly on everything Zazzle sells. They're all customizable, which means you can buy things like pencils printed with your child's name so people can return it if it falls out of child's binder, or substitute your own graphics for mine if you want to. If you start with one of my product links, it counts as buying something in aid of "Save the Butterflies." There are luxury gifts for people who have everything (but the latest fad--cornhole boards? pickleball paddles?), and there are cards and stickers you can buy for less than one dollar.
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