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Is it 2021 Yet?
Jun. 4th, 2020 09:17 pmSeriously you guys.
This f***ing year.
My week was "normal", whatever that is any more.
Despite living in Orlando, I didn't see whole lot of disruption due to the George Floyd protests. I think they mostly took place downtown and were mostly peaceful. That's good. Orlando's government offices are downtown, and that's who needs to be targeted for these demonstrations imo. Not residential neighborhoods, not shopping plazas (although I guess there was some looting over by Millennia Mall, WTH people are finding worth looting over there is beyond me.)
My dad posted something negative on facebook which sparked a whole big family argument, with my sisters and I basically ganging up on him. I stayed pretty well out of it, except to make one comment, that I wish my Dad wouldn't cherry-pick negative events and instead focus on the postive actions taking place during this time. But it was still upsetting to see my family disagreeing publicly like that. I love my dad but he tends to be pretty negative and also refuses to look inward a lot of times. Not to make a blanket statement but, typical Boomer stuff, kind of. Oblivious to his own racism, if that makes sense.
Anyway, in an effort to keep my own blood pressure down I stayed out of it.
I have lots of black/brown/all sorts of shades of friends, and I'd rather focus on making sure they're ok and have what they need, that I'm here for them and the people/organizations that I can actually help. I would also like to work on my own knowledge and understanding, so my sisters and I are going to read some books on race together. That, to me, is positive action I can take.
Raging on social media does nothing for anyone but perpetuate outrage and negativity. That's my view anyway.
Going along with trying to keep my sanity and some calm in all this chaos, I decided not to make posts on anything political/social whatsoever on social media. No one needs to know where I stand. No one needs to hear my Ted Talk about my widdle feelings. All of the internet is in an uproar, everyone is screaming to be heard over each other and the noise is so loud you can't hear anything. I'm just not going to do it.
Instead, I posted all the things I would regularly post. Garden pics. Food pics. Sending little "happy birthday" messages to my friends. Liking their pictures or statements. I just want people to know that when they see a post from me, they can know, without a doubt, that it's not going to be some inflammatory rage post or overshared meme or yet another reshare of violence and hate. I want my friends to know that whaever I post will be something to bring peace, or just a little break from the constant stream of unrest coming from every direction right now. That's all I want to contribute online right now, is a safe space and a little breathing room.
Maybe that's selfish, but hey. We can all post what we like on our pages, right?
So then! Work this week was kind of crazy because we're trying to go back to the old (longer) way of monitoring people. But we also now have to monitor and troubleshoot the people who are in the new beta work from home project. And we have to hop on calls ourselves. And the CapTel headquarters was damaged by flooding in Wisconsin so we've been covering their call load as well. It's kind of...a lot right now. We're all doing the best we can, but I wonder how long this is going to go on, and what changes will result from all the constant shifting responsibilities at work.
At home, the pollinator garden is starting to attract some new insects!
This is mostly because the milkweed has finally bloomed!
I managed to film two different species of butterfly enjoying my milkweed: a pipevine swallowtail, and a queen butterfly.
Both male. "My milkweed brings all the boys to the yard", lol!
My other plants are doing really well too. The little watermelon seed I planted just a month ago is now longer than my arm. It was starting to latch onto the mint plant, and I was kinda concerned about how long it might get (I'm reading up to 12ft?! Sh*t), so I went out and got some chicken wire and jerry-rigged a trellis for it. I'll train it to basically loop around the trellis as many times as it needs to as it grows. Maybe this will help keep it off the mint and mystery sprouts.
On Wednesday the watermelon had both male and female flowers blooming! I made sure to pollinate them right away. Hopefully it takes.
( Read more... )
This f***ing year.
My week was "normal", whatever that is any more.
Despite living in Orlando, I didn't see whole lot of disruption due to the George Floyd protests. I think they mostly took place downtown and were mostly peaceful. That's good. Orlando's government offices are downtown, and that's who needs to be targeted for these demonstrations imo. Not residential neighborhoods, not shopping plazas (although I guess there was some looting over by Millennia Mall, WTH people are finding worth looting over there is beyond me.)
My dad posted something negative on facebook which sparked a whole big family argument, with my sisters and I basically ganging up on him. I stayed pretty well out of it, except to make one comment, that I wish my Dad wouldn't cherry-pick negative events and instead focus on the postive actions taking place during this time. But it was still upsetting to see my family disagreeing publicly like that. I love my dad but he tends to be pretty negative and also refuses to look inward a lot of times. Not to make a blanket statement but, typical Boomer stuff, kind of. Oblivious to his own racism, if that makes sense.
Anyway, in an effort to keep my own blood pressure down I stayed out of it.
I have lots of black/brown/all sorts of shades of friends, and I'd rather focus on making sure they're ok and have what they need, that I'm here for them and the people/organizations that I can actually help. I would also like to work on my own knowledge and understanding, so my sisters and I are going to read some books on race together. That, to me, is positive action I can take.
Raging on social media does nothing for anyone but perpetuate outrage and negativity. That's my view anyway.
Going along with trying to keep my sanity and some calm in all this chaos, I decided not to make posts on anything political/social whatsoever on social media. No one needs to know where I stand. No one needs to hear my Ted Talk about my widdle feelings. All of the internet is in an uproar, everyone is screaming to be heard over each other and the noise is so loud you can't hear anything. I'm just not going to do it.
Instead, I posted all the things I would regularly post. Garden pics. Food pics. Sending little "happy birthday" messages to my friends. Liking their pictures or statements. I just want people to know that when they see a post from me, they can know, without a doubt, that it's not going to be some inflammatory rage post or overshared meme or yet another reshare of violence and hate. I want my friends to know that whaever I post will be something to bring peace, or just a little break from the constant stream of unrest coming from every direction right now. That's all I want to contribute online right now, is a safe space and a little breathing room.
Maybe that's selfish, but hey. We can all post what we like on our pages, right?
So then! Work this week was kind of crazy because we're trying to go back to the old (longer) way of monitoring people. But we also now have to monitor and troubleshoot the people who are in the new beta work from home project. And we have to hop on calls ourselves. And the CapTel headquarters was damaged by flooding in Wisconsin so we've been covering their call load as well. It's kind of...a lot right now. We're all doing the best we can, but I wonder how long this is going to go on, and what changes will result from all the constant shifting responsibilities at work.
At home, the pollinator garden is starting to attract some new insects!
This is mostly because the milkweed has finally bloomed!
I managed to film two different species of butterfly enjoying my milkweed: a pipevine swallowtail, and a queen butterfly.
Both male. "My milkweed brings all the boys to the yard", lol!
https://instagram.com/p/CA81ImhArSa
https://instagram.com/p/CA_GYcNAT6l
My other plants are doing really well too. The little watermelon seed I planted just a month ago is now longer than my arm. It was starting to latch onto the mint plant, and I was kinda concerned about how long it might get (I'm reading up to 12ft?! Sh*t), so I went out and got some chicken wire and jerry-rigged a trellis for it. I'll train it to basically loop around the trellis as many times as it needs to as it grows. Maybe this will help keep it off the mint and mystery sprouts.
On Wednesday the watermelon had both male and female flowers blooming! I made sure to pollinate them right away. Hopefully it takes.
( Read more... )
