Nostr notes by mk30

The pigeon peas at my bf's farm are going off right now and ...

2026-02-05T21:18:31Z

The pigeon peas at my bf's farm are going off right now and I'm helping him shell them. It's pretty tedious and time-consuming, but I hate seeing good food go to waste, and these beans are good.

I've been shelling in the evenings when I don't have homework. I put on a show and get into a shelling flow state.

Shelling presents many opportunities for contemplation. I think about how much time and work goes into getting food to the table, and how it's all abstracted away and hidden by the almighty supermarket (and all the processes that bring food from all over the world to supermarkets).

I think about how little $ is earned by the people who grow, harvest, and process the food that ends up on supermarket shelves (I know that beans have large-scale processing machines, but it's still a lot of $ and work to acquire and run them). If a bag of beans is $3 for us, how much went to the people who grew and harvested and processed it?

I love food and I love processing food. A plant worked so hard to make the food, and a person worked so hard to give the plant the conditions and environment that it needs to make the food. I feel like I have to honor all that effort and help process the food and make sure it gets into a belly. Plus I love tasty food, so it's selfish too 😋

Honestly, processing food is my favorite productive procrastination. "Ohhh I can't do a bunch of annoying bushwhacking - this jackfruit has to get processed NOW! It's gonna go bad!" And at the end, you have a bunch of tasty food! Often, enough to share. I love being able to be generous with food.

I also think about how devalued this kind of labor is. Often, no one wants to do it. It takes forever, it doesn't feel like you've accomplished much at the end because a giant bucket of pigeon peas becomes a mere pound of shelled beans - but! When you know how hearty and nutritious that pound is, and how much sustenance that pound will provide, it feels like wealth ♥️. it's just like other kinds of care work in that it's cyclical, which is frustrating for some people (there will always be more dishes, there will always be more laundry), but I'm ok with it.

I like the work of maintaining living things and ecosystems, and cycles make sense to me. I live in cycles and when I participate in the cycles of the plants around me (planting when it's time to plant, harvesting when they're ready, processing when it's harvested), I feel embedded in the natural cycles around me. It's easy when I operate on the schedule of the plants and weather...I let them take the lead and just follow along.

Then I think about the way that growing food and eating from the garden requires patience, a willingness to do the cyclical care work that's required, on the schedule of the plants (not on your own schedule), and doing things the right way (no cutting corners - if you cut corners, you might not have a harvest).

Interestingly, *doing* this work *develops* the necessary patience and the understanding that you are a part of the environment and not its director. You can read about it all you want, but you won't know for sure until you live it. Shelling beans and pulling weeds is what gives you this perspective: "this is what it takes to have food. It's a lot of work, but I feel grateful and lucky that the land rewards my work with this bounty that literally feeds me." And that's why Hawaiians call the land 'aina (from 'ai, which means food). 'aina is that which feeds. ♥️

#beans #food #gardening #hawaii #plants

i've upgraded from lubuntu 22.04 LTS to lubuntu 24.04 LTS. so ...

2026-01-14T20:25:45Z

i've upgraded from lubuntu 22.04 LTS to lubuntu 24.04 LTS. so shiny!

congrats to the lubuntu team for making an upgrade experience that didn't break my system. i'm truly grateful!!!

Lubuntu :lubuntu: (npub144z…qwjy) 😍 💻 💗

#lubuntu

for me, family is like...you have to perform. and if you perform ...

2026-01-12T03:59:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…lctm
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for me, family is like...you have to perform. and if you perform up to their expectation and do what they want, then they're happy. otherwise they're disappointed and that's that.

(i'm referring to my family of origin, not my found/chosen family)

request for advice regarding family (for a person who's ...

2026-01-11T21:33:21Z

request for advice regarding family (for a person who's completely scarred from having a difficult family life growing up): how to stop seeing family as a burden? (like, the entire concept of "family".)

i grew up with difficult parents, where everything was governed by sacrifice, burden, obligation, etc. no one was happy, but everyone was trying hard. after trying really really hard to make my parents happy for many years, i realized that there was nothing i could do to make them happy, so i stopped.

i now live very far away, have my own life, and rarely see them. i still talk to them on the phone a fair bit (and it feels like a burden), but i can manage it.

recently my mom came to visit for a week, and as usual, i put my life on pause and spent all my waking hours taking her around and making sure she was happy. she was staying in the guest room of a friend of mine (who has a good relationship with her family) and my friend was shocked to hear that i would be relieved (instead of sad) when my mom left. she honestly couldn't understand it. it left me feeling guilty and ashamed.

but the truth is that i find it exhausting to be around my parents because it's 100% about their needs and i just have to meet their high expectations or fail. maybe it sounds selfish to say "when i'm with them, it's not about me", but that's exactly what i don't like about family: that it's just obligation. i don't feel anything positive afterwards. i guess i feel some satisfaction from a "job well done" after sending my mom back home with her having had a nice vacation, but that's all it is: i just feel like i fulfilled my duty and now i can go back to my life. i guess that's a horrible thing to think, right?

anyway, my friend can't believe that i see my parents this way. i also see having children this way: that it's just a 20 year slog of obligation, sacrifice, work, and doing things you don't want to do, to take care of someone who will probably be ungrateful in the end.

i'm obviously scarred by my difficult experience growing up (I have CPTSD), and i'm ok with not having children, but i do wonder if there's a healthier attitude i can have toward the entire idea of family. if anyone has any ideas on how i can change my perspective, i'm all ears.

#CPTSD #family #advice #MentalHealth #DamagedGoods

so cute. And I love the painting on the wall, presumably ...

2025-11-06T21:33:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…7h7t
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so cute. And I love the painting on the wall, presumably depicting fishy.

"Modern climate change is 27x faster than historic global ...

2025-10-30T19:09:55Z

"Modern climate change is 27x faster than historic global warming mass extinction events": https://schampton.substack.com/p/modern-climate-change-is-27x-faster

Featuring one of my least favorite graphs (shown below).

This is for anyone who wants to compare current warming to periods of warming in the past.

As the author writes: "Climate change during these past events, considered rapid in geologic time, would have scarcely been noticed by animals on the ground. Animals did not go extinct by dropping dead; they just had a lower reproductive rate such that their populations slowly declined until none were left." So yea, all us animals noticing climate changes within our lifetime - this shows just how different the current changes are compared to previous periods of warming.

#ClimateChange #climate #science #ClimateDiary

from @npub1fdr…lvhs : "The fact that someone did something ...

2025-10-07T21:30:57Z

from Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) : "The fact that someone did something tells you nothing about whether they *chose* to do so – to understand whether someone was coerced or made a free choice, you have to consider the power relationships involved.

Conservatives hate this idea. They want to live in a neat world of "revealed preferences," where the fact that you're working in a job where you're regularly exposed to carcinogens, or that you've stayed with a spouse who beats the shit out of you, or that you're homeless, or that you're addicted to Oxy, is a matter of *choice*." - https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/08/water-thats-not-wet/

#power #politics #USPol #tech #surveillance

me listening to an audiobook, amazed at the inventiveness of the ...

2025-09-28T01:46:12Z

me listening to an audiobook, amazed at the inventiveness of the author: "some people get all the imagination, don't they?!" 😅

meanwhile i'm like...wringing out my brain, going "gimme just a teensy bit of creativity...just a wee bit!"

i just have to accept that whatever i lack in imagination, i make up for it by being able to help the plants grow. just gonna lean into that one lol...i'll *imagine* the plants saying "thanks for the soil top-up, pal!", or "oh thanks for the water - i was parched!", or "thanks for moving me over to this shadier spot. i was dying in the sun over there!"

#imagination #creativity #gardening #writing #plants #books

Happy caturday from Tiggy, Anza, and Star, who are all siblings. ...

2025-09-13T17:03:16Z

Happy caturday from Tiggy, Anza, and Star, who are all siblings.

#caturday #cats

holy smokes! i had no idea. you had the gam bug! we're just a ...

2025-08-20T06:50:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…uu8x
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holy smokes! i had no idea. you had the gam bug!

we're just a minor community gamelan that operates out of a garage behind the east hawai'i cultural center 😆

i respect people who studied gamelan in indonesia so much! i haven't had a chance to visit indonesia, but a few of our members are considering going together as a group next year and studying in java.

Waipiʻo Valley last week ❤️ #hawaii #nature ...

2025-08-20T03:07:51Z

Waipiʻo Valley last week ❤️

#hawaii #nature

For any folks on the big island, you are invited to the upcoming ...

2025-08-17T19:48:10Z

For any folks on the big island, you are invited to the upcoming concert of the gamelan of the molten blossom!

it'll be in hilo at the EHCC on first friday, sept 5, at 5pm. the concert is free and i'll be performing! we have a bunch of new pieces prepared and we're very excited to share them with you 💗 .

(seating is outdoors, so you may want to bring an umbrella!)

#hilo #hawaii #BigIsland #music #gamelan

Afternoon kitten time ☺️ #cats ...

2025-07-31T03:01:17Z

Afternoon kitten time ☺️

#cats

art announcement: i'm very happy to announce that i have ...

2025-06-10T19:52:53Z

art announcement: i'm very happy to announce that i have graduated from zine to MEGA-zine!

"keep dreaming of structured settings" is a 44 page full-color magazine of original collages on the theme of living in space and living under the ocean.

from the back cover:

"The year is 2025. The Amazon burns. Time is running out. How will humans live? The world is desperate for solutions.

In this magazine, you'll discover wondrous new opportunities for continued human life! Living with the dolphins, your own personal pool on Mars, exploration without limits, and so much more.

Join artist Marina Kukso on this new visual/textual adventure into the possible and ask yourself: is this a world you want to inhabit?"

it's available on etsy right now for only $10, so please consider getting one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4316916338/mega-zine-keep-dreaming-of-structured

❤️ 🌌 🌊

#art #collage #space #solarpunk #SF #scifi #clifi #fiction #dystopia #environmentalism #zines

A banyan tree growing on top of the ruins of an old sugar mill ...

2025-05-13T00:10:44Z

A banyan tree growing on top of the ruins of an old sugar mill that shut down in the 1900s.

Located on the farm of SaltPhoenix (npub14ls…cydh) 's friend.

Here's a history of the mill and plantation it was a part of: https://www2.hawaii.edu/~speccoll/p_kauhut.html

It's in a very remote part of the island. It's hard to get to today, and I can't imagine how hard it was to get there back in the early 1900s. But that's how profitable it was to farm sugar.

Colonials established plantations in the middle of the Pacific ocean, on other people's land, growing a plant not from there, bringing in laborers from various other countries, and shipping the output to other places. All of this was vastly profitable, until it wasn't, and they shut everything down and left. That's extractivism. The banyan (another non-native plant) has the last laugh.

#hawaii #history #plants #sugar #colonialism #empire #labor #ecology #agriculture

"I've long maintained that the threat from AI to workers ...

2025-05-08T18:17:42Z

"I've long maintained that the threat from AI to workers isn't that AI can do your job – it's that an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job" - Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/07/rah-rah-rasputin/#credulous-dolts

#tech #AI #ML #labor

"Their wives protected them from interruptions; their ...

2025-04-15T21:51:03Z

"Their wives protected them from interruptions; their housekeepers and maids brought them breakfast and coffee at odd hours; their nannies kept their children out of their hair. Martha Freud not only laid out Sigmund’s clothes every morning, she even put the toothpaste on his toothbrush. Marcel Proust’s housekeeper, Celeste, not only brought him his daily coffee, croissants, newspapers and mail on a silver tray, but was always on hand whenever he wanted to chat, sometimes for hours. Some women are mentioned only for what they put up with, like Karl Marx’s wife – unnamed in the book – who lived in squalor with the surviving three of their six children while he spent his days writing at the British Museum.

Gustav Mahler married a promising young composer named Alma, then forbade her from composing, saying there could be only one in the family. Instead, she was expected to keep the house utterly silent for him. After his midday swim, he’d whistle for Alma to join him on long, silent walks while he composed in his head. She’d sit for hours on a branch or in the grass, not daring to disturb him. “There’s such a struggle going on in me!” Alma wrote in her diary. “And a miserable longing for someone who thinks OF ME, who helps me to find MYSELF! I’ve sunk to the level of a housekeeper!”" - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/21/woman-greatest-enemy-lack-of-time-themselves

For more on this subject, I recommend the book "who cooked Adam Smith's dinner".

#feminism #patriarchy

dreamed that there was a movie where some millenials come upon a ...

2025-03-06T19:13:57Z

dreamed that there was a movie where some millenials come upon a group of gothy/punky gen z'ers, because both were out behind the event venue catching a breather from the busy main event. the two groups become friends and bond over weird stuff. is this millenial wish fulfillment - that our old weird nerdiness is relevant and interesting to younger weird nerds? probably lol.

#dreams

fantastic to hear!

2025-02-21T23:45:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…qxqr
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fantastic to hear!

sorry, i was wrong: it's not photoshopped, but it seems like ...

2025-02-11T19:50:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…hf5r
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sorry, i was wrong: it's not photoshopped, but it seems like it's some guerilla commentary: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/10/genital-verification-dfw-airport-sign/

fyi, this appears to be a photoshopped image

2025-02-11T16:09:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…yezz
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fyi, this appears to be a photoshopped image

"She wanted me to figure out all of the things that need ...

2025-01-30T03:16:08Z

"She wanted me to figure out all of the things that need done, and devise my own method of task management.

I wish I could remember what seemed so unreasonable to me about that at the time."

- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/she-divorced-me-i-left-dishes-by-the-sink_b_9055288

#relationships #HeteroStuff

thanks for this endorsement! i hope more economists read it.

2025-01-24T18:13:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…yvj6
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thanks for this endorsement! i hope more economists read it.

"heading back to the law of the jungle"? i'd say ...

2025-01-06T16:59:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…has3
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"heading back to the law of the jungle"? i'd say we're already well there.

and as a jungle-dweller, i gotta say that things are much more orderly here. even the smallest creatures can find a niche for themselves and make a living (think of moss or little lizards). if anything, it's the rule of civilization that the strongest take as much as they possibly can.

creepy article, thx for sharing. I echo what another person said ...

2025-01-04T18:57:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…2z5m
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creepy article, thx for sharing. I echo what another person said - they just pulled these two... there's gonna be more.

agreed with this entire thread, but folks who make this ...

2024-12-27T19:00:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…45cl
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agreed with this entire thread, but folks who make this anti-welfare-type argument aren't interested in idleness in general: they are interested in "you not being willing to sell your labor to the cheapest employer".

The perspective is from the employer's side, and whether the employer will have a ready supply of desperate labor. That priority needs to get shifted before any further discussion can take place, and I don't know if that's possible or how.

with a permanent unemployment rate, there will always be people ...

2024-12-23T21:22:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…y9vr
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with a permanent unemployment rate, there will always be people who want to work but can't find jobs. The social safety net is for them.

Anyway, there are worse things than disincentivizing work: hungry people, homeless people, people who can't get their medical needs met. People who worry that social safety nets would disincentivize work are willing to accept those things rather than the possibility of a slightly stronger position for labor ("disincentiving work"). How much of that is based on experimental data vs puritan vibes?

In case you were wondering what the endgame of mass incarceration ...

2024-12-20T17:41:05Z

In case you were wondering what the endgame of mass incarceration is, here is its purest form:

"No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal convict leasing era that replaced slavery — it has constructed a template for the commercialization of mass incarceration.

Best Western, Bama Budweiser and Burger King are among the more than 500 businesses to lease incarcerated workers from one of the most violent, overcrowded and unruly prison systems in the U.S. in the past five years alone, The Associated Press found as part of a two-year investigation into prison labor. The cheap, reliable labor force has generated more than $250 million for the state since 2000 through money garnished from prisoners’ paychecks."

- https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-alabama-3b2c7e414c681ba545dc1d0ad30bfaf5

#alabama #labor #prison #work #incarceration

Bears as huckleberry dispersers: ""Bears don't just ...

2024-12-11T07:21:40Z

Bears as huckleberry dispersers: ""Bears don't just eat huckleberries—they help them grow in new places," says lead researcher Aza Fynley Kuijt, from UBC's Faculty of Forestry."

"Researchers found that seeds consumed and defecated by bears had significantly higher germination rates (up to 28.5%) compared to seeds left inside intact berries (0.2%). The key factor is the removal of germination inhibitors in the berry pulp during digestion.

Using GPS data from 74 collared grizzly bears, the study estimated that bears disperse 50% of consumed seeds at least one kilometer away from their feeding sites, with potential maximum distances of up to seven kilometers."

Respect to bear gardeners! 🐻🌱

#ecology #ecosystems #gardening #plants #bears #science #animals #nature

rubs forehead and mutters to self: as if we don't have ...

2024-12-08T17:19:18Z

**rubs forehead and mutters to self**: as if we don't have enough problems:

"the choice to burn up satellites in the atmosphere may pose a significant risk to the Earth’s climate and the ozone layer, through the resulting alteration of atmospheric chemistry. . . . with a typical satellite weighing of order 1,000 kg [2,200 lb], and being primarily metallic, the steady state injection of metals into the stratosphere by vaporization of satellites would be at least 8,000 tons per year."

https://buttondown.com/creativegood/archive/musks-space-junk-is-a-threat-to-us-all/

#space #SpaceJunk #starlink #climate #environment #pollution #garbage #trash #nature #air

congratulations! And your kitty is so cute.

2024-11-30T17:55:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…pxfw
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congratulations! And your kitty is so cute.

Although my folks' area in the north Chicago burbs lacks ...

2024-11-30T17:35:58Z

Although my folks' area in the north Chicago burbs lacks quite a bit in nature, beauty, walkability, and weather, it has a great richness in diversity and gigantic beautiful ethnic grocery stores.

Today I went to a huge Polish store (that my folks didn't even know was there lol). It had hot, fresh pierogis with a large variety of fillings, a large cake zone, a big deli, and pickles and fresh kraut in barrels (I love fresh kraut - it's one of my favorite foods).

I also went to a large Indian grocery store that had a human-size Ganesh altar in the entryway, and an entire section for ghee.

Diversity: it has many delicious benefits 😋

#chicago #diversity #food

Fffffuuuu: "Wildlife monitoring technologies used to ...

2024-11-26T00:58:59Z

Fffffuuuu: "Wildlife monitoring technologies used to intimidate and spy on women, study finds"

Male villagers AND local governments using wildlife cameras to spy on women 😫: "Remotely operated camera traps, sound recorders and drones are increasingly being used in conservation science to monitor wildlife and natural habitats, and to keep watch on protected natural areas. But Cambridge researchers studying a forest in northern India have found that the technologies are being deliberately misused by local governments and male villagers to keep watch on women without their consent." - https://phys.org/news/2024-11-wildlife-technologies-intimidate-spy-women.amp

Where is a woman free from patriarchy?? I wish I knew... It seems like if men are given a chance to take advantage of women, they'll use it 😭

#feminism #patriarchy #surveillance #conservation #science #wildlifemonitoring

I used to work at an open access science journal where dr. Hotez ...

2024-11-24T03:16:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…g7y9
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I used to work at an open access science journal where dr. Hotez was co-editor-in-chief. He's the real deal and a very kind person. He's been fighting with anti-vaxxers for years and has been targeted relentlessly by them.

Very interesting study in PNAS about how learning happens in ...

2024-11-20T15:14:06Z

Very interesting study in PNAS about how learning happens in hunter gatherer societies. Relevant because this is how humans lived for 99% of human history. Also relevant for anyone interested in fostering cultures where people are able to collaborate and live with the land:

"The broad informal learning network in hunter-gatherer societies is made possible by intimate living conditions. Small camps, usually consisting of 25-35 individuals living in homes a few feet from each other, create an environment where children can observe and interact with a wide range of people.

This allows them to learn essential skills, including caring for infants and cooking as well as hunting and gathering, through a process that is often subtle and nonverbal.

The study also highlights the importance of egalitarianism, respect for individual autonomy and extensive sharing in shaping how cultural knowledge is passed down among hunter gatherers. For example, children learn the importance of equality and autonomy by observing the behavior of adults and children around them.

They are not coerced into learning but are given the freedom to explore and practice skills on their own, fostering a deep understanding of their culture.

“This approach to learning contributes to what we call ‘cumulative culture’—the ability to build on existing knowledge and pass it down through generations,” Hewlett said."

https://neurosciencenews.com/culture-environment-learning-28078/

#Anthropology #culture #learning #Education #CulturalAnthropology

If there's one thing I've learned living in the Pacific ...

2024-10-07T16:55:23Z

If there's one thing I've learned living in the Pacific it's that you don't want to make the ocean mad.

I think Florida made the ocean mad..

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-milton-helene-florida-557c5c512135e0a8661b298e45e17c92

#milton #florida #ClimateChange #pacific #oceans #hurricane #hawaii

you know who else was a #girlboss? that's right, it's ...

2023-08-14T03:48:04Z

you know who *else* was a #girlboss? that's right, it's palden lhamo, a tibetan buddhist wrathful goddess!

"When she died, she was reborn in hell and fought her way out of hell, stealing a bag of diseases and a sword." (source: wikipedia).

palden lhamo: you go, girl!

(image source: https://www.exoticindiaart.com/product/paintings/palden-lhamo-tibetan-buddhist-goddess-who-rides-on-sea-of-blood-tc65/)