Here is a collection of Civic Engagement Tools from Vote.org: Victory 2024!. They are supposed to be copy and paste code to embed on this website, each on its own page, but I currently cannot get them to display correctly, instead they display 2 inches high cut off with a scroll bar so I will link to their site instead. Presumably 1000s of others have this working but I have tried a lot of things to fix it to no avail...
So I have been sending out postcards in a new design again for some time now. Now up to #442 sent or handed out, plus a few handed out blank or otherwise unnumbered (out of 1,500 printed). I have been including the URL to vote.org on them for longer than that. They now look like this:
For a long time it was vote.org, iwillvote.com, AND vote.gov. But eventually I decided I liked the arrangement of things on vote.org better. Click the link for Victory 2024! to access vote.org's Civic Engagement Tools. I just discovered them when I clicked through to vote.org after logging in to my linktr.ee account two days ago. It seems that their site is what Taylor Swift linked in her post encouraging registration after the Harris / Trump debate. It was initially misattributributed by TV news and NPR as vote.gov but I saw a much more recent interview on MSNBC with someone from vote.org that said it was actually to them.
The text box and addresses for the postcards get printed out, cut and glue-sticked on these days. It is much faster than writing by hand and coming up with unique text for each, as I was doing for the first several years. It's into crunch time now and no, I did not know this was where we were headed when I mailed my first ones on 12/31/2015 or the two forgotten unique ones made by hand (not a print run) before that. And the text box is always evolving so I'm not stuck with one message for the entire order of 1,500 postcards.
I won't be getting them all done before election day but the battle is not over on election day either! On that note, here is a link to a guided meditation written and recorded by me for an addiction recovery group i occasionally attend in November 2020 and titled: "Only Two Hands". It takes many of us all working together - each of us, after all, does only have merely two hands and 24 hours in a day. Pulling together as a team, a species, a superorganism, I believe we can get to the right outcomes on this election, democracy, liberty, and longer term, climate and the health & balance of the whole array of Earth systems to which we belong.
And here are a couple of semi-out-of-context song lyrics to light your way:
Already through the worst of it No rehearsin' it No reversin' it
We are a people at the full height of our power This is the place and now is the hour We recognize / Our sacred worth We have the power / to transform the Earth
Also, for a limited time [TBD], I am making my book of slightly-off-kilter poems, Synaptic Syntactic available for download here for free, since I get far more traffic here than my other blogs or social media. If you read it and enjoy it, you could help me greatly by leaving a star rating and brief review on GoodReads, Amazon, or other platforms, or by buying a copy after the fact ($4.99), including huge boosts to my Amazon, et al, rankings (I know y'all aren't ALL broke!). Or contribute less or more than $5 as a pay-what-you-want kind of thing with Buy Me a Coffee. This was actually my 4th attempt at an eBook. Although it is no longer available online, the first attempt, The Driftwood of Our Lives Washed Up on Some Foreign Shore has 4.5 stars on 2 reviews at GoodReads. There is some material overlap with the earlier effort, but there was a lot of rework in tries 2 & 3, and 14 months of rework getting to the current version (2017). Just give it a taste! Here are links for .epub, .mobi, and PDF files:
If you are new to eBooks, FYI, I use the app ReadEra Premium on Android. My recollection is that ReadEra Free was also very good, but it's been a while. You get some extra features with Premium, and looks like the price has gone up from $4.99 to $14.99 since I bought it years ago. That is a pay-once price, not a subscription. Looks like only the free version is available for iOS.
Life Update, Financials, Etc. - 6/21/2024
I have not been counting the days, but it is now well over a month that I have been sober (yet again), over two weeks since I quit smoking (yet again), over a week since I quit vaping, and today I switched from nicotine gum and nicotine patches to just nicotine patches. It has been quite easy, but I also bupropion/dextromethorphan (would be called brand name Auvelity [FDA approved 8/2022] if they were in one pill), and bupropion/Welbutrin is also an anti-smoking medicine under the name Zyban and I use the Harmony Hypnosis hypnotherapy app. It was easy last time I quit smoking, too. I kinda knew that getting back on that one med after being off the previous 4 for 3 months I would have anxiety for the first several days, so a return to drinking for several days was not entirely out of the blue, but it helps so much it is worth the pain of sobering up and recovering (didn't need any doctors this time). Not being daily under attack by embarrassing memories and having much more comfort in social situations is nice. With dysthymia AKA persistent deepressive disorder, you don't really realize how much you're weighed down by it, and it's not too noticeable from outside either. But it can be treatable and when the symptoms vanish, DAMN then you know. Also another obsolete name for it was depressive personality type which is no longer considered a real thing (as a personality type).
Are you in recovery from any substance or process disorder, but 12-steps rubs you the wrong way or you do it, even though it's a bad fit? Here are a couple other options; may not be available in your locality but are available online, 10+ times a day for LifeRing Secular Recovery and also every day, I am not going to count for Recovery Dhamra. My local group is Buddhism oriented though I'm not really a Buddhist, and uses the Recovery Dharma book among others, but we only have just the two meetings a week. Could you be a victim of a Toxic Abusive Relationship (not necessarily violent)? Maybe check out the TAR Network. And it looks like they have launched their support groups now, TAR Anon. I don't have much first-person-view experience of these issues. Also, they have created 12 'research-based' steps and promises, but I don't think they are in any kind of one-to-one relationship with the AA/NA 12 steps and promises.
On the financial side of things, I just paid the renewal on my car registration and it has been.... some time ....since I paid that myself instead of it being paid by a parent, so that is a change.
For raising awareness of ocean issues, fighting climate change, and personally working to prevent a second Trump presidency, the end of Democracy, and mass oppression and possibly worse:
Domain registration: somewhere between $26-36 for 2 years, I forget
Web hosting: $12.99 a month for 24 months: $312
Malware scanning: $3 a month, $72 for two years
Postcards: $65-90, I forget
Stamps: At least $636 so far, most likely more ($636 makes 1,200 postcard stamps)
Computers, Internet service, printing, cellphone, social media, the other blog: No Charge since I need those anyway
GoFundMe donations: Derailed / Never Restarted / $Zero
2023-2024 Personal political, voter protection, Get Out the Vote (GOTV), and advocacy donations [expenses to me]: Not counted but over $200 for sure
John Oliver's newest Last Week Tonight, "Trump's Second Term", on the destructive authoritarian threats emanating from Trump, the GOP, Project 2025, the Supreme Court, and all their associated fascist clowns and fascist clown organizations who want to Make Miscarriage Lethal Again and outlaw gay people and contraception and sexy pictures and being of a different or no religion:
Bits & Pieces - 6/19/2024
Some updates on a variety of my activities and suggestions for you, dear readers, whoever you might be and wherever you are (but particularly people in the United States with a vote in our upcoming elections):
Sleigh Bells: I made a playlist of my favorite band so far this year (not a new band, this is just the year I got into it): Sleigh Bells playlist on YouTube Music. 25 songs, 82 minutes, approaching 600 views as of today. Also available on regular YouTube, but the music videos, where available are not attached to the same page, and the lyrics are absent (but YT Music has a lowish max resolution if you're on a desktop or laptop)
I changed all my front window signage:
I'll have to change the batteries and restick the rainbow fairy lights later, but they haven't been turned on much in recent months anyway.
I am reasonably convinced that Trump will not win the presidential election, and here is one argument why, "There Is Something WAY OFF About 2024 Election Polling" from the channel Lets Talk Elections
But we still have many battles up and down the ballot and beyond the ballot, and beyond November to try to reverse the dark fascist-authoritarian-theocratic-hate-&-fear-&-delusion-overdose turn that some people are trying to push us down, as they have been for many years, but it's gotten so much worse since 2015.
I finished off completing & sending the stack of 1,000 'Victory 2024' postcards (see images in previous post). I started numbering them after the 500th and ended right on 1,000, but there is a gap, I forget, roughly around #715-750 where I forgot to number. So those are limited edition prints and signed (initialed) and numbered if you have the later ones. I'll be doing a new version of the drawing for a second printing to be ordered in several days probably.
Some interesting sites/organizations to give to or to join - Also to learn about how to start your own 'Giving Circle' to be the political adviser to your friends, family, and neighbors (States Project site):
The States Project connects the importance of state legislatures to every aspect of our lives and brings together communities to help build a healthy, sustainable, and prosperous future for all.
Our electoral work focuses on winning governing majorities in the states by making state legislative campaigns more effective and better-funded. Our policy work provides nonpartisan tools and resources that connect a diverse community of state lawmakers committed to improving lives for the people they serve.
We do it because we believe that state legislatures are the strongest force for change in this country.
When it comes to defending our democracy, protecting personal freedoms, and improving people’s day-to-day lives, we’re the only national organization hyper-focused on both winning state legislative power and helping state lawmakers govern effectively.
Lead Locally, which helps people run in races for localized offices (not congress, president, or statewide offices)
Run for Climate; I believe this is a sub-project of Lead Locally. I am currently halfway through their six part summer training cohort, though I will not be running for anything before 2025, IF I even were to decide to do that
If you are not a United States citizen but care about the future of American democracy, I believe you are allowed to donate to charities that are 501(c)(3)s under the tax code. One such is Civic Nation which I haven't looked into that much yet, but I recommended their project When We All Vote some months ago
On another personal note, I interviewed for a position as a library clerk yesterday. I think it went well but they said it goes back to metro HR for a background check and decision and since HR is short staffed, it could be 3 or 4 weeks before I hear anything. So wish me luck!
Barn Swallows are Amazing! Something I posted on my personal social medias some days ago:
Barn swallows put on a far better show than any fighter jet. May 29:
"it's always fun when the grass is long and the swallows come out to pick off all the bugs you kick up, zooming and banking and looping around the mower and the field like fighter jets or x-wings in a movie, but way more agile and acrobatic than any fighter jet. they got comfortable enough they were passing within four feet of me sometimes. i think i saw at least ten but there were probably more because some were always behind me and they probably weren't all out at the same time. truly one of nature's wonders - especially if you do birdwatching, you should try it some time. I'm sure I couldn't do it justice with a camera or video. probably no one.could."
Bits & Pieces - 6/14/24
So, on a personal note, other than this website (and perhaps the long-gone psychicfuguestudio.net website), this YouTube music playlist is the most seen thing I've ever created on the Internet with 9,600+ views as of today, 6/14/2024. I called it "A Luxuriant Feeling of Deepness Sinking into a Late Summer Dusk", 61 songs, 5 hours. Featuring heavily music by All Them Witches, Nine Inch Nails, Florence + the Machine, the Chemical Brothers, and several others with fewer tracks.
Site traffic in the last 30 days according to Cloudflare has been 2.28k unique visitors, 31.39k request, of which 22,684 (72.27%) were requests for HTML -- high fractional amounts of non HTML requests would probably indicate more automated than human visitors (probably used to be the case before 2019 although my memory of where those numbers blurred into the no-longer-extant psychicfuguestudio.net numbers is vague). Top 5 traffic sources for the last 7 days: #1 Germany, #2 United States, #3 China, #4 Singapore, #5 Ireland. Top 5 traffic sources for the last 30 days: #1 United States, #2 China, #3 Hong Kong, #4 Germany, #5 Ireland (Cloudflare still tracks Hong Kong separately from the mainland).
From my facebook on 5/29/2024 - "Build Your Own Army: A Conversation with the States Project’s Melissa Walker":
"an entire state chamber [either state representatives or state senate, of which there are 99 in the US' 50 states] can often be flipped for less than the cost of flipping one seat in congress" - much talk about 'giving circles' - Melissa Walker of statesproject.org "i tell people who have started a giving circle that they have turned on a porchlight for strategic political giving in their community. it is a gift to everyone around you because everyone is looking for a way to not just be a witness to the destruction of our democracy. so turning on that porchlight, gathering your people in a strategic way, it is incredibly important, and again, it is a gift to your friends and your families and your networks for you to become that leader for them." same video as below on MeidasTouch, different title
I'm getting towards the end of my 1,000 'Victory 2024' stack of postcards getting sent out - here is an example of the content I'm doing right now. The text blocks are printed, cut and attached with a gluestick so I'm flexible to change them at will, not be stuck with one message for the whole order. And it's much faster than custom writing, or even writing duplicates of the same stuff over and over. Eventually I started also printing and gluing the addressee blocks too, although the addresses and names of recipients still have to be found and copied/pasted or typed manally. A paper slicer is essential for this work... And don't use your sewing scissors to trim the edges - paper makes scissors dull fast. Still work fine for paper but not so much fabric and plastic.
Since I started numbering and initialing them after #500 (may have miscounted somewhere and the numbers run a few dozen over 1,000). I think for my second printing I'm going to redraw the same thing but somewhat more refined, so that they will, in fact, be signed limited edition prints. Jury still out on if second printing will be 500 or 1,000. But... there will be runoffs and 2025 primaries, so even if I don't get through the second printing by election day they will still be relevant. The cards currently being sent out have excerpts from my poems "We", "Iris of the babbling brook Loquacia", and "The Set of Modernistic Identities" which can be found in whole at https://lostinmist.blog/we, https://lostinmist.blog/iris, and https://lostinmist.blog/set
[Below] The porch plants, the Dame's Rocket, and the morning glory I've been growing indoors since Winter (but it just will not flower inside, sadly). Dame's Rocket turns out to be foreign and somewhat invasive even though it arrived in a native wildflowers seed blend. The Dame's Rocket has now stopped flowering so it and the giant grass, tree sapling and various other weeds need to be removed. It takes some sweat but less time than you might things to get most of the unwanted biomass out. Obviously if I was tryng to ridmyself of 100% of the weeds and grasses that would take forever, so I don't do that. Couple cucumbers, a zucchini, an anaheim/poblano pepper, 2 parsely, chives and 3 morning glory buckets. Tomatoes do not do well in buckets - the plants are fine but the fruits are small and often start going bad from the bottom point before they're ready to pick so I'll just be getting tomatoes from Dad's place. With three plants he'll have far too many and my extra cucumbers can find a home at the houseless and low income resource center I've started volunteering at. [porch plants and morning glory vine boosted for brightness and contrast]
If you can vote in the United States or know people that can, watch this video and make the men in your life watch it. Most ladies will probably learn several things they didn't know as well. From the Politics Girl podcast: "Women are Furious: A Conversation with the new President of Emily’s List Jessica Mackler" defeating Trump and the GOP is critically important to global climate victory..... Same video with different title on the Meidas Touch network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScsYdgDDHCs
The authors argue that while it seems like the climate change catastrophe is rolling on unchecked, governmental and international action are insufficient, and corporate power continues to hold back progress, the incredible advances that have been made since 2010 have already taken the direst scenarios of 4-8 degrees centigrade of warming off the table. They argue that if this is what could be accomplished in 10ish years with market, individual, NGO, and community forces and technological advances, now that governments (and some businesses) are gettng more serious (and technology continues to drop prices and raise efficiencies), far more progress is in the near future. Hence "We WILL fix climate change!". Not to say that there won't continue to be damages, but we are well on the way to taming their expansion and repairing some of them. There is an extended discussion of doomism and despair and how that really only helps the biggest emitters and fossil companies who benefit if people are too disengaged or depressed to do anything about it (they may even promote it...).
GeoGirl has a lot of interesting stuff which include slides and infographics, not just a talking head. She has posted several in recent months on oceans and climate change, and other climate change aspects. I am only including one here for simplicity, but definitely check out the others, if that's your kind of thing. She also has a website at geogirlscience.com and is on Instagram and LinkedIn.
GeoGirl says:
Hi! My name is Rachel, I post educational geoscience videos. Whether you studying for an exam, or just someone interested in geoscience and related fields, there is something for you on this channel!
About me: I earned my PhD in geoscience at UTEP and now work as an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina!
The books and references I use for my videos are always linked in the individual video descriptions :)
Environmental educators face a formidable challenge when they approach climate change due to the complexity of the science and of the political and cultural contexts in which people live. There is a clear consensus among climate scientists that climate change is already occurring as a result of human activities, but high levels of climate change awareness and growing levels of concern have not translated into meaningful action. Communicating Climate Change provides environmental educators with an understanding of how their audiences engage with climate change information as well as with concrete, empirically tested communication tools they can use to enhance their climate change program.
Starting with the basics of climate science and climate change public opinion, Armstrong, Krasny, and Schuldt synthesize research from environmental psychology and climate change communication, weaving in examples of environmental education applications throughout this practical book. Each chapter covers a separate topic, from how environmental psychology explains the complex ways in which people interact with climate change information to communication strategies with a focus on framing, metaphors, and messengers. This broad set of topics will aid educators in formulating program language for their classrooms at all levels. Communicating Climate Change uses fictional vignettes of climate change education programs and true stories from climate change educators working in the field to illustrate the possibilities of applying research to practice. Armstrong et al, ably demonstrate that environmental education is an important player in fostering positive climate change dialogue and subsequent climate change action.
