Spirit of the Wind

It really has been quite a while since I updated this.

For months my job search went very poorly, to the point that I wasn't getting any interviews; I must've applied for 150 positions in my field over the past few months. That got me nothing, so I started applying for positions outside them. At first it was stuff related to my interests, but as of late it's been gas station attendant positions. Honest work, but really not what I wanted to be doing.

It turns out that a lot of job openings are "ghost jobs" these days, and they're using AI bullshit to filter out results. So I have no idea how many of the positions I applied for I ever really had a shot with. I assume that the ones in my field were real because I just don't think state agencies or NGOs are likely to do that, but I don't know. And the jobs I applied for on Indeed, some of them are probably fake.

I did eventually find work, though. Now I've got employment doing manual labor and will be starting next week. It pays pretty well and so I've decided I won't be moving across the country to Iowa even if I do get a job offer in my field. Probably, anyway. I might make an exception if it's a really good job.


I came to the reluctant conclusion that I may be a weeb after realizing that while I have no interest in anime or manga, I like Japanese folklore, traditional architecture, art, ikebana, bonsai, and kumihimo. A friend then pointed out that definitionally weebs get all their knowledge of Japan from anime, so I may be an anti-weeb instead.

Regardless, I've taken up kumihimo weaving again and am trying to make a little curtain out of the ropes, then attach beads to the end. I'm going with an ocean theme and will post it once I'm done. I'm also hoping to take up glasswork again once I have the disposable income to afford a new torch. Flower arranging... I'll give that a shot in the spring.

Oh, and I should really finish those Wanderer's Library pieces I'm working on. I'm like 90% of the way done with a few entries and have a decent start on one where a human woman discovers she is much happier as a fox, but they sit unfinished in my sandbox. Perhaps more caffeine will help.

Scientifically, I continue to help with a few projects I'm not going to go into detail over in a public journal entry.


Oh. And Harris lost.

Like, she lost by a lot. I know some of you aren't from the USA and believe me when I say that it's genuinely shocking she did this badly; the entire country shifted to Trump. Urban voters, minority voters--Trump (relative to 2020, at least). Republicans won the Senate and I suspect they're going to win the House. CrimethInc argues that a large chunk of why is simply that in the modern era incumbents are generally unpopular and I suspect they're right.

As far as what to take away from this, since everyone and their dog is giving their take: The far-right wants us to feel helpless and intimidated. During 2020 there were mass uprisings in the USA and a majority of the public backed a police station being burned down. Mass action works and the ruling class is afraid of the population. I've been linking to the Slingshot Collective's contact list for a while, but also check out any Food Not Bombs chapters near you (note that those chapters are not all currently active; FNB is shit about updating their website).

I wish I could give a neat directory of places that do squatter's and tenant's rights because given the atrocious housing crisis it's necessary. I can't think of much else better for suppressing people than to make them on the edge of losing housing, have housing be nearly impossible to get once you don't have it, and have the police harass homeless people. Unfortunately there is no such directory that I could find.

There is not going to be a neat switch flipped where in January the USA goes from a democracy to a fascist dictatorship; while Trump would go for it if he went to 100% immediately he'd face too much unrest (yes, even from some of those people who voted for him mostly because they didn't like Biden). He may lay groundwork that someone else ends up using further down the line, but I suspect he will be dead by then. There will be democratic backsliding in the short term though, and if it's to be reversed I don't think it'll be reversed by a political party but by mass action.

( Eye Health )

I'd like to see an eye doctor, but New Hampshire is a health care desert if you're on Medicaid. Some places have waiting lists stretching until January. It's the same situation as it was for dental work. Now, I was able to get my teeth cleaned (thank fuck) and I've got a lead on a place that can check my eyes, but like the dental place it's going to be a long car drive away.

This would be so, so much easier if healthcare providers could not decline Medicaid. Or if we had single payer. I'm pretty sure that would solve this. They can't discriminate according to health insurance company if there's only one health insurance, and it's through the government. If we're going to have the state anyway, it might as well do something useful....

I've had a lot of health problems lately; it's a fucking pain. They're not emblematic of any larger problems--it's an eye infection, insufficient tooth care, and acid reflux--and they're not causing permanent damage, but I still hate it.

University has also kicked up again. I'll post something on that, and some of the local nature walks I've done lately, later. This is mostly a whine. No cheese included.

I wrote an essay about my religion three years ago, first on the Werelist and then on here. I reread it recently. Things haven't changed enormously since I wrote it, but they have changed some. That conflict seems less acute than it once did. I'm still an atheist, and there's still large parts of Jewish practice that I disregard (though again, fewer than most Jews). But over the past few years, I've come to appreciate the degree to which religion is not just a set of theistic tenets or even a set of traditions, but a lens through which you view the world.

I understood this when I wrote that essay. But I've come to view it as even more important as time has passed. Watching a large number of atheists prove that they're still bound into a Christian mindset even if they've drained themselves of the theistic claims has proven this to me. There is still an obsession with sin, there is still a belief in a Great Chain of Being... some of them even still believe in an afterlife, it just involves robots.

Jewish traditions--some of which are religious and some of which aren't--are ways to connect with my heritage even if I have issues with Jewish theology and don't believe in the supernatural. Keeping Kosher, celebrating the holidays, and following at least some of the other commandments are ways to do that (also, the prospect of no longer eating kosher feels kind of gross). That is worthwhile not just to connect me with other Jews, even if I lack direct social ties, but because for centuries people tried to destroy those traditions. The story of Judaism is not a single strand of defiance, but the defiance that's there is something I value.

I may change or warp those traditions, but that's me doing so as a Jew trying to live in accordance with my own values in a way that makes sense for me. Obviously I can't avoid being shaped by the surrounding culture, but I'm trying not to change based on their values.

But it's more than just my relationship to tradition. Growing up as a member of a non-Christian religion shaped my views on more than just the supernatural, and marks me as different from the people I grew up around. And I'm actually kind of proud of that difference, because while there are aspects of Jewish theology I disagree with, I disagree with far more of the mainstream religion that has shaped our society.

I don't know exactly where I'll go from this next. Certainly I will never be like the Orthodox, even in action. But I'd like to make a point of immersing myself more in Jewish traditions.

I swear that about 99% of jobs in my field are dealing with fish. Specifically, game fish. It can be a little annoying when looking at job boards, because, well--I have less than no interest in dealing with fisheries. I might be willing to make an exception for something like salmon conservation, where the fish in question is also of conservation concern in its own right, but anything that's focused around maximizing fish yields--no.

That's not why I got into this field.

My job search is going decently--not going to go into details on a public entry--but it does feel a lot like nongame wildlife gets the short stick. This is why I have mixed feelings about the impact of hunting and fishing dollars. It funds important work, to be sure, but how does it affect the priorities of conservation agencies?

I went to Antelope Valley last weekend, and the wildflowers were blooming.
It was mostly California poppies, but there were other flowers as well.

There was actually quite a lot of traffic, despite there being very few people in those photos. Most were hanging around near the entrance, though, and I was hiking a mile into the park, over steep (and incredibly windy--I was nearly blown over) terrain. It looks warm, but with the wind it felt very cold; I had to wear two fleeces. The area is big wind country and you can tell why hiking there.

I did see some wildlife. A few lizards (probably side-blotched), some birds. But overall, not very much. There are rattlesnakes in the park, but I didn't see any, and I couldn't identify any of the birds.

I'm sure the flowers seem intense, but compared to many years, this one was actually not that vivid. Sometimes, they look like this. Someday I'd like to see the Valley when it's blooming like that.

The trees are nearly bare; brown and yellow leaves litter the ground. Flowers are but a distant memory, and the wildlife of summer is long gone. Temperatures aren't regularly dropping below freezing, but we're starting to get there. Few more weeks, and things will be quite cold indeed. Possibly downright frigid, if the polar vortex destabilizes this year again.

The birdfeeder outside my window is mostly being visited by sparrows and woodpeckers, but I've seen juncos, too. There have been a few jays outside town I've seen.

I tried to watch the lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, it was much too late for me; I had work. I stayed up until midnight but I couldn't even see the edge of the Earth's shadow moving across the Moon.

Watched Arcane (the Netflix series). It's actually one of the only recent TV series that I've been able to stand. The depiction of Jinx's mental illness is top-notch, it avoids being pointless fanservice, and despite being based on a combat game, it doesn't glorify violence.

RPG stuff goes well. I have been running a Mesoamerican god game for the past few months, and the players are liking it. Updates are sometimes delayed due to work stuff, but I've been getting them done.

I am finally running the big war plot on Kaerwyn that I've wanted to run for a couple years, which is very good. The PCs are trying to head off a war between Kemet and the cheetahs with hands.

Had a lovely sukkot. It is just a little bit early for it--the leaves haven't really started to change color, but looking at the fall foliage prediction map they'll start in a week or so--but I had a nice dinner and socialized some. The sukkah itself was quite nice; we managed to find tree branches to spread over the roof. Which is the only proper way to do it.

Interestingly the date of sukkot doesn't move if you're in Australia, despite it being a harvest festival. Really ought to be moved to autumn down there, I would think. Not sure how you'd handle it in the tropics... no autumn there. I'm not even sure there's a consistent harvesting season in large parts of the tropics.

Temperatures are beginning to drop, but only slightly.

Got to visit a state park a few days ago. I saw bats! There were so many of them it seemed like the cave ceiling was furry.

I'm going to be gone for a month. I'll post details (in an access locked entry) later, but long story short, I'll be in Central America for a while, and I'm not going to have access to the Internet.

Best of luck to everyone while I'm gone (and heck, even when I'm back).

I got mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms, specifically. Unfortunately I waited too long before harvesting them and they were a little woody, but once chopped to bits and cooked in butter for a good long time they were tender enough.



I also got a lizard recently. They're an African-fat tailed gecko. Really should upload pictures of them but here's a picture of their enclosure.



And here's the bench it and the rest of my plants are on. I've got a basil, angelwing begonia, a couple cacti, amaryllis, drunkard's dream cactus, and jewel orchid. The jewel orchid would be blooming, but the cats ate them. Again.

The basil, meanwhile, seems to be dying.

Fall is exceptionally boring in Missouri. I refuse to call it autumn, or not very much autumn, because the leaves don't turn those nice autumnal colors. They just turn brown and fall off. Oh, there are a few colorful trees, but only a few; it's unfortunate. I honestly can't remember if it's always like this but I think it is. Certainly it's never been like this. It's also still pretty warm, though the temperature is beginning to drop.

Been fairly busy, but did manage to go to a corn maze last weekend. It wasn't very impressive but is probably the most interesting thing in town right now. This says a great deal about how interesting my town is; only in the Midwest could walking around in corn be the most interesting thing to do.