#i also have photos above arizona

[why-rock-look-tasty-if-no-eat]

@dragonpyre So I accidentally closed out on my previous post and I'm way to tired to rewrite it from memory so I'll just sparknotes it.

I think you'd enjoy that one stupid volcano that's like a pimple in Russia (I forgot the name, I was practically comatose when I watched the documentary). That volcano genuinely pisses me off because it's not, and never was, connect(ed) to Earth's magma but has a history of explosions. The volcano isn't anywhere near the Ring of Fire and is extremely inland, and is just in a really odd place.

I forgot what else I wrote (sleep deprivation for the win!) but I do remember putting these photos in.

Then I talked about how I didn't realize my flight was going by Mt. Saint Helen's and that I grew up watching the NatGeo VHS of it. I didn't even recognize the volcano from the actual volcano, I recognized the flow path first because I thought 'wow that looks a lot like Mt. Saint Helen's path flow' then I was like. 'Well I am in Washington right now.' Which quickly became; 'No way, that's Mt. Saint Helens flow path!!! That's Mt. SaiNT HELENS!!!!!!!!' And I would have legitimately screamed if I wasn't on a public flight but my seat mate did look at me weirdly for practically gluing myself to the window for like half an hour and taking photos like a mad person.

That was taken after I realized what I was seeing so I hope it's understandable that I recognized the flow path first instead of the white cap lolol

There really is something humbling about seeing the damage still so easily visible even decades later.

reminder to worldbuilders: don't get caught up in things that aren't important to the story you're writing, like plot and characters! instead, try to focus on what readers actually care about: detailed plate tectonics

[venerablemonk27]

I've done a lot of birding the past couple months and not a lot of posting, so I'm going back to our Tucson, AZ trip from April. I hadn't been to the Western US since picking up birding or wildlife photography, so I knew I was going to pick up a ton of lifers. One of our target species for the trip was also my fifth Owl species ever: the Burrowing Owl.

[ID: A Burrowing Owl stands on a mound of dirt. They are facing left and looking toward the camera. The sun is low in the sky off to the right, which illuminates the right side of the Owl's face and their back, while casting the rest in shadow. They have striking yellow eyes and a furrowed brow that gives them the appearance of a permanent scowl. Their oval-shaped head transitions naturally into a slender cylindrical body covered in mottled tan and white feathers. About half the bird's height is body and folded wings, with two naked grey legs planted on the ground. End ID]

This was the morning we had picked for me to do some solo birding, so I drove out to a spot west of Tucson where eBird indicated that Burrowing Owls were likely to appear. It was just after sunrise when I found the road cutting between farm fields where the Owls were reported. I drove slowly down the side of the road in my rented Dodge Charger, stopping occasionally to inspect a suspicious clump of dirt with my binoculars. I had not seen any sign of the Owls when a Land Rover pulled up behind me. A group of three folks in their 60s with binoculars piled out of car, clearly more birders here to do exactly what I was doing.

[ID: A Burrowing Owl stands on a mound of dirt, facing the camera. The sun is still low in the sky, but now the bird's face and chest are more brightly lit, showing the transition in feather colors from tan to mottled tan to white as they progress downward from collar to belly.]

They introduced themselves as coming from the UK, and had been visiting Arizona for several weeks in search of all the unique birds the state could offer. The driver was particularly puzzled about the location of the Owls, saying he was "absolutely foxed" that this place with no real habitat could host Burrowing Owls. I showed him the recent sightings on eBird and explained that it was possible the birds just hadn't emerged from their burrows yet.

After another 15 minutes of searching the fields, I offered to lead them to an alternate site nearby. We got in our cars and slowly drove back the way we had come. Just as we were approaching the end of the road, I spotted a small tan creature standing right on the edge of the irrigation ditch along the near side of the field. A Burrowing Owl! I swung the Charger around and flagged down my companions, who had also spotted the Owl.

[ID: A pair of Burrowing Owls stand on a mound of dirt. The one in the foreground looks decidedly sleepier and plumper than the one in the background (seen in previous images). Both Owls are similar in coloration, but the one in the foreground has an aluminum leg band for identifying them. End ID]

We got out to take a look and grab some photos from long distance, then slowly crept forward with my Charger as a rolling blind. There turned out to be four Owls spread out along the irrigation ditch, likely close to their burrows which were out of sight. They were surprisingly unbothered by the cars rolling up to them, probably because they see trucks and farm vehicles driving past all day every day. Once we were directly across the irrigation ditch from the closest pair, I climbed into the passenger seat to take some better photosm. Mostly the Owls just stood on their tiny hill and looked around. Though I did witness one of the pair above fly down to pounce on a grasshopper, then return to feed it to their partner.

[ID: A pair of Burrowing Owls stand on a mound of dirt. This photo was taken midday, with the sun directly overhead. At least one of these individuals is different from those above, as they have two leg bands instead of one. It's also apparent in the photo that the Owls are standing at the edge of a farm field from the row of green plants out of focus in the background. End ID]

I had such a great view of the Burrowing Owls that I had to bring my family back to see them on our last day in Tucson. Because we were heading out of town in the middle of the day, I was confident we'd find them right away and avoid testing the patience of my kid. It turns out I didn't have to worry. Not only were the Owls right where I left them, but the kid had fallen asleep on the drive, so we had to wake him up to see them! And seeing as I already had the camera within easy reach, I had to take a few more photos.

[ID: A Burrowing Owl stands on a mound of dirt. This one is looking alert in the midday sun, standing and scanning the area around the edge of the farm field. End ID]

On a trip full of exciting views, long hikes, and thousands of photos, it was nice to finish the trip quietly sitting in the car just a few yards away from such a compelling bird. And it always feels good to track down a lifer and share that experience with others!

[desertdollranch]

My miniature doll room

Hello and welcome to the doll room!

This was a special project made for me by my mom. She's a Barbie collector and loves crafting little room boxes for them with tiny realistic accessories. When she asked if I wanted a room box, I was tempted to say no because I'm not into Barbies or dolls their size, but then I saw, fully formed in my imagination, a miniature doll room. And she delivered. Pretty much everything you see in the above photo was made by her: the crib, the chair, the curtain, and even the potted plants!

I expected nothing less than this. I come from several generations of doll collectors, enthusiasts, and artists. My mom was already a talented miniature maker by the time I was born, having taken classes in making them for several years. Her classmates even made her this mini nursery to celebrate my birth! She also made this lovely Victorian dollhouse. She's the real deal when it comes to all things mini.

The Barbie here in the comfy chair represents me, and the comfy clothes I wear at home. She's holding her newest doll, a Zuru My Mini Baby. I'm glad that at least she has a silicone reborn baby doll, because I certainly will never be able to afford a life-sized one for myself. So I live vicariously through her in that way.

Sometimes Briana comes by for a visit! She's very careful when playing with the dolls, since some are vintage and fragile.

On the left is the chair my mom made. On the right are the mini American Girl posters. The reborn baby is in her stroller.

Most of her dolls stand on their shelves. My mom acquired most of these. I contributed the dolls on the bottom shelf, above the compartments. The one on the left is mini Isabelle Palmer (an American Girl crossover with McDonald's happy meal toys).

The next shelf above them is the American Girl doll shelf. These all came from Mega Bloks Construct sets. In the middle is Kit with her scooter and her dog Grace riding inside. Above that shelf are the tiny dolls. I bought the little porcelain doll on the left at last year's local doll show. And the top shelf is Disney and fantasy characters. I don't actually have any Disney dolls, but these look cute in the mini room, and I'm definitely not going for total accuracy here. That would be impossible.

Here's the bay window. My mom made the flowers and the green plant in the middle. She showed me how she made the colorful flowers and it's so easy, but my mind is still blown at how amazing they turned out.

The window is clear plastic. I added the scene out the window. It's from a calendar, and is a view of the San Francisco volcanic field in northern Arizona. It's a somewhat close resemblance to what I see when I look out my house's windows.

On the other side is the crib with the baby dolls. The three blonde babies are Barbie babies. I have no idea what the baby on the left is.

On this end of the crib are vintage Tiny Blessings dolls.

And the animal shelf is above the crib.

[theeccentricraven]

World Building in Five

Thank you for the tag @kaylinalexanderbooks 

I’ve looked forward to doing this for The Blood Cleaners ever since I saw it.

Rules: post 3-5 pictures that capture a setting in your world and tell us about it!

Source 1: Thumbnail of Dark Dystopia video

Source 2: Still image from Earth’s Last Echoes video

Source 3: Photo of Quarry by Claude Meyers on Pinterest

Source 4: artstation.com

Source 5: Thumbnail of Selcuk Celebi Ambient & Music video

The Blood Cleaners takes place hundreds of years into the future (no specified year). The setting is a city called Corpa, located in post-apocalyptic Arizona. Corpa is not the ruins of a real life city. It is a city that was formed after the great nuclear war (which they call The Last War). 

There are nine sections of Corpa. There’s the Steel Castle, often called the Steel, a fortress that looks like a cluster of skyscrapers fused together. It’s hard for me to find or create an image that portrays what the Steel is supposed to look like. I found a great image from a still in a YouTube video by Earth’s Last Echoes that conveys what I had in mind. I also use the image from Artstation to show the aesthetic of the city in the middle of the desert, though Corpa is not in ruins. The Steel is the home of the Fists, the ruling class of Corpa. 

The underground section is a series of tunnels that are built to be like a bunker. The underground consists of many storage rooms, closets, homes, labs, classrooms, medical bays, cafeterias, shops, offices, gymnasiums, and a boiler room. I use a thumbnail from a video by Selcuk Celebi Ambient & Music to portray what a home in the tunnels would look like. The tunnels mostly house the poorest residents of Corpa. Even tunnel workers with well-off occupations like teachers and doctors are less prosperous than their surface counterparts. One cool feature of the tunnels are the vaculators, big holes where garbage is dumped and transported through ducts to the incinerator. People who live in the tunnels are called Tunnelers.

The surface section consists of the city above ground, the urban and suburban areas surrounding the Steel. The urban area includes a section of administrative buildings where the Fists carry out their government jobs. The surface is made up of many hospitals, shops, restaurants, houses, schools, research labs, parks, office buildings, and plazas. People who live on the surface are called Surfacers, including those who don’t live in the urban or suburban sections, but do live in the farmland, lumber farm, industrial district, energy district, quarry, or mine.

The farmland is the spacious section of land used for agriculture purposes. They grow the crops and raise the livestock that feeds most of the city. 

The lumber farm is a lumber mill in the midst of a forest grown for the purpose of providing lumber for the city.

The industrial district is made up of many factories used for making anything and everything used in the daily lives of Corpa’s residents. I portray the factory district using a thumbnail from the YouTube channel Dark Dystopia. It portrays the overall mood of the setting.

Past the factory district are the rocky areas where quarries and mines can be found. I chose to include an image of a quarry because this location is especially important to the plot. The quarry workers live under especially harsh conditions.  

The city is surrounded by the energy district, which consists of solar panels and wind turbines that provide electricity. 

Corpa covers a fifty mile radius, which is 2500 square miles. There are some other interesting aspects of Corpa that I’m going to have to keep secret because they would be plot spoilers. The residents of Corpa have been fed misinformation about the city’s founding and purpose by their corrupt, totalitarian government. The plot involves MC Justin uncovering the secrets of the city.

Tagging: @buffythevampirelover @tryingtowritestuff24 @selenekallanwriter @constellationandcompendium @gottestod-writes @willtheweaver @poethill @primroseprime2019

[shoesofthefishermanswife]

solve a gramle with me!

a couple weeks ago i finished my linguistics minor and i thought i'd do a very different kind of post and walk you guys through decoding a spectrogram! (mistakes and all)

northern arizona university created their own version of wordle for linguists, called 'gramle,' which gives the player a spectrogram and they have to guess the word being said.

the player types in IPA symbols (which will appear in this post and you can listen to here). they are then told if the sound is wrong, right but in the wrong place, or fully right.

here's a relatively easy one that i solved in 3 guesses:

(unfortunately, i didn't take a screenshot so you'll have to ignore the photo quality and the cursor on the screen. oops!)

for those unfamiliar with spectrograms, this looks pretty unintelligible. spectrograms are a graph of frequency over time, with intensity (or amplitude) of the waves shown via shading. to understand why they're helpful, we need to understand how air moves through your vocal tract:

the airwaves in your vocal tract are composed of many different frequencies of waves, all bouncing around. air moves through your vocal tract and hits different parts depending on the shape. different frequencies of waves are then amplified or dampened by the shape your mouth was in. the frequencies of waves that get amplified the most form dark bars of intensity called "formants." these formants can then give us clues about what shape the mouth was in when the speech sound was made!

in the picture above, we can see several different patterns of darkness and lightness. those are different sounds. in gramle, we are looking for 5 different sounds.

my first step is to identify the borders of the sounds

now that we have the boundaries between the sounds, we are going to try to identify the type of sound they are, aka their 'manner of articulation' (HOW the sounds are made).

here's what we can tell:

this word looks like it has two vowels in it, separated by a period of blankness. this means it will be two syllables.

the period of blankness is clearly a stop

the sound at the end is clearly a fricative

the sound at the beginning is also a fricative, but i guessed that it was an approximant first. (this was silly of me, and we'll get into why in a little bit)

now that we know HOW the sounds are made, we can look for clues about WHERE they're made (place of articulation):

again, here's what we can tell:

both vowels have a big distance between their first and second formant. F1 is low while F2 is high. this means they are high, front vowels. probably they are /i/ or /ɪ/

the formants on either side of the stop are bending downwards. this tells us the sound is probably bilabial, meaning it's produced with two lips. it's probably /p/ or /b/

there is also a completely blank period, meaning there's no voicing bar. (voicing is the vibration of the vocal folds and it shows up as a little bit of low-frequency noise). therefore, we can make an educated guess that the sound is /p/

the fricative has a ton of noise really high in frequency. this means it's a sibilant, a class of s-like sounds that make hissing noises. alveolar sibilants, /s/ and /z/, have higher pitched hissing than their postalveolar counterparts, /ʃ/ and/ʒ/.

(we're ignoring the first sound for now)

here's what i guessed:

(this is the word "lapis")

let's break this down:

because i could not think of a word that used vowel /i/, i went with /æ/ even though i knew it was wrong. this is still a game of wordle after all!

/ɪ/ was correct, but not in the right spot, which means the first vowel must be /ɪ/. because the second vowel is not /ɪ/, it must be /i/

/p/ was correct. yay!

/s/ was not right, which bummed me. I was pretty sure it was an alveolar fricative, but I didn't see a voicing bar. my two strategies were to change my assumptions about place and vocing, changing my guess to either /ʃ/ (voiceless post-alveolar), or /z/ (voiced alveolar)

I thought that the first sound was an approximant because the sound waves seemed more organized than they are for the final sound. approximants are made by resitrcitng airflow, but not so tighly and it does not become nearly as turbulent as the air does in a fricative. I tried /l/ without much strong place evidence.

with some new thoughts, it was time for my second guess. this time, i do not aim for a real word but instead throw some sounds on there to test them.

(this is not a real word, but if it were, it would be spelled ripiche)

we got the vowels confirmed!

/ʃ/ was not the ending. i guessed this because i thought there wasn't a voicing bar, but that can be tricky. a more experienced spectrogram reader would probably guess /z/ before /ʃ/, because the place evidence was stronger than the voicing evidence. but hey, i'm still learning :)

again, i try an approximant. i did not want to pick /w/ as that would create the same labial bend we saw for /p/, and /ɹ/ keeps F1 and F2 relatively in the same spot. the problem here is that it bends F3 a lot, and so I knew it wasn't quite right either. noticing that the sound is actually quite quiet by looking on the waveform, i realize that it's probably a fricative. the absence of a voicing bar also points to a fricative, as English approximants are voiced by default

now i can try again for a real guess:

(the word is "hippies")

i tried /z/ at the end this time and it was correct!

there was not a lot of evidence for the place of the fricative, so once i knew all the other sounds, i tried to see which sound would make a real english word. my best option was /h/, as 'fippies' and 'thipies' aren't words.

/h/ is produced in the glottis, which is the opening in your larynx. there is hardly any constriction when /h/ is made and it's place as a fricative is sometimes debated. because of this, it make sense that there weren't any strong place cues.

and with that we solved the gramle!

i hope to grow better at these and maybe be able to walk you all through a harder one! thank you for reading :)

[xxmarvelouslifexx]

Hello to the handful of you who enjoy reading about my adventures. I need to do something besides work and doomscroll so I am attempting to visit all the museums in Balboa Park and making you all hear about it. Since I am driving into the city more, might as well get some visits in while I'm at it. Long post so I will hide the rest of it down below.

First up, kinda mentioned it before but home to the fun cannibalism exhibit:

Museum of Us (formerly known as the Museum of Man)

Anthropology museum! Had a bunch of fascinating exhibits I didn't even get through half of them. They had some replica mayan stelae, which as it turns out are from the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, which was held in Balboa Park and helped turn it into the jewel of San Diego that it is now. This updated exhibit on Mayan culture I thought was well done. In the intro they explained how they worked with Mayan consultants to ensure the exhibit was respectful and reflective of modern Mayan communities. Throughout there were excerpts of the Popol Wuj, one of the foundational sources of their mythology, which I thought was very cool. They also very much went into the impact of colonization on their communities.

My favorite exhibit of the ones I saw: Hostile Terrain 94. It was heavy, I almost cried to be honest. It explores the very deadly human impact of the 1994 "Prevention through Deterrence" US border policy. Which for my non-american followers was the purposeful choice to make official border ports of entry and their surroundings urban areas more difficult for undocumented migrants to cross, leaving them with limited options, such as crossing the barren Sonoran desert instead. The map you see above is the Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico border. Those tags you see all over the map are identification tags for all the bodies found of migrants attempting to make the journey. 3,205 from the 1990s through 2020 alone. Manila are identified, orange are unidentified remains.

My parents immigrated from Mexico, as did many of my tias and tios. They were all undocumented for a time. Luckily for them, they all crossed pre-1994 with few difficulties. So I couldn't help it think, that could've been them if things turned out differently. Reading through the tags, seeing how young some were, a woman 19 years old, barely even had a chance to live. And the unidentified remains. How many families are out there still searching for answers? The border isn't just a political talking point. Congress' inability to move on immigration reform is a disgrace when there is so much human suffering occurring at the border and the routes to it.

San Diego Natural History Museum

Moving on to lighter subjects. Dinosaurs and fossils! This place is huge, 4 floors of some amazing exhibits. Again did not even fully finish one floor. Really enjoyed the ecosystems corner that explained the very diverse habits that exist around here. Not to brag but beaches, mountains, deserts, chaparral we got it all.

Look at the ankylosaur and mammoth skeleton. Neat! And below the California Grizzly Bear. It's the one our state flag and also the one we very sadly hunted to extinction in 1922.

One last one because this is getting long.

Museum of Photographic Arts (part of the San Diego Museum of Art)

Apparitions, Bill Armstrong, 2005

They had some very interesting photos here! I had to document this one for you all. No, I was not out of focus, that is what the photos look like. And the subjects are described only as "roman sculptures". So are some of our guys hiding up there? One of them is looking awfully caesar-y to me.

They also have a collection of daguerreotype, ambrotype, and tintypes. Which I had no idea were different things. So fascinating to look at. Did these people imagine we'd still be looking at their photos almost 200 years later?

I've knocked two more museums off the list this week, so another post coming soon. Hope you actually enjoyed this very long post :)

[brxxksazars]

BROOKS AZAR’S PHONE - task #001

THE BASICS:

Brand of Phone - iphone 13

Color - silver

Case - it was a christmas gift from his students in bigfoot’s army, a mothman phonecase. no popsocket as to not ruin the beautiful art.

Locked or Unlocked? - he USED to just have it as a passcode set to 6969 but quinton got into his phone and changed all his contacts so he now uses a more secure one.

Wallpaper - it’s usually some chaotic meme. for the last two months, brooks has settled on this one.

Lockscreen - just a fun little guy from spongebob

USAGE:

Time - most of his alone time is spent on his phone in one way or another. when he’s not very busy, that time can accumulate to 6+ hours a day on his phone.

5 Most Used Apps - reddit, facebook, instagram, snapchat, spotify.

Web Tabs - brooks is one of those people that likes to do wordle so it is constantly up. there’s an amazon listing for a book he found funny. he has the nightrest news pulled up. and he JUST closed the tab with a danny devito fanfiction he’d started reading aloud with a coworker at lunch.

Google - “dream meaning can't move”

Photos - saved this meme

SOCIAL MEDIA:

@ - brooksieboi

Instagram - see above.

Snapchat - his snapchat is even more unhinged than his instagram if you believe it or not. with snapchat, he will often use it as a means of “vlogging”. brooks doesn’t do well with being alone so if he’s especially bored, he’ll just start posting to that whether it’s a series of clips of him cooking, profound thoughts documents during a high, or him killing time between classes.

Tinder/Bumble/Hinge/Grindr/Etc. - he wasn’t good at waiting so bumble was out for him rather fast, so tinder was his go to. gets a good bit of matches but loses a fair bit of them once the chat starts.

Spotify - some of his top songs are: standing (on my own two feet) by pvmnts; time in a tree by raleigh ritchie; life’s a bit by noahfinnce; 3 nights by dominic fike; take me away by scotty sire; take what you want by post malone; 16 lines by lil peep; dreamland by glass animals; hallucinogenics by matt maeson; roaches by wett brian, aryia; i’m yer dad by grlwood; bathroom bitch by holychild; typical story by hobo johnson; sad! by bryce fox; sober/hungover by sueco, arizona zervas

Tiktok - if he posts, it’s usually silly filters like ‘you’re a 10 but...’ though he has been a guest star on the waffle making with monty. goal would be to have one of those clips of him having a special handshake with everyone of his students. AS FOR his feed, it’s weird okay. just know that.

Facebook - they do! actual posts to their page are limited but its one of the only means he stays connected with his family, so there’s happy birthdays and sharing some articles or poking his aunt. he also sticks on it for the memes, actually running an account in his free time on there called ‘dr phil says i need some grippy socks’

ft. @drewyao @selintemel @lnavarrofms @nam-daeeun @mphillipsfms​

[bllsbailey]

Pete Buttigieg: 'Men Are More Free' When Abortion Is Legal (Democrats Destroying America.)

Show me one man in the above photo and I'll sell you Ocean Front Property in Arizona.

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (L) and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg (R), attend a White House Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington DC, June 26, 2024, to showcase the contributions of the LGBTQI+ community.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s recent statement, where he said that “men are more free” in a nation where women can access abortion operations and abortion medication, completely “undermines the value of women,” according to a pro-life organization.

Even left-wing and feminist commentators chimed in on social media platforms to condemn the transportation secretary’s “sexist, male-focused” comments that “put women second.”

Buttigieg previously made history as the first openly gay Cabinet member to receive a Senate confirmation.

— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) July 30, 2024

“I’m so glad she has made freedom the theme of her campaign, because I think in so many ways that’s at stake,” Buttiegieg said about Vice President Kamala Harris during a ‘White Dudes for Harris’ campaign event on Monday. “…But, of course, men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care.” 

“Men are more free when the leader of the free world, the leader of this country, supports access to birth control and to IVF,” he added.

However, Buttigieg seems to have forgotten that his political party, and especially Democrat women, have been demanding for decades that men stop making the topic of abortion about them when they have no ability to give birth or become pregnant.

Meanwhile, Andrea Trudden, vice president of marketing and communications at Heartbeat International, a pro-life network of pregnancy resource centers, called his remarks “deeply troubling.”

“This perspective not only undermines the value of women and their inherent dignity but also perpetuates a culture that evades responsibility and fails to support women in their time of need,” Trudden told reporters. “This is a stark reminder of the cultural shift that needs to happen—one where men are called to embrace their roles as responsible adults who support women and children.”

Though he is not at the top of the list of suspected contenders, Buttigieg has been mentioned as a possible running partner for Harris’s campaign.

Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents. We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family. pic.twitter.com/kS89gb11Ax— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) September 4, 2021

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[smallerplaces]

Mid-year Creativity Resolution Review

Technically there's another month to mid-year, but I keep wanting to review what I have and haven't done on my New Year's resolution to do something creative every day. So let's have a review now, another at the local end of summer, and a final one in December.

tl;dr: I kept the resolution perfectly until we got back from the Las Vegas trip two weeks ago. I was so exhausted that I forgot it and couldn't figure out why I kept having an itch to do a small project. The last couple weeks have been spotty, but not a total loss.

Things I have gotten done that I expected to do

Dollhouses

Accessorized the Modern Abode.

Finished the Maine Cottage, other than the planned flower boxes on the front, which I didn't have flowers for at the time.

Also made the curtains for the Victorian Mansion and accessorized most of it.

Other

Got craft supplies, my bedroom, and my bathroom really well-organized.

Tackled the cupboard at the back of the closet under the stairs. Sold or donated all but one item that I'm saving to eBay in holiday season 2024.

Started on the Polish wooden dolls in the coffee table; holding most for autumn sales.

Put my small local art into picture frames. Repaired some garments; decided others were beyond help.

Planted a tomato, a pepper, and a basil plant. Waged war on the nandinas: the more deliberately I do a crappy job pruning them, the more they flourish.

Started on notes for a real novel, but that's all kind of dubious.

Made sporadic headway on neighborhood guide photos.

Swapped the baking and cooking pantries because Dad has to eat fewer carbs, so my experiments with honey cookies are out, and I'm not planning county fair or state fair entries after all.

Things I have NOT gotten done that I expected to do

Dollhouses: After some repainting, the birdhouse village has seen no progress, mostly because I'm waffling on furniture.

Fashion dolls: No sewing has taken place, due to the kitchen table being taken up by painting dollhouse parts. Maybe in the fall.

Other: I haven't touched my watercolors. Competitive baking was stymied, as noted above.

Things I HAVE gotten done that I did NOT expect to do

Dollhouses

Aside from the Dura Craft Farmhouse FH500 kit, which is the obvious elephant in the room since it has taken over the dining room, I came down with an overwhelming urge to make a little house from one of those Creatology two-room shells.

Decisions I need to make

Other than finishing the Dura Craft farmhouse, my list includes:

Decide where I'm hanging pictures in my bedroom.

Learn how to bake with low-carb ingredients.

Research 1:48 and 1:87 furniture options (the bird house village could go either way).

Figure out a time and place to actually paint watercolors.

Oh, and decide how I'm improving the acrylic painting of the Arizona desert that I rescued from the neighbors' curb.

Outline the planned neighborhood guide, so I can proceed in a more orderly fashion.

[texasobserver]

Above: A lightning strike crackles at the edge of a storm cloud above State Route 80 in Arizona.

Sergio Chapa’s photos and a portion of this text also appear in Frontera: A Journey Across the US-Mexico Border and are reprinted with permission from TCU Press. This excerpt originally appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of Texas Observer magazine.

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera and I met when she was a political science professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville. She was studying drug cartel violence in the war-torn Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, and I was covering the same topic as a journalist for KGBT-TV in the Rio Grande Valley. We bonded over our work—and our mutual desire to “see the entire border.” 

We made our first border-to-border journey together in June 2013, stopping at each crossing between Brownsville and El Paso with jaunts into Mexico. And we kept on traveling together for much of the next decade pursuing a dream that became our book, Frontera: A Journey Across the US-Mexico Border (TCU Press, January 2024).

In our first days on the road in June 2013, we’d seen closed businesses and other bleak effects of cartel violence on Mexican border towns, before rolling into Big Bend National Park. We had heard about the park’s beauty but marveled over its mountains, colorful canyons, and unique micro-ecosystems.  

While driving along a rocky and mountainous stretch of the park, the Bible verse of Luke 19:40 sprang to mind, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.” The original verse had a distinct meaning, but for us, it meant that if we failed to acknowledge the beauty before our eyes, the rocks themselves might literally protest. After a few minutes, we shrugged it off as maybe stupor over the 90-degree-Fahrenheit day or exhaustion from the eight-hour drive. 

But after settling into our hotel in Terlingua, we joined other guests for dinner and live music on a rooftop patio where monsoon rains and lightning strikes could be seen in the distance. A couple of beers later, a solo guitarist sang these lyrics: “And the rocks will cry out.” We looked at each other wide-eyed in that moment of serendipity. After his set ended, we spoke to the musician, who told a story similar to our own. 

That night, we sat outside until millions of stars appeared, tracing the Milky Way above us. It was one of what we called momentos mágicos along the frontera. 

Despite the negative political rhetoric, the U.S.-Mexico border is a beautiful place, home to welcoming and warm people. It is also a land of contrast—austere landscapes and lush oases; thunderstorms and rainbows; robust industries and ghost towns; great wealth and aching poverty. The residents, known as borderlanders or fronterizos, are among the poorest in the United States. Those in Mexico inhabit cities that can be very unsafe. Nonetheless, these citizens often open their homes and pocketbooks to help stranded tourists as well as asylum seekers from Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia.

The Fiestas Mexicanas Parade in Matamoros, Tamaulipas draws participants from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Over the last decade, we have traveled different segments and made three different trips along the whole frontier, from Brownsville, Texas/Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to San Diego, California/Tijuana, Baja California. When we started, we were fronterizos, living and working in the Rio Grande Valley region. We still understand border dynamics, though we’ve both moved; I’m now a freelance writer and energy industry analyst in Houston and Correa-Cabrera teaches at a university in Fairfax, Virginia.

The border region is home to billions of dollars in trade and beautiful landscapes, including beaches, dense subtropical forests, deserts, and mountains. Its sprawling cities offer disparities of their own, with industrial parks and fashionable shopping malls, as well as immaculate country clubs and neglected colonias, where some earn a meager living scavenging recyclable items from landfills.

Its international boundaries were established by wars but people with family, friends, and businesses on both sides have often ignored dividing lines. Far from the capitals of Washington, D.C. and Mexico City, they created their own culture, which is distinct from their parent cultures. The result is a mixture where “Spanglish” has become its own language and where the music, food, binational economy, and resilience of the people reflect this bicultural blend.

Many books have been written about the U.S.-Mexico border, but none is like ours. Frontera offers a glimpse into every crossing community in all U.S.-Mexico border states. It includes notes and reflections by experts, academics and others about the border and about how the pandemic has changed places we visited—and thought we knew so well.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the partial closure of the U.S.-Mexico border transformed the region’s face and socioeconomic configuration. Although we do not know what the borderlands will look like in the future, we do know the border and fronterizos will quickly adapt.

Our last trip to complete this book took place in July 2021.

There was no cloud in the sky on that 100-degree day as we drove Mexico’s Federal Highway 3 between the resort town of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, and the border city of San Luis Río Colorado. 

Neither of us had ever before visited this desolate desert highway along the Gulf of California, but we’d been warned: There is no cell phone service on the remote road, where numerous robberies had taken place and suspects had left victims stranded. 

We were traveling in a pack of cars, so things seemed safe at first. I dodged dozens of potholes and drove around dunes slowly creeping over the highway. 

We were amazed by views that few Americans ever see: Dunes, crystal blue water, and rugged canyons stretched out beside the highway. The finish line that day was supposed to be dinner with friends in Tijuana. 

But then, I couldn’t avoid a deep pothole in time. The impact sent my front passenger side tire flying into sand. Luckily, I was able to stop the car without any other damage. I saw that the side of the tire had split in half. It was unbearably hot and, as predicted, we had no signal. 

That’s when an old, beat-up car pulled up behind us. We couldn’t see the driver inside, and suddenly, those warnings flooded back. Panic briefly overcame us until we saw a man get out of the car with his wife and 6-year-old son. 

He didn’t waste any time. He had a spare tire, which wasn’t really the right size, but we somehow made it fit. He waited until we were sure the tire would work and refused any money. We made it to Yuma, Arizona where we got a proper-sized tire. We didn’t get that man’s name or number, but he saved our lives. He was our “border angel.”

We are forever grateful to that anonymous and humbleTGood Samaritan, who helped us tell the true story of the border. I still keep the spare tire he gave us in my trunk, ready for the next person who needs it. 

Don’t miss another issue, become a member today.

[wildsuncatchers]

Wild Sun Catchers two years later: Thoughts on worldmaking with AI

Dreamin' and schemin' in the Aquatic Universe

I'm exploring worldmaking and worldbuilding more intentionally by framing my life (and it's one fluid frame out of many) within the context of living, traveling and dreaming in thee or a Aquatic Universe. I was doing this already, it's just that I'm now starting to imagine and articulate my experience with these particular words.

Mermaid Awakening in the desert

In 2022 my interest in mermaids took off! I started:

🐚 Researching mermaids across cultures

🐚 Wrote Wild Sun Catchers, which turned into a short animation thanks to Media Artist Jennifer Parker who is also a Professor and founding Director of the OpenLab Collaborative Research Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz

🐚 Made a mixed media collage called "Venus"

🐚Co-organized a digital merfolk happening

🐚 Participated in Asia Dorsey's Winter Herbal Immersion where we learn about herbal medicine for the kidneys and explore mermaid archetypes. This has been a big deal for me; to experience being a mermaid through plants, food as medicine and embodiment.

🐚Watching "The Little Mermaid" starring Halle Bailey

🐚 (Currently) Reading my first fictional book about mermaids called "Skin of the Sea"

🐚 Listening to The Merwomanist Podcast when I can.

Whew! So much mermaid goodness. And it's only the beginning!

Worldbuilding with AI

Photo Description: A desert-sea spiral (above) made of rocks and soil in my Grandma's backyard + sea shells, beach rocks, seaglass, mussel shells and sprinkles of sand from Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island and Beach 44 in Far Rockaway, Queens. My mermaid awakening (lol) started while I was living in the desert lands of Arizona.

And NOW, two years later, I spiral back to Wild Sun Catchers to continue to imagine and build this dreamy underwater world through AI (artificial intelligence). I used Night Cafe for this project using two art generation models; SDXL 1.0 which is "the state-of-the-art in open-source image generation" and NC Hyperreal, which "adds detail, vivid colors and a hyperrealistic style". My username is PiscesAI.

Photo Description: Elk Kelp in Channel Islands National Park

To be honest, searching for AI art generation websites has felt overwhelming. There are a lot of exciting options, and many are free with premium plans. The possibilities of AI are endless, but what about the terms and conditions? How will my personal data be used? I will admit, my excitement got the best of me and I started generating images on NightCafe without thoroughly investigating the platform. I say this because, although AI promises to change the world in massive and incredible ways (it already is), a lot of the conversation around AI is how to use it ethically, and there are many examples of how its been extractive (i.e. Lensa debalacle).

I've imagined bringing three stories about merfolk to life through film and photography, but I don't have the resources right now to see my visions through. AI is a digital tool I can use now to share how I'm imagining these long term, maybe life long stories I'm writing. But the question is, at what cost?

The AI images produced from Wild Sun Catchers are now out in the world. What will happen to them? Will my contribution be erased? Will people remember where the mermaid wearing Hibiscus flowers in her hair came from? Anyone in any field sharing anything could ask these questions. These are relevant questions. What traces of extraction are in the images I'm showing you on this website? How does the image generation work anyway?! I don't actually know. As I've said before, I'm okay with being a learner in public. I don't have all the answers now about AI, even as I share this website. I would like to go back to what contributes to the foundation of my water art practice, and that is "an activism of inquiry" which I learned from writer Bayo Akomolafe. AI needs an activism of inquiry, and I'm sure that's already happening.

What I do think would be helpful for AI users or creators is if AI platforms could have labels similar to "organic", "Non-GMO" or "Fair Trade" that speak to the platform's values, ethics and AI practices. I think this could help people feel informed and make choices.

Research on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

So far, and unfortunately, AI is proving to be a problematic technology for many different reasons. Here are a few links from my ongoing research:

The 15 Biggest Risks Of Artificial Intelligence

Experts Doubt Ethical AI Design Will Be Broadly Adopted as the Norm Within the Next Decade

Indigenous knowledges informing ‘machine learning’ could prevent stolen art and other culturally unsafe AI practices

It's important to remember the ways AI exist and could exist are designed by human beings. I notice that there's a lot of distrust of AI itself, and not toward the companies who design and use it to take and extract, especially it seems, without consent. I also notice that I hardly encounter information about people working to address the ethical issues, and I think adding this to my perspective will help me understand what's going on in the worlds of AI more fully.

Besides my complicated feelings about AI, I do find that generating images from text-based prompts is really fun. There are a lot of ways to worldbuild, and I want to see how AI helps me and you (?) imagine the characters I'm creating and the stories I'm writing. I want to worldbuild using multiple approaches, so AI isn't my primary or final mode of expression. Although AI is really cool, I still believe some of the greatest technologies are our bodies, imagination, understanding that we can create (without AI), and community, among other things. We can't forget this. Nothing can replace these things.

As I learn more about this technology, which is changing the world, I think the way I use AI in my worldmaking with mermaids will continue to change and evolve.

And Action! Six moments in Wild Sun Catchers

🎞 Hibiscus flowers growing underwater and oceanic hair rituals among the mer-community who live in a kelp forest in/near the Channel Islands in California

🎬 A photo of the woman who sails up and down the Pacific sailing goods from her ocean shop

📽 Memoryworkers hanging out and laughing together, who remember how the kelp forests were before they started getting sick

🎞 Thoughts on gender and age expressed through three different versions of merfolk generated from one text-based prompt.

🎬 Underwater and subtidal dreamscapes: The dreaming lives of mermaids in the Pacific and beyond

📽 The healing, regenerative and creative work people are doing related to kelp forests, seaweed and algae.

Enjoy!

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary47

10/24-25/2023

tuesday-wednesday

didn't do a lot today.

because i vc'd with friends, which was nice, i got to talk to the new guy my friend added, he's awesome, i'm really glad to be around him and everyone else now. i'm talking so weird. basically i have a new friend who i'm going to be talking to, he said we should make music, i said, of course, of course.

that reminds me, i need to write a response to my friend's poetry thing since he passed it onto me.

okay done, that was fun. i'm awfully obsessed with the word "gigolette" because it means prostitute and also piece of meat. it's a very scary word, it's scary what the slang says, i guess, about how men see anyone like that but also it's something that makes me feel like i could curl up beneath it. it's funny how awful things work that way and i just want to repurpose them as self defense. like all i have is my latent, i dunno, whorishness, and feeling like a piece of meat all the time anyways, maybe that's like, an internal sexism thing. i dunno. if i were at this point of my life and not tethered to someone, i think i would have started doing very self destructive things with my sex life, instead i'm monogamous and safe/happy.

anyways i packed a little for tomorrow, or not a little, i think decently, some stuff might get thrown in tomorrow morning, i have to get my skincare stuff ready tomorrow too, otherwise, we should be chill. we meaning me. my gf is chill too i guess. i'm worried about being in a red state but most people don't really give a shit, right, about whatever i am (androgyne and hopefully pretty / hopelessly hopeful that i am pretty / wannabe / sometimes actually what i want to be), the fact i'm nothing definite might keep people away. mostly i'm scared of public restrooms but i'm likely going to have to. so whatever. i should just make peace with something bad maybe happening.

i am gonna bring my camera, to arizona, it might be fun for photos, and hopefully i'll remember to get them off my gf's comp if i bounce them onto therrrre.

anyways i offloaded the pics, some are of bruises, but some are of that imac, here's one that i think is fun/ny:

freakish riffs on this song, i really love the guitar on the right channel, but i guess i love it for how it plays off the left channel, which is also pretty strange. idk, i just love that, i'd like to get to this level some time. i think i made a sound kinda almost there, it's a bit more fucked up though, it's got these really short delays on it w/ constantly modulating times, all super short and it results in a sound that's too close to itself so it makes something kinda uggy (in the good way) and i want to keep messing with it. the constant feedback is cool too.

anyways i did all my working out today, too, sad i won't be able to do anything but the 60 squats while in arizona, but hopefully there'll be enough walking for that to not matter too much.

thinking about taking my psp for the car ride. it would be the first time i play a video game in a while. i had fun just loading it w/ a bunch of noisy faggy stuff i've been listening to (like the above song) lol.

i'm also now thinking if i should make my own psp theme. it seems like a fun way to spend a day. who knows, maybe i will. my psp is the cute sakura pink one.

the only game i have in here is persona 2, which i like decently. i should get farther into it. if i play it on the ride i will. also, i really wanna get a camera peripheral for my psp to do stuff w/ that, that seems like it could be really crazy for the stuff i'm looking to do.

anywayssssss, i need to sleep soon soooo:

byebye!!!!!!!!

[sjjnyc]

A Bird' Eye View: Water Futures in the Colorado River Basin

Have you read my creative essay?! Click the link above and check out all the other amazing contributions!

Photo Description: Top to Bottom - A screenshot of the title of my essay on the Southwest Contemporary website, a screenshot of a paragraph in the essay about memory, the cover of Vol 7 and a marketing graphic for the "Finding Water in the West" panel I participated in.

A follow-up reflection on Beauty

I think there is a lot of beauty in this region of the country. I've barely touched the surface of anything during my time here, but from what I have noticed living in Arizona and visiting New Mexico and southwest Colorado, there is a lot of beauty. All kinds of beauty. I remember my initial reaction toward going out West, "go out there! Where there's no water?! It's so hot there and blah blah blah". Imagine all the things you miss because you don't recognize the beauty of a place . . . I'm searching for other words but I can't put my finger on them. So I settle on beauty and maybe magic. I'm trying to stop myself from saying otherworldly, but there are otherworldly places in this region. Thank the rocks! Maybe another way to think about it is the energies of a place. Energy that makes you go WHOA. Also, self esteem is coming to mind. All this stuff going on with the land and water here, and all the nonsense that doesn't get news coverage, or is even known. I like thinking about self-esteem/community-esteem and place. I think the moment I started to recognize the beauty of the desert was when I went to this herbalist's Instagram page and saw all the herbal goodies she is making from desert plants like Saguaro Cactus and Prickly Pear. I saw the desert's beauty through her and her connection to plants and herbalism. I've seen more beauty through other people too. All kinds of beauty.

A time travel gadget making workshop in the Year 2023

Photo Description: The first and third images are graphics promoting my workshop "It's About Time" downloaded from Southwest Contemporary's Instagram account. The second image is of a time travel gadget I made for my essay in Vol 7.

RECAP: It's About Time: A Water Futures + Time Travel Workshop with Simone Johnson Thursday, June 15, 6-7:15 pm MDT free | via Zoom

Please join us! As part of our continued exploration of creative practices engaging with water issues across the West and Southwest, Southwest Contemporary presents It's About Time, a free virtual workshop by Simone Johnson, an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and cultural worker and author of "A Bird’s Eye View: Water Futures in the Colorado River Basin" in Southwest Contemporary Vol. 7—Finding Water in the West. In this workshop, you will:

Learn more about Simone's approach to her water and time travel research focused on the Colorado River Basin.

Learn how she made a time travel gadget for her essay featured in Southwest Contemporary Vol. 7.

Make your own time travel gadget as it relates to water and ecologies where you live.

Materials needed: What can you use that is lying around where you live? While searching for materials, play with your imagination to see how they can be used. Some ideas include paper, cardboard, fabric, an old tissue box, a fork, a stick from outside, glue, tape, paperclips, string, etc.

My time travel gadget from the workshop!

"Thanks to everyone who joined the Water Futures + Time Travel workshop yesterday with @swcontemporary 😭🥰

🌵This is the time travel gadget I made; a mason jar top filled with dried Rose petals tied to my hand with string. I told everyone in the workshop you have to have a certain kind of Rose for the gadget to function properly, and it has to be tied to your hand a certain way to work as well.

🌵This morning I woke up, and wondered if there are any desert rose species, and decided this gadget only works with particular desert plants. And it's activated only by Sun and Moonlight shining from/under southwestern/western skies in the Colorado River Basin.

🌵It transports me to waterways and surrounding lands in the basin. Works really great since I don't drive. It's a device of somekind that is specifically made for this region. One day I want to visit the famous Colorado River. As I begin to transport it starts to glow more blue. I added some filters to the image to help convey the time travel gadget, which I made spontaneously in 15 minutes!

💫FYI, portals to NYC are currently not opening up for me, but when they do . . .haha.

🌵The end!

Thanks again for being interested in my water art practice" ☺

IG Post on June 16, 2023

Making time travel gadgets at home

One of my favorite parts about the workshop design is that participants make their time travel gadgets at home. If you are really interested in this idea, and you haven't set up your gadget making studio-lab yet, what are you waiting for?! I would love to see what you create :) If you are on IG, please DM @sjj.nyc!

With a variety of prompts (that I still need to develop more) to help people generate ideas, characters and stories, time travelers are also encouraged to search for materials inside and outside where they live. The golden question is: what will you find?

Thanks so much to Natalie and Lauren from Southwest Contemporary for the opportunity to share, and to everyone who joined!

No.4 Judy Jetson: A Flower Essence for Time Travel

Photo description: A photo of two different sides of the flower essence "Nov 4. Judy Jetson".

Right before I facilitated "It's About Time" I was gifted a flower essence called "Nov 4. Judy Jetson" by multidisciplinary artist and medicine maker Iruka Maria Toro. She shared with me that it is connected to time travel, and I feel like it is so special to receive this medicine during a time in my life where I am exploring water and time travel. Thanks so much Iruka! <333

"An energetic essence of flowers and stones that activates multiple timelines. It spins the wheel of fortune and dissolves boundaries with a wink and a smile.

*

This potion is a time machine. Return to any point on the clock & remember: all lifetimes are now.

It’s possible to rewind or fast forward. It’s possible to get multidimensional about it.

Ancestor work is supported here. Evolutionary soul work is supported here.

Kiss the spiral of non-linear time".

I have never taken a flower essence like this before, and since I have started working with it, I have noticed a couple of things so far. What I will share for now is that between last Fall 2022 and early August 2023 I have had several different timespirals coursing through my being, all while struggling personally at home, with easy access to public transportation and getting A TON of NOs for artistic opportunities and job applications. Every direction I tried to go in last year and this year (until the recent Full Moon in Aquarius on August 1, 2023), I was blocked. My theory behind all the ruthless limitations, challenges, setbacks and roadblocks is that my Saturn Return was in full effect.

The last year and a half have been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least, and at times I became very weak and depressed, not taking care of myself which opened the door to spiritual parasites I had to extract from myself in a dream. No lie. I'm open to sharing this because I'm alive, and would like to share the challenging moments in my life.

When I started taking this flower essence there must have been 3-4 different life directions I could possibly go in, and the whole time I was feeling into whether I truly wanted to go in these directions, and if they were aligned. In the end, I think a mixture of things including working with "Nov 4. Judy Jetson" collapsed and dissolved timelines my spirit knew wasn't right for me. And the timecircle that unexpectedly emerged . . . well . . .

PHOTO: CDWHEATLEY/GETTY IMAGES

When I was reading about the medicine on Iruka's apothecary, it said it could also be used for ancestor work, and that made me pause- ancestor work? I shook my head and agreed with myself that I wanted to focus on water and time travel in the Colorado River Basin. A couple of hours later I took four drops of the essence and by the end of the night I was thinking about my paternal line, researching my Ghanaian heritage and how the island of St. John could be some sort of official entry way into ancestral research I've been hesitant, cautious and grumbly about.

I decided recently that I'm going to use the essence for dreamwork. I remember saying to myself when my paternal lineage came up that I'm not ready to connect with my paternal line through my dreams. Even though, maybe, I already have. I didn't have dreams with my paternal line that night, but the following morning I woke up researching the Volta River, realizing the river could be another way to "enter" Ghana. An hour or so later, I learned about the work of Yvette Tetteh and Agbetsi Living Water. Ha! So much for sticking to water and time travel in the Colorado River Basin.

I hadn't been thinking about my Ghanaian heritage for awhile until I took the flower essence, and I believe it created an opening inside of me that I honestly couldn't imagine happening. Because, at this time in my life, I don't think I'll ever feel close to Ghana, but the essence helped make a bridge between my interest in water and the Volta River, so I guess I'll see what happens. Coming across Agbetsi Living Waters strengthened the opening and seeded a possible timeline where maybe I might find myself in my absent father's homeland.

Photo description: A map of the Volta River drainage basin and its main three tributaries, the White Volta, Red Volta, and Black Volta rivers

Today is Saturday, September 16, 2023 and I just did a timeline jump

I think it's one thing to think about time travel, and another thing to experience it in my body. I bought many herbal medicines with me for my destination, but I definitely need them during the process of connecting to the new timeline. I really like having herbs I can take immediately, especially if my nervous system gets inflamed from being in an airplane for hours or being around too many people for long periods of time. I like having a Skullcap tincture, but prefer an infusion. Herbal oils like St. Johns Wort are really helpful for calming my nervous system. Sometimes when I get off planes, trains and busses, my body aches so much and my back hurts, but it's really my nervous system that is inflamed.

I like taking garlic, honey and oregeno oil capsules to stop me from getting sick when I go to public places. I've heard Osha Root and Spilanthes are great to take before getting on a flight because they stimulate your immune system to protect yourself when you're in an enclosed tube with many people. Infusions really go a long way though, which is why it sucks when I find myself timeline jumping, or doing anything really, and I don't have access to water, a teapot and stove. I think taking pauses in the midst of change can be really medicinal too, and pouring libations before the journey begins. I am interested in thinking more about how to stay grounded while time traveling, especially in an embodied way. I really could use a massage right now, let's add that to our time travel care. I gotta return to this. It's a bit rough on the edges, but I have to go!

[ajenvs3000w23]

Blog 10: FINAL

As an individual nature interpreter, my most suitable approaches, as in the ones that appeal to my strengths, are analogies and telling stories. One of my favourite parts of recording my first podcast was telling stories to our audience. Having already emailed the podcast file to a few neighbours and relatives, I know that the stories were enjoyed, as was the whole podcast. For example, I emailed the podcast to one neighbour so he could share it with his eight-year-old son, and his son’s immediate follow-up questions were as follows: “Where do you record the podcast?” as well as “Are there any more episodes coming out?” It warmed my heart to know he'd said that, and his dad even called me “a natural” when it came to my presentation as being part of a podcast. As for the beliefs that I bring, I strongly believe that those go hand-in-hand with what I consider my responsibilities to be. This is a recurring topic that I cover in my blog posts, but my belief system is that nature must be treated with respect. This means that I consider it of the utmost importance that people remember that nature does not exist for our amusement, and wild animals just want to be left alone. There is a saying about how one should interact with nature: “Take only photos, leave only footprints.” I can’t even remember the origin of that saying, but I think it perfectly encapsulates my views on how humans should interact with nature (it is likely an idea articulated by the National Park Service). People can also receive education about the natural world by visiting zoos…but certain fiascos can occur at zoos, and as a nature interpreter, I desperately want to ensure that anyone who learns from me learns to never behave like any of the people in these following anecdotes. In Arizona, a woman in her thirties got right up against the bars of a jaguar enclosure to take a selfie with a jaguar (Associated Press, 2019). The jaguar clawed this woman through the bars, and she had to be hospitalized so her injuries could be sutured up. In an even more brazen act of selfishness and foolishness, a video also appeared online of a young man taunting an orangutan inside a cage just to get internet clout (Casual Geographic, 2022). Eventually, the orangutan reached through the bars and attempted to pull the young man’s shirt off. The narrator of this video pointed out that if the situation had escalated too far, quote, “…the zoo, one hundred percent, would’ve taken out the orangutan to save the guy, even though orangutans are endangered and dumbasses on the internet are kind of overpopulating.” If readers here will excuse the crude language, I must emphasize the level of respect and admiration I have for this quote and the message it is meant to leave us with. The internet has exposed us to the sheer volume of humans engaging with wildlife in a foolish and therefore dangerous way. So, regarding my responsibilities as a nature interpreter, as I said before, it is my responsibility to never behave like the people mentioned above and do all I can to also teach other people to never behave in such a manner. In this final post, I had to describe my personal ethic. Well, I won’t stay on that subject too long as my personal ethic is basically a rehash of the beliefs I bring to this profession. Leave wildlife alone and show it some respect. I certainly believe that in the long run, the spreading of this message through various forms nature interpretation will provide a massive benefit for environmental sustainability. My podcast group and I attempted to convey this message in a nicer way to our audience, telling children to remember that nature is not there for your amusement, and you cannot expect it to do as you please. While I have been teaching other people about animals and nature for a very long time through the stories that I tell, I never realized how important of a tool that is until taking this course. Thank you, everyone, for the experience. Especially my podcast group. No need to namedrop them here; they know who they are.

References

Associated Press. (2019, March 11) Jaguar attacks woman who climbed Arizona zoo barrier to take a selfie. The Guardian: US News.

Casual Geographic. (2022, June 24) When Stupidity Goes Viral (with a wholesome twist) [Video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6rocZbplkI&t=2s

[lizardtracks]

Snowshoes in the desert

Southern Arizona encompasses part of the basin and range region. This huge swath of topography nearly defines the American southwest, stretching north to the Colorado and Columbia Plateaus and west to the Sierra Nevadas. It continues east through southern New Mexico as far as the Rio Grande’s Big Bend. The defining feature are broad flat basins interspersed with abrupt jutting mountains. It would take a geologist to explain the underlying tectonic plate mechanics. So I won’t attempt it here. I just want to say that it is this topography that produces the Sonoran Desert’s “sky islands.”

The sky islands are just what they sound like. The abrupt mountains produce huge elevation changes. These changes alter rainfall and temperature enough to create a staggering diversity of life zones. A drive up Tucson’s Mt. Lemmon highway** into the Santa Catalina Mountains takes you from from an arboreal desert all the way to the Hudsonian zone, with small alpine pockets near the very top.

One of my favorite sky islands is the Santa Rita range about 30 miles south. While you can drive up Mt. Lemmon, getting to the peak of the Santa Rita’s 9400’ Old Baldy is done on foot. The reward for your trudge, hike, or climb—depending on your bent—are views that, on a clear day, let you see other mountain peaks nearly 100 miles distant.

Yesterday I trekked up Old Baldy for a completely different reason: I wanted to snowshoe. Okay, you’re right. No one really wants to snowshoe. What we want to do is play in the snow. And if that snow is more than calf deep snowshoeing keeps us from lurching around like schizophrenics. My idea was that our incredibly wet winter, coupled with a snowfall just days ago that brought frozen rain down to 2000’, would be enough to ensure an opportunity. And looking at the north face of Baldy from Tucson it all seemed a good bet.

So I borrowed a pair of snowshoes from a friend who volunteers for search and rescue and headed out.

My arrival at Josephine Saddle via the Super Trail didn’t portend a good outcome. I had donned my micro spikes once for any icy stretch maybe fifty yards long. But I was hiking in my shirtsleeves and there was a scant, and patchy, two inches of snow. Undaunted, I continued on the Super Trail around the mountain’s southwest flank.

For sure it is counterintuitive to go the the hotter drier side when there is clearly snow on the cool, shadowy north route. But the Old Baldy trail up the north face has its problems. One is that it ascends 2700’ in just 2 1/2 miles. The other is that everybody and his cousin uses Old Baldy. The trail would not have loose snow. The snow would be packed, in many places nearly to ice.

My idea was that with all the snow that had fallen, it could not possibly have melted off even on the warmer side of the mountain. And, since fewer people use that route, any snow was less likely to be packed. I was definitely right about it not being packed. In the shade, before the trail turned west, very few tracks went ahead of mine. And I was right about the melt off. What I forgot about was evaporation. Huge amounts of snow don’t melt. It evaporates. That’s what had happened. And with it my dream of snowshoeing evaporated as well.

I trudged upward anyway. It was a great day to be in the Santa Rita’s. And it was an excellent day to be on the Super Trail. At the 8700’ level on a cooler face I finally encountered knee-deep snow. I strapped on the snowshoes. But the smooth steady ascent of Super Trail also changed at that point. It climbed more steeply. And also intersected a precipitous slope. If it was a good place to snowshoe, it was a bad place to learn to snowshoe. I swished along for about a quarter mile before deciding to turn around and enjoy the hike down.

The photo above shows the frustration. The trail is clear and dry. Everywhere else is calf-deep, knee-deep, hip-deep snow. But it was hard to be annoyed. The cool snowy mountains were beautiful. The Super Trail was as empty as I’d hope it to be. I got in a 14-mile hike. And I did get to snowshoe even if was just a tiny bit. All in all, a pretty good day.

**You may also see it referred to on maps as Catalina Highway, or hear people call it by its actual name the Hitchcock Highway.

[sidewalkstamps]

S. JON KREEDMAN & CO. (Photo taken by me in Beverly Hills on December 28, 2022).

Kreedman was born in 1921. He was “a carpenter from Detroit who had become a major developer in Southern California. [He] had learned construction as a teenager from his father and settled in Los Angeles” in 1941 (Pawel, Miriam. The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2018). Before serving in the military during World War II, he built homes for a year and after worked his way up in the trade, starting S. Jon Kreedman & Co. in 1948 and registering their articles of incorporation on April 1, 1948, the corporation being inactive currently. Their address was 9601 Wilshire Blvd., Rm. #340, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Kreedman was the President and James P Garity was the ‘Agent’ (bizstanding.com).

According to J. Marx Ayres’s autobiography, Kreedman “started with small office buildings and grew into developing large buildings along Wilshire Blvd.” Ayres worked with Kreedman as a mechanical engineer “on six high-rise office buildings including the 30-story ‘One Wilshire’ building at Grand Ave.” (Ayres, J. Marx. Red Diaper Baby Mid-Life Transitions: An Autobiography of J. Marx Ayres, 1946-2011, Trafford Publishing, 2012). He often purchased land for his projects and leased the units before he even began construction (Oliver, Myrna. ”S. Jon Kreedman; Real Estate Developer.” Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1999).

In 1956, he built a 171-unit complex, which were the first skyscraper apartments in Beverly Hills (LA Times).

In 1958, they were listed in a Directory of Arizona Contractors (Arizona Registrar of Contractors), though with their Beverly Hills, CA address of 9350 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 412, Beverly Hills, CA (17215). The above photo is of a drawing for a “six-story office building for Canon Drive and Clifton Way, Beverly Hills -- Two parking levels to be included in $750,000 concrete structure” from the Examiner, dated March 23, 1959 (USCLibraries).

The following year, Fortune magazine named him one of the 100 largest builders in the country. He built 9171 Wilshire Blvd. in that same year, as listed in the City of Beverly Hills Planning Division Cultural Heritage Commission Report from 2019. He also worked on Redondo Beach, California’s Plush Horse Inn and Encino Medical Sqaure (no longer exists). The Plush Horse Inn has an interesting history which you can read about at the South Bay History blog. The building has been significantly remodeled as is now a branch of Bristol Farms since 2000.

Around the same time he worked on the Central Lanai & Carribean (sic) apartment complexes in Phoenix, Arizona. Undated records have him being involved with a six-unit apartment building at 442 S. Oakhurst Dr. in Beverly Hills, a 13-unit apartment building at 234 S. Hamilton Dr. in Beverly Hills, a 30-unit apartment building at 120 S. Crescent Dr. in Beverly Hills (by this is probably where I took the above photo), and a 16-unit apartment building at 5210 Romaine St. in Los Angeles. (Online Archive of California Finding Aid for the Samuel Reisbord papers, 1923-circa 1976.)

He was builder and owner of the 10-story United California Bank building at Camden Dr. and Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills, CA in the early 1960s. There was a cave-in at the construction site, which Kreedman attributed to a broken water main (not sure how to cite a description of a photo but it’s from the description of order number 00103219 in TESSA Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library).

In 1961, California’s Governor Pat Brown appointed him to the Advisory Commission on Housing Problems (Wikipedia).

By 1962, “he controlled US $50 million of real estate” (Wikipedia) and “Kreedman Realty & Construction Corp., 9350 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hilla, Calif., filed a regislration statement (File 2-20263) with the SEC seeking registration of $5,000,000 of convertible subordinated debentures due 1982 and 200,000 shares of common stock, to be offered for public sale in units consisting of $25 of debentures and one common share. A major portion of the net proceeds from this financing will be used to repay current indebtedness incurred or to be incurred in connection with the company's construction of the United California Bank Building, Beverly Hills, and the Crenshaw Medical Arts Centre, Los Angeles” (SEC News Digest, 04-20-1962).

He placed ads in the Directory of Members, Los Angeles County medical Association, 1961 and the California Yearbook, Volume 2, Issue 1, Democratic State Central Committee of California, 1963. Unfortunately, also in 1963, his wife, Thelma, filed for divorce claiming “extreme cruelty” (Independent, pg. 2, Long Beach, California, July 26, 1963).

From 1963-1983, Kreedman also served as chairman of the American City Bank, which he had also founded. It was the LA area’s largest independent bank at one time, with seven branches in Southern California (Wikipedia), but ended with Kreedman losing his initial investment when it was shut down by the State Banking Department for exhausting “its resources due to substantial loan and operating losses” and was acquired by United Overseas Bank (UPI Archives, February 25, 1983).

“In 1967, the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration invited [him] to lecture on his entrepreneur role in helping to finance and build modern Southern California” (LA Times). According to Wikipedia, he had also been invited to give a lecture about the construction industry at UCLA in 1960.

In 1970, he refurbished the Alexandria Hotel (1905), which he had purchased in 1961, in downtown Los Angeles.

In 1973, his conversion of Century Towers to condominiums was one of the first in the city of Los Angeles and it’s largest luxury condominium property. Karen Carpenter purchased two of the condos and combined them into a duplex for herself in 1976 (The Century Towers - Wikipedia).

In 1979, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Kreedman to the board of directors of the state Public Employees Retirement System. By then, he was already known as a philanthropist “and supporter of Democratic political causes, having campaigned for the 1969 re-election of Mayor Sam Yorty in Los Angeles and serving as co-chairman of Brown’s 1973 campaign for CA governor. Kreedman’s charities included the Variety Club of Southern California and its work with handicapped and underprivileged children, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the City of Hope cancer research and treatment center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Israel Bonds Organization. He was also a board member of the Los Angeles city employees retirement system” (LA Times) and collected vintage cars (Wikipedia).

He died at age 78 after a long illness on November 5, 1999 in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife, Marlene; daughter, Barbara; and a son, Dale (LA Times).

His wife was featured in the Beverly Hills Courier’s April 12, 2012 issue.