#pepperiginal

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I feel like I’m missing something about how ant pest control works, because I can pretty consistently solve all my indoor ant problems with painter’s tape and a caulking gun.

They’re just little animals that want something. You watch them for a minute to see how they’re getting access to that thing they want, then you clean up the ant line and close their access point.

I’ve been told that this is what everyone in my family does and yet their ant problems reduce by 20% every time I visit. The ants come for water in the summer and my bathroom is the only one that’s ant-free. Not to mention they also use ant poison on the invasive species like Argentine ants.

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Seeing this post again was like rewatching the first episode of a beloved show with many seasons.

I originally saw this post 5(ish) years ago when I was in the midst of settling on a major in college. I knew I wanted to work with animals, especially dogs, and has recently gotten out of my Idolizing-Cesar-Milan phase. Alongside the website BeyondCesarMilan, the archives of @why-animals-do-the-thing, and the works of Patricia McConnell, Temple Grandin, and Dr. Sophia Yin, this post was some of the imagery that stuck with me the most as I learned more about the social relationships of wolves, dogs, and other animals.

It gave me another frame of reference with which to conceptualize the complexity of non-linear hierarchy, and the importance of questioning things which seem inevitable and obvious because of how frequently they are referenced in our culture. It even informed my understanding of US politics and the presumptions about hierarchies that go along with it (see also “There’s Always a Bigger Fish” by Innuendo Studios on YouTube).

I graduate this spring with my bachelor’s in Ethology, the study of animal behavior. I’ve learned better than to take TV shows (or tumblr posts) at face value, but either can be a valuable starting place for interest in a subject, and for me, this was one of my sparks.

Dominance Behavior in Canids

I didn’t really even WANT to make a post about this.

The alpha-beta-omega model of wolf packs is dead in scientific literature, hammered into the ground, so to speak, and it’s been dead for over ten years. So why am I still hearing about it on TV and reading about it in articles? Why are popular dog trainers that encourage you to “be the alpha” still taken seriously?

I think the unfortunate truth is that the idea that there are strong and ferocious leaders in wolf packs and that you, too, can take on that role with your dog is just somehow appealing to people. Almost romantic, in the older sense of the word. And because of this, it makes money. It sells werewolf media. It sells dog training classes. Educational science channels that have no business promoting this false ideology keep it on board because it gets people watching.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty fed up with the whole thing.

Okay, let’s talk about dominance, particularly what the word even means, because popular media does a terrible job of explaining it.

Read more…

[peppermintprism]

My sister got me embroidery thread for my birthday earlier this week so I tried my hand at visible mending for the first time today. Covered a tiny tear in my pants leg with this little leaf pattern. 🍃 Thanks to @wastelesscrafts for being my inspiration to try this sort of thing. 🪡

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I feel like tumblr might appreciate seeing the most cursed item I own. Here it is when I found it in the leaf litter while hiking in January of 2019.

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Hi! I just wanted to say thank you. I cant remember how I found your blog, but it wasnt too long ago. I absolutely love all the things I've seen so far, but mostly I'm saying thank you for being the catalyst for what inspired me in my writing this month.

I'm a writer, I haven't done a proper story in a long time but this year, I decided to do NaNoWriMo again, I haven't done it since high school. I had characters, and a vague idea of what to do, but no overarching plot. No real goal. Until... I started thinking more about the world. Things I've seen and read because you reblogged them, and how much I cared without realizing it until I did. And that... that gave me the idea for the premise of my story, the big goal for my average every-day heroes to reach for, and it's all about trying to take care of and heal the earth . It's a battle against megacorps and the damage they're doing to the earth, and how to push back and start to fix it. It's not much... hell, it's barely anything in the grand scheme of things, but... this is the first time in a while I've had a story with a really good message. And that's all because I found you! So thanks. I really appreciate your blog and I feel I've learned quite a bit from it, please keep going

Aww! You’re too kind! I’m just being a little magpie up in here, collecting posts I think are shiny, that speak to me, or that inform my view of the world. I never had an intended audience, but I’m so glad that it’s been an inspiration for your work!

I’ve been an environmentalist for as long as I can remember, but finding the solarpunk movement gave me a new appreciation for art/writing that I didn’t really “get” before. The world needs more stories like yours. Whether it’s a novel you spend years on or a 20-minute flash fiction, having a solid message grounded in positive change will keep our daisy-chain of inspiration going, while we all work towards a future worth fighting for.

[peppermintprism]

Happy International Asexuality day!

My icon has been a regular peppermint forever, I figured it was time for a slight update. I went looking for pride-themed peppermints and couldn’t find any?? So I did a quick recolor of some free clipart. I would love to see someone make a whole set of these images, or even real pride peppermint candies.

To my fellow aces, feel free to use this for whatever. It’d make a cute button. 💟

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I just clicked a video in my YouTube recommended feed about cults (not my normal watch habits, I swear). Before the video starts I get an ad. The ad is for hecKING SCIENTOLOGY. Google’s targeted ad algorithm is killing me. Well done.

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Twitch Plays Pokemon is wild.

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Story time from 5 minutes ago. Okay so my sister is standing by the fruit bowl on the opposite side of the kitchen from me and I'm just here at the kitchen table reading a magazine, right? I hear a tiny snicker and I know she's in a funny mood so my guard is up. I expect her to do something like pretend to be a velociraptor or play a song I don't like just to annoy me. (Because, y'know. Siblings.) But no. Instead I see out of the corner of my eye, her THROWING A TANGERINE AT ME so in my head I'm just kinda ticked off at her because even before I've processed what's happening I know I'm not gonna like it. But my reflexes are pretty good, so my hand goes up to protect myself, Palm open, facing her. The tangerine hits my hand and I'm still just deadpan glaring at her looking like I've just force-blocked the projectile. It even hit my hand hard enough to leave a mark, which you can see in the left picture. So yeah, I'm not really that mad at her, and I got to look pretty cool by stopping her antics. So we're even. And btw she's turning 22 next week.

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My algae is pretty sure that it's Simba from the lion king. Because everything the light touches belongs to it.

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My tumblr seems to be under the hilarious disillusion that I have 100 followers hahahaha! Well, anyway, to the 40 real people who are following me, welcome to my space! Feel free to come and go as you please, I’m not tumbling for followers, I’m tumbling for fun, and if other people get some enjoyment out of it at the same time, great!

To my 9 fauxllowers (spambots): Please go away.

And finally to the 51 ghosts that tumblr invented, please go and tell the staff that they should really get the follower count fixed, and while you’re there, bug them about replies too. ;D

[peppermintprism]

"What was the weather like today?" "Crows."