Black Birders Week Takes Flight Today!

Black Birders Week starts today! I’m going to try to be in attendance for the upcoming events, but I have to go work at the megacorp, sadly. (I’m still trying to catch up on life stuff, but I hope to return to reading blogs full force soon.)

Check it out, or look for the hashtag #BlackBirdersWeek across social media!

https://www.blackafinstem.com/

And, find out your terrifying bird doppleganger here: https://horrortree.com/may-2023-horoscopes-birds-of-a-featherkill-together/

Beware the Birds of Spring!

Bird Army
We have peanuts! Resistance is futile!

May’s set of horoscopes find us under attack from our feathered friends. Find out which bird will have the last tweet*!

https://horrortree.com/may-2023-horoscopes-birds-of-a-featherkill-together/

In addition to watching the skies for avian adversaries, you’ll have to survey your surroundings at ground level. Or your characters will, anyway. Read on for inspiration for your Spring survivalist stories!

https://horrortree.com/may-2023-tarot-cards-for-writing-inspiration-2/

*Not affilated with the Twitter apocalypse

Birds on a Wire

In other news (as such), I managed to get a day job and I have a little breathing room, but the work environment is wearing me out. I’m just burned out, methinks.

Plus, I still have a lot of figure out about the next stage of my life, and I’m probably going to have to take another break from dedicated blog reading and all that to try to come up with a plan. Because things are still a big ole mess, and, although I’ve been scanning the horizon, there’s still no sign of my “ship that will come in” as the saying goes.

Maybe I’ll see you on the open seas soon…

Pirate Ship

Testing Post 1-2-3!

Okay, if you all remember the issue with the April Fool’s post going up a day early, I had that almost happen with another post. I know I checked all the settings after that post, and they were all correct, but I scheduled another post and kept a closer eye on it, and, yep, even though I scheduled it for Sunday at 3 am, it was posting up Saturday at 3 am.

So, I got on with WordPress chat help on Saturday, and there might have been a bug causing it (around the UTC settings) which is exactly what I thought. “It’s like I’m in another part of the world, time zone wise!”.

Which would be really cool if I suddenly woke up in a non-USA location, but, sadly, wasn’t the case.

(But I was “time travelling” after all!)

It’s good it might have been a bug, because I really thought I was losing my shit–I mean, more so than the sheer mental and emotional strain of living where I am.

So, that’s the point of this post…is to do a test run after I switched my time zone from “Chicago” to “UTC-5”.

That’s one way the WordPress representative suggested I try if there is a bug.

Another “fix” they mentioned is to check the post date in the list of posts (which I had actually done after the post mix-up had occurred before), to see if it’s the same as the other posts. So, if you’re reading this, and you have had a similar problem, I hope these fixes help!

The Mystery of the Mushy Pumpkins

I impulse-bought two pumpkins at the store last year, as they were on sale for a dollar each!

I had them on my little porch for a while, but then put them out in the yard.

They took FOREVER to decay.

Which was kinda creepy.

Visions of scary GMO-zombie pumpkins (delightedly) filled my head.

They actually stayed pumpkin-like for months, until one disappeared, leaving its partner all on its lonesome.

Then I saw this post about a doppelganger pumpkin! I mean, what are the odds? LOL!  [I love the chain in the picture–it’s almost as if it really was a “Walker” (Walking Dead reference) zombie pumpkin!]

https://oosgreens.wordpress.com/2023/04/21/deflated-pumpkin/

Here’s my spooky ooky gooky pumpkin pics!

Pumpkin1Pumpkin2Pumpkin3

A Planet of Trees, Not Plastic

It’s Earth Day.

Possum

Aided by my own midlife transition, I’m transitioning to a stage of life where I am really trying hard to live more lightly on the planet. 

It’s always been strange to me that people, in general, think it’s a bad thing to express sensitivity, respect, and care towards nonhuman animals, and other tree/plant/rock/insect/arachnid friends.  

Or somehow think that they don’t feel pain, loss, fear, or think that other life forms that also exist on this planet are somehow “less than” people. 

Anyway, taking the cue/the knowledge shared to me from the Green Stars Project blogger, I’m reducing my consumption of single-use plastic.

I’ve switched to bottle-free shampoo and conditioner, I’m exploring alternatives to toothpaste in tubes, I’ve found mouthwash tabs that (I thought) were in glass jars, but they turned out not to be. At least not from the Vitacost website, anyway. 

One of the toothpowders from the original website says it’s also in glass/metal jars, but I had to buy it from a site where I had a coupon, and it, too, was in plastic.

I got some deodorant from Pretty Frank that’s not in plastic containers.

I’m trying out different kinds of bottle-free laundry soap (I was using Tru Earth and I got some scented ones, but the scent was WAY too strong for my system, so I’ll probably go back to the unscented laundry strips). 

I generally can only invest in this stuff as I run out of the plastic-bottled products I currently had, but I’m going to try to do some more Green Star reviews on the items I did get. 

https://notoxlife.com/products/dish-block

https://www.dropps.com/products/sensitive-skin-laundry-detergent-pods-lavender-chamomile

https://www.kindlaundry.com/products/detergent-sheets

I also recently read this book that I either got with a gift card someone gave me, or I won it through a giveaway, but the author’s approach to downsizing was really inspirational and motivating. Especially when I look at my own stuff, and think about what is really relevant to my lifestyle.

Like, as much as I cherish the vintage Arrowhead set I inherited from a family member a while ago, I never entertain with things like dinner parties, and why do I need a full set of dishes (and a full set of silverware, etc.) when I actually (yes, seriously!) use one fork, one spoon, one knife, and a couple of bowls? 

I could sell those, and get a nice handmade artisan bowl and a fancy (single) set of silverware, instead. 

Anyway, I’m pretty subdued at the time of writing this post…tired, saddened over the natural world, and did I mention I was tired?

But, I’d love to hear about the changes and sacrifices and efforts you all are making for the planet on this 2023 Earth Day.

Earth Day

 

Judgement Day – 11/31

Check out all the great entries in Evil Squirrel’s Tenth Annual Contest of Whatever…you don’t have to wait until November 31st to read them all!

Evil Squirrel's Nest

FUZZYWIG: It’s time for the three of us to provide our usual sarcastic wit to this year’s Contest of Whatever entries.

SNUGGLE: You mean we’re gonna shit all over them again?  Fuck, I love this!

MITZI: Uh oh!  Should Mitzi have, like, worn her Defends?

FUZZYWIG: We’re not gonna shit all over the hard work of others.  Just, you know, maybe mock them a bit for the entertainment of our readers.

SNUGGLE: So we’re gonna shit all over them while being funny?  Fuckin’ A!

FUZZYWIG: Sigh.  Nevermind.  This year’s contest theme was the imaginary date of November 31st, and we received…

MITZI: Like, no way Josie!  November 31st is, like, totally Halloween, and Mitzi always dresses up as something sex-ay for the occasion!  Mitzi was totally a slutty angel last year!

SNUGGLE: Dude, like, that’s OCTOBER 31st!  You know what date is made up, though?  April 20th!

FUZZYWIG: 4/20 is…

View original post 1,844 more words

Getting Away From It All…From the Comfort of Home!

Let’s settle down in the comfort of our (dream) homes, or find the gateway to the world of our dreams!

[I started a new day job, but somehow things are more chaotic than ever. I’m running behind on blog-reading and such, and, unfortunately, my prediction is that’ll have to continue for the next couple of weeks, as there’s some big changes (hopefully!) coming over the next few weeks. And, holy heck, am I tired as all get out. I’m gettin’ too old for that pesky thing called work! Ha!]

But here’s my “Tarot Cards for Inspiration” for April…as well as my mock horoscopes!

I’d love to hear what dream home you’ll lay your pen in!

https://horrortree.com/april-2023-tarot-cards-for-writing-inspiration/

https://horrortree.com/april-2023-horoscopes-home-is-where-the-pen-is/

Breaking News: Switching Clocks a Thing of the Past!*

Clock 1
Graphic courtesy of Canva.com.

Leave it to the United States to tackle what is really important—ridding themselves of the pesky twice-yearly time change!

Because, don’t ya know, climate change doesn’t exist, plastic is 100% biodegradable, extinction is a bleeding-heart liberal myth, and things like pesticides, deforestation, and fracking/PFAS have zero impact on the environment and wildlife like squirrels.

Angry Squirrel
Squirrel Army Unite! (Photo Courtesy of Canva.com.)

And, of course, women are yearning to be “barefoot and pregnant” in the kitchen yet once again.

Woman Axe
Put me in a room full of sharp instruments, I dare you! (Photo courtesy of Canva.com)

Not to mention the fact that nobody reads books anymore anyway, so who cares that the conservative right is burning books yanking books off library shelves everywhere?

Burning Book
Photo courtesy of Canva.com

Am I right, or am I right?

So, it’s my pleasure to announce, the bill has passed to make Daylight Savings Time permanent! That means, for all you (99.9%) of underpaid minions here in the good ol’ U.S. of A, ya’ll can’t use that handy excuse to explain to your corporate overlord supervisor why you were late.

After all, who actually needs to enjoy a nice sit-down breakfast with your family, anyway?

Certainly not people working triple shifts just to buy a week’s worth of food day’s worth of food for said family!

And those leftist liberals were too preoccupied in trying to protect women’s rights, the rights of nonhuman animals and of nature, the rights of the aforementioned underpaid minions, and anybody else that can cook up a sob story and pass it off as a completely ineffectual petition, that they didn’t notice the rider that was attached to that bill.

I’m talking about the measure that is a one-stop, surefire, bet-your-bottom-dollar (if you don’t even have a “bottom dollar” you’re shit out of luck), solution to the so-called inflation crisis!

Attached to this “Sunshine Protection Act”, destined to go into effect November 5th of this year, is an extra day tacked onto the end of November, extending the month’s previous 30-day allotment.

“We just know the American people will appreciate the addition of November 31 to the calendar,” conservative right spokesperson Mr-Definitely-Not-Gender-Fluid-Sawbucks. “I mean, who wouldn’t benefit from an extra day of Black Friday sales to stock up on all that plastic merchandise for their loved ones? Not only will this extra shopping day be a guaranteed boost to the economy, I’ve heard that the plastic is now so biodegradable you can eat it!”

So, there you have it, folks…not only do we get an extra hour of sunshine, we of the 99.9% U.S. population get an extra day to put food on the table exercise our consumer rights to act as greedy and rapacious as the One-Percenters!

Happy November 31st, everybody!!!!!

(*Oh, and Happy April Fools’ Day! Thanks to the Evil Squirrel Nest for another fun event: The Tenth Annual Contest of Whatever!)

Lottery
Photo courtesy of Canva.com.

Also, in case it still isn’t clear, this post is about as real as my chances of winning the lottery. But there’s always tomorrow!

The Glowing Neon of Spring!

Rabbit Book

It’s been a busy week,  so this’ll be short and sweet. My “Cultivating Inspiration” post is up over at Horror Tree in all its (neon!) glory!

Go get creative, and Happy Spring Equinox, everybody! (If you’re in Fall Equinox mode where you are, feel free to search Horror Tree for the post I did last year).

https://horrortree.com/putting-the-neon-back-into-spring-cultivating-inspiration-in-2023/

Oh, and it’s World Rewilding Day, so go out and make things Wild again!

https://rewilding.org/