Into the Shadows

change the color used to highlight text on your laptop

move the pictures on your wall

stack whatever clutter is in your room into piles even if you don’t have time to clean it all

slightly vary your commute, even just by one street

change where you sit and scroll aimlessly on your phone even if it’s only to the chair in your room instead of your bed

drink water or juice out of a wine glass in the morning because nothing is real

shower with the lights off, without music

buy $3 flowers at trader joe’s—they look bad next to the more expensive ones but they look so good in your room

start typing things you don’t post into your notes. your thoughts can be worth documenting even if you don’t deem them worth sharing

wake up super early just once. you don’t have to make it a habit it’s just extra satisfying to go to bed that night

The other day I was feeling miserable, so I hopped on a bus and rode it all the way back to where I’d started, and my brain, which had finally had some proper stimulation via new environments, was suddenly ready to go again!

lightning, very hot fire

snow storms, ice, frost on crops

some types of fungus/mold

corpses, ghosts, bones, a diseased person

clothing, skin tone, hair, etc. of a bad person

fur, teeth, eyes of an attacking animal/monster

bleached out deserts, dead trees, lifeless places

poison

Some ideas for good things that are black/dark:

rich earth/soil

chocolate, truffles, wine, cooked meat

friendly animals/pets/creatures

a character’s favorite vehicle, technology, coat, etc.

a pleasant night

hair, skin tone, clothing, etc. of a good person

undisturbed water of a lake

the case/container of something important

valued wood, furniture, art

velvet

Don’t do this. It can take years for a colony of moss to establish itself on a surface, especially when it’s that thick. And some places, once disturbed, may not have moss grow on them again for years, if not decades. Moss is incredibly important to its ecosystem, and peeling it off the rock like this takes away valuable wildlife habitat and food, both for the things that eat the moss and the things that eat the moss-eaters.

2. Hardly anything eats moss, as it has little nutritional value. Typically only animals in the tundra will eat it. 

3. While moss does serve a purpose in reducing erosion in an ecosystem, this is only if the moss is living on top of soil. This moss is on a rock. 

It’s not cool, even what seems to is to be a minor change can be very damaging to the local ecosystem, and again this sentiment of “its only a little moss/only a few stones/etc” leads to people just not caring and copying this sort of behavior.

Also, moss always serves a purpose. There are literally things LIVING INSIDE OF moss, as well growing interwoven with it and around it. Something doesn’t have to be food in order to be useful and necessary to the ecosystem.

“Because mosses rarely grow in single-species mats, many other species are affected by gathering moss and little is known about the ecology of these species. In addition to a dozen flowering plants that commonly grow intermingled with the moss, more than 70 other mosses and liverworts are inadvertently harvested. Liverworts, fungi, lichens, cyanobacteria, and dozens, if not hundreds, of invertebrates are also removed with the moss and salamander habitat is disrupted–one species of salamander has even been found inside collected moss bags.

https://extension.psu.edu/forest-moss”

I’m on mobile so that’s the bet you get but feel free to actually use Google and learn something.

Second of all, this is basically like pulling fistfulls of grass out of a field. Even if a lot of people do this, it’s not going to have a major impact. 

And nothing is being harvested! It’s simply being placed somewhere else. Moss is harvested anyways, although the moss harvesting industry is unsustainable, measures are being taken in order to regulate it. Moss (except for peat moss) is a renewable resource. 

And don’t even bring up salamanders. Salamanders don’t live on top of rocks like that. They live on the ground, around mosses to keep their bodies humid. And again, this argument has nothing to do with rock moss. 

You know, the animals and plants you skimmed over to complain about salamanders all because I included the full quote off of the site.

Also, I want to share a quote from Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer, who is herself a moss specialist. She wrote this after finding a remote area where the moss had been torn away by people who sell it for floral arrangements and other commercial purposes:

“And now my work begins, to catalog the aftermath. I feel like the photographer helplessly documenting a disaster, passive and unable to change the outcome. We find these spots where the moss pickers have been and become scientific witnesses to the destruction. Every scalped branch will be measured and tagged and examined for signs of re-growth. I’m looking hard for hope that these naked branches will have started to green up again. They haven’t. Maybe a trailing shoot here and there a lone branch ventures out onto the hard dry bark. The recovery is almost nonexistent. You don’t need a sophisticated analysis to see that, but I dutifully record my data. No one knows how long it will take for them to grow back. Maybe never. Most of these mats were as old as the trees themselves, and got started when they were just saplings.

“The intact part of the stand, though, yields enough measurements to stuff my data book as full as the moss pickers’ sacks. Every branch has at least a dozen species of moss, in a dozen different shades of green…And in the [pickers’] bag are also untold billions of beings who made that moss their home, like birds nesting in a forest. Scarlet Orbatid mites, bouncing springtails, whirling rotifers, reclusive waterbears, and their children; shall I say all their names in a requiem mass?” (Kimmerer, 2003, p. 153, emphasis mine)

Do you know which mosses will grow on rocks?  Brachythesium, mnium, and the whole dang politrichadae group (those are “giant mosses”) will all grow on rocks.  Sphagnum will not grow on rocks.  Unless they are bog rocks, soaking in a mire of acidic water.  Note, none of these are called “rock moss.”  That’s not a thing and it sounds vaguely like kindergarten name calling..  Because mosses will grow in many places as long as they get enough water, the same mosses that like rocks can also be found on any side of live trees, decaying trees, the ground, the dock, my father-in-law’s retaining wall.  Mosses are great habitat for tiny critters, and while they aren’t tasty, they are edible

Fun fact - moss can grow in the sun if it’s wet enough.  It can also grow in relatively dry shady areas, especially if the climate is humid.  Moss has no roots and takes on water through its leaves.  It can periodically dry up completely and bounce right back with a bit of hydration.  My Chinese Forget-me-nots do not remember how to do this.  They are such divas.

In conclusion, altering nature in a public space* like this is a hubris-laden travesty, and people who do it should have to roll large boulders up a mountain until they can understand that this isn’t trendy or cool.  It does not add artistic value to the forest.  It just highlights what a self-centered entitled piece of trash you are.

M E D S

AND DRINKIN THAT UHHHH

W A T E R

Still havent showered but bitch

So this is a problem. For those that don’t know, this November MA is putting a question up on whether the transgender nondiscrimination law that was passed in 2016 should be repealed.

If this law gets repealed, transgender residents will face discrimination in public places and will have to by law use the restroom based on their assigned sex at birth, not what they identify as.

For those in other states who might be thinking “Oh, this won’t affect me at all!”

It will.

If this law gets repealed, the opponents (the people who approve of the repeal) will try to eliminate transgender protection laws across the United States.

Keep in mind, this article was at the back of the Pride magazine I picked up at a movie theater. Not many people I’ve talked to seem to know that this is going to happen.

I don’t care if this doesn’t fit your blog.

Pittsburgh police shot a black 13 year old running away from them to death on Juneteenth

http://amp.wtae.com/article/photos-from-the-jordan-miles-case/7402144#referrer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s

Paralyzed Leon Ford

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2018/01/17/Leon-Ford-Pittsburgh-civil-rights-police-shooting-paralyzed-police-officers-David-Derbish-settlement/stories/201801170193

-police were following the car antwon was a passenger in because it matched a description (note: antwon was 17 yrs old, not 13 like many of the reports say. There was a 13 yr old on scene, however).

-police eventually stopped the car & ordered the driver out/onto the ground. antwon & another passenger bolted

-police fired 3 rounds into his back. Although 2 guns were found in the car later, Rose was unarmed when he was killed

-the driver was later released without being arrested

-the name of the officer who killed antwon rose has not been released. What we do know is that he has been put on administrative leave, and he was involved in other local departments 7 years prior. However, he was sworn in the same night as he killed Antwon.

-there were no dash/body cams, but a witness took a video. Be warned, it is graphic by nature.

http://www.wtae.com/article/east-pittsburgh-police-officer-identified-in-antwon-rose-shooting/21754207

Jitneys were the precursor to Uber or Lyft. Imagine you and your brother get a Lyft home and the cops pull the driver over. Then shoot at you as you run away.

He was a poet, an avid skateboarder, and volunteer at local charities. Loved by family and friends.

There have been at least three protests. Currently one is shutting down a major highway. Pictures above are from earlier today

As you can see the media tried to spin a false narrative about Antwon having guns. And were exposed for lying by a news anchor today.

Ciora Thomas was arrested at the peaceful protest on 376 last night after police showed in riot gear. She was let go this morning but will have court costs.

You can donate to support her here:

https://cash.me/$APAPGH1

Please boost this and donate if you can to help those arrested tonight

More pictures from the protests in Pittsburgh.

Tonight’s protest on 6/28/18 lasted for 7 hours.

The people marched down the streets chanting, singing and dancing for 7 hours.

Thank you to everyone who came out and put everything on the line for Antwon Rose Jr. And for justice

Antwon Rose was a freedom fighter and he taught me how to fight

So we gon’ fight all day and night until they get it right

What side are you on my people, what side are you on?

By the mid 80s there no more gangs in the city due to the diligent guidance of local civil rights activist leaders like Dr. Ralph Proctor, Jr. and Byrd R. Brown, president of the local NAACP and many others.

During Sophie Maslof’s tenure as mayor, Dr. Proctor approched to say that if resources weren’t made available to peacefully counter the inroads that gangs from other parts of the country were trying to make, there was going to be terrible bloodshead for years.

Maslof essentially did nothing positive and set in motion a chain of events that lead to terrible bloodshead during the 90s which completely devistated communites like Homewood (where Jordan Miles was beaten nearly to death for running from white men pursuing him who turned out to be plainclothes cops).

And white people here think the city is post racist and all modern and the Democratic leadership is unproblematic, yet violence towards black communities and inidviduals has increased as police forces become whiter and whiter and more heavily armed and funded and political leaders back the demolition and gentrification of black neighborhoods while cutting public transit.

If you get into the suburbs, white people are falling over themselves to be counted with facsists and nazis. I can’t tell you how many of those fucking facsist flags i see on pickup trucks and the blue line inbetween black plates for supporting police on countless cars.