Adult Living

I have a favorite sentence. I'm thinking of a particular sentence which I consider to be the best sentence in all of English letters. Whoever can guess what it is and where it's from will get a prize. Resources are a bit thin so it's not, like, a good prize, probably not even a real prize. Like a pat on the back, or an attaboy.

I'm still Big Mad from the animation industry AI news, and I had some thoughts I needed to get out. There are lots of more important reasons why artists shouldn't use AI, but here is my philosophical take on it.

Seriously I think that episode of ER should be required viewing!! One of the other characters points out how dangerous it is for Carter to agree to delay diagnosis but the alternative is the family being unable to afford treatment because the insurance company wouldn't cover it.

Sometimes I think the pre-ACA reality that allowed insurance companies to do this was so absurdly cruel that within a few years people just forgot. Every post about the ACA and pre-existing conditions inevitably attracts two kinds of comments: "that never actually happened!" and "this literally happened to me." Like yeah it is hard to believe that was allowed but it was! There will be people voting in 2028 who weren't born when the ACA was passed. It's our job to make sure they know this history; we shouldn't be having to explain it to people who were adults in 2010.

Drone incursions are becoming more and more of an issue when it comes to wildfires, so last year I designed these graphics, but I never got around to sharing them anywhere.

If you send your drone up during a wildfire, even if you don't feel like you are that close, all planes and helicopters in the area may have to be grounded which can have a massive and detrimental effect on first responders' ability to manage that fire.

If you send your drone up and a plane or helicopter hits it, no matter how small your drone is, it could crash that aircraft injuring or killing those on board and potentially people on the ground as well. Even if the aircraft stays up, it will have damage that could ground it for an indeterminate and potentially extensive amount of time, meaning one less resource is available for that fire and other fires.

Just don't do it.

These graphics are free to use and distribute for any non-profit uses! You can check out my Payhip store to download (for free, or pay what you want) a package of files that include vertical versions of each design, print sizes, and social media sizes.

I've seen this happen before, and like I said, it's a pain in the ass for EVERYONE. We communicate via radio on fires, and any time a channel has to be taken up by some bullshit like "there's a civilian drone flying" is time when other information can't be communicated over that channel. Larger incidents usually have open channels for just about everything, but still, it's radio traffic that doesn't need to be taking up airtime.

Most wildfires and prescribed burns have established Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs). If you plan on flying a personal drone somewhere, please check that there isn't a TFR in place. The FAA has this information freely available, and I believe there are several apps where the information is updated as well.

Found out that the dickhead (affectionate) has figured out that the food is in the utility room cupboard. He has figured out how to hook his claws into the door, pry it open, and get into the fucking cupboard at night, where he then shoves his head in the bag and eats as much as he wants.

For context, my mom is the one who taught me to forage, and it was and is just part of life. She regularly added foraged foods to our everyday meals. I knew how to identify huckleberry before I learned the alphabet. Foraging was just another part of feeding ourselves, along with gardening, raising chickens, and going to the store. And the firmest rule was that you didn't eat a plant unless you were willing to bet your life on it being what you thought it was.

So to watch my coworker see a berry, say 'strawberry!' and then pick it and have it three quarters of the way to his mouth before I could point out that it was actually an unripe blackberry...

Well, it was a striking moment. Because while that particular mix up would not actually hurt you, the lack of paying attention it takes to mistake an unripe blackberry for a strawberry and the lack of caution it takes to put a plant that you've hardly looked at into your mouth- no wonder some people think bittersweet nightshade is a look alike to red huckleberry!

And it explains a lot about how secretive most people are about their foraging spots. If you don't care enough about your own health and well-being to actually look at the plant you're eating, how could I trust you to care for the health and well-being of the plants you want to forage and the ecosystems you want to forage from? I want my foraging spots to be better off for my interactions with them. I want to be able to go back to the same spots year after year and decade after decade and see the native plants thriving, the invasive species losing ground, and the biodiversity increasing.

Every now and then a difficult period like this comes along: so it's time to request some assistance.

I've kind of been neglecting my vision for the past year or so, aware that I needed new glasses (and to go have a consult for possible eye-related surgery), but putting it off... and now the situation has, as it were, come home to roost.

The other day, when I was typing something and then (to check it before posting) had to pick up the Mac and hold it up to my nose to see what I'd typed... I realized that if this went on much longer, even with dictation (because after you dictate, you still have to edit...), I wouldn't be able to write.

That would be bad.

I need to go see my Eye Lady, get examined, and get both sets of glasses re-fitted with new prescriptions. This—as usual, each time it needs to be done every year and a half or two years, due to Weird Eyes—is going to run into a low-four-figure-ish kind of money. And due to other recent unexpected medical expenses, right now there's not enough dosh around (or spondoolicks or whatever term you prefer...) to get things sorted.

Therefore: can I get people interested in keeping a writer, you know, writing (as I've got three novels working at once at the moment...), to consider doing one of these things?

(a) Go over to Ebooks Direct and buy a book. (Or a bundle. Or a gift card for somebody else who might like my work.) And if you do: thanks so much!

(b) Stop by my Ko-Fi and drop a little something in the pot. It'll be most appreciated.

And if you can't do either of the above:

(c) Reblog this and let other people see it?