I WILL calmly and kindly try to help anyone who is afraid of bugs. I will show them my finds, i will explain their importance, i will tell them just how sweet and gentle and friendly they are. And I WILL shoot down any immature loser who believes senseless killing is the only possible response to not liking something.

I'm sorry that your existance is boiled down to a stance. You are more than a topic of debate, theres more to you than just your system origins. It's disgusting that so much of the community, sometimes even on the pro endo side boils your entire existance down to if you're real or not.

Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.

Now, it's just... Social media. That's it. Social media and news sites. And I'm tired of social media and I'm tired of the news.

You're right that the internet is smaller than it used to be, but there's still some cool stuff left in the corners. I'd recommend checking checking out Neocities if you haven't--it's an independent web hosting platform like Geocities of the old web, and there are hundreds of interesting and active pages discoverable both through their search function and through web buttons (links attached to small pictures with the title of a website) within the websites themselves. Here are three examples of web buttons you may find in link pages:

Most Neocities websites have link pages or button collections with anywhere from tens to hundreds of these. Don't be afraid to explore!

If you're looking for something more like a search engine, I can point you towards Marginalia. It's not a particularly smart engine, but it's perfectly usable if you've ever been taught to use search engines back when they were mostly run through keywords instead of full sentence comprehension. There's also an "about" and "tips" section on the front page with more information. The algorithm of Marginalia can be filtered by the user to allow, disallow, or require JavaScript depending on your needs, plus there are filters designed specifically to prioritize web 1.0 sites or mostly text-based ones. It is possible to search for modern websites with it, but it can return websites from just about any decade (since the invention of the web, obviously) so long as they contain the information you're looking for. For example, here are some random interesting sites I've found using Marginalia:

Native Languages of the Americas: Native American Cultures

BASIC HTML COMPETENCY IS THE NEW PUNK FOLK EXPLOSION!

Earthbound Text Labs by Bill Eager

The possibilities for discovery are truly endless.

Now you might want to know about directories. These make browsing for websites easier, but require you to read through and judge which ones to visit, as there aren't algorithms ranking the sites besides the whim of whoever coded the directory. Some of them have themes, others don't. Here are two that I've used:

Yesterlinks Directory

Ichigo Directory

Directories can be harder to come by just by surfing the net, but they aren't impossible to find. Many personal websites have their own directories of interesting sites hidden within them.

Webrings are similar to directories, but are actually more community-based. You have to register your website to be a part of a webring, usually by sending an email to whoever runs it and meeting some kind of entry criteria. For example, my personal website used to be a part of a webring called Sweet Dreams, which was for websites that heavily utilize color palettes and images of cute things, particularly sweets. Webrings will give you access to a widget upon entry that allow visitors and other members to browse between the registered websites in a massive ring, ergo, where the term gets its name. Webrings can have any theme or criteria for entry. If you can make a website about it, you can find a webring for it.

Now, you might be wondering about social media alternatives. I can't offer much, but I can nudge you towards the idea of forums. Here's one I found that could really use some traffic. I also browse a bit on MelonLand forum, which is actually closed right now--it's currently closed on Mondays--but on any other day of the week, you can find a fun community there dedicated to web revival. You can find it through MelonLand's main page. I'd also recommend checking out SpaceHey, which is a MySpace clone that's customizable and easy to use.

But my parents were birders, so hiking we did go.

And about a mile up the trail, a woman came rushing up to us, clutching her binoculars to her chest. "Come quickly," she said, with a British accent. "You have to see this!"

This is what birders are like. They are as excited about a life bird as any fan would be spotting their favorite celebrity. You have to see, you have to.

So my parents rushed off with her, and I plodded along behind them.

To find a cluster of Brits huddled in a bird blind, staring at..

A blue jay.

A goddamn blue jay.

And I was a teenager, but I knew better then to mouth off in front of my mom. So I nodded, and smiled, and bit my tongue, until an elderly man looked at me with tears in his eyes, and said, "Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?"

And I stopped. And looked at it. The way they were. As if it were new. And damned if they weren't right.

My practice is very localized and I am extremely fortunate that the tales that I grew up with happened in places with similar nature to where I live and I count that as a blessing. This is the bais of this post [and of the entire screaming well honestly] and I don't claim that this is apply able to everyone but this is my method and I wanted to share it.

The plant l'll be talking about as a case study is hedge bedstraw or glad walstro in dutch.

When nature journaling l do a few steps that are always the same:

When l find the the plant / animal / fungus i log it on my phone l use a local version of inaturalist to do this most of the time but sometimes I'll write down the name if I didn't manage to take a picture.

I will draw it in a way that helps me remember it. What stands out to me what observations can I make about it myself. In order to do this i've gotten into more botanical terms for fun but you can do without honestly. The point of the drawing is to actively look at the plant and to be able to rechonize it next time I see it.

I look up the plant in botonist sites, the site I use is strictly for identification purposes and has detailed descriptions which I often find contain something I missed that I can tgen never unsee. I will then go back in and add it. Either by notes or by edditing the drawing this is where I also write down the edibility of a plant.

I will then look up the plant in an etemology data base and a story database. These databases are local to me and I will write down what I find about associations or stories they're mentioned in. I also do some general searches and read the Wikipedia for the plant. I also include family associations here.

Now for an example with the hedge bedstraw:

To me the most striking point is that the little white flowers have four points and four little stems at each corner it also has a stem in tge middle essentially the flower has 9 parts. Now tgat number is important to me so I note it down in my drawing. Then I look at the structure and where the leaves are placed. Each split in the stem has like a ring of leaves and there are no leaves in other places. These observations will help me rechonize it next time.

Now I start writing down wether it's edible or not. In this case it is and the roots are actually potentially a dye source. I don't forage for food a lot but these notes are always fun to make to me. I note that it's family of anotger plant. And then I note where it's name came from and that it was used as bedstraw the dutch name specifies this to cratle straw. I note the connection to child birth and sone sources on it being associated with protection of childeren.

Now this is where we get to the upg part. I associate child birth and protection of childeren with vrouw Holle. Therefore I note that this plant might make a good gift to her. The plant also has some snow associations and so I write that down too. Strengthening the connection a little bit.

Now with this plant my upg is mostly working on connections that had already been documented but in other cases the upg can be based on where a plant often grows, what it looks like, if it attracts certain animals and what those animals are connected too, did i find it together with a bunch of other plants? These are among the questions I ask myself that help me develop upg about the plants that live around me.