#loitering

Martin Luther King, Jr., arrested for “loitering,” Montgomery, Alabama, 1958

Teenage boys hanging out the barber shop in Des Moines

You don't even need to bring your own book. You can scroll through your phone, and not even that. You can literally just sit there. At the library. Fuck man, if you have headphones you can watch clips from The Simpsons on YouTube. Hell, you don't even technically need headphones, but I'd recommend that. If you do that without headphones you should keep the volume down for other patrons. But like. If you watch clips from The Simpsons at a very low volume, people probably won't have a problem with it.

Noone's gonna fucking stop you. They CAN'T stop you. You can just occupy space at the library, they don't give a fuck as long as you're not being disruptive.

One of the downsides to connecting your nests using long tubes is "ant loitering" some ants like to just hang out in the tubes because they retain a little moisture and it's near everything. This will cause the tubes to get dirty and less attractive... hence my new invention of a "mid tube fan."

Getting ants to do anything is next level. They respond to every change and not in the ways you'd predict. They are sensitive to temp, light levels and air currents in ways that aren't obvious. I just need to find a small enough fan and 3D print a little holder for it. 

I recently cleared out a tube that the cone ants blocked with sand, using ... the legs of dead crickets like rebar to reenforce the structure. They had made this whole barricade to regulate the air flow to the nest (hence I'd never recommend a fan on a nest tube)

I guess building a wall out of cricket legs (as struts) with a sand slurry like concrete... isn't any more strange than those early humans with their bone huts...

though I still find both creepy.

loitering shouldnt be a crime because it criminalizes the existence of people simply for existing??? outside of their houses??? when we are literally animals not only that but large apex predators specifically who require lots of rest to digest food and lots of sunlight to stay healthy being outside relaxing is something that is literally a requirement for the health of the species

not to mention the fact that a large part of why we have no third spaces anymore is because of the way our infrastructure exists roads are giant barrier to free roaming and every plot of land is an island and the beach of every island is designed to encourage actively getting off of it at threat of criminal fines and imprisonment!!! every sidewalk is a beach that makes you old

but if we were all allowed to just relax outside if the infrastructure was designed to create spaces for people to meet and gather and relax outside it would not only be a boon to community and creating third spaces itd likely INCREASE business in areas around it

AND it would provide cover for homeless people

why is it a good thing when cia people use pronouns and straight ppl call their partner their partner??? bc it normalizes these things and as a result trans and queer people arent singled out for the same behaviors it provides us all cover similarly the number of times ive sat down on the concrete to eat and had ppl assume i was homeless is only dwarfed by the number of times i KNOW FOR A FACT that other people have wished they could do the same but didnt for fear of being perceived that very way

but the thing is!!! if more people did it!!! if the infrastructure ENCOURAGED it then homeless people would be granted a huge amount of plausible deniability and theyd be able to participate in community bc the community would be outside with them!!!