Awareness of the outside world. When I was at the zoo, snakes were my favorite animal to demo. I’d convince people to get up their nerve to touch one and they’d say, “They’re not slimy!?” Fight the prevailing paradigm! Snakes are awesome! Yes, some snakes can hurt us. So can tigers and we think tigers are adorable. Coexist.
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Previous post [Wildlife Management]. Sorry to snakephobes. There wasn’t a way to hide this one behind the jump. I made sure the title contained a warning.
Awareness of the outside world. Oamaru is home to Blue Penguin Colony, home of the little blue penquin. “Blue penguins are the smallest penguin in the world stand 30cm (11.8 inches) tall” OBPC: Penquin Facts.
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In honor of CoNZealand, which started yesterday, a slideshow of screenshots from my latest adventure of the imagination. [Biking Virtually, New Zealand]
Awareness of the outside world. CNN: Google will let employees work from home until at least next summer, by Brian Fung, July 28, 2020. A major US corporation does not expect things to change significantly for at least a year. We are in this for the long haul, folks.
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The home team has been humming along. Fat, shiny, enjoying their fans & hay snacks. We work – briefly – just about every day. They continue to prefer pre-breakfast rides to having their post-breakfast routine interrupted. [Let The Morning Rides Begin]
Out of the ring, we have been doing laps of the pasture getting ready for the start of the Virtual Tevis. More about this on Saturday. [The Tevis Sippy Cup]
In the ring, we have been working steadily, if not speedily. I confess to not having the zeal of 1000 burning suns at the moment. Mount up. Walk about. A little trotting. Test the canter system in both directions. Declare success. Go home. Milton works on his long-lining with our resident driver.
I would love to claim that this moderate approach is due to a low & slow training philosophy. Nah, mostly the zeal thing.
… Wow … 55 years later… crossing the bridge again … an amazing moment …. how far we have come … of course, if we really wanted to honor his legacy, we’d stop this voter suppression bullshit … no, that’s a Monday thought; Sunday is for ceremony … stopping at the top of the bridge … a funeral of honor is an impressive sight … the family joins the procession … two guys holding their top hats in the air … so much style on display … so much thought went into each gesture … Good Trouble written on the men’s shirts … the singing, O, my heart …
All true.
At the same time.
I was looking at the horses.
Oooh, pretty … probably Friesians … look at those lovely tails … I wonder who supplied the horses .. I wonder if we know them … not a lot of driving barns in Alabama … hmm, they are wearing poop bags … what good boys (?) … that’s lot of noise … I wonder if the driver has his mask pulled down so the horses can hear his voice aids … big hill to climb … those two guys must be their headers … you can see the horses looking to them for reassurance … there’s a lot of people around us boss, we okay? …
Awareness of the outside world. Giving credit where due. Mask compliance is picking up in my area. The tire store guys were 100%. Ditto the yuppie grocery store, both customers & employees. Also employees at office supply store – no other customers. (I really got adventurous, didn’t I? 3 stops!) The exception seemed to be the tire store customers, three mentioned below and another fellow who was carefully protecting his chin. Still, better overall than it was. Partly, different time; partly, different stores. Feed store was unchanged the last time I was there. Sigh.
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Found a shady spot and waited outside. Felt dorky carrying my chair. Turns out two people in the indoor waiting area had no masks. The other person had a mask hanging off one ear. No thanks. Better dorky than gacking.
No personal connection to this breed. I’ve always thought they were cool. “The Byerly Turk, one of the three founding stallions of the English Thoroughbred, is thought to be an Akhal-Teke.” International Museum of the Horse: Akhal-Teke.
Inspired to start another series of alphabet posts by the article “How To Be In The World,” by Beth Lee, in Letter Arts Review, 34:2. For each letter of the alphabet, Lee has chosen a verb and relevant quote to do with right living: act, balance, connect, and so on.
I shan’t be that organized. The design of the letter may have something to do with word; may not. Depends on the day & the letter. Mainly an excuse to draw a letter. Not trying for an entire alphabet in a year. A gradual project as I have space on Sundays. We’ll see what happens.
Awareness of the outside world. Meta.
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Since the middle of last month I have been starting my posts with a few words that touch on the world at large, either related to the post, or the events of the day.
I’m torn about this feature and gathering opinions.
Con – Not On Brand
Con 1 – Hollandaise in the cupcake. Years ago, I posited my Cupcake Theory. When you bite into a cupcake, you expect it to taste like a cupcake. I still feel this way. No one is coming here for insightful analysis of the latest news cycle. If I have a gift to give the Internet, it is to be witty and amusing. The outside world is rarely either one. [Speaking Out]
Con 2 – Don’t add to the noise. The are a gracious plenty of places that will inform and infuriate.
Con 3 – Ick. Some days, I hate it. I do NOT want to think about what is going on in the world.
Pro – Being Real
Pro 1 – Suck it up, Buttercup. On a personal level, the feature is good for me. It reminds me, to paraphrase the man on the tarmac, that problems of two little horses don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
Pro 3 – Be wary of the ivory tower. The ability to shut out the world is an addictive privilege. Stay engaged.
My Solution
I’ve have tried to thread my way between these two opposing forces by make the text obvious but avoidable. I make the segment short, separate it spatially, and put it in italics. The goal is to clearly delineate the Awareness section from the main post, thereby making it easy to skip, should you so desire. If you are interested, here is. If you are not interested, blog continues below.
Verdict
How do you, as a reader, feel about this?
Result 1 – Everyone hates the new feature with a grand and fiery passion. On one hand, I’m not going to stop. See above re benefit to self, complicity, and engagement. On the other hand, I want to be responsive to people kind enough to visit. I can make the segment as small as possible, keeping it to a link or a line.
Result 2 – You like it or You don’t mind it or You hate it but can ignore it. I shall chug along.
Update. Making an internal rule to skip this for Guest Posts or fiction posts. GPosters don’t have a say in what outside world statements I make. Therefore, it would be unfair to tie them to it. Fiction is about creating consistent alternate world. Awareness statements would be distracting. Still plenty of other days. Also, have been posting word-related on Saturdays and image-related on Sundays. May 2021.
Virtual Brush Box 