About Habit :: Essays On Attention Paid

… sometime during my walking, and coffee, and reading, and writing, and walking home again, you have gotten up, made the coffee, let the dogs out, fed the dogs, and turned on the news… maybe you have started to message with your friends, or to catch up on Facebook…

Just received my SealVax starter kit with two large bags and two smaller bags. Already tested it on a block of frozen broth. Seems to work well. The bags are well made. Will see how durable.

SealVax bag with frozen broth in chest freezer

SealVax product box

SealVax vacuum seal bags, keychain pump, usb chord and liquid separation chamber

That little triangle shaped thing is the vacuum pump.

About Habit :: Essays On Attention Paid

… these summer days, my walk is a photo meditation up and down Main Street… i have been photographing the same mile and a half of sidewalk, street and store fronts for years now… the possibilities are more inexhaustible than you would think…

Switched from Optimum to Verizon FIOS, canceled Optimum. Had to be pretty forceful and blunt to rebuff their attempts to keep me. My position, you should have been giving me your best price all along. And, your best price isn’t any better than FIOS. Goodbye Felicia.

About Habit :: Essays On Attention Paid

Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don’t focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout. –Kevin Kelly

… you and i are habit, both individual and coupled… we have taken this advice to heart…

From yesterday…

tropical house plant with big heart shaped leaves, behind the window of a shop, sky and street light reflection overlaid

glad cat sculpture in a shop window, cat looking up, tail erect

yard scape with brick building extending from left side of frame three fifths of the way into the frame, gray house with siding on the right side in the distance, palm plants peaking above a fence with cross hatched pattern, a refrigerator and a series of colorful wood boxes lined against the wall of the brick building

two large heart shaped leaves lying against the ground, the leaf on the left is green, the leaf on the right is golden yellow

street scape, gas station, sign with gas prices in the middle foreground, evergreen shrub in the foreground on left side of frame, gas pumps in the background between the supports of the pricing sign, edge of convenience store in the background between the evergreen and left support of the pricing sign

plastic ziplock bag containing wet clothing, water drops condensed on the inside of the bag…

display in a woman’s clothing store with an enormous brimmed straw hat hanging on the wall on the right, shelves and clothing on the left

… today i started to build my music collection in Bandcamp… i have decided that i want to pay artists decently for their music and that i get overwhelmed by the unlimited nature of other streaming services… i want to be limited… i want to choose the music i have available to me carefully…

August 6, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

And then, on August 1—last Tuesday—the Department of Justice charged Trump under laws Congress passed during Reconstruction to protect the Black Americans’ political rights. Trump is charged with conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding—violating a law passed to stop Ku Klux Klan terrorists from breaking up official meetings in the late 1860s—and obstructing that proceeding: the counting of electoral votes.

August 6, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

That resolve did not hold. In the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act. Republican-dominated states immediately found ways to keep minority voters from the polls and their votes from being counted, and in 2020, then-president Trump tried to throw out the votes of people in majority Black districts in order to overturn the results of that year’s presidential election.

August 6, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

On August 6, 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act to guarantee Black Americans the right to vote.

From yesterday…

domino sugar, coffee mate, water containers in an office window

entry to car wash, uhaul truck ends on the left, car wash signage in the middle background, vacuum cleaners on the right, yellow arrows and lines in middle foreground

closeup of a straw hat with very wide brim, hat crown in the middle of frame, brim radiating beyond all the edges of the frame

woman’s blouse and pants combination on a mannequin in a shop window, blouse is light blue and yellow with dark pinstripes, pants are yellow

construction scaffolding, looking from below up towards the sky

Read: More Serious Pleasure by Sheba Collective Staff 📚This book is a collection of Lesbian erotic short stories and was loaned to me by a lesbian writer friend as a study guide for writing sex between women. It was helpful for that purpose though it was generally more bluntly graphic than I would choose to be in my writing. As erotic literature, which I do like, there were several stories I found especially compelling and most of the others were a good enough read. Contains poetry too.

Beyond frustrated. Got tired of Black and Decker weed trimmers breaking down every other year from minor part failures. Decided to spend extra money for highly rated EGO trimmer. Completely failed in two weeks. WTF! Does nobody know how to make a durable tool anymore?

In the realm of the utterly irresponsible:

Twitch streamer’s ‘huge giveaway’ sparks police response at Union Square in NYC | CNN

CNN – Social media influencer Kai Cenat has been charged with inciting a riot and unlawful assembly after thousands-strong crowds gathered in Union Square in New York City for a giveaway, leaving dozens of people arrested and several police officers injured.

… what on earth was he thinking?!!

Brazil Reports a Big Decline in Amazon Deforestation Last Month – Mother Jones

“The main reason is the decision of Lula to aim for zero deforestation. Since then, we have created new conservation units and indigenous territories that have produced some results… Now we need to move towards a new model of prosperity that is less predatory, less damaging to local people and the forest.”

Florida public schools have “effectively banned” AP Psychology. ‹ Literary Hub

Today’s news from the front lines of Florida’s war on kids: The state has “effectively banned” Advanced Placement Psychology because its anti-LGBTQ law forbids the course’s material on gender and sexuality. Because the College Board quite reasonably refuses to excise sections acknowledging the full spectrum of gender and sexual orientation to suit the hateful whims of a supremely shitty state legislature, the three-decade-old course will be unavailable to all Florida public school students.

August 4, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

The attack on our nation by individual Republicans seems to be a theme these days. After yesterday’s arraignment on charges that he conspired to defraud the United States, conspired and attempted to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspired to overturn Americans' constitutionally protected right to vote, Donald Trump today flouted the judge’s warning not to try to influence jurors. He posted on social media: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”

plant and flower pots in an office window shot from the outside, venetian blinds drawn up above the plant and pots

display in shop window with women’s eyes looking out from a rectangular card

watermelon sitting on table in a restaurant various furnishings and accessories arrayed around the edges of the frame

wood board wall finish and yellow, blue, orange linoleum floor tiles in vertically running stripes with a stack of chairs on the right edge of frame and reflections of street and feet and legs of photographer overlaid

chain link fence and white aster flowers

brick building wall with two windows, the one on the left with a cat photograph hung on the inside, the one on the right with a dog image hung on the inside and a faded painted sign running from top to bottom on the right third of the frame

looking down on a creek with foam collected in a cove, rocks and plants from the right corner of the frame and bridge railing and pier running from the left corner diagonally to the middle of the lower edge

Required Reading

“Children like sweet and safe stories but they also like dark, bleak, unsettling or horrible stories. Children are like everyone else, they want stories that reflect the whole contradictory tangle of their lives.”

Young people who identify with gun culture are more likely to believe in male supremacy, survey shows

Dashtgard said this speaks to a larger cultural dynamic at play currently, where many White men are feeling unsure of how to articulate themselves as men in current society. As a result, many young men are turning to guns as an “unimpeachable access to masculinity.”

Young people who identify with gun culture are more likely to believe in male supremacy, survey shows

This isn’t a case of somebody typing in ‘the Holocaust isn’t real,’ but a 14-year old boy who is nervous about talking to women and going on the Internet and searching for tips for how to do that.

From that simple search, he said, many young men are quickly entering into a world of “really awful content” that is rooted in male and white supremacist ideology.

Young people who identify with gun culture are more likely to believe in male supremacy, survey shows

“As feminist discourse has entered into mainstream conversation, there has been an understandable focus on the ways patriarchy has impacted women,” Dashtgard said. “There hasn’t been articulated as clearly an understanding of how patriarchy affects boys and men.” 

This is soooo important!

From yesterday…

closeup of demolition site fencing with dust control fabric tied to a fence post, concrete slab, ground and plants visible through the dust control fabric

pile of metal demolition debris on asphalt surface with trees and weeds in the background

rack of women clothing in a shop, a vertical red striped mini dress, stripes narrow and spaced 3-4 inches apart

small water fall photographed from above

closeup of discarded brewing grain (hops?)

close up of rectangular concrete sidewalk surface with square patch where a pedestal used to be, chain link fence on the lefthand edge of the frame

row of colorful bold sunglasses, in a shop window, stickers on the window running around the lower and right edge of the frame, black lives matter sticker with three fists in the middle of the lower edge of the frame

cat’s eye green sunglasses head up by mannequin hands and arms in a shop window

Read: Summer People by Marge Piercy 📚Compelling story told well. I read continuously without loosing interest. Well written, but I found it a little emotionally removed from the stories of intimacy it told, which seemed strange for such intimate relational material. Recommended with that caveat.

Went to see… 🎥🍿🎬