Protest sign pictures. The sign on the left shows an outline of a sitting kitty looking back while it's swiping an elephant with red strips, blue stars and Trump hair off the counter. Underneath is another graphic showing the No Kings symbol with red cross marks through a crown with 3 points and the words NO KINGS underneath. On the right is the other side of the sign which is words only and states: DEI is not the problem, criminals in the White House are. Most of the words are stenciled in black. DEI and criminals are in red and White House is just outlined and not colored in.

I went to Saturday's No Kings protest with Ceelo's mama. Even though it was held in the morning, we broke a heat record for that day and it was in the mid 80s (like around 28C) when we left and super windy, with really strong gusts. My sign (same one from the last protest) is made of coroplast so it's super light and wanted to take a flight! I got quite the workout trying to hang onto it.

Despite the wind and the heat, the event was really great! There were SO many people who came out! My town is in a deeply red district and governed by the extremely far-right. I would say about a third of the town residents are that way, too. Signs in favor of 47 are all over the place. So, maybe not someplace you'd think a protest would get a lot of traction but my Indivisible organization said about 2500 people attended! There was a total mix - kids, adults, older people, a blue unicorn 😄. There were all kinds of wonderful signs - I wish I could have taken pictures but I was trying to be in the moment and also not lose my sign to the wind. Lots of traffic honking (that's a good thing!), many cars decorated with sayings or with the people inside holding out their own signs. And more than one vehicle blasting out this song for us all to enjoy. People were handing out items, too. One group was going around with ICE whistles tucked into a lanyard that also had Know Your Rights cards in it and another person came by and was giving out pins. I already have an ICE whistle kit so I declined that but here's the pin:

Round 2 inch pin with a black cat in the center, surrounded by flowers. At the top it says Follow Your Instincts and on the bottom it says Not Dear Leader.

After we got back to my house, Ceelo's mama packed him up and brought him back home. I was so sad to see him go! His mama said he might be sad, too, since he got to be a spoiled only man while with me. At his house he has 5 other kitty siblings. Not that she doesn't spoil her kitties but he won't be getting as much one-on-one attention.

Listening

Best Son introduced me to something called One Album a Day - 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I don't often listen to entire albums. I thought it sounded cool and like a chance to catch up on some musical knowledge and maybe find some new/old stuff to listen to. The first 4 albums I listened to and voted on (which is how you get the next one in your list) were:

Except for The Strokes, I rated the other albums a 3. They were mostly fine! No 5s yet. Current album I'm working on is It's Blitz | Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

I listened to a few podcasts this week:

Reading

I finished Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien and just loved it! I can see where the movie played up some aspects for drama but I like both the movie and the book for what they are. Also, I ❤︎ the shrew!

I preordered a book by T. Kingfisher, Wolf Worm, and that came in right before I finished Mrs. Frisby. I'm usually super eager to read her books and finish them quickly but this one is taking me a while. It involves bot flies and I think there is going to be some body horror happening. I mostly read at night but I'm kind of hesitant to read this kind of stuff right before I go to sleep. So, it's been slow going.

Watching

Stefan Milo released a really interesting video this week all about the people who inhabit the Northern Sentinel Island. If you haven't heard of them before, well, go check out the link! But, basically, they are indigenous islanders that fiercely protect their land and will kill people who come ashore. As a result, the rest of the world knows precious little about them - their language and beliefs, how many there are on the island, even where they live on the island. It's amazing that in this day and age there can be such a hidden unknown population. I don't think we have anything to offer them, though, so I hope they keep on resisting getting to know us. You can find the video on either YouTube or Nebula.

I started watching this last season of Only Murders in the Building and also watched another episode of Royal Flying Doctors Service. I've said before that RFDS was getting kind of soap operaish and it's continuing that way. Now I'm not going to be so sad when I'm finished with the current season.

PBS is showing a new Count of Monte Cristo series and I was excited about that until I read they had changed the ending. Why?? I expect that from network TV, not something on PBS!

Link Lagniappe

  • VHS Slipcover Maker - You can also generate cassette tape inserts, CD labels & inserts, playing card boxes and other stuff!
  • The Friends of Fritz Vincken - I forget where I originally heard this story - maybe from one of Joe Scott's unsolved mystery episodes. But this is a really neat story and the mystery does end up getting solved!
  • WhereWIKI - this post from Perfect for Roquefort Cheese will explain a little about WhereWIKI and then you can hop a link over to it and start going down Wiki rabbit holes. I mean, you can do that on your own but with WhereWIKI you also find out how things you are interested in are physically connected to your area. Kind of a neat idea!
  • Global Building Data Downloader - Here's one for the infrastructure nerds. The Global Building Atlas is a "...high-resolution dataset describing 2.75 billion buildings worldwide, including their footprints, heights, and simple 3D (LoD1) geometry." This Downloader allows easy access to all this data.
  • Simple Lace Stole Crochet Pattern (Cascade Yarns) - I know I saved this thinking that some day I would progress my crocheting skills from making one single endless chain to actual rows of chains but I don't know if that day will ever come. This is a lovely looking shawl, though, so maybe someone else who actually has the skillz will be interested in this pattern!
  • Jellyfish Snooze Like We Do, And It Could Explain The Origins of Sleep - I never even would have thought jellies needed sleep! (via Damn Interesting)
  • Glaciers Across the The Globe Are Melting—Except This One. It’s Growing. - Despite all the evidence about climate change and glaciers dissappearing, one glacier appears to be bucking the trend.
  • Hacking The Krups Cook4Me Smart Cooking Pot For DOOM - Here's another addition to DOOM running on something it wasn't intended to. (via Neatorama)
  • Scientists Just Rewrote the Story of the Dinosaurs’ Final Days - Dinosaurs were thriving, not declining, when the comet hit.
  • Only humans have chins: Study shows it's an evolutionary accident - Human chins are just an evolutionary byproduct.

    • OK, that's it for this week!

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