👻🕸️💀🦇🎃🕯️mk30🕯️🎃🦇💀🕸️👻

wastewater specialist in training (back in school), art doodler, plant person, aspiring forest hag, living off-grid on hawai'i island. aloha 'aina!

plant/garden alt: @mk30

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Last Notes

2026-08-05 18:36:33 GMT

hey linux friends:
i have to do a hardware repair on my laptop and would like to do a backup in case something goes wrong. i have an external hard drive, but i've never done a full system backup before.
i run lubuntu 24.04 and if possible, would like to take a snapshot of the current file system (apologies if this isn't the correct terminology).
do you have any recommendations for how i should do this?
thanks!
#linux #lubuntu

2026-06-04 20:31:18 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn i think that with arithmetic, a certain amount of memorization and basic practice is necessary, but after that, i wonder if "puzzle solving" and framing certain kinds of problems as puzzles might be helpful. of course, if the puzzle is too difficult many kids will turn off (like me! i don't like puzzles and it's mostly because i could never figure them out 😖 ).
have you ever considered math education as something you might try? even something like kids math tutoring at the hackerspace sometime.

2026-06-04 18:39:18 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn what would that look like? 🤔

2026-03-03 19:50:02 GMT

any recommendations for modernist depictions of agriculture and food production?
i've included some example images below.
some keywords:
* mechanized agriculture
* industrial farming
* industrial food production
* farm as factory
* farm modernization
* chemical agriculture
i've got the following materials on my to-read list:
* "every farm a factory: the industrial ideal in american agriculture" by deborah fitzgerald
* Ch. 8 of "seeing like a state": "Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility
and Simplicity" by james c. scott
* "Farming according to 'the laws of beauty': Aesthetics and agriculture" by david cooper (https://www.academia.edu/14380031/Farming_according_to_the_laws_of_beauty_Aesthetics_and_agriculture)
* "the american technological sublime" by david nye (not sure if it has anything about agriculture specifically)
* "the machine in the garden: technology and the pastoral" by leo marx
if you're familiar with any written works looking at this kind of aesthetic specifically, i'd love to hear about it.
#sundaylibrarian #history #art #ArtHistory #agriculture #GreenRevolution #food #aesthetics #modernism #industrialization #ResearchLibrarian
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2026-02-27 07:28:57 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 i hear ya about DC! soooo much new construction there. my brother and his family live in silver spring, and holy cow, the silver spring downtown has changed so much in the last ten years. the crazy thing is that there's so much demand that rents and house prices are still very high in the DC area.
i don't know what's up with barcelona...i imagine that it's a very complicated set of factors that all come together to create gridlock.

2026-02-17 08:46:03 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 uggghhh https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/comments/1qx3jux/what_the_hell_is_wrong_with_gpt_wow_this_is_awful/
The people who made this are so so so irresponsible. Just the fact that it's allowed to pretend to be a person is sooooooo irresponsible.

2026-02-12 18:20:09 GMT

question for fellow art people:
as you may know, i love making collages. i have loads of fantastic images from vintage LIFE books and this weird 70s series called "understanding human behavior". so i have loads of materials, but i struggle with deciding how to use them.
for example, i have all these great images of scientists from the peak of 1960s science/progress worship, but what to do with them? to me, they tell a visual story of who scientists are supposed to be and what science is and who does it. it's a "hero's journey" but also an exclusionary story. how to tell it? just putting them all in a row or putting them all together on a huge piece of paper doesn't do anything... i don't have ideas for how to modify the images either.
anyway, this is what i get stuck on...if anyone has suggestions for how to move forward on something like this, i'm all ears.
#art #wip #collage
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2026-02-11 10:12:20 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 ugh I got an increased heart rate just from reading that post. These guys are definitely on a manic addiction binge.

2026-02-11 10:00:50 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 in the middle of reading the comments on that post, there was this ad:
It's like everything is an AI burger between 2 AI buns with AI condiments. Being eaten by an AI.
https://media.tilde.zone/media_attachments/files/116/051/406/298/696/144/original/d49a1b2fed50ba14.png

2026-02-11 05:28:17 GMT

Behold, our neighborhood's part-time waterfall: https://youtube.com/shorts/d7hIwe_bAIw
#hawaii #water

2026-02-08 22:43:28 GMT

just got an email from the university saying that all university of hawai'i and hawai'i community college classes are cancelled tomorrow. all public schools are closed tomorrow too, and all non-essential state services will be closed as well.
the email says that it's because of predicted heavy winds, existing power outages, and restrictions on local air travel. they encourage everyone to stay home.
my rain gauge here in puna said we got 1.75 inches of rain last night, but it was never like...the pounding rain... we've had some rain today, but currently it's quiet (still overcast though).
anyway, it's a big storm system...it's across all the islands: https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/HAWAII_loop.gif
they're saying the biggest impact will be tonight, with heavy winds.
#hawaii

2026-02-06 16:54:35 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 omg. Now I want to know so much more about how that all works, what the remote operators do, etc. surely a reporter can find one of these workers and talk to them!

2026-02-05 08:11:56 GMT

Happy lunar new year! To welcome the year of the fire horse, I thought it would be appropriate to have a campfire. to honor the fire horse, use up all of the burnable materials that have piled up at my place, and also to remind myself of the power of fire and its responsible handling.
Our world lives in a combustion-based economy, and I think it's not an exaggeration to suggest that the powers-that-be have forgotten what it looks like to use fire responsibly.
Anyway, may the year of the fire horse bring you only good things, and may you not get trample-burned!
#lny #FireHorse #fire
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2026-01-31 18:28:24 GMT

excellent reporting on the tech tools used by ICE, including the palantir software that they use to pick areas to target, and the facial recognition software they use: https://youtu.be/DbUCP2y_ZII
#ICE #immigration #USPol #tech

2026-01-24 18:42:43 GMT

A sad caturday, as I think about another ICE murder in MN and overnight bombings in Ukraine and all the other awful things...
But here we had a rainbow, and the cats were sleeping in a cute way, so I'm sharing that with you.
#caturday #cats #rainbow #hawaii
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2026-01-16 00:29:13 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn that's fantastic to hear! I'm glad you found it interesting and valuable

2026-01-16 00:28:27 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn yes, I mistyped

2026-01-16 00:27:56 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn ha! How was chaos camp btw? 😊

2026-01-16 00:26:38 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn that's my usual strategy 😅

2026-01-16 00:25:10 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn I guess so 😅 but he's also extremely thin-skinned and will act like a hurt child if you are honest with him! It's extremely unpleasant and one of the many reasons why 2 of his 3 children don't talk to him. (And the only reason *I* talk to him is because my mom blackmailed me)

2026-01-16 00:22:34 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn that's very diplomatic! He'd probably push back on both fronts (some variant of "everyone does it" etc etc), but I can try. He's the kind of person who will tell me about a movie he recently saw, tell me to watch it, and then if I say that it's not really my thing, will say things like "why not? It was very interesting" and then I have to justify my lack of interest in his movie 😵. In other words, he's not the kind of person who takes "no" or "no thank you" without a fight. 🫩
But I appreciate your advice.

2026-01-16 00:14:11 GMT

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@nprofile…3kqn yea

2026-01-16 00:09:14 GMT

Request for advice:
My dad (retired for ~15 years) told me the other day that many jobs these days want "experience with AI" and that I should consider taking an online AI course so that I could put it on my resume 🫩. Now he's emailing me links to AI courses.
Any advice for uhh gently rebuffing him on this?
My mom also secretly gave him a copy of my resume (she asked if she could see it after I applied for a job at the end of last year, and I told her I didn't want my dad's feedback because it's always extremely nitpicky and useless and she promised it was just for her own interest and that was apparently a lie.) Anyway, he returned it with helpful edits like "lie about your dates of employment so that it looks like you have fewer gaps in your resume", and a question mark next to the word 'wiki'. 🫩
So this is someone who thinks he's in the know, but has no idea what's going on...
#family #advice

2026-01-14 20:25:45 GMT

i've upgraded from lubuntu 22.04 LTS to lubuntu 24.04 LTS. so shiny!
congrats to the lubuntu team for making an upgrade experience that didn't break my system. i'm truly grateful!!!
@nprofile…guqc 😍 💻 💗
#lubuntu

2026-01-12 19:49:53 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 got it.
now that i've read the content, it makes me think, for a woman to get to the top of the political system in mexico, she would HAVE to be good at being an old man whisperer, no? 😅

2026-01-12 19:18:04 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 whatever you quoted is showing up as "post unavailable"

2026-01-11 21:33:21 GMT

request for advice regarding family (for a person who's completely scarred from having a difficult family life growing up): how to stop seeing family as a burden? (like, the entire concept of "family".)
i grew up with difficult parents, where everything was governed by sacrifice, burden, obligation, etc. no one was happy, but everyone was trying hard. after trying really really hard to make my parents happy for many years, i realized that there was nothing i could do to make them happy, so i stopped.
i now live very far away, have my own life, and rarely see them. i still talk to them on the phone a fair bit (and it feels like a burden), but i can manage it.
recently my mom came to visit for a week, and as usual, i put my life on pause and spent all my waking hours taking her around and making sure she was happy. she was staying in the guest room of a friend of mine (who has a good relationship with her family) and my friend was shocked to hear that i would be relieved (instead of sad) when my mom left. she honestly couldn't understand it. it left me feeling guilty and ashamed.
but the truth is that i find it exhausting to be around my parents because it's 100% about their needs and i just have to meet their high expectations or fail. maybe it sounds selfish to say "when i'm with them, it's not about me", but that's exactly what i don't like about family: that it's just obligation. i don't feel anything positive afterwards. i guess i feel some satisfaction from a "job well done" after sending my mom back home with her having had a nice vacation, but that's all it is: i just feel like i fulfilled my duty and now i can go back to my life. i guess that's a horrible thing to think, right?
anyway, my friend can't believe that i see my parents this way. i also see having children this way: that it's just a 20 year slog of obligation, sacrifice, work, and doing things you don't want to do, to take care of someone who will probably be ungrateful in the end.
i'm obviously scarred by my difficult experience growing up (I have CPTSD), and i'm ok with not having children, but i do wonder if there's a healthier attitude i can have toward the entire idea of family. if anyone has any ideas on how i can change my perspective, i'm all ears.
#CPTSD #family #advice #MentalHealth #DamagedGoods

2026-01-10 19:11:37 GMT

Happy caturday from Anza cat 😺🐈
#cat #cats #caturday
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2026-01-08 06:10:10 GMT

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@nprofile…yz28 the restraint of the populace is truly incredible. These fools don't even realize how restrained the populace is being, you know?

2026-01-07 23:01:48 GMT

I just watched this whole interview with Stephen Miller where he says that "international niceties" are all well and good, but really it's strength and power that rules the world....then he says "f yea we did" when asked about taking over Venezuela. When asked whether the US will or won't use force to take Greenland, he refuses to say, but also says basically "who would oppose us?" https://youtu.be/kLFkQbPWWDI
So yea, ole boy is feeling strong and hard. He's on top of the world! America can do whatever it wants, who would step up to stop us??
Famously, those who are drunk on power and feel invincible never face any comeuppance, right? It's not like there are any possible repurcussions to kicking the little guy when one is on top, right? What's the little guy gonna do to *you*? He's little, after all... And that's what being the big guy is all about, right? Just wailing on those below you and laughing in their face at how powerless they are... Right?
#USPol #power

2026-01-03 17:14:01 GMT

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@nprofile…kt0j that's always the issue with having an extremely wealthy neighbor with a huge plot of land. You never know when his nightmare attention will happen to hit your own small piece of jungle.

2025-12-28 18:18:58 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p is that ghoul in the first pic really Ryan seacrest?

2025-12-27 18:08:39 GMT

Happy caturday from Star cat's side eye.
#cats #caturday
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2025-12-23 20:00:39 GMT

now i'm down the percussion rabbithole (one of my favorite rabbitholes).
here's a video comparing xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, and glockenspiel, which are all ~idiophones~
https://youtu.be/SWi5EGygvEc?t=75
#percussion #music

2025-12-19 16:39:54 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p this is wild. And I'm assuming they're not offering a salary that would be appropriate for someone with all these skills.
When I see huge laundry lists like this, what that tells me is that they don't necessarily have a specific project for the person, but want a unicorn who will magically do whatever thing they decide (if they ever decide).

2025-11-29 21:13:21 GMT

Happy caturday from Anza, who has NEEDS!
#caturday #cats
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2025-11-29 17:56:29 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p the Harvard and NYT types are usually the last to figure anything out.

2025-11-26 02:10:05 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p i almost feel bad for hank green. he talks about so many different things...so every week, like a different group of subject matter experts destroy him. 🤷

2025-11-20 19:28:02 GMT

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@nprofile…xf5c @nprofile…9ld8 o was 100% certain that this was a fake image, but no. it is real.

2025-11-18 07:00:16 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p what happened?! Or just another mystery freakout that will probably swing the other way in a couple days?

2025-11-14 22:40:28 GMT

Rainfall from the last ~24 hours.
#hawaii #puna
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2025-11-14 07:14:22 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p but if one is a sharp and good software person, wouldn't you rather come up with your own data models and logic and architecture and functions? I just don't get it.

2025-11-14 07:09:32 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p Jesus Christ...I wonder how that place is doing these days ...
I feel like I would just give up at a certain point! I honestly don't know how one can reason about AI generated code...

2025-11-11 03:33:47 GMT

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@nprofile…0fmu lmk what you think. i watched the first two eps.

2025-11-09 19:23:19 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p it's a really shitty situation. you have to hustle up clients yourself, or develop a specific niche in programming that not many others have (and then become very good at it), or create some popular libraries, or hustle and network in person, or create a business around some software product you create. if you just want to get hired for a job and do that job - i think it's incredibly difficult if you don't know people.
this landscape is one of the reasons why i am retraining out of tech - because i just want to get hired to do a job, and i am terrible at networking.

2025-11-01 21:06:24 GMT

Snapshots of Halloween in Hilo last night, including me in my costume. I was a sort of ~sea queen~.
Had a lot of fun, didn't get rained on too much, saw a lot of fantastic costumes, and made it to bed by 10pm! 😸
#halloween #hilo #hawaii
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2025-10-30 19:09:55 GMT

"Modern climate change is 27x faster than historic global warming mass extinction events": https://schampton.substack.com/p/modern-climate-change-is-27x-faster
Featuring one of my least favorite graphs (shown below).
This is for anyone who wants to compare current warming to periods of warming in the past.
As the author writes: "Climate change during these past events, considered rapid in geologic time, would have scarcely been noticed by animals on the ground. Animals did not go extinct by dropping dead; they just had a lower reproductive rate such that their populations slowly declined until none were left." So yea, all us animals noticing climate changes within our lifetime - this shows just how different the current changes are compared to previous periods of warming.
#ClimateChange #climate #science #ClimateDiary
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2025-10-30 17:47:27 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p aww, post was removed

2025-10-30 04:48:50 GMT

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@nprofile…0fmu omg i had cheesecake for my bday too! and so did my sister in law. maybe it is the year of birthday cheesecake ^-^

2025-10-29 18:21:33 GMT

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@nprofile…0fmu did you have a nice bday? ^-^

2025-10-29 04:29:25 GMT

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@nprofile…0fmu happy birthday! 🥳 🎂 🎈
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2025-10-28 01:58:13 GMT

dear bookstodon,
i was hoping y'all might be able to provide some recommendations for scifi audiobooks.
to give you an idea of the kinds of books i like, here are a few of the scifi audiobooks i've enjoyed listening to in the last couple years:
"the body scout" by lincoln michel
"venomous lumpsucker" by ned beauman
"finna" and "defekt" by nino cipri
"midnight project" by christy climenhage
"isaac steele and the forever man" by daniel rigby
"floating hotel" by grace curtis
"when we were real" by daryl gregory
"escape velocity" by victor manibo
"camp zero" by michelle min sterling
"long way to a small, angry planet" series by becky chambers
thanks for any suggestions! 💗
#bookstodon #books #scifi #audiobooks

2025-10-25 02:01:59 GMT

A few mornings ago, Mauna Kea was half red and half blue! It was so cool.
#hawaii #MaunaKea #nature #photography
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2025-10-21 08:27:14 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p probably mostly smelled like cigarettes and heavy cologne 🤢

2025-10-18 08:07:46 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p anyway, this is part of the reason I decided to leave tech... I was applying for remote jobs as a not-particularly-special candidate and I just saw the writing on the wall. I'm re-training in wastewater and so far I'm enjoying it much more than I ever enjoyed computers! Still don't know if there will be a job at the end of my course, but at least it's based on a local need and is not really in danger of AI takeover.

2025-10-18 08:03:56 GMT

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@nprofile…9j4p if you know people who can hook you up with work, it can be quite lucrative. But if you're just a connection-less person without a well-known project or body of work (especially if you're applying for remote jobs), I think it's extremely difficult.

2025-09-09 20:35:30 GMT

could someone remind me how to search my own posts? i had it saved at one point, but i can't find it now 😖
#fediverse #mastodon #TechSupport

2025-09-06 17:41:49 GMT

Happy caturday from Tiggy :}
#caturday #cats #cat
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2025-08-27 19:08:33 GMT

my dad is supportive of my new wastewater education journey (he respects the engineering part of it and has a newfound appreciation for water).
my mom is not happy because she thinks it's "gross" and that i'm her princess*, and "what will i tell my friends, that my daughter works with garbage?", but she is happy because she can once again ask me "how was school today". i'm one of those sullen children that stopped telling my parents anything about my life around age 13 (they are not safe recipients of that kind of info), so being able to ask a sullen child "what did you learn in class today?" is a gift for the parent.
as for me, i'm fine. adjusting to a much busier (for me) schedule. i'm used to having 95% of my time to myself, so it's an adjustment. also trying to figure out how to stay engaged in online classes.
pop quiz: what are the things that must be considered when coming up with possible alternatives to a new municipal wastewater facility? answer: uhhhh....population growth? let me check the reading... 😖
* the princess thing is super weird and i've only recently realized that this really is how she imagines me to be. which is bizarre, because i'm quite schlubby, enjoy digging in the dirt, don't mind living in my shack in the woods, hate being in positions of power over people, don't have a taste or longing for fancy things, try not to see myself as being above others, don't particularly value wealth, and usually i'm not particularly clean. i *do* enjoy leisure time, but i don't expect anyone else to provide for me...
anyway, i guess this "princess" thing is one of the reasons she's so disappointed in me in general: when you imagine yourself as the queen and imagine your daughter as your perfect princess, it would certainly be a big disappointment to end up with ME. sorry mom, i am what i am: much more of a forest hag than a pretty princess.

2025-08-26 04:37:01 GMT

First day of school selfie. I'm in school for the first time in almost 20 years! This is what I'm studying: https://www.hawaii.hawaii.edu/onsite-wastewater-treatment-systems-specialist
I was very nervous before the first class, but the teacher was nice and enthusiastic and the other students seem chill.
I am interested in the material, but now I am faced with the reality that I don't really know how to study. I'm reading our homework that has the steps for wastewater facility planning and thinking "yep this makes sense", but if you asked me to tell you the steps, I have no idea. So I guess I have to make flashcards or something? How the heck did I ever get through school??? 🫣
#learning #education #BackToSchool #AdultStudent
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2025-08-24 01:09:51 GMT

found in a book called "the new world of plastics" by alfred lewis, from 1963: a concept for cities covered in plastic domes.
i thought that was a fascinating idea, so i made a digital collage adding my own vision on top of the bw concept drawing.
here's the text that went with the original drawing: "Someday new cities could be built under huge plastic domes. The people living in them would have what scientists call a controlled environment. The cities would be air-conditioned to give them clean air and a comfortable climate year round. Rain, hail, and wind would not affect the domes. On clear days sunlight would shine through the plastic. On cloudy days big lamps near the top of the dome would provide healthful artificial sunlight.
Whole new domed cities might first be built in cold arctic lands or hot tropical ones, where it is now too difficult for large numbers of people to live.
Before engineers build completely new domed cities, they will build domes over parts of cities that exist today. Perhaps the downtown part of your city or some of its large shopping centers and parks will someday be covered with plastic domes to make it easier for people to shop, work, and play."
you can check out the full book on @nprofile…5r3x : https://archive.org/details/newworldofplasti0000lewi
#art #collage #plastic #plastics #environment
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2025-08-20 03:07:51 GMT

Waipiʻo Valley last week ❤️
#hawaii #nature
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2025-08-18 20:00:36 GMT

what's in those delightful sea breezes that we all love? microplastics!
yes, that's right: "Sea breeze sweeping ocean plastic pollution back to land, study finds" - https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/microplastics-ocean-breeze/
i made a digital collage to go along with this news. enjoy!
#plastic #pollution #ocean #collage #art #science #microplastics
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2025-08-17 19:48:10 GMT

For any folks on the big island, you are invited to the upcoming concert of the gamelan of the molten blossom!
it'll be in hilo at the EHCC on first friday, sept 5, at 5pm. the concert is free and i'll be performing! we have a bunch of new pieces prepared and we're very excited to share them with you 💗 .
#hilo #hawaii #BigIsland #music #gamelan
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2025-08-05 16:36:21 GMT

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@nprofile…r4hk @nprofile…s8yn there's actually a great novel called "finna" by nino cipri that's about the mysterious things that lurk around the bend at an IKEA...

2025-08-04 18:07:32 GMT

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@nprofile…8x59 @nprofile…du53 this is that dark math wizardry i was warned about, isn't it?

2025-07-31 03:01:17 GMT

Afternoon kitten time ☺️
#cats
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2025-07-06 20:53:21 GMT

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@nprofile…5dva @nprofile…vyme being in a car abstracts one from the world outside. You can't hear the noise of the highway, you can ignore the outside conditions of rain or heat. You can't tell how difficult it might be to navigate the built environment on foot. Anti-relational is exactly right. And in many parts of the country (like the rural area where I live), it's very difficult to live without a car.

2025-06-28 17:51:08 GMT

Happy caturday 😽
#caturday #cats
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2025-06-25 01:06:37 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 i'm getting out of the tech biz and getting into water remediation. it's a new course and they're very eager for people to apply: https://www.hawaii.hawaii.edu/onsite-wastewater-treatment-systems-specialist
it's a big issue locally - there are a lot of homes with cesspools, and those cesspools leak human waste into the waterways and ocean 🤢 . there's a state law that says that by 2050, all cesspools must be converted to septic or other systems, so the colleges have grant money to train people to assess people's current cesspools and design new septic systems. right now, this work has to be done by an engineer, and that's creating a bottleneck because there aren't enough engineers to do all the work. so they are training people who can do this onsite evaluation and new system design - people who don't have to be full engineers.
i met with the project coordinator and they seem very well-connected to the local water field and are keen to place people in jobs after they get the certificate.
i've been thinking about getting out of the software biz, and this seems like a good opportunity that helps local environmental issues and also seems somewhat AI-proof (because you still need a person to go to the person's house and see what their current setup and landscape is like, before you can design the new system).

2025-06-25 00:49:12 GMT

i'm planning on taking a few classes at hawai'i community college in hilo this fall, and am currently in the registration/financial aid process.
i sent an email with a question to the financial aid office and got an automated reply saying they'll get back to me in 3-5 DAYS. now THAT is island time 😆 . good thing it's still pretty early and i have some time left till classes start.
#hawaii

2025-06-10 19:52:53 GMT

art announcement: i'm very happy to announce that i have graduated from zine to MEGA-zine!
"keep dreaming of structured living" is a 44 page full-color magazine of original collages on the theme of living in space and living under the ocean.
from the back cover:
"The year is 2025. The Amazon burns. Time is running out. How will humans live? The world is desperate for solutions.
In this magazine, you'll discover wondrous new opportunities for continued human life! Living with the dolphins, your own personal pool on Mars, exploration without limits, and so much more.
Join artist Marina Kukso on this new visual/textual adventure into the possible and ask yourself: is this a world you want to inhabit?"
it's available on etsy right now for only $10, so please consider getting one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4316916338/mega-zine-keep-dreaming-of-structured
❤️ 🌌 🌊
#art #collage #space #solarpunk #SF #scifi #clifi #fiction #dystopia #environmentalism #zines
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2025-06-07 20:26:27 GMT

Who are the artists who let nature do the artistry?
For example, pic 1 is a pattern on cardboard where a slime mold grew and then died (when I dried the cardboard out in the sun). Pic 2 shows the same kind of slime mold when alive.
The mark it left is beautiful in my opinion. Many artists (including myself) are very inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Especially here in hawai'i, the reason you see so much art depicting the landscapes and flowers is because they're so beautiful and edifying. By attempting to make art of the natural world, we're honoring its beauty and hoping to share it with people.
But in my art, even as I seek to honor and convey the beauty of nature, I always feel like I'm falling short of its actual beauty, complexity, and ability to affect the viewer. And it's not just about my poor technical skills.
So this (along with the many beautiful things found in nature, from delicate songbird nests, to tiny mushrooms, to the trails left by little critters in downed logs, to the ever-changing nature of waves) is what led me to initially wonder about art that lets nature actually create the marks.
So if you know of any artists who work this way, I'd love to hear about them.
#art #artists #nature
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2025-06-06 22:25:13 GMT

My long, difficult period of catlessness is over! Now I have kittens 🥰🥰🥰
I already love them very much and feel very lucky to have them.
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2025-05-22 16:32:02 GMT

Apparently it's world biodiversity day. I used to have a hard time understanding why biodiversity was important, but I learned a lot from this bill Nye episode (I especially liked the Jenga demonstration): https://youtu.be/tx40NhM8hqM?si=YIXR5nTwKAZnSOwU
#biodiversity #nature #WorldBiodiversityDay

2025-05-17 20:25:45 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 he really is an excellent science communicator

2025-05-17 20:24:11 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 I hope they have him a buddy so that when he went "wait was I on 4567 or 4566?" The buddy could confirm.

2025-05-13 01:29:15 GMT

Work in progress: I'm not normally one for moodboards, but I felt the urge to make a large botanical-themed collage in the moodboard style.
This is incomplete, but the main elements are there.
I have a bunch of dried, pressed flowers that I'll stick everywhere. And of course washi tape embellishments will happen.
It's not as creative as many other collages, but really I just wanted to get a bunch of images onto the page and didn't want to spend excessive time arranging things. This art is just for me.
As if I'm not already surrounded by enough plants lol! I gotta remind myself what I'm working towards 💓
Oh, and in the photo, you can see the size of it based on my feet at the very bottom.
#wip #art #collage #plants #gardening
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2025-05-13 00:10:44 GMT

A banyan tree growing on top of the ruins of an old sugar mill that shut down in the 1900s.
Located on the farm of @nprofile…4mp2 's friend.
Here's a history of the mill and plantation it was a part of: https://www2.hawaii.edu/~speccoll/p_kauhut.html
It's in a very remote part of the island. It's hard to get to today, and I can't imagine how hard it was to get there back in the early 1900s. But that's how profitable it was to farm sugar.
Colonials established plantations in the middle of the Pacific ocean, on other people's land, growing a plant not from there, bringing in laborers from various other countries, and shipping the output to other places. All of this was vastly profitable, until it wasn't, and they shut everything down and left. That's extractivism. The banyan (another non-native plant) has the last laugh.
#hawaii #history #plants #sugar #colonialism #empire #labor #ecology #agriculture
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2025-05-08 18:17:42 GMT

"I've long maintained that the threat from AI to workers isn't that AI can do your job – it's that an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job" - @nprofile…qz4x
https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/07/rah-rah-rasputin/#credulous-dolts
#tech #AI #ML #labor

2025-05-05 00:30:00 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 what a neat idea! You just need a catchy hashtag.

2025-04-24 18:17:01 GMT

trail cam pics of my night cat, who i've never met in person. he's such a pretty boy!
i'm slowly moving his feeding area closer to my main cabin (it started out near cabin 1.0, which is now used for storage only). i'm moving it about 3 feet along the trail every few days. so far we're about halfway to the main cabin. maybe one day i'll meet him 😅
#cat
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2025-04-22 18:30:59 GMT

y'all, they re-did oblivion in unreal engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFJ3PZuAjK4
insert "take my money" gif here.
i hope they didn't change any of the music!
#oblivion #games

2025-04-15 21:51:03 GMT

"Their wives protected them from interruptions; their housekeepers and maids brought them breakfast and coffee at odd hours; their nannies kept their children out of their hair. Martha Freud not only laid out Sigmund’s clothes every morning, she even put the toothpaste on his toothbrush. Marcel Proust’s housekeeper, Celeste, not only brought him his daily coffee, croissants, newspapers and mail on a silver tray, but was always on hand whenever he wanted to chat, sometimes for hours. Some women are mentioned only for what they put up with, like Karl Marx’s wife – unnamed in the book – who lived in squalor with the surviving three of their six children while he spent his days writing at the British Museum.
Gustav Mahler married a promising young composer named Alma, then forbade her from composing, saying there could be only one in the family. Instead, she was expected to keep the house utterly silent for him. After his midday swim, he’d whistle for Alma to join him on long, silent walks while he composed in his head. She’d sit for hours on a branch or in the grass, not daring to disturb him. “There’s such a struggle going on in me!” Alma wrote in her diary. “And a miserable longing for someone who thinks OF ME, who helps me to find MYSELF! I’ve sunk to the level of a housekeeper!”" - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/21/woman-greatest-enemy-lack-of-time-themselves
For more on this subject, I recommend the book "who cooked Adam Smith's dinner".
#feminism #patriarchy

2025-04-07 08:32:54 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 fascinating 🤔

2025-04-07 08:31:52 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 it really is ridiculous how much of the various systems all around us expect that one has a stable phone number and phone.

2025-04-02 19:17:41 GMT

A clucking cardboard box at my post office. (Chicken delivery)
#hawaii
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2025-04-02 02:14:36 GMT

Challenge for authors of sf/fantasy/mystery/horror/thriller books: go a whole book without a single character saying "who ARE you?!" 😅
#writing #books

2025-03-30 19:33:15 GMT

hi friends, i am excited to share with you a new art project i've been working on for quite some time!
it's a collage series called "propriety and grace: images of women".
TLDR: cute animals wearing elegant kimonos on beautiful orchid backgrounds.
available here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HawaiiInks
story behind the series: i found the book "Japanese Kimono Paper Dolls" by Ming-ju Sun (published in 1986) in a thrift store & thought "i just have to use these in an art project." i decided to put these elegant kimonos on animals. at the same time, i found the book "Orchids: Wonders of Nature" by Takashi Kijima (published in 1987), and the photos turned out to make perfect backgrounds.
the title of the series ("grace and propriety: images of women") comes directly from the orchid book, where many of the orchids are described as women at various stages of life, and as various kinds of beauties (it's kind of weird). anyway, i thought it would be funny to call this series that features 0 women "images of women", but they *are* full of grace and propriety, imo! and in kimonos, they do all become ~ladies~ 😄 .
i am very happy with how these came out. i worked on them for quite some time, getting them just right, and i think that you will be happy to have any of them hanging in your home, office, etc., or given as a gift.
thank you for your support and please RT if you think your followers might be interested 💗
#art #collage #orchids #orchid
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2025-03-22 01:58:01 GMT

Thinking about that time my boomer neighbor told me that I'd have an easier time in life if I just tried to fit in more. That's like telling Wednesday Addams that she might want to try fitting in more. I resisted telling her "oh that ship sailed a long time ago, friend." I don't even think it's possible for me to fit in, but also, why??
That was always my big question, even in high school. Why would I *want* to look like and be like everyone else? That's boring as hell.
Anyway, it was an interesting insight into her MO. I hope that her efforts to fit in have brought her whatever benefits she hoped it would.
Also, I recently watched this video with Korean teens meeting "women you can't see everyday" and it's like ... A curvy gal, a weight lifting gal, a tattoo gal... And at the beginning, all of the teens say that they basically never see different-looking people. Can their area really be so uniform?? https://youtu.be/gY3uaKdvtb0?si=bBAxwS_4M4_L9OU5

2025-03-21 18:07:51 GMT

The NYTimes did a "36 hours in..." Travel segment on Hilo 🤯: https://archive.ph/BQd74 (free link)
#travel #hawaii #hilo

2025-03-05 20:58:08 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 i'm good at interviews and have been very lucky that i've gotten chances to work on advanced topics... i keep hoping that i'll "live up to the challenge", but that has not always happened...

2025-03-05 20:14:44 GMT

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@nprofile…du53 of course, but i've mostly been thrown in way over my head with no guidance or support.

2025-03-05 18:45:31 GMT

At my next job, i hope to not be in over my head for the entirety of the job.
i've had a number of jobs where i was in the deep end, with no guidance, no support, and where the work required was way over my abilities going into it. in all those cases, i developed serious anxiety (which famously blocks calm thinking and reasoning through a problem) and drowned. maybe others might've been able to rise to the occasion and succeed in those situations, but i didn't. so this is why i hope to not have a job in the future where i constantly feel like i'm way in over my head.
#tech #work #labor #jobs

2025-03-05 17:55:15 GMT

dang, bernie had a pretty fiery and clearly-stated response to yesterday's non-state-of-the-union: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlrQKv1vN_4
and yet the democratic party did not put him up to give the response yesterday. it's almost like they don't actually want to properly oppose the president's plans. hmmmm 🤔
#USPol

2025-02-24 21:53:17 GMT

Sobriety sux, except for all the exceptional benefits to physical/mental/emotional health ... The ability to not feel like you're in a nightmare loop of using and shame... The ability to feel like you're actually possibly maybe able to move forward in life... The ability to not feel chained to an addiction and feeling like you can't handle life without the addiction. So many benefits!!!
It's pretty annoying to have to put one's health first, but for me, things rapidly fall apart if I don't make health a priority. Like, I can't cut corners with health...no matter how much I try 😅
#addiction #recovery

2025-02-23 06:41:00 GMT

Campfire and stars 🥰
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2025-02-22 19:05:56 GMT

Boy oh boy oh boy: "Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding" - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/22/bird-flu-virus-trump
#BirdFlu #H5N1

2025-02-21 23:44:17 GMT

Mauna Kea looked red in the morning light this morning 😊
#hawaii
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2025-02-16 20:00:53 GMT

This morning, for the first time since the beginning of the fitness journey, I woke up and thought "I'm gonna go jog, I'm gonna come back, and then I'll do the rest of the day." Which I consider a big win, because it means that my brain treated jogging as a default instead of an option (like, "should I or shouldn't I, I don't want to, but I do," etc.).
So I'm very happy that I had the brain on board this morning. The body is, of course, still struggling, but that's what the fitness journey is about. And the brain is really the important part: if the brain doesn't want, then nothing happens.
Also, here are the stunning cattleya orchid blooms that I get to see at a neighbor's place at the terminal point of my jog (the place where I take a breather and then head back) 😻. Seeing these orchids is my treat for getting to the terminal point.
As an aside, I probably have the CPTSD symptom called "mood dependent behavior", which means that you mainly do things only when you feel like it, and you have a very difficult time developing habits or getting yourself to do things when you don't feel like it. Working on the "mood dependent behavior" thing is the current big thing I'm working on with my CPTSD. Not easy, but I'm trying. Just a little bit every day.
#CPTSD
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