Slowly, slowly, I can feel spring coming even though it’s still around freezing. But then a week ago it was 25 degrees colder so of course it feels a bit more balmy. I think that it also helps that there’s actually humidity again. The humidity gives the air a bit more of a scent and perhaps that is where the feeling comes from. But still…
Here’s this round of Three Good Things:
From my Life:
Well, of course I feel good that it’s getting warmer. Not warm enough that I’m ready to do full day bike rides – that’s still a while away, but it is warm enough that I’m not wishing with all my heart that it were warmer.
I’m also finding that I am re-learning how to make my technology work for me and be more and more self-hosted. The latest example would be that finally, after everyone saying for years I should look at Obsidian, I’ve gone and looked at it. For those not familiar, at its simplest, it’s a note taking application. I’ve started using it for that with daily notes captured from my phone or iPad that are just the random thoughts I have. Maybe it’s a task I need to add like booking a haircut, or a thought (“Can I use markdown to post to WordPress”), or an idea for an entry. The idea is to get the idea down before I forget it. Later when I sit at my computer I can find it a proper home. Or if I already have a file or list in Obsidian I can just stick it there from the beginning like I might with the thoughts I wrote down for this entry.
I also have moved my “read later” app to Obsidian. I used to use Instapaper and feed it from my RSS reader but why give all my reading data to someone else to train their AI and share with their advertisers? So I set up a self-hosted Wallabag instance which was great but being automated I found that some places I wanted to “snip” to read later had captchas set up to stop AI. So when I went to read them later instead of an article I’d get a captcha. No problem. Now, using the instructions here, I just set up Obsidian as my offline reader. Whether a substack, email newsletter or blog post I can put it in there to read. Then I can make a note or even a task to write about it, go make a comment on the blog post later when I have a connection or just mark it down as “interesting” to share with others later or keep to reread.
One interesting thing, though, is that the less algorithmic media I take in the more my intake changes. My social media on Mastodon doesn’t just throw in anyone, it shows who I follow in order or posts to a hashtag in order that I want to read. When I get to the end of that day’s posts I start seeing the old ones and I’m done. No infinite scroll. Over on Qobuz, I no longer have AI-curated playlists designed in part to meet my very specific needs (“Cycling motivation!”) but also to promote artists who pay for promotion. Instead I have albums and a few human-curated playlists. The result is a very different listening experience and I find myself listening to many more albums than before. It does show a slightly creepy thing, though. I do find myself sometimes wondering “What should I listen to” and I’m very aware of those moments I’d just say “Play Daily Mix Three” for example, and get whatever is fed to me. Abandoning the algorithm means rediscovering what I want to listen to. I suppose it’s like going from being at work where the cafeteria has a few choices and you figure out which one will do. But then you get home and get lost in choice. “Wait, I can have anything I want to make?”
Good Things in the World
Well this was a cool one to read: Why Solarpunk is Already Happening in Africa.
Solarpunk is a genre of speculative fiction that describes a future where we’ve solved a lot of the current environmental/resource crises through sustainable means, collaboration and ingenuity. The cool thing about that article is how it describes how in Africa right now many folks are getting electricity not from a grid (which would be difficult to make happen and not profitable for the electric companies) but from solar energy with microfinance, often managed by sustainability funding being used to pay for it. The result is that not only are people getting things like electric light to read or study by, they’re also getting rid of things like kerosene lamps and gas/diesel generators which is not just improving world air quality but often the air quality inside their homes. It might not sound like much but I can vouch from personal experience in at least one way.
When we lived in a yurt in the woods for two years, we used paraffin oil lamps for light. We had three which were enough to keep it bright enough to read a book or cook dinner by.
These didn’t smell much but all you needed to do was see how often the glass chimneys needed cleaning to know how much smoke was coming out. A few weeks after we moved to a house in a nearby town Daegan and I went back to the yurt to have one more night before completing our move there and as soon as we lit the lamps he began to cough. Much of the time we were there he had a bit of a cough and it was only then when we realized that it wasn’t just a lingering cold but likely the smoke from the lamps and, as we later learned, the oak wood we burned in the stove. He was, in a way, allergic to living in the yurt.
So if we had had solar power there for lighting it would have been a game changer and I love that this is now becoming something so much more common. Read the article if you need a little hope in your life. It’s a real view of a possible future.
Good You Can Do:
Volunteering your time is one of the best things you can do. There are almost always short and long term options wherever you may be. Some are for one-off events (charity bike rides, walks and runs for example) while others are longer term like the volunteering I do to help with adult literacy. It can be from extremely skilled and focused work like programming or translation to just sorting cans or carrying boxes for your local food bank
Many are online too so you can do them from anywhere you have a network connection. When I was doing a search to see what online opportunities there are I was surprised to find that you can even volunteer for some pretty important United Nations activities right at home.
I like reading your journal.
The lamps reminded of what my husband used to say about life in his village before electricity. Lams were lit inthe rooms. We have one such lamp ere, we got it from the attic. We don’t light it but it looks good.
They do look really beautiful. I remember coming in to the yurt from outside in the winter, the oil lamps would make the space look so cozy. Then, once I got in the wood stove made it feel cozy. There’s something about wood heat that I love. Central heat like we have means you’re always warm, but as a friend of mine used to say, wood heat warms your bones – and you can sit next to the fire and thaw out when you’re cold.