This, That and the Other Thing

[shadowkat]

1. Did you know that the NYC Parks Department requires that you replace trees that you remove with at least 78 news ones? I'm not exaggerating. I am working on a project right now, where we had to remove six trees to remove mercury and other contaminates from the soil, which in turn required excavations and removal of trees. As a result of removing the trees, we are required to replace them with 78 new trees. I told this story to my mother, who revealed that FEMA replaced ten pines that had to be removed after the Hurricane, with 30 new pine times.

Do you know how much it costs to plant trees? Between $1,000- $2,000. The naturalist/environmentalist in me is thrilled and over the moon, the procurement officer is bewildered.


2. I don't like what is happening in the world at the moment. But there have been smatterings of good news...

* Twitter sued the US Government after it attempted to force Twitter to unmask a user identity, the US Government withdrew its summons and Twitter withdrew the lawsuit

This has happened a lot lately. The US government tries to get s tech company or social media service to invade the privacy of its users, the company sues, the government backs off. The last time was in 2016 with Apple.

* Nunn withdrew from the House Investigation Committee regarding the Trump Administrations involvement with Russia after it became known that he may have a conflict of interest. (Actually doesn't everyone in the GOP?)

* Bannon was booted off the National Security Council and out of Homeland Security. In retailation Breitbart and Bannon are attacking Jared Kushner, which honestly was just a matter of time considering Kushner is an orthodox Jew and a Democrate, and Bannon is ant-semitic white Supremicist twit.

I can't talk about Syria and Stockholm without getting upset. I hope people are okay. I know many aren't. This is horrible.

3. Happy it is Friday. Am slowly getting used to being solely on DW. I spiced up my reading list with various news feeds, including PHD Comics, Dilbert Comics, Smart Bitches Trashy Novels, Girl Genius Comics. Also trying to get news feeds from lj and blogger. I can't tell if that's working.

I can't be on LJ. And still grieving the loss. Was on it since 2003. It's 2017. That's close to 15 years. I imported most everything. Pics didn't come over, memories and links to journal posts that I loved didn't, nor did all my icons (don't have a paid account). I'm luckier than most people -- wasn't a member of any community, and not as active in fandom as I once was. So I didn't have to delete communities or other journals, or import items outside of my own journal. I can see why you signed the agreement in order to do that. And will delete after you've completed. If I were you, I'd have done the same thing.

Also, most of the people I'd friended on LJ have been gone for a while. Or we parted ways. Many just hopped over to FB, Twitter, and personal blogs. Some jumped to Tumblr and Pininterest, which makes no sense to me, I despise Tumblr. And I tried the nice version of Reddit/Tumblr but it also makes me crazy. I think I've tried just about every social media site out there. So 95% of my flist was dead journals or lurkers. That's why I rarely got comments over there.

Moving for me wasn't as big a deal as it was for a lot of people. I feel for you. I think this would have been a lot more painful in 2008, which is why I didn't do it in 2008, and in 2010. It's why I hung on after the platform was sold to the Russian Corporation. Even though I knew from a legal perspective that was a problem. It's also why I continued to cross-post after they moved their servers to Russia. I didn't want to leave, and I had less reason to stay than most.

Comments

[spikewriter]

For me, it was time, access and outside factors. I do Tumblr, but it's a very passive thing, mostly. I reblog stuff and mostly just enjoy the pictures. Facebook I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with, and that's used mostly for professional purposes.

So I kept missing LJ, where I could just natter to a small circle. But every time I went back, the friends list just kept getting smaller and smaller. I know some folks are hanging in, but I think it's time for a fresh start for me.

[kerkevik_2014]

I have to admit that it was sentiment, and maybe a sense of the pain I am feeling as I go through posts, that kept me on lj (sense said that the rush of people to leave, with real reason to fear in Russia and Ukraine should have said time to go) and see the 'deleted' ones that were not there before because the commenters have left, meaning I have only have of conversations. Most of them are for fics or birthday wishes posts, and I can promise you the loss is very, very painful.

I'm also trying to save, post-by-post the journal of a dear friend who died a few years ago; though I didn'd find out for certain until last year.

It's wrong to suggest these friendships you only online are not real; their loss proves very much otherwise.

This online world seems so ephemeral at times, but O! this is not always so.

kerk

[shadowkat]

So I kept missing LJ, where I could just natter to a small circle. But every time I went back, the friends list just kept getting smaller and smaller. I know some folks are hanging in, but I think it's time for a fresh start for me.

Similar experience for me as well. I just went through the access list imported from LJ to here (I'd imported everything when they moved the servers), and pretty much everyone on it had either stopped updating their journal sometime ago, or moved here. I'd begun to notice over the last few months that most of the people I interacted with were either cross-posting from DW or on both journals. I really don't have more than maybe three or four people that just post on lj, and they post maybe once in a blue moon, if that.

The friends list over there was dwindling. I noticed that this is not true for a lot of the people who are staying. But it was for me, so like you --- time for a fresh start.

Last year and this year are what I like to call watershed years...where there's a lot of upheaval and change on multiple levels. It seems to happen every 8 or 9 years for some reason.

[shadowkat]

I hear you...there are people I miss. One friend who died several years back, she was on both and FB.

And yes, we have a relationship online, even if we've never met face to face, or our only face is what we write and post on the journal. It's still a correspondence and in some respects we know each other on a deeper level here than we know those we do see face to face each day.

It's easier to write one's hopes and dreams and nightmares, and share obsessions on an online journal service than it sometimes is in person. I think part of the problem is people don't take the time to listen. They are too busy jumping to the next thing, to put themselves fully in that moment, and be mindful of the person sitting in front of them.

But here...sometimes it feels like people take more time to listen. Also, the stereotypes that are based on our physicality seem to melt away or are non-existent particularly if you post under another name.

[yourlibrarian]

Fascinating about the tree thing. I'd have to assume it's used as a deterrent so that if someone does remove trees they have exhausted every other possibility. Although you'd think there would be an exception for dead trees or ones that may be a hazard.

I think I've tried just about every social media site out there.

I haven't, but I agree that whatever its failings the LJ model is one I most prefer when it comes to both fannish and personal expression. The one thing I think would be great is if it was as simple to add images, both moving and still, at DW as it is at Tumblr, or to add links with a link field. It surprises me how many people don't know even a few bits of HTML coding these days and can't create links on their own, but also the ability, such as at Imzy, to link something and have an image and preliminary text come in on its own is something I expect a lot of people would find handy and user friendly. But otherwise platforms either don't do what I want, or worse, do things I don't want. Plus, unlike a lot of people apparently, I usually find myself with things to say and platforms designed for reactions and one liners don't suit me.

[shadowkat]

I'd have to assume it's used as a deterrent so that if someone does remove trees they have exhausted every other possibility.

That's what I'm thinking. But in regards to a state transportation agency removing trees to clean the soil...it seems a little excessive. I told my mother about it, she asked..."where are they going to put 78 new trees?" And I said, "that's the thing, they don't know. The Parks Service hasn't gotten around to providing a map or location for the new trees, because obviously 78 new trees won't fit in the same spot as six trees."

Although you'd think there would be an exception for dead trees or ones that may be a hazard.

Or just replace with the same amount. I mean replacing six to ten trees with 30-40 is a bit excessive. My mother said there were 30 tiny pines planted along the road way, but when they grew...was there going to be enough room?

Whoever came up with this was clearly not all that pragmatic.

The one thing I think would be great is if it was as simple to add images, both moving and still, at DW as it is at Tumblr, or to add links with a link field.

Agreed. I still can't figure out how to add my Costa Rica pics to the DW journal. LJ had more or less conquered that problem. (That's why I didn't like leaving LJ, because they'd resolved the pic problem.) DW -- it's really hard unless you are hosting your images on a external internet site such as flicker or Google Docs, from your hard-drive. And I'm not doing that. I'm not sure how to do that.

Also...would be nice to be able to add links without using HTML.

But otherwise platforms either don't do what I want, or worse, do things I don't want.

Yep. It reminds me of computers. Mine has all these ad-ons that I don't want. And the new ones do too. I don't want Garage Band. I'm not a musician. It takes up space. But there it is. The problem is in attempting to please everyone in particularly the geeky graphics folks, you please no one.

Plus, unlike a lot of people apparently, I usually find myself with things to say and platforms designed for reactions and one liners don't suit me.

Right there with you. I can't stand Twitter. I'm too verbose, apparently. I also prefer to discuss things at length then in a chatty one-liner. Haiku was never my favorite form of poetry, I tended more towards epic poems or prose poetry.
Even my comments tend to be on the verbose side.

At least DW allows you to say more in the comments section. LJ would cut you off at 4300 characters.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes! Where would all these trees go? I remember my mother would complain about how oaks would be clustered together in highway medians. Why oaks were used for that spot at all makes no sense, but especially planted so close together. She felt sure that tree nurseries were behind some kind of regulation because they would be the only ones who would profit from the number and likely replacements.

Well if you want to know how to do it from Google Photos, uploading is simple enough and if you use Google Mail you likely already have an account. Then you can use this site to get embeddable links: https://ctrlq.org/google/photos/ (The "share" option on Photos will only link people to your albums, there's no embed option offered) You just need to make sure your photos are in an album that has permissions set to "anyone with a link can see this"

Oh yes, bundleware. Actually that bothers me a lot less on computers (where uninstalling is easy) than phones. Removing those can be very difficult and you can run the risk of bricking your phone by the attempt. I can say my next phone will definitely be unlocked from the start because then it has very few pre-installed programs.

And yes, DW was designed from the start for the way many used LJ, so it automatically embraced long-form content.