I have human babies and I have fur babies, but I also have… worm babies! Keeping my little wigglers warm and well-fed is part of my daily routine.
Behold my children

I have human babies and I have fur babies, but I also have… worm babies! Keeping my little wigglers warm and well-fed is part of my daily routine.
“I am just going outside and may be some time.”
Lawrence Oates, qtd. in Robert Falcon Scott, Diary, 16-17 May 1912.
When Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram launched, I was an early adopter. I remember when Facebook was limited to .edu email addresses, when Twitter mobile meant SMS, and when Instagram felt like weak-sauce Flickr.
Since the meteoric rise of the Big 3, I’ve been reluctant to get involved in other platforms. I’ve stepped back from social media more generally over the past few years, even before the towers of Twitter began to crumble. By 2019, I had deleted all my Facebook content and de-activated my Instagram account; and while I had set my tweets to auto-delete, I was still actively engaging with my Twitter community. The Elon take-, make-, and break- over pushed me over the edge and I stopped posting completely last spring. Many of my connections left the platform. Some are still there, but the exodus of so many is hard to ignore.
I am still debating whether to get back involved with Twitter, now that some of the dust has settled and those who stuck around are tweeting regularly again. In the meantime, I’ve joined Mastodon. I’m happy to be on a server hosted for library and museum folk. It’s definitely quieter. I’m still not sure I’m doing it right. I do love the content warnings. Even if it’s for things I’m OK with (e,g., politics), it makes it easier to skip over if I’m not in the mood.
In any case, you can find me glammr.us/@johnxlibris. See you there!
The winter garden is in! I have carrots, golden beets, celery, Tokyo bekana, onions, garlic, cabbage, spinach, and potatoes. The okra, peppers, and watermelon are still trucking along as well (such is garden life in a coastal zone 10b). In planter trays I have fledgling cauliflower and Brussel sprouts, but they are slow-going and I’m starting to suspect I’ll need transplants.
We are not supposed to live like this by Erin Remblance
“How can we care about species loss when we cannot name the species that live in our own community?”
My Saturday self versus my Sunday self by Tom Ellison
“…with the tail of Godzilla, the tentacles of Cthulhu, and the politics of Elon Musk.”
xQc is stealing content by LegalEagle
This is a fascinating rumination on the possible legal outcomes for YouTube reaction videos.
“my perpetual advice to new university students: go the fuck to class and go the fuck to bed. almost all student crises stem from not doing those two things”
abadidea on Mastodon
The last few weeks in the garden at chez johnxlibris have been magical. The blossoms on all my fruit trees and bushes are blooming, the late-winter flowers are in full color, and my raised vegetable beds are still producing a regular supply of carrots, kale, broccoli, and turnips.
A conversation my son and I had while cleaning out the dead foliage from these magnificent bearded irises this weekend.
Amiens: I know how to stop ghosts from haunting.
Me: Huh?
Amiens: Ghost school.
Me: How is that?
Amiens: Well, they would be in school and they wouldn’t have time to haunt houses.
Me: But what about on the weekend?
Amiens: They would be so excited to be in school that they would never want to leave.
You have to admire the adoration of being in school at this age. It comes so naturally and can slip away so fast.
“Human life is a very simple matter. Breath, bread, health, a hearthstone, a fountain, fruits, a few garden seeds and room to plant them in, a wife and children, a friend or two of either sex, conversation, neighbours, and a task life-long given from within — these are contentment and a great estate. On these gifts follow all others, all graces dance attendance, all beauties, beatitudes, mortals can desire and know.”
via “The Secret of Happiness: Bronson Alcott on Gardening and Genius“
Not all of these elements of “a great estate” may be for everyone, but for me, this reflection rings especially true. Moreover, the more time and attention I give to these things, the less need I seem to have for doom scrolling and social media.
A day full of wind and rain caused a number of my sunflowers to topple over. Their downfall brightened our table earlier than usual this year.