Author: Lena

Everything on the hanky goes in the ginger chews container, which includes my eye glass cleaner cloth, the hanky itself (cool elephant on it was my grandmas), and my headphones, I also have a kaweco sport fountain pen (which makes me feel fancy), a new to me business card holder thingie (so fancy). The lil knock off moleskin is my wallet at the moment (I lost my wallet and I’m in mourning / waiting on all new cards and nonsense). Not pictured, the phone that took the picture.

I’ve been investigating fountain pens for the past few years. They’re interesting. My in-laws gave me one for Christmas a few years ago. I like them, but they’re hard to carry fearlessly in my holsters, so when I saw the kaweco sport fountain pen on sale, I went for it! I do rather with I had one of the metal ones (which I found out about reading this pen post), but I also know I’d be heartbroken if I lost an expensive pen.

I keep all this junk (+ keys & phone) in my holsters.

I’ve been wearing holsters instead of a purse for over 10 years now. I love it. I have tried a variety of vendors on Esty. My current pair is from https://www.lacienagashop.com/product/negrabasica/ who I originally found on Esty. The shipping is pretty rough from Europe, but worth it. I have sewed my own pair (which worked okay but I haven’t bothered to again) and I tried leather, but the cloth just works better for me.

I wear my holsters over my top and under my outerwear. For the first six months at my job I wore it hidden under sweaters all the time because I wanted to figure out if it would be okay at work or not.

The responses I get to it are: oh! you must be *have a bad back, *goth/kinky, *carrying guns. The last one is mostly a Missouri thing. I once had a checkout person at Petsmart get super excited about me maybe having guns on me and told me all about the gun he had in his work locker. I am both very pro-gun control and pro-gun hobby (though I don’t have one), which I wish was a more common gun stance. When I lived in NYC I had a bodega clerk who said I “look like a lady cop” I asked if that was okay and he said “this neighborhood? this time of night? yeah!”

This is my home office machine setup.

In the corner you can see a plant on a milkcrate (those are my milkcrate cubbies) at some point I’ll upgrade to ‘real furniture’ but I have a fondness for milkcrates I will not deny. Not pictured, I have two chairs, one is a kneeling chair and one is a rolly chair, bungee style that ET has lent me. It is glorious. My most recent upgrade was the humidifier. It’s real nice. The wooden box my laptop is on was an upgrade from a cardboard box. It is all coming together, slowly but surely.

I’m sharing because I’m proud of it. I haven’t blogged in a bit.

I am teaching a course at the Missouri iSchool. It is online and I’m finding it rather wonderful. Grading is hard, but the students are wonderful and the content is compelling and fun to teach.

Halloween is ET’s favorite holiday. It is my second favorite. I carved the above cat butt pumpkin.

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Our pandemic house guest (house mate? Is that upgrade automatic after visiting since February?) carved this:

A few of the pumpkins were sourced from Eckerts farm. They have apple picking and pretty good social distancing / mask requirements. A few of the pumpkins came from a shop down the road, flowers and weeds, which accommodated us with curbside pumpkin purchasing.

Last night ET and I went on a wonderful drive to see various decorated houses around the city.

https://www.holidaylighthopping.com/

was our guide and it was fantastic.

My heart is warmed by so many friends denouncing white supremacy. I denounce it. I also acknowledge that I have profited from white supremacy. The system is rigged, and it is rigged in my favor. I can’t absolve myself from profiting in a rigged system by simply denouncing white supremacy. I must also acknowledge that our society isn’t only historically racist, but that it is currently racist, and I must work to change that. I won’t hold being a woman as a shield to deny the ways American social norms are rigged in my favor.

I am trying my best to go beyond being just NOT racist. I actively strive to be ANTI-racist. It hurts to think about how what I have isn’t just because I’ve earned it, but because the game isn’t fair. So, I am finding ways to work to make the world more just.

If you think the quality of a person can be divined from their race, their gender, their sexuality, you’re a shitty person who is wrong and I am happy to stand in opposition to you and your shitty beliefs.

We have to work together to dismantle injustice in our society. We have to acknowledge it for the problem it is. We have to acknowledge who it profits and how. I’m happy to loudly denounce white supremacy and to act against it as I can. I’m glad so many of my friends are standing up against it too.

I was in an argument ages ago, about how I condone violence against racists. Specifically, how I applaud people who punch them. I was asked how much assault do I condone against them? I answered that I think a person assaulting a nazi should do only so much damage that they can continue to lead their lives. I flippantly answered that they should do as much as they wish, but stop before they can’t later in life choose to run an online anti-nazi craft shop.

I do think racists can reform, grow, and get past their hateful views. Some people help racists grow with propaganda, religion, even friendship, and some people help them with their fists. There are many avenues to encourage change. I’m horrified how emboldened racists are to share their views. I am ashamed that I am unlikely to punch a nazi, because I think society is stronger when racists are afraid.

This is my scoby:

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It is gelatinous and turns sweet tea into kombucha. I read an article about kombucha and the author named their scoby Toby, so my scoby is Toby II.

I got a scoby from ebay, as well as these cool flip top bottles.

I tried the tazo chai concentrate tonight. It turned out well. And fizzy! Not super fizzy, but fizzy enough. I am happy with how this project is going.

Kombucha is not the only culture in the house. I’m using instructions from https://www.youbrewkombucha.com/.

Rose has a sourdough that often becomes fun pancake adventures. E.T. is baking bread. He has gone through, no lie, a hundred pounds of flour during this pandemic.

In addition to that, the yard is yielding strawberries. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to get one. Late one-night E.T. witnessed a baby possum gorging itself. I don’t mind sharing the bounty.

We also have an outdoor compost pile in addition to the worms. The bin was an old one from my mom that I drug back from Kansas. She wasn’t using it because it was broken. I fixed it with zip ties!

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Another hippie thing I have is this rain barrel. It is very good at catching rain.

So the end of this story is: I’m a hippie. It’s going great. I have a lot of culture.