*academia's social answer to this:

[shrug]
[it's not like you will be held responsible for knowing anything outside of your own disciplinary discourse]

*WHY THIS SHRUG IS NOT FUCKING RELEVANT

because those of us here to work a problem are in fact actually trying to understand it

and 'the discourse' is a proxy and often a stupid one at that, but you forget, have forgotten, need to re-member in all of the senses of that word, that a stupid proxy doesn't usually gesture toward a stupid **THING**

the thing, which is to say, bringing our best collective thinking to bear on the urgent puzzles of our time, THAT THING ACTUALLY MATTERS

it **matters** what folklore has to say about my project

because FOLKLORE actually thought about it

One of the (many) maddening things about finding oneself ensconced in academia as a problem-centered scholar is the almost unbelievable difficulty of getting the relevant lit together, so aggressive is the discipline-by-discipline knowledge bounding

and I don't even mean, 'it takes a long time,' though it does, or 'it makes lit review very challenging,' though it does that too

I MEAN THAT ALMOST FOUR YEARS IN I AM STILL FUCKING **"DISCOVERING"** VEINS OF THINKING THAT ARE INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT

SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE HIDDEN FROM MY VIEW

(DISCIPLINE-TIED AS I NECESSARILY HAVE HAD TO AGREE TO BE)

UNLESS I IDENTIFY **EXACTLY** THE RIGHT SEARCH TERMS

WHICH IS HARD TO DO

BECAUSE TERMS OF ART ARE OBSCURE

UNLESS YOU ARE SOCIALIZED INTO THEM

He eventually departed for the upstairs, at which time I called after him that he needed to pick up his floor; he then displayed a bold commitment to death in responding "Bless your heart."

I don't even have a METAPHOR for what you are putting me through right now

--teen2, actual sentence ... followed by many others ... upon being informed that if he wanted to do barbecue sandwiches this week, he would have to use the rolls that we have [RATHER THAN MAKING POTATO ROLLS FROM SCRATCH]

Researcher achieved-trust levels:

0- you are left out of the meeting; all observation is outside-looking-in, public lens only
1- you get included in the meeting
2- you are again left out of the meeting, and instead the organization figures out how to just hand you the straight shit

this obviously does not work well if it's something where your participation (thinking, support, input, presence) is needed

but as a researcher, that is definitionally not the case

and obviously, I missed things I would have written down
and contextual details I might have captured to add some complexity or layers to things

but mostly
it would have been stressful
and hard
and I would now be sorting through a bunch of captured dialogue, trying to decide what is relevant

and instead I have, with high level urgency
exactly what was relevant to them
to share with me
and I am just really here for it

(and while I was waiting, I told y'all the story of the meeting yesterday and its magic, so look what can come into the world when we're not tied up zoom-observing other people's dialogue 😂 )

today a team forgot to add me to a meeting I was supposed to be in (researcher stuff; their suggestion) and then realized at the end, totally freaked out, and called to give me the notes

and I have to say
that having now discovered the magic
of NOT ATTENDING THE MEETING
and just being given the notes quickly after

I want more of this
in all venues
everywhere 😂

academic me: should I be talking about this here? it's fine in terms of the group I'm working with but aren't I supposed to, like, sit on this knowledge until it's more complete? lest I get scooped or something?

actual me: lmao

further thoughts: for the love of all that is good and sacred, PLEASE SCOOP THIS if you study material religion

if I can inspire even one person, especially academics OF ONE PARTICULAR GENDER AND ABIDING LACK OF ACCOUNTABLE RELATIONAL TIES WITH THOSE YOU ARE "STUDYING" AND THUS LACK OF A CLUE to say **FEWER STUPID THINGS **in print, I will just GIVE you everything I have

🙃

I already know that church, though its people, does deep, impactful, ESSENTIAL community care, in ways that you do not know about or see

But I confess that even I had no idea that could potentially organically extend to flood geography 🤯

What I already know, and wish you did, is that the progressive church, via its members who really do hold most of the power under our polity, works in small groups to solve community problems ALL THE TIME

It is, for real, the closest thing I have ever lived to a vision of how life COULD be with organization at smaller scales and focused on deep and wide thriving

It is, very truly, also how I know how incredibly intensive change work is, and also how tedious. How incredibly many meetings it takes. How what you think is the work, how you imagine and story it ahead of time, often turns out to be just the reward, one among many.

How you learn again and again that the actual work is the hanging in, the building and deepening of relationship, the agreement to care about other people even if you don't always quite like them, the willingness to be changed by each other's needs and hopes and witness.

I attended a meeting yesterday in which ten people in their seventies and eighties sat in a circle, wrote notes to themselves on papers they held in their laps, occasionally adjusted or wiped off their spectacles, and quietly deputized themselves to create a network of culvert checkers across a seven-town area.

I do not work with geographers, not at least in this context.

These are CHURCH people.

Church pillars. Church elders.

Who have just quietly and practical-scientifically decided that it's on them to fill some infrastructure gaps.

They are MAPPING THEIR PERSON POWER and then MAPPING THEIR POWER ECOSYSTEM ("ok, who knows the selectman over there") and then MAPPING THE WATERSHED AS IT INTERSECTS WITH HUMAN COMMUNITIES.

I was fucking floored.

It's not even what I was invited to come see.

RE: https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:t265ar3o23isdq67n5oiif6y/post/3mxsaa2grrs22

I mean, honk interpretation is not a definitive science ... but it kinda seems like bro is with the people 💗

At any rate, way to get it done, Toronto. RAWR. ✊🏻

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@0xabad1dea/117433142286370236

THIS IS THE WAY

hey all; gotta mute this one. Thanks for the great co-thinking.

One note: telling OTHER PEOPLE what is good and healthy for their bodies is probably overstepping your personal knowledge and also decency and I would recommend not! 😬😁

godspeed

I'm not into "pretend poor" but the affordability crisis is pretty intense for anyone who pays monthly bills. We are definitely paying attention; like yours, our margin is getting sucked toward serving someone else's. (This morning I held in my hands a small jar of mayo PRICED AT TEN US DOLLARS. AND THEN I PUT IT BACK. LMAO.)

Anyway, I'd love to hear your tips, tricks, and magical know how. I think we are in for quite a winter, northern hemisphere side.

And finally, there are some specific recipes that are amazing value for work involved/$ spent

This is why I posted my hilarious costo fries frittata 2 months ago and why I tell you I make amazing chicken broth with our saved vegetable scraps (big ziploc bag in the fridge, everywhere and always) every time I buy a rotisserie chicken or bone-in anything--because IT'S EASY, GOOD FOOD THAT IS ~ FREE

One hack: buy "split top chicken breasts"- your grocer/butcher can point them out to you. They are huge, bone-in, and you probably don't know what to do with them.

Here's what (trust me): Oven @ 350, Peel 4 carrots and 3 medium potatoes. Cut in thick slices (yes, THICK, the carrots, too). Put oil on a baking sheet- we like to use foil too, for easy clean up- put the carrots and potatoes on the sheet, flip once to coat, salt and pepper, put chicken on top of the veggies, salt, spice, oil on chix to taste, bake for like 50 min; BOOM. Amazing dinner for ten bucks. Leftovers. Bones for broth. 🙌

Do you have any idea how much food you are wasting? Did you know that is money into the trash?

It's easy to think you solve this by pledging not to ever waste food but in reality YOU SOLVE IT BY HAVING A FOOD BUDGET THAT FORCES YOU TO PLAN.

You will, I promise, waste SO MUCH LESS FOOD when doing so is what's coming between you and Friday night dinner and drinks at the place you love. You will HATE food waste. And you will pivot your thinking and buying to have less of it. This saves money. Real money. Possibly serious money, depending on your household.

We put ourselves on a food budget, with an eye toward both weekly and monthly, and then game the shit out of it. This takes some margin, but if you can set your goal where it's actually doable without suffering ... you want PLANNING and following through, not pain ... then you can make it flexible enough to reward yourselves if you stick to it.

I see people do this in ways that assume they are either super human or get off on being punished and I mean, whatever floats your boat, but I like to set it up so that we LIKE the thing, and I think we get just as good of results. So

*ANYTHING YOU ALREADY OWN IS FREE AND FAIR. Eat out of your pantry. Eat your freezer stores. Eat your leftovers. So much winning.

*Anything you can stretch farther, so long as people want to eat it, is also winning. (Do not push any limits as far as food safety and quality; jeez I hope I do not even have to say this ack. YOUR HOME EC TEACHER IS WATCHING YOU.)

*Extra money at the end= eating out AND TREATS

Some of ours ... I can't tell if these are manifestly obvious or things that are very habitual for me but maybe not so much for those raised differently or during different eras, so here goes

*think 'filler'- we serve things with meat IN them rather than, like, a cut of meat. Tons of ways to do this deliciously and healthily, from "hot dish" casseroles to one-pot stove top cooking to omelettes/frittatas to burritos and enchiladas

*We let the instant pot or crock pot do what it does best, buying cheaper, less tender cuts that need to be slow simmered for a long time, put them in with liquid and spices, and then enjoy barbecue sandwiches, chicken tinga, etc.

*We wait to plan meals for the week until we've gone to the store and seen what is fresh and cheap for both meat and produce, and then we build around that. This prevents disappointment if you can't get there in time to grab an advertised special, but does take some background cooking knowledge and self-restraint. We have those.

grocery store prices are absolutely off the hook bonkers and I'd love to hear how you're managing as well as you can

what are your best tips and tricks when things start to take this much bite out of your budget

to use a covid-era metaphor, we are not all in the same boat, but we are all in the same storm, and most of us are feeling it in one way or another

what adaptive hacks are you using?