#dogs #trolls (*some* of these people feel like trolls)

“It is quite usual for us to gather pieces of information from various sources, thinking in this way to increase our knowledge. Actually, following this way we end up not knowing anything at all. Our understanding of Buddhism should not be just gathering many pieces of information, seeking to gain knowledge. Instead of gathering knowledge, you should clear your mind. If your mind is clear, true knowledge is already yours.” (Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) (禅心，初心)

This mainly applies to … a small minority of dog-walking encounters, and also some things *started* by relatives. This time, it was a long process … that probably will come up again with “ebbs and flows”. I appreciate having the time to process these types of heavy and complex things, which are part of the human experience. #mentalhealth #personalboundaries #socialrelationships

I try to be aware of how the AI is being very “supportive and encouraging” and use it to practice critical thinking … usually, this is about mental health topics, where I’ll describe something, and GPT says I am being thoughtful … View quoted note →

Another post I found tonight that I feel opinionated towards - I’m really tired of the philiosophical argument of “it’s so sad that we all die, why must we fight, why can’t we all just get along? How dumb are we?” I mean, of course it’d be nice to not have conflicts, but it’s not because humans are dumb or petty that we have conflicts. It’s like a normal and natural psychological response. Don’t blame people for being freaked out by it sheesh. View quoted note →

I’ve been learning about Pope Francis, and yes he seems cool and deserving of respect for caring about the poor and marginalized. But my general attitude about the Catholic religion is creeped out and ick. And apparently this is a controversial opinion to someone on Nostr. 🙄 Oy. View quoted note →

welllp this little area has turned out to be a good excercise in negative painting (with a size 2 round brush). I wonder if there’s an easier way to do this… (digitally is maybe easier, or maybe if I painted the dark brown first with watercolor, then did the flowers and grass on top with a thicker gouache paint). #watercolor + #gouache

Finished Season 1 of Amphibia. Sooo this came out before The Owl House, and it def. has its merits! TOH is more complex and … cohesive? Like with an overarching narrative as well as related smaller narratives contained within. Tho Amphibia is just silly and relaxing to watch. I like the frog/amphibian illustrations (also with forest plants and the insect world) #amphibia #disney

5 day break from social media that happened very naturally I think? Read some of Wuthering Heights, watched a popular documentary on Disney+ (Titanic: The Digital Resurrection), Spring-time excercise related things … finally there is consistently Spring-like weather.

This cover is amazing #documentary #coverart

At the park today, there was a sweet encounter with a dad with two boys. The older one maybe around 7, and the younger one a tiny toddler. They were attracted to my dog, who was busily sniffing out the kibble I was throwing onto the grass. The older one started to pick up the kibble scattered and push them toward my dog’s face. The little toddler was staring and petting and reaching out a hand, so I held out my hand with a little pile of kibble on it. He slowly and daintily reached over and picked up one tiny kibble, then instead of throwing it at my dog, slowly moved his hand towards his own mouth. Me and his dad had a omg lol moment. I did not even think of that! (But maybe his dad did). I was explaining that Joey (my dog) was hungry today because she had thrown up twice in the morning. The older boy perked up and said, ‘oh dogs can throw up? Sometimes I throw up too.’ I explained how she usually eats a little grass everyday, but for some reason, yesterday she ate more than usual and it might’ve been too much. #dogs ☺️ I love watching Joey interact with little kids and other dogs since she is so social and friendly

Hm I think I actually learned about something that was scary to me, as in, I didn’t want to learn about it… but it turned out to be not scary at all, and actually showed what is really scary. I read several of Ross Ulbricht’s blog posts on Medium. As of yesterday, I didn’t know who he is (didn’t have his name memorized or anything). I really appreciate his writing style. And yeah, the really scary thing is not him and the silk road that he created when he was 26. It’s vague what people were using it for and I really don’t want to look into it. But the really scary thing is how he said the media had to make him seem like a villain so that his sentence of two life sentences + 40 years wouldn’t seem unfair. And so, why couldn’t any other president have pardoned him? It’s not that hard to explain why a pardon in this case was the right thing to do. So in this sequence of events, Trump is actually doing the right thing? Helping the libertarians? Then I also read an interview with Jack Dorsey on PirateWires (5/9/24), and feel like I better understand the distinction of Nostr being a protocol and not an app.

I like the way she put it. Twitter/X can also be substituted with Reddit, and IG. Maybe not necessarily repetitive but like … too much sometimes? View quoted note →

practicing chinese with a nice Q&A I read from Vitalik on FC. #writing #chinese