green (aka Corvus) @troodon@vulpine.club

"badly explain your fursona"

um... look, the *accurate* explanation is "post-ego-collapse refugee dinosaur from an alternate dimension, who used to be a Martian paleontologist," so

no, seriously: I WILL NOT ACCEPT FOLLOWS UNLESS YOU SEND ME A DM (or unless I'm already following you; follow-backs are auto-accepted). just say hi! if you're too afraid of me to send a DM, what the &*$^ makes you think I'm willing to let you see the stuff I post followers-only? sheesh.

account note: if I boost a toot that has a picture or gif that isn't captioned, I *pledge* to immediately follow it up with a non-@ reply describing the image.

also: if you can, please, PLEASE caption the images and gifs you post? if you can't, it's okay, but if you can, please do.

oh is it #introductions time again already?

* furry-adjacent saurian/dragonkin
* bitey, with feathers
* green hair
* #agender (they/them or zie/zir)
* currently ace/aro
* historically #polyamorous
* intermittent #writer mostly of #fanfic
* lifelong depressive disorder, currently mostly in remission
* #oneiromancer
* occasionally posts about "woo-stuff" (magic/spirituality/weirdness)
* frequently posts about wildlife (birds, coyotes, squirrels)
* 2 adorable #cats
* 1 adorable #spouse

if I had to stop my evil clone, I'd steal their meds and replace them with Krispy Kreme donuts. two weeks later they'd be a helpless, weepy mess.

Raziel made one trip almost all the way down the hall before abandoning ship. XD Nar's had four round trips so far and is now sitting in the box yelling at me "DO IT AGAIN, HUMAN SERVANT"

putting the cats in a box (one at a time) and pushing them down the hallway is good exercise and Nar at least really enjoys it, but I suspect it's very bad for my back in the long run.

ah--I just went and checked and yeah, young crow is cleaning up the peanuts and cat food off the railing. XD yay! I need to get into the habit of putting food for them out there regularly, especially in the cold months, so they'll come back in spring. ;)

I heard one of the young crows honking outside--that sound like it's trying to caw but has something stuck in its throat so all that comes out is a quiet "hhnk"--so I went and put some peanuts and cat food on the stair railing, since I can't put it on the porch rail any more (the catio blocks it). I don't think it's noticed the food, it's still up there in the tree hhnking and playing with a stick. is it thinking about nesting? making a tool? just... playing with a stick? who knows? XD crows are awesome.

the documented presence of "Solid Snake" implies that other states exist, potentially those of "Liquid Snake," "Gaseous Snake," and "Plasma Snake." in this essay I will

while walking down to the mailbox saw a crow being chased by some kind of bird of prey, very closely--the crow was calling and maneuvering through the trees, but the predator was right on its tail, about two feet behind. the raptor was larger than the crow, mostly grey, with dark "wrist" patches under the wing. it chased the crow down to a tree in the lower apartments, then three more crows showed up and began harrying it in turn. it flew off, but then came back for another pass and perched in the trees. then *another* of the same kind of hawk came in, also flying very low, this one being harried by a crow. it also perched in the trees, but I lost sight of both of them when I was coming up the hill.

I was frustrated that I couldn't figure out what kind of raptor they were, but now that I'm looking at pictures of them in flight I'm pretty sure they were ospreys! http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/baa/wp-content/gallery/florida/osprey-in-flight-wings-fully-spread-a-_a1c9623-lake-blue-cyrpess-indian-river-county-fl.jpg I know there's ospreys in the area, I've seen them before, but I've never seen them in direct conflict with crows like that. neat!

peeing in the shower:

I wrote this story over a decade ago, and it's once again seasonally relevant. for those of us on the outside: Rudolph's Refusal. https://archiveofourown.org/works/450644

it hurts because it's speaking truth to power. it hurts because Boomers have built a culture that looks to them as the wise ones, the gatekeepers, the elders with power, and the Kids These Days aren't playing the game right. it's not disrespectful or confrontational--it's a swerve, a dodge, taking a pass on the whole packaged cycle of obedience and rebellion.

and that's why it doesn't hurt their parents, us GenXers. I have to admit, if somebody said "OK Gloomer" (heeee) to me I'd have to shake my head, laugh a little, and say "yeah, you got me." we're used to being disregarded and silenced. we love you, our kids... but we know better than to try and take away your voice. even if we wanted to, we know we can't. we can give advice and support, and you can take it or leave it as you will. but you're the ones who are leading the charge to change the world right now. drive us to a brighter, better future, or drive us off a cliff... either way, we're proud of you.

OK, Millenials and Zoomers. you've got this. 💚

and when we did manage to rebel, it was seen as the usual childish rebellion against our parents. kids these days! it's a phase, we'll grow out of it and grow up to be just like the people who raised us.

but the kids these days... they have something magical: they have a voice, and the voice gives them power, and *they know it*.

their voices let them speak to each other about their world and the problems they see. it lets them look for solutions that aren't reliant on their parents or grandparents, not even for advice, not even for opinions. and make no mistake, they've noticed the *decade* of fucking "Millennials Ruined [X]" thinkpieces written by annoyed Boomers, the endless, relentless victim-blaming of slapping down the Kids These Days for the crappy situations they have to deal with and that they had nothing to do with creating.

this is Boomers reaping what they've sown. because this is Millenials saying "OK, Boomer... you've said your piece. we're aware of your opinion, we've heard your advice. now we're going to do *our own thing*. and you can keep talking all you want, but we're *doing* something. so why don't you have a nice big cup of sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up for a god damn change."

honestly, given the reactions that the phrase "OK, Boomer" have been getting in the media, you'd think packs of teens have been systematically targeting elderly people for brutal street muggings or something. but, no... it's just a phrase, and a mild one at that. why is it so upsetting?

because it's not rebellious or confrontational, which are things older people are used to getting from younger people. it's straight-up *dismissive*. and it's not something we, GenX, the first-generation children of the Boomers, ever had the chance to express.

our rebellion was taken away, repackaged, and sold back to us when we were too young to know what it was for or why it could be powerful. we grew up feeling helpless and hopeless, trapped in a world where we had nothing meaningful to say and nothing useful to do because Doom was Nigh--the ozone layer, nuclear war, the Y2K bug, politicians that hated us sending us off to wars for blatant lies. Boomers got to have their Swinging 60s--we grew up under the specter of AIDS. we were isolated from each other, so we never realized that we weren't alone. and when we were finally able to get our own voice out into the popular culture, we spoke obliquely of isolation, depression, inward-turned knives.

suddenly having a brain fart while tying your shoes and FORGETTING HOW TO DO IT

"wait does this loop... wait, there's two loops, how... what am I doing HOW DOES THIS EVEN WORK AAUUUGGGGH" *shoes end up tied in horrible messy macrame square knots that have to be cut off later*

unrelated:
WHY DOES MY ASS ITCH

Kids These Days (TM) *grow up* learning about these things. they can find this information pretty readily, and they can find confirmation that their experiences, their personal weirdnesses, are *real*, other people have them, it's a *thing*, and there are paths to take, to solve, enhance, elaborate these things. and they can find these confirmations coming from people literally *all over the world*. there are still many barriers of language, culture, economics, and technology, but Kids These Days *know* that these barriers exist, and they know that the people behind those barriers aren't Those Other People with weird unknowable lives--they're People, like them.

I don't know if I'm saying this clearly, and I know I've said it before, but I'm thinking about it a lot lately, and I just had to say it again. it's a thing. thank you for listening to my Ted Talk. :P

I find myself thinking a lot lately about how different my life would have been if I'd learned what the term "stone [lesbian/dyke/butch]" meant when I was in my 20s in Oakland. but it's like reflecting on how different my life would have been if I'd learned about "depressive disorder" or "bisexuality" in high school (yes, when I was in high school I literally never encountered the word or the concept of "bisexuality," I remember thinking I might be a lesbian because I was attracted to girls but I was more attracted to boys so apparently I was heterosexual /facepalm), or if I'd had more positive/varied exposure to BDSM when I was offered the possibility of "top training," also in Oakland. on the other hand, if I'd gone down any of those paths, would I ever have learned about my dragon-nature, or magic, or polyamory, or quoigender?

I *cannot overstate* how deeply, vitally important it is for us to talk about our different experiences, and for those experiences, that terminology, to be accessible to the wider world, *especially* young people, but really people of all ages. this is one of the reasons I am truly positive about the condition of the world, and about the coming generations.

also I have seen some Dune movies. which I now mostly don't remember. :D

my Dune post:

I've read a bunch of the Dune books but I mostly don't remember them. I think I liked the third? then I skipped way ahead and started trying to read like the seventh and found out they were STILL, like THOUSANDS of years later, cloning and regrowing Duncan Idaho, and I was like "WTF LET THE POOR BASTARD DIE"

also I read "Doon" at around the same time and thought it was *hilarious*. I'm pretty sure I was in high school. the only part I remember from that now is the very end when they said "and look for the other books in this exciting series: [don't remember the first one], Men, Women, Children of Doon, and Aroogah! Aroogah! Arrukus Arising!" and that last one made me laugh my feathered ass off. again: I was in high school. u________u

so we have six bear cubs; three are fluffy and fat, three are more sleek and less fat, so the plan is to hibernate the larger three and not hibernate the smaller three. this will be interesting; we've never tried separating out groups into hibernating and not hibernating, and as part of prepping the cubs that are hibernating they will have their food gradually reduced and then taken away and the lights turned out, which usually means a couple of weeks of them making LOUD pitiful "GRAAAAWRNK" noises. we don't know if the other cubs will react to that. should be interesting!

oh and we have another bobcat--this one an adult male, so he is *not* being put with the juvenile female (who is still doing great and on track for release soon-esque). he was hit by a car, but seems mostly okay; he'd just come in the day before, though, so he's still under very tentative evaluation.

ummm... 40 (!!) squirrels were released last week, not all at the same time or place (though that's a *hilarious* mental image), but we still have 40-50 squirrels. SQUIRRELS OMFG. the horned auklet was released fine... not really anything else exciting, lots of the usual suspects--gulls, pigeons, mallards, crows, chickadees, several eagles, an osprey. that's all, I think! :)

my own interactions with animals on Friday was very minimal; I cleaned stuff, and I caught a glimpse of a squirrel (yey squirrel) and a couple of pigeons (yey pigeons), but aside from that I didn't directly interact with any of the patients.

on the other hand, in the courtyard in front of the volunteer shed I saw a hairy woodpecker and I think a varied thrush hanging around, and also had a very unusual interaction with a scrub jay. I was coming up the stairs to the courtyard and heard a very odd bird call, and was very surprised to see it was coming from a scrub jay who was perched on a branch about two feet over my head. one of the vets was coming out from the shed and she stopped, and we both just stared at the jay for a minute, listening to it... sing? she'd never heard a jay make a call like that either. it was... soft, almost bell-like, or like--a heavy drip into water; kind of a "blorn" sound, but very musical. like throwing a stone into a pond, kind of. it was similar to the happy "ker-dorn" I've occasionally heard crows make, but shorter, and utterly unlike their usual raucous screams.

anyway that was the most interesting thing at volunteering on Friday! although (bear cub update in next post)