The new album is released, and notes are here.
I just got my passport card in the mail. They did indeed put “Sex: M” on it. This is technically correct, since they insist on having sex rather than gender on it. They haven’t done me nearly as dirty as they have a lot of trans folks.
I’m still not sure why the government cares so much about which type of half-formed genitals a person had when they were an infant. It doesn’t seem like it should be relevant to anything except for nefarious purposes.
Card goes in sleeve. Sleeve goes back in envelope. Envelope goes in drawer. Middle finger goes up. Another donation goes to the ACLU.
In our front yard, there’s what would be a bit of a hill if it hadn’t been leveled off into three tiers with knee-high concrete block retaining walls. The lower level of these developed a bit of a tilt over the past several months, and was one of the things we were going to have addressed after other concerns. But a corner of it collapsed onto the sidewalk, and it’s become the priority.
These sorts of walls — in much larger sizes — are supposed to last 50-100 years or more if engineered correctly (mostly, the wall needs to go down far enough to not be shoved upward by frost, and there needs to be sufficient drainage). I’m not sure how old this one is, but the blocks are identical to ones currently sold by Home Depot, so the answer could be “about 15 years.” Wouldn’t be the first thing that the house flipper half-assed.
My hope is that wall can be rebuilt without having to dismantle tiers above it. That will make a huge difference in the cost. I used the contact form for the most likely company I found based on some reviews; hopefully they will get back to me soon.
I’ve been interleaving the Moomin books between other reads. I’m through five of them at this point, and… hm.
I would still place Moonvalley in November — the one I read a few years ago, and the last of this set — at the top of the list. It had maximum Snufkin. Snufkin is a wanderer, a lover of nature and of music, a friend to Moomintroll and all small beasts, a foe of cops and park rangers. He’s a sort of Diogenes figure, or Thoreau without quite so much privilege.
Comet in Moominland, the first of this set, is probably second.
A lot of what goes on in the other books is just sort of random. There are beautiful moments and thoughts in them — often but not always delivered by Snufkin. Being Finnish, these are not all bright rays of sunshine all the time; there are natural disasters, and no shying away from depression.
Moominland Midwinter might be the darkest. Moomins normally hibernate through the winter, but one year Moomintroll wakes up, can’t go back to sleep, and is all alone (with his family and friends all soundly sleeping or traveling). When he starts meeting other people, they’re strangers and this makes him even more lonely. The sun won’t rise at all for weeks. He’s depressed, and even angry in a surprisingly realistic way. The personification of Winter comes along and touches a ditzy squirrel, killing it, and they hold a funeral and bury its stiff frozen corpse. Children’s book, remember!
Most recently I’ve started reading Body Neutral by Jessi Kneeland. I wasn’t sure about this one when I bought it, but just from the introduction, I am eager to read the rest. The author once worked as a personal trainer for already conventionally beautiful people, mostly women, many of them actresses or models, who were obsessed with perceived flaws. Jessi took a journey through “body positivity” before realizing it had been co-opted from a more political movement meant to be inclusive of disabled, black, trans and other less privileged bodies. Through working with a nonbinary client, they realized that they, too, were nonbinary. They became more interested in the justice angle, and also came around to promoting “body neutrality” — not the failed “love your body despite its flaws” but de-emphasizing the importance of beauty and conformity to self-worth in the first place.
The writing’s been pretty engaging just in this first chapter, and… the book might be less dark and depressing than the children’s books I have been reading to try to inject a little levity. Heh.