Equinox at 5:24 /the search for new LJ friends

[lblanchard]

The daffodils of Madison Square are ready for spring

Several Facebook friends have noted that the Equinox begins at 5:24 p.m. today. In celebration, I've brought the winter mugs (snow scene at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park) upstairs for storage and brought out the spring mugs (red tulips from a Flower Show display some years ago) for use.

Yesterday was pretty ordinary: two loads of laundry, a quick walk to the Triangles to pick up an Amazon order (wrong kind of orchid food, oops, so I'll have to return it), and an afternoon spent chopping and stewing vegetables for a ratatouille-adjacent dinner that used up a pound of superannuated ground chicken that I exhumed from the freezer. I am playing catch-up on a number of Tolkien-related podcasts that I let slide while in the throes of Flower Show prep and attendance. Speaking of that: I have finally solved my little Google login problem on my iThingies, to my considerable embarrassment. What was wrong? The login screen requires scrolling down below the visible portion to click a blue "submit" button. Sheesh....now I'm good to go, two weeks too late to edit the tour-guide info sheets from the show floor but I'm glad I'm back... I note with even more embarrassment that I'm making a lot more mistakes with interfaces than I used to. Attention must be paid!

I'm "shopping" for some new LJ friends, as you may have noticed. One by one, the old LJ cohort has dropped by the wayside, many in protest of our Russian overlords' execrable human rights violations. Although that makes perfectly good sense to me, I have a lifetime membership so my presence isn't exactly lining their pockets, plus I like being able to archive a year's worth of journals as a pdf using Bookblogger. But I miss having a community. I recently read a piece by Cory Doctorow on the "enshittification" of several social media platforms and I am increasingly noticing this on Facebook. ( https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/ )

halfmoon_mollie has suggested a couple friends-of-friends, and I've dutifully subscribed. I didn't see an "add friend" option. Maybe that option has gone away? In any case, I suspect that I will only see the public content and not anything restricted to friends. I assume the reverse is true for those who have subscribed to me in turn. That has me re-thinking my usual practice of friends-locking everything. Really, who cares what my daily weight and step counts are, other than me? So this one will stay public. It's a pretty fair sampling of my usual daily recap.

In celebration of the Equinox, I'm traveling up to the Temple University library this afternoon for a talk-and-walk on forgotten women of horticulture, beginning at the library with the talk and special collections show-and-tell and including a campus tour. It's Temple's Ambler campus, some miles to the northwest, that is actually the former women's horticultural college and the current arboretum, but I'm sure there are lovely things to be seen on the main campus as well. And the Ambler campus's archives and special collections were brought to the main campus after much of the Ambler library was destroyed by a freak tornado that also laid waste to a lot of the arboretum...


STATS: Morning weight: 149.8. Yesterday's steps: 8,439. Workouts: Marching With Meredith (15 min senior aerobics), twice.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I already know how pondhopper feels about this place, I'm here because she is. And you are. And Tony is. I tried paying for DW for a year and doing the free thing here but I hated the ads. So, I keep a DW journal too for those people who left here for whatever reason and will stay in touch. pameladean for one. But I don't know. I dislike the idea that the Russian Bots (as mallorys_camera refers to them) are controlling this. I've had trouble paying when it's time. Ironic that now I could find the money for a permanent membership there is no such thing. And I still miss jackiejj.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

If you go to someone's page, you can change from subscription to friends in the drop down for the folks you decide to modify!



I was baffled that today was the first day of spring. We've been waiting so long for winter that didn't really happen that I was still thinking we had plenty of winter to go.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Thanks -- I'll give it a shot.

[shirebound]

Hello, new friend, and happy Equinox! This winter has been so mild my dog began shedding her winter coat weeks ago and I'm already hip-deep in flying fur. Ah well, that should be my worst problem!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

If you customarily wear black, as I do, flying fur is an issue. (I settled on black years ago because it simplifies my getting-dressed decisions, not because I’m a goth or a Ringwraith.)

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

Hi! We have been having an early Spring these past several weeks. Lots of things flowering and blooming. The temperatures have dropped back into the cold zone in the mornings but, now we can say it is Spring!

Your talk and walk sound interesting. Enjoy!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I was a little disappointed.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I'm here being loyal as usual to this old place and while I agree that there is much to dislike about the management, I too, have a permanent account but have somehow managed to keep quite a core community going here for which I am grateful. DW may be a backup but it will never be home. I see you've picked up a few lovely people already...most of them are old old friends of mine. I will always friends lock here though. It just makes sense.

PS You may find my dear "curiouswombat" to be lovely new friend material...she's on the Isle of Man!

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Hello!

You can add to your friends list as before, but you have to find it in the subscription tab which is annoying as I didn't realise they had done that and it confused me for a long time.... I'm not sure what difference it makes but I'm assuming that you can't see friends-only posts if you just subscribe?

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! I see that if you only subscribe to me I can't see your recent posts - there's this one and another one back in 2022, so if you friend me instead I think I see all of your journal (I think.... ack - this is so confusing!!)

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Hi are you still looking for LJ friends? Fellow long-timer here and you seem interesting! I wondered in from poliphilo's blog.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

What the heck....I'll add you and you can add me back and we can contemplate each others' posts and decide whether we are a fit. My own LJ is part diary, part commonplace book and may not be your cup of tea.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Only way to find out!

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Also I'll caveat that--if you read backwards--I don't always talk this much about church! We're just coming off the most intense week of the year.