al-spudkin

[al-spudkin]

If you're curious where I've been lately (back in college at 35), here's a quick summary of the courses I've been taking.

Beginning Dakota - the backbone of my new studies; I'm planning to major in Dakota language. It's a 3-4 year program, depending on whether I decide to double major or not, or if I want to get a teaching certificate. (I have lots of leftover credits, so it's not inconceivable I could do Art History or Studio Art alongside). The class itself is amazing; a small group of native and non-native learners. Friendly, enthusiastic, one of those rare classes where everyone is there because they want to be. I spend most of my spare time studying just for this class, kind of obsessively in the best sense. We start every class with a prayer to the Creator, asking for help as we learn this language.

American Indians in Minnesota - I've yet to have a full class session of this, which is a bit of a bummer. It's taught by an extremely busy adjunct professor: Katherine Beane. She's a woman with kids, a full-time job as the executive director of the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and a long, impressive advocacy record. She's basically a local native celebrity, and she's amazing. I look forward to getting further into this class, because so far we've just scratched the surface. Our midterm? Visiting a sacred site. I plan to go see Bdote, or the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers (I mean holy shit, it’s the major Bdewakaƞtuƞwaƞ genesis site)

Art and the Environment - A fascinating art history class with a professor I didn't realize I'd had before (back in the existential crisis days). She remembered me, but that's good. Unlike Dakota, there is definitely a sense that people do not know why they are in this class, but maybe they'll thaw out later. I for one am gobbling it up. Specifically we are learning about the Land Art / Environmental Art movement that started in the 1960s and continues today. Our final project will be to propose our own piece, and I've already got some wacky ideas.

Plant Propagation / The Edible Landscape - I'm putting my two horticulture classes together because they feel like two parts of the same class, worked on by the same faculty, with the same laid-back vibe. I mean, I got extra credit points for writing a haiku about seed quiescence and sharing pictures of my cannabis grow setup. My lecture professor for HORT 1001 might be THE archetypal pothead professor. He's fond of saying: "No way..." (pause for effect) ".... YES way." It's an easy, enjoyable science credit, and the real value is that I'm networking with all the insanely friendly horticulture department people. Plant people = good people.

Thankful every day for the journey I'm now on, even if it took a lot of pain and fuck-ups to get here. Spiritual awakening has been good for me, I gotta say.

#this is my life

[al-spudkin]

I dunno if this will be helpful to anyone but hey, why not! Here are some YouTube channels I’ve been watching to reduce stress. Listed in no particular order.

🧑‍🌾 Self Sufficient Me - the only gardening YouTuber who looks like Russel Crowe and tells the worst dad jokes imaginable, whose merch I own. Guy actually changed my life and he doesn’t even know it. https://youtube.com/@Selfsufficientme

⛅️ Spiritual Unfoldment With John Butler - A retired farmer and Christian spiritualist who gives wonderfully calming talks on his own life and meditation practice. https://youtube.com/@SpiritualUnfoldment

☯️ Tao Talks With Derek Lin - basically a free college course this guy publishes to a teeny-tiny audience purely out of love. If you—like me—want a line-by-line analysis of the Tao Te Ching, all recorded on what sounds like a low-bandwith conference phone from 2006, this is your guy. https://youtube.com/@TaoTalkswithDerekLin

🥬 Dianxi Xiaoge - Huge family in Yunnan China fed by one insanely hardworking lady. Sometimes she literally feeds an entire town just for fun. Turn on subtitles for fun facts about weird plants. The love in this family radiates off the screen; I always watch this channel when I need a pick-me-up. https://youtube.com/@dianxixiaoge

🧳 Jacob the Carpetbagger - this guy travels to all the weird American roadside attractions so you don’t have to (or so you can plan your next road trip to see them all) https://youtube.com/@TheCarpetbagger

🎎 Craftsmanship Process Suigenkyo - Japanese craftspeople in full HD glory, making beautiful things that you can also buy on their website! https://youtube.com/@Craftsmanship-Process

🐓 Country Life Blog - the son of a charming Azerbaijani couple started this channel when the pandemic threatened the family’s restaurant. His mother makes amazing food in BULK. Many cute animals wandering around. Dad always makes Random Flower Tea. https://youtube.com/@country_life_vlog

🔯 Rabbi Simon Jacobson - a Kabbalist Chabad rabbi with a lot of handy advice for life. A king of mixed metaphors and delightful wandering tangents. https://youtube.com/@Meaningfullifecenter

🦍 Japanese Zoo - faithful documentation of the Shabani family of gorillas at Higashiyama Zoo. No talking, just gorrillas eating vegetables. https://youtube.com/@japanesezoo

Happy watching! 🤗

#not much posting anywhere lately #busy busy busy busy #which is a Very Good thing

[al-spudkin]

Flow, with updated colours. The blue just felt like it didn’t fit anymore, and I like this version better. All of my products have also been updated to this version.

[al-spudkin]

Waḳaƞ Ṭanka, Daḳota iapi kiƞ uƞkuƞspepi unc̣iƞpi. Óuƞkiyapi ye. Miṭakuye Owasiƞ.

A class prayer our instructor introduced today. "Creator, we want to learn Dakota language. Please help us. We are all relatives."

#:) :) :)

[al-spudkin]

You ever just look up and go, “wow, I love it here?”

I recommend doing so at least once daily.

#keep going friends

[al-spudkin]

No physicist, me, but seems NANOGrav is humanity’s first time hearing music of the spheres. A dance of attraction between black holes, broadcasting gravitational ripples in space-time. We see pulsars bobbing on the lovers’ wake. And at the end of everything, an audible “whoop!”

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i said 'explain physics to me like youre in love with me' and after a while of quiet he went 'everything sings'. so i get it now

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sweethearts in photo booths (1920s-1960s)

[al-spudkin]

Lots of things crystallizing on the college front all at once; hearing from advisors and professors, billing, insurance... ordering the first few books... a lot to process in the last few days. I've experienced some doubts about taking on student debt when federal aid looks grim, but the risk/reward balance is still in my favor. Plus the insurance plan ain't half bad if we want to get pregnant during all this... 🤣

No uncertainty about this part at least: learning from my Indigenous neighbors and doing my bit to preserve Dakota language feels *right*, like a vocational use of my skills. Wherever this study eventually leads, I know that this is the start of something important for me.

Interesting sign affirming my choice: I've read some of the course materials already. Mni Sota Makoce was the very first Dakota history book I checked out from the library when this journey began.

I have a long, long way to go on this path, but I'm excited and hopeful to take the first steps.

#going back to college at 35 like a champeen #I’m an utterly Healed person for the first time in my life so I feel good about it #a lot of internal resources I didn’t used to have #look how bougie my kitchen looks tho lmfao #I did all that tiling myself #and my fancy ass laminate lollll

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A very happy Third Indictment Day to all those who celebrate

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the thing about ADHD is that task paralysis doesn't just affect chores and "unfun" things.

for instance I've been wanting to play old school Roller Coaster Tycoon for some stress relief. for like. two months. today I got as far as opening the program, then closing it immediately. like my brain had a .exe crash

#adhd #go away

[al-spudkin]

As of this morning, our home has peak meters! This means our water heater and air conditioner are cycled off during peak hours, conserving energy and reducing stress on the grid. As a kickback, our bill for those appliances is cut in half, and we received a large rebate for our new water heater! The cost of installation should pay for itself in just a few months. And did I mention we switched entirely to wind power?

We still have lots of work to do on our efficiency (we may attempt to do a passivhaus retrofit if we can make it work on a budget), but this is a great first step to adapting our house for an eco-friendly future.

#whoop

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#me and my partner

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went to a sport ball!

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thank god for american public transit !!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

#So I used to live directly on the city and put public transport was pretty decent #the further away from the city you are #the less accessible and realistic it is to use public transit #and I really really really hope we start demanding that change #because I literally HATE DRIVING #I would rather take a bus anytime #a lot of people feel this way #but we have to make it happen

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#this is giving me life today #blessed person #William Dorsey Swann #Channing Joseph is writing a book on his life but doesn't look like it's been published yet #I definitely want to read!

[al-spudkin]

I admit I’m too stupid to know whether Congress’ whole UFO hearing was some kind of weird political stunt or what. I don’t know how credible the witnesses are or if the comittee convened in good faith or bad. But I’ve been watching the entire hearing out of fascination, because how could I not? The bizarre bureaucratic consensus seems to be that yes??? There are aliens? And they’ve been zipping around for years? But that mostly the problem is congress doesn’t want commercial pilots to hit alien tic-tac super-ships by accident, or for governments/corporations to try to reverse-engineer the tech without sanction?? Which, okay. Sure. But like. We’re just glossing over the “aliens” part I guess??

I mean, I’ve never believed in terrifying alien overlords; that’s a human projection of human failures. Any people with interstellar tech are likely to be far more culturally advanced than us, and I believe true cultural “advancement” - by necessity - will include much greater civility and compassion than we have. I doubt there’s anything they’d fucking WANT from Earth. LOL. You don’t travel a billion million trillion miles to murder and steal. Is it too to much to hope they could help us? Maybe they just wanna watch a car crash, idk.

Lord, this timeline is too weird.

Edit: the more I watch, the more I’m pretty skeptical of their whistleblower and his agenda - the timing of this hearing and the amount of pro-Trumpers on the committee just seems……….. suspish and ridiculous. I think the Dems seem to be taking seriously the idea that we need more transparency and better reporting and safety around UAPs, but the Trumpers reeeealallllly want it on record that “corporations and politicians” are going around murdering people in some vast globalist cover up

hmmmm what does this remind me of…

I didn’t put “MAGA congressional national security subcommittee attempts science fiction blood libel hours before Trump’s Insurrection Indictment” on my dystopian bingo card but here we fucking are

#what the fuck is going on #above my pay grade that’s for sure #non-zero chance every witness they called is just full of shit but like… why do it? #if you want to blame corporations for killing people the climate crisis is RIGHT THERE #republicans need to get right with Jesus