Groupthink

 Good morning, GT, and happy Tue.! What are y'all up to today? Today is one of my, "Oh, yeah, I'm toooootally driving in to do virtual office hours from my physical office 😉😉😉. Why wouldn't I waste time and gas money to do that?!" days. I do have a couple of hours' worth of virtual conferences, plus grading to catch up on already.  It's supposed to be pretty nice here today (high of 79), so I'm looking to get in a morning walk and maybe an evening one, if the humidity isn't too bad.  How about you? I know we're all watching Ida coverage, thinking of VB and all the other folks impacted, and feeling helpless but you can help! USA Today has a list of (mostly) great places to donate or, if you're nearby, some organizations that're looking for volunteers here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/30/hurricane-ida-help-storm-victims-louisiana-mississippi/5648004001/ I think most of us at least question donating to the Red Cr...

 It's Monday Morning folks.  I'm sending all the good thoughts to Louisiana and Mississippi today for safe & speedy storm recovery. That Ida is really something.   The nights here are becoming undeniably cooler.  It's not that I mind fall but I do feel some sadness with any change of season.   How was your weekend?  What's on your horizon this week?

 Morning y’all! I’ve been up since 4 and can’t stress tidy anymore so I thought I’d throw an OT up! What’s on the schedule for today? Things are still relatively quiet here- gusty winds of about 20 mph or so and light wind. The 7am update has Ida stronger than expected- a category 4 at 150 mph. It’s still over water (about 60 miles) so it could strengthen a wee bit before land fall- a category 5 is only 157 mph and it’s gusting at that right now.  Say prayers for Terrebonne, LaFourche, Plaquemines, and St Mary-  our coastal parishes that are going to get the brunt of that. I am grateful to them every day for taking the hardest hits.  Weather reports are very dramatic and they are making it sound like it will hit New Orleans is a cat 4 storm. New Orleans is a couple miles inland and storms usually lose a lot of steam as soon as they make landfall   Things change rapidly and it is hard to tell but it’s been a fairly stable prediction this entire time that it will ...

 Good morning, GT, and happy weekend. :) What are y'all up to today? Anything fun? exciting? My baby brother is bringing over breakfast, which is super sweet. He's the one whose wife is expecting and I know he's really nervous/excited. I'm sure we'll talk a lot about that. I haven't seen him for a few weeks, so it'll be nice to catch up. After that, I have an appt. with a new therapist! I tried therapy a couple of years ago and she was not great so I only went a couple of times. She did get me taking vitamin D, though, so that's good. Anyway, with the anxiety and downright dread I'm feeling about work, I figure it's time to give it another go. Fingers crossed this one's a better match! Other plans for the weekend include making a tomato-zucchini pie and shoving my way into BIL's pool, dang it. We didn't swim last weekend and now I'm jonesing for it. Homey went to hang out with BIL and some friends last night and I told him, You t...

  The Fur Faces are back at Backtalk, stop by to say hi and share your own! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2021/08/fur-face-friday_0470655381.html

  Happy Friday ya'll! I hope your week has been good. I've been preparing this week to travel tonight to Sweden to see mah relatives and Grandma. It's for a cousin's wedding also but we haven't seen our Gma for a few years and she's 93 and we're so happy to finally get to see her. Also being able to eat their ice cream and chocolate I will fully take advantage of as soon as I can.  Now for my Fuck it! Yesterday, had to get my ratty nails done at a salon and the technician thought it was - I dunno - great business tact - to tell me my heels were ugly, and my nail skin was ugly also, and giving me unsolicited advice on how 'not to do that'. Thank you, ma'am. I am fully aware of my habits which don't allow me to have model nails. Why would you think that will keep customers???  Anyhoo, can someone pick up the next two Fuck It Fridays for me?  I would greatly appreciate it!  I hope you guys are doing well and have a great day and weekend! Will mi...

  Good morning! I woke up convinced it was Wednesday & now my mood is better. The massive cup of coffee helps as well, especially because I woke up too early after a nightmare about Santa. Brains are weird. I don't have anything political today so here's some Venn diagram humor. Here's an important reminder in case you're feeling guilty as we continue to burn & flood.  The “personal carbon footprint,” in which you are made to feel that climate change is your fault, was created by polluters. I’m all for everyone doing what they can, but don’t get it twisted. This emergency requires decisive government action. — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 26, 2021 Sometimes Twitter's algorithm decides I love random topics. Like the day it gave me everything ever written about Dragon Ball Z, something I have never watched lol. This week, it's Canadian hockey news. I love hockey, but Canadian fans are a thousand times more knowledgable than me so it's mostly sai...

Morning! heading up Wednesday OT from my home office this morning.  It's looking like we're going to get our first rainy day in a few weeks, I already got my run in with plenty of time to spare since no commute, and I've decided not to be angry and just enjoy my WFH home! My dog is being especially cute and lovey the past few days too. Thank goodness that when all this started I brought my office chair and big monitor home and never brought them back so it was real easy to slide back into the old setup. This is me, for sure. I know one is not SUPPOSED to feel very refreshed and invigorated when the sky goes grey but tbh thats just how I feel. How does Wednesday find you, GT? What are you a -phile of?

 Good morning, GT, and happy Tue.! This song/video popped into my head this morning and you can never go wrong with Pushing Daisies, I reckon, so enjoy! What's up with you today?  I got up early and did a little easy yoga and self-massage. I had a massage yesterday and walked in like, Oddly, I'm actually ok! and left like, Nope! Just was not checked into my body AT ALL. Also, I kind of expected to cry when I got home but, instead, every other bodily fluid started to pour forth. I was sweating and had a runny nose and had to go to the bathroom, LIKE NOW. None of that has happened to me before after a massage!  Anyway, it def. let me know that I needed to check in with my human body, which I've become so bad at doing during COVID. So, some short yoga practices in the mornings seem like a good plan. How about y'all? Are you doing a good job taking care of yourself these days? Is there something nice you could/should do for yourself today?

 Good Monday Morning GT.  With everything going on both personally and in the world at large, I am feeling adrift.  Today I am resolved to be mindful and present in the moment.   I know it's like that for a lot of us lately. Today I invite you to join me in taking a breath and as much as you are able to, keeping your focus on what is.  

 Hey, folks, I'm gonna keep it basic this week! (Erm, it's possible I almost forgot it was a LSLT week :D!) Here we go: 1) What book did you most recently finish? 2) What book are you currently reading? 3) What's next on your "to be read" list? 4) Are you looking for any book recommendations? Do you have any recs for the rest of the readers here?

  Good morning lovelies! And welcome to our new folks. We're so happy to have you here. :) I hope the weekend has been relaxing or exciting, whichever you prefer. Here's a nice Sunday song to start things off. Unfortunately, ours was exciting in a bad way thanks to extreme rain. We had 7 severe weather/emergency flood alerts yesterday. The finale was a tornado that touched down a few miles away. Madness! 10 inches of rain in one day is A LOT. Our neighbors to the west broke the record with 17 which caused extreme flooding. Sorry for the negativity on top of *gestures around.* I will leave ways to help in the comments if you're able. Awkward segway, but a friend sent this & lol. And here's some Tracy Chapman to wrap it up because what an incredible song. Let's chat. How's your Sunday shaping up?

Happy Sat., GT, and happy weekend! We got RAIN, blessed RAIN last night! That's the first rain we've seen in weeks and this morning is all cool and humid and cloudy. The best! Homey's still sleeping but I got up early and ran out for fancy coffee. Once the clouds clear out, I do need to get out and do some yardwork. This is the last weekend before the start of the term and I am determined to get important stuff done, ignore the unimportant stuff, and rest when I can. How about you? What are you up to this weekend?

Fur Faces! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2021/08/fur-face-friday-welcome-to-fur-face.html

  Good morning all, Happy Friday!  How are you guys doing today? Aside from this blistering heat that feels like we are all in an oven outside.  My FIF are the current rent wars going on - I see it all over Facebook and it suuuuuucks. Rent has risen like 20% where I last lived and renters are being forced out bc they can't afford the spike. Then the landlords are screaming back, "We have to pay rising taxes! Not our problem ya'll can't afford shit!"  Some rents were $1,200 and jumped to $2,100 in one year. People are devastated, and with jobs not matching that, it's totally fucked.  And then this whole mask craziness right now. In another local town, an anti-mask ass ripped a mask off of a teacher. Sigh.  How are you guys doing? Any weekend plans? 

💡Her glowing lure may also attract a mate. A male anglerfish is small and weak. When he spots a female, he latches on and becomes a parasite, sponging nutrients from her body for the rest of his life! The models on display are 3.5x life size. (2/3) pic.twitter.com/Ej5QUuhhL8 — American Museum of Natural History (@AMNH) August 18, 2021 Good morning to everyone except male anglerfish! ;) This is going to be a low-effort post, just a heads up lol. But first, this struck a chord. A lot of us are tired, this week especially. Tired by Langston Hughes I am so tired of waiting, Aren’t you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? Let us take a knife And cut the world in two – And see what worms are eating At the rind. Langston Hughes Papers https://t.co/8PHmLZxa7D pic.twitter.com/vOs0xfONIA — Beinecke Library (@BeineckeLibrary) August 17, 2021 And finally, this extremely Curb Your Enthusiasm exchange. god damn I wish I saw this lmao pic.twitter.com/6Py1tnHcGC — t-shirt that s...

 Happy Wed., GT--I hope you're all hanging in! I'm in meetings all day (waaaaaahhhhh!) and still need to do just about everything to have classes ready to go. :\ After our faculty v. admin convo tomorrow, everyone is upset, knocking on doors, whispering about what we're going to do. Can I retire early, please??? Anyway, how are you? What's up with you today?

 Morning yall!  A late start for me this AM - my puppy started throwing up at 5am this morning so we are very sleepy today.  (she seems okay - no blood/pancreatitis symptoms, and was peppy and wanted breakfast and kept it down later!).   But who sleeps well in August anyway?  I am not a good napper but I'd love to be in a calm grassy meadow right now with some pale sunlight and take a wee little rest with my head on my hands on the grounds, with peaceful nature all around me.  I know for so many people summer is nature season where you get to be out and about and loving it, but for those of us in the Southern climes (and an increasing number of us in general), summer is the time you stay indoors the most and I've been craving nature lately! What would your dream nap/relaxation environment look like, GT? Or conversely, what are you looking forward to most for fall??

It seems like it's time to go ahead and do some invites.   There wasn't much in the way of suggestions for process or concerns so I am going to go ahead and propose the following and if anyone has concerns or input, let me know in the comments: - Add a name or names of who you'd like to invite below. Ideally these folks will have a good commenting history. - Up-vote any names you support. - If there's a commenter that you feel is problematic and should not join us, e-mail a mod with your concerns.    (phoebec3kinja@gmail.com)  (ginabinagt@gmail.com) (violetbaudelairegt@gmail.com) - We'll reach out to the "nominees" as it were and invite them over.  The last round of invites were done by going back into older kinja comments in an effort to not attract too much attention.  - A note on safety: Most if not all of our issues here have been spam/bots.  We have a great tool box to deal quickly with that and with any other behaviours that become an i...

  Good morning! I hope you had a restful weekend & lots of coffee if you didn't. A bucket of puppies can't hurt either way. Today is everyone shares their opinion on Afghanistan day. Yay. I'm not joining in, but this is a tangible way to help people trying to make it to the states. . @LIRSorg is looking for volunteers in the Seattle/Tacoma, DMV, Houston, and Fort Worth areas to support resettled Afghan newcomers with airport pick-ups, apartment set-ups, or meals. More details here: https://t.co/ZY91dlgwJE — Mai El-Sadany (@maitelsadany) August 16, 2021 And here's another. If you have airline miles, you can donate them to refugees, asylees, asylum-seekers, and their immediate family members, who have legal approval to travel but cannot afford airfare here: https://t.co/aCHWwH3ZC8 — claire schwartz (@23cschwartz) August 15, 2021 There's a lot of Covid chaos, too. Red states are bad for your health.  Finally, a pretty flower just because. These are currently bl...

 Happy Sunday, GT! I woke up feeling quite lazy so I'm going to lean into that and not do much today. Cosmo also seems to be pretty low energy today so our drive to the beach will be postponed. Instead, I'll probably do a little bit of cooking and wrapping up some gifts, but other than that I'll be spending the day watching Netflix and loafing around. I took tomorrow off so I'll use it to do some of things I would usually do on a Sunday. This week most kiddos in my area go back to school so it's going to mean a pretty big change to my daily schedule. I'm sort of dreading it, but I'm trying to stay positive and remember I have lots of options if this new schedule doesn't work for me. Anyway, enough about that.  How is everybody doing today? What is your Sunday shaping up to look like? 

Happy Sat., GT! Sorry, I almost totally spaced this post--d'oh! As an apology, please accept this gift of one of the greatest weekend kickoff songs of all time. :)   Homey and I did a little staycation (drove to a city a couple of hours away, spent a night at a hotel, had meals at nice restaurants with outdoor seating) and got back last night. Even though it was one night, it was nice to get out of the house, sit outside and have some great convos. Anyway, how are y'all? How's your weekend looking?

  Happy Friday peeps! How has your week been? Ok I have a very simple and petty FIF today. When you're in line at any drive-thru (I was at Starbucks this am with the dog to get him a Puppaccino and myself caffeine) and the car in front of me, after ordering inches forward leaving an almost car-wide gap between him and the person in front of him, leaving me unable to get to the speakerbox. I don't know why they can't just...move up to the next car so the person behind them ummm - can order. Petty I know but sooooo irritable. Also he does this every time people move forward. Just inches up a little each time, not pulling up behind next car allowing others to order.  Anyways, an additional FUCK fuckboys (my friend had to teach me that term) from ScubaMan a few weeks ago who pretended to like me for 2 months and then ghosted/blocked/told me to leave him alone after him putting in way more effort than me to just - I guess use me for sex or whatever attention and moved on to play...

Good morning! I hope you're staying cool & hydrated. It is oppressively hot for most of us & it's no fun. I'm preparing to go pick up an enormous grocery order & regret this decision. It's gonna be sweaty!  I also woke up incredibly angry again. I'm not used to this. Anxious or sad are my usual stress modes & this feels weird. If anyone calls me a sheep today, please help bail me out lol. Speaking of-- Here's something that made me lol. I think Megan may have been pulling your leg here.  Facts. And finally, remember the anti-vax wackadoodles throwing my summer camp alumni reunion? Popped by to see if mass shaming swayed their decision. It didn't, but I did find this statement very interesting. 🤨  If only we would try this one weird trick.  That's my stuff. I'm off to the grocery but will stop in soon unless I get in a brawl lol. In the meantime, you know what to do!

It's Wednesday! Hooray for the local officials& citizens standing up to their governers in Florida and Texas!  Let's see much more of this please! All five major cities in Texas are now instituting mask mandates in schools, in open defiance of Governor Abbott. Houston, Austin, and Fort Worth are ignoring his ban, as well as San Antonio and Dallas, who are also suing him. If he won’t keep kids safe, local leaders will. — Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) August 11, 2021 That's all I've got for today.  I'm off to a masked/distanced live music event today. Have at it.  

 Me all day: Wow I have so many good ideas for GT posts and things I want to ask everyone! Omg I can't wait Me when I sit down to do an OT: Did you know there are sharks over 500 years old??  Thats all I got.  Please feel free to share any fun or random facts you've got! Also for anyone else that needs to hear this right now:

Good day to you, Groupthinkers! It's Monday & Pal has the day off. Which means it's off to a good start here--we barely saw each other last week. We had to stay in yesterday because Nashville hosted an IndyCar car race. It was neat, but our trip to the farmer's market had to wait due to everything being closed. So, we're off to have breakfast & buy a haul of tomatoes, sweet corn, & probably some of those fresh, cinnamon sugar mini donuts my favorite vendor sells.  Here's an image that is just perfect. Thank you, Representative Cori Bush.    Tfw you save millions of people from being evicted. pic.twitter.com/y0aeleflyk — Mondaire Jones (@MondaireJones) August 4, 2021 Here's a thing I've been doing. Many businesses in town are taking the leap our mayor won't & are instituting proof of vaccination policies. I've been trying to leave them positive messages & thank you's to offset the hate I'm certain they're receiving. So...

 Hey, folks, it's time to talk books! And it's just in time for Book Lovers Day!   If you're looking for some great ways to celebrate Book Lovers Day, Bookish has some great ideas for you (beyond just, "read!" :). And, in case folks are inspired by this holiday to visit a bookstore or your local library tomorrow, I thought it might be nice to ask: what's the best book you've read this year and why do you like it so much?  And, as always, I'm asking for those updates!: 1) What book did you most recently finish? 2) What book are you currently reading? 3) What's next on your "to be read" list? 4) Are you looking for any book recommendations? Do you have any recs for the rest of the readers here (besides your favorite book of the year, so far :D)?  

Let's talk about inviting new members.    Our last round of invites was developed on the fly.  Some things worked well and some things need streamlining. One thing that was clunky was presenting names to the group.  At our previous home, authorship invite posts were put up and folks could comment/put a name forward. Then people liked the comments of folks they supported and if needed, emailed a mod separately to express any concerns. This framework might work well for new commenter invites as well.  We will also need to firm up our community rules so that commenters have clear guidelines on acceptable behaviour to mitigate any potential issues.  We'll likely be putting up a post for input on that down the road.  In the mean time, I encourage all to use the tools available to you (flagging, muting/blocking a commenter, emailing a mod) for any issues you encounter. I'll post a link in the  comments on how to do these things. The floor is open. ...

Good morning, and happy Saturday, GT! How are y'all today? Do you have anything fun planned for the weekend? I got up early and went to the farmers market with my mama, which was nice. There were fewer vendors, far fewer patrons, and many folks masked back up, which is for the best. It was nice not to have to worry about being crowded/exposed to anything. After that, we went to a coffee shop and ordered pastries and tea. I got a sweet corn-jalapeno scone that was TO DIE FOR. Now... I don't know what the heck I'm gonna do! We were planning to go to BIL's for a swim but a coworker of his was exposed to COVID, so he's isolating until we're sure he and/or the coworker are negative. I'm still under the weather (I think the dang air quality is a major factor), so I'm thinking a weekend of continued indoor lazing might be in order. :( I'd love to be swimming, skating, or gardening, but here we are. How about y'all? Is everyone else feeling better? So ma...

  Our (slightly late, oops!) post is up at Backtalk, so stop by to say hi to the fur faces and share your own: https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2021/08/fur-face-friday.html

  Good morning peeps,  How's it hanging? This week kind of flew by somehow but I am glad it's ova! I don't have too many Fuck-Its today so I'll leave it for ya'll! I hope you guys have a great weekend!

 Happpy Thursday gang.  What's going on in your world today? I was thinking about words today.  Some are just delicious to say.  Do you have a favorite word or maybe a word aversion?   These pups clearly have some favorites. Pretend you’re on a phone call but use your dog’s favorite words.. Look at his little head tilts.. 😅 Sound on pic.twitter.com/2CE2OFcqGm — Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) August 5, 2021     The magic words.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/0OqJvbyseQ — Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden_) August 3, 2021

  On this day in 1953, novelist Shirley Jackson replied to a disappointed reader. pic.twitter.com/sP8TbL1YaG — Letters of Note (@LettersOfNote) July 24, 2021 Good morning! There are some literary figures who would be great at social media &, clearly, Shirley Jackson is one of them. Speaking of peaches, the season is winding down here, but they have been exceptionally delicious this year.  Here's some stuff that made me laugh. This has become my response to most of Pal's texts.  And this one. Saving this answer just in case. When mansplaining the Olympics ends poorly.  Finally, this. I'm at a loss for words. “Tennessee aims to levy fines starting at $1 million up to $5 million on school districts each time one of their teachers is found to have “knowingly violated” state restrictions on classroom discussions about systemic racism, white privilege, and sexism.” https://t.co/lNEVZSWAae — Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) August 4, 2021 Your turn. What's on the vagenda...

 Morning yall!  Not a lot happening over here - I feel well and truly in the dog days of summer.  Things just keep moseying on along and the heat ennui is in full force.  We are back to full mask mandates, our city last week and statewide starting yesterday. Everyone please send good wishes that I win the million dollar big prize in our state's vaccine lottery this Friday, and on that note, if you are also bored, please feel free to just share what you'd do if you won a million dollars! 

Happy Mon., GT! I am still a bit under the weather but feeling much better today, thank goodness. Also, I woke up to clear skies (finally, that ash has moved through) and reasonable temperatures. Heavenly! Today, I need to menu plan and run to the grocery store. I'd also like to do the cleaning I missed out on over the weekend. And, it's def. hammock day. How about y'all? How's your day looking? And, since I'm menu-planning, any recipes you're loving lately ;)? Hope everyone here has a fantastic day!

  Happy Sunday, GT! What is everyone up to today? How has the weekend been treating you?  I ended up going to see Snake Eyes yesterday and it was better than I thought it would be. It did have some corny/cheesy dialogue, but overall a decent movie and worth the watch. I have quite a few movies on my watch list so I'm going to be spending lots of time at the theatre over the next few weeks. Early morning showings FTW! Today is going to be pretty warm so I'll be staying indoors most of the day. I'll probably do a bit of cooking and catch up on the Olympics.  What are y'all up to today?