Just the One about falling for the "okey-doke"
Just one piece of survival advice
“Don’t fall for the okey-doke” is a Black people-ism that I’ve never let die.
It’s part of my internal conversation when someone, something, or someplace tries pass off the wack as “normal.”
If we are IRL-acquainted, you know what my non-poker face looks like when it detects mofos tryin’ to okey-doke. If not, it’s like this: 😑.
Trust issues aside, not falling for the okey-doke is the antidote to what we now frequently and sometimes incorrectly label gaslighting. Some people are just liars, point blank periodt. Trump and his ilk aren’t gaslighting you. They are LYING to you, which is their pathology and needs to be called out.
Here’s just one house/dance track that theorizes and vibizes the okey-doke: Protect Your Mind and connect in this disorienting moment in time.
Don't fall for the okey-doke There's something funny about the truth You know it when you hear it...
Speaking of okey-dokes, just the one media critique: out here talmbout “political violence” as if centuries of racist and sexist violence perpetrated by institutions and governments isn’t political.
Here’s how one reporter defines political violence:
it’s anti-democratic,
it’s enacted by someone who believes the system won’t work for them,
it’s meant to silence the opposition,
those committing the violence are creating an environment where political activity is wrapped in threats and fear.
It’s so “of the power elite” to describe longstanding systems of oppression particularly egregious or notable when it’s happening to people situated in positions of power. This👏right👏 here👏 is what it looks like when people who aren’t used to being oppressed start to feel or claim oppression: instruments of the State repackaging what they’d heretofore called radicalization when brown and Black people committ violence in the name of institutions, ideologies, religions, etc. now spotlighting white violence against politicians “political violence.” As if white supremacist violence committed against people in churches, synagogues, grocery stores, cinemas, schools isn’t political violence.
In it’s vehement scapegoating of being awake/“woke,” what we are witnessing is the fitful sleep of a dying ideology struggling to blissfully and profitably stay asleep.
I asked YOU for your winter/American chaos survival tips and want to spotlight 🔦 not, one, but TWO from the inimitable Lindsey. One: weekend naps! Turns out winter weekend naps are also FLEXI. “…this 90 degree crap is perfect for post lunch naps, hands down.”
And second winter sowing in milk jugs! As someone who feels confined to container gardening, I needed an update. And not knowing what bee balm is…color me OBSESSED. Pics and tips!
Winter sowing worked.
It's still wild to me, but it did.
It worked best with marigolds, lettuce and bee balm for me.
Tomato worked but it never seems happy.
🐝🍅
The newly “oppressed” gurlies are acting outttttt, so just the one note about WTF is happening at Columbia:
🚨news flash🚨
the enemy of my enemy (Trump and Columbia)
it turns out is not my friend!
It sucks being in the epicenter of a shitstorm inside a doo-doo cyclone. Quelling a sit-in quickly became making sure there were no witnesses to dragging students down marble stairs or blocking the exits when they attempted to leave. Never mind us staff people with no safe egress from the building.
Let’s Socratically reveal the okey-doke of the bullshit safety trope: "Are we talking about safety…or are we talking about compliance?" "Are we talking about safety…or are we talking about calm?" "Are we talking about safety…or are we talking about convenience?"
The blood money I’m being paid (isn’t it all filthy lucre at this stage?) and will continue to be until The Board Trustees (BoT—shadynicks one and all) of this real estate company sell it all to private equity and strip it for parts.
Real estate over here, healthcare over there, and education? Meh, just put it any ol’ where!
This higher ed engine with its inflated costs is long overdue a retooling. And yet, I’ve stopped counting on romanticized ideals of what higher education should do or could do because, ultimately, POSIWID—”the purpose of a system is what is does”:
discipline,
control,
keep order.
I contemplate complicity a lot, but not enough to keep me awake at night.
Meanwhile, Columbia’s medical center is conducting a survey about mental health. LOL, RICH.
💡💡💡💡💡💡
Paid (by me) announcement:
Entanglements: How We Live With the Internet
Feeling overwhelmed by notifications and digital noise? You're not alone.
I’m launching a low-barrier, observational experiment to find practical ways to live better with our devices.
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On to the Ones!
Just one for helping me focus: Glide app!
I installed Glide to help me sit still and read things on my laptop. It’s an extension that let’s you dim parts of your screen for a specified width, helping focus your eyes on one, two, three lines of text at a time, or even a window. It costs little money ($6 bucks or so) and has been worth it.
An ICYMI it one: another iOS-centric* recommendation. Distractions—loud noises, people bumpin’ their gums, construction, subway Mariachi using amplified sound—can be muted since iOS 15 with the background sounds feature. Love 👏it👏!
For similar Android O/S features: take a peek to see what might benefit you listed under “accessibility” feature.
Just the one as we slide solidly into totalarianism: if crossing the U.S. border, first, free your mind about borders, but also DIY or buy a Faraday pouch for your devices. Or, minimally, don’t use biometrics to secure your phone, using instead an alphnumeric code (B0SCo).
Or you could get a Trump phone on a Trump-owned network and just have all your shit uploaded straight to Russian servers, your bank account drained, and filled with shystie crypto.
Just the one mea culpa for participating in the exploitation of incarcerated people through carceral television. I watched Love After Lock Up for a couple of seasons (might have even recommended it here), but started to get the icks sometime during season two. What a weird, gladiator-like televisual “sport!” I’m repenting by joining the #AIRS Campaign (Abolish Incarcerated Reality Shows). I doubt the efficacy of contemporary petitions and these shows will only end once they’re no longer profitable, but might as well register some objection:
End 60 Days In – A&E
End Love After Lockup – AMC
There’s also a documentary available to screen for community gatherings, The #AIRS Campaign Video: Our Fight to End the Prison-Television Complex. Let’s get the conversation going to stop this exploitation.
Just the one for Wifi in the Wild…
Just one great website for finding alternative tools to Big Tech: I whiled away a few Saturday hours at a public library branch going through Unplatform’s recommendations for digital tools, newsletters of many stripes, smaller social networks, etc. Rather than being subjected to the whims of crap algos and some of the shitty people those algos attract, the site’s author, ajazz, offers a philosophy of curating your experience on the web. You can browse and stumple upon web oddities like Hypertext.tv or tv.garden (worldwide tv, a channel dedicated to episodes of Little House on the Prairie with the iconic Nelly Olsen 😈 and a child actor-sightings, such as a wee Todd Bridges and Jason Bateman!). Or get a more tailored experience for venturing into the indie web and breaking free of The Platforms. Use Unplatform’s database to explore, for example, free social networks that aren’t giving attention and eyeballs to FacestaMetagramX. Bookshelf Town, for example, touts itself as a minimalist replacement for Amazon-owned GoodReads.
Just the one news source I’m paying attention to: ProPublica. I’m finding their DOGE reporting thorough, consistent, and enraging in informative actionable ways.
Just one for tech fun: I got my 2003 iPod brick brought back to life! It’s a fun archive/time capsule.
Just the one bit of kitchenware info to debunk the content mill’s black spatula hysteria: “Don’t Throw Out Your Black Plastic Spatulas” from the American Council on Science and Health.
Just one contradiction (of many) that I’ll admit: I’m over here Loraxin’ while prompting AI, “Write a performance review based on the following resume items and sound less like you want to burn the place down.”
Just one tactic teens are using the circumvent attempts to make/keep them ignorant: securing digital library cards from less restrictive bookbanny states!
Just one bop!
Just one checklist of things to do [other than] protesting or voting
These are grim times, but lovely things will still happen in them. Don’t forget to pay attention to the good parts of what’s going on around you. -Next Comes What?, Andrea Pitzer
What are your current commitments?
Hit reply and digame!
🫀