Amelia Bellamy-Royds :progress:

Music (mostly blues & roots), gardening (weather-permitting), and everyday life with some science, politics, and public health, from a chronically exhausted, early 40s homebody nerd.

Also at Amelia Bellamy-Royds (npub1kym…59km) for web-dev nerdery, although I haven't actually been working for years.

All currently rooted in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (#YEG), a settlement built at amiskwacîwâskahikan, a traditional gathering place of Cree and other indigenous peoples.

😷➕💉 > 🤧➕🤒 !

Pronouns: she/her
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Alt Mastodon (for work / web / tech): https://front-end.social/@AmeliaBR

Public Key

npub136qprdt47xv6umpqy3mgjahzwq3ndkkepmuhtj6h2eu5u60a8stsrpxluw

NIP-05 Address

ameliasbrain_at_mstdn.ca@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsgaqq3k46lrxdwdsszga5fwm38qgekmtvsa7t4edt4v72wd87nc9c3xnqqm

Author Public Key

npub136qprdt47xv6umpqy3mgjahzwq3ndkkepmuhtj6h2eu5u60a8stsrpxluw

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Last Notes

2025-01-11 16:30:17

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I looked up "avalanche bar" and one of the recipes was called "rocky mountain avalanche bar" & now I'm wondering if the name is a variation on "rocky road" to mean a mix of chocolate, marshmallows, & nuts ?
There is an entire field of study waiting to be made on the etymology of homemade snack names!

2024-10-04 00:25:29

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Well, darnit. That's a completely new etymology for me, too. If I'd had to guess, I would have thought maybe dépanneur was related to dispensary. But honestly, I had never considered where the word came from. I would have never guessed that it came from the "un-break-down-er" repair shop attached to gas stations!
Wiktionary isn't helping me understand how "panne" meaning velvet came to also mean breakdown of a vehicle or machine, though.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/panne#French

2024-08-28 14:55:26

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A question for you, following up on our previous discussion about squirrel distributions: do you mostly see gray squirrels in Ottawa now, or black ones? They're the same species, but the gray ones used to be quite rare in Ottawa, yet that's what all your photos have been. Farther south, the grays are common & black fur is rare.
I wonder if with warming climate the black ones are losing their advantage, heat-absorbing fur no longer being a good thing in places like Ottawa?

2024-08-21 13:55:55

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This must be so frustrating. I hope you have managed to make a good temporary home where you can focus on creating a joyful & calm environment for your new family member.
If there is any silver lining to the delay, at least it has spaced apart the stress of meeting the new family from the stress of moving halfway around the world. When your little one gets on that plane, it will be with the support of parents he knows will take care of him.

2024-08-14 21:21:36

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Once a decade for tissue bits all over your clothes is doing pretty well by my standards. Not that it softens the annoyance today.
And at least it was only tissue & not important documents.

2024-08-13 15:14:39

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Wow. Free meals at work at least makes a small-but-quantifiable impact on your budget. But a once a year party? Mandatory fun with your work colleagues?
These are "say you're only looking to hire extroverted financially-comfortable single young men without saying you're only hiring extroverted financially-comfortable single young men".

2024-08-12 16:55:26

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Yes, the downys are much more "borb" than most woodpeckers. But they still pack quite a punch when they start hammering away.
My desk is right on the other side of this window, but I have the curtains closed because of that big radiant heater in the sky. I was expecting the noisy visitor to fly off as soon as I moved the curtains, but they didn't pay me no mind.

2024-08-12 16:45:23

Who's that knocking at my window???
Downy woodpecker, that's who!
#garden #birds
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/950/040/932/155/589/original/14317ecd41026eae.mp4

2024-08-12 15:54:22

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Yes, Edmonton had apparently quite an aphid explosion earlier in the summer. I know I did. But the ladybugs were on it. Both the 2 and 7 spots are now in record numbers around my place.
More people need to learn what ladybug grubs look like, though. Even I had a moment of worry when I saw all those spikey grubs all over my plants: oh no, what new infestation now! But then a moment later: I know what those are, those are babyladybugs!

2024-08-09 18:11:44

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Oh my goodness. 😣 Surely even many francophones would need half a minute thinking about the expected context to process that second sample into two 2-digit numbers to make four digits total, not four 2-digit pairs!

2024-08-09 15:28:48

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Those flowers are gorgeous. I've got a dwarf pannicle hydrangea that I planted a few years ago, from a very small mail-order pot, but it hasn't flowered yet.
Be careful going out in that rain, even with a car. Avoid any underpasses & other low areas or steep hills.

2024-08-08 22:08:10

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I think those may be paper wasps, the much friendlier cousins of yellowjackets. (They are very similar, but paper wasps have more black vs yellow on their abdomens.)
https://insectic.com/paper-wasp-vs-yellowjacket/
I used to think the two names were synonyms & couldn't understand the hate so many people have for wasps. Paper wasps are as mild-tempered as bees, although you'll want keep an eye out for a nest so you don't accidentally disturb it. Otherwise, they're only a mild annoyance around food.

2024-08-07 23:10:49

I picked up a virus Friday night. (Not the Friday night pick-up one hopes for, hardy-har. 🙄)
I don't know for sure it's Covid. Yesterday's rapid test was negative & I'm feeling enough better today that I won't bother repeating.
But, I picked up a respiratory infection at an outdoor event in August, so: It's probably Covid.
When the sore throat really kicked in Saturday night, I remembered this recent article on how anti-histamines can block Covid access to cells.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.01088-24
1/…

2024-08-06 18:50:47

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For the underripe plums, if they don't improve much, I suppose you could try a jam or plum sauce.
But I don't have much advice on helping them ripen on the tree. Most products you see in the gardening catalogues are to protect fruit from birds (e.g., netting or scare-crow owls & stuff). Not sure what would work against squirrels.

2024-08-06 15:15:51

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There are really two different questions:
Should small retail be allowed integrated in residential areas?
How can we create demand for practical essential small retail shops (independent greengrocer, hardware, etc), as opposed to assuming small has to mean fancy artisan something with prices to match?
I can't see a corner-convenience program making a big dent without addressing the second.
(Apologies to @npub1ztg…g0py for swamping your thread!)

2024-08-06 03:44:43

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Yes, the neighbourhood fruit-and-veggie store is something that Vancouver & Toronto have so many of that just doesn't seem to exist in Edmonton. Somewhere you can pop by on a walk to pick up fresh ingredients to tide you over to the next trip to the big grocery store.
@npub1kc9…fh2u @npub1ztg…g0py

2024-08-02 14:33:15

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"Liking" this for the flowers, not that weather forecast.
Stay cool. Humidity levels like that, even at night you're not getting anything pleasant. Just warm fog to keep you feeling sticky. Ick!

2024-08-01 01:11:38

Pssst... #YEGwx watchers: If you're still locked up indoors with the windows covered avoiding heat, the temperature in Edmonton just dropped from 29.3°C at 6pm to 18.5°C at 7pm.
Which is *almost* as good as actually getting some rain.

2024-07-28 20:52:15

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There *are* people trying to make these things happen, but they are having a difficult time convincing the software devs who think the existing tools are sufficient, and that it's individual users' & mods' responsibility to do more if they're receiving more harassment.
All of which is always made worse when complaining about the outright hate results in a flurry of disbelief & offence that anyone dare criticize the free & open social media alternative.

2024-07-28 20:47:06

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Yes, to be clear: no magic technological solutions will remove the need for moderation. But better tools can help admins & moderators, so they're not playing "whack-a-mole" one report at a time.
Things like making full federation opt-in (allow-list) instead of opt-out (block-list), or giving new servers suggestions of servers to block based on the block lists of other trusted servers. Making blocks follow moved accounts. Summarizing # of blocked accounts per server.

2024-07-28 19:41:14

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But you're right that the next step beyond awareness is tools & tech for better moderation, and I don't know how the average user can make that happen. There are the Mastodon (and also ActivityPub & other fedi tools) GitHub issue discussion pages, but that requires a level of commitment & know-how just to find them, let alone contribute. For most users, what's needed is more of a way to see the different proposals & say "yes, that's a good idea" or "put my donation towards that work".

2024-07-28 19:40:02

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Also: That a solution looks different depending on how you use social media. Creating a very restrictive community is desirable for some, but not for those trying to get a message out for political organizing, fundraising, small business, or independent news publishers.
I saw 2 posts the other day: a white trans woman raving about how little harassment she gets, probably thanks to a server with strict blocking. And a black (cis) woman saying she gets as much abuse here as on Twitter.

2024-07-28 19:39:34

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I think being aware of the issue & trusting other people's descriptions of their experiences is an important step. Recognizing that you don't see DMs, follower-only replies, or replies from servers your server has already blocked. That (depending on your server/client software) you might not see lots of other replies which may not be hateful but still annoying in their redundancy. That dismissing complaints & demanding proof or explanations on its own makes people feel unwelcome.
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