Welcome to Affinity. The emphasis here is on the social. We’re social critters, and it’s important to connect with one another, to share our lives, experiences, and perspectives. This will be a heavily visual blog, featuring much photography and other arts. This is not a place for me to simply showcase my stuff. I want the readership, fellow bloggers, and commentariats to join in the fun, too. Have a photograph you’d like to share? Or artwork, craft, or similar? There’s an email link on the sidebar for submissions, and I’d ask you keep photos to a maximum of 12oo px at the longest side (if you prefer I resize, that’s fine too). If you’d also like to say something to go with your photo or other work, add that too.
There will be some regular features. For my fellow dinosaur watchers, Wednesday Wings, and I’d be thrilled to have bird photos submitted, because as much as I love watching them and photographing them, there isn’t a great deal of diversity, and I love seeing birds from all over the world. There might be Raturdays. There will be an ongoing, open thread, The Never-ending Thread (starting on the 22nd), so there will be continuity, and people can socialize and talk about anything at all.
Rules will evolve as needed. The primary rule: don’t be an asshole. Who defines asshole? I do. And the moderators* will also have that ability. If you decide to push things on the asshole front, or think it would be cute to argue the definition of asshole, you’ll most likely find yourself summarily wished into the cornfield. I would ask that you use people’s nyms, as they have them for a reason.
Now that’s out of the way, how about the most conventional start ever? Tell me, how’s your weather?
Hi, Caine.
Hi, Chigau. One of these days, I might get this together. Maybe not today, rats are raising hell, so what’s new. We have a crop of wall chewers.
I will be looking for moderators at some point. Interested in a thankless job?
Caine
I’d be happy to help.
Oh, excellent! When I get the joint together, I’ll get you a set of keys to da blog.
Nice header.
Thanks! I forgot what a pain in the arse setting up a blog is. Gad. I’ll get you added as soon as I know what the eff I’m doing.
Hi Caine! Congrats on your new blog.
Thanks muchly. Things won’t get going until the end of the week, I’m up to my neck in other stuff.
Chigau, check your email.
Congratulations, Caine!
Thanks, Alexander! I’ll be up and running soon.
Conga-rats Caine. Take your time getting adjusted.
Thanks, Nerd. Good to see you here.
Well, this is an excellent idea. I like the idea of spending time in Caine-space. I look forward to spending time here. CongRATulations, Caine, and thank you.
Psanity, thank you! I look forward to seeing and reading you here, that will be great.
Hi Caine, I’m so glad you have this space.
I am a lurker who has watched you become, undoubtedly unconsciously, a leader over on PZ’s old social threads (as well as many of his SJ posts). And my limited interactions with you have confirmed this view.
So you thoroughly deserve this.
I’m too little known to be a moderator, but being UK based I am happy to have your back (on an unofficial basis) while you are “time shifted”. Please let me know if there is someone in my timezone doing a formal job who can be contacted if there is a problem.
Once again congrats, I am looking forward to seeing more of your photography.
Caiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!
I’ll drown you in pictures, once I get stuff done ;)
¡Enhorabuena Caine! I don’t comment much on Pharyngula because by the time I’ve worked out what I want to say, usually somebody else has already said it and it’s often you. You and some others have taught me a lot about social matters that made me aware of some of my own failings. I very much look forward to reading your blog.
Caine! I’m so happy you got your own blog. I’m like your #1 cheerleader/lurker if your comment threads on… like, literally everything. <3
Congrats and re-welcome!
Cartimandua @ 17:
Thank you! I’m so happy to see you.
Pfft, I don’t care if you’re known or not. Right now, I can’t even get the keys to the blog over to Chigau, so I have to work out that bit first.
Giliell @ 18:
Hee. That’s what I’m lookin’ for.
Don Quijote @ 19:
So good to see you! You know I don’t care if 50 people say the same thing, all voices are valuable. I hope you’ll post in the Tuesday Shop thread once it gets going.
Siobhan @ 20:
Aaaw, thanks! I’m looking forward to seeing you and reading you here.
Hey, it’s Caine! Hi!
Weather here -- temperature right now is around the seasonal average for once after an extremely mild winter. There is also no more ice for me to slip and break my wrist on again.
Hi, Tabby! Oh no, ice, again? Be careful. It’s unseasonably warm here, it was 69 F yesterday. A bit cooler today, but not much. We have had less winter each year for the last ten years. It’s easy to see the effects of climate change.
Hi, Caine! Great to see that you have your own blog here now.
Wonderful photo of the shoes as a lead-in to the weather question. In my location the weather is the seasonal average like Tabby Lavalamp’s describes. Fortunately, I had a mild winter too.
I like your blog header. What is the story behind the second photo with the pretty blue dots?
Hi, Nahuati, and thank you! I’m just on my way into town, I’ll answer later on today when I get back.
Just so you know, the wordpress media library is very friendly to photography — you don’t have to resize. You can upload a big image — 2400x1600, for instance — and when you tell it to display it at the “large” size, it generates a 500x333 ‘thumbnail’ to display, and clicking it takes you to the full image. I’ve stopped worrying about scaling my images at all, and just let wp do it.
All the best with your new space.
We had a relatively cool day today, 27˚C, much better than the 39˚C and 40˚C max we had on the previous days.
Yay, Caine!
I’m very happy you’ll be maintaining a space here. I expect to be reading religiously.
…or something.
Caine! I wandered off for a few months and I come back to this! What a pleasant surprise and cong-rats.
Our weather is disturbingly warm, with all my trails through the woods no longer blocked by snow (which is very odd for mid-March in northern Wisconsin). It’s raining today, so I imagine the last little bit of snow will be gone soon.
Very exciting to see a commenter move into the realm of being a FTBer. I wish you joy of your new blog!
Hi Caine! Congratulations on being accepted to Freethought Blogs!
I look forward to reading your posts, and understand that I may get poked at from time to time. I’m oddly quite interested in what will be required of me to fit in here properly. Since we had some differences in the past feel free to use those as examples of what sort of social environment you want to create here.
Err”…examples to compare and contrast in order to define the social environment you want to create here.” That sounds better.
Nahuati, the thumbnail you’re curious about is one of my paintings, Cold Heart. You can see it here: https://needleprovocateur.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/cold-heart-2/
PZ @ 26:
That’s good to know, thanks! I’m accustomed to keeping my stuff to 1200 to 1500 x, and optimizing the file size on Needled, mostly so I can put off having to pay.
Ariaflame @ 27:
It’s so nice to see you here. That’s pretty warm. It was around 11.6 C here today, and lovely, if a bit on the windy side.
CD @ 28:
Hee. Any way you like is fine. Glad to see you here.
TMM @ 29:
Eeeeeeeee, so excited to see you! Have you been busy writing? Disturbingly warm pretty much covers what’s going on in ND. Birds are building nests already, pretty much everything is convinced Spring is here -- one of the lilacs has buds on already. I’m a bit worried, because we have had nasty, freezing storms hit as late as April.
Raucous Indignation @ 30:
Nice to see you! Thank you so much. I hope you’ll find some time to hang out now and then.
Brony @ 31:
Hi yourself, and thanks! You have become a fine commentator and a very good voice in the time you’ve been at Pharyngula. Nothing at all is required of you, and I hope you’ll be comfortable here. If that’s not the case, it’s your turn to poke at me.
Congrats on the blog, Caine!
Lots of new blogging going on, here & elsewhere, I hope I can find time to frequent many of them.
As to weather, after several days of (much needed) rain, it’s clear and sunny and mid-60s. Should be getting into the 70s by week’s end. Which is good as I have an outside activity planned on Sat.
Hi, Jim! So happy to see you, and I hope you make time for this blog, at least. (I’m selfish). Oh, your weather sounds lovely. We could use some rain, seeing as we had very little snow this winter.
I’ve got to get organized a bit, but I definitely plan on adding your blog (and others) to my daily list. No promises on commenting frequency, though. :-)
Being in NorCal, we really needed the rain, but also the snow. I haven’t checked, but hopefully the recent storms have added to the snow pack in the Sierras. That’s where a big portion of our water comes from.
(quivers whiskers)
I shall have to come past this skirting board more often.
Jimb @ 37:
Okay. :D Yeah, here’s hoping on the water front. Our water table is in a miserable state at the moment.
Lofty! So good to see you, and I hope I see more of you.
Hello,
Congratulations on the blog!
Here it’s been sunny and the temperatures have been between 1˚C and 3 ˚C on Monday and Tuesday. There’s very little snow left. But the best thing is that the day is almost 12 hours long.
I think it’s about time to buy seeds and soil for the window garden and sow some mint, basil, lemon balm, chives and parsley. Hope the bugs that ate my harvest last year won’t come back.
Hi, Ice Swimmer! Thank you.
Nice weather you’re having, and yes, long days are so very nice. Especially when you’ve been starved of sun for months on end (we had one serious gray winter). Ooh, you can start planting already? It’s generally not a good idea to plant in ND until May. I’m looking forward to getting the herb garden together, I swear fresh herbs are just a general good.
Caine:
Congratulations on the blog!
Hey, Tony! Thanks. I hear congratulations are in order for you, too -- Congrats on your blog at Orbit! Exciting and a bit scary, ennit?
Caine @ 33
I have been! I’ve got my first Actual Fantasy Novel coming out in April, which is thrilling. (Vasco Stormrat does not feature in this one, but it is the series where he’ll eventually pop up.) We’ve got that same false spring going on here, which makes me worry about what will happen to the trees if the weather takes an un-surprising turn.
And Tony!: Congratulations on your spot in Orbit!
Caine @ 41
Yes, because i’m planting and growing indoors. Basil wouldn’t probably survive before June outdoors in Finland and even then a frosty night might destroy it. Other herbs could be planted in May.
I’m growing everything from seeds this year so that I won’ bring any bugs from the nursery.
I’ll probably make everyone hate me, but it’s in the 80s here already, and it’s horrible and miserable, and I wish everyone with unwanted cold weather and snow could ship it to Sux Carolina, and added to that the time changed, so my life is screwed until real time comes back.
I was just dropping by to lurk since I have access tonight and saw the Postal post in the sidebar. But you mentioned birds and crafts, (of course) and I made my first hummingbird critter today. I think it needs a little more work, but the human daughter (she ‘commissioned it, for a friend who loves them) is in love and says it’s perfect.
You have my vote for Raturdays, for sure. Much squeee!
TMM @ 44:
Oh excitement! I can hardly wait, I’ll be buying and reading.
Here’s hoping neither one of us gets slammed.
Ice Swimmer @ 45:
I’ve given up on the bug front, they are fucking everywhere. Like the ants in that one episode of B5.
Roachiesmom @ 46:
Oh, I don’t hate you, hot weather can be so miserable.
Aw, a hummingbird! Send me a photo, I’d be happy to publish it, give you a free press, so to speak. Didn’t you open up an Etsy shop recently? Okay, Raturdays.
Thank you Caine.That is nice to know. Since I’ve been here your comments have been among those that I have used to improve the way that I do things. It’s nice to know that has been successful.
Brony, glad to provide a bit of assurance. I hope to see you around here often.
Howdy howdy howdy!
*excited bouncing*
Looking forward to hanging out here, as well as in Other Places. :)
Meanwhile, we’ve got partly cloudy here, in the 60s, and with a completely unnecessarily high pollen count—which neither I nor my sinuses voted for.
We voted for Bernie.
--
The Mellow Monkey:
*squeee!* and also *pouncehug*
:)
--
Hi, Cicely! Wow, pollen? We aren’t close to that yet. Thankfully.
Hey look at this new shiny blog! Hearty congrats!
Thank you! I hope to see you here often.
I am glad to see the blog, and so many familiar names. :D
Ratuurday is a must. I will at some point spam you some of my photos, and may even get brave enough to share some of my various creations. I don’t have any bird pics, but I seem to have amassed quite a collection of plant, flower, and insect photos.
We went from snow on the ground, to neighbors evil silver maple tree in full bloom in 5 days. I hope it gets all its flowers frozen off in the next cold snap, I hate that tree. It’s an enormous weed that is way too big for the space, and it makes me feel itchy and ill. Having to start Claritin, in March, in Minnesota is simply unprecedented.
An update on the weather: Now it snows and the temperature has gone back to the freezing point. The ground is covered with snow already; there was very little snow 4 hours ago. Maybe the polar air will visit Tethys and cicely soon, when it bounces back from the Northern Europe.
The first batch of herbs have been sown, chives, parsley, basil and lemon balm. More chives, mint, lovage and dill will follow when I’ll get some more soil and pots. With good luck there will be a jungle by the window in a few months.
Congrats, The Mellow Monkey!
Tethys:
Okay.
That will be great, looking forward to seeing them.
Ice Swimmer:
Went cold here today as well, it was around 15 F / 9.4 C. Windy, too.
It snowed! I knew that evil stuff was lurking about.
The weather here is conspiring to take our lovely false spring away by increments. I knew the recoldening was coming, since it is a false spring after all, but dammit, I don’t want a return to below freezing nights! The gladiolas were just starting to poke their heads above ground, the tulip magnolias, pears, and cherries are already in bloom, other trees are in bud, and there’s a good chance the coming frost spells doom for botanical early risers and bloomers.
Plus false spring in the southern US mountains is much nicer than real spring, what with the noticeable lack of tornado warnings or sudden deluges from electrified skies (and the resulting landslides).
***
In my ongoing attempt to win the battle against Garden Bug Season with minimal contamination to our ground water or threat to bee populations, I’m trying beneficial nematodes in the veggie patch this year. Any gardening buffs tried those before? Supposedly they will take care of everything what has a soft bodied life cycle which takes place on or below ground, providing it doesn’t take place somewhere other than my garden; although I am dubious, I lost enough food to bugs the last couple years I’m willing to give it a go. I have hopes at reduced populations of cucumber beetles and squash bugs, which in turn should reduce susceptibility to fungus and wilt? Bean beetles and Japanese beetles, alas, appear to overwinter elsewhere then fly themselves in for a mid summer feast, the fuckers, so like with the hornworms and cabbage moth larvae, I’ll have to keep spraying (gah!) or picking them off by hand (shudder).
Of course, with Spouse being as busy with work as he is (landscapers are busy in warm weather? you don’t say!) and my hipbackleg being on the fritz once again, getting to the garden to actually turn it under is proving to be somewhat of a challenge. At this point growing a summer garden is more of a plan than a Plan.
Onamission 5:
There’s a good coat of snow here, but it’s not intolerable cold. I hope, I hope, I hope we don’t get anymore below freezing. I’m no good with bugs that infest food plants, I stick to herbs and flowers. I did have to resort to importing ladybugs one year, the aphids were so bloody bad, but it was fascinating watching ants milking the buggers.
Caine
I do rather like the occasional snow, especially if it melts off the roads but sticks around in the watershed, but freezing temps or below not so much. We’re supposed to get lows into the mid to upper 20’s next week. Much more seasonable, alas.
I learned to garden in the dry summers out west where the garden invading bugs are not nearly so varied, plentiful, or hungry. Pest control on a backyard veggie patch was mostly limited to building up the soil so one would have healthy plants, picking off what pests did arrive, and, if one was rural, putting up a tall enough fence that the deer had trouble jumping it. (so, about 14 feet, lol) Relearning to garden over the last decade has been a steep curve. Bugs bugs everywhere! Aphids, though plentiful, thus far are the least of my problems.
It is fascinating though, isn’t it? The ants here seem to keep aphids more or less in check, not letting the population get too big, just enough to feed on. It’s like they’re keeping chickens or something. Weird and cool and weird some more.
Onamission5:
It is! Late last year, I had Breitsamer Honig Forest Honey for the first time. If you’re used to honey on the bland side, it’s a bit of a shock at first, but it’s very tasty, kind of spicy. It isn’t actually honey, it’s honeydew, excreted by various insects in the forest.
Caine
I had no idea there was even such a thing that people could eat. Whoa.
Answering Nerd:
You lucked out! It’s snowed here the past two days, but it’s been pretty light.