Don't Freak Out, We're Reading Your Tweets

Writing has been slow (because we haven't been doing it), as we've been doing a lot of painting this summer/year - we're working on number ten. The goal for the year is 12, but once classes start again this fall there just won't be time to paint.
Painting has also been very therapeutic, as usual. So that's good, and lends to less writing.
It's providing a lot of time to think about things...and people...in between trying to get shadows and angles right.

But we're not here today to talk about painting, or writing. Nope. We're here to talk about reading tweets.

Tweets. Wow. Pretty sure it's been literally years since we've done a post on social media. Back in the day they used to occur fairly often. It all changes so fast now to actually be relevant weeks later though, so it's not a great use of writing time.

Anyway.

In case you're freaking out because all of a sudden it seems like we're reading your Tweets, or reading them more than usual, (you'll know if we've been giving you "stars" [for your interesting/sick/funny/insightful/good tweets] when we previously haven't) there's something you should know.

After Twitter's most recent update it was nearly impossible to see the Tweets of the people we follow, but for all of the Retweets. (soooo many retweets... - and a lot of people aren't exactly judicious in selecting what they retweet...ya know?)
Talk about unmanageable. And repetitive. AND, it kinda sucks the ability to see the Tweets of people chosen to read by following them back. Not to mention when you only have 10 or 20 minutes on a break at work...forgettaboutit.

It's not that retweets are bad. We LOVE to see them actually (the good ones, anyway), but when they again) after the last update we had to take "drastic" measures.

Image Source

ended up in the lists (
So, over the past two weeks or so we've been turning off everybody's retweets.

Wait. It's not so bad. Don't be angry (some people think it's a bad thing to have their retweets turned off)!

They're almost all turned off now. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

NOW, we just go to people's timelines/bio page and see RTs that way, and then, of course, there are the retweets in lists. Lists, which we have always found to be essential to the enjoyment of Twitter. Organize. Organize. Organize.

So, what this means is we see the actual Tweets of the people we follow in our timeline stream now, and that's it, which makes it much more fun/interesting/efficient...but also, it might creep you out...because now we can cover more ground and read YOUR Tweets.

So don't freak out.

Summer: A Garden Update

It's been a month and a half of turbulent weather. For a couple of days most of one of the gardens was under water. It wasn't looking good. But then suddenly everything started to pop. It looks like it's going to a second year of successful gardening. The only problem is that it's been hard to get into the garden and weed properly more than once, because of the rain and the massive amount of mosquitoes. Additionally, for some reason, there are way more weeds this year compared to last year. Their seeds must have come in on the wind.

At least the herbs on the back porch: four basil, a marjoram, English thyme, oregano, rosemary and chocolate mint plant, create an inviting smell and have been useful for weeks now (can't make enough variations of chimichurri sauce). *sigh* Summer. It should always be summer.

But it's been a busy summer with work, painting (four completed last month), travel, house guests and general relaxing before the ramp-up to next semester. While there's been plenty of mental health issues to write about of late, it seems redundant, and it's really not always the right time to lay your issues and insecurities out into the digital world.

In any case, here are some beautiful photos from the garden.

Three kinds of beans (painted pony, cannelino, purple queen)

Summer Squash (there are patty pans and zucchini...PATTY PANS!!)

Baby Green Pepper
(there is also a red, yellow and purple pepper, two poblanos and four jalapeno plants). 

Cippolini onions (there are red and white planted)

Sweat Peas

Cherry Tomatoes
(there are a total of about 17 plants of various breeds)

Butterhead Lettuce

Baby Leaf Lettuce

Eggplant Blossoms

Potato Blossoms

The South Plot
(full of winter squash, cilantro, swiss chard, kale, carrots, onions [red, yellow and white], leeks, potatoes, broccoli, beets, etc...oh, and weeds)

It's all going to pop at once and the amount of produce will be unmanageable, but that's when the real fun begins...canning, dehydrating, eating. So. Much. Eating. :-)

Blurb

Got a letter saying we made the Dean's List for last semester.
Meaning we were in the top 15% of the students on campus.
There must be some really dumb kids at that university.

Almost all of the books for next semester have been ordered (CHA-CHING!$$).
What are we taking?
Glad you asked!

• Digital Communications Fundamentals (easy peasy)
• Popular Culture
• Social Implications of the Information Society
• Media Law and Ethics
• Problems in Political Science
• Intro to Forensic Science (because of morbid curiosity)

Last semester was 12 credits...this semester will be 18...plus...if it goes as planned...work will be all year, instead of seasonal. 18 credits PLUS working...
Should be...interesting.

After this coming semester only one more semester to go!

Now for all of those awkward..."what are your plans for after graduation" questions.
At nearly 35 years old...those questions become SUPER awkward. So don't ask.

~F