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cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
csh
@cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
110 followers 36 following 530 posts
Over educated under achieving one time computer geek, baker, sandwich maker and delivery driver, now certified bookkeeper!

I also dabble with gardening and knitting […]

🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://dawdling.net/@cshlan, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
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cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
I feel like a sports strike would go a lot farther than attempting a general strike.
Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social I think we are getting close to the point at which the athletes on Minnesota professional sports teams should start refusing to take the field/court/ice Something has to be done to underscore the national emergency we are in, because I still do not think corporate media gets it 3:50 PM Jan 15, 2026
January 16, 2026 at 12:08 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Have added to the keyboard:
closeup of keyboard connected to my Surface Go running KDE Neon the Windows key has been covered by a KDE sticker with a K in a gear
January 3, 2026 at 12:31 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
I'll take it.

#your2026word
Screenshot of a Bluesky post from Merriam-Webster: Take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word you land on is YOUR word for 2026. Let's. Go. Your 2026 Word blissful
January 1, 2026 at 9:57 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
It's missing the lawyers and judges and advocates and protesters, etc. whose job is holding up the tower while the politicians do the diplomacy part of shaping the law. So many people have surrendered their power in democracy to politics that they've forgotten it's ours.

#uspol
Cartoon by Goris Two people on top of a crumbling Jenga tower with a US flag, one in blue and one in red. The one in blue is saying "We just need to hold out 'til the midterms."
December 28, 2025 at 1:57 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Drawing of the Earth by Sandra Boynton with a cat standing on either hemisphere. The one on the north wears a scarf and has Happy Winter Solstice! written above it with a dark blue, snowy background. The one on the south is wearing sunglasses and has Happy Summer Solstice! written above it with a bright orangy background.
December 21, 2025 at 2:25 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Which leaves Trump in the one position he hates most: performing civility for an audience that isn't fooled. What the meeting really showed The full interview isn't about Mamdani calling Trump a fascist. It's not about Trump pretending to be gracious. It's not about a progressive mayor meeting an authoritarian president. What the meeting showed is simpler and more damning: Trump is only powerful when the room fears him. Take the fear away, and he becomes oddly gentle, strangely polite, and completely unable to dominate the conversation. People think tyrants rage because they're strong. But the truth is they only rage when they know the room will absorb it. Mamdani didn't absorb it. So Trump didn't rage. He folded. Nicely. Neatly. Like a man who knows the cameras are watching and doesn't want the world to see what he looks like when the mask cracks. And if there's a lesson here for the rest of the country, it's this: Fear is the oxygen of authoritarianism. Take it away, and even a strongman starts to sound like a man.
November 23, 2025 at 7:15 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Good take on Mamdani's meeting with Trump. On Facebook so I don't know how well the link will work.

Final screenshot in following comment.

https://www.facebook.com/1824671080/posts/pfbid02Cw5XkDmPR4EjsMH6vGFQER1bPb43suN7Z5gbMh4mp1Y7xNucNaQ29VwRnLnMR8UEl/?app=fbl
Bruce Fanger Thirty Minutes in the Lion's Den: The Interview Trump Thought He Controlled White Rose USA - November There's a strange thing that happens when you watch the full thirty-minute interview instead of the clipped version the internet tosses around. The edges soften. The masks slip. And you start to see the actual geometry of the interaction where power sits, where insecurity leaks, where the tone changes, where the truth speaks by accident. The viral clip makes it look like a moment. The full meeting reveals a dynamic. This wasn't a showdown. It wasn't a humiliation. It wasn't a triumph for either man. It was something far more revealing: a case study in how a bully behaves when he can't rely on fear, and how a principled politician behaves when he refuses the role of the victim. The meeting begins as all Trump meetings do - with noise. The first five minutes are pure Trump: monologues disguised as greetings, numbers inflated beyond physics, scattered recollections of the 1980s like the era froze and preserved him in amber. You can practically hear his brain flipping through its greatest hits, trying to set the tone: This is my room. My chair. My story. But Mamdani doesn't react to any of it. And that is the first hinge of the meeting. A man like Trump needs emotional feedback to function. Fear works. Flattery works. Even anger works. Mamdani gives him nothing. He sits there with the calm of someone who refuses to let the other person set the emotional tempo. It's a small thing, but with Trump, it's enough to break the cycle. Then comes the shift - the "gracious Trump" phase. People mistake this for maturity or diplomacy. It's not. It's a reflex Trump only deploys when he can't dominate the room. The tone goes soft, the eyebrows lift, the compliments come out in forced, syrupy bursts. "You're doing great work." "New York is lucky to have you." "You're a very smart guy." It sounds statesmanlike until you remember the same man called him a communist threat two weeks earlier. What's happening here isn't respect - it's adaptation. A chameleon trying to match the color of the wall. Trump is gracious when graciousness benefits Trump. As Mamdani shifts to policy, Trump drifts into autobiography. This is the most telling stretch - minutes twelve to eighteen. Mamdani tries to talk like a mayor-elect: transit housing Rikers federal cooperation immigrant protections Real issues, real stakes, real governance. Trump responds by vanishing into his own mythology. Crime statistics from memory that don't exist. Grievances about prosecutors. Stories from "the old days." Complaints about how unfairly he's been treated. It's not sabotage - it's incapacity. Mamdani is speaking a civic language Trump's brain can't decode. They aren't having the same conversation. They aren't even on the same continent. Then comes the moment everyone's dissecting - the "fascistic tendencies" line. And yes, it happened in the room, not after. Mamdani doesn't weaponize the word. He doesn't turn it into a headline. He does something more dangerous: he analytically names the pattern. Immigrant raids. Political retribution. Targeting dissent. Erosion of checks and balances. Threats against the judiciary. He lays out the evidence and names the behavior: fascistic tendencies. Trump nods and smiles like someone being told he has an excellent golf swing. It's not bravado. It's not denial. It's something almost sadder: he doesn't understand the language of critique unless it's blunt and emotional. Mamdani moved the discussion into the realm of political analysis, and Trump's instincts don't live there. So he simply... accepts it. Not because he agrees, but because he can't absorb what the words actually mean. The last ten minutes are the clearest portrait of Trump's psyche. Once Mamdani refuses to bend, Trump compensates by overcorrecting into flattery: "You're going to surprise people." "I feel very comfortable with you." "We're going to get along great." It's dominance disguised as benevolence. When Trump can't conquer, he tries to adopt. He folds the other person into his narrative: You and I are the same. We're allies. You approve of me. I approve of you. It's a kind of political camouflage - digest the threat by complimenting it. Mamdani doesn't take the bait. He doesn't fight. He doesn't flatter. He just continues speaking plainly.
November 23, 2025 at 7:15 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
My dog is still figuring out the new recliners. They're too tall for her to jump onto easily when reclined so we worked out how for her to climb as I recline. But sometimes she refuses to get all the way on. Today I continued reclining anyway 😄

#dogsofmastodon
rather large dog midway onto my lap with her back legs hanging straight off the end of the recliner
October 29, 2025 at 6:28 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Got my #monsterdon sticker in place and I'm ready to go!
September 15, 2025 at 1:05 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Cover Up...

It's running KDE Neon now so I felt like @molly0xfff 's sticker was appropriate 😁
close up of a black oval sticker with a snarling raccoon face and the words "Ignore All Previous Instructions" in white on the back of a Surface Go -- you can see the depressions caused by the Windows logo under the sticker because of the glare
September 10, 2025 at 2:23 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
If you're in the general Austin, TX area I highly recommend this driving school. Really helped build my kid's confidence. They have lessons for adults as well as teens. Including an advanced city driving class for licenced drivers who want to build confidence.

@austin
My 18 year old standing holding a sign that says "I passed my drivers test at Wilco Driving School!"
August 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
13 years ago I was on a train with my kids. We had a little sleeper room and it was one of my favorite trips. I love this part of the country so much. I'm pretty sure this is West Texas.
partly cloudy sky over brown, brushy desert you can see a little silver line of the front of the train at the top right
August 24, 2025 at 3:23 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Coates (@oddthisday.bsky.social)

https://bsky.app/profile/oddthisday.bsky.social/post/3lvzzmj65s22p

> Today is the 47th anniversary of this clearly unimprovable photo, from a story so absurd that it shouldn’t be true, but is: the day a team of workers from […]

[Original post on dawdling.net]
Man standing in a muddy canal bottom holding up a large wooden plug on a large iron chain.
August 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
How goes the de-Googlification? It started with GrapheneOS on my phone. Which is nice! In replacing the chromebook tablet I may have been a little too ambitious. Ordered a PineTab2. Now I'm following an Arch Linux rss feed.... But I did get those 755 system updates to finally update!
update screen with an up to date notice
August 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Bought a chew/treat delivery toy for my dog. At first it kept her busy for about half an hour getting all the treat out. Then she figured out how to unscrew it?! 🤨
screw together rubber chew toy in two pieces on carpeted floor
July 31, 2025 at 7:27 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
I guess what basil needs in our hot summers is a little bit of shade and a continuous water source (upturned bottle in a little burried terracotta holder - I'm horrible at keeping up with watering plants). Last year my basil plant kept getting eaten or sick and […]

[Original post on dawdling.net]
close up on a foot and a half (about a half meter?) tall and wide basil plant just going to seed in a brick lined flower bed with taller blades of amaryllis leaves behind it
July 22, 2025 at 5:19 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
It's been weirdest seeing the memories of the 1987 flood because I was there for that one. We were on high ground but I remember seeing the river. I was 18.

https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/07/08/camp-mystic-alum-remembers-past-flood/
Teenager wearing a tie dyed t-shirt with a beach towel wrapped around her legs like a skirt holding an inflatable turtle raft over her head. Posed with one leg raised behind. My campers told me I was doing the hippie turtle dance :)
July 10, 2025 at 4:43 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
For nearly half the year I can charge my car in the middle of the day and if I time it right I can use the solar panels and the battery and nothing from the grid. Then if I've been careful enough the battery will refill enough before sundown to last the night […]

[Original post on dawdling.net]
Two graphs. The top one shows spikes of electricity use in blue above the x-axis and spikes in yellow below showing the charge going into the battery. There's one blue spike on the left then a blank space. On the right the blue and yellow make kind of an S curve showing the battery supplying electricity to the house a bit in the morning then being filled mid-day and then supplying most of the electricity in the evening. The second graph is all in green showing the level the battery is full. The line doesn't get all the way to 100% before sloping back down towards empty.
May 18, 2025 at 11:57 AM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
This year's update! I have too many things planted in there but I had too much trouble with potatoes in bags last year.

Potatoes along the left side, a tomato at the front, beans at the back, collards, brussels sprouts, and kale along the right. There's also an […]

[Original post on dawdling.net]
Brick lined rectangular garden bed packed with green leaves, a square tomato cage at the front, and a bean trellis at the back.
April 26, 2025 at 1:52 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
And next to me is my garden with very early greens, a new tomato plant, and some garlic in the front. My peas and beans are just sprouting.
#gardening
Brick lined rectangle of garden bed. There's a green rectangular support for the tomato plant on the left and a tall metal and string circle support for beans on the right. In the middle is a metal trellis with a hummingbird design for peas. The garlic looks like big sprigs of grass along the front with leafy greens behind it.
March 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Look how pretty this tree is!

I will detest it the rest of the year but for a few days each spring it's absolutely gorgeous!
Sunlight shining through small pale green leaves against a blue sky.
March 24, 2025 at 6:48 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
I had collard green and birria tacos this morning and now I'm in the hammock in the back yard. For the moment life is pretty sweet.
Blue sky with hackberry branches full of new leaves showing at the top of the image and bare (except for last year's seed pods) branches of a crepe myrtle tree at the bottom.
March 24, 2025 at 6:35 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Browsing randomly years ago, I came across this French propaganda poster from WWI.

My first thought was Gandalf.... And that scene in Lord of the Rings took on more weight.....
French propaganda poster from the First World War showing a soldier standing with a gas mask around his neck. The phrase 'they shall not pass' [on the poster in French in cloud like letters] is said to have originated with General Robert Nivelle at the Battle of Verdun in 1916.
February 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #breakfast
A fat blue patterned mug of light brown coffee on a coaster of crocheted blue flowers. On the table next to this is a small box of fruit cake bites with two empty spaces and two spaces with round pieces a little bigger than the chocolates in a box of chocolates.
February 16, 2025 at 6:31 PM
cshlan.dawdling.net.ap.brid.gy
Long green stem with a white flower starting to bloom at the top in front of an orangy red painted brick wall. A bit of ceiling at the top just above the bloom has white painted textured stuff peeling off. The right side of the picture is a corner of a painting in blues and browns and the same red.
January 1, 2025 at 5:10 PM