Damnable Bear @damnablebear@laserdisc.party

#introduction

i hate writing intro posts but here we are.

i'm 32, he/his (Ryan), from Albany, NY. I've played drums since 2001 and love music/vinyl.

i also like video games, gardening, i'm vegan, and i like fun colorful weird art. i read occasionally and i've been trying to do it more.

i volunteer w/ a nonprofit org that provides hands-on learning opportunities in the garden for kids in school

i brew beer & am working on a site that informs breweries of nonprofits + donation info

good morning fedi happy thursday

for context, the entity requesting the help has plenty of people with the knowledge to assist with this problem, but in this case, they're asking for updates from him, while he's spinning his wheels on getting this one thing to work, which he's not getting help with, from them. so in this case it's totally justified

coworker of mine was voluntold to help out with something for a project we're working on together, and the entity who requested the help is now completely ignoring his request for additional information after he ran into an issue executing against the thing they requested.

so now he's bombarding that group chat with screenshots and questions and this is TEA and i love it

this weekend i am going to do such exciting things as:

buying a new shower head because the one i had, broke off in the middle of a shower

#introduction continuation

lastly i am a firm believer that anything you put money toward is a direct endorsement of that thing, and anything you prevent money flow toward is a direct vote against that thing

make meaningful choices in the way you live your life and use your resources, and pull away from unethical decisions, choices, companies, and entities. they are not your friends, or anyone's.

most important is helping each other. black lives matter, ACAB, look out for each other 1st

#introduction

i hate writing intro posts but here we are.

i'm 32, he/his (Ryan), from Albany, NY. I've played drums since 2001 and love music/vinyl.

i also like video games, gardening, i'm vegan, and i like fun colorful weird art. i read occasionally and i've been trying to do it more.

i volunteer w/ a nonprofit org that provides hands-on learning opportunities in the garden for kids in school

i brew beer & am working on a site that informs breweries of nonprofits + donation info

and if you don't care about paying workers more to support their farms, then the aranya black pepper is probably too spicy for you anyway so

i'm not able to find any information about it, but it's likely that penzeys sources spices from a longer supply chain than diaspora does, which means the workers get a smaller cut in the end so

bill penzey seems to be fine for supporting protestors and not caring about merchandise vs black lives but uh

diaspora is a decolonized spice company which works directly with farms in india (for now) to pay them a living wage and support their family-owned farms

so if you wanna show support, skip penzeys and go to diaspora where you can

frankie cosmos is good music to work to

snooze has been a band from chicago that i've been following for the last few years and it's been wild to watch their lineup drop down to just their guitarist/now-vocalist, and their bassist, who died of a medical issue earlier this year. (they have since picked up a full time drummer)

this latest song is one that he had written lyrics & some music for, while hospitalized - and the amount of heart it must've taken to finish the song is more than i could handle.

https://wearesnooze.bandcamp.com/

one thing i can say with confidence is that i feel like i am getting better at making beer. i haven't been entirely happy with the last few batches, and i think that my setup prevents me from completely nailing a style, but they are all very drinkable, and my newest adventurous batch is coming along very nicely so far. like, better than i would have thought. i love noticing a difference in the work i'm doing. each successive attempt is my new cornerstone.

dark souls is the beowulf of video games

i've opted to instead focus on where my money is flowing, where my support is flowing, and being mindful of these things in my daily life. i alone cannot stop police from being fuckheads after they've done it repeatedly, but I can pull my support from systems that encourage a racist centerpoint where possible, and keep learning / unlearning. what else to do? am i being apathetic? is this normal to feel? other than advocating against systemic injustices, what "now" work is there for one person

posting this mainly for myself but also because i'm curious if anyone else has run into this. it's not the time to be silent about things like racist cops and racist-centered oppressive structures, but what happens when either everyone agrees with you, or when the people who don't, won't listen no matter how much information you give them? it's "the work" but if people don't want to understand, then they won't.

teetering between continuing to yell about current events into the echo chamber/void, or just stop wasting that effort and work on my own growth and support systems. people know where i stand on these issues, and i don't really care what they think, or if they want to dispute me by redirecting conversation into a centrist "whataboutist" point of theirs.

and now i'm debating about whether this even needs saying. i am not burned out, but not convinced that posting anything about this will matter

for an example of what's there right now, check out the New York page. that's got the most because, well, i live there.

I have an upcoming over-email-interview with one of the founders of Threes Brewing, and I hope that's gonna help to start giving me some direction for the type of content i'll want to include in a 'guide'