á⬏ ⛩️ カーカーカーカーカーカーカーカーカーカ | .< カラスのカレンダー >. | カ * * * * * * * * * * * * * カ | .< karasu calendar >. | カーカーカーカーカーカーカーカーカー！ karasuguisu trip w/ @wingy 🚅 ⇆ tiny updates on the go ⇄ 🚃 5.27 「水」 ☀️ 24C - 20C ☁️ egrets catching fish, two karasu on a pole, train ride through Chiba #CCA1AA 苺ミルク blue rock thrush chatting, sweet memories lost and found, a teishoku feast #479E4C #3D89CF ファミマ ≋ warm breeze by the sea ≋ graduation ritual: bright sparks on dark sand .< daily karasu count: ~46 >. 5.28 「木」 ☁️ 22C - 26C 🌫️ uguisu sings to the mountain forest tombs. we swing above trees. #76A0E2 #DDE2A0 #D35E58 天コーラ lunch in an old house, a spare key retrieved before a journey through mist #1E2E2C #42603F 薄茶 we follow the crows to a tea house dream, music, new friends, and deep bliss .< daily karasu count: ~44 >. 5.29 「金」 ☀️ 25C - 20C 🎐 asa gohan: ichigo, ume, & rice. plankton bloom wafting. #AE7C54 梅干し back to Ōiso: kind, misguided déjà vu. gift exchange laughter. #604431 つゆ train station foot bath. later, bats swirl above us on ceramic trails. .< daily karasu count: ~28 >. 5.30 「土」 ☀️ 20C - 28C ⛅️ wooden hut attic. shrine, temple, pottery walls. old, overgrown kilns. #0134A6 #F6F4EF 常滑牛乳 from swarming city to quiet rice fields, we rush ahead with regrets. #D19A46 スパイスコーラ water ritual: bare skin, energy, candles, stone faces & frogs. .< daily karasu count: ~74 >. 5.31 「日」 ☁️ 19C - 28C ☀️ we climb steep stone steps to a kami gathering on the mountainside #253E10 つばき Tsubaki chohai, sacred spaces, teahouse gifts, prayers & kindness #8FAA35 トンボ と #F8E271 コマルハナバチオス a grand procession for rice planting matsuri. dragonflies join us. .< daily karasu count: ~105 >. 6.1 「月」 ☀️ 24C - 28C ⛅️ breakfast in Ise: hojicha, anko, mochi. soup and floral tea. #B73F34 #ECEFE8 山村乳業 between urban sprawl, we pray to a massive tree. Inari watches. #3E6430 #9F9B7E #4B3026 ウィルキンソン at Ise Jingū, pilgrims wander the forest. we visit giants. .< daily karasu count: ~127 >. 6.2 「火」 🌧️ 23C - 21C 🌧️ konbini breakfast, Kintetsu to Osaka, typhoon warnings wane #3C42A8 #CBC0A5 ビスタEX seeking rest, we find Buddhas sculpted of ashes. crows caw in the rain. #635042 #DEBE7F #B5AF96 ほうじ茶パフェ food stall labyrinth, gashapon, carnival games, & netto kafe .< daily karasu count: ~47 >. 6.3「水」 🌧️ 21C - 26C ⛅️ on the wooded trail, a crab scuttles from a bush. we are all surprised. #CE7156 カニ many train transfers to reach the bird exhibit. well worth the journey. #5E7669 #DCAC81 つり革 cool breeze at sunset. we wander and marvel at Mozu Kofun-gun. .< daily karasu count: ~52 >. 6.4「木」 ☁️ 22C - 25C 🌦️ we pause in Rokko. ‘kachi kachi’ goes the clock in the coffee shop. #192E07 かけどけ wild Playdate spotted at a cute back street cafe near a Mouth of Truth #F0D77D マンホール lesson of the day: if you don’t have a table, don’t order gyoza. .< daily karasu count: ~82 >. 6.5「金」 ☁️ 20C - 25C ⛅️ brief stay in Kyoto. we escape to Nagano - and sigh with relief. #627846 #495E35 森 headed to Achi nodding off to NNMIE. email inbox pings. #E97F45 sanpo sightings: frogs, butterflies, birds, berries, fusicolla slime .< daily karasu count: ~64 >. 5.30 「土」 .< … >. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ also, @softercomputing & @island → 5.26.26 rough past week outline (to be expanded on later... maybe...): ~ m: pre-bird-day / catch up / trip prep. ~ tu: wingspan & softer computing club (more command line tinkering). ~ w: web work, prep, etc. ~ th: all three web commissions finished after 8 months! ~ f: meeting with Bruno of Digital Self-Determination to forge potential alliance w/ my DADDA project. first risograph at Print Hole. Samantha's VR game launch at new arcade. ~ sa: Doing Death Different conference / market. many donations, sweet new connections, and maybe a bridge to the vancouver death community? ~ su: finished ~100 tiny pixel sprites w/ @wingy for e-ink seasonal clock. stickers to potentially sell at Camas, Library of Death merch sold at Cavity, Big Tech talk at Wairua. wholesome past lives party w/ @jeffy & co. ~ m: bird day / japan trip prep & transit to vancouver. epic, mindblowing, emotional reunion with Megan & Corin. sleepover at Kate's brother's. 5.17.26 on Monday, i grated up some of the koko that my brother brought back from Hawai'i to make koko alaisa - a family favourite. i also sawed off a chunk of koko to gift to Wilson & Hanisa at Wairua because the last time i brought them a piece, it was several years old x^D (probably still okay, but less flavourful.) that evening, ~wingy and i hosted what might be the last Hourglass event before the grant funding ends. it was a redo of the Iris Moore 'cycles of life & death' animation showcase that i coordinated around this time last year... and missed because i got super sick. i heard that it was a magical night later, and had been really wanting to have another chance to actually be present. i was feeling pretty worn out before the event started, but when we got things set up and people began to arrive, i started soaking up all the good energy (Spirit Bomb style basically haha). anyway, after sorting out some technical issues, i got the films set up and switched over to emcee mode for the first half of the night. stop-motion and singalongs are a really nice pairing, and people were glowing by the end. i was also so excited to learn that Iris is making a book based on her end-of-life portrait series! for the second half, Iris flipped the hourglass and we tried out a new 'life & death' conversation game that i'd thought up a couple of days before - and it worked out really well! the group was really well-rounded, and we went in some very interesting, deep directions. a wholesome evening - and we zonked hard that night. (p.s. all of Iris' short films are free to stream online: https://vimeo.com/irislmoore) Tuesday was Birds & Mammals day back at RBCM and i also ended up joining a rare gathering where i had a chance to meet volunteers from 'the other side' (public facing roles), and was surprised to see Dakota in the circle (new summer staff). she and i originally met at the 'What the Wild Taught Me' storytelling event, where she shared a story about orcas and i found out that she works for Ross Bay Cemetery. then we ran into each other again at the CREAN Ancestry & AI conference. suffice it to say that we have reasons to talk & maybe collaborate! that afternoon, Kate and i met Anna C for a much-anticipated picnic at míqәn, where we chatted under a Garry oak and many dangling caterpillars who we had to keep rescuing from landing in our salad. it was such a sweet time, and Kate & i finally had a chance to share more of our backstory from the Humm Hill / sx̣ʷət̕č̕əlíéw̕txʷ era. on Wednesday, Kate and our new friend / @softercomputing member Eli went tidepooling, and i joined for a tiny Merlin's Barrow adventure that led us to the most amazing natural little fairy door at the base of a tree, where a ladder of mushrooms leads up to an entrance hole with a sawdusted spiderweb that looks just like a little porch / rug. total magic. later that day, Kate and i stopped by Print Hole to deliver a pad of the deluxe paper that i got the deal of a lifetime on recently. i'm planning on doing my first riso project with Austin very soon. when we got home, Kate decided to gift me some amazing early b-day treasures that are related to my passion for riso and ecology / decay. that night, we had a busy board meeting at Little Fernwood that also reminded me why i want to continue to be a member for another year if i can. such a great, sweet, hardworking community. Thursday, i set aside some time to put together my first crude, simple spider zine! it's a eulogy for the first spider that i ever learned to love. that afternoon was perhaps our last chance to visit Dev & Rek before they sail off for the summer, so we stopped by the Pino in the evening with a couple of softer drinks, zines, and our microseasons book as going-away gifts. more sweet, wholesome chats over tea followed, and Dev gave me their awesome new 'Interaction Nets Pocket Computer' zine (https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/interaction_nets.html) that i'm excited to tinker with over the summer. this was a shorter visit than last time because Kate and i were going to joining our friend Jonathan (of Softer Drink) for his birthday dinner at March! i'd suggested the idea to Andrea because her and Jonathan had recommended the restaurant months ago and the timing kept not working out. anyway, we marched to March and were joined by Andrea, Anna J, Dani, and Saleh (in addition to the birthday boy). after a bit of a wait, a grand feast ensued that lived up to the hype. we also ended up having a deep dive conversation about sleep paralysis and dreams in general. i was surprised when Andrea asked everyone one of my favourite questions: do you ever dream about being on your phone / computer? oh, and Anna asked us about our connections to Japan - so we did our best to answer in a concise way. i was also thinking that it would be a nice exercise for Kate and i to write out our Japan stories while on the flight there - we'll see... back to the dinner: the night gulls were out in full force by the time we emerged, and Kate had an opportunity to demonstrate her now-famous 'Scream Like A Gull' calls before we all parted ways. Friday night was the return of SCCTV! Eli, @jeffy, and Anna J joined Kate and i for creative ASCII and another couple of Computer Chronicles episodes (S16E31 & S13E17) over tea and popcorn. we also admired Jeffy's amazing Hall of Fame (https://jeffy.ca/hall_of_fame), as well as Eli's sweet Hotglue website (https://3li6.hotglue.me/). Dev had planned to join this time around as well, but unfortunately had a rough day. i'm saving their favourite episode for sometime after they return in autumn hehe on Saturday, i finally managed to get uxn running on my old aleutia t1 computer thanks to some help from Dev! the t1 was my first tinkering computer, and along the way, lost its ability to connect to the internet. i learned a lot about installing stuff to an offline computer along the way to getting uxn on there. my plan has been to turn it into a softer computer for townsfolk, and it's coming along nicely. that night, Kate and i finally got to attend the finished version of The Comeuppance! i had heard that some of my feedback during the rehearsal had been taken to heart and was so honoured to see my name on the program, and to see my suggestions come to life on the stage. i've been really feeling the draw of theatre this year... anyway, the production was excellent and the performances so good! it's truly a play that i wouldn't mind seeing a few times. kudos to Misty and the entire crew for bringing such a unique, cool personification of Death to life! today, i visited Andy at Cavity and we discussed the possibility of having a 'community credit' pool there for softer townsfolk. i've accumulated quite a lot from trades and have been thinking of doing something along these lines for a while. Andy was really into the idea, and i think i'll make some special cards later this week. i'm also going to have a Library of Death shelf there soon - a dream come true! he even kindly offered to make some custom display elements for it, which is so sweet. there's also some potential for me to have a booth at a metal festival that he'll be running in the late summer, which would be so cool. finally, we talked about a potential crossover between softer computing club and the Commodore 64 group that sometimes meets at Cavity to play super difficult C64 games. this, again, would be an amazing opportunity. either way, i'm determined to host some scc events there. meanwhile, eight months of web work is coming to an end, and i'm looking forward to shifting my energy elsewhere for the summer... ok, that might be my last big memory dump before Kate and i head to Japan... just one more big event day this upcoming Saturday, and then i'm switching to full-on birthday / trip mode :^o 5.10.26 on Wednesday, ~wingy, Cedric, and i visited Dev & Rek on the Pino for sweet, thoughtful chats and laughs. we had a chance to flip through some of their zine collection and worked on a few collaborative doodles together. an inspiring and wholesome time. we also met Little Ninj, and were starstruck! we're hoping to stop by again to see them before they set sail for the summer. it'd also be so cool to collaborate on a softer computing event when they're back in town in autumn. Thursday was the final day for The Library of Death pop-up at The Ministry of Casual Living, and it was bittersweet, but i'm feeling ready to shift gears for the season ahead. Kate and Anna J graciously volunteered to host the latter half of the final shift, and did an amazing job packing up while i attended a storytelling event at Nova Arts Hub. deep gratitude. at Nova, i reconnected with Sabrina who runs climate resilience events, and who might collaborate with me on a climate & death event at some point. i was also delighted to hear that Ignacio, who i'd met at the maskmaking workshop, had been astonished to see a ballooning spider. this story was carried by Mo, whose graphic recordings i'd previously seen around. i recommended that everyone read Charlotte's Web. on Friday, our friend Shane in Leitrim invited others to take a nature stroll in honour of David Attenborough's birthday, so Kate and i looped through míqәn (Beacon Hill Park) and had many joyful encounters along the way. we later watched Project Hail Mary (against my brother's advice) and most of my emotional connection to the film revolved around the spiderlike alien, who reminded me of my spider friends. i didn't care for the added voice though. i've been recently reconnecting with my past life at Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co by rewatching Contact and Interstellar with Kate. back in the day, these films were foundational to me, and revisiting them rekindled a sense of cosmic perspective that i used to contemplate daily. meanwhile, back on Earth, we had also forgotten to buy tickets to the second listening event at Burrow, and were feeling super tired. zonked hard that night. Saturday, wingy scruffhead performed at a plant sale while i joined my friend Keira's community garage sale, and ended up picking up a great monitor to use for softer computing stuff. i also got to meet an artist named Kelsey, who had visited The Library of Death on a day that i wasn't there and was selling a cute little $2 handmade fairy house that i couldn't resist. after returning to pick up Kate at the plant sale, i visited the Green Muse booth, where Anna introduced me to Leanne, a former death companion turned adventurer. Kate also introduced me to Liz from the Bug Zoo, who told me about how chestnut flowers change colours depending on whether or not they still have nectar to offer to bees! we headed off to míqәn for the World Migratory Bird Day celebration, where Kate entered the Scream Like A Gull competition. personally, i think she had the most authentic gull impression both last year and this year, but the judges seem to have a bias towards screechier contestants... anyway, she still got a great commemorative enamel pin for the occasion. she also got interviewed by a few news outlets as well as Trenton & Jameson from Special Bird Service, who are always such a warm, funny pair. meanwhile, i connected with Teale, who works with our local Placemaking Network and maps out the Little Free Libraries in the area. may collaborate to set up a Little Free Library of Death later this year. he's also on the board with the public library system here, who i've also been considering collaborating with in some way or another for Library of Death stuff. we'll see... 5.5.26 Tuesday was Jaden's last day at Birds & Mammals before she moves to Nevada, and we had one last Wingspan with the Tuesday crew (minus ~wingy, who was in Vancouver) in the Learning & Engagement area, thanks to Chris' invitation to upgrade. it was a fun session, but with a layer of sadness underneath as we prepared to say farewell to our dear friend - & amidst the imminent end of such a sweet era at RBCM. all good things ⌛️ then on Wednesday evening, i attended a rehearsal for The Comeuppance - a play narrated by Death, which i've been invited to advise on (re: personification of death). i had previously read most of the script, but decided to leave the ending as a surprise. suffice it to say that i very much enjoyed the performance and felt a surreal sense of connection to the whole thing. i gave some feedback that seems to have been useful for refining the final performance, which Kate and i will be attending next weekend. i also walked away with a few books: The Summer of the Ubume, Consider The Lobster, and Hamnet - from Misty's downsizing giveaway. on Thursday, the "Good Grief" show opened at The Ministry of Casual Living and many more cool folks came to visit The Library of Death. i showcased some grief-specific resources that we have, and had my own work on display for the show as well. i'm generally not drawn to being a gallery artist, but figured i might as well since i have some wall space at MoCL right now. i've also been feeling bad about not giving my work more time to breathe out in the world beyond my closet. Marae volunteered to hold the space for the second half of the evening while i dashed off to Nova Arts Hub for Kyra Royo Fay's "Mask Making With{in}vasives: Reflections On Ancestral Migration" workshop. this prompt felt like destiny when it popped up on my radar, and really delivered on that promise. after a beautiful introductory exercise that brought out a lot of grief in me from my stewardship era, we introduced ourselves before getting to the mask making portion. we used Scotch broom, gorse, and wheatpaste to construct our masks - and i based mine on tiny, cute insects that were crawling all over the tables after being displaced from their homes in the broom. this was amazing to me, as i'd never witnessed any species really interacting with the plant. i later learned that these were broom psyllid nymphs, who exclusively feed on Scotch broom. i managed to rescue one but the others vanished... Friday, i headed to Seattle to spend time with my family, who are all migrating to Boise. and honestly, this visit, i really felt how much Seattle has changed since i left eight years ago - and not in a good way... one example: there was literally a dumpster on fire next to a restaurant we were picking up food from. a little on the nose, but yeah... lots of sad, strange feelings, revisiting a place both familiar and alien at this point. anyway, it was still a really nice family visit, and Kate joined us the next day. we played mini golf with my nephews for their birthday, during which an osprey(?) circled/dived/splashed down nearby, and had a nice picnic in the park afterwards. also, at an intersection on the way to mini golf, a crow swooped down to land next to us and proceeded to chase a mouse between the cars, zigzagging around, and managed to corner/catch it just as the light turned green. pair this with the fact that Kate had just seen a crow chasing a rat in Vancouver, and earlier in the week, i had stumbled across a comments section describing how good crows are at catching rats, and you'll understand our layered sense of synchronous wonder. oh, and i ran into Yumi, an acquaintance from various Japanese events, on the Clipper, and we had a really sweet chat about her ceramics work and the funding application circuit. my dad also gave me a belated Christmas / early birthday gift - a Basquiat jacket - which he chose because of the deathy art & similarity between our names. for some strange reason, i've only ever admired Basquiat's work from afar, but he's one of those artists who seems like *such* the artist i would have idolized in my younger years. i went on to learn that he died the year that i was born at age 27... and all of the death-themed art... i mean, yeah, very strange that we didn't get connected until now, but also maybe it's just the right time. ~☯~ on the ferry ride back, i spotted a pod of maybe eight or nine orcas. later, i learned that my sister had dreamt of seeing about eight orcas the previous night, and my mom had told her it as a sign that i would see orcas on my journey home. me, orcas, and Orcus seem to be having a thing lately... hmm... ok! weekly memory workout complete. [5/6 edit: or so i thought...] 5.3.26 birds heard in Auburn from 9:46am - 9:52am #865933 junco #e88d3a robin #343a52 crow #db463b house finch - - - - - - - - - - - - - archive: https://www.leaflitter.ca/