Open Thread: Random Acts of Kindness (or other things that make the world better)

[untonuggan]

Today I battled traffic for an hour to find out that I need three to four gum surgeries in the next two months to prevent cavities (or further cavities) and root canals and tooth death and stuff. The gum dentist was all reassuring about pain and my potential concerns about the gum grafts, but honestly after my past experiences + chronic pain I am at "meh" about gum grafts. Like if they don't work and are painful and I have complications that drag on and on, then I will be pissed. But if they are an acute issue that prevents other stuff that's temporarily painful? Whatever. Bring it.

Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying that I'm getting fed up with moar police shootings or How This Neglected Animal Ended Up in Rescue Horror Story or labor rights being chipped away or the same with reproductive rights and...

...basically, I need a reminder that the world is not a giant pile of shit. Or that if it is, it's like fertile horse manure that can be used to grow roses and tasty fucking vegetables or something. IDK this metaphor may have gotten away from me.

So, uh, if you are also feeling similarly (or have contributions!) here is an open thread to share happy stories, random acts of good things, pretty shiny pictures of things you have made or cute animals (preferably cute animals not being tormented but still looking cute plz), sunsets or sunrises, poetry, whatever.

For some reason Spring always messes with my mood, which is maybe more insulting to me because the world seems to be all, "It's spring motherfucker! Look how sunny and bright and flowery we are! We have stolen your soul to fuel our pollen masses! Now you can only sneeze and not smile!" and it seems so contradictory to feel like a gloom ball when it's like a Disney movie outside (well, maybe that's not actually contradictory), but anyway rambling again.

I am learning though that feeling weird/wonky in Spring is actually not that uncommon, so this is also a post if you just need a spot to go, "Me too! I am also feeling weird/wonky/gloom-ballicious!" However, since trying to share generally soft-and-puppy related themed things, if anything is triggering please place under a warning or maybe if someone else has spoons there can be a separate post for general woe-themed things.

signal-boosting welcome, this is an open thread. please play nice.

Comments

[untonuggan]

Two cats (a small orange tabby and a black cat with green eyes) "sharing" a cat bed. The tabby looks quite content, the black cat has half his upper body hanging out of the cat bed because there is no room and a pleading look in his eyes.

I've posted this before, but I never tire of this picture. You can probably tell from their positions who is top cat amongst our two. Lily (the tabby) was all 'Oh I am a poor sad can I love you we can play!' and then once they were best buds and grooming each other she was like, 'And now I can sit on your face and eat your food and sit on your humans and you are my peon, k? Cuz we're BFFs!" (Chance maybe needs to work on boundaries, but they seem to be mostly happy except for at like 5:30 am which I think their wrestling then is partly a ploy to wake me up for breakfast.)

[syntaxofthings]

I NEED THIS POST.

also, that picture of your cats. <3<3

[untonuggan]

YES I THINK THE WORLD DOES RIGHT NOW ESPECIALLY. (and I did think of you as I was posting <3)

my cats are such adorable dorks <3

[hunningham]

Here are some pictures of zoo keepers hand-rearing baby dik-diks.
http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/dik-dik/

And a nice thing - my cat can now sit on my lap like a sensible beast. When we got him from the cat rescue 6 months ago he had no idea - he'd just sprawl over your legs with feet and whiskers every which way, and then he'd get excited (peoples! My peoples! Strokes!) and wiggle too much and fall off. But at some point over the past few months he has worked out how to fit cat on to lap, and now will curl himself into a compact round cat ball and purr. It's good.

[untonuggan]

HOW DID I NOT KNOW DIK DIKS EXISTED.

HOW DID I NOT KNOW HOW MUCH THE WORLD NEEDS THEM.

also, that is *excellent* news about your cat. my cat has a habit of falling off things, but usually when he's all, "I'm just gonna wash my toes on this narrow ledge." When he's actually concentrating he's actually fairly graceful (and suuuuper cautious about going new places, he always leaves a paw in the old place if possible til he's sure, like when he goes into a new room for the first time one paw stays out until he is sure he wants to go in. Same for crossing to new furniture when he's not jumping. It's kind of adorable.)

[vintagewitch]

...basically, I need a reminder that the world is not a giant pile of shit. Or that if it is, it's like fertile horse manure that can be used to grow roses and tasty fucking vegetables or something. IDK this metaphor may have gotten away from me.

I really enjoy where that metaphor went, as a matter of fact. :3

I also feel the need for this post - I do a lot of environmental activism, and that today is the 5 year anniversary of the BP Spill in the Gulf of Mexico actually hit me pretty hard, and then on top of that the police violence, a really sad murder of a 10-year-old in my area, war, and ALL THE THINGS, it's good to find beauty. Even if it's simple.

Pics to come! But they're all on my phone, so this is a multi-screen endeavor

[vintagewitch]

Shit! I can't figure out images! Sorry - I'm still brand new to this platform!

[untonuggan]

No worries! For regular entries you can use an input form, but I think for comments the only way is old-school html. (Which is, uh, how I learned basic html eons ago.)

You'll need to host them elsewhere (I think? Unless dreamwidth does image hosting now and I'm totally out of it? Bueller???). Anyway, if you use Flickr or something they should have a way to just feed you the html code and let you choose the size to display.

Otherwise, you'll want to use something like the following (minus extra spaces before the " < > " 's because otherwise the site won't let me show you the code it'll just go "huh this image doesn't exist I'll hide it."

< img src="http://urlfortheimg.jpg" >

You want to make sure the url within the quotes is for the actual image (and ends with a .jpg .gif or something) and not for a page with the image on it. If you need to, you can right click on the image and depending on your browser it will say something like "View Image" or "Copy Image Location".

There are also ways to adjust the size if it makes it HUGE, but I always make it wonky distorted sizes when I try to do it manually so for that I would check le google which is what I do when I'm trying to remember that code.

[spiralsheep]

This FAQ might help:

https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=225

:-)

[untonuggan]

I think there may actually be a book my subconscious borrowed that metaphor from, if you're interested. It's called Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? and it's Thai Forest Tradition Buddhist stories about, you know, life and shit. (Pun totally intended #sorrynotsorry)

[rynia]

Hi! I don't remember how I stumbled onto your DW and started following you, or if I introduced myself! (It seems likely I didn't, because I know myself.) I'm Ryn, and I feel you about the rough weeks and needing to know that the shit is fertilizer. I've always assumed my spring anxiety has been because I've been in and out of schools so much, and "April is the cruelest month" is a statement highly applicable to academia.

My first happy, hopeful thing is a bit of kindness from a professor of mine. I've been struggling with mental and physical health crap myself of late and had fallen behind in the class, which I need a passing grade in to graduate. My professor was not only very kind and understanding of the struggle, but provided active assistance - allowing me to sit in his office and going over the material step-by-step, e-mailing to check in on me, allowing me to turn in three overdue chapters worth of homework. It's especially heartening since I'm in a college of business and constantly afraid of gaining a reputation of being weak there.

For a second and third positive thing: here is a link with pictures of my younger cat, Merry and here is a link with my older, crankier cat, Dale, both on my Tumblr. They are very sweet, cuddly people-cats, and I tend to think they are The Cutest.

I hope your evening is going well, and that you are finding some ways to take care of your self in this.

[untonuggan]

AAAAAAH TINY KITTIES

sorry, um, that is basically how I respond to fuzzy mammals/animals.

Yay for your professor being understanding! that is great.

I'm not even in academia anymore and I still get a vague feeling of having forgotten something in October, December, March and late April. When does it end???

I already posted this on my journal but here's a stray dog tale with a happy ending.

[spiralsheep]

I saw what appeared to be a stray dog all alone so I went to investigate, before she got into trouble, and discovered the most adorable and friendly all-white Jack Russell (ish) terrier. She was obviously well cared for, including being properly collar-tagged (with a phone number) and microchipped, and seemed confident about which house she was supposed to be inside, after I challenged her about wandering around on her own, but the inhabitants were out and not answering their door or phone. I managed to find a neighbour in, and willing to answer the door, and he confirmed the terrier belonged where she indicated so I visually checked the back garden then put her inside the gate, and left a note through the letterbox. Not an ideal solution but at least she was less likely to end up dognapped or under some poor driver’s wheels. I received a grateful email later from her extremely contrite owners. I’m very glad to know I did the appropriate thing and she’s safe.

Re: I already posted this on my journal but here's a stray dog tale with a happy ending.

[untonuggan]

Yay that is a happy ending! Others in my family were out this weekend and came across a frightened Yorkie who kept dashing across four lanes of traffic. It took I think five people to catch him? As my mom volunteers at a local shelter, they took him there for care and in case someone lost him and was looking there. (He had no tag and no owner was apparent.) Someone was putting up lost dog signs in the area and my sister spotted them, though, so the tiny doggy got reunited with his person and not lost in suburbia. <3

And this is the last poem I bookmarked because LOVE

[spiralsheep]

Toad, by Norman MacCaig

Stop looking like a purse. How could a purse
Squeeze under the rickety door and sit,
Full of satisfaction in a man’s house?

You clamber towards me on your four corners –
Right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot.

I love you for being a toad,
For crawling like a Japanese wrestler,
And for not being frightened

I put you in my purse hand not shutting it,
And set you down outside directly under
Every star.

A jewel in your head? Toad,
You’ve put one in mine,
A tiny radiance in a dark place.

Re: And this is the last poem I bookmarked because LOVE

[untonuggan]

That is glorious. And also makes me think of Toad of Toad Hall, whom I love to bits.

[ironed_orchid]

There is a tumblr which posts pictures of Animals Sitting on Capaybaras.

A cat in Poland was nursed back to health in a shelter, and now he lives there and cuddles other animals who are brought in.

[alee_grrl]

I'm right there with you about spring.

I think the happiest making thing I encountered this past week was Ms. Marvel: Generation Why. Since I cannot teleport my copy directly to you (the universe needs to get on that teleportation technology), I figured I could at the very least share one of the cutest images from it. Kamala meets Lockjaw, one of the Animal Avengers and member of the Inhumans.

[syntaxofthings]

awwwww that image!

[alee_grrl]

Isn't it wonderful? The sign and bow on Lockjaw just make it even cuter.

[meowdate]

Feel better soon -I find ginger tea helps -or perhaps camomile?
ShiraDest
12015 HE (Holocene/Human Era)

[katemacetak]

It's reassuring that other people feel weird in the Spring. March and April are usually blah for me.

Here's something nice that happened at my metro station yesterday. People worked together to rescue a man that fell onto the tracks. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/04/22/401473215/dc-subway-riders-rescue-man-in-a-wheelchair-who-fell-onto-the-tracks