Friday, February 16
Feb. 17th, 2024 12:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
More sunshine, and I LOVE the longer days.
Texted back and forth more with the place that made our windows, and hopefully they can come up with an estimate next week for replacing the single sliding piece.
It's a bit frustrating to deal with them, as they keep wanting all this information from us that their company should already have from when they made the windows for us just over two years ago. The woman at the front desk is asking about email address, physical address, and on and on, when ALL of that should be in our existing file with them, current still.
I was feeling really down in the dumps about our last riding lesson, and how R just went over the same thing again and again like a broken record. Honestly, it made me feel like she thought I was stupid, the way she was repeating herself.
BUT, I know that I understood what she was saying. It's just that I wasn't going to be able to instantly manifest those words into a change in our performance. Like, you can describe to someone how to do a dance move, and show them, and go through it with them, but then they'll have to go practice it a bit.
Today, River and I did GREAT on our liberty circles that we did on our own, and that made me both feel better (that we could do it well), but also frustrated with R, because I don't know why she thought our work was so bad on Wednesday. I really didn't think we were doing so badly at it, except that she picked it apart.
It undermines my confidence to have someone do that to me.
River and I did do well together today. He did things nicely, calmly, and fairly correctly today, so I didn't drill or repeat things. It was very nice to work with him like this.
Then I worked with the other horse, Quidley, during the girl with some challenges's lesson. He did well. He's less fidgety these days, though he still seems insecure. Hard to explain. It's like he's still testing my leadership in small ways, or he wants more leadership.
I'm still not happy about the other Liberty organization R wants me (all of us) to switch over to. I've been looking at his site, and I have several issues with it.
So far, it looks like the founder of the group is the ONLY judge for the shows. That is NOT good.
There is no "board" making decisions, just the founder. So, any complaints we had would also only go back to this one person, who would make an unchallenged, unilateral decision.
There's therefore no accountability to anyone other than himself.
This group "partners" with a "non-profit" that works with rescue horses, that is ALSO run by the same person. Basically money from the Liberty organization can be used for the rescues, but again, that non-profit doesn't have a board or oversight.
He's saying that he "works with rescues", but we're just giving him money to either pay for his rent, or his truck, or hay for horses whether they are rescues or not, there's nothing saying where the money is going. The money isn't going back into the Liberty organization, it's going to him, for whatever he wants it for.
I don't know how objective or valid his platform will be, not to mention it is TWICE AS MUCH to join as the ILHA, and he hasn't even said what it will cost to enter a show yet. His group will not have the same kind of official recognition as the ILHA.
It would be like if you were a gymnast, and some guy who maybe used to compete in gymnastics just decided to have a "Gymnast club" of his own because he doesn't like how the official ones work. Winning a medal through him really wouldn't be the same as the official organization.
I'm not too happy with any of this, but R seems to think this is the best route, even though it's all really unofficial.
Sigh.
I came home and my Sweetie and I watched another episode of "The Expanse" together.
Mauritius is an island country East of Africa, and also East of Madagascar.
The usual series of outside bloodsucking vermin:
Arab traders visited as early as 975 AD. Then in 1507, Portuguese traders. Then in 1598 the Dutch took possession of the islands.
Then France in 1715, then the U.K. in 1810. The Mauritius islands became the prime sugar production plantations for Britain until it's independence in 1968.
In modern times: "The island's government is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and Mauritius has a high ranking for economic and political freedom being listed by the Economist's Democracy Index as the only country geographically close to Africa with full democracy.[26]. When compared to Africa, Mauritius is by the only country with very high Human Development Index and the World Bank, classifies it as a high-income economy.[27] It is amongst the most competitive and most developed economies in the African region.[28] The country is a welfare state. The government provides free universal healthcare, free education up through the tertiary level and free public transportation for students, senior citizens, and the disabled.[29] Mauritius is consistently ranked as the most peaceful when compared to African countries.[30]" From Wikipedia.
It's religion is primarily Hindu.
These islands are home to many endemic plants and animals, and the Dodo, now extinct, was only found in this region of the world.
The forests are mostly gone, harvested for their hardwood trees (ebony), and only about 2% of the original forests remain.
"Since independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a low-income, agriculture-based economy to a high-income diversified economy, based on tourism, textiles, sugar, and financial services. The economic history of Mauritius since independence has been called "the Mauritian Miracle" and the "success of Africa" (Romer, 1992; Frankel, 2010; Stiglitz, 2011).[185]
In recent years, information and communication technology, seafood, hospitality and property development, healthcare, renewable energy, and education and training have emerged as important sectors, attracting substantial investment from both local and foreign investors.[4]
Mauritius has no exploitable fossil fuel reserves and so relies on petroleum products to meet most of its energy requirements. Local and renewable energy sources are biomass, hydro, solar and wind energy.[186]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius
Mauritius had no indigenous people, everyone came from the colonists, and people brought to work on the plantations.
https://youtu.be/8Ni-ZNQ6jYo?si=EqgNTnKp3Hpe6DtX
More sunshine, and I LOVE the longer days.
Texted back and forth more with the place that made our windows, and hopefully they can come up with an estimate next week for replacing the single sliding piece.
It's a bit frustrating to deal with them, as they keep wanting all this information from us that their company should already have from when they made the windows for us just over two years ago. The woman at the front desk is asking about email address, physical address, and on and on, when ALL of that should be in our existing file with them, current still.
I was feeling really down in the dumps about our last riding lesson, and how R just went over the same thing again and again like a broken record. Honestly, it made me feel like she thought I was stupid, the way she was repeating herself.
BUT, I know that I understood what she was saying. It's just that I wasn't going to be able to instantly manifest those words into a change in our performance. Like, you can describe to someone how to do a dance move, and show them, and go through it with them, but then they'll have to go practice it a bit.
Today, River and I did GREAT on our liberty circles that we did on our own, and that made me both feel better (that we could do it well), but also frustrated with R, because I don't know why she thought our work was so bad on Wednesday. I really didn't think we were doing so badly at it, except that she picked it apart.
It undermines my confidence to have someone do that to me.
River and I did do well together today. He did things nicely, calmly, and fairly correctly today, so I didn't drill or repeat things. It was very nice to work with him like this.
Then I worked with the other horse, Quidley, during the girl with some challenges's lesson. He did well. He's less fidgety these days, though he still seems insecure. Hard to explain. It's like he's still testing my leadership in small ways, or he wants more leadership.
I'm still not happy about the other Liberty organization R wants me (all of us) to switch over to. I've been looking at his site, and I have several issues with it.
So far, it looks like the founder of the group is the ONLY judge for the shows. That is NOT good.
There is no "board" making decisions, just the founder. So, any complaints we had would also only go back to this one person, who would make an unchallenged, unilateral decision.
There's therefore no accountability to anyone other than himself.
This group "partners" with a "non-profit" that works with rescue horses, that is ALSO run by the same person. Basically money from the Liberty organization can be used for the rescues, but again, that non-profit doesn't have a board or oversight.
He's saying that he "works with rescues", but we're just giving him money to either pay for his rent, or his truck, or hay for horses whether they are rescues or not, there's nothing saying where the money is going. The money isn't going back into the Liberty organization, it's going to him, for whatever he wants it for.
I don't know how objective or valid his platform will be, not to mention it is TWICE AS MUCH to join as the ILHA, and he hasn't even said what it will cost to enter a show yet. His group will not have the same kind of official recognition as the ILHA.
It would be like if you were a gymnast, and some guy who maybe used to compete in gymnastics just decided to have a "Gymnast club" of his own because he doesn't like how the official ones work. Winning a medal through him really wouldn't be the same as the official organization.
I'm not too happy with any of this, but R seems to think this is the best route, even though it's all really unofficial.
Sigh.
I came home and my Sweetie and I watched another episode of "The Expanse" together.
Mauritius is an island country East of Africa, and also East of Madagascar.
The usual series of outside bloodsucking vermin:
Arab traders visited as early as 975 AD. Then in 1507, Portuguese traders. Then in 1598 the Dutch took possession of the islands.
Then France in 1715, then the U.K. in 1810. The Mauritius islands became the prime sugar production plantations for Britain until it's independence in 1968.
In modern times: "The island's government is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and Mauritius has a high ranking for economic and political freedom being listed by the Economist's Democracy Index as the only country geographically close to Africa with full democracy.[26]. When compared to Africa, Mauritius is by the only country with very high Human Development Index and the World Bank, classifies it as a high-income economy.[27] It is amongst the most competitive and most developed economies in the African region.[28] The country is a welfare state. The government provides free universal healthcare, free education up through the tertiary level and free public transportation for students, senior citizens, and the disabled.[29] Mauritius is consistently ranked as the most peaceful when compared to African countries.[30]" From Wikipedia.
It's religion is primarily Hindu.
These islands are home to many endemic plants and animals, and the Dodo, now extinct, was only found in this region of the world.
The forests are mostly gone, harvested for their hardwood trees (ebony), and only about 2% of the original forests remain.
"Since independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a low-income, agriculture-based economy to a high-income diversified economy, based on tourism, textiles, sugar, and financial services. The economic history of Mauritius since independence has been called "the Mauritian Miracle" and the "success of Africa" (Romer, 1992; Frankel, 2010; Stiglitz, 2011).[185]
In recent years, information and communication technology, seafood, hospitality and property development, healthcare, renewable energy, and education and training have emerged as important sectors, attracting substantial investment from both local and foreign investors.[4]
Mauritius has no exploitable fossil fuel reserves and so relies on petroleum products to meet most of its energy requirements. Local and renewable energy sources are biomass, hydro, solar and wind energy.[186]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius
Mauritius had no indigenous people, everyone came from the colonists, and people brought to work on the plantations.
https://youtu.be/8Ni-ZNQ6jYo?si=EqgNTnKp3Hpe6DtX
no subject
Date: 2024-02-19 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-19 07:28 am (UTC)Are some of your ancestors Pacific Islanders?
no subject
Date: 2024-02-19 12:22 pm (UTC)My ancestors are from all over the place. I think Antarctica, Africa, and South America are the only continents not represented and that too I could be wrong! LOL
I signed up for Marion Webster's word of the day again, and although I have quite a vocabulary, life has been so so stressful for too long that it's not sharp. I'm finding I have an idea of the word but it's not actually accurate. And I want to be someone that actually sounds educated when they use their words and does not go to a new area where people can understand where it's like that finally finally.... Only to have them quietly have to adapt to the fact that I have no idea how to actually use them.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-20 06:02 am (UTC)I'm not sure that I will retain much, but I'm hoping to have a few things stick. If nothing else, I think I will gain a general idea of the region of Oceania, a place I know almost nothing about.
I think in general, I now have a hazy overall, general idea of this region. That all of the islands in this region are either coral atolls or volcanic. Most of them are low-lying and vulnerable to rising ocean levels. They seem to be either Christian, Muslim, or Sunni Islam. Originally most of the islands in the Oceania region were peopled by ancient Australian people.
That they were isolated for a long time until traders developed ships with sails. Lots of these islands became colonies of Europe, and were only recently independent nations, almost always after long periods of civil unrest.
Many of them were occupied by Japan during the World Wars, and that's also often when so many of them gained independence, is not long after the cessation of WW II. Many of these islands still have ties to Britain or the United States, and many have U.S. military bases on them to this day.
I learned that many of these islands are very multicultural with people who came with the traders and colonists, and others that were brought to work there, and that there are many small, isolated tribes still whose way of life is disappearing.
So, a very general idea, and I didn't know most of this before I made a point of trying to learn something.
Learning vocabulary is good too, but it can be hard to work that into conversation, or as you say, to be sure you're using it correctly.
If you're curious, here's a link to the game I play sometimes: https://world-geography-games.com/world.html
I often open it in two windows, one with the game active, the other open to the map. Yes, it's cheating, but I can't learn where things are just by failing to find them on a map. I do try a couple of times before looking for the right answer.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-28 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-29 07:12 am (UTC)It actually does end up helping to put some news stories into context, and movies or books with exotic locations.
I find it interesting to learn about how they all fit together for the world wars, since the outcomes of those wars have more or less created the politics of the modern world.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-04 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-02-20 06:10 am (UTC)As far as the Irish part; we suspect that we have "black Irish" heritage (though the term is ambiguous since there are murky ties to who the dark people were, or where they came from).
Our surname has it's origins in the Anglo-Normans who returned to Ireland after the Crusades.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-28 07:23 am (UTC)