Watermewlon time 🦊💚🍉

I just learned the word echolalia. 🦊 I've been repeating nice sounding words, phrases and animal noises all my life and never knew there's a special word for that. I didn't even know it was an autism thing, I just love doing it.

AI has ruined the joy of looking up nature and animal photos online. 🦊 I was looking for cute moths and half of the results were AI slop and it's getting harder to tell what's real anymore. This is so disappointing. Why did anyone think this was a good idea. It has basically ruined the internet.

I kinda love watching lightning. It fascinated me since I was a kid.

One of my favourite folk songs is Drimindown. An old Irish lament for a cow. 🐄 The Droimeann cow is an old breed of cattle in Ireland officially recognised as a rare native breed in 2020. It's nearly extinct. Now I'm convinced the song refers to this cattle breed. The Droimeann (white-backed) cow.

Two fox puppets made by my aunt 🦊

Little mouse I saw on my forest walk I stood right there, and I stood right still Not a word did I return Until I saw the little mouse Coming out of her leafy den 🐭🍂

Enjoying a Forest Walk 🦊

I talked to my aunt in America via Skype. She lives in Boston. (Does anyone remember Skype? Haha) She makes these animal puppets. She sews them. I had no idea, I think they're very cute. I wanted to show them here. ^-^

I'm neurodivergent and for me having a furry character is a way of escapism from real life. I often feel like an outsider in the real world. An observer who doesn't speak the same language. I can't connect to people. Pretending to be a fox is an outlet for me. To get away from the daily struggles.

We don't make fun adults playing with toy trains, playing videogames, collecting Star Wars figurines or superhero comics, reading fantasy or science fiction books. We don't have to make fun of furries either. Even if you don't understand them, just let them be. They don't harm anyone. 🦊

A friend asked me what a furry is. :P We're fans of anthropomorphic animal characters. Animals with human traits. Many have a fursona, a personal character they identify with. Furries enjoy and create art, costumes, stories etc. based around this. For me it's a form of escapism from real life. 🦊

I opened up Discord and started talking to a few people. And it wasn't bad at all. It went fine, even if I'm clumsy. Social anxiety is a hard thing to get out of. But I'll try! I'm already feeling better just from saying hi to people today. For me it's progress. It makes me happy. 🦊

The terrorist attack on the CSD Pride in Berlin puts a mental strain on me. That's been on my mind a lot since yesterday. :/ I'm moody because of it. Both religious extremists and the far-right hate us. I wish the German government would do more to prevent radicalisation. I have no trust in them.

I reinstalled Discord after not using it in a long time. 🦊 My handle is fuchsfein If anyone wants to say Hi feel free to poke me. I'll try to write back. I want to overcome my social anxiety and find a few people to talk to. About hobbies, gaming, music etc.. It'd be good for me to be less alone.

It's a pizza saturday 🦊♥️

Drimindown (Lament for a Cow) - Sung by Captain Charles Warren “Charlie” Cates, mayor of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for Helen Creighton in August 1956. This old Irish song has verses in English and a garbled chorus in Gaelic. Leadbelly's version turned into Kisses Sweeter than Wine.

Kraftwerk - Ralf & Florian 1973 UK Vertigo Vinyl LP Their first album with synthesizers and vocoder. I love its unique vibe. It's reminiscent of Cluster. This one is rare. I was happy to get the UK version in good condition. The German release included a comic poster by Emil Schult. Some day... 🦊🎵

Kraftwerk - Kohoutek - Kometenmelodie 1973 German Vinyl 7" Single This single was released after Ralf & Florian to celebrate a comet passing Earth. It's an early, quite different recording of the two Kometenmelodie parts found on 1974's Autobahn album. A nice slice of Kosmische Musik and synthpop.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn 1974 German Vinyl LP This electronic road trip put KW on the map. "Fahr'n, fahr'n, fahr'n auf der Autobahn" became a surprise radio hit in America because it sounded like "fun, fun, fun". The Beach Boys. It was the only album with Klaus Röder and his hand-made electric violin.

Kraftwerk - Radio-Aktivität 1975 German Vinyl LP This one's an oddity. A return to the ambient and noise experiments of the band's early era. It plays with the double entendre of nuclear radiation and activity on the radio airwaves. I love it, but it's the least accessible of the 8 classic albums.

Kraftwerk - Trans Europa Express 1977 German Vinyl LP Dreams of a borderless, peaceful Europe during the era of the Iron Curtain and train nostalgia. This one is timeless. Wonderful use of the Vako Orchestron, an optical disc sampler, and the Synthanorma 16-step analogue sequencer on this album.

Kraftwerk - Die Mensch-Maschine 1978 German Vinyl LP Classic synthpop album with the iconic red shirts and black ties. The aesthetics were inspired by El Lissitzky and the Russian Constructivism art movement. Everyone knows Die Roboter and Das Modell. But my favourite song is the gentle Neonlicht.

Kraftwerk - Computerwelt 1981 German Vinyl LP Their most accessible synthpop album. A mellow warm analogue sound. It subtly criticised mass surveillance of personal data, a topic all the more relevant in our times. The German version has different mixing and additional lyrics over Computer World.

Kraftwerk - Electric Café 1986 German Vinyl LP The black sheep album. Started in 1982 with analogue synths and the Emulator II Sampler under the title "Techno Pop". Then cancelled, remade digitally, released to lukewarm reviews. But the 3D cover art and "Musique Non Stop" music video were amazing.

My Kraftwerk vinyl collection 🦊🎵 Original German releases from the 70s and 80s. It was a bit of a dream for me to get them because I love the band.

The House Carpenter - Sung by J.W. 'Peg' Hatcher for folklorist Herbert Halpert and his recording machine at Ferrum, Franklin County, Virginia, in 1939. An example of the field recordings of folk music I enjoy listening to. 🦊🎵 The drawing of the ship was made by my friend Spring.

First picture I feel somewhat happy with in recent times. My back doesn't hurt anymore. It helps so much. Mentally I'm doing well too. Still a long way to go with losing some weight and building self confidence, but I'll keep working on myself. 🦊

It's bumblebee time 🐝 Surprise attack at the end 🦊