(no subject)

[girlofprey]

It's my birthday ::blows noisemaker::

Some nice things for my birthday:

Fox cubs on a webcam

A video from a nearby farm attraction about what they're doing after closing, all their pregnant animals, and at around 19:30 on the video, their new Shire horse foal that was just born on the farm.

And since there is some sad anti-Chinese sentiment around, I would like to share this poem from the Tang Dynasty that I read recently:

Dreaming of Li Bai (2), Du Fu (trans. Peter Harris)

Throughout the day the floating clouds go by
And even now the wanderer has not arrived.
I have dreamed of you three nights in a row;
How kind and caring this shows you to be!
When you take your leave you are always uneasy -
'It is hard coming,' you say bitterly,
'There are wind and waves on the rivers and lakes
And I am afraid the boat may sink.'
Going out the door you scratch your white head
As if you have failed to achieve your life's ambition.
Officials' caps and canopies fill the capital;
This man alone looks worn and out of sorts.
Who will say 'the net is spread wide', when as
things are
He is beset with difficulties as he grows old?
Having a reputation that lasts thousands of years
Is a lonely business if you acquire it after you are dead.


I mostly know Li Bai from Civilisation 6, so I can say that he certainly has a reputation that's lasted hundreds of years. Whether he only acquired if after he was dead though, I can't say.

Comments

[jekesta]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHAEL

I am sorry you have to birthday in lockdown. I thought about sending a card but I don't know how careful people are being about post and I didn't want to create a difficulty. Also I can't go anywhere and buy a card, so I was going to print you one off, and everything in my heart wanted it to be this one, because it is the only birthday card worth anything:



but I know that's more a thing I love than a thing you love, although you'd have to lack a heart not to love it at least a little. Anyway, this is the birthday card I would send to you if the world was not very strange right now:



I don't really get the thing about spotted hyenas - I'm sure they're delightful - but I do like the painting.

::THROWS HAPPINESS AT YOU::

I hope you have a good day now and then an even better day later when we're allowed out again and you can buy things and go places.

[girlofprey]

Thank you! I'm very confused about post at the moment too. I keep wanting to buy things just in case it's the last chance I have before the company closes down, but given what the Next workers said about their distribution centre, it's hard to know what you're asking of people, or what they're being forced into.

It's a lovely picture. I think it's actually quite touching when people send you things they love, because it's a bit like saying "I love you as much as this thing". I am aware you probably don't love me as much as the Beatles. We don't have to argue about that.

Some facts about spotted hyenas:

1. They are matriarchal, and the females are bigger and stronger than the males. You could just see this as a cheap feminist victory, 'the females are in charge', but it means that the females literally do all the hunting, all the social organising, all the leadership and all the child-rearing. There are current theories that the reason why females are bigger and stronger is directly linked to motherhood, to having to fight with each other over who got the best scraps in hard times, and so could provide more and better milk for their young. They mother their young for about two years, because it takes that long for the bone-crushing jaws to really develop, so they can survive on their own in hard times. They love their young. They are so tender and so vicious.


2. They are the most successful predator in Africa. They kill around 95% of everything they eat, I think, and scavenge the rest. Lions I think kill around 30% of everything they eat. A lion is a lot more likely to steal a hyenas kill than a hyena is to steal a lions. They are excellent scavengers, and can eat meat so rotten no other animal would touch, as well as digest bones, but they are better hunters.


3. Excess male testosterone means all female hyenas have a fake penis, that has to be consciously retracted before they can mate. A female hyena cannot be raped. What a nice way to live.


4. They live in massive social groups, some up 70 members large. There's evidence that to manage this they have an understanding of politics - it seems like a hyena will only get involved in a dispute between two others if they're both below her rank. They are so sociable.


5. Their hunting relies on group teamwork, like wolves. They are courser-style hunters than rely on stamina rather than speed, like wolves. They live in bigger packs than wolves. I still love wolves more, but hyenas literally do everything wolves do better.


6. They are neither dogs nor cats, and are most closely related to mongooses and weasels. When you really look at them I think they have the most beautiful teddybear faces.

This has been my essay on hyenas. I'm not trying to make you love them. But I really love them. THAT'S A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE.

[jekesta]

I do have to say they have lovely faces when you look at them properly. They do look a bit like lovely bears, but then when you say they're related to weasels, they look exactly like weasels - especially baby hyenas do. that's brilliant, and I'd never really thought about where they came from in their extraordinary weirdness.

(The picture of Paul is his 21st birthday, and in a bit John is going to get excruciatingly drunk in front of all Paul's very nice well mannered family, and then beat a man up really badly - like definitely one of the darkest things John ever did - which will lead to Paul's family never really wanting John around again, whereas Paul will just forgive him and not judge him even at all, even though he definitely should. But Paul loves the worst bits of John Lennon just as much as the nicest bits, and he finds it really confusing that anyone would judge him for anything or expect him to be better than he is. He's much like you with hyenas, is what I'm saying. John also had a beautiful face and was both tender and vicious.)

[girlofprey]

(When you said he beat him up badly, I originally thought you meant with no skill. The other version is much sadder.)

(Ironically, I was going to come into your post about how Beatles fandom is wrong saying it's very much like with hyenas. People who like hyenas often like them because they're awful, which is incorrect, and others just like other African wildlife like lions and leaopards but don't like hyenas, which is no better. People ain't shit.)

[breyzyyin]

That poem is incredible, and it saddens me greatly to see so much anti-Chinese sentiment around recently too.

Felici natum tibi! :D I am so sorry that you have to celebrate your birthday during these really surreal times, but I hope that it will be enjoyable all the same and that you hopefully get to do some nice things for it too when the shutdown is over with later. Happy Birthday! ♥

[girlofprey]

It's beautiful, isn't it? Really evocative, like you can just imagine the scene of the man talking to his friend. I was really struck by it in amongst the other poems I was reading (although many were good).

Thank you! I've had a nice day, my parents did what they could. The fact mum was working and has been out all day was also a shame, but we had cake in the morning and I blew out candles. We are making many plans for when the quarantine is over, whenever that might be. Sadly, everyone else will also probably want to go out on trips too, and everywhere will be packed. But we'll see.