#gigitips β Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #gigitips, aggregated by home.social.
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I find that as I get older I have stronger opinions about random things like:
What is actually the most useful knot to knowβother than a slipknot [img 1].
While the regular shoe knot (fancy name is "slipped reef knot", if you tie your shoes the way I do) is probably the knot you're gonna tie most often during your life, a straight Slipknot will be the second most common, but I highly highly recommend learning a taut line hitch.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EApyOMMZZFQ
(There are disputes as to what of the tensioning knots is most correctly referred to as a taut line hitch, and you'll see three different versions, they vary slightly. I'd avoid the midshipmen's knot unless you are tying sales because it's a bit of overcome what you need and doesn't slide as easily as the other two.)
Anyway, today's use is: tying up tomatoes. There's a simple Slipknot around the peg which goes into the ground, and the TLH goes around the bar that's holding up the tomatoes. It allows me to shorten or lengthen the line as the tomato plants get bigger.
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I find that as I get older I have stronger opinions about random things like:
What is actually the most useful knot to knowβother than a slipknot [img 1].
While the regular shoe knot (fancy name is "slipped reef knot", if you tie your shoes the way I do) is probably the knot you're gonna tie most often during your life, a straight Slipknot will be the second most common, but I highly highly recommend learning a taut line hitch.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EApyOMMZZFQ
(There are disputes as to what of the tensioning knots is most correctly referred to as a taut line hitch, and you'll see three different versions, they vary slightly. I'd avoid the midshipmen's knot unless you are tying sales because it's a bit of overcome what you need and doesn't slide as easily as the other two.)
Anyway, today's use is: tying up tomatoes. There's a simple Slipknot around the peg which goes into the ground, and the TLH goes around the bar that's holding up the tomatoes. It allows me to shorten or lengthen the line as the tomato plants get bigger.
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1/π§΅
I haven't done a garden update in a bit, so this is going to be a thread.
1. Raspberries
I keep meaning to do a post about container gardening with canes and how you get the most fruit off of a limited number of them.
This week I purchased a golden raspberry to go with my black, wild, red, and the weird deep burgundy one (which was also *supposed* to be a black one) that I bought probably a decade ago.
(I also have the wild raspberries because a friend of mine was trying to get me one of the black canes from his patch, but captured a wild one instead. My quest for black raspberries had been an ongoing thing until last year.)
Anyway, people see my raspberry canes coiled round and round and wonder whether I should have cut them off instead of letting them grow really long, or do I let them grow extra long because there are so few of them in the pots?
Well the first time I did that, that was definitely my motivation. It was a year where only two canes came in, but they kept growing and growing to like 15 ft long, so I looped them around and around when they were green, in order to be able to manage them.
But the next year, I learned that:
When you bend a fruit cane (and it works with my gooseberries as well, see the last photo of the set), the plant sends off mini branches with multiple flower sets, which become fruit. It's weird, but it's true.Apparently, bending or arching raspberry canes disrupts the natural plant hormones (auxins). When canes are strictly vertical, the main tip of the cane dominates growth, suppressing the buds below it. Bending the cane horizontally or into an arch forces these dormant side buds (lateral nodes) to wake up.
I'm not sure if that's why people used to cut the tips of their raspberry plants off, but that used to be the advice given to growers. π€·πΎββοΈ
Anyhoo, I look forward to feasting on raspberries in another month or so, so I won't get golden ones until next year.
#gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden #GigiTips
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1/π§΅
I haven't done a garden update in a bit, so this is going to be a thread.
1. Raspberries
I keep meaning to do a post about container gardening with canes and how you get the most fruit off of a limited number of them.
This week I purchased a golden raspberry to go with my black, wild, red, and the weird deep burgundy one (which was also *supposed* to be a black one) that I bought probably a decade ago.
(I also have the wild raspberries because a friend of mine was trying to get me one of the black canes from his patch, but captured a wild one instead. My quest for black raspberries had been an ongoing thing until last year.)
Anyway, people see my raspberry canes coiled round and round and wonder whether I should have cut them off instead of letting them grow really long, or do I let them grow extra long because there are so few of them in the pots?
Well the first time I did that, that was definitely my motivation. It was a year where only two canes came in, but they kept growing and growing to like 15 ft long, so I looped them around and around when they were green, in order to be able to manage them.
But the next year, I learned that:
When you bend a fruit cane (and it works with my gooseberries as well, see the last photo of the set), the plant sends off mini branches with multiple flower sets, which become fruit. It's weird, but it's true.Apparently, bending or arching raspberry canes disrupts the natural plant hormones (auxins). When canes are strictly vertical, the main tip of the cane dominates growth, suppressing the buds below it. Bending the cane horizontally or into an arch forces these dormant side buds (lateral nodes) to wake up.
I'm not sure if that's why people used to cut the tips of their raspberry plants off, but that used to be the advice given to growers. π€·πΎββοΈ
Anyhoo, I look forward to feasting on raspberries in another month or so, so I won't get golden ones until next year.
#gardening #ContainerGardening #GrowYourOwn #GigiGarden #GigiTips
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πͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺ
All right!
Reminder time!
πͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺMOST INJURIES FROM TORNADOES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
β’ Head injuries during the storm, and
β’ Foot injuries after the storm when people go outside.A large chunk of Ontario is currently storm warned. Figure out the spot in your house that puts the maximum number of walls between you and outside.
πͺπͺπͺπͺ
Go RIGHT NOW, and put a HELMET and a pair of HARD SOLED SHOES for every person who will be sheltering in that space.
ππππThe helmet is for preventing head injuries while things are blowing around, and the hard soled shoes are so that you won't step on nails or other damaging debris after the storm. I hope like hell you don't need either of those things.
Much better to go do that now and not need it, than NOT do it and NEED it.
#tornado #onwx #onstorm #GigiTips -
πͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺ
All right!
Reminder time!
πͺπͺπͺπͺπͺπͺMOST INJURIES FROM TORNADOES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
β’ Head injuries during the storm, and
β’ Foot injuries after the storm when people go outside.A large chunk of Ontario is currently storm warned. Figure out this spot in your house that puts the maximum number of Walls between you and outside.
πͺπͺπͺπͺ
Go RIGHT NOW, and put a HELMET and a pair of HARD SOLED SHOES for every person who will be sheltering in that space.
ππππThe helmet is for preventing head injuries while things are blowing around, and the hard soled shoes are so that you won't step on nails or other damaging debris after the storm. I hope like hell you don't need either of those things.
Much better to go do that now and not need it, than NOT do it and NEED it.
#tornado #onwx #onstorm #GigiTips -
One day Ima write a whole piece on social engineering, but in the meantime here is my number one tip on how to not being a walking security hole:
LET PEOPLE BE WRONG.
No, you don't have to correct them.The easiest way I have learned to get people to spill shit they shouldn't be telling you is to be wrong about something.
People love to be right. Let them correct you on a small thing, first, then they will feel good about telling you SHIT THEY ABSOLUTELY SHOULDN'T BE SAYING.
If I can resist correcting an oversized goon who's been harassing me for four years, as he blathers abject nonsense at me non-stop, you can get out of the habit of correcting people who didn't directly ask for your help.
Let them be wrong.
Let them be LOUD and wrong.It's enough that you know.
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One day Ima write a whole piece on social engineering, but in the meantime here is my number one tip on how to not being a walking security hole:
LET PEOPLE BE WRONG.
No, you don't have to correct them.The easiest way I have learned to get people to spill shit they shouldn't be telling you is to be wrong about something.
People love to be right. Let them correct you on a small thing, first, then they will feel good about telling you SHIT THEY ABSOLUTELY SHOULDN'T BE SAYING.
If I can resist correcting an oversized goon who's been harassing me for four years, as he blathers abject nonsense at me non-stop, you can get out of the habit of correcting people who didn't directly ask for your help.
Let them be wrong.
Let them be LOUD and wrong.It's enough that you know.
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One of my favourite food prep tips (and I have probably posted it before) is to pre roast garlic.
Like to roast it in small ceramic containers with lids β nothing but garlic. 275Β°F until my nose says it's done.
Then I put it on a flat tray to freeze individually, then I throw them in a bag, and into the freezer.
Because it's summertime, I made a lovely classic Greek dressing. No one point in my life I had a Greek roommate and she taught me that a proper Greek dressing is lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and oregano.
I planted a lot of onions this year, but the raccoons generally fought me for these. Not that they ate them. So tomorrow I guess I will have to go buy one and a bit of feta.
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2/
Speaking of raccoons, I have finally found a way to thwart the rotten little bastards from digging in the planters.You know that accordioning trellis that you can get at dollar stores? Well, cut them to the size of the container, insert it, and put a rock on them. It makes it much harder for them to dig up my potatoes than just putting a lattice of plain sticks on it.
Seems that when their little tubby bodies are on top of the grid, they can't easily pull parts out of the way.
I wish I'd learned this last year in time to do this for the start of this.
(You could probably accomplish the same thing with some sort of rot-resistant twine or wire, and some twigs.)
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#Protest tips from an old broad:
Toe socks.
When you're walking long distance, they stop you from getting blisters between your toes.That's actually a hiking tip, but it works.
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#Protest tips from an old broad:
Toe socks.
When you're walking long distance, they stop you from getting blisters between your toes.That's actually a hiking tip, but it works.
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I went on a bit of a bread baking spree last night.
As a tip, if you want a classic soft sandwich loaf, add a bit of powdered milk toward the end of the kneading process. It gives you a softer crumb.
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My favourite feature in Signal is the Note to Self option.
When you find yourself sending the same message over and over again to many different people and many different groups, it's easiest to either create it or save a copy in your Note to Self function, and then just forward it from there.
You can attach up to 10 screenshots or images, along with the text.
It saves so much time.
#Activism #Organizing #OrganizerToolkit #GigiTips -
Was scrolling so #onstorm footage from this morning, and I realized that some people don't seem to know that:
πͺ πͺ πͺ πͺ πͺ
If you aren't detecting left or right motion on that tornado you are filming:
IT MAY BE COMING
STRAIGHT AT YOU.πͺ πͺ πͺ πͺ πͺ
We really need to get Canadians more aware of this shit, along with "hard-soled shoes and helmets".
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πͺ πͺ πͺ πͺ
If a tornado watch or
warning is issued
for your area:
πͺ πͺ πͺ πͺMake sure that you have HARD-SOLED SHOES π AND A HELMET πͺ OF SORT on you in your shelter.
Most tornado-related injuries are to the head DURING the tornado, and from walking through the debris AFTER.
Pass it along, please.
You never know when a simple bit of information may save a life. -
Some people really need to learn how NOT to let people know that you've got their goat.
As a Rustler of Goats and Jimmies, I understand the art of choosing the insult for the target, even if none of the bystanders think it's effective.
For instance, the world is lucky that I am not roaming around in pyjama pants 24/7 (I mean, I do, at and around home, don't get me wrong); insulting what I wear is probably not the most targeted insult.
However, if I have called you the "Dowdy Housewife" in the past because of your deluded use of filters and highly Photoshopped images, every time you try to use that style of insult back, you're really just telling me that I hit the bullseye.
But this isn't about that today. Someone else is hilariously giving away the game and I am not even playing. Just an observer. And an enjoyer.
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Bonus tip for my Mastodon #GigiTips
All Mastodon messages count toward your post total, at all four levels of privacy.
If you are being stalked cross-platform, be sure to toot/retoot enough content to obfuscate how many DMs you are sending, so your "fans" can't figure out who you are talking to.
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Mastodon and the Art of the Hashtag.
π π π π π π
In case you haven't noticed, one of the keys to working with the Mastodon platform is to ensure that your toots are discoverable (public), and to use hashtags.People can follow a hashtag and relevant toots tagged will automatically appear in their feed, whether or not they follow you.
It's also a good way to keep your content catalogued for easy finding later.
To this end, I am including a list of hashtags that I most often use, and invite you to join me in tagging your relevant content the same way.
I am not putting the hash/pound sign in front of the phrases so that this toot doesn't turn up in irrelevant feeds.
It is relevant, however, to use the hashtags #Feditips and #GigiTips as hashtags on this,where you may find other helpful information.
WhoKeepsUsSafe
CommunityDefence
TorontoActions
AlertaAlertaAntifascista
FuckThePolice
PoliceDontKeepUsSafe
HousingForAll
HousingIsAHumanRight
HousingNow
FashWatch
FashWatchCanada
antifascists
DragDefence
DragDefense
DragStoryTime
DragDefenders
FuckHomophobes
FuckHomophobia
FuckTransphobiaLOLife
CarymaNgo -
Mastodon and the Art of the Hashtag.
π π π π π π
In case you haven't noticed, one of the keys to working with the Mastodon platform is to ensure that your toots are discoverable (public), and to use hashtags.People can follow a hashtag and relevant toots tagged will automatically appear in their feed, whether or not they follow you.
It's also a good way to keep your content catalogued for easy finding later.
To this end, I am including a list of hashtags that I most often use, and invite you to join me in tagging your relevant content the same way.
I am not putting the hash/pound sign in front of the phrases so that this toot doesn't turn up in irrelevant feeds.
It is relevant, however, to use the hashtags #Feditips and #GigiTips as hashtags on this,where you may find other helpful information.
WhoKeepsUsSafe
CommunityDefence
TorontoActions
AlertaAlertaAntifascista
FuckThePolice
PoliceDontKeepUsSafe
HousingForAll
HousingIsAHumanRight
HousingNow
FashWatch
FashWatchCanada
antifascists
DragDefence
DragDefense
DragStoryTime
DragDefenders
FuckHomophobes
FuckHomophobia
FuckTransphobiaLOLife
CarymaNgo -
Part 3 of 3 (highly unlikely in the log run)
Other stuff (that will probably be updated)π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅
Tusky-specific recommendations
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Here another couple of items to help you bypass some of the crappy "getting to know a new platform" phase.1οΈβ£ You can customize your tabs.
I highly recommend getting rid of the default Federated tab and replacing it with either some of your favourite hashtags or your friends list.Actually you can do both, because you can have up to five tabs. (Mine, for example, include #topoli, #TorontoActions, and #onpoli.)
2οΈβ£ You can manage multiple accounts easily.
I made a blacktwitter.io as a backup at first, but now I've realized that I can have 2 very different experiences by filtering things differently.
At the moment, I'm mostly reading on that account, while focusing on activism stuff here. Plus! I can always ping myself with content, or use the "open as" function to just pop into a different account if I find something interesting that I would like to retoot from here.
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Part 2 of 3 (theoretically)
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Setting Up and Managing Stuff
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Some things are just easier to accomplish on the web interface than on any of the apps.
General account setup and managing lists are two of those functions.More on apps later.
Privacy
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My first recommendation is to set your account to:
1. Require follow requests (Manually control who can follow you by approving follow requests)
2. Hide your social graph (Who you follow and who follows you will be hidden on your profile)Additionally, if you set Posting privacy to "unlisted" you need to remember to choose which posts turn up in searches, even for hashtag searches, so be aware of this.
IMPORTANT
Check the settings of each post and if there's no globe, it's not searchable. (If you aren't getting responses, even though you added hashtags, this may be why.)Lists
====
My second recommendation is to set up a Friends list early, and add to it as you follow people who want to make sure you see their posts.Messages from less-frequent posters will get lost quickly as you follow high-volume accounts.
If you want to know what your favourite people are up to, lists are your best way.
Unlike Twitter, you can only add people you follow to lists, so none of that being added to "People who are insufficiently obsequious to white people" nonsense.
Getting an app
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I can fully attest to the suckitude of the default Mastodon app. I used it for a whole day and it's missing so much functionality.If you are an app person, Tusky or Fedilab for android or Metatext or Toot! for iphone seem to be the preferred choices.
Getting reach
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For whatever reason [and please resist the urge to mansplain, I don't fucking care that deeply] most old-school residents of the platform hate everything they associate with BirdChan, including some actually useful features like: search and quote-toots.For the former, you may as well accept that you need to use hashtags, even just to find your own content. Make up your own hashtags, as long as it helps you find shit later.
Also, you can follow hashtags, so public content that is tagged with your interests will automatically appear in your feed.
As for the lack of quote-toots:
You can go to the trouble of screenshotting an interesting toot, and posting it with your commentary and a link to the original toot.As for me, I'm going to protest by retooting @lowqualityfacts without any warning that they are not, in fact, facts.
That is what you get for not letting me prepend things with: "Hilarious, though untrue."
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𧡠Gigi's Mastodon Tips π§΅
(I originally posted this as a Twitter thread to help people migrate, but as I have finally succeeded in getting banned, I'm putting it here so I can just give people a link and don't have to explain it multiple times.)
Part 1 of 3 (maybe)
Getting the lay of the landπ§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅π§΅
The hell is with instances?
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Mastodon is the software and what you would think of as the equivalent of Twitter (the network of users) is actually βthe Fediverse.β That's a bunch of instances (servers running Mastodon) that communicate with each other.Do I need to be on all?
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No. You CAN have multiple accounts on multiple servers, but that's can also be a PITA. You can follow/communicate with/be followed by people on any instance (server) that is connected to the network (Fediverse) from whichever server you choose.There are instances of Mastodon that are NOT connected (defederated) -- that is, not in communication with the main Fediverse.
In most cases, they're full of terrible people.
Gab, iirc, is one such instance.Choosing
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Some instances are better than others.Why?
Well, when perusing messages from other users, you have three main (default) areas to explore:1. Your timeline (people you follow);
2. Local (people on your server); and
3. Federated (everyone on every connected server).If you pick a good, philosophically compatible instance (server), your Local feed is a fantastic way to discover new people.
(Federated moves way too fast, and until you have a good mix of people, your own timeline may be a bit sparse.)
Objectively speaking, some instances are less pleasant because the population is huge and the moderators are overwhelmed. Or numpties.
Moving
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If you find something better, you can export your follows and followers to a new instance, but not past toots.Rather than list servers to avoid, here are some that I have heard good things about:
BlackTwitter.io (set up and run by Black admins);
Indg.club (set up and run by Indigenous admins);
mstdn.ca (a catch all server of mostly Canadians).