Ren Wildly @renwildly@octodon.social
genderqueer word activist and parrot caregiver (they/them)
Today I learned that parrots have five bones in their tongues.
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Yesterday, I found this handwritten poem draft I wrote about Rose (a professor/mentor/friend who has since passed away) when I was sorting through some papers. It probably needs revising, but I’m not sure I want to since it is almost like this artifact of something I was afraid I had lost. She was the first person to tell me I should write, that I was good at it. She was extremely formative in who I became as a person and writer.
https://octodon.social/media/O7s4SHjis_89dhLIaKM
Having a parrot is kind of like playing an old school point-and-click adventure. I'll have him on my hand and he'll communicate that he wants to go *somewhere*- but no other clues are given, so I end up waving him vaguely in the direction of every thing in the apartment until I find the one object he was demanding to go to.
I wish more stores would consider how the volume and type of music they play is an accessibility issue. I have major panic attacks nearly every time I go shopping because of how incredibly overwhelming the music is in nearly every single store these days.
Don’t use B&D Pest Control if you have pets. During a phone consultation they said my parrot was a “problem that needed to be resolved,” that the poison they use “isn’t actually poison because it isn’t sprayed or airborne,” and I shouldn’t ask our vet if the poison was even an option (doubtful) because “vets don’t have recommendations about that until a pet has been exposed.” Like I’m going to wait until my parrot is poisoned before I ask the vet if we should even have the stuff in our house?
Our bird has now learned to say “George! Get down from there!” He doesn’t do it, but he can say it now.
I also caught him right before he did a full body feather shake. How can anything contain this much fluff?
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Somebody just woke up.
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George did a big flight and is so tired that he fell asleep on his training perch with his head flopped over instead of tucked into his wing. I’m having a really hard time not squealing at the cute and waking him up.
Photos of halved pomegranates did not prepare me for the pure wonderment that is disassembling a whole one of those alien fruits.
George is enjoying his dinner, featuring the fresh chop I just made for him.
https://octodon.social/media/Qqqlwrvo10jHyE_ZJkA
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I can’t leave the room for more than a minute or George starts yelling for me because it’s the literal worst. But bird... I need to water the plant friends.
It is nice to feel that needed, but it isn’t easy to have your presence required or face the YELL. But also he made kissy sounds and told me I’m pretty when I came back, so...
George was arranging and preening the blankets over my chest and saying, “hey baby” and “you’re a pretty.” Bird, you are adorable, but my chest will not make a good nest.
George, my parrot, just flew so low over the coffee table that he sent some papers flying. Wing wind power!
These (binary) people learned to use non-binary pronouns, and you can too! A very nice piece by @cassolotl, with many practical and helpful tips: http://cassolotl.tumblr.com/post/168336693365
Was just relieved to see that my voter registration finally went through after my second attempt. My wife & I moved in March and we had one failed registration attempt in June. Our second attempt was in October and that must have finally gone through in the last couple of weeks. Lesson: if you aren't registered to vote, do it really early so you can vote in the 2018 midterms and help effect much needed change.
I'm Ren (they/them). I'm a #queer #nonbinary human with graduate degrees in #literature & #genderstudies. I frequently discuss #trans and #queer rights & experience, #disability & #neurodiversity, my #parrot & ESA George, & my growing collection of #plants. As a full-time parrot caregiver and a person with disabilities, I want to advocate the value of non-traditional work and emotional labor that are often undervalued in capitalist societies.
