oh love

And there is my beloved, in the window, pining for me, waiting for my return so he can be near me and I can pet him. Everyone should be so lucky. Well, the good people anyway.  

I liked Three Thousand Years of Longing so much that now Karen and I are watching it together. Not only does the movie treat the main character with respect, but there is no fat shaming at all. 

Oh I have to go to work tomorrow. And I have to go in to work tomorrow. I have to commute and dress. And I have to interact with people. Sigh. I'm sure it will be fine once I'm doing it. 

I learned that Karen's grandmother, like me, used to order carnivorous plants out of the back of magazines. As with me, they would all die. This amazing age of the very coolest people having thriving carnivorous plants! 
I bet it takes a lot of sun to keep them healthy. 

Fuji seems to be partially in, partially out of Russia according to the list I described yesterday by the Yale professor. They are listed as "biding their time." They donated $1m, in the very beginning of March, or nearly immediately, for humanitarian efforts and $1m for medical equipment. This includes their portable X-ray system and hand-held wireless ultrasound devices. leave-russia.org says they are postponing future planned investment while continuing to do substantive business. As of early March they were still operating and advertising in Russia although they suspended some shipments. Remembe the new invasion was only the middle of Feb. By the end of the month Ricoh, Fujifilm, Peak Design, Panasonic, and Sony suspended sales in Russia.  leave-russia and the Yale list say that they are biding time but DigitalCameraWorld.com said in late March that Fujifilm was pulling its operations from Russia along with Sony and Peak Design.  Nikon issued a press release stating it suspended shipments to Russia and would be making donations. Similarly, Sony said it was banning shipments to Russia and banned the sale of its products across all streams including audio, visual, and imaging systems. It promised to donate to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and Save the Children. Sony has also said it will match any donations made by employees for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Peak Design decided to support three initiatives. It stopped all sales in Russia; secondly, any bags returned in Europe will be donated to refugees arriving in Poland; and third, photojournalists in need of equipment will have free access to Peak Design kit, though getting it to them may be thorny. 


There seems to be a conflict regarding what Fuji is and is not doing. 


Ukraine has had some recent successes. They hit a church in Mariopol where the Russians were staying and got the hotel where members of the Wagner group were based. One of the problems facing hit Wagner group members is that they'd stolen a lot of the medical equipment, which means there aren't adequate medical services to treat them. Ukraine also hit Russian military barracks in Melitopol. Overnight there were multiple explosions in Crimea. 


Ukraine is attacking fuel supply routes to the Russian military near the cities of Svatove and Kreminna. Without fuel the military can't use their vehicles. They also won't be able to keep their soldiers warm. Freezing soldiers tend to desert. 


As Ukrainians in occupied territory are increasingly drafted and forced to flee, women are joining the resistance. They are trained to evade capture and operate in secretive cells so that if they are captured there is only so much info they can give up. Once Kharkiv was freed a resistance fighter discovered his upstairs neighbor was also in the resistance, but during the fighting he'd had no idea. He found out that 10 people he knew were in the resistance. 


A Ukrainian human rights organization, a jailed Belarusian rights defender, and the head of one of Russia's oldest civil rights groups won the Nobel Peace Pize. The Russian was told to turn down the prize because the other winners were inappropriate but he ignored the "advice." 


A former speechwriter for Putin says Putin has an escape plan in case russia loses the war. Putin and his top leadership would flee to Venezuela. According to Abbas Gallyamov the project is named "Noah's Ark." 


Canada issued new personal sanctions on 33 current or former Russian officials and six entities engaged in human rights violations so Russia is banning 200 prominent Canadians from coming. I don't think this is the punishment Russia thinks it is. 

Olesya Loseva, anchor of a Russian television show asked her guest Andrei Klinstevich what Ukrainians were fighting for. He thought they were fighting to eat Russians. This idea was also presented on state television in Belarus. "Pro-government anchor Yevgeny Pustovoy said on air that "Ukrainians are now genuinely eating Russians." 


A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit Russia on Thursday. Don't mess with Ukraine. They have really powerful wizards.