Dita's Den

Born to enjoy life

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 07:16:00 +0000

...forced to fight the patriarchy.

Tenacious International Women's Day.

Dance the pain away*

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:25:00 +0000

Temperature: a snowy -5/23 degrees. It was a cold January and it's been a cold February with snow for once.

Eating: Maybe later.

Drinking: Maybe a caipirinha over the weekend in celebration of the carnival season?

Listening: Like I said, it's almost carnaval, so what do you think? Time to dance the pain away, the physical, the emotional, the existential.

Watching: Wuthering Heights ASAP.

Reading: @FrenchResponse yet? Not without risks, this tactic. Then again, you have to fight your corner. Chapeau !

Writing: Now that this is all just training data for AI, are you thinking Inception yet? Shouldn't we TED it at every turn, only write ideas worth spreading? Keeping it classy and truthful, maybe even artful? We are, after all, the originals, and AI is the glorified copy-paste machine, and there is no shortage of shit slinging enshittifying the mix so it desperately needs a counterbalance.

Thinking: The more one reads on the Epstein case the more it looks like a if-you-go-down-I-go-down mutually assured destruction construction of blackmail, extortion, info and intel gathering, manipulation, money laundering, sex slavery and human trafficking, and who knows what else, and it makes the FBI look like the Federal Bureau of Interception, and prosecutors either corrupt, really bad at their jobs, or both, and it raises more questions than it answers, starting with if no one managed to help these teens and children and stop these crimes and these criminals after all that came to light ages ago then what the hell were they doing sitting on their hands, at whose behest, and why. And if you're thinking that the things coming out prove they can't be true because they are just too crazy, too sick and depraved to be true, people tasked with investigating these crimes will tell you that there is no limit to the sick and sadistic things some will do to adults, teens and children as young as newborns. (These investigators need therapy because of the nature of their work, and their therapists need therapy in turn, and not all therapists will work with these investigators because they do not want to carry detailed accounts of violence done to children, violence that sometimes leads to death.) And if it's true, where are the whistleblowers? Well, we have the original whistleblowers, the victims, who have either not been listened to or believed in the first place, or who have been silenced after speaking up, or who were turned into accomplices before coming forth (and what a diabolic move of coercive control that is, turning your victim into your partner in crime) and the few prosecutors who tried to act were told to sit down and shut up because we got this (and what did Epstein get for his crimes? a sweetheart deal), and we have investigative journalists trying to break into a fortress protecting those who deserve no protection or leniency, and this work can sometimes radically affect your life expectancy if you don't stop what you're doing or take back what you said. The last whistleblower hides inside this circle of predators, someone who has witnessed these crimes, maybe even taken part, someone whose conscience isn't one hundred percent dead. Will they speak up in an attempt to save themselves when all evidence supports the assumption no one will protect you, no one will save you if you do? Because even after he became a registered sex offender Epstein just picked up where he left off, and people still cozied up to him, sought him out, and the chumminess is beyond creepy and disgusting, and doesn't it just say it all that these monsters would rather protect one another than the victims of their crimes.

Feeling: Every choice we make is at its heart a moral choice. Every choice either strengthens or weakens our core and ultimately defines who we are as humans. Imagine losing touch with that core. Imagine being so dead inside that even the most defenseless, the most vulnerable, become objects, things, disposable. That is the definition of evil and that evil is real.

*A most carnivalesque video to accompany a most danceable tune with the most delicious 80s synths and drum machines by Haute & Freddy.

Mergers and acquisitions

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 12:19:00 +0000

Since plain English isn't getting through, with all undue respect, please do bugger all the way off.

Brought to you by Europeans Who Just Want to Live Their Lives Without Being Blackmailed, Threatened or Harassed by Dictators, Oligarchs, or Technocrats.

Determined Martin Luther King Jr. Day, dearest denizens!

Champagne kisses

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 11:31:00 +0000

...and New Year wishes, sweetie darlings!

The Vienna Philharmonic is playing, the sun is out, there is snow on the way, it's a beautiful day.

Io Saturnalia! ✨

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 06:39:00 +0000

Temperature: https://arctic.noaa.gov/report-card/report-card-2025/

Eating: Still setting the menu for next week.

Drinking: Can we save that for Christmas? Just had a toast or two to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary, which sounds impossible, twenty-five years, I mean. Then again, get married in your twenties and you've been up to quite a lot by the time you hit fifty. 🥂

Listening: to...you have exactly one guess to get this right.

Watching: cheesy Christmas movies.

Reading: on the fun Romans used to have this time of year makes Christian Christmas celebrations look suspiciously like cultural appropriation. Add to that all the Persian and Jewish and Latin American influences and it's quite a colorful quilt you get.

Writing: digital holiday messages. Oh I still send out cards in the hopes of receiving them, but with the old guard taking leave...not that many cards and letters arriving these days. And that's a pity.

Thinking: it's life according to Dickinson, as I am out with lanterns, looking for myself, trying to decide which possible future course has legs. Good thing Santa Lucia stopped by on Saturday to light the way as we have not a single flake of snow. Oh well, there's light and colors aplenty indoors, so I think we'll manage.

Feeling: I need a little Christmas, right this very minute... And the syncretistic version is fine by me. Happy holidays, sweetie darlings, wherever you are. 💝

Thanksgrieving

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 10:33:00 +0000

Temperature: a rainy 7/45 degrees.

Eating: falafels.

Drinking: gingerbread coffee.

Listening: to a jazzy Christmas playlist curated by my youngest. I most certainly am, less than four weeks to go, that's nothing!

Watching: Generation X creatives take a beating. Good thing we're a resilient, resourceful bunch, children of a string of recessions, never any certainty about anything. Some would say cynics. I say we're realists. And thankful we had the optimism and opportunity to pursue careers in arts and media, academia and culture, giving the world the best of our skills and talents.

Reading: the US-Russia peace proposal was like reading Kremlin's wish list to Father Frost. What a bunch of immoral and illegal BS.

Writing: condolences and other messages of support and sympathy.

Thinking: Just like no one came to the aid of the blue-collar worker when manufacturing jobs were redistributed, no one is coming to shield creatives from the devastation caused by AI. I hear new jobs are on the horizon, but no one seems to know what these new jobs are and how many openings there will actually be. We don't have time to wait, or waste, we need to keep moving. Where to, now that is the question.

Feeling: Sure, I have a horse in this race and as much to lose as any of my friends and colleagues, but that's not all I'm apprehensive about. Don't you feel uneasy when AI companies would rather not talk about the monstrous environmental footprint they produce and what that means for the climate and all of us? Or how refining language models so far as to make people believe that what these programs produce is actual, factual, carefully deliberated thoughts and answers leads people to use these programs in their daily lives and decision making, wholesale? When in fact, after racing to gather and input as much data as possible, racist and sexist and all manner of toxic thinking and language is now as integral a part of these programs as say Wikipedia or the Encyclopedia Britannica. Or how mercenary their piracy-based business model is? Are you okay with this, all of it? I'm not.

Love your rage, not your cage

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 09:05:00 +0000

Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.

From the graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, illustrated by David Lloyd

Mariah is defrosting, it's almost time! 🌟

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 10:50:00 +0000

But first, suspenseful Halloween to my dearest sweetie darlings. 🖤

[Yeah, when are you going to reveal what this new project of yours is? Yes, you. I hope it is what I hope it is because if it is...fantastic.]

Monday (I have Friday on my mind)

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 13:44:00 +0000

Temperature: a sunny 10/50 degrees.

Eating: Maybe later.

Drinking: tea.

Listening: to the troll-in-chief on his Life of a Showboat Tour brings to mind all the traits of the dark triad.

Watching: Slow Horses.

Reading: on AI from several angles and feeling more and more uneasy the deeper I delve. Automation bias, anybody? Seriously, despite hominid appearances, there's no one home. There's no one on the other end, and when a system gets so complex you can't decipher or understand its inner logic, you gotta ask yourself should I trust this thing to make an assessment or decision for me. And the piracy involved...mind-boggling.

Writing: something that would lift you from your funk and sling you straight into the depths of despair. So let's not go there right now, it's only Monday after all.

Thinking: I get to meet an old and dear dear friend over the weekend so I've already got my eye on Friday. I know, still only Monday. Gaah!

Feeling: an itch in my nasal cavity. Don't. You. Dare.

Hi honey, I'm home!

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 13:24:00 +0000

A little worse for wear, but home. Let me catch my breath and catch up on things for a bit?

(If it can't wait another second, let me know in comments. Will read them, won't publish them, will answer you by means of...yeah, didn't think that through, did I. Like I said, let me catch my breath, sweetie darlings.)

Feet, don’t fail me now

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:50:00 +0000

Happy equinox, sweetie darlings, night and day have called a truce! It won't last long, but balance is a beautiful thing, especially in nature. So do step out and enjoy it, if you can.

I need to step out of the den for a moment or several, so wish me safe travels. Where am I going? A couple of places, actually. Don't worry, it's all good.

See you in October? It's a date and I will hold you to it.

Now go love someone and shine on. 💋

History repeating

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:03:00 +0000

When writing, translating, communicating, trying to grasp the essence or scope of something, it's often useful and revealing to look at antonyms instead of synonyms; in other words: what that word, idea, phenomenon, or policy isn't. So.

Antonyms for diversity: homogeneity, sameness, similarity, uniformity.
Antonyms for equity: bias, favoritism, prejudice, unfairness.
Antonyms for inclusion: deletion, discrimination, elimination, exclusion.

Since workplaces, schools, countries, are made up of people, and people are, as we all know, not the same but different, it is an odd, oppressive and questionable idea to try to squeeze a workplace, school, let alone an entire country, into one mold dictated from above while dismissing and disregarding whole segments of a society.

This kind of insular thinking leads to shrinking; the shrinking of everything that drives successful economies and societies: arts and science, innovation, investments and infrastructure, governmental and institutional stability and predictability, the quality and availability of education and the skills of your workforce, the trust of your citizens in their personal and your common future and success.

The most prosperous civilizations in history weren't based on insular thinking, on words, ideas and policies such as exclusion, prejudice or homogeneity; they owed their success to welcoming different and diverse people and ideas, daring to be inspired and influenced by them. Corruption, concentration of power and wealth, pitting citizens against one another, and sectarian violence, on the other hand, are surefire ways to destroy a flourishing country and culture.

It has happened all over the world across the ages. Who's to say it won't happen again? How far can a government go in the name of defending a nation and its values before it distorts and eventually abandons those values, destroying that nation in the process?

Pardon my French

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 09:57:00 +0000

...but a simple Well done, you felt lacking in both umph and candor, so here we are, swearing our congrats online. (I would have sent you that card but wasn't quite sure where to, so here we are, making our excuses online. Yes, I do believe that's the royal we. Why wouldn't it be? *cheeky grin*)

Safe travels and shine on. ✨

Ready to ring in fall?

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 09:21:00 +0000

No.

Enjoy yourself (it's later than you think)

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:18:00 +0000

July, sweetie darlings, going, going...almost gone. How has yours been?

Summer in Scandinavia, you gotta grab it with both hands, because before you know it, it will be wiggling away not to be seen for a looong time. I've also been enjoying the company of my boys every chance I get, because before you know it, they're wiggling away not to be seen for varying amounts of time. As they should. And I just turned a year older, overnight! Crazy, I know!!

So don't be mad I haven't been here sharing it all with you. I've been enjoying it all as fiercely as I can, as much as one can in this burning, drowning, warring world of ours. Still love you and admire you, still rooting for you, promise, even when I'm not going on about it, I'm a behind-the-scenes-and-under-the-radar kind of girl anyway. As you should know by now. Still in doubt? I don't know what to tell ya. No, wait. I do know.

You make me believe I can be what you see in me.

There. Any questions?

Any answers?

The way we live now

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:16:00 +0000

Befuddling Alice in Wonderland Day, dearest denizens, when you're expected to believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

CHAPTER DCXXVI

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 12:10:00 +0000

A GOOD-HUMOURED MIDSUMMER CHAPTER, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF A SOLSTICE, AND SOME OTHER NATURAL AND CULTURAL PHENOMENA: WHICH ALTHOUGH IN THEIR WAY ARE NOT QUITE SO FAITFULLY OBSERVED IN THESE DIGITAL TIMES

As brisk as bees, if not altogether as light as butterflies, will the Parker clan assemble on the eve of the twenty-first day of June, in the year of grace in which their familial adventures will be undertaken and accomplished. Midsummer is close at hand, in all her bloom and leafy beauty; it is the season of hospitality, merrymaking, and kinship; the year is preparing, like an ancient goddess, to call this family together, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to mark the longest of days. Festive and joyful is the time; and right festive and joyful are the hearts that are gladdened by its coming.

And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Midsummer brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment. How many families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and meet once again in that happy state of affinity and mutual merriment, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight; and one so incompatible with the horrors and sorrows of the world, that religious beliefs and atheistic attitudes alike number it among the unique joys of human existence, provided for the blessed and happy!

How many old recollections, and how many dormant relationships, does Midsummer awaken. Happy, happy Midsummer, that can take us back to the land of our childhood; that can recall to the aging woman the pleasures of her youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, hundreds of miles away, back to her own clan, hearth and home!

Like you'll never see me again

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 26 May 2025 13:14:00 +0000

Temperature: a sunny 17.5/63.5. May has been the perfect mix of sunshine and spring showers and everything is a fresh, lush green.

Eating: from Nigella Summer.

Drinking: the first batch of rhubarb juice any day now.

Listening: to our resident cuckoo vocalizing away. Have never seen him, only heard his calls.

Watching: out for those pesky roe deer wreaking havoc in the garden. What a menace you've become. Shoo, there's nothing for you here!

Reading: Haven't taken this one out for a while, don't know why, it's a pleasure and a treasure.

Writing: to wish you a happy Spring Bank Holiday, and Memorial Day! Well, not a happy happy Memorial Day. Oh, you know what I mean.

Thinking: How are you faring, sweetie darlings? Hanging in there? Steel wire rope or shoestring? A bare thread situation? I'm at the equal intersection of oh-wow-spring-how-wonderful and there's-something-heavy-in-the-air-though and wtf-wtf-wtaf and deep-breaths-no-sudden-moves-just-keep-taking-deep-breaths. It's going to be all right, right? Right?

Feeling: Oh gods, I need a hug. Anybody wanna hug? I gotta warn you, I dive in, like really in there, so if squished-breasts-in-chest is not your thing, steer clear. *cheeky grin* (Oh, I know when and where not to, promise. But between friends? Consider yourself well and truly embraced.)

Tell me something good

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 05:03:00 +0000

Something. Anything.

I just learned my oldest cousin has died. Not old old. In his fifties.

Cancer. Fucking cancer.

Little wonders

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 12:24:00 +0000

If I've featured these tilt-shift, time-lapse plums by Berlin-based filmmaker Joerg Daibe in the past, it's time for an encore in the present because there are new episodes to marvel at!

This is our world, sweetie darlings, yours and mine, to enjoy and explore, to cherish and protect.

Happy Earth Day, wherever you are. 🌍🌏🌎

🪺

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 12:45:00 +0000

Temperature: a cloudy 12.5/54.5 degrees. We had some really warm days in March, like 19/66 degrees warm, which is the abnormal new normal for spring. (We also had the earliest forest fire alerts ever.)

Eating: rice and tuna salad.

Drinking: Yikes, it's time to get this year's Valborg mead going!

Listening: to the Eurovision 2025 hopefuls yet? You have one month to pick a favorite. Finland is tickled to have doubled their chances with force of nature Erika Vikman, and KAJ, Sweden's finlandssvensk sweethearts. And kudos to Sweden for finally daring to vote for something a bit silly and a lot of fun; they'll be the first to admit they have taken Eurovision and themselves far too seriously in the past.

Watching: spring progress.

Reading: A Sociedade dos Sonhadores Involuntários by José Eduardo Agualusa. (Available in English.)

Writing: friends and family all week asking about their Easter/Passover/weekend plans. What are you doing, sweetie darlings?

Thinking: some rather unprintable thoughts. Let's talk about it some other time, when I'm not this...incensed.

Feeling: much better, health-wise. This year's flu shot didn't quite hit the mark; still, this bout was so much milder than the last one in...2014?

There's the sweetest spring at my door

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 07:05:00 +0000

And I'm down for the count, bedridden with the flu.

Be well, sweetie darlings, wherever you are. 🤒

Play dangerous games, win dangerous prizes

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:51:00 +0000

Temperature: a sunny 5/41 degrees. Where is that Föhn wind we were promised?

Eating: What would go well with some Irish stout? I know, it makes food redundant, but still.

Drinking: see above. Happy St. Paddy's!

Listening: to Trump's regime align with Putin's Russia makes you wonder what the Kremlin has on him. Is it about money and/or other favors owed? Something thoroughly, utterly humiliating? We all know The Donald, like his fellow autocrats, will not be laughed at. Imagine if the fate of Ukraine lies in the hands of a man whose greatest fear is not the destruction of American democracy or the dismantling of decades-old alliances but public, no-coming-back-from-that humiliation. Or is it just a case of sociopath recognizing sociopath? Expansive, extractive, exploitative cronyism?

Watching: In between shows, actually, because of the carnaval break. Any suggestions? (White Lotus is already on my list, and screw you, Max, for the glacial speed.)

Reading: something that'll put me out of work.

Writing: something equaling an attempt to hold onto said work. Decades of studying, honing craft, working, experience, and unique skills turning meaningless and worthless at breakneck speed. Time to go all-out Moomin, then, just plant potatoes and dream? People will always need potatoes, and creatives their vivid minds. Glad and sad I'm not alone, but we do support one another; maybe we'll even start something new together. We've talked about pivoting, all those parallel and possible careers. There's something there, don't you think? This is our cue, I think.

Thinking: please don't let Trump meet with/talk to Putin, or Rubio with/to Lavrov, without adult supervision. No, really.

Feeling: Trump is doing Putin's work for him, at home and abroad, and I don't know which is worse: that he does not understand who he's dealing with and what will follow, or that he's too greedy and corrupt to care.

Bora galera!

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:34:00 +0000

You can tell a lot about a person, any entity really, by the company they keep, who and what they associate, sympathize, and align with.

When faced with someone or something vulnerable or weak, a normal person feels the urge to help and protect. A sociopath, on the other hand, sees an opportunity to take advantage and abuse. So here we are, having to deal with sociopaths intent on making colonialism and imperialism great again while blaming and punishing the victims of their hatred and aggression.

What they want shouldn't even factor, because they want everything they can possibly get and believe it's theirs to take, forcibly if need be, and if someone gets hurt, well, that's what you get for being vulnerable or weak. It's up to the rest of us to say no, to say stop, to keep reminding the world that fascists and far-right ideas are the losers of history. Every time, everywhere. It's not and never was common sense, it's just the violent suppression of dissent, freedom and rights.

What a time to be alive, dearest denizens, and what a time to celebrate carnaval. Then again, carnival carries the spirit of rebellion and subversion, so maybe it is the appropriate, sane response to insane times.

Off to oppose, sweetie darlings.🎉 See you in March!

Dança comigo?

noreply@blogger.com (Dita Parker) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 09:28:00 +0000

Four weeks from now, dearest denizens, carnaval will be in full swing, so start stretching those hips! And hamstrings. Glutes, calves, your back and neck... We've talked about this; you'll get a full-body workout, all in the name of good fun and great music.

Four weeks from now, sweetie darlings, I'll have switched winter for summer. No carnaval in Salvador without Ivete these days, so let's pay her a visit at Farol da Barra, the Barra Lighthouse, not far from where we used to live, and join the warm-up party. Let's go! 🥁