Roll Call, let us know you're still here...

[Bear28]

sorry just been working to death and it don't look like its going to ease up any time soon

[Ramseys]

[Eagle]

I'm tired and burned out but still puttering about.

[heavyhorse]

Still around.  Stuff needs doing, and my last try at starting a discussion turned into a dumpster fire so just keeping quiet for now-- .

[DingoJay]

I'm still around; real life has a way of interfering with my fun time.  I wanted to retire 3 years ago, but the people I was forced to entrust my retirement funds to have managed to piss most of it away on bad investments.  I would have been better off to put it in regular savings.  Should have managed it myself, but my employer wouldn't let me. (Growl!)

[Resident Hyaena]

Still here also.

But had to move, due to losing my former home to covid (the owners lost both of their businesses to covid, so they could not keep up the mortgage and were forced to sell the house I was renting from them). luckily, a mutual friend, long out of contact, heard about it, and offered me to live rent-free on a piece of his property.

I'm now in a faraway desert, few & distant amenities, and surrounded by magas. But my former landlords gave me the Birds I was caring for, and after planned improvements to the property by the friend, I will be able to keep some kinds of Birds, and other Animals, that I was unable to keep before.

I'm still working on the story, "Sandey". I posted another chapter a few months ago and am well into the next one.

I should have this chapter done and posted a lot quicker than the previous one.



I am very anxious about the current state of the online zoo presence, the fading away of the "old guard", the diminishing pool of resources and the diminishing locations for hosting these resources.

Indeed, I know of no remaining sites for hosting stories, essays or other writings other than this one. And our Pack Leader, as well as our Zoo Historian, appear to have both gone missing.

If this site is indeed the only story site left, then everything compiled here is at risk for instant obliteration from the web.

If anyone knows of other sites, or a secure backup or mirror, let the authors here know, so that we may protect our literary heritage from disappearing.

In the meantime, each of us should download and safely archive all the literature, so that it may be kept safe in case of the need for restoration to the web.






Resident Hyaena ^..^



 

[heavyhorse]

20 hours ago, DingoJay said:




I'm still around; real life has a way of interfering with my fun time.  I wanted to retire 3 years ago, but the people I was forced to entrust my retirement funds to have managed to piss most of it away on bad investments.  I would have been better off to put it in regular savings.  Should have managed it myself, but my employer wouldn't let me. (Growl!)

I was compelled the other way-- . Forces outside my control posed risk to mine $ so I DID put in regular savings elsewhere.  0.05 APR but at least it's still there and not in the hands of the health care industry (which previously siphoned me dry by invading my bank without my authorization or signature). 




Oh and more decades than I care to admit, combined with Covid, pretty much enforced retirement; so few people wanted outside people making service calls (as well as me not caring to). So now I shall get wealthy following pregnant small livestock around.....  




And @ RH:  I have indeed archived some of my favorites from some of my favorites, but I am very much limited from trying to save all that exists.  It seems to me that some central registry of (all of us) is needed so we can find each other over again if/when our shared resources vanish.  (I am not considering ZV as being a valid resource for, well, pretty much ANYthing or any purpose-- ). 




 

[ferritlove]

Still around and still kicking.  Tech industry is taking a beating, so who knows how long till my number is up.  I'm several years away from retirement technically and financially.  On the up side, I'm still getting out there meeting new zoos throughout the US - just visited with Doodle Donkey and Under Dog out west, as well as a younger up and comer.  Hope to meet up with a few more new zoos yet this year - we'll see.



Resident Hyaena, totally agree about the potential loss of the archive of writing - it's happened before other places, and is one bill away from here too.  Not sure what the answer is, but I wonder if it's worth pulling everything out into an archive for whomever wants a copy.  Maybe with enough copies floating around, it can survive.




Anyways - glad to hear from those around even if things aren't looking up for everyone.




 




ferritlove.

[cervids]

On 4/18/2023 at 11:52 PM, Ramseys said:




<a data-fileid="4846" href="https://zoowg.org/uploads/monthly_2023_04/643f8f9314247_Ourfreedom.jpg.a2adeb68653219309110d664788c04b3.jpg" title="Enlarge image"></a>

Yeah, don't know if that applies equally to all of us.  Pretty unfree in my life right now and little hope of changing that.




Not that it matters much anymore.  My freedom has been gone forever, but I rebel merely by existing.  They will never remove us from this earth and that is our victory.

[elshara]

7 hours ago, cervids said:




Yeah, don't know if that applies equally to all of us.  Pretty unfree in my life right now and little hope of changing that.




Not that it matters much anymore.  My freedom has been gone forever, but I rebel merely by existing.  They will never remove us from this earth and that is our victory.

 




Same here. I can remember how it felt to be free - I never worried about needing it...which is to say I'm very conscious of it now.




Existential imaginary freedom is still better than none at all...but it is a far cry from actual physical movement. It does in a lot of ways, still matter to me.




I see these yuppy social people on other sites saying it's 'the right time to be proactively zoo' and I cringe inside for their uneducated idiocy. I'd say more than half of them are law-enforcement plants. And the others will get caught by them, or ousted out of freedom they don't know they can take for granted by just shutting up for their own good. And I don't see this changing anytime soon.




I'm all out of mournful howls, and whimpering about what isn't possible won't cure the old pain that turned to a silent numb long ago. This begging mind set for society to change its heart is majorly backfiring around us because of the few who couldn't pay attention for all our safety. There are times I wish we weren't a community, and weren't well known because of this. I see the long term damage sites like Beast Forum has done, and now Zoo Ville, and it sickens me. All it has done is given others a way to control traps for us to avoid stepping into.




I stay because I'm already here, so it won't make any difference moving forward. I'm appreciatively grateful I'm not next to get locked away, beaten or worse, and if this is freedom I'm living rich. Why? Because to be left alone is peace on Earth. With my dreams for company.