Lo! A philomath's field notes & yearningshttps://amongthestones.com/https://amongthestones.com/posts/nun-micro-aberto-no-dia-das-letras-galegas/https://amongthestones.com/posts/nun-micro-aberto-no-dia-das-letras-galegas/Andando pola terra, descubrín / paisaxes coma bosques, densos de humidade, / desertos dourados, sen fin, / e montes e vales ondulantes. / Os meus ollos enriqueceron.Tue, 19 May 2026 15:51:43 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/seremos/https://amongthestones.com/posts/seremos/Thu, 14 May 2026 12:50:54 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/wikireading-2025/https://amongthestones.com/posts/wikireading-2025/From Wikipedia's personalized Year in Review for me:Fri, 05 Dec 2025 08:57:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ponte-de-lima-roman-milestone/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ponte-de-lima-roman-milestone/Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:58:47 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/fire-season/https://amongthestones.com/posts/fire-season/The two-week heat wave brought extreme fire risk to Galicia and now Ourense province is on fire. 10% of it, 727 square kilometers, has already burned. The fires of Chandrexa and Maceda merged and is now the biggest fire ever on record.Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:35:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/hot-dog/https://amongthestones.com/posts/hot-dog/Alqo's ola de calor ritual. We try to walk further in the mornings before the pavement heats up, but I make a point to pass this spot where he can get in to the river. Since my van is in the shop, we've exploring the places just outside of town but still reachable on foot. It's nice how close the campo can feel here.Sat, 09 Aug 2025 20:06:00 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/faro-bregancio/https://amongthestones.com/posts/faro-bregancio/Short trip to A Coruña to escape routine, walk aimlessly, and contemplate deeply.Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:22:42 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/rays-of-pure-light/https://amongthestones.com/posts/rays-of-pure-light/Mon, 21 Jul 2025 21:29:29 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/shifting-goalposts/https://amongthestones.com/posts/shifting-goalposts/While I've really enjoyed the human, social aspect of my job, talking with podcasters all day, the web development itch returned a few weeks ago.Fri, 18 Jul 2025 13:11:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/o-unico-galego-mal-falado/https://amongthestones.com/posts/o-unico-galego-mal-falado/Happy Galician Literature Day, Galicia and all the galegophiles.Sat, 17 May 2025 12:04:19 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/not-welcome/https://amongthestones.com/posts/not-welcome/No sur de Lugo e noutros lugares de Galicia, seguimos manifestando contra o xenocidio e apartheid israelí e apoiando a liberación de Palestina.Sun, 02 Mar 2025 10:02:29 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/living-bridges/https://amongthestones.com/posts/living-bridges/Seeing the storks return brings me a quiet joy. Besides being a link to Galicia and Upper Guinea, two places close to my heart, I love them for their grace. I enjoy the way they perch and build their massive nests on poles next to the railway and on old stone churches.Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:15:26 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/farewell-to-the-scroll-grateful-for-the-light/https://amongthestones.com/posts/farewell-to-the-scroll-grateful-for-the-light/With my goal of prefiguring some changes in this new year of 2025, a few weeks ago I removed Instagram from my phone. It's been a long time coming; I found myself glued to the screen for a few reasons: keeping up with the unbearable horrors in Gaza, maintaining the vaguest awareness of what some friends who I'm not in…Tue, 07 Jan 2025 16:15:37 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/edge-of-a-long-twilight/https://amongthestones.com/posts/edge-of-a-long-twilight/This Californian still struggles with winter. Instead of going inward, pressing pause on the outside world, and enjoying the slowness of things, I've found myself dealing with big things over the last few years; a breakup, a new town and melancholy, existential dread while watching the warmongering, immigration…Wed, 11 Dec 2024 12:11:57 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/vos/https://amongthestones.com/posts/vos/Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:45:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/rendicion/https://amongthestones.com/posts/rendicion/Grant me surrender to embrace what You have woven, / The strength to stir the waters where my hands may flow, / And the vision to see through the veils of what is mine to sow.Thu, 03 Oct 2024 08:50:54 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/cohering/https://amongthestones.com/posts/cohering/Within and without. I'm not sure what that means for this little blog (except an upcoming migration from WordPress → GitHub Pages).Sat, 29 Jun 2024 12:52:01 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/woven-languages/https://amongthestones.com/posts/woven-languages/Wed, 25 Oct 2023 08:42:29 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/playful/https://amongthestones.com/posts/playful/Sun, 15 Oct 2023 08:49:52 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/morning-ritual/https://amongthestones.com/posts/morning-ritual/Sat, 16 Sep 2023 07:51:14 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/bird-brained/https://amongthestones.com/posts/bird-brained/Thank you, Elon, for all the chaos in your Twitter acquisition; I deactivated my (X?) account a few weeks ago after not being on there since December-ish. I don’t care about anything else you’ve done but you finally got me off that site.Sun, 06 Aug 2023 15:53:18 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/splash/https://amongthestones.com/posts/splash/Years ago while in Latin America, I uploaded a few iPhone photos to Unsplash.Sat, 04 Mar 2023 11:07:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/mmxxiii/https://amongthestones.com/posts/mmxxiii/Here’s to recognizing the changes and cycles in everything, to re-aligning with our differentiated authentic selves, and rediscovering my absolute lust for life.Sun, 01 Jan 2023 12:46:56 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/mi-tio-vaquero/https://amongthestones.com/posts/mi-tio-vaquero/Mi tío falleció inesperadamente anoche. Era duro, con un rasgo estoico/vaquero, difícil. También, amaba a su gente mucho; un buscador de conocimiento, en su manera, que lo llevó desde los campos de Oklahoma hasta el Río Jordán y de vuelta.Mon, 07 Nov 2022 12:24:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/camino-return/https://amongthestones.com/posts/camino-return/After four days of walking the Camino de Santiago, four days of enjoying being an awestruck pilgrim/tourist in Santiago de Compostela, and two days of traversing Galicia in train and van to get Alqo back from the residencia canina, I'm finally back home in cold foggy Monforte and jumping back into the swing of…Wed, 02 Nov 2022 10:49:20 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/camino-de-inverno/https://amongthestones.com/posts/camino-de-inverno/It's been quite the year.Mon, 31 Oct 2022 12:42:01 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/jesus-benavides-esclerosis-multiple/https://amongthestones.com/posts/jesus-benavides-esclerosis-multiple/Local artist Jesús Benavides carved this self-representation of what living with MS feels like.Mon, 01 Nov 2021 12:22:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-more-manageable-project/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-more-manageable-project/We drove Holly down to Madrid a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time I had left Galicia/Portugal in two years. We were dropping her off to her new owner.Mon, 25 Oct 2021 08:35:19 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-baroque/https://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-baroque/Wed, 06 Oct 2021 18:08:13 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-most-comfortable-conditions/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-most-comfortable-conditions/The Uninhabitable Earth author David Wallace-Wells interviewed ecologist and author Dave Goulson last month for his new book Silent Earth in New York Magazine. This part has been rattling around in my head for the last month:Sun, 22 Aug 2021 13:03:36 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/lagoa-de-bodeiro/https://amongthestones.com/posts/lagoa-de-bodeiro/I spent the weekend in O Grove and finally walked around the north shore of the peninsula. I thought Foxos and A Lanzada were nice, but passing the uncrowded Pipas, Reboredo, Mexiloeira, Piñeirón, Barreiriño, and Carreiro beaches with calm and turquoise water felt like I was on a different continent.Mon, 02 Aug 2021 11:32:54 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/o-bng-always-with-galicia/https://amongthestones.com/posts/o-bng-always-with-galicia/Galician Nationalist Bloc leader and national spokesperson Ana Pontón re-affirmed that her party is the only alternative to the People's Party austerity and the centralism of the Spanish state apparatus in Madrid in La Voz de Galicia today:Fri, 30 Jul 2021 10:29:03 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/early-summer-in-o-salnes/https://amongthestones.com/posts/early-summer-in-o-salnes/Although it’s not a recent photo, summer for me really begins when I catch a glimpse of the coast heading down the highway towards praia A Lanzada.Tue, 13 Jul 2021 18:34:25 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/new-things/https://amongthestones.com/posts/new-things/I started to get a little wordy about some great news over here, then realized I could sum it up with a few sentences in the /now page.Fri, 18 Jun 2021 19:05:49 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/flashback-alis-worre/https://amongthestones.com/posts/flashback-alis-worre/In late 2012 I was preparing to leave Sierra Leone. School was out for the holiday, the secondary school was almost finished, and I started taking my small digital camera around with me throughout the day.Mon, 14 Jun 2021 11:51:10 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/how-to-make-ortiga-fertilizer/https://amongthestones.com/posts/how-to-make-ortiga-fertilizer/Patricia gets a lot of ideas for cool permaculture projects from El Guardian de la Tierra, a YouTube channel created by Lander, a resident of Mallorca and self-professed adicto al permacultura.Thu, 27 May 2021 02:12:40 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/alqos-new-homestead-life/https://amongthestones.com/posts/alqos-new-homestead-life/It doesn’t look like it now, but this puppy is a terremoto around the village. He’s a good dog, just a overly excited. Luckily the only other people around are a few neighbors on the weekends and folks passing through on the way to their viñas.Sat, 22 May 2021 13:59:19 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/downriver-mino-near-cabo-do-mundo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/downriver-mino-near-cabo-do-mundo/Much of our homestead progress is punctuated by half victories.Thu, 20 May 2021 17:58:02 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/it-looks-like-apartheid-because-it-is/https://amongthestones.com/posts/it-looks-like-apartheid-because-it-is/B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad on Democracy Now and in The Washington Post:Thu, 20 May 2021 10:33:22 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-palestinian-solidarity-rallies/https://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-palestinian-solidarity-rallies/This year will be the year that the world finally wakes up to the absolute reality of Israeli apartheid.Tue, 18 May 2021 10:44:40 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/letras-galegas-xela-arias-on-rosalia-de-castro/https://amongthestones.com/posts/letras-galegas-xela-arias-on-rosalia-de-castro/Happy Día das Letras Galegas! Poet, writer, and translator Xela Arias will be honored. Since I’m (currently) a non-Galician speaking galegophile and this blog is in English, here’s a section of her poem A de Quen Comprende translated courtesy of Canadian poet and translator Erín Moure.Mon, 17 May 2021 10:47:27 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ribeira-sacras-vineyards-and-esgrafiados/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ribeira-sacras-vineyards-and-esgrafiados/Fri, 14 May 2021 10:56:46 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/spanish-thatcherism-in-madrid-and-tomorrows-regional-elections/https://amongthestones.com/posts/spanish-thatcherism-in-madrid-and-tomorrows-regional-elections/I never thought I’d be as interested in Madrid politics as I have been for the last month. Basically, the Trumpian Madrid president, Isabel Ayuso, is trying to capitalize on some unstable political alliances throughout the country between her Partido Popular and the centrist/center-right neoliberal Ciudadanos.Mon, 03 May 2021 14:20:42 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/goodbye-nanin-photos-from-18-months-in-allariz/https://amongthestones.com/posts/goodbye-nanin-photos-from-18-months-in-allariz/I’m sitting in two shipping containers converted into a small 30 square meter house. They’re installing drywall in what will be the bathroom. I’d like to be outside, but it’s raining off and on. I’ll use this time to share photos from the last eighteen months in Allariz.Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:14:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/val-de-lemos-from-o-castro-de-moreda/https://amongthestones.com/posts/val-de-lemos-from-o-castro-de-moreda/I would love to sit down and write a post about leaving Allariz as well as share news about our progress here, but there’s tons to do and I always have to push back writing. Let this photo of the valley of Lemos suffice for now.Tue, 20 Apr 2021 15:08:18 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/nanin-unio-california-y-madrid/https://amongthestones.com/posts/nanin-unio-california-y-madrid/La Región journalist Paula Palomanes wrote about my partner and yours truly last week:Wed, 24 Feb 2021 20:35:07 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/wednesdays-at-home/https://amongthestones.com/posts/wednesdays-at-home/I’ve been internet absent for a while but everything is good over here, all told. Our house search is finally over. A couple weeks ago, we bought a small late 18th-century stone house with some adjacent ruins.Fri, 25 Dec 2020 09:47:30 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/what-we-need/https://amongthestones.com/posts/what-we-need/I have no sage advice on dealing with what comes tonight and the days ahead. Any potential electoral result, and that includes a Biden blowout, will not be what America actually needs to improve the material conditions of its citizens, eradicate inequality and racism, and stave off climate catastrophe, much less…Tue, 03 Nov 2020 11:01:47 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/forest-finds/https://amongthestones.com/posts/forest-finds/The change in weather has been a bit sudden. Though I loved wearing shorts, keeping the door open to hear the birds and feel the breeze, autumn has its own benefits. Walks in the monte are more pleasant without the bugs and heat. And of course, there are things to forage like boletus and castañas.Thu, 15 Oct 2020 13:20:24 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/couto-mixto/https://amongthestones.com/posts/couto-mixto/Dani Keral in Traveler.es on what might have been the first democratic territory in Europe (Spanish):Wed, 14 Oct 2020 18:42:01 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/chinguetti-mosque/https://amongthestones.com/posts/chinguetti-mosque/I only made it up to Chinguetti once or twice a year. This one of the old town’s mosque is from January 2016 when my mother-in-law came to visit. Our friend, a popular Mauritanian tour guide, organized a camping trip. It was also the first and only time we saw Ouadane.Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:27:01 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/keyboard-fails/https://amongthestones.com/posts/keyboard-fails/The Smart Keyboard for my tablet finally gave up a few days ago. For the last year, I had needed to reconnect it constantly, smash random buttons, or run a magnet over it to get it working. It’s a shame, I loved how thin it was.Sun, 04 Oct 2020 19:53:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/turkish-morrina/https://amongthestones.com/posts/turkish-morrina/I finished the first chapter of Shahab Ahmed’s What is Islam, where he lays out the need for a rethinking what should be considered Islam (for the academy and as a theoretical-object), introduces his Balkans-to-Bengal complex, and presents six questions that he expands on in the book before concluding with a chapter…Fri, 02 Oct 2020 11:17:38 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/e-crises-and-andidotes-all-the-way-down/https://amongthestones.com/posts/e-crises-and-andidotes-all-the-way-down/A few days ago I was washing dishes and listening to a podcast from the Trillbilly Workers’ Party.Mon, 28 Sep 2020 10:52:58 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/fall-walk-to-town/https://amongthestones.com/posts/fall-walk-to-town/Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:42:04 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-republic-without-the-public/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-republic-without-the-public/Rob Wijnberg from the Correspondent admonishing the news media to stop treating the United States as if it’s a democracy should be required reading:Wed, 23 Sep 2020 10:38:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/blueprint-for-a-barely-functioning-united-states/https://amongthestones.com/posts/blueprint-for-a-barely-functioning-united-states/With the untimely passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Republican hypocrisy regarding SCOTUS confirmations that liberals seem to think will eventually shame the GOP into doing the honorable thing (it won’t), massive unrest over the troika of economic, social, and environmental conditions, the contradictions in American…Sat, 19 Sep 2020 15:57:39 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/arnoia-stone-bridge/https://amongthestones.com/posts/arnoia-stone-bridge/Thu, 17 Sep 2020 12:46:12 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-obligatory-ios-podcasting-setup-post/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-obligatory-ios-podcasting-setup-post/Yesterday, I recorded a great conversation that I’ve been looking forward to and wanted to share how I use a phone and tablet to record the podcast.Thu, 10 Sep 2020 17:26:22 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-dispossessed/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-dispossessed/I thought the quarantine would allow me to read more books than I have. Old habits of only starting longer books, or becoming distracted by articles or tweets, die hard.Mon, 07 Sep 2020 17:20:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/slim-pickings-in-galicia/https://amongthestones.com/posts/slim-pickings-in-galicia/Winter is coming.Sun, 06 Sep 2020 09:48:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/alberto-garzon-on-the-spanish-right/https://amongthestones.com/posts/alberto-garzon-on-the-spanish-right/Tommy Greene and Eoghan Gilmartin interviewed Consumer Affairs minister and Izquierda Unida leader Alberto Garzón for Jacobin on the Spanish Right’s refusal to accept the current governmental coalition:Sat, 05 Sep 2020 20:31:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/beyond-the-vote/https://amongthestones.com/posts/beyond-the-vote/What if instead of the Democratic Party pushing absolutely mediocre democratic candidates, who run to the center every time the right moves further right, we started thinking beyond Trump and “getting back to normal”?Sat, 05 Sep 2020 09:34:13 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/from-a-different-angle/https://amongthestones.com/posts/from-a-different-angle/I don’t walk to the village church often, but the view of the village and the monte behind it is spectacular from this angle. I was so used to the semi-empty hiking trails behind our house or the little used road that continues south.Wed, 02 Sep 2020 20:09:21 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/what-you-give/https://amongthestones.com/posts/what-you-give/Micro.blog’s photo challenge for today is love.Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:44:29 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/was-that-a-vacation/https://amongthestones.com/posts/was-that-a-vacation/I’m becoming an expert of the towns in southern Lugo. Silleda, Melide, Bóveda, Pantón, Sarria, Láncara, O Incio. But before we left a week ago to celebrate Patricia’s mother’s birthday, we thought we were going to A Coruña to visit Fragas do Eume, or perhaps some of the province’s incredible beaches and forget about…Thu, 27 Aug 2020 12:45:30 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ponte-do-demo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ponte-do-demo/Sun, 23 Aug 2020 09:18:37 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-fugitive-old-king-and-an-impossible-republic/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-fugitive-old-king-and-an-impossible-republic/Following Juan Carlos I’s quick exit and self-exile (Portugal, Dominican Republic, perhaps Abu Dhabi?) to prevent more bad publicity for la casa real, some are wondering what the future of the Spanish Crown holds.Thu, 13 Aug 2020 20:14:34 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/now-for-ferrite/https://amongthestones.com/posts/now-for-ferrite/I finally used my Røde mics and the lightning audio interface plugged into my phone to record my friend Hudy and I on Quinta Laila. Now, it's time to split the channels, figure out how to use Ferrite, and publish. Insha'Allāh, it'll be out before Friday.Sun, 09 Aug 2020 10:54:37 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/mosquito-net/https://amongthestones.com/posts/mosquito-net/One day at Quinta Laila is spent cementing a wall, the other figuring out how to mosquito-proof the bedroom and living room. The frames came out nicely and can be sanded and painted or treated.Tue, 04 Aug 2020 14:51:35 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/quinta-laila/https://amongthestones.com/posts/quinta-laila/Our friends bought 10 hectares of land near Sertã, Portugal for an upcoming rural coliving/coworking project. Here is just one of the houses on the property.Sun, 02 Aug 2020 09:00:42 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/summer-vacation/https://amongthestones.com/posts/summer-vacation/I started my ten-day vacation from work today and it feels fantastic. Tomorrow, we're driving the 4.5 hours down to Oleiros, central Portugal tomorrow.Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:30:38 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/post-pandemic-travel-plan-1/https://amongthestones.com/posts/post-pandemic-travel-plan-1/More travel daydreams. I started looking back at photos from Sierra Leone and forgot I had taken this one before taking the boat to the Banana Islands.Mon, 27 Jul 2020 14:48:45 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/elon-musk-and-the-bolivian-coup/https://amongthestones.com/posts/elon-musk-and-the-bolivian-coup/I hope any technology enthusiasts that support unhinged billionaire Elon Musk reading this re-assess their hero worship. You could also read Vijay Prashad and Alejandro Bejarano’s article about Musk acting like a neo-conquistador for South America’s lithium.Sun, 26 Jul 2020 15:39:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/considering-the-eucalypt/https://amongthestones.com/posts/considering-the-eucalypt/It’s hard to ignore the ubiquity of eucalyptus in Galicia, especially on the coast. Introduced to and spread throughout the region as a cash crop for paper pulp, a eucalypt plantation is low-maintenance and fast-growing. It’s also notoriously fire-prone and a scourge for autochthonous flora and fauna.Sat, 25 Jul 2020 09:36:01 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/remembering-michael-brooks/https://amongthestones.com/posts/remembering-michael-brooks/It's so disheartening to hear of the passing of Michael Brooks today. Of the contemporary media on the Left, he stood out to me and thousand others with his intellectual curiosity, a firm internationalism, and his personal interest in synthesizing spirituality and politics.Tue, 21 Jul 2020 13:06:16 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/asides-apart/https://amongthestones.com/posts/asides-apart/I'm separating the Asides category, along with Links, from the main feed of this blog. Asides are more informal, ephemeral posts that don't make sense between other things I've been writing about. The RSS feed still aggregates everything.Sun, 19 Jul 2020 10:28:54 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/pensive-alqo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/pensive-alqo/Sat, 18 Jul 2020 21:00:51 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/starship-troopers-american-defeat/https://amongthestones.com/posts/starship-troopers-american-defeat/David Roth in The New Yorker:Thu, 16 Jul 2020 18:20:28 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/no-more-betas/https://amongthestones.com/posts/no-more-betas/I didn’t take my own advice from last year and installed the iOS14 beta on my phone for a few days. I’ve now learned my lesson and have a fully functioning phone after spending the morning getting everything back to normal.Thu, 16 Jul 2020 17:34:57 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/results-from-eleccions-galegas/https://amongthestones.com/posts/results-from-eleccions-galegas/After a few days camping around Portomarín and Sarria, I’m back home and have a few points to summarize the results of the Galician elections.Wed, 15 Jul 2020 21:16:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/morning-near-portomarin/https://amongthestones.com/posts/morning-near-portomarin/The van life is built for pandemic-infused summers; outside, away from crowds, and a parking spot next to the upper Miño to watch the birds and fish.Tue, 14 Jul 2020 16:13:34 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-elections-2020-for-anglophones/https://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-elections-2020-for-anglophones/As I rest my brain from reacting to the failed state of the United States; its ineptitude at controlling the coronavirus given ample time, money, and other country’s experiences to prepare, rising unemployment, continuing police brutality against people of color, and an uninspiring democratic challenger, I look toward…Sun, 12 Jul 2020 08:16:57 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/river-walk/https://amongthestones.com/posts/river-walk/Fri, 10 Jul 2020 21:40:13 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/rethinking-mauritania-policy-over-human-rights-abuses/https://amongthestones.com/posts/rethinking-mauritania-policy-over-human-rights-abuses/After some deliberation, I’m moving links off of the main page. While I have added a menu option for links that is more prominent and they will still appear in the RSS feed, I removed them for a couple reasons.Thu, 09 Jul 2020 18:38:41 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/monte-penama/https://amongthestones.com/posts/monte-penama/I’ve often seen these towers in the distance while walking in the monte but didn’t know this was Penamá, most likely the highest point in the area.Wed, 08 Jul 2020 08:35:12 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/second-lockdown-for-lugos-a-marina/https://amongthestones.com/posts/second-lockdown-for-lugos-a-marina/Spain had one of the strictest lockdowns in the world to combat against the coronavirus. After the worst of it had passed, the government instituted a deescalation period of various phases.Mon, 06 Jul 2020 19:19:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/via-de-la-plata-marker/https://amongthestones.com/posts/via-de-la-plata-marker/On a recent walk to O San Salvador via the monte, we noticed new kilometer markers on the vía de la plata, a less known route of the Camino de Santiago. Though plata means silver, the word actually derives from the Arabic al-balat, the cobbled paving of the old Roman roads.Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:39:38 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/meta-unfinished-blog-tweaks-and-shortcuts/https://amongthestones.com/posts/meta-unfinished-blog-tweaks-and-shortcuts/I love using GeneratePress (Premium + GenerateBlocks) for WordPress projects. I’m still relatively new to everything but after using Divi, I’m blown away by how versatile developer Tom Usborne’s products can be in replacing traditional page builders. It also works surprisingly well on an iPad.Fri, 03 Jul 2020 11:59:13 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/toxo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/toxo/Mon, 29 Jun 2020 12:18:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/hey-apple-contribute-to-language-promotion-in-spain-and-add-a-galician-keyboard-in-ios14/https://amongthestones.com/posts/hey-apple-contribute-to-language-promotion-in-spain-and-add-a-galician-keyboard-in-ios14/Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) wrapped up yesterday. This year’s was pretty different. With the coronavirus pandemic unabated, the whole conference was moved online and made more accessible and streamable for all, providing safety and convenience to regular attendees as well as enthusiasts who…Sun, 28 Jun 2020 08:25:07 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/nos/https://amongthestones.com/posts/nos/Mon, 22 Jun 2020 13:49:47 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/photos-from-ribeira-sacra-lucense/https://amongthestones.com/posts/photos-from-ribeira-sacra-lucense/As the first trip out of our town since the quarantine, we started north to Ourense, then headed northeast to explore the towns just before Monforte de Lemos on the lucense side of the Ribeira Sacra. The weather was mostly dry but a little chilly, the end of an unusual cool streak.Sat, 20 Jun 2020 09:03:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/verdant-path/https://amongthestones.com/posts/verdant-path/Sat, 13 Jun 2020 19:52:49 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/im-not-ready/https://amongthestones.com/posts/im-not-ready/There’s a vegetarian restaurant in our town. We don’t eat out very often and not at all during the pandemic, for obvious reasons. It re-opened a week or so ago and we decided to get a few pizzas as a small reward for completing our dietary detox.Sat, 13 Jun 2020 10:26:10 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/castro-de-castromao/https://amongthestones.com/posts/castro-de-castromao/The Iron Age castro) originally built by a Celtic tribe called the Coelerni near Celanova looked like it’s been untended during the quarantine, so it was difficult to see the ruins properly. The view at the top at 732 meters above sea level (2,401 feet) on a clear day, however, was worth the trip out.Wed, 10 Jun 2020 02:44:18 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/couchsurfings-financial-woes-and-uncertain-future/https://amongthestones.com/posts/couchsurfings-financial-woes-and-uncertain-future/Out of nowhere a few days ago, I received an email in Spanish from Couchsurfing, the famous social/homestay website and app once beloved by every shoestring-budget or extroverted traveler. The email title was bookended by two emoji exclamation marks.Sun, 07 Jun 2020 11:46:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/phase-3-to-la-nueva-normalidad-in-galicia/https://amongthestones.com/posts/phase-3-to-la-nueva-normalidad-in-galicia/The Xunta of Galicia, the autonomous community government, will allow inter-provincial travel as the region enters phrase 3 of the deescalation/transition starting Monday (along with 46% of the Spanish population in other communities).Sat, 06 Jun 2020 08:53:43 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ait-ben-haddou/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ait-ben-haddou/I’ve been daydreaming of traveling again, especially Morocco. Here is the old Jewish fort near Ouarzazate on Christmas Day 2015.Fri, 05 Jun 2020 11:35:58 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/coffee-less-for-detox-week/https://amongthestones.com/posts/coffee-less-for-detox-week/After Ramadan, I promised my significant other I would participate in a detox with her. We eat very well, gracias a ella, and almost vegan, aside from very infrequent eggs from the neighbors (and if I break down at the market and buy semi-curado cheese). But we were both interested in cleansing.Thu, 04 Jun 2020 11:22:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/an-american-state-organized-on-fascist-principles/https://amongthestones.com/posts/an-american-state-organized-on-fascist-principles/The past week has laid bare all of America’s growing contradictions. The contradictions of mythical American exceptionalism, late-stage gig economy services capitalism with 40 million unemployed, a pandemic that disproportionately affects people of color with little-to-no federal response, an incoming climate crisis…Wed, 03 Jun 2020 10:21:00 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/new-tightrope/https://amongthestones.com/posts/new-tightrope/A silver lining of the quarantine, the intentional go-slow of the Earth’s populace, is the chance to see something new in the everyday. A quotidian walk becomes utterly fascinating if I see the neighbor’s kitten in a tree, whose hunter’s gaze is fixed on a bird out of range.Sun, 31 May 2020 20:06:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/minneapolis-rebellion/https://amongthestones.com/posts/minneapolis-rebellion/This country cannot change.Fri, 29 May 2020 19:59:56 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/springtime-greenhouse/https://amongthestones.com/posts/springtime-greenhouse/Thu, 28 May 2020 09:58:37 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/internationalist-solidarity-from-a-village-during-a-pandemic/https://amongthestones.com/posts/internationalist-solidarity-from-a-village-during-a-pandemic/Living away from my country, while always a personal net positive, can be dislocating. Obsessed with bigger ideas and other people’s thoughts of them, I used to retreat to Twitter to check the pulse of what was current in the discourse back home.Tue, 26 May 2020 14:27:16 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/morning-telarana/https://amongthestones.com/posts/morning-telarana/Mon, 25 May 2020 10:47:22 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-millennial-left-and-the-lesser-evil-of-joe-biden/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-millennial-left-and-the-lesser-evil-of-joe-biden/A thing I saw after the the end of the Bernie campaign was this call online for the socialist left to throw down our ideological weapons and surrender to the inevitable Biden candidacy. “You have to vote for him! Otherwise, you are enabling fascism,” some said.Thu, 21 May 2020 12:32:42 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/unified-veranda-theory/https://amongthestones.com/posts/unified-veranda-theory/It’s my Saturday today. I’ve been out on the terrace, watching the fig tree away with the breeze. There are more insects buzzing, snails crawling up the stone walls, and birds darting between the electrical and phone lines that surround our house.Tue, 19 May 2020 12:25:16 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/dia-das-letras-galegas/https://amongthestones.com/posts/dia-das-letras-galegas/Yesterday was Galician Literature Day, a public holiday here in the northwestern Spanish community/nation. It started in 1963 marking the centennial Rosalía de Castro’s book of poetry Cantares Gallegos. Every year since, the Royal Galician Academy picks one Galician writer to celebrate.Mon, 18 May 2020 15:15:37 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/2019-recap-video-weekday-weekends/https://amongthestones.com/posts/2019-recap-video-weekday-weekends/Patricia put together a great video of video clips from our Latin America trip and a couple days ago did the same with everything we’ve filmed from 2019.Thu, 14 May 2020 19:42:12 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/warmer-and-freer/https://amongthestones.com/posts/warmer-and-freer/I can once finally go outside in the morning with shorts and sandals. The weather is still a little cool, but it’s a pleasant change from always being bundled up for most of the winter, even inside our house.Sat, 09 May 2020 10:44:09 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/an-andalusian-pueblo-blanco-without-coronavirus/https://amongthestones.com/posts/an-andalusian-pueblo-blanco-without-coronavirus/Instead of jumping on Twitter in the early mornings and inevitably seeing distressing reports of impunity and inequality, I’ve been reading La Voz de Galicia.Fri, 08 May 2020 12:58:53 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/watching-celery-grow/https://amongthestones.com/posts/watching-celery-grow/It’s small but the garden adds to the serenity of our small yard. The weather has been superb the last few days and before classes I’m usually in the hammock reading. I’ve almost finished Kropotkin’s Conquest of Bread.Thu, 07 May 2020 12:23:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/first-brown-bear-in-the-mountains-of-the-central-ourensan-massif-since-the-late-19th-century/https://amongthestones.com/posts/first-brown-bear-in-the-mountains-of-the-central-ourensan-massif-since-the-late-19th-century/Some good news in nature conservation. A brown bear between 3-5 years old came from A Serra do Courel in Lugo and probably spent the winter in Parque Natural do Invernadeiro, where it was caught on cameras set up for a documentary.Thu, 07 May 2020 10:51:48 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/14-ramadan-ignite-the-divine-engine/https://amongthestones.com/posts/14-ramadan-ignite-the-divine-engine/People who have never tried fasting before are astonished to contemplate not eating or drinking all day. But it becomes easier as one moves through the month of Ramadan. A rhythm is introduced; perhaps different than normal. Maybe your sleep schedule is different. You find something else to do during lunchtime.Thu, 07 May 2020 10:26:02 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/marx-predicted-our-present-crisis-and-points-the-way-out/https://amongthestones.com/posts/marx-predicted-our-present-crisis-and-points-the-way-out/In light of world governments pushing their citizens to “reopen economies”, the oncoming financial crisis sparked by lagging consumption and massive unemployment, and the further consolidation of capital from firms like Amazon, Yanis Varoufakis‘s Guardian article on the Communist Manifesto (adapted from his…Tue, 05 May 2020 15:36:28 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/khaima/https://amongthestones.com/posts/khaima/This photo is from 2015. It’s of a khaïma, a Mauritanian tent, that Patricia and I would use to go camping on the weekends outside Nouakchott. This spot is about 100 km north and has a beautiful dune right next to the ocean. I’m unsure of when I’ll be able to return.Mon, 04 May 2020 18:01:18 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/exiting-my-own-vampire-sand-castle/https://amongthestones.com/posts/exiting-my-own-vampire-sand-castle/For Ramadan, I decided, along with food and drink, to fast from Twitter.Sun, 03 May 2020 18:36:28 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/dhikr-vibrations/https://amongthestones.com/posts/dhikr-vibrations/Fatima:Sun, 03 May 2020 06:11:27 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/samawati-wal-ard/https://amongthestones.com/posts/samawati-wal-ard/Mon, 27 Apr 2020 21:25:54 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/3-ramadan-1441-watch-the-throne/https://amongthestones.com/posts/3-ramadan-1441-watch-the-throne/The Qur’an’s third thirtieth part includes the powerful Verse of the Throne, which is often displayed in homes in beautiful calligraphic styles.Sun, 26 Apr 2020 19:17:52 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/2-ramadan-1441-true-piety-neither-east-nor-west-and-an-economic-system/https://amongthestones.com/posts/2-ramadan-1441-true-piety-neither-east-nor-west-and-an-economic-system/One of my favorite ayat comes in the second juz’. It is a description of piety according to the Qur’an. Many wrestle with the tension between what we say we are and what we do. For instance, theoretician David Graeber defines anarchism is something one does, rather than how one self-identifies in the world.Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:47:46 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/1-ramadan-1441-back-turning-toward-the-opening/https://amongthestones.com/posts/1-ramadan-1441-back-turning-toward-the-opening/The morning fog burned off quickly and the sun was already high when I stepped outside. The bugs hovered, dancing on the yard where Alqo naps in our small yard. The light hit the grass in an ethereal way, hidden for a few days behind storm clouds that never unleashed themselves over us. This will be a different day.Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:51:31 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/national-road/https://amongthestones.com/posts/national-road/Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:33:43 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/some-values/https://amongthestones.com/posts/some-values/My LeftValues result: Council Communism.Tue, 21 Apr 2020 18:24:40 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/shifts-and-self-discipline/https://amongthestones.com/posts/shifts-and-self-discipline/The weird thing about a paradigm-shifting pandemic is many of my habits haven't changed significantly but how I feel about them, and pretty much everything else, has shifted. Every morning, I take a walk with my dog up the road.Mon, 20 Apr 2020 19:42:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/lucky-pup-luckier-humans/https://amongthestones.com/posts/lucky-pup-luckier-humans/My dog is a big hit with some of my students. One in particular asked me when his birthday was a few days. We found him on the street near in a small town near Colca Canyon in Peru, so we're not really sure of his exact age.Sat, 18 Apr 2020 17:33:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/small-patch/https://amongthestones.com/posts/small-patch/We had plans to make a garden on a small plot of land close to the church that our landlady offered us this spring. But since we've been quarantined for a month and didn't want to spend the money to fence it properly for boars, we decided to take some fallen branches from the monte and build a raised bed garden in…Sun, 12 Apr 2020 18:29:21 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-end-of-the-end-of-history/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-end-of-the-end-of-history/The blog Cosmonaut has a lengthy and important article regarding the necessary work to be done in the western imperialist core to stave off 21st-century fascism and neoliberal neglect, especially after the the failed political revolution of the the Sanders left, all in the face of ecological collapse.Sun, 12 Apr 2020 11:02:14 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/in-obvious-twilight/https://amongthestones.com/posts/in-obvious-twilight/As the world settles in to its new virus-covered reality, time becomes amorphous. For many, especially city-dwellers, gone are the inessential errands, any whimsical excuse to leave the apartment, or the chance to meet up with friends on a nice day.Fri, 10 Apr 2020 20:50:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/thinking-degrowth-with-eyes-toward-the-sacred-riverside/https://amongthestones.com/posts/thinking-degrowth-with-eyes-toward-the-sacred-riverside/Day 24 here in Spain and the coalition government under Sánchez a few days ago announced it will extend the state of alarm until at least 26 April. After that, there might be an easing of restrictions until we’re out of the peak. The daily casualty rate is still high but has been going down for a few consecutive days.Mon, 06 Apr 2020 17:46:29 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/outside-alqo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/outside-alqo/This guy is usually pretty cute. But not when he whines to go outside, ‘knocks’ seconds later to come back in, then repeats.Wed, 01 Apr 2020 21:50:56 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-19-lifted-a-bit/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-19-lifted-a-bit/I’m sleeping more lightly than usual. It could be Spain entering daylight savings time but it started a bit before this. At least I’m getting some sleep. I think others are struggling. I don’t have much to write about here. I’m trying to write for my fiction project more.Tue, 31 Mar 2020 18:00:45 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/carretera-view/https://amongthestones.com/posts/carretera-view/The post-coffee morning trip up the road with the pup to find some rays of sun, tsk-tsk at the small industrial pig farm, and confirm the town still exists after weird quarantine dreams.Sun, 29 Mar 2020 11:07:50 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/no-more-how-will-you-pay-for-it/https://amongthestones.com/posts/no-more-how-will-you-pay-for-it/Stony Brook University professor of economics Stephanie Kelton wrote about the recently passed $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus for the Intercept:Sat, 28 Mar 2020 19:12:41 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-14-the-shape-of-things-to-come/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-14-the-shape-of-things-to-come/As the dead pile up and the living struggle to meet ends meet around the world, I resign myself to this reality and try to focus on the here and now in our small, safe-for-now village.Thu, 26 Mar 2020 12:34:51 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/staying-inside-solidarity-from-solitude/https://amongthestones.com/posts/staying-inside-solidarity-from-solitude/Day X of lockdown, quarantine, self-isolation, etc. Any word I use is lacking. The Spanish government has extended the confinement period until 12 April, past Semana Santa. I knew this was coming. Frankly, I think it’ll extend past this.Tue, 24 Mar 2020 10:57:45 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/belief-and-dogma-in-these-times/https://amongthestones.com/posts/belief-and-dogma-in-these-times/An small anecdote. An eminent conservative traditionalist scholar of Islam from a certain country tweeted about their country’s mosques re: the coronavirus pandemic.Sat, 21 Mar 2020 12:29:14 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/beyond-bernie-assessing-the-new-politics-by-the-collective-power-network/https://amongthestones.com/posts/beyond-bernie-assessing-the-new-politics-by-the-collective-power-network/Collective Power Network, a Democratic Socialists of America caucus "focused on realizing DSA's potential to become a mass political organization of the working class", wrote a statement in their publication The Organizer about the crossroads the left finds itself in with the Bernie campaign winding down and the…Fri, 20 Mar 2020 17:38:07 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/now-because-what-is-later-anymore/https://amongthestones.com/posts/now-because-what-is-later-anymore/I updated my /now page today. Seemed like an appropriate thing given that now is so different than before, for all of us.Thu, 19 Mar 2020 18:41:31 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/lockdown-day-vi-reading-list/https://amongthestones.com/posts/lockdown-day-vi-reading-list/The three intertwined and colliding global crises of COVID-19, climate change, and capitalism overwhelm us with so many challenges it’s almost impossible to think straight.Wed, 18 Mar 2020 15:56:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/rural-luck-privilege-guilt/https://amongthestones.com/posts/rural-luck-privilege-guilt/Another day and I wake up early to make coffee. After skimming some news and Twitter about what happened after I went to sleep, I get dressed and unlock the front door to hear the birds singing and feel the morning early spring sun. Alqo and I always go to the monte in the morning and today is no different.Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:26:38 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-humane-approach-to-dealing-with-the-coronavirus/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-humane-approach-to-dealing-with-the-coronavirus/In These Times web editor and writer Miles Kampf-Lassin wrote about the intersection of coronavirus and social policies during last night’s democratic debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders:Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:59:23 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/isolated-day-3/https://amongthestones.com/posts/isolated-day-3/The national government took steps to restrict all nonessential movement. Patricia and I are a few days ahead, staying in our village since Friday, only interacting with friends and family through our phones and our elderly neighbors from a safe distance.Sun, 15 Mar 2020 10:52:01 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/temporary-new-normal/https://amongthestones.com/posts/temporary-new-normal/Every morning brings more news from the United States or other parts Europe and the measures put in place to control COVID-19. It’s changing rapidly. Madrid and País Vasco are the worst. The regional newspaper La Voz de Galicia says “Spain is now Italy and Madrid is Wuhan”.Sat, 14 Mar 2020 10:18:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/playing-against-a-stacked-deck/https://amongthestones.com/posts/playing-against-a-stacked-deck/A thing I’ve noticed on Twitter, besides the obvious Bernie Bro myth and especially after the Super and Mini Tuesdays, is the disgust by some liberals when those on the socialist left say they will withhold their vote for Biden in the future. I’d like to unpack this a bit.Fri, 13 Mar 2020 18:31:43 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/limber-giants/https://amongthestones.com/posts/limber-giants/Wed, 11 Mar 2020 15:21:45 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/were-all-on-this-sick-planet-together/https://amongthestones.com/posts/were-all-on-this-sick-planet-together/Kate Aronoff writing about the intersection of climate change and coronavirus in the current moment in The New Republic:Wed, 26 Feb 2020 19:18:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/gutenberg-in-wordpress/https://amongthestones.com/posts/gutenberg-in-wordpress/Without any English classes on Tuesdays, I'm using this rainy day to continue my dive headfirst into the new block-centric world of WordPress. Funny thing is that I'm just getting more comfortable working with Divi for a site.Tue, 25 Feb 2020 12:38:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-white-moderate-the-greatest-threat-to-freedom/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-white-moderate-the-greatest-threat-to-freedom/I‘m writing something about what’s at stake all of us this year in US electoral politics, but these words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 16 April 1963 in a Birmingham jail cell feel very apt, considering that the Democratic National Committee seems hellbent on preserving its elite hegemony.Sat, 22 Feb 2020 09:41:53 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/on-the-route-of-stone-and-water/https://amongthestones.com/posts/on-the-route-of-stone-and-water/Wed, 19 Feb 2020 18:01:50 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-republican-plutocrat-tries-to-buy-the-democratic-nomination/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-republican-plutocrat-tries-to-buy-the-democratic-nomination/I’ll link this exposé of Michael Bloomberg by Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs here, but obviously it won’t do much to the people on television or in town halls across America jumping on board the Bloomberg 2020 train.Sun, 16 Feb 2020 09:46:39 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/alqo-at-attention/https://amongthestones.com/posts/alqo-at-attention/Tue, 28 Jan 2020 14:08:53 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/andrei-kashchas-roads-tool/https://amongthestones.com/posts/andrei-kashchas-roads-tool/When I lived in Sierra Leone, I wanted to visualize all the footpaths spreading out from the village heading to various farms or other hamlets. Despite another volunteer showing me a no-tech solution was possible, I never got around to it. Here, developer Andrei Kashcha made a tool to show all the roads of any city.Sun, 26 Jan 2020 10:22:03 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/igrexa-de-san-xoan-de-camba/https://amongthestones.com/posts/igrexa-de-san-xoan-de-camba/Sat, 25 Jan 2020 02:13:25 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/and-indeed-we-are-returning/https://amongthestones.com/posts/and-indeed-we-are-returning/It is not easy nor comfortable to contemplate death. Some of us try to avoid the thought altogether. But this is our inevitable fate, a certainty.Thu, 23 Jan 2020 23:47:02 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/portrait-of-a-village/https://amongthestones.com/posts/portrait-of-a-village/Walking up the road, climbing up to where the power lines bisect the monte, I was able to get a photo of the village. We're down there somewhere, trying to stay warm. Not shown is the town of Allariz, where there's more liveliness. Ourense province is wiggling its way into my heart in a profound way.Wed, 22 Jan 2020 12:28:46 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-temple-of-kukulcan-without-tourists/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-temple-of-kukulcan-without-tourists/The Temple of Kukulcan is the centerpiece of Chichen Itza, one of the most famous Meso-American archeological sites in Central America. When I visited, the place was swarming with tourists and vendors with jaguar sound makers. The air was thick with humidity and the crowds didn't help.Sat, 18 Jan 2020 15:42:06 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/spains-first-communist-minister-since-1939-on-communism/https://amongthestones.com/posts/spains-first-communist-minister-since-1939-on-communism/Some of my favorite pieces written in English on contemporary Spanish politics come from Eoghan Gilmartin and Tommy Greene and this interview in Jacobin Magazine with Alberto Garzón is no exception.Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:02:03 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-oldest-known-document-written-in-galician/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-oldest-known-document-written-in-galician/The Foro do Bo Burgo de Castro Caldelas begins:Wed, 15 Jan 2020 16:47:12 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/hiking-for-the-holidays/https://amongthestones.com/posts/hiking-for-the-holidays/I haven't felt 'in the spirit' during the holidays for a long time. Between Thanksgiving and New Years is usually the time for coming home to visit and get together with family. I've been away or unable to come back to California.Sat, 11 Jan 2020 10:23:07 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/las-medulas-castilla-y-leon/https://amongthestones.com/posts/las-medulas-castilla-y-leon/After a pretty cold night in the van in A Rúa next to its dam, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage site of Las Médulas in Castilla y León for a few hikes. This was an old Roman gold-mining town now famous for the beauty of the fracked mountain tops.Tue, 07 Jan 2020 10:29:39 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/intentions-for-the-next-decade/https://amongthestones.com/posts/intentions-for-the-next-decade/Years ago, firmly settled into my evening routine among the stones in Sierra Leone, I painted the words providence in the wilderness on my bedroom wall. Not much an artist, I used words and phrases plucked from anywhere to decorate and inspire me.Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:06:33 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/villa-alaricii/https://amongthestones.com/posts/villa-alaricii/My folks are in town from California. After a few days in Porto and Aveiro, Portugal (also a first for me), we made it back home to Allariz yesterday. The weather has been typically rainy, but there are some dry spells where we enjoy the beautiful views.Wed, 27 Nov 2019 20:01:19 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/friends-and-colleagues/https://amongthestones.com/posts/friends-and-colleagues/We welcomed our first guests to the village and our new place. Our friends (and my colleagues) had been on the road for ten days, through the rain and wind of the northern Spanish coast, arriving toward the evening. This nomadic life is strange and beautiful.Tue, 19 Nov 2019 12:33:04 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/liquenes/https://amongthestones.com/posts/liquenes/Sun, 17 Nov 2019 18:54:28 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/foggy-morning-and-full-schedule/https://amongthestones.com/posts/foggy-morning-and-full-schedule/The mornings are becoming colder and wetter. I took this photo yesterday, when the early morning fog was thick and the monte was silent, except for the light drizzle.Tue, 12 Nov 2019 09:13:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/autumnal-path/https://amongthestones.com/posts/autumnal-path/Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:10:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-soviet-dystopia-under-late-stage-capitalism/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-soviet-dystopia-under-late-stage-capitalism/This article from yesterday should be required reading. It begins with the latest kerfuffle about some NBA manager's tweet in support of Hong Kong's right to self-determination. It should be a given, right? The United States is for freedom (despite hardly living up to that ideal, ever).Tue, 05 Nov 2019 08:24:36 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/rather-no-edit-november/https://amongthestones.com/posts/rather-no-edit-november/My new name for NaNoWriMo is No Edit November. The words are falling out of my head so awkwardly. Are you sue you want this? Have I really been thinking about these characters and world for years? It does not seem so.Fri, 01 Nov 2019 18:24:50 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/as-much-of-the-universe/https://amongthestones.com/posts/as-much-of-the-universe/This morning, I’m thinking about Fernando Pessoa (or Alberto Caeiro?)’s The Keeper of Sheep, VII:Wed, 30 Oct 2019 09:27:49 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/mark-zuckerberg-and-facebooks-allegiances/https://amongthestones.com/posts/mark-zuckerberg-and-facebooks-allegiances/I signed up for Facebook sometime in 2006, whenever they allowed non .edu email addresses to register. I deleted my account late 2012 when I realized I was spending far too much time looking at old acquaintances and friends (“Facebook stalking”) rather than job-hunting after returning from Sierra Leone.Tue, 29 Oct 2019 18:47:26 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/using-time-in-the-margins/https://amongthestones.com/posts/using-time-in-the-margins/A thing I need to get used to about the working-from-home lifestyle is utilizing the time in between commitments to be more productive. When I was teaching full-time in Mauritania, I was more carefree on breaks between classes.Mon, 28 Oct 2019 16:18:03 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/riverside-molino/https://amongthestones.com/posts/riverside-molino/Sat, 26 Oct 2019 13:58:17 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-long-road-to-this-years-nanowrimo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-long-road-to-this-years-nanowrimo/A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to (try) to write fiction. Specifically, I wanted to write a fantasy novel based on West Africa. Back then, I was fascinated with world-building, turning my interest and years in the region into something analogous but different.Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:41:41 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/entre-as-pedras/https://amongthestones.com/posts/entre-as-pedras/One of the best things about living where we do is the lush flora, with trails and paths everywhere along and protruding from the riverbank. We can explore our surroundings on foot, without the need of a car to reach a trailhead.Wed, 23 Oct 2019 21:06:39 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/view-from-the-village/https://amongthestones.com/posts/view-from-the-village/Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:14:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-public-sphere-between-blogging-and-social-media/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-public-sphere-between-blogging-and-social-media/John Naughton’s Guardian article about blogging’s 25th anniversary (which he counts from the appearance of Dave Winer’s Scripting News) makes some interesting points about the evolution of online civic discourse.Tue, 15 Oct 2019 18:22:36 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/afincados/https://amongthestones.com/posts/afincados/Por fin. A few days ago, we left the coast and moved into a small house in a village of around sixty inhabitants. Situated on a carretera secundaria, up a small monte, we’re a few kilometers outside a town of 6,000 people, from which is a 25-minute drive to Ourense.Tue, 15 Oct 2019 16:32:51 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/quran-and-coherent-heterodoxy-a-book-and-system-beyond-religion/https://amongthestones.com/posts/quran-and-coherent-heterodoxy-a-book-and-system-beyond-religion/When someone else has found the words for the thoughts and feelings I share, I let them do the talking. As time passes, I become even more convinced of the necessity of interpersonal exchanges from laypeople, away from centers of power and gatekeepers of knowledge.Tue, 08 Oct 2019 20:29:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-republic-we-want-spanish-republicanism-and-the-spanish-crown/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-republic-we-want-spanish-republicanism-and-the-spanish-crown/King Felipe VI of Spain is here in Galicia. I normally don’t keep up with his movements, I only saw he was in the area when Xuventude Comunista, the Galician youth wing of the Communist Party of Spain tweeted some photos of their protest against him speaking at the University of A Coruña.Sat, 05 Oct 2019 17:44:18 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-future-in-the-province-of-ourense/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-future-in-the-province-of-ourense/We returned from a short trip a few days ago with Alqo and the van, through the center of Galicia. We were there to look at towns, try to picture ourselves there, and talk to people and inmobiliarias to see if there were any decent opportunities to rent a house.Sun, 29 Sep 2019 14:20:43 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/postponed-field-trip-and-a-gathering-of-produce/https://amongthestones.com/posts/postponed-field-trip-and-a-gathering-of-produce/We’re getting ready to go on a mini road trip for a couple days. Knowing that Galicia didn’t organize any general strike yesterday (20 September) in solidarity with students, our plan was to leave yesterday to make it back in time for next Friday, where climate-conscious pontevedreses will gather in *Praza de…Sat, 21 Sep 2019 13:01:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-culture-and-history-on-wordpress-with-tim-ginty/https://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-culture-and-history-on-wordpress-with-tim-ginty/I’m drawn to places very easily. It could be the way I feel while there, or something read or imagined about the history or contemporary culture of the place. I start daydreaming about what life would’ve been like in the recent or distant past and what it might look like years from now.Thu, 19 Sep 2019 11:58:12 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/nunca-mais-a-tribute-to-the-prestige-cleanup-volunteers-in-san-vicente-do-mar/https://amongthestones.com/posts/nunca-mais-a-tribute-to-the-prestige-cleanup-volunteers-in-san-vicente-do-mar/As we walked down down to the beach and chiringuito where a band was playing, I noticed a statue situated next to a small boardwalk near the water. Not wearing my glasses, I couldn't make out any of the features of the figures. They looked too smooth, like the wind, rain, and surf had eroded them away.Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:26:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/preference-for-landscapes/https://amongthestones.com/posts/preference-for-landscapes/When I scroll through my favorited photos on my phone, I realize how many of them are landscapes. Even though they never fully catch the grandeur or the subtlety of why I took the photo in the first place, they are a reminder of where I’ve been and what I’ve seen.Sun, 15 Sep 2019 09:33:14 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ermida-da-nosa-senora-da-lanzada/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ermida-da-nosa-senora-da-lanzada/Most mornings I take Alqo out for a walk before breakfast. In the last week, our walk has become significantly more beautiful, swapping a brisk walk in urban Südstadt to the meadows of Villanueva and now the sea and its jagged, irregular rocky coastline. A few hundred meters away from our place is a small isthmus.Wed, 11 Sep 2019 10:51:56 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-granxa-galega-of-our-own/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-granxa-galega-of-our-own/Three months in California, three in Spain, four in Germany, and back to Spain again. It’s not so much the physical packing and moving that is a grind but the lack of mental finality when we reach a destination. The time when we seem sure that this is for the long haul.Fri, 06 Sep 2019 14:40:03 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/resentful-neighbors/https://amongthestones.com/posts/resentful-neighbors/Tue, 03 Sep 2019 11:50:36 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/how-to-be-okay-being-online-in-2019-a-listening-list/https://amongthestones.com/posts/how-to-be-okay-being-online-in-2019-a-listening-list/I'm finishing up Ezra Klein's interview with Jia Tolentino this morning and also thinking about other recent interviews both she and Jenny Odell gave to the guys at Longform.Mon, 26 Aug 2019 14:29:14 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/cologne-window-plants/https://amongthestones.com/posts/cologne-window-plants/Deciding which plants can fit in a packed van is tough.Sat, 17 Aug 2019 17:02:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/amsterdam-eats/https://amongthestones.com/posts/amsterdam-eats/Thu, 15 Aug 2019 11:18:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/doubt-and-belonging-in-search-of-truth/https://amongthestones.com/posts/doubt-and-belonging-in-search-of-truth/I could quote every paragraph of folio’s post on searching for truth in a time of modern secularity but I’ll leave this gem that resonated with me.Tue, 30 Jul 2019 14:35:50 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/rethinking-how-to-think-and-act/https://amongthestones.com/posts/rethinking-how-to-think-and-act/It is May of 2010 and I’m back in California going through a range of emotions; leaving my university life in Oregon, understanding that a short, failed relationship I spent two years desiring was not reciprocated, and the uncertainty of committing to 27 months abroad before I return.Sun, 28 Jul 2019 13:09:03 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-unraveling-of-legal-asylum/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-unraveling-of-legal-asylum/This is how Noah Lanard starts his Mother Jones interview piece with David Scott FitzGerald about his book Refuge Beyond Reach: How Rich Democracies Repel Asylum Seekers.Sun, 14 Apr 2019 12:08:52 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/no-trash-in-cologne/https://amongthestones.com/posts/no-trash-in-cologne/Sun, 31 Mar 2019 19:09:27 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/six-seventy-four/https://amongthestones.com/posts/six-seventy-four/It has been almost two years since leaving my life in Mauritania. Since then, my wife and I attended my brother’s wedding in California, backpacked for a year from Mexico to Peru, spent the summer visiting family and friends in the United States, took a road trip with a Prius and a tent from California to Oklahoma and…Sun, 31 Mar 2019 15:20:36 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/belgian-high-fens/https://amongthestones.com/posts/belgian-high-fens/Fri, 29 Mar 2019 17:38:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/fana/https://amongthestones.com/posts/fana/Laying down and ready / Strummed guitar strings slow, / Not even heard anymore. / The vision closes in and packs up. / Runes, hieroglyphs, totems, masks, / Everything ancient collides into a single atom.Wed, 27 Mar 2019 18:49:58 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/lac-at-sunset/https://amongthestones.com/posts/lac-at-sunset/Sat, 23 Mar 2019 08:15:26 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/confronting-islamophobia-on-social-media/https://amongthestones.com/posts/confronting-islamophobia-on-social-media/Juan Cole’s deconstruction of Adam Milstein’s islamophobic tweet should be highlighted.Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:48:47 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/a-rainy-week-in-southwestern-france/https://amongthestones.com/posts/a-rainy-week-in-southwestern-france/Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:07:24 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/christchurch/https://amongthestones.com/posts/christchurch/I can't process the loss of fifty beautiful souls in masjids Al-Noor and Linwood in Christchurch. I can only recite al-Fatiha for the dead, and send love and good vibrations to the ones they leave behind. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. We belong to God, and to him we are returning.Mon, 18 Mar 2019 09:47:04 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/brantome-watermill/https://amongthestones.com/posts/brantome-watermill/Sat, 16 Mar 2019 08:32:51 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/other-half-pup/https://amongthestones.com/posts/other-half-pup/Fri, 15 Mar 2019 12:53:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/passing-through-spanish-basqueland/https://amongthestones.com/posts/passing-through-spanish-basqueland/Whenever we drive through a town, I can't help but imagine ourselves living there for a moment. Is this the place we will come back to after our wandering?Wed, 13 Mar 2019 10:40:04 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/feminism-in-puente-la-reina/https://amongthestones.com/posts/feminism-in-puente-la-reina/Tue, 12 Mar 2019 13:56:38 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/artazu-and-puente-la-reina/https://amongthestones.com/posts/artazu-and-puente-la-reina/Navarra is breathtaking; lush hills and valleys, villages and churches built with ancient stone, a distinctive Roman bridge, wind turbines, and the requisite Basque aupa in response to hola! While we just arrived from Logroño yesterday, I’m astounded by how much there is to see just outside Pamplona.Sun, 10 Mar 2019 20:16:34 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ermita-de-artazu/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ermita-de-artazu/Sun, 10 Mar 2019 09:43:42 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/laguna-negra/https://amongthestones.com/posts/laguna-negra/Sat, 09 Mar 2019 12:09:23 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/van-art/https://amongthestones.com/posts/van-art/Mon, 04 Mar 2019 13:14:29 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-reformation-within-myself-will-not-be-televised/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-reformation-within-myself-will-not-be-televised/I am hesitant to write this even now, mostly because I'm scatterbrained and a terrible writer. I linked to blog posts from others who are more knowledgeable in certain topics to keep this short. You might not know I’m Muslim. Or you might consider me too recent a convert, not informed enough.Sun, 24 Feb 2019 06:02:47 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/paris-outside-madrid/https://amongthestones.com/posts/paris-outside-madrid/Thu, 21 Feb 2019 19:38:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/bernies-revolution/https://amongthestones.com/posts/bernies-revolution/Bernie Sanders in the Vermont Freeman Weekend edition back in November 1969:Wed, 20 Feb 2019 13:23:20 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/ribeira-sacra/https://amongthestones.com/posts/ribeira-sacra/Wed, 20 Feb 2019 09:48:52 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/dsas-endorsement-process/https://amongthestones.com/posts/dsas-endorsement-process/Now, Democratic Socialists of America will start the endorsement debate process amongst chapters and the National Political Committee. It's democratic.Tue, 19 Feb 2019 20:37:17 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/bernie-is-running-thank-god/https://amongthestones.com/posts/bernie-is-running-thank-god/Bernie Sanders finally announced his run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Even in a crowded field, I think he is the right person for the task of taking down Trump.Tue, 19 Feb 2019 16:52:26 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/socialist-family-life/https://amongthestones.com/posts/socialist-family-life/Matt Breunig's People's Policy Project's Family Fun pack sets the priorities straight for socialists on family life and childcare policy in America. We are totally behind every other industrialized country.Tue, 19 Feb 2019 01:45:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/plaza-de-san-javier/https://amongthestones.com/posts/plaza-de-san-javier/Mon, 18 Feb 2019 12:24:27 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/walt-whitmans-mystical-experience-in-song-of-myself/https://amongthestones.com/posts/walt-whitmans-mystical-experience-in-song-of-myself/I read this poem in Leaves of Grass ten years ago and have never stopped thinking about this one part:Sun, 17 Feb 2019 16:31:58 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/three-weeks-in-andalusia-a-van-budget/https://amongthestones.com/posts/three-weeks-in-andalusia-a-van-budget/You probably need a budget. It can be as simple as a paper and pencil. There are also a variety of apps depending on your needs and spending habits. I started using Trail Wallet on my phone through Latin America to keep track of our expenses and with this trip in Andalusia, it’s starting to feel necessary.Sat, 16 Feb 2019 12:20:24 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-twenty-la-sierra-de-andujar/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-twenty-la-sierra-de-andujar/Thu, 14 Feb 2019 10:37:42 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-eighteen-direction-change-and-alhama-de-granada/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-eighteen-direction-change-and-alhama-de-granada/We might have found an apartment in Cologne, Germany with the help of good friends. If everything works out, we will be there in early March. In the meantime, we decided to shorten our trip down south, head back to Madrid, and get Holly ready for version 2.0. We deliberately kept things simple and I’m glad we did.Wed, 13 Feb 2019 11:38:55 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-sixteen-near-grazalema/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-sixteen-near-grazalema/The feeling of being more exposed to the weather is refreshing. In most Western countries, we heat the spaces we inhabit rather than ourselves. Our three months near Madrid were spent in a cozy house with central heating and a chimney. We’re more outside now.Tue, 12 Feb 2019 19:04:51 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-fourteen-into-andalusia/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-fourteen-into-andalusia/Some stops in Caceres and Sevilla to visit friends and family, a two-day downpour on the beach near Tarifa spent in the van, a few sunny days at a campground taking advantage of running water and a laundry machine, then into the interior.Tue, 12 Feb 2019 13:22:28 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-five-los-canos-de-meca/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-five-los-canos-de-meca/Wed, 30 Jan 2019 18:09:39 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-two-monfrague-national-biosphere/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-two-monfrague-national-biosphere/Mon, 28 Jan 2019 11:38:15 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/day-one-oropesa/https://amongthestones.com/posts/day-one-oropesa/Today, it started. I’m enamored with the potential to explore anywhere we want to go without needing to find a dog-friendly budget hostel with a kitchen once we arrive. There is a little setup make the bed inside, but it beats setting up a tent and air mattress by a country mile.Fri, 25 Jan 2019 23:32:19 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/shiprock-nm/https://amongthestones.com/posts/shiprock-nm/Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:06:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/tv-president/https://amongthestones.com/posts/tv-president/James Poniewozik on Trump’s tough guy fascination and Game of Thrones for the New York Times:Sat, 05 Jan 2019 14:39:21 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-christmas/https://amongthestones.com/posts/galician-christmas/I have an a fascination with Galicia that probably borders on obsession. Historically Celtic, mostly green, rural, and wet in winter. Galicia reminds me of Oregon. People speak both Spanish and Galician. It’s also the destination for pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago.Thu, 03 Jan 2019 13:38:05 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/beto-bernie-and-2020/https://amongthestones.com/posts/beto-bernie-and-2020/Remember when we had a likable president? Those were the days, right? I voted for Obama, twice. And there were many things that the populace and media glossed over during his presidency. However, I never got the feeling the executive branch didn’t have a handle on things. Now, we have something else entirely.Sun, 30 Dec 2018 19:26:09 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/almost-ready/https://amongthestones.com/posts/almost-ready/The van is coming together, with the help of a family friend of Patricia's. It took us about three afternoons. We're going to give her a test drive for the holiday up in Galicia and Asturias and then finish when we return to Madrid.Tue, 18 Dec 2018 23:27:06 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/greta-thunbergs-speech-at-cop24/https://amongthestones.com/posts/greta-thunbergs-speech-at-cop24/Fifteen-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland:Tue, 18 Dec 2018 17:36:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/farm-swear/https://amongthestones.com/posts/farm-swear/Fri, 14 Dec 2018 20:03:38 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/believable-over-precise/https://amongthestones.com/posts/believable-over-precise/This bit in The Paris Review's interview with Hernan Diaz is really interesting:Thu, 13 Dec 2018 20:33:59 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/reply-all-negative-mount-pleasant/https://amongthestones.com/posts/reply-all-negative-mount-pleasant/This recent episode of Reply All from Gimlet Media highlights so much of the power imbalance between multinational corporations, especially tech giants, and local communities that are desperate to find new opportunities for employment.Wed, 12 Dec 2018 10:15:44 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/arroyo-de-pedro-elvira/https://amongthestones.com/posts/arroyo-de-pedro-elvira/Sun, 09 Dec 2018 19:41:19 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/fundamentalist-art/https://amongthestones.com/posts/fundamentalist-art/Steven Pressfield in his book The War of Art:Sun, 09 Dec 2018 13:04:21 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/moab/https://amongthestones.com/posts/moab/Mon, 03 Dec 2018 22:40:09 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/afro-mauritanian-exiles-in-ohio-and-trumps-ice/https://amongthestones.com/posts/afro-mauritanian-exiles-in-ohio-and-trumps-ice/What do you do when you might be deported back to a country that wants you dead? That’s the problem many Afro-Mauritanian immigrants face now, due to increased attention by ICE and a complex relationship with the Mauritanian regime back home.Mon, 03 Dec 2018 17:12:47 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/bai-burehs-photo/https://amongthestones.com/posts/bai-burehs-photo/Bai Bureh is recognized as the leader of a 1898 Temne rebellion against British colonial rule in northern Sierra Leone. His father was a Loko war-chief and in his youth, Bai Bureh was sent to Gbendembu to a training school for warriors.Sun, 02 Dec 2018 13:16:32 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/alqo-everywhere/https://amongthestones.com/posts/alqo-everywhere/Thu, 29 Nov 2018 19:45:17 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-age-of-extinction/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-age-of-extinction/It’s 2018. We’ve seen enough extreme weather in just the last few years. But fundamentally changing the way our economy and society works to facilitate, you know, staying alive isn’t politically convenient. President Trump doesn’t believe the National Climate Assessment, which was released on Black Friday:Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:56:40 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/abiquiu-mezquita/https://amongthestones.com/posts/abiquiu-mezquita/Thu, 22 Nov 2018 21:23:13 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/tongva-land/https://amongthestones.com/posts/tongva-land/Last year for the holiday, Aruna D’Souza asked Twitter:Thu, 22 Nov 2018 12:21:43 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/june-thirteenth/https://amongthestones.com/posts/june-thirteenth/Thu, 22 Nov 2018 03:05:54 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/the-saudi-regime-a-reading-list/https://amongthestones.com/posts/the-saudi-regime-a-reading-list/The Saudi royal family has no moral authority to ever define or legislate Islam because Mecca and Medina fall in their contemporary borders. They are a wealthy and conservative petrostate. A quick glance at the headlines in recent years show how depraved and insulated they are.Wed, 21 Nov 2018 14:44:36 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/holly/https://amongthestones.com/posts/holly/Tue, 20 Nov 2018 16:31:58 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/no-time-to-waste/https://amongthestones.com/posts/no-time-to-waste/You have choices. Don't let an algorithm or the fear of missing out make them for you. You are a human. Now more than ever, decide what is positive for you; the food you eat, the people who talk to, the politics you advocate, the music you listen to. The world is going to a dark place. Everything matters now.Tue, 20 Nov 2018 16:00:11 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/dame-una-palabra/https://amongthestones.com/posts/dame-una-palabra/— Pablo Urizal, MadridSun, 18 Nov 2018 19:00:31 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/onward/https://amongthestones.com/posts/onward/I let my hosting plan expire while I was in Peru. I tried importing all my previous posts today but decided I didn't really care about any of it. The internet feels more ephemeral to me than it did a year ago.Mon, 12 Nov 2018 19:50:16 GMTJimmy Baumhttps://amongthestones.com/posts/leaving-mauritania/https://amongthestones.com/posts/leaving-mauritania/This morning I'm leaving Mauritania. While I will certainly miss my friends, colleagues, students, and hangout spots, it's time to go. I came here on a temporary substitute teaching contract in February 2013, thinking I would only stay a few months. It's been a time of great opportunity, learning, and change.Sat, 27 May 2017 05:47:33 GMTJimmy Baum