Birdfeeding

Oct. 4th, 2025 01:05 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.













.
 

Philosophical Questions: Money

Oct. 4th, 2025 03:01 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Should tax payers have the option to explicitly say what they don’t want their tax dollars spent on?

Read more... )


Today's Cooking

Oct. 3rd, 2025 10:44 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I made apple cider caramel sauce to put over vanilla ice cream.  :D 

Gaming

Oct. 3rd, 2025 08:34 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
In new heist video game, players return museum artifacts stolen from African countries

Set in the late 21st century, the game follows Nomali, a fast-thinking, acrobatic leader who assembles a crew of ordinary citizens-turned-thieves.

Their mission: to reclaim 70 real-life African artifacts from Western institutions and return them to their rightful homelands.



I am amused. :D And there are so many other cultures that could design similar games to retrieve their own artifacts.  See, this is what we get from diverse game developers: new game plots instead of rehashes.

Friday Five

Oct. 3rd, 2025 04:23 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This set of questions comes from [community profile] thefridayfive community...

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Oct. 3rd, 2025 02:19 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny and sweltering.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/3/25 -- I watered the old picnic table and new picnic table.

I heard a squirrel chattering but didn't see it.

As it is almost suppertime, I am done for the night.

Activism

Oct. 3rd, 2025 03:50 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Recently I posted about the importance of how small actions can change the future.  Here's an example: the Grapefruit Ladies
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today's theme is Japan / Japanese.

Read more... )

Gender Studies

Oct. 2nd, 2025 10:10 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The Downside of Fertility

The fertility decline is everywhere in the world today. Moreover, the decline goes decades back in the histories of rich countries.

While not universal, this is a widespread trend. At the moment, it's great that fertility is falling because the human population is ravaging the planet. At some point, however, the population will need to stabilize. So it's good to think about factors that influence the number of births.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Oct. 2nd, 2025 03:15 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and hot. 

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I watered the irises and the patio plants.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden, savanna seedlings, and old picnic table.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is time for supper, I am done for the night.

Hobbies: Seatweaving

Oct. 2nd, 2025 01:16 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Seatweaving is a practical hobby of creating seats, backs, and other furniture parts from various materials. Among its branches are caning, strapping, and rope / rush weaving. These traditional crafts span a wide range of time, location, and materials. It's especially useful if you like upcycling old chairs with broken or missing parts.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like [community profile] crafty, [community profile] everykindofcraft, [community profile] get_knitted, and [community profile] justcreate.

Read more... )

Fall Festival Bingo Card 10-1-25

Oct. 1st, 2025 10:53 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Here is my card for the Fall Festival Bingo over in [community profile] allbingo. The fest runs from October 1-31. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


FALL FESTIVAL BINGO CARD

WizardsAutumn"I wasn’t
afraid of you."
Alone in the WoodsMystery
Black / OrangeHerbsWerewolvesTransformationTalking Dog
MagicDark SideWILD CARDMoon BathingSomeone Touched
the Thing
WitchesCandlesCatsDestroy It with Fire"That felt weird."
UnstableBroken"What are you?"Books the Best Weapon in the World"Do you trust me?"

althea_valara: The Ninth Doctor says, "Fantastic!" (fantastic!)
[personal profile] althea_valara
Let's dive right in, shall we? (you know you are a knitter when you accidentally typo "shall" as "shawl").

A spreadsheet table showing the various creative things I did in September.
[Image Description: A spreadsheet table showing the various creative things I did in September. I spent 7 hours and 40 minutes on crochet, 3 and a half hours knitting, a whopping 10 hours on my Small Web project, and 4 hours writing fic.]

That was only from September 15th. I also did over 4 hours of knitting from the 1st to the 15th, and numerous hours working on my [community profile] smallweb project (I didn't track it for the beginning of the month, but I'm guessing about 7-10 hours?)

Folks, all this creativity has been doing WONDERS for my mood. Usually I mark the "how do you feel about today?" question in Finch as only 2 or 3 stars, but lately it's been consistently 4. I feel better about myself these days, and am starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, I *do* have the oomph to be a productive, organized adult and still do my passion projects. I still have a ways to go on that, but it feels in the realm of possibility, and that's a GOOD thing.

I completed one item this month, and that was a very basic knitted kitty from a kit I picked up at Five Below, which I wouldn't have picked up if there hadn't been a thread on Ravelry in which someone was lamenting that Five Below was selling such a thing. (1) Bwuh? I don't get their logic at ALL; (2) hey cheap craft kits LET ME AT THEM. I bought two for my birthday, the knitted kitty and a crochet Halloween Stitch, which I still need to complete. But I was pleasantly surprised at the quality for the kits! They only cost $4 for the kitty and $5 for the Stitch, and they had everything you need PLUS really good instructions. I mean, the knitting kit had instructions showing you how to do the knit stitch in the English method for both left and right handers. WOW!

[community profile] smallweb: I did SO MUCH on my Neocities site! I finished porting over the FFBE Season 1 script and all my FFXIV "summaries" to date, and have finished FFXI for Bastok missions up to rank 5 as well as the first expansion, Rise of the Zilart. I'm very pleased! I'm hard at work now on FFXI's Chains of Promathia, but I've exhausted what I have the game logs for, which means I need to go on my documentation alt and play some more, oops.

Writing: FOLKS! It is rare that I write fic. ANY fic writing from me is a cause to celebrate. So the fact that I have THREE fics in the works is astounding, and that doesn't count my [community profile] 1character stuff. I'm having fun with the fic, but haven't worked on it in a few days. Need to get back to it. But I also need canon review, which might mean replaying some patches in FFXIV/doing a particular job's storyline.

SO yeah, VERY successful month, especially since my contract job has spun up again and I've worked 13.5 hours two weeks ago and 15 hours last week. I did all THIS and also worked? WOW. JUST, WOW.

Moment of Silence: Jane Goodall

Oct. 1st, 2025 02:12 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (moment of silence)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Primate activist Jane Goodall has passed away.

She basically invented the field of chimpanzee primatology, living alongside the chimpanzees at what is now the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. I'm sure they shared with her the entrance to their afterlife and she is now happily reuniting with many old friends.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Oct. 1st, 2025 01:45 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering.

I haven't fed the birds yet, but I saw a wren, possibly a Bewick's wren or Carolina wren, at the hopper feeder. :D

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I heard a squirrel chattering but didn't see it.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- The tree guy came! We walked around the yard discussing what needs to be done. Based on a preliminary estimate (we should get solid numbers tomorrow) we should be able to get the branches cleared beside the driveway, the parking lot cleared, the path to the east edge and the orchard path restored, and the tree-sized branch removed from the south lot. Small stuff will be chipped for mulch, large stuff will be cut down for firewood. :D 3q3q3q!!! I really hope it comes together.

I also watered the irises, telephone pole garden, savanna seedlings, and old picnic table.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Cuddle Party

Oct. 1st, 2025 12:26 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a
cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!
silveradept: Domo-kun, wearing glass and a blue suit with a white shirt and red tie, sitting at a table. (Domokun Anchor)
[personal profile] silveradept
Let's begin with an academic paper exploring the way that online puppygirl culture embodies a rejection of those things used as markers of human success because of the way that the highly transfeminine nature of puppygirls are usually denied the full markers of humanity based on their transness. The author notes at the end the limitations around embracing inhumanity for persons who have been and continue to be treated as inhuman based on their skin colors and perceived origins, and that the relative homogeneity of participants in online puppygirl culture and media often gives them blinkers in places they could stand to be more inclusive. I enjoyed reading it, perhaps you will, too.

The still-apparently-novel concept that people who have systems tuned toward novelty and curiosity might be beneficial to current society (instead of only the hunter-gatherers) and that environments made for others are not helpful to them.

The Archive of Our Own reminds us that they are dealing with an influx of spam accounts that leave generic praise comments and then offer to discuss off-site things like making fanart for your story. Part of it is that such commercial solicitation is barred on the Archive, but the easiest way to spot it, other than the invitation offsite, is that the comment itself doesn't have anything specific about the story. It's usually posted to the most recent story that's available. And some of these spammers are creating AO3 accounts to spam with, so disabling guest comments won't necessarily protect you from receiving them.

Nostalgia for times where scarcity required planning and people got a certain thrill out of the act of chasing things and not knowing whether their selections would turn out to be good ones. I am more inclined not to be nostalgic for that, but to be annoyed at the way that the expertise of the record clerk, the librarian, and the bookstore buyer are being devalued in favor of machines that their promoters claim have intelligence and can do all of those things a human can do, and better.

Robert Redford, actor, director, and well-known environmental activist, has left the world at 89 years of age. He is also responsible for the body that produces the annual Sundance Film Festival.

Anonymous art creators have unveiled a statue of the current administrator and known child trafficker and pederast Jeffrey Epstein holding hands, celebrating their friendship, and using the text of the administrator's birthday note to Epstein as commentary. You know, that text that strongly suggests that the two of them share an interest in pederasty and molestation of women and young girls, buttressed by some of the public statements the administrator has made about his interest in such. (As well as having been found liable for sexual assault earlier on in his life.)

EA acquisitions, foolishness and buffoonery, and the usual issues that come with having the unqualified promoted well beyond their incompetence inside )

Last out, the ways in which our understanding of classical Greek depends on the surviving texts that we have to work with, and therefore while sometimes a word does mean dildo, other times, it does not.

Yacht Club Games on the development of modes for Shovel Knight that allow for different-bodied designs and pronoun usage, and a good decision made by them to decouple body designs and gendered pronouns.

And a story of corvids who help break the cages around their fellows. Be gay, do crow. And, perhaps, show solidarity by demonstrating how foolish it is to require girls to declare they're "biological females" before they can play in sport. (While the article quotes someone saying it's foolish not only require girls to do this and not boys, and that girls teams are suffering because they can't field enough affirmed players, the real meat is from the teachers saying it's not fair to require this, and the athletes who are also choosing not to participate because of fairness issues.)

(Materials via [personal profile] adrian_turtle, [personal profile] azurelunatic, [personal profile] boxofdelights, [personal profile] cmcmck, [personal profile] conuly, [personal profile] cosmolinguist, [personal profile] elf, [personal profile] finch, [personal profile] firecat, [personal profile] jadelennox, [personal profile] jenett, [personal profile] jjhunter, [personal profile] kaberett, [personal profile] lilysea, [personal profile] oursin, [personal profile] rydra_wong, [personal profile] snowynight, [personal profile] sonia, [personal profile] the_future_modernes, [personal profile] thewayne, [personal profile] umadoshi, [personal profile] vass, the [community profile] meta_warehouse community, [community profile] little_details, and anyone else I've neglected to mention or who I suspect would rather not be on the list. If you want to know where I get the neat stuff, my reading list has most of it.)

New Year's Resolutions Check In

Sep. 30th, 2025 11:19 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We made it to the end of September! \o/ If you have completed some of your medium-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We have also started autumn. If you're doing seasonal goals, share what you're working on for this fall.

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them. The main drawback is that this update becomes more of a chore each month.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In April 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In May 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In June 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In July 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In August 31

Read more... )

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, October 7

Sep. 30th, 2025 10:40 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Witches and Wizards." I'll be soliciting ideas for witches, wizards, other magic users, mentors, elders, teachers, students, adventurers, explorers, damsels/gentlemen in distress, historians, partners, leaders, dark lords, the Chosen One(s), superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, ethicists, activists, queerfolk, other unusual fantasy folk, studying magic, doing magic, enchanting artifacts, breaking curses, breaking rules, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, other fantastic activities, witch's huts, wizard's towers, magical schools, castles, ruins, stone circles, dungeons, dragon lairs, Underhill, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, kitchens, campfires, libraries, laboratories, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, unusual magical systems, pointy hats, robes, wands or staves, cauldrons, herbs, crystals, potions, magical artifacts, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is about live happy lesbians in a quirky fantasy world.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy about a blacksmith and a golem.

A Conflagration of Dragons has unforseen disasters and cultural upheavals.

Gloryroad Crossing is the weird village where adventurers go to restock.

Kande's Quest is sword & soul with caucasian-inspired demons.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household, where the line between truth and fantasy isn't always clear.

Not Quite Kansas has a helpful demon.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks.

Path of the Paladins is low fantasy about paladins trying to restore a world gone to ruins.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy about paranormal investigations.

Polychrome Heroics has primarily superpowers, but magic is described as "sorcery" there.  Antimatter & Stalwart Stan are a cross-cape couple, and Antimatter essentially does science-based magic.  Aubrey the Alabaster is another sorcerer.  Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees. 

Practical Magics is low fantasy with a prosaic focus.

Quixotic Ideas is contemporary fantasy where magic integrates with modern life in positive ways.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Yellow Unicorns is a quirky fantasy setting where the only yellow things people can see are the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

Boost the signal to reveal a verse in any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Bingo

Sep. 30th, 2025 10:07 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I have made bingo down the O column of my 9-1-25 card for the Piracy Fest Bingo.

O1 (leak) "Mightier Than" (Princess: The Hopeful)
O2 (lookout) "Simple and to the Point" (An Army of One)
O3 (affiliate) "Bring Unique Qualities" (Daughters of the Apocalypse)
O4 (request) "The Only Thing That You Absolutely Have to Know" (Polychrome Heroics)
O5 (patch) "A Reader, an Interpreter, and a Creator) (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge)

B4 (parrot) "For Those Who Work at It" (Polychrome Heroics: Dr. Infanta)
Page generated Oct. 4th, 2025 06:30 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios