Wayfinding

4 Oct 2025 05:11
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[personal profile] fayanora


Oh wow. I wish this video had come out a few years ago. It would've been amazing research for worldbuilding with Fomor, since Fomor has a lot more ocean than we do on Earth. And lots of atolls and other islands. I mean, I could add this info to the worldbuilding anyway, but the series has only been to Fomor the one time so far. I would need to find an excuse to go back.
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?

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Today's Cooking

3 Oct 2025 22:44
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I made apple cider caramel sauce to put over vanilla ice cream.  :D 

Gaming

3 Oct 2025 20:34
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[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

3 Oct 2025 16:23
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This set of questions comes from [community profile] thefridayfive community...

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Birdfeeding

3 Oct 2025 14:19
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[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.
petra: CGI Anakin Skywalker, head and shoulders, looking rather amused. (Anakin - Trash fire Jesus)
[personal profile] petra
Here is my series (in progress) for Kinktober 2025. Every day will be at least one limerick, with some verse cycles when I get too inspired to constrain myself to one at a go.

Thus far, I am leaning in the Obi-Wan/Anakin + Padmé on bass direction. There may be other guest stars. We'll see! Each day is posted separately for tagging purposes.

The prompt list I am using is here. Put in a plug for your favorite and we'll see what I can manage!

Activism

3 Oct 2025 03:50
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... )
fayanora: lil girl knife (lil girl knife)
[personal profile] fayanora


If I hadn't grown numb from all the fascism months ago, I'd probably be screaming and crying right now.

Gender Studies

2 Oct 2025 22:10
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... )
petra: The words "YES and HO!" in cheery font on a bright pink background (The Thick of It - Yes and Ho!)
[personal profile] petra
This is in the same vein of Politics in Space as the time I wrote Josh Lyman of The West Wing being Princess Leia Organa's political advisor because she'd inherited him from her father, Matt Santos Jimmy Smits Bail Organa, and then they observed Space Passover.

Malcolm Tucker of The Thick of It (link is very sweary) deserves someone he can really look up to (metaphorically) and cuss out (effectively).

I propose Chrisjen Avasarala of the Expanse (link is very sweary and also spoilery), who can give as good as she gets in the cussin' department. Malcolm can't physically look up to her, as she is a tiny Indian (subcontinent) grandmother who dresses fabulously. That won't stop her from kicking his ass.

I'm not sure he'd approve of her tactics, but he's on Team Earth all the way, unless one takes Peter Capaldi's legginess and runs with it to the wonderful world of Malcolm Tucker, Belter, sasa?

I am in the position of having studied English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin to the point of being able to mostly follow Belter Creole in audiobook form, where there are no footnotes to be had nor glossaries. Hell if that means I can write it, let alone write Malcolm Tucker Swearing in it, but now I want to try.

Kindly remind me that only about one other person on Earth, Mars, or in the Belt or Jovian system would understand this goddamn story, so it's not worth the effort, because I am very tempted. Unless of course it sounds like fun to you, in which case, can I get a beta offer?

some things!

2 Oct 2025 22:20
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Bookshop.org is now doing ebooks in the UK. Unlike Hive, they do not apply DRM to everything. V excited about this!
  2. I think -- think -- I have worked out an Acceptable Wagamama order, at least for the time being. I'm mildly annoyed about needing to order extra vegetables in order to have enough vegetables in my vegetable noodle dish, though. (The yasai pad thai + wok-fried greens is not My Favourite Thing They've Ever Done, but it is better than anything else I have managed to make the current menu disgorge. Which is useful, because we have A Routine, and it involves Wagamama.)
  3. I have POACHED SOME QUINCE (I am turning windfalls I located round the corner into cake, and the Gift Quince are probably going to turn into a Ruby Violet sorbet recipe). I am going to make a cake, probably with added bay leaves, as I think I mentioned, probably tomorrow but the quince won't hurt for spending a bit longer sat in syrup. I am contemplating the merits of showing up on the doorstep of the folk with the quince tree, with some cake, and being all "hello yes I made this with windfalls onto the public path, I will very happily make you more things :) out of quince :) if you don't know what to do with them :))) which I am KIND OF ASSUMING YOU DON'T given that the branches overhanging your garden are still COVERED IN THE THINGS, unlike the branches overhanging the public byway..." (The social anxiety almost certainly means I won't actually do this, but I am, you know, considering.)
  4. Meanwhile today's poking around at recipe books introduced me to the concept of medlar sticky toffee pudding, which is now extremely high up my list of things to do with this year's medlar as and when we get any. (Recipe is in a book I'm not actually going to get from Oxfam, or at the Torygraph.)
  5. I continue to really enjoy looking at the Pelikan Art Collection pens (further links from within that one). It is possible I tripped and fell and spent more time reading about them this morning.

Birdfeeding

2 Oct 2025 15:15
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.

A theory

2 Oct 2025 05:38
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[personal profile] fayanora
Human beings are extremely good at finding patterns like faces and animals and other images in random things like clouds, a phenomenon called pareidolia. I am convinced that most sightings of ghosts, orbs, invisible beings, etc are just pareidolia This is especially true of small children, who don't have the experience needed to recognize that what they're seeing is just their brain's natural pattern-seeking software glitching out. Over time, we gain that experience, and so we "see spirits" less often because most of us have the sense to realize that what we're seeing isn't real.

Emphasis on "most." There are definitely a lot of times when multiple people are seeing the same thing. And while some of even those might still be pareidolia, others might be something else.
petra: Old Luke Skywalker glaring (Luke Skywalker - No)
[personal profile] petra
And when the internet gives me things like this short about Mark Hamill vis-à-vis Batman: The Animated Series, what can I do but weep and ship and weep and ship?

(It was SO HARD to pick an icon for this post. Too many options!)

Hobbies: Seatweaving

2 Oct 2025 01:16
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... )

funny brain fart

1 Oct 2025 23:58
fayanora: Steph laugh by ponyboy (Steph laugh)
[personal profile] fayanora
Trying to say "highway robbery," I accidentally said "highway library," & now I'm wondering what a highway library would even look like. I'm picturing a 100 mile long road lined with bookshelves, manned by librarians riding motorcycles with cargo trailers for the books.
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?"

Sunrise, sunset

1 Oct 2025 22:51
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I enjoyed the sunset function last night -- after some faffing I managed to get the right amount of light to start from (fairly bright?) and a sound I like (crickets! I really miss crickets, they sound like summer to me and remind me of being a kid).

I fell asleep before the thing went totally dark, which to be fair could be because of the melatonin I treated myself to last night...but I haven't had great success with them lately.

Maybe it was just how tired I was, after a busy day at work, straight in to counseling, then eating dinner, then off to the local queer club where I'd agreed to turn up early and help set up, and by the time we left, about half past 9, I was so tired that I was yawning uncontrollably on the short ride home (and very glad that D had driven me, so that I didn't have to walk or try to get the bus home.

Today felt similarly intense: work, then an important and positive but also exhausting and anxiety-inducing conversation about U.S. politics, then I made dinner, and by the time I'd eaten my parents were ready to talk. I've missed them like three Sundays in a row so couldn't dodge it too much longer.

And that was a mental and emotional marathon of a conversation too: my grandma's house will be sold in two weeks, the upshot of which is my mom's horrible sister was saying horrible things about my mom at an extended-family event and when my mom asked if I wanted my share of the money from the house sale I said "Absolutely not," and she said "I knew you'd say that, but you're going to have some anyway, and I want you to use some of it to get yourself something nice..." Well okay then, I'll be a tax haven or whatever for my parents this one time.

And they talked about politics at me a bit (which again we don't disagree on but I'm so spoiled by my little bubble where people seek consent and check in during these heavy conversations that this drives me up a wall now).

And then we got on to their computer needing to be replaced because support for Windows 10 is ending and they thought they could just take their PC to Best Buy and get the Quicken transferred to a new laptop... I was trying to disabuse them of this notion gently when their iPad battery died because they believe you must always let it discharge completely and they never use the iPad while it's plugged in.

I'd wanted to go to the gym this evening, and suddenly it was bedtime. And my head was too full of things.

And actually I had to rearrange my bedroom a little for the alarm clock. I don't have a bedside table next to the bed; my room has a lot of fitted closets and drawers so there's only really one place for the bed to go and it means the door -- which is at a weird angle to the rest of the room because of the way the whole upstairs is, and the fact that almost every door up here opens the opposite way to the way that'd make the best use of space -- leaves no room on this side of the bed.

Mostly I've gotten around this by using a floor lamp as a bedside lamp, and shoving a piece of wood between the mattress and the bed frame which I use for bedside stuff: glasses, water, phone. But the piece-of-wood shelf is too low for the alarm clock: not much of the light would actually end up in my line of sight which would defeat the whole purpose of the thing. Also it wasn't easy to get plugged in.

Last night I balanced the clock on some good thick books, and I don't know if the light would have woken me up so I set it to make a normal sound. Then I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm went off this morning and leaned over to look at the clock to see when it would start lighting up, like a little kid. So I don't know any more yet about how or if that will work.

So tonight I've bodged a slightly better solution for clock placement next to my bed (and just as I'm writing this do I realize there's a better way to rearrange the things that need to be plugged in because the lamp has a long cord...always so much to think about!). And I hope the nice cricket sounds and dimming orange light do their magic!

I do wonder how well this supplementary daylight works on someone whose eyes are as bad as mine.

But I really should put my phone down now.

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