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Today is cloudy and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/23/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

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

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

arlie mentioned in a post that Protonmail allows you to create email aliases to avoid spam. This also seems extremely useful for cases where someone extorts your email from you before giving you something you need, but you don't really want to hear from them afterwards.

Current Mood: busy

althea_valara

Someone - I forget who, sorry! - linked to this list of 15 questions for fanfic writers, put together by

maevedarcy. I do so love questionnaires and writing memes, even if I'm not that big of a writer (yet!).

( questions and answers under cut to spare your reading pages the length )

liv

One advantage of my unexpected free month was that I started reading books again. Not a lot but 6 complete novels and a longfic in 6 weeks, which is more than I have for years. Let me catch up with some brief reviews:

Since term properly, properly finished on 6 July, I have read:

Circe by Madeline Miller 2018, Pub 2018 Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781526612519
Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla (c) Nikesh Shukla 2010, Pub 2010 Quartet, ISBN 978-0-7043-7204-7
Will Super Villains be on the final? by Naomi Novik, illustrated by Yishan Li (c) Temeraire LLC 2011, Pub 2011 Del Rey, ISBN 978-0-345-51656-5
Some desperate glory by Emily Tesh (c) Emily Tesh 2023, Pub 2023 Orbit, ISBN 978-0-356-51718-6
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (c) Ann Leckie 2015, Pub 2015 Orbit, ISBN 978-0-356-50242-7
A free man of color by Barbara Hambly (c) Barbara Hambly 1997, Pub 1998 Bantam, ISBN 0-553-57526-0
I transmigrated into Cordelia Naismith! by Lanna Michaels, 2025

( Circe )

( Coconut Unlimited )

( Will Super Villains be on the final? )

( Some desperate glory )

( Ancillary Mercy )

( A Free Man of Color )

( I transmigrated into Cordelia Naismith! )

Current Mood: content

oursin

I was very taken with this article (from 2008) about a genre of nature writing, and how, really, it's very dubious to invoke wild and untamed NAYCHUR in our green and pleasant land.

Wild and not-wild is a false distinction, in this ancient, contested country. The contests are far from over. When the wild is protected by management, or re-created by the removal of traces of human history, you have to ask, who are these managers? Why do conservationists favour this species over that? Whose traces are considered worth saving, whose fit only to be bulldozed? If the landscape is apparently empty, was it ever thus?

I mean, we are all about nature, but here I am in London Zone 2 and we have wildflower plots at the edge of the local playing field and an eco-pond, and little copses of woodland and apparently an RSPB sparrow meadow in the local park, rus in urbe, hmmm. In fact London is one of the world's greenest cities, a development which might have surprised dear old Mad William when he was trudging along the chartered streets.

It's also wonderfully codslappy about a certain type of (male) writer going alone into the Wild Places (and not meeting the existential horror that attacked poor Moley in the Wild Wood before he found Badger's house).

It seems to me to resonate with this other thing I came across lately about Rights of Way. Which is of particular interest to me since I am pretty sure that the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949 owed rather a lot to my dear fubsy interwar progressives rambling and occasionally organising mass trespasses because the countryside was for The People and they had a Right to Roam. And was much more about collective enjoyment.

oursin

Happy birthday,

natlyn and

quinfirefrorefiddle!

ysabetwordsmith

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Could societies exist without a way to transfer value (i.e. without money or a barter system)?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

The Truth About Caffeine, Dehydration, and Extreme Heat

As dangerous heat waves sweep the U.S., the CDC cautions against consuming caffeine. But not every expert is convinced the advice needs to be one-size-fits-all.
[---8<---]
"Don’t drink liquids that contain caffeine, alcohol, or large amounts of sugar — these actually cause you to lose more body fluid. Also, avoid very cold drinks because they can cause stomach cramps," the CDC wrote in its Extreme Heat guidance. It doubles down on this warning on its Heat and Your Health page, though with softer language, stating, "Consider limiting beverages high in sugars and sodium, caffeine, and alcohol, if possible."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Ancient fossil discovery in Ethiopia rewrites human origins

The fossils found in northeastern Ethiopia date between 2.6 to 2.8 million years ago and shed new light on human evolution.
In the deserts of Ethiopia, scientists uncovered fossils showing that early members of our genus Homo lived side by side with a newly identified species of Australopithecus nearly three million years ago. These finds challenge the old idea of a straight evolutionary ladder, revealing instead a tangled web of ancient relatives.

I'm surprised to find such far-flung relatives coexisting like that, but it's a happier image than today's lonely Homo.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

23 Must-Read Books About Hope That Inspire Change & Action

John Parsi, executive director of the Hope Center, says that while optimistic people see the glass as half full, hopeful people ask how they can fill the glass full.

“Hope requires a person to take responsibility for their wants and desires and take action in working towards them,” Parsi says.

So whether you’re looking to start, sustain, or complete something, we hope the books included in this list inspire you to take action and work towards whatever goals you have in front of you.

I am particularly charmed to see “The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear” edited by Paul Rogat Loeb because I've got a poem in that one, "Origami Emotion," from a couple decades ago.

Current Mood: busy

ursamajor

I did not end up making a dessert for choir this week that magically used any portion of our eleven cups of plum jam in the fridge. I made chocolate chip cookies, and they disappeared like magic (the only empty container on the snack table when I went to clean up after break!) and I got multiple compliments on them *preens*.

It was my usual recipe, doubled because I used the oversized 20 oz Ghirardelli bag of semisweet chips, and then I went through my spice cabinet and pulled out baharat and rosewater. Though I've made a couple of adjustments over the years, and didn't actually write them down online, so here, have my ( go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. )

Ugh, I need a new chocolate icon, FJKR.

That being said, I went by Market Hall this morning since the internet said they were my local carrier for the See's Candy x McConnell's Ice Cream collab - they didn't have all the flavors, but they did have Coffee + Molasses Chips, so that got promptly plopped into my bike basket.

But while I was there, I also perused the other things they had available, and the regular old standard size 12 oz bag of Guittard semisweet chocolate chips was SIXTEEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS I HATE THIS TIMELINE.

Even checking online right now - Berkeley Bowl is claiming $12.39/bag, Guittard direct says $11.99/bag, and I am wondering how many bags of the semisweet I can order via my farmshare at $7.49/bag before they cut me off. Ghirardelli is still available at Berkeley Bowl for $8.79/bag, but I'm wondering for how much longer - before this summer, both of these were pretty close price matches, maybe 50c/bag difference and not always consistently in the same direction depending on what supermarket I was at? This feels like when vanilla prices exponentially spiked a few years ago and my $50 of vanilla backstock was suddenly worth $300.

... the farmshare website dropdown goes to 20 items. I'm not sure I want to be talked out of this. (I will probably buy at least 4, I am literally down to my last bag of chocolate chips and I usually have half a dozen bags on hand at any given time.)

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: this is the straw, final straw

haunted_cherries

(YES the title was an Edgar Allen Poe reference for funsies, NO I am not accepting criticism at this time xD)

No Fannish 50 this week since this work week had me BEAT, but it'll be back again next Friday! For now you get a YAPPING POST before I initiate my Friday After Work Nap™!! ^ o^)/

But AHHHHHHHHHH I WAS BRAVE AND DID A THING

So thanks to

rionaleonhart writing Death Note fic (here if you wanna read it b/c HELL YEAH THESE WERE SO GOOD), I stumbled on the

1character comm and their "50 Sentence Fic" challenge!! I was crazy enough to not only try it for Nagisa (P5X), but I'm also gonna try it for my Twisted Wonderland OC Tristan, too!! Nagisa for obvious reasons, and Tristan b/c in my break from writing OC stuff, I've REALLY missed him a lot!! ; u; When I saw some of the prompts, I thought it would be a chance to not only expand on Tristan's past, but to talk about his future, as well!

Nervous but EXCITED, at least!! (Because Trishelle is never going to miss an opportunity to feed the GAPING MAW of the WIP Drafts beast. xD These'll be MUCH smaller prompts in comparison to just writing a whole ass fic, so it should be pretty low stress! Fingers crossed!! 🤞❤️)

Speaking of the Drafts Beast, I'm gonna try to take a bit of Sunday to REALLY buckle down and clear out some of my WIPs b/c OOF the brain has been willing to write but the body fights it at every turn! (Also trying to ride the "fuck it, we ball" wave b/c no one's gonna read this (affectionate) so I need to stop worrying and just WRITE xD) Saturday is reserved for my Final Destination Extravaganza, so that'll be my break day along with today.

AND NOW SLEEPS! 🥱😴 Have a good weekend, everyone!! WE MADE IT!! ^ o^)/

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Cafe Leblanc
Current Music: DEJA VU - Michi Mochievee & K9 Kuro

ysabetwordsmith

My Noise has a bunch of new soundscapes that you can play with.

Current Mood: busy

writerkit

I am always excessively pleased with myself when I successfully go beyond the instructions while messing with computers. It's just something about the fact that I figured a thing out by myself, even if it's a small thing. I messed with my settings and it worked! (This is how I justify my use of Linux. I don't do a lot of messing around with its scripts--but I have the option, when something annoys me enough.)

In this case, the problem was actually my browser, not my operating system. I updated Firefox and disabling the AI chatbot was no longer sufficient; I had to disable a new integrated AI summary pop-up. (A profoundly annoying one. I am very disappointed in you, Firefox.)

Now, the thing I originally set to false was browser.ml.chat.enabled. This disabled the AI chatbot.

New update added the AI summary pop-up every time I clicked on a link. The internet suggested that the thing I needed to disable to deactivate the entire integrated AI was browser.ml.enable, so I set that to false.

This did not get rid of the AI summary pop-up.

Rather than go hunting for more precise instructions, I went "hey, browser.ml seems to be common thread here; I wonder what else is under browser.ml?" As it turns out, a lot of things, some of which are bolded and all of which are named descriptively enough that you can tell what their deal is. One of these things is browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled, which seemed like it might be thing I was trying to get rid of. So I set that to false and went back to click on some links.

No pop-up.

I am cautiously optimistic that this has fixed the problem.

(Yes, this is extremely basic problem-solving. But it's unusual for me to actively problem-solve my computer rather than go find a ready-made solution on Reddit.)

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: The Dining Table

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/22/26 -- I did some work around the patio.

EDIT 8/22/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

kaberett

The nature of veg box is that Vegetables for which I have no Plan... accumulate. Today's dinner took a bunch of said accumulated veg and made them salad-shaped, and it worked out well enough that I want a record as a reminder for future self that one can just Do This.

( Read more... )

pegkerr

I went to Open Streets Minneapolis at Cedar Avenue this past Sunday.

When I was at the Powderhorn Art Fair several weeks ago, I saw a booth selling Haitian oil drum metal artwork. I knew I wanted to buy one of their Trees of Life, but they didn't have one that was quite right that day. The people at the booth told me that they would also be at the next Open Streets event, and so I decided to stop by to see if they would have another Tree at that event that I would like.

I had picked out the one that I wanted online, but alas, they didn't have one that I wanted in stock. Still, I was glad that I had come. It was fun to wander down the street, looking at the art cars and examining the items for sale at the various booths.

As I walked past the Somali mall, I saw another item being offered: free camel rides. A saddled camel stood in the weedy lot beside the mall, standing next to a mounting block and calmly chewing its cud. A line of eager children had lined up waiting to take their turn.

I walked by, not really thinking about it. And after I got home later that afternoon, I thought, belatedly, of that missed opportunity.

Why on earth didn't I take a camel ride? Why?

This is supposed to be my Year of Adventure, and I have done some fun things. But I realized that night that moments of adventure can be missed if you aren't paying attention.

Next time, I will take the camel ride. I promise.

I have ordered the Tree of Life online, and it should be arriving Monday. I'm really looking forward to mounting it on the wall.

Image description: Foreground: three art cars. Behind: A cut metal tree of life painted in hues of blue and green with yellow tips. A saddled camel overlays the tree. Top: "Open Streets Minneapolis: Cedar Riverside."

Camel Ride

33 Camel Ride

Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

oursin

Or maybe not.

Only over the past day or two there have been various things on listservs and social media relating to research I have done and published (and not just my research, much lamented Canadian historian in the same area's work) and I realise that this was Back in the Day and maybe it has fallen off the radar.

But how is this thing that this thing is that - I suppose this comes with working in a particularly niche area - that people are not aware of the Horrible Hystorie of the Heinous Synne of Onan?

I am almost tempted to go forth and offer a conference paper WOT.

I'm not sure I have anything in the way of startling new research to offer but a lot of the same anxieties have been popping up again around Precious Bodily Fluids etc.

On another paw somebody was advance-mentioning a book they have coming out and that made me think, though it's not directly related, that there's a piece of research I keep meaning to get back to that's a similar sort of story.

Meanwhile there is something a bit weird going on, I fear, with conference I have been invited to speak at next month, having had rather cryptic message from person who was liaising with me. Shall get on with book reviewing before investing any more energy in paper-prep.

oursin

Happy birthday,

elisem!

vriddy

This is mostly silly. A problem with one of the early chapters is that nearly everyone noted it "feels" long even though it's not that much longer than the others. There are a number of issues: the sentences are too long for what should be a quick and fast-paced scene (bandits attack the village!), the descriptions feel quite remote as if the main character was only observing instead of being part of the action. It's vague in too many places instead of zooming on specific, vivid events and characters.

I've been editing this story for a lifetime (untrue) (but apparently still 179h41 over 141 days in the last 18 months, so CLOSE ENOUGH! XD), and because this is an early chapter it's one of those I've reread the most. So to shake things up a bit and try to experience it and its outline differently, I decided to storyboard it. It turned out surprisingly effective! It helped me narrow down on the key moments, and also give more agency to the bandits. Also it was fun.

At first, I drew two sides: one for the bandits, and one for the village, to show the preparations/lack thereof.

Then once the two collide, I started narrowing down on the key battle moments. By the 4th moment, I realised this was already a lot and stopped there. I removed a couple of unnecessary minor plot threads, like worries about a spell failing, and more magic stuff that's interesting but not particularly relevant to the scene or story. And I buffed up the 4 selected moments to make them more vivid.

( You don't need to be good at drawing. Are the bandits bringing torches to burn down the houses, or flower bouquets to secretly woo the villagers? Who knows! 😂 )

I think it was good just to help me think about the scene differently. My usual outlines sure look nothing like this!! I was also hoping to reduce the chapter's word count to make the prose tighter, but it ended up bubbling up because making things more specific required fleshing out background characters and actions. I think I'm okay with it, but I'll have to see how it flows when I do a full reread later, after I'm done and have taken a break from the story.

Current Mood: amused

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Getting Started with Dreamwidth

Member Posts

Birdfeeding

Email Aliases

totally procrastinating, so here's a questionnaire

Reading not-Wednesday 23/8

Rather dubiously following the call of the wiiiiiild

(no subject)

Philosophical Questions: Money

Heat

Early Humans

Books

the moon sometimes looks like a C, but you can't eat that!

Yapping at Your Chamber Door—Only This and Nothing More

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Messing with about:config

Birdfeeding

[food] misc veg salad

2025 52 Card Project: Week 33: Camel Ride

Maybe the universe is sending me a message....

(no subject)

Editing for pace, and storyboarding

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