Water
12/12/25 16:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithScientists find hidden rainfall pattern that could reshape farming
Where rain comes from may decide the future stability of global food production.
New research shows that crops are far more vulnerable when too much rainfall originates from land rather than the ocean. Land-sourced moisture leads to weaker, less reliable rainfall, heightening drought risk. The U.S. Midwest and East Africa are particularly exposed due to soil drying and deforestation. Protecting forests and improving land management could help stabilize rainfall and crop yields.
Allow me to point out that the Midwest used to have copious fencerows of trees and bushes, more pocket forests, and more farmhouse yards. People cut down most of those to clear a few more acres of farmland. The results have been poor across multiple areas including wildlife losses, soil erosion, worsening winds with less interruption, and of course the aforementioned droughts.
Where rain comes from may decide the future stability of global food production.
New research shows that crops are far more vulnerable when too much rainfall originates from land rather than the ocean. Land-sourced moisture leads to weaker, less reliable rainfall, heightening drought risk. The U.S. Midwest and East Africa are particularly exposed due to soil drying and deforestation. Protecting forests and improving land management could help stabilize rainfall and crop yields.
Allow me to point out that the Midwest used to have copious fencerows of trees and bushes, more pocket forests, and more farmhouse yards. People cut down most of those to clear a few more acres of farmland. The results have been poor across multiple areas including wildlife losses, soil erosion, worsening winds with less interruption, and of course the aforementioned droughts.
Tags:
Birdfeeding
12/12/25 15:18ysabetwordsmithToday is partly cloudy and chilly. Yesterday it snowed.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/12/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
Tags:
Holiday Extras (part 2 of 2, complete)
12/12/25 15:43dialecticdreamerHoliday Extras
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1375
[Mid-December 2016, flexible timing]
:: Genna is spending most of the month of December touching base with her students via crafting. Edison arrives with Zipper, and both get a surprise. Part of the Strange Family and the Finn Family story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe. Posted for the December 2025 Giftmas, with my deepest thanks. ::
Back to part one
:: Thanks for reading! ::
Genna motioned toward the row of imperfect, awkward-looking snowflakes made of curls of wood, then touched Edison’s shoulder gently. “Those look good. Wabi-sabi means beauty in imperfections. They aren’t ugly or lumpy or… what was the other word that you said?”
“Bruscar,” Edison murmured, the syllables heavy with disappointment. “It means trash.”
“They’re not trash,” Genna assured the boy.
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1375
[Mid-December 2016, flexible timing]
:: Genna is spending most of the month of December touching base with her students via crafting. Edison arrives with Zipper, and both get a surprise. Part of the Strange Family and the Finn Family story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe. Posted for the December 2025 Giftmas, with my deepest thanks. ::
Back to part one
:: Thanks for reading! ::
Genna motioned toward the row of imperfect, awkward-looking snowflakes made of curls of wood, then touched Edison’s shoulder gently. “Those look good. Wabi-sabi means beauty in imperfections. They aren’t ugly or lumpy or… what was the other word that you said?”
“Bruscar,” Edison murmured, the syllables heavy with disappointment. “It means trash.”
“They’re not trash,” Genna assured the boy.
( Read more... )
Life genuinely sucks, and I have a quandary
12/12/25 10:53thewayneI blitzed back to Phoenix Tuesday to get my brother, 66, to the hospital. Turned out I couldn't move him and it required paramedics and an ambulance.
He's now sedated and on a ventilator in intensive care, in critical condition. He has improved a bit since admission, but still critical. At least they haven't called me in the middle of the night for permission to do stuff. He's got like ten different meds being pumped into him. If I'd been delayed a day or two he wouldn't be in the hospital, he probably wouldn't be at all.
Fortunately the library closes from the 24th through the first Monday in January, so I'm not losing much work. But I'm not going to leave town until he's at least out of ICU and breathing on his own. If he lives and gets out of the hospital, he'll have to go into a critical care facility to recover from some wounds (not assault-type wounds), and he'll probably will have to go into assisted living after that.
When I was here in November, he did a holographic will (hand-written) in which he explicitly gave me everything, which isn't much. And after this hospital stay, it may be pretty much nothing. He absolutely hates our sister and the will is phrased to specifically exclude anyone but me, i.e. her and her kids. And the hatred is returned: she hates him, and I know the kids don't like him either.
I'm 95% comfortable with not telling my sister and her kids that he's in such shape. I don't think they'd come to see him. But there's that tiny, niggling bit that if he were to die and I didn't tell them, there'd be problems. At the same time, I never hear from them. And if he does recover and finds out I did tell them, there's also the chance of blowback. Quite the Catch-22.
Thus the quandary.
Anyway, I need to get dressed and off to the hospital.
Pity I couldn't have transported him, he would have been a mile away. Instead, it's half an hour with good traffic.
He's now sedated and on a ventilator in intensive care, in critical condition. He has improved a bit since admission, but still critical. At least they haven't called me in the middle of the night for permission to do stuff. He's got like ten different meds being pumped into him. If I'd been delayed a day or two he wouldn't be in the hospital, he probably wouldn't be at all.
Fortunately the library closes from the 24th through the first Monday in January, so I'm not losing much work. But I'm not going to leave town until he's at least out of ICU and breathing on his own. If he lives and gets out of the hospital, he'll have to go into a critical care facility to recover from some wounds (not assault-type wounds), and he'll probably will have to go into assisted living after that.
When I was here in November, he did a holographic will (hand-written) in which he explicitly gave me everything, which isn't much. And after this hospital stay, it may be pretty much nothing. He absolutely hates our sister and the will is phrased to specifically exclude anyone but me, i.e. her and her kids. And the hatred is returned: she hates him, and I know the kids don't like him either.
I'm 95% comfortable with not telling my sister and her kids that he's in such shape. I don't think they'd come to see him. But there's that tiny, niggling bit that if he were to die and I didn't tell them, there'd be problems. At the same time, I never hear from them. And if he does recover and finds out I did tell them, there's also the chance of blowback. Quite the Catch-22.
Thus the quandary.
Anyway, I need to get dressed and off to the hospital.
Pity I couldn't have transported him, he would have been a mile away. Instead, it's half an hour with good traffic.
Update [me, health, Patreon]
12/12/25 06:49sidereaSo, I, uh, got my RSI/ergonomics debugged!* I then promptly lost two days to bad sleep due to another new mechanical failure of the balky meat mecha and also a medical appointment in re two previous malfunctions. But I seem back in business now. The new keyboard is great.
Patrons, I've got three Siderea Posts out so far this month and it's only the 12th. I have two more Posts I am hoping to get out in the next three days. Also about health insurance. We'll see if it actually happens, but it's not impossible. I have written a lot of words. (I really like my new keyboard.)
Anyways, if you weren't planning on sponsoring five posts (or – who knows? – even more) this month, adjust your pledge limits accordingly.
* It was my bra strap. It was doing something funky to how my shoulder blade moved or something. It is both surprising to me that so little pressure made so much ergonomic difference, and not surprising because previously an even lighter pressure on my kneecap from wearing long underwear made my knee malfunction spectacularly. Apparently this is how my body mechanics just are.
Patrons, I've got three Siderea Posts out so far this month and it's only the 12th. I have two more Posts I am hoping to get out in the next three days. Also about health insurance. We'll see if it actually happens, but it's not impossible. I have written a lot of words. (I really like my new keyboard.)
Anyways, if you weren't planning on sponsoring five posts (or – who knows? – even more) this month, adjust your pledge limits accordingly.
* It was my bra strap. It was doing something funky to how my shoulder blade moved or something. It is both surprising to me that so little pressure made so much ergonomic difference, and not surprising because previously an even lighter pressure on my kneecap from wearing long underwear made my knee malfunction spectacularly. Apparently this is how my body mechanics just are.
sidereaCanonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1890494.html
0.
Hey Americans (and other people stuck in the American healthcare system)! Shopping for a health plan on your state marketplace? Boy, do I have some information for you that you should have and probably don't. There's been an important legal change affecting your choices that has gotten almost no press.
Effective with plan year 2026 all bronze level and catastrophic plans are statutorily now HDHPs and thus HSA compatible. You may get and self-fund an HSA if you have any bronze or catastrophic plan, as well as any plan of any level designated a HDHP.
2025 Dec 9: IRS.gov: "Treasury, IRS provide guidance on new tax benefits for health savings account participants under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill"
If you are shopping plans right now (or thought you were done), you should probably be aware of this. Especially if you are planning on getting a bronze plan, a catastrophic plan, or any plan with the acronym "HSA" in the name or otherwise designated "HSA compatible".
The Trump administration doing this is tacit admission that all bronze plans have become such bad deals that they're the economic equivalent of what used to be considered a HDHP back when that concept was invented, and so should come with legal permission to protect yourself from them with an HSA.
Effective immediately, you should consider a bronze plan half an insurance plan.
( Read more [3,340 words] )
This post brought to you by the 221 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.
Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
0.
Hey Americans (and other people stuck in the American healthcare system)! Shopping for a health plan on your state marketplace? Boy, do I have some information for you that you should have and probably don't. There's been an important legal change affecting your choices that has gotten almost no press.
Effective with plan year 2026 all bronze level and catastrophic plans are statutorily now HDHPs and thus HSA compatible. You may get and self-fund an HSA if you have any bronze or catastrophic plan, as well as any plan of any level designated a HDHP.
2025 Dec 9: IRS.gov: "Treasury, IRS provide guidance on new tax benefits for health savings account participants under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill"
Bronze and Catastrophic Plans Treated as HDHPs: As of Jan. 1, 2026, bronze and catastrophic plans available through an Exchange are considered HSA-compatible, regardless of whether the plans satisfy the general definition of an HDHP. This expands the ability of people enrolled in these plans to contribute to HSAs, which they generally have not been able to do in the past. Notice 2026-05 clarifies that bronze and catastrophic plans do not have to be purchased through an Exchange to qualify for the new relief.
If you are shopping plans right now (or thought you were done), you should probably be aware of this. Especially if you are planning on getting a bronze plan, a catastrophic plan, or any plan with the acronym "HSA" in the name or otherwise designated "HSA compatible".
The Trump administration doing this is tacit admission that all bronze plans have become such bad deals that they're the economic equivalent of what used to be considered a HDHP back when that concept was invented, and so should come with legal permission to protect yourself from them with an HSA.
Effective immediately, you should consider a bronze plan half an insurance plan.
( Read more [3,340 words] )
This post brought to you by the 221 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.
Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
Tags:
Early Humans
12/12/25 01:54ysabetwordsmith'It is the most exciting discovery in my 40-year career': Archaeologists uncover evidence that Neanderthals made fire 400,000 years ago in England
Neanderthals were the world's first innovators of fire technology, tiny specks of evidence in England suggest. Flecks of pyrite found at a more than 400,000-year-old archaeological site in Suffolk, in eastern England, push back archaeologists' evidence for controlled fire-making and suggest that key human brain developments began far earlier than previously thought.
It's exciting to see such concrete evidence.
Neanderthals were the world's first innovators of fire technology, tiny specks of evidence in England suggest. Flecks of pyrite found at a more than 400,000-year-old archaeological site in Suffolk, in eastern England, push back archaeologists' evidence for controlled fire-making and suggest that key human brain developments began far earlier than previously thought.
It's exciting to see such concrete evidence.
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Follow Friday 12-12-25: Labyrinth
12/12/25 00:55ysabetwordsmithToday's theme is Labyrinth.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
comicsfanfiction -- Comics Fanfiction
The community for posting any fanfiction, ANY RATING IS ALLOWED, based on COMICS including webcomics or graphic novels. One main place to find all those stories that we all want. Comic fandoms that were originally from another medium (show, book, movie, etc) - for example Gargoyles, Star Wars or Star Trek - and has a comic series line (miniseries or not) are allowed here, but only if you focus on the comics-based information.
[Active with multiple posts in December.]
crossovers -- Crossover fiction from across the universe!
Crossover fan fiction.
[Active with multiple posts in November.]
fandom_fanvids -- A Collection of Fanvids from different Fandoms
[Active with one post in November.]
labyfic -- In Search of New Dreams: A Labyrinth Fan Community
Labyrinth movie community: fanfiction, fan art, & discussion.
[Active with multiple posts in December.]
comicsfanfiction -- Comics FanfictionThe community for posting any fanfiction, ANY RATING IS ALLOWED, based on COMICS including webcomics or graphic novels. One main place to find all those stories that we all want. Comic fandoms that were originally from another medium (show, book, movie, etc) - for example Gargoyles, Star Wars or Star Trek - and has a comic series line (miniseries or not) are allowed here, but only if you focus on the comics-based information.
[Active with multiple posts in December.]
crossovers -- Crossover fiction from across the universe!Crossover fan fiction.
[Active with multiple posts in November.]
fandom_fanvids -- A Collection of Fanvids from different Fandoms[Active with one post in November.]
labyfic -- In Search of New Dreams: A Labyrinth Fan CommunityLabyrinth movie community: fanfiction, fan art, & discussion.
[Active with multiple posts in December.]
Tags:
Battles with Executive Dysfunction
11/12/25 19:43soc_puppetThe metaphorical devil on my shoulder: "You know, you don't have to do that final paper for Intro to Human Services. You've got enough extra credit to cover 30% of it, and that'll probably be enough to keep your grade in the low 'A's. And even if it's not, would a 'B' really be so bad?"
Me: "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, I did not go through two semesters doing every piece of homework assigned to fail at the final stretch, I am doing this shit, even if I only manage the bare minimum!"
Metaphorical devil on my shoulder: "Okay, jeez, lighten up! It was just a suggestion!"
Me: *already ignoring the devil and refocusing on the paper*
I refuse to let this paper win 😤
Edit: Paper completed and submitted! With this, I have officially done all graded homework for my back-to-school career. I am very proud of myself.
Me: "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, I did not go through two semesters doing every piece of homework assigned to fail at the final stretch, I am doing this shit, even if I only manage the bare minimum!"
Metaphorical devil on my shoulder: "Okay, jeez, lighten up! It was just a suggestion!"
Me: *already ignoring the devil and refocusing on the paper*
I refuse to let this paper win 😤
Edit: Paper completed and submitted! With this, I have officially done all graded homework for my back-to-school career. I am very proud of myself.
tired and sore
11/12/25 18:53mellowtiggerToday was the first day of my "weekend", but it really didn't feel like it. I had only 2 goals today: pick up my blood pressure medication at the pharmacy, and post a package for delivery to Texas for the holidays. Goals achieved, but at a price.
I got up with sunrise (which is late for me, thanks to "weekend") and checked when the post office would open for business. I was going to ride the micro transit bus there to buy a box suitable for the gift and card. But the app would NOT show me any micro transit bus options. Strange. Not the usual message to try again if there were no available drivers. Instead, the app would sort of hang with an icon suggesting network communications... until it gave up and showed me regular bus routes instead. Okay, so it'll be that kind of inconvenient day.
Click to read the various trip details...
Trip #1 and 2: Ok, so no help from the micro bus, so I walked there, sometimes through unshoveled snow about half a foot deep. I got the cardbox box that I needed, then I walked back through the snow again. That's a decent walk for an old guy with arthritis, but it was successful.
Trip #3: I went to the regular bus stop to get a less-convenient ride to the grocery/pharmacy. I waited... and waited... and waited. I checked this route, which I thought was a bus every 20 minutes. No. There are only 2 buses each hour: one 20 minutes after another. Afterwards, there's a 40-minute lull without service. ARGH! I spent a very long time in the freezing weather, noticing my face and lips starting to feel weird. Eventually, the bus arrived. I climbed a snow bank on the roadway to get inside to warmth.
Trip #4: I got groceries and medication without incident, then I went to get another regular-bus ride back. I saw the route "14" bus again heading the right direction, so I climbed aboard. Later, it detoured slightly. I was confused. When it became clear it wasn't returning along the same route as earlier, I got off as near as I could to my destination. Then I walked an extra 3 long blocks through a lot of unshoveled snow to get back to the bus stop intersection where I started. Not walking sometimes, so much as plodding through unshoveled snow. The arthritis complaining.
Trip #5 and #6: Back home, I got the gift wrapped and addressed, then it was time for yet another walk in the cold. I was much slower this time, feeling the arthritis in both my back and feet. Post office achieved. Gift sent. Walk back home, again even slower, this time with my hips aching too with a kind of muscle (not arthritis) ache, complaining at too many heavy steps in the snow.
At home, finally done with chores for the day, I tried to play a computer game for a while but started nodding off, so I crawled into bed. My body ached at getting into bed, even turning from side to side in bed. But at least I slept a while. Now up again. Feet are feeling better, but back and hips are still complaining. The walk upstairs to the bedroom isn't fun.
Now, it's dark outside already. The day is gone. More computer gaming, if I'm able. More sleeping, otherwise.
Tags:
Holiday Extras (part 1 of 2, complete)
11/12/25 18:21dialecticdreamerHoliday Extras
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1059
[Mid-December 2016, flexible timing]
:: Genna is spending most of the month of December touching base with her students via crafting. Edison arrives with Zipper, and both get a surprise. Part of the Strange Family and the Finn Family story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe. Posted for the December 2025 Giftmas, with my deepest thanks. ::
On to part two
Edison giggled as Zipper swept him high into the air, then turned the boy from a “flying” pose to standing. The small yellow sneakers touched the grass gently. “Here you are. Want me to ring the --” Zipper began.
A tall, bulky man with curly brown hair opened the door. “Hey, kiddo, Genna’s in the schoolroom, but it’s basically a craft room for the holidays. Go on in.”
( Read more... )
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1059
[Mid-December 2016, flexible timing]
:: Genna is spending most of the month of December touching base with her students via crafting. Edison arrives with Zipper, and both get a surprise. Part of the Strange Family and the Finn Family story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe. Posted for the December 2025 Giftmas, with my deepest thanks. ::
On to part two
Edison giggled as Zipper swept him high into the air, then turned the boy from a “flying” pose to standing. The small yellow sneakers touched the grass gently. “Here you are. Want me to ring the --” Zipper began.
A tall, bulky man with curly brown hair opened the door. “Hey, kiddo, Genna’s in the schoolroom, but it’s basically a craft room for the holidays. Go on in.”
( Read more... )
Thankful Thursday
11/12/25 20:27mdlbearToday I am thankful for...
- My family (which includes the cats).
- Warm blankets.
- Comfort food (also includes coffee, tea, and hot buttered rum).
- Not having to cook dinner very often. (I can cook, and even cook decently well, but G does most of the cooking in the family, and I'm very grateful for it.)
- Some discord servers, including our private family one.
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Brief update -- (lots of) writing, radio
11/12/25 16:22sisterdivinium[This text has been typed without looking at the screen. The reader will, I hope, forgive any and all typos.]
While anxiously awaiting the appointment that should help me get back to seeing properly again, I’ve been trying to preserve my eyes by staying away from screens, as previously mentioned.
The upside to being so rarely offline is that I have been able to dedicate more time to writing and reading — whatever discomfort I feel in front of the computer is much worse than the very light strain that dealing with paper entails, so I can sit back with a good book or with pen in hand rather snugly as long as I take a few breaks here and there.
So it is that I have:
1) finished the long Bibi/Urs fic (Under this roof) as per my last post; 2) rewritten and typed up (also without looking) a short gen fic about the Garvey sisters in twenty years from now (Windward); 3) written the first draft of an alternate/supplementary ending to the aforementioned Bibi/Urs fic; 4) prepared the first manuscript of another gen fic about the Garveys during the time it takes from the final moments of s2 to the actual release of the ashes in the last scene; and 5) started working on the full rewrite to the doctor superion teenagers AU, Anamnesis, which I initially wrote over a year ago.
My intention, as with last year, is to stop all fiction writing efforts during the festivities that separate 2025 from 2026 in order to recharge my creative batteries after so many stories. It’s why I’ll be chipping away at that rewrite only until the 20th of December. Then I’ll kickstart my fic vacation. What I can say, though, is that it’s been sweet to go back to Jillian and Suzanne after so many other stories for another fandom. My coming up with a brand new narrative about them is still unlikely at this point but some of that intense love is definitely back.
In other news, I’ve been missing meta writing terribly. It’s been forever since last I’ve done any essays on these shows and characters I so love… And picking up Wellek and Warren’s Theory of Literature again right after revisiting Y. Reuter’s Introduction à l’analyse du roman has given me that itch. Both are books I’ve read before, for obvious reasons of having graduated in the stuff, but I love rereading and it always inspires me somehow, whether it’s writing fic or analysing fiction in general. True, I had started to separate some useful snippets of Schopenhauer and Beauvoir and I meant to pick a few instances of Aristotle and maybe a few other authors a few months back to use on a little text about identity in Bad Sisters... As usual, however, I was run over by fic writing and that has been left temporarily incomplete. I’m hoping my end of year fic pause might give me the push I need to get back at that. We’ll see.
In the business of protecting my poor tired eyes, I’ve also been listening to the radio a lot more — NPO for my Dutch (en, mijn god, Nederlanders kunnen zo snel pratten!), RTÉ for a background ~Irishness that helps me hear the girls’ voices when I write for Bad Sisters, and, of course, the traditional France Culture podcasts. This series on Hildegard von Bingen has been amazing, regardless of the fact that I’m always interested in her and in nuns in general as a rule of thumb. I recommend it to those who understand French!
There are a couple of posts I’d like to make around here which I drafted back in August (!) and never released but I suspect my desire to get nice conversations going would only make me want to spend more time online, not less, and that’s the opposite of what I need right now. I’ll figure it out…
That’s it for now. I’m hoping the eyesight problems don’t make this the only thing I get to post this month! :)
While anxiously awaiting the appointment that should help me get back to seeing properly again, I’ve been trying to preserve my eyes by staying away from screens, as previously mentioned.
The upside to being so rarely offline is that I have been able to dedicate more time to writing and reading — whatever discomfort I feel in front of the computer is much worse than the very light strain that dealing with paper entails, so I can sit back with a good book or with pen in hand rather snugly as long as I take a few breaks here and there.
So it is that I have:
1) finished the long Bibi/Urs fic (Under this roof) as per my last post; 2) rewritten and typed up (also without looking) a short gen fic about the Garvey sisters in twenty years from now (Windward); 3) written the first draft of an alternate/supplementary ending to the aforementioned Bibi/Urs fic; 4) prepared the first manuscript of another gen fic about the Garveys during the time it takes from the final moments of s2 to the actual release of the ashes in the last scene; and 5) started working on the full rewrite to the doctor superion teenagers AU, Anamnesis, which I initially wrote over a year ago.
My intention, as with last year, is to stop all fiction writing efforts during the festivities that separate 2025 from 2026 in order to recharge my creative batteries after so many stories. It’s why I’ll be chipping away at that rewrite only until the 20th of December. Then I’ll kickstart my fic vacation. What I can say, though, is that it’s been sweet to go back to Jillian and Suzanne after so many other stories for another fandom. My coming up with a brand new narrative about them is still unlikely at this point but some of that intense love is definitely back.
In other news, I’ve been missing meta writing terribly. It’s been forever since last I’ve done any essays on these shows and characters I so love… And picking up Wellek and Warren’s Theory of Literature again right after revisiting Y. Reuter’s Introduction à l’analyse du roman has given me that itch. Both are books I’ve read before, for obvious reasons of having graduated in the stuff, but I love rereading and it always inspires me somehow, whether it’s writing fic or analysing fiction in general. True, I had started to separate some useful snippets of Schopenhauer and Beauvoir and I meant to pick a few instances of Aristotle and maybe a few other authors a few months back to use on a little text about identity in Bad Sisters... As usual, however, I was run over by fic writing and that has been left temporarily incomplete. I’m hoping my end of year fic pause might give me the push I need to get back at that. We’ll see.
In the business of protecting my poor tired eyes, I’ve also been listening to the radio a lot more — NPO for my Dutch (en, mijn god, Nederlanders kunnen zo snel pratten!), RTÉ for a background ~Irishness that helps me hear the girls’ voices when I write for Bad Sisters, and, of course, the traditional France Culture podcasts. This series on Hildegard von Bingen has been amazing, regardless of the fact that I’m always interested in her and in nuns in general as a rule of thumb. I recommend it to those who understand French!
There are a couple of posts I’d like to make around here which I drafted back in August (!) and never released but I suspect my desire to get nice conversations going would only make me want to spend more time online, not less, and that’s the opposite of what I need right now. I’ll figure it out…
That’s it for now. I’m hoping the eyesight problems don’t make this the only thing I get to post this month! :)
Tags:
Birdfeeding
11/12/25 11:48ysabetwordsmithToday is cloudy and chilly.
I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity today though.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/11/25 -- It snowed quite a bit today.
I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity today though.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/11/25 -- It snowed quite a bit today.
Tags:
