librarygeek. Reading

These pictures show the next phase of assembling the lantern terrarium. (Start with Photos: Fairy Garden Lantern Deconstruction, Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 1 Gathering Materials. Continue with Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 3 Adding Air Plants.)

( Read more... )

Mood accomplished

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ysabetwordsmith

My air plants arrived today. :D So I gathered materials to start assembling the lantern terrarium. (Start with Photos: Fairy Garden Lantern Deconstruction. Continue with Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 2 Testing the Fit, Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 3 Adding Air Plants.)

( Walk with me ... )

Mood accomplished

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dialecticdreamer

Warnings and Weirdness
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2
Word count (story only): 1390
[Sunday, May 10, 2020, afternoon]

:: The Teagues return to the plant nursery, intending to surprise Shandiin with a new herb garden. The visit is very different than they expected. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Back to Bonding Time
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to

“It’s Vic, isn’t i? Welcome back,” the dark-haired man at the nursery door declared, nodding to the teen as he crossed into the shop. “Who’s with you today?”

“This is Aidan, and my brother Ed.” Vic stepped forward. “Aidan wanted to put in some herbs for a friend, but I don’t know enough about gardening to be trusted with a list of plants to buy.”

Garegin ran his fingers along his jet black beard and chuckled. “So, come introduce me.”
( Read more... )

Mood blank

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mellowtigger

As always for Moody Monday, there are so many topics but so little time.

1) I'm glad I brought the two historians to your attention a few days ago. Their most recent video is a real gem, with several moments of memorable quotes.

2) The money crisis, with so very many Americans ("richest country on the planet") unable to afford food, is a lot even to try to comprehend.

3) The one single issue I want to explore more thoroughly, though, is a problem demonstrating itself here in Minnesota. I offer anti-capitalism rants occasionally, and here's another one. As many people have said before, "private equity ruins everything it touches".

Minnesota Rusco is the company that I used, once in 2019 and again in 2024, to install new windows in my century-old home. This company was in operation since 1955 (famous locally for this musical jingle in their television advertisements), but they closed suddenly in 2025 a few days ago. Even people in the company didn't know it was going to happen. This YouTube video, from roofers here in the Twin Cities, describes the situation from a local industry perspective. As this news page from University of Minnesota explains, they were bought out from the former owners in 2022, sold to Renovo Home Partners in Dallas TX... which itself became owned in 2024 by BlackRock TCP Capital Corp of New York.

Yes, that BlackRock. It sure seems like all of those companies with the "BlackRock" name are in a financially incestuous relationship with each other, everything some subsidiary of the original, with this story getting into tedious details of the financial dealings of the company. BlackRock is also now a majority owner of a power company here in Minnesota. Our legislature approved that sale, as if nothing could go wrong with that arrangement. Ugh.

You already know how opposed I am to the concept of making wealth the point of living. With everything else going sour in the USA, we still idly watch as capitalists extend control into every part of daily life, from home repairs to power infrastructure. I really need to buy solar panels. Between Trump tariffs driving up costs of Minnesota electricity to whatever capitalists are about to do to force additional scarcity (which drives up value for investors), I just need my own independent power source. I feel like we can't have a nice society, because we bow to the gods of wealth.

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scrubjayspeaks

Tomorrow is Election Day, and there are several important races and measures on the ballot in Lewisia. The position of Chief Potion Inspector, within the Health Department, has become a debate between innovative, occasionally hazardous new formulas and traditionalists funded by Big Eye of Newt. Measure 777 seeks to redistribute luck reserves on the basis of need, focusing on levels of curse affliction ranging from “spilled salt” to “offended a vengeful god.”

---

LL#1325

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ysabetwordsmith

22 Ways To Celebrate Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month, when we all come together to honor and celebrate the culture, traditions, history, and contributions of American Indian and Alaskan Natives.

They left out the Real Rent / Voluntary Land Tax movement, where people of non-indigenous heritage send money to the nearest extant tribe or sometimes a formerly-local tribe that was ousted to live elsewhere. If you don't have that option, you can also chuck it into any current fundraiser to obtain land for a tribe or fight legal battles over land. Closely related, if you own land -- especially big enough for some of it to be wild or nearly so -- consider programs to share access with tribal people. Some folks have negotiated deals where the tribe will help manage the territory in return for sharing use of it, which can grant you access to much better techniques.

Mood busy

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ysabetwordsmith

Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens

* The Past
* Cryptic Populations
* Sideways in Time
* The Future
* Science!

It left out crossbreeding with other species (like Spock in Star Trek) as well as backbreeding where remnant genes become more prevalent due to environmental pressures until speciation occurs. Regarding the latter, Sherpas are already a borderline species because they can survive at higher altitudes than other Homo sapiens due to their Denisovan heritage. They are at least a definable subspecies based on habitat adaptations, more realistically a remnant population of Denisovans with heavy Homo sapiens introgression. But when you start talking about biological differences among humans, then humans immediately start doing stupid things, so most scientists won't do it. Anyhow, if the Sherpas became isolated from other humans and stayed in the Himalayas, environmental pressure would push them toward more Denisovan-like traits.

Mood busy

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ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

My air plants arrived! :D So today I need to assemble the lantern terrarium.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I took some pictures around the yard and started laying out pieces for the lantern terrarium.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I've been working on the lantern terrarium, trimming the branch that will go inside and testing a few air plants to fit it. Currently I have it soaking in a tray of water to rehydrate the lichens.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I've done more work on the lantern terrarium. I have the main branch soaked, and I picked up some more twigs and chips in hopes of creating more spaces to lodge the air plants. I've glued the first piece in place, the chip I cut off the bottom end.

While I was outside, I saw the great horned owl and heard it hooting. Then I heard a shriek. A baby owl! :D 3q3q3q!!! I am 99% certain that the conversation translates to this:

Baby: "I'm hungry!"

Mama: "Shh. Go to sleep. Shh."

Baby: "FEED ME!"

Mama: "It is the middle of the DAY. Now GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP."

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

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

Mood busy

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sisterdivinium

I had forgotten to post the silly Warrior Nun "lemon drop" comic I made back in August here so I figured I'd get that and the other, newer (WN, Xena) things I sketched for

femslashfete in one post. I'm lazy so I'm using the summary I wrote up for each piece when posting at the comm, lol. Here goes:

( In a visit to the Cat's Cradle, Beatrice shares something she learned with Ava, who is thinking of other skills they've both been practising... )

(made with Chinese ink)

( A drawing of Lilith in her demon-hybrid form (happy Halloween?) holding Ava by the neck while Ava keeps the point of the Cruciform Sword at her throat, as both the halo and whatever is made of divinium glow. )

(made with a ballpoint pen + colours in Photoshop)

( A drawing of Gabrielle with her hand close to Xena's heart in some sort of plea while Xena has her evil self (or her ego -- though perhaps her id if you want to be Freudian about it? It's up to you) on her other side, at her ear. )

(made with fine liner pens for the most part and one of those pens that resemble brushes for the hair)

I'd say it's cool how you get to see the way that instruments affect my style. I work a bit differently if I'm dealing with paintbrushes and ink or ballpoint or felt tip pens, even if I usually do lineart with the fine liners when filling in with ink (just not always -- both comics I posted here were fully pen+ink).

Music Beltaine - Beltaine

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ysabetwordsmith

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Today's Cooking
Gaming
Birdfeeding
Worldbuilding
Art
Birdfeeding
Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo Card 11-1-25
Philosophical Questions: Accuracy
Moment of Silence: Patricia Crowther
Birdfeeding
Holiday
Books
Wildlife
Garden of Repose
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Follow Friday 10-31-25: Kpop
Bingo
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Sustainability
Birdfeeding
Good News

Trauma has 34 comments. Affordable Housing has 57 comments. Robotics has 95 comments.

There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, November 4 with a theme of "Fairies and Fey." I hope to see you then!

"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $191 to be complete. Maiara and Arthur discuss taking notes.

The weather is cool and fall-like now. It rained a couple of days. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, two goldfinches, and a male cardinal. A great horned owl has been hoo-hooing outside. :D Currently blooming: dandelions, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, firecracker plant, tomatoes, violas. Tomatoes, ball carrots, and groundcherries are ripe. Fields are almost all harvested.

Mood busy

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blogging,
personal

conuly

picked out a pair of glasses I just cannot stand. Sending them back, getting a better pair. I do have another spare pair if this one gives out entirely.

ysabetwordsmith

Today I am making Tomato-Basil Bread from Hello! 365 Tomato Recipes: Best Tomato Cookbook Ever For Beginners, the yeast version from page 32. (This is basically the same recipe.) We're out of parmesan cheese, so I substituted Manchego which is dry enough to grate and has a similarly sharp taste. Already the dough is a very pretty salmon-pink, currently rising in a bowl set inside a bowl of warm water to help maintain temperature.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- Bread punched down and set for second rise.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- Bread in oven.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- It's done! :D This is better than the earlier quickbread I tried. When baked, it is a bright, true salmon color thanks to the tomato sauce. The outside is crusty, the inside is springy and chewy, with a mild tomato flavor and herbal hints. If I make it again, I want to try the Little Italy Pizza Seasoning instead of plain crushed red pepper. The loaf is small and round, yielding oval slices. That's too small for grilled cheese sandwiches but would probably work for Bulgarian breakfast bread.

Mood accomplished

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food,
personal

dialecticdreamer

Feline Negotiations
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1840

:: Torrin meets Griffin’s grandmother, Judy, and they discuss ways to make the telepathic cats more comfortable in their new home. This story is actually the precursor to

chanter1944’s actual prompt, so I’m posting it now to make the later store clearer. Technically, written for the October of 2025 Feathering the Nest prompt call, with my thanks! ::

“I’m not sure about how to do this,” the elderly lady began, then smiled at the young man who put a mug of spearmint tea at her elbow. “Thank you.”

Loudmouth shrugged. “I’m a very straightforward person, ma’am. You wanted to meet Torrin, and talk business. I wanted to be here because I want to offer a hint or two about what constitutes a good deal on both sides, not take over.” She gestured as Torrin entered, carrying a lemon yellow kitten in his cupped hand, with a tiny bottle in the other. “Ah, I didn’t realize that it was still feeding time.”
( Read more... )

Mood artistic

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ysabetwordsmith

New study: Dungeons & Dragons provides real benefits to people with disabilities and the elderly

“Serious leisure” refers to an activity that demands skill, commitment, and personal fulfillment, Messina defined. With the intricate world-building, score-keeping, and character development required of D&D, she said, it’s a blueprint for serious leisure.
[---8<---]
“Players were comfortable being themselves by engaging in the game pursuit,” she added, “but at the same time were building personas in line with, or in contrast to, their normal personality. They described it as a way to take charge, or lead an effort in ways that their normal personality would allow for, but they wouldn’t be inclined to do.”

( Read more... )

Mood busy

Tags:

gaming,
networking

mellowtigger

The one downside to instant-runoff voting is that you need to identify 3 candidates that you want to give your vote, instead of just 1. It takes longer to make such a list. On the plus side, though, it seems to mean a lot more choices for political offices, since everyone has a better chance at gaining attention. Sample ballots for your street address are always available at this Minnesota Secretary Of State website.

Click to read about some Minneapolis candidates and my choices...

There are a lot of new political parties represented in the Mayor's race, for instance. Some are serious candidacies, while some... are not.

For example, peruse this expletive-laden page from the Momunist candidate.
I do appreciate the cleverness behind the Nobody's Party candidate ("Red and Blue don't care about you, but everybody knows that Nobody cares!", "Antifa", and "Burn flags not books!"), but I need a page that describes an actual policy platform rather than just slogans.
That same lack-of-specifics applies to the Socialist Workers Party candidate, even though I'm normally in favor of anti-capitalism slogans.
I also give a warm shout-out to the Protecting Tomorrow's Dreams candidate. They have not only a Babylon 5 reference in their website name, but they're the only candidate of the whole lot that I saw advocate for flattening the pay scale in city government. Kudos. As I've said a few times before about Minnesota politics, "That's my kind of crazy." If I had 4 slots to vote, you'd definitely get that final slot.

In making my decisions, I did appreciate this list of endorsements from a progressive PAC. I started there, to make sure I still liked the candidates they recommended. There are still a lot of offices and candidates, though, so next I relied on these review pages from the reputable Naomi Kritzer. Each race is hyperlinked to a detailed review of candidates, although the mayoral race focused only on the "likely" candidates.

I don't mind writing up my choices here, so I have it handy for use on Tuesday.

Mayor: 1) Davis, 2) Hampton, and 3) Fateh
I originally planned to put Fauki in the 3rd slot, but Naomi's review of Fateh's controversies convinced me to accept Fateh as the last choice on my list.
Ward 5: 1) Burnett, 2) Young, 3) none of the others.
I really wanted to give Ward a second chance, but my thoughts twist into knots trying to justify such a choice to the victims from 15 years ago. I'm willing to give taxpayer money to people trying to turn their lives around, but I'm less willing to give them authority over other people's lives. I'm leaving this 3rd slot blank instead.
Board of Estimate and Taxation: 1) Bernstein, and 2) Brandt (incumbent).
Park and Recreation Commissioner At Large: 1) Schneider (endorsed by both Green party and DSA!), 2) Olsen (incumbent), and 3) Wilson (also DSA and even Stonewall endorsed!).
Park and Recreation Commissioner District 2: 1) Rucker (unopposed).

So, for an "off year", it's still a busy list of people that voters need to sort through. I'm ready for Tuesday!

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voting

dewline

I'd prefer Trudeau, Carney, Davies, Angus, May and Freeland as a team on the current polycrisis. However, I'm not going to get that. Yet, if ever.

So I'll have to put up with some things and complain as needed.

Mood determined

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ysabetwordsmith

Today is sunny and cool.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I trimmed weeds from the tulip bed. It's about 2/3 done now.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I trimmed weeds from rest of the tulip bed. \o/

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a cardinal.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I spread the first bag of compost and manure on the tulip bed.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I spread the second bag of compost and manure on the tulip bed.

EDIT 11/2/25 -- I spread the third bag of compost and manure on the tulip bed. It is mostly covered but still needs another bag.

I picked a handful of basil leaves so I can make tomato-basil bread tonight.

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

Mood busy

Tags:

sisterdivinium

I know I only keep recommending things in French when I pop around here with a link but what can I do when the subjects are so interesting and the discussions so good? So here, have one more, from the (Re)lire les classiques féministes series by France Culture:

Jennifer Tamas : "'Clélie' de Madeleine de Scudéry, c'est le refus d'être violée".

It's an interesting coincidence to have come across this right when stumbling upon some other interesting and somewhat related links. Madeleine de Scudéry is not exactly still read today, as the episode brings up, and it's probably not just because of how intimidating it can be to face a titan (Artamène might not be the subject of the podcast but it alone is made up of about 2 million words; Clélie, histoire romaine was published in ten volumes). Figurez-vous, here's a little wealth of 19th-century female novelists who were widely read back then, including Mary Brunton, "an almost exact contemporary of Jane Austen", and who are now largely neglected. Then, of course, there are authors who were unknown to me until now but which this handy thread about Naomi Mitchison posted by the Association for Scottish Literature, for example, helped shine a light on.

Now I am of course curious and shall proceed to cursing my tired eyes and my inability to read books on screens...

But to get back to the podcast, it was rather inspiring to know that Scudéry wrote a female character arguing against marriage. She pits the potential trouble it could bring against the merits of remaining free. Why is this remarkable? Because Clélie started to be published in 1654. Let that sink in. Being unmarried herself, of course some critics would lambast her by calling her a vieille fille, lol. Woman must not question the status quo, after all, eh?

And speaking of status quo, Jennifer Tamas' own ending notes on authors she doesn't like despite being a literature scholar were intriguing. Her dislike for L.F. Céline had me laughing in how her inability to be wowed by his style sets her apart from many of her peers. I also don't blame her for disliking Günter Grass based on a certain scene of sexual violence he wrote (to say nothing of underlying ideological elements...); I, for one, know I was forever repulsed by Ken Follett after The Pillars of the Earth for something similar in how it was minutely described -- you'd think the author enjoyed it and maybe he did.

Tamas jokes about wanting to vomit at the misogyny and, yeah, I sympathise... But, hey, thankfully there are tons of other books out there to go on exploring :)

Music June's Garden/Pockets - Kinnaris Quintet

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$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Not a bad week. The housemates returned from OVFF Wednesday morning, so I'm off the hook for taking care of Cricket and Brooklyn. So I'm back to caring for two cats in one room again. And I was fairly productive -- not much music but a lot of work on the HyperSpace Express website, and N's author site. Which should have been done a month or more ago, but better late than not at all.

I wrote a post yesterday that wasn't one of the usual repeating ones (Thankful Thursday, Done Since, and Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit). It's been a while since I did that.

Only four walks this week :P -- I woke up with a leg cramp yesterday; the other two missing mornings were a matter of timing. See above about Wednesday. I think Monday I just slept in. Or fell down a rabbit hole. So far the main thing the Sansung smartwatch is good for is tracking my sleep. The main reason I got it in the first place was for emergency calls, but I haven't tested that function -- or even ordinary calling -- at all. Should fix that.

I also haven't made a portfolio/list of all the websites I've build over the years. I'm not even sure how many there are. Need to fix that too.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Mood a little out of it
Location Schildhaven in Den Haag
Music not much except OVFF over zoom

Tags:

done,
links

scrubjayspeaks

Vacation, yo! I tried to really make a point of using my vacation time well. Which is to say, doing things I would remember, not just vegetating with video games. (Not that I didn’t also put in some solid video game time as well, of course.) I finished off a couple of books. Mum and I went to the pumpkin patch and did various Halloween crafting things together. We also watched several movies.

I didn’t do anything super intensive, though. This was definitely a vacation and not just trading one exhausting job for another unpaid one. I tried to have better sleep habits than I sometimes fall into when I don’t have work schedules to adhere to, to make sure I come back feeling better, not worse.

The album of the week was NOT the new Florence + the Machine album, because I never received the download link on release day after preordering the album. I’m waiting to hear back from the shop’s support team.

Authors and musicians talk about how important preorders are for their sales numbers, so I make an effort to do so for my recurring favorites. And that works fine if I’m doing it through my indie bookstore or through Bandcamp (ish, they can be a little late in the day). But whenever I’ve done it through other shops or even direct from the artist, it seems to mean getting the product later than any schmuck who goes down to Walmart the day of release. It’s frustrating. I’ve been looking forward to the album all month, and specifically put off listening to anything on Thursday like usual, because I thought I would be getting this wonderful new thing to listen to on Friday.

*whine whine whine* You can tell I’ve been on vacation, because that’s the worst thing I have to piss and moan about. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

It’s been quite warm in the day but chilly overnight and foggy in the morning. If it was just, oh, ten degrees cooler in the day, I would consider it ideal. Nothing picky about me, of course!

Lewisia: 6 new pieces written

Day job: none hours with left vacation >:3

Cooking: the traditional Halloween pizza

Cleaning: it’s NaClYoHo Month! fixed the broken cable ties on the two front shade cloths, flushed the water heater

Crafting: hemmed back patch, started sewing it on, made cheesecloth ghosts, carved pumpkins

Reading: When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance by Riley Black (a really lovely piece of science writing, great illustrations as well), What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (new Sworn Soldier book~~ without giving spoilers, a certain chalkboard-using person is my new favorite character ever)

Watching: Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein (*incoherent sobbing*), Young Frankenstein (not as effective a parody as Blazing Saddles imo, fun enough for an evening), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (charmingly weird for the most part)

Listening: Spirit Swap OST by meltycanon (music from the video game, very pleasing chillhop)

Clock Mouse: 1334 words

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