Snowflake Challenge
Dec. 29th, 2025 05:14 am
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Online Housekeeping
Dec. 29th, 2025 02:14 am( Read more... )
Monday Update 12-29-25
Dec. 29th, 2025 12:18 amFriending Policy 12-28-25
Transformative Works Statement 12-28-25
Poem: "Incompressible"
Poem: "A Stronger Woman"
Wildlife
BirdfeedingPoem: "Tenacity, Creativity, and Bravery"
Communities
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Government
Photos: Lights on the Prairie Part 2
Photos: Lights on the Prairie Part 1
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Poem: "Genuinely Sufficient Resources"
Follow Friday 12-26-25: Learning
Poem: "The Heart to Change the World"
Poem: "Technique, Timing, and Leverage"
Read "The Fëanorian Zine"
Climate Change
Friending Meme
Birdfeeding
Vocabulary: Bokeh
Poem: "A Human Scale, Full-Featured Settlement"
Food
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party
Food has 47 comments. Trauma has 46 comments. Affordable Housing has 78 comments. Robotics has 119 comments.
The 2025 Holiday Poetry Sale has closed, with a massive amount of material to post. It will take me a long time to get it all online, so please keep an eye on the sale page.
Watch for
Watch for
"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv. It needs $72 to be complete. Shiv and his classmates discuss magical weather, magical geography, natural resources, plants and animals, history, and other aspects of worldbuilding.
The weather was mild for most of the week, but today it stormed. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a flock of mourning doves in the ritual meadow, and two fox squirrels running through the trees.
Friending Policy 12-28-25
Dec. 28th, 2025 11:45 pm( Read more... )
Transformative Works Statement 12-28-25
Dec. 28th, 2025 10:46 pm( Read more... )
Poem: "Incompressible"
Dec. 28th, 2025 10:13 pm( Read more... )
Poem: "A Stronger Woman"
Dec. 28th, 2025 05:58 pm( Read more... )
Wildlife
Dec. 28th, 2025 04:41 pmHidden in the ocean’s twilight zone, mid-sized fish are quietly powering the food web from below.
Scientists have uncovered why big predators like sharks spend so much time in the ocean’s twilight zone. The answer lies with mid-sized fish such as the bigscale pomfret, which live deep during the day and rise at night to feed, linking deep and surface food webs. Using satellite tags, researchers tracked these hard-to-study fish for the first time. Their movements shift with water clarity, potentially altering entire ocean food chains.
For every thing like this that scientists discover, many more critical connections remain unknown to modern science -- and that's why changing "one little thing" in an ecosystem often has bigger, unexpected impacts elsewhere.
Write every day: Day 28
Dec. 28th, 2025 08:43 pmTally:
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Day 27:
Day 28:
vital functions
Dec. 28th, 2025 10:35 pmReading. Me, a few days ago:
... I picked up the bad and naughty book I'm not supposed to read after 8pm because it's too annoying It was annoying
So that's how The Story of Pain (Joanna Bourke) is going. ( Read more... )
I have also made a tiny bit more progress on Index, A History of the (Dennis Duncan), read one and a half magazines sent to me by Organisations Various that I feel bad recycling unread but which have a tendency to Accumulate in that state, and some of a Libby sample of Cloistered (Catherine Coldstream) based on one of you mentioning it mid-November, which I have just about got up to on my reading page. Also, I am up to mid-November on my reading page.
Added to the queue are Vespertine (Margaret Rogerson; courtesy of someone mentioning it a while back, probably
skygiants, and my library Acquiring A New Copy), The Long Journey of English (Peter Trudgill; a present from my mother, in her capacity as a linguist), and Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes (Rob Wilkins; a loan from my father). For the sake of my spreadsheet of books (with the increasingly inaccurate filename books-2011.ods) I am probably going to be trying to finish rather than start things for the rest of the calendar year (not the Bourke) but we'll see how that goes.
Listening. ... an episode of Elementary that a relative was watching...
Playing. Scrabble! Monument Valley 3. Inkulinati (having another go at beating my head against a run at Master difficulty).
Cooking. Another batch of the quince and squash stew. Two days' worth of minestrone (with bulgur wheat because we are apparently out of tiny pasta, but not that), which worked well as Some Lunches. I think little else of note.
Eating. So much of my mother's cooking various, including a few last tomatoes from her greenhouse (!!!). Also my father's mince pies.
Exploring. Several stonks around Cambridge, including visits to some little free libraries and to various likely locations for snowdrops (mainly the grounds of Churchill, up at the chapel end, where they do indeed exist). Brief trip to Anglesey Abbey, which also has snowdrops coming out and one very enthusiastic daffodil; winter garden remains lovely.
Growing. The pineapple leafs are taller than the (remaining, trimmed) originals, as of... two weeks ago? Ten days? But I think I hadn't yet mentioned and it's still making me smile.
There is one (1) curry leaf cutting that is Not Yet Dead.
Birdfeeding
Dec. 28th, 2025 03:00 pmI fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
It started raining, and the sky is weird colors, so I am done for the night.
Poem: "Tenacity, Creativity, and Bravery"
Dec. 27th, 2025 11:02 pm( Read more... )
Communities
Dec. 27th, 2025 09:12 pmThis Indiana city is no longer defined by what it lost, but by what its residents are building today.
Instead of waiting for a master plan or a single catalytic investment, Keen began assembling homes and vacant parcels one by one. He helped launch the Portage Midtown Initiative and the South Bend GreenHouse, restored neglected homes, cultivated community gardens, and supported local builders learning to tackle small projects themselves. He often refers to these lots collectively as his “farm.”
This approach can work in many cities.
Glitter (Like Blood) Gets Everywhere - Lestat Crossover Prompt Meme
Dec. 27th, 2025 09:39 pmOpen as of right now. Prompt Rock Star (or otherwise Vampiric) Lestat getting glitter and/or blood on the canon of your choice. See what other people have prompted. Fill prompts with fanworks of any length. Leave comments. Have fun!
[movement] in which I get to follow mine own teaching
Dec. 27th, 2025 11:34 pmI am now noticing that it is in fact Fairly Consistent that I can Do More in terms of Pilates if I'm doing it at a rate of Two Full Sessions A Week rather than three. I am Somewhat Dismayed at now needing to go "okay, this clearly means I'm not fully recovering doing what I'm currently doing at a rate of every other day-ish, which means I will derive more benefit if I do less of the activity"; I am trying to cheer myself up by persuading myself that what it Actually Means that I get to play with a greater variety of Colouring Things In on The Sticker Chart.
I am amused that I am about as Oh No This Is Terrible about Officially Reducing My Mat Time as I am about getting onto the mat. Brains. Brains!
Write every day: Day 27
Dec. 27th, 2025 11:34 pmTally:
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Day 26:
Day 27: