Monday Update 12-29-25

Dec. 29th, 2025 12:18 am
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Friending 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 [community profile] snowflake_challenge to open on January 1. This panfandom activity is one of Dreamwidth's biggest events and a great time to make new friends.

Watch for [community profile] threeforthememories to open on January 3. It features your top three photographs from the past year.


"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
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Due to requests for a friending policy, and different ways that people use friending tools online, I have done my best to describe my parameters.  (See the 2020 version.)

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
People keep clamoring for this sort of thing. Ideally, everyone should have a "blanket statement." While I don't have a stance on many of the points, it seems useful to post the ones where I do have a stance. (See the 2020 version.)

Read more... )

Poem: "Incompressible"

Dec. 28th, 2025 10:13 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the January 2, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "When You're Smiling" square in my 1-1-24 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Foster Fiasco thread in the Polychrome Heroics series.

Read more... )

Poem: "A Stronger Woman"

Dec. 28th, 2025 05:58 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] fuzzyred, [personal profile] see_also_friend, and [personal profile] wyld_dandelyon. It also fills the "Put me down!" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Fortressa thread in the Polychrome Heroics series.

Read more... )

Wildlife

Dec. 28th, 2025 04:41 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The deep ocean has a missing link and scientists finally found it

Hidden 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.

Birdfeeding

Dec. 28th, 2025 03:00 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy, windy, and cool.

I 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.

Highlander Holiday Shortcuts

Dec. 28th, 2025 08:20 am
hafital: (HL - Quickening)
[personal profile] hafital
Quick post to say that stories are being posted at [community profile] hlh_shortcuts! go check them out! So many good stories, with more being posted through the 31st, I think. Reveals go live on Jan 5. I bet everyone can guess which story I wrote haha.

This year, I got a very fun post-Bordeaux double-quickening story, with lots of pining and humor.

Destinations (18378 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Highlander: The Series
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duncan MacLeod/Methos (Highlander), Connor MacLeod & Methos (Highlander)
Characters: Duncan MacLeod, Methos (Highlander), Connor MacLeod, Joe Dawson, Amanda, Richie Ryan, Hugh Fitzcairn, Rebecca Horne, Darius (Highlander)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Slow Romance, Friendship, Explicit Language, During Canon
Summary:

The double quickening at Bordeaux has unexpected side effects. It take years for Duncan and Methos to come to terms with what it means for their relationship. It take years for them to understand all the implications. Connor and Methos hang out. They listen to music and talk a lot.

ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the October 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from [personal profile] mama_kestrel and [personal profile] see_also_friend. It also fills the "There are many flavors of outcasts here." square in my 10-1-23 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Eric the Elven King thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Read more... )

Communities

Dec. 27th, 2025 09:12 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The City That Refused to Stay Dying

This 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.

Birdfeeding

Dec. 27th, 2025 02:17 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I raked more in the parking lot.  I had to make another line.  It's exhausting and inefficient and not even making the stumps all that much easier to see.

EDIT 12/27/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

I am done for the night.
 

Philosophical Questions: Government

Dec. 27th, 2025 02:32 am
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.

Do you think there will ever be a global government? If a world government did come to power, assuming it wasn’t particularly cruel or evil, would it be a good or bad thing?

Read more... )

Photos: Lights on the Prairie Part 2

Dec. 26th, 2025 11:52 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are the rest of the pictures from Lights on the Prairie. Begin with Part 1. Read Today's Adventures for a more detailed text description.

Walk with me ... )

Photos: Lights on the Prairie Part 1

Dec. 26th, 2025 11:04 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we went to see Lights on the Prairie. I took a lot of pictures, with variable results. Some look good, some are fuzzy. That's okay because I like off-focus light pictures, from fuzzy or squiggly to downright abstract. My partner Doug says that to get really good pictures of the place would take a tripod and a slower exposure. I tend to agree. I don't even know if my camera has a "night" setting, so I just swapped between flash and no flash. It was fun anyhow. Continue with Part 2.

Here there be spoilers...

Walk with me ... )

Today's Adventures

Dec. 26th, 2025 09:26 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we went to the walk-through display Lights on the Prairie. It was awesome. :D  See the picture posts Part 1, Part 2.

1/2 mile of Christmas lights walking through pine tree paths and a beautiful view across the pond.
Games, hot chocolate, and light snacks are available in the pavilion afterwards.
GPS address: Prairie Land Gymnastics and Tumbling
Friday and Saturday nights 5-8 PM, November 28-January 3
2151 CR 1300 E, Lovington, IL, United States, Illinois
(217) 508-3199
Free event, but donations are appreciated to support the project.

Read more... )
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