Birdfeeding

May. 22nd, 2025 12:59 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and cool.

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

I put out water for the birds.














.
 

Thursday @ 11:00 pm

May. 22nd, 2025 11:00 pm
alisx: A demure little moth person, with charcoal fuzz and teal accents. (Default)
[personal profile] alisx

Cleaning out all the old medicines to take back to the pharmacy for disposal and found a tube of ivermectin from like 2018 and had to go stare at the wall for a while, hey.

(It’d been prescribed for rosacea, FWIW, and was no more effective for that than for covid . . .)

Leave a comment.+

Looking for housemates in Minnesota

May. 22nd, 2025 02:32 am
sasha_feather: Retro-style poster of skier on pluto.   (Default)
[personal profile] sasha_feather
I've been living at my childhood home, a hobby farm in Minnesota, taking care of my dad. Soon my dad will be moving to assisted living, along with my mom who is moving there from the nursing home.

I'll be staying at the farm and looking after the animals. I'd rather live here with other people, as it's safer and more fun. I have multiple disabilities which make managing a whole farm rather difficult on my own. I've had a couple of seizures which make it safer for me to have people around me. Minnesota is one of the better places to live right now in the US and this could be a good opportunity for someone to live here.

So, if you know of anyone that would like a nice place to live, please direct them my way, especially queer and trans people looking for a relatively safe place. There is a lot of space in the house (3 full bathrooms, 4 bedrooms), and plenty of outdoor space.

I have one cat and one dog in the house, and outside there are a few sheep, one aging horse that is strictly a pasture pet, and some guinea fowl. Amenities include a dishwasher, laundry, wifi, some streaming services, 2 gas fireplaces. This is a wonderful place for hobbies such as gardening, woodworking, fiber arts, baking, etc. In addition to the house there are some outbuildings and a nice garden shed. Opportunities for fishing, golf, biking abound in the region.

Couples (+) are welcome as are kids. There is a good elementary school just a few miles away.

The house needs a bit of work, but overall it's very nice and peaceful. One thing I do contend with here is bugs. There is no central AC but we can do window AC units when needed. Sometimes the dog barks in an annoying manner (we are working on it). I could use help with mowing, weeding, cutting brush.

You could live here for cheap as I mostly am looking for company and help. I can't live with smokers due to my disabilities. I have lived with roommates for most of my life and can provide references.

The house is rural but only a few miles from the nearest shopping area, and close to a small city. You would probably need to have a car, though we can get grocery delivery here.

My interests include watching TV shows and movies, gardening, science fiction, jigsaw puzzles, thrifting. I'm a queer woman in my 40s. I'm a rather extreme night owl.

If interested you can comment here or email me, sandphin at gmail dot com. Share this link with people you think might be interested!

Community Thursday

May. 22nd, 2025 06:47 am
vriddy: Hawks perched on a pole with sword-feather in hand (hawks perched)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Commented on [community profile] common_nature, and more Vigilantes anime chit-chat on [community profile] bnha_fans!

Poor Life Choices

May. 21st, 2025 10:37 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Never give up anything that makes you happy just because other people think it is silly or childish.  Especially never give up an effective coping skill!  Yes, I have stuffed animals.  I am currently most fond of Snoozimals and Squishmallows for practical use, but we also have a weird stuffy collection for artistic merit.  

Stuffed Animals cartoon strip
 

Queer Comics and Cartoon Trivia?

May. 21st, 2025 09:42 pm
got_quiet: Zenitsu looking panicked (zenitsu)
[personal profile] got_quiet
A fun way of measuring my business/stress levels is how often I fail to keep energy at under 120 in Nu:Carni or miss a guild point or two lol. Usually I hit 35 points with ease but I'm already 4 down this week.

A little while ago I agreed to help a friend man a table at a local comic event and do some trivia. We're just going to ask a bunch of random questions about cartoons and comics, but they have to have something to do with LGBT+ stuff, because that is what the org I'm helping table for is about.

Well, the energy I might have had to collect these trivia bits has been redirected to the house hunt, so now I'm trying to make sure I at least have a few bits ready. There is also a bank of trivia from previous events, but they are all kind of western live action from 30 years ago type items, and I want a refresher.

So does anyone know some good places for such trivia sources? Or do they have some favorite trivia that they want to throw in that a crowd a comics convention might appreciate? I'm going to dig around the LGBT Themes in Comics wiki but also want stuff like trivia from very gay properties, like stuff about Nimona, Check Please, "Who was the name of the guy Shiro Married at the end of Voltron." (lolololol) etc.

Fossils

May. 21st, 2025 08:33 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Dexterity and climbing ability: how ancient human relatives used their hands

Scientists have found new evidence for how our fossil human relatives in South Africa may have used their hands. Researchers investigated variation in finger bone morphology to determine that South African hominins not only may have had different levels of dexterity, but also different climbing abilities.

Diversity is strength.

"generic systems"

May. 21st, 2025 07:34 pm
stepnix: Blue gear and sigil (magician)
[personal profile] stepnix

papercult has had two different threads on generic systems. which is fine. which is cool. both have come to the conclusion of "it's better when a game has specific goals rather than trying to be the One Game For Everything." which is fine! which is cool!

...but. i do not think that so-called generic systems should be reduced to trying to be the One Game For Everything. i think "this game doesn't work for every campaign concept" is always going to be true! which makes it a boring observation to me. It's much more interesting to me to drill down into the specifics of what they do work for and why. In this sense, "generic" can still be a meaningful (if not perfectly accurate) label for gesturing at some setting flexibility, but it's not like, the main appeal. I don't think the genericism is ever the main appeal, really.

idk i have a vague dissatisfaction with Generic Systems Discourse because it takes a foundational bit of design theory (different mechanics produce different outcomes, so should be used intentionally) and then stops. once you start talking about several generic systems at once, they aren't mechanically unified, so you're no longer talking systems! you're just saying "games should have goals" without trying to analyze the goals of the games you're discussing!

i think this means i don't have any beef with any individual generic system i just think people talk about them weirdly

What We Weading Wednesday - I Live!

May. 21st, 2025 05:31 pm
white_aster: stacks of books (books)
[personal profile] white_aster
Things have been Problematic and Upsetting on the real-life employment front, which has sapped my ability to do many things for the past month or so while I've both been very busy and also constantly feeling like I'm not doing the right thing with my time. But I have been reading! Let's just skip over all those books and get back to the current reads, shall we?

Currently Reading: Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland
This is a bit of an exhausting book, because the main character is very exhausting.  He talks constantly, is just a hyperactive weasel of a person who is both selfish and also incredibly funny.  For me, that takes some doing, as I usually do not find such characters endearing at all.  But this book manages!  Right now, he has managed to steal something and is making that Everyone Else's Problem because his Everyone Else is a bunch of pirate buddies who likewise find him exhausting but weirdly endearing and who desperately want to sell the something he stole.  So there is seafaring and sea serpents and old lovers who'd like to toss him overboard and his own witchy good luck to contend with.  I have to read this in small doses, but am enjoying it.

Just Finished:  A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
Second in a series about a very interesting world where instead of mechanical technology, the world's leaned hard into engineered organics, mutated plants and animals, and reagents pulled from the massive leviathans that annually crawl out of the sea.  Within this the main characters are investigators sent to figure out a murder of an Imperial officer, and find as they unravel the mystery that it of course reaches much further than one guy in a locked room.  I wouldn't suggest reading this before the first book, but it's a great continuation of the series and gives more worldbuilding and characterization of both the main investigator characters.  Highly recommend!

Up Next:  I think I need to read something self-helpy, just to help my brain stop this worry-train it's on.  I've pulled Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil by Stephen Batchelor back off my shelf and think that's up next - IIRC, it was a good book about digging into bad states of mind.  Also, I've become a fan of Kimberly Lemming's light-hearted but well-constructed fantasy romances, and I've got That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Human on my shelf in Libby.

wednesday media

May. 21st, 2025 03:13 pm
isis: (cowboy callum)
[personal profile] isis
What I recently finished watching:

S3 of Dark Winds, which GRRM (who is an executive producer of the show) makes a cameo in, hee. Also Jenna Elfman guest stars as an FBI investigator in from DC. This one goes hard on the "dark" part of the title, with some fairly gruesome crimes going on, as well as the emotional darkness from the fallout of the events of the previous season.

As usual I really enjoyed seeing my local landscapes, and the general Indian-country vibe of the show. (As I've mentioned before, I live not far from Navajo, though the local tribe is actually the Southern Ute; also, the college down the road is free for enrolled tribal members of any US tribe.) I was less a fan of how the season really consisted of very separate storylines, Bernie in the Border Patrol and Joe and Jim on the rez, however, the Navajo police investigation was well integrated with Joe's personal story, which made it all that more interesting. (Also here I have to admit that although I like Jim Chee as a character, I don't find him very attractive - a combination of Kiowa Gordon's chubby face and his truly dreadful 1970's costuming - so the romantic storyline was a little flat for me.)

However, damn do I love Bernie! However, her storyline confused me a bit, because it started out being about human trafficking but ended up being about drugs? But there was also a frightened Mexican family involved? Not sure what was going on there. I did figure out before the reveal who the bad guys and the complicit guys were (and heh, I bet the Republicans are none too pleased at the show painting the Border Patrol as a den of corruption) and wow, the ending of that bit was very kickass.

What I'm watching now:

S2 of Andor, which I only remember certain points from S1 so I was pretty confused during the first episode. Hopefully it will become clear(er) after the second episode, tonight.
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
Yep, we now have a new jet. The decision came from Upon High to accept the "donation", and it is now parked in San Antonio while the Air Force and Boeing decides what to do with it.

Would you like to know what a tricked-out 747-8 looks like after it took four years to plan and refurbish? Look no more, just click on the link below!

https://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-boeing-747-plane-trump-air-force-one-photos-interior-2025-5


Apparently Secretary of Defense Otis Hegseth (shout-out to the Andy Griffith Show) gave the order to accept the offer. It isn't in the below Newsweek article, but SecDef Otis said that the donated plane's remediation should be done in a way that should not "unduly impact" the delivery of the two new AF1's on order from Boeing and due to be delivered around 2029.

ROFLMAO!

One of the things delaying that delivery date is the difficulty in getting workers screened for their security clearances. And now there's a THIRD 747 that's going to require a massive refit before it can be put into service for use as an Air Force One that is going to further strain that clearance chain. Not to mention they still have to maintain the TWO EXISTING AIR FORCE ONE 747s!

Yeah, it won't unduly impact the delivery of the ordered planes in the slightest. And to quote Wayne's World, monkeys might fly out of my butt.

https://www.newsweek.com/hegseth-update-qatar-jet-trump-air-force-one-2074837

And remember, they're making government smaller and more efficient and saving money!

My brain is in a strange place today

May. 21st, 2025 01:50 pm
thewayne: (Default)
[personal profile] thewayne
Not feeling good, and my brain is having a field day.

I'm reading my ebook sales newsletters and came across the following description: "...A police officer, a sharpshooter, and a Marine band together to survive in this high-octane series starter..."

So you've got the cop and the sharpshooter driving down the road in a beat-up Trans Am, followed by a bus of Marine musicians performing Sousa....

:-)

This is honestly how my brain initially interpreted that blurb. I really need to re-re-re-watch Police Squad and the Naked Gun movies.

Birdfeeding

May. 21st, 2025 01:14 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen several sparrows and house finches, a catbird, and a phoebe

I put out water for the birds.

I set out the flats of pots and watered them.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I did a bit more work outside.

I've seen a female cardinal.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I potted up 2 pink-flowered 'Toscana' strawberries, each in its own pot.  I filled another pot with a purple-and-white striped 'Wave' petunia, a 'Dusty Miller' artemesia, and 2 white sweet alyssums.  I put these on the tall metal planter and tied them in place.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- We moved 2 bags of composted manure to the old picnic table.

I've seen a young fox squirrel.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I potted up the last of the Shithouse Marigolds and Charleston Food Forest marigolds, each in its own pot.  These are the last of the ones I grew from seed.  All winter-sown pots sprouted at least one marigold, and many sprouted several.  That makes this a good approach to repeat.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I sowed a pot with passionflower seeds.  No idea if they'll actually fruit here, but it's a host plant for multiple butterfly species who only need the leaves.  I've never tried to grow these before, and bought them on a whim when I saw the seed packet in a store, knowing that they are a valuable host plant.

I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I sowed two pots with nasturtiums

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I took pictures of the pots where I sowed seeds earlier.  Of the 10 pots of Little Bluestem that I sowed on 2/24/25, five of them sprouted healthy little clumps of grass.  I planted these five in one of the strips of the prairie garden.  While 50% is not a great success rate, it is a useful rate particularly with native plants that are expensive to buy in pots.

EDIT 5/21/25 -- I did a bit more work outside.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches along with several mourning doves.

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

Hard Things

May. 21st, 2025 12:25 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?

sideways: (►happy being someone)
[personal profile] sideways
Auspol is my favourite sport this year. Election results so savage the conservatives have appointed a woman leader for the first time because they're literally running out of seated men, and then straight-up had an internal collapse that would make it impossible to form government at any other election either if it were to be maintained. (It will not be maintained, for that exact reason, but I can hyena laugh for now.)

And it all happened after the leadership stint of probably my second least favourite Aussie politician ever. It's like Christmas.
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Thanks to a donation from [personal profile] lone_cat, you can now read the beginning of "In the Heart of the Hidden Garden."  Lawrence and Stan look for their classrooms at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Coral Reefs

May. 20th, 2025 09:15 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
New 7-mile-long underwater sculpture park invites snorkelers to save coral reefs

With construction starting this year, the Great Florida Reef will soon feature a 7-mile public art installation: The Reefline.

Both a sculpture park and a snorkeling trail, the development will also serve as an artificial reef to offer shelter to fish, which will, in turn, help corals thrive.


Read more... )

Wednesday @ 10:09 am

May. 21st, 2025 10:09 am

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