Community Thursdays

Apr. 9th, 2026 12:15 am
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Posted "Draw a Bird Day" in [community profile] green_joy.

* Posted "Crafts" in [community profile] green_living.

* Posted "Poem: Haiku for Natural Monuments of Japan 1-10-26" to [community profile] haiku_gallery.

Dept of Not Dead Yet

Apr. 8th, 2026 06:57 pm
kaffy_r: Isha, child from Arcane S02, with miner's hat (Isha with miner's hat)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
... But Not Precisely Lively, Either

It's been too long since I last posted, or checked in with other folks' journals. My energy levels have been up and down like a yoyo, and even the ups aren't where I'd like them to be. It means that there are some days when I'm happy at having completed one or two things, and there are other days when I can't even get those one or two things done. 

I've been active on Discord, but I don't want to hang there all the time, or certainly not hang there to the detriment of some of my other spaces. I'm trying to find and keep friends and friendly acquaintances in different places. You'd think that that kind of adulting wouldn't be difficult. You would be wrong. 

I've managed to push through a bit on my writing. I've managed (ihopeihopeihope) to have prevented more mouse incursions. I'm thinking of putting some more of my old poetry up on [community profile] originalkaffy_r , but who knows if I'll actually do it. I've gotten some reading done away from the laptop - 

I bought the new BTS album and, once again, can't say why I did that. I'd been listening to the album even before buying it (the first actual music purchase I've made in a long time) thanks to all the songs being on YouTube, and I really like it. But I don't understand ... well, much of what's going on in my head these days. 

I imagine I'll figure it out. 

Draw a Bird Day

Apr. 8th, 2026 07:30 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is Draw a Bird Day. You don't need to be "an artist" for this. Your drawing (or painting, or whatever) does not have to be fancy. Just squiggle out a bird!

Read more... )

Early Humans

Apr. 8th, 2026 06:12 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Stone Age humans used these mysterious signs and symbols to store and share information, almost 40,000 years before writing was invented

The research team studied 260 mobile artifacts that contain more than 3,000 signs. The team focused only on intentional and non-practical surface marks. That means the signs were not accidental scratches or marks made for tool making.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Apr. 8th, 2026 02:21 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny, breezy, and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a male goldfinch.

I put out water for the birds.

I took some pictures around the yard.

EDIT 4/8/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/8/26 -- We went out to run errands. I picked up a flat of mostly pansies and violas in assorted colors plus a couple 4-packs of white alyssum, a pot of mixed Johnny-jump-ups that are actually fragrant, and a purple-and-white columbine. :D

EDIT 4/8/26 -- I planted the purple-and-white columbine in the rain garden. The bleeding heart there is starting to bloom! \o/

EDIT 4/8/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 4/8/26 -- I did a bit of work on the new picnic table garden.

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

Cuddle Party

Apr. 8th, 2026 01:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)
[personal profile] oursin

What I read

Finished Never Had It So Good, and while I am less whelmed than I was on first reading it 50 years ago (aaarrgh), and consider that as panoramic social novel of provincial life, does not quite reach the level of South Riding, yet, that is the comparison one thinks of. I also mark up Mr Jones in contrast to The Angry Young Men who were his contemporaries over a whole range of issues.

Finished Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore, which was fascinating, and very readable, but has not somehow inspired me to rush off and do a re-read.

Then thought I should really read Adania Shibli, Minor Detail (2017), for forthcoming in-person book group.

In hopes of a change from that - it's grim - read Marion Keyes, The Mystery of Mercy Close (Walsh Family, #5) (2012), a recent Kobo deal, which was itself not entirely the most cheerful read.

On the go

Amazon helpfully alerted me to Kindle-only publication of Alexis Hall, Never After, currently in progress, also not really bringing the delicious froth - opium-addicted Victorian rent-boy rescued from homelessness on the streets by clergyman (unexpected and unwanted 3rd son in aristo family, put him into the church) with his own backstory baggage.

Up next

There's a new Literary Review.

Also I had a mad binge on Kobo the other day, mostly Dick Francises which had come down to promotional prices, but I also finally succumbed to the most recent Edward St Aubyn which has been tempting me. The previous one was so much less gruesome than the Melrose sequence that perhaps this will be the change of pace I'm looking for?

Yatta! for 2026 04 03-06

Apr. 7th, 2026 07:48 pm
ladythmpr: (Default)
[personal profile] ladythmpr
Yatta! )
oursin: The Delphic Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel (Delphic sibyl)
[personal profile] oursin

Personally I suspect Blake Morrison has either not read terribly deeply in memoirs of the past, because I could probably without too much struggle come up with instances which were not at all about being 'a geriatric, self-satisfied genre (politicians, generals and film stars looking back fondly on long careers)', but one sees that this is a position he has to take up in order to make his case about Ye Moderne Confeshunal memoiring.

‘Enough of this me me me’: Blake Morrison on memoir in the age of oversharing

(Harriette Wilson would like a word, just saying, for starters.) (We can so imagine dear Harriette on social media, no?)

I'm not sure he's really got an argument there rather than some vague blathering about published memoirs vs social media and blogs, especially given the, er, thinness of his historical grounding (though in some cases past memoirists prudently arranged for the work to published posthumously).

And as for people being somewhat lax with the truthiness of their memoirs, how about this chap: The schoolteacher who spawned a Highland literary hoax:

The book’s author and narrator, Donald Cameron, describes his early life in Blarosnich, a remote hill farm in the Western Highlands in the 1930s and early 1940s. The book presents a Brigadoon-like spectacle of an agrarian community seemingly little touched by modernity, populated by pious women, elderly aristocrats and lusty farm lads.
....
Donald Cameron was, in fact, a pseudonym of Robert Harbinson Bryans, an itinerant bisexual schoolteacher turned travel writer who was born in Belfast in 1928 and died in London in 2005. Also known as Robin Bryans, his name is now largely forgotten apart from among students of plots and conspiratorial claims.

He is not, I think, the only instance of totally faked autobiography taken as searing insight into a lost way of life.

that poet is doing it again!

Apr. 7th, 2026 02:40 pm
alatefeline: Painting of a cat asleep on a book. (Default)
[personal profile] alatefeline
Committing poetry!

(Along with fiction, demifiction, research notes, and other literary MAYHEM!)

Ahem. Announcing Ysabetwordsmith's Poetry Fishbowl, in which that writer collects prompts, writes like a MANIAC all day/night, and offers funding options to sponsor publicly sharing the goodies.

https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/15422855.html

My /personal/ challenge, for myself and others, based on a recent conversation:
Think of the weirdest science fiction you're read (or watched, played etc) recently.
(Other speculative forms also welcome).
Now think of something WEIRDER.
Now go prompt /that./

Prompt -- for the Poetry Fishbowl, and/or your favorite other author, and/or a fannish kinkmeme somewhere, and/or a patch of sidewalk in need of chalking...anywhere it's going to inspire people (not chatbots) to make things. Please!

You can even give /me/ a writing prompt. Ideas and plot bunnies welcome! But, my response tim,e varies from two minutes to two centuries, overall, and my creative time is quite crunched right now. Ysabet, on the other hand, WILL be writing something, TODAY.

I am ABSOLUTELY making this post for the linkback poetry reveal perk, FYI. But it's a fun event and a good writer and new prompters do get some freebies, so why not take a look?
ysabetwordsmith: Shaeth is drunk (one god)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] torc87. It also fills the "Escape" square in my 4-1-26 card for the Flower Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:54 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy, breezy, and cold.  A beautiful day to stay indoors and write!

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a lot more sparrows and house finches, several starlings, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 4/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Apr. 7th, 2026 12:04 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this space as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "I am SO done with this!" I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for activists, rebels, Women Who Run with the Saberteeth, explorers, traitors, exes, people who escape domestic violence, refugees, runaway youth, escaped slaves or other captives, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, stray or feral animals, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


EDIT 4/7/26 -- [personal profile] alatefeline offers this challenge:
My /personal/ challenge, for myself and others, based on a recent conversation:
Think of the weirdest science fiction you're read (or watched, played etc) recently.
(Other speculative forms also welcome).
Now think of something WEIRDER.
Now go prompt /that./


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Flower Fest Bingo Card 4-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures and climates. This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Coracle Shores is about leaving a distressed world for somewhere better.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, when former cities are unsafe.

The Moon Door explores a women's chronic pain group and lycanthropy.

Not Quite Kansas deals with demons and angels, also characters dumped out of their original worlds.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Path of the Paladins includes a few characters who have walked away from unbearable situations, like Johan.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates, the latter of whom are well versed in weighing anchor.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to cut and run from a bad situation.

Schrodinger's Heroes has a lot of situations that people want to get away from including Chris avoiding some of his relatives, Morgan moving to a new dimension, and dimensions that just suck for everyone.

The Wandering is a series about fantasy time travel where people loop back within their own lifespan.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

Read more... )

Wolves

Apr. 7th, 2026 06:29 am
mrissa: (Default)
[personal profile] mrissa
 New poem out today in Uncanny! I wrote The Truth About Wolves for my beloved younger godchild. I hope you enjoy it too.
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
This is legitimately one of the most alarming things I've heard about AI. I can see no lie.

2026 Apr 6: Alberta Tech [YT]: "Vibe Coding is Gambling" [56 seconds]:

Space Exploration

Apr. 6th, 2026 05:29 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Artemis 2 lunar flyby is Monday. What to expect

After launching on April 1, 2026, the Artemis 2 mission has already passed the halfway point between the Earth and moon. It will enter the sphere of the moon’s gravitational influence — where lunar gravity begins affecting it more than earthly gravity — today, Sunday, April 5, 2026, aka Flight Day 5. Tomorrow, April 6, Flight Day 6, the 4-person crew will perform its closest flyby to the moon. The brave astronauts will pass approximately 4,600 miles (7,400 km) above the lunar surface.

During this loop around the moon’s far side, the astronauts will break the all-time human distance record from Earth. The crew of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission set this record at 00:21 UTC on April 15, 1970 (7:21 p.m. EST on April 14, 1970). At that moment, Apollo 13 was approximately 248,655 miles (400,171 km) away from Earth’s surface.



Exciting!

Nature

Apr. 6th, 2026 04:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
King Charles III England Coast Path

The King Charles III England Coast Path (KCIIIECP), originally and still commonly known as the England Coast Path, is a long-distance National Trail that follows the coastline of England. Opened on 19 March 2026 by King Charles III, the trail extends for 2,689 miles (4,328 km).

Sections of the English coast already had established walking routes, most notably the South West Coast Path. However, the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 required Natural England, under section 298, to create a continuous coastal path. The first section, along Weymouth Bay, opened in 2012. The walking route is the longest coastal trail in the world, and its total length increases further when considered alongside the Wales Coast Path
.


Those of you who live in or visit the United Kingdom may wish to explore this amenity.

Life

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations


~2000 years later, this is still 100% timely. That's a depressing observation regarding humanity's potential for progress ... or lack thereof.


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