Communities

Nov. 9th, 2025 12:06 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[community profile] displacementdiaries  -- Displacement Diaries
A reflective space for journaling life abroad, family complexity, grief, and personal growth.
Displacement Diaries is a reflective space for journaling life transitions, grief, family complexity, and experiences abroad. This community is for those who write about survival, emotional upheaval, and the slow work of rebuilding one’s life. Longform personal narratives, introspective essays, and memory-based storytelling are welcome
.

For my friends who are from afar, or forced away from home, or may become so.

The Chalikar

Nov. 8th, 2025 10:03 pm
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[personal profile] fayanora
One of my favorite little things I love about my Ravenstone series is scenes wherein Vedya's anti-bullying network, the Chalikar, are shown to be doing their job and helping others in various ways. While primarily being an anti-bullying organization, they do other helpful things as well. In book 7, in the chapter I'm currently writing, the readers find out the Chalikar runs a year-round program to provide various things for needy students. In this case, providing suitable formal attire for students whose family was either too poor or just didn't provide it for some reason. But it's mentioned they also provide shoes, other clothes, books, and other things as needed. Funded largely by the Ravenstones, but not entirely by them.

Now that I think about it, I might have the Chalikar run a fund-raiser for the program.
fayanora: qrcode (Default)
[personal profile] fayanora
You know how in some media there are blind people depicted with eyes that are 100% white, no irises or pupils visible? Does anyone know if that ever actually happens IRL, or if it's just a weird trope with no basis in reality?

Photos: Lake Charleston

Nov. 8th, 2025 10:14 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest, Coles County Community Garden, and Lake Charleston. These are the lake pictures, thus meeting my fall goal for birdwatching / leafpeeping. (Begin with the food forest, community garden.)

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest, Coles County Community Garden, and Lake Charleston.  These are the community garden pictures.  (Begin with the food forest.  Continue with the lake.)

Walk with me ... )

Photos: Charleston Food Forest

Nov. 8th, 2025 09:03 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest, Coles County Community Garden, and Lake Charleston. These are the food forest pictures. What started out as a beautiful fall day, sunny and cool, clouded over by the time we got out of the house. So the lighting isn't great, but at least the pictures look okay. (Continue with the community garden and the lake.)

Walk with me ... )

Activism

Nov. 8th, 2025 07:29 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Engineers built a drifting wheelchair for an injured colleague

Given how crappy the official  medical equipment is, and how expensive, I'm delighted to see people making adaptive equipment on their own.
chanter1944: a house and road blanketed in snow (Wisconsin winter: buried in snay)
[personal profile] chanter1944
Wet, slushy, sloppy snow is not out of the ordinary. Neither is bracing wind. Bleh! Very glad I made the last outdoor farmers market of the year this morning, before the weather went the expected route on us.

I do *not* envy anyone running the marathon tomorrow...! The snow isn't expected to stick, but still.

An Off Day (part 1 of 1, complete)

Nov. 8th, 2025 07:24 pm
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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
An Off Day
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 2184
[December 2016]


:: Elisabeth Finn has many things to accomplish, but her body just isn’t cooperating. Several people offer subtle (and not so subtle) assistance. Written for the October of 2025 Feathering the Nest event, prompted by [personal profile] callibr8, and posted for everyone to enjoy, with my deepest thanks. Part of the Finn Family and the Mercedes story arcs in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::




Doctor Elisabeth Finn peeled her eyes open slowly, feeling sticky gunk clinging to each eyelash as they separated. When her eyes focused, or tried to, her temples began to pound. Scraps of light slipping over the top of the drawn curtains in the bedroom stung her eyes like frosty wind.

One hand flopped to cover her eyes as she groaned. Then, the existence of daylight registered in her sluggish brain and she pushed the quilt off of her body.

The air in the warm room slammed into her and gooseflesh rose instantly, even on the tops of her feet and the skin on her elbows. Elisabeth groaned.
Read more... )

Safety

Nov. 8th, 2025 06:02 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Common pesticides may cause testicular damage and lower sperm counts

Widespread farm pesticides may be quietly undermining male reproductive health.

A decade-long review by George Mason University researchers reveals growing evidence that neonicotinoid insecticides—the world’s most widely used class of pesticides—may harm male reproductive health. The findings, based on 21 animal studies, show consistent links between exposure and reduced sperm quality, hormonal disruption, and testicular damage.



This will be useful to people seeking to ban or limit harmful pesticides. Perpetrators may not care about the environment or other humans, but they almost certainly care about their own virility.  Similarly victims who are lethargic about other health threats may rally over this one.

Well, I like them well enough

Nov. 8th, 2025 03:36 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Except I think that my pupil distance was 56 instead of 55, and also the bridge seems a bit flimsy. That, I don't like, but it may be my amorphous anxiety talking.

In other news, Moonpie has completely scratched and licked up her nipples and now they're bleeding and infected, and apparently the vet prefers to do a blood test at this age, but as the blood test is $400 we declined. (E asked if I thought they judged us for that, lol, sweetie, I always think everybody judges me for everything, but that's not a rational mindset, so no, upon reflection I don't think that. We're hardly the only family to make petcare decisions based on affordability, and even if they do judge us, great, they can pay for this bloodwork themselves.) Also, NYC now mandates a new vaccine for cats and dogs. They can mandate what they like, but they can't make people follow that law. However, after the vet explained that this disease spreads pretty easily and now is spreading to humans, in whom it can cause kidney and/or liver failure, I decided, reluctantly, to make vaxxing the cats a priority. Which means full vet appointments for each one and new rabies shots as well. It's not going to be a quick process, is what I'm saying. (And we still need to replace those water heaters before they break!)

******************************


Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Nov. 8th, 2025 01:02 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and cool, a beautiful fall day.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/8/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/8/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/8/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/8/25 -- We went to the Charleston Food Forest and Coles County Community Garden, where I gathered more seeds.

We also stopped by Lake Charleston in search of migratory birds, which was largely a bust. :/

EDIT 11/8/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

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

Penric's Labors in Japanese

Nov. 8th, 2025 08:14 am
[syndicated profile] lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed
Retitled Masquerade in Lodi and other novellas. (Which contains "Masquerade in Lodi", "The Orphans of Raspay" and "The Physicians of Vilnoc".)

This came last week, forwarded from my agent possibly in a fit of housecleaning. My author's copies of foreign editions drift in late, erratically, or not at all. (Translation copyright appears to be 2023, near as I can tell.) Anyway, excellent cover art again more-than-hinting that the artist actually read the stories, or at least the title story.




The challenge of how to represent the invisible entity Desdemona is interestingly solved with a sort of magical-monkey-on-his-back creation, which is... not-wrong. And it captures delightfully how Pen felt being dragged through that memorable night in Lodi by the unexpected saint of his Order.

Ta, L.

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on November, 08

Devil part 2 (filler)

Nov. 7th, 2025 11:19 am

November 7, 2025

Nov. 8th, 2025 07:47 am
[syndicated profile] sp2_feed

Posted by rkmilholland

 

First Comic   Previous Comic   Next Comic   Today’s Comic   Latest Updates

 

Oh, hey. A table top rpg I did art for is funding on BackerKit. The Cryptid Show has reached goal, but there’s a new stretch goal where I get to do more illustrations. Consider backing it so I can give you more “delightful” creatures like these. -R.

 

 

 

 

 

Philosophical Questions: Community

Nov. 8th, 2025 12:13 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.

Is hierarchy necessary for all successful human communities?


No. It's just easier. Humans seem inclined to prefer having leadership. Egalitarian communities exist, but they tend to take more work to create and maintain.



[syndicated profile] daily_illuminator_feed
When Dahlia's Diversions for Peculiar Parties was headed to print, the uncertainty of tariffs with our crowdfund made overseas manufacturing a risky proposition . . . so we ditched the box and dice in favor of a rigid envelope and had the games printed here in the USA. The printer we found for the actual games was local to Atlanta, GA, and the envelopes were shipped to us. Our printer was lovely enough to collate the games for us, but once they got started, we discovered an issue: The envelopes had a nasty habit of splitting at the sides, and we had to replace the entire batch. Which meant taking apart the entire print run and putting it back together again.

And that happened on Steve's dining room table – our first in-house assembly in over 20 years! We were able to hire local friends to help us re-collate the games and get them shipped out to backers and to Warehouse 23.

Dahlia's Diversions assembly Dahlia's Diversions assembly (with help from Admiral Nelson)

Our final mission was to deliver the 750 copies that are going into distribution. Conveniently, the PSI warehouse is just north of Atlanta! And the entire load fit into my Prius, so SJ and I were able to hand-deliver the PSI order in one trip.

 Steve Jackson holding a box outside a door marked RECEIVING

If you get a copy of Dahlia's on Warehouse 23 or at your local game store, you'll have your own piece of this story, too – a game lovingly hand-assembled at Steve's house.

Irene Zielinski

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

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