Self-Care Wednesday

Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:45 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I checked for a Wednesday-after-Thanksgiving holiday and didn't find any. So I'm declaring this Self-Care Wednesday. You've done all the things. You've done Thanksgiving, Buy Nothing Day, Small Business Saturday, Shop for Good Sunday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. And now you're tired. You deserve a break! Take care of yourself today.

Self-Care Wednesday text with reading nook.

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Cuddle Party

Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:33 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (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!

I'm bringing candy cane cookies.

For winter holidays, we also have:

24 Apple Cider Recipes

25 Unique Christmas Dinner Ideas 2024

Christmas Recipes

EASY ALLERGY FRIENDLY HOLIDAY RECIPES FOR SPECIAL DIETS

72 Hanukkah Recipes for This Year’s Celebration

Healthy Holiday & Occasion Recipes

25 HOLIDAY COOKIE RECIPES

19 Festive Recipes to Celebrate Kwanzaa

Vegan Holiday Recipes for Your 2024 Menu

Yule Recipes
[syndicated profile] daily_illuminator_feed
The New York Times has reported that Burt Meyer – collaborative developer of Mouse Trap, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and Lite-Brite (among many other games and toys) – passed away on October 30, at the age of 99.

Mr. Meyer was a designer at Marvin Glass and Associates, where he helped develop and hone various game and toy designs. His favorite design was Lite-Brite, which I always found diverting when I got to fiddle with them. (We didn't own one, but I was always jealous of friends who had sets.)

For me, getting to ponder the passing of someone who had a hand in the creation of Mouse Trap gives me a moment to reflect on that game.

Although being released a solid decade before I was born, Mouse Trap was one of my earliest memories of a game that could feel . . . intricate. Wooly. Chaotic. Other early childhood gaming affairs were primarily "roll the die, move the pieces." Sure, that described Mouse Trap, too, but there was this strange three-dimensional element of its plastic Rube Goldberg-esque "mouse trap" that made it seem so much more whimsical and limitless. Like, this was an era when – as a single-digit tyke – the second-most-innovative game I had exposure to was another "roll the die and move the pieces" affair, only the die was in a popping plastic dome.

I know modern gamers have an abundance of just about every concept of game imaginable, but as someone who grew up amid a paucity of possibilities, it's difficult to say how magical that bit of childhood entertainment was for me. It was an early eye-opener about how games weren't just plastic pawns pushed around on printed cardboard.

"Games" could mean a marble rolling down a rickety ramp.

A bathtub.

A back-flipping diver.

Games could be anything.

Steven Marsh

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!
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
I have the distinct impression that Adrian Tchaikovsky doesn't like Donald Trump.

Read more... )
rix_scaedu: (Flower person)
[personal profile] rix_scaedu
Day 66, here we are!  Features wedding planning and politically induced social awkwardness.

This piece runs to 2,502 words and I hope that you enjoy it.

Index page.
 

Rhoinday, 16 Deichen, 1893 C.E.
Jimool, 6 Kaalen, 2157 T.M.L.
1 Mikistli, 21 Coatl, 6.11.2.1.8.4.2

Dear Journal,

It was overcast with a light drizzle when I woke this morning, making me think that we had been lucky with the weather yesterday afternoon. When Nais brought me my warm water, I put on one of my visiting gowns, the yellow one, so that I would not need to change if Lord Elnaith came to take me for a walk during the day.

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(no subject)

Dec. 3rd, 2025 05:29 am
[syndicated profile] apod_feed

What's happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77? What's happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77?


El Goonish Shive - falsekings-076

Dec. 3rd, 2025 12:00 am
[syndicated profile] egs_comic_feed

New comic!

Today's News:

- Almost everything you could possibly want to know about projectionsPart 3 of Layers

- Ellen revealing why I just said "almost" — End of Part 4 of Layers

- Po's entrance while using a projection

Bishop is showing remarkable restraint relative to my original plan of having her shout that out loud.

Given that uryuom projections can be reflected (among other things), Bishop is making something of an assumption in panel three. She might be right, she might be wrong. It's possible the mirror circumvents uryuom projections, but it's also possible it doesn't, and Po simply wasn't using one at the time of transformation.

Po not using a projection then makes sense, as she was using her tails to deflect Jeremy. Using a projection that hides tails would interfere with being able to use them effectively.

That said, Po not using a projection would only mean she hadn't been using a projection. That wouldn't settle anything about the mirror.

Anyway, science is annoyingly persnickety.

--

- Tuesday EGSNP

[syndicated profile] gws_feed

New comic!

Today's News:

BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, but no time like the present!

Here's the original post, and the chaser post! By the way, I'm keeping my Black Friday deals up til the end of the week, so if you want to get the GWS compendium for $20 off, or most of the stuff in my shop for 50% off, place your orders before this weekend!

Poem: "User Interfaces"

Dec. 2nd, 2025 05:59 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (Fly Free)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] fuzzyred. It also fills the "Magical Power" square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo. This poem belongs to the series LIFC.

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Linguistics

Dec. 2nd, 2025 03:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Yet More on Ancient Greek Dildos

This is one of those delightful linguistic deep-dives so beloved of classical philologists. Nelson considers the use of classical Greek ὄλισβος (olisbos) as meaning “dildo” within the context of its other meanings and of other words for dildo and concludes that not only was “dildo” not the primary meaning for the word, but that it also wasn’t the standard/default term for such an instrument. Rather, the modern scholarly assumption that olisbos=dildo derives from the use of the word in Aristophanes and the tendency of the works of Aristophanes to dominate understandings of Greek usage of his time.


Just in case you want some words that modern censors are unlikely to recognize. :D  Or you just like ancient sex toys.

Birdfeeding

Dec. 2nd, 2025 01:34 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and cold.  It snowed a bit yesterday, so everything is white and fluffy again.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a male and a female cardinal separately.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen two mourning doves.

EDIT 12/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

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

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Dec. 2nd, 2025 01:00 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Sentient and Self-Aware Machines." 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 androids, robots, sexbots, sentient ships, other digital people, programmers, gizmologists and super-gizmologists, super-intellects, rebels, researchers, journalists, historians, explorers, partners, teachers, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, ethicists, activists, other people who work with self-aware machines, programming, changing or breaking programs, building hardware, choosing a hardware body, finding partners, upsetting predictions, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, cyberspace, computer centers, HAMshack, robot factories, worldgates, liminal zones, schools, sharehouses, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, starships, bizarre exoplanets, foreign dimensions, other places frequented by digital people, American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Robots, hardware, software, quicklife, artificial intelligence, ethics of self-aware machines, toolkits, space exploration, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, 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.


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

December is amnesty month.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has the AYES.

The Blueshift Troupers is designed for easy crossing with other genres or tropes as they visit different planets, thus can easily accommodate self-aware machines.

Diminished Expectations has the gynoid and others.

Kung Fu Robots is entirely about self-aware robots.

P.I.E. has Zephyr, a digital person.

Polychrome Heroics has the rescued sexbots among others.

Schrodinger's Heroes is dimensional science fiction, designed for easy crossing with any other characters / setting / genre, thus convenient for self-aware machines.

The Steamsmith includes the tommies.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks will reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Christmas Preparations
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only):
[December 1, 2016]


:: Bennett wants to do something to help new neighbors in need during “the giving season.” The project quickly expands, in good ways. Part of the Mercedes story arc in the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story was prompted by [personal profile] siliconshaman, with my thanks, and half a dozen ideas for follow-up stories. Feel free to ask for more!




Bennett’s neck clicked and popped as he stretched in front of the laptop. He shut it off with a few keystrokes, closed it, and locked it in the file drawer before pulling out the old-fashioned handwritten ledger on green paper. He scanned the numbers, then began to smile. He had five days before Jules’ next scheduled video call, and planned to put those days to good use. He checked the schedules for the next few days, checked the planned teleport delivery of the bioreactive ink for the custom tattoo that would take up all of days three and four, made a vague note on his vidphone as a reminder, and began the night walkthrough to close up the business.

He tucked a notepad in his shirt pocket, and stopped at nearly every step of the process to jot down ideas.
Read more... )

CodeSOD: The Destination Dir

Dec. 2nd, 2025 06:30 am
[syndicated profile] the_daily_wtf_feed

Posted by Remy Porter

Darren is supporting a Delphi application in the current decade. Which is certainly a situation to be in. He writes:

I keep trying to get out of doing maintenance on legacy Delphi applications, but they keep pulling me back in.

The bit of code Darren sends us isn't the largest WTF, but it's a funny mistake, and it's a funny mistake that's been sitting in the codebase for decades at this point. And as we all know, jokes only get funnier with age.

FileName := DestDir + ExtractFileName(FileName);
if FileExists(DestDir + ExtractFileName(FileName)) then
begin
  ...
end;

This code is inside of a module that copies a file from a remote server to the local host. It starts by sanitizing the FileName, using ExtractFileName to strip off any path components, and replace them with DestDir, storing the result in the FileName variable.

And they liked doing that so much, they go ahead and do it again in the if statement, repeating the exact same process.

Darren writes:

As Homer Simpson said "Lather, rinse, and repeat. Always repeat."

[Advertisement] BuildMaster allows you to create a self-service release management platform that allows different teams to manage their applications. Explore how!
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Which I nearly forgot about, but here we are!

You can buy points here, and then spend them on a paid account.

And then you can post a poll!

Poll #33906 Gratuitous poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24


On a scale of one to ten, crickets or walnuts?

View Answers
Mean: 6.29 Median: 7 Std. Dev 2.72
1
2 (8.3%)
2
1 (4.2%)
3
2 (8.3%)
4
0 (0.0%)
5
3 (12.5%)
6
3 (12.5%)
7
6 (25.0%)
8
1 (4.2%)
9
2 (8.3%)
10
4 (16.7%)

The Early Years by Mark Waldron

Dec. 1st, 2025 04:41 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
I don’t want to say
things were indescribably
bad exactly

but things were
indescribably bad exactly

I don’t want to say the tide
went out and left him
gasping—a landed fish precisely

but the tide did indeed go out
and left him gaping—a dropped ghost

to make matters worse
god gathered up all of god’s things
and paddled out on that tide
so he swore he would die

and to make matters worser still
he rocked back and forth
in a bubble rather boggy and sad

ate nothing but thistles therein

I don’t want to pretend
things were very much worse
than they were
but they very much were


*********


Link

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