johnpalmer

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Extreme Animals
Birdfeeding
Grand Prairie Friends
Communities
Photos: Lake Charleston
Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Photos: Charleston Food Forest
Activism
Safety
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Community
Today's Smoothie
Poem: "A Clear Path of Freedom"
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 11-7-25: Kingdom Hearts
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Food
Birdfeeding
Poem: "To the Rational Mind"
Early Humans
Hard Things

Trauma has 36 comments. Affordable Housing has 60 comments. Robotics has 97 comments.

Last week's Poetry Fishbowl went well. I still have at least one more poem to write.

"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $191 to be complete. Maiara and Arthur discuss taking notes.

The weather was pleasantly cool, then today the temperature suddenly plummeted and it snowed a little. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a goldfinch. A great horned owl has been hoo-hooing outside along with a shrieking owlet. :D 3q3q3q!!! Currently blooming: dandelions, marigolds, red salvia, sweet alyssum, blue lobelia, firecracker plant. Fields are almost all harvested.

Current Mood: busy

dialecticdreamer

Late Night Complication
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1376
[Sunday, May 10, 2020, night]

:: Very late at night, another visitor arrives. It is not at all what the Teagues were expecting. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

[Author’s note: Yes, this was planned. Trying not to spoil the events has been KILLING me.]

Late Night Complication
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to

The door creaked as it opened, but the security light did not turn on. Declan prayed silently, his gloved hand trembling as he pushed the door open another two or three inches, giving barely enough room to slip inside the lower level of the two-story garage. In the dark, he held his breath as he pushed the door closed behind himself.

Light flooded the space, save for the long shadow spilling down the stairs from the upper landing. “I’m told that I should call the police,” the shadow intoned, “But I am inclined to remove a threat to my family, not just pass the task to some appointed constable.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused

elainegrey

I'm not meeting my expectations of myself and read novels instead of working on Friday, plus lots this weekend, and some late nights. I'm not quite why i am so pulled to escape. Although i suspect the serial quality -- instead of series -- for this cozy fantasy didn't help me feel finished. I'm going to start tagging my whining about this rut with 354 -- a code inspired by the name of my fictitious nemesis, 35mereld4 -- and this year, which had a remarkably bad first six months. I am working with my therapist on giving myself space to mourn the losses and adjust to my ITP diagnosis. I believe the treatment i got in May is going to keep me out of the hospital, but there's a depression/fatigue/out-of-shape-ness that is hard to sort from procrastination and bad habits and the ITP.

Today's lunch is another soup, with Maine kombu, dried mushrooms and onion greens plus a bunch of radish greens simmered together. I pulled the kombu out, blended, added it back with all the basil stems i'd saved from... last? weekend's rescue of basil. (The Thai basil and the one rescued plant might actually survive in the plant window where i overwinter coleus.) Then i added diced potato and what was probably too much nutritional yeast. Simmered until the potatoes were done, removed kombu and the basil. It's a attractive but drab green: i blame the fact that the potatoes were all purple. (And going to sprout, so i wanted to use them up.)

I rescued the lemongrass. I bought hanging planters and a plant stand. If i can keep the Torenia and Impatiens alive all winter and don't need to replace them with other "annuals" it's a win.

Frogs are singing outside tonight. Weather service is calling for a freeze tomorrow -- we haven't had a frost yet.

minoanmiss

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minoanmiss

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Current Mood: amused

ysabetwordsmith

There are currently three poems available from this week's fishbowl, and I'm working on the next. If you're still shopping, now's the time to make your choices.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Life found in a place scientists thought impossible

Life defies limits in the deep sea—microbes flourish where Earth’s chemistry seems too extreme for survival.

Deep beneath the ocean, scientists uncovered thriving microbial life in one of Earth’s harshest environments—an area with a pH of 12, where survival seems nearly impossible. Using lipid biomarkers instead of DNA, researchers revealed how these microbes persist by metabolizing methane and sulfate. The discovery not only sheds light on deep-sea carbon cycling but also suggests that life may have originated in similar extreme conditions, offering a glimpse into both Earth’s past and the limits of life itself.

Extremophiles are fascinating.

Also, I really want to play with that blue serpentine mud to see if it would stand up to pinching, coiling, slabbing, or throwing and what would happen to it in a kiln. It looks like clay. I am betting it would fire either to a soft blue-gray (nice) or a sky blue (so much wow).

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and much colder. Bits of snow and grauppel are falling from the sky. Last night it drizzled a bit.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/9/25 -- I went out looking for more bits to use in the lantern terrarium, but didn't find much. It started snowing more briskly, enough to collect in places on the ground, which counts as First Snow.

EDIT 11/9/25 -- I went out looking for more bits to use in the lantern terrarium, and found a bit more.

I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 11/9/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/9/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

minoanmiss

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Current Mood: distrustful

$mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)$

mdlbear

Not sure what to make of this week. I was not as productive as I need to be, and only got out for walks three times -- four only if you count the 200m taking a bag of mostly cat litter out to the garbage bins at the end of the block. On the other hand, The Black Blood of the Earth, brought back from the US by m, and I had a really good, long video call with E on Thursday.

On the gripping hand, m left for the UK yesterday, to look at colleges and to see whether they like it there. They took their cat, Cricket, which means one less litter box to clean next time I'm on my own here, and also that I'll be able to let Ticia out of my room more (she and Cricket don't get along). But we never did the recording that we'd wanted to do for the Kaleidofolk album. But at least I remembered what I'd read last year about needing a leash and harness for Cricket, so that they could run her carrier through the X-ray, in time for G to order one.

I didn't do as much work on the business websites (HSX and N's author site) as I'd wanted to. But I did do some, and enough of it in time to support N's book release. (And realized that I ought to make a portfolio of the websites I've built, if only for historical purposes and bragging rights.)

Have some links: people are having funerals for the world's melting glaciers, and DO NOT turn to an AI chatbot for therapy.

On the positive side, though, Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity (three hours' worth every day). And here's the William Tell Overture Finale on Musical Tesla Coils.

You're welcome.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: worried
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: William Tell Overture Finale on Musical Tesla Coils (see post)

ysabetwordsmith

Grand Prairie Friends Acquires New Property- Warbler Bend

Grand Prairie Friends (GPF) is thrilled to announce the purchase of Warbler Bend, a meandering 110 acres along the Embarras River in Coles County (IL). This purchase expands the Conservation Land Trust’s existing Warbler Ridge Conservation Area, now totaling almost 1,400 acres. Warbler Bend is GPF’s second property north of Highway 130, joining Warbler Bluff, located on Harrison St. Rd (Charleston).

Over the last decade, GPF has restored more than 1,200 acres at their Warbler Ridge Conservation Area including the addition of 90,000 trees, nine acres of wetlands and hundreds of acres of pollinator fields.

Connected to Lake Charleston to the north, and Fox Ridge State Park to the south, Warbler Ridge Conservation Area began in 2015, to connect these three landscapes to create an over 4,000 acre contiguous corridor for wildlife, natural habitats and public natural space for the community.

I am so excited! More riverfront!

Current Mood: excited

ysabetwordsmith

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.

Current Mood: busy

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 ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

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 ... )

Current Mood: busy

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 ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

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.

Current Mood: busy

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

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... )

Current Mood: weird

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.

Current Mood: busy

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.

Current Mood: busy

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.

Current Mood: busy

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johnpalmer

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Page generated Nov. 10th, 2025 11:32 am

Reading

Monday Update 11-10-25

#42 Late Night Complication (part 1 of 1, complete)

(cooking, 2025-354)

The Watertown Community Fridge is Moving

Something amusing

Poetry Fishbowl Update

Extreme Animals

Birdfeeding

Good ideas applied badly

Done Since 2025-11-02

Grand Prairie Friends

Communities

Photos: Lake Charleston

Photos: Coles County Community Garden

Photos: Charleston Food Forest

Activism

An Off Day (part 1 of 1, complete)

Safety

Birdfeeding

Philosophical Questions: Community

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October 2025

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