Reading

Current Mood: busy

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Community Thursdays

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...

* "Books" in

history

* "Female Leads" in

hooked_on_heroines

* "Follow Friday Master Post" in

interested_in_that

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stobotnik

(no subject)

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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garden

"if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk"

Found the scilla; it's under the pine tree, like right under it, in a little huddle of dark blue bells. V cute.

It's a bit warm and only flirting with freezing next Sunday and Monday nights, so I kicked out the two least fragile plants (agapanthus and some kind of dracaena, I forget but it's definitely survived being snowed on before) plus the two biggest geraniums and lo, there is space again.

So then Marci was like why don't you move the dahlias there, and I was all, oh and put them on a tray so they could be carried in and out to harden off ahead off frost free?? I love it. But the schefflera trees by the back door have scale, which doesn't kill them but could do in tender dahlia babies, so I pushed the littler trees outside too even though I'm pretty sure they're the ones I accused of being overly dramatic about temps below 50F last fall. We'll see in the morning, because even though I ordered them their own mini greenhouse for tomorrow I didn't bring them back in tonight.

And Marci was like what if you got a popup canopy, would that keep things warm, and I was like I don't know but I could put the big tree in it and attack the scale with mint while also keeping the dahlias away from it. But I don't want to move the big tree out until I put the fake grass on the patio for the summer, and that means moving everything already on the patio, plus sweeping, and also hauling rolls of artificial turf from the garage. Sounds hard.

So maybe that will be tomorrow's project, or not. Meanwhile there's a big empty space near the back door with a dahlia table built out of partially assembled wire crates and a boot tray. The dahlias are still in the utility closet.

But the lungwort is blooming in the front garden next to the bridge and its little pink and purple flowers are delightful.

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[#297 | Unexpected Kindness] Challenge Post

Challenge 297:
UNEXPECTED KINDNESS

It’s not always easy to be kind, but it’s often worth it. A little bit of kindness can turn around a bad day in a few minutes – maybe it’s a hug, or somewhere warm to wait out of the wind, or just a smile and a kind word, but it can go a long, long way.

Are your characters the ones showing kindness, or the ones who could use a little bit of it? Is there such a thing as being too kind, or is it worth it no matter what?

Write a story about unexpected kindness.

BONUS GOAL: “It costs nothing to be kind.”

If your submission features this line, it will earn an extra point to be tallied in voting!

Challenge ends Monday, April 20 at 9:00PM EST.

• Post submissions as new entries using the template in the profile
• Tag this week's entries as: [#] submission, 297 – unexpected kindness
• If you have questions about this challenge, please ask them here

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[#296 | Locked Door] Results Post

Here are this week's votes tallied, and below the cut are our winners for Challenge #296 – Locked Door!

( This week's finalists are... )

Total Challenge Words Written: 4629

Congratulations to all this week's participants, and thank you to everyone who took the time to cast their votes!

autobotscoutriella will be making this week’s banners, so keep an eye out for those.

You may now post your Challenge 296 entries to any additional communities, blogs, archives or sites as you'd like! We also have a FandomWeekly AO3 Collection if you'd like to add your stories there.

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Daily Happiness

1. We are back home! It was a long day of traveling and then a long day of staying awake for a whole other day so as to get back on LA time, but we did it. So glad to be home!

2. I looked at making reservations for the bus from the hotel to the airport last night but ended up not doing so because I didn't want to commit to a time yet and I had the vague memory of having made same-day reservations last year. Well, either I misremembered or this year they're just busier because this morning it was telling me I was outside the reservation period. We checked out of the hotel and then waited a few minutes downstairs for the bus to come by and asked the driver if we could get on without reservations and he said no, so we ended up just taking another bus to Maihama station and then taking the train (I think it was like three trains lol) to the airport. With the new rolling suitcase we bought last week, it was actually doable, and we would have been able to do the same in Osaka and save those taxi fares if only we'd had it then. idk why we thought backpack style bags were the way to go, but we are definitely converts to the rolling suitcase now. By taking the train, we were able to stop back at the Disney store in Tokyo station which we had checked out yesterday morning but then decided to make our purchases when we came back through on the way back to the hotel, except our plans ended up taking us a different route and we didn't go back through Tokyo station. So Carla was able to get a few more last minute Rapunzel items before we left.

3. Overall it was a really nice trip, but I'm not sure I want to do a full two weeks again. The last couple days we were away, there were some cat pee accidents, so I think the stress might have been getting to someone (we suspect Molly since she was in hiding most of the time we were gone, even though she knows Alex), and we just missed the babies a lot.

4. I never close my bedroom door but Alex was closing it while she was working, which of course made Chloe very curious as to what was going on inside!

Current Mood: busy

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Survival Skills

Skills That Survived Every Economic Collapse in History

Every economic collapse in recorded history — from Weimar Germany to Argentina's default to Venezuela's currency crisis — followed the same brutal pattern: institutions failed, credentials evaporated, and the most "educated" people were often the first to starve. Doctors drove taxis. Engineers washed cars. PhDs traded cigarettes for potatoes.

So which skills actually survived? Not the ones you'd expect.

This video is an economic autopsy of seven major collapses across a century of data — drawing on NBER labor forensics, Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, World Bank research, and the real stories of Argentine mechanics, Cuban physicians, Russian dacha farmers, and Lebanese currency brokers — to identify the four structural categories of skills that have demonstrated resilience in every single collapse environment ever studied.

So let's take a look at what these are and how to use them...

( Read more... )

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Update

Reading: I finished listening to the audiobook of Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch, after having read the text version last year. I'm wondering which almost unintelligible accent Aaronovitch is going to make Kobna Holbrook-Smith do next. ('Straya, please! We have so many ancient places the genius loci would be amazing!) I thought Shvorne Marks did an amazing job, and it was fun to hear Abigail's version of Nightingale's accent as compared to Peter's. ( cut for possible spoilers and self-indulgence )

Currently, I'm listening to the audiobook of Project Hail Mary, and I'm glad I saw the movie first. I think I would have struggled with the amount of maths and science without the context of the film, and without my pre-established fondness for the characters. It's a reminder (to myself) that the 'book vs film' debate is mostly wind as both mediums have different strengths.

Watching (and listening): I haven't been watching anything with intent recently. We bought a huge-ass TV with our leftover christmas fund (we put money every fortnight into a christmas club account which can only be accessed in Dec/Jan) and I find it kind of repelling. Dude has been playing me a bunch of Gorillaz videos on youtube, catching me up on the lore following the release of The Mountain. I love the album (I've always had an interest in Indian music) and have been listening to it quite a bit. Dude is currently into collecting CDs and has bought a couple of earlier Gorillaz albums, which have been fun to listen to.

Making: I've been slowly working on a sweater for my brother, but it's lots of boring knitting. I'm itching to spin something, but I don't know what. I used up some leftover multi-coloured yarn with some white Cormo to make fingerless mitts for a colleague and they turned out well. The (free) pattern is Prisma Mitts and is great for a gradient yarn.

fingerless mitts for Amy

I need to do more two-colour knitting rather than trying to dye all my colours into a single yarn. *g*

Other: We're upgrading our solar system, adding more panels and a larger battery which we hope will zero-out our electricity bill. The feed-in tariff has dropped to 4 cents/kW and we expect it to drop further, so more storage is our goal.

Work is still a schmozzle. The Uni featured heavily in a recent Four Corners exposé about governance in the tertiary sector, however I don't see them rolling back the (ridiculous, terrible) organisational changes any time soon. Sigh.

Autumn is finally here. After a long summer the nights dropping to below 5C is a bit of a shock. The cat is unimpressed and insists on being wrapped in her blanket.

ashah in grey blanket

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Lake Lewisia #1383

Contrary to common misconceptions, lighting a candle was not a matter of introducing fire to the wick’s fuel using a match--that was just the lure. The match was proof the location was a suitable habitat for fire, which was shy and uncertain about emerging from its safe and waxy home. It was best not to let it get too comfortable, though, as domestic fire, like a goldfish, would grow to fill its enclosure, even if its enclosure was an entire house suddenly consumed by flame.

---

LL#1383

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daily

Daily Check-In

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday April 15, to midnight on Thursday, April 16. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34478 Daily Check-in

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 19

How are you doing?

I am OK.
13 (68.4%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
6 (31.6%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
8 (42.1%)

One other person.
9 (47.4%)

More than one other person.
2 (10.5%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Secret Garden - Bruce Springsteen

Down the path.

I got the date wrong on an appointment. I knew I had something on the 22nd, as well as the adjacent week, but I'd forgotten it was the week of the 29th, not today. I understand how I made that mistake and I'm not sure what to do to keep it from happening again, other than writing it down in a dedicated weekly planner instead of on a post-it note.

But, I ran a couple errands I'd wanted to get done. I found that swings got installed at Lincoln Center for the summer and rode one for a few minutes, and now I know they're around for another sunny day sometime soon. I was able to visit a grocery store near where my appointment would've been held and got a few things there on discount - a couple dollars less than the prices at my usual store, and while the leftover dollars went to fancy coconut water, it about balanced out. Walking downtown, someone I met at a party recognized me from the street and called out my name and we had a nice little chat. I took the time I would've spent at the appointment, went home, and got some good writing done ahead of going out tonight.

So all in all, I'm not upset about how things went today.

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第五年第九十五天

部首
水 part 26
湾, bay; 湿, wet; 滋, to nourish ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=85

语法
3.23 只有 X 才 Y; X is required to have Y
https://www.digmandarin.com/hsk-3-grammar

词汇
抱, to hug; 抱歉, sorry ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-4-word-list/

Guardian:
人生还有很多滋味都等着你呢, there are so many flavors of life still waiting for you
只有不怕死才能活下去, only if you don't fear death can you go on living
抱歉，我没有事先跟你说明, I'm sorry I didn't explain to you in advance

Me:
今天的天气很潮湿。
你以为这份工作只有你在才能呈现呢？

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write every day

Write Every Day: Intro

What Is Write Every Day?
A roving writing support community, with a bias toward encouraging a daily writing habit. It's a decentralized community, without moderators or a fixed home; hosting duties are passed around among members of the community.

carenejeans hosted the first half of April; I'm hosting the second half, starting on the sixteenth. (By my time-zone: tomorrow.)

zwei_hexen keeps a list of who volunteered to host when.. No one is yet scheduled for May -- it could be you!

( FAQ )

Housekeeping
As host, I'll be publishing daily check-in posts, distributing encouragement in the comments, and keeping a tally of who checked in what day. I'm in Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -7), and plan to post the daily check-in during my evening. (About when this post went up.) I know my proposed posting time is very late for many people, so don't feel you have to wait for the new day's post -- just check in on the most recent post whenever is convenient for you. Whatever post you use, please include what day you're checking in for, so I can keep the tally straight.

I'll also be using a consistent tag for these check-in posts ("write every day") so feel free to block or follow that, depending on your interest.

If you have any questions, or wish to check-in ahead of tomorrow's post, the comments are open! Welcome!

Current Mood: busy

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Art

Queer Artists and Artworks We Love for World Art Day

Happy World Art Day! Our rec lists tend to be a bit book-centric, so we thought this’d be a great chance to share some artists and artworks we love.

Current Mood: frustrated

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Climate Change

March heat in the U.S. was the largest temperature anomaly ever recorded

Heat usually doesn’t define March, a month that still carries a hint of winter’s last breath. This year, it felt more like a preview of late spring, and sometimes even early summer.

Across the United States, temperatures didn’t just creep up. They jumped far beyond what anyone would expect for that time of year.

The numbers tell a blunt story. The average temperature for March hit 50.85 degrees Fahrenheit. That is 9.35 degrees higher than the 20th-century average.

It is not just a record for March. It is the largest jump above normal for any month ever recorded in the Lower 48 states.

Daytime highs pushed even further, running 11.4 degrees above average, nearly matching what people usually feel in April.

Ya THINK? It hit 89 fucking degrees here in central Illinois. REPEATEDLY. We're also in drought conditions. I've had to water things already planted so they don't die, in what should be the wettest time of year. >_< I really don't want this to be another year of eight months watering.

[movement] in which I am surprised

( Read more... )

Make It Myself

https://xkcd.com/3233/

It's not as big a loss as it looks, because now I have leftover supplies, which will help me talk myself into doing this all over again with a new project!

https://xkcd.com/3233/

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild. It has been spitting a few drops of water now and then, but the promised storms have not arrived. :/

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- While we were out at Whiteside Garden, I picked up a generous clump of wild ginger. :D I also saw a red-headed woodpecker.

We stopped at Home Depot and bought 12 concrete blocks, the kind with two holes, and water sealer. I'm going to make a planting bench with the solid-top pallet that we obtained earlier.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I planted the clump of wild ginger at the east end of the savanna where moss is growing. I'm going to try establishing a woodland garden there.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I did some work around the patio.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I planted the mountain mint in the wildflower garden. This looks similar to the mystery wild mint that I had before, which is among the most popular pollinator plants. If so, that boosts genetic diversity.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 4/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I hauled 6 of the 12 concrete blocks out of the car. For some reason the guy putting them on the flatbed trolley gave me two different kinds; some have flat ends and some have ridges sticking out, and these aren't the kind of blocks meant to interlock.

I am done for the night.

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Fandom-dropping progress, April 15 report

Down to 939 fandoms total. (Only 26 currently have any tags to wrangle.)

I’m keeping up the pace of “shedding about 100 per month.” Still working on the second A-to-Z sweep, just finished with the P’s.

Also, still chipping away at recruiting “wranglers who aren’t over-the-limit” to pick up unwrangled Religion/Mythology/Folklore fandoms. I’m doing a little basic research on each one first. Someone with the right cultural/research background will always be better at spotting subtle inaccuracies, but for the fandoms that don’t get a wrangler like that, at least I can request fixes for anything really glaring.

Latest win: figuring out that this Ukranian “Folk Tale” fandom needs a rename, because all the fic is actually for the adorable 2024 cartoon Pravda & Kryvda. (11-minute pilot, free on Youtube.) Ukranian folklore-inspired with angel/demon vibes (I’m 0% surprised the artist has also done Good Omens fanart), extremely f/f shippy, has a fascinating “they were created around the same time but now there’s an overt age gap” dynamic…yeah, okay, I’m subscribing.

AMT updates: With the Madoka subtags approved, I went ahead and made the new Fake News tree request last week. (Basically the draft proposal I shared in February, with some slight tweaks.) Still no response to the behind-the-scenes question I mentioned in March…so yeah, I’m going forward on the premise of “if it’s that unimportant, it won’t be a roadblock.”

(no subject)

Three short takes -- comments on the decreasing Republicans in the House, the end of an alcoholic era, and people objecting to that inappropriate AI rendering of Trump.