Birdfeeding

Sunday, February 15th, 2026 01:36 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/15/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I refilled the hopper feeder.  I've seen a sparrow.

I also saw a honeybee in the forest garden!  I went to the bee tree and saw a honeybee fly into it.  This is waaayyy too early for bees. There is liquid water, but absolutely nothing to eat. :(  Use to be, the bees only appeared after the last frost.  It's months too soon for that.

EDIT 2/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/15/26 -- I spread a bucket of mulch under the golden rain tree.

I am done for the night.

Activism

Sunday, February 15th, 2026 12:47 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The key to defeating Trump? Mass non-cooperation

The extraordinary level of grassroots solidarity and creative resistance in anti-ICE protests in Minnesota has given people a new appreciation for the power that mass non-cooperation can have in resisting the Trump administration’s drive toward authoritarianism. And it has created an awareness of why such action is clearly needed.

Read more... )

Books

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 08:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[community profile] bookclub_dw has posted the poll for choosing the March book. 

Half-Price Sale in Not Quite Kansas

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 07:50 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The February Poetry Fishbowl made its $300 goal, so there will be a half-price sale in Not Quite Kansas from Monday 16-Sunday 27. Mark your calendars accordingly, and I hope to see you then!

This series has about half a dozen poems available. Here are a few previously posted poems:

"Cruel Intentions and Difficult Truths"

"The Ramifications of That State of Mind"

"The Conditions of Your Selfhood"

Poem: "If You Don't Fall Down"

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 05:28 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (Fly Free)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is the freebie for the February [community profile] crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by "One Who Falls and Gets Up" by [personal profile] gs_silva. It also fills the "Helplessness" square in my 2-1-26 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the webcomic Alien Romance by [personal profile] gs_silva.

Read more... )

Birdfeeding

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 01:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and chilly.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a small flock of sparrows.  I heard a cardinal singing but didn't see it.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I put out more birdseed and a fresh cake of peanut suet.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- I spread a bucket of mulch around the apricot tree.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- It's been drizzling here, just enough to wet things, not enough to leave puddles anywhere I've seen.

EDIT 2/14/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

It is now raining enough to leave a few tiny puddles on the patio.

I am done for the night.

Moment of Silence: Spikedluv

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 01:49 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (moment of silence)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I came across a reference that [personal profile] spikedluv has passed away.  There are comments under the last post to this effect. 

Meme: Quarterly Intentions (1.5/4) - Check In

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 10:09 am
jjhunter: Watercolor of daisy with blue dots zooming around it like Bohr model electrons (science flower)
[personal profile] jjhunter
Happy Galentines/Valentines Day! We are midway through February. If you started the year with some intentions, or have accumulated some new intentions since, how are they going? Is there anything you want to prune back or lean into?

How Are You? (in Haiku)

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 10:07 am
jjhunter: Serene person of color with shaved head against abstract background half blue half brown (scientific sage)
[personal profile] jjhunter
Pick a thing or two that sums up how you're doing today, this week, in general, and tell me about it in the 5-7-5 syllables of a haiku.

=

Signal-boosting much appreciated!

Space Exploration

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 12:49 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Low-Earth orbit is just 2.8 days from disaster

Low-Earth orbit is more crowded—and fragile—than it looks. Satellites constantly weave past each other, burning fuel and making dozens of evasive maneuvers every year just to stay safe. A major solar storm could disable navigation and communications, turning that careful dance into chaos. According to new calculations, it may take just days—not decades—for a catastrophic chain reaction to begin, potentially choking off humanity’s access to space for generations.


Solar storms can have various effects and follow an 11-year cycle. We are currently around the maximum, hence the aurora displays over the last year or two.

Creative Jam

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 12:22 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The [community profile] crowdfunding Creative Jam is now open with a theme of "Not Giving Up." Come give us prompts, or claim some for your own inspiration!


What I Have Written:

"If You Don't Fall Down" is today's freebie, inspired by "One Who Falls and Gets Up" by [personal profile] gs_silva.

"Hear a Thousand Stars Singing"
Story Date: Night of Sunday, October 25, 2015
Summary: Fascinated by the idea of becoming a robonaut, Quain takes up stargazing.
28 lines, Buy It Now = $15

"Never Turn Your Back"
Story Date: Thursday, October 6, 2016
Summary: An incident at college leaves Shiv striving to rescue a classmate.
182 lines, Buy It Now = $91


From My Prompts:

"One Who Falls and Gets Up" by [personal profile] gs_silva
Jon falls while getting out of a car.
(Summary for crossovers/collabs.)

Creative Jam

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 12:04 am
ysabetwordsmith: (Crowdfunding butterfly ship)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] crowdfunding
Welcome to the 151st Crowdfunding Creative Jam! This session will run Saturday, February 14-Sunday, February 15. The theme is "Not Giving Up."

Crowdfunding Creative Jam

Everyone is eligible to post prompts, which may be words or phrases, titles, images, etc. Prompters may request a specific creator, but everyone else may still use that prompt if they wish. Prompts may specify a particular character/world/etc. but creators may use the prompt for something else anyway and post the results. Prompters are still encouraged to post mostly prompts that anyone could use anywhere, as this maximizes the chance of having creators make something based on your prompt. Please title your comment "Prompt" or "Prompts" when providing inspiration so these are easy to find.

Prompt responses may also be treated as prompts and used for further inspiration. For example, a prompt may lead to a sketch which leads to a story, and so on. This kind of cascading inspiration is one of the most fun things about a collective jam session.

Everyone is eligible to use prompts, and everyone who wants to use a given prompt may do so, for maximum flexibility of creator choice in inspiration. You do not have to post a "Claim" reply when you decide to use a prompt, but this does help indicate what is going on so that other prompters can spread out their choice of prompts if they wish.

Creators are encouraged, but not required, to post at least one item free. Likewise, sharing a private copy of material with the prompter is encouraged but not required. Creative material resulting from prompts should be indicated in a reply to the prompt, with a link to the full content elsewhere on the creator's site (if desired); a brief excerpt and/or description of the material may be included in the reply (if desired). It helps to title your comment "Prompt Filled" or something like that so these are easy to identify. There is no time limit on responding to prompts. However, creators are encouraged to post replies sooner rather than later, as the attention of prompters will be highest during and shortly after the session.

Some items created from prompts may become available for sponsorship. Some creators may offer perks for donations, linkbacks, or other activity relating to this project. Check creator comments and links for their respective offerings.

Prompters, creators, and bystanders are expected to behave in a responsible and civil manner. If the moderators have to drag someone out of the sandbox for improper behavior, we will not be amused. Please respect other people's territory and intellectual property rights, and only play with someone else's characters/setting/etc. if you have permission. (Fanfic/fanart freebies are okay.) If you want to invite folks to play with something of yours, title the comment something like "Open Playground" so it's easy to spot. This can be a good way to attract new people to a shared world or open-source project, or just have some good non-canon fun.

Boost the signal! The more people who participate, the more fun this will be. Hopefully we'll see activity from a lot of folks who regularly mention their projects in this community, but new people are always welcome. You can link to this session post or to individual items created from prompts, whatever you think is awesome enough to recommend to your friends.

Philosophical Questions: Emotions

Saturday, February 14th, 2026 12:01 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.

Why have many societies begun to place such a high value on emotions and being emotional?


Everyone has feelings. Feelings can be intense. That makes it a good way to distract people from actions.

Pinetree Garden Seeds Order

Friday, February 13th, 2026 10:54 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today I picked out what I wanted from Pinetree Garden Seeds.

Read more... )

Poetry Fishbowl Report for February 3, 2026

Friday, February 13th, 2026 10:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Our theme this month was "Books and Literacy." I wrote from 1 PM to 12 AM, so about 1 hours, accounting for breaks. I wrote 1 poem on Tuesday plus 10 later in the week.

Participation was up, with 10 comments on LiveJournal and another 29 on Dreamwidth. A total of 15 people sent prompts. You have new prompters [personal profile] gs_silva, [personal profile] ionelv, and Laura G to thank for the second freebie.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the February 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Books That Bite Back"
"The Evolution of Self-Publishing"
"Libraries from the Ashes"
"A Never Failing Spring"
"No Friend as Loyal"

"The Tranquility and Beauty of the Winter Landscape" (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge, March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from February 3. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

This month's donors include: [personal profile] janetmiles, [personal profile] fuzzyred, and Anthony Barrette. All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 3 tallies toward a bonus fishbowl.


The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.

Unsold Poems for the February 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl

Friday, February 13th, 2026 09:19 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The following poems from the February 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

Read more... )

Vocabulary: Dinkus

Friday, February 13th, 2026 08:32 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
A dinkus is a row of symbols, often asterisks, used as a section break in text.

Poem: "An Inkling of Things to Come"

Friday, February 13th, 2026 04:22 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Copied from LiveJournal.

This poem is spillover from the August 5, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] fuzzyred. It also fills the "someone from the past" square in my 8-1-25 card for the Crime Classics fest.  This poem belongs to the College Arc of the Shiv thread in the Polychrome Heroics series.

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $0.50/line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.
So far sponsors include: [personal profile] fuzzyred, [personal profile] janetmiles.

FULLY FUNDED
628 lines, Buy It Now = $314
Amount donated = $263
Verses posted = 155 of 187 

Amount remaining to fund fully = $52
Amount needed to fund next verse = $0.50
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $3


Read more... )