Reading

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cold. At least the howling wind stopped.

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

I put out water for the birds.

Many of the plants that were sprouting have died from the hard freeze. :/ Some still look fine though. At least some of the sprouts in my jug and tub greenhouses have survived.

EDIT 3/17/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/17/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

.

Current Mood: busy

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Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "anything goes." 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.

Stuck for ideas? You can find prompts by ...
* browsing planned poems for Aquariana and the Maldives, The Big One, Broken Angels, Calliope and Vagary, Officer Pink and Turq, Pips and Joshua, or Shiv. (Some of these I've already done, so they're not all up to date, but others I haven't done yet.)
* browsing my Serial Poetry page for favorite threads or characters.
* browsing series with recently created landing pages: Artists of Destruction, Coracle Shores, Crystal Wood, Strike of the Thunderbirds, The Wandering (on the Serial Poetry page), Iron Horses, Peculiar Obligations, Not Quite Kansas.
* browsing my QUILTBAG list, Romantic Orientations in My Characters, Sexual Orientations in My Characters, Gender Identities in My Characters, or My Characters with Disabilities for favorites.
* naming a poetic form you'd like to see written.
* picking a prompt from my current bingo cards: National Crafting Month Bingo 3-1-26
* picking some from the Bingo Generator prompt lists.
* looking up fun tropes on Fanlore.
* choosing an unusual word.
* plugging a favorite topic into your search engine and choosing a picture that looks interesting.
* anything short. I could especially use short poems today as other prompts are likely to run long.
* standalone ideas, if you're a fan of that rather than series.

What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?

Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.

In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "anything goes." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things of any type. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Current Mood: busy

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Fossils

The Kotlin Crisis: Earth’s first mass extinction may have been far worse than previously believed

Fossils of the first sea creatures, long assumed to have vanished before a major mass extinction about 550 million years ago called the Kotlin Crisis, have now been found and are providing new details about that time period.

This discovery transforms what once looked like a routine species decline in Earth’s early history into what may be the first catastrophic extinction in animal history.

Second, actually, after the Great Farting Oxygen Event changed the atmosphere from reducing to oxydizing -- almost everything died, except a few archaea that found anoxic refuges and a few organisms that figured out how to use oxygen. But most people forget about that one.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and frigid, spitting snow and howling wind. :/ It stormed last night.

I fed the birds. I've seen a small mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus several cardinals.

I put out water for the birds.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

blogging,
personal

Monday Update 3-16-26

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "Colorful Opportunities"
Tool Use
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
Science
Today's Adventures
Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange
Wildlife
Creative Jam
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Pictures
Communities
Safety
Today's Adventures
Gardening
Birdfeeding
Crafts
Follow Friday 3-13-26: Love
Friday Five
Crafts
Birdfeeding
Ethnic Studies
Community Thursdays
Poem: "To Understand Water"
Cyberspace Theory
Science
Today's Adventures
Safety
Birdfeeding
Science
Prairie Moon Order
Select Seeds Order
Hard Things

Linguistics has 44 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 60 comments. Safety has 54 comments. Wildlife has 48 comments. Food has 67 comments.

There will be a Bonus Fishbowl on Tuesday, March 17 with a theme of "anything goes." Think back over your favorite ideas that haven't fit a prompt call yet; you can suggest whatever you want in this one.

March Meta Matters Challenge banner

marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. See my tracking post and the first check-in post.

The weather has been erratic here. We've had warm days. Yesterday was cold with howling wind, then pouring rain; today it snowed a bit and is still howling wind. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. Currently blooming: crocuses, snowdrops, winter aconite, miniature irises, daffodils, squill.

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "Colorful Opportunities"

This is the freebie for the March

crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by the "tape" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.

"Colorful Opportunities"

Tape is a material
that is always full of
colorful opportunities.

It can make borders and
frames on scrapbook pages.

It stripes the handles of
tools for easy identification.

It flags pages for future reading.

It makes cute cutouts for
decorating boxes and books.

Tape holds hobbies together.

Current Mood: pleased

Entry tags:

how to,
personal

Tool Use

Today my partner Doug asked me to remove a bunch of staples for him. I first looked for my staple remover but couldn't find it. Instead I grabbed the tiny screwdriver that I got from Power Plus at the Home and Garden Expo. It actually worked better. Because it's swag, the screwdriver tip is very thin and narrow. That made it a lot easier to slide under the ends of the staples to open them, then slide under the wide part of the wire to twist it loose. Staple removers typically have very thick teeth that can be difficult to get under the wire. So this is now my staple remover of choice, and will live in my office drawer. :D

What most people call luck or opportunity is, in my observation, largely situational awareness. I needed a tool; I thought about what would work; I used what I had. And then I noticed that it worked better than a dedicated tool from the past. A small discovery, but it makes my primate brain very happy.

Current Mood: busy

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Cyberspace Theory

AO3 BS

AO3 is apparently crashing out again... Le sigh, do NOT get me wrong I do adore that site (for reading... I've yet to use it as a writer) but damn this just keeps happening.

Frequent service outage is one of the later signs of platform degradation heading for collapse. Always stay alert for warning signs, because they help you save your data and shore up contact with friends before it is too late.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cool with howling wind. It's up to 18mph. A beautiful day to stay indoors and write!

I fed the birds. Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen any. I expect they're all huddled in whatever shelter they can find.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/15/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

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

EDIT 3/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

A tiny scilla is blooming white in the purple-and-white garden.

It's starting to rain.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

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Science

This video beautifully demonstrates the use of art in education, showing how trees catch and release water to help drive the hydrologic cycle. Without forests, you get a drought-flood situation instead. :/

Current Mood: busy

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Today's Adventures

Today we went to Middlefork at the Mall in Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana. This is a big flea market, although not quite as big as the last one we caught. We both found some great stuff.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: excited

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Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange

Yesterday I discovered the Seed Library Network. I was delighted to find one near me. (See Today's Adventures for our other activities.)

Today we visited the Urbana Free Library Seed Exchange. It's on the second floor. We rode the elevator up, and the display was big enough to be seen from where the elevator lets out. Seeds are stored in drawers, sorted by type. There are sections for flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Some of the really popular ones have their own drawer; others are grouped together. Unopened packets of commercial seed are filed as they are, for folks who want to know exactly what they're getting. Opened packets or homegrown seeds are put in envelopes by library staff. With wildflower and landrace seeds, especially mixes, you may get more surprises.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Wildlife

Scared of spiders? Scientists say the real nightmare is losing them

Scientists discovered that nearly 90% of North America’s insects and arachnids have no conservation status—revealing a huge blind spot in protecting the tiny creatures that keep ecosystems running.

Spiders and insects may not be fan favorites, but they are vital to the health of ecosystems—and scientists barely know how they’re doing. Researchers found that nearly 90% of North America’s insect and arachnid species have no conservation status, leaving their fate largely unknown. Even more striking, most states don’t protect a single arachnid species. The study warns that these overlooked creatures are essential to planetary health and urgently need better monitoring and protection.

Let me be blunt here: the insect (arthropod) apocalypse is going to pull the rug out from under the biosphere. Plants are the producers for most of the ecosystem; many essential plants rely on insects for pollination or other services. And the next layer is invertebrates, mostly arthropods -- they break down dead material to a size that fungi can deal with, they pollinate, they move seeds, they feed most of the next level up such as birds, amphibians, etc. Spiders in particular keep the rest of that arthropod mess in check so we're not buried alive in flies, mosquitoes, and so on. They're some of the tiniest predators and they're absolutely vital.

( Read more... )

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Creative Jam

The March

crowdfunding Creative Jam is now open with a theme of "Opportunity."

What I Have Written

A prompt from

dialecticdreamer inspired the free-verse poem "Hidden Opportunities." Juan Carlos likes visiting Schrodinger's Heroes for the opportunity to step outside his usual role and relax.
70 lines, Buy It Now = $35

"Colorful Opportunities" is the freebie.

From My Prompts

gs_silva took my prompt "Opportunity is using someone else's waste product as your raw material" as inspiration for an adorable picture and description from Alien Romance. :D

Current Mood: busy

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Creative Jam

Welcome to the 152nd Crowdfunding Creative Jam! This session will run Saturday, March 14-Sunday, March 15. The theme is "Opportunity."

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.

Performing some traffic maintenance today

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and chilly.

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

I put out water for the birds.

3/14/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Philosophical Questions: Pictures

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What will be/are some of the by-products to society of everyone having the ability to take pictures or a video at any time?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Communities

Separation of Church and Parking Lot

How can we repurpose church parking lots for the better?

But unlike the bank in the bottom left of the first map, whose lot is never full—even predictably so—and where one might justify changing the parking requirements to accommodate this phenomenon, churches are assembly halls. Once or twice a week, they do fill up.

And unlike the banks, churches, mosques, temples, and other houses of worship are civic spaces. These spaces are where neighbors come together to share meals and company, or where folks from dispersed corners of a city unite under a common purpose. If a city lacks the density to begin with, and driving to church is the obvious option, there is no good argument for denying a church its parking—they use it!

But a dilemma lies in the five or six days of the week in which these lots sit empty. Churches and other houses of worship are amenities within neighborhoods, but blocks of street-facing parking lots are the opposite. They sit unused for about 250 to 300 days of the year.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Safety

Scientists warn that a certain type of earthquake is much more destructive and being overlooked

In a typical quake, a rupture spreads along a fault at a speed slower than shear waves, seismic waves that shake the ground sideways. A supershear rupture outruns those waves, so energy piles up at the rupture tip and forms a sharp shock front.

That shock front is why these quakes can be so damaging. A nearby town can get hammered first by the high speed rupture front, then by the trailing waves in what Elbanna describes as a “double strike”.