zeeth_kyrah

Professional Exposure
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1154
[Monday night, 13 November of 2017]

:: At work, Jules gets several surprises in a row. He copes better with some than with others. Part of the Lodestar series in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Jules had eaten lunch more than an hour before, which was probably the only reason why the quick clench and relax of his abdomen did not cause nausea. He spun, the sole of his hiking boot squeaking its protest at the speed. The young man’s brown hair tried to float away from his scalp during the maneuver, but his bangs slapped down, long enough to irritate his eyes. He huffed, twerking his hips in ever more aggressive movements as he raised both hands to clap twice.

Behind him, the override code made the door to the file room chirp.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: artistic

ysabetwordsmith

Stunning Mosaics Made by Londoners with PTSD Offer Pieces of Healing in Community Artwork

Tucked away in the parks and alleyways of East London lies one of the city’s most vibrant collections of public art.

What makes it all the more special is the mending of mental health maladies that transforms its volunteer artists.

The sometimes sprawling, Roman-inspired masterpieces are the work of the Hackney Mosaic Project and its founder Tessa Hunkin.

I suspect that the fitting of tiles into a mosaic offers similar benefits as stacking-sorting games like Tetris. Since PTSD is fundamentally a "stuck" problem, processes that focus on organizing things can jostle the brain into sorting memories into the "past" category.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly cloudy, humid, and hot.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/29/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/29/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/29/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today's theme is Music.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

The Monty Hall Problem: Why Switching Doors Wins 2/3 of the Time

The host does not open a door uniformly at random. The host opens a door that he knows hides a goat, and he never opens the door you initially selected. These constraints are not incidental — they are the entire source of information in the problem. The host's action is not a random event that preserves symmetry between the remaining doors. It is a deliberate, knowledge-guided action that breaks that symmetry in a precise and quantifiable way.

I've heard the claim before, but this explanation of how it works is the best I've seen.

Current Mood: busy

dialecticdreamer

Trading Confidences
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1259
[Monday night, 13 November of 2017]

:: Jules, Bennett, and Blainn have just finished dinner when Bennett is called away from home. Blainn and Jules have a surprisingly deep and intimate conversation that soon moves far from the original topic of pet care. ::

Back to part one
:: Thanks for reading! ::

Jules set a large bowl of pretzel sticks on the coffee table just as Blainn hit the button to start the movie. “Yes, we just had dinner, but snacks are part of the ritual,” the older teen declared.

Blainn stared, blinking, as his mouth dropped open partway. “Thanks.”

Sighing, Jules settled beside him on the sofa. “Okay, that needs some explanation. I know I was gone for thirteen months, but I did visit as often as I could, so you know me. Why is basic human decency surprising you?”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: artistic

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

It's been a while since we've done a full code push rather than just hotfixes for bugs, so we are well overdue! Depending on availability, we're aiming to do one sometime soon; we'll let you know specifics once we've worked out good timing for everyone who needs to be available.

However! The reason it's been so long is we kept trying to get some of the stuff that's pending to "really finished" instead of just "mostly finished", and then we once again looked around and went "oh no, this is a really big code push with a lot of changes". Those make us nervous, because while we do a lot of testing ourselves, y'all are really creative in how you use the site and we inevitably find a bunch of edge cases when we let you loose on new code with your real-world data!

So, if folks have some spare time in the next few days, it would be a huge help if you could spend half an hour or so using the site the same way you normally do but with the "Site-Wide Canary" beta features flag turned on. Canary mode is a sort of "live testing" mode: it's your real data, but running the most up-to-date code.

Canary mode always does have a few glitches -- there may be missing text strings or errors about missing database properties, which is a limitation of how we run it. We don't need to know about those, but anything else weird that you run into, leave a comment with what you were trying to do and the error message you got.

I'll repeat that the "here be dragons" caution that's on the beta features page: some things may be broken, so don't use it for when you're doing something important. But a few more eyeballs on it before the push will help the push go more smoothly for everyone.

For folks who want to concentrate on what's changing, we haven't finished the second code tour of what's going to be in this push, but the ffirst one has a good chunk of what's going to be going live. (We'll get the second half done ASAP!)

fuzzyred

Hello everyone! Sorry for missing the last post, energy for writing escaped me. I hope everyone has been doing well. May has been a good month, with lots of fun things happening. First, though, the boring stuff. My daily goals have been going well, with few missed yoga days, adequate dishwashing and consistent duolingo practice. I've also gotten in a decent amount of walks, read a lot of books, and done one of my two flute practices. On the more fun side, I knitted a pair of fingerless gloves for my fiance and got a jump start on my puzzle, which is June's project. Regrettably, I have not been cooking twice a week and I have not worked on my quilt, but I did visit my grandma, which is more important. :) (She is going to help me with my quilt, but I've been remiss in visiting lately.)

Now, fun things! Early in the month, my sister and I went to a few plant sales with our mom for mother's day, then we did "high tea" at a local coffee shop which was rather fun. The following weekend, I played a DnD session with my fiance and some of our friends, then the two of us did a fun class the next day. It was also a long weekend, so I had an extra day to relax, which is always nice.

Last weekend was an out of town trip, which was rainy and cold but still fun. We traveled about three hours north to go to a fibre festival and a nearby conservation area. The festival was on the main street of a small town and it would have been fun to explore more, if the weather was less miserable. I did buy six skeins of very nice yarn though, which I did not need but were very pleasing to buy. On the way out of town, we stopped at a local museum, which used to be a Poorhouse. It was very interesting to see the history of the building and to get a look at the barn that was still on the property, if no longer in use. After that, we stopped buy the conservation area, which had a lovely gorge and river to look at, although we did not stay long due to the rain. All in all, it was a great day, if wetter than ideal.

I enjoyed May a lot and I'm looking forward to the coming weeks as well. I'm hoping to make progress on my new knitting project (a ponytail hat for myself) and get out into the yard to do some weeding. I'll see you all next week for my official May goal review (hopefully) and I hope you havr a lovely time until then!

Current Mood: good

ysabetwordsmith

Adorable tiny blue octopus found nearly 6,000 feet beneath the Galápagos

A mysterious little blue octopus discovered nearly 6,000 feet beneath the waters of the Galápagos Islands has officially been identified as a brand-new species. About the size of a golf ball, the tiny creature stunned researchers during a deep-sea expedition when it suddenly appeared on camera, crawling across the ocean floor near an underwater mountain.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny, humid, and hot.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/28/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a male cardinal at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 5/28/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

Current Mood: busy

mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

Dried fruit.
Blue cheese that's spreadable if kept at room temperature. Good bread.
Compression gloves to go with the socks. Be nice if I'd remember to wear them at night, which is what I got them for.
Exercise putty. Which is also an excellent fidget. Fidget gadgets in general.
NSAIDs.

NO thanks for chronic pain and depression-or-whatever-the-frack-this-is.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

ysabetwordsmith

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...

* Commented on "Just One Thing" in

awesomeers.

* Commented on "Check-In Post - May 27th 2026" in

get_knitted.

* Commented on "TV Tuesday: Waiting for the Break" in

tv_talk.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Xenofiction tells a story from the perspective of a nonhuman character. Some have humans only in the background; others have none at all. Alien-only science fiction is a small branch of that genre, but animal fiction is a very large branch of children's and young adult literature.

Current Mood: busy

dialecticdreamer

Trading Confidences
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2
Word count (story only): 1104
[Monday night, 13 November of 2017]

:: Jules, Bennett, and Blainn have just finished dinner when Bennett is called away from home. Blainn and Jules have a surprisingly deep and intimate conversation that soon moves far from the original topic of pet care. ::

On to part two

In the middle of clearing the table after dinner, Bennett’s cell phone did not ring. It gave a strange ping-bong sound, like a slowed down doorbell. The man paled. “I have to take this, boys. If I’m not back by the time the table’s cleared, flip a coin and the winner picks the movie. Don’t wait for me.” He hurried toward his bedroom, already lifting his phone to his ear.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

ysabetwordsmith

Today we made Pico de Gallo Meatloaf using what we found at the Spring Vendor Market in Sullivan. The result is excellent. If you don't make your own or have a favorite brand, watch for something similar at a street fair. This time of year, people often see pico de gallo, salsa, and other condiments where you can sample several before choosing what you want.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

ysabetwordsmith

Scientist Discovers New Species of Wildflower That Only Grows in New Jersey

In the Pine Barrens region of southern New Jersey, Temple University researcher Sasha Eisenman helped identify the long mistaken plant as unique to the state—a discovery that could help protect it for years to come.

In research published in Phytotaxa, Eisenman confirmed the plant is distinct from its closest known relatives, and formally named it Triantha × novacaesariensis—a Latinization of New Jersey.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy, warm, and damp. It rained early this morning and the grass is still soaked.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity today.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/27/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 5/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/27/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

rix_scaedu

It's another Naiphday, and our party formally leaves the Confederation.

I hope I picked up all the silly transcription typos this time.

This part runs to 3,993 words and I hope that you enjoy it.

Index page.

Naiphday, 21 Deichen, 1893 C.E.
Khemaas, 11 Kaalen, 2157 T.M.L.
6 Mikistli, 26 Coatl, 6.11.2.1.8.4.7

Dear Journal,

We were still above the clouds when I woke this morning. Nais brought me my warm water, helped me into a visiting gown, and then went back to her quarters to gather her own bits and pieces for attending services. When I was ready to make my way to the balcony parlor for the morning prayer service, I found Lord Elnaith waiting in the corridor for me, and we went together.

( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith

Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.

What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Man Gathers Up Family Acres Home to Moose and Mountain Lion and Returns Them to Indian Tribe

Though Verbrugge, who lives alone at 72 years old in the forest, has no heirs to pass the property to, he found a suitable inheritor in the Kalispel Indians, who said they would carry the responsibility of keeping the land in good health forward with “profound gratitude.”

As to the land itself, the Little Spokane River runs through it, along with several creeks home to bull trout. In a subdivided and developed area, Verbrugge’s woodland is a haven for elk, deer, moose, wolves, cougar, bobcat, and eagles.

Current Mood: busy

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Page generated May. 30th, 2026 04:43 am

Reading

Professional Exposure (part 1 of 1, complete)

Art

Birdfeeding

Follow Friday 5-29-26: Music

Education

Trading Confidences (part 2 of 2, complete)

Testing needed in advance of code push!

Update!

Wildlife

Birdfeeding

Thankful Thursday

Community Thursdays

Vocabulary: Xenofiction

Trading Confidences (part 1 of 2)

Recipe: "Pico de Gallo Meatloaf"

Nature

Birdfeeding

The Travels of Anadrasata Nearabhigan: Day 71

Good News

Conservation

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January 2025

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