Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, August 5

Jul. 29th, 2025 03:28 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, August 5, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Books and Learning." I'll be soliciting ideas for readers, writers, storytellers, scribes, editors, publishers, students, teachers, caregivers, children, parents, bookworms, nerds, bookstore owners, librarians, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, superheroes, supervillains, other bookish people, reading, writing, delighting the reader, editing, publishing, bookbinding, shopping for books, telling stories, teaching, inviting students to a lesson, demonstrating tools, educating the whole child, learning, studying, parenting, lending a hand, cooperating, concentrating on a current task, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, respecting people, modeling manners and skills, learning to trust others, observing the environment, engaging all the senses, cultivating a full life, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, choosing your own goals, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, making mistakes, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, other educational activities, books, scrolls, magical tomes, printing presses, pens and pencils, bookstores, libraries, Little Free Libraries, book nooks, windowseats, Montessori schools, other alternative schools, preschools or daycares, Montessori homeschoolprepared environment, colleges and universities, beautiful places, craft centers, community centers, coffeehouses, outdoor classrooms, parks, nature centers, other spaces designed for learning, Triton Teen Centers, mentor circles, intentional communities, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna,  the Aqademy of the Qrossroads, Waldorf toysMontessori materials, intrinsic motivation, child independencerespect for the child, freedom to choose, freedom of time and uninterrupted work periodsabsorbent mindpost-traumatic growthindividualized education, three-part cardslanguage lessons, mathematics, diverse ages and abilities, self-correcting toys and lessons, natural consequences, freedom of movement, intentional neighboring, diversity, inclusivity, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One involves education and reading in the Lacuna.

Arts and Crafts America focuses on fine arts and practical crafts, sometimes education.  Bookbinding would be a logical craft.

The Bear Tunnels has future books in a past culture.

Daughters of the Apocalypse have to rediscover many historic skills for survival, including earlier methods of sharing knowledge.

Frankenstein's Family has two scientists teaching villagers to be thoughtful instead of stupid, and after a few years, several more people keenly interested in books and education.

Not Quite Kansas started with mishandling a book of spells, and involves trying to learn about a whole new world.

Path of the Paladins includes the Canticle of Thorns and other books.

Peculiar Obligations has Quakers in organized crime.  The Religious Society of Friends has been greatly involved in education, including abolitionist and natural science publications.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people learning things.  Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Danso and Family, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is set in a world with plenty of magic and a positive tone, where people often help each other and solve challenges peacefully.  It includes a healthy magical school.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they learn a lot along the way.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Feathering the Nest

Jul. 29th, 2025 02:45 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer is hosting Feathering the Nest, which always has a theme of "fluff and comfort."

The process is simple and familiar: reply to this post with an idea (or more than one), and for each person, I’ll write at least a thousand words (a short scene or a short story, depending upon how much plot creeps in!), send a reading copy to the prompter, and post a short summary as a reply to their comment. Rinse and repeat.

Activism

Jul. 28th, 2025 08:35 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Nonprofit hosts 'ghost trap' rodeo: A fishing tournament for cleaning abandoned fishing gear out of the water

Ghost traps are fishing traps that have been swept away in storms and currents or simply abandoned over time.

Once lost, these rusted traps often pose risks to coral reefs below and passing boats above — all while trapping and killing marine life that die long before they are pulled to the surface.
[---8<---]
“We started in October of 2018 through a grant from NOAA, which enabled us to hold seven tournament-style marine debris events around Tampa Bay,” Holland told the Port Charlotte Sun in mid-July.

“In that first year, our target was 15,000 pounds of marine debris. We ended up collecting 27,000 pounds, and had fabulous numbers of community members coming out to participate,” he said
.

Read more... )

Monday Update 7-28-25

Jul. 28th, 2025 04:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Utopia
Green Energy
Birdfeeding
Summer of the 69
Green Building
New Crowdfunding Project: Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Cozy Academia Anthology
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 7-25-25: Horror
Activism
France Recognizes Palestine
Aroace Spectrum
Birdfeeding
Hobbies: Hairstyling
Poem: "Fed from So Many Sources"
Poem: "The Future by Consequence, the Past by Redemption"
Poem: "Strong, Competent, Capable"
Housing
Crafts
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Hard Things

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 48 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 75 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 148 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 97 comments.


[community profile] sunshine_revival is running through July. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!

Sunshine-Revival-2025-Banner-3.png

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 1: Light
Poem: "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love
Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 3: Food

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House
Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"

* Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 6: Game Night
Poem: "A New Twist"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 7: The Ferris Wheel


[community profile] summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Sopping Wet and 69 Accommodations.


There are no open epics at present.


The weather has been hot and wet here. It rained again yesterday. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a male cardinal, a gray catbird, and a fox squirrel. I've heard red-winged blackbirds, wrens, and a woodpecker without seeing them. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. Peas are done. The second crop of blackberries is ripe.

[ SECRET POST #6779 ]

Jul. 28th, 2025 07:02 pm
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[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6779 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #970.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
badfalcon: (Garcia)
[personal profile] badfalcon

Journaling Prompt: What games do you play, if any? Are you a solo-gamer or do you view games as a social activity?

I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember. It started with Space Invaders on the Amstrad CPC 464 in the mid-80s - that clunky green-screen magic, the beep-boop intensity, the sheer novelty of it all. And I never really stopped.

Over the years, I’ve collected a fair few consoles: SNES, Gameboy, Playstation, PS2, Wii, Switch. I’ve still got them all, too. There's something oddly comforting about holding onto those pieces of plastic and circuitry, like keeping a time capsule of different versions of myself.

I’m definitely a solo-gamer. Always have been. I think it’s the introvert in me. I like slipping into a gameworld on my own terms, no pressure, no voice chat, no audience. Just me, the screen, and whatever rhythm the game wants me to fall into.

My favourites fall into a few categories:

Old school side-scrolling platforms
Tight levels, tricky jumps, that sense of flow when everything clicks. Still satisfying as hell.

Racing games
Especially Rock & Roll Racing, which lives in my memory as pure, chaotic joy. The soundtrack! The mayhem! The fact I can still hum the menu music unprompted!

Millennial dream games
AKA my happy place. Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley, Palia. I will always love games where you can farm, fish, befriend villagers, decorate your house, and wander around making little To Do lists for yourself. Peak comfort.

I know gaming is a social thing for a lot of people, and that’s great, but for me, it’s always been a way to unwind, to self-soothe, to get lost in a world I don’t have to share unless I choose to. A quiet kind of joy.

Two cozy-living titles are landing in August that have me genuinely buzzing - Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar and Tiny Bookshop

Grand Bazaar is a remake of the classic Harvest Moon DS: Grand Bazaar, rebuilt for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and PC. It looks like it'll hit all the familiar beats of the series - the crops, the bazaar, the friendships - with some extra structure and energy, like planning your stall layout, managing inventory, ringing the announcer bell, all while engaging with townsfolk and growing relationships

Tiny Bookshop 
feels like someone peeked inside my brain and made a game out of it. You run a little travelling bookshop in a seaside town, stocking shelves, making recommendations based on people’s moods, and slowly building relationships with the locals. I played the demo earlier this year and it was fantastic. It's out next week and I can't wait!

Both games feel deeply me. They’re about building worlds, making meaningful (but low‑stress) choices, and finding comfort in routine. Can’t wait to build my bazaar stall and decorate my little bookshop by the sea.

Birdfeeding

Jul. 28th, 2025 02:32 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny and sweltering.  It rained early this morning.

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

7/28/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

7/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

7/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

7/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

7/28/25 -- I picked 2 red cherry tomatoes and 1 yellow pear tomato.

I've seen a gray catbird and a mourning dove.

7/28/25 -- I potted up a handful of apples from the birdgift tree.

7/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

7/28/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
ysabetwordsmith: (gold star)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Every once in a while, Kickstarter throws me a link to a totally random project. Believe it or not, this one was after an update for an aromantic anthology.

For my gizmologist and hobby-scientist friends: Have you ever wanted a gizmo of your very own? This one can even make other gizmos! :D I love nerds so much. It's not even a product type suited to my creativity, but I enjoyed the hell out of browsing just for the fun of it. Reminds me of geeking out with friends at Uni High.

SALTGATOR: The 1st Desktop SoftGel Injection Molding Machine
Rapid Soft Part Making | 10-Minute Ready | 3D-Printing Mold Support | For DIYers & Designers

$278,954 pledged of $15,000 goal
1,097 backers
38 days to go

Read more... )

Deserts

Jul. 28th, 2025 12:04 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The Desert Links Compendium is a collection of links assembled to encourage learning about and appreciation for the ecology, history, and cultural heritage of deserts and drylands, with a focus on the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave Deserts.

June 2016

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