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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith Oct. 3rd, 2025 03:50 am)
Recently I posted about the importance of how small actions can change the future.  Here's an example: the Grapefruit Ladies
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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith posting in [community profile] followfriday Oct. 3rd, 2025 03:44 am)
Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

Today's theme is Japan / Japanese.

Read more... )
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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith Oct. 2nd, 2025 10:10 pm)
The Downside of Fertility

The fertility decline is everywhere in the world today. Moreover, the decline goes decades back in the histories of rich countries.

While not universal, this is a widespread trend. At the moment, it's great that fertility is falling because the human population is ravaging the planet. At some point, however, the population will need to stabilize. So it's good to think about factors that influence the number of births.

Read more... )
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([personal profile] weofodthignen Oct. 2nd, 2025 09:34 pm)
Overnight, in defiance of weather forecasts, we had some real rain. Puddles all over the place, and it continued to rain very lightly during the morning. So I got a damp dog on my bed and I don't have to water for a week, unless it flips back to hot enough that I have to hand water trees and flowers.

Yesterday I passed by a car park and a long line of people with fruit-and-veg boxes snaked around it. Presumably grocery distribution. I was on the other side of the street so was able to not appear to have noticed.
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([personal profile] billroper Oct. 2nd, 2025 09:42 pm)
I've gotten a shipping notice saying that the "Amy & Me" CDs should arrive on Saturday. I am waiting to see if this is true, but -- in the meantime -- here's the cover art:


Amy & Me album cover
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([personal profile] billroper Oct. 2nd, 2025 09:14 pm)
And the Cubs beat the Padres in the Wild Card Series, two games to one, and move on to face the Brewers in a best-of-five in the NLDS. I had tickets to all three games and sold all of them, because getting to the games from Des Plaines when the remote parking lot is unavailable was being untenable.

I have, however, managed to recover my Ventra card and load it into my Google Wallet which means that getting to NLDS games next week should be much more likely, although still non-trivial. At least it will be once I know when the Cubs are playing...
Neighborly Interests
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2 complete
Word count (story only): 2116
[Wednesday, May 6, 2020, morning]



:: Aidan meets another neighbor, and gets another view of the impending effects of press coverage of the disappearance. Part of the Edison’s Mirror arc. ::

Back to Neighborly Interests, part one
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to




“I’m sorry that people have failed to treat you with courtesy,” Aidan answered. He pushed Nik’s chair gently, until they reached the door, then angled it so Nik could open the door for himself. Nik’s shoulders trembled and his hands tightened into fists, white-knuckled, on the armrests. “Jus-- Just stop me in the usual space in the living room.”

Aidan nodded. “Sure. What would you like to drink? Last night, I saw bottled drinks and there’s several kinds of tea in the cabinet.”

“Give…” Nik took a deep breath. “Give me a second. Water is fine, really.”
Read more... )
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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith Oct. 2nd, 2025 03:15 pm)
Today is mostly sunny and hot. 

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I watered the irises and the patio plants.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden, savanna seedlings, and old picnic table.

EDIT 10/2/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is time for supper, I am done for the night.

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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith Oct. 2nd, 2025 01:16 am)
Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Seatweaving is a practical hobby of creating seats, backs, and other furniture parts from various materials. Among its branches are caning, strapping, and rope / rush weaving. These traditional crafts span a wide range of time, location, and materials. It's especially useful if you like upcycling old chairs with broken or missing parts.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like [community profile] crafty, [community profile] everykindofcraft, [community profile] get_knitted, and [community profile] justcreate.

Read more... )
As apparently the result of some long-running bad communication (not on Belovedest's side) there's a certain snarl at their work currently. They laid out the situation and the players to me.

Regarding the largest part of it -- "You have a leg to stand on there," I said. "Two legs. And my legs. That's four. And Yellface's. That's six. Eight. And when you have eight legs? creepy AND crawly )!"
Tags:
weofodthignen: selfportrait with Rune the cat (Default)
([personal profile] weofodthignen Oct. 1st, 2025 10:13 pm)
I tried something new and ran the sprinkler in the last position before breakfast, rather than squeezing it in in the evening. Then I did a load of laundry and started to put it on the line ... and it started to rain lightly.

When I got through stuffing the laundry in the dryer, I took out the recycling, and on my return found Monty sitting on the back porch steps. Brought him out food, and Prudence also appeared, so I had to bring her out a dish, too. I guess the porch room was a more congenial place to eat out of the damp than the front porch.

Not much rain though, and we got enough sun in the afternoon for the second load of laundry to dry on the line.
Here is my card for the Fall Festival Bingo over in [community profile] allbingo. The fest runs from October 1-31. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


FALL FESTIVAL BINGO CARD

WizardsAutumn"I wasn’t
afraid of you."
Alone in the WoodsMystery
Black / OrangeHerbsWerewolvesTransformationTalking Dog
MagicDark SideWILD CARDMoon BathingSomeone Touched
the Thing
WitchesCandlesCatsDestroy It with Fire"That felt weird."
UnstableBroken"What are you?"Books the Best Weapon in the World"Do you trust me?"

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([personal profile] billroper Oct. 1st, 2025 10:18 pm)
I am starting to add more and more categories to my Square inventory. The advantage of this is two fold:

First, if anyone asks what CDs I have by a particular person, I can pull up their category.

Second, when I am trying to place reorders, if I have put them in a category by the person that I get them from, then I can get a quick list of everything that I might need from them.

I have a *whole* lot more categorization to do, but I am making progress.

Slowly.
Neighborly Interests
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 2044
[Wednesday, May 6, 2020, morning]


:: Aidan meets another neighbor, and gets another view of the impending effects of press coverage of the disappearance. Part of the Edison’s Mirror arc. ::

Back to (Un)Employment
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to Neighborly Interests, part two




Aidan settled himself carefully in the passenger seat of the car, and smiled when Ronna started the engine. “That is very different. Each car seems as unique as a human voice.”

Ronna laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yes. So, do you like the island so far?” She eased the car onto the narrow country lane.

He brightened. “I’m looking forward to learning what grows well here, especially as I’ve struggled to amend acidic soil in earlier years, but… other places.” His voice remained smooth, but he swallowed thickly. “The boys are going to need some time to adjust.”
Read more... )
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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith Oct. 1st, 2025 02:12 pm)
Primate activist Jane Goodall has passed away.

She basically invented the field of chimpanzee primatology, living alongside the chimpanzees at what is now the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. I'm sure they shared with her the entrance to their afterlife and she is now happily reuniting with many old friends.

Read more... )
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([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith Oct. 1st, 2025 01:45 pm)
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering.

I haven't fed the birds yet, but I saw a wren, possibly a Bewick's wren or Carolina wren, at the hopper feeder. :D

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I heard a squirrel chattering but didn't see it.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 10/1/25 -- The tree guy came! We walked around the yard discussing what needs to be done. Based on a preliminary estimate (we should get solid numbers tomorrow) we should be able to get the branches cleared beside the driveway, the parking lot cleared, the path to the east edge and the orchard path restored, and the tree-sized branch removed from the south lot. Small stuff will be chipped for mulch, large stuff will be cut down for firewood. :D 3q3q3q!!! I really hope it comes together.

I also watered the irises, telephone pole garden, savanna seedlings, and old picnic table.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
mdlbear: Three rabbits dancing (rabbit-rabbit-rabbit)
([personal profile] mdlbear Oct. 1st, 2025 09:37 am)

Welcome to October, 2025!

It's the start of Fourth Quarter, so try to finish up Third Quarter's paperwork without too much agony.

Tags:
Canonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1884180.html




0.

The Essequibo River is the queen of rivers all!
    Buddy-ta-na-na, we are somebody, oh!
The Essequibo River is the queen of rivers all!
    Buddy-ta-na-na, we are somebody, oh!

    Somebody, oh, Johnny! Somebody, oh!
    Buddy-ta-na-na, we are somebody, oh!

– Sea shanty, presumed Guyanese

Let us appreciate that the only reason – the only reason – I know about what I am about to share with you is because of that whole music history thing of mine. It's not even my history. My main beat is 16th century dance music (± half a century). But dance music is working music, and as such I consider all the forms of work music to be its counsin, and so I have, of an occasion, wandered into the New England Folk Festival's sea-shanty sing. Many people go through life understanding the world around them through the perspective of a philosophical stance, a religious conviction, a grand explanatory theory, fitting the things they encounter into these frameworks; I do not know if I should be embarrased or not, but for me, so often it's just song cues.

So when I saw the word "Essequibo" go by in the web-equivalent of page six of the international news, I was all like, "Oh! I know that word!" recognizing a song cue when I see one. "It's a river. I wonder where it is?"

And I clicked the link.

That was twenty-one months ago.

Ever since, I have been on a different and ever-increasingly diverging timeline from the one just about everyone else is on.

In December of 2023, Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, tried to kick off World War Three.

He hasn't stopped trying. He's had to take breaks to steal elections and deal with some climate catastrophe and things like that. But mostly ever since – arguably since September of 2023 – Maduro has been escalating.

You wouldn't know it from recent media coverage of what the US is doing off the coast of Venezuela. At no point has any news coverage of the US military deployment to that part of the world mentioned anything about the explosive geopolitical context there. A geopolitical context, that when it has been reported on is referred to in term like "a pressure cooker" and "spiraling".

The US government itself has said nothing that alludes to it in any way. The US government has its story and it's sticking to it: this is about drugs.

As you may be aware, the US government is claiming to have sunk three Venezuelan boats using the US military. The first of these sinkings was on September 1st.

To hear the media tell it, the US just up and decided to start summarily executing people on boats in the Caribbean that it feels were drug-runners on Sep 1st.

No mention is made of what happened on Aug 31st.

On August 31, the day before the first US military attack on a Venezuelan vessel, at around 14:00 local time, somebody opened fire on election officials delivering ballot and ballot boxes in the country Venezuela is threatening to invade.

And they did it from the Venezuelan side of the river that is the border between the two countries.

That country is an American ally. And extremely close American ally. An ally that is of enormous importance to the US.

And which is a thirtieth the size of Venezuela by population, and which has an army less than one twentieth as large.

You would be forgiven for not knowing that Venezuela has been threatening to and apparently also materially preparing to invade another country, because while it's a fact that gets reported in the news, it is never reported in the same news as American actions involving or mentioning Venezuela.

Venezuela, which is a close ally of Russia.

You may have heard about how twenty-one months ago, in December of 2023, there was an election in Venezuela which Maduro claimed was a landslide win for him. There was a lot of coverage in English-speaking news about that election and how it was an obvious fraud, and the candidate who won the opposition party's primary wasn't on the ballot, and so on and so forth.

You probably didn't hear that in that very same election, there was a referendum. If you did hear it reported, you might have encountered it being dismissed in the media as a kind of political stunt of Maduro's, to get people to show up to the polls or to energize his base. It couldn't possibly be (the reasoning went) that he meant it. Surely it was just political theater.

The referendum questions put, on Dec 3, 2023, to the voters of Venezuela were about whether or not they supported establishing a new Venezuelan state.

Inside the borders of the country of Guyana.

2023 Dec 4: The Guardian: "Venezuela referendum result: voters back bid to claim sovereignty over large swath of Guyana".

Why?

Eleven billion gallons of light, sweet crude: the highest quality of oil that commands the highest price.

(I can hear all of Gen X breathe, "Oh of course.")

It is under the floor of the Caribbean in an area known as the Stabroek Block.

The Stabroek Block is off the coast of an area known as the Essequibo.

It takes its name from the Essequibo River, which borders it on one side, and it constitutes approximately two-thirds of the land area of the country of Guyana.

Whoever owns the Essequibo owns the Stabroek Block and whoever owns the Stabroek owns those 11B gallons of easily-accessed, high-value oil.


Image from BBC, originally in "Essequibo: Venezuela moves to claim Guyana-controlled region", 2023 Dec 6


As far as almost everyone outside of Venezuela has been concerned, for the last hundred years Guyana has owned the Essequibo.

Venezuela disagrees. Read more [5,760 words] )

This post brought to you by the 219 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.

Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!
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