ravan

Hopes and Plans
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 2042
[End of March 179-]

:: Laszlo introduces his new friends to each other. The promised earned happy endings, or at least hints of them. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

Back to part thirty-nine
To the Lost Son Index
:: Thanks for reading! ::

Late in the afternoon, merry laughter approached, high and bright. Behind it, several deeper voices joined in, though one was oddly flat. Laszlo’s brow furrowed, then he pushed himself to sit up. The quick motion set the hammock wheeling from side to side, and he had to press his back against the netting until it slowed back to a gentle sway.

Red hair, a few shades darker than strawberries, peeked out from under a new white kerchief. She waved, then ducked behind her older sister, only to peek out at him immediately. “Nadezhda,” Laszlo greeted, he waved energetically. “Hello!”
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Current Mood: accomplished

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( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: exanimate

Today is partly sunny and sweltering.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

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The latest newsletter from YLE ended with the dreaded "Continue reading this post for free in the Substack app". I.e. they've gone blatantly freemium. Presumably if asked they'd say they need more subscribers to support all the "value add" that isn't part of their original fact-focussed take on public health in the US, then with emphasis on Covid. They "need" funding for more videos I don't watch, and heavens knows what all else.

They also included their take on gun violence, a subject they insist is part of public health epidemiology. Its inclusion was acceptable to some readers, wanted by some, and rejected by others, to the point that YLE provided an option for subscribers (paid and unpaid) to opt out of receiving such posts. I did so, but nonetheless received today's mixed post.

I have high standards for YLE, formed by their behaviour during the years of the covid lockdowns. Their current behaviour isn't even bad by the standards of substack posters, or modern businesses in general, let alone by the standards of politicians.

But I'm disappointed to see them reverting to the mean/possibly joining the race to the bottom.

And I wonder how much money is being taken home by the YLE principals, and how that compares both with other jobs available to young doctors and with my own best earning years.

To be fair - this was a quite meaty post, before the freemium bit, which seems to be about registering for a paid-subscriber-only live webinar on fall vaccines. (Live webinars are another "value add" I don't want; people who want them are welcome to pay for them.) YLE has a long way down to go before they reach parity with Paul Krugman, and much as I often complain about him, he's good compared to others from whom I've long ago unsubscribed.

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name and shame

Six “Weak” Fantasy Powers That Are Incredibly Strong

These are powers that are considered minor, some interesting flavor at best, but actually provide a huge advantage. The only question is whether storytellers realize it.

It's not the amount of power in an ability, but rather your creativity in using it that matters.

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Here is Monday's Modem Problems from Matthew McAndrews:

( Matthew McAndrews' Modem Problems #2265 - Raise - September 15th, 2025 )

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It's supposed to get hot again starting tomorrow. Pity; I've been able to let the dog stay out a bit without the a/c trying to cool the back garden.

The first non-tiny green orange fell off the tree. Or was bitten off, more likely.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Photos: Fairy Garden Lantern Deconstruction
Birdfeeding
Candy Jar Terrarium Part 2: Plants
Candy Jar Terrarium Part 1: Setup
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Safety
Philosophical Questions: Rights
Poem: "The Most Precious Heritage"
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Low-Carb Meatloaf Recipes
Follow Friday 9-12-25: Iron Man
Sustainability
Recipe: "Edwards Family Meatloaf"
Poem: "But an Empty Shell"
Birdfeeding
Hobbies: Knitting
Today's Adventures
Music
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party

Let's Boycott Mississippi has 55 comments. Affordable Housing has 46 comments. Robotics has 68 comments. Food has 37 comments.

"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $200 to be complete. Shiv attends the first session of his Worldbuilding class.

The weather is sweltering again. :P Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel. Lots of butterflies are out, and honeybees are draining the small metal birdbath. Currently blooming: dandelions, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, firewheel, cypress vine, sunchokes, sedum. Tomatoes, ball carrots, cucumbers, and groundcherries are ripe.

Current Mood: busy

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blogging,
personal

Goodbye to bad rubbish BJ, who could make simple things like Madonna being active in the music industry longer than most people of our generation being aware of, plus she didn't look in her early 40s at the time, into some kind of sinister conspiracy theory situation.

You were an absolute jackass, and I honestly don't care if you're alive or not except that I might need to avoid you.

Thanks to Votania and Darkside, who helped me realize what a bad friend BJ was, never mind as a prospective life partner and spouse. Bleck.

This random thought brought to me by the death of Charles Entertainment Kirk, which would probably have been making BJ's circles flail in panic, and hearing a Madonna song on the Doof. (A back episode, we didn't have a SunDoof that I'm aware of.)

Someone overheard that I'm working with terraria and gave me this fairy garden lantern so I could turn it into a terrarium. :D So today I deconstructed it and cleaned the container.

The lantern part has an open top with a hanging loop and a solid base. It has a hexagonal shape with a narrow top, widest part below the middle, and slightly narrower base. The panes appear to be rigid plastic. The frame seems to be metal. There's a bit of heft to the base, even when empty.

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Current Mood: accomplished

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Ruby and Calvin were successfully redeemed from the dog boarder this morning. It was no surprise when Ruby hopped promptly into the car. It was more of a surprise when Calvin did, because Calvin has been -- up until now -- unwilling to get in and out of the car voluntarily. But he got in and then got *out* when we got home.

This did not mean that he had learned anything else in our absence, as I discovered after lunch. But Gretchen has read through some of the training materials and is trying a new approach to housebreaking Calvin. We'll see how it works.

Ruby is scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning to take out a new (thankfully small) tumor of the same kind as the previous one. I'll be taking her there and I'm hoping that everything goes well.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to push the "Amy & Me" album to the duplicator, which would be easier if I had actually finished mixing it. We tested the then-current mixes on the way down to Ball State on Friday and decided that the track order works, but that there is a problem with the matching between the tracks with replaced vocals and the ones that have live vocals. I did a bit of research last night and got some ideas about how to approach this, which I figured I'd give a try after lunch today.

Unfortunately, what was sounding reasonable in the studio did not sound reasonable at all in the car. But this gave me an idea of where the sonic problems were, so back to the basement I went. This time, I decided to grab the Slate modeling headphones and mix with them instead of the studio speakers. This turned out to be a good idea, I think.

I swapped around the mic modeling plugins again and found something that seems to have worked better. I also reset the compressors on the guitar and vocal, switching to a different compressor plugin that I've never used before for the vocal. I also switched out to a different program for the maximizer.

All that done, tracks went back onto the USB stick for another test while grabbing dinner for Julie. And these were much better. The first track in the set of 10 needs more work, because it was the first track and there were more changes that got accumulated as I went forward, but the other nine sound good.

So I need to patch the first track, then I need to touch up the other 13 tracks so that they match, and then maybe this will be solid for duplication.

Naturally, I have a Windycon meeting tomorrow night...

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Time for More
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1755
[End of March 179-]

:: Meeting more residents of the village gives Laszlo the idea to make more enduring connections between his home village and Victor’s. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

Back to part thirty-eight
To the Lost Son Index
On to part forty

On Sunday, the first person to arrive at Gregory’s to visit was Kálmán. He whistled cheerfully as he approached, up the long path on the slope that ended in a terraced area framing the cottage on three sides. The priest held a cloth-draped basket in the crook of his arm, and greeted the trio warmly, but quieted when he recognized the chess board sitting on a chair seat between them.

Kálmán nodded to the board. “Sorry for interrupting.” He held up the basket. “I brought bread. You’ll be getting visitors a few at a time today.”

Laszlo sighed. “I suppose that makes sense. It’s the first Sunday since we got back.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: anxious

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Scientists invent 'glue gun' filled with 3D-printed materials that heal broken bones 'in minutes'

Tested on rabbits, the device was able to quickly create complex bone implants using 3D printing technology, without prefabricating a metal or donor-bone graft in advance.

Placed directly on the area of impact, the 3D-printed grafts offer flexibility while also releasing anti-inflammatory antibiotics and promoting natural bone regrowth at the site, according to the research, published in the journal “Device.”

This really is closer to handheld 3D printing than a true bone glue. The former is useful when large parts of bone are missing. The latter is what you want for attaching the ends of a bone broken in half or to piece together many fragments. And while replacing lost sections or puzzling pieces together are invasive processes, just sealing one break doesn't have to be.

Of course, that's if hospitals can be arsed to provide this type of care. They probably won't.

Current Mood: busy

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Today is mostly sunny and sweltering. It is 90°F in mid-September. Fuck climate change. >_<

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

I put out water for the birds. The metal birdbath was empty again.

EDIT 9/14/25 -- I set up 9 crabapple seeds in a baggie of damp sand to cold-stratify in the refrigerator.

EDIT 9/14/25 -- I disassembled the fairy garden so I can use its lantern container as a terrarium.

EDIT 9/14/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/14/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

9/'14/25 -- I watered the irises, old picnic table, new picnic table, septic garden, telephone pole garden, and a few seedlings in the savanna. *goflopnow*

Cicadas and crickets are singing. I've seen a lot of butterflies today -- cabbage, painted ladies, and monarchs. :D

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

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On the whole it's been a pretty good week, modulo problems with the kitchen plumbing, and my internal plumbing. But music! With m leaving next week for the US until the end of October, we had to get as many of their tracks on the new Kaleidofolk album as possible recorded. For this we needed scratch tracks, and as of this afternoon we have them. We have studio time booked for Wednesday and Thursday.

We visited StudiOjo Friday evening. It's only 450m away -- an easy walk even for us. I'll be saying more about the album soon, presumably; all that's needed is time to write it. For now, I'll just mention the title, Winds of Time, which comes from a line near the end of the next-to-last track, "Millennium's Dawn".

In the process of searching for an instrument cable I came across my MXL large-diaphragm condenser mic, so the purple RØDE NT1 I've been coveting will have to wait until this project is done. Hazard pay.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: okay (body not particularly s
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: tuning a newly-restrung Plink; making scratch tracks

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This post covers planting the candy jar terrarium. Begin with Part 1: Setup.

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Current Mood: accomplished

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Today I assembled the large candy jar terrarium. Continue with Part 2: Plants.

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Current Mood: accomplished

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That was a trip. :)

K is in school down at Ball State in Muncie and this is Parents' Weekend, so we dropped the dogs off to be boarded, drove down yesterday, checked into a motel, visited with K over dinner, went back to the motel, got some sleep, picked up K and a friend, got lunch, went back to the dorm, visited with K for a while, took her to Walmart to buy Cheerios (and other things), dropped her off at the dorm, drove home, made an unscheduled stop to buy a stuffed horse, and have just arrived home in time to fall into bed so that we can get up tomorrow and redeem the dogs.

We're tired.

But it was a good trip and it was nice to have some time to shoot the breeze with Phil Midkiff on various subjects. :)

Tomorrow, it's laundry and back into the studio to see if I can work on a few things that showed up in the truck test of the current album on the way to Ball State.

Whee!

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Monty and Prudence waylaid me on my way out to walk, asking to be fed. Sadly, I needed to do the walk before the sun broke through, so I had to feed them separately later: Prudence in the back porch at lunchtime, Monty at dusk in the driveway. Maybe the issue was that the guy from the house that supplies better cat food was doing pre-fall inspection and maintenance on his roof.

Time to Rest
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1910
[End of March 179-]

:: After returning to the village, Rebeka and Laszlo are finally getting some much-needed rest. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

Back to part thirty-seven
To the Lost Son Index
On to part thirty-nine

“Vladimir is brilliant in his own way,” Laszlo mused. The awning shaded their area from the afternoon sunshine, and the positioning of the pair of hammocks, mounted to posts dug into the side yard minutes after Vladimir had hurried out of Victor’s study, allowed Laszlo and Rebeka to look down the mountain at the carpet of trees that separated them from the village. “Your hammock will hold you, I promise.”

Rebeka tried to sit up, but the knotted ropes conspired to make her lean back, conforming to the long curve of the hammock. “It’s very strange,” she mused. “But David loves it. He’s slept longer in the hammock than he ever has before.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: annoyed

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Hopes and Plans (part 1 of 1, complete)

After Tuesday even the calender goes W.T.F...

Birdfeeding

Name and Shame: Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE)

Writing

#2265 - Raise

D.O.P.-T.

Monday Update 9-15-25

🍾🥂 About 24⅔ years of good fucking riddance

Photos: Fairy Garden Lantern Deconstruction

Dogs and Discs

Time for More (part 1 of 1, complete)

Safety

Birdfeeding

Done Since 2025-09-07

Candy Jar Terrarium Part 2: Plants

Candy Jar Terrarium Part 1: Setup

And We're Back!

D.O.P.-T.

Time to Rest (part 1 of 1, complete)

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