Reading

D.O.P.-T.

Prudence reappeared, and deigned to accept a food offering, and Monty came by in the late afternoon and was very insistent, so I got to feed all three cats (Mama Violet at breakfast).

This evening it's also resumed raining lightly, so I guess the Chronicle forecaster was right and we get a Pineapple Express.

Current Mood: busy

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Poetry Fishbowl Update

fuzzyred will be closing the pool around midday Friday. The sale itself lasts until the end of Friday. If you're still shopping the Holiday Poetry Sale, now's the time to make your choices!

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Tick Tock

So apparently, Oracle is officially part of the consortium that is buying the U.S. operations of TikTok.

The market, at least, seemed impressed by this, as the stock went up $10 / share after hours. We'll see what it looks like in the morning. :)

Current Mood: busy

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Unwrapped Surprise (part 1 of 1, complete)

Unwrapped Surprise
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1168
[Second week of December 2016]

:: Shiv is wrapping his gift for Luci when… I was ambushed by a plot demon. Written as an extension of an earlier prompt for the December of 2025 month of gifted stories, this was in mind immediately after receiving the prompt. My thanks to the readers and the prompters! ::

Shiv smirked as he used the scrap of metal under his fingernail to cut a strip of aluminum foil from the roll, making the strip as wide as his pinky nail, then repeated the process four more times. He picked up the box that Genna had given him, a fancy one for necklaces, even padded with pristine cotton batting, as if she’d bought it new and then just set it aside for later.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Lenoir City(Nevermore;>!)
Current Music: Skald Radio

Satisfying....

So, today I did something I haven't done in yrs. I tried to replicate one of mom's recipes. She was old school,all in her head. Most of my favs I know the ingredients(I watched and helped enough when I was a kid;>)but the proportions?
With the weather the way it has been I tried to make her Lima Bean Soup. I could source all the ingredients locally except smoked hamhocks, so I tried an end piece of country ham. I also couldn't make myself use the boullion cubes she used and instead used a good stock.
Came out pretty good! Not as salty as hers and the difference using good stock and a different part of the pig wasn't a negative, just a different good.
Now, if I could have as good of luck with her Jalapeño Cream Cheese dip. I've tried at LEAST a dozen times over the yrs, have a complete list of ingredients but NEVER get the taste right. None have been bad but none very good or as she made it.....GREAT!!!!
Cheers,
Pat

Current Mood: busy

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Dinosaurs

Italy makes a surprising discovery ahead of the Winter Olympics: dinosaur tracks

On Tuesday, Italian officials announced the discovery of thousands of dinosaur tracks on "nearly vertical dolomite walls" in Stelvio National Park, a protected area in the central Alps of northern Italy.
[---8<---]
"The tracks, preserved in excellent condition despite the altitude, show traces of toes and claws imprinted on the walls when they were tidal flats at the end of the Triassic," the Natural History Museum says. That period spanned 252 to 201 million years ago.

Della Ferrara notified authorities of his findings, setting paleontological research into motion. Preliminary analyses suggest most of the tracks came from "herbivorous prosauropod dinosaurs" — the long-necked creatures that predate enormous sauropods like the ones depicted in the "Jurassic Park" franchise.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Moment of Silence: Gil Gerard

Actor Gil Gerard has passed away. He was best known for playing Captain William “Buck” Rogers. He will be missed.

Carry on the work:

How to Become an Actor (with Pictures)

How to Start a Career in Acting (with Pictures)

How to Audition for a TV Show: The Ultimate Guide

Acting in Science Fiction

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, chilly, windy, and wet. It's drizzling now. At least all the snow and ice melted off though.

I fed the birds. Unsurprisingly I haven't seen any.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 12/18/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 12/18/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

It's been raining off and on all day. It was raining so briskly in the afternoon that not all the outside tasks got done. Fortunately it's just drizzling now so I finished up what I could. I haven't seen any wildlife all day, which is sensible of them.

The sky has been so cloudy all day that it was perennially twilight. At sunset, the sun hit a band of less clouds, so now 3/4 of the sky is bizarre shades of orange-purple. The road is wet and catching the last light of day like a ribbon of gold.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

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thanks

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for...

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. (See also, the Wikipedia article, Watch out for the rabbit hole -- this is a deep one.
Mail arriving in time (though just barely). Don't count on UK's Royal Mail being as fast and consistent as Postnl.
Receiving packages that I feared had gone astray. Looking deeply enough into them to realized that, in addition to failing to provide my house number on one order, I had mixed them up because their package numbers had the same last digit.
Nanobag and Roamate. (See above.) (I want to review the latter eventually. However, the best-laid plans, etc.)
Not sure how thankful to be for decade-old scratch tracks, but they deserve a listen at least.

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#2292 - Battle Cry

Here is Thursday's Modem Problems from Matthew McAndrews:

( Matthew McAndrews' Modem Problems #2292 - Battle Cry - December 18th, 2025 )

D.O.P.-T.

The rain came back, ahead of the forecast. Patches of wetness when I gave Mama Violet her breakfast; light but steady rain falling when I opened the curtains after my own breakfast. I started my morning walk with my umbrella but was able to take it down after 10 minutes. (The forecast was that we wouldn't get real rain until Friday.)

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Floored

Gretchen and I watched the season finale of "The Floor" today. This is a fun little game show, because it combines knowledge and luck in interesting ways. Some of the categories I'm ok with and are places where I can do a lot of damage like, say, "Beatles Songs". Others, not so much... :)

And that's good. If it were too easy, it wouldn't be fun to watch.

Current Mood: busy

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History

This 8,000-year-old art shows math before numbers existed

Over 8,000 years ago, early farming communities in northern Mesopotamia were already thinking mathematically—long before numbers were written down. By closely studying Halafian pottery, researchers uncovered floral and plant designs arranged with precise symmetry and numerical patterns, revealing a surprisingly advanced sense of geometry.

People learned to count and do math, sometimes rather sophisticated math, long before they got around to writing numerals or equations. As for geometry, it's very easy to obtain workable patterns that scale well by examining nature. Fibonacci sequence and fractals both yield very useful parameters.

Current Mood: awake

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Feather-Light Touches (part 1 of 1, complete)

Feather-Light Touches
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1094
[Second week of December 2016]

:: Toward the later part of Shiv’s visit with Genna, she shows him a new handicraft. Written as an extension of an earlier prompt for the December of 2025 month of gifted stories, this was in mind immediately after receiving the prompt. My thanks to the readers and the prompters! ::

Genna laid down three glossy, mismatched ball ornaments, both old and even scratched in places. “This is one of the easiest ways to learn macrame because the ball helps support he work, the same way that a frame holds up the warp and weft threads on a loom.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny and chilly.

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

Current Mood: busy

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Today's Adventures

Today we went shopping in Mattoon.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Three for the Memories Coming Back Next Month!

threeforthememories 2025 session will be open for posts on January 3, 2026 and will run for 3 weeks until January 24. Do let others know about us, as anyone can participate by just joining the community.

Just a reminder of how the event runs:

1) Three photos only per person during each annual session. Members are encouraged to discuss the reason for their choices.

2) Photos can be hosted at Dreamwidth or elsewhere, and should not be larger than 800 px width or height.

3) All three photos should be in the same post. Cut tags should be placed after the first photo.

Three For the Memories banner

Still open for prompts

Today's post is the last of the prompts or connected follow up stories, so please, feel free to suggest new ideas! The goal is to post a prompted story every day this month.

Let the fun continue!

D.O.P.-T.

I wound up with both a doctor's and a dentist's appointment on the same day. Survived both.

Current Mood: busy

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Early Humans

Scientists reveal a 1.5-million-year-old human face

A 1.5-million-year-old face is forcing scientists to rethink the origins and diversity of early humans.

Scientists have digitally reconstructed the face of a 1.5-million-year-old Homo erectus fossil from Ethiopia, uncovering an unexpectedly primitive appearance. While its braincase fits with classic Homo erectus, the face and teeth resemble much older human ancestors. This discovery challenges long-held ideas about where and how Homo erectus evolved. It also hints at a complex web of migrations and possible mixing between early human species.

The actual image shows a reconstruction of the skull, rather than a paleoforensic art rendering of the face when alive. But it's still cool.