Reading

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Free Epic Poll

The July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl made its $200 goal, so you get a free epic. Everyone is eligible to vote in this poll. I will keep it open at least until Monday night. If there's a clear answer then, I'll close it. Otherwise I may leave it open a little longer.

Here are your options:

"Meeting in the Middle"
Kan Ying sees through the lies of the Parthians and makes his way to Rome.
76 lines

"Once the Avalanche Has Begun"
A foolish choice in a neighboring town makes life challenging for Shaeth's followers.
70 lines

Poll #33354 Free Epic for the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

View Respondents

Which of these should be the free epic?

View Answers

"Meeting in the Middle"
3 (75.0%)

"Once the Avalanche Has Begun"
1 (25.0%)

Current Mood: accomplished

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Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House

Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House

Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so!

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"

This poem was written for the Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House. It also fills the "silver / gold" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Poetry Fishbowl Report for July 1, 2025

This session's theme was "Weaponized Incompetence and Malicious Compliance." I wrote from 12:30 PM to 4:30 AM, so about 14 hours, accounting for breaks. I wrote 3 poems on Tuesday and another 6 later in the week.

Participation was variable, with 10 comments on LiveJournal and another 32 on Dreamwidth. A total of 12 people sent prompts.

Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Always Surprised by Consequences"
"Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness"
"No Such Thing as Finished"
"The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"
"Provoking Change by Bringing Nature"

"An Interest in the Affairs of Your Government" (Polychrome Heroics March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl)
"Tomato Seedlings in Tin Cans" (Daughters of the Apocalypse, June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl)

Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from July 1. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

This session's donors include:

janetmiles,

fuzzyred, and Anthony Barrette. All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 4 tallies, so there will be a bonus fishbowl on Tuesday, July 15.

The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.

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#2247 - Free Pizza

Here is Monday's Modem Problems from Matthew McAndrews:

( Matthew McAndrews' Modem Problems #2247 - Free Pizza - July 14th, 2025 )

Current Mood: busy

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Unsold Poems for the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl

The following poems from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Delight in Another," "A Sense of Weather Changes," "Ouroboros Insects," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Stars and Diamonds," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "Provoking Change by Bringing Nature"

This poem is spillover from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It is posted here as the second freebie, courtesy of new prompter

gothfvck. It was inspired by a prompt from

see_also_friend. It also fills the "bad girls" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Exeter, UK

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jetlag

Reverse Jetlag

I got to bed around 10 PM or so last night and slept around six hours, waking up around 4 AM BST, which is 8 PM PST, the time zone from which I traveled on Friday-Saturday. This seems very strange to me.

We don't have to be out of the hotel until Noon today (Monday), and have a booked car to take us to our next destination at 11:45 AM, so if I do get back to sleep for a few hours, that's fine. It just is a a bit unexpected. This must have something to do with how I got actual sleep on the flight from SFO to LHR on Friday night into Saturday.

Current Mood: busy

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Space Exploration

2. 35-billion-year-old Moon rock found in Africa rewrites lunar history

A 2.35-billion-year-old Moon rock that fell to Earth in Africa is rewriting what we know about lunar volcanism. This rare meteorite, studied by UK scientists and unveiled at a major geochemistry conference, reveals that the Moon was volcanically active far longer than previously thought. With a unique chemical makeup and an age that bridges a billion-year gap in Moon rock samples, it suggests the Moon had internal heat sources that persisted for ages.

Current Mood: busy

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Placemaking: How to Connect the Dots

I've been talking about placemaking with a friend, and how to connect the dots with different activities...

( Read more... )

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RenFaire Sunday

We headed up to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on Sunday. We got there a bit later than we might have hoped, mostly (I think) due to my own lateness getting out of bed and functional, but we got a nutritious breakfast into everyone before going, so I will count that as a plus.

The kids had a great time running around looking in stores, buying a few things, and enjoying various shows along with us. I didn't spend much time in the stores as Gretchen and I own a great many things and there were a variety of attractive benches available, as the crowd seemed a bit thin. I don't know if this was because the weather so far this summer has been miserably hot, but today the weather was quite nice and didn't get much above 80 degrees.

We came home, fed takeout Chinese to the kids and got the Midkiffs on the road home once again later than we might have hoped, but fed. :)

Overall, I will count this as a successful weekend.

And now I am going to go take a cold shower and cool off. :)

D.O.P.-T.

It would have been Wulfy's birthday today. In his honour, when the housemate and I took a walk around the park at 9'ish to beat the heat, hordes of dogs were out.

Ours declined to walk past the end of the front lawn this evening.

Current Mood: frustrated

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Working Troubles (part 1 of 1, complete)

Working Troubles
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1296
[Friday, 4 August, 2017, 3 p.m.]

:: LaQuinta’s day is a series of disappointments and troubles. Part of the Unfair Trades arc in Mercedes, within the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Reaching for the small paper bag of leftovers, LaQuinta felt all the air rush out of her lungs in a gusty sigh. “I’ve got a place to sleep. I’ve got a shower or tub whenever I want it, and can use the toilet between ten at night and seven in the morning.” She mouthed the remaining words as her air ran out. “I’ll find some work tomorrow. Maybe I can hide the Surrey at Cash’s place. Maybe it’ll help.”

She lifted the bag, double checked the lock on her bike chain, and stepped away from the parking space in front of her room.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Exeter, UK
Current Music: England-Wales women's soccer

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Day in Exeter

Surprisingly, I seem to have adjusted to UK time pretty well. Okay, I woke up at 5 AM, but my normal wake-up time at home is around 4:30 AM anyway. OTOH, that won't work on the two days this coming week that I'm working remotely at the Day Jobbe, but I'll deal with that when we get there.

Today we had the day to ourselves (we have commitments tomorrow).

( Around Exeter )

We did a lot of shopping but very little buying. There was a street market with various vendors, and I bought Kayla a pair of earrings, which was about all for me. We also looked in some bookstores, but I didn't find anything that I wanted to try and squeeze into my luggage.

We were back at the hotel in the mid-to-late afternoon, as I was loaning my computer to Kayla to participate in the First Main Meeting of the 2025 WSFS Business Meeting. She participated by voice only because I didn't pack the webcam. Because of the nature of the meeting, neither she nor I have much to say about it. Cheryl put various sports on the hotel TV and we ordered room service.

Tomorrow we have non-fannish responsibilities about which we'll report later, but with luck I'll get some sleep tonight despite having to drink a bunch of coffee to stay awake earlier today.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, mild, and damp -- so cloudy that the light is dim.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches plus a pair of cardinals.

I put out water for the birds.

It's starting to drizzle.

EDIT 7/13/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/13/25 -- I refilled the birdfeeders again.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

As it is still wet out, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

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Marketplace Books

For fans of the Marketplace series of kinky books by Laura Antoniou, the author has the rights back.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: see post

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Done Since 2025-07-06

It's been a week. Starting with my son's fortieth birthday, and ending with the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death. I started writing a "state of the Bear" post last Sunday, and will either finish it today or tomorrow, or give up on it. But productive.

I went out for a walk four days this week -- the longest was about a kilometer, and the shortest was 650m. I practiced every day, which I haven't done for a long time. And, at N's suggestion, I started a work log, to keep track of what I've done for our business. I'll write it up separately, of course, but it's been remarkably effective. See under Monday for the start, but it's all been moved out of Dog/to.do to different file and workspace, which will mostly not find its way into this log, although pieces might.

It also shows how appallingly lazy I've been for the last six months.

Not really surprising -- I've been retired for eight years, and I've allowed myself to get out of shape in a great many ways. It's probably too late to get back to where I was a decade ago, but I'll do what I can.

And of course, the best-laid plans... Friday N and I started putting together a piece of patio furniture, and wore ourselves out completely. And yesterday was Colleen's day and I actually got more done than I expected. Weekends are for catching up.

As for links, AI coding tools make developers slower, study finds • The Register. As I've often said, HTML Is Publishing, Not Code

And this is flat-out amazing: Hundreds of robots move Shanghai city block - YouTube

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: busy

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Climate Change

Melting glaciers are awakening Earth's most dangerous volcanoes

As glaciers melt around the world, long-dormant volcanoes may be waking up beneath the ice. New research reveals that massive ice sheets have suppressed eruptions for thousands of years, building up underground pressure. But as that icy weight disappears, it may trigger a wave of explosive eruptions—especially in places like Antarctica. This unexpected volcanic threat not only poses regional risks but could also accelerate climate change in a dangerous feedback loop. The Earth’s hidden fire may be closer to the surface than we thought.

Somehow OH SHIT just doesn't seem like enough. O_O I have noticed that the volcanoes seem more restless than they used to, and now wonder if this could be a contributing factor.

D.O.P.-T.

Yesterday after dinner the dog decided she wanted to take a real walkies, and led me around the corner. Then she suddenly stopped dead, turned tail, and towed me all the way home. No idea what spooked her. Today she started off the same way, but stopped and instead demanded to cross the fairly busy road. I managed to effect this without getting us run over. She found a lawn to make a deposit on, I did the pick-up—and almost immediately, she was racing again. But this time continuing away from the house. So we went around the block in good time, including crossing at a crossing this time, and I think she was all calmed down when we got back. If it's a sound, I can't hear it.

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One More Step

Jen finished recording the bass parts for the six songs that we'd targeted for this weekend, so we'll call that a complete success. :)

Dinner tonight was a lovely brisket, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls.

Tomorrow, off to the RenFaire. (And then back to Indianapolis for the Midkiffs...)

The kids are still having fun downstairs, which is all good.