ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-22 02:44 pm
Entry tags:

Monday Update 9-22-25

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Education
Nature
Birdfeeding
Cyberspace Theory
Creative Jam
Neurodiversity
Books
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Society
Books
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 9-19-25: J-pop
Corncob Broth
Recipe: "Three Sisters Succotash"
Today's Cooking
Artificial Intelligence
Birdfeeding
Hobbies: Embroidery
Hopescrolling
Genocide
Space Exploration
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Good News

Let's Boycott Mississippi has 60 comments. Affordable Housing has 49 comments. Robotics has 69 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 has cooled off somewhat. We got a little rain last night and drizzled today. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches 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, 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. Fields are about a quarter harvested.
rebeccmeister: (Default)
rebeccmeister ([personal profile] rebeccmeister) wrote2025-09-22 04:24 pm
Entry tags:

Regatta went well; now exhausted and behind on work [status, rowing]

Thankfully a number of us wound up going over to Wolff's Biergarten on both Saturday and Sunday to have some food and beverages at different points.

Our annual regatta went really, really well. But it was a very long day. I got interviewed by two news channels while wearing my pirate costume, heh. The reason for the pirate costume is that sometimes people need to be able to find the regatta director, and a costume makes the regatta director easy to find.

I am writing this instead of grading papers. So now I should grade papers.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-22 02:19 pm

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild. It rained a little last night.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/22/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/22/25 -- I started planting irises but only got one in the ground before it started drizzling again. However, there's a third 'Midnight Treat' purple iris in a bag meant to hold two, so that's awesome.









.
marycatelli: (Default)
marycatelli ([personal profile] marycatelli) wrote in [community profile] girlgenius_lair2025-09-22 11:39 am
sistawendy: my 2006 Prius at the dealership (Prius)
sistawendy ([personal profile] sistawendy) wrote2025-09-22 09:58 am
Entry tags:

New York City, part 6

think I found the way to zen out in New York: sitting on a bench in Madison Square Park around 11:00 in the shade of trees, listening to a busker play sax across the park, and peeking up at the top of the Flatiron building.

And why was I in the neighborhood? To go to the Museum of Sex. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think it’s worth the ticket price, even if it does a fairly good job of showing how messed up the past was. I can only hope that things are better for future generations.

Then, much napping because of Saturday night.

After dinner, I made a pilgrimage: the Stonewall Inn, where the (modern, effective) queer rights movement started with a riot on June 28th, 1969. There’s a tiny, triangular park with life-size statues of gay activists talking about what to do next after the riots. There was also a memorial to a trans girl who’d been recently murmured by a family member. Outside the gate stood a bored-looking policewoman. Trust New York to produce some unsubtle visual metaphors.

The bar itself? Seems perfectly normal. It’s mostly men, natch, but they’re not clones. Yes, it’s a bit of a tourist trap, but not obnoxiously so.

Today’s plan: good eetz and Brooklyn.
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
dialecticdreamer ([personal profile] dialecticdreamer) wrote2025-09-22 09:39 am
Entry tags:

Feathering the Nest for September of 2025

Welcome to Feathering the Nest, a prompt call for September of 2025!

For my usual readers, welcome back! Let’s have some fun!
Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-21 11:43 pm

Education

The Learning Grove

As part of my ongoing series about reimagining education, I want to try something slightly different today. For this one, we will imagine that what I’m calling “The Living Curriculum” is already implemented, and I wil describe one aspect of it. For the sake of this exercise, we will need to suspend our disbelief for a littl while, and put aside questions of how we get from where we are now, to this mildly utopian imagining. The point is not to lay out a perfect plan of how to achieve an ideal education system, but rather, to explore a vision of what such a system might look like.

Read more... )
chanter1944: an older house and surrounding autumn scenery (Wisconsin autumn: smells like fall)
Chanter ([personal profile] chanter1944) wrote2025-09-21 10:53 pm

back on the isthmus

This post brought to you by the letters ZZZZZ. More tomorrow.
conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2025-09-21 07:24 pm

Saw just the sweetest little cat yesterday

Black and white and so friendly and tiny, too. Definitely not a feral!

******************


Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-21 07:47 pm
Entry tags:

Nature

New study finds exercising outdoors is 'superior' to the gym or city: 'Our brain loves nature'

A major finding is that exercise in nature provided far greater mental benefits than urban and indoor environments, with participants reporting much higher levels of joy, calm, satisfaction, and optimism after working out in the outdoors.

On a physiological level, researchers measured that the participants’ heart rates dropped more quickly after a walk in nature. Additionally, heart rate variability, which shows how well the body’s nervous system goes into recovery, was 20-30% higher than the indoor walk.

Participants also reported lower levels of anxiety, irritation, and boredom after exercising in nature. Boredom levels actually increased after walking indoors, the researchers shared.


Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
dialecticdreamer ([personal profile] dialecticdreamer) wrote2025-09-21 08:01 pm

#7 Interference (part 3 of 4, complete)

Interference
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 3 of 4, complete
Word count (story only): 1824
[May 5, 2020, midday]


:: The trio’s plans to be invisible are shattered when a deputy in uniform knocks on the door. Chaos ensues. Part of the Edison’s Mirror arc. ::


:: Pay Special Attention: Ed has a severe panic attack, and Vic basically uses magic to sedate him. Heavily. It doesn’t help enough. The deputy calls in a doctor, but travel takes time. ::


Back to Interference, part three
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to Interference, part four




“Cut the guy some slack, Deputy,” Vic smirked. “He’s so old that to him, just last week, the best doctors of the day still thought that four humors controlled a person’s health.”

“I disagreed with them,” Aidan protested. “It didn’t match what I understood even…” He shifted in place, rolling his shoulders in an expressive hug. “Time for teasing is done. Someone’s outside.”

“What? I didn’t hear a car in the driveway, just at the road,” Win began. A knock on the door made her sigh. “Henry? Come on in.”
Read more... )
fbhjr: (Merlin_old)
fbhjr ([personal profile] fbhjr) wrote2025-09-21 07:06 pm
Entry tags:
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-09-21 02:12 pm

Birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny and hot.

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

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, irises, patio plants, and a few more around the house yard.

EDIT 9/21/25 -- I watered the new picnic table, septic garden, telephone pole garden, and a few of the savanna seedlings.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)
mdlbear ([personal profile] mdlbear) wrote2025-09-21 06:08 pm
Entry tags:

Done Since 2025-09-14

A very busy week. Perhaps not quite as productive as we'd hoped. But anyway, we put down a lot of scratch tracks, and put in a total of eight hours of studio time. Some of which is definitely going to have to be re-done. Not clear how much we can salvage, but we learned a lot.

Meanwhile I re-strung Plink, in part so that I could replace the battery. I broke a wire in the process of trying (unsuccessfully) to get the new 9V battery into the clip. Thereby accelerating my long-term goal of mounting the battery outside. An ill wind, and all that. I still need to buy a new battery holder, and see if I can locate my soldering iron.

As if I didn't have enough rabbit holes to fall into, I've discovered a static (web)site generator called Hakyll. Written in Haskell. See Tuesday. I am (so far) not looking in that direction.

And as if we didn't have enough problems to throw money at, we decided to call in a plumber after the kitchen sink leaked all over the floor one time too many. He confirmed my speculation that the mess (not a rat's nest -- that's wires; maybe a can of worms) under the sink was caused by a previous owner who thought they knew what they were doing. It looks much saner now, and everything empties faster after reaming out 12m of drain. The temperature control on the first-floor shower is still broken; since all the works are inside the wall it may stay that way, unless their "old guy who knows everything" can identify the brand and point the way to a fix that doesn't involve tearing into the wall from the other side.

The best links are on Saturday this week -- these include guinea pig rental services in Switzerland and an an amazing Bohemian Rhapsody Flashmob. Although last Sunday's Busy Beaver article may be worth a look if your taste runs to Turing machines and insanely large numbers.

Notes & links, as usual )

andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2025-09-21 10:25 am
Entry tags:

Photo cross-post


We went up the hill. There were roses. Nobody knows why. Gideon has theories involving dead people.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
Sonia Connolly ([personal profile] sonia) wrote2025-09-20 09:22 pm

Better late than never

I have owned my dishwasher for 2 years now. I like to run it every few days in the evening, but sometimes I want to retreat upstairs before 9pm when the electricity gets cheaper, and I don't always remember to go back down and start it.

A couple of days ago it finally occurred to me to look for a delayed start function, and there it was, a button clearly labeled Delay that delays the start for an hour every time it's pushed. Now I know!

The two levels are awkwardly laid out and after two years I am still trying to figure out how to load my dishes and containers in it efficiently. On the positive side, it is really quiet and I can't hear it running from upstairs at all.