friday

Sep. 19th, 2025 08:36 pm
summersgate: (Default)
[personal profile] summersgate
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Today's doodle.

We had an active day today. We drove out to the island and checked out where the Rod and Reel Pier and the City Pier used to be, drove to the other end of the island and walked the beach a little at Coquina Beach, had a late lunch at the Starfish Company restaurant, then checked out the Palma Sola boat basin and saw more manatees than I've ever seen there. I saw 4 but Johnny has better eyesight and saw 5.

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Johnny examining a handful of sand to find the coquina clams.

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What's left of the Rod and Reel Pier. There used to be a building with a restaurant out there before last year's hurricane took it.

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City Pier. The building survived but there's no way to get to it.

Birdfeeding

Sep. 19th, 2025 02:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly cloudy and warm.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I did a bit of work around the yard.

I picked half a dozen groundcherries.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I watered the irises.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

The sky has clouded over, air is cooling a little, and I heard thunder.  I'm not sure it'll amount to anything, though.

EDIT 9/19/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
White shirt, pink text "The Cake Boys". It just ended up in their laundry, so it's hers now.

She was worried about what the motto might mean - I mean, it's *probably* a bakery, but what if it's some neonazi slogan she's unaware of? - but a little googling reveals that "The Cake Boys are a NYC based network highlighting local drag kings, trans and non-binary performers, and queer artists through live and digital media." Well, alrighty then!

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


Read more... )

The Era of Virtue Signaling Is Over

Sep. 19th, 2025 10:06 am
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[personal profile] mallorys_camera


Out canvassing yesterday, Adrienne & I hit the foothills where road frontage gives few clues to the great tracts of land behind its ramshackle houses.

We only talked to three people, but we talked to them at length.

First up was a vigorous man who looked to be in his 70s. His accent placed him as an Eastern European transplant. He lives in the Peaceable Kingdom! Cats, goats, sheep, hens, and peacocks wandered the property; no dogs or horses, though, which I thought was an interesting choice.





He lives in the Decker House, which was built in 1730—very old for the New World!—and has its own New York State Historical marker:



He had a grievance: Over a year ago, the golf cart he uses to haul feed to the sheep who live on the back acres of his property was taken for a joy ride by some miscreant teenagers & ditched about a mile from his property. A neighbor discovered it, and not recognizing its provenance, alerted the police—who in this part of the boondocks, are actually state troopers. The state troopers hauled the golf cart 40 miles to Kerhonksen and are now demanding $400 for its release—which does strike me as horribly unfair! I mean, why should the victim of a crime be financially penalized as a result of that crime?

"They hear my accent, so they think I'm not real American," he said. "They say, 'Drop charges and we will give you back.' But I will not drop charges. I was psychologist, you know. I come over here, and they say, 'You cannot be psychologist, you must wash dishes.' So, I wash dishes." He shrugged. "I am not afraid of work. Work is good. I work hard. I am a happy man."

I doubt very much that Adrienne can do a thing for him, but, of course, we didn't tell him that.

###

The second person we talked to was a pleasant man with an eye-catching mustache that he actually waxes, who told us—a bit challengingly—that he worked as a guard at the maximum security prison up in Ellenville. "I'm 44 years old," he said. "I can't change careers. If I did, we wouldn't have this—" His sweeping gesture took in a paddock where horses stood flicking their tails and a small pond on which ducks & geese were getting into each other's faces. "We'd be crammed into a one-bedroom apartment in Middletown. I work 16-hour shifts. You're lucky you found me home today."

This guy almost certainly voted for Trump (I didn't ask), but he heard us out with good grace, remarking, "I think both parties suck frankly. I vote for individuals."

###

Our third conversation was with a man whose face was utterly unreadable. He had long grey hair but that is no longer a clue to anything.

About 10 minutes into the conversation, we were joined by his wife—who evidently had been waiting on the sidelines to make sure we weren't Jehovah's Witnesses. She was a lot more forthcoming and gave out old hippie vibes.

We talked for half an hour. About environmental matters, about the municipal water supply in the hamlet of Wallkill, currently under a boil advisory due to bacterial contamination, an issue that has gotten exactly zilch publicity. (It doesn't affect me; Icky has his own well.)

As we were leaving, the old hippie lady, Margaret, said, "I'd avoid going to the house next door if I were you. Our son lives there. He'll wave a shotgun at you. He's big on Charlie Kirk. In fact, he's blocked me on social media and cut off all communication because I think Charlie Kirk was an asshole." She laughed merrily.

###

The political situation in the U.S. is ominous. The Pentagon is mulling over making Turning Point chapters into military recruitment centers. That's all the U.S. really needs, right? An army of Christian, right-wing, white supremacists.

The FBI is apparently preparing to designate transgender people as “violent extremists.”

There's so little I can do about any of this.

I guess we will have to start doing what Black people in this country have been doing for the past 160 years: code-switching and being very, very careful not to make waves unless you 100% know that making waves is gonna lead to a productive end. The era of virtue signaling is over.

Follow Friday 9-19-25: J-pop

Sep. 19th, 2025 12:28 am
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today's theme is J-pop.

Read more... )

Corncob Broth

Sep. 18th, 2025 11:40 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I finished making the corncob broth.  \o/  It tastes delicious -- delicate, slightly sweet, summery, sunny, with notes of corn and grass.  This is sooo much better than regular vegetable broth!  If you dislike vegetable broth, this is well worth a try.  I now regret every corncob that I tossed straight onto the compost pile.  Also I'm annoyed that I only discovered this at the end of the season.

I started with this recipe for inspiration.  This time I used the 6 corncobs that I had, some dried onion chips, about 1/4 teaspoon white peppercorns, and three large sprigs of flat-leaf parsley.

Anyhow, I filled a tray of large ice cubes because I want to try this in stir-fry sauce to add volume.  I got three cartons that are about 1 1/2 cup each, plus a big one that is probably about 4 cups and suited for crockpot use.  I expect it will work anywhere I would normally use regular vegetable broth, possibly also chicken broth.

Next time I make this, and there will be  a next time, I will make it in a large crockpot as usual.  I'll use a quartered onion, and I might throw in something else.  I suspect that lemongrass would work great, and celery or celery leaves might.  Broths are flexible; you can toss in whatever you have or like.  With a large crockpot I can get a great deal of broth with minimal effort.

Recipe: "Three Sisters Succotash"

Sep. 18th, 2025 11:26 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I made this tonight. It's a summer favorite, so I wanted to write up our version.

Read more... )

Not One of Us issue 84

Sep. 18th, 2025 07:18 pm
asakiyume: (yaksa)
[personal profile] asakiyume
I have a flash story in the current issue of Not One of Us, and what a great issue to be in! I'm sharing the table of contents with Patricia Russo, Sonya Taaffe, and Jeannelle Ferreira--all writers I've loved for a long time--along with Devan Barlow, whose work I've only gotten to know recently, but I enjoy, and others whose work is totally new to me but whose literary acquaintance I'm pleased to make, like Zary Fekete.

Let me share a little (and then a lot!) about my own story first, and then some about the other contributions. Mine is called "The Moon in His Eyes," about a young woman who marries a water buffalo, only to fall in love with the moon on her wedding night. Curious about what happens? Well, you can buy a copy of Not One of Us here.

... or, if you don't mind being read to... I read it aloud here. It's literally just me sitting in my study reading into my desktop computer's camera and microphone all in a single take because I know nothing of video editing and am much too lazy, at present, to learn.

And now let me say a few words about the rest of the zine.

I really enjoyed this issue! )


So yeah! Get your hands on a copy of the zine here, and listen to me read "The Moon in His Eyes" here. ;-)

Today's Cooking

Sep. 18th, 2025 07:46 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today I made Three Sisters Succotash.  I want to write up my version because it's a bit different than the Iroquois-inspired one that I started with.

Then it occurred to me that I had half a dozen fresh corncobs, so I am making corncob broth to see if that's any good. 

(no subject)

Sep. 18th, 2025 07:54 pm
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[personal profile] flemmings
Summer returns for hopefully a brief interlude: high of 27, humidex of who knows what. Still cool enough at night that I'm not tempted to turn on the AC, though with the mug stink out there I may forego the window fan tonight.

Still trying to make Persian lima bean and dill rice. My preferred brand of frozen limas turns out to be American so I bought tinned instead. Large lima beans, it said, which was fine, whatever, until I got it open. Larger than fava, larger than broad beans: those suckers are huge. Am also seeing why the webpages say to use dried dill. I mean my dill is dried but it started fresh, and though nowhere near as gritty as some I've had, there was still something small and hard that started the Agh a tooth/ filling/ crown has crumbled!!!! panic reaction. But true dried dill doesn't taste like dill, is the problem. And yes I know I shouldn't be having rice at all, even resistant starch cooled rice, but my innards do badly with low-carb abd I can't afford to irritate them when they already want to take exception to my magnesium.

Beaver on through The Lotus Palace, my Tang dynasty mystery cum romance (alas). Am still waiting to find out who the female protagonist is supposed to be They Fight Crime!-ing with. Alas again, is probably not the dour constable of the court whom I favour, but the playboy (but is he *really?!*) dorky love interest. Dommage.

Artificial Intelligence

Sep. 18th, 2025 02:52 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
An argument that large language models should be called goLLuMs

There is so much potential for satire and mockery here.  :D

Birdfeeding

Sep. 18th, 2025 02:20 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and hot.

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

EDIT 9/18/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/18/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/18/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/18/25 -- I watered the patio plants.








.
 

Breakage by Mary Oliver

Sep. 17th, 2025 01:11 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It's like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
      full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.


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


Link

thursday

Sep. 18th, 2025 12:44 pm
summersgate: (Default)
[personal profile] summersgate
1000003681.jpg
Kathy is soldering stained glass butterflies for her gallery's Xmas show. I love all the beautiful glass.

Feeling very discouraged with the new onslaughts to our freedom of speech. It's like maga is a huge boulder set into motion that will eventually crush us into submission. I wish I didn't feel so helpless and hopeless. Kathy is as appalled as I am so at least we have each other. It was hard this morning to get going, to move. My body feels weak. Though I thought I had so much pent up anxiety that maybe it'd be good to walk outside, and so I did. About a mile in the neighborhood, in the sun, was all I could do.

One bright thing. Johnny is arriving today. He'll be here till Tuesday. We'll probably go out to Anna Marie Island and explore the docks and beach. Lots of places that we'd like to visit.

We now have a washer again

Sep. 16th, 2025 06:22 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
I am just brimming over with excitement.

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


Read more... )

Yes, Virginia, There IS a "They"

Sep. 18th, 2025 10:14 am
mallorys_camera: (Default)
[personal profile] mallorys_camera
Not that I'm a Jimmy Kimmel fan, you understand. I don't own a television. I've never watched late night talk shows. My only association with late night talk shows comes from an ancient Harold Robbins novel in which an aging movie star, propped up on vodka & dolls, masturbates to a late night show applause track.

But firing Jimmy Kimmel over saying this? The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.

That's BAD.

The FCC chair threatening ABC with nonsense investigations for Kimmel's opinions on Charlie Kirk's murderer is even worst.

###

My immediate conclusion was that they—and yes, Virginia, there is a they—wouldn't be acting this way if they weren't absolutely certain they were gonna keep their hold on power (which they're not going to be able to do with votes.)

Thank Gawd that turns out to be wrong.

No, it turns out just to be about money: The dying television industry is trying to consolidate. In Olden Times, this would trigger monopoly fears. But nobody cares about monopolies anymore, & anyway, if they did, in 10 years, television will be deader than rotary phones.

###

I keep thinking that I've been here before, and that there's something I didn't do then that I can do now. It's the same feeling you get when you're working your way through a particularly absorbing video game scenario.

The one universe-changing act is there.

But where?

Is there some gold ring I'm supposed to toss in a volcano cauldron?

Really, I'm not much good at anything except bearing witness.

I'm superb at bearing witness.

But what good does that do?

###

Meanwhile, a very low-key yesterday in which I did no work of my own but labored for filthy lucre.

The sky was overcast. When the sky is overcast, I get despondent. It's some brain chemistry quirk, & I know it's just errant brain chemicals, but knowing doesn't stop the feelings, it just makes it so I have to ignore the feelings.

Hobbies: Embroidery

Sep. 18th, 2025 12:32 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
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.

Embroidery is a fibercraft hobby of making things from colored thread on fabric. If you feel frustrated by planned obsolescence, artificial intelligence, and other current issues then consider embroidery as a form of protest. Make something beautiful that will last.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like [community profile] crafty, [community profile] cross_stitch, [community profile] everykindofcraft, [community profile] get_knitted, [community profile] justcreate, [community profile] sewing, and [community profile] sewing101.

Read more... )

Hopescrolling

Sep. 17th, 2025 11:34 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Consider Hope-Scrolling

Today’s goal is to boost your mood, inspire positivity, and restore some bits of faith in humanity. Now is the time to acknowledge the importance of regularly searching for hope and applying the benefits. The hip new slogan for this process is known as hope-scrolling.


I aim to do this as a counterbalance to the often dark things I post regarding climate change, activism, etc. It's challenging because there aren't as many positive news sites as mixed or gloomy ones, and they don't update as often. Sometimes I can find good science news. I used to pull fun educational things or amusing animal videos from YouTube, but I don't really want to support a site that's mistreating its users. :/ Still, I'm always keeping my eye out for sources of upbeat news.

Genocide

Sep. 17th, 2025 11:13 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
U.N. Commission Finds That Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza: What Does It Mean?

On Sept. 16, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (COI) published a report finding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The Commission concluded that Israel has committed four of the five underlying acts of genocide listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention (killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births), and that it has done so with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians as a group. The commission’s findings build on its earlier reports that considered crimes against humanity and war crimes.


Took them long enough.  While this does not really change anything, it is a useful stick to beat people with when they claim that Israel's actions are okay and protesting them is wrong.

Space Exploration

Sep. 17th, 2025 10:25 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The violent collisions that made Earth habitable

The violent final 1% of planetary formation may decide which worlds could host life.

Late-stage planetary collisions reshaped Earth and its neighboring planets, delivering water, altering their atmospheres, and influencing their tectonics. New findings suggest these violent impacts were central to both planetary diversity and the origins of habitability
.

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