Snowflake Challenge #2 (2026)

Jan. 8th, 2026 04:33 pm
abyssal_sylph: A large snowflake in a christmas tree. Icon was made for <user name="snowflake_challenge"> mods. (snowflake challenge)
[personal profile] abyssal_sylph
Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!


We had a kitty by our mother's house, his name Cebola (means onion in Portuguese). He's fat brown tabby, lazy, but very comforting to have around. Though found out recently that our mom has an allergy to cats, but its fairly mild according to her ._.

At the place we lived at had another kitty, Bibi, who's a mostly white calico who seems to be scared of us ;_;

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Shopping

Jan. 7th, 2026 05:14 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[personal profile] brickhousewench tipped me to Heading Prints, a company that makes scarves using book art as inspiration. They offer bandanas, skinny scarves, large rectangular scarves, square silky scarves, and also a few rings with designs to match some of their most popular scarf designs.  Also, these are much more affordable on average than most fashion scarves I've seen, although they do cost more than the cheap random ones in a discount store.

If you've seen my post "How to Simplify Fashion," then consider these scarves as an option for color-matching.  Look for a scarf whose colors you love and want to use.  Wear it while clothes shopping to test if new clothes match your colors.

Birdfeeding

Jan. 7th, 2026 01:10 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly cloudy and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I gathered the raked leaves from the ritual meadow, enough to fill the trolley twice, which I dumped on the daffodil bed. (That should have been done in fall, but better late than never.) One quarter around the firepit equaled two trolleys and covered the daffodil bed completely. The tulip bed will need at least twice that much.

I startled several cardinals and the great-horned owl in the ritual meadow.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I filled a trolley with sticks from the brushpile beside the driveway, then dumped that in the firepit.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I filled another trolley with sticks, then dumped that in the firepit.

There's not much left of the brushpile now, mostly pieces too big for me to break down.

It's 5:05 PM. The western sky is still twilight, the east considerably darker.

I am done for the night.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Challenge 4: Rec Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

On many of the fannish websites we use, our history is easily compileable into "pages". When we look back through those pages, sometimes we stumble upon things that we think are rather cool
.


Snowflake Challenge: A mug of coffee or hot chocolate with a snowflake shaped gingerbread cookie perched on the rim sits nestled amidst a softly bunched blanket. A few dried orange slices sit next to it.

Read more... )

Humor

Jan. 7th, 2026 02:27 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
And there goes Lilith. \o/ 

Hard Things

Jan. 7th, 2026 12:02 am
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?

History

Jan. 6th, 2026 11:57 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Recreating an Ancient Pump (with no moving parts)

This historic pump uses a mixture of flowing water and air bubbles to lift water high above its original level. While not as efficient as some other methods, it has two tremendous advantages: 1) It requires no electricity, fuel, or animal power. 2) With no moving parts, it avoids the problems of wear and clogs that threaten more complex pumps. Given the increasing issue of climate change, there is great value in any useful technology that runs entirely on renewable energy and doesn't need repair or replacement at all often.  

Poem: "Done to Perfection"

Jan. 6th, 2026 08:24 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is from today's fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Pain's Gray thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"Done to Perfection"
-- a cinquain


Pain's Gray
bakes French pastries --
beignets and petits fours,
choux à la crème and tartes des Alpes --
exquis.

* * *

Notes:

Read about the cinquain form.

French pastries include beignets, choux à la crème, petits fours, and tartes des Alpes.

exquis
French: delightful, delicious

Poem: "Beneath the Sea"

Jan. 6th, 2026 08:05 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is from today's Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Seas Beneath" square in my 1-6-26 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Kraken and Mercedes threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"Beneath the Sea"
-- a hexaduad


Jules reads
job feeds.
Come work beneath the sea!
Stock Cans; room and board free
.
He knows it's good work and good pay,
but should he go or should he stay?
Tides rise and fall,
feelings, sea call.
Beach, a liminal place;
teen, in similar space.
Jules scans the shore,
texts, Tell me more.

* * *

Notes:

Read about the hexaduad form.

Plurality Stuff: "How Did You Know?"

Jan. 7th, 2026 12:00 am
abyssal_sylph: Hero is on Aubrey's side, he's smilling while holding Aubrey's shoulder, Aubrey is looking away, blushy. (pink popcorn (omori))
[personal profile] abyssal_sylph
An anwser to one of our friend's question about (our) plurality. Note that this is just our expierance with it, others may have diffrent expierances &/or exprianced them diffrent.

{reblogable in Tumblr from here on our plurality blog [tumblr.com profile] abyss-in-cahoots}

So we were intressted in plurality from a young age. We didn't know the words for it, let alone that it was that which we were intressted in. But ever since we knew of Jekyll & Hyde stories, we were intressted in "what if they were more morally complex?". Yes this often ended up looking like making Jekyll the bad guy while Hyde was good. But often as well were stories we made where they were both hurting, both needing of help and acceptance.

There were stories which didn't intend to portray plurality, even outright said it wasn't about it. But in a world where multiple people in the same body is usually treated like a horror story; stories like Sanders Sides & Inside Out, where such a thing was treated neutrally if not positively? They felt like a breath of fresh air we didn't understand we needed.

Though we only discovered that we were a system properly after we became adults. There was a server were we where, for the first time in our lives, knowlingly interacted with a system. It made us realize that plurality could be, real, happening to people who did jobs and school and had friends and things they enjoyed.

Yes we knew of D.I.D. before-hand, but it felt far away, only a thing that distressed, discribed in ways that could NEVER apply to us. But here they were, plural system after plural system (cause we've found out that like queers, plural systems draw eachother out), whom just, existed, who could feel more then suffering, who lived.

When some of our headmates interalized this, they demanded to be known.

Now, this distressted the then host Henry a lot. Mostly because he didn't want to fakeclaim. But also because he was afraid of being crazy, of being incapable of knowing what was happening in his head. But as we realized across our time accepting ourselves: to seek out help is to self-diagnose in the first place. That people will find reasoning after reasoning to be cruel regardless. We needed to be reconized as ourselves to some degree, cause it was hurting us to deny it.

Science

Jan. 6th, 2026 04:26 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Nearly all women in STEM secretly feel like impostors

A striking 97.5% of women pursuing graduate degrees in STEM report moderate or higher levels of impostorism.

Nearly all women in STEM graduate programs report feeling like impostors, despite strong evidence of success. This mindset leads many to dismiss their achievements as luck and fear being “found out.” Research links impostorism to worse mental health, higher burnout, and increased thoughts of dropping out. Supportive environments and shifting beliefs about intelligence may help break the cycle
.


That's probably because 97.5% of their male coworkers are misogynistic assholes, and so are a lot of people even outside of STEM.

After decades of being told that girls are bad at math, go play with dolls, harassment as soon as their breasts start growing, male students being put in charge of groups, professors stealing their work, getting lower grades than they deserve, struggling to find a job, their name being left off papers or awards, promotions going to less-qualified males, fighting for funds ... of course women realize that they are aren't wanted, aren't welcome, and nobody likes them.

The last 2.5% of women in STEM? They don't give a shit if people like them, and they aren't there to stroke anyone's ego or penis. Shut up and work. Impostor syndrome? It can be beaten to death with facts.

Birdfeeding

Jan. 6th, 2026 03:23 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly cloudy and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large flock of sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/6/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/6/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/6/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

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

 

Haiku

Jan. 6th, 2026 02:07 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] jake67jake.


Maduro kidnapped --
he was quite unpopular,
but it was still wrong



* * *

Notes:

Read a discussion of Venezuela politics.


Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Jan. 6th, 2026 01:11 pm
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you all for your time and attention.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "short forms." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are 15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there: hexaduad, indriso, sestina, villanelle. This list of 168 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my favorite list of forms, including a list of repeating-interlocking forms. Their main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.

In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a huge list of common themes. This page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a sexual, romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list gender identities and my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my bookshelf? :D I have The Conflict Thesaurus, The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 2, The Occupation Thesaurus, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Urban Setting Thesaurus, The Rural Setting Thesaurus, The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus. Simply click "Read Sample" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.

Read more... )

Poem: Darrow Poems 12-12-25

Jan. 6th, 2026 12:02 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These poems were written outside the regular prompt calls. They have been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred.

Read more... )

Science

Jan. 6th, 2026 12:00 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
A NASA satellite caught a giant tsunami doing something scientists didn’t expect

When a huge earthquake struck near Kamchatka, the SWOT satellite captured an unprecedented, high-resolution view of the resulting tsunami as it crossed the Pacific. The data revealed the waves were far more complex and scattered than scientists expected, overturning the idea that large tsunamis travel as a single, stable wave. Ocean sensors confirmed the quake’s rupture was longer than earlier models suggested. Together, the findings could reshape how tsunamis are modeled and predicted.

Poem: "Who We Don't Ever Want to Be"

Jan. 5th, 2026 09:45 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the February 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] fuzzyred. It also fills the "nostalgia" square in my 2-1-25 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Trichromatic Attractions thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes sobriety issues, angst, failed coping skills, self-loathing, difficulty planning, frustration with new skills, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

Read more... )

Books

Jan. 5th, 2026 03:31 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
JANUARY 2026 BOOK: THE SPELLSHOP

[community profile] bookclub_dw has chosen The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as our book for January.

I'll make the discussion post on January 31, 2026. If you have any discussion questions you'd like to be considered, please comment to this post
.


Looking for something new to read? This community works just like a facetime book club -- members pick a title per month, read it, and talk about it. \o/

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