lauradi7dw

We crossed 25 watermelon varieties and got this!

These are landrace watermelons grown in a food forest permaculture. David the Good is one of the few people other than myself who seems to grow what I would consider laissez-faire permaculture, which turns the yard into a messy but productive jungle. :D

Remember that when you're growing landraces or even open-pollinated crops that you save, your plants will adapt to what you do. If you don't want to weed or water, then select for plants that can beat the competition. I throw garlic chives and other alliums all over the place. Comfrey can take care of itself. The vegetables are still in pots to minimize weeds, but I'm hoping to get a sunflower landrace going eventually because I am having crap luck with commercial ones. I get a few that bloom but not many. I'm getting a few volunteers, though, so I'm encouraging that.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

The Deadly Cascade Volcanoes Are Waking Up! Is A Mega Eruption Coming?

The Cascade Range, stretching from Northern California to British Columbia, is home to some of the most dangerous volcanoes in North America. Towering over cities like Seattle and Portland, these volcanoes sit silently now—but silence, in geology, is never a guarantee of safety. In 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with the force of hundreds of atomic bombs, flattening forests, choking skies, and shocking a nation. That was just one volcano. There are over a dozen more. And recently, subtle signs—swarms of earthquakes, shifting ground, whispers of gas from hidden vents—have begun to stir beneath their surface. Could this be a sign of what is to come? Are the Cascade volcanoes waking up? Let’s find out!

Well, that's alarming -- especially in context of the Cascadian Subduction Zone with its ability to cause earthquakes and tsunamis.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith posting in

followfriday

Got any Follow Friday-related posts to share this week? Comment here with the link(s).

Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die".

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today's theme is Homestuck.

100quadrantedships -- Because We Don't Have Enough Of Quadrants
Quadrants, homestuck, shipping.
[Somewhat active with last post in May.]

addme_fandom -- addme fandom
Find friends who share your fannish obsessions.
[Active with one post in July.]

unconventionalcourtship -- Unconventional Courtship
Brooding Strangers! Secret Pregnancies! Enigmatic Rakes! All those tropes (or conventions, if you will) you love to hate (until you discover their secret, tragic backstory and fall head over heels for them) are here, ready to be used for humour and awesomeness in a new fic about your favourite star-crossed lovers. 'Unconventional Courtship' is a panfandom challenge that aims to produce fics longer than 1,000 words based on a Mills & Boon/Harlequin novel summary.
[Active with multiple posts in July.]

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show (or any other of your choice - game, comic, anything else)! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.

Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.

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

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.

Makeup art is a hobby that spans branches such as facepainting, bodypainting, cosplay, special effects, theatrical makeup, drag, kink, otherkin, gyaru, boudoir, glamour, and more. It all depends on what you want to make up yourself or a playmate as.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like

daily_gyaru,

edgoreyanfashion,

justcreate,

sw_costumes, and

thefreaksclub.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

conuly

but I feel like you could've found this one yourself.

This book too.

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

( Read more... )

shipperslist

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

amedia

So what is this DC-Slash Con that Amedia keeps babbling about?

It's an online fan convention that welcomes all sorts of fandoms. (The "DC" in the name is for Washington, DC; this con is a continuation of the in-person ConneXions, whose last incarnation was held for several years in the DC area.) This is the same DC-Slash group that hosts the free online binges that I post about ... er, when I remember.

DC-Slash Con also welcomes people from different parts of the world and strives to provide programming for whatever time zones people are in.

It costs a whopping $15 to sign up and there are scholarships available if that's too much. This Saturday's "binge" will be a tech day for folks who would like help learning to navigate an online convention.

This is the con with pimping slides, so people can pimp their favorite fandoms - and also shows slides with the fandoms from the vid show so viewers could have a chance to recognize the new fandoms they haven't seen before.

If you have any questions, you are very welcome to ask them here!!!

ysabetwordsmith

The Thunder of Bison Finally Returns to the Osage Prairie

60 million American bison, commonly known as buffalo, once thundered across the prairies of North America — until 1889, when they were almost driven to extinction.

These mighty giants terraformed the land, diversified prairie ecosystems, and sustained many native tribes across the continent. Now, tribes and conservationists join forces to bring the species back from the brink, finally returning the American bison to their native grasslands.

The Osage Nation in Oklahoma, with help from allies at the Nature Conservancy and the Bronx Zoo, are reviving their cultural and spiritual connection to buffalo by rebuilding a herd that once shared their land. By reigniting traditional land management practices like prescribed fire, the Osage support the herd as it continues to grow, which in turn, restores natural balance that helps the entire prairie ecosystem thrive.

As a keystone species, buffalo restore prairie habitat to health. They also help restore the tribal nations who depended upon them.

Current Mood: busy

isis

I really did intend to post yesterday, but I didn't get to it. Well, it's Thursday!

What I recently finished reading:

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison, the third book in the Cemeteries of Amalo sub-series of The Goblin Emperor books. I had gone into it with mixed feelings; not that I strongly cared about

spoiler

the Thara Celehar/Iäna Pel-Thenhior ship, but I had heard that the way it was sunk was awkward and issueficcy and felt like "I was going to write this relationship in but it felt pointless after all the fanfiction", and - yeah, it was

but I enjoyed it, overall. I liked the low-ish stakes plot, and the DRAGONS, and the fairly mild author's message of what makes a person a person, and the importance of basic rights and the rule of law, which, let's face it, is a relevant message these days.

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, stand-alone SF. Again, a lot of people whose reviews I follow didn't like it, but I did; Tchaikovsky is hit and miss for me, but this was a hit. A biologist who is also a political dissident on an extremely authoritarian Earth is exiled as prison labor on a planet with native life that is very weird and apparently hostile. This is basically another exploration of Tchaikovsky's Theme, which is at core, I think, "How can we see the Other as a Person? How do we overcome the instinct to be closed and tribal, and instead practice empathy, leading to discussion and exchange?" There are echos of the Children of Time series, in particular Children of Ruin (the second book), I think. There is also the strong contrast between a culture which gives lip service to the importance of individuality, but demands conformity, and a culture which emphasizes the communal and the good of the community. And of course, the importance of resistance, of holding to one's core beliefs even in the face of a terrible horrible authoritarian government.

I mostly enjoyed the style except for a few references which seemed a little too grounded in 21st century reality for this future in which humans are mining multiple far-flung planets. The structure and pacing worked well for me. Warning for a terrible horrible authoritarian government that doesn't give a shit about human lives other than their own, and body horror, and an ending which may strike some people as not entirely happy, but which satisfied me.

sovay, it's very different from Elder Race but if these themes appeal I think you'll like it.

"Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" by Martha Wells, a Murderbot short story, in which Murderbot doesn't explicitly appear, but ART | Perihelion has recently met it for the first time. It's from Iris's point of view, on a mission with the rest of the crew, and really the mission is just a framing device McGuffin for "Peri has changed because it met someone?!?", and I agree with

runpunkrun's take that there are way too many words devoted to them walking around on this mission which turns out to be not really relevant, compared to the actual point of the story. Still, it's nice to have a bit about Murderbot from not Murderbot's POV.

What I'm reading now:

Just started on the seventh and last Shardlake book by CJ Sansom, Tombland.

What I recently finished watching:

Murderbot! I enjoyed it! I (mostly) appreciate, or at least understand, the changes they made in adaptation. (Not sure why it's not enough for Pin-Lee to be Space Lawyer, but also must be Badass Fighter? And the Arada/Pin-Lee/Ratthi thing didn't seem to have any reason for being and just felt a bit cringe.) I really loved the ending, and Gurathin's whole general arc, and SANCTUARY MOOOOON, and Mensah is chef's kiss perfect.

Speaking of Sanctuary Moon, Murderbot vidded it! Okay, it was really

pollyrepeat, but: RADIOACTIVE by Murderbot [vid]!!!

What I'm watching now:

Arcane, because B watched the first episode during the winter, riding the stationary bike, and decided I might like to watch it with him, so moved on to something else so we could watch it together. Not very far into it yet.

What I recently listened to:

The third episode of S3 of The Strange Case of Starship Iris, which, I really liked this one!

ysabetwordsmith

Cognitive collapse and the nuclear codes: When leaders lose control

A shocking study reveals that many leaders of nuclear-armed nations—including US presidents and Israeli prime ministers—were afflicted by serious health problems while in office, sometimes with their conditions hidden from the public. From dementia and depression to addiction and chronic diseases, these impairments may have affected their decision-making during pivotal global crises.

Hardly a surprise. Sanity isn't often a requirement of leadership. Venereal transmission only requires falling out of the right vagina; election only requires being popular.

Have you ever wondered how you'd handle the gold-madness of Thror? Consider that in this context. And then compare the effects of a dragon to those of a bomb.

Current Mood: busy

musesfool

I made this fancy lemonade with what I learned from

minoanmiss's tags is called oleo saccharum, which is sugar syrup made with the oils in the citrus peels. I had 8 lemons, and some leftover frozen strawberries and blueberries, so I let the berries defrost in the fridge overnight and then this morning I did all the juicing and the dicing and then let it sit for several hours (5, I think?) before straining the syrup and adding the juice etc. It's very good, though I need to try it with lemons only, I think, and maybe less sugar. Because I do like my lemonade on the tarter side.

Anyway! I dug out my potato masher and my citrus reamer with carafe for this, so it was nice to be able to use them. I do kind of wish I had a food mill but I've never been able to justify the expense to myself - I used a large fine mesh strainer and it worked fine.

In other news, I watched the most recent season of GBBO and I LOVED EVERYONE IN THE TENT, but especially Dylan! Nelly! Gill! and Georgie! ( spoilers, I guess ) And Allison is so great. I hope she sticks with the show for a long time.

*

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads

ysabetwordsmith

These dogs are trained to sniff out an invasive insect—and they're shockingly good at it

Virginia Tech researchers discovered that everyday dogs can be trained to effectively sniff out destructive agricultural pests.

Dogs trained by everyday pet owners are proving to be surprisingly powerful allies in the fight against the invasive spotted lanternfly. In a groundbreaking study, citizen scientists taught their dogs to sniff out the pests’ hard-to-spot egg masses with impressive accuracy. The initiative not only taps into the huge community of recreational scent-detection dog enthusiasts, but also opens a promising new front in protecting agriculture. And it doesn’t stop there—these canine teams are now sniffing out vineyard diseases too, hinting at a whole new future of four-legged fieldwork.

If you feel helpless against environmental threats, here's one thing you can do about it, if you're a dog lover. Dogs excel at finding things -- pretty much anything with a scent can be made interesting to a dog if you attach a reward to it.

Also, when it comes to invasive species? Never underestimate humanity's ability to destroy things.

Current Mood: busy

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6768 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 09 secrets from Secret Submission Post #968.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

shipperslist

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

conuly posting in

agonyaunt

My 4-year-old transitioned to a big-kid bed more than six months ago. Since the switch, every time he wakes up (at night, super early in the morning, etc.), he comes into our room needing us (and waking us up). Sometimes he is crying because he is scared, but often it just feels like an automatic thing he’s doing. We always march him back to his room and don’t let him get in bed with us. We have tried what feels like everything: a reward chart for a bigger reward he gets to pick, a small reward each day he stays in his room, a light that changes color when he can come out of his room, talks at times other than when we’re dealing with it in the moment about staying in his room, some books about being afraid of the dark, a special box of toys to play with when he wakes up, a fun galaxy light, a Yoto he can listen to … nothing has worked.

I don’t want to lock him in for a variety of reasons. I feel like we’re almost back in the baby stages of being woken up at night! I was hoping it was just a phase we’d get through, but it’s really dragging on at this point. He’s also been tired during the day so he’s not getting enough sleep. Any ideas?

—Mom in the Land of 10,000 Yawns

( Read more... )

rebeccmeister

It's important to learn about examples where people have been successful in reducing violent crime. The methods might not be all that surprising, and yet there are still many places that could stand to better implement some of what's described in this article about Baltimore.

https://popular.info/p/the-secret-to-baltimores-extraordinary

Next up, today I encountered an essay by the Tufts graduate student who was abducted by federal agents because she had helped write an op-ed in the student newspaper. In this essay, she has written much more extensively about her experiences in "detainment" in this country - as someone who was ultimately released relatively expediently because the charges against her were horribly flimsy. Accounts like hers are important to read, because many of the people who go through experiences like hers never have a chance to be heard.

https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/07/op-ed-even-god-cannot-hear-us-here-what-i-witnessed-inside-an-ice-womens-prison

Who owns these prisons, anyway?

rachelmanija

Kelly Ramsey became a hotshot - the so-called Special Forces of firefighting - with three strikes against her. She's a woman on an otherwise all-male crew, a small woman dealing with equipment much too big for her, and 36 years old when most of the men are in their early 20s. If that's not enough, it's 2020 - the start of the pandemic - and California is having a record fire year, with GIGAFIRES that burn more than ONE MILLION acres. At one point her own hometown burns down.

The memoir tells the story of her two seasons with the Rowdy River Hotshots, her relationship with her awful fiance (also a firefighter, on a different crew), her relationship with her alcoholic homeless father, and a general memoir of her life. I'd say about three-fifths of the book is about the hotshots, and two-fifths are her fiance/her father/her life up to that point.

You will be unsurprised to hear that I was WAY more interested in the hotshots than in her personal life. The fiance was loosely relevant to her time with the hotshots (he was jealous of both the male hotshots and of her job itself), and her alcoholic father and her history of impulsive sexual relationships was relevant to her personality, but you could have cut all of that by about 75% and still gotten the point.

All the firefighting material is really interesting, and Ramsey does an impressively good job of not only vividly depicting hotshot culture, but also differentiating 19 male firefighters. I had a good idea of what all of them were like and knew who she meant whenever she mentioned one, and that is not easy. You get a very good idea of both the technique and sheer physical effort it takes to fight fires, along with plenty of info on fire behavior and the history of fire in California. (She does not neglect either climate change or the indigenous use of fire.)

This feels like an incredibly honest book. Ramsey doesn't gloss over how gross and embarrassing things get when no one's bathed for weeks, you've been slogging through powdery ash the whole time, there's no toilets, and you're the only one who menstruates. She depicts not only the struggle of trying to keep up with a bunch of younger, stronger, macho guys, but how desperate she is to be accepted by them as one of the guys and how this causes problems when another woman joins the crew - a woman who openly points out that flawed men are welcomed while every mistake she makes is taken as a sign that women can't do the job.

I caught myself wishing that Ramsey hadn't had an affair with one of her crew mates as many readers will think "Yep, that's what happens when women get on crews," and then realizing that I hadn't thought that about the man who had the affair with her. Even I blamed Ramsey and not the equally culpable dude!

Ramsey reminded me at times of Amy Dunn's vicious description of the "cool girl" in Gone Girl, but to her credit, she's aware that this is a persona she adopted to please men and fill the void left by her alcoholic dad. Thankfully, there's a lot more to the book than that.

pauraque

sunshine_revival's next challenge is:

Carnival Barker
Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.
Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.

My favorite show is, as it has been since 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's my go-to comfort watch. I'm not big on blanket recommendations since, hey, I don't know what you like! But here are five of the things I love about it:

Competence porn. These people are the best at what they do and excel under pressure. I never get tired of watching them work together like a well-oiled machine.

A crew that loves each other. The chemistry among the crew just gets better as the show goes on and they grow into their relationships and comfort with each other. Interesting friendships, earned respect and trust, and a lot of different kinds of love.

An optimistic future. The core premise of Star Trek is that in the future humans will stop fighting each other, learn to value diversity, and travel into space on missions of peaceful exploration. I need this kind of hope in my life.

Ethical dilemmas. How do you write stories with conflict when everyone likes each other and is on the same side? Ethical quandaries! Some of my favorite scenes involve people who respect each other seriously discussing and/or passionately arguing about what the right thing to do is, and the answer isn't obvious. This is catnip for me.

Nostalgia. The show was a fixture of my childhood (and adolescence, since reruns are forever) so that's obviously going to be a factor! As decades have passed and we've entered the era of streaming prestige dramas—which are great in their own way, don't get me wrong—I find that revisiting an earlier era of lower budgets and leisurely season lengths has an increasingly appealing old-school charm.

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lauradi7dw

July 2025

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Network

Permaculture

Volcanoes

Follow Friday 7-18-25

Follow Friday 7-18-25: Homestuck

Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker

Hobbies: Makeup Art

Not to be rude

A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner

DC-Slash Con - Coming Up Soon!

Conservation

thursday reads and things

Safety

after the money's gone

Invasive Species

[ SECRET POST #6768 ]

Sunshine Revival 2025: Challenge #5

(no subject)

Two more things to read [news]

Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West, by Kelly Ramsey

Sunshine Revival Challenge #5

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July 2025

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