Community Thursdays

Jul. 16th, 2026 12:26 am
ysabetwordsmith: A blue sheep holding a quill dreams of Dreamwidth (Dreamsheep)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...


* Commented on Candy Balls in [community profile] everykindofcraft.

* Commented on just create - fan edition in [community profile] justcreate.

* Commented on Just One Thing (15 July 2026) in [community profile] awesomeers.

Community Thursday

Jul. 16th, 2026 06:10 am
vriddy: Hawks smiling in flight (big smile)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Commented on [community profile] addme, [community profile] getyourwordsout.

Promoted [community profile] betaplease.

hyperfixated on ocs

Jul. 16th, 2026 12:00 am
nautastellaris: used when talking about ciel. (ciel)
[personal profile] nautastellaris
insert the "yes honey" meme but it's me and ciel. also before you say anything, yes, i know they look like dimitri from fire emblem. i swear it was a coincidence and i wasn't even thinking at the time. you will need a toyhou.se account to see their profile, but i have a couple of invites if anyone would like one.

anyway, ciel has become such a massive comfort character, and i'm honestly a little embarrassed to admit, i had some extra money from my savings and splurged a lot of it on commissions of them and a few other characters. ciel is a haughty and vain person, and they're very morally grey. but for some reason, i just feel very attached to them. they're very brave too, despite their recklessness, and they're also very determined.

they lost their eye after an explosion in their laboratory (they're an alchemist). ciel's ultimate goal is to achieve immortality, and they'll go to great lengths reaching that goal. in my original novel, immortality is considered unnatural while illness and death are. when ciel lost their mother, they felt that they lost their own humanity. they sought out the best of the best doctors, healers, and priests to save their mother, but to no avail. so they took matters into their own hands at a small age: to become a god themselves.

but during their research, they became so obsessive and absorbed, that their family has not been able to contact them despite living in the same roof. ciel only comes out to eat and use the bathroom, but they never meet any guests, and they never attend any formal meetings. they're a count, but they're also a hermit.

you can read more about them on their profile (again, you need a toyhou.se account, but feel free to ask me for an invite), and if you want i would love questions about them. and if you have a character you'd like to have a friendship with, we can always talk about it. ciel is a difficult person to befriend, and they will abandon everyone if it means advancing towards their goals. but currently, their world is in a state of corruption, so they've swallowed their pride and allied themselves with a group of soldiers called the luminaries. ciel is only aligning themselves with the group because if the goddess dies and the world evaporates from corruption, then that means ciel's immortality will not save them from the end.

i should mention: ciel's immortality does not mean they're an all-powerful, mighty god. they can feel pain, they require food and water and shelter. ciel's immortality is simply a "pause button," where they no longer physically age. they never actually thought any of the consequences of immortality through, including the fact that they can and will feel immense pain. they just cannot die unless the goddess dies.

and the goddess is slowly losing her life force.

anyway, feel free to check out their bio or ask me questions. i'd really love to infodump about them, they're a really precious character to me, and it would make me happy if i could write or roleplay as them briefly some day.

trivia

  • ciel and their half-brother, edgar, are heavily inspired by the story of the gemini twins; one twin was a mortal who died, and the other was an immortal son of zeus. pollux is similar to ciel, while castor is similar to edgar.

  • they were created on january 26, 2026, and their profile on toyhouse was created on july 14, 2026. their profile was completed on july 16, 2026 but i often add little extra revisions to it.

  • their appearance is not based on dimitri from fire emblem, and is purely a coincidence. i do know what dimitri looks like, but at the time of ciel's designing stage, i just liked the image of a blond androgynous person with an eyepatch. they lost their eye from their own accident rather than a war.

Safety

Jul. 15th, 2026 12:56 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
15-yo Creates App for Reporting Potholes to the Government, and Uses AI to Help with Follow-up

The app allows users to take a picture of a pothole, use a GPS function to locate it in their area, and post them both to the Project Sadak server. AI makes sure the picture is of an actual pothole, while human review ensures that the given grade—severe, medium, or benign, accurately reflects what’s in the picture.

This ensures the worst potholes flash red and are not drowned out amid the complaints of angry citizens. Once the entry is finished, the user can automatically sign their name digitally to an email and send it to the authorities in their part of New Delhi



This approach should work with a wide range of things that need attention, from dysfunctional stoplights to apartment repairs, just directing reports to the relevant people. However, there's a big problem in that deferred maintenance tends to come because demand exceeds supply of repair materials, personnel, and budget. Many other projects have shown bottlenecks where the authorities did not fix problems but also refused to let anyone else do so. A solution would be to include a response timeframe of a month or so, after which other people would be free to repair the problem.

Birdfeeding

Jul. 15th, 2026 12:14 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sweltering, mostly sunny with fluffy white clouds above. A beautiful day to stay indoors and write!

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/15/26 -- We did some work around the patio.

EDIT 7/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/15/26 -- I picked 3 'Gypsy' peppers at the green stage to use in a stir-fry. Hopefully this will encourage those plants to set more peppers.

EDIT 7/15/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I saw a female cardinal at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 7/15/26 -- I watered the telephone pole garden.

Fireflies are coming out. Cicadas are singing. I saw a giant dragonfly and a bat swooping along the road.

There's a bank of dark clouds rising in the north and another in the northwest, but chances of rain are low.

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

Internalize

Jul. 15th, 2026 10:27 pm
no_apologies: (Corrupted SilverFox Jams)
[personal profile] no_apologies
An idea came to me to do a song that's like a mantra and a spell all at once--to remind myself to not ever dwell on any what if's NOR if only's. To not let them take hold or take root. They are little mind poisons that only lead to feelings of frustration, powerlessness, and hopelessness.

I might have this as the next song for the second phase of the Riff Wars competition, or something amazing to contribute to my discography anyway! No matter what, this song is an important step towards my healing journey.

(Mood: Frustration. Angst. Fury towards the ones who only added to the heavy weight of pain and heartache I've been through while simultaneously reminding myself of what I can do about all this. Genre: Groove Metal with Tribal Drums)

Lyrics )

https://suno.com/s/24nk7cBr0iVUZU5j YEAH!!! Love how this one came out!

Climate Change

Jul. 15th, 2026 12:34 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Earth's ancient climate was cooler than we thought -- and that's bad news

Earth’s climate has natural brakes built into it. They’ve been working overtime for hundreds of millions of years, keeping the planet’s temperature from swinging as wildly as scientists once believed.

New research suggests those ancient hot periods were significantly cooler than previous estimates claimed. This sounds like reassuring news until you realize what it actually implies: unchecked human warming could push the planet somewhere it has never been before
.

Hard Things

Jul. 15th, 2026 12:26 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[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?

Non-Binary Awareness Week

Jul. 14th, 2026 11:33 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Non-Binary Awareness Week

Non-Binary Awareness Week kicks off on the Monday before International Non-Binary People’s Day on July 14. Established in 2012 by Katje van Loon, the week challenges traditional gender norms and celebrates everyone who identifies beyond the binary. Positioned between International Men’s Day and International Women’s Day, it’s the perfect time to bridge the gap and promote greater understanding and inclusion for non-binary folks.



See some of my QUILTBAG characters. Calliope in Polychrome Heroics and The Steamsmith have nonbinary leads. The Blueshift Troupers are all shapeshifters and can change sex at times.  Want more nonbinary characters?  Feel free to ask for that in any relevant prompt call.

Space Exploration

Jul. 14th, 2026 03:08 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
NASA selects four new Moon missions to build a permanent lunar base

NASA is ramping up its lunar ambitions by awarding nearly $600 million for four commercial Moon landings planned for late 2028. Each mission will carry the same trio of science instruments to improve lunar navigation, study dangerous dust kicked up during landings, and map the Moon's radiation environment. The agency also revealed plans for new rovers, communication satellites, and additional cargo missions as it lays the groundwork for a permanent Moon Base.


I'm all for a lunar base, but good luck coping with that dust. Lunar regolith is the most obnoxious dust I've encountered, with the exception of dusts that actually eat machines or flesh. It's like ground glass the texture of powdered sugar, and it sticks to everything. >_<

Climate Change

Jul. 14th, 2026 01:44 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
A 37-year soil experiment revealed a hidden climate threat

The world's longest-running soil warming experiment has revealed an unexpected climate concern. After nearly four decades, researchers found that warming can cause microbes to break down stable soil carbon that scientists once believed was largely protected. That releases extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, potentially accelerating global warming.


And yet they missed the most dangerous part. Soil consists of mineral (e.g. sand, clay) and organic (e.g. humus, leafmould) components. Remove the organic parts and you don't have soil anymore; little or nothing can grow in that. Therefore, if the carbon (base of organic molecules) is breaking down faster, that means the soil is burning through its organic material faster, which means that in order to maintain the same level of fertility and bioactivity, it would require more frequent and/or larger additions of fresh organic material. Otherwise it will decline.

The vast majority of farmland now receives zero organic amendments, but is fertilized with chemicals. It will degrade much faster than it already is. For farmers or gardeners who do add organic amendments, labor and/or costs will likely rise to keep up with the soil's increasing demands.

Read more... )

History

Jul. 14th, 2026 01:33 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Young Man Interviews 3,000 World War II Vets Over 10-year Project–Preserving Their Stories

A decade ago, a young American began recording interviews with World War II combat veterans to satisfy his curiosity about the war. That curiosity became something of an obsession, and 3,000 veterans later, his hard drives and SD cards have become something of a national treasure. Brought to us from Steve Hartman for CBS News’ “On the Road,” 28-year-old Rishi Sharma says it’s been a privilege to meet the “moral compass” behind our society.


Never forget.

Birdfeeding

Jul. 14th, 2026 01:21 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny, humid, and hot.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/14/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/14/26 -- My partner Doug mowed the house yard earlier, so I trimmed around the goddess garden.

I saw a male cardinal foraging in the fresh-cut grass.

EDIT 7/14/26 -- I trimmed more grass in the house yard.

EDIT 7/14/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/14/26 -- I cracked 2 apricot pits and got 2 good seeds.  I cracked 2 black plum pits and got 1 possibly viable seed.  I cracked two batches of cherry pits and got a bunch of good seeds.  I put all those in damp sand to stratify in the fridge.

Fireflies are coming out.  Cicadas are singing.

EDIT 7/14/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

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

Icons β€” Iced Tea Challenge

Jul. 11th, 2026 11:31 am
sheliak: (tamga yellow)
[personal profile] sheliak
First row is [community profile] ic_animated Iced Tea challenge submissions (the Strikeforce: Morituri one I edited a little after the deadline, so it’s not identical to the submission post); second is icons I made at the same time and decided not to submit; third is alternate takes on some of the images made the day after.

(No, this time the challenge had nothing to do with circles. I just like circles. And it's a way to make the shape of Six Ages portraits work in an icon; they're rectangular and making squares of them is awkward.)

Read more... )

History

Jul. 13th, 2026 08:23 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Roman ‘Genius’ Spirit Statue Buried 1,600 Years Ago Found by Hadrian’s Wall

A perfectly preserved Roman statue which was deliberately buried 1,600 years ago has been unearthed near Hadrian’s Wall. The 1.5 ft-high figure carved from sandstone is a ‘protective spirit’, also known as a ‘genius’, which is displayed like a shrine to invoke security and wealth. The statue was discovered at Vindolanda Fort in Northumberland, England, hidden under the floor of what was a military barracks.

Launch the Ship THAR SHE BLOWSSSSSS

Jul. 13th, 2026 02:01 pm
haunted_cherries: A screenshot from the manga version of Jujutsu Kaisen of the character Toge Inumaki (toge mouth)
[personal profile] haunted_cherries
Guess who has two thumbs up, a headache the size of Texas, and signed up for the Launch that Ship writing challenge despite battling her writer's block in Mortal Kombat??? :D


Anyways I have to write a fic in a week b/c my body is a machine that turns DEPRESSION into POLYCULE so WISH ME LUCK 🀞🀞🀞🀞

Monday Update 7-13-26

Jul. 13th, 2026 10:41 am
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Science Fiction
Early Humans
Birdfeeding
Fossils
Philosophical Questions: Government
Today's Adventures
Energy
Birdfeeding
Agriculture
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 7-10-26: NCIS
Science
Today's Adventures
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Permaculture
Questions
Vocabulary: Doff
Artificial Intelligence
Birdfeeding
Good News

LiveJournal has 37 comments. Poem: "Walnut Park" has 46 comments. Early Humans has 22 comments.


"Save All the Pieces" belongs to The Big One and needs $74 to be complete. Kenneth and Stylet discuss what to do about the mangled hedgerow.


The weather has been sweltering this past week, but we got some rain recently. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel. I spotted a red-headed woodpecker on the way home. I've seen at least 3 bats flying around. Fireflies are swarming. Cicadas are singing. Currently blooming: pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, marigolds, snapdragons, lantana, million bells, blue lobelia, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, fan flowers, firecracker plant, pineapple sage, yucca, Asiatic lilies, snowball viburnum, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, narrow-leaved mountain mint, golden rain tree, garlic chives, blackberry lily, Queen Anne's lace, purple echinacea, yellow coneflower, frost aster, cosmos. Green fruit: cucumbers, peppers. Ripe fruit: mulberries, tomatoes.

Birdfeeding

Jul. 13th, 2026 11:20 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches, plus a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I picked up sticks from the house yard and dumped them in the firepit.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- We trimmed tree branches overhanging the patio, then hauled them to the chippable pile in the parking lot.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen 2 mourning doves in the forest garden.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I picked up sticks from the south lot as far as the new picnic table, then dumped those in the firepit.

I picked 3 yellow pear and 1 red cherry tomato.

Fireflies are coming out.

EDIT 7/13/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen 4 bats flying along the road.  :D

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

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