"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not. It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."
"Make up your mind to act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done in this world by hesitation."
My internet connection has been spitty for a week, losing hours every day. So I'm posting this after midnight in hopes it will go through. The Poetry Fishbowl will actually open at noon.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." 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 ideas for characters we haven't seen in a while, dimensional travelers, time travelers, man out of time, alternate self, historians, futurists, explorers, inventors, quantum mechanics, quantum physicists, mad scientists, partners, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other remnant characters, revisiting older scenes, filling in details, missing scenes, learning from the past, moving on to the next scene, researching, revising theories, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, older storylines and series, the multiverse (quantum physics), the multiverse (F&SF), landing pads, world portals, liminal zones, schools, churches, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, mysterious storms, crystal balls and other magical scrying devices, chronoscopes and other technological scrying devices, psychohistory (academic), psychohistory (science fiction), puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, strange loops, fix-its, enemies to friends/lovers, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.
What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?
Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
Cyberfunded Creativity
I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:
1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.
2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.
3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).
0-10 lines: $5 11-25 lines: $10 26-40 lines: $15 41-60 lines: $20 Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.
4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"
5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl. If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.
Linkback perk: Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal. Comment with a link to where you posted.
Additional Notes
1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."
2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function. (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.) These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.
3) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.
4) If donations total $100 by Sunday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually beseries poemsif I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size. If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; four of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be four months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a half-price sale in one series.
Feed the Fish! Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "Older Series and Forgotten Characters." See above for details. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.
I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem. The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.
Gardening is a large set of skills aimed at growing plants for food, craft materials, or other uses. Most people think of a garden as a small separate patch of cultivated land full of domesticated crops, but it can also mean forest gardening, permaculture, wildlife gardening, and so forth. Aspects include types of plants, regional environments, style such as organic or conventional, themes like butterfly or moon gardens, and many more. Everyone needs to eat, so ideally each person should develop at least some gardening skill. Different cultures have developed crops to suit their own cuisines. Here on Dreamwidth, check out birdfeeding and common_nature (for wildlife gardens), fresh_haul and gardening (for edibles).
A new working paper from three economists explains how the U.S. job ladder has been breaking for 40 years. This decades-long problem doesn’t affect just Gen Z but has also stymied wage growth for Americans in their 30s, 40s and 50s. This could be why the midlife millennials I interviewed a few years back felt that they were physically in their 40s but economically in their 20s, unable to find a career that felt secure.
So this week is the week that I take off of domestic duties. Over the weekend, I cleaned the apartment, stocked the fridge (and made a list of options), and did all the laundry, and now through Sunday I am not cooking or cleaning or doing any housework unless it's an emergency.
So I also decided to post about things I like and, of course, one of the things I like best is detectives. Here are some cards I embellished. I am offering happy mail as part of 3 Weeks 4 Dreamwidth.
More than 1,600 years after its disappearance, massive stones from the Lighthouse of Alexandria are being recovered from the Mediterranean seabed. Archaeologists have brought up massive stone blocks tied to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
In the waters off Alexandria, asubmerged site known for decades is now yielding some of its most striking elements. The PHAROS project reports that22 monumental stone blocks linked to the lighthouse have been lifted from the seabed after years of underwater exploration.
That which is loved, is remembered; that which is remembered, lives.
Today is cloudy, mild, and damp. It rained a little earlier.
I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.
I put out water for the birds.
I set out potted plants to get some sun.
EDIT 5/4/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
EDIT 5/4/26 -- I planted the surviving squashes. I am dubious if any will survive, but maybe some of the cushaws will. They all sprouted and grew vigorously at first, but quickly started to die. Forget gaining 2-3 months by starting seeds indoors. However, if I had started them in April instead of March, that might have worked. Fortunately I still have more seeds, so I can also try direct sowing.
EDIT 5/4/26 -- I planted a northern red maple at the edge of the savanna.
I saw a male Baltimore oriole in the forest garden! :D 3q3q3q!!! I cut an orange in half and put it out for him. I've also seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male cardinal, and a fox squirrel.
EDIT 5/4/26 -- I planted a 'Prairie Fire' dogwood in the west hedge of the savanna and put mulch around it.
EDIT 5/4/26 -- We broke up the big walnut branch in the savanna and hauled the bits to the firepit.
Happy Star Wars Day! I had high hopes this year of finally getting around to playing Knights of the Old Republic (2003) which is considered one of the best Star Wars games ever made. But sometime in mid-April I had to concede that I did not have time to do that, so instead I decided to replay Rebel Assault, a rail shooter from 1993 that I played a lot as a kid. It is, uh... not considered one of the best Star Wars games ever made. You might be in the wrong galaxy, then In Star Wars: Rebel Assault, you play as a humble moisture farmer from Tattooine who becomes a pilot fighting for the Rebellion and eventually blows up the Death Star. But you're not Luke Skywalker because of... reasons. I guess it's like a self-insert AU where YOU get to vanquish the Empire instead of Luke? But there's no character customization except that you can choose whether your character, "Rookie One", is male or female. I always picked female because even at age eleven I found the male voice acting unbearably hammy.
A great deal of what I have just said is based on my childhood memories of the game and not on my recent attempt to revisit it, which was largely stymied by not really being able to get it to work. I mean, it runs! But on modern hardware the controls are somehow both barely responsive and wildly oversensitiveโyou try to steer and it's like nothing, nothing, nothing, BAM into the wallโand none of my troubleshooting efforts made much of a difference. I see from reviews I am not the only one who has this problem. The game probably needs a patch, and quite possibly nobody who has the skills cares enough to put in the effort. Oh well.
I got the game in a bundle with the sequel, 1995's verbosely named Star Wars: Rebel Assault II - The Hidden Empire, so I figured I might as well try that one even though I never played it at the time. Surpriseโthis one actually works well enough to play it!! Gameplay achieved! ( More on Star Wars: Rebel Assault II - The Hidden Empire )
Both Rebel Assault games are available in a bundle on Steam and on GOG, currently on sale for $2.49 USD. And even at that price, be aware that unless you are some kind of retro software wizard, you're really only buying the sequel, because the first game is not in a playable state.
The Restless Universe My interest is more looking at the stars and planets and this course was more concerned with the physics of this planet, so, although I completed the course, I don't think I gained much from it.
Lottery of Birth As might be expected this looks at the different factors which can affect how a child will grow up and thrive, or not. I don't think I learnt anything new.
Exploring Ovid's Big Ideas I studied Ovid's Metamorphoses for Latin O-level an eon ago, but, if anything, by the end of the course I was less interested in Ovid that when I started.
An Introduction to Geology Life in the Palaeozoic Earthquakes Looking around for something to study, I decided a look at how our planet is formed might be interesting. I know a little more now, but wouldn't say this was a subject I'd be particularly interested in progressing with. However, they all helped with building the big picture of 'life'.
Having looked at most of the OpenLearn courses I'm currently interested in, and, in the case of some of the scientific courses, can actually understand, I've now picked out a few FutureLearn courses to continue to widen my horizons.
Three Weeks for Dreamwidth is running April 25-May 15. People aim to make a new post each day, or participate in various activities to celebrate the platform.
"No Faster or Firmer Friendships" has 50 new verses. It belongs to Polychrome Heroics and needs $35 to be complete. Josué reads a funny poem to Maria-Vera.
The weather has been variable here. We got some rain the other day. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of cardinals, a brown thrasher, and a fox squirrel. I heard a bluejay screaming but didn't see it. Currently blooming: violets, pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, bleeding heart, alliums, marigolds, honeysuckle, raspberies, snapdragons, lantana, million bells, blue lobelia, petunias, portulaca, nemesia, wild chives, star of Bethlehem, wood hyacinths, columbine. Flower buds: peonies, irises. Green fruit: mulberries.
This year I've spotted multiple events and venues doing Three Weeks for Dreamwidth that are also banning Harry Potter and generative AI content. If someone wants to do this in their own event or venue, that's their choice. But when they do it in a way that makes it seem like a parameter of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth as a whole, that is not true and not okay. The one core activity of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth is blogging every day, on ANY topic.
So, new fridge-freezer is in & working satisfactorily; on Friday I went to Iceland & assembled ยฃ20-worth of frozen stuff, including 2 packs of their Majestics (own-brand answer to Magnums), a couple of ready meal things, and some diced lamb and sausages. Yesterday, Saturday, I went shopping in M&S and the fridge is now stocked with more of the usual things. I also did a bit of strategic browsing online, and concluded I couldn't get what I wanted, or not immediately; so I bought a cheapo chopping board (a cheap and chippy chopper?) from Bargain Buys, on which I can firmly stand two of my silicone (i.e. 'floppy') ice-hex trays. For ยฃ1.99, better than nowt; this machine doesn't have a built-in ice-cube shelf, but I do prefer them to go in level.
I had an offer from a good friend to buy me a replacement kitchen rack, as I'd found one on Amazon that would fit in the altered space in front of the new fridge-freezer. It was supposed to come on Tuesday, but turned up today! I assembled it, only slightly laboriously, and it is now stocked with most of the useful stuff salvaged from the old one. The old step-stool has been moved out to the garden to take the place of the disgracefully decaying old wooden chair, which needs to be destroyed & dumped. The 25L chocolate tub now stands on the single wooden stool, and can be moved if/when necessary.
Another thing that arrived today, via Evrizon (ordered from Amazon, delivered by Evri, at the same time as the kitchen rack!), was my new bed-step. As I've shrunk a little with age, it's become increasingly difficult to heave my bulk onto the high Moriarti bed; I've got some 'half-steps', but they're 4" tall, and I worry about a) stubbing my toes on them in the dark, and b) falling off them when trying to get out. I've experimented with an old surplus shelf from a book-case with a thin foam mat on top, which ... works. Sort of. I'd had a few other ideas, when a friend suggested 'swimming floats'! Brilliant! So I investigated those, but have ended up buying a kneeling pad instead, which is thicker than the swimming floats and no more expensive. It's 4cm thick and bright blue...
Title: Beside Me Author:enchanted_jae Characters/Pairing: Harry/Draco Rating: PG Word count: 100 Written for: ♦ JMDC No. 243 - peace and quiet ♦ Gift for JMDC No. 242 winner digthewriter, whose prompt was freedom ♦ draco100 Prompt No. 206 - anchor ♦ harry100 Prompt No. 543 - after dark Warnings: None Summary: Sometimes Harry needs a break from life. Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic/drabble was written for fun, not for profit.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author note: this follows on from Reluctance written for challenge #884.
Title: Say You Want Me Author:maraudersaffair Team: DE Word count: 400 Characters/pairings: Drarry Challenge: Challenge #890: Away Authors Notes: Thanks <3
Two of the most dangerous fault systems on the U.S. West Coast may be more connected than scientists once thought. New research suggests the Cascadia subduction zone and the San Andreas fault can “sync up,” triggering earthquakes within minutes or hours of each other. This rare “synchronization” could dramatically increase the scale of a major West Coast disaster. Instead of one massive quake, multiple regions could be hit at nearly the same time.
Scientists have determined that “marine cloud reflectivity,” caused by cleaner air, has dropped by roughly 2.8 percent per decade across the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific.
Together, those regions span about one-seventh of the planet’s surface, making even small changes in brightness significant on a global scale.
Reading: For non-fiction, I'm still steadily picking away at Braiding Sweetgrass; I think I've crossed the halfway point!
I finished Gareth Hanrahan's The Gutter Prayer, which has fascinating worldbuilding, and I enjoyed the characters. Neither library to which I have access has the sequel (I think it's a trilogy?) in ebook, so we'll see if/when I cave and buy it. For a second book, there's probably not much future in just leaving it on my wishlist indefinitely and hoping for it to go on sale, although one never knows.
Then I read T. Kingfisher's Wolf Worm via the library (I'm trying this novel approach of using the library more again if they have a book and the ebook cost is too upsetting), which was distressing in very T. Kingfisher ways (another case of interesting worldbuilding + EW EW EW), followed by Common Goal, the fourth Game Changers book. (I did give in and just buy the ebook set of books 4-6.)
In other book not-really-news, I decided to just go ahead and get the new Murderbot in hard copy, given the price of the ebook (esp. since I think it's a novella this time? And hopefully it being just novella-length will increase my odds of still getting it read fairly promptly despite being a hard copy). Watching: Last night scruloose and I made it to ep. 8 of Justice in the Dark, AKA the last ep. that was released in China and the last one I'd seen previously. Onward!
(I'm mostly coping with the name changes, but apparently I do better at keeping the different names straight in my head when it's different consonants than vowels. I mentally autocorrect the show's "Pei Su" to "Fei Du" and carry on, but when I don't actually have one version in front of me, I keep stumbling a bit over Luo Wenzhou [novel]/Luo Weizhao [drama].) Listening: This week I listened to not one but two (new!) albums for the first time--Tori Amos' Time of Dragons, as mentioned yesterday, and Metric's Romanticize The Dive. I haven't done a proper lyrics-focused listen to the latter, but I imagine I will at some point. My initial feeling is basically "Yep, that's a Metric album, and I like Metric, so that works." (Fantasies is the only one I'm hugely attached to individually [and I'm not terribly familiar with their catalogue before that], but that's mainly because I used it pretty heavily when writing Newsflesh fic.)
The final photo from the holiday. This is the coach we travelled on, with guide, co-driver and driver. The side of the coach is open for loading suitcases as we embark for the next stop.
Three Weeks for Dreamwidth Part 8: Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is a skillset for peacefully sorting out disagreements between people. Individual aspects include body language, communication skills, cooperative decision-making, coping skills, emotional awareness, mediation, negotiation, and problem-solving. The goal is to find a win-win solution, or if that is not possible, at least something that everyone can live with. Sometimes you may identify a need for additional resources, reorganzing things, or other stuff that could take a while to accomplish. Conflict resolution is effective when it diffuses the tension of the moment and identifies at least one practical step toward reducing or avoiding future conflicts over the same issue. It's okay if that takes multiple rounds to fix fully. All people experience conflicts sometimes, but different cultures handle this in different ways. Dreamwidth has no conflict resolution communities per se, but you might explore common_nature, goals_on_dw, or thankfulthursday for a few of its subskills.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fairyniamh
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
birdfeeding and 
![[admin post]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/admin_post.png){kind=small}
