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[personal profile] beanside
Things I learned this morning: I do not know all the lyrics to Pour Some Sugar On Me. Frankly, the A-Z Lyrics readout this morning was a revelation.

We survived Monday! Yay! Good lord, it was working it, though. I swear, every single patient I called to give them the good news that we found a spot for their STAT order declined the appts. Every single one of them. They wanted this time or that day, none of which I had. It was annoying. If your doctor wants you to have the order STAT, woudln't you think that it would come ahead of work and other non-medical appointments? This is your health after all. One had a nail appt she didn't want to move, I shit you not. It was infuriating.

The only saving grace was that, in my supervisory role, I got to take two compliment calls. They're my favorite thing to do. I get to take the call to talk to happy patients and then write up a little narrative and post it as kudos on our Gratitude Wall. The way our schedules are right now, it's pretty rare that people are happy when they hang up, so it's nice.

I worked til 6:30pm because the queue was so out of control. It closed at 6, but we had 23 people still holding, so we had to work through them. I'm thinking a good number were hangups, otherwise, we would have been there forever.

Today, I just have my normal schedule, which is good, because I am so sleepy. Banjo agrees.



Of course, seconds after I took that, he heard something in the hall and made a little bark about it. That seems to happen most frequently in the mornings when I'm the only one up. I guess he feels like he needs to alert me.

We introduced Banjo and Lizzy last night. Banjo was on leash, Lizzy was free to roam. IT went very well. She sniffed around while Banjo sat patiently. She came pretty close, to the point that Banjo could sniff her. There was no poofy kitty, though when he got too close too fast, the paw came up, and Banjo quickly moved back. We're going to do it again tonight until they're ready to be friends without the leash. I think it's coming pretty quickly. Lizzy seems to really like him.

Our house has turned into a haven for mostly unwanted treats and toys. Especially treats. Mr. Picky only likes about 1/10 treats that we've tried.



I title that picture "Small dog in an orgy of capitalism."

We're working with him on his mouthy-ness. He gets excited and will grab your hand. Not hard, just put your hand in his mouth, or grab at your pants leg as you go past. Everything is exciting when you're as dumb as a Banjo.



This is his stupid happy face when he comes to greet me at my desk. Mind you, I've been there all day. He's been laying next to me for most of it, but sometimes, he just sees me and gets all excited anew that I'm sitting there.

IT's very sweet. And thankfully, lights out means that it's sleepy time to him. Aside from night one, he's just gone down to the foot of the bed and laid down every night. Not a peep out of him for the rest of the night. He's a very good little dog.

Tomorrow, I need to go get my preop after work. Which means that I need to print out my preop form and be ready when I get off. Whoohoo. I'm so very excited about it. I mean, the preop and procedure need to be done. I'm just not looking forward to either. Nor to the colonoscopy that I need to schedule. But I shall do it and get my workup done.

The rest of the week will hopefully be mostly quiet.

Okay, time for me to get myself together. You all have a wonderful Tuesday!
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, November 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Intentional Community." I'll be soliciting ideas for communards, neighbors, communitarians, hippies, Native American tribes, caregivers, first responders, clergy, outreach workers, artists, writers, polyfamilies, ethicists, activists, volunteers, handyworkers, repairmen, teachers, parents, comares, immigrants, superheroes, supervillains; from Daughters of the Apocalypse: armeys, carneys, muneys, naveys; other communal people, starting a community, living together, moving into a new home, welcoming the neighbors, lending a hand, responding to emergencies, volunteering, making donations, supporting people in hard times, learning to trust others, offering crash space, helping someone move, recommoning (creating space where people can share and tend land in relationship), placemaking, planting trees, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, intentional communities, communes, artist colonies, cohousing, sharehouses, boarding houses, common houses, planned communities, other polyhomes, Native American reservations, Triton Teen Centers, the Peace Store, food coops and other cooperatives, amenity floors, charities, homeless shelters, clothing banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, sobering centers, community clinics, mentor circles, support groups, churches, gay bars, feminist bookstores, social justice departments in schools, clubs, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna, Rutledge, Emerald Mountain Glen (a hippie commune near Rutledge), LunaRest (an art colony near Rutledge), Ville de Roses (a French intentional village near Rutledge), Homemade Families classes, community gardens, other communal hangouts, intentional neighboring, interfaith work, diversity, inclusivity, housewarming parties, First Year clubs for people new in town, participatory decision-making, altruism, family dynamics, alternative family structures, partnerships not based on sex/romance, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has most people living in tight-knit communities because they are in space.

Arts and Crafts America includes the Draft Dawgs Veteran Shelter.

The Bear Tunnels features historic tribal villages.

The Blueshift Troupers travel the galaxy helping colonies solve problems.

A Conflagration of Dragons leaves people to rely on each other or die.

Coracle Shores features people fleeing climate change into a faeryland of small villages.

Daughters of the Apocalypse relies a lot on mutual aid for survival. Armeys are military bands. Carneys travel together in caravans. Muneys share a commune. Naveys are nautical bands.
* Lazarus Lake
* Nadie's family farm
* Ninovan from "The Trail of Hope"
* Rainbow Hills

Fiorenza the Wisewoman lives in a small, tight-knit village.

Frankenstein's Family has diverse subgroups interacting to help each other.

Hart's Farm is a free love commune.

The Moon Door features a women's chronic pain support group, which involves a lot of intentional neighboring.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis involves a close religious community.

Peculiar Obligations includes Quaker communities and pirate islands.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along together. Relevant threads include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, the Big One, Cuoio and Chiara, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Pain's Gray, Rutledge, Shiv , and Trichromatic Attachments. I encourage readers to prompt for any of the large casts and complex settings that I have already developed, such as:
* the bohemian folks at Hanson Hall in Omaha, Nebraska
* Prairie Meadows Cohousing Community and Mayfield Meadows Farm near Omaha, Nebraska
* Fertile Acres Farm just outside of Omaha, Nebraska (introduced in "So Monumental and Still")
* Woolgather Hill near Omaha, Nebraska
* the Mori no Tami and their allies at Mori no Mura in Humboldt County, California
* the hippies of Emerald Mountain Glen in Vermont
* the people and place of Fire Mountain Farm in Vermont
* Lazy Maple Lane near Rutledge, Vermont
* Bumbleberry Acres, a farm just southwest of Rutledge, Vermont (introduced in "Do Something Different Inside")
* the rescued sexbots in Thalassia
* the rescued primals now at the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana
* Havre Hobby Habitat in Montana
* the Withering Heights LARP in Colorado
* the Solace polycule in Atlanta, Georgia
* Nicholson family farm near Bluehill, Missouri
* the cohousing and polycule in Portland, Oregon
* the various polycules from "A Celebration and a Consolation" out east

Quixotic Ideas is set in a world with plenty of magic and a positive tone, where people often help each other and solve challenges peacefully.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they take care of each other.

Walking the Beat is lesbian romance with a lot of intentional neighboring.

Or you can ask for something new.

For boosting the signal, you can reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
It's possible Amazon knows me too well. My workplace gives us quarterly gift cards for exercising, so I was just checking out with my Chinese paper dictionary (it's for a discord bingo game) and Lego advent calendar (shh, they're on sale) and Amazon kindly asked, "Need anything else?"

The first suggestion was "Emotional Support..."

Food

Oct. 26th, 2026 11:50 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I mentioned lembas and its construction with a friend, who asked for a more detailed analysis. Well, I've been doing that since I could talk, so this happened...

( Read more... )

Today's Adventures

Oct. 26th, 2026 11:37 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (muse)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we enjoyed two full moon activities.

( Read more... )

more Al's

Oct. 26th, 2026 07:16 pm
chazzbanner: (split rock)
[personal profile] chazzbanner
After I wrote posted about Al's Breakfast yesterday I went elsewhere on the web.. and saw a photo of Carl Eller celebrating a Vikings Victory. He was one of the famed Purple Gang (defensive linemen) during team's glory days.

The relevance: I once stood in line at Al's Breakfast with Carl Eller... well, same line.

My other Al's-line experience: Ramblin' Jack Elliot, friend of Woody Guthrie and influence on Bob Dylan. He was in town to play at the Whole Coffeehouse on campus.

Hey, I should have checked. Al's Breakfast has

it's very own Wikipedia entry

"In 2004, Al's Breakfast won a James Beard Foundation award in the 'America's Classics Restaurants' category. The award medal now hangs behind the counter at Al's."

-
sholio: Jack-o-lanterns (Halloween-jack-o-lanterns)
[personal profile] sholio
Halloween Countdown did not start this weekend because I was deep in the word mines, but IT IS ON NOW and I plan to take advantage of any remotely applicable Halloween, October, and/or autumn-cozy-season post topic.

... such as this one!

Cosy Cuisine ("a cozy seasonal food and drink exchange") revealed today, with a delicious buffet of seasonal offerings!

I was pleased, delighted, and thoroughly entertained by my gift, which involves Londo and G'Kar in a Babylon 5 spoo-baking contest (including having to put my phone down because I was laughing so hard at Londo cheating with tentadick, which he totally would).

Onwards into what's left of the autumn/spooky/cozy season! Even if it has been snowing hard all day here, we remain undaunted.

Survival Skills

Oct. 26th, 2026 01:40 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today I stumbled across a new reason to learn chopstick use.  That is the easiest eating utensil to shape in the wilderness. 

You can carve a spoon with a knife; it takes a while but is not all that hard.  Making a fork is a lot harder, although a 2-pronged fork is doable. A wooden knife requires a hard wood and a way to sharpen the edge, and even then it won't cut much.

Chopsticks?  Locate any nontoxic shrub or tree with straight solid twigs of desired size, break off suitable lengths, peel, and use.  Twigs naturally taper toward one end, and most will break cleanly at a joint.  Whittling the ends square will improve the grasping quality.  

While other survivors are struggling to make utensils or eat with their fingers, you can be eating comfortably with chopsticks.  It might seem trivial, but eating food without dropping it is important, and morale is a crucial survival need so even small comforts can make a difference.

Cyberspace Theory

Oct. 26th, 2026 01:10 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Scientists discover a system that defies prediction without chaos

A digital spiral represents the complex patterns that can emerge from simple computational rules.

A simulated system's ending was fixed from the first moment, yet none of the programs tested could predict it until clues formed as it ran.



This is so awesome. I want it on a T-shirt.

( Read more... )

Moment of Silence: Walter Koenig

Oct. 26th, 2026 12:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (moment of silence)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Famous actor Walter Koenig has passed away.

He was best known for playing Pavel Chekov in Star Trek. However, he also played the villain Alfred Bester in Babylon 5.

Years ago, I interviewed him after he played a villain in an obscure Pagan film. That was a lot of fun.

The Great Con in the Sky gains another bridge crew member, and the fans go wild.


Carry on the work:

Acting -- how to articles from wikiHow

Psychology Studies -- how to articles from wikiHow

SCI FI TV SERIES: Write a Science Fiction Screenplay for a TV Series book by Andrew Parry

Screenwriting -- how to articles from wikiHow

Birdfeeding

Oct. 26th, 2026 12:50 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 10/26/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 10/26/26 -- I bagged up Gravenstein apple and Bartlett pear seeds in damp sand to cold-stratify in the fridge.

EDIT 10/26/26 -- I planted 25 '2 Months of Alliums' in the purple-and-white garden. I love ornamental alliums. These bloom in shades of purple and white, some bluish, some pinkish. There are others that are more blue, more pink, or even yellow but I like this blend because it suits my theme and blooms a long time.






.
andrewducker: (circular reasoning)
[personal profile] andrewducker
Patterns are everywhere (bricks and fences and paving stones and numbers. Followed by much predicting of next house numbers)
What if I was your car?
Wouldn't it be cool if I made everyone live forever if I was their car and they sat in me?
What if you had superpowers and were a god?
Did you know The Flash can't drink too much coffee or he would vibrate and then he would faint
(Miscellaneous discussions of Thanos, Loki, and other Marvel things he has clearly seen ridiculous nonsense about on YouTube, and how it would have been better if Gideon had been in charge)
A discussion of wishes, and how he would trick a genie into giving him unlimited wishes.
It's really good that we walked rather than taking the bus, because the bus is taking forever and hasn't passed us yet.
He wishes he lived in Australia because then he'd be able to hunt kangaroos and eat their meat
That a dog we met was friendly and if he survives into the future(??) he would love to have a dog. And an Iron Man suit.
How he literally saw a video about a man who was infected by a demon and everyone had to stand still whether they walked past.
Intensive discussion of the state of roadworks in our street.
Annoyance that the wind had moved our bins.
More warnings about people with red eyes and not moving if you see one.
And then he helped put the bin out for tomorrow's collection and headed in to the house to "turn on every single light".
ysabetwordsmith: (gold star)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Anatomically Correct Skeleton Crochet Pattern
This skeleton stands at 40cm tall and contains all 206 bones in the body. It is made to 1/5th size scale. The structure of the skeleton is female (due to the shape/ size of the hips and the shaping of the skull), and she's called Milda, after my very tall friend (since her legs are slightly longer than would be proportionally average).


This is brilliant, and there are more anatomical patterns below.

( Read more... )
ashelterofpages: (tea and books)
[personal profile] ashelterofpages
Today I slept a bunch even though I really didn't intend to. I was trying to wake up at a decent time, managed to wake up long enough to see that K was awake and turn off my alarm, and then passed right back out. Oops.

Talked to my mom, though, so there's that checked off for a while. She's doing fine and was getting ready to go to a concert, so she was pretty excited for that.

I did get some words in today and finished another [community profile] trickortreatex treat! Woo! I need to look at my writing list and see what else I want to do for the end of October/beginning of November. I know there are a couple of profic things I want to try and do, but I'm not sure I'll get them done. One I have an idea for already, but the other I'm unsure on still. We'll see.

I haven't watched a single horror movie this month and I need to fix that. I'm also trying to finish Pantheon (three eps left) and we started Slow Horses as our dinner show, so I'm watching that as well.

Still haven't started the great DW tagging project, but hopefully soon. I at least created a few of them so I can just go in and apply them to entries.
beanside: (Default)
[personal profile] beanside
Ugh, Monday again. I don't really want to do the work today. But alas. Sunday was a pretty good day. We got up and did our thing, which involved taking the buddy for a walk ior two in the morning. He doesn't want to poop outdoors, which is mildly annoying. HE gets outside and he has three speeds. Stop and stare at something that made noise (some of the noise is in his head, I think) Pull in the opposite direction of where he's supposed to go, and nyoom real fast. None of those are conducive to pooping. But we're working on it. It's a lot for a dog who lived in a big hourse off a one lane road in the middle of nowhere.

We did end up going to the Slavic Festival. It waa lovely and had some good food. Special mention to the very excellent stuffed cabbage, which was very very good.

We also had some homemade liquor callded "Medivka," Which was a spiced honey vodka mix. I desperately need to make some of this, because it was SO freaking good. Sweet, but not too, and boozy and just delivious. It appears tha this makes about 5 1/2 cups, so if any of my local peeps wants a bottle, let me know.

After that, we came home and just relaxed. Banjo was very sweet, though he's still not completely settled. He's like a little perpetual motion machine, running around everyhwhere. He'll get there, though. We're patient.

I used the home A1c test that I'd gotten, and lo, my sugar is down somewhat, to 8.8. Still high, but within range for the biopsy, so I suppose I need to go get a preop done.

They say to do it about 7 days before, so I'll probabbly go on Tues/Wedbesday.

Then it was bedtime, and time for another peaceful night with Banjo on my feet.

And now, I must get ready for work. Everyone have a fabulous Monday!

ETA: I realized that I didn’t add your daily Banjo picture, so here you go.

Safety

Oct. 26th, 2026 01:50 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Many Americans are putting life on hold as stress starts to feel permanent

Many Americans now accept stress as normal, while reporting poor sleep, less socializing, and delays in major decisions.


No shit. On top of all the political and economic chicanery, climate change is a source of global stress that will only get worse. Yes, this is the least-worst it will ever be again on a human timescale.

( Read more... )

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