Poem: "The Universal Assent to the World"
Jan. 4th, 2026 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from readera. It also fills the "The deeds of ordinary folks keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Officer Pink thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.
( Read more... )
readera. It also fills the "The deeds of ordinary folks keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." square in my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Officer Pink thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.( Read more... )
Poem: "A Heaviness of Heart"
Jan. 4th, 2026 09:47 pmysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the September 2023 ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by prompts from curiosity. It also fills the "Family" square in my 9-1-23 card for the Story Sparks Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Aquariana, Cuoio & Chiara, and Marionettes threads of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Help Others to Grow Up" and "The Sound of Anguish," so read those first or this won't make much sense.
Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics with emotional mayhem. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes traumatic loss, traumatic stress, emotional agony, supporting character death, a crying man, an inept messenger, upset baby super-intellect, moment of panic, reference to past losses, unfairness, feeling unfinished, worry about a friend, exhaustion, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding if this is something you want to read.
( Read more... )
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by prompts from curiosity. It also fills the "Family" square in my 9-1-23 card for the Story Sparks Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Aquariana, Cuoio & Chiara, and Marionettes threads of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Help Others to Grow Up" and "The Sound of Anguish," so read those first or this won't make much sense.Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics with emotional mayhem. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes traumatic loss, traumatic stress, emotional agony, supporting character death, a crying man, an inept messenger, upset baby super-intellect, moment of panic, reference to past losses, unfairness, feeling unfinished, worry about a friend, exhaustion, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding if this is something you want to read.
( Read more... )
Thousands upon thousands.
Jan. 4th, 2026 09:42 pmhannahThe last few days, I've been going through and saving Livejournal Scrapbook photos. Pretty much all of it's from college, when digital cameras were still a new toy, both for me and the world. When you had to find a place to upload the photos before sharing them somewhere else, and LJ Scrapbook was something of a game-changer because you didn't have to deal with a third party. It was all the same party. Everything else I got imported over when I made this journal, but the scrapbook doesn't have an equivalent here and I can imagine the headache people want to avoid. So I'm saving them to a hard drive instead, and looking back at those four years.
What gets me to stop for more than a moment of sighing over my hair or an attempt to mimic William Eggleston are the pictures of my childhood house. Some were because I was playing around with a toy, and a few were - as best I remember - from people asking to see something, because taking pictures and sharing them had suddenly become a breeze. If someone wanted to see a bookshelf or a bathroom sink, you could suddenly do that without any significant trouble. You still had to connect the camera to the computer and upload the photo and embed it, but that wasn't anything more than a small inconvenience. The inch-high barrier was more than enough to make everything shared a deliberate choice, not an impulse.
There's some red eyes, there's a lot of blur, there's less in focus than I'd thought. There's a weird feeling of nostalgia for the small trouble of the steps between taking and sharing the picture, because now there's no thought to it whatsoever, and that's not helping anyone. The forced lack of impulsivity is something I'd like to see again. A few more inch-high barriers would do a lot of people a lot of good.
Going through, most of what I took was of a low enough resolution that checking the page's info and saving the images from there means I'm not losing anything, and what few are of higher resolution are easy to save one at a time. What's strange is that while most of it's generic file names - 39526589_31 or 88612_100, things like that - without anything else to identify it, a small handful have the original metadata, telling me I used an Olympus digital camera in November of 2007. I can't tell where or how that happens, and it's a strange, pleasant surprise whenever it does. The reminder of the reminder.
What gets me to stop for more than a moment of sighing over my hair or an attempt to mimic William Eggleston are the pictures of my childhood house. Some were because I was playing around with a toy, and a few were - as best I remember - from people asking to see something, because taking pictures and sharing them had suddenly become a breeze. If someone wanted to see a bookshelf or a bathroom sink, you could suddenly do that without any significant trouble. You still had to connect the camera to the computer and upload the photo and embed it, but that wasn't anything more than a small inconvenience. The inch-high barrier was more than enough to make everything shared a deliberate choice, not an impulse.
There's some red eyes, there's a lot of blur, there's less in focus than I'd thought. There's a weird feeling of nostalgia for the small trouble of the steps between taking and sharing the picture, because now there's no thought to it whatsoever, and that's not helping anyone. The forced lack of impulsivity is something I'd like to see again. A few more inch-high barriers would do a lot of people a lot of good.
Going through, most of what I took was of a low enough resolution that checking the page's info and saving the images from there means I'm not losing anything, and what few are of higher resolution are easy to save one at a time. What's strange is that while most of it's generic file names - 39526589_31 or 88612_100, things like that - without anything else to identify it, a small handful have the original metadata, telling me I used an Olympus digital camera in November of 2007. I can't tell where or how that happens, and it's a strange, pleasant surprise whenever it does. The reminder of the reminder.
Photos: Sunset
Jan. 4th, 2026 09:06 pmysabetwordsmith posting in common_natureTonight I happened to glance out the window and spotted a colorful sunset. So I grabbed my camera and ran outside to take pictures. This gets me started on my goal of taking and posting photos at least once per season. \o/
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
Photos: Sunset
Jan. 4th, 2026 09:04 pmysabetwordsmithTonight I happened to glance out the window and spotted a colorful sunset. So I grabbed my camera and ran outside to take pictures. This gets me started on my goal of taking and posting photos at least once per season. \o/
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
Babylon 5 fic + a poll about the script books
Jan. 4th, 2026 04:05 pmsholioNew B5 fic, this one's just pure self-indulgence.
A Map on the Skin (Londo/G'Kar, 1700 wds, scars)
I have been thinking about how to handle posting material from the script books. There are 14 of them and scripts for all the episodes, plus alternate versions of some, so it's like. A lot. I figured I'd do a poll about what you want to see most. (Poll is under the cut for mild spoilers.)
( Poll about what you'd like to see from the books )
A Map on the Skin (Londo/G'Kar, 1700 wds, scars)
I have been thinking about how to handle posting material from the script books. There are 14 of them and scripts for all the episodes, plus alternate versions of some, so it's like. A lot. I figured I'd do a poll about what you want to see most. (Poll is under the cut for mild spoilers.)
( Poll about what you'd like to see from the books )
News
Jan. 4th, 2026 06:21 pmysabetwordsmithTop 10 Positive News Stories of 2025
As 2025 comes to a close, we’re pausing to celebrate something truly special—the Top 10 Most-Loved Stories of the Year, as chosen by you, our Stay Positive News community.
These are the stories you clicked, shared, commented on, and carried with you. Stories that reminded us that even on hard days, goodness shows up—sometimes quietly, sometimes boldly, but always with heart.
As 2025 comes to a close, we’re pausing to celebrate something truly special—the Top 10 Most-Loved Stories of the Year, as chosen by you, our Stay Positive News community.
These are the stories you clicked, shared, commented on, and carried with you. Stories that reminded us that even on hard days, goodness shows up—sometimes quietly, sometimes boldly, but always with heart.
… guys, I think I’m buying a floor loom
Jan. 4th, 2026 04:47 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
clockwaysarts_feedLoom Saga Update:
No response from the seller. But the listing says ‘If interested just PM me thank you.’ and I’m not sure if that’s different than a marketplace message? I don’t use facebook, y'all. My username is my dead cats’ names.
… guys, I think I’m buying a floor loom
Loom Saga Update:
Jan. 4th, 2026 02:44 pmclockwaysarts_feedNo response from the seller. But the listing says ‘If interested just PM me thank you.’ and I’m not sure if that’s different than a marketplace message? I don’t use facebook, y'all. My username is my dead cats’ names.
clockwaysarts_feedI’m not even a fiber artist, but when I see a whole ass loom for $200 OBO part of my brain is like “but for $150 I could be”. Someone needs to talk me out of this. lol
Logistics. Use logistics to logic your self away from this.
Whole ass loom takes a whole ass room. It isn’t just the loom, It needs clearance on the sides so that you can access parts of it.
Looms mean weaving. Weaving needs fiber. A fuckton of fiber. See whereas someone who knits or crochets might have a fiber stash that mysteriously doubles in size overnight, Someone who has a loom and therefore weaves has a much much larger stash. Indeed that stash might need it’s Own whole ass room.
Which brings us back to the main point. I talk myself out of getting a loom because I don’t have space. In fact, I’m not sure I know many people who do have space. Do you have space? Not to physically shove the loom in a corner, But to give it room on the side so that it could actually be used and mended and things adjusted while it’s working. Do you have space for the sheer fucking of yarn and thread? Do you? And a climate controlled environment? Someone without rodent or insect access? Not a garage or a tool shed.
See… see the problem is that *I do* have that space. I have more than that space. Because I bought a house with a basement. It could go upstairs in the second guest room, of course, or it could go downstairs in my art room. Which despite having two massive drafting tables and a flatbox in it still has room. Or in the closet of my artroom, which is a whole other room more than a closet. Which also has its own closet. A closet is where the yarn could go…
The worst part really is that I can’t be stopped by the lack of space. u_u And at that price it’s not the money. And I found transportation if I do get it from a coworker friend who has access to a Large Van…
How to Comfort the Dying in an Emergency
Jan. 4th, 2026 05:06 pmysabetwordsmithUnder the character notes for my poem "Help Others to Grow Up," greghousesgf has commented:
I remember seeing a poster in the Bart trains (local mass transit) talking about what to do in an emergency and one of the instructions was "comfort the dying". Frankly I don't know how some random person on the train who isn't a professional psychologist or something would be able to do that. I certainly wouldn't.
Nobody is obligated to help if they're no kind of first responder, which in this case to comfort the dying, would primarily be clergy. Remember that "Stay out of the way" is always a legitimate role in an emergency, and nobody has the right to criticize anyone for choosing that role. If the problem is simply a lack of knowing what to do, though, that is straightforward to fix by learning ways to help. It's good to think about such things in advance, because you never know when you might need to make that decision. Here are some basic ideas...
( Read more... )
greghousesgf has commented:I remember seeing a poster in the Bart trains (local mass transit) talking about what to do in an emergency and one of the instructions was "comfort the dying". Frankly I don't know how some random person on the train who isn't a professional psychologist or something would be able to do that. I certainly wouldn't.
Nobody is obligated to help if they're no kind of first responder, which in this case to comfort the dying, would primarily be clergy. Remember that "Stay out of the way" is always a legitimate role in an emergency, and nobody has the right to criticize anyone for choosing that role. If the problem is simply a lack of knowing what to do, though, that is straightforward to fix by learning ways to help. It's good to think about such things in advance, because you never know when you might need to make that decision. Here are some basic ideas...
( Read more... )
January Challenge 2026: Party
Jan. 4th, 2026 06:33 pmpodfic_bingo_mod posting in podfic_bingo
The theme challenge for this month is Party (Please include the tag challenge: party when you post.) Theme challenges have to do with fic choice. Since this month's challenge is 'party' your story has to be related to that theme one way or another.
The shape challenge is ‘5 v' (tag challenge: 5 v). This should be at minimum 5 squares, ie:
OOOOO
OOXOO
OXOXO
XOOOX
OOOOO
Shape challenges require that you complete a specific shape of squares on your card. If you complete a shape challenge by the deadline, you’ll win a cheat. If your card already has the shape formation before the challenge starts, you can only count that challenge as completed if you fill at least one square on your card within the challenge time period.
You can pick the challenge you prefer or do both if you're feeling ambitious. Once you’ve posted the podfic required to fulfill the monthly challenge, please comment here to let us know you’ve completed the challenge.
If you complete a challenge, you earn a cheat. If none of the challenges appeal to you, you can also earn cheats by commenting on other people's podfics.
What are Cheats?
Cheats are rewards that allow participants to manipulate their cards so that they can be finished more easily. There are 2 kinds of cheats: shifting squares and swapping out squares. Shifting squares allows participants to swap locations of two squares on their card. Swapping out cheats allow you to discard one of your prompts entirely from your card and replace it with a prompt of your choosing from the Prompt List.
