kellan_the_tabby

Today we went to the Small Business Fest held just outside Booth Library at Eastern Illinois University. It was several times bigger than we expected, which was awesome. It wrapped around the entire square, and one side had booths down both sides of the walkway. This was nearly the size of the old Celebration fest, with very similar offerings. They do this twice a year now, spring and fall.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: happy

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

dialecticdreamer

Another Question
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 2
Word count (story only): 563
[Morning of Wednesday, 8 November of 2017]

:: On the way home from the embassy, Jules stops to ask Ezekiel some delicate questions. Part of the “Lodestar” arc, set in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Jules smiled as he was shown through the gate to Ezekiel’s home. “I know I didn’t call, so could one of you ask Doctor Simmons if he’s got time for a brief visit? I need to ask him a question or six.”

Today’s guard was female, nearly six feet tall, and smiling like Jules’ long lost cousin. “Actually, I’m going to run the security check before I call him, because he needs a break.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: anxious

ysabetwordsmith

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What would a perfect city be like?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Truckloads of food are being wasted because computers won’t approve them

Modern food systems may look stable on the surface, but they are increasingly dependent on digital systems that can quietly become a major point of failure. Today, food must be “recognized” by databases and automated platforms to be transported, sold, or even released, meaning that if systems go down, food can effectively become unusable—even when it’s physically available.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

fayanora

Went on a walk down Springwater Corridor. Went all the way down to Johnson Creek Blvd, got on the line 75, got off at SE Furat Court and walked home from there. I had only two returnables at the point before Furat Court, but as soon as I turned onto Sherrett Street, I spotted three boxes of sparkling water on a recycling bin, which were full of 24 returnable cans. I love it when things like that are nice and wrapped up for my comfort and ease like that.

So, $2.60 altogether. Very convenient.

silvercat17 posting in

justcreate

What are you working on? What have you finished? What do you need encouragement on?

Are there any cool events or challenges happening that you want to hype?

What do you just want to talk about?

What have you been watching or reading?

Chores and other not-fun things count!

Remember to encourage other commenters and we have a discord where we can do work-alongs and chat, linked in the sticky.

scrubjayspeaks

Welcome to the April edition of Pandemic Garden Club! Growing good things in strange times!

Anyone is welcome to comment with what they're growing right now, things they would like to try, problems they're encountering, and questions they have. Share resources, answer questions, shout encouragement.

As for myself...

( Read more... )

umadoshi

Seasonal crunch is over! Feels like freedom, if you ignore the part where I still have, y'know, a job + freelance stuff. Increased freedom. We'll go with that.

My day off yesterday entailed such thrilling things as sleeping in and then taking ages to get up because Jinksy came to snuggle*; finishing my breakfast and tea by around noon; getting some banking done; washing my hair; vacuuming the two main levels of the house; spending several full hours being a cat-lap for Sinha; and starting in on a new novel for the first time since March Break or so.

*When I texted

scruloose to say good morning, they said, "When my first alarm went, it was competing with Jinksy over on your other side rumble-purring so hard I swear the mattress was reverberating with it."

Reading: A couple more chapters of Braiding Sweetgrass, and I've finished Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks, which has a fair number of recipes but is, as the title indicates, more of a family history than a cookbook.

And last night I didn't want to spend much mental energy on choosing what fiction to read, so I decided to just go with Tough Guy, the third Game Changers novel. I imagine in the not-too-distant future I'll pick up the ebook "box set" of books 4-6 just to have them on hand.

Watching: We're caught up on The Pitt and have seen five episodes of One Piece season 2, and I imagine we'll finish the latter before backtracking for the last couple-few episodes of Frieren. (I've also made note of this elsewhere, but to reinforce it in my brain: after The Pitt finishes, I need to remember to cancel our Crave subscription again.)

Eating: After the crunch ended on Thursday,

scruloose and I ordered from a new (?) Korean BBQ place (bb.q Chicken) that a stranger in the local Bluesky feed had mentioned was good. We tried the bone-in Classic Fried Chicken (very minimal spicing, but very solid) and the boneless Golden Fried Chicken, the description of which didn't indicate any particular spiciness, but it turned out to be right on the edge of my comfort level...but also a really delicious seasoning to go with the heat, so I'm counting that as a definite win. The place offers a whole array of flavor options, so I imagine we'll be trying it again.

Weathering/Growing: Yesterday was sunny and relatively warm, and now we're back to a slightly-chilly rainy/damp stretch, but a few days in the forecast will theoretically get back up into the double digits.

At my instigation, we're going to take another stab at Doing Garden Stuff this year. ( VERY preliminary notes )

Current Mood: thoughtful

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/11/26 -- We went out to a Small Business Fest today. We spent about 3 1/2 hours there, a lot longer than expected, but it was four or five times the size I expected and really awesome. :D But now my nose is pink from the sun and my legs feel like they're about to fall off, so that limits my yardening potential for the day.

On the way into town, we saw two turkey vultures visiting the remains of a possum at the edge of the yard.

EDIT 4/11/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/11/26 -- I potted up most of the remaining flowers.

EDIT 4/11/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I potted up the last of the flowers.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night. *goflopnow*

Current Mood: busy

fayanora

Dreamed, just a bit ago, that I had somehow gotten access to a new kind of travel. Well, new to me, and it doesn't exist here. It was basically a flying chair. You know, a hover chair? And I managed to not only get on it, but also accidentally set the test flight to somewhere on the other side of the country. And let's just say I wasn't dressed for the trip; if I hadn't also managed to ground the thing early and take it back to cancel the flight, I would probably have died of hypothermia on that trip.

Probably not something we want to be inventing over here. The tech sounds dangerous. Also, how do you prevent getting sucked into a jet engine when you're at altitude?

dialecticdreamer

What Happened?
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 3 of 3, complete
Word count (story only): 1086
[Morning of Wednesday, 8 November of 2017]

:: Jules’ attempt to help Loudmouth goes sideways. Part of the “Lodestar” arc, set in the Polychrome Heroics universe. ::

Back to part two
: Thanks for reading! ::

Before Jules could step away from the closed door, raised voices seeped through it. Wincing, the young man took two steps away, then two more.

Torrin shambled toward him, rubbing one eye with the heel of his hand. “What’s going on? Why doesn’t Loudmouth have the privacy filter on? Or the white noise generator?”

“I think that she forgot.” Jules put a gentle hand on the teen’s wrist. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I don’t like hearing people argue, and that loud voice isn’t the Ambassador’s.”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: amused

scrubjayspeaks

She burst from her desk the instant the bell rang, a loosed arrow aimed at freedom somewhere beyond the sight lines of teachers. The treeline, so close yet unreachable five days a week, swallowed her like a crocodile lovingly sheltering her babies in her jaws, the closest thing to a parent the girl had and the only one who would wonder where she was all weekend. Each minute had to be counted, precious as pearls, in which she could cease pretending to be human and return to being herself for two days at a time.

---

LL#1381

ysabetwordsmith

Scientists think dark matter might come in two forms

Dark matter may come in two flavors—finally explaining why its signals appear in some galaxies but vanish in others.

A mysterious glow of gamma rays at the center of the Milky Way has long hinted at dark matter, but the lack of similar signals in smaller dwarf galaxies has cast doubt on that idea. Now, researchers propose a bold twist: dark matter might not be a single particle at all, but a mix of two different types that must interact with each other to produce detectable signals.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Did you grow up regularly playing board games (either with your family, or in other contexts)? Do you feel that this affected the prominence (or lack of prominence) of board games in your later life?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3231/

Maybe you should wear one too? I guess I'm taller than you, so as long as I have one we're fine.

https://xkcd.com/3231/

elisem

How did it be April? It seems simultaneously sudden and somehow like it took a million years. Guess I'd better catch people up; sorry about being out of touch.

State of the Me:

Still waiting for my insurance to be reinstated. (There's a whole saga that I'm too tired to retell right now, but rest assured that Things Are Being Followed Up On.)

It's been eleven weeks and one day since my mother died. My father died three years ago; their funerals were three years apart on the same day. (Which I guess makes future anniversaries of that day more efficient or something, but the last day of January is likely to not be a great day for me next year and ongoing. Just saying.) My sister continues to be a hero on dealing with all sorts of things big and small connected with all this. (My mother-in-law Ruth made me promise to remember to say my sister is a hero, but I would remember anyhow. Also, I miss Ruth, who passed in February two years ago. Which adds to the grief anniversaries.)

There are a lot of finished pieces I need to get up in the shop. I did manage to get the "Autocorrect" series up, the ones with a duck and an ice cube, or a fork and an ice cube. There will be more. Also, I just found all these hockey player charms, and something needs to be done with those.

The interruption in insurance is delaying some parts of the work on recovering from agoraphobia, but other parts continue. I have plans for a stroll down the block with a neighbor soon.

There is so much art I want to make. And so many people I want to talk with. (Hi!)

So that's part of the State of the Me. If you feel like sharing, what's the State of the You? And hi! Hi!

ysabetwordsmith

Today is cloudy and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

I am excited to see that the yellow violet has propagated itself, and now there are two little clumps blooming in the forest garden. :D

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I pulled weeds out of two pots so I can plant pansies and violas in them.

I've seen a male cardinal and heard a squirrel barking.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made one pot with a black viola and a black pansy, intending to add some other black plant later. I made another with a black viola, a black pansy, a purple-and-white viola, a blue-shaded viola, and a white alyssum. I watered the pots and added some sticks to discourage squirrels from digging in them.

I also tested out a trick that I saw in a video. Take a large garden staple, push the tines down into a narrow pot, squeeze together like tongs, and pull the plant out. It takes a bit of practice to make it work, but it does work better than other methods I have tried for safely extracting plants from those multipacks.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made a pot with a black viola, a black pansy, a purple-and-yellow pansy, and a white alyssum.

The weather is turning cooler and the breeze is picking up.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made 3 pots with various shades of purple, yellow, and orange pansies and violas. For now these are on the white planters alongside the big pot of mixed Johnny-jump-ups.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I made a pot with a mauve pansy, a couple different violas, and a white alyssum.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/10/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

ihavenoarms

have a nice day all

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

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kellan

The Vagabond Tabby

March 2026

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Page generated Apr. 12th, 2026 06:47 am

speaking the truth

even when my voice trembles

Reading

Today's Adventures

The case of the missing notifications

Another Question (part 1 of 2)

Philosophical Questions: City

Food

$2.60

Just Create - Plumbing Edition

Pandemic Garden Club

Weekly proof of life: less-crunchy days ahead | media | Korean BBQ | initial gardening thoughts

Birdfeeding

Weird dream

What Happened? (part 3 of 3, complete)

Lake Lewisia #1381

Space Exploration

Gaming

Lightning

waving hello from the month of April

Birdfeeding

hello

Follow Friday 4-10-26

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March 2026

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