kimurho

Astronaut Jim Lovell has passed away. He flew four missions, including the famous Apollo 13 in which the crew narrowly averted disaster.

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

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Today's theme is Icons, a very popular topic on Dreamwidth with several high-traffic communities.

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This student's life-changing injury made him realize how 'outdated' traditional casts are. So he 3D-printed a better one
AUG 7, 2025 12:34 PMPT

It’s an injection-molded lattice forearm cast, made with durable Nylon material that is lightweight, fully breathable, and a lot more comfortable than traditional fiberglass casts.

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Today is mostly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/7/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 8/7/25 -- I watered the new picnic table and septic gardens.

EDIT 8/7/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

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

Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 8/6/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/6/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

The day has gotten sunnier and much hotter.

I've seen a house wren screaming its head off at anything that moves.

EDIT 8/6/25 -- I potted up 3 white peach seeds and 4 local yellow peach seeds.

EDIT 8/6/25 -- I did a bit more work around the patio.

I picked 3 red cherry tomatoes and a ball carrot from the septic garden.

EDIT 8/6/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries from the second-crop bush.

EDIT 8/6/25 -- I pulled a few weeds around the septic garden.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

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

The 31-year-old electrical engineer says poor reception is a common frustration for residents of Vermont's Orange County. To address this issue, he's providing his community with a new way to stay connected.

Schlott has taken old pay phones, modified them to make free calls, and set them up in three different towns across the county. He buys the phones secondhand from sites like eBay and Craigslist and restores them in his home workshop.


I've always said that dismantling pay phones was dangerous, because even if most people have cell phones, those can be lost, broken, or out of service. It's nice to see this public good reviving in at least some areas.

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this space as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Books and Learning." 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 readers, writers, storytellers, scribes, editors, publishers, students, teachers, caregivers, children, parents, bookworms, nerds, bookstore owners, librarians, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, superheroes, supervillains, other bookish people, reading, writing, delighting the reader, editing, publishing, bookbinding, shopping for books, telling stories, teaching, inviting students to a lesson, demonstrating tools, educating the whole child, learning, studying, parenting, lending a hand, cooperating, concentrating on a current task, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, respecting people, modeling manners and skills, learning to trust others, observing the environment, engaging all the senses, cultivating a full life, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, choosing your own goals, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, making mistakes, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, other educational activities, books, scrolls, magical tomes, printing presses, pens and pencils, bookstores, libraries, Little Free Libraries, book nooks, windowseats, Montessori schools, other alternative schools, preschools or daycares, Montessori homeschool, prepared environment, colleges and universities, beautiful places, craft centers, community centers, coffeehouses, outdoor classrooms, parks, nature centers, other spaces designed for learning, Triton Teen Centers, mentor circles, intentional communities, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna, the Aqademy of the Qrossroads, Waldorf toys, Montessori materials, intrinsic motivation, child independence, respect for the child, freedom to choose, freedom of time and uninterrupted work periods, absorbent mind, post-traumatic growth, individualized education, three-part cards, language lessons, mathematics, diverse ages and abilities, self-correcting toys and lessons, natural consequences, freedom of movement, intentional neighboring, diversity, inclusivity, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, 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:

Crime Classics Bingo Card 8-1-25

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One involves education and reading in the Lacuna.

Arts and Crafts America focuses on fine arts and practical crafts, sometimes education. Bookbinding would be a logical craft.

The Bear Tunnels has future books in a past culture.

Daughters of the Apocalypse have to rediscover many historic skills for survival, including earlier methods of sharing knowledge.

Frankenstein's Family has two scientists teaching villagers to be thoughtful instead of stupid, and after a few years, several more people keenly interested in books and education.

Not Quite Kansas started with mishandling a book of spells, and involves trying to learn about a whole new world.

Path of the Paladins includes the Canticle of Thorns and other books.

Peculiar Obligations has Quakers in organized crime. The Religious Society of Friends has been greatly involved in education, including abolitionist and natural science publications.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people learning things. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Danso and Family, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

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. It includes a healthy magical school.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they learn a lot along the way.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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dialecticdreamer has expanded her comment under my first Emergency Food post into a separate post with more tips for people with special dietary needs. 

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Space Exploration
Birdfeeding
Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side
Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side
Emergency Food
Physics
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Threats
Survival Skills
Today's Adventures
Lightning
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
Crime Classics Bingo Card 8-1-25
Follow Friday 8-1-25: House
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Bingo
Poem: "Maho Shoujo"
Conservation
Birdfeeding
Juggling
Shanidar 1
Conservation
Genocide
Politics
Cuddle Party

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 48 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 75 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 148 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 97 comments.


sunshine_revival has concluded. See you next July! Review the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Make one last sweep through the community posts to catch anything you missed.



* Sunshine Revival Challenge 1: Light
Poem: "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love
Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 3: Food

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House
Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"

* Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 6: Game Night
Poem: "A New Twist"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 7: The Ferris Wheel

Sunshine Revival: Sunset


summerofthe69 is open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are 69 Accommodations and Alternate Sexy Parts 69.


There are no open epics at present.


The weather has been less hot and wet here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a pair of house wrens, a male cardinal, a gray catbird, a fox squirrel, and a bat. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. The second crop of blackberries is ripe. I think the ball carrots might be ripe, but haven't had time to uproot any.

Today is mostly sunny and mild, a beautiful day. :D

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a fox squirrel screaming at me from the top of a tree.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- My partner Doug mowed the house yard and paths to the fly-through feeder and new picnic table.

I picked up a branch in the house yard.

I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a pair of mourning doves foraging in the cut grass.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I did ass-busting amounts of effort to haul the hose around, watering the septic garden, new picnic table garden, patio plants, old picnic table garden, and a few other things around the house yard.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- We did more ass-busting amounts of effort to remove the old stretchy hose from the reel, then get the new tape hose onto the reel.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and savanna seedlings with a watering can. Both of this year's pawpaw seedlings are still alive! :D

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