Tinhuviel Artanis

Tonight we did our home fireworks show. :D These are the things we bought from JT Fireworks Sales in Charleston...

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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 plus a mourning dove.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I checked the south lot and put topsoil in a few low spots, prior to our fireworks show tonight.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked up a trough pot that fell off the old picnic table, restored the curry plant and purple basil as best I could, then watered them and a few other things in the house yard.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I sowed 6 pots with mulberry seeds. Half are from a particularly pleasing mulberry sapling near the west end of the old fishpond, the other half from a mulberry that was left on the porch step as if a gift.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and a few seedlings in the savanna.

My partner Doug mowed the ritual meadow and prairie paths.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked a handful of herbs to make a skillet scramble for supper.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries in the prairie garden. There are plenty left; I ran out of heat tolerance long before I ran out of berries. :D

Cicadas are singing.

EDIT 7/4/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries in the prairie garden. Still more left, but I'll have to hunt those another day, because it is still hot and the sun is about to set.


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FireSmart Canada is pleased to release Blazing the Trail: Celebrating Indigenous Fire
Stewardship, a beautiful, bound publication that recognizes the contributions to wildfire
prevention of Indigenous communities in Canada.

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When rainforests died, the planet caught fire: New clues from Earth’s greatest extinction

When Siberian volcanoes kicked off the Great Dying, the real climate villain turned out to be the rainforests themselves: once they collapsed, Earth’s biggest carbon sponge vanished, CO₂ rocketed, and a five-million-year heatwave followed. Fossils from China and clever climate models now link that botanical wipe-out to runaway warming, hinting that losing today’s tropical forests could lock us in a furnace we can’t easily cool.


I pointed this out decades ago and nobody listened. Now here we are. But hey, someone could roll up this newspaper and beat Brazil with it.

Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.  Robins are foraging in the short grass that my partner Doug mowed yesterday in the house yard.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 7/2/25 -- I took some pictures around the yard.

EDIT 7/2/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, new picnic table, and telephone pole gardens.

Fireflies are out.  Cicadas are singing.

EDIT 7/2/25 -- I watered the septic garden.

I've seen a bat over the south lot, which also got mowed today.

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

Sinful televangelist Jimmy Swaggart has passed away. 

... I just kinda want to pass Lucifer a big bag of popcorn and a big shaker of Mexican spice blend.  He's gonna need it.

July is Disability Pride Month.

These are some of my characters with disabilities. Series with disabled main characters include Clay of Life, the Draft Dawgs thread in Arts and Crafts America, Daughters of the Apocalypse, Frankenstein's Family, Monster House, The Moon Door, P.I.E., and Walking the Beat. Polychrome Heroics has a bunch, but they are scattered around various threads; some are ordinary disabilities while others relate to superpowers. You can ask for more disabled characters in any relevant prompt call. Today's Poetry Fishbowl theme is "Weaponized Incompetence and Malicious Compliance."

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This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from torc87. It also fills the "I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it." square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis.

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

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Weaponized Incompetence and Malicious Compliance!" 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 activists, rebels, traitors, exes, abuse survivors, refugees, runaway youth, slaves or other captives, slavers, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, leaders, bosses, employees, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, other people who get into untenable situations, protesting, dragging your feet, breaking things, causing problems because you were told to, planning, throwing in the towel, escaping, running like someone left the gate open, adventuring, hitchhiking, quitting school, divorcing, disowning, betraying, teaching, 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, slave ships, slave quarters, abusive homes, trails, sailing ships, campervans or RVs, distant lands, the forest primeval, prehistory, liminal zones, schools, residential school-concentration camps, homeless shelters, hotels, churches, sharehouses, campfires, laboratories, supervillain lairs, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, stores, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where the intolerable happens, unhappy relationships, crappy jobs, educational abuse, responsibility without authority is abuse, protest rallies, slavery or captivity, locks or chains, travel mishaps, sudden surprises, the buck stops here, trial and error, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, 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:

Western Bingo Card 7-1-25

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

Weaponized incompetence has two modes:
* One is shirking a fair share of work by pretending to be bad at it: for instance, copper-digging men who try to con women into doing all the emotional labor. (Take care to distinguish this from people who don't know how to do things because they were never taught, or people who are genuinely bad at a category of thing.)
* The other is a form of activism, and indeed, one of the leading forms of resistance in slavery: doing work slowly, sloppily, breaking tools, playing dumb, etc. It's exactly how black people got a reputation for being stupid and lazy, because their ancestors were unwilling to be exploited and fought back in subtle ways.

Malicious compliance is following an order to the letter, expecting that to cause problems. It is a form of protest most often used when pointing out a flaw or proposing a better solution would be ignored or even punished.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture after rebelling against the Galactic Arms.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, touching on slavery and rebellion.

Not Quite Kansas includes demons, who are masters of malicious compliance.

The Ocracies has a wide variety of countries crammed together, each with a totally different government. Sometimes people leave their homeland to find something they like better.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks after quitting as the God of Evili.

Peculiar Obligations mixes Quakers and pirates, among other things. It's another setting where people strive against slavery.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. The supervillains are the most likely to practice weaponized incompetence and malicious compliance. Among the more relevant threads are Danso and Family, Dr. Infanta, Fortressa, Iron Horses, Shiv, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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Here is my card for the Western Bingo Fest over in allbingo. The fest runs from July 1-31. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.


WESTERN BINGO CARD

Bad Girls	Resist Oppression	"The Wayward Wind"	The Harder They Fall	Captive / Slave
Close-knit Community	"He’s all hat and no cattle."	Buffalo	"Cool Water"	Gambling
"Put me down!"	Dodge	WILD CARD	Redemption Story	Silver / Gold
"I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it."	Firefly	Defenestration	Immigrant	Horse
Black Hats / White Hats	I'll Get My Revenge	Independent Woman	Sunrise / Sunset	Emotionally Constipated Man

Beavers restore lands damaged by wildfire, human abuses, or other causes. 

This is especially useful with climate change causing more drought.  I recommend recruiting all available keystone species to resist the decline.  Good examples for Turtle Island / North America include beavers, buffalo, goldenrod, milkweed, oak trees, prairie dogs, redwood trees, salmon, sea otters, and wolves.  While not everyone has the resources to house any of those personally, you can still support organizations that aim to promote them.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Gender
Early Humans
Moment of Silence: Acelightning
New Crowdfunding Project: Land of Eem
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Staying Afloat
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Morals
Bingo
Poetry Fishbowl Report for June 3, 2025
Birdfeeding
Native American
Follow Friday 6-27-25: Hiking
Hobbies: Stage Magic
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Goblincore
Ancient Life
Ceramics
Artificial Intelligence
Books
Exoplanets
Birdfeeding
Good News

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 40 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 144 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 93 comments.


sunshine_revival is setting up to activate July 1. See the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Spread the word!




summerofthe69 is now open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are Tetris 69 and Body Worship 69.


"In the Heart of the Hidden Garden" belongs to the Antimatter and Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It only needs $40 to be fully funded. Lawrence leads Stan to Criss Library.


The weather was sweltering recently but has cooled off slightly. It's been raining a good deal and drizzled again this evening. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a male cardinal, a fox squirrel, and at least 1 probably 2 bats. 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, daylilies, snowball bush, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, narrow-leaf mountain mint, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, wild bergamot, chicory, Queen Anne's lace. Cucumbers, tomatillo, and pepper have green fruit. The first 'Chocolate Sprinkles' tomato ripened and some other tomatoes are showing color. Wild strawberries, mulberries, peas, and blackberries are ripe. Black raspberries are winding down.

sunshine_revival has posted a Friending Meme. The calendar of activities is here and the fest will open on July 1.  Use the master post to navigate the event.

We made it to the end of June! \o/ If you have completed some of your medium-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We've also entered summer. If you're doing seasonal goals, hopefully you have finished the spring one(s), and started on the summer batch.

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them. The main drawback is that this update becomes more of a chore each month.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In April 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In May 31

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Buried for 23,000 years: These footprints are rewriting American history

Footprints found in the ancient lakebeds of White Sands may prove that humans lived in North America 23,000 years ago — much earlier than previously believed. A new study using radiocarbon-dated mud bolsters earlier findings, making it the third line of evidence pointing to this revised timeline.

I've been to White Sands. Interesting place, but bizarre. The air is blistering hot, but sand stays cool. Its albedo is too high to absorb much heat.

Land of Eem: Beginners RPG for Kids + Underlands Expansion
Dungeoneer Adventures Beginners RPG—an easy, fun, family game—plus The Underlands Sandbox, a brand new setting for Land of Eem.

$150,187 pledged of $75,000 goal
1,234 backers
19 days to go

Land of Eem: Dungeoneer Adventures is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-play, and easy-to-run tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) box set for kids. Players take on the roles of students attending Dungeoneer Academy, a school where kids train to become full-fledged adventurers and explorers in the fantastical Land of Eem.


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We went out a couple of times today.

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Art pieces double as carbon-free air conditioning, inspired by ancient civilizations

Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a 3D-printed evaporative cooling system made of hollow clay columns that can cool the surrounding air by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

The columns are filled with water and sand, and when warm air passes through the porous clay exterior, water stored in the sand columns evaporates, which in turn, cools the air that passes through.

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

Do people in wealthier countries have a moral obligation to help those in poorer countries?


If you want to hold all the money, you have to pay all the bills. If you don't want to pay all the bills, make sure other folks have enough money to pay their own.

Also, there is no Planet B.  Climate change affects everyone -- but the people in wealthy countries who are causing it have thus far suffered less than people in poor countries who haven't caused it.  If you don't make it feasible for them to stay in their own countries, they will leave so they don't die, and wash up in wealthy countries.  This is already happening some, but you have seen nothing yet.  It will be like the waves of the sea beating the shore, over and over again, until people think they would give anything to make it stop.  And then it will stop.  And then people will wish, just as desperately, to have that many people ever again as the losses pile up and there aren't enough hands  left to hold up civilization.

Our theme this month was "Gentleness Is Strength." I wrote from 12:30 PM to 4 AM, so about 13 hours 30 minutes, allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 6 poems on Tuesday and another 5 later in the week.

Participation was variable, with 11 comments on LiveJournal and another 30 on Dreamwidth. A total of 10 people sent prompts.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"All It Takes to Be Invulnerable"
"The Bond with a Dog"
"Choose to Be Gentle"
"Emodox"
"The Result of Your Own Bad Behavior"
"When Warmth and Gentleness Are Needed"


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list from June 3. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

This session's donors include: librarygeek and janetmiles. All sponsored poems from this fishbowl have been posted. There are 3 tallies toward a bonus fishbowl.


The Poetry Fishbowl has a landing page.

NDN Netcasts 

Online news from various tribal people.

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Stage magic is a hobby of illusion. There are many styles, from closeup to grand stage effects. Some can be done with very affordable props. Much is now available online for free. If you have any interest in card magic, start with The Royal Road to Card Magic and an ordinary deck of playing cards. Pay attention to skill trees, that is, which techniques will enable you to learn more techniques based on them. Note that this hobby is fun and easy to start, but getting good at it will require a lot of practice.

On Dreamwidth, consider creative communities like justcreate.

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Today is mostly sunny and sweltering.

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

I put out water for the birds.

How Earth's First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
Sponges have survived every catastrophe and every mass extinction event that nature has thrown at them. And by being the little, filter-feeding, water-cleaning creatures that they are, sponges may have saved the world.

How Volcanoes Froze the Earth (Twice)
Over 600 million years ago, sheets of ice coated our planet on both land and sea. How did this happen? And most importantly for us, why did the planet eventually thaw again? The evidence for Snowball Earth is written on every continent today.





That's reassuring given the poor life choices of Homo sapiens today.