The two pullets we got a couple of weeks ago started going downhill from probably Friday night. We could only get them to the vet this afternoon (Monday).

They have antibiotics and we're crop-feeding them, but I don't think it's going to do much good.

Fifteen minutes later: Nien-Go is dead. We're not sure if Jima-wu is going to survive, although she was always doing better than dainty little Nien-Go.

( feeling like I failed )

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Space Exploration
Moment of Silence: Country Joe McDonald
Poem: "Confident Guesswork and Improvisation"
Poem: "Nuff Respect"
Esbat
Science
Safety
Humor
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Civilization
Photos: Savanna
Photos: House Yard
Wildlife
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 3-6-36: Meta
Wildlife
Poem: "The Express Bus to Crazy-ass Death Land"
Read "ICE Out" by Charles de Lint
Nature
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Read "Find a Way Forward"
Safety
Birdfeeding
Good News

Linguistics has 32 comments. Philosophical Questions: Pregnancy has 40 comments. Safety has 53 comments. Wildlife has 40 comments. Food has 67 comments.


Last week's Poetry Fishbowl went well. I still have at least one more poem to write.




marchmetamatterschallenge is running this month. See my tracking post and the first check-in post.


"The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds" is now complete. Gideon and Raymond get some unexpected help in the fight.


The weather has been warmish here, though it rained much of the week. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a female cardinal, and a fox squirrel. A skein of geese flew overhead, honking quite loudly. Red-winged blackbirds have been singing overhead. I've heard a killdeer and a mourning dove calling, but didn't see them. Honeybees are out and swarming the flowers. Currently blooming: crocuses, snowdrops, winter aconite, miniature irises.

In an incredibly random set of ocurrances I ended up watching a pair of YouTubers I like react to Kimetsu No Yaiba/Demon Slayer and now I'm craving a a long epic fic with particular tropes but I can't risk taking the time to find it this late at night on a Sunday 😭

( non-specific demon slayer spoilers ahead )

Anyway. Just needed to complain in case someone stumbles upon this post and shows me a DW comm or Tumblr that accepts rec requests 😭😭😭

Singer and songwriter Country Joe McDonald has passed away. Among other accomplishments, he is famous for the "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die-Rag" at Woodstock, on record, and elsewhere.


Carry on the Work:

Guitar -- how to articles from wikiHow

Hippie Culture

How to Be a Singer Songwriter: 15 Steps (with Pictures)

Music Occupations -- how to articles from wikiHow

Musical Instruments -- how to articles from wikiHow

Singing -- how to articles from wikiHow

Social Activism -- how to articles from wikiHow

Songwriting -- how to articles from wikiHow

This poem is spillover from the March 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from siliconshaman and janetmiles. It also fills the "Smudges" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series Frankenstein's Family.

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Man, Idk what was wrong with me this weekend. I almost said "today" right there because at least I went to the farmer's market yesterday but I really have been almost useless for most of the weekend. Just wasting hour after hour telling myself that I'm going to Do Things any moment now.

These are the notes for "Nuff Respect." Enjoy some recipes for Jamaican and Minoan foods in memory of minoanmiss.

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This poem came out of the March 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from librarygeek, alatefeline, and mama_kestrel. It also fills the "Artisan" square in my 3-1-26 card for the National Crafting Month Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by librarygeek in memory of minoanmiss, who passed away recently and loved both Jamaican and Minoan cultures. It belongs to the Trichromatic Attachments thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains graphic descriptions of delicious food that you may not be able to find or afford.

( Read more... )

This evening we held our esbat with an owl theme, inspired by the Festival of Owls this weekend.  We charged a set of owl beads for people to keep.

... I am disappointed that I did not think ahead to obtain a gummy rat for the cakes and ale. 

Thanks to a donation from janetmiles, you can now read the rest of "The Struggle Against Overwhelming Odds." Gideon and Raymond get some unexpected help in the fight.

This is my seventh year doing this challenge! Every day for seven days I will post a photo of a book. The rules, should you wish to participate, are that the book must be a physical book you own (no library books or borrowed books or ebooks) and the post has no caption but feel free to talk about the book in the comments. Here's the first.

I finally painted the wooden wiggle shark that's been sitting on my coffee table for ~4 months :D

This will be short because I need to go to bed, but I wanted to say -- particularly for our mutual friends here -- that D had his operation today; it all went just as planned (in his family group chat, his mum his back-on-the-ward selfie looked a bit woozy, and yes, but also he looked just like that before the op because he had to be there at 7 this morning!) and smoothly. He's home, tired and sore but able to watch TV, play video games, eat dinner, watch baseball with me. It's been a nice evening.

( Boring )

I didn't get as much done today as I might have hoped, but I did a good job of prioritizing what needed to happen today vs. what can wait until tomorrow. Really hoping I get better sleep tonight; it's been kinda shitty for a couple weeks and that takes its toll on everything else; I've had a low-grade headache most of the day and I think it's largely the broken sleep and weird dreams.

   @ xmen100  @ mcu100 
Submissions for the Bi-Weekly Prompt will be accepted until March 21, 11:59PM EST. 

   @ xmen100
   @ mcu100
Submissions for the Monthly Challenges will be accepted until March 31, 11:59PM EST. 

Honestly the "Drink" prompt did not come to me because of St. Patrick's day but in the fact that I really wanted a female character as the prompt image in honor of Women's month/day, but then it kinda just felt right using the prompt with both communities especially when I saw that image of Emma. I didn't think through the Monthly Character prompts, otherwise I'd have done female characters there as well.

In other news, galorechallenge Round 14 is now open! Officially finished uploading all the old prompts. I still need to add new prompts/crossovers since nothing new has appeared, feel free to suggest prompts/crossovers HERE. Still need to make a new promo banner & header but meh, I haven't felt like it honestly.


So it's been awhile since I posted anything directly to here, I apologize for that, but February has oddly been busy? Mostly with work but I also wrote a lot more last month (8 fics/drabbles) which I'm so proud of. I also did something to my right foot (not quite sure if it's my ankle, it feels more like the top of my foot) so I've been dealing with that pain off and on since mid-February. Most of the time I forget about it because my full-time job is mostly a sit down job (and it only vaguely hurt while sitting), and I haven't had a lot of scheduled retail shifts last couple weeks (thankfully for my mental health, horrible for my bank account), but I do have to get up and move around at my full-time job - sometimes a lot so that's when it mostly hits me. I did rest it a lot when I got home from work as well and I rested a lot this weekend (although I did get some cleaning done), so I didn't spend a lot of time online thus my oblivious to the world becoming on fire (I listen to audiobooks at work, and usually on the way to & from work, rarely do I put on the radio and when I did nothing mentioned anything at all - all I noticed was the gas prices shot the fuck up and I'm like why? Found out last night. Yeah. Fuck. The world is on fire. Again/Still depending on your viewpoint.)

ANYWAY due to my offline time, my newest obsession:

the Monsterverse (aka Godzilla 2014 & Kong: Skull Island shared universe along with the TV series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters). Caught the trailer for Monarch on Prime and I was like sign me the fuck up. I enjoyed every second of it.

Look I've loved Godzilla since I watched Godzilla (1998) and the animated series based on the film - I know most people shit on that movie but I enjoy it. And it satisfied the need for more dinosaur-type stuff I wanted back when I was a kid and in love with the Jurassic Park trilogy (haha, still am). I think the animated series of Godzilla also kind of synched it for me (I have the DVD set for it) and it's still pretty good - I want to rewatch again thanks to Monarch (they share some similarities that probably only I can see and enjoy but I'll take it). I also really enjoyed Godzilla (2014) film, which people also kinda dislike? I think or at least have mixed feelings about? I enjoyed all the sequels as well, and I appreciated what they were as monster movies, but I think Monarch show really kinda synched my love for the universe. I kinda wish I could have showed the show and the other newer movies to my Nana, she loved the original Godzilla stuff and would watch those, I'd love to know what she'd think of the show. I haven't seen those since I was a little kid and I don't remember actually enjoying them? Maybe it was the graphics, maybe it just didn't hold my attention - not quite sure (might try again). Anyway, as much as I loved Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Elizabeth Olsen in Godzilla (2014), I didn't really go looking for fanfiction or other fanworks (maybe gifs on Tumblr) until Monarch. The cast is just so good, and the characters! Ugh, I love all of them and I ship like everyone (as you can see what I've iconed so far). And the fact that they have Kurt & Wyatt Russell playing the same characters but at different points of time - BRILLIANT. I think my favorite characters are probably the "core" main characters: Cate Randa, Corah "May Olowe-Hewitt" Mateo, Kentaro Randa, Keiko Miura, Bill Randa (did not expect to like that character after Kong: Skull Island!) and obviously Lee Shaw. 

Also I obviously noticed back when they did Kong: Skull Island, but a lot of Marvel/MCU actors/actresses appeared in the Monsterverse and all it does is making me want them to do a Godzilla/Marvel crossover movie. They won't do it, but there is at least I think a Godzilla/Marvel comics series I think.

It's a small fandom, so there's that... but at least it exists. Anyway, let me know if you like any of the movies or like Monarch! I'd love to hear what you think or who you ship :)

So, uh. Unexpected emergency dental surgery yesterday! ( Nothing terribly gruesome )

So yeah, anyways, recovering from that! I already feel a bit better, thank you antibiotics.

I have written my first fic in a long time because of Resident Evil Requiem. I just need to get it all typed up and in the same place, haha. I'm really excited! It's Victor Gideon/Leon Kennedy because what can I say, I'm a monsterfucker. XD;

(I kinda think that's why I have no interest in Heated Rivalry, both because they're just dudes and also because they get together canonically; that's fucking boring! I only like sex/romance when I already give a shit about the characters, which is why fandom is where I live)

cypher and I are going to Norwescon in April I'm a SO EXCITED. I haven't been to a con in like. Nine years, I think? It has been A WHILE. And it's a four day con and there's lots of fun things to do on Thursday and Friday! So I won't even need to take work off for it. :D I have planned out Thursday already, even though everyone knows how plans fail.

Click to embiggen!

There are SO MANY PANELS but we've narrowed it down to the ones we actually want to attend. I'm so excited. Aaaaahhh. :D I am so delighted. And this con is held literally twelve minutes from my house so why have I never gone? Who knows. Time to fix that now.

EDIT: Also, amazing news, Will paid off the house! It is now ours, free and clear (except for taxes!). The car will be paid off by the end of this month! Finances going....okay? WHEW.

"fandom people are so sexist they go crazy making fictional men experience misogyny as opposed to making fictional women experience misogyny" you have like 30% of a point but i would perhaps like you to consider for just one second that a lot of these are being written by men who do in fact experience misogyny

librarygeek has sponsored "Nuff Respect." I'll get that posted as soon as I can, but at the moment I'm gardening while the sun shines.

If anyone else is still shopping for poetry, now's the time to make your final selections.

EDIT 3/8/26 -- janetmiles will be sponsoring "Confident Guesswork and Improvisation."

At the moment, "Walnut Park" and "Foraging Forever" are still available.

Scientists warn fake research is spreading faster than real science

A major investigation found organized networks producing fake scientific papers, selling authorships, and manipulating journals to mass-publish fraudulent research.

A sweeping new study from Northwestern University reveals that scientific fraud is no longer just the work of a few rogue researchers—it has evolved into a global, organized enterprise. By analyzing massive datasets of publications, retractions, and editorial records, researchers uncovered networks involving “paper mills,” brokers, and compromised journals that systematically produce and sell fake research, authorship slots, and citations.

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