Reading

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Poem: "No Such Thing as Finished"

This poem is spillover from the July 1, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

jake67jake. It also fills the "He's all hat and no cattle." square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by

janetmiles. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

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Geology

Defying physics: This rare crystal cools itself using pure magnetism

Research team identifies atacamite as a magnetocaloric material.
Deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert, scientists studied a green crystal called atacamite—and discovered it can cool itself dramatically when placed in a magnetic field. Unlike a regular fridge, this effect doesn’t rely on gases or compressors. Instead, it’s tied to the crystal’s unusual inner structure, where tiny magnetic forces get tangled in a kind of “frustration.” When those tangled forces are disrupted by magnetism, the crystal suddenly drops in temperature. It’s a strange, natural trick that could someday help us build greener, more efficient ways to cool things.

Adventures and boring stuff only vice versa

Boring stuff: My week this past week involved doing homework, sleeping, and being lumpy. Though I did exercise four times, so I wasn't that lumpy. A walking lump maybe.

Adventures: Today M and I did an art trail on one of the islands, and it was great. Cool art, a glass blower who does Venetian glass making techniques with all these amazing patterns in the glass let us watch her make glasses and explained everything while she did it and it was really cool.

We hit up one of our favorite bookstores (The Book Rack in Oak Harbor) and drove and looked at water and looked at sculptures and walked a few trails and it was a wonderful day. Now I am very tired. Photos here: https://flickr.com/photos/27659024@N08/albums/72177720327356511.

Tonight I'm taking one of the kidlets to a paranormal/horror cirque de soleil type thing, so we'll see how that goes. People bending in ways they're not supposed to and doing things I could never do in a million years. Can't be all bad.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is mostly cloudy and sweltering.

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

I put out water for the birds. Bees are visiting the small metal birdbath again.

EDIT 7/6/25 -- It's raining, so I won't have to water anything today. :D

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Julé! 06/31

***

YouTube algorithm threw this at me tonight and on this occasion the YouTube algorithm was bang on. This is, in fact, relevant to my interest. No, I've never heard of them until today. No, I did not know any of their names (I do now so A+ marketing). But what I do know is that this is the kind of soft queer pining vibe I'm absolutely into. And it's a bop.

Watch on YouTube

***

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: on my Chandler/Joey chair

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July Fic Day 6 - A Game of Possession - NCIS, Tim/Tony

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✨glimmers and good things - day 3 ✨

today was a hard one. everything felt heavy and off-kilter, and finding glimmers wasn’t easy — but it felt important. small anchors, even if they’re a little wobbly.

🛏️ I had a proper lie-in this morning. Didn’t rush, didn’t feel guilty. Just let myself rest, and it felt right.

🍃 My Isabelle plushie was soft and solid and there when I needed grounding during a panic attack. Small comfort, big anchor.

📝 Coming back to blogging has felt really good — like reclaiming a piece of myself. Even better, I’ve been getting some lovely comments that have made me feel seen and appreciated.

That’s me for today. If you feel like sharing your glimmers, I’d love to read them 💛
Be gentle with yourself, especially if the good things were hard to find.

Entry tags:

misc tv,
tv talk

TV Talk: Countdown (eps 1.01-1.04)

I decided to give this show a try mainly because of Jensen Ackles. It's pretty good, though I don't think I'll get fannish about it. And so far I don't have any deep comments about it, but watching the first four eps was a good way to spend some time. ( spoilers )

Current Music: Sabalenka v Mertens

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📚 Fic Snippet Sunday: Booktuber AU Edition 📚

Title: “I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you”
(still uncertain if I'm going to run out of plot bunnies or Taylor Swift lyrics for tennis rps fic - all but about 5 fics so far have her lyrics for titles)

Chapter 1 is already posted at https://archiveofourown.org/works/66563692

This one started because I fell asleep watching a booktuber absolutely eviscerate the worldbuilding in romantasy — like, full destruction with timestamps and citations - and dreamed up two booktubers who get into a feud over it. Duelling videos, increasingly petty reading challenges, and unsubtle one-star reviews. It was meant to be a joke, and then, of course, it turned into a slow burn.

Carlos is the chaotic romantasy lover with warm lighting and overexcited hand gestures.
Jannik is the dry fantasy purist who edits his videos like he’s building a cathedral.
Their video styles hate each other.
They are, obviously, soulmates.

It’s still early days - I've written and posted Jannik's opening video, I'm editing Carlos’ first response - but I’m having so much fun with the format. It’s another one where I’m playing with a different style: mixing prose with video transcripts, comment threads, DMs, and maybe even playlists later on. It feels like a multimedia fic without quite going full AO3 PowerPoint mode.

( this is a little snippet from chapter 2 )

Today's menu... Beanie Weenies!

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The Day in Spikedluv (Saturday, July 5)

I didn’t have mom duty until 10am, so I went downtown as usual. I hit Walmart, the Bakery, and Agway while I was there, and got in a walk around the park.

After I got home from downtown I tossed a load of what I call ‘dog sheets’ (the sheets I use to cover the furniture) into the washer, hand-washed some dishes, took the dogs for a short walk (I got in .85 mi today, which is good considering mom’s operation/hospitalization etc has really put a crimp in my ‘I can get to a mile this week’ *spoken in mocking tone* notion), and scooped kitty litter before I headed to mom’s.

I got home in time to make supper, so grilled chicken legs, hand-washed more dishes, dried the sheets, and took a shower.

I watched the current ep of Murderbot and finished the Amelia Peabody book. I also saw my first fawn! Sadly, it wasn’t one of ~our fawns, but a downtown fawn. (I’m always surprised how many deer live downtown! I see them crossing the road or people’s lawns all the time.) Mama and baby were crossing the road as I was heading home (and made it safely, even though baby was taking its sweet time). Baby was so tiny and adorable! All those spots!

Temps started out at 51.1(F) (what is with these cool temps?!!) and reached 91.0. In the shade.

Mom Update:

Mom was tired today. ( more back here )

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Artificial Intelligence: not as big a threat as Natural Stupidity

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Current Mood: busy

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food,
recipe

Today's Smoothie

Today we made a smoothie with:

1 cup orange juice
1 cup Brown Cow vanilla yogurt
1 banana
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup ice

The result is bright pink and on the thin side. It tastes mostly of orange. It's okay, but not as good as the tropical version from earlier.

Current Mood: busy

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Early Humans

125,000-year-old ‘fat factory’ run by Neanderthals discovered in Germany

Stone Age humans living by a lake in what’s now Germany systematically processed animal carcasses for fatty nutrients — essentially running what scientists describe as a “fat factory” to boil bones on a vast scale, according to new research.

Note that another thing you can make with animal fat is pemmican: a stable, high-energy trail food made with fat, powdered meat, and a carbohydrate such as berries. Since it's not something you'd make in a hot climate like Africa (where humans evolved) but rather in a cold climate (such as northern Europe), I'm suddenly wondering if it is in fact a Neanderthal or Denisovan recipe.

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sunshine challenge

Sunshine Challenge #2

Tunnel of Love
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like

I'm going to be a bit wayward over the Journalling part of this challenge, but I think a bit of romantic fiction does squeeze into the category, so here goes.

Beast and I have lately started watching Bridgerton. I don't think it was the reason we decided to spend a little while chez Netflix, but it was one of the first things that sprang to my mind, at least.
( Not spoilers, probably, since this is old news, but anyway.... )

The love poem is going to have to wait.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny and hot.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus some brown birds that might be female blackbirds.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 4/5/25 -- I refilled the thistle feeder.

I picked up the concrete paver that we used for fireworks last night, along with scraps of paper and cardboard left behind.

Volunteer sunflowers are blooming under the fly-through feeder.

EDIT 4/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/5/25 -- I picked a handful of blackberries in the prairie garden.

EDIT 4/5/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and some of the savanna seedlings. A sunflower in the telephone pole garden is close to blooming. :D

EDIT 4/5/25 -- I pulled some weeds from the septic garden.

Fireflies are out. Cicadas are singing.

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

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: on my Chandler/Joey chair

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July Fic Day 5 - When the Lights Go Off, I Still See You - Fall Out Boy, Pete/Patrick

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Current Mood: full

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✨glimmers and good things - day 2 ✨

three tiny joys, glimmers, or moments of soft comfort from today

💇‍♀️ Got my ( hair dyed magenta! ) Bright, bold, and very me — it’s always a bit of a transformation, and it felt good to see that vivid colour in the mirror again.

🎾 Jannik Sinner, Ben Shelton, Grigor Dimitrov, and Mirra Andreeva all won their Wimbledon matches today — every one of them brought something joyful to watch.

🍔 Takeout burgers for dinner. We were completely wiped — two hours at the hairdresser left us sore, dysregulated, and done. The burgers weren’t fancy, but they were warm and easy and enough.

That’s me for today. If you feel like sharing your glimmers, I’d love to read them 💛
Be gentle with yourself, especially if the good things were hard to find.

Current Mood: busy

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Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"

This poem was written for the Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love. It also fills the "buffalo" square in my 7-1-25 card for the Western Bingo Fest.

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Current Mood: busy

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Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love

Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love

Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like
See "Poem: Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers."

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

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