Reading

Current Mood: busy

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Select Seeds Order

My seeds arrived from Select Seeds.

Painted Tongue 'Select Superbissima Mix' (seeds)

Yarrow 'Flowerburst Red Shades' (seeds)

Coreopsis 'Corusco Cream-Red' (seeds)

Current Mood: busy

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Prairie Moon Order

My Prairie Moon seed order arrived today. :D

Early Figwort (seed)

Late Figwort (seed)

Common Ironweed (seed)

Purple Love Grass (seed)

Lead Plant (seed)

Current Mood: busy

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This crocodile ran like a greyhound across prehistoric Britain 200 million years ago

A newly discovered Triassic reptile from the UK looked more like a racing greyhound than a crocodile, built for speed on land. With long legs and a lightweight body, it hunted small animals in a dry, upland environment millions of years ago. Scientists identified it as a new species after spotting key differences in its fossils. It’s also a tribute to an inspiring teacher who helped spark a future scientist’s curiosity.

Peculiar Obligations has several such species called galloping crocodiles, hoofed crocodiles, or hoofers.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is sunny and hot.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/21/26 -- I put topsoil in the four large pots that sit on the ground along the north side of the picnic table.

I also put the indoor flats of tree sprouts and squash sprouts outside to get some sun and air.

It is so hot outside as to limit my activity. In mid-March. This annoys me.

EDIT 3/21/26 -- I put topsoil in the four large pots that sit on the ground along the south side of the picnic table. There is just a little left now.

It's 81°F now. :/

EDIT 3/21/26 -- I spread the last of the topsoil in other pots around the new picnic table.

It's 82°F now. Fuck climate change.

EDIT 3/21/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen two mourning doves in the forest garden.

EDIT 3/21/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

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Moment of Silence: Nicholas Brendon

Actor Nicholas Brendon has passed away. He is most famous for playing Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but also appeared on Criminal Minds and Private Practice.

Carry on the Work

5 Ways How To Steal The Show As The Comedic Relief In A Drama

Acting -- how to articles from wikiHow

Acting in Horror Films: Why You Need It And How to Pull It Off

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108 Hazbin Hotel - episode 2x02 ("Storyteller") icons, batch 2

See the rest here at

kommsussertod

Image embed ettiquite question

I'm working on a post that discusses use of color in a series' character designs and peripheral media, so I have to embed lots of images in order to make my point. I've been designing "photosets" by hand using css and html. The simplest way for me to make these image sets is to have a grid of images, where all the images in a row shrink and grow to match the width of the visible post-space.

However, some images, even if placed in a "photoset" with this technique, still stretch a page vertically quite badly. For example, a full image of a character standing in place with no background is often very vertical. This ends up visually "overwhelming" the text, which I don't want to do. Yes, putting the image under a cut prevents it from being annoying in reading page and journal-page views, but I also want the image to look nice while visible, and not overwhelm the paragraphs above and below it.

Is there any common etiquette for the maximum height (in pixels) of an embedded in-post image in a post published to a community?

World Poetry Day again, apparently

And I don't think I've had Edna before??

Recuerdo

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

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Some more Dreamwidth tips.

Here I am again with some more Dreamwidth tips!
( More technical tips this time. )

Current Mood: busy

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Philosophical Questions: Marriage

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

Does marriage as an institution need to be updated or is it fine how it is?

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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followfriday,
magic

Follow Friday 3-20-26: Magic

Today's theme is Magic.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

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Friday Five

These questions come from

thefridayfive.

( Read more... )

(no subject)

Have things gotten better? They have not.

( the good and the bad )

*

Somehow, in the middle of this madness,

roga and I have managed to take a trip. We were originally supposed to go on an organized trip that got canceled because missiles, but we already had a day off from work and we ended up booking a hotel by the sea for 1 night.

The hotel is in a region that gets far fewer missiles (less of a strategic target), and though I can't say I got much sleep on this trip it was still amazing to just... not be in my house? Not have to do endless dishes and laundry? Just wake up by the sea and have breakfast by the sea.

We drove 10 mins to a nearby picturesque town and went around the few shops that were open (making sure we know where the nearest bomb shelter is at all times of course). We went to a little museum by the hotel that randomly had a bunch of military equipment Napoleon dumped into the sea after the failed siege of Acre.

I posted some photos on Bluesky.

It was just 1 day off work, and just 1 night away, and almost the entire time it was raining and cold. We were woken up by a missile alert (the kind that SCREAMS at you from your phone using those natural disaster overrides, but only means there COULD be a missile headed your way, not to be confused with a siren) at 2am, and when roga didn't answer a text or a call I put on my warmest coat and boots and ran over to knock on her door, just to make sure she was awake if there WAS a srein and we suddenly needed to run to the hotel bomb shelter in less than 90 seconds.

I was on my period and taking painkillers basically the whole time.

And still it was so nice to do that. It helped so much. Just one small breath of fresh air.

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multifandom icons.

Fandoms: 9-1-1, Bridgerton, Elite, Fallout, Heated Rivalry, Kuhnya, Made in Heaven, Mako Mermaids, Mr. Robot, Roswell New Mexico, The Last Kingdom, The Tudors, Vikings, Yellowstone, Young Royals

the rest HERE @

mundodefieras

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The spring is sprung, the grass is riz

And the boidies around here in the past week have included the heron in the eco-pond being very up for a closeup, Mr de Mille, parakeets, and several magpie courting couples.

There have been a fair amount of flowers blooming in the spring, trala, for some weeks now, the daffs have been a particular feature, calling Mr Wordsworth, and today there was a massive show of narcissi along one edge of the playing field.

Among the less flamboyant flowers, the Wildflower Corner included grape hyacinths, and dandelions.

The trees along the street are busting out in leaves and blossom.

We also note that toxic nitrogen dioxide pollution in London has fallen to air quality standards in under ten years (rather than the projected nearly 200).

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Shiryu - Fillmore (Orchestral Faith)

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Bureaucracy is the price we pay for idiocy

We've been having an unreasonable amount of trouble trying to get Laila registered to the school for her new IEP.

We'd already lost one slot because when

sashagee showed up, they only had her set for halfdays even though we were told that Laila would be started for full days, so they tried to contact Laila's home school to get the process started again. Well, the contact at Laila's school was slow so we lost our placement, but also Laila was in the hospital while all this was happening so I wasn't too worried. Well, they got her a new placement (at a much closer school, that she can even walk to if she wants), so we weren't very worried. Then things dragged. And dragged. And today literally right before she was going to go to school on what we thought was going to be her last day, we got a call that she needed to stay home because she couldn't be enrolled in a new school if she was already enrolled in an existing school. Then we got a phone call from her new school with the coordinator ready to start breaking things, trying to figure out why Laila had not yet been unenrolled from her old school (at 1 p.m. on a Friday) so they could start the process of enrolling her in a new school before spring break next week.

The case manager at her old school is completely incompetent, is what I'm saying.

sashagee managed to call the central office and get the deadline extended so that we have plenty of extra time to make sure that Laila will properly get enrolled at her new school and we don't have to go through all of this again (for an IEP that was originally decided back in January), but seriously? She's already missed weeks of school due to illness and you're telling me, "Oh, she has to miss even more school now." Come on.

We mentioned this to her preschool teachers and by their reactions they were also not particularly enthused by any prospect of dealing with administration.

sashagee is done writing strongly-worded emails for today (hopefully) Emoji typing

so now we just have to wait and see if the case manager can manage to locate the computer and push the few buttons necessary to release Laila instead of banging rocks together trying to discover fire or whatever they're doing in there.

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40 Multi-fandom icons

All icons are HERE at

little_mermaid. ♥️

Note: This post will only be open for a few weeks … after that it will be locked to members only, so please feel free to join/subscribe if you like my work. Thank you.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and quite warm. It's already 78°F outside. 0_o

I fed the birds. I've only seen a few sparrows and house finches, but lots of birds are singing all around the yard. I suspect they're more interested in foraging.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I sowed 3 troughs with 'Sugar Ann' snap peas and 3 with 'Avalanche' snow peas. I put 2 peas in each end of a trough, leaving the middle open to plant other things. That makes 24 pea plants. These are bush types and did well last year.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I sowed one trough with 'Lovely Lettuce Mesclun Blend' and one with 'Thumbelina Baby Ball' carrots. I plan to sow more of those 2 weeks later.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I trimmed a few spray bits of brush in the parking lot, and followed up with weed spray. My partner Doug is trying to find someone to come install a load of gravel.

A large flock of several dozen blackbirds has gathered high in the trees.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I watered the six troughs on the benches of the new picnic table garden.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I used the last partial bag of compost & manure to spread a little over the eight big pots atop the new picnic table garden. So I'm out of that and nearly out of the American Countryside potting mix.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I put topsoil in four of the big pots atop the new picnic table. They're not completely full yet; there's room to add a bit of potting soil.

EDIT 3/20/26 -- I put topsoil in the other four of the big pots. I still have a partial bag left.

I am done for the night.

Entry tags:

life, and reading, and things

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

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Dreamwidth and Icons

Buckle in, everyone, this is going to be a long one!

One of the things that has made Tumblr wildly popular with fandom is its unlimited image hosting capacity. Content, Tumblr eventually put limits on, but number of total images (rather than images per post) and size of images? Not so much.

Unfortunately, that's one of the big reasons why Tumblr is basically hemorrhaging money: Because data is expensive, and image data is much more so than text data, mainly because it's a lot more data. That number just goes up with gifs and videos, the former especially being a favorite on Tumblr.

The ways to get money to run a social media site on the internet are basically venture capitol (the investors will want their money back someday, somehow), selling user data (doesn't everyone love ads and hate privacy?), and users directly paying for services (in this economy?).

Dreamwidth started from a foundation of prioritizing privacy and user freedom, and that meant that they compromised on image hosting in order for their users to truly be the main focus of this site. A dedicated user base pays to keep Dreamwidth running, and while there's a price rise on the horizon, we've managed to keep Dreamwidth's doors open with just our own money for sixteen years now.

So what does this have to do with icons? Well, with the limited image hosting options in Dreamwidth's budget, they're one of the main ways we use images at all—and Dreamwidth users make the most of them!

( Hold up; what exactly IS an icon? And what do you mean by 'make the most of them'? )

( How do I get and upload icons? )

Is that it?

Well, it's everything I can think of, at any rate! But you might have questions that I haven't covered. This is a great place to ask them! I may not have the answers, but odds are decent that someone here will be able to point you in the right direction.

One last favor before I go...

Dreamwidth users, if you've got favorite icons, show them off in the comments! I think it would be great to be able to share examples of just how fun and creative we can get with this medium, and this seems like the perfect opportunity 😉 Reply to your own comment if you have more than one, or to other people if the icon fits, so it's not just a mass of top-level comments.

As for any newcomers, if this post gets enough comments, you may get a chance to try out another one of Dreamwidth's features; at 50 comments, comment threads will collapse to keep loading time down and limit data transfer costs. Towards the topmost comment, at the bottom of the comment below which everything gets folded up, there's a clickable option to Expand the thread. This will open up and display all of the comments below that for you! The thread will collapse back down if you click away, though.

If this post doesn't get that many comments but you still want to try it out, I'd recommend checking the latest post at

dw_news. (Incidentally, if you have a Paid account, there's an option to expand all the comment threads at once at the top of the comment section. Pretty neat, yeah?)

Thanks, everyone, and I hope this post was helpful! I'm going to go collapse for a while now 😅

Edit: I've added a clarification about which icons will be kept if you go from a paid account to a free account with more than 15 icons.