Orchard Bees

Mar. 19th, 2026 04:02 pm
bookscorpion: This is Chelifer cancroides, a book scorpion. Not a real scorpion, but an arachnid called a pseudoscorpion for obvious reasons. (Default)
[personal profile] bookscorpion posting in [community profile] common_nature
This morning I went to check out the big insect hotel near the canal and I was just in time to catch a whole bunch of male European orchard bees who I am fairly sure had just hatched (the females will hatch a little later in the year).



Read more... )



larryhammer: a symbol used in a traditional Iceland magic spell of protection (protection)
[personal profile] larryhammer
Holy crap, how did I only notice this AFTER posting yesterday’s links?!? The people who brought us Krill Waves Radio posted at the start of last April a 1-hour mix of skeleton shrimp to headbanging to instrumental metal, under the Kriller Waves Radio label.

People. They just invented Brinecore. As an April Fools joke.

And it RULES.

---L.

Subject quote from Let’s Go Crazy, Prince and the Revolution.

Unusual Names - Now With More Porn!

Mar. 19th, 2026 01:00 pm
[syndicated profile] cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

You know what’s better than unusual names? NOTHING!

And here are some of the names on my list:

Gus:

 

Ellen & Philip:

 

Georgia:

Try not to call your friend Georgia "Gorgia" from now on. JUST TRY.

 

Dallas:

Way to OWN that line spacing, baker.

 

Sophie & Reilly:

Oh, the irony. It's a two-fer!

 

???

Is this a real name? Please let this be a real name. If only so I can imagine someone saying, "Well, I should head over to the preschool to pick up my Porn."

Or, "Would you ask the babysitter to watch Porn for me?"

Or, "Hey, Mom, I posted pictures of Porn on your Facebook page!"

Or, "Thanks to Porn, I haven't slept in a week and my house is full of stinky diapers."

[gigglesnort] Yep, it's official: someone needs to at least name their dog/cat Porn, STAT.

***

Um, so I had more cakes to post, but I seem to have completely derailed myself with the Porn thing.
(Bet all you cubicle workers know what I mean, EH? Heyoooo!)

So here, let's just go out with a bang:
(Or did we do that already?? [Ok, Ok, I'll stop.])

I guess the lawyers insisted.

(And I can't even tell you what they renamed Piglet.)

 

Thanks to Andi V., Amadie H., Bryar, Jennifer A., Mark B., Rich G., Holly S., & Rachel F. for helping make today's post especially classy. (POOP AND PORN 4EVA!!!)

*****

P.S. Here's a (hilarious) reminder that English is almost as confusing as these cakes:

P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by an

Transformative Works and Cultures has released Issue No. 47, a special issue on Gaming Fandom guest edited by Hayley McCullough and Ashley P. Jones.

Essays in this issue explore fan creativity in gaming fandoms and discuss a number of fan-made works and productions, including fanfiction, fanart, cosplay, mods, and fan-made games.

Each issue includes articles representing theory, fannish meta, and book reviews, such as:

We accept submissions for our general issues on a rolling basis. We particularly invite fans to submit Symposium articles.

TWC’s issues in progress include:

We accept submissions for our general issues on a rolling basis. The general issue is always released on September 15.

Time spent in the Big Room

Mar. 19th, 2026 07:59 pm
rattfan: (Default)
[personal profile] rattfan
Here's a collection of photos I took today at the beach I go to. It's not normally so dressed up, but at the moment they are having the Sculptures by the Sea exhibition, so it's a lot more popular during weekdays than usual. The swimmers get it back after next weekend. I took these photos around five o'clock this afternoon.

photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNJMTB35YXYd0cKRpLOD0OtPN6WUzEd8Ov0uu1UkDIiZ0y1-L2kv8ciEMTNH4wNxg/photo/AF1QipPIZXeIhYB8kkodsDk2H_z5a8yTUMM4czl5xf28

And some more detail is available on that bunker ad, I mean exhibit....

www.bunkerdown.info/

rogueslayer452: (Dune. Chani Kynes.)
[personal profile] rogueslayer452
++ We finally got the teaser trailer for Dune Messiah (yes, it's titled Dune: Part Three, but it's adapting Dune Messiah instead of part of the first book like the first two movies and therefore I will call it as such). First, this music in this trailer is phenomenal, just like with the previous trailers for these films it really demonstrates the grand scale of how epic this story is. Secondly, even just seeing little bits has me very, very stoked, especially the mentioning of Ghanima and Leto II's names. I may have some nitpicks with Denis Villeneuve's creative choices here and there throughout these movies, but it doesn't lessen my excitement to see this one. If he manages to get this right, the reactions to it are going to be very interesting, indeed.

++ Felicia Day will crowdfund for a movie spin-off of her webseries, The Guild.

Again, a pleasantly unexpected surprise announcement that totally caught me off guard! The Guild remains one of my favorite first ever webseries that I watched, and I even have the DVDs that were later made available to purchase because I adored it so much. I know that there was a musical stage reading that was done of The Guild with Felicia recently, so naturally this would be the next step. I hope the crowdfunding will be successful so she can make this happen.

++ Girl From Nowhere is a Thai mystery thriller drama that I've recently gotten into. It's an anthology centering around a mysterious girl named Nanno who transfers to different private schools each episode to expose the lies and misdeeds of the students and faculty. It's utterly fascinating. Nanno, who is quickly revealed to the audience as a mysterious immortal entity, is delightfully unhinged, even more so in the second season, and I like that the acts of revenge are done as a way for characters to experience karma of their wrongdoings. Although the drama premiered in 2018 and has two seasons, Girl From Nowhere: The Reset just recently premiered as a re-imagined reboot of the franchise, theorized to be set in an alternate universe with another girl as Nanno, this time played by Becky Armstrong (known mostly from being paired with Freen Sarocha in various Thai GL dramas). I have only just discovered this drama franchise, so I like both actresses who play Nanno. In general, this drama is dark and twisted, but in a fascinating way that I do so enjoy.

home and energy thoughts

Mar. 19th, 2026 07:49 pm
tielan: (AVG - maria 3)
[personal profile] tielan
What if I don't want to run the electricity in my household like a standard Australian household?
 
thinky thoughts )
vriddy: Hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook (writing)
[personal profile] vriddy

For a few months last year, I set up a weekly planning/review system related to my writing habits. I'm not totally sure when I stopped, but I think it might have been because I've internalised a lot of what I was learning. My goal was to teach myself to write more often, so I'd start the week's planning with "write 8 times this week" with the understanding that 15 minutes puttering around a project counts as a writing session (can be brainstorming, writing, editing, organising my notes if my brain struggles with the other things, so the project at least stays familiar in my head). I wish I could sustain like 4h writing marathons, but at this current point in my life, logistics and health stuff means longer sessions are just not happening. That's why I've been exploring whether writing more often can work for me.

As part of the planning, one of the questions I was told to write the answer for is "What are the obstacles?" That's something I always consider now. For example, if I have family visiting, am travelling, or preparing for a stressful presentation, whatever, it's going to affect my focus. So how am I going to mitigate that? Maybe it's fairer to plan for 5 sessions after all. Or maybe I should assume a session's length of 5 minutes is fair for that week, even if that means just spending 5 minutes rereading what I wrote before to keep the story alive in my head. Maybe both, maybe something else. Preparing and writing down the mitigations as part of the planning really helped me because I don't always think straight in the middle of it all.

Anyway, two obstacles I nearly always ended up writing down are:

  • Can't make myself focus
  • Can't make myself start

Like, I have a very good system for writing in the morning, it's part of my routine, but later in the day nearly always felt like bodyslamming against a wall. In the end, the solutions that turned out to be effective were the same for both. And after a while, I just printed them out so I have a poster with the list beside my computer! (Not that I always remember to look at it 🥲 but after a couple of days of sighing and doing nothing, my eyes will usually land on it and I'll go, oh!! Who knew!!!!!).

Anyway, here are the tips I landed on to mitigate this in a way that works well with my brain:

  • Sanctuary mindset
  • Deep breaths, 3-5 times
  • Quiet music with no lyrics. If that's not enough, same but with headphones.
  • Separate computer profile for writing
  • Wifi off

Digging a bit more into the details and also why I think this works well for my specific brain and issues )

Challenge #557

Mar. 18th, 2026 11:16 pm
shivver: (musicspheres)
[personal profile] shivver posting in [community profile] tenminutesaday
Just Write! Take the snippet below, insert your own characters, and write the next two sentences (or more if you are so inspired)!

The longer [character A name] stared at [character B name], sitting across the room and seemingly oblivious to [A's possessive pronoun] scrutiny, the more [A's pronoun] wondered if [B's pronoun] knew how captivating [B's pronoun] was.

Community Thursdayyyy

Mar. 19th, 2026 05:02 am
vriddy: Link from Legend of Zelda taking aim with a bow (taking aim)
[personal profile] vriddy
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted and commented on [community profile] bnha_fans.

Commented on [community profile] add_a_writer.

Commented on [community profile] joicon.

Commented on [community profile] getyourwordsout.

Commented on [community profile] anime_manga.

Commented on [community profile] booknook.

Edit: Also signal-boosting [community profile] newcomers / [community profile] the_great_tumblr_purge where [personal profile] soc_puppet has been posting helpful Dreamwidth tutorials, since the latest Tumblr hiccup (that TPTB since temporarily reverted) caused another surge of new people popping by Dreamwidth :)
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
Just hit play.

(All about the sound, but visuals also nice.)

2026 Mar 18: Benn Jordan [BennJordan YT]: "I'm here to disrupt the finance synthesizer scene."

Daily Happiness

Mar. 18th, 2026 09:43 pm
torachan: karkat from homestuck looking bored (karkat bored)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I've been making the rounds to all the SoCal stores to discuss our upcoming system transition and get a better feel for some of the stores' current processes, particularly for their accounting department, and today I went down to San Diego. Long day of driving, which sucks, but it was nice to see the store again after a long while, and I did make a lot of progress on my current audiobook!

2. Tomorrow I have a lot of meetings, but the first one isn't until 11, so I'm going to take my time in the morning to make up for how long today felt (I didn't even get home until after seven, and I left around 8:30 this morning).

3. Carla and I are not fans of the warm weather, but the cats sure love having the front windows open.

Grok, explain Butlerian Jihad [ai]

Mar. 19th, 2026 12:36 am
siderea: (Default)
[personal profile] siderea
Screenshot of two comments on X.  One says, "Reading Dune.  Frank Herbert was cooking." and shows a section of a photo of a book page reading, "'Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.  But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.' '"Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind,"' Paul quoted."  Below that someone replied, paging Grok, X's resident AI, "please explain this post and the quote in in, what should I understand about it?"

Debate is raging on BSky if this is deliberate wit or accidental idiocy.

(h/t user mlyp.bsky.social)
halfcactus: an icon of a manga shiba inu (Default)
[personal profile] halfcactus posting in [community profile] journalsandplanners
Made a little flip-through video to celebrate me surviving two months of Hobonichi Cousin a.k.a. my first daily journal:


How is everyone doing with theirs?

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 3/18 Game

Mar. 18th, 2026 11:56 pm
settiai: (Siân -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

(no subject)

Mar. 18th, 2026 08:35 pm
cahn: (Default)
[personal profile] cahn
This last weekend was a lot, church-and-music-wise. All good!

Organ workshop, youth orchestra, stake conference music, stake leadership change )

Did not make yoga

Mar. 18th, 2026 11:24 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
I was going to but I started to feel very nauseated and cold. Came home sat down to play a game, woke up an hour later. I'm feeling a little better but not great. Not going was the right call.

Got the midterm grades in. Can't wait for the crying tomorrow.

I looked up the Ohioana book festival because I know it's up and coming but there was a library staff change and the festival was canceled. I'm bummed and angry. I didn't make it last year for reasons and now I don't know if it'll ever be back.

What I Just Finished Reading:

The Snow Child - depressing

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. Would have been better without the misogyny and sexual abuse (but would it be Ellison without the misogyny?)


What I am Currently Reading:


Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain any more so far, I really like this one

With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee


What I Plan to Read Next: La Grand Familia, and Luna Park history

(no subject)

Mar. 18th, 2026 10:50 pm
skygiants: Nellie Bly walking a tightrope among the stars (bravely trotted)
[personal profile] skygiants
Because Becky Mahoney and I know each other, I boosted a Bluesky giveaway for her upcoming vampire novel Thrall (coming out next month!) in the spirit of friendship and then was somewhat surprised to discover that I had in fact won the giveaway -- surprised but delighted, obviously, since I've loved all of her previous books even when they weren't LUCY CENTRIC DRACULA RIFFS!! focused around a COLLEGE PIRATE RADIO STATION!!!

The central character of Thrall is Lucy Easting, who has just transferred into beautiful, isolated, mountainside Rollins University from community college, in a bid to get away from her stressed and depressed mother and live a life she's excited about for a change.

Alas! her first college party results in a couple of neck puncture marks, a marked tendency to experience severe migraines in sunlight, and a tragic susceptibility to the ominous vampire voice in her head that occasionally takes over her consciousness and directs her towards uncharacteristic action.

Fortunately! the college is full of prospective allies who are willing to take a chance on Lucy despite her regrettable thrall situation, including but not limited to the host of the local college late-night radio show, who has been a target of the vampire since her sophomore year and has been using the airwaves to try and fight back; Lucy's RA, a determined young woman with very nice arms, who came to the school to investigate after a terrible fate befell her high school ex-boyfriend Jonathan; and the very nice, normal party host who has no previous vampire experience but feels just terrible about the whole situation and is not about to relinquish responsibility for sorting the situation out! it was her party!!

It's a really charming book on a number of levels, but my favorite thing about it as a Dracula riff specifically is how much it's thematically invested in Lucy as a side character -- the narrative is consistently very clear that the vampire is not particularly interested in Lucy; he's obsessed with Athena the radio show host and everything else he's doing is part of his elaborate cat-and-mouse game with her, including incidentally overturning Lucy's life as a by-the-by -- and how Lucy makes the book her own story anyway by sheer force of determination not to be cut out of it. Lucy's energy really drives the book: she wants to live, and she wants to live a life on her own terms, and she's not about to let one horrible encounter take that away from her.

Also, I think it's not a huge spoiler but I guess is technically a mild one: lesbians! )
tavina: (Default)
[personal profile] tavina posting in [community profile] pinchhits
All pinch hits have now been claimed!


Minimum: 5000 words, or a comic that is 5 pages or 20 panels long, or a podfic 5000 words or greater
Due: March 29th at 10pm EDT

PH 22 - NoPixel (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, 文豪ストレイドッグス | Bungou Stray Dogs

PH 28 - DCU (Comics), Gravity Falls, Stranger Things (TV 2016)

Claim via emailing TavinaFanfiction@gmail.com or by commenting at https://au5k.dreamwidth.org/15169.html

Thank you for considering our pinch hits!

(no subject)

Mar. 18th, 2026 09:47 pm
ashelterofpages: (stock0038)
[personal profile] ashelterofpages
So, I fell really behind on Dreamwidth things. I don't know hat all happened exactly. I think part of it was being in and out of two different houses for a while. I'm settled back in my normal living situation though, so hopefully I'll be better again.

I did get the start of my tattoo done and it went really well. I love it so much, and even though my family doesn't like it much, it still makes me happy to see that I actually did this thing I've wanted to do for so many years.

~*~

As per usual, there's been family drama going on. The problem is that this time it was involving my own living situation, which didn't feel great. I thiiiink it's all settled now (we were going to maybe have someone move in with us, but we literally have nowhere to put him and he's kind of a terrible person to live with anyway). I'm not entirely sure on that because there's a factor that could change things very quickly, but I'm hoping things are done for now.

~*~

I've been getting dental work done this month, and while I'm not having a great time with it, I'm glad it's moving along.Tomorrow I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out, which does not excite me even a little, and then at the beginning of April, I'm getting a filling put in.But thatshould be all I need done until my next cleaning, so that's exciting at least.

I also have an eye appointment on the 27th, but hopefully nothing will be exciting there. I always get nervous for eye stuff though because of my history (aka, my eyes are a disaster.).

~*~

To help myself stay sane and do some bonding with friends, I've started a playthrough of Dragon Age: Veilguard with one of my partner's other partners. We've hung out before, but never did something just the two of us, and they're a big Dragon Age fan and was really excited to get to share the game with me.
reat time and they're really good at reading everything for me, letting me make choices unless I tell them to, and giving me enough description that I can usually see what's going on in the game. I didn't know how this was going to go, but I'm having a great time, and I think they are too.

It's going really well! I'm having a g
I'm also watching The Exorcist TV show with a friend I'm going to visit in June. We're both writers and big horror fans, and have watched stuff together before. I have a running list of things we keep bringing up to stream together, and I think we're going to bounce between writing stuff and streaming stuff. It's exciting!

I have also got my best friend playing Bongo Cat with me and this is such a silly little game but I find it so fucking delightful. I also think it's helped me swing into something like a routine again, which is great!
highadrenalinemod: Spongebob and Patrick Star run around yelling and waving their arms (Default)
[personal profile] highadrenalinemod posting in [community profile] pinchhits
Due: March 29th, 10pm EDT
Minimum: 10k or 10 page/25 panel comic
To claim, please comment on the pinch hit post: Here

PH 1 - [SAFETY] Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Crossover Fandom, Chalion Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold, Jem and the Holograms (Cartoon), Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV)

PH 2 - Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes (Granada TV 1984), Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (Video Game), [SAFETY] A Study in Emerald - Neil Gaiman, [SAFETY] Art in the Blood - Brian Stableford, Battlestar Galactica (2003), Dark Shadows (1966)

PH 6 - [SAFETY] Bullet Train (2022), [SAFETY] Kraven the Hunter (2024), The Fall Guy (2024), Gladiator (Movies - Scott)

PH 11 - Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling, Crossover Fandom, Crossover Fandom, [SAFETY] 长公主在上 | Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng (Web Series), Grimm (TV), 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018), 绅探 | Detective L (TV)

PH 12 - Crossover Fandom, 崩坏:星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game), 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game), [SAFETY] Original Work, [SAFETY] 恋をするつもりはなかった | Koi wo Suru Tsumori wa Nakatta | I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love (Manga), 网恋翻车指南 - 酱子贝 | Guide on How to Fail at Online Dating - Jiàng Zǐ Bèi, The Handsome Salesman At Work Is An Ideal Master, ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon

PH 14 - [SAFETY] When the Angels Left The Old Country - Sacha Lamb, The Fairyland Series - Catherynne M. Valente, [SAFETY] Wind Will Rove - Sarah Pinsker, [SAFETY] Into the Woods - Sondheim/Lapine, [SAFETY] The Forbidden Book - Sacha Lamb

PH 15 - 내가 키운 S급들 - 근서 | S-Classes that I Raised - Geunseo, 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong, 괴담에 떨어져도 출근을 해야 하는구나 - 백덕수 | Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story I Still Have to Go to Work - Baek Deoksoo, 내가 키운 S급들 | The S-Classes That I Raised (Webcomic), [SAFETY] Original Work, 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer, 恋与深空 | Love and Deepspace (Video Game), Crossover Fandom, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening

PH 16 - Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Manga), [SAFETY] BCV: Battle Construction Vehicles (Video Game)

PH 18 - [SAFETY] Point Break (1991), [SAFETY] The Collector Series (Movies), Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Video Games), [SAFETY] A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (TV)

Thank you for considering our pinch hits!

Request: High-protein snacks

Mar. 18th, 2026 06:09 pm
sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
[personal profile] sonia posting in [community profile] gluten_free
I would like to have more high-protein snacks on hand, and the usual suggestions don't work for my digestive system (nuts, soy, dairy, beans). Does anyone have recipes to recommend? I'm thinking something like mini-frittatas made in muffin cups. Some kind of meatballs would be an option, but I'd prefer something that was less fuss to make. Thanks!

I did a quick search before posting and found this recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/231480/muffin-pan-frittatas/ Looks reasonable, although I wouldn't put in milk or cheese. At least it gives me proportions and baking time.
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