seawasp | Network

We might not have spent the sunset at Marblehead Light if we had known that all five yacht clubs within earshot would fire off a salute of cannons in accordance with the naval tradition of evening colors in season, but on either side of the sudden harbor-rolling cracks of smoke it was a postcard of a sunset in the smelted oranges and wave-mirrored blues of a painted present from, partitioned by the nineteenth-century cast-iron skeleton of the light itself.

spatch had wanted to take me to water after I had spent the previous day in the kind of pain where as soon as it eased off a little I passed out. We ate roast beef sandwiches parked at the Mystic Lakes and drove north once rush hour had died down.

( I've brought silver to set you free. )

Home again with a bowl of noodles, I heard

rushthatspeaks' irresistible report on Tokuzō Tanaka's The Whale God (鯨神, 1962), a radiation of Melville I had known nothing about. Rob and I have not yet caught up on the latest episode of Widow's Bay (2026), but last week when we marathoned the previous three we were delighted to confirm that in its remix of New England horrors, Shirley Jackson had unambiguously entered the chat. Hestia, our own lighthouse, was golden-eyed in the cat tree.

Current Music: Goblin Band, "The Prickle Holly Bush"

ysabetwordsmith

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Commented on Just One Thing (03 June 2026) in

awesomeers.

* Commented on TV TUESDAY: TV PLUS in

tv_talk.

* Commented on Bees and Silver Slides in

everykindofcraft.

* Commented on just create - vote edition in

justcreate.

Current Mood: busy

thistleingrey

I realized this week, while waiting, that a while-waiting project is still needed---something that could indeed drag on for months unhindered, but also, something that needs only one active skein of yarn and few or no instructions. (Not a cardigan-puzzle, and not the MKAL wrap.)

The sloppy handspun that was a tourist-traveler gift is too uneven to suit Lille Kolding. The WIP is, or was, awkwardly dense with the needle size I was using, and if sized up, it'd become too floppy in Kolding's brioche section.

Now that the most recent bout of waiting has led to completion of a Grainwise, I think that the pattern's mostly garter-stitch construction might forgive the handspun's unevenness. It's written for MCN (merino-cashmere-nylon) and I've used a wool-silk blend, but it's fine if the handspun isn't transformed into something swish. It should just become something other than a felted lump or, like, compost.

Also, Lille Kolding is more boring than Grainwise to knit, for me---how the design is put together, not what the finished product looks like.

This type of thing is why we need thoughtfulness regarding diversity in all domains, not only knitting design, where it isn't really crucial. In other words, it's great that many different scarf/shawl patterns exist.

Pushing myself through making one Lille Kolding was okay. The process of it nixed my willingness to plod through Architexture, which was meant as a while-waiting project, sat for months, and then was undone last month. Several knitters have commented on Rav that it's soothing and rhythmic. For me it just feels tedious, and given that I must listen closely sometimes while waiting, any project had better not put me to sleep. I imagine that some knitters would find Grainwise boring or tedious instead.

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260603.html

Over 1000 years ago, Persian astronomer

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260603.html

dumbingofage_feed

Posted by David M Willis

https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/isawthephoneglow/

https://www.dumbingofage.com/?p=20515

https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/isawthephoneglow/

https://www.dumbingofage.com/?p=20515

med_cat

Watch on YouTube

ysabetwordsmith

The following poems from the May 5, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "A Sense of Weather Changes," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."

"The Art of Morphological Derivation"
Summary: Words are humanity's most versatile tools.
25 lines, Buy It Now = $10

"Ĉiu Kreas Sian Forton"
Story Date: Evening of Monday, June 6, 2016
Summary: Shiv explores Esperanto words.
64 lines, Buy It Now = $32

The day had gone well, and
Shiv was pleasantly tired.

After supper, people were
gathering in clusters to share
stories or work on things that
didn't involve bending metal.

"Lichengloss"
Summary: It's about the slow struggle of learning a new language.
29 lines, Buy It Now = $15

"Shoutengai"
Summary: Tokyo is famous for its shopping streets.
54 lines, Buy It Now = $20

"Tumbled Voices"
Story Date: Friday, August 29, 2014
Summary: Kenzie talks with Many Tongues about what makes a dialect or a language.
102 lines, Buy It Now = $51

Kenzie enjoyed listening
to the flow of language
around him, even though
he didn't know much yet.

"Zakkyo"
Summary: These mixed-use buildings have commercial businesses on every floor.
40 lines, Buy It Now = $15

Current Mood: busy

flemmings

I will eventually learn to read all the info provided before buying clothes. Old Navy's cotton tops are distressingly thin for autumn or winter wear but, I thought, might do well in summer. My tanktops are all thick cotton and I have to wear them with something that covers my arms, which is generally another thick cotton something, and so I sweat in TO's summer humidity. The (palest pink and easily stainable) tee I bought earlier is certainly thinner than my other ones, so maybe they'd actually be cooler than tanktops? Men's t-shirts of course, and they're on sale in colours men don't often wear, like burgundy and saffron, that don't show splashes nearly as much.

They arrived yesterday and were indeed lightweight. Wore one today in the humid sun and thought them a little unbreathing. Yeah, is because they're 97% polyester. When you buy cotton t-shirts, make sure they're really cotton. But they'll do for actual t-shirt weather, I suppose. I have two cotton tees that are useless because they have Japanese logos on them and can't be worn to any of my Korean-run restaurants. Shall gift them to some clothes depot probably, to make room for the new ones.

Meanwhile my final property tax bill arrives. I know the second bill has included increases in the past, only these last few years the final installments have been lower than the first half. But not usually $110 a month lower, which was an extremely pleasant surprise.

Memory goes with heat, so I only know I've finished a couple of Dr. Priestleys this week, and The Eagle of the Ninth, which I finished today. Still rereading System Collapse and Platform Decay, the former as hard to envisage as ever, the latter making much more sense. No idea what I'll go on with: summer is line of least resistance when it comes to reading, and I'm pretty much all out of Cecil Street and his various avatars.

silver_chipmunk

Woke up around 10:00 but dozed and dwadled in bed til 12:00 then got up and had breakfast. I put in a small Shipt order, and had coffee, an then got to work on the rider paperwork.

The HR department email with the forms arrived this morning so I downloaded them and tried to print them. Somehow my printer had got disconnected from the computer again, and I had to reconnect it. Then it printed fine.

Somewhere around then my Shipt order was delivered and I put it away.

I started filling out the form, and ran across some things I didn't know. First to figure out was what insurance plan I actually had. I tried to get to my company online, had to do a forgot username and redo password, which took a LOT longer than it should have, and a LOT more effort. But I finally ascertained what I have.

Then the actual date of my divorce. My lord. I knew it was 2012, but the day? Fortunately I have been doing journalling since 2005 so I went back to June 2012 (I knew it was in summer) and skimmed entries til I found it. July 27 if you wat to go see.

Then there was the question of my pension ID number. I have no idea where I can even find that. The pension comes direct deposit, it's not like there's a check or any paperwork that might have it. I called HR again and asked. They were able to look it up for me thankfully.

Then I asked where I should submit the form, and she asked if I wanted to email it. I said yes, but to give me the real address as well, just in case so she did. She sent me an encrypted email that I could use to email the forms back as files.

So I tried to do that. It didn't work on my phone, I kept getting error messages. So I had to use my email on the computer, and download pictures of the forms and submit them that way. But that worked. It was fairly late by that time, 4:40. I will call tomorrow to make sure they got there safely.

But that was that. Now they just need to be processed, and sent to the insurance company.

I took a shower and dressed then, and went and picked up my laundry. I brought it back and put it in my room and put the cart away and went to J's Confection for another celebratory milkshake, strawberry this time.

While I was there the Kid called. She is fine. I told her what was going on.

Then I came home and Teamed the FWiB at 7:00 as usual. We talked til 8:00 when I had my D&D game.

The game was very good, we were all there, and it was fun. We killed ghouls.

Then I had dinner and fed the pets, and started here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. I got the forms.

3. Helpful people.

4. I submitted the forms.

5. My gaming group.

6. The Kid called.

Current Mood: accomplished

jreynoldsward

I've toyed with the notion of creating a Patreon for some time now, but just didn't want to get around to doing that level of WORK. However, one of the things that became clear to me during my Great Draft2Digital migration was that I needed to have something besides my website and my blog for visibility. Additionally, I wanted to make all of my published short stories available to readers without having to mess around with reprint submissions, cover creation, formatting, and managing listings for all that work. I have over thirty short pieces, many of which were published in venues that are no longer available.

I also have multiple outtakes and worldbuilding short stories tied to my various series that for obvious reasons, really aren't saleable to traditional publishing outlets. At least I didn't want to fiddlefutz around with ensuring that my rights were preserved appropriately. Some of these pieces are just plain sketches, such as a couple of interviews, an attempt to write the opening sequence of a video version of the Martiniere Legacy, and things like that.

Furthermore, given the problems with generative AI, I wanted to at least keep some barriers up to prevent AI scraping. Nothing's perfect, but if there's a charge, I'm small enough that perhaps that stuff isn't going to end up in an AI training database. Also, I decided that a Patreon showing rough draft work-in-progress might serve as appropriate documentation that I'm not using AI for brainstorming and worldbuilding.

But why Patreon and not Substack, especially since I have a Substack presence? Why develop an entirely new platform?

Multiple reasons.

First of all, for better or worse, there are parties who just won't bother to read anything from Substack. Even though my Substack mostly functions as a mirror of content posted on my website, Ko-fi, and Dreamwidth, there are people who just won't click on the other links, as I've found out.

Second, Patreon is more flexible about setting up tiers than Substack is--at least, I can understand it better. I'm running multiple projects--a weekly update which will essentially be free (though I ask for a $1 contribution), a monthly posting of a short story (short stories are also for sale for $3--ouch--but that's the cost due to fees), every other week posting of a horse memoir that I want to work on, documentation of the worldbuilding and creation of a new book I'm developing, and rough draft versions of the second book in the Goddess's Vision series. The way I have it set up, people can pick different tiers, or subscribe to everything for $7 a month.

This just allows for different people with different interests to decide what they want to follow.

Patreon also has a longer history than Substack and that's a factor as well.

But another issue is tied to the lesson I've learned from the Draft2Digital situation, which is to diversify my outlets. While I've already done that to some extent, I haven't had a monetization option that I really want to exercise, except perhaps for Ko-fi and that hasn't been super-active, probably because I'm not promoting it.

I'm skittish about monetizing my Substack because I've heard of too many problems with migrating those subscribers. Not that I would monetize it anyway, for assorted reasons including political. The prices for other newsletter platforms are more than I want to pay, especially since I view most of them as a place to blog (aka "blather") and I don't want to pay for that. I'm already paying for a website with a blogging page. I'm not selling coaching services, opinion columns, news reporting--I'm just a little old lady writing books who would like people to read and enjoy my work. I don't fit the profile of those other services.

My Patreon is exclusively focused on my writing work, and that's what readers will get, whether it's the $1 weekly update tier, the $2 short stories tier, the $3 horse memoir tier, the $3 Into the Vortex worldbuilding tier, or the $4 Vision of Chaos rough draft tier. Or everything for $7.

If this sounds interesting, check it out: Patreon link

And thanks to those of you who decide to subscribe!

thewayne

greenfinch is a new DW friend to me and they live in the northwestern German state of Bremen. They spent the last 20 years living in the UK and recently returned to Germany.

Hi there!

holmesticemods posting in

holmestice

Title: The Mortal Anniversary; or A ghost made them do it.
Recipient:

vulgarweed
Author: REDACTED
Verse: ACD Canon
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, John Watson/Mary Morstan (past), Sherlock Holmes/John Watson/Mary Morstan (as a voyeur)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Very very light coercion. Passing mention of past suicidal ideation.
Summary:

For the second year in a row, on the anniversary of her death, I saw my wife waiting for me. Holmes had been returned from his sojourn to Europe for nearly a year, alive and whole though worse for wear; I had sold my practice and moved back into Baker Street; and we had begun an affair. It had been since the start of the year, and now I felt the weight of that decision like a millstone as I tried to ignore my dead wife’s presence. I didn’t regret it. Not for a moment. But I hadn’t expected to look her in the eye five minutes after I’d kissed him goodbye.
“I need to know you’re all right, John,” she said.
“I’m all right,” I said, and it was even true.
“I need to know you’re happy.”

Read on AO3: The Mortal Anniversary

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3254/

No other experiment has a lower false negative rate.

https://xkcd.com/3254/

ysabetwordsmith

The internet peaked in 2008

The year is 2008. You don't know it yet, but the internet will never again be as accessible, searchable, interoperable, or durable as it is right now. Profit motive, the tragedy of the commons, and malicious self interest are beginning to conspire to erode all of the best parts of the online world, and it will only get worse from here. Here are some of the highlights of your regular online experience that the people being born today won't even realize were taken from them:

Aaaaand now I'm homesick again.

Current Mood: busy

rolanni

Business first: Those who have recently read/re-read the Fey books in their original form, may now review the books as one work under their omnibus title, The Fey Duology, in the venue of your choice. Given the Fair Mess this release has become, reviews will help considerably.

Once again -- Spanish Aunts, and many, many thanks for your support and patience.
#
I did finish enough research that tomorrow, I believe I will begin to write down words in the book file, so that's good.

After that, things kinda went downhill. Possibly because the book I'm writing is the last of the Jethri arc, and Jethri was Steve's buddy. OTOH, I wrote the first one, so it's fitting that I write the wrap-up. Hear that, Brain?

I went out for some Alpaca Therapy, which helped a little. I think, but I'm still not Top of the Pops, so I'm shutting down for the rest of the day. I figure to do some coloring and listen to The Talisman Ring, go to bed early, and try again tomorrow.

Everybody stay safe.

In case anyone else is in need of Alpaca Therapy, here's a picture:

ffutures

This is an offer of a new (2024) edition of the humorous fantasy RPG Kobolds Ate My Baby with a lot of support material. It uses a rules set based on the polymoph system, unfortunately I last saw the old set some time around the year 2000 (it was published in 1999), and while I'm pretty sure I have a copy somewhere I now have no idea where that somewhere might be, and can't do a direct comparison - basically, the new version is quick and simple with a lot of gratuitously horrible things happening to the player characters, and looks to be a lot of fun to play. Think of it as Paranoia with baby-eating monsters the whole world wants to destroy as the player characters and you won't go far wrong...

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/KAMB2026

As mentioned above, it's been a long while since I looked at this game. The new edition is prettier than the old one, with better layout and a lot of new art (all of the art is by John Kovalik), and there are a lot of adventures and add-ons in the bundle, offering kobolds new and exciting ways to die. It's VERY silly, but sometimes silly is fun, and you can learn it VERY quickly. Enjoy!

ysabetwordsmith

WHAT I MISS ABOUT THE EARLY (1996-2000) WORLD WIDE WEB

The Internet was dominated by kind of counter-cultural people

Then the mundanes showed up, and it began to suck -- much like what happened to fandom.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

rachelmanija

In a country with Wild West vibes, young girls are often sold to brothels, to become sex slaves when they come of age. They are given magical tattoos of buds when they're bought. These tattoos slowly grow and blossom into flowers that the girls are nicknamed for. They cause excruciating pain when they're covered up, preventing the girls from fleeing and blending into the populace. But this isn't the only barrier to escape. The entire wilderness area is haunted by angry ghosts that can take physical form and rip you to shreds.

On Clementine's inaugural rape night, her would-be rapist nearly suffocates her, and she brains him with a lamp. As she would be executed for that, she, her older sister Aster who's been a sex slave for years already, and three other girls manage to escape the brothel and flee in search of a rumored woman who can remove the magic tattoos.

By far the most interesting character in the book is Violet, the brothel bully, spoiled brat, and magical opium addict who is the only one who knows where to find the woman who will be their salvation, if she actually exists. As they flee across the haunted wilderness, they're pursued by magical slavecatchers, are joined by a boy, and meet some rebels. Clementine has a romance with the boy, two of the girls have a romance together, and Violet and Aster have intense feelings which hopefully go somewhere in the sequel.

This novel has an extremely cool setting and unusual worldbuilding. I love ensemble casts and wilderness traveling. I expected to adore this, but while I did enjoy reading it, I didn't love it. I had been under the impression that the girls all had different magical powers, which is my own fault for misreading the blurb, but I was disappointed that they don't have any, except that Clementine can talk to ghosts a bit. More importantly, only Aster and Violet, plus Clementine to some degree, get any real characterization. I was interested in them enough that I'll read the sequel, but the book overall felt like it should have been fantastic but ended up merely good.

Content notes: There is a very violent, graphic rape attempt in chapter one. That's it for that but the repercussions of years of sexual abuse are felt throughout the novel.

ysabetwordsmith

AI search tools may be stripping the internet of its humanity

There’s something that happens when you ask a question on the internet and get a clean, confident answer back in seconds.

It feels like progress. You got what you needed without wading through a dozen blog posts, forum threads, and personal testimonials of varying quality.

A new study from University of California, Riverside (UCR) suggests that what gets filtered out in that exchange is more significant than it might seem.

Moreover, as AI systems take over more of how we find information online, the web may be quietly losing something it took 25 years to accumulate.

Using AI to find a list of links to human-made resources is fine. Using AI to generate "answers" is no better than using a Ouija board to ask random spirits for advice. AI answers can't cite their sources so they are useless.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

bluerosekatie posting in

fancake

Fandom: Tron (Movies)
Pairings/Characters: Rinzler & OCs, Sam Flynn/Quorra in the background
Rating: Teen
Length: 71,293 words
Creator Links: badgerwitch on Ao3
Theme:
Just Like Canon (Featured), Robots Androids & AI, Science Fiction, Alternate Universe: Fork in the Road
Summary:
Their entire world lay subject to Kevin Flynn's rules, except for the Sea of Simulation. There, there are no boundaries to the outside laws of the modern, connected world. ...Rinzler isn't done just yet. Post-Legacy. Unfinished.
Reccer's Notes:
A story starting off from the ending of Tron: Legacy, which follows Rinzler journeying across networks and being discovered by some human hackers in the process. Serves as an alternate canon continuation with a great premise and some fun Sam/Quorra in the background near the end. Although this fic is marked as complete, it is abandoned/discontinued, so if you hate cliffhangers, be warned.
Fanwork Links:
Outer Limits on Ao3

Profile

seawasp

Ryk E. Spoor's Writing Site

June 2026

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Page Summary

sovay - Did you bring gold? Did you bring silver to set me free?
ysabetwordsmith - Community Thursdays
thistleingrey - also not quite knitting
apod_feed - (no subject)
dumbingofage_feed - I saw the cellphone glow
med_cat - Some funny cats for your Friday Eve ;)
ysabetwordsmith - Unsold Poems for the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
flemmings - (no subject)
silver_chipmunk - Success, I hope.
jreynoldsward - I have a Patreon now!
thewayne - Welcome, Greenfinch!
holmesticemods in holmestice - Fic for Vulgarweed
xkcd_feed - Detector
ysabetwordsmith - Cyberspace Theory
rolanni - Some days are like that, Mrs. Miller
ffutures - Another Fantasy Bundle - Kobolds Ate My Baby
ysabetwordsmith - History
rachelmanija - The Good Luck Girls, by Charlotte Nicole Davis
ysabetwordsmith - Cyberspace Theory
bluerosekatie in fancake - Tron (Movies): Outer Limits by badgerwitch

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The Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)

Network

Did you bring gold? Did you bring silver to set me free?

Community Thursdays

also not quite knitting

(no subject)

I saw the cellphone glow

Some funny cats for your Friday Eve ;)

Unsold Poems for the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl

(no subject)

Success, I hope.

I have a Patreon now!

Welcome, Greenfinch!

Fic for Vulgarweed

Detector

Cyberspace Theory

Some days are like that, Mrs. Miller

Another Fantasy Bundle - Kobolds Ate My Baby

History

The Good Luck Girls, by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Cyberspace Theory

Tron (Movies): Outer Limits by badgerwitch

Profile

June 2026

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