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dialecticdreamer ([personal profile] dialecticdreamer) wrote2025-12-01 09:09 am
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Prompt Call December (2025)

This whole month I hope to fill with prompted stories, to celebrate my lovely readers and surviving the first quarter of the twenty-first century. It’s been jam-packed with crises and chaos, hasn’t it? Time to take a story break… or thirty.
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-12-01 02:08 am
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Monday Update 12-1-25

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Today's Cooking
Artificial Intelligence
Bingo
History
Birdfeeding
Dreamwidth Points
New Year's Resolutions Check In
News
Moment of Silence: Leslie Fish
Science
Shop for Good Sunday
Wildlife
Vocabulary: Xenoparity
Space Exploration
Safety
Birdfeeding
Wildlife
Philosophical Questions: Wants
Poetry Fishbowl Report for November 4, 2025
Unsold Poems for the November 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl
Early Humans
Birdfeeding
Follow Friday 11-28-25: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Fall 2025 A-I
Recipe: "Crockpot Smoked Turkey Leg with Beans"
Communities
Climate Change
Holiday Love Meme
Birdfeeding
Today's Cooking
Food
Birdfeeding
Poem: "No Worthless Herbs"
Wildlife
Hard Things

Trauma has 45 comments. Affordable Housing has 74 comments. Robotics has 101 comments.


Today is Cyber Monday. See previous holidays:
Small Business Saturday (Alas, our plans were snowed out!)
Shop for Good Sunday
Buy Nothing Day (with links to activities)

Winterfaire 2025 is now open! List a Booth for anything you sell that would make good holiday gifts, or comment with what you're shopping for to crowdsource ideas. There are links to two similar shopping events online. if you know others, please pass the word.


"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $191 to be complete. Maiara and Arthur discuss taking notes.


The weather has been cold and snowy here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, two female and three male cardinals, a dark-eyed junco, and a mourning dove.  I also saw the great horned owl flying out of the ritual meadow.

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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-12-01 12:24 am

Cyber Monday

Today is Cyber Monday. This holiday focuses on shopping online. It has surpassed Black Friday as the biggest shopping day of the year! \o/


Cyber Monday banner

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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-12-01 12:10 am
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Today's Cooking

Sunday night I made Sunny Honey Cookies.  These are soft, pillowy cookies almost like a muffin, full of minced candied ginger and sunflower seeds.  :D 
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 08:39 pm

Artificial Intelligence

Writing in a world where AI exists

Earlier today, someone sent me a screenshot. It was my essay about Bard the Bowman from Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” fed through an AI detector, with a score blazing across the top: “100% AI-generated.” The essay opened with an anecdote about watching the movie with my best friend, explored Tolkien’s WWI trauma and how it shaped the character, and ended with the line “Sometimes you kill the dragon. Sometimes the town burns anyway.”

That's a logical fallacy: Appeal to Authority. In this case, imaginary, hallucinating authority, but still it's a case where someone doesn't address the content but simply dismisses it by pointing to someone or something official. Oh wait, there's a more specific version: Appeal to False Authority.

Everyone wrongly accused of using AI should respond with a "Logical Fallacy: Appeal to False Authority" and link to your favorite reliable source for logic references. If nothing else, it will help raise awareness of this very common logical fallacy, which would be very useful in today's baloney-filled society.

Also in venues you control, don't hesitate to disemvowel, strikethrough, or delete garbage comments. There's no need to leave verbal dog shit on the floor for other people to step in and track around.

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dialecticdreamer ([personal profile] dialecticdreamer) wrote2025-11-30 10:31 pm
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December 2025 plans

This is an advance announcement about the plans for December.
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dialecticdreamer ([personal profile] dialecticdreamer) wrote2025-11-30 09:46 pm

#47 Mismatch (part 1 of 1, complete)

Mismatch
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1415
[Sunday, May 10, 2020, night]


:: Regrouping leads to an unexpected insight. Plans change. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::




The crowd followed Aidan to the front door of the garage apartment. Shandiin murmured, “Are the kids asleep?”

“Vic isn’t. He’s keeping watch over Ed, who may not have gone back to sleep. If he isn’t asleep now, we’ll just stay home during the day to that he can try to nap at least once.” Aidan paused, hand raised over the doorknob.

He stepped back. “It’s your home,” he began.
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 05:40 pm

Bingo

I have made bingo down the N column of my 11-1-25 card for the Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo. I also made 8 extra fills.


N1 (The deeds of ordinary folks keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.) -- "The Universal Assent to the World" (Polychrome Heroics: Officer Pink)
N2 (elves) -- "Revealing Itself at Its Most Brilliant" (Polychrome Heroics: Eric the Elven King)
N3 (WILD CARD: brownie) -- "Better Than Living Alone" (Monster House)
N4 (shadow) -- "Unicornis Memento Mori" (The Freaks Club)
N5 (Once Upon a Time) -- "Better Than a Million Dollars" (Alien Romance)

B4 (Fairy Ring) -- "Time and Relative Dimensions in Magic" (Doctor Who)

I1 (The Nightingale) -- "The Impermanence of Light and Life" (The Freaks Club)
I3 (Very little worth knowing is taught by fear.) -- "To the Rational Mind" (Doctor Who)
I4 (solitude) -- "Company in Solitude" (The Freaks Club)

G1 (vision) -- "A Vision That Visits Us" (The Freaks Club)
G2 (journey) -- "The Coracle in the Forest" (standalone)
G5 (I didn't want power. All I wanted was control. Over my life.) -- "A Clear Path of Freedom" (standalone)

O3 (fairies) -- "The Heart to Change the World" (Polychrome Heroics: The Big One)
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 03:10 pm

History

Signatures meant more in Mesopotamia than they do now − what cylinder seals say about ancient and modern life

In essence, a cylinder seal was a small sculpture that served a crucial utilitarian purpose: signing documents. It was generally made of a precious or semiprecious stone such as lapis lazuli, agate or chalcedony. Images and texts were engraved into the stone with a technique called intaglio. Notably, these engravings would need to be made in reverse of how the markings would look when it was used.

When rolled on a moist clay tablet, these engravings left low-relief markings, signifying that the object’s owner authorized the written document. In this respect, a cylinder seal’s impression is the ancestor of modern handwritten and digital signatures.


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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 02:28 pm

Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and cold.  Yesterday it snowed copiously, which wiped out our plans for Small Business Saturday.  :(  It was pretty for a while though.  Then it rained.  Then it froze again.  O_O  Now the snow looks a week old and there is plate ice over the road and parts of the patio.

I fed the birds.  I hung up a peanut suet cake.  I've seen one female and three male cardinals plus a dark-eyed junco.  :D  This is the first I've seen of my little snowbirds this year; the juncos are cold-weather birds here and don't appear in summer.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen two female cardinals and the three boys again.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
 
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 01:46 pm

Dreamwidth Points

Dreamwidth is running its December points event.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.


If you're gift-shopping for anyone on Dreamwidth, or you wish to support a favorite community here, points or paid time offer a great way to do that. Now is also a good time to buy them for yourself. Support the platform that keeps us connected here.

For reference, I'm at 332 points and 12 months of paid time is 350, so just a little would reach that target.

EDIT 12/1/25 -- [personal profile] torine in [community profile] bakerstreet has a post where you can request points.
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 03:31 am
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New Year's Resolutions Check In

We made it to the end of November! \o/ If you have completed some of your yearly goals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We are now well into autumn. If you're doing seasonal goals, share what you're working on for this winter.

This year I'm trying something new, continuing to track goals at the end of each month. So far it seems to be helping, so that's encouraging. I'm looking at my goal list more often and trying to keep ticking off more of them. The main drawback is that this update becomes more of a chore each month.

These are the previous check in posts:
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 4
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 10
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 17
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 24
New Year's Resolutions Check In January 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In February 28
New Year's Resolutions Check In March 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In April 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In May 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In June 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In July 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In August 31
New Year's Resolutions Check In September 30
New Year's Resolutions Check In October 31


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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 02:20 am

News

To save their small town newspaper, they opened a cafe. Now their profits are up 40%

In 2024, Maine business owner Reade Brower was forced to sell off a majority of the newspapers that he owned. He then tried to salvage four weeklies by combining them into one paper: The Midcoast Villager.
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 01:59 am

Moment of Silence: Leslie Fish

Famous filker Leslie Fish has passed away. She wrote many of the greatest filk songs.

So, screw the moment of silence because we all know the Great Con in the Sky is bellowing "Banned from Argo." I got to hear her sing that one once, and it was glorious. But I think "Hope Eyrie" is more apt. Another timely one is "Freedom of the Snow," which I used to belt out when walking across campus after an evening class. Frat rats crossed the street to get away from me. \o/

Here's a good description of Leslie's impact on filk.

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Denise ([staff profile] denise) wrote in [site community profile] dw_news2025-11-30 02:42 am

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means [staff profile] karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 12:54 am

Science

Generations of Bearded Vultures Stashed Humans’ Treasures, Including a 650-Year-Old Sandal, in These Bird Nests

Bearded vultures are unusual birds. Their diet consists primarily of bones, which they sometimes drop from great heights to break into smaller, bite-size pieces. They deliberately change the color of their plumage by rolling around in reddish-orange mud. And they return to the same nesting sites year after year, with generations of the species even reusing nests for centuries.

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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-30 12:16 am
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Shop for Good Sunday

Today is Shop for Good Sunday. This holiday highlights businesses whose goods and services support values, not just making money and shuffling junk around.

If you know what your friends and family value -- whether that's fair trade or sustainability or women-owned businesses -- then you can buy treats they might not ordinarily get because the good, responsible stuff tends to cost more. Pay attention to packaging: some companies just slap on a seal or few and call it good, but others really highlight the values aspect of their goodies with text or illustrations so your recipient will definitely notice it. The same goes for cards or gift wrapping in companies that offer that service.


Shop for Good Sunday banner with hands making a basket

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dialecticdreamer ([personal profile] dialecticdreamer) wrote2025-11-29 10:18 pm

#46 The Search (part 2 of 2, complete)

The Search
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1166
[Sunday, May 10, 2020, night]


:: Searching for Liana leads to an unexpected encounter. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::



Donathea smiled at the man with dark skin and auburn hair. “It’s fine. I’ll be done in a minute.”

Aidan nodded. “Would it help if I spoke with another employee? There is no time to waste.”

The customer studied Aidan’s worried expression. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a teenage girl missing, seen getting into a car that may have come to the ferry,” Aidan explained quickly. “I am asking if anyone has seen her.”
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-29 04:51 pm
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Wildlife

Florida’s Hot Spot for the Crocodile’s Comeback Is…a Nuclear Power Plant?

As it turned out, the 168 linear miles of cooling canals Turkey Point relied on to condense steam and produce energy also provided an ideal habitat for crocodiles: High berms allowed females to safely deposit eggs; the isolation protected them from pesky humans; and plenty of fish and fowl flourished in the waterways to sustain a growing population.


O_O Oh, because there's no way for THIS to go terribly, horribly wrong. Somebody save this to throw in as a prompt in any relevant prompt call.