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[personal profile] siderea
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0.

The Essequibo River is the queen of rivers all!
    Buddy-ta-na-na, we are somebody, oh!
The Essequibo River is the queen of rivers all!
    Buddy-ta-na-na, we are somebody, oh!

    Somebody, oh, Johnny! Somebody, oh!
    Buddy-ta-na-na, we are somebody, oh!

– Sea shanty, presumed Guyanese

Let us appreciate that the only reason – the only reason – I know about what I am about to share with you is because of that whole music history thing of mine. It's not even my history. My main beat is 16th century dance music (± half a century). But dance music is working music, and as such I consider all the forms of work music to be its counsin, and so I have, of an occasion, wandered into the New England Folk Festival's sea-shanty sing. Many people go through life understanding the world around them through the perspective of a philosophical stance, a religious conviction, a grand explanatory theory, fitting the things they encounter into these frameworks; I do not know if I should be embarrased or not, but for me, so often it's just song cues.

So when I saw the word "Essequibo" go by in the web-equivalent of page six of the international news, I was all like, "Oh! I know that word!" recognizing a song cue when I see one. "It's a river. I wonder where it is?"

And I clicked the link.

That was twenty-one months ago.

Ever since, I have been on a different and ever-increasingly diverging timeline from the one just about everyone else is on.

In December of 2023, Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, tried to kick off World War Three.

He hasn't stopped trying. He's had to take breaks to steal elections and deal with some climate catastrophe and things like that. But mostly ever since – arguably since September of 2023 – Maduro has been escalating.

You wouldn't know it from recent media coverage of what the US is doing off the coast of Venezuela. At no point has any news coverage of the US military deployment to that part of the world mentioned anything about the explosive geopolitical context there. A geopolitical context, that when it has been reported on is referred to in term like "a pressure cooker" and "spiraling".

The US government itself has said nothing that alludes to it in any way. The US government has its story and it's sticking to it: this is about drugs.

As you may be aware, the US government is claiming to have sunk three Venezuelan boats using the US military. The first of these sinkings was on September 1st.

To hear the media tell it, the US just up and decided to start summarily executing people on boats in the Caribbean that it feels were drug-runners on Sep 1st.

No mention is made of what happened on Aug 31st.

On August 31, the day before the first US military attack on a Venezuelan vessel, at around 14:00 local time, somebody opened fire on election officials delivering ballot and ballot boxes in the country Venezuela is threatening to invade.

And they did it from the Venezuelan side of the river that is the border between the two countries.

That country is an American ally. And extremely close American ally. An ally that is of enormous importance to the US.

And which is a thirtieth the size of Venezuela by population, and which has an army less than one twentieth as large.

You would be forgiven for not knowing that Venezuela has been threatening to and apparently also materially preparing to invade another country, because while it's a fact that gets reported in the news, it is never reported in the same news as American actions involving or mentioning Venezuela.

Venezuela, which is a close ally of Russia.

You may have heard about how twenty-one months ago, in December of 2023, there was an election in Venezuela which Maduro claimed was a landslide win for him. There was a lot of coverage in English-speaking news about that election and how it was an obvious fraud, and the candidate who won the opposition party's primary wasn't on the ballot, and so on and so forth.

You probably didn't hear that in that very same election, there was a referendum. If you did hear it reported, you might have encountered it being dismissed in the media as a kind of political stunt of Maduro's, to get people to show up to the polls or to energize his base. It couldn't possibly be (the reasoning went) that he meant it. Surely it was just political theater.

The referendum questions put, on Dec 3, 2023, to the voters of Venezuela were about whether or not they supported establishing a new Venezuelan state.

Inside the borders of the country of Guyana.

2023 Dec 4: The Guardian: "Venezuela referendum result: voters back bid to claim sovereignty over large swath of Guyana".

Why?

Eleven billion gallons of light, sweet crude: the highest quality of oil that commands the highest price.

(I can hear all of Gen X breathe, "Oh of course.")

It is under the floor of the Caribbean in an area known as the Stabroek Block.

The Stabroek Block is off the coast of an area known as the Essequibo.

It takes its name from the Essequibo River, which borders it on one side, and it constitutes approximately two-thirds of the land area of the country of Guyana.

Whoever owns the Essequibo owns the Stabroek Block and whoever owns the Stabroek owns those 11B gallons of easily-accessed, high-value oil.

As far as almost everyone outside of Venezuela has been concerned, for the last hundred years Guyana has owned the Essequibo.

Venezuela disagrees. Read more [5,760 words] )

This post brought to you by the 219 readers who funded my writing it – thank you all so much! You can see who they are at my Patreon page. If you're not one of them, and would be willing to chip in so I can write more things like this, please do so there.

Please leave comments on the Comment Catcher comment, instead of the main body of the post – unless you are commenting to get a copy of the post sent to you in email through the notification system, then go ahead and comment on it directly. Thanks!

Cuddle Party

Oct. 1st, 2025 12:26 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a
cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

New Year's Resolutions Check In

Sep. 30th, 2025 11:19 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We made it to the end of September! \o/ If you have completed some of your medium-term goals or subgoals, and/or you're still chugging away at your ongoing goals, then pat yourself on the back. You worked hard for that. We have also started autumn. If you're doing seasonal goals, share what you're working on for this fall.

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

Read more... )

Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!

Oct. 1st, 2025 12:01 am
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[personal profile] wcg
 
Happy Kalends of Octobris!  Are you ready for the October Horse?

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, October 7

Sep. 30th, 2025 10:40 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, October 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Witches and Wizards." I'll be soliciting ideas for witches, wizards, other magic users, mentors, elders, teachers, students, adventurers, explorers, damsels/gentlemen in distress, historians, partners, leaders, dark lords, the Chosen One(s), superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, ethicists, activists, queerfolk, other unusual fantasy folk, studying magic, doing magic, enchanting artifacts, breaking curses, breaking rules, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, researching, revising theories, parenting, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, experiments changing paradigms, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, other fantastic activities, witch's huts, wizard's towers, magical schools, castles, ruins, stone circles, dungeons, dragon lairs, Underhill, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, kitchens, campfires, libraries, laboratories, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, unusual magical systems, pointy hats, robes, wands or staves, cauldrons, herbs, crystals, potions, magical artifacts, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, inventions that change everything, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is about live happy lesbians in a quirky fantasy world.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy about a blacksmith and a golem.

A Conflagration of Dragons has unforseen disasters and cultural upheavals.

Gloryroad Crossing is the weird village where adventurers go to restock.

Kande's Quest is sword & soul with caucasian-inspired demons.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household, where the line between truth and fantasy isn't always clear.

Not Quite Kansas has a helpful demon.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks.

Path of the Paladins is low fantasy about paladins trying to restore a world gone to ruins.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy about paranormal investigations.

Polychrome Heroics has primarily superpowers, but magic is described as "sorcery" there.  Antimatter & Stalwart Stan are a cross-cape couple, and Antimatter essentially does science-based magic.  Aubrey the Alabaster is another sorcerer.  Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees. 

Practical Magics is low fantasy with a prosaic focus.

Quixotic Ideas is contemporary fantasy where magic integrates with modern life in positive ways.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Yellow Unicorns is a quirky fantasy setting where the only yellow things people can see are the unicorns.

Or you can ask for something new.

Boost the signal to reveal a verse in any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Bingo

Sep. 30th, 2025 10:07 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I have made bingo down the O column of my 9-1-25 card for the Piracy Fest Bingo.

O1 (leak) "Mightier Than" (Princess: The Hopeful)
O2 (lookout) "Simple and to the Point" (An Army of One)
O3 (affiliate) "Bring Unique Qualities" (Daughters of the Apocalypse)
O4 (request) "The Only Thing That You Absolutely Have to Know" (Polychrome Heroics)
O5 (patch) "A Reader, an Interpreter, and a Creator) (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge)

B4 (parrot) "For Those Who Work at It" (Polychrome Heroics: Dr. Infanta)

Recipe: "Pigeon Peas Stew"

Sep. 30th, 2025 08:59 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We made this tonight. It's quite tasty. :D We have plenty of pigeon peas left, so I can try other recipes too.

Read more... )

Affordable Housing

Sep. 30th, 2025 06:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Long commutes and small homes are wrecking sleep

Your commute and home size could be quietly stealing your sleep.

Tokyo residents face a trade-off between home size and commute time when it comes to sleep health. A new study shows longer commutes increase both insomnia and daytime sleepiness, while smaller housing also raises insomnia risk. Even with average-sized homes, commuting more than 52 minutes pushed people into the insomnia range. Researchers say smarter housing planning could improve both sleep and quality of life.


Read more... )
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[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
(Un)Employment
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1947
[Wednesday, May 6, 2020, early morning]


:: Aidan leaves for his first full day at work, only to have an unexpected meeting with his new boss. Part of the Edison’s Mirror arc. ::


Back to Shopping and Sharing
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to




Aidan shook his head at the pre-dawn light brightening the kitchen. He finished dishing out the porridge and put a small handful of thawed blueberries onto both bowls. “You two eat, and maybe draw up a list of chores that are expected now? I don’t know how to do most of the tasks that you take for granted, and we’ll need to go over them together, one by one, until I know them all.”

He glanced at the window again. “It feels like I’ve wasted half the morning waiting for everyone else to get up,” he explained, shaking his head as Vic held up a third empty bowl. “No, thank you. I ate while I was pottering around the bedroom, since you were both asleep in here.”

Vic put away the extra dishes. “What did you find?”
Read more... )

Zine/Comic: the Fall of Rawlin

Sep. 30th, 2025 05:33 pm
lb_lee: a penguin saying "Just because you decide to sell out doesn't mean anyone's going to buy!" ($ellingout)
[personal profile] lb_lee
We have uploaded a chapter of Madgic entitled "the Fall of Rawlin" after discovering to our horror that the first print run of the omnibus had a printer error (entirely our fault) which made a very important part of the comic completely unreadable. It's now up (and fully alt-texted) on healthymultiplicity.com!

We are so sorry about this. The ebook has been updated with corrections, and the second print run also has it corrected, but if you bought the first run of the omnibus and wondered what the hell was wrong with page 146 or so, here's your answer.

Comic: Seductive Beast, 2024

Sep. 30th, 2025 05:07 pm
lb_lee: Rogan drawing/writing in a spiral. (art)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Just a one-pager, which means we're popping it up straight here! These are what all our pencils look like before inking; eventually all these Mori and Rawlin comics are going to end up in a book called (for now) Xenogals in Love.

Beneath the image is only the textual transcript, no commentary. Rawlin was going by male terms at the time, thus why Mori asked Biff first.

Essay: LB Economics

Sep. 30th, 2025 04:26 pm
lb_lee: a penguin saying "Just because you decide to sell out doesn't mean anyone's going to buy!" ($ellingout)
[personal profile] lb_lee
LB Economics
Series: Essay
Summary: How the sausage gets made. I hope y’all like color-coded numerical tables!
Word Count: 3634
Notes: Winner of the fan poll this month. Also, since it’s not covered in the essay itself, if you’re a generous sort and wondering, “LB, what’s the best way to give you money?” the answer is: LiberaPay or a recurring check through the mail (yes, people do this), followed by Patreon, followed by buying an Ebook Megapack. Regarding buying individual books… paper books require more printing and shipping, but ebooks deal with more robo-bans and crackdowns, so we consider them about equal on our end.

Money is considered one of the forbidden public subjects, along with sex and religion. It’s one thing to say what you do, another to admit how much you make at it. However, we’re one of the only people doing what we do, and we want people to know the financial aspects of our job, so as to puncture some rosy illusions and defuse envy. So let’s talk about money.


Birdfeeding

Sep. 30th, 2025 01:55 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and sweltering. It's 85°F here. The migration is heavily impacted -- we drove past the lake yesterday and there was no sign of waterbirds, whereas normally this time of year there would ducks, pelicans, etc. in fairly large flocks.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 9/30/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I watered the telephone pole garden, savanna seedlings, patio plants, new picnic table, and old picnic table.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

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

Diary: Waiting Around

Sep. 30th, 2025 02:39 pm
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[personal profile] degringolade

I have a piss-poor record as a prophet/prognosticator. I have to recognize that out of the blocks. But the nasty feeling that "not good things" are getting ready to happen is pretty strong.

But this time, the waiting seems a little less interminable and I am not feeling all that angsty about the process. This might be because I am quite comfortable with my lack of omniscience and the all-too-frequent failures of crises to appear when I predict them have finally sunk in. So I am pretty chill about the mummery being played out on the world stage.

I think the phenomenon that pushed me over the line from worry to acceptance was a multi-decade run of participation trophies and consumer surveys.

Participation trophies are part of the cult of the child that we here in 'Murca have foisted on ourselves to give the false impression that everyone is a winner and everyone is a valued participant.

Consumer surveys want to give the unsuspecting a false impression that the company cares about anything other than relieving your wallet from those pesky dollars. I seriously doubt that asking about your "experience" with the pizza that just came to your door means anything more than trying to trick you into giving addition money at a later date.

We have been sold a bill of goods about the idea that everyone's opinion is taken into account and is actually important. I can see nothing in the real world that supports this absurd claim. It is the wellspring of the odd idea that a majority of 50.1% has the right to completely fuck over and ignore the 49.9%.

Society is the sea that the individual swims in. Somehow we have become adherents of King Canute, who feel that we have the right and responsibility to order the tide of a society to conform to our demands.

Society is a frustrating amalgam of the various sub-tribes which it is made of. The sub-tribes themselves are amalgams of subgroups struggling to control that particular tribes wants. The individuals that make up the tribe are lost in the dilution.

Here in the land 'o the free we have devolved into so many factions that we no longer have a means of compromise. This is in the process of being worked out. But there is a rough patch ahead of us.

I think we will manage. Maybe Churchill's apocryphal comment is closer to describing our country than the pablum that is forced down our throats by leaders:

“Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”

Today's Adventures

Sep. 29th, 2025 11:07 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we went to Grissom Family Orchard.

Read more... )
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
[personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Shopping and Sharing
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1858
[Tuesday, May 5, 2020, early afternoon]


:: During Ed and Aidan’s trip to the food bank, they have an interesting encounter. (Plot crept into this, all of which is a spoiler spree.) Part of the Edison’s Mirror series. This story was written for the September 2025 Feathering the Nest prompt call, from a suggestion made by [personal profile] readera, with my thanks.


:: Pay Special Attention: some innuendo, that Aidan destroys without seeming to notice anything. ::



Back to Meeting an Ally, part 4
To the Edison's Mirror Index
On to (Un)Employment




The drive to the food “bank” had been bewildering and enlightening in equal measure, though not always answering the questions that it created. Aidan smiled immediately when Ed chose to interact with anyone or anything, and when the boy insisted on a large bag of potatoes, the older man would have ruffled the boy’s curls, if he had any.

“What do you want to make?” Aidan asked as he fitted the clear bag into the wheeled pushcart that Shandiin had guided them to as soon as they had been enrolled.

“Lots of things. But…” Ed blinked away the wetness clinging to his eyelashes. I miss boxty.”

“What is that?” Aidan asked. He picked over the yellow onions individually, putting them into a paper sack which might hold two pounds if he was careful with the fragile container.
Read more... )

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