wispfox | Reading

Do-it-yourself prosthetic leg.

The medical industry has been screaming bloody murder for some years about how bad it is for people to make prostheses outside the medical racket, that are actually useful and affordable. It freaks them out to lose control over disabled people's bodies. Fuck 'em. Nobody is entitled to a captive audience or customers. By all means, make your own for 1% of the cost. 3D-printed hands have been around for a while now and exist in many variations.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Here is my card for the Piracy Bingo Fest over in

allbingo. The fest runs from September 1-30. (See all my 2025 bingo cards.)

If you'd like to sponsor a particular square, especially if you have an idea for what character, series, or situation it would fit -- talk to me and we'll work something out. I've had a few requests for this and the results have been awesome so far. This is a good opportunity for those of you with favorites that don't always mesh well with the themes of my monthly projects. I may still post some of the fills for free, because I'm using this to attract new readers; but if it brings in money, that means I can do more of it. That's part of why I'm crossing some of the bingo prompts with other projects, such as the Poetry Fishbowl.

Underlined prompts have been filled.

PIRACY BINGO CARD

shipwrecked	cut and run	parley	skull and crossbones	leak
keelhaul	crack	dead men tell no tales	ship's articles	lookout
pardon	broadside	WILD CARD	Caribbean	affiliate
parrot	come about	swashbuckler	exploit	request
letters of marque	salvage	saltwater	peg leg	patch

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

The corrosive spread of tech company mentality

One of the aphorisms guiding tech companies is to ‘move fast and break things’. Rewards accrue to those companies that are first out of the gate with something new and so products are rushed out without being fully tested, the assumption being that any faults can be corrected based on feedback from consumers. In other words, the people who buy the early versions of the product serve as so-called beta testers, whether they want to be or not.

These situations rarely have life-or-death consequences. With most things such as devices and apps, usually the worst that can happen is that the users are annoyed or frustrated with the glitches but are willing to tolerate them as long as they get upgrades that purportedly take care of the problems.

But there is now an increasing area where tech-based products are being marketed as solutions for things where that tech culture attitude is not suitable, with sometimes dangerous consequences.

This is definitely among the more destructive memes, although not as much as "Civilization MUST continue at ALL costs."

Current Mood: busy

lb_lee

boneyhag on bsky has created a spreadsheet of banned/de-indexed works on itch.io! Some good creators and works on there, (including Muepin's Special Request, which I own), and overwhelmingly queer work (what a shock). I added some stuff to my wishlist! Perhaps you can too!

(If you're one of the folks who got burned, linked post also has a submission form adding your work to the spreadsheet.)

lb_lee

Due to Dreamwidth having to block views from all Mississippi users, I'm going to have to fucking take every single story and essay on this damn website and mirror and back it up on healthymultiplicity.com.

Mississippi's requirements are strict:

This act applies only to a digital service provider who provides a digital service that:
(a) Connects users in a manner that allows users to socially interact with other users on the digital service;
(b) Allows a user to create a public, semi-public or private profile for purposes of signing into and using the digital service; and
(c) Allows a user to create or post content that can be viewed by other users of the digital service, including sharing content on:
(i) A message board;
(ii) A chat room; or
(iii) A landing page, video channel or main feed that presents to a user content created and posted by other users.

So this includes Dreamwidth (and all other Livejournal clones), Fanfiction.net, an AOL Instant Messenger chat room, a forum, presumably Patreon and itch.io... but oddly probably not 4chan, since that has no profiles! healthymultiplicity.com is kinda my only option, because the site allows for no social interaction.

I am very sorry for the inconvenience. Having my work accessible to the public is extremely important to me, but man, the past couple months have been pretty rough when it comes to politicians and payment processors getting between me and my willing readers!

ysabetwordsmith

Two more articles about AI crap

I look at these and I am concerned, not because AI is inhuman, but because it is picking up aspects from its human creators, including some of the worst ones.

Current Mood: busy

dialecticdreamer

Shifting Focus
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1850
[End of March 179-]

:: Trokhym makes an announcement that stuns Laszlo. Then, the young Graf regroups. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

:: Pay Special Attention: Laszlo and Trokhym have a very disturbing argument, but remember, there will be an earned happy ending, fairly soon. ::

As Laszlo closed the door, Trokhym stopped stirring the mămăligă. He faced the younger man with a frown. “Is she resting? What about breakfast?”

“She said that she’s not hungry. I think that she’s worried that there won’t be enough. I’m sure that you’ll be a gentleman about the matter.” Laszlo checked his gloves, then took a seat in the second stool, leaving the bench tucked under the table. “How is the cooking going?”
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

maevedarcy posting in

polyamships

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

ysabetwordsmith

Wholebeing: Essential skills for a post-growth society

In the face of multiple planetary crises, we're beginning to understand that our dominant economic system is fundamentally incompatible with life on a finite planet. Yet while many recognize the need for systemic change, we often overlook a crucial question: what skills do we need to thrive in a human world that operates within planetary boundaries?

This is a useful set of skills.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Bingo
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Today's Adventures
Communities
Birdfeeding
Wildlife
Philosophical Questions: Money
Poetry Fishbowl Report for August 5, 2025
Today's Cooking
Unsold Poems for the August 5, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl
Indigenous People
"Helium Miner's Song" by Catamariner
Climate Change
Worldbuilding
Venn Diagram
Birdfeeding
Writing
Follow Friday 8-29-25: Active Communities on Dreamwidth Summer 2025 J-Z
Friday Five
Poetry Fishbowl Report for July 15, 2025
Unsold Poems for the July 15, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl
Water
Birdfeeding
Hobbies: Photography
Today's Smoothie
Pen Person Questions
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Early Humans
Birdfeeding
Let's Boycott Mississippi

Affordable Housing has 40 comments. Robotics has 67 comments. Food has 36 comments. "Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 52 comments.

There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, September 2 with a theme of "Communication Styles."

summerofthe69 is nearing its end. You can see the calendar here and the current themes are a double theme of Fighting or Fucking AND Monsterfucker and Back End 69.

"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $200 to be complete. Shiv attends the first session of his Worldbuilding class.

The weather is still mild to warm and quite dry. :D Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a male ruby-throated hummingbird, and a fox squirrel. I've heard a cardinal singing and a woodpecker drumming. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, firewheel, cypress vine, sunchokes. Tomatoes, ball carrots, and groundcherries are ripe.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a squirrel up a tree with a walnut in its mouth.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/1/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and some of the savanna seedlings.

A few sunchokes are blooming.

EDIT 9/1/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/1/25 -- I did a bit of work on the old picnic table.

EDIT 9/1/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/1/25 -- I did a bit of work around the yard.

.

Current Mood: busy

siliconshaman

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

Current Mood: Bwhahaha!

wcg

Happy Kalends of Septembris! Are you ready for the Ludi Romani?

siderea

Canonical link: https://siderea.dreamwidth.org/1882100.html

0.

With all the eager discussion of the possibility of Trump dying in office, I am in the delicate and unfortunate position of not actually being in favor of it.

Don't get me wrong. I, too, would enjoy to seeing something very bad happen to Trump. What I'd best like is him getting his just deserts – ideally being arrested, indicted, tried, found guilty, sentenced, having appealed, the appeal failing, appealing again, having that appeal fail, petitioning the POTUS for clemency and it not being granted, him being duly executed by the state as the traitor to the Republic and the Constitution he was proven to be. I'm not generally a big fan of capital punishment, but I am in fact willing to make exceptions; he seems to think he's an exception to a lot of things, and here I would agree with him.

But that's not going to happen, not in this time-line, and it's probably for the best that it doesn't.

Perhaps he will simply keel over dead, and I confess I will take at least a little bitter satisfaction in it.

And it's certainly not that I don't wish us all to be spared even another moment of this Trump presidency. Of course I do.

Alas, as much as I hate to crush the pleasant fantasy of us being redeemed by the deus ex machina of artheriosclerosis finally doing its job and carrying off our oppressor: Vance is worse. Much, much worse.

1.

( It's perhaps understandable that you would not realize this.... Read more [6,770 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!

cvirtue

Many locations for the protests tomorrow: Monday Sept 1st. If you aren’t able to attend, observe by writing Congress and your state gov.

ysabetwordsmith

I have made 7 fills in my 8-1-25 card for the Crime Classics Bingo.

I1 (Somebody at the Door) -- "No Faster or Firmer Friendships" (Polychrome Heroics)
I3 (As If by Magic) -- "To Allow in More Light" (Monster House)
I4 (Someone from the Past) -- "An Inkling of Things to Come" (Polychrome Heroics: Shiv)

N4 (He Who Whispers) -- "He Who Whispers" (An Army of One)

G2 (Family Matters) -- "When You Learn to Read" (Polychrome Heroics: Big One)
G3 (Before the Fact) -- "Where You Find Light" (Polychrome Heroics: Big One)
G4 (Deep Waters) -- "The Most Precious Heritage" (Polychrome Heroics: Rutledge)

Current Mood: busy

maevedarcy posting in

polyamships

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

dialecticdreamer

Shifting Plans
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1901
[End of March 179-]

:: As they get ready for the day, Trokhym throws a small twist in their previous plans. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

Laszlo woke very early. His eyelids flung themselves upward as his lungs heaved eagerly for the crisp springtime air. He washed in cold water, frigid but not bearing a skin of ice, and dressed carefully. Tucked into the vardo, he brushed his hair and braided the queue, just to make it harder for David to grab at it.

The thought made him freeze.

The memory, blurred by more than a decade, softened into wistfulness.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

ysabetwordsmith

The ecology of attention

There’s a moment, usually around the seventh open tab, when your brain lets out a quiet scream. Not loud. Just a gentle, exhausted howl from somewhere behind your eyeballs. You've read ten headlines, watched half a video, skimmed three opinion pieces, checked your email, ignored two messages, and now you can't remember what you were doing in the first place. Welcome to the modern infoscape. It's busy, it's loud, and it's eating us alive.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

lb_lee

While digging through sci-fi library magazine archives, I found an old 2000 magazine that had the very charming short story, "Princess Angelina and the Dragon," by Renee Carter Hall. Since finding copies of that magazine is pretty hard for most people, I emailed the author about it, and she benevolently chose to upload it online for everyone to enjoy! Ain't that nice of her?

I know I got some dragon-smoochers as readers, so please enjoy this cute fractured fairy tale story of dragon smoochery!