followfriday | Member Posts

Someone gifted me a month of Dreamwidth Premium membership! Thank you, anonymous benefactor! I screenshot the email from Dreamwidth telling me so, and it's going straight to my happy brain chemicals folder.

I've been working with my cover designer Ammonia on the cover for Dollshops & Deathmages. I'm on the fence about the doll on the cover because we've had trouble finding one that doesn't look out of place, and I'm still not sure whether this one will do. Would it be better without the doll? With just Melna and Clariel on the cover?

Poll #34686 to doll or not to doll

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

View Respondents

Do you think the cover would be better

View Answers

With the doll
2 (66.7%)

Without the doll
1 (33.3%)

I'd also like to ask for book recs! I've recently been reading Judith A. Lansdowne's historical romances (mostly on the Internet Archive, as only her first book, Amelia's Intrigue, is digitized and on the Zon). Her heroes are sweet with a streak of mischief, and I'd love to read more romances with heroes like that instead of the usual run of rakes historical romance seems to prefer. Fantasy romance recs would be lovely too, and if they're indie books that's a plus. Only contemporary is a harder sell for me. Tangential, but I'm appalled that Judith A. Lansdowne's books are out of print! As appalled as I am by most of Richmal Crompton's William series being out of print. You'd think publishers don't want to delight the masses.

Current Mood: confused

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

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...

Commented on

booknook (reading!)

Commented on

common_nature (trees!)

Commented on

everykindofcraft (journals!)

Commented on

smallweb (guestbooks!)

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

i_like_the_stars

Happy June! Here's all the posts I made in communities this week:

icon_promptly
*Cliff Icons

beautifulmechanical
*Mei Ehara song

ashelterofpages

A brief update today because my brain is sluggish.

I managed to do some writing for the first time in a month. It's nothing for submission or anything, just a little story for a character I roleplay with my partner, but I think that was good for me. It scratches the same sort of itch that writing fanfic does, and I find that if I keep up doing these kinds of stories alongside the stuff I write for submission, I'm a much happier person.

Tomorrow should be Going Into The World and I'm a little nervous for it. It'll be the most significant amount of walking I'll have done since breaking my toes, so yeah. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

dhampyresa

The problem with this book is that I'm French.

Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting is a novel about deconstructing a country's founding myth. Said myth is inspired by Arthuriana and, especially, Joan of Arc. I'm not against Joan of Arc motifs (hell, it's one of the things I love about Margaret Rogerson's Vespertine). I am also pro deconstructing founding myths! Including French founding myths, including Joan of Arc.

However.

However, I think if you're going to be deconstructing a country's myths it should be your own country. Whether its because the book is in English or the author is USAmerican or the fictional country is England-coded (the main narrator so far (25%) is called "Owen Mallory") or a combination but this feels particularly disrespectful. Leave Jeanne alone and go bother George Washington or something.

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

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

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

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches. Red-winged blackbirds are singing overhead.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a male cardinal at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I watered plants in the new picnic table garden.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- I watered more plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/3/26 -- We went out skywatching shortly after sunset and spotted 3 bats flying around the yard. :D Yay bats!

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

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Everglades Restoration Project Ongoing for 20-Plus Years Sees Huge Rewilding Success

A huge area of the Everglades that was drained in an attempt to convert it to suburbia has been restored to a somewhat native ecosystem after 2 decades of reverse-landscape engineering.

Picayune Strand is a big, almost perfect rectangle of south Florida wetland located northwest of Everglades National Park, northeast of Thousand Islands Nat. Wildlife Refuge, and west of Florida Panther Nat. Wildlife Refuge.

Current Mood: busy

vriddy

Volume 6 is coming out next week with a character profile I'm excited to read, so finally getting back on track for the volume 5 extras :D Not that I wasn't excited about RIRIKA AND HIDAKA'S PROFILES!!!! either but it's been strange times, fandom-wise. This was done a bit more hastily than the previous ones, if you spot any extra weirdness lemme know.

( K-9: NEW ITEM!! )

( Ririka's profile )

( Hidaka's profile )

( 4-koma: Wanted list )

( 4-koma: Pickiness…? )

( 4-koma: Proof )

( 4-koma: Produce! )

( Bonus illustration: New teacher Ren Hizuki's supplementary classes )

Current Mood: accomplished

linky

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: CHEMY×STORY

linky

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: tired

ashelterofpages

'm starting this post later than I meant to, but hey I started it and that's what matters!

Today I was supposed to go out with a friend who's in town, but we both slept poorly, so we're doing that on Thursday. I'm excited to see her since the last time I did, we were in Portland for a con in November. That was actually the first time we ever talked, but we got on pretty well.

Making friends is so weird sometimes.

Slept in later than I intended but I got up before 11, which I'm calling a victory. My goal is to always be up before 10 but my body will just refuse to do that sometimes. Like, I'll go to bed at 10:30pm and I won't get up for another fourteen hours. There is no rhyme or reason for these Sleep Incidents, but it is what it is. I'm working on trying to be more gentle with myself about them and have plans for days where I do that instead of just feeling low and upset by it.

I haven't managed to start doing the art thing, but I pulled out one of my notebooks that are good for fountain pens and started writing in it. I'm going to see if I can keep up doing some kind of writing in this one until I finish it, but we'll see. I have no special plans for the notebook, just going to let it be a catch-all with to do lists, goals, doodles, rambles, ect and see what happens. I'm taking it with me when I head out next Friday, so maybe it'll be a little bit of a travel journal too. Who knows.

I need to do some reading tonight before I go to bed. I do a brief newsletter on Tuesdays where I recommend two short stories I've read recently and I'm running low on options. I try and have a backlog of stories for weeks that I've not read as much and I'm down to less than five. Hopefully this week I'll run across some very good stuff.

Speaking of reading, so I'm officially helping out M with the anthology they're making. [RECORDED]. It's gonna be so much fun and I'm really looking forward to slushing for the first time. If you wan to submit some found footage horror, we're going to be open from the 15th through the end of June.

ysabetwordsmith

Today is mostly sunny and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a grackle at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I watered plants in the house yard.

EDIT 6/2/26 -- I watered the new picnic table garden.

I walked around the yard a bit. The purple penstemon from last year is blooming in the wildflower garden with clusters of little white trumpets. :D

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

Current Mood: busy

solenne

Well I had a pretty busy week since I last posted.

On Wednesday I had nearly 8 hours of classes without a break (the last time that will happen since I'm graduating soon). The professor let us leave a bit early and we went out for some strawberry beer for our friend's birthday. We just happened to stumble upon the hardest pub quiz ever. The questions were so hard that we often times didn't even understand what was being asked. We were to busy drinking and laughing though.

The next day I had no class, so I went out with friends and we played some really heated uno. Then I had to rush back to go to the aforementioned friend's birthday party. We drank some really good wine and ate some phenomenal pizza.. Then I rushed back home to pack cus I had a bus for home in the morning.

Friday I went out with friends in my home town. This was my third day going out with people and I was running out of steam. I swear I usually don't socialise or go out this much. To my surprise this didn't mean I was too tired to party on Sunday. It was time for our graduation party (or 'finished attending classes' party i guess, we haven't had our exams yet). The hassle of getting ready and waiting in makeup the whole day really tires me. I always start feeling out of place when I need to doll up (professionally) and attend things like this. I cried for my high school prom cus I thought I looked ugly in full glam makeup. Now I had similar problems with the hair. I thought It made me look 40 years older. Suddenly I started doubting my dress, which I do kinda regret wearing. When we arrived we also didn't particularly like the vibes. But then the music started. My feet still hurt two days later, my throat is sore, I had a whale of a time. Barely had time to eat cus I was dancing so much. There was carpet so we quickly discarded our shoes to be able to dance more comfortably. I have a nice picture of our discarded heels on a pile. Hated the pictures that they officially took of us, but a friend brought a little camera and absolutely saved the night with her pics. I will definitely be putting those in my photo album. My parents were nice enough to help our trio get back home. They went out to dinner with my brother while I was at the celebration. They had that life changing pizza I mentioned.

It took the whole Monday to recover. I missed lunch in the cafeteria, limped out of my room for dinner. I did start a new book though! Finally continuing the Game of Thrones. Started A Storm of Swords. Enjoying it so far, but I needed to dig through my pics to find my handmade family tree guide. I am sure I forgot a lot of things cus it's been two years since I read the last book, but I am not having any problems so far. Been thinking of starting the show. I have watched parts of it before. Not the first season though. I was too young when it originally aired. So I am a weird mix of spoiled and unspoiled. I am currently ignoring the tomorrows exams, and blissfully reading. Told my friend it was very nice and relaxing to be reading something not for uni and not Shakespeare, and she said only I would find GOT relaxing. I think anything that can get me immersed can be very relaxing. Just read the chapter where Jon meets Mance Ryder and I feel like this will be a character I enjoy.

Enough from me. All partied out.

Solenne

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: dorm room bed

dhampyresa

I saw the Project Hail Mary movie and I really enjoyed it. Stupid power of friendship (and science), making me cry.

There's a line at one point about Grace's former girlfriend now being with someone named Mark, and in my head it's Mark "The Martian" Watney because that would be fucking hilarious.

ysabetwordsmith

This is today's freebie. It was inspired by prompts from

siliconshaman,

enchanted_jae, and

frith. It also fills the "Lavender" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Pride Fest bingo. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics and is filed in the Shiv thread.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Profile

followfriday

May 2026

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Page Summary

adore - To doll or not to doll, that is the question
ysabetwordsmith - Community Thursdays
vriddy - Community Thursday
ysabetwordsmith - Unsold Poems for the June 2, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
i_like_the_stars - Mid-Week Community Posts Round Up: 2026 June 03
ashelterofpages - the sweet sound of my own yawning
dhampyresa - DNF: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
ysabetwordsmith - Cyberspace Theory
ysabetwordsmith - History
ysabetwordsmith - Cyberspace Theory
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
ysabetwordsmith - Conservation
vriddy - K-9: Volume 5 extras, with translation
linky - Fannish Fifty #29: Kaiju Brooklyn 2026 Photos
linky - Comment Bingo Round #9 Card
ashelterofpages - It's just ambient noise today.
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
solenne - Dancing, Reading and Studying
dhampyresa - Project Last Chance
ysabetwordsmith - Poem: "The Forgotten Flower"

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