donutsweeper

The YouTube algorithm pseudorandomly served me this, thereby answering the question I'd had on a distant back burner forever, "Hey, didn't I hear something about colored cotton cultivars once upon a time? Cotton that you didn't need to dye? Like back in the 90s?"

If you are a fellow fiber freak or interested in agriculture or organic crops or the underappreciated problem of sustainable clothing production, you may find this as fascinating as I did:

2026 Mar 7: Good Yarn Bad Knits [goodyarnbadknits YT]: "The Yarn That Almost Saved The World"

Watch on YouTube

torachan

1. We had a great day at Disneyland this morning. So many tasty things to eat!

2. The weather today was similar to yesterday, though a little warmer and sunnier through the afternoon. But got very overcast and chilly at night again, whereas this past week it was staying warmer even at night, which I am not a fan of.

3. I finished tweaking the cat/house-sitting document (really just had to edit a bit from last year rather than write it up from scratch) and did a walk through with Alex and her girlfriend tonight. Last time we were only gone for a little over a week and the cats never did get too used to Nessie, but hopefully this time since we'll be gone two weeks, they'll feel a little more comfortable with her by the end. Alex comes over every Sunday for several hours a week, so they are chill with her, but they're used to us being there, too, and also Alex will not be the main one doing the cat sitting.

4. I got some really cute pics of Tuxie in the planter this afternoon.

ysabetwordsmith

This poem came out of the March 17, 2026 Bonus Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by

librarygeek for Gwinnie, a pit bull mix and a good dog. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

Warning: This poem features impending animal death of natural causes. HANKIE WARNING.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

hannah

We’ve watched four movies this weekend: Meet Me In St. Louis, Tommy, The Wizard of Speed and Time, and The History of Future Folk.

Overall, I found Meet Me to Ben the weirdest and least accessible.

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: nothing.

quillpunk

i deleted everything in my inbox. i had over 1800 things in there and it was stressing me out. i tried to get the energy to sort through them, but i never got further than that. so if there was anything in there i intended to reply to, it has now been lost :( hopefully this will make me feel better, though.

ysabetwordsmith

If you're still shopping the Bonus Fishbowl, now's the time to make your selections. I've already finished 7 poems besides the freebie, and I've still got a couple left to do.

Current Mood: busy

torachan

This week we made our reservation for Sunday rather than Saturday because today is the first day of a huge new Bluey-themed event at Disneyland.

( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith

Depression fatigue appears at the cellular level in brain and blood

Scientists have identified an unusual energy signature in young adults with depression: cells in both the brain and blood appear highly active at rest but lose ground when demand rises.

The finding recasts fatigue as a measurable feature of the illness, one that may surface before treatment choices become clearer.

One of the biggest challenges with mental health is that almost all diagnoses rely on abstract rather than concrete assessments. It's usually done by self-reporting or observation, which is neither precise nor objective, unlike most illnesses that have scientific tests. So finding any kind of biomarker is extremely useful.

Current Mood: busy

mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, March 22, to midnight on March 23 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34406 Daily check-in poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 31

How are you doing?

I am OK
18 (58.1%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
13 (41.9%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
12 (38.7%)

One other person
12 (38.7%)

More than one other person
7 (22.6%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

dancesontrains

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the top 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

I was very stuck on this for some time - hence the lack of updates since January - but then I remembered that last year I participated in the subreddit r/GraphicNovels's tournament of Top Twenty graphic novels (actually any form of sequential art even vaguely applicable, the guy running the Tournament joked that he was waiting for someone to send in a long tapestry as one of their faves)

My matchup - I was very soundly trounced in the first round by one of the most prolific posters there, and rightly so https://www.reddit.com/r/graphicnovels/comments/1o5ssuv/tournament_of_lists_2025_all_time_top_20_comics/

The eventual winner, it's a really interesting collection and I had a good time thinking of what to add- https://www.reddit.com/r/graphicnovels/comments/1omr7k3/congratulations_to_americantabloid3_for_winning/

The only work I regret not including is Calvin and Hobbes, which I read as an adult and have loved ever since.

Current Location: bed

elf

There is Drama going around in the indie TTRPG community. Some people accuse a game designer of being a jerk, a cheat (someone who doesn't pay contractors, not someone involved in relationship shenanigans), a liar, and weaponizing their fame to harass other people in the community.

Others say the above comments are nothing but hate-speech aimed at a person of a marginalized identity, and this person has written great works and brings creativity and fresh insights to the community at large.

I'd love to figure out which is true, or if they both have elements of truth.

The details are apparently covered in a Rascal article, possibly some posts at Medium, and of course, in multiple Discords. If I joined the right ones, I might be able to find out who actually said what. (I will not be joining any Discords over this.)

I can confirm:
• Creator in question has written some amazing stuff, not only much-lauded but also unique improvements to the TTRPG-sphere
• People I respect (but do not know personally) are calling aforementioned creator a scoundrel and abuser

( My analysis )

zwei_hexen

Tally:
Welcome post

( Days 1-15 )
Day 16:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

glinda,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 17:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 18:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 19:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 20:

badly_knitted,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 21:

badly_knitted,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 22:

china_shop

Let us know if we missed you or if you didn't check in for a while, so we can add you. Of course joining the fun is possible at any point.

~ ~ ~

ysilme here: nearly 1k of nonfic but no new words of fic. I did a few minor edits to a posted fic and re-uploaded it, so I'll count that as fic writing for today.

sylvanwitch here: 592 words on “Dixon and the Detective.”

musesfool

After waiting as they spent a long, slow afternoon in the oven, I just went to town on some baby back ribs. Holy cats, they were good. Super messy, of course, but delicious! And I have leftovers, so I'll be able to repeat the experience this week!

The pecan shortbread (pic) turned out well, too. I'm a little sad there's no blood orange gelato to go with them, but once the chicken tenders are gone, I will definitely be making it!

In more fannish news, there was a post I saw somewhere on tumblr that talked about a crossover (or fusion? it didn't go into great detail) between Batfam and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and said that the Bats would all be outside during the collapse, and feel obligated to go into the dungeon. And I don't necessarily disagree? But I also don't necessarily agree, either!

In DCC, we're told the collapse happened at approximately 2:20 am PT, which means it was 5:20 am ET, and if you (and by "you" I mean me) believe Gotham is in New Jersey, that is probably after they are all home, and hopefully showering/sleeping, so I'm not sure they survive just by nature of being on patrol. Maybe if Tim is out in San Francisco with the Titans, where it would also be 2:20 am PT, he'd survive, but I'm not necessarily convinced he would go into the dungeon, either. Because there's whatever survivors on the surface to take care of also. Maybe they'd split up? Some would go into the dungeon to see what it was about and others would stay up top to manage any survivors, lead any fighting against alien invaders?

Like, could Kon take being underground for so long without access to sunlight? He should probably stay on the surface and help that way. (I also think this is a hard crossover to make happen simply because...there are canonical aliens in the DCU and also the Green Lantern Corps. So you'd have to do some fast talking/handwaving to get to the interesting parts, because how do the Green Lanterns not know about this? Otoh, you could go full AU/fusion and have Krypton be a world that was stripped ages ago and everyone is shocked to see Kryptonians on Earth. Same with Tamaran or Mars I guess.)

And I do wonder how Batman specifically would fare in a dungeon where killing is the preferred (by the System AI and the Syndicate running the thing and a large portion of the audience) way to survive and advance. He and Cass would find other ways, and I'm sure they would amass fans and, eventually, sponsors, but it'd be harder, I think, especially on the earlier floors. I think we have seen him kill aliens though, at least in the animated universes, so maybe he'd be okay at first with killing goblins and ogres and ghouls etc. Idk.

Jason, otoh, would be all, "I'm built for this!" and shoot his way to glory, or at least do the killing when Bruce and Cass couldn't. Steph and Dick might be pragmatic enough to come around to killing mobs, at least, ( spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl )

And while I think a fusion might be a better way to go than a regular crossover (I know there is someone writing a Superman and Carl are BFF in the dungeon, or at least creating art for it, but I don't know what they've chosen to use for backstory), I would love to see Damian interact with Princess Donut. Or the System AI deal with Oracle.

*

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin

sovay

I must have slept ten hours. Hestia appears to be watching the rain with almost as much interest as the birds sheltering from it. May it and the recent snowmelt amend the drought. Tomorrow, of course, it is forecast to snow again.

selkie was safely collected from the Penn Station-alike that South Station has done its best to inhume itself into since her last visit, provided with an appropriate quantity of local barbecue for an obligate carnivore, and even successfully checked in to her hotel despite the mishegos attending every stage of her conference even before it started. At no point in this process did we apparently remember to take any pictures of ourselves.

My dreams seem to be branching out in terms of media, since last night's featured a youngish Alec McCowen starring in the radio version of a Tey-like crime novel as the ambiguously poor relation of an upper-class family who is not actually Kind Hearts and Coronets-ing his way through them, but needs to figure out who is before he's so handily scapegoated for the accidents escalating to murder ever since his arrival; he is, naturally, keeping a secret from the family, the authorities, and even the inattentive reader, but it isn't that. I was very pleased to find that a recording had survived, because the original novel had just been reprinted by the British Library Crime Classics. There were images mixed up in it in the way of dreams, but it was definitely on the Internet Archive.

Outside my head, I have been recently listening to Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn (2020), Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin's symbiont (2024), and Huw Marc Bennett's Heol Las (2026), which I found through its ghost-boxish "Cân Gwasael (Wassail Song)." I like that I do not have to dream their remixes of folk and futurism and time.

Current Music: Arlo Parks, "Weightless"

prisca posting in

sweetandshort

It's bingo time again. Let's have some fun with the following table:

tired	hero
peace	star

To complete the challenge, grab all the prompts and blackout the card. You can do single works or combine the four prompts in one work.
No one will blame you when you decide to do only one or two prompts, though.

Allowed are fics up to 500 words, small poems like haiku or similar, icons (100x100 px), and small graphics up to 500 px width x height. Please stay to the maximum, even if you decide to use all prompts in one work.

All fandoms, genres, and ratings are welcome, as are original work and real-person work.

Please tag your work with all relevant tags.

This challenge runs until March 31, at midnight in your time zone.

:::

Challenge Reminder:
10 out of 20
This and That
Rare Words

chez_jae

No Charm Intended (Cora Crafts Mystery #2)

No Charm Intended by Mollie Cox Bryan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

Late last night I finished reading my “spare” book: No Charm Intended by Mollie Cox Bryan. It’s the second book in the “Cora Crafts” series of cozy mysteries. The main character is Cora Chevalier, although a decent portion of the book was in the pov of her friend/business partner, Jane.

Cora is settling into life in Indigo Gap, and she and Jane are hosting their second craft retreat out of Kildare House. Before the retreat officially begins, Jane is thrown into a panic when her daughter’s babysitter disappears. Gracie is a levelheaded law student, which makes it unlikely she just up and pulled a runner. In the meantime, Cora has received an odd text, saying only “I kidnapped her.” Soon Gracie’s boyfriend, Paul, and his friend, Henry, come to Kildare House to see if Cora or Jane has heard from Gracie or knows anything. The police are looking into the missing person angle, but when a body is found in the area, the situation grows more urgent...and sinister. Cora and Jane are desperate for news of Gracie, but they have two dozen crafters on site, and the show must go on.

I didn’t read the first book in the series, but I didn’t feel as though I was missing out. Cora left her job of assisting victims of domestic violence for the calmer world of crafting, while Jane has left an alcoholic ex-husband behind. Characters were portrayed well, and I hope to see some of them in future books. I’d like to say the plot made sense, but some things were confusing and never adequately explained. For instance, why was Cora one of about a dozen people to get that menacing text? Aside from that, the ending of the book was not cozy-mystery-friendly; it was more appropriate for a thriller mystery, and I was left disgruntled by it. One final gripe: The author (and her editor) need to learn the difference between “sat” and “set”. I cringed each time someone “sat” something down. Ugh.

Favorite lines:
♦ “To the record and memory keepers!”
♦ Soon the two of them were lost in the world of Harry Potter.

I enjoyed this story. It was interesting and kept my attention. I was prepared to give it four stars, but the ending has me taking one star off: three stars.

( Trope Test )

Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Blackhawks vs Predators

creepy_shetan posting in

comment_fic

[ If you're interested in being a Tuesday-Thursday guest host, you can sign up here. Thanks! ❤ ]
↑↑↑ Available dates:
March 31 & April 2
April 7 & 9
April 14 & 16

Happy Sunday, everyone! :D Let's settle in and get some brainstorms started for today, our weekly Lonely Prompts adoption day, and perhaps in preparation for Lonely Prompts Week, which begins Monday. ✨ If this is your first time at

comment_fic on a Sunday, you can either request previous prompts to be filled or share your recent fills for prompts. (Or do both, of course!) ✎

How to look for prompts:
We have plenty of prompts that might just nibble away at your brain today. You can browse through the comm's calendar archive (here on LJ or here on DW) for themed and Free For All posts, or perhaps check out Sunday posts for Lonely Prompt requests. (Or, you can be like me, and try to save interesting prompts as you see 'em... and then end up with multiple text doc files full of [themes + links + prompts] that you can easily look through and search for keywords.) Multiple fills for one prompt are welcome, by the way! Oh, and you are very likely to find some awesome fills to read as well, and wouldn't it be nice to leave a comment on those lovely little writing distractions? ~_^

Whichever you decide to do, prompt or fill (or both), please remember:
1. You can only request five prompts to be filled.
2. You can request no more than three prompts from a particular fandom.
3. You can, however, fill as many prompts in as many fandoms as you'd like!
4. In the subject line, be sure to say whether it is a request or a fill!
5. You must link back to wherever the prompt is in the community archive (whether filling or requesting), and, if you're filling the prompt, please post the fill as a reply to the original prompt.
6. If you are filling an "any/any" prompt, please let us know what fandom you've written it for (or if it's original!).
8. If there are possible triggers in your story, please warn for them in the subject line!
7. If you've filled any lonely prompts in the past week, this is the place to share them!
9. Finally, please remember to add your prompt fills to our AO3 collection: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2026 collection. See further notes on this option here.

How to link:
[a href="http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/449155.html?thread=70682755#t70682755">MCU, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, She's wearing daisy dukes and one of his button-down shirts.[/a]
(change the brackets to "<" and ">" respectively)
or:
http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/139897.html?thread=30155641#t30155641
Burn Notice, Sam/Michael/Fi, "It's always been you. And it's always gonna be you."

We are on AO3! If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3, please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2026 collection.

If you are viewing this post on our Dreamwidth site: please know that fills posted here will not show up as comments on our LiveJournal site, but you are still more than welcome to participate. =)

If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so… and spread the word! comment_fic

A friendly reminder about our posting schedule: Themed posts for new prompts go up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day for new prompts of any flavor. Sundays are for showing Lonely Prompts some love, whether by requesting for someone to adopt them or by sharing any fills that you've recently completed.

rekishi

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

oursin

This week's bread: Elizabeth's David's Light Rye Loaf, which turned out nicely even though I discovered that the fresh yeast had finally given up and I had to fall back on Allinson's Easy Bake Yeast (which is not, horrors, the same as their former Active Dry Yeast).

Friday night supper: grocery order came early enough that I was able to put in hand the makings of a sardegnera with pepperoni.

Saturday breakfast rolls: brown toasted pinenut, with Marriage's Golden Wholegrain Bread Flour, turned out quite well.

Today's lunch: game casserole - mixture of pheasant, venison, duck and partridge with onion, garlic, bay leaf, juniper berries, coriander seeds and red wine; served with kasha, warm green bean and fennel salad, and baby pak choi stirfried with star anise

ysabetwordsmith

Today is sunny and hot. It is 85°F already. >_<

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, several brown-headed cowbirds, and a mourning dove.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 3/22/26 -- We hauled the first three garden bags to the old picnic table. It's 86°F now and too hot to do everything at once. :/

EDIT 3/22/26 -- We hauled the next three garden bags to the old picnic table.

The first grape hycacinth is blooming randomly in the middle of the house yard, pollinated by tiny native bees.

EDIT 3/22/26 -- I did a bit more work outside.

It's 87°F now, which is just ridiculous for March.

EDIT 3/22/26 -- We hauled the giant bag of raised bed soil to the side of the garden shed, where it's meant to fill in a hollow area.

EDIT 3/22/26 -- I put a few scoops of composted manure in each of the top and bottom row of large pots along the north side of the new picnic table. This bag wasn't broken down as fully as usual. :/

I stepped out the door and it was cold. I checked the temperature: 57°F. Yes, it dropped 30 degrees is another an hour. For fucksake.

The first purple violet and the apricot tree are blooming.

EDIT 3/22/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

It is now 47°F with howling wind. 0_o

EDIT 3/22/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night. The weather has been two different kinds of crappy all day.

EDIT 3/22/26 -- It got down just below freezing overnight.

Current Mood: busy

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donutsweeper

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Network

Foxfibre [text/ag]

Daily Happiness

Poem: "The Bridge of Mist"

Movie log.

inbox

Poetry Fishbowl Update

2026 Disneyland Trip #15 (3/22/26)

Science

Daily Check-In

Snowflake Challenge: day 6

The Receipts Are Paywalled

Write every day! - March 2026 - Day 22

like a star that can't wait for a night

Re-reading our texts from the strawberry days

March: Bingo

Book 25, 2026

Lonely Prompts Sunday, Week 12 [DW Edition]

What I did this weekend

Culinary

Birdfeeding

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March 2026

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