Reading

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Engineer restores pay phones for free public use

The 31-year-old electrical engineer says poor reception is a common frustration for residents of Vermont's Orange County. To address this issue, he's providing his community with a new way to stay connected.

Schlott has taken old pay phones, modified them to make free calls, and set them up in three different towns across the county. He buys the phones secondhand from sites like eBay and Craigslist and restores them in his home workshop.

I've always said that dismantling pay phones was dangerous, because even if most people have cell phones, those can be lost, broken, or out of service. It's nice to see this public good reviving in at least some areas.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is mostly clouding and mild, a beautiful day.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/5/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I checked the new picnic table and septic garden. No new vegetables to pick, but multiple zinnias are now blooming in shades of red and red-violet. :D Also the first of the giant sunflowers are blooming there.

.

Current Mood: creative

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Poetry Fishbowl Open!

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this space as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Books and Learning." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for readers, writers, storytellers, scribes, editors, publishers, students, teachers, caregivers, children, parents, bookworms, nerds, bookstore owners, librarians, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, superheroes, supervillains, other bookish people, reading, writing, delighting the reader, editing, publishing, bookbinding, shopping for books, telling stories, teaching, inviting students to a lesson, demonstrating tools, educating the whole child, learning, studying, parenting, lending a hand, cooperating, concentrating on a current task, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, respecting people, modeling manners and skills, learning to trust others, observing the environment, engaging all the senses, cultivating a full life, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, choosing your own goals, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, making mistakes, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, other educational activities, books, scrolls, magical tomes, printing presses, pens and pencils, bookstores, libraries, Little Free Libraries, book nooks, windowseats, Montessori schools, other alternative schools, preschools or daycares, Montessori homeschool, prepared environment, colleges and universities, beautiful places, craft centers, community centers, coffeehouses, outdoor classrooms, parks, nature centers, other spaces designed for learning, Triton Teen Centers, mentor circles, intentional communities, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna, the Aqademy of the Qrossroads, Waldorf toys, Montessori materials, intrinsic motivation, child independence, respect for the child, freedom to choose, freedom of time and uninterrupted work periods, absorbent mind, post-traumatic growth, individualized education, three-part cards, language lessons, mathematics, diverse ages and abilities, self-correcting toys and lessons, natural consequences, freedom of movement, intentional neighboring, diversity, inclusivity, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Crime Classics Bingo Card 8-1-25

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One involves education and reading in the Lacuna.

Arts and Crafts America focuses on fine arts and practical crafts, sometimes education. Bookbinding would be a logical craft.

The Bear Tunnels has future books in a past culture.

Daughters of the Apocalypse have to rediscover many historic skills for survival, including earlier methods of sharing knowledge.

Frankenstein's Family has two scientists teaching villagers to be thoughtful instead of stupid, and after a few years, several more people keenly interested in books and education.

Not Quite Kansas started with mishandling a book of spells, and involves trying to learn about a whole new world.

Path of the Paladins includes the Canticle of Thorns and other books.

Peculiar Obligations has Quakers in organized crime. The Religious Society of Friends has been greatly involved in education, including abolitionist and natural science publications.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people learning things. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Danso and Family, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is set in a world with plenty of magic and a positive tone, where people often help each other and solve challenges peacefully. It includes a healthy magical school.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they learn a lot along the way.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: happy

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The Perfect Toys, At Last

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

Current Mood: busy

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Linguistics

prettygoodword is posting about the Uto-Aztecan language family, and today's word is saguaro. Apparently they have edible fruit.

Current Mood: busy

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Emergency Food

dialecticdreamer has expanded her comment under my first Emergency Food post into a separate post with more tips for people with special dietary needs.

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Many Things Happened

Hello, Dear Readers. Let's start with some music, if one can call it that. I will elaborate a bit on part of the commentary between DB and me afterward.

( Thoughts on Ravel: La Valse )

Usually, I write what I call filler entries. They are entries for a specific day, written later, but with the perspective of the date shown. For example, I might post on 1 August, but at the top, you'll see "(Catchup - 4 August 2025)". But this week was quite extraordinary, so I'll just write it here. First, though, here is a bit of an announcement. I posted this to Blob.cat (Akkoma), tried to post to Friendica.world (it didn't work), and even to Facebook, which was a nightmare, as doing anything on that site is always headache-inducing. "After testing the features and accessibility for quite awhile, I have decided that my home on the Fediverse is at Mastodon. More specifically, it's at someplace.social. I mostly post there now, so if you wish to follow me, this is my address. You could also simply search for

dandylover1. It is so difficult to post here from the main page that I must use a third party client and am considering deleting my account. This is not the case with Mastodon.

https://someplace.social/@dandylover1

I am also still on Dreamwidth and will be updating it with new entries today.

http://dandylover1.dreamwidth.org

Finally, if you use MSN/Windows Live Messenger via Escargot and wish to add me, I am dandylover1@escargot.chat. If you are curious about this wonderful revival of accessible software, go to the following site.

http://www.escargot.chat"

On Saturday, the 26th, my parents were on there way to see Joanie's sister when they were in a car accident. Fortunately, they were completely unharmed, other than being startled. Joanie banged her shoulder and Mom banged her leg. Both were in shock when they came home, and so was I! I was watching Alli, and I had gone downstairs to get an iced tea. Mom said she called me, but I never heard the phone ring. Alli was barking, but he always barks any time he's alone, so I ignored it. Mom also said she sent a text, but it never went through. The thing is this. I don't carry my phone with me. It's not a major part of my life. I could even go out and forget it. I certainly wouldn't take it with me when going to another part of the house. Usually, I would hear a ring, even if I miss a text. But in both cases, once I return to my phone, I have no way of knowing when I receive either. There isn't a persistant notification. If I miss the ring or don't hear the quick sound that indicates a message was sent, I simply don't know I received it, unless, for some reason, I think of checking for missed messages or calls. This is why I love MSN/Windows Live Messenger via Escargot. I always have it running on my computer, it always makes a notification if someone sends me a message, and more importantly, it opens a new window when a new conversation is started, so that I see it when tabbing through my currently open windows, even if I am away from my computer and miss the sound! Anyway, on Sunday, we all just relaxed and recovered from that crazy ordeal.

Early Wednesday morning, Joanie flew to Florida to see her brother. Mom and I spent more time than usual together, which was really nice. We laughed a lot and I helped her with a few things around the house. We even watched a Hallmark film at the same time! I say it that way because while she watched it on television, I watched it from a site for the blind with audio description. It was a lot of fun. Joanie returned on Saturday at one in the morning, much later than planned, because they kept delaying her plane. In the meantime, something very strange happened. I was in the little house, working at my computer. It was after eleven at night. Suddenly, a plane flew over the house and I heard and felt a strange sound. I figured it had just flown really low and while it was odd, I thought nothing of it after a few minutes. Later, I learned that we had a 3.0 magnetude earthquake! What was Joanie doing up there, I wonder.

I wish they had a test to determine what makes the blood of certain people so attractive to mosquitos! Maybe, it's all the lovely, sweet-voiced tenori di grazia I listen to. Perhaps I should try Otello with Melchior or Tamagno, just to balance things. Seriously, I have so many bites on me right now that it's utterly ridiculous! I desperately need to find a way of keeping these bugs away from me that doesn't involve putting harsh chemicals on my skin or dealing with visual things i.e. cartridges and mats that change colour when they need to be refilled.

On a much happier note, Joanie made absolutely delicious steak tonight! I asked her what she had done differently, and she said nothing. It was wonderful, though.

Entry tags:

Lake Lewisia #1286

Everyone occasionally enjoys the pleasure of canceled plans, when a day that had been locked away behind the gates of obligation is opened up into a wide field of freedom, but we can’t always get out of our real schedules. A new service, Change of Plans, is available via phone or email, which allows you to create imaginary appointments, dates, and meetups, then cancel them after a time period of your choosing. Staff will even accept requests for levels of resistance--from cheerful agreement, to passive-aggressive undermining, to tearful pleading--to help you achieve a true sense of having gotten away with something.

---

LL#1286

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy and mild.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/4/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/4/25 -- I did a more work around the patio.

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

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

blogging,
personal

Monday Update 8-4-25

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Space Exploration
Birdfeeding
Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side
Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side
Emergency Food
Physics
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Threats
Survival Skills
Today's Adventures
Lightning
Cyberspace Theory
Birdfeeding
Crime Classics Bingo Card 8-1-25
Follow Friday 8-1-25: House
Today's Adventures
Birdfeeding
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Bingo
Poem: "Maho Shoujo"
Conservation
Birdfeeding
Juggling
Shanidar 1
Conservation
Genocide
Politics
Cuddle Party

"Philosophical Questions: Looks" has 48 comments. "Incompetence, Sloppy Thinking, and Laziness" has 75 comments. "Not a Destination, But a Process" has 148 comments. "The Democratic Armada of the Caribbean" has 97 comments.

sunshine_revival has concluded. See you next July! Review the schedule, meet the moderators, and use the master post to navigate the event. Meet new folks in the friending meme. Make one last sweep through the community posts to catch anything you missed.

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 1: Light
Poem: "The Pleasure of Escaping the Responsibility"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 2: Tunnel of Love
Poem: "Legs of Grass, Feet of Flowers"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 3: Food

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 4: Fun House
Poem: "The Bee Tree's Gift"

* Sunshine Challenge 5: Carnival Barker

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 6: Game Night
Poem: "A New Twist"

* Sunshine Revival Challenge 7: The Ferris Wheel

Sunshine Revival: Sunset

summerofthe69 is open! You can see the calendar here and the current themes are 69 Accommodations and Alternate Sexy Parts 69.

There are no open epics at present.

The weather has been less hot and wet here. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a pair of mourning doves, a pair of house wrens, a male cardinal, a gray catbird, a fox squirrel, and a bat. Currently blooming: dandelions, pansies, violas, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, wild strawberries, verbena, lantana, sweet alyssum, zinnias, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, impatiens, oxalis, moss rose, yarrow, anise hyssop, firecracker plant, tomatoes, tomatillos, Asiatic lilies, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, morning glory, purple echinacea, black-eyed Susan, yellow coneflower, chicory, Queen Anne's lace, sunflowers, cup plant, gladioli, firewheel, orange butterfly weed. Tomatillo and pepper have green fruit. Wild strawberries, mulberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers are ripe. The second crop of blackberries is ripe. I think the ball carrots might be ripe, but haven't had time to uproot any.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Space Exploration

Underground life on Mars? Cosmic rays could make it possible

Research challenges long-held assumptions about where life can exist in the solar system.
Cosmic rays from deep space might be the secret energy source that allows life to exist underground on Mars and icy moons like Enceladus and Europa. New research reveals that when these rays interact with water or ice below the surface, they release energy-carrying electrons that could feed microscopic life, a process known as radiolysis. This breakthrough suggests that life doesn't need sunlight or heat, just some buried water and radiation.

*laugh* Took them long enough. Earth has an ecosystem around the black smokers that runs on heat and chemistry instead of sunlight.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and mild, a beautiful day. :D

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a fox squirrel screaming at me from the top of a tree.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- My partner Doug mowed the house yard and paths to the fly-through feeder and new picnic table.

I picked up a branch in the house yard.

I did more work around the patio.

I've seen a pair of mourning doves foraging in the cut grass.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I did ass-busting amounts of effort to haul the hose around, watering the septic garden, new picnic table garden, patio plants, old picnic table garden, and a few other things around the house yard.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- We did more ass-busting amounts of effort to remove the old stretchy hose from the reel, then get the new tape hose onto the reel.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/3/25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden and savanna seedlings with a watering can. Both of this year's pawpaw seedlings are still alive! :D

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

Entry tags:

progress,
rant

Done This Week

Man, come on…

Mum’s phone factory reset itself. While there is some small chance she managed to press the correct series of buttons with the right timing just by squashing it in her pocket, that seems...impressively unlikely. So we’re classifying it as a software issue and getting the service to replace it.

It wasn’t backed up, because we weren’t really interested in letting Google have access to everything we’ve ever done on the devices. So she’s got years of data and contacts lost (though not everything, because we wrote paper lists of contacts when we first got the phones because we couldn’t transfer data from the old ones). We’ll eventually manage to get most of the numbers back. It’s upsetting but not, I suppose, the end of the world.

All the same, I find myself wracked with guilt about it. It feels like, every time something goes wrong at home, there’s a voice in my head saying, why didn’t you keep this from happening? I’ve always had an overdeveloped sense of personal responsibility, but it seems to get worse year by year.

I am reminded of the passage from Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

“Did you know,” interrupting the ghostly figure, fixing Zaphod with a stern look, “that Betelgeuse Five has developed a very slight eccentricy in its orbit?”

Zaphod didn’t and found the information hard to concentrate on what with all the noise and the imminence of death and so on.

“Er, no… look,” he said.

“Me spinning in my grave!” barked the ancestor. He slammed the cup down and pointed a quivering, stick-like see-through finger at Zaphod.

“Your fault!” he screeched.

Lewisia: 3 new pieces written, August posts queued

Day job: 42.75 hours

Reading: The Ice Princess by Camilla Läckberg (arbitrarily searched Libby for books set in Sweden, which of course means murder mysteries, there’s a lot of shitty “appearance=morality/worth” messages coming from all corners, but I am *reluctantly* invested enough to want to read the next in the series)

Watching: I’ve been doing a casual sort of liveblogging of weird moments from New Scandinavian Cooking on tumblr, which continues to be my obsession du jour

Listening: An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer (always a bit sad to learn about someone cool because they died, but I will enjoy the discovery nonetheless), Braiding the Stories by Gaahl’s WYRD (metal-ish, Nordic-ish, another rec I can’t remember the source of)--as a side note, it sucks that getting into folk music and metal both means navigating a minefield of Nazi shit from artists and/or their fanbase and always feeling reluctant to mention a new artist I’m listening to for fear that I’ve missed some incident or dogwhistle

Clock Mouse: 1431 words--wow, that added up rather nicely

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

Photos: Coles County Community Garden

These pictures show the Coles County Community Garden on Saturday, August 2. (Begin with Part 1: Right Side, Part 2: Left Side.)

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side

These are pictures from the left side of the Charleston Food Forest on Saturday, August 2. (Begin with Part 1: Right Side. Continue with Coles County Food Forest.)

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

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Photos: Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side

These are pictures from the Charleston Food Forest. (Continue with Part 2: Left Side, Coles County Food Forest.)

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Emergency Food

The Best Emergency Food Kits

Emergency food kits containing easy-to-prepare, shelf-stable meals can also give you peace of mind, especially if you live in a region where weather events may disrupt your access to fresh food. These meals last for years (sometimes up to 30), they are easy to prepare, and many come in lightweight, portable pouches. Sure, shelf-stable meals don’t provide a gourmet dining experience, but they’re often nutritionally dense and packed with protein. So they can keep you going during a time of great stress.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

news,
science

Physics

Rutgers physicists just discovered a strange new state of matter

The finding could lead to advanced technological applications and new quantum devices.
At the edge of two exotic materials, scientists have discovered a new state of matter called a "quantum liquid crystal" that behaves unlike anything we've seen before. When a conductive Weyl semimetal and a magnetic spin ice meet under a powerful magnetic field, strange and exciting quantum behavior emerges—electrons flow in odd directions and break traditional symmetry. These findings could open doors to creating ultra-sensitive quantum sensors and exploring exotic states of matter in extreme environments.

Yep, that's useful in many advanced technologies including supercomputers and rovers for space exploration.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a mourning dove. The thistle feeder was about half empty.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/2/25 -- I took some pictures of the metal tray birdfeeder.

EDIT 8/2/25 -- I watered the old picnic table plants.

EDIT 8/2/25 -- I visited the Charleston Food Forest. Grapes are ripe, which is why we went. These are tiny white grapes -- pea size or a little bigger -- seedless and very sweet. :D I picked 3 bunches and there are plenty left for other folks. I also got a few asparagus berries, a few white marigold heads, and quite a bit of wild indigo seedpods. Some wild indigo has tiny bluish seedpods, while others have thumb-sized brown seedpods.

One of the peach trees has completely overgrown the path behind the welcome sign and is covered in peaches. They are still hard and green. I hope that I can get some from that tree when they ripen, in hopes of sprouting the seeds.

EDIT 8/2/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 8/2/25 -- I trimmed around the goddess garden. One of the silver thyme plants is almost white now. :D

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