Makoyi's Fanfic Recs and Other Stuff

This post discusses the benefits of penabling -- getting your friends interested in fancy pens. 

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Communication Styles." 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 journalists, writers, radio hosts, counselors, linguists, leaders, public speakers, explorers, traders, diplomats, negotiators and mediators, partners, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people who deal in communication, writing, speaking, translating, parenting, teaching, adventuring, negotiating, mediating, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, giving instructions, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, newspaper offices, writer nooks, radio stations, counseling centers, trading posts, classrooms, schools, churches, sharehouses, campfires, coffeehouses, bookstores, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where communication happens, momentious conversations, mysterious manuscripts, confusing transmissions, negotiations, lectures, romantic complications, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, 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.

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

Piracy Bingo Card 9-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture with unique communication quirks.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, including literacy.

The Blueshift Troupers travel to different planets solving problems.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures, making it challenging for refugees to communicate with each other.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, with a distinct split between Before and After dialects.

Eloquent Souls presents a setting where soulmarks are common, leading to many odd expressions as people try to make their Words distinctive.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, along with a pack of werewolves, a couple of vampires, and a mummy.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with lots of interesting relationships and ways to communicate.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household.

Not Quite Kansas includes an awkard trio of a college student, a former cop, and their demon who often encounter challenges with communication.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks, with a surprising amount of heartfelt conversations.

Path of the Paladins involves a lot of communication between humans but also deities.

Peculiar Obligations features Quakers and pirates trying to get along.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society.

Quixotic Ideas has a more positive world with integrated magic, where people usually manage to solve problems with communication rather than violence.

Schrodinger's Heroes is about saving the world from alternate dimensions. The group is very diverse in background and communication styles.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

( Read more... )

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

EDIT 9/1/25 -- I re-watered the telephone pole garden and watered the notch in the prairie garden.

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