This is for the sailors and would be sailors out there (

threemeninaboat ).

It was a pretty day today, warm with a nice breeze, so I decided to take a long walk. Original plan was to walk to the Freedom Tower and 1 World Trade to see the "Walk of Heroes" virtual exhibit, but I decided that it will be crowded and not nearly enough time. Also it was 83F/23C, and humid. So instead, I chose to walk up the pier and check out the boats. This was after checking out the smorgasbord and open air market of vendors in Bowling Green aka Immigrants Park. They had all sorts of foods on display, only one that was clearly gluten-free, and a lot of expensive cut crystals and stones. I just grabbed a bunch of maps from the tourist information booth, high tailed it back upstairs, deposited them in my back pack, then went back downstairs for my walk up the pier. Breaking Bad (my boss) was out of the office today, as was practically everyone else - so no one noticed, not that they would anyhow. And I did manage to make it back by 1:15 pm, Chilled Matcha Latte in tote.

I managed to make it all the way up to Pier 16, where the Seaport Boat Museum was located.

This was after I wandered about on a wooden deck with plenty of grass, overlooking the harbor and the city.
( Deck and tall buildings )

And took a picture of one of the tall boats from the deck:

( tall clipper ship )

Then wandered a bit further up the roof top deck to take a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge, and a few smaller boats.

( Brooklyn Bridge and smaller boats )

Here's a picture of another tall boat, and the mall at Pier 17 behind it:

Here's a broader picture of the big tall boat and the museum:

I told threemeninaboat a while back that the Tall Clipper Ship gave cruises, but in reality its part of the Seaport Boat Museum. NYC is basically a huge city on a bunch of islands, surrounded by bridges, tunnels, rivers, bays, ocean and boats. It's one of the things I love most about NYC. There's always the slight scent of ocean in the air or water.
And being near the sea is oddly freeing in a way. Perhaps because I've always loved the water? I find it calming.

It was a calming walk - and by the time I returned to my work place, I was sweating and more than ready for air conditioning - because it was also just a touch balmy.

ranunculus

The garden looks like a demented spider has been at work; I'm more or less finished with shade cloth in the garden. One piece of cloth needs to move, but otherwise I think everything I want to cover is covered. It is hot today, it got up to 107F 41.6 C. ( Shade cloth pictures. )

summersgate

Jan and I went to Chloe's Paint and Sip today. This is the picture that we painted. "Quiet".

Pictures from last evening:

IMG_20250709_190152829[1].jpg

I like how Virginia Creeper is coming up everywhere on the lawn by the creek now. This lawn used to be all brush and weeds before we worked on it this spring.

IMG_20250710_193528007_HDR[1].jpg

The two chairs we sit in when we throw ball for Andy.

IMG_20250710_203645593[1].jpg

This isn't a picture of the sky, but a picture of the reflection of the sky in the lake.

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

After returning to the 84/30 we ended up at the Bonneville Dam in search of a bathroom! It was a good stop though as the view (and sound) of the dam was impressive. ( Read more... )

cosmolinguist

"I wasn't expecting you to know the words to a song that I don't at Goths on a Field!" D just said.

I wasn't either. I'm here because I love doing anything with him and I didn't want to be away from him all weekend (especially after I was away the precious two days!). But I don't like camping and I don't like a lot of goth music.

But this evening has been a lot of folk and vaudeville kind of things. The song I knew, sung so amazingly by The Midsommars, I know as "Magpie" from the amazing Unthanks album Mount the Air.

quillpunk posting in

booknook

Same exact deal as last year! XD

This is the sign-up post for the 2025 October Review-a-Thon I’m hosting here in

booknook! To sign up, simply comment on this post with what day(s) you’re claiming.

Each day claimed equals one distinctive review, so if you’re claiming three days, you’re signing up to post three different reviews. You can claim up to five days. You can claim a day that’s already claimed, but you must claim different days for each review. You do not need to mention what book(s) you intend to review. You can claim more days up to the max at any time, simply make a new comment and claim more. You can unclaim a day at any time. Sign-ups are open until Oct 30.

Good luck!

Claimed Days

( Days to Claim )

Posting Guidelines (click the arrow!)

We’re not doing any specific rules regarding the reviews for the events. Your post just needs to adhere to any General Posting Guidelines that applies: this means including a clear header with information regarding the book’s title, author, and any applicable content warnings.

Any spoilers (no matter how old the book is) need to be behind a cut or an accordion (this is an accordion!)

If your review is not suitable for all ages, adjust the age restriction of the post.

The subject line should clearly state that it’s a review. Please tag for at least format, age group, and genre.

The review needs to be posted in its entirety, don’t just go ‘and you can keep reading on…’

You need to be a member to post to the comm.

Questions and Concerns

I will make a top comment on this post, please leave any questions and concerns about the event as a reply to that comment to easily keep everything in one place. This post will not be sticky, as I think we’re already on max on that, but I will link it in the sidebar under the new ‘Quick Navigation’ heading.

What if I don’t make it to my claimed day?

If you don't post a review on the day you signed up for, nothing will happen :D This is intended to be a low-pressure, fun event, and not meant to put undue pressure on you. Again,

booknook is always open to reviews! You can post it later, or not at all. You also would not be required to mention in your sign-up which book you intend to review so you can change your mind until the very last second. There are no repercussions for not posting anything on your claimed day!

What if I’m not signed up but I want to post a review in October?

booknook is open to reviews 24/7 and that would not change. You’re absolutely still allowed to post a review during this month (even on a claimed day) without signing up!

What kind of books can I review?

Any kind of books! Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, webnovels, short stories, etc. If you think it counts, it counts. Likewise, it doesn't matter how old the book is; a 200-year-old book is just as welcome as one that was just published two weeks ago. Here, it's just all about the books! :D

How does reviews work?

In general, a review should contain an introduction of the book and what you think about it and whether it's something you would recommend to others. Here's a few quick links I found searching (if you've got resources for tips on writing reviews, you're welcome to share them and I can add them to the list):

https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/book-review-examples

https://thewritepractice.com/how-to-write-a-book-review/

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/book-reviews/

It's time for the Fake Internet Deadlines to shine! :D

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is sunny and sweltering.

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

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 7/11/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

EDIT 7/11/25 -- Yesterday I collected 5 little pink crabapples while out and about. These are almost marble size, much more useful than the pea-sized ones. So I potted up those today to see if they'll sprout.

.

Current Mood: busy

spikedluv

Good season finale! ( spoilers )

As it says on the tin: Good news, stupid humans: Murderbot has been renewed (avclub.com) [The big question is, who is going to play ART?!!]

altamira16

This book was a very well done AI skeptic book that was rooted in deep knowledge of the history of artificial intelligence, and it brought to light some interesting points that I had never thought about.

It gets into the history of AI, and a lot of that discussion is rooted in the type of probabilistic models that I learned about in grad school. It is discussing n-grams, Markov, and so on.

There is a discussion about how AI is an attempt to break labor and gets into a more detailed history of the Luddites. The Luddites were craftsmen, and machines were replacing their hard won skills with an inferior product. The machines that were doing this were also dangerous to their operators.

Various people involved in AI feel like there should not be any AI policy until it is thoroughly discussed, but the authors propose that existing laws should be used to limit the use of AI in areas where it can do harm. They quote Michael Atleson, an attorney within the FTC Division of Advertising Practices:

Your therapy bots aren't licensed psychologists, your AI girlfriends are neither girls nor friends, your griefbots have no soul, and your AI copilots are not gods.

For example, there should not be AI therapy or AI-driven law because the harm that can come from those things is great. Law has to do with the nuance of language, and generated language that no human really thinks through does not have the same nuance.

There were also good arguments for limiting the use of AI in education.

In August 2020, thousands of British students, unable to take their A-level exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic, received grades calculated based on an algorithm that took as input, among other things, the grades that other students at their schools received in previous years. After massive public outcry, in which hundreds of students gathered outside the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street in London, chanting "Fuck the algorithm!" the grades were retracted and replaced with grades based on teachers' assessments of the student work.

A lot of technology in education is designed to give an inferior education to poor kids and union-bust.

One thing that I did not know was that the little Gemini summary on a Google search uses 10-30 times more energy than search before this feature was added.

The authors see both AI doomers and AI boosters as two sides of the same coin. Both of these groups believe that the AI will become smarter than humans. The outcome is the only thing that they differ on.

The group that wants to consider the data used to train the models and the impacts that AI has on the present really does not want to get lumped in with AI doomers that think that the AI is going to eventually get so smart that it will destroy humanity. They are rooted in reality while the doomers are not. There was some criticism of how Vice President Harris was trying to get the people concerned with the present impact of AI to work with the doomers.

There were a lot of references Karen Hao's work. How has recently released the book "Empire of AI." Hao is an AI journalist specifically focused on OpenAI.

maju

Some days I feel anxious and antsy, as if I'm supposed to be doing something but I'm not sure what. Mostly I keep myself occupied, constructively or otherwise, and the feeling goes away. Yesterday I was feeling like that and then I started thinking that really, there's absolutely nothing I *should* be doing. I'm lucky enough (and I guess old enough) to not have to have a job, and there's nobody apart from myself that I'm responsible for. I can sit around all day and do nothing if I want to. (But I never do want to.)

Today I finally finished a puzzle that I started working on about three months ago. It took me ages to really get into it after I'd found most of the edge pieces, but once I got serious about it I was more driven to work on it regularly. Now I'm looking forward to starting my next one.

oursin

This time it was online, in Teams, and worked a bit better than some Team events I've attended, or maybe I'm just getting used to it.

A few hiccups with slides and screen sharing, but not as many as there might have been.

Possibly we would rather attend a conference not in our south-facing sitting-room on a day like today....

But even so it was on the whole a good conference, even if some of the interdisciplinarity didn't entirely resonate with me.

And That There Dr oursin was rather embarrassingly activating the raised hand icon after not quite every panel, but all but one. And, oddly enough, given that that was not particularly the focus of the conference, all of my questions/comments/remarks were in the general area of medical/psychiatric history, which I wouldn't particularly have anticipated.

greghousesgf

PG&E doubled their damn rates. My landlady told me my electric bills should go down once they hook up the solar panels, which I thought they already did. There's supposed to be a bldg meeting about that Thursday, the odd thing is they're having the meeting 2 and a half hours after they normally leave.
I also got a new watch, the band on my old one broke, I was just going to have the band replaced but I found a nice watch in this second hand store that sends its money to cancer patients and they only wanted 5 dollars for it. It probably would have cost a lot more than 5 dollars if I just got a watchband at some other store. Plus, of course I'm all for helping cancer patients.
Looking forward to tonight, I'm going to the East Bay Gay Men's chorus concert!

Current Music: David Bowie

conuly

Adrian Tchaikovsky is amazingly hit-or-miss for me, but this looks like it's coming up "hit". The sapient arthropods are a swarm of bees. If there are any spiders, I haven't met them yet!

yourlibrarian posting in

everykindofcraft

Some short necklaces in brown and gold. Up top wood, amazonite and metal balls. Below the cut wood discs with glass studded metal beads and glass E beads. I had originally been thinking of this use for the wood discs until I found the pendant in my previous post.

( Read more... )

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3114/

That was quicker than usual! The cabin's sprinkler system often makes it really hard to keep anything lit.

https://xkcd.com/3114/

ribirdnerd posting in

birdfeeding

Back to sunny weather today after a lot of rain the past day and a half. My rain gauge had 4 inches of water in it so far this week!

6 Blue Jays, some Mourning Dove, House Sparrows and a Downy Woodpecker were all around this morning.

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by john (the hubby of Jen)

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/bakery-math-2025

One ugly 8-inch round flower cake:

$6.00

Five ugly 8-inch round flower cakes:

$30.00

Five ugly 8-inch round flower cakes plopped on

styrofoam and cardboard stands:

$235.00

The look on the bride's face?

Priceless.

There are some things money can't buy...

but a decent wedding cake isn't one of them.

Thanks to Melinda W., Holley W., Kae B., Liz Q., Meghan F., Nikki G., and Lainey M. who thinks we should start investing in styrofoam and cardboard.

*****

P.S. I found something for the bride who wants to wear something old, something new, something borrowed, and something poo:

Unicorn Poop Earrings

Don't stop believing, y'all. Dreams do come true.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/bakery-math-2025

m_of_disguise

Developed a terrible case of nausea late yesterday afternoon, so my only goal for the evening was to take it easy and do very little. Thankfully, M had a frozen pizza on hand, so he had dinner available whenever he wanted it. Baby went down at a decent hour, so I tried as hard as I could to take it easy on the couch and not irritate my guts.

We had a power flicker for no damned reason in the mid-afternoon. We haven't even reached our hottest temperatures of the year yet. It seems like every day there's another signal from this apartment that it's time to get out. Just seven more months!

Been poking at the cassock project, and was all geared up to start sketching out the embroidery, when I read on someone's blog (Sibella's maybe?) that it was described in detail in 17th Century Women's Clothing Vol.2. I had looked only at volume 1 when I'd been doing pattern research, so I dug out vol.2 and there it was, with the entire embroidery laid out on the pattern pieces! That makes my job a thousand times easier. There's also a similar, non-embroidered version in the same book, and I like its lines slightly better, so I'm contemplating combining the pattern from that one with the embroidery of the first one. They wouldn't be very different, it's just the non-embroidered one has a collar and cuffs, and a two-part sleeve instead of a one-part. It would push the date slightly into the 17th century instead of being more plausibly late-16thC, but the dates are wiggly enough that I think it'd still be SCA-okay.

Anyway, the plan is to do a wearable mockup of the pattern so I have something to wear to Baronial College in September if the embroidery isn't finished (which it likely won't be) and aim to have the embroidered one done in time for my "lying in" period at the end of my pregnancy, when no doubt I will end up stuck in the hospital again for a couple of weeks because my body is dumb. That would give me five months to do the embroidery, which seems pretty reasonable if I chip away at it a little bit each night.

M finally got the email from HR setting up his third interview for the job he's going after. His friend told him to keep his eyes out for a second email sometime between now and the interview, but didn't elaborate on what it could be. M suspects that his potential boss wants to have an informal in-person meeting, but I think he's getting a bit ahead of things. We'll see what unfolds.

M's birthday is Monday, and he's taken Mon-Tues off for it. I asked him if there's anything he wants to do, but he waffled and said he didn't want to spend a bunch of money. I suggested a few not terribly expensive things he could do, like going to the range for the day or catch a band he likes, or even just going out for a steak, but he was non-committal. I'm sure he'll think of something he wants to do as the day comes around.

minoanmiss

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

Current Mood: amused

james_davis_nicoll

New Dawn requires only that people conform without exception or face memory erasure and worse. Yet, a minority insists on being individuals.

The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe

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Network

Boat Walk

Update

friday

Bonneville Dam

Ah, but we respect the old ways

[Sign-Up Post] October Review-a-Thon 2025

Claimed Days

Birdfeeding

TV Talk: Murderbot

The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna

(no subject)

That There Dr Oursin was at a conference again

(no subject)

Trying to read Dogs of War

Wood Discs and Amazonite Gold

Building a Fire

Friday July 11

Bakery Math

One ugly 8-inch round flower cake:

$6.00

Five ugly 8-inch round flower cakes:

$30.00

Five ugly 8-inch round flower cakes plopped on

styrofoam and cardboard stands:

$235.00

The look on the bride's face?

Priceless.

(no subject)

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The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe

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July 2025

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