Hibiscus flower is blooming. Short-lived gigantic flowers that look like satellite dishes to fetch the bees. To celebrate made a batch of Hibiscus sun tea for summer punch.
Thrilled for St. Paul author Naomi Kritzer winning 2024 Hugo Awards for both Short Story & Novelette. 2016 Hugo Best Short Story “Cat Pictures Please” is my all-time fave sci-fi story. In Twin Cities, find signed copies of her books at Uncle Hugo’s or Dreamhaven. Quite the writing community here!
@bobwertz And that's why Microsoft invested in gaming, while Linux & Apache keep the Internet humming just fine, despite so many dead WANs behind those firewalls...
@heyloura Been reading lots of Robot sci-fi this past year, starting with Asimov up to Murderbot, but Service Model took a different direction. It's not a complicated plot, yet takes twists that add up to a firm ending. A fun read for a tragic premise.
@heyloura Looks good. Laughed repeatedly reading first chapter still on Royal Road. Lighter-hearted innovative post-Anthropocene sci-fi is a fave. Just finished Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky in such genre, and highly recommend the book. Looking forward to Kitty Cat Kill Sat
After Sinusitis for a week, woke up with crusty eyelids & pink eye yesterday. Jackson Browne’s Doctor My Eyes came to mind; listening to the song, I did cry—not just for my own sorry state, but our sick old world today. Waiting now for the Doc to prescribe for me, but what about our world?
Here’s Berrien Public Beach near Union Pier, Michigan, on the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan, where the beach goes on forever…
@danielpunkass Yes, recently enjoyed some days in Lakeside, Michigan, on the coastal Red Arrow Highway. The beach goes on & on.
Deconstructed Shrimp Kebab on the Barbi.
The common Minnesota Prairie Spiderwort can pop up anywhere, like my urban alleyway.
Tradescantia Occidentalis
Nice Spring weather & blooms here in Minnesota. Our Red Maple has burst out over past 3 weeks. Leaves 5x6 inches, smooth as finest silk.
First Dandelion of Spring 🌼 in March?!
Been a year since Barber Bob closed the MGEX Barbershop 💈 and fun to see the Media blitz we got. But mothballing the site to the old WordPress morgue on anniversary tomorrow.
@sgtstretch Good to know. Reading some Murderbot series, and looking forward to Monk and Robot series. Exciting to see what emerges when droids find sentience.
Vernal Equinox sunset over East Lake Street, Minneapolis.
Tulips sprouting almost a month early this year.
Michele’s Avocado Toast
Month old carnations in the window
@petebrown Never trust a benevolent dictator... especially when Dot-Com plunders Dot-Org.
@petebrown As a former journalist for local and national rags, I dread losing indie media. We support national and local newspapers & mags + indie online rags. Jeez, I worked from 'zines, street sheets, weekly Readers, up to TIME. Now peeps doom scroll or TikTok? Not about Print, it's Sources
@maique oof. Well, better to be boosted rather than having COVID. Several acquaintances who skipped have been sick for a week with the virus. Take Care
@Ddanielson Yea, me too. Picky, lazy reader in my old age. But with Little Free Library and Libby ebooks, easy to browse, sample, and discard books. Still, when 50% read, I have to finish. My corner LFL serves about 500 books annually, so fun to manage and track with LibraryThing.
@petebrown Nice. I buy most holiday gifts at arts & crafts fairs throughout the year. Not looking for specific people, just finding wonderful things by makers that catch my eye and favor. Some I keep, others I give away.
All the Little Free Library books were taken overnight. Happens once a year somehow. My faith in humanity is dinged, while my hope for literacy carries on. Libraries forever!
@gregmoore The notion of AI commanding OS and replacing Apps is a big realization of the potential direction and threat to so much technology. Could doom the Right to Repair movement.
@petebrown Well said. Also, another example of using Open Source to leverage community & cash for some commercial flip. Microsoft invests, then buys out key staff. Not unlike WordPress.com owning WordPress.org, and so many other successful FLOSS projects pirated for capital gains.
@ovr .Today rings well. I use .Life for a local community site and .Ink for author sites. WWW & .Com be gone ... though I somehow miss saying "dub-dub-dub"
1,000 Books served at our Longfellow Villa Little Free Library since 2002. Thanks to neighbors who share & read. Books logged with Library Thing displayed on site at Longfellow.Life
@ovr Makes perfect sense & everyone deserves their own decent domain. The Internet works just fine without commercialized social media.
Cast iron skillet Cornbread, for some hot chili on a chill November eve.
@flotisserie Nobody has to know my roasted orange beets are beets. Just like nobody has to know that my salad turnips are turnips.
@writingslowly Yes content is a biz asset for marketing & commerce. Content Strategy turned the corner on that. Authors, artists, designers et al. as creative talent have been commodified or struggle down the Long Tail.
@petebrown @writingslowly Can I fix the old code in a private fork... ;-) Best projects have a clear Roadmap of Releases, Cycles and Sunsets. Unlike WordPress, more like Drupal.
@agilelisa None of the many WordPress page builders are loved, most are despised....so what did you go with? Or switch to another CMS? Seems content managers have become content manglers in so many ways.
@writingslowly Keep in mind the majority of Internet infrastructure is Open Standards & Open Source. Imagine no Linux nor Apache...nor Wikipedia. The real problem is when profit-driven commercial enterprises take over. I enjoyed my WordPress contributor role and it expanded my tech horizons.
@writingslowly Elementor is a comprehensive wraparound plugin, but more than writers need—still a nice balance for designers and writers to work together. For a theme, GeneratePress is a good general template system, not relying on blocks. Both have free and premium versions.
@writingslowly Yes, better to use the Classic Editor plugin for standard web pages. Besides, Elementor is the most popular fix for a friendly and reliable design and layout alternative to blocks in WordPress.
@writingslowly Gutenberg interface for content blocks in WordPress is a step backwards, as it forces users into an arbitrary abstract workflow. Worse it was concocted primarily by WordPress.COM not WordPress.ORG to please the CEO of the commercial side driving away some Open Source contributors.
Buttermilk biscuits and cinnamon crunch cookie from dough scraps. Now open the Apple Butter from Whistling Well Orchard.
Walk me out in the morning dew.
Didn’t realize how much I depend on LibraryThing on a daily basis until I couldn’t scan my Little Free Library additions yesterday. Why a DDOS attack against them??? They’re back up today, and we’ve now logged 927 books over 1-1/2 years.
Wall of Morning Glories
@baldur Seems Gutenberg has been developed primarily by and for WordPress.com by Automatic, while the majority of WordPress.org users get stressed again and again by the meanderings. There was never a design architecture for Gutenberg, and many contributors like me exited years ago as we saw this coming.
Giant Jamaica Flower blooms on Hibiscus plant
Thick honeysuckle bushes at Lake Independence in Baker Park Reserve.
Thick honeysuckle bushes at Lake Independence in Baker Park Reserve.