A quick first post on my encounters with wildlife, to introduce the challenges I'm involved in.
British Trust for Ornithology Garden Bird Watch: I began this last summer, as part of my 25 Things in 2025. I continue to record my sightings (such as they are) every week. Birds in Green Spaces: The project is running from April to June this year and asks for a count of the birds seen in specified green spaces. There are two designated green spaces near where I live, so I'm aiming to visit them once a week.
UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme Flower Insect Timed Count: Runs from April to September, and asks for 10 minutes to count insects on certain flowers. It requires a warm, preferrable sunny, day.
Butterfly Conservation Big Butterfly Count: Happens from the middle of July to the middle of August Garden Butterfly Survey: I'm waiting for warmer weather and the flowering of some of our bushes Butterflies for the New Millennium: An ongoing count, which I'm currently doing when I do the birds in green spaces count
While there may be other opportunities which are less structured, these are the ones I'm using when I go for a walk locally.
"Welcome back to round one of the National Wreck Bowl, folks. Our reigning champion, Pat Wüfflehausen, has filled his pastry bags and is ready to attempt a new world record.
"Greg, this is obviously a huge challenge for Wüffelshausen. What do you think he's feeling right now?
"Well, he ate the same lunch we did, Pete, so probably nauseous and constipated."
"Hey, I did warn you about those samosas, buddy. Aaaand here we go! Our champ is now in position. Looks like he's assessing the area...he's preparing to pipe...and...
"A-HA! Would you look at that? Right out of the gate, he has destroyed the first word!"
"Tell me, Greg, how many points would you say that misspelling is worth?"
"Oh, I have no idea."
"But if you had to take a shot in the dark?"
"Well, I'd probably spill it."
"No, no, I mean...Uh, tell you what, let's just move on to round two."
"YES!! Wüfflehausen just manages to knock out the second word! That was quite a close call, turning the 'I' into an 'E', don't you think, Greg?"
"Only when absolutely necessary, Pete."
"Haha, sounds good. Well, folks, this is it: the final round. And, uh-oh! Look what just got plunked down on the playing field!
"Greg, it's going to be pretty tough for Wüfflehausen to misspell "achieve" with that star stamp right next to him. Do you think he can pull it off?
"Well, sure! It's just a tiny plastic pick - probably doesn't weigh a thing."
"No, no, sorry, that was my fault there, Greg. I mean, do you think he can do it?"
"Do what?"
"Right, let's get back to the action! The crowd is hushed with anticipation, and you can almost feel the tension in the air, can't you, Greg?"
"Abso-lutely not!"
"And here we go...and, oh! Oh! It looks like he could...go...all..the...way!
"YES!! Do you believe in miracles?!?"
"Well, there was that time my mother-in-law fell down the stairs..."
"And that's a new World Record! To those of you at home, thanks for tuning in, and good night!"
Annie, I think I'd call this the "Hale Mary" of Wreckerating.
This one has the word "spiffing" in the title AND comes with a lovely green-and-gold cover, so folks will recognize your sophisticated taste while begging you to stop telling these terrible, TERRIBLE jokes.
Bocage has a couple of interesting definitions--and I first came across it in a weird thrift store finds Facebook group. That leafy screen, shrub, or grass seen in figurines? That's bocage and it comes from a type of terrain seen in the European countryside as well.
I'm just falling behind on posts. Haven't finished the tail end of my Osaka visit, and now I have Taipei stuff queued. But to try to reset to where I am... US passports get you into much of the world with little hassle, for a 90 day (sometimes 30) visit. But what happens after that?
Schengen Area is pretty strict: only 90 out of the past 180 days. If you want to perpetual tourist there, you have to spend half your time outside: UK, maybe some of the Balkans, or Morocco. OTOH some Asian countries are said to not care; I've read about people basically hopping back and forth over the Thai border to reset their visas, and a comment claimed Taiwan doesn't care either. For Japan, OTOH, Immigration officials are said to get suspicious if you seem like you're working illegally via fast cycling. But apparently a 2nd visit with a 5 week outing doesn't trigger flags; my return was as unquestioned as my first arrival, and I'm back in Osaka. ( Read more... )
What are you thankful for this week? · Photos are optional but encouraged. · Check-ins remain open until the following week's post is up. · Do feel free to comment on others' check-ins but don't harsh anyone else's squee.
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
This year I'm experimenting with garden crafts, so I'll share a few resources.
DIY Tomato Cages This box style was the inspiration for the one I built. If you're cutting fresh poles, let them dry at least a few days, or debark them. Mine kinda sprouted.
In the meantime, I've been approving new fandom and character nominations. You may want to check the fandoms you're requesting or offering to see if something new and interesting has been added to the tag set. I'm also including a list of the newly-approved fandoms at the bottom of this post, in case that helps anyone find additional requests or offers.
I do have one clarification!
Twilight Series - All Media Types
We already have the books as a specific fandom in the tag set. Nominator, please specify whether you're interested in the books or the movies.
------------------
New fandoms added since signups opened:
16th Century CE RPF
18th Century CE RPF
30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい | Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (Anime)
Alan Wake (Video Games)
Alien (Original Movies 1979-1997)
Arsène Lupin - Maurice Leblanc
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng - Kylie Lee Baker
Cerulean Chronicles Series - TJ Klune
Dexter (TV)
Dominion of the Fallen - Aliette de Bodard
Dungeon Crawler Carl Series - Matt Dinniman
Eureka (TV 2006)
Fairy Tail
From a Knight to a Lady (Webcomic)
Hooper (1978)
Horizon (Video Games)
Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger
Kamisama Hajimemashita | Kamisama Kiss
Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin
Literary Writer RPF
Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Mean Girls (2024)
Midnight Scenes: From the Woods (Video Game)
Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Nightwalker Mayonaka no Tantei | Nightwalker: The Midnight Detective
Nirvana (US Band)
Poker Face (TV 2023)
Raffles - E. W. Hornung
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (TV)
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
The Cranberries - Dreams (music video dir: Nico Soultanakis)
The Incandescent - Emily Tesh
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (TV 2022)
The Penumbra Podcast
Transformers - All Media Types
Trigun (Anime & Manga 1995-2008)
Twilight Series - All Media Types
Untitled Goose Game (Video Game)
Warehouse 13
Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Wild Cards (Canada TV 2024)
Wind Breaker - にいさとる | Nii Satoru (Manga)
Winning (1969)
Winslow Boy (1999)
구미호뎐 | Tale of the Nine Tailed (TV)
九龍ジェネリックロマンス | Kowloon Generic Romance (Anime)
僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)
凸变英雄X | To Be Hero X (Cartoon)
名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
大逆転裁判 | Dai Gyakuten Saiban | The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Video Games)
Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.
Commented on 3weeks4dreamwidth. It's coming up soon, April 25th!! I'm hoping to run another rec fest in bnha_fans as part of it, we'll see how it pans out :)
Due date: April 16, 2026, 11:59 am CDT (UTC-5) (flexible!)
Fanwork Minimums: 1,000 words (Fic) or a complete work on unlined paper (Art)
To Claim: reply to the latest PH Post on Dreamwidth or email ao3modball@gmail.com with the pinch hit number and your AO3 username. Thanks for your consideration!
Yes, we were left a lot of old stuff when we bought this place. The store-rooms were choc-a-block.
What intrigued me was the origin.
The term has nautical origins dating back to the early 19th century. It comes from the combination of "chock", derived from "chock-full" meaning filled to capacity, and "block", referring to the pulleys (blocks) used on ships. When two blocks in a tackle system were hoisted to their maximum, they would jam tightly together, described as being chock-a-block.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Wednesday April 08, to midnight on Thursday, April 09. (8pm Eastern Time).
I just finished the audiobook version of Lucasta Miller's Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph and it was really good. Feel free to rec biography or autobiographies of poets.
Also, I DNF the audiobook veresion of something called Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. I thought I would like it but it starts off an abusive marriage, and I just couldn't go on with it. I didn't like Vera Wong that much.
So by accident (to replace it) I came across the audiobook version of Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto. It's a modern Japanese police procedural but so far I am liking it. I REALLY liked it when I realized the narrator was Elanor Matsuura and I said 'Holy shit! That's my girlfriend!' Ha, ha, not my girlfriend, but she had a bit part in the Wonder Woman film as Epione and I wrote one of my few genuine femslashes (Carmilla/Laura, of course, being the other) with her and Epione. Then she reappeared as Hopkins in BBC Sherlock. Anyway, I am liking it.
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