The Wordsmith's Forge

Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.

What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?

Copious water is gushing in the basement. My partner Doug thinks that the hose for the sump pump is disconnected. I measured the standing water at 7 1/4" and we're going to check it again later to see if it's rising rapidly. I suspect that it will, indeed, continue to rise as the fields are flooded and the sump is not doing its job, but I don't know how fast it will rise.

EDIT 5/18/21 -- The part of the house on the same circuit as the sump has lost power. >_< That's the dining room, living room, and my office. So it's turning into a real pain in the ass. Fortunately the refrigerator and freezer still have power. But I'm typing with a camping lantern in my office, which is awkward.

... when microwaved, and now we know how.  :D  I love geeks so much.  A jock will microwave grapes to watch things catch fire.  A geek will wonder why  things catch fire, and then devise experiments to find out.  It was likely a jock who first captured a wild flame, but it was certainly a geek who figured out how to keep the damn thing alive.

Today is mild and gray with a light breeze.

I fed the birds.  I've seen doves, house finches, and cardinals today.

Before lunch, I planted flower seeds in the septic garden.

After lunch, I pulled grass out of the wildflower garden.

The first irises are blooming in the wagonwheel garden.  The poppies are already done.

EDIT 5/18/21 -- I planted Pale Purple Coneflower and Clasping Coneflower (yellow) in the wildflower garden.

EDIT 5/18/21 -- I pulled more grass from the wildflower garden.

EDIT 5/18/21 -- I planted a mix of Shortgrass Prairie Flowers in the wildflower garden.

EDIT 5/18/21 -- I planted several more wildflowers in the wildflower garden.

For those of you collecting accessibility toys, Mattel has released a Hellen Keller doll, complete with Braille labeling.  \o/ 

Academics have long been aware of the 2-Body Problem, when both partners have a career with limited opportunities. Apparently it's a much wider problem for young people today, where more couples have two careers. In order to support both, they're crowding into job-rich, transit-rich neighborhoods of metroplexes. This causes a number of problems, from income segregation to housing shortages.

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This week, the poetry of the Daughters of the Apocalypse is on sale for half price from Monday, May 17 through Sunday, March 23. This series is postapocalyptic hopepunk. It features themes of survival, rediscovery, upcycling, learning from mistakes, coming of age, diversity, identity kink, family of choice, friendship, community, and cultural engineering. Sale prices range from $21.50 to $322, so hopefully there will be something for everyone.

Previously published poems:
"Their Patchwork Heritage"
"Carried Away Piecemeal"
"Saving the Knowledge"
"Laundry, Liturgy, and Women's Work"

Prices on open epics are locked at the time of opening; however, if anyone wants to donate to open epics and buy poetry, spending $100 will get you the quarter-price rate on the new poems, regardless of the rate on the open epic(s) you support. There are two open epics at present, so there's room to open a new one if you wish. "The Hobbomak" belongs to the Bear Tunnels. It needs $122 to be complete. "A Celebration and a Consolation" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. It needs $100 to be complete.

We are repeating the special discount for purchases of $100 or more, in which you get poetry at 25% of its original price instead of 50%. (Note that this increases the amount of poetry you get, rather than reducing the amount of money spent; the point is to get this stuff off of my desk. Yes, I can afford it.) That size of donation also makes you a k-fan which comes with some other perks, like a year-end collection of a poetic series. If several folks want to bundle their orders to make the $100 threshold and have one person send it all, that's okay; you'll get the discount and I'll list all your names as donors, but you'll have to decide amongst you who gets the k-fan credit. If you host a pool, please close it the day before the sale closes, so you have time to collect funds and turn them in on time.

Some of the poems are in sequence of related action, so in places there are prerequisites before a poem can be published. They can be sponsored at any time, just might have to wait for publication until something else gets posted first. Those are marked accordingly. I have also made lists of poems which unlock sequels, and poems which have prerequisites.

Linkback perk: The following poems have verses left to reveal. Boost the signal for this half-price sale and tell me which poem you want to extend.
"The Arc of the Mental Universe"
"Everything That Blooms"
"In the Shade of the Mighty Oak"
"Let the Children Lead Us"
"Autumn's Palette"
"Delight in Another"
"A Sense of Weather Changes"
"Ouroboros Insects"





About characters and storylines: The storylines feature multiple characters, so if you want poems about ONE specific character, look closely. The thumbnail descriptions here give some indication who features in each poem. The storyline pages are adding precise, complete information about which characters appear in each poem. If you need more than what's already visible, you can ask me.

About timing: If you want maximum choice, shop early. We usually send a batch of things to my parents near the end of a sale, and those poems will be posted as I have time.

About pools: Yes, you can combine your funds with other prompters to get the quarter-price rate. Yes, you can combine your funds with other prompters to buy a bigger poem. Yes, you can offer to match donations by other people. However, the wordsmith is not also a math whiz! After several attempts to find a way that I can work with pools and matches, I have concluded that this is over my head. (I did figure out how to avoid generating fractional pennies, though: all initial prices are now whole dollars, which means they cut evenly into halves and quarters.) So if you want to host a pool or a match, make a post for that in your blog or other venue, then comment here with what you're doing and include a link to wherever the discussion will be. You figure out the poems, you collect the funds, and when stuff is fully funded, you send me the money and the list of what it's for. Then I'll post the goodies. Please close the pool in time to collect donations by the end of the sale, so I can start posting pool poems no later than the day after the sale.

Before placing your order, please check this sale page to see what is still unsold! I will try to update the page as things sell, and it's likely to be the case that some poems will be marked SOLD before appearing in posts. People often buy things in batches, which means that selling gets ahead of posting. Also sometimes people ask for the same thing at the same time, so that not all overlaps are preventable. If you have alternate instructions in case you request something that has just sold, please include that in your message; otherwise I'll email you back and ask what you want to do.

Currently available are the following poems. These are in series chronological order.

Poems that unlock sequels: "Rainshadow Road"

Poems that have prerequisites: "Instinct and Taste"

FOR SALE
8 poems, $1230  ÷ 2 = $615
prices from $21.50 to $322

"Half-understood and Half-remembered"
Story Date: 0 A.E.
Summary: A troop of Girl Scouts join a pack of wolves.
113 lines, was $57, sale price = $28.50 SOLD to Fuzzyred

"Nature's Great Masterpiece"
Story Date: 0 A.E.
Summary: The daughter of elephant keepers takes off into the bush with her elephant family.
249 lines, was $125, sale price $62.50 SOLD to Fuzzyred

"Kokopelli Returns"
Story Date 0 A.E. to 4 A.E.
Summary: The Kokopelli Spirit chooses a young Pueblo man to become the new backpack trader and fertility figure.
279 lines, was $140, sale price = $70 SOLD to Fuzzyred

"The Mirror Poles"
Story Date: 0 A.E. to 5 A.E.
Summary: After the End, it gets harder to find active settlements, so people begin erecting sculptures to help travelers find them.  Eventually they put up signal towers for communication.
114 lines, was $57, sale price $28.50

"Rainshadow Road"
Story Date: Cold Moon 2, 15 A.E.
Summary: The Clearwater Caravan stops to aid an armey in distress.
1288 lines, was $644, sale price $322 OPEN FOR MICROFUNDING

"Instinct and Taste"
Story Date: No Food Moon 16, 15. A.E.
Summary: Catcher coaxes Maggot into a cooking lesson.
401 lines, was $101, sale price $50.50
This poem is available for publication after "Rainshadow Road" has been sponsored and posted.

"Rainbow Hills"
Story Date: Fall Moon, 15 A.E.
Summary: A group of queer people settle in the wilderness on the edge of what was once San Jose.
126 lines, was $63, sale price $31.50 SOLD to Fuzzyred

"If You Can Do Just One Thing Well"
Story Date: Scraping Moon 20, 15. A.E.
Summary: Among the effects of the Grunge was a rise in birth defects, particularly limb deformities. Lack of hands does not stop Mikil from becoming a skilled seamstress.
86 lines, was $43, sale price $21.50 SOLD to Fuzzyred

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "What the Cat Needs"
Pasta Shapes
Birdfeeding
Poem: "To Feel Safe and Warm" (85 comments)
Content notes for "To Feel Safe and Warm" (with soup algorithm and Dal Sarvesh)
Birdfeeding
Community Building Tip: Time Bank
Today's Smoothie
Poem: "One of the Hardest Arguments to Refute"
Birdfeeding
How Pin Tumbler Locks Work
Coping Skills: Kitten Videos
Birdfeeding
Go-Cart Song
Birdfeeding


The crowdfunding  Creative Jam went well.

There will be a half-price sale in the Daughters of the Apocalypse this week.


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics at present.

"The Hobbomak" launches the Bear Tunnels series. Emma and Jesse explore the images on the walls.

"A Celebration and a Consolation" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. Keira comforts her mother after the breakup.


The weather has been mostly mild here. It rained last night and today.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of mourning doves (including courtship behavior), a flock of sparrows, a flock of goldfinches, 3 bluejays, a few robins, several house finches, a pair of cardinals, a male rose-breasted grosbeak, a male oriole, a gray catbird, a brown thrasher, a rabbit, and a squirrel. Currently blooming: violets, purple allium, white allium, lily of the valley, butterfly weed, honeysuckle, wood hyacinth, calendine poppy, orange poppies, wild strawberries, raspberries.  Iris, peonies, and blackberries have buds.  Mulberries have green fruit.

This is the freebie for the May 2021 crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from freshbakedlady. It also fills the "emotional first aid" square in my 5-1-21 card for the Leaky Pipeline Bingo fest.

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Watch a video of many pasta shapes from 4 types of dough.  It was interesting to see how many were made just with hands or a knife, but there were also some very cool tools for specific types of pasta making.  :D

Gosh, now I want to see Heron making a sermon with this stuff.  He has such dexterity, I could see him getting fascinated with all the little shapes.

Halley will probably be more intrigued by the 3D pasta printers.