Apr. 15th, 2023

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Here's a rant about the portrayal of blind characters.

I've written a variety of blind and otherwise vision-impaired characters. I can see, but my vision is not great and no longer fully compensated by glasses. Though my color vision is far and agone better than human. Anyhow, I know a lot of the cool things about vision-impaired culture and tools and hacks because I have always enjoyed reading about them, and also I pay attention because I might need some of that. Things I can currently use, I copy, like the trick of tucking a finger over the rim of a glass to tell when it's almost full, because I can't always be arsed to turn on more light at night. So let's see ...

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Permafrost

Apr. 15th, 2023 01:48 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
 ... is melting and releasing toxic chemicals stored in it.

Also, the article didn't mention this, but an additional hazard of trying to empty these storage sites safely is that partially melted permafrost is unstable and when fully melted it often forms a mud that behaves a lot like quicksand or tar, sucking things down into it.  Like people or trucks. >_<

I don't expect people will be willing and/or able to clean up this many messes. There is too much other climate mayhem soaking up limited funds and personnel.  So, plan for tens of thousands of severe spills in what is about to become much more valuable territory as the southern areas heat up too much for comfortable living.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Is it more important to help yourself, help your family, help your society, or help the world?

The world -- because without a world to stand on, you will not have yourself, your family, or your society. At least not within your current life, which will be over.

Also, for idiots arguing that the environment conflicts with the economy -- no. The economy is a subset of the environment. No environment, no economy.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Yesterday after we got the computer set up, it worked fine, except for excessive popups.

Today, none of the programs look quite right.  So that's aggravating and exhausting, in some cases harder to read.  That's making everything take longer, and I'm getting less done.  >_<

Hopefully the issues can be fixed somehow, somewhen. 
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
Today is sunny and quite warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a flock of sparrows, several house finches, several mourning doves, several blackbirds, and a fox squirrel.

I did multiple rounds of yardwork to pick up sticks from the savanna.  My partner Doug got that mowed.  We also raked up dry grass from some mowed parts of the prairie garden.  I spread grass seed over two path sections that needed it.  I hauled a lot of trolley loads to the firepit.

I saw a large bird fly over the yard, possibly a turkey vulture, but its head looked bigger -- dark, so not a bald eagle, but might have been a golden eagle.  It was dusky enough by then that I couldn't get a good look despite the proximity.

Now it's dark, and raining.  We need the rain; it's been a relatively dry spring here.

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