Member Posts

Current Mood: busy

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Gender

Sex swap in seconds: The fish that takes charge and changes gender

Remove the top male spotty fish and, within minutes, the next-in-line female morphs into the tank s new tyrant charging and nipping rivals while her body quietly begins a weeks-long transition to male.

Sex and gender are more fluid than most humans realize. Transition is a natural and normal process.

Current Mood: busy

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Early Humans

Buried for 23,000 years: These footprints are rewriting American history

Footprints found in the ancient lakebeds of White Sands may prove that humans lived in North America 23,000 years ago — much earlier than previously believed. A new study using radiocarbon-dated mud bolsters earlier findings, making it the third line of evidence pointing to this revised timeline.

I've been to White Sands. Interesting place, but bizarre. The air is blistering hot, but sand stays cool. Its albedo is too high to absorb much heat.

Current Music: "Open Your Houses (Basilisk)", Shearwater

Entry tags:

cynicism,
internet

So that's why men are like that these days...

Last night I decided to watch a video on MH 370 on YouTube. For those who don't remember, MH 370 was that famous Malaysian Airline flight that went missing back in 2014, which was a huge mystery at the time and the most likely explanation seems to be that the pilot deliberately depressurized the cabin to incapacitate and kill everyone else on the flight, turned off the electronics long enough to get far away from the expected route, and then ran the plane into the Indian Ocean once the plane was completely out of fuel. So, you know, totally horrific stuff, also absolutely wild to think about because there haven't really been any other cases like it. The presenter seemed to be a pilot with a European accent, and was going through all the technical reasons why the flight must have been piloted by someone and it was impossible for the autopilot to have done the impressive amount of manouevers specifically to avoid detection, and for that matter vanishingly unlikely for hijackers or anyone but the pilot to have done this. The breakdown of the technical information was new to me, but also, that the pilot murdered everyone on the flight and then crashed the plane isn't really new information to anyone. While the black box has never been found, this is the official theory of what happened outside of Malaysia, which won't acknowledge this as the official story to save face.

So, while there's a lot of conspiracy theories about MH 370, primarily about UFOs or a secluded military base located in the Indian Ocean, this wasn't about that. It seemed like a normal video and nothing about it seemed outlandish at all. And somehow, in the middle of it all, I got this very, very strange advertisement about why I should stop looking at porn, and how it was degrading my masculinity, and how I should click here to find out why.

I don't watch a lot of YouTube. Most of the YouTube I watch is with my husband through the main TV in the living room, like, he'll put on a podcast about knitting or reading or every so often I'll put on a yoga video. Most of the ads are excessively normie, like, literally stuff one would expect on old-school television, ads about Michael's craft stores, eczema medications, athletic wear, et cetera. I barely use YouTube on my phone, and I think most of my watching has been... psychology and psychiatry topics? And even then, I had never seen an ad like this. So really the exact moment I step into a primarily men's interest, technical transit information, I start getting routed to some kind of alt-right garbage. Wow. Just wow. This explains so goddamn much.

Current Mood: pleased

Entry tags:

pokemon,
pokemon go

Pokémon Go Fest 2025

I spent the past two days going more-or-less all out for Go Fest, and honestly I had a blast. I did a bunch of raids, got two shiny Zamazenta (one with the special background) and five shiny Zacian (no special backgrounds on any of these, alas), and am honestly pretty pleased with my shiny hoard overall. In addition to those, I got one of my longtime shiny wants: A shiny Pachirisu!

It's also been as hot and humid as a frog's armpit the past week or so, which made all that walking around... interesting. I did my best to stay hydrated and cool off as needed, and chugged more Gatorade than I initially anticipated, but I've come out the other side more-or-less fine. I did end up with more chafing than I expected, most of it in the usual places (only some of which I thought to apply preventative measures to, alas), and at least one surprise new place (my right underarm, just a little past my armpit region). I expect I'll need to keep those in mind for next year, alas. On the plus side, none of the chafing spots have blisters, which I am tentatively crediting my anti-sweat medication for.

Anyway, all that out of the way, I would like to announce that I've come up with the perfect nicknames for shiny versions of this weekend's legendaries:

Zamagenta and Zacyan.

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The Wheel of Ships is Turning…

As if I didn’t ALREADY have enough ships (thanks to all my OC x Canon ships xD), thanks to Persona 5X I now have a NEW ship to MELT over ISHCROFIROOROR

I’ve already (surprisingly) been enjoying P5X thus far, and already had a lot of love for the original P5 protag Ren Amamiya, but seeing him and the P5X protag Nagisa Kamishiro interact has for some reason altered my brain chemistry in such a way that I’ve been thinking about them NONSTOP xD

Unfortunately there’s little to nothing in terms of art and writing for them, so excuse me while I sit in my corner of the fog far away from the world to create it myself!! 😤

(I DID find one absolutely, positively beautiful fic for them called Unspoken, Understood that I won’t hesitate to recommend just in case you’d like to read it! It was short and sweet, and the words flowed so beautifully that I read it twice! xD)

Outside of my crazy babbling for a new ship, hope everybody’s been hanging in there ok. I’ve been really down and tired lately, but have been doing my best about putting one foot in front of the other. ❤️

(Almost) That Time Again

Every single year, when I see Art Fight approach, I tell myself I should do it, actually this time, for real this time, and then I don't. I'm coming to realise that I never wanted to do it at all. I think I just wanted to be a part of that Cool Art Thing it felt like everybody else was doing.
I've been thinking a bit about my relationship to my art lately. Or, more specifically, my art's relationship to me. I've never wanted to be an "artist", not the "proper" kind, not somebody who studies anatomy and shading and life and color and tries to nail it down. I just draw what I like. I'm not trying to be the best of the best, but yet sometimes I see posts from people who are younger than me and yet so much better, and it almost makes it feel like a competition again. Like "how can I say I draw well when this 14 y/o on the other side of the world who doesn't even know I exist is drawing Genuine Masterpieces?" every single time. I can say that I don't want to be the best, I can say it forever, but I think I have some issues to sort out that don't quite make that true yet.
I, at least right now, create for a niche. I like my niche. I'm comfortable in my niche. I've always been a guy drawn to weird fandom niches. But sometimes my "niches" would still get me pretty good attention, because they were a small chunk in a big fandom, but my current niche is a small chunk in a small fandom. It gets me muddled up sometimes-- "do people not care because they're not interested in the content, or because I'm really bad at what I do?". And I know it's the first one, but my brain loves to tell me I need to Do More Get Better Because So Many Are Better Than Me, and comparison is the thief of joy, but it's like I'm wired to just keep comparing no matter what and it's exhausting. To compare myself to others. To compare big fandoms to small. This to that. Everything to everyone. Perfection to imperfection. Something that needs to change.

Current Mood: pensive

Entry tags:

moment of silence

Moment of Silence: Acelightning

acelightning has passed away. She has been a supporter of the Poetry Fishbowl for years and offered up some insightful prompts.

Current Mood: busy

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New Crowdfunding Project: Land of Eem

Land of Eem: Beginners RPG for Kids + Underlands Expansion
Dungeoneer Adventures Beginners RPG—an easy, fun, family game—plus The Underlands Sandbox, a brand new setting for Land of Eem.

$150,187 pledged of $75,000 goal
1,234 backers
19 days to go

Land of Eem: Dungeoneer Adventures is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-play, and easy-to-run tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) box set for kids. Players take on the roles of students attending Dungeoneer Academy, a school where kids train to become full-fledged adventurers and explorers in the fantastical Land of Eem.

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Current Mood: calm
Current Location: coffee shop (chain u_u;)
Current Music: Why are Black Poodles Ever-Present in Folklore? | Fireside Fairy Tales

Entry tags:

folklore

The hellish poodles of german folklore

Watch on YouTube

I was pointed to the Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles collection by an anonymous commenter on a post I made on little_details asking for help researching German folklore and folkways.

I was already aware that poodles, despite their modern association with France, are descended from German water-dogs, where they are known as pudels - I did a research paper on poodles in elementary school. And, I had once read a more obscure fairy tale from the Grimm Brothers' collection, "the Pink", which involves the transmogrification of its antagonist into a fire-vomiting black poodle as punishment by the main character, and wondered at the odd specificity of the form imposed. Jürgen Hubert's translations of non-fairytale folklore into English makes it clear that the firey black poodle (often implicitly or explicitly a ghost or demon) is a wider motif in German folk stories.

One can compare these stories to host/devil-dog folklore of the British isles - the stuff the average English-speaker has most access to. But the Grims, Shucks, etc of those stories are not, to my memory, associated with specific breeds, landraces, or types of dogs.

The narrator of this video suggests that perhaps part of the reason poodles, specifically, are so common in German black-dog stories is that poodles are known for their intelligence, relative to other docks, and thus one could imagine a human or demonic intellect inhabiting that form. And standards poodles - when not shaved into fancy cuts - are awkward, shaggy creatures, looking weirdly muppetlike when I see them bounce and run around. It's comical in the daylight, but I can see how it would be unnerving to see from a feral animal lit only by lamplight.

Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, muggy, and hot -- but considerably less hot than the past week. Today it's 81°F which is hot but "be careful not to overdo yardening" not "stay indoors until it cools off" hot.

I fed the birds. I refilled the thistle feeder. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches plus a pair of mourning doves.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/29/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 6/29/25 -- I walked around the yard. I picked a few mulberries but there aren't a lot left. I picked a few black raspberries. That season is almost over too. :( The blackberries are starting to ripen, though, so I can start on those.

Wild bergamot, black-eyed Susans, narrow-leaf mountain mint, and purple echinacea are blooming. Yellow coneflower and cup plants have flower buds. Most of the Asiatic lilies have already bloomed, but some are still going -- I have several varieties.

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Find A Smile, Have A Smile, Leave A Smile :)

Please be sure to stop by and give the creators some love! Remember, feedback is the breakfast of Champions!

Watch on YouTube

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Falling Into Book Blogging (and StoryGraph)

I hadn’t planned on spending my Sunday this way. But isn’t that always how the best things start?

Kit and I were chatting with someone earlier this week who casually mentioned book blogging - and before I knew it, we were talking about tracking our reads, posting reviews, and swapping WordPress tips. They recommended StoryGraph for cataloguing, and I’d never used it before. Out of curiosity, I signed up this morning… and suddenly I was knee-deep in uploading my entire book collection, trying to remember what I’ve read and when, and getting wildly distracted by all the mood and pacing tags.

I didn’t realize how satisfying it would be to see everything laid out like that - books I loved, books I forgot I owned, books I swear I meant to read in 2021. And even though I started the day just poking around, it ended up giving me a bit of clarity on why I want to start this blog.

I’ve always loved reading. But until now, I didn’t have one place to reflect on it - to gather thoughts, keep track of what I’m reading, and maybe connect with other readers. I’m not setting out to be a professional reviewer or anything. I just want to write about books the way I experience them: personally, emotionally, sometimes out of order.

So this is the start of Tales by the Tide - a little coastal-feeling book nook where I can share TBRs, thoughts, reading journals, and whatever else bubbles up. It’s early days (and I still have some serious tag-wrangling to do on StoryGraph), but I already feel like I’m carving out a space I’ll love coming back to.

Thank you for being here as I figure it out

I’ll be sharing my July TBR on Tuesday, if all goes well. For now, I’m just glad I followed the rabbit hole.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
— George R.R. Martin

– Blythe

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Sunday Motivational Post

Watch on YouTube

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At The Waters Edge

Hello, and welcome. I’m so glad you’ve found your way here.

This little corner of the internet is a kind of tidepool for me — a place to gather small, glinting moments and let them catch the light. I imagine it like the windowsill in my kitchen: sun-warmed, a bit cluttered, always changing with the seasons. Sea glass. Lavender. A well-thumbed paperback left spine-up beside a cooling mug of mint tea.

I’m Blythe. I live in a salt-faded cottage just off the harbourfront in St Ives, Cornwall. I’m a ceramic artist, a sea swimmer, a quiet romantic. My days are shaped by tide tables and teacups, studio playlists and secondhand books stacked like cairns beside the bed. I believe in the beauty of things that are slightly imperfect — mugs with thumbprints, dog-eared pages, letters smudged with rain.

This blog is a way of gathering what I love — a kind of journal, really. Expect glimpses from the studio, bookish ramblings, coastal wanderings, and the sort of seasonal rituals that make ordinary days feel a little more alive. There will be reading lists and shelf musings, favourite lines underlined in pencil, and maybe even the occasional fictional character I’m quietly in love with. (Aren’t we all?) I’ll write about what I’m making, what I’m reading, what I’m noticing — the golden hour light, the first elderflowers, a phrase I can’t stop turning over in my mind.

So whether you’re here by chance or curiosity, I hope this space feels like a quiet tidepool you can dip into now and then. Like walking into a bookshop on a rainy afternoon, with no plans except to linger.

The kettle’s on. There’s a spot by the window. I’m so glad you’re here.

With warmth,
Blythe

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
— Mary Oliver

Current Mood: happy

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Today's Adventures

We went out a couple of times today.

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Phrases That Make Sense and Should Work

The curse of 'text adventures that were made with only the developer's choice in mind'. The phone in front of me is ringing, so I type "pick up phone". No. OK, old game, is it a grammar thing? "pick up the phone" and nothing. Finally try "answer phone" and get through.
I get it, they mean the same thing, "answer" is more specific, maybe your program couldn't even handle two-word verbs. But did you playtest this game? Did not a single playtester try "pick up"? Do you hate me personally?
And that's not to mention vague room descriptions! I'm at a wharf, great. Do I get to know anything about the wharf? Which directions the exit is? For all I know the water could be neon yellow! But you're not telling me these things! You're just dumping me here! I'm not a damn psychic, I can't read your mind on this!
I just like it when the games I play don't feel like they hate the player. Some games are intentionally difficult, some just don't tell me as much as I wish they would, some are probably doing that just to be difficult. But in this specific game's case, being able to use arrow keys for n/e/s/w movement in a game from 1982 (!) is pretty cool.

Current Mood: busy

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Staying Afloat

Academia: Staying Afloat

You are the right person to do what you do, know what you know, study what you’re going to study. You do it.

You are a lifeboat.

You are not the passenger being rescued from a shipwreck. You are the rescuer. Your skills, your knowledge, your experience reside in you. You have pulled them from the cold ocean where cruel and careless captains have set them adrift.

You are a lifeboat.

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Current Mood: busy

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Evaporative Cooling

Art pieces double as carbon-free air conditioning, inspired by ancient civilizations

Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a 3D-printed evaporative cooling system made of hollow clay columns that can cool the surrounding air by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

The columns are filled with water and sand, and when warm air passes through the porous clay exterior, water stored in the sand columns evaporates, which in turn, cools the air that passes through.

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Current Mood: busy

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Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and sweltering. It rained off and on yesterday and last night.

I fed the birds. I've seen several house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 6/28/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I've seen a fox squirrel at the hopper feeder.

Current Music: Fivefold - Lost Within

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Why is it so hard?

The trip to the hospital for the yearly diabtes-check-up Wednesday just wiped me out.
Six and a half hours, where two of them was a mix of poking and prodding and conversations. The rest was public transport, waiting and the drive home.

Thursday I was exhausted, just tired. My mood was fine, but wow.
Friday ... tired and a very bad mood. The real mental-hangover.

I'm back in the hole of "I can't do shit", and I hate it. I just want to feel more positive about myself and stuff I do and make.
But alas.
The thought of "I'll never amount to anything" just sticks as a bloodthirsty parasite.

So no writing since Tuesday.

My mood today isn't really better, but it's weekend and Hubby makes it bearable.
We're working on evolving some parts of our relationship a bit. Sometimes things just needs a good conversation and a shake. Nothing negative, we fit so well together. 15 years and counting.
I don't know what I should do without him.

We cleaned the house and we're gonna eat early and then drive into the Danish wilderness (that's a joke, Denmark to small to have any real wilderness). It's hot today, but no sun and a lot of wind.

I feel bad. I've known a person for some years now, and they really want to be my friend. It worked for a couple of years, but I don't feel it anymore. I've tried letting it fizzle out, but no, they sent me a message on Discord. If we could find a day during the summer to just chat (voice chat) while knitting or something?
I don't have the heart for a hard no, so I just "Yeah, maybe" and hope I can find an excuse not to. I know. I'm not handling it very well, but I just... take a hint, please?
I know they're lonely, they're difficult to be friend with. I'm not the only one that thinks that.
I feel bad, but I have a hard time engaging in people I don't vibe with.
I don't know if I'm a bad friend. Probably. I'm not easy, I know. I try, though.

I feel lonely too, but luckily I have an easier time being alone. Despite me not loving me, I feel comfortable in my own company. Most of the time.
And I have friends. A few, at least. And Hubby.

I'm just rambling.
I hope my mood improves in the next days. I really want to return to my writing, no matter what I feel like writing. I feel like I'm opening up to the idea of just following what I want and not what I should.
And Tuesday I have an event on Discord. I hope people show up. The last one I held no one showed. That hurts. I still want to cancel just to avoid that.

So far this vacation hasn't started out great, but one day at the time.

Oh well. It's time to watch S.W.A.T. and make some good burgers before spending some time in the car with Hubby. I need that. Just talking, listening to music and watching the Danish countryside.