the inexorable passage of time and end of all things
Dec. 3rd, 2025 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettFor lo these many years (i.e. basically since I got a smartphone) I've been using Swype as an onscreen keyboard. Some time ago it was announced that it had reached end-of-life-and-support, but it wasn't until I went looking earlier today that I realised that happened in 2018, that being when I posted asking for suggestions for replacements.
And then I didn't think about it again for, apparently, approximately eight years, through several new phones and quite a lot of new major versions of Android... and then a few-ish weeks ago Fairphone rolled out Android 15 to the Fairphone 4 and alas That Was The End Of That.
Recommendations back in 2018 were for Gboard and Swiftkey; a question posted to reddit in 2022 garnered similar responses.
Since the Abrupt Keyboard Failure I've swapped to Gboard more or less by default. I don't hate the bit where language switching is now automatic (for the purposes of language learning apps, at any rate), but good grief I am missing the ability to e.g. type < or | without needing to go like three clicks deep in menus. Yes, when I have "Touch and hold keys for symbols" enabled -- as far as I can tell that only gives me one symbol per key, not "now select from a variety of them" as with the much-lamented Swype. I'm also missing the gestures I know for "yes, that word, but change the capitalisation", and still grumpily adjusting to the shift key mode cycle being in a different order to what I'm used to.
I've experimented briefly with AnySoftKey but rapidly got annoyed by the total lack of any Irish language pack (and how difficult it is to navigate the app listings to establish this fact). I'm trying to persuade myself that it's worth giving SwiftKey a try even though it (1) is now Microsoft, (2) has gone all-in on Bundling With Copilot, and (3) apparently "contains ads".
Eheu, alas, etc; all is woe; ... unless anyone knows of any other Android keyboards that provide ready access to All the punctuation...?
Photography
Dec. 3rd, 2025 04:45 pmysabetwordsmith“For 60 years, using a 5 x 7 view camera and then a twin lens reflect camera, Albok took as his subject people and passersby outside his shop, and New York City life during the Depression, and World War II,” per NYU. “Central Park, children, street scenes, and people at leisure were also among his preferred subjects.”
He described his Depression-era photos as a way to combat the degradation of poverty. “I photographed many poor souls, trying my best to leave them their most precious heritage—their dignity,” he said. “There is nothing else left.”
Hey, can somebody who knows pauraque ask if they intended to ban me?
Dec. 3rd, 2025 05:40 pmconulyWrite every day: Day 3
Dec. 3rd, 2025 10:49 pmluzulaTally:
( Read more... )
Day 2:
goddess47, garonne, badly_knitted, sanguinity, alightbuthappypen, trobadora, sylvanwitch, china_shop, brithistorian, cornerofmadness, chestnut_pod, carenejeans, ysilmeDay 3:
china_shopBonus farm news: Tasted our Brussels sprouts for the first time. Delicious!
Resource: Domestic Medicine.
Dec. 3rd, 2025 03:36 pmfull_metal_ox posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
little_detailsThis website is an unromanticized purview of historical health care, with an emphasis on household and community practices shared and recorded by women and the overlaps of medicine and cookery.
Author Stephany Hoffelt’s credentials: ( Continue. )
(Content note: Hoffelt, with her lived experience, research into historical context, and insistence upon practical results, has a whole catacomb apiece to pick with both the patriarchal medical establishment and the proponents of a Magical Pagan Witch Sisterhood who got burned by the millions for providing safe and reliable herbal abortifacients.)
Oncoming default deadline
Dec. 3rd, 2025 03:01 pmyuletidemods posting in yuletide_adminDefault deadline
The deadline for a simple default on Yuletide is 9pm UTC on 10 December - just under one week from now. Please check the link - this isn't the same time of day as recent years.The default deadline is the cut-off point for defaulting on your Yuletide assignment without a penalty. This applies if it's your first Yuletide, or if you posted successfully last time you signed up or took a pinch hit. Default before this time, and you're free to sign up again in future. If you're not sure whether the default deadline applies to you, please talk to mods (yuletideadmin@gmail.com).
Sample reasons to default:
- You want to
- You can't reconcile the canon, your writing strengths, and your recipient's DNWs
- Life got in the way
- A new installment of canon ruined your ideas
- You use generative AI such as ChatGPT, and you just saw the rule that that's not allowed in this event
- You can't see how to get the characters to do what you want them to do
- You want to
People default every year for a variety of reasons. We don't need to know why, and we wish you well. When we open sign-ups, we recommend that you don't sign up unless you're confident you can write a story by the deadline. But after you've signed up, things may happen, and it's okay to withdraw, if that's what makes sense for you. See full information about defaulting at the FAQ.
To default, go to your assignment at the collection, and press the default button.
Assignment deadline
All original assignments, and all pinch hits sent out prior to the default deadline, are due at 9pm UTC 17 December (which is a DIFFERENT time of day to last year). CountdownPinch Hits
We have an outstanding pinch hit atyuletide_pinch_hits. Please get in contact if you can help!!!Betas & Beta Help Needed
We warmly welcome beta reader volunteers at the beta post and on Discord. See the FAQ for more information about finding betas if you need one!Note: on the Yuletide Discord, requests for betas, or for brainstorming help that might give away what you're writing, are handled by DM-ing someone who currently holds a Hippo role. Please read the server FAQ before seeking a beta. Give your Hippo the relevant details and make sure you can receive messages back.
Treats and Posting
Click here for instructions on posting your assignment or treats. If you've finished your assignment and are considering treats, check out the app, and don't forget the promo post where people have advertised their canons. You may find something amazing there! Check out the prompts from pinch hitters too.Keep Yuletide Madness in mind. The Madness collection is for stories under 1,000 words and stories which do not exactly fit the fandoms and characters requested. These works must still be gifts for other participants.
AFK post
We will also put up an Away from Keyboard post shortly on theyuletide comm. The purpose of this post is that if people know they won't be able to respond to their gift until late in the anon period, or even until the new year, they can let their author know ahead of time. (Not being able to read and respond until several days after the collection opens is normal, though - many people will have family and other obligations!)Happy December!
Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened. And specifically, if you would like to get a treat, we need your AO3 name so we know whom to give it to!
Wednesday managed a short walk besides attending symposium online
Dec. 3rd, 2025 08:24 pmoursinWhat I read
Finished O Shepherd, Speak! - as ever, Lanny manages to find himself at major historical events. A particularly fascinating thing considering that news story about Hitler's DNA - he is admitted to the bunker and takes a slice of bloodstained sofa-cover.... In the aftermath of WW2, he has been left money to work for World Peace and he and friends are working for this. One thing I do find a bit curious about Lanny's generally progressive line is that the civil rights question (was it being called that in the 30s/40s?) doesn't seem to feature: maybe because he was brought up in Europe and mostly lived there? His focus on the World Stage???
Val McDermid, The Skeleton Road (Inspector Karen Pirie #3) (2014): not sure this was really doing it for me - there was a point where it just seemed to be going on and on.
Have plunged into a re-read of Barbara Hambly's Silver Screen mysteries (getting myself back up to speed on the series with a new volume forthcoming): so far Scandal in Babylon (2021) and One Extra Corpse (2023). Possibly one reads for the evocation of Hollywood at that era rather than the actual mystery plots, but good, anyway.
On the go
Saving Susy Sweetchild (Silver Screen #3) (2024)
Still dipping into Some Men in London, 1960-1967.
Up next
I am feeling the siren call of The Return of Lanny Budd.
I also realise that I have managed to sign myself up for 3 bookgroups meeting in January, 2 online (Pilgrimage, first meeting, Dance to the Music of Time, concluding volume) and 1 in person (fairly) locally - have managed to fight off suggestion that we read the Mybuggery wot won the Booker, but am now committed to the extremely LOOOOONG new Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
***
Further to yesterday's mysterious email from Academic Publisher, have received a further and more official-looking email today:
You may recently have received a message from us with the subject line "Welcome to [redacted] GCOP".
This email was caused by a system error. You can therefore ignore it and do not need to take any action.
Apologies for any confusion the message may have caused.
***
my thread here
What I'm Doing Wednesday
Dec. 3rd, 2025 02:31 pmsage
I love him so much, y'all. I need to make another one to this scale in the red pants; then maybe I can bear to list one or both of them, once I know I can replicate him. I'm also tempted to make a version in the brown shirt, with a fern to go with, but I fear no one would buy it because it was too much a joke. Ah well. Maybe someone will commission it.
yarning
I've made so many cat toys this week! And a 12 1/2 inch cat kicker based on the National Parks Service official Walleye pattern (I added some rounds to make it bigger), only done in bright orange, like a goldfish. :g: I took only the fish to Thanksgiving to work on, which left me with days of nothing to make after I finished it. Doh!
etsy
yay selling things! I held a Black Friday sale to try to move some merchandise out of my house, and it succeeded fairly well. The discount was deeper than I'd quite prepared for, esp with free shipping, but worth it find some things their forever homes. I also figured out (I hope!) how to do Made To Order listings on etsy, so people can request a kickbunny in the colors of their choice without buying them in the wrong colors & sending me a note asking to switch the colors.
healthcrap
had to cancel the pain clinic procedure for lack of transportation, as expected. Tomorrow is a bone scan. I started drinking coffee again at my parents' place over Thanksgiving and have continued making a small amount every day. I hope it doesn't mess up my sleep?
yuletide
I have a draft! And I learned from the Yuletide Discord that there is such a thing as "unenforceable DNWs," which are things that are unreasonable to ask of your match in your signup/letter...which means that I could have written the story I wanted to write instead of the one that I did. Oh well. Good to know that I could have messsaged the mods with my concerns, even though I didn't. Hopefully the story I did write holds together well enough on its own merits? :crosses fingers:
I hope you're all doing well, wherever in the world you are! <333
Birdfeeding
Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:59 pmysabetwordsmithI fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, a lady cardinal, and two male cardinals.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 12/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.
I saw several sparrows playing in the snow, splashing around in it as if dustbathing. :D
EDIT 12/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
EDIT 12/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
Wednesday reading: Percy Jackson
Dec. 3rd, 2025 07:36 pmrmc28About ten days ago, my hockey-and-languages buddy Owen enthused about Percy Jackson to me on the journey to/from my game in Lee Valley. (Owen was riding along to provide photography services.)
I was like, I've never read the books but I'm pretty sure I've got Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief somewhere in my to-read pile. So I took a look and sure enough, I had ten Percy Jackson books in my kindle account. My emails tell me I bought them in May 2016, and I have no memory of doing so or why (except that they were all 99p so that might have had something to do with it).
I opened up Lightning Thief to see if it was as good as expected ... and got fairly instantly hooked. I've read the first series of five books, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, then I briefly borrowed and read the short story collection The Demigod Files, before moving on to the next series of five, Heroes of Olympus. I'm currently a few chapters into the second book in that series, Son of Neptune. I'm having a great time: the books are good reads and I'm reviving a lot of memories from my childhood Greek myths phase. The positive ADHD rep doesn't hurt either.
Bundle of Holding: Worlds Without Number
Dec. 3rd, 2025 02:25 pmjames_davis_nicoll
This new Worlds Without Number Bundle presents Worlds Without Number, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of far-future sword-and-sorcery adventure from acclaimed designer Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Publishing.
Bundle of Holding: Worlds Without Number