JiM's Dreams

We were watching Miraculous Ladybug tonight, and one of the characters said something that sounded very useful to me: "My anger is mine, but I am not my anger."  It seems like an effective way to acknowledge any overwhelming emotion without letting it run away with you.

Today I'm making Ultimate Ginger Cookies.  Currently the dough is in the refrigerator chilling.  :D

EDIT 9/7/25 -- These turned out as molasses spice gingersnaps, quite zesty.  They're tricky to bake because you have to take them out while they still seem quite raw in order to leave them chewy.  If they're starting to set up at all, they are crunchy when cold.  However, if you want to make a gingersnap crust or crumble -- or you just prefer crunchy cookies -- that's the way to go. 

The earlier "ultimate ginger cookies" recipe I had was a lot lighter than these, but I couldn't find that one.  I'll probably try again for a version of that, but these really are excellent molasses spice gingersnaps.

I finished one of my unfinished poems from a while back. \o/

"When Everyone Around You Has Theirs Bowed"
Story Date: Sunday, April 6, 2014
Summary: Therapy for men's genital injury tends to focus on loss, but Marvis Willing knows the proud history of eunuchs.
304 lines, Buy It Now = $152

These clear windows can secretly produce solar power

Cholesteric liquid crystal coatings enable transparent, unidirectional solar concentrators compatible with modern windows.

Scientists have created a transparent solar coating that turns ordinary windows into clean energy generators without affecting clarity. Using cholesteric liquid crystal layers, the coating redirects polarized sunlight to the window edges where solar cells collect it. A small prototype already powered a fan, and full-sized windows could boost efficiency 50-fold while cutting the need for costly photovoltaic cells.


Useful, if it's affordable.

Today is sunny and mild, a beautiful fall day.  :D

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- I took some pictures around the yard.

I picked 6 groundcherries.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- I hauled out the hose to water the new picnic table and the septic garden.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- I watered the patio plants, old picnic table, and house yard plants.

EDIT 9/7/25 -- We reeled up the hose.

I watered the telephone pole garden and the savanna seedlings.

Crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night. 

The revolution will be hand-spun

Artisans have long pushed back against the logic of industrial capitalism. In the 19th century, the Arts and Crafts Movement emerged as a response to the alienation and disenchantment of mass production. Thinkers such as William Morris and John Ruskin believed that the beauty and joy of a product should not be sacrificed for efficiency and profit. Though the movement has been romanticised and limited by its class dynamics, it planted the seeds for a more human economy that valued the dignity of labour and the connection between maker, object, and environment. Today’s craft echoes that ethos but with a different kind of urgency among the backdrop of ecological breakdown, supply chain fragility, and a loneliness epidemic. Craft is not simply nostalgic and aesthetic, it is a degrowth practice. It offers a lived critique of a world and consumption habits driven by speed and scale. Craft models an alternative that is grounded in sufficiency, care, and embodied knowledge.


If you get frustrated with artificial intelligence, fast fashion, the carbon footprint of global shipping, etc. then handicrafts offer an effective means of protest.  You don't have to make everything yourself, but everything that you do make strikes directly against the juggernaut of contemporary capitalism.

Today is mostly cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I watered the patio plants and the old picnic table plants.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I watered the irises, the telephone pole garden, and a few of the savanna plants.

EDIT 9/6/25 -- I watered the new picnic table garden and the septic garden.

I am done for the night.

One of the ways that LLM-authored code improves productivity is by merely SAYING it does things. It's way faster than the whole time-consuming process of actually doing things.

This is exactly the kind of problem I expected to come out of AI-generated code.  If all you reward is speed, then you'll get sloppy fake code like this.  If you want to persist in trying to make AI create usable code, then you also have to reward it for accuracy and penalize it for lies and mistakes.  The trouble is, AI is bad at juggling contradictory commands like "Do this as fast as possible to be accurate, but not so fast that it produces bad output."  It becomes very prone to freezing.

Annnnnnd that's why human computer programmers are valuable.

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What will the economy of wealthy countries look like in 50 to 100 years?

Like this.

I'm copying this from dialecticdreamer:

Our online friend chanter1944  needs help re-linking works from their old user name to the current one. (This affects the Schroedinger’s Heroes stories that they have written, specifically.) I have no idea how to do this, but there are plenty of people here who probably have a better clue about how to proceed. So I’m asking.

They have many stories which should not be lost in the black box of their former DW handle. Please contact chanter1944 , who uses a screen reader which can slow down response time.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Wishing success to chanter1944 , and the helpers who tackle this project!


I will add that this affects the Schrodinger's Heroes links for the Orange!verse on my website; I know I've got some folks here who can edit that, so hopefully someone will have time to help.

Today we went to the Broomcorn Festival in Arcola. This is a big harvest festival, well worth catching, and it runs the whole weekend if you want to check it out. The weather was beautiful, cloudy and mild, couldn't ask for better weather.

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1. What was recently interrupted?

Gardening, because today we went to the Broomcorn Festival.


2. What could you use a break from?

The drought. Seriously, the weeds are dying. My sunchokes continue to give zero fucks though.


3. What would get you to continue that long-unfinished project?

Time. And since I have time currently, I am working on an unfinished poem.


4. When did you last attend something that had an intermission?

Gosh, it's been years, we used to attend theatre events.


5. What’s your favorite way to spend a lunch break?

Eating lunch.

Today is cloudy and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/5/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/5/25 -- I watered the old picnic table, new picnic table, telephone pole garden, and a few of the savanna seedlings.

I picked 2 yellow pear tomatoes.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

Today's theme is Internet.

( Read more... )

How Parking Day Brought This Louisiana City Back to Life

To break the impasse, the city of Lafayette partnered with a local nonprofit to host a Park(ing) Day event. Together, they installed 16 temporary parklets throughout the downtown, several of which simulated outdoor dining areas. “People enjoyed the experience, and it allowed downtown business owners and stakeholders to experience the change in a temporary way,” explained Carlee Alm-LaBar, then Lafayette’s planning director and now Strong Towns’ chief of staff. “They started to see the vision of how Lafayette could use its public space differently and how it might bring more energy to the downtown neighborhood.”

That experience mattered. Less than a year later, the city passed an ordinance allowing for parklets and outdoor dining to be built in former parking spots.


Other things you can playtest with this method:

* food truck parks

* busk stops

* pop-up shops (e.g. selling local art, fresh produce, seasonal decor)

* skateable / climbable sculptures

* new types of public seating

Church to demolish existing worship space, creating 110 units of affordable housing

“St. John’s has always been a place focused on refuge, serving the poor, and meeting people where they are,” the church’s pastor, Rev. Peter Beeson, said in a fundraising video.

“Today, we're looking at adapting our building in the most audacious way yet: by tearing it down to build 110 units of affordable housing, plus worship and community space.”


What would Jesus do? This. \o/

Today is partly sunny and mild.  It dribbled a bit last night, just enough to rinse some of the dust off the leaves, not enough to do any real good.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- We got the cover fully back over the septic tank. \o/

I saw a gray squirrel.  This one looked adult or nearly so.  Last fall we had a young one arrive, but it was only here for a month or two before disappearing, presumably eaten.  I hope this one sticks around.  We have grays occasionally, and they make a nice contrast to the established fox squirrels, but they've never managed a breeding population.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I gathered a large amount of Shithouse Marigold seeds.  :D

I've seen a gray catbird and a male rose-breasted grosbeak.  It looks like the fall migration is starting.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I gathered a large amount of small yellow and orange marigold seeds.  

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

*goflopnow*

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
― Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

This is wrong to the point of dangerous. Caution in love is what makes you check life path compatibility before getting too deeply involved, thus preventing heartbreak between countryfolk and cityfolk who would be miserable in each other's habitats, or childfree and someone who wants a big family. Caution also observes a new love interest to see if they're raising red flags of abusive or otherwise alarming behavior. For extra credit, look for their annoying habits to determine whether those are things you could tolerate long-term.

In the interest of finding a good match, I recommend practicing Intellectual Foreplay. Also useful, well suited to dating context, with a convenient 3-stage process, are the 36 Questions to Fall in Love (or like).