Community Questionnaire

Apr. 29th, 2026 02:33 pm
spiralicious: Cereal Killer Mask (Default)
[personal profile] spiralicious posting in [community profile] allbingo
How long have you belonged to this community? What attracted you to it? How often do you play?

I'm not exactly sure when I joined, but I joined specifically to help Vexed_Wench host the first round of Winterfest in July (then called Christmas in July Bingo) in 2014. Vexed made creative bingo sound really fun and I liked how we could do fills with anything of any medium and make our own cards. I honestly try to play every month, but I'm lucky if I make one bingo a year. I do cohost two reoccurring bingos a year, though (Winterfest in July and Fall Fest).

What do you like best about creative bingo? Do you feel that it helps you as a creative person?

I like how it's a different way to present creative prompts, a bit like a chose your own adventure book, or a table with extra gamification. I like creative bingo at allbingo specifically because of how open to interpretation and open ended possibilities of what kind of fills you can do. I think it helps me as a creative person. The different themes everyone comes up with helps spark ideas I wouldn't have had otherwise.

What are some of your favorite bingo themes? Are those single events, recurring, or a mix of both?

Aside from themes I've hosted/,co-hosted, my favorite themes have been (they are a mix of single events and reoccurring):
Valentines Fest
Tolkien Bingo Fest
British Library Crime Classics
National Craft Month
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Pride Bingo
Sleepy Bear Bingo
Amnesty
Meet-Ugly Fest
Tarot Fest
Summer in December

Do you participate in other bingo communities? If so, what are some of your favorites?

Not really anymore. Pretty much all of them I used to participate in have shut down. I do enjoy whatif_au's annual anniversary bingo challenge. This is their 3rd year. The round goes from April until the end of July.

Do you typically create fills in the same format or fandom, or spread them out over different kinds? What will readers find in your work?

I used to do primarily crafts, but now do more fics. It's still a mix. One bingo, I did all book rec lists for fills and I've done playlists for fills too. I do write for a large variety of fandoms and original fiction, but you are most likely to find short ficlets for Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Supernatural, or Batman.

Have you ever made blackout (filled all the prompts on a card)? If so, how many times?

Yes, I have, usually only when I have a 2x2 card. I don't know how many times. It's been more than once, but it's not the norm.

Have you ever hosted a bingo fest here? If so, what was your favorite theme(s)? If not, what themes might you fantasize about hosting?

I have and do! I co-host the reoccurring Winterfest in July (since 2014) and Fall Fest Bingo (since 2015) with Vexed_Wench. I also hosted End of Summer Bingo in 2019 and co-hosted iPod Shuffle Music Fest with Kiramaru7 in 2016.

Birdfeeding

Apr. 29th, 2026 11:25 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is sunny and mild, a beautiful spring day.  It rained again last night.

I fed the birds.  I heard a bluejay screaming but didn't see it.

Gaming

Apr. 29th, 2026 10:43 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
List of tabletop RPG with unusual premises

Most of these are darker than I'd want to play, but the premises are interesting. Among my favorites with unusual premises:

The Details of Our Escape -- Played with a standard 28-tile set of dominos instead of dice, players control a caravan of over 2000 people in search of a new home.

The Far Roofs -- a game of talking rats, and monstrous gods, and you.

Underisles -- a roleplaying game based on sign language, actually the third in a set.

World Tree: A Roleplaying Game of Species and Civilization -- set on, yes, an enormous tree with eight prime species; one of the rare games with no human characters.

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Painting

Apr. 29th, 2026 01:30 am
ysabetwordsmith: Text -- three weeks for dreamwidth, in pink (three weeks for dreamwidth)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about reading as a way of becoming an expert in a given subject. Read Part 1: Introduction to Becoming an Expert, Part 2: Architecture, Part 3: Dance, Part 4: Music.


Three Weeks for Dreamwidth Part 5: Painting

Painting is a visual art based on meaningful marks. I'll include both drawing and painting here, as they use some of the same materials to similar ends. Popular media include acrylic paint, charcoals, colored pencils, ink, oil paint, and watercolor. It's really a spectrum because some media can be used for both, like watercolor pencils or ink. All known human cultures make art, hence the huge range of drawing and painting styles. Here on Dreamwidth, check out [community profile] art, [community profile] drawesome, [community profile] everykindofcraft, or [community profile] justcreate. See also lists of Drawing and Graphics communities for more ideas.


Three Weeks for Dreamwidth April 25-May 15

Read more... )

Cuddle Party

Apr. 29th, 2026 01:13 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!

Poem: "Always Guided by Passion"

Apr. 28th, 2026 11:29 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the January 6, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] see_also_friend. It also fills "The End of the World" square in my 1-1-26 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the Shiv thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "Cause a Riot of Color."

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Based on the general fund poll, "No Faster or Firmer Friendships" has 10 new verses. Josué reads a funny poem to Maria-Vera.

Poem: "The Doom Puff"

Apr. 28th, 2026 10:34 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (monster house)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] nsfwords. It has been sponsored by the general fund poll. This poem belongs to the series Monster House.

Warning: Do not read with mouth full.

Read more... )

Nature

Apr. 28th, 2026 04:17 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Positive tipping points could help nature recover faster than expected

The research shows how ecosystems can cross thresholds that trigger rapid recovery, not just collapse.

These shifts, known as positive tipping points, could unlock large-scale ecological restoration.



Environments have a lot of tipping points between stable variations. One I've seen before is a pond cycle. It can be clear with lots of bass and fewer minnows, or murky with lots of minnows and fewer bass. If you're looking for tipping points that aid recovery, consider...

Read more... )

Three Weeks for Dreamwidth: Music

Apr. 28th, 2026 03:16 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Text -- three weeks for dreamwidth, in pink (three weeks for dreamwidth)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about reading as a way of becoming an expert in a given subject. Read Part 1: Introduction to Becoming an Expert, Part 2: Architecture, Part 3: Dance.


Three Weeks for Dreamwidth Part 4: Music

Music is a performing art based on patterned sounds. It includes both musical instruments and singing, together or separately. All known human cultures make music, so that creates tremendous variety. Here on Dreamwidth, check out [community profile] beautifulmechanical, [community profile] onesongaday and [community profile] tfc_musicianships.


Three Weeks for Dreamwidth April 25-May 15

Read more... )

Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, May 5

Apr. 28th, 2026 01:30 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, May 5, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." I'll be soliciting ideas for characters we haven't seen in a while, dimensional travelers, time travelers, man out of time, alternate self, historians, futurists, explorers, inventors, quantum mechanics, quantum physicists, mad scientists, partners, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other remnant characters, revisiting older scenes, filling in details, missing scenes, learning from the past, moving on to the next scene, researching, revising theories, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, older storylines and series, the multiverse (quantum physics), the multiverse (F&SF), landing pads, world portals, liminal zones, schools, churches, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, mysterious storms, crystal balls and other magical scrying devices, chronoscopes and other technological scrying devices, psychohistory (academic), psychohistory (science fiction), puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, strange loops, fix-its, enemies to friends/lovers, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One features the autistic secession in space.

Arts and Crafts America is largely about using crafts to solve problems.

The Bear Tunnels is about time travel to early colonial New England.

The Blueshift Troupers travel space to help planets in distress.

A Conflagration of Dragons involves civilization collapse.

Daughters of the Apocalypse is mostly about poor, brown, nonmale, queer, and/or disabled people.

Eloquent Souls features soulmates and soulmarks.

Feathered Nests is science fiction about avian aliens with unusual sex/gender dynamics.

Fledgling Grace has a mortal realm, an angelic realm, a demonic realm.

Hart's Farm is a Swedish free-love commune.

The Hollow Way features various mystical occurrences including strange travel paths, but the series is apparently unpublished.

Kande's Quest has a mortal realm and a demonic realm.

Monster House includes a variety of unusual characters.

Not Quite Kansas has an angelic realm, a demonic realm, and two versions of a mortal realm.

The Ocracies is a fantasy setting with diverse political systems.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis has a mortal realm and a divine realm.

Path of the Paladins has a mortal realm and a divine realm.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy with a disabled hera.

Schrodinger's Heroes is all about trying to save the world from alternate dimensions.

The Steamsmith features a black, genderqueer, British steampunk engineer.

The Time Towers compares time travel to Jenga.

Tripping into the Future is about one-way time travel and its consequences.

Walking the Beat is lesbian romance.

Shorter series appear on the Serial Poetry page.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )

Birdfeeding

Apr. 28th, 2026 12:54 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy, mild, and damp. It stormed most of yesterday. The patio was underwater several times. There are little logjams of twigs at the edges of where the giant puddles were. The fields have floodles, which is normal for this time of year. Finally.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen any yet.

I put some flats of plants outside to get some sun.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I planted 3 different stonecrop sedums under the maple tree near the 'Autumn Joy' there.

I've seen a fox squirrel.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I planted 2 different yarrows in the septic garden.

I saw a brown thrasher foraging in the recently mowed grass.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I planted a 'Morello' hyssop by the barrel garden. It will offer orange to red trumpet-shaped flowers for hummingbirds.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I planted 3 different phlox in the wildflower garden.

Poppies and irises have buds. :D

I saw a single clear track in the driveway mud, possibly fox.

EDIT 4/28/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I am done for the night.

National Superhero Day

Apr. 28th, 2026 12:17 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is National Superhero Day. Here are some resources...


Celebrate National Superhero Day at Dinner

How to Celebrate National Superhero Day

A Superheroes List! 20 Superhero Day Activities

Ultimate Guide to Planning a Superhero Party for Kids
Looks like the same tips will work just as well for adult fans.


I have two relevant series:

Polychrome Heroics is my superhero fantasy series.

Skills Heroes Need is nonfiction about knowledge useful in emergencies.




Superpowers

Apr. 28th, 2026 12:06 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
13 Queer Supers Stories for Superhero Day!

Happy Superhero Day!! We love a good caped (or uncaped) crusader, and so we present a list of our favorite superhero stories. Reminder, though, that the line between a hero and a villain is thin, and that a magical girl is a flavor of superhero, right?


These look promising.

If you want more, see my QUILTBAG Characters list and scroll down to Polychrome Heroics where some of them have superpowers.  Antimatter and Stalwart Stan is queer teen enemies-to-lovers.

Books

Apr. 28th, 2026 10:52 am
ysabetwordsmith: (gold star)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
[personal profile] thewayne has posted about a site called Bookshop.org. It's an alternative to Amazon that gives 80% of its profits back to independent bookstores. I like that.

Curious, I visited the website. What I found on the front page was even more interesting. Amazon just kind of slops things at you. But Bookshop is ... surprisingly like an actual bookstore in how it organizes its "hey look at this" material. At the top is a rotating rack of several hot items. Below that are horizontal rows of books in categories: New Books, Bestsellers of the Week, a couple more featured titles, 50 Books for Earth Day: Literary and Climate Fiction, Independent Press Top 40 Nonfiction Bestsellers, Step into the world of Castle Knoll with these cozy murder mysteries!, Acclaimed Crime Procedurals from Michael Connelly, For the Love of Bookstores and Libraries, Indie Next List Books: April 2026, There's a Jesse Q. Sutanto book for that!, queer whimsy, Get in the Know: Billionaires, Big Tech, and Monopoly, You Can Do It: Cookbooks for the Busy (and Lazy), and so on. It works exactly the way bookstores put things on tables and racks near the front of the store to snag attention. Want to browse a table? Click on it to see the full list of its books. Want to pick up a book? Click on it to get a summary description. You aren't relying wholly on an algorithm to find things; you can skim for topics you like and explore those.

Read more... )

American Meadows Order

Apr. 28th, 2026 12:38 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
My live plants arrived from American Meadows. \o/ 

Free Epic Poll

Apr. 27th, 2026 11:54 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl has made its $200 goal, so you get a free epic. Everyone is eligible to vote in this poll. I will keep it open at least until Tuesday night. If there's a clear answer then, I'll close it; otherwise I may leave it open a little while longer. Here are your options...

"Better to Be an Outcast"
Summary: Shahana and Ari encounter a former paladin of Gorrein.
122 lines

"Filled with Things You Don't Know"
Story Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Summary: Marjane works on library decor and gets a new assistant.
98 lines

Poll #34530 Free Epic for the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl
This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9


Which of these should be the free epic?

View Answers

"Better to Be an Outcast"
2 (22.2%)

"Filled with Things You Don't Know"
7 (77.8%)

General Fund Poll

Apr. 27th, 2026 11:24 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The general fund currently contains $25. Everyone is eligible to vote in this poll. I will keep it open at least until Tuesday night. If there is a clear answer then, I'll close it. Otherwise I may leave it open at least a little longer. Here are your options...

"No Faster or Firmer Friendships" belongs to Polychrome Heroics and needs $45 to be complete. Josué makes friends with Maria-Vera. You could reveal a bunch of new verses here.

"The Doom Puff" is $15. You could sponsor that outright, and have $10 left for "No Faster or Firmer Friendships."

There are four epics from April: "Any Terms You Offer," "Eat It Happily Because It Is Good," "Edge of Enchantment," and "An Equally Valid Way of Being." This would make a good start on any one of those.


Poll #34529 General Fund Poll
This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9


How do you want to distribute the $25?

View Answers

$15 for "The Doom Puff" and $10 toward "No Faster or Firmer Friendships"
8 (88.9%)

ALL $25 into "No Faster or Firmer Friendships"
1 (11.1%)

Open a new epic
0 (0.0%)

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The following poems from the April 7, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods. There are still verses left in the linkback poems "A Sense of Weather Changes," "The Loving Embrace of Night," "Generations of Cooks Past," "Homefree and Clear, " "One Bite at a Time," "Mishpocha," "Changing Your Nature," and "Besa."


"Any Terms You Offer"
Story Date: Monday, March 18, 2019
Summary: Barb feels confused by changes, but he's still standing up for himself.
125 lines, Buy It Now = $63

Gideon came home to find
a puddle of black fur
moping on his bed
.


"The Doom Puff"
Summary: What started out as a cute fluffy bunny didn't stay that way.
39 lines, Buy It Now = $15

"Eat It Happily Because It Is Good"
Story Date: Thursday, September 1, 2016
Summary: In which Shiv is a salad snob.
501 lines, Buy It Now = $251

Professor O'Keeffe had done a great job
of showing everyone around Memorial Park,
pointing out where the canna bulbs and
other tender perennials had already been
dug up to store over the winter or how
the rosebushes were dropping leaves
.


"Edge of Enchantment"
Story Date: Morning of Thursday, May 1, 2025
Summary: Digby and Maerwynn come to a trading post where they meet the first people in their new world.
357 lines, Buy It Now = $179

In the morning, Digby and Maerwynn
woke to song, but only half of that
came from the familiar birds
.


"An Equally Valid Way of Being"
Summary: Xavia finds that becoming a werewolf improves her mental as well as physical health.
66 lines, Buy It Now = $33

Xavia Brown had been
an indifferent college student
and an avid bicycler when
bad bicycle crash left her
with arm and leg impairment
on the left side, a lot of scars,
and chronic pain that made
every day into a struggle
.

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