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This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about reading as a way of becoming an expert in a given subject.
Part 1: Introduction to Becoming an Expert
Previously I posted about "How to Get Good at Anything." That touched on "The 3 Book Rule to Become An Expert." The premise is that, if you have read just three books on a subject, you know more about it than the general level of knowledge. You don't know as much as a professional should, but you know enough to answer about 80% of questions on the matter. This is enough to be useful to most people regarding most issues in that area. The really complicated or difficult stuff can be left to the professional level of experts.
( Read more... )Current Mood:  busy
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ABOUT
The FESTA is an event focused on reading, sharing, and commenting on fics from all fandoms, as well as building community. We try to run this event twice a year and our current round is scheduled to start MAY 2026. We have bingo sheets, a stamp rally, and will have weekly chat sessions on Bluesky. ALL fic ratings and topics are welcome. No AI generated content will be promoted.
LANGUAGE
English and Spanish
Pueden encontrar esta información (y más) en nuestras páginas del evento.
THEME
Our May (Round 3) Themes are: SPRING & FLOWERS! We also have 30+ bingo prompts related to May Holidays, Mental Health Awareness, and Community Building.
MINIMUM COMMUNITY GOALS
We encourage everyone to leave at least 2 comments during the FESTA! And if you play our stamp rally, the more comments you leave, the more stamps you can collect.
SCHEDULE
5/1: The FESTA begins
5/9: Chat Session #1
5/16: Chat Session #2
5/23: Chat Session #3
5/30: Chat Session #4
5/31: Last day for fic submissions but the games continue
6/1: Spotlights begin
6/30: Last day of games & commenting sprees
7/4: Roundup of fics & community achievements LIVE
Chat sessions are scheduled for Saturdays, US CST evenings (6pm).
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Readers are encouraged to join our commenting team!
Writers are encouraged to submit their fics!
Everyone is encouraged to read, share, and comment on fics!
Everyone is encouraged to grab a bingo sheet, join our stamp rally, and participate in our weekly games!
MORE INFORMATION
Bluesky | Tumblr | Dreamwidth ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png) fanfictionfesta
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Ask away! You can also look at our August (R2) archive
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The FESTA is mainly held on Bluesky, but you can participate via Tumblr & DW too.
Signups are not required but are encouraged.
Podfics are also allowed.Current Mood:  determined
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Three Weeks for Dreamwidth runs April 25-May 15. During this time, people post content only visible on Dreamwidth (although it can be reposted elsewhere after the event ends). There's usually a flurry of activity as bloggers share anchor posts, new fiction, icons, banners, questionnaires, friending fests, memes, and other goodies. Community hosts often hold special activities in their communities too. Watch your reading page for more festivities. (See the introductory posts from 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.) To find posts for this event, follow the Threeweeks feed.
This year I plan to post about becoming an expert by reading three books on a subject. See "My Blog Is About..." for an overview of my blogging in general.
I have also posted about this event in my communities. See the entries:
* THREE WEEKS FOR DREAMWIDTH: INTRODUCTION in allbingo
THREE WEEKS FOR DREAMWIDTH: SHARE YOUR CARDS
( Read more... )Current Mood:  excited
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Haven't done one of these in a while.
1. What decade did you attend/are you attending high school or college? Mostly around the early 00s.
2. What clothing fashion from that time are you glad/do you wish went out of style? I never gave much of a fuck about fashion at the time. I was goth adjacent and didn't have any clue what anyone else was doing with themselves. Youtube feeds me nostalgia videos about fashion in my teen years and it's like a primer on a foreign country. I guess... frosted tips were kind of weird in hindsight.
3. Do you still listen to the music from your high school/college years on a regular basis? Not too much. Still listen to Dream Theater on occasion.
4. What hairstyle/hair color did/do you wear during high school/college? During high school I was depressed so had hip length hair that I rarely washed. In college I got myself together again. I also got my first short hair cut and that was a hilarious mistake because I went to some old lady who gave me an old lady haircut, but I simply had never been to a salon or anything and did not know how any of it worked. It grew out pretty fast at least.
5. What was/is "the cool thing to do" while in high school/college? I honestly have no fucking clue for high school. Whatever it was I wasn't doing it. In college it was of course drinking, but in my freshman year it was also a looooot of theft (I didn't participate with one major exception that almost got me kicked out of school.)
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I hope Nael, currently age 16-ish, is doing very well, and still writing delightful poems about tigers.
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Today I made two short trips to a local stream and saw quite a few different kind of birds, partly with the help of binoculars:
- Great blue heron wading in the stream
- Hawk (red-tailed?)
- Green-winged teals
- Black-capped chickadees
- American robins
- A reddish finch (house finch?)
- A hummingbird too far away to identify and too quick for me to binocular
- A little yellow-and-black bird, probably a goldfinch but it was gone before I got a good look at it.
- A tiny bird that I suspect was a golden-crowned kinglet because I think I saw a splash of yellow on its crown but again I didn't get a good look before it was gone.
- Some brown sparrow-y birds that I couldn't identify
- Plus the city birds I see all the time without going anywhere: pigeons, crows, starlings, gulls (glaucous-winged?)
I also saw some red admiral butterflies and I think I caught a glimpse of a scampering mouse-sized mammal but it got into cover too quickly for me to really see (probably just a mouse).
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The wonderful poetryisnotaluxury posted a Joy Sullivan poem today ("On Days I Hate My Body, I Remember Redwoods") and I almost just copied them and posted the same one, because it's so fucking good. But here's a different one, instead.
( Instinct )
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Today we went to the Spring Fest in Charleston. It was drizzling, but not enough to discourage us.
( Read more... )
Current Mood: busy
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3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
Come join in for fun, memes, activities, and more ♥
A couple years ago, I did a daily tarot prompt (see this tag), which I'm thinking about doing again, but realising that consistency isn't going to be my best point, I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I guess I could draw a card when I remember to do it, and not commit to writing a drabble/ficlet every day? I really did have fun last time, but I also wasn't... fully burned out. so
Thoughts?
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Intro/FAQ
Days 1-15
My check-in: No conference today! Also, beta managed to get her edits done yesterday afternoon while I was watching a demonstration of modeling and visualization tools! So although I am blasted and stupid today after two days of overstimulation, I was still able to make a bevy of minor edits AND come up with a title and whatnot. I might just get this story posted after all…
Day 24: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) china_shop, sanguinity
Day 23: badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora
Day 22: badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora
( More days )
When you check in, please use the most recent post and say what day(s) you’re checking in for. Remember you can drop in or out at any time, and let me know if I missed anyone!
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The roofers were back to finish the final section. I was annoyed, even though I wanted it done. I spent my first day as the chauffeur for the Sparrowhawk's errands. I drove to the farm store so he could buy eggs, milk, and coffee cream. I just stayed in the car and let him go in and pick up his order as usual. I was trying to make things seem normal for him, although I didn't tell him that. Then we went to the main library branch downtown so he could return books and pick up his reserves from MELCAT. His usual branch of the library is closed indefinitely for repairs due to the recent flooding. After that, I asked if there was anything else he needed to have done. He tentatively advanced the notion that he might get a quick haircut, if it wasn't too much trouble. So we swung by the shopping plaza where he had his shapely dome clipped, and I went into the grocery store to pick up his prescription refills and a few other items.
We were home in time for him to have his monthly Zoom with his high school friends, and for me to put away the food and have a tea break before it was time to take him to his MRI appointments. The neurologist wanted to check on that meningioma and also do a cervical scan to make sure that some numbness in his foot is not caused by pressure on a nerve. We came home and I made toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches and soup for dinner. Both of us are weirdly tired and indignant about it. Hoping to feel more energetic tomorrow . . . .
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The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
by Louise Erdrich
This beautiful novel focuses on Father Damien, a priest serving on an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota during the twentieth century. His great secret is that he is a woman who has lived as a man for most of his life. When another priest comes to the reservation to investigate the sanctity of Sister Leopolda, a deceased nun of the reservation convent, Damien must decide whether to reveal the truth about Leopolda as he reflects on his life.
The Last Report... is a wonderful book that reveals a lot about Native American life in the early 20th century, and also explores what goodness and saintliness really are, and what makes a life truly holy. Damien's quiet, loving, empathetic service to the Ojibwe community is contrasted with Leopolda's forbidding and harsh devotion to the Church. The book is filled with so many wonderful characters, especially the elder Nanapush, Mary Kashpaw, and Damien himself. Erdrich gives us a good look at how religion can function in a community, and how that community can shape that religion. There's a lot in this book, and it's all worth discovering.Current Mood:  calm
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⌈ Secret Post #7049 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01. 
( More! )
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1006.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
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There's been a situation that has been making life stressful for the past year, and yesterday the stress doubled. My way of dealing with this kind of cosmic ass kick is to bury myself in writing, where I feel I have a pretence at control. I only say this because I might not be as responsive to posts as usual, and if anyone even notices a dearth of commentary from me (very small chance I realize) it's not you, it's me. Not gone, just coping and scribbling away.
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Looked out at the sky the other night and the moon was not that bright. Despite what appears in the photo below, we could see the entire ball of the Moon. It was just that the slice was brighter.
What was also very noticeable was Venus. After a number of attempts I was finally able to get a non wavery shot of it in close-up.
( Read more... )
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Author: Punk
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Team Sheppard
Rating: G
Content notes: No standard notes apply.
Size: 3,800 words
Summary: The hunting knife is twice the size of the fruit in his hand, but Ronon handles it with ease.
Read it on the AO3 or here »
( The Feast of St. Olaf )
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Does anyone know where I can get a Trinity Santos icon?
*
Always need some Dorianne Laux during poetry month, so here's today's poem:
Prayer
by Dorianne Laux
Sweet Jesus, let her save you, let her take
your hands and hold them to her breasts,
slip the sandals from your feet, lay your body down
on sheets beaten clean against the fountain stones.
Let her rest her dark head on your chest,
let her tongue lift the hairs like a sword tip
parting the reeds, let her lips burnish
your neck, let your eyes be wet with pleasure.
Let her keep you from that other life, as a mother
keeps a child from the brick lip of a well,
though the rope and bucket shine and clang,
though the water's hidden silk and mystery call.
Let her patter soothe you and her passions
distract you, let her show you the light
storming the windows of her kitchen, peaches
in a wooden bowl, a square of blue cloth
she has sewn to her skirt to cover the tear.
What could be more holy than the curve of her back
as she sits, her hands opening a plum.
What could be more sacred than her eyes,
fierce and complicated as the truth, your life
rising behind them, your name on her lips.
Stay there, in her bare house, the black pots
hung from pegs, bread braided and glazed
on the table, a clay jug of violet wine.
There is the daily sacrament of rasp and chisel,
another chair to be made, shelves to be hewn
cleanly and even and carefully joined
to the sun-scrubbed walls, a sharp knife
for carving odd chunks of wood into small toys
for the children. Oh Jesus, close your eyes
and listen to it, the air is alive with bird calls
and bees, the dry rustle of palm leaves,
her distracted song as she washes her feet.
Let your death be quiet and ordinary.
Either life you choose will end in her arms
*Current Mood:  thoughtful
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exhausted
drained