Community (or lack thereof)

I will not start a community. I will not start a community. I will not start a communi- Hey, stop it hand, stop going to that community section!

Sigh. After yet another comment on writing, I keep realizing these great potential ideas for communities. As much as I don't want to commit, I do think that maybe once I have more free time, I should.

I have two ideas running in my head so far:

-Writing: A theme-based short story monthly workshop. We throw in random prompt ideas and each month, you try to write a piece of quick fiction using those ideas one way or another. You keep it intensive like a class so that way you make sure someone does it and, if you can't, you post saying you can't for that month for one reason or another. Maybe whoever pulls the prompts is done in a round-robin style where everyone critiques it off a Google Doc and a summary comment if interested. I don't know whether it would make sense to make the posts private or public in that case.

Somehow I would be surprised if there wasn't a community like this on DW, but I think it would be good to have something more dedicated like that; only problem would be I would also consider making everyone admin and I'd need to make sure that whoever is in it will take it seriously and will also not take it so seriously that they become strict with style and not so much the effort. I know writing groups can go terribly wrong and that is part of the reason why I'm afraid to look at the ones people here have.

-Photography: A dedicated 365 a day share community. Crosspost the photos between each other, basically turn the community into a collage of work.

I don't see a lot of photog groups here that are active, so I think it would fulfill that need and a large enough group would encourage people to keep posting and taking photos even if it's mundane.

I'm tempted to also push the ideas of "buddies" to check on each other in case they seem to be having issues, just to encourage brainstorming by bouncing ideas off each other through chat sessions.

I know, this sounds more like a class than anything, and that's what I think my main goal for starting a community is; not so much to teach others as much as to get myself in the mindset of one.

I dunno, I think it would also depend on if there was anyone out there willing to basically join in something that they end up treating like a class. Thoughts?

(no subject)

Caught up on work.

Yesterday, I got a clump of work that came at the end of the day; that tends to happen. I think it's going to stay slow for this week until Memorial Day finally resolves. Visited the supermarket and there was a sale on beef! Oh, glorious beef!

Gaming
So I was referred to Magikarp Jump. I do know that I have some AAA titles on Steam I haven't even cracked into yet, right? Ugh, waste way too much time on Puzzle and Dragons already.

Planting
I got three sprouted beans so far, two more planters are still not doing anything yet. I'm tempted to plant one by the window so I can add to that window motif, but I guess we'll see how that looks. I am liking how the plants are so large.

The garden looks bleak but hopeful; a lot of leaves are dying out, but I can see new shoots coming out; I think there's a good chance that the beans will start growing out. I'm thinking that is the beans start growing the same way as the ones by the windowsill, then I'm going to get a pole in the next two weeks and start maypoling the plants.

Cooking
Despite my love of getting a sale on beef, I really should play around with this textured vegetable protein to see if I can make a decent substitute out of it. I can think of a few things if I do it vegetarian, but vegan? That'll require some more brainstorming to get some new flavors out of it. An advantage is that because it's dry, it's soak up whatever wet mixture I give it much more readily than actual meat, so it'll make for nifty marinade-based mixes.

Originally, I was tempted to do something with it for protein bowls for that birthday that I forgot about, but since that didn't work out, maybe I'll try something else. Maybe I'll put it in congee to test it out, marinate it in sesame oil, soy, and kimchi brine and then throw it into that potato-rice congee I kept telling myself I was going to make (although the kimchi itself uses fish sauce so isn't really vegan, but this is more of a test to see if I can do it than anything else).

I'll make this as well once the fridge starts to clear up more. I think there's still some stirfry, but not that much, so I'll go that direction.

Photos
So I dug from the back photos: not a lot of them came out good or that detailed.

For example, the comps for these snails wasn't too good. Part of the problem is the weather, the other is that I take these close to sunset, and the last is that I can't really handle staying outside in the rain for long periods of time yet. So in the meantime, enjoy this photo as much as, uh, those two snails are enjoying each other.



So yeah, a photo of when I finally cleared the stripped screw. That dremel is amazing. I should note though that most of the stuff in that case doesn't get as much use as you'd think with me; the grinding bits I used were actually bought piece by piece.

By the way, see that plastic hard case of screwdrivers? Those things were CRAP. The bit on top is slightly more useful since you can get better torque out of it, but the Moody bits? Excellent if you want to undo tight screws.



The feral green onions have started to really grow out properly despite the transplant, as they're starting to get ready to flower. Mosquitoes are coming out, so that's a good sign that the gardening weather is getting there.


-which explains this spider I found hanging out around the flowers. Those spider webs around it? Exactly.

I'll see if I can get some other shots; I took some of the recent hike up and down (me and Michelle are doing it more regularly to get some acclimation to the endurance test with it) and got a few more landscape shots.