nnozomi | Network

Posted by Gunnar Rundgren

https://gardenearth.substack.com/p/regenerative-agriculture-what-works

Regenerative agriculture has risen to fame and glory. Even large corporations like Unilever, Nestlé and Carlsberg embrace it.

The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) has created a ”compass” to assess various regenerative initiatives, 29 for the time being. The compass doesn’t work with detailed criteria for methods or practices but with four broad criteria:

Is the system designed to adapt over time and across different locations (e.g. changing seasons, soil types, climates, local socio-economic conditions)?
Does the system capture regeneration as a multi-dimensional process, integrating ecological, social, and economic outcomes?
Is the monitoring, reporting, and verification system efficient, accessible, and right-sized for its stated purpose, ensuring opportunity for broad participation?
Does the system actively help farmers make better on-farm decisions and provide useful feedback for innovation?

EARA uses a traffic light coding to rate the systems. The most problematic criteria is the second one, where only one of the systems, Regenerative Organic Certified, manage to integrate the various aspect of farming. Most systems are weak on this and focus only one aspect or just a simple issue such as soil carbon, this is particularly the case for the company-specific systems.

There is much in the aspirations, dominant ideas and methods of regenerative agriculture that are laudable. I ascribe to most of them and practice most of what is considered essential parts of regenerative agriculture. In particular, I like that it is just as important to regenerate the conditions for farming as it is to farm.

Having said that, I am concerned about the hype around it. For the following main reasons:

1. We heard it before and we have done it before.

2. The analysis doesn’t go deep enough.

3. The lack of coherent definition.

4. It is often more about marketing than farming.

I expand on this below. In many cases, I contrast regenerative against organic. This is partly because some proponents of regenerative go far in claiming that regenerative is superior to organic in many ways. Even if I have been involved in organics for almost fifty years I am well aware of that organic in no way is perfect, and I have written about it extensively. I find many comparisons unfair. Nevertheless, it can help those not so knowledgeable in farming to understand the issues when regenerative is compared with organic.

1) There is almost nothing in the methods usually adopted by regenerative agriculture that is new. The value of crop rotations is recognised since thousands of years. No-till is even older than tilling, basically all swiddening is done without tilling. Even the word regenerative was invented by the organic movement. Perhaps the most unique aspect is the grazing part of it. But, even that is largely based on Voisin’s work seventy years ago. The current focus on carbon in soil is just another version of a focus on humus and organic matter which has been a cornerstone of the organic movement (and it was nothing invented by the organic movement either). There are many good things lost in the agriculture system, and that we should try to reintroduce them. On the other hand, there are reasons for why some practices are dropped and others emerge. Without a proper analysis of those reasons you can’t proceed beyond a certain point (see next point).

When you have been in the game for fifty years, you have seen these hypes come and go. Organic itself was all the rage thirty years ago. But, in the end, it was too limited, with high costs and rigid standards, in order to appeal to major food industries and most farmers. The alternative was ”sustainable agriculture”. It was often portrayed as being ”better” than organic in a similar way that some promote regenerative as superior to organic today. In the end, sustainable agriculture, was embraced by everybody and meant nothing more than general good agriculture practice.

In the end, sustainable agriculture, was embraced by everybody and meant nothing

2. Agriculture is shaped by the surrounding society and the drivers of that society. A century ago, most farms in Europe practised a diverse crop rotation and integrated various livestock into the system. Despite the fact that it is biologically and ecologically sound, it is not economically sound in a (capitalist) market economy. The imperatives of specialisation, mechanisation and economies of scale (all three are aspects of the division of labour that is fundamental to the market economy, noted by Adam Smith 250 years ago). The organic movement provides a good illustration. Once organic became mainstream and started to sell to supermarkets and food industries, organic farmers had to specialise and could not keep the diversity. Those who didn’t, had to develop very different marketing systems with CSAs, direct marketing, or being a visiting/educational farm etc. The discourse around regenerative agriculture is largely lacking this perspective.

Far too many of the proponents, especially in North America, pretend that regenerartive agriculture is profitable (if you just do it right, which mostly means buying their course or advice). Apart from that those promises mostly are wrong even from the farmer’s narrow commercial perspective, there are also mechanisms on the system level which make such profitability claims dubious. Despite that farmers have increased their production and lowered the production costs for a century now, farming is still not profitable because there is a fundamental overproduction in farming. Any improvements in production will, if adopted across the board, lead to lower prices. The only way profitability in farming will improve under current market system, at least for while, is if there will be food shortages (and we don’t want that do we?), regardless of how food is produced.

3. Organic got stuck in extremely detailed prescriptions of what you should do and, even more, what you shouldn’t do. In the view of the public and most farmers it is defined by its standards even if there is a lot more, which is apparent if you read the IFOAM principles of organic. Regenerative, as it stands today has the opposite problem. Part of the problem is encapsulated in the following statement in the EARA Compass: Its core purpose is not to ask „Are you regenerative?“ but „Are you moving towards more holistic regeneration?“ . In the Compass is also written:

Can I be regenerative while I do conservation agriculture with herbicides?
Yes - as long as there are outcomes that prove you are on a regenerating journey and you intend to continuously reduce herbicide and pesticide use.

Some of the major proponents of regenerative agriculture have built their production system around glyphosate weed killers.

Some proponents of regenerative agriculture means that it compares favorably with organic because the focus is on outcomes and not on methods. I would say that this is a very simplistic perspective. To begin with, practices, methods and technologies are never neutral, they are always linked to outcomes and they shape the outcomes. This is even more so if you embrace the experimentation and observation which is emphasized in regenerative agriculture. “The path is the goal” as they say. And the distinction between outcomes and methods is not always very clear. To let cattle graze, or let the calf suckle the mother is both a method and an outcome (they can exercise a natural behaviour). To store more carbon in the soil might be considered as an outcome by one, but is a method to combat global warming according to others. Every farmer also know that even if you did everything right, some years the outcomes might be terrible as a result of factors out of your control – a flood, a draught or market failures.

It is a strength of regenerative agriculture that it is context specific. But I feel that this often is reduced to ”what works, works”. Making nobody wiser.

4. There are, for sure, many serious and good regenerative farmers who will explore and develop regenerative farming for the better. They should have as much credit as possible for that. But by and large, today the regenerative narrative is largely driven by marketing. And there are many who want to be on that marketing train:

There are the big companies that want to surf the waves and build the image of their brands.

There are many marketing gurus, consultants and trend analysts that position themselves in this arena and make their living from it. Also some prominent farmers doubling as consultants, educators and speakers. No harm in that, but there is a difference between earning your living from talking about regenerative agriculture and from actually doing it. This is nothing special for regenerative agriculture but applies equally to other concepts such as organic, biochar, permaculture, syntropic, perennial farming etc. Been there, done that.

Some thirty years ago, one of the organic pioneers, Carl Haest, said about sustainable agriculture, “friend in the field, foe in the market”. That seems to hold also for regenerative agriculture.

https://gardenearth.substack.com/p/regenerative-agriculture-what-works

selenak

In which we get what is clearly supposed to be the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy equivalent of the TNG episode Family - but is it?

( Spoilers want to watch meteor showers as well… )

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: On the train

badly_knitted posting in

small_fandoms

Title: Ever Onwards
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Summary: It’s tempting to stop, but the travellers have to keep going.

( Ever Onwards... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

spaciireth posting in

sweetandshort

Title: Too Much To Ask

Fandom: Beauty and the Beast (Disney)

Length: 367

Rating: T

Prompt: troll

Summary: Modern AU with Belle as a booktoker. And Gaston is still a creep.

Posted on AO3

Title: Keep Up The Good Fight

Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)

Length: 133

Rating: T

Prompt: Fight

Summary: The Doctor is tired.

Posted on AO3

Title: Age is Just A Number

Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)

Length: 160

Rating: G

Prompt: Number

Summary: How old is the Doctor? Doesn't matter, really.

Posted on AO3

Current Mood: productive

lucy_roman posting in

small_fandoms

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/02/the-rec-league-revolutionist-bi-polycules/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=166665

The Rec League - heart shaped chocolate resting on the edge of a very old book This fun Rec League was suggested by Geoffroy in the podcast Patreon discord:

A bit niche, but anyone would suggest a series of poly (or adjacent) smutty Paranormal-ish romance that has an insurrectionists vibe? As long as it’s open-door or found family with 4+ bi- polycule who believe ACAB, with enough distance for escapism.

Susan: Did Kit Rocha do any polyamory? It’s genuinely been so long that I don’t remember.

Sneezy: Ya, they did. Now that you mention it, I think their poly books ticks most of the boxes?

Amanda: I can’t remember if the Kit Rocha Beyond series had bi heroes. Maybe in the later books? I only read book one and it was ages ago.

Elyse: I believe Consort of Fire ( A | BN ) would qualify as well as Daughter of Tides. ( A | BN )

Amanda: Oooh, good call!

Kiki: Okay I don’t know if it has all of those things but the closest I have is Fleeing Fate by Sabrina Day—bi polycule, paranormal shifters. Can’t remember if it’s got an ACAB vibe though. Also a heads up that a second book was supposed to come out but hasn’t yet!

What books would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2026/02/the-rec-league-revolutionist-bi-polycules/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=166665

poliphilo

Picture Diary 119

1. Hi there, kiddo

2. Tightrope walker

3. Disks

4. Bad apple

5. Poppies

6. Orion

wildeabandon

So the Church of England has drawn the "Living in Love and Faith" process to a close, in a way that puts any pursuit of my priestly vocation out of reach for the foreseeable future. A new working group is being set up to continue looking at the question of priests in same-sex marriages, which is supposed to report back to Synod in 2028. Based on past experience, that probably means 2029 or 2030, at which point there will no doubt be a new round of painful arguments, and then I guess we'll see. But for now, that door is closed.

I think I am currently feeling less upset about this than I thought I'd be, although it might just be alexithymia fogging things up. It didn't really come as a surprise, so to some extent letting go of the uncertainty is something of a relief.

It also removes the potential complication that comes with having reinvigorated my academic vocation, coming back to the field with my mental health intact, my ADHD treated, and the general increased wisdom that comes with age. Of course academia and the priesthood is hardly a combination that hasn't been tried before, but I had been worrying slightly about what happens if I have to make a choice about which to pursue first, and now that that choice has been taken off the table I can just concentrate on my studies, and should at least be well into a PhD before the question of formal priestly discernment becomes pertinent again.

tamaranth

2026/024: Wolf Worm — T Kingfisher

Some thoughts burrow into your mind as thoroughly as a wasp larva burrows into an unsuspecting caterpillar. [loc. 3387]

Set in North Carolina in 1899, this novel taught me more than I ever wanted to know about various parasitic insects. The narrator, Sonia Wilson, is a scientific illustrator who's accepted a position with the reclusive Dr Halder, who lives in an isolated, decaying house in the woods. En route, Sonia's local guide warns darkly that he's seen the Devil in these woods, but Sonia has been raised by a scientist and discounts this as mere superstition.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: nauseated

mbarker posting in

wetranscripts

Writing Excuses 21.07: Deep Dive -- "With Her Serpent Locks"

From https://writingexcuses.com/21-07-deep-dive-with-her-serpent-locks

Key Points: Birthdays are Leveling Up days! This story has teeth. Subtly diabolical. Use mythology to ground the story. Mix in science fiction technology. Barriers to writing? Angry snakes. When you have a big emotion, lean into it. Give it to a character and then help them pivot away from it. Intentions. Delaying information. Internalizing. What the hell?

[Season 21, Episode 07]

[unknown] Every Lenovo is built to let. Them. Go. Let them work and rework. Let them animate. A dinosaur. No, a toaster. No, a hamster in a jetpack. Finally. Let them make it. This back to school season, join Lenovo's online education store for free at lenovo.com, where students unlock exclusive pricing, 10 times Lenovo reward points, and access to a thriving creator community. Lenovo.com. Let creatives create.. [singing Lenovo, Lenovo]

[Mary Robinette] This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends. If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.patreon.com/writingexcuses.

[Season 21, Episode 07]

[Mary Robinette] This is Writing Excuses.

[DongWon] Deep dive -- "With Her Serpent Locks"

[Marshall] Tools, not rules.

[Erin] For writers, by writers.

[Mary Robinette] I'm Mary Robinette.

[DongWon] I'm DongWon.

[Marshall] I'm Marshall.

[Erin] I'm Erin.

[Mary Robinette] And we are very happy that Marshall has joined us. He's usually on the other side of the microphone, being our engineer. But... Today is my birthday.

[Chuckles. Happy birthday. Yay.]

[Mary Robinette] So I often think about this as leveling up day. I'm now at 5th... Level 57 human.

[I love that]

[Mary Robinette] It makes me feel powerful...

[Chuckles]

[Mary Robinette] In a way that I'm 57 years old does not. Because then I can think about the new gear that I get and the tools that I get. And for my birthday, one of the things that I often do is I do what I call a party favor. Which is that I host one of my stories, but then I also talk about some aspect of it. Sometimes I show you a first draft. And in this case, we're going to talk about the story through the things we've been talking about with beginnings, some of the things we're going to be talking about with beginnings, and I'm also going to talk about some ways in which this story shows me leveling up. So, this is on Uncanny. It's called With Her Serpent Locks. My friends have read this story. And before I tell you where it came from, I would love to just see what your first initial thoughts of it were.

[DongWon] I really loved it. It's really fun, even though it comes from a place of like... There's definitely, like, teeth to this story. Right? Like, these things have a bite. And I really enjoyed seeing that unfold. But it's... I like the way in which the emotions of it is kind of sublimated, like, there's irritation, but it's all filtered through this very, like, I'm going about my day, I'm keeping my cool, I'm just like doing the things that comfort me, and it sort of has all these sensory grounding things so you can feel the simmering rage underneath it that's going to end up where it ends up. So, yeah, I really liked that emotional tenor and it made it a very, like, pleasant story to read. Even though it is coming from a place of like... Fuck this.

[Chuckles]

[Marshall] I agree. When I got... Especially when I get to the end, it just felt like subtly diabolical. Like, by the... Like, she's just going about, like DongWon said, going about the day, but, like... There was some planning going on and there was some anger. And then the execution at the end was just... It was very satisfying by the time we got to the end.

[Erin] Yeah. I really was thinking about it in the context of, like, some of what we've been talking about recently of, like, beginnings and openings, so I really... The end is great. But, like, I was thinking about, like, how it works. And one thing I found interesting is, it's based in mythology. Mythology that I'm aware of. Which is something we didn't talk about, which is something you can ground a story in a broader context and, like, even the context that like... Which is not 100% required, but this is a fairly well-known myth, like, the Medusa turning people into stone. And so it was really cool to kind of uncover what was happening on both the personal level for the character who I was not familiar with, but, like where it fits into my broader understanding of the myth, which is a fun way to ground, and also makes me feel clever, which we talked about in previous episodes. Which is the... I'm like, oh, this is that, and it's a little more explicit right after that. So I'm like, I figured it out...

[Chuckles]

[Erin] Before it was told to me, which is something really fun that I enjoyed.

[DongWon] Yeah. And even in the way where I was like, oh, wait, I don't really remember this part of the myth. Like, I remember Medusa was, like, one of the Gorgons, but I don't remember who the rest of them were, or what the setup was, or even exactly how she died. I remember the Harry Hausen...

[Mary Robinette] Right. Yeah.

[DongWon] Version of it. But it didn't feel necessary. Right? I got the pieces I needed to get. I remember the vibe of the thing more. And so I think that's the thing where, like, you don't have to worry too much about referentiality, so long as you're not, like, expecting me to remember every subtle detail of a thing. But like, okay, I know what the Medusa is, I know what a Gorgon is.

[Marshall] Yeah. The title, and then getting to that first break, the stone back of a man held on the ground, it's like, oh. I see...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Marshall] What's happening here.

[Chuckles]

[Marshall] I was like, okay, that's sick. I like that. But we were talking about grounding the reader a bit, but what I thought was kind of a clue is grounding these gods with this kind of technology, too. Like, how does a god get from... How does a god trying to escape from her family, and then how are they communicating across time and space, and do they have to take a ship over... Like, I just thought that was a really cool touch, like, the wormhole, the relay station. I just thought that was a cool, like, way to kind of like ground gods into... Inside the story.

[DongWon] Yeah. And then, why make it science fiction? Like, what was behind that choice?

[Mary Robinette] Okay. So [garbled] yes. Now we talk [garbled] about evolution of the story. So, I run this thing called a short story cohort, and one of the things we do at the beginning of the cohort is I check in with people on, like, barriers to writing, victories. And one of the people, as a barrier to writing, said she had a lot of stuff going on with her family, and she just felt like her brain was full of angry snakes. And one of the things that I always say is when you're having a big emotion, try to lean into it. Whether it's giving the character that emotion and then helping them pivot away from it, or lean even farther into it. And so that day, for the writing project, I said our writing prompt is angry snakes. And so what I wrote down... I saved this. What I wrote down was angry snakes. And then the next thing I told them to do was to set some intentions. That they should set a couple of things that if they accomplished those, they would feel satisfied by the end of the day. And the lowest bar is possible. So the things I set were start a new story, decide where, who, and what the problem was. That was it. And so I was like decide where? I'm like, backyard on a planet with rings. That was like the sum total of what I wrote down. Who? Medusa's sister. Problem? Zeus wants to visit. Like, that was what I wrote. And then... This is one of those stories where I got lucky. I talk about this, sometimes, when you get lucky and you kind of cough a story out. I got most of this story during that 2-hour block of writing. Not all of it. There were pieces that I was like, oh, have to fix that. But the opening line of the story was not originally the message from Zeus. It was originally the message hung in the air. It was the second line, was where I started.

[Marshall] Okay.

[Mary Robinette] And my very first take was it was actually going to be Medusa. And then I went over and I was like, can we just check on Medusa? Like, what are some things? I remember, again, she has some...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Sisters. She's dead. So who else is around? And that was when I learned that the Gorgons, some of them were immortal and some were not. And also, I was like, there's gotta be a star named after... Like, all of the other things. And indeed, there is... Like, I didn't make up the name of that... I made up the idea that there's a planet that's habitable there. But I'm like, okay, so you've got immortal gods. That means if we go into science fiction, they should still be around. Theoretically. Unless someone has killed them. And that was kind of where I started. But I didn't know the ending when I started. I knew that I wanted a confrontation between the two of them. I knew that she was dealing with grief. I knew that she hated this asshole. Because, I mean, really, Zeus is, like, rotten. And the other thing that I knew as I was going was that I wanted to play with form. Because I tend to do this fairly immersive kind of... I don't tend to be flashy. And so the idea of doing this thing where Euryale is just doing the why, the where, the question words as my transitions was really appealing to me. And trying to do these very condensed scenes that were doing a lot of lift. But actually, not a lot happens in. Also, very appealing to me that it's this correspondence between the two of them. But at the end... By the time I got to the end, that final scene, I knew what was going to happen to Zeus. I knew that she had taken steps. But I had to go back and plant the... I don't know, basil [garbled layer] whatever it is, at the... I had to go back and plant some of that stuff so that it was there. I think she was originally cutting a lemon instead of a pomegranate. I'm like, it's a Greek myth, what are you doing?

[laughter]

[DongWon] Well, and cutting a pomegranate is such a good sensory detail.

[yeah]

[DongWon] It's such an involved task, it takes these different steps, and there's all this technique involved. I don't know. And it's just this beautiful red luscious image.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. One of the other things that I was trying to do to level up is something that I will talk to you about after the break. Because it's about delaying information.

[laughter]

[Mary Robinette] So, before the break, I said that one of the leveling up things that I played with was delaying information. And one of the pieces of information that I was very deliberately delaying was the word Zeus. And also that, yes, this really is a Gorgon and all of the commentary about her hair is not metaphor, it's like I'm... I've got Greek myth mashed with... But that's actually a pretty hard thing to do. It's not something that I would have been able to do when I was a beginning writer. And it's one of the things that I felt like I had more control over. So I wanted... So I am curious about how that played for you, and what you see as the tricks I was using to be able to do that? Or anything else you want to talk about.

[laughter]

[Marshall] Well, you mentioned the hair not being a metaphor. Or not being... You know what I mean? It was something that was actually happening. And I think I started to kind of figure that out when she sat down and one of them was like...

[Mary Robinette] Bit the chair behind her?

[Marshall] Yeah. That was it. Bit the chair behind her, and she just was kind of doing something with it. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. These are actually, like, responding as she's feeling things. And I was like, okay, that's really cool. And then that, when... I was trying to remember the other spot. Oh. She just didn't want any more statues haunting her house. That line. I love that line. Because now I'm imagining all of these people coming there and her just being like, okay, now you're stone.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Marshall] Sorry, bro. And I just thought that was cool. So that connection of the hair and that image, and then Zeus shows up... I just thought that was really well done.

[DongWon] I love the pattern also you set up of the who what when where why. You know what I mean? Just the single word questions which you, like, hang a lantern on, because she's like I'm being deliberately annoying by just saying one word. But then it leads to the who. Right? And so I think it's just like fun to set up a pattern that is going to resolve, in that way. And resolve in the other thing of, like... I was like it's probably Zeus. You know what I mean? I, like, had a sense of, like... But there's plenty of gods in the Greek pantheon that are complete assholes. But there was something about it that I was like, I wonder if it's going to be Zeus? And then it was, which was very satisfying.

[Erin] I think one thing I found very interesting was at the end of the first paragraph after the spoken line, or the hanging in the air message, was about the asshole favorite grandson who got away with rape and murder and incest. Which is interesting, because her reaction to that is very blase, which to me speaks like something is going on beyond what you're expecting. Because like... It's not like she's like, and I will alert the authorities to this, or like... It's just sort of like, oh, this is like a known thing. It's happened. This again. Which is something that is very... I was like, well, what's going on with that guy? Like, that seems messed up. Like...

[Marshall] Why isn't anyone doing anything about this?

[Erin] Yeah. Like, why is nobody doing [garbled] feels like somebody should be handling this...

[Marshall] Tell somebody.

[DongWon] It's... I mean, weirdly, it's very outsized. Right? Because like... I don't think any of us know someone who's that terrible.

[Mary Robinette] Yes.

[DongWon] But I do think a lot of us have someone in our family that's a little bit like, ugh, like that person [garbled] like... You don't... It's also like... I'm not clear on how bad of a person they are, but maybe they're not, like, perfect.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah.

[DongWon] You know what I mean? Or just, like, maybe it's just like a little bit. But that exasperation and discomfort with somebody you're connected to in your circle that you can't quite get away from is, I think, a really, really relatable feeling. Right? And so I think setting that up as, like, the grounding emotion is really helpful there.

[Mary Robinette] Awesome. I'm going to point back to a thing that you said when you were talking about setting up the pattern, the who, where, what. That I had to switch... I remember having to switch something, one of the wheres of one of them in order to get the beats to hit right. But the... At the very, very end, I also deliberately, the where, where would you like to be, I also deliberately gave her more words when she was talking to her sister's head.

[Chuckles] [yes]

[Mary Robinette] I also, in terms of... And this is what we... We'll be talking about endings much later in the season. But the last line was originally, considered the best spot for a hero. And then I was like, that's not her relationship with her.

[DongWon] Yeah. Beloved sister feels so much more the core emotion of the story. Right?

[Mary Robinette] Yeah.

[DongWon] Such a tenderness to her, too. And I think you do a good job of showing that early, both in terms of we think of that as somebody doing these nurturing tasks, preparing food, gardening, but also just like her relationship with her like awful little cilia covered...

[Marshall] Yeah.

[DongWon] Pet. It's like so adorable, but also, when I think about it...

[Chuckles]

[DongWon] I'm like I don't want a million leg making biscuits on me. It felt so bad to think about. But also you made it very sweet and very cute and very tender. Right? Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. I love Butterscotch.

[Marshall] Yeah. I agree. That was a... That was an insanely good character moment, too. And, like, although it was a little off-putting, like... She loves this awful little creature...

[Chuckles]

[Marshall] And I love that last line of that section. They liked frolicking in the moss. And I'm like thinking of this thing with all these legs, like, doing something...

[laughter]

[Marshall] Okay, he likes that. That sounds awful, but... Okay...

[DongWon] Listeners, I'm sorry you missed the pantomime.

[laughter]

[Mary Robinette] I'm like, is that a thousand little legs, or is that a marionette moment?

[laughter]

[Mary Robinette] I'm not sure what's happening over there. Cool.

[Erin] I have a question for you.

[Mary Robinette] Yes.

[Erin] I know we don't have endless amounts of time, but you talked about feeling like you were leveling up, and I'm curious, like, what that felt like to you, and, like, how did you feel that? Like, what specifically did you feel that you were able to do that you weren't before?

[Mary Robinette] So I know that... Like, I've had control over delay of information for a while, but this kind of slow reveal in such a compressed space? That felt like something that... Like, I know I couldn't... I know I couldn't have done that when I started writing. And so I'm not even sure that I would have been... Like, 5 years ago, doing that. I'm not certain. But I felt like this... The feeling that I had really was, oh, I know how to do this. And one of the things that I... It wasn't actually that I know how to do this. Oh, I've internalized this. That was the thing. When I've done this before, it has been a very, very conscious thing. Like, I've had to think about it and I've had to tweak and adjust it. And this time it was, I've internalized how to handle it. And that's, I think, part of why I described this story as like I just coughed and the story happened. That I was chasing the feelings and the emotions that I had in that moment. It's very short. For people who have not read it, it's only 1,700 words. So it was something that I could write... Mostly write in one sitting. Which meant that I was kind of in the same headspace for the entire time. So it really did feel like that thing I always talk about with puppetry, where, like, I've internalized it, the figure's just moving. And often, when I was performing, I would remember the show from the point of view of the character. Even though that's not... Like, my body is not in that memory, even though I know that I was there. But I had internalized what I was supposed to be doing so much that I was just acting within the moment. And that was very much that feeling with this. It's like I've internalized this, I'm just acting, I'm just feeling the moment. Which was a really good feeling.

[DongWon] There's a real ease to this story that comes through. Right?

[Erin] Yeah.

[DongWon] It doesn't feel effortful or forced in any way. Not that your fiction normally does, but, like, there's a breeziness to it that I think makes it so appealing and easy to read.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. It was... Like, I think that that can happen with my other stuff, but often it's something that I had to really work for. And, like, polish off the rough edges.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] And this time it was like, no, I know exactly what I'm doing with this one. Which was a nice feeling.

[Erin] Awesome.

[Marshall] And I know we're not talking about revision right now, but, like, that's something good, I think, for, like, in my writing community, where a lot of new writers or aspiring writers or whatever you want to call it are trying to figure out, is this ready? You know what I mean? And so I guess I like hearing the fact that you were able to do this, but this isn't something that happens all the time. But it's also something that will happen, the more you do it.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah.

[Marshall. I don't know if there's a question there, but like... Do you see what I'm saying?

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. No, I think it absolutely is a thing to know. And that... Because you're right. It is so frustrating when you are working for it, and I see that also with a lot of people who've taken a writing Workshop. That they come out of it, and everything is so conscious that writing feels incredibly hard, because you're trying to do everything, trying to use all of these new tools.

[DongWon] Right.

[Mary Robinette] And so knowing that, oh, yeah, once you do that work, there is this payoff on the other end.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] It just may take... May take years before you get there.

[DongWon] It's all practice.

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. Like I started... I sold my first book, I think, in 2005. I think that's right.

[DongWon] [garbled] a couple years ago.

[Chuckles]

[Mary Robinette] Yeah. Yeah. So I'm about 20 years into doing this as a career... Up to... Whoof.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] I have not actually said that out loud before.

[laughter]

[Mary Robinette] One of the other things that I was going to say is that when I was writing this, we also took a couple of breaks. So, even though it's a 2-hour span that I wrote this in, I know that I took a couple of breaks during that, in which I walked around. And the break's only 2 minutes long. Which is long enough to go get a cup of water, long enough for things to kind of kick over in my head, and then come back. So, like, one of the things that I've got in here is, in the original, is a prompt that I used when we came back, which is, after, she took a face mask out of another drawer and hooked it around her ears. And I've got... I preserved the prompt which was, what the hell? And originally, like in my... And again, like, this is a 2-hour span, I know that I was planning on... Like, I was thinking about how many iterations, how much back and forth... And then I was like, what the hell? Have him just show up.

[Chuckles]

[Marshall] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Like, he just shows up.

[Erin] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] And it's just like, what the hell.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Like, forget all of this. And that was also one of those things that, again, the internalization ... Internalizing of, oh, sometimes you can actually just make a decision to stop a try-fail cycle and just move to the next beat.

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] Like, you don't have to, like, build... Sometimes you can just be like what the hell...

[DongWon] Yeah.

[Mary Robinette] This is happening there? And just move.

[DongWon] Yeah. I love that.

[Mary Robinette] Okay. Any other questions before I give them their homework?

[Mary Robinette] Well, first of all, thank you all so much for coming to celebrate my birthday.

[Erin] Happy birthday again. Thank you for sharing it with us. Yeah. I love getting presents on somebody else's birthday.

[Mary Robinette] So, for your homework. This story started with a description of emotion. Angry snakes. I want you to take a strong emotion that you've experienced recently, and describe it as a metaphor. Then, I want you to use that metaphor as your writing prompt.

[Marshall] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses. Now go write.

summercomfort

the last update was actually my annual Spring Gala links, so here's my actual update (I guess I'm doing weekly ones now instead of daily, which... I guess I'm fine with. Maybe when I get less busy I can do daily ones?)

Anyway, it's been 10 days since my last update. Let's see what's happened...

- Mock Trial kids didn't make it to county finals, so that's mostly done. I should sit down with the other teacher some time and plan out some coaching timelines, etc, but other than that, the "season" is over

- Met with the learning specialist at school, and she says she's going to recommend Miss R for a neuropsych eval, and the school is going to help pay for it, which is pretty exciting. Still need to send a follow-up email to ask for specific deets, but at least ball is starting to roll???

- Last couple of days have been pretty busy -- we were originally planning to drive up to snow zone for Mon-Wed with a different family (her newfound bestie), and do Chinese New Year in the mountains, but then we find out on Saturday night that there's a big storm sweeping through, from Sunday night to Wed night, basically making it impossible for us to get up there. Unfortunately, this meant that we've had to cancel our reservations, which are non-refundable. :( And also I had to scramble to find something else to do. So Monday night we did New Year's at our place, and then yesterday and today we drove to a random weird treehouse that I found on AirBnB -- it's apparently built in 1925 by a smuggler. Pretty cool, very quaint/rustic, but surprising comfy, despite the sloped floors and odd layout. Got back around 5pm today, aiyah. Miss R still wants to do snow play, however, so tomorrow morning I'm driving her and her bestie to the snow line. It's gonna be a ~3 hr drive each way, so ... kinda rough, oy vey. I hope to queue up a bunch of music to listen to, I guess? Or maybe an audiobook? egh.

I've got a bunch of to-dos, but this February break has been more full of logistics management than I'd expected. I did manage to finally send last year's photos off to print, which was something I'd been planning to do since Thanksgiving.

Hopefully after the drive-a-thon tomorrow I'll have some time on Friday to work on comic???

ysabetwordsmith

This year I'm doing Community Thursdays. Some of my activity will involve maintaining communities I run, and my favorites. Some will involve checking my list of subscriptions and posting in lower-traffic ones. Today I have interacted with the following communities...

* Posted "Esbat" to

dreamwidth_pagans.

* Posted "Climate change" to

environment .

* Posted "Books" to

ethical_society_of_satan.

Current Mood: busy

poliphilo

Insidious, that's what it is- insidious....

I've been staying away from the newspapers for a year or so but recently I've been wanting to know the latest scoop on the Epstein Files and told myself it would do no harm just to take a look at the headlines.

So I did

And then I found myself scrolling down from the headlines and taking an interest in stories further down the page and....and.... that's the way you get drawn back into the grim old conversation about politicians and celebrities- and all of it calculated to keep you fretting about things of no importance-

Like I said, insidious.

But I saw what was happening.

So I picked up the links to the newspaper sites and dropped them in the bin......

klia

Connor Storrie (Ilya) is hosting SNL on Feb. 28.

Disclaimer: I haven't watched any skits with the current cast because SNL hasn't really been my sense of humor for a while, so IDK if it'll be any good or not.

askamanager_feed

Posted by Ask a Manager

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/should-i-tell-people-at-the-company-we-acquired-what-theyre-in-for-interviewer-didnt-ask-me-any-questions-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=36248

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. Should I tell people at the company we just acquired what they’re in for?

A few years ago, I started at a small company which within a year of me joining was acquired by a massive international company based on the opposite coast. At the time, my boss and the now (forcibly) retired owner were told that we would still be able to be largely independent, with more support for the work we do currently.

It wasn’t until all the paperwork was signed, sealed, and delivered that everyone realized this couldn’t be further from the truth. Staff and offices we were promised wouldn’t be touched have been gutted. Our workload has at least doubled, but without any additional support. Corporate leadership is wildly out of touch and mismanaged, and because they decided to grow “inorganically” (aka, buying up every company in even slightly adjacent fields), the internal structure is a mess. Nothing can get done in HR or Accounting without going through the corporate office, which has extensive turnover, making simple tasks like sending out a check or updating a staff member’s insurance take at least 2-3 weeks (or it’s just forgotten about entirely). It. Is. A. MESS.

Everyone is overworked, everything is disorganized, and the only solutions corporate has come up with seem to be (1) ending work from home accommodations (which almost resulted in a mutiny within the corporate office itself) and (2) ACQUIRE MORE COMPANIES!

We just acquired another company of about 200 people in the same city my office is located in. Corporate basically shoved our legacy team into the newly purchased company’s office and volun-told my boss to “guide” the new team through the acquisition process since we “know the ropes.”

My boss and I are at a loss. This team has been told all the same fairytales we heard when we were acquired. They do not know that their lovely support staff will likely be cut in the next 1-2 years. They do not know that corporate will make those cuts without anyone set up to take over their workload, and anyone left over will be forced to just take it on themselves. They do not know that corporate will make sweeping decisions at the drop of a hat without doing due diligence.

Aside from just bailing out and finding a new job (which I have been working on), do you have any advice on how best to approach this with the new team? Do we let them figure out the worst of it on their own? For now, my boss and I have decided if we’re asked direct questions by the new team, we will be as honest as possible without sharing too much as to scare them. But this feels disingenuous and eventually the cat’s going to come tumbling out of the bag, especially since we’re supposed to be the ones “guiding” them.

Oh gosh, tell them.

When you do it, be honest without editorializing. So it’s not, “Corporate is a mess, this is a disaster, they are out of their gourds.” It’s, “This is what our experience has been, and the challenges have been XYZ” — with the facts delivered dryly and matter-of-factly. They’re going to be able to figure out the “this is a disaster” part on their own.

2. Interviewer didn’t ask me any questions

I recently interviewed for a job. Once we started the interview, he asked me why I was leaving my current job, and after I answered, he started talking about what the job entails, the benefits, etc., but did not ask me another question till the end, asking if I had any questions for him. After that, he said he had a couple more interviews, but he would follow up in two weeks with an offer. It wasn’t until after I left that I was a little confused because this all happened in the span of 20 minutes. I haven’t done many interviews, but is this normal interview behavior?

It’s the behavior of a bad interviewer — someone who doesn’t know how to evaluate candidates and instead is going based on vibe. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad place to work (although if they’ve assembled a good staff, it’ll be more by accident than intentional design) but it’s a flag to, if you get an offer, slow down and make sure you’ve asked enough to (a) determine what it would actually be like to work there and (b) weigh whether if you’d actually be good at the work you’re being offered, since the interviewer didn’t do that part himself.

3. Hard skills versus soft skills in a movie

Over the weekend, I saw the new Sam Raimi movie “Send Help” with Dylan O’Brien and Rachel McAdams. Without giving away too much about the movie for those who want to see it, in an early scene that sets up the rest of the movie, Dylan’s character inherits a company after his dad’s death and, although Rachel was promised a VP spot by his father after working at the company for seven years, he gives the VP spot to his frat brother who was only at the company for six months. When she confronts him about it, he tells her that she lacks the people skills to become a VP and that the job also requires the ability to play golf.

And the thing is, watching the movie, he wasn’t totally wrong? Her character was very good at her job in strategy and planning but lacks any and all soft skills. She has no friends at work, she’s awkward, she’s passive, and she doesn’t read social cues well. If his father had really felt strongly about the promotion, he should have had her boss work with her to train her in those skills. Because a VP does need those skills. Right? I felt like he was a jerk and went about it all wrong, but wasn’t totally off the mark. I don’t work in business, but I am middle management in my job and did not have soft skills naturally and had to work on them, and am still working on them (it’s hard when they are not your natural state — I just want to hide out in my office and avoid confrontation as a norm) but it can be done if you want the job enough. I was just interested in your take.

With the caveat that I haven’t seen the movie and don’t know anything about it so I’m just basing this on what you’ve written here: yes. Most upper management positions require people skills, leadership positions definitely do, and anything dealing with clients definitely does. That doesn’t mean the frat brother was the right choice either (maybe he was, I have no idea) and clearly the movie sounds interested in setting up a dichotomy between “highly qualified woman without social flash” and “unqualified man who knows how to schmooze,” but it’s definitely true that in many jobs, people skills are an important piece of the qualifications, not just an optional nice-to-have bonus.

4. Job wants reference forms completed before you even interview

My spouse got called for an interview for a state government job. For the interview, he’s required to bring forms completed by his references, as well as employer verification forms filled out by his former and current employers.

This seems disrespectful of applicants and their contacts. My spouse hasn’t even spoken with the hiring manager yet and isn’t even certain he wants the job. Do you think it’s a bad sign?

Government jobs have their own extremely rigid and often nonsensical bureaucracy. If that kind of thing is going to drive him bananas, it’s a bad sign in the sense of “this is a taste of what working with a large and rigid bureaucracy will be like,” but you shouldn’t read much more than that into it.

5. How do I tell my boss I have cancer?

I’ve just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I haven’t even figured out my next steps yet, but I know that we’ll have to involve notifying my work. There’s going to be surgery, possibly follow-up treatments, the works.

What is the best way to tell my boss without completely undermining myself or coming across as a liability to the company? I’d love to trust that I’ll be treated fairly, but I cannot lose my job in my health insurance now.

You don’t need to share anything you’re not comfortable sharing. If you’d prefer, you can just say, “I have a medical situation that I’m going to be dealing with over the coming months and I’m going to need some time off for surgery and follow-ups. I’ll let you know the details as I get them, but wanted to give you a heads-up that it’s coming.”

Your boss will probably express concern and you can respond to that with something simple like, “Thank you, I appreciate it and I’ll keep you posted.”

For what it’s worth, no good company will see you as a liability for having breast cancer, and it would be illegal for them to fire you for being sick (although realistically, that does happen to people so I get why you’re worried). I would say to look at what you know of your company and your boss and how they operate as you decide what you’re comfortable sharing.

Sending you good thoughts for a good outcome!

The post should I tell people at the company we acquired what they’re in for, interviewer didn’t ask me any questions, and more appeared first on Ask a Manager.

https://www.askamanager.org/2026/02/should-i-tell-people-at-the-company-we-acquired-what-theyre-in-for-interviewer-didnt-ask-me-any-questions-and-more.html

https://www.askamanager.org/?p=36248

torachan

1. Despite a mixup at the airport, I arrived safely in NoCal for my first ever business trip. After I got through security this morning, an airport staff person asked me what airline I was flying on and when I said Southwest, she told me I had to go downstairs and take a shuttle to my gate. This seemed odd to me since I entered at the place at that said Southwest but there’s a lot of construction going on, so I figured maybe it had something to do with that. But when I arrived at the other terminal, it was clear I was in the wrong place, so I had to take the shuttle back. Thankfully I was at the airport with plenty of time to spare so there was still like an hour before boarding and I was able to get breakfast and get to my actual gate in plenty of time. The flight itself is short, only like an hour in the air, though we did have to circle around the airport once before landing because it was so windy they had to come in from the other direction. Amusingly there was a guy from work on my same flight, though we hadn’t realized until boarding that we were traveling together.

2. I have mostly avoided the rain today. It was raining a little traveling from the airport to the store, but I wasn’t the one driving, and it had stopped by the time I arrived. Dry throughout the day, I was able to take a walk after lunch. And my hotel is just across the street. But tonight I had to go out to buy toothpaste and toothbrush because the hotel doesn’t provide them (cheapskates) and I didn’t take my umbrella because it wasn’t supposed to rain for hours, but when I was leaving the store it was pouring, so I had to go back in and buy an umbrella. I actually have one in my suitcase! D: But now I have another one. I did get pretty soaked even with it, but I think I can manage to dry my shoes out with the hairdryer the hotel provided. Tomorrow is supposed to be no rain all day so fingers crossed.

3. There are loads of nice restaurants around and tonight I walked to a sort of food court area where I ended up getting some very tasty yuzu ramen.

Sorry, no cat pics today or tomorrow as posting is fiddle enough from my iPad. I did post on bluesky, though. I’m torachan on bluesky if you want to see cats. Otherwise I will be back to cat posting on Friday.

lassarina

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sorcyress

Today was a nice day!

Tuesday and I played quite a bit of Cadence of Hyrule, which was extremely enjoyable to do. I love Crypt of the Necrodancer very much, and I like playing video games with other people, so this was a good combo. It's exciting to me to get to be the better player at a game, because that is not generally the case. Not that I was doing a flawless job or anything, Tuesday is also very good at games, but I have played a staggering amount of Necrodance over the years, and I'm sure I was extremely charmingly irritating about all the parts where I was like "oh yeah, I know exactly how that mechanic works".

At lunchtime, we swung by the local little Japanese place, and got an assortment of things. Some of it was excellent (their little friend sesame balls were exemplary) and some of it was merely acceptable, which is still a nice situation restaurant-wise. Foolishly of Tuesday, I now know this is quite close and may drag us there on future visits as well.

More video games, then being floppy in bed and doing some parallel play, and finally it was dinner time and we settled in to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once, which I had never seen. We'd specifically been trying to find a time to watch it when we could watch it on Tuesday's properly big television (rather than laptop screens or something else inadequate) and I do think it was worth it.

The movie is absolutely as splendid as everyone said. Some of it was extremely predictable, but in the way that felt right. It felt like the joy of storytelling, the hope of seeing everything come round the way it ought to, while still being beautiful and joyous and just an absolute delight. And the actual visuals of it are astoundingly well done! There was a moment where I realized I want to do the double feature of this with Wizard of Speed and Time. Specific theme: it would be good to watch this on a device capable of going frame-by-frame when necessary.

(I should make sure I've shown Tuesday WoSaT at some point, because if I haven't, that _really_ needs to be rectified. I think she would find it Good.)

Tomorrow we get more being floppy and goofy together. Probably more video games. Certainly more being very much in love. Eventually I get on a train and head back to Somerville (in time for dance, even.)

As long as I ignore the fact that I need to work on grading at some point, I am having a lovely vacation!

~Sor
MOOP!

asakiyume

It's extremely excellent to come across a short story completely at random, from someone I don't know at all, and then fall in love with it. (I love reading stories from people I know, too, of course! But in those cases, I already know I'm likely to love the story, whereas when it's by someone I don't know, it's an unexpected surprise.)

"Do You Love the Color of the Sky?" by Rachel Rosen was just such a story. In it, the curator of a museum that collects art and artifacts from the multiverse's doomed timelines (and who has a pet dodo from a timeline where dodos weren't hunted to extinction) is confronted by a thief from one of those doomed timelines who wants to take back what's either a plundered item or a rescued item, depending on what side of museum discourse you fall on. The multiverse is a great place for museum discourse, it turns out!

But beyond that, the story's just got a great narrative voice and some killer lines, such as...

Hadn't this always been the pattern of civilization? Tea and bullets were undeniably intertwined.

and

"But your world is dying."
I hadn't expected her smile. The bullet had been gentler.
"Every world dies," the thief said. "Even yours."

Here's how the thief is described on first appearance:

You can sometimes tell where [a multiverse traveler is] from at a glance. A gleaming bull’s horn on a chain around the throat, or a shangrak tattoo. A Hapsburg jaw or a colony of melanomas, if it’s one of the worse timelines. Not this woman. She had burst from the fire fully formed and innocent of all history.

And the various artifacts themselves, and the possibilities (or tragedies) of the various timelines are great.

Free to read here: "Do You Love the Color of the Sky?"

Rachel Rosen has also apparently written a short story titled, "What if we kissed while sinking a billionaire's yacht?" which short story lends its title to Issue One of Antifa Journal, with this great cover. To read the story requires purchasing the journal, but as an ebook it's only $4.99, so I'm sore tempted.