Backtalk: A Medium Place
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Wednesday Evening Open Thread
Good evening.
David Lynch motivates you.
byu/TiagoTeixeira_ indavidlynch
Wednesday morning open thread
I'm getting the post put in my dental implant today, and paying them about $2300. Sigh. And then I wait a few weeks for the crown. I'll probably have to get a new retainer, and the "old" one is only about a year and a half old, and I paid $1000 for that one. Sigh again.
And we're digging out from last night's storm.
How's everybody else?
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Tuesday Haiku
A storm on Mount Arashi!
Cutting through the bamboo grove
A furrow of wind.
-Matsuo Basho
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| Utagawa Hiroshige |
Monday, January 27, 2025
Monday Evening OT
And by thank I mean tip.
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Sunday Evening OT
Yesterday was Burns Day which means it's time to exchange haggis recipes.
Homemade vegetarian haggis: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/vegetarian-haggis.html
For your haggis leftovers: https://sandhyahariharan.co.uk/veggie-haggis-pakora/ I'm genuinely intrigued by how many haggis pakora recipes I found.
If haggis wontons are more your thing, you can find them at the annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in Vancouver. I'm sure I've posted about it before because I love both the concept and the visual.
Share your opinions, odes and recipes related to haggis or anything else, below.
Also go have a look at the Gallery if you haven't already. There's some really beautiful shots.
The Photo Gallery
It’s your weekly Photo Gallery! Come on in, take a look at what people have been up to over the past week and share some of your own photos.
They don’t need to be taken with a fancy camera or works of art. Share any SFW photos you’ve taken with even the poorest of potatoes. Of course we love to see that arty stuff too.
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Friday, January 24, 2025
Fur Face Friday
Last week's weather had us staying indoors and cozying up (maybe) with a friend. Maya24's Reggie seems dubious about his new acquaintance.
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There's something so familiar about you, stranger. |
Thursday, January 23, 2025
Blaurgh!Talk
Thursday Morning Open Thread!
Today in 1957 Wham-O bought the right to the Pluto Platter. They changed the name to Frisbee.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Wednesday morning open thread
I have an ultrasound this morning to if I have anything going on with my gallbladder, kidneys, liver or urinary tract. I have to drink 750 mls, which is basically 3 glasses of water, an hour before the appointment. It's going to be fun.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Monday, January 20, 2025
Monday Evening OT
It's falling lizard season in Florida.
It's brutally cold here in the Bluegrass. But at least large iguanas aren't falling from the trees. I'll take that as a win. Tell me something positive about your world. No victory is too small. We need all the good news we can get.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Sunday evening OT
Should we discuss the coldest we've ever been or think warm thoughts instead?
I know there's some events happening this week but I'm choosing to pay attention to other things. Happy MLK Jr Day eve to all who observe it.
The Photo Gallery
It’s your weekly Photo Gallery! Come on in, take a look at what people have been up to over the past week and share some of your own photos.
They don’t need to be taken with a fancy camera or works of art. Share any SFW photos you’ve taken with even the poorest of potatoes. Of course we love to see that arty stuff too.
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Caturday Morning Open Thread
Hello and welcome to another weekend in the world (which may or may not be about to burn).
Friday, January 17, 2025
Fur Face Friday
Welcome to another Fur Face Friday. Last week our floofy companions had an excess of energy. After many of us had been stuck indoors they decided to throw a party for some much-needed activity. Best Coast/ Codco's Flora brought the snacks.
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| Vegetarian noms only |
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Blaurgh!Talk
Y'all know what time it is. Go ahead and let out whatever has you seething with rage and/or annoyance.
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Wednesday Morning Open Thread
What's everyone got planned for today? I might clean out another kitchen drawer today!
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Tuesday Haiku
The wind from the southern valley
Carries the sweet smell of snow
How delightful!
- Matsuo Basho
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| Kawase Hasui |
Monday, January 13, 2025
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Sunday evening T
Another evergreen slowly changing colour. All over the city, the cedars, pines, and spruce are lightening from deep green to golden yellow. Between here and the east coast, whole forests are turning gold and then brown as the needles drop.
My drive home during the holidays gave me a long look at how the landscape is changing, and has changed since last year.
A Sonnet at the Edge of the Reef
By Craig Santos Perez
The Waikīkī Aquarium
We dip our hands into the outdoor reef exhibit
and touch sea cucumber and red urchin
as butterflyfish swim by. A docent explains:
once a year, after the full moon, when tides swell
to a certain height, and saltwater reaches the perfect
temperature, only then will the ocean cue coral
polyps to spawn, in synchrony, a galaxy of gametes,
which dances to the surface, fertilizes, opens,
forms larvae, roots to seafloor, and grows, generation
upon generation. At home, we read a children’s
book, The Great Barrier Reef, to our daughter
snuggling between us in bed. We don’t mention
corals bleaching, reared in labs, or frozen.
And isn’t our silence, too, a kind of shelter?
Craig Santos Perez:
I wrote this poem after visiting the Waikiki Aquarium, where they have an outdoor, interactive reef exhibit. My daughter loved touching the water, coral, urchin, and starfish. The docent taught us about the phenomenon of coral spawning, and I will never forget the look of awe and wonder that flooded my daughter’s face. That night, we read a book about reefs. I felt sadness because I knew that corals are bleaching and struggling to survive in the Pacific. I decided to not tell her about this as a form of protection against reality, just as a reef protects a vulnerable island from a coming storm.
The poem comes from PBS in SoCal. Tw, the other poems on the page are about the 2022 California wildfires. https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/earth-focus/4-poems-about-wildfire-climate-change-and-loss
I'm loving the cold snowy weather this week just because it feels like a throwback to normal. How are you all doing, Balkers?
The Photo Gallery
It’s your weekly Photo Gallery! Come on in, take a look at what people have been up to over the past week and share some of your own photos.
They don’t need to be taken with a fancy camera or works of art. Share any SFW photos you’ve taken with even the poorest of potatoes. Of course we love to see that arty stuff too.