Meh. Whatever.

beavertech has posted the January batch of sponsored poems.  :D

"So Many Words for Wood" on first_nations_freaks

"The Infinity of Acorns" on scienceworld

"Birds and Snow" on the_magick_circle

"A Piecemeal Apocalypse" on thefreaksclub

Today is partly cloudy and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I gathered the raked leaves from the ritual meadow, enough to fill the trolley twice, which I dumped on the daffodil bed. (That should have been done in fall, but better late than never.) One quarter around the firepit equaled two trolleys and covered the daffodil bed completely. The tulip bed will need at least twice that much.

I startled several cardinals and the great-horned owl in the ritual meadow.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I filled a trolley with sticks from the brushpile beside the driveway, then dumped that in the firepit.

EDIT 1/7/26 -- I filled another trolley with sticks, then dumped that in the firepit.

There's not much left of the brushpile now, mostly pieces too big for me to break down.

It's 5:05 PM. The western sky is still twilight, the east considerably darker.

I am done for the night.

This poem is from today's fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by fuzzyred. It belongs to the Pain's Gray thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"Done to Perfection"
-- a cinquain


Pain's Gray
bakes French pastries --
beignets and petits fours,
choux à la crème and tartes des Alpes --
exquis.

* * *

Notes:

Read about the cinquain form.

French pastries include beignets, choux à la crème, petits fours, and tartes des Alpes.

exquis
French: delightful, delicious

Nearly all women in STEM secretly feel like impostors

A striking 97.5% of women pursuing graduate degrees in STEM report moderate or higher levels of impostorism.

Nearly all women in STEM graduate programs report feeling like impostors, despite strong evidence of success. This mindset leads many to dismiss their achievements as luck and fear being “found out.” Research links impostorism to worse mental health, higher burnout, and increased thoughts of dropping out. Supportive environments and shifting beliefs about intelligence may help break the cycle.


That's probably because 97.5% of their male coworkers are misogynistic assholes, and so are a lot of people even outside of STEM.

After decades of being told that girls are bad at math, go play with dolls, harassment as soon as their breasts start growing, male students being put in charge of groups, professors stealing their work, getting lower grades than they deserve, struggling to find a job, their name being left off papers or awards, promotions going to less-qualified males, fighting for funds ... of course women realize that they are aren't wanted, aren't welcome, and nobody likes them.

The last 2.5% of women in STEM? They don't give a shit if people like them, and they aren't there to stroke anyone's ego or penis. Shut up and work. Impostor syndrome? It can be beaten to death with facts.