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2026/020: Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars — Kate Greene

What if a mission to Mars didn’t have as its main goal a barrage of scientific studies, or the demonstration that humans can build ships to send us to faraway lands and keep us alive in the harshest environments? What if it’s not driven by the fear of our eventual extinction or by opportunities afforded it by current economic systems—mining for resources, etc. Or what if it is those things, but also, in its design, it contains questions about what it means to be a human being alive and alone and unable to achieve contact with others in this universe? [p. 131]

In 2013, Kate Greene spent four months as second-in-command of the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) mission, which was designed to simulate life on Mars. The six crew members lived in cramped quarters, with artificial communication delays, pre-packaged food, constant surveys for one another's experiments, and compulsory spacesuits for excursions beyond the habitat. The essays that comprise Once Upon a Time I Lived On Mars -- subtitled 'Space, Exploration and Life on Earth' -- are all rooted in Greene's HI-SEAS experience:( Read more... )

Current Mood: okay

ffutures

Yesterday I was wondering if I should sell on my USB Zip drive and remaining disks (100 and 250 megabyte capacity) because they're too small and unreliable to be useful and I last needed to recover data from one about a decade ago. But I decided against it for the same reason I always do - if I ever need it it would cost a small fortune to get a replacement.

And as if by magic, today's

daily_illuminator_feed has a link to someone's project to build a USB drive based on bubble memory with a staggering 128 bits of memory. For comparison, the first three words of this post, with spaces and the space after the third word, are 16 characters = 128 bits, the whole capacity of the drive... which looks larger than the main board of most computers!

The Illuminator post is here - https://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/2026-02-12

The project is here - https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/02/a-128-byte-core-memory-module-as-a-flash-drive-raspberry_pi/

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...

* Commented in

common_nature.

* Posted "National Craft Month Bingo Fest" in

crafty.

* Posted "Homes for Birds Week" on

datahoarders.

Current Mood: busy

kiya

Regalia

It used to be
People
Put on names
And a suit of clothes,
And were known.

The unknown god
Takes up his staff,
Puts on his beard,
His signs of power,
And when so garbed can say,
"And now you know me."

What raiment is mine,
What tools,
What adornments,
That will make me known?

I know not.

Footnotes on this one are: conversations about names on bsky, the lecture I went to tonight on queer/trans experience in the American colonies, a passage quoted in Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods, and

graydon's comments about how gender is the means of signaling what sort of improv one is doing....

Current Mood: thoughtful

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3206/

Do YOU remember the skylight being this big?

https://xkcd.com/3206/

ysabetwordsmith

Thanks to

nsfwords, the series Daughters of the Apocalypse is now up to date. \o/ You can browse that page to see if you missed anything.

Current Mood: busy

muccamukk

Someone on bluesky said something to the effect that yesterday she didn't know that a town called Tumbler Ridge existed, and she profoundly wished she still didn't know.

I did actually know that Tumbler Ridge existed, but I understand where she's coming from.

This really sucks.

redbird

January was rereading, and not much of that: Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer: the latter was a read-aloud, with Cattitude and Adrian switching off depending on which character the letter was from.

I also bounced off a couple of rereads, and read news and other articles online.

Just finished:

Grown Wise, by Celia Lake: another of her Albion historical romances, set in a fantasy Britain with a middle-sized community of people who use or are aware of magic. This one is set a couple of years after World War II, and people are dealing with both individual loss and trauma, and the war's effects on the land. I enjoyed this, but I don't know whether it would be confusing as a starting point. (It's the first in a new series of these books, which might help.)

cosmolinguist

This morning I got to call one of the candidates we interviewed yesterday and offer her the work placement. That felt nice.

But also weird. I've never done anything like this before! I am in a very technical sense her line manager, in that her actual manager, my manager, is now on leave for the next week and a half and he asked me to take care of this. Which meant not just the fun phone call but doing paperwork, and that meant having to write down my own name and contact details where it said "Manager."

Wild.

The less said about the rest of the work day the better, but the rest of the day was good. I went for a nice long walk in the warm(ish) drizzle with Teddy, who drank from so many muddy puddles that he had a big dirty circle on his snout. Like the dog equivalent of a kid with a milk mustache. The air smelled amazing, the plants and the soil are starting to wake up.

Then angelofthenorth invited us over for cheesy toad in the hole, which is a genius idea and I think I might have to make it in future. It was great to see her, and Mr Smith.

And since we'd all planned to go to the gym, she and I walked there while D drove V home and then came back to join me (Miriam having gone swimming). The gym is so much more fun with him there.

ysabetwordsmith

These are the notes for "The Tranquility and Beauty of the Winter Landscape."

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

kaberett

a shelf fungus at the base of a tree, shading from brown in the centre via rich orange to pale yellow at the edge

a clump of purple crocuses, nestled between tree roots

a clump of snowdrops, with the green tips of the inner petals clearly visible

(Which last I took in part because A only discovered last week that many snowdrops have decorative green bits on their frilly inner noses, courtesy of a waist-high planter outside one of our local pubs!)

ysabetwordsmith

This poem came out of the March 4, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

zesty_pinto. It also fills the "Mountains" square in my 3-1-25 card for the Tolkien Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette. It belongs to the Rutledge thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Today is partly sunny and chilly.

I fed the birds. I've seen a flock of sparrows.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/11/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I refilled the hopper feeder.

EDIT 2/11/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I saw several starlings foraging in the grass.

I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

conuly

How much do you love me, a million bushels?
Oh, a lot more than that, Oh, a lot more.

And tomorrow maybe only half a bushel?
Tomorrow maybe not even a half a bushel.

And is this your heart arithmetic?
This is the way the wind measures the weather.

************

Link

dorktower_feed

Posted by John Kovalic

https://www.dorktower.com/2026/02/11/distraction/

https://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=19935

Most DORK TOWER strips are now available as signed, high-quality prints, from just $25! CLICK HERE to find out more!

Also, here’s last June’s comic, so you don’t need to seek it out:

HEY! Want to help keep DORK TOWER going? Then consider joining the DORK TOWER Patreon and ENLIST IN THE ARMY OF DORKNESS TODAY! (We have COOKIES!) (And SWAG!) (And GRATITUDE!)

https://www.dorktower.com/2026/02/11/distraction/

https://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=19935

writerlibrarian

Health stuff

Much better. The acupuncture treatment on Monday brought down the pain to my new normal of 4.5-5 and the menopausal symptoms have receded too with the pain going down.

Teacher stuff

I’m two and half weeks ahead in writing the content. I have all the classes for February done. First week of March is the spring break. I’m up to the class of March 9th now. I have an online class later this afternoon on analyzing and mapping processus, specifically Reader’s advisory. I love that stuff. I lose touch with time when I’m mapping.

Reading

Almost done with The Apothecary Diaries 3 It’s still very good and even more edge of my seat storyline. There were three big reveals. One was easy to guess, the other a little less so but there were crumbs hinting to the truth and one totally caught me off guard. Hence the edge of my seat storyline. Book 4 has arrived. The cover is really gorgeous,

I also read because I put it on the list of graphic novels for the students to choose for the second term papers The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I am not a fan of mystical, philosophical type of writing to begin with.The manhua adaptation is well done. The drawings are really nice, black and white. The desert, the decor are gorgeous.

Watching

I’m up to 21/36 on my rewatching of The ingenious one. I also took a look at Unveil : Jadewind because of the posts on my cdrama X timeline. I watched the first case it’s good. I’ll wait until it’s almost done airing before going back.

Crafting

Last Friday crafting evening was devoted to cross-stitching the fox design. I’m also at almost half in the baby blanket. No crafting evening this week because of the Valentine thing day.

james_davis_nicoll

The revived May 2022 Neon City Overdrive Bundle featuring the fast-playing cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying game Neon City Overdrive from Peril Planet.

Bundle of Holding: Neon City Overdrive (from 2022)

ysabetwordsmith

Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.

What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?

Current Mood: busy

ffutures

This is a repeat offer of the cyberpunk RPG Neon City Overdrive from Peril Planet, last offered in May 2022

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026NeonCity

Last time I said "Since I received this at about midnight and it only runs for a week I haven't had much time to take a detailed look. It's a system that looks reasonably playable, it's drawing on all the usual cyberpunk sources, and it's pretty cheap. I'm not sure I actually NEED another cyberpunk game, given how many I already own, but if you just want to dip your toes in the water I think it's worth a look. The usual caveat - I get to see this stuff without having to pay for it, if you don't your mileage may differ."

Since then I've taken a more detailed look - artwork is good (and credited to humans, not AI), and mostly avoids the tropes of the genre. Layout is a bit flashy but readable, and there is an emphasis on story-telling rather than rules. I think it's definitely a good one for a quick look at the genre.

conuly

What the hell sort of question is that? Of course I'd pay up! I have money, pride, and my teeth, and of the three, I can least afford to lose the last. Wouldn't almost anybody submit to the shakedown? That's how protection rackets work, after all - everybody does the same math and comes to the same conclusion as I just did.

(Of course, the context was "I think this company was rude to me over the phone, therefore I decided to live without hot water and heating because I have my principles" so, you know, I guess we have different approaches to life?)

*****************

( Read more... )

Ian Jackson

2026/020: Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars — Kate Greene

A Little on the Small Side

Community Thursdays

Been a minute

Regalia

Installation

Website Updates

Rough week

Wednesday reading

The manager type

Notes for "The Tranquility and Beauty of the Winter Landscape"

[picspam] from yesterday's trudge in the rain

Poem: "The Tranquility and Beauty of the Winter Landscape"

Birdfeeding

How Much? by Carl Sandburg

It’s Groundhog Day Again…but Worse – DORK TOWER 10/02/26

What I’m doing Wednesday

Bundle of Holding: Neon City Overdrive (from 2022)

Good News

Another Repeat SF Bundle - Neon City Overdrive

"Would you give money to a bully to keep him from beating you up every day?"

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December 2025

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