silveradept | Network

When School Taught Me Basic Finance, Badly

The other day I wrote about the question Who should be teaching kids basic finance? Some point to schools and say schools should be teaching it; others point to parents and say it's their job. I noted that one difficulty with asking schools to do it is that they're already overloaded trying to cover basic academics. (And really the reason they're so overloaded on that is public school teachers end up spending, like, 90% of their time trying to manage behavior problems.) I also noted that schools seems ill equipped to teach it because, at least the one time a school I attended did try to teach basic finance, the whole lesson was basically a fail.

I would say that it's useful to teach basic finance BOTH at home and at school. That way if one skips or does a bad job, the other has a chance to pick up the slack.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

elayna

I didn't like that first (the 10t?h) season of The X-Files return, but all I really remember is Scully talking to Mulder about their child she gave up for adoption for its own protection and crying that she hoped the child didn't think she'd thrown it away like garbage. I wanted to hit the screen.

Around that time, on a Doctor Who episode, a man was pregnant, to a boy because for his people, the men birthed the boys, the women the girls, and he planned to put the baby up for adoption, but in the midst of a space station about to be destroyed, the Doctor's companion(s?) convince him he has to keep the baby because despite knowing almost nothing about the guy's life or culture, clearly the baby should be with the birth parent, that was always best.

Today Post_Secrets had a collection of postcards focusing on adoptions, and one of the adoptees mentions feeling abandoned and rejected all their life.

It drives me nuts, how our culture denigrates adoption and always assumes the very worst thoughts and motivations of the birth mother.

In 1957, at the age 0f 19, my mom gave her baby up for adoption. She had a high school diploma, one year of college, a job in a diner, a family that was ashamed of her, and a boyfriend who didn't want to be involved. The doctor arranged the adoption to a family where the man worked in construction and they had one child already. She always thought it was best for the child, a stable family that could give that child a better life than she could.

I was 8 or 9, I think, when she told me about my oldest sibling, so this is the attitude that I absorbed, that adoption is a good thing, a difficult but reasonable decision that puts the needs of the child first.

I watched two shows recently, Resident Alien and The Irrational, where a woman had given up a baby for adoption as a teenager and then as an adult, reconnected with the child, one a late teenager, the other a successful adult. And both reconnections were somewhat bumpy, with fraught emotions on both sides, but ultimately leading to positive relationships between the mom and child. I was very pleased at the nuanced but supportive depictions. (Though did note that both women were people of color, I guess getting pregnant accidentally is not something white girls do? *rolls eyes*)

My brother signed up with adoption agencies in the 1908s, trying to match with that kid. These days, I'm on Ancestry.com (and my brother was on 23andme until the bankruptcy), still trying to find our sibling. (Wow, we have a lot of 2nd and 3rd cousins once removed.) Our sibling would be 69, it's odd to think I could be biologically an aunt and great-aunt many times over, who knows? It's looking like I never will, but I continue to hope.

Children given up for adoption are not unloved and discarded. Or who knows, maybe sometimes they are, but I would be surprised. Being pregnant and giving birth is a long and difficult experience and I really expect most moms want the best for their babies. Certainly my mom did. I'm glad some media is beginning to push back with a better and more reasonable depiction.

delphi

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches, a blue jay, and a fox squirrel. :D Blue jays are fun.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/10/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith

Current Mood: busy

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/05/10/how-many-indigenous-artists-does-it-take-to-make-an-opera-indigenous/

trobadora

highadrenalineexchange (HA) author reveals happened, and I can finally talk about this! *deep breath*

I wrote a whole sci-fi novella! And I had so much fun with this, and I'm really proud of the result. :D

The requested relationship was "Young King Warring With Rival/Famed Older Knight Who Was Betrayed By Rival", and my recipient was open to a variety of different genres and settings. But they said "space opera" in their request, and I went, "YES, THAT, I'M DOING THAT," and then spent the next week or so in a haze of worldbuilding and note-taking and snippet-writing.

HA has a very short creation period - only two weeks for a 10k story - so after that I pulled together a first complete draft. But I couldn't stop writing more, and worldbuilding more. Happily, there were several delays, so I was able to extend the story to double the word count, which IMO also improved it considerably. *g*

One of the most fun things about worldbuilding, for me, is hinting at all the things that aren't on screen, to make it look like a proper lived-in world - and to show how the world they live in shapes and impacts the characters, beyond the immediate plot. And I had SUCH a blast with all of that here! I'm definitely going to talk more about this in another post, but for now, here is the story - if it sounds at all like your kind of thing, I'd really love it if you gave it a chance:

**

Title: Zhentari's Choice
Rating: Explicit
Word count: 21,458
Relationship: Young King Warring With Rival/Famed Older Knight Who Was Betrayed By Rival
Characters: Younger King, Older Knight, Rival Would-be King
Content Tags: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Space Royalty, Space Politics, Political Manoeuvring, Betrayed to the Enemy, Code of Ethics, Sci-Fi Philosophies, Age Difference, Enemies to Lovers, Loyalty Issues, Power Dynamics, Consensual Sex, Refractory Period Manipulation, Multiple Orgasms
A/N: Many thanks to

china_shop for beta-reading!

Summary:

"Do what is necessary. Only the gods know what is truly necessary, but you must choose.
Do what suits the purpose. You have not the hindsight of the gods, but you must choose.
Do what is appropriate. You have not the measuring-stick of the gods, but you must choose.
Do what you must, Zhentari, and know your choice."

(The "Three Choices", according to the Zhentar Code)

Jolim Niall, famous Zhentar Knight (or infamous, depending on your position), has been in service to Tevin Appen of Trella for most of his life. When he falls into the hands of the King of Tarn, he's not sure which is worse: what Ayrom Gaudren no doubt has in store for him - or that it's Appen's betrayal that landed him there.

But Gaudren's plans aren't what he expects - and Jolim Niall must make a choice ...

rionaleonhart

I've been struggling with writer's block for the past couple of weeks, but I'm delighted to report that I am back on my bullshit.

Title: Twice Shy
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show
Rating: 14
Pairing: Robert/Chris
Wordcount: 3,900
Summary: “Ah,” Robert says. “I may have left out a crucial detail. You do know I’m a vampire, don’t you?”

( Twice Shy )

ravensilversea posting in

recthething

Just made a rec list of 23 videos over on my journal! 3 each for Warrior Cats and House MD, 2 each for Marvel and Katekyou Hitman Reborn, and 1 each for The Untamed, Batman, Genshin Impact, Elementary, BBC Sherlock, Star Wars, Honkai: Star Rail, Vampires SMP, Grimm, and Supernatural/tumblr. And 3 non-fandom vids as a bonus

shadowkat

Not everyone does, and we should be mindful of the reasons some don't and show compassion in how we celebrate and talk about this day - I think?

I am forever grateful that I have a loving mother who is my best friend. And have been for the most surrounded by loving mothers, including my beloved maternal grandmother. While far from perfect, I am grateful for my mom. There's not a day that goes by that I'm not.

There but for the grace of god, go I - since I'm mindful that not everyone got that. And an insane amount of people did not.

Last year - I visited mother around this date, and took time off work. This year, I'm navigating doctor's appointments, work, and the fear of an impending strike over what amounts to pennies.

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

Haven't been sleeping well this week for many reasons not worth going into. I swear the internet has a solution for everything, some of which seem to be competing with each other for my attention and use. Choose me! I can solve all your physical ills! Choose me! I'm the expert! (Sigh, the snake oil salesmen no longer have to go town to town, they have the internet. And they seem to multiply daily. They've even evolved to selling apps and weight scales that will solve all your problems. I kid you not, there is actually a weight scale that diagnoses what ails you and provides the solution. It's like something out of a bad 1980s sci-fi satire. Maybe it did originate from that - and someone out there got the bright idea to create one and sell it.)

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

2026 is the year that folks have started writing and releasing "Protest Songs" again en mass. Not that they didn't do it off and on previously, they have. And there are some good ones from yesteryear...

( pre-2020s Protest Songs..or from yesteryear )

And here are some from 2026...
( newer protest songs )

the_shoshanna

Nothing beats meeting a friend for the first time

trepkos and I friended each other on LJ waaaaay back in the day, because we had friends in common and I thought she seemed cool and I guess she thought the same of me, and there it might have rested if Geoff and I hadn't come to her island!

We started the day with another huge breakfast and enthusiastic conversation from our host Elena; this time she made us veggie omelets and I fended off the beans and still couldn't finish everything. Then we hopped a bus to

trepkos's place -- we caught a slightly earlier bus than I'd allowed for, so when we got off at her stop we had enough time to wander around the little oceanfront park and out along a slipway and a natural sprit of land that would have been under water at high tide but was lovely to pick our way along now that it was exposed. Then we came back to shore and walked up the road to her place, and had a nice chat (and tea) with her and her partner, and then we got in her car and she drove us to see wonderful things.

We started with a stroll out an enormously long breakwater on the northeast coast, just to admire the ocean and the way it was so much choppier and violent on the seaward side than the inner side, which is of course exactly what a breakwater is for, but it's pretty cool to look along its length and see both sides at once. There were several people on their way to swim, even. We could just see France on the horizon. And it was ferociously windy; at one point trepkos picked up a tangle of seaweed that had been flung up on the walkway atop the breakwater and tried to drop it over the side back into the sea on the seaward side, where we were walking, and the wind immediately snatched it up and whipped it over our heads to dump it in on the sheltered side instead.

There was a plaque mounted on the breakwater commemorating a fifteen-year-old girl who, starting and ending there, swam all the way around the island. The mind boggles, but apparently this is a thing that people do regularly!

Then we went on a beautiful walk through a wooded valley of conservation land with a stream running through it, just chatting the whole way about fandom and life and I don't know what-all. I had wondered if ticks were a danger here, which question was answered by a signpost warning of the danger of tick-borne disease, and also by the dog we met that had a tick on its forehead, which its owner flicked off when Geoff pointed it out, shudder. But I don't get the sense that they're the constant glaring danger that they are in some places I've been back home.

*pause to tick-check my lower extremities*

At the far end of the conservation area we looped around briefly on roads before re-entering it to retrace our steps, and we passed someone's "fresh eggs for sale" shed at the end of their driveway, with an honor box for money and also a "smile, you're on CCTV" note posted. However, there were no eggs there to be admired; I mean, I wasn't going to buy any, but I would have enjoyed admiring them. We did see a pheasant and several chicks crossing the road, though!

From there we went to the Faldouet dolmen, a Neolithic tomb and ceremonial site; we didn't stay long but such places are always atmospheric and make me think about the length of human history and culture. This one is six thousand years old.

We also went to La Hougue Bie, another Neolithic passage grave, where history is literally layered on layers. We crept into the Neolithic passage under the hill, and walked through a reproduction Neolithic longhouse; and went through the museum exhibit about the enormous Celtic hoard of coins and jewelry that was found in an undisclosed location nearby, dating from around 50 CE; and went through the underground bunker that the Germans built into the hill, which now houses exhibits and photographs commemorating the enslaved workers whom the Nazis brought to Jersey from all over Europe to build their fortifications. (We forgot, however, to visit the sixteenth-century chapel on the top of the hill.)

We finished up in the on-site cafe, which offered cakes and eclairs of a size that I remarked would make an American blush; Geoff and I shared a latte and all three of us got bowls of really excellent tomato-basil soup with fresh rolls, crusty on the outside and wonderfully soft on the inside. It was so much that Geoff and I have decided to skip dinner -- though I might have a handful or two of our trail mix, which I also greatly enjoy!

Trepkos gave us a ride back to our guesthouse, where we are now tucked up blogging. Tomorrow we plan to hike along the northwest coast, which is supposed to be be both gorgeous and quite challenging. We'll start by taking a bus to Grosnez Castle, at the northwest corner of the island, and walking east from there; there's a bus we can take home after what might be a hike of an hour or two, and another one at what might be anywhere from another one to four hours; I'm finding it really hard to get clear information! We'll see how we get on.

gallusrostromegalus_feed

https://gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/post/816234991019343872

itscolossal:

Collaged Denim Sculptures by Nick Doyle Unravel American Mythology

https://gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/post/816234991019343872

gallusrostromegalus_feed

https://gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/post/816234630381436928

makrustic:

Urban Borders 🍃 (Sound)

‘The world stands quietly at night’

Print s | Ko-fi | Patreon | Bluesky ⭐

https://gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/post/816234630381436928

ysabetwordsmith

Generative AI vegetarianism

Hello, it’s me: I’m a generative AI vegetarian.

The tech industry is convinced this is the future; every app on my phone and most of the apps on my computer want me to use their new AI features.

I don’t want any of them. I want to write my own emails. I want to write my own (mediocre) software code. I want to learn and think and ponder with other humans, not with a text-prediction system built by consuming all the text on the internet.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

mad_jaks posting in

dw100

Welcome to

dw100! Challenges are posted approximately once a week.

Challenge #1089 is dandle.
The rules:

All stories must be 100 words long
Please place your story behind a cut if it contains spoilers for any upcoming episodes
You don't have to use the challenge word or phrase in your story; it's just there for inspiration
Please include the challenge word or phrase in the subject line of your post
Please use the challenge tag 1089: dandle on any story posted to this challenge

Good luck!

maju

Yesterday afternoon Violet asked me to find and print some sheet music for her - the Imperial March from Star Wars - because she wanted to practise it on the glockenspiel because, I guess, they're learning it in band at school. I found some that she says is right (for piano), but I'm worried that it won't be in the right key. Regardless, she spent some time writing the names of the notes under the lines of music and then practising it on the piano. Meanwhile, Eden asked me to find the same piece of music for clarinet, so I did that as well, and I heard her practising it on her clarinet briefly.

This morning when I went through the garage just after 6 am to go for a run I discovered my son in law in there just getting started on putting something together for my daughter for mother's day. (A mini greenhouse I think.) When I came back from the run about 75 minutes later he was still working away, but at least the pieces were all joined together by then.

When I came upstairs for breakfast after the run I found Aria and Eden in the kitchen; Aria had made toast for her mother and Eden was making her a cup of hot chocolate. (Violet was in the garage giving her father moral support.)

After breakfast they all went out, first to a nursery where my daughter bought lots of herb and vegetable plants as well as some rhubarb she was very excited to find, and then to a Goodwill. I could have gone with them but I was still in my sweaty running clothes when they were ready to leave so I had a quiet morning at home instead. When they got home my daughter gave me four bars of chocolate and a package of gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. Yum.

This evening we're going out for dinner; I'm told we're going to a fancy burger place.

scalziwhatever_feed

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/10/57/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60631

I’m fifty-seven today, and today is the first birthday that I can actually say that I can really feel I’m getting older. I have an arthritic knee now, which if I don’t take medication for will remind me that it’s arthritic; it’s also the first thing with my body (other than occasional seasonal allergies) that I habitually have to take a pill for. On the cosmetic level, the structure of my neck has begun to collapse, and while some of that has to do with the fact I’m carrying more weight around than I have before, I suspect that even when I get down to a more comfortable weight for me (this is on the “to do” list for my fifty-seventh year), the lack of structure will still be there. My already very thin hair up top has become even thinner. I have started wearing cardigans.

On the other hand, my career is going great, my family is terrific, and I’m married to the best human I know. I see friends often, I travel all over the place to see people who are happy I’ve come to where they are, and I get to do with my life pretty much what I’ve ever wanted to do. Is that all worth the arthritic knee and the collapsing neck structure? Well, here’s the thing: At this point in the game, the arthritic knee and collapsing neck structure would be happening anyway, regardless of the circumstances of my life. On balance, I have very little to complain about on this, my fifty-seventh birthday, and much to be happy for and grateful about.

So that’s what I’m going to focus on. It’s a good day where I am, and I hope it’s a good day where you are, too. Happy my birthday to you! And many more!

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/10/57/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60631

otw_news_feed

Posted by callmeri

https://www.transformativeworks.org/five-things-whatsit-said/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284430

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today’s post is with Whatsit, who volunteers as a Chair in training for the Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) and a Tag Wrangler.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
As a tag wrangler, I make sure that the fandoms I wrangle have properly canonized tags, which helps users find works that have the characters, relationships, tropes, and themes they’re looking for. I fully and completely believe that the tagging system on AO3 is practically one of the modern wonders of the world, and I’m really pleased to be able to do my small part in contributing to it.

My other role is working for the Policy & Abuse committee, where we respond to reports of Terms of Service violations. Anyone who’s ever spent time on an unmoderated comments section somewhere knows the importance of moderation in keeping a site usable and enjoyable, and PAC works (mostly) behind the scenes to make sure that’s the case for AO3.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
I try to spend at least an hour or so per day on PAC work, since some of it is time-sensitive and has deadlines attached. This often involves working with tickets that have been sent in about violations, but sometimes it means working on documentation updates or helping to train new volunteers on the committee.

I usually also do at least one big tag wrangling session per week, during which I get caught up with wrangling the tags in my fandoms. I really like putting music on and settling in for a few hours (or more) of wrangling, so this setup works really well for me.

What made you decide to volunteer?
I have a background in book indexing and a particular interest in categorization and taxonomy, so as soon as I found out that tag wranglers were a thing on AO3, I definitely wanted to be one! It sounded like the kind of thing that would be right up my alley (and it was). On a broader level, I think AO3 is one of the best things going on the Internet, in terms of creating a space where people can freely share their fanworks without fear of the content purges that have plagued many other sites. With censorship encroaching on so many other spaces, I think what AO3 stands for is more important than ever. I really believe in the philosophy of the site and I’m glad to be a part of it.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
Time management! I’m on two separate committees and I also have a day job and a fairly active family life, which is a lot to juggle. But I’ve had success setting boundaries for myself that keep me from over-committing or burning out. I find that setting specific times during which I’ll do specific tasks not only keeps that task from eating up my entire day (which either wrangling or PAC work could otherwise easily do) but also allows me to really focus on that task during the allotted time.

What fannish things do you like to do?
I’m an active fic writer and I participate in quite a few multi-fandom fic exchanges. I find that having an external deadline is great for motivating me to actually finish a fic, something I was historically not great at before doing exchanges. I also hang out on a couple of fandom discords and have been known to go to the occasional convention. And, of course, I spend entirely too much of my free time reading vast amounts of fic.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you’d like, you can check out previous Five Things posts.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/five-things-whatsit-said/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284430

serrico

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: listless

mtbc

I am not very vegetarian but I notice that there might be less fishing if the fish could scream well and I draw the line at cooking octopus and suchlike. I am not even particularly thrilled at the cow-eating and such except for that, if they weren't tasty, many of them wouldn't exist at all, so it feels partly just a question of if to allow them any life at all.

With modern LLM-based AI, one can have a fine conversation with it, it's a good mimic but, given how it works, I don't feel any fear of needing to face any sentience and rights qualms over artificial lifeforms anytime soon. While I ought to take proper care in applying my own reference points to alien entities, in this case I don't think the Turing test is much persuasive on the question of if they are in any way alive, whatever Dr. Dawkins thinks.

One thing that has started to bother me is our advancing ability with brain organoids. At some point, we're going to notice that we can grow little brains in labs, maybe from rodents or whatever, and do things like pilot drones with them. Well, I don't know about that particular application but you get the idea: I worry that we are gently approaching a morally uncomfortable world in which we will notice that we can have real brains serve us in some tasks. Perhaps LLMs are a saving grace there: they may be comparably effective while having lower running costs.

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Silver Adept

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Materials Of Potential Interest

Page Summary

ysabetwordsmith - Economics
elayna - Fannish 50 2026 #18: on Mother's Day, media and adoptions
delphi - Six Sentence Sunday
ysabetwordsmith in birdfeeding - Birdfeeding
ysabetwordsmith - Birdfeeding
chickenfeet - How many Indigenous artists does it take to make an opera Indigenous?
trobadora - FIC: Zhentari's Choice (Original Space Opera: m/m) [Explicit] +2 comments
rionaleonhart - Fanfiction: Twice Shy (The Goes Wrong Show, Chris/Robert)
ravensilversea in recthething - Fanvid Rec Post
shadowkat - Happy Mother's Day for those who celebrate..and the Protest Song
the_shoshanna - A day with @trepkos!
gallusrostromegalus_feed - Collaged Denim Sculptures by Nick Doyle Unravel American Mythology
gallusrostromegalus_feed - Urban Borders 🍃 (Sound) ‘The world stands quietly at night’ Prints | Ko-fi | Patreon |
ysabetwordsmith - Artificial Intelligence
mad_jaks in dw100 - Challenge #1089: dandle
maju - (no subject) +1 comment
scalziwhatever_feed - 57
otw_news_feed - Five Things Whatsit Said
serrico - They splurged on a Tom Waits needledrop and everything. +1 comment
mtbc - Lab-grown somewhat-intelligent servants

Style Credit

Base style: Refried Tablet by zvi and Aaron B. Russell
Theme: Black Eye II by dancing_serpent

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Page generated May. 10th, 2026 06:39 pm

Other stops along the line

Mind the Gaps, for they are often larger than they appear

Network

Economics

Fannish 50 2026 #18: on Mother's Day, media and adoptions

Six Sentence Sunday

Birdfeeding

Birdfeeding

How many Indigenous artists does it take to make an opera Indigenous?

FIC: Zhentari's Choice (Original Space Opera: m/m) [Explicit]

Fanfiction: Twice Shy (The Goes Wrong Show, Chris/Robert)

Fanvid Rec Post

Happy Mother's Day for those who celebrate..and the Protest Song

A day with @trepkos!

Collaged Denim Sculptures by Nick Doyle Unravel American Mythology

Urban Borders 🍃 (Sound) ‘The world stands quietly at night’ Prints | Ko-fi | Patreon |

Artificial Intelligence

Challenge #1089: dandle

(no subject)

57

Five Things Whatsit Said

They splurged on a Tom Waits needledrop and everything.

Lab-grown somewhat-intelligent servants