Memes Ahoy!

How Parking Day Brought This Louisiana City Back to Life

To break the impasse, the city of Lafayette partnered with a local nonprofit to host a Park(ing) Day event. Together, they installed 16 temporary parklets throughout the downtown, several of which simulated outdoor dining areas. “People enjoyed the experience, and it allowed downtown business owners and stakeholders to experience the change in a temporary way,” explained Carlee Alm-LaBar, then Lafayette’s planning director and now Strong Towns’ chief of staff. “They started to see the vision of how Lafayette could use its public space differently and how it might bring more energy to the downtown neighborhood.”

That experience mattered. Less than a year later, the city passed an ordinance allowing for parklets and outdoor dining to be built in former parking spots.


Other things you can playtest with this method:

* food truck parks

* busk stops

* pop-up shops (e.g. selling local art, fresh produce, seasonal decor)

* skateable / climbable sculptures

* new types of public seating

Today is partly sunny and mild.  It dribbled a bit last night, just enough to rinse some of the dust off the leaves, not enough to do any real good.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- We got the cover fully back over the septic tank. \o/

I saw a gray squirrel.  This one looked adult or nearly so.  Last fall we had a young one arrive, but it was only here for a month or two before disappearing, presumably eaten.  I hope this one sticks around.  We have grays occasionally, and they make a nice contrast to the established fox squirrels, but they've never managed a breeding population.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I gathered a large amount of Shithouse Marigold seeds.  :D

I've seen a gray catbird and a male rose-breasted grosbeak.  It looks like the fall migration is starting.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I gathered a large amount of small yellow and orange marigold seeds.  

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9/4/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

*goflopnow*

Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. This batch features hobbies.

Sewing is a hobby of making things from fabric, mostly clothes but also toys and other stuff. It includes both hand sewing and sewing machines. Note that most modern sewing machines are computers that sew, and lack certain features of older machines. If you feel frustrated by planned obsolescence, artificial intelligence, and other current issues then consider hand sewing as a form of protest. Nothing says "Fuck off, fast fashion!" like hand-rolling seams to make a 100% natural-fiber garment last for years and years.

On Dreamwidth, consider communities like crafty, everykindofcraft, get_knitted, justcreate, quilting, sewing, and sewing101.

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The university at the end of economic growth

Decoupling labour market training from economic growth will be one of the biggest implications, because it frees higher education from preparing students for “the labour market” (to which university operations are tightly coordinated) to address the pressing existential concerns that surpass narrow concerns over reproducing labour for capitalism in the short-term. Universities should be free to pursue learning about the world to figure out alternative ways of organizing social systems, mitigate planetary breakdown, and cultivate engaged students with the critical consciousness necessary to navigate this unprecedented era of human history. Universal basic services would see free tuition, allowing everybody to choose what they want to learn about. The release of learning from obtaining high grades (which, again, are meant to translate into success in employment to the detriment of consciousness raising) frees up student time and energy to explore what they’re learning, experiment and truly collaborate with diverse actors.


This article explores not just what is wrong with universities today, but how a better system of higher education could look.

Today is partly cloudy and warm.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds. The honeybees had drained the metal birdbath again.

EDIT 9-3-25 -- My partner Doug re-mowed the ritual meadow, prairie garden path, and south lot.

EDIT 9-3-25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 9-3-25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I picked 2 yellow pear tomatoes, 2 red cherry tomatoes, and a whole handful of groundcherries. :D

EDIT 9-3-25 -- I watered the telephone pole garden, savanna seedlings, patio plants, irises, and new picnic table.

Then I noticed that the cap of the septic tank was ajar, so we had to wrestle that mostly back in place.

I also saw a bunch of moths busily pollinating the sunflowers! :D That never occurred to me. I guess it makes sense, because sunflowers don't close at night, but "sunflower + moth" is really not an obvious connection. I would say, if you wish to plant sunflowers in your moth garden, choose light yellow to white ones. Those will be easier to see than the orange to red range.

Cicadas and crickets are singing.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night.

This poem came out of the September 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by fuzzyred. It also fills the "parrot" square in my 9-1-25 card for the Piracy Bingo Fest. This poem belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It happens after "The Outside of a Horse" and "Inside of Him a Piece of Good News," so it will make more sense if you read those first.

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This post discusses the benefits of penabling -- getting your friends interested in fancy pens. 

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED.  Thank  you for your time and attention.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Communication Styles." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for journalists, writers, radio hosts, counselors, linguists, leaders, public speakers, explorers, traders, diplomats, negotiators and mediators, partners, housemates, siblings, parents, teachers, clergy, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people who deal in communication, writing, speaking, translating, parenting, teaching, adventuring, negotiating, mediating, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, giving instructions, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, newspaper offices, writer nooks, radio stations, counseling centers, trading posts, classrooms, schools, churches, sharehouses, campfires, coffeehouses, bookstores, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other places where communication happens, momentious conversations, mysterious manuscripts, confusing transmissions, negotiations, lectures, romantic complications, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, Get a Life Program, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Piracy Bingo Card 9-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One is developing its own neurovariant culture with unique communication quirks.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, including literacy.

The Blueshift Troupers travel to different planets solving problems.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different cultures, making it challenging for refugees to communicate with each other.

The Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find enough resources to survive, with a distinct split between Before and After dialects.

Eloquent Souls presents a setting where soulmarks are common, leading to many odd expressions as people try to make their Words distinctive.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania, along with a pack of werewolves, a couple of vampires, and a mummy.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with lots of interesting relationships and ways to communicate.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household.

Not Quite Kansas includes an awkard trio of a college student, a former cop, and their demon who often encounter challenges with communication.

One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis follows Shaeth as he works on becoming the God of Drunks, with a surprising amount of heartfelt conversations.

Path of the Paladins involves a lot of communication between humans but also deities.

Peculiar Obligations features Quakers and pirates trying to get along.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society.

Quixotic Ideas has a more positive world with integrated magic, where people usually manage to solve problems with communication rather than violence.

Schrodinger's Heroes is about saving the world from alternate dimensions. The group is very diverse in background and communication styles.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

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Do-it-yourself prosthetic leg. 

The medical industry has been screaming bloody murder for some years about how bad it is for people to make prostheses outside the medical racket, that are actually useful and affordable.  It freaks them out to lose control over disabled people's bodies.  Fuck 'em.  Nobody is entitled to a captive audience or customers.  By all means, make your own for 1% of the cost.  3D-printed hands have been around for a while now and exist in many variations.

The corrosive spread of tech company mentality

One of the aphorisms guiding tech companies is to ‘move fast and break things’. Rewards accrue to those companies that are first out of the gate with something new and so products are rushed out without being fully tested, the assumption being that any faults can be corrected based on feedback from consumers. In other words, the people who buy the early versions of the product serve as so-called beta testers, whether they want to be or not.

These situations rarely have life-or-death consequences. With most things such as devices and apps, usually the worst that can happen is that the users are annoyed or frustrated with the glitches but are willing to tolerate them as long as they get upgrades that purportedly take care of the problems.

But there is now an increasing area where tech-based products are being marketed as solutions for things where that tech culture attitude is not suitable, with sometimes dangerous consequences.


This is definitely among the more destructive memes, although not as much as "Civilization MUST continue at ALL costs."