iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Here's some evidence that all my bird call outs about cormorants are real. Today as we watched this one, another one flew in for a water landing and then spooked a goose by popping up right behind it after a dive. This might be a juvenile double-crested cormorant? […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A cormorant on the shore of a lake. The view is from the back of the bird. It is looking left. Its beak is yellow and the feathers are brownish-black.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026

The unrisen sourdough loaf was a disappointment this morning, but at least my efforts to practice and use the basket stitch have worked out. I started more complicated than I should have, circling a towel hole and spiraling in to fill it. The second such attempt I […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A green and white plaid kitchen towel in an embroidery hoop. Where there used to be a hole, there is now a rose-like mend. The outside is light blue yarn, and then the inside is dark green floss (since the yarn ran out).

A green and white plaid dishtowel. Where there used to be a hole, there is now basket stitch spiraling inward. It's made with a floss that started as dark purple and slowly changed to a light purple. The inside has some messy weaving to finish filling in the hole.

Blue basket stitch along the yellow interior of my gray hiking pants. The mend has sealed up the horizontal tear along the original stitch line.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2026

Promise: For today, I will share a picture of some RPG dice, my wedding cake. My marriage vows are the central promise of my life. RPGs played a role in our courtship and continue to be a significant part of our relationship. (It’s a good thing we were playing […] [Original post on dice.camp]

On a white table, alongside two silver forks and a stack of two plates, sit three cubic cakes. They are coated in green icing, and each side has black fondant pips. The tops of the dice cakes show 1, 1, and 2, a critical success roll in the GURPS tabletop roleplaying game. (Also a representation of two single people becoming one couple.) Unseen are the delicious layers of chocolate cake inside with creamy chocolate pudding between them.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

Maybe next year I'll buy tomato stakes. #gardening

Sprawling tomato vines that have long since knocked over their cages and spread over the front patio and walk. They're folded over to not also cover the driveway. It's impossible to tell, but there are only two tomato plants.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

Phase 2 of the grass smothering. I pulled up the cardboard today and will let the area have light for a couple weeks to see if anything sprouts, then mow back down and recover for another month or so. #nodig #gardening

The backyard of a white house. There is a green lawn, but a big square of it is now brown and dead. It is in front of the shed and punched-out dining room window, and along the patio. The area of smothered grass is about 20' x 15'.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2026

#BirdCallOut Sorry to misuse the hashtag, but #NestCallOut doesn't exist. Saw a super impressive nest atop a light pole at a local mall parking lot today. There'd been a black vulture circling the area earlier; maybe that's who this belongs to?

A suburban mall parking lot with some cars and trees and a really tall light pole. Atop the light pole is a mess of enormous sticks forming a huge platform nest. No sign of the birds it belongs to.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

Having heard about the "mosquito bucket of doom" from several different sources (and having been bitten a gazillion times since moving to moist Maryland from the Arizona desert 3 months ago), I decided to give it a try. I suppose I'll find out in a few weeks how […] [Original post on dice.camp]

An orange 5 gallon bucket 2/3 full of water and yard detritus (leaves, weeds, grass clippings). Also in there is a fourth of a mosquito dunk tablet. The bucket is covered with an old window screen that has some holes cut into it. It's secured to the bucket with duct tape. The bucket sits in a shady section of the yard.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026

A little bit of #VisibleMending this evening. I was supposed to be patching up tears along the inside waste of my hiking pants, but this sandal needed emergency repairs more.

A purple Vibram Five Fingers sandal-type shoe with a foot in it. Green stitches hold the straps together where they join up since the original dark purple thread has come undone.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2026

This weekend we celebrated my parents' 65th anniversary. My wife and I made dinner for 12 family members. I believe we succeeded our goal of getting a more nutritious meal on the table than usual there, with some good sources of protein and fiber. There were also […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A fancy plate holding dinner. Sauteed salmon, cucumber chunks, wild rice/grain medley, and sweet potatoes cut into fry shape and baked. A yogurt dill sauce is drizzled on the salmon and cucumbers. The wild rice is dressed with sauteed onions and shiitake mushrooms. The sweet potatoes have just salt and pepper.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 12/07/2026

The grass smothering has begun! Hopefully I'll remember to check the area in a month or so to assess progress before recovering. At this time next year, there will either be vegetables or a mini-meadow, fingers crossed. But patience is hard, but we're in this house […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A section of suburban backyard, mostly grass. In front of a small shed, a 10' x 15' section is covered with cardboard boxes held down by tiles. This will hopefully kill the grass underneath.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026

Having eaten the crust off my bread first, I inadvertently had Australia left on my plate. The white cheddar morsel even makes for a decent Tasmania. #sourdough #bread #Australia

A small plate upon which a piece of bread and a chunk of cheese sit. With bites all around the edges to remove the crust, the bread is now roughly the shape of mainland Australia. The small chunk of white cheddar happens to make a decent Tasmania, too

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

I'm psyched that I finally got to see this little cactus bloom. We've had this fuzzy prickly pear growing in our yard for 5+ years, and this is the first year it has put out flower buds. #cactus #BloomScrolling

A prickly pear cactus with relatively small pads that don't have much prickle to them. There is a yellow flower open on one of the pads. Several other pads have flower buds that are still closed or the small growth of new pads.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

Not as many colors for this year's eggs. I did onion skins, red cabbage, and red wine. #eggs #Easter #dye #crafts

Dyed eggs in two cartons. They are a mix of colors and some have lines on them left by electrical tape or rubber bands that have since been removed. Yellow and red onion skins resulted in mottled yellow brown and reddish brown colors. Red cabbage made dark teal blue. The lighter blue are from red cabbage also, but I rubbed off the sediment. Red wine made a dark purple. You might not be able to tell, but they are glinting and sparkling due to the sugar deposits left by the wine.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 21/03/2026

I set aside my embroidery this week to resume some darning.

A pair of blue and black toe socks on my wife's feet, their undersides kicked up into the air to be visible. Darned sections on the heels, the balls, and several toes create a riot of orange, green, red, yellow, blue, and white.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 15/03/2026

Today #DiceyStories finishes a small series that concludes our exploration of the #AlphaCentauri setting. I've ported our Chronicles of Chiron characters to my #ttrpg, A Year in Farm Valley. This eighth and final episode is the second half of monsoon season, the […] [Original post on dice.camp]

Map of the settlement along the edge of the Monsoon Jungle. Colored pencil sketch of a town with buildings, with a river coming down between them. The locations are labeled and have names of characters associated with them. Projects are also marked with tallies to show work on them. This has the addition of the second half of the sixth season, the completed Earthhouse project, the almost finished bureaucracy project, and the just started Progenitor trail project. There is also now a xenodragon mural on the side of Fritz and Mariah's house.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 08/03/2026

Today #DiceyStories continues a small series that concludes our exploration of the #AlphaCentauri setting. Our Chronicles of Chiron characters have been ported to my #ttrpg, A Year in Farm Valley. This seventh episode is the first half of monsoon season, the final […] [Original post on dice.camp]

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2026

Today #DiceyStories continues a small series that concludes our exploration of the #AlphaCentauri setting. Our Chronicles of Chiron characters have been ported to my very own #ttrpg, A Year in Farm Valley. This sixth episode is the second half of build up season […] [Original post on dice.camp]

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 26/02/2026

#BirdCallOut Holy moly! Cooper's Hawk! Just swooped onto my back wall, not 12 feet from me! Good thing my computer sits right up against this big window. (Pshaw to the architect who thought this was going to be the master bedroom. Master birdroom, more like!) #birding #BackyardBirding

On a wall of reddish concrete blocks, a Cooper's Hawk sits. Within the wall is a small backyard with a green bush covered in yellow flowers. Beyond the wall are yellow-orange condos. But really, a wash is behind the wall, and the hawk sits so that it can look into the wash for tasty treats. The cellphone picture is not great quality, but the alternating gray and black horizontal stripes on the closed tail are visible, as are the white tips.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 24/02/2026

Looking at other people's photos of Australian storks made me wonder if I'd ever gotten any good shots of one when I saw hundreds and hundreds of them near Darwin. It turns out, no, I didn't. But I did discover that 8 years ago I photographed this awesome Masked Lapwing! #WildOz #birds #birding

A Masked Lapwing in the center of a grass and dirt patch of land. The bird has long pink legs, gray wings and back, a white chest, and a black head top. The masked part of the name comes from the bright yellow jowls and ridge that surround the yellow eyes and beak. A second similar bird is off to the upper right, a bit out of focus.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 15/02/2026

Today #DiceyStories continues a small series that concludes our exploration of the #AlphaCentauri setting. Our Chronicles of Chiron characters have been ported to my very own #ttrpg, A Year in Farm Valley. This fourth episode is big wind season. The stresses of […] [Original post on dice.camp]

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 02/02/2026

Finished the second embroidery set I got for my birthday last year. So. Many. French. Knots. #embroidery

White fabric in a hoop with embroidered flowers. Two pink, two red, two yellow, and six blue. The blue ones are all French knots instead of satin stitches. The pink and red flowers have yellow French knot centers, too.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 27/01/2026

@tabcreations.com Heh, this reminds me of the ski resort murder mystery I ran once...

Ridiculously complicated web map of 27 or so NPCs marked with their job/role and ski lodge suite number and linked with relationships such as work, love, affair, engaged, theft, and fake PR relationship. One NPC is off on the side with no links and is labeled with the role Poirot.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 23/01/2026

Tried out another new #boardgame last night, Tokyo Highway. Definitely a dexterity game, and quite fun to construct regardless of what points one scores.

A cityscape made of wooden blocks vaguely shaped like Tokyo landmarks, roads made of rubbery popsicle sticks balanced on wooden pylons of various heights, and colorful little cars carefully placed on the wildly twisted arrangement of highways.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 18/01/2026

Today #DiceyStories has a second addendum to our recently completed #ActualPlay #AlphaCentauri: Chronicles of Chiron. Leaving Genesys, we take NPCs from that campaign to #GMless #ttrpg #AWeekendInTheCountryside. Murder in the Chiron Countryside - Spend a weekend […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A tumbling block tower (aka Jenga) with many rows having only 1 or 2 blocks instead of 3.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 15/01/2026

My wife got MegaCity: Oceania for the holidays after trying it out at the local tabletop convention. It involves some dexterity (you have to construct your building and then push it into place). We had a good time trying out the 2-player mode, and our scores ended […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A table with a boardgame set up. There are hexes of various colors to represent the building type. The buildings on the hexes are three dimensional, composed of irregularly-shaped pieces of plastic stacked precariously atop each other. The tallest one is over 120 mm (representing 120 floors). Small colored cubes on each hex represent who made the building. On the sides of the picture are visible some of the cards from the game, which are building requirements. There are also a few small blue hexes visible. These are scoring chits.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 07/01/2026

Over the holiday break, I had a chance to play Gibberers with friends who'd learned it at PAXU (boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/380109/…). It's great linguistic fun as you slowly build up a corpus of words to be […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A clipboard holding a sheet of paper with the alphabet along the left edge. In each letter's row, are made-up words along with a one-word English word for each. There are about 40 made-up words, culminating in the one for "attorney general".

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 28/10/2025

It's the 4th Monday, so that means another cozy #crafting night. In addition to painting minis, we had a holiday card project. Last year we did Santa roadrunners. This year we're doing Arizona presents. It may feel early for winter holiday cards, but these take a while to do by hand.

Half-sized sheets of cardstock, folded into cards in progress. All have an outline of Arizona in various stages of being turned into a present. One has just the outline of a bow, one has a bow colored in red and the start of a ribbon, and the third has the crisscrossed ribbon completely colored in as well as the bow.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2025

#ParkRun Number 300 for my home course today! I've only been doing this since December '24, but Himmel Park has been hosting ParkRun for years. Congratulations on hitting this nice round number. Here's to many more! #Tucson #running

A white line on grass and dirt with "Finish" written in white above it. And above that, "#300". Celebrating 300 ParkRuns at the Himmel course.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2025

I was a #ParkRun tourist last weekend, visited the new Willie Blake location in #Tucson. This course is an out-and-back at a high enough point in the city that you get awesome views of all four mountain ranges surrounding our valley. And I got to run alongside a […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A pencil sketch of a tall bird with a long tail on a line between two poles. It is turned to the side, showing its long beak and slight crest.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 29/07/2025

Another successful cozy #crafting night. Projects included retailoring a dress shirt for a feminine fit, painting a dog portrait onto a blank default card for a trading card game, resurrecting childhood knowledge of crocheting, and my embroidery. I have a shawl I […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A scarf/shawl with a printed pattern of swirling green leaves and red flowers. Part of it is in an embroidery hoop. There is a tear held closed so that it can be stitched over. Small yellow and red flowers and little green stems are starting to take shape along the tear.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 12/07/2025

Resounding win at #TerraformingMars for me tonight. This is the most full we've ever seen the board. On the final round, I used my very last colored cube. This is also the most rounds we've played. We had a pretty slow start, but I had a card that let me sacrifice […] [Original post on dice.camp]

Terraforming Mars game board showing Mars covered with development, greenery, and oceans. Green wins at 122 to Blue's 102. There are only 11 hexes left empty on the board and a whopping 12 cities.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2025

Weeks ago, I scheduled a moonlit labyrinth walk for this Wednesday. I chose the date because the near-full moon will provide enough light to do the labyrinth after sundown when it is cooler out. Last week I was feeling very encouraged, as the temperature was […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A circular labyrinth with seven rings before reaching the center. Its entrance is on the bottom. Above the labyrinth are 7 phases of the moon going from waxing crescent to full moon to waning crescent. (The new moon is not shown.) My wife programmed up the phases of the moon for me to include with the labyrinth picture for my flyer.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 24/06/2025

It's the 4th Monday of the month, and that means another cozy #crafting night. We had a small group tonight, but it was still nice. Projects included cross stitch, painting a picture of a carrot, copying over recipes, darning socks, and my first attempt at […] [Original post on dice.camp]

The bottom of a mottled black and gray skirt, with a small purple hexagon embroidered on it in satin stitch. The skirt is atop a piece of paper on which the same size hexagon is inscribed in a circle (which was used to construct the hexagon).

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 08/06/2025

Yesterday we were granted another #cactus treat in our backyard: the first ever flower on one of our chollas! It was a pleasant surprise, especially since we missed a prickly pear flower by being out of town for a week. This is the first time I've seen a cholla […] [Original post on dice.camp]

An open flower on the end of a spikey chain of cholla cactus segments. The flower is magenta in the center with magenta petals patchily folded open. It looks like there should be 8 petals, but only 5 of them have unfurled. The center of the flower is a firework of yellow bits on thin, nigh-invisible stalks: the various reproductive innards of a flower. The human eye could see tiny ants crawling across the flower, but I can't make them out in the picture.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 06/06/2025

I have completed my first #embroidery project. My wife got me this for my birthday because I wanted to learn some basic stitches to use for mending. The shop was going out of business so there were several sets on sale, and this one had a good variety of stitches […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A circular hoop with white cloth stretched inside it. In the middle it says "Choose HAPPY" in green back stitch for the first word and red satin stitch for the second. Around the words are leaves of varying shades of green and flowers in purples, reds, and yellows. A small green JVB is stitched along a leaf at the bottom.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 20/04/2025

Here is the result of this year's egg dyeing. The ones in the carton were boiled in onion skins (with stockings to hold them on). The 5 purple eggs were boiled in red grape juice and left for a week. I had to wipe off a lot of sediment. The rest were hard boiled […] [Original post on dice.camp]

Dyed eggs in a carton and one a cooling rack. They are a mix of colors and some have lines on them left by electrical tape or rubber bands that have since been removed. Yellow and red onion skins resulted in mottled yellow brown and reddish brown colors. Turmeric produced bright light yellow. Red cabbage made dark teal blue. Red grape juice made a dull purple. Cayenne made a disappointing brown-orange that is almost what a brown egg would've looked like undyed.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2025

This little lizard has taken to hanging out between the glass and screen of our sliding glass door. We've been enjoying watching it from inside the house. Today was the first time I saw it from outside, and I was wowed by the colors, since the back is mainly brownish gray. #lizard

The underbelly of a small lizard on a door screen. The bulk of the lizard is brownish-gray, but under the chin is bright green and the two flanks of the belly are bright turquoise blue.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2025

And one final shot, to show what has become of the red exterior. #cactus #flower #BloomScrolling

A view of the cactus flower from behind. The pink, fuzzy-looking stalk stretches up from the green spikey base. The red petals bend back, fading to pink and then to white the closer they were to the inside.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2025

The flower opened even more after dark. This morning it is too bright for my cellphone camera to properly capture, but I tried. #cactus #flower #BloomScrolling

A fully open cactus flower, brilliant white petals thrown back, but so bright they all blend together into one indistinct circle around the yellow interior.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 16/04/2025

And finally, as the sun is going down, the flower opens! What a relief! I was worried it was going to wait until after I left the house tomorrow morning. #cactus #flowers #BloomScrolling

A fully open flower appendage off of a small Peruvian hybrid cactus. The outer fringe is red, but the inner petals are all white. Inside the flower is bright yellow equipment for attracting pollinators and reproducing. The flower has bilateral rather than rotational symmetry, with a clear top and bottom dictated by gravity.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2025

@pissed_eagle mentioned it's Draw a Bird Day, so here is a piece from me. It's from when my wife and I lived in Australia, our early days of birding. I was somewhere without her and saw this brand new, striking bird, so I scribbled it down to share with her. Turns […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A yellow sticky note bearing a really rough line drawing of a bird. The beak is rather enormous, as is the crest, which is labeled with colors (white, pink, red as it gets closer to the head). The tail feathers are also labeled white. The wings are closed, and there are two little legs attached to the chunky body. The vent is labeled red.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 16/02/2025

Today I prepared artichokes for the first time. I trimmed the stems and sawed off the top inch and a half so that they could fit in my steamer basket. I might have cooked them for too long, as they were very much ready by the time I checked them around 50 minutes […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A steamed artichoke with its outer petals all removed sits on a cutting board with a knife, near some of the outer detritus. The very inner petals are folded out, so you can see a little bit of the inside of the flower, the "choke" part. It very much looks like a flower now, not a standard idea of a vegetable. Rather than be olive green like the outer petals, the inner petals are white-gray with a hint of purple. It's quite lovely.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 13/02/2025

@Blahmage I am quite enjoying my current #ttrpg character. We're playing a sci-fi game set on a recently colonized world. Mariah was a salesman back on Earth, selling slots on the expedition. Then he stowed away to be able to go along too. He's a mix of social […] [Original post on dice.camp]

Mood board for a TTRPG character. Bulleted lists describe features of the character's appearance, accompanied by snapshots of images evocative of those details.
Stylish presentation:
* dress shirt
* snug vest
* patterned trousers
* lowcut boots
* L-cane
* leather satchel
Physical:
* athletic, but not bulky
* short, curly chestnut hair
* sideburns
* gray eyes with indigo sparkles around the iris
* light golden-brown skin
* mid-20s
Magic:
* reddish-purple thorny mushroom tattoo wrapped around left forearm
* indigo sparkles around right hand/leg

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 12/02/2025

I got a lot of good ideas here and have now conducted my first experiment cooking with chickpea flour/besan: yellow squash fritter. I looked at a few different recipes online and then winged it, adding some salt, black pepper, garam masala, garlic powder, and […] [Original post on dice.camp]

A plate sits on the (extinguished) ranges of a stove. Upon it are three squash fritters, yellow in color from the type of squash and the turmeric. They have a lovely golden brown top surface, though, from their 2 minutes in olive oil (per side). A couple are still sitting on paper towel to blot off some of the oil.

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jendefer @jendefer.dice.camp.ap.brid.gy · 01/01/2025

I end the year with my second game (and second loss at) Terraforming Mars. That upstart Tharsis Republic cashed in on a pile of victory points from cards in the end. Without those, we were tied. #boardgames

A completed game of Terraforming Mars. Blue is at 99 points and green is at 82. The victorious Tharsis Republic card sits on the board beneath all the development on central and northern Mars.

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