The Good News Thread: I'm So Excited! And I Just Can't Hide It!

[Silverblade5 he/him]

Officially start truck driving school today.

[Briar King]

Wow didn’t really expect it to happen but it was the place that had the best chance so far this season to happen at...we toppled Rams perfect season hopes!

WHO DAT

[Delightful]

On 28 August 2018 at 5:26 PM, Sunbird said:

I went to a local park to look for milkweed seeds this evening, and I found a bunch! Milkweed is what monarch caterpillars eat, and my mom has been raising them this summer, so she asked me to get her some seeds of the kind of milkweed that grows in Utah but not where she lives in Ohio. So that was neat.

And while I was at the park I got some nice photos of a kingfisher! I didn't have any good ones until now, because kingfishers aren't very cooperative: Usually they fly away as soon as you look at them, let alone put your camera up. But this one spent several minutes sitting on a little pier at a pond, diving off every once in a while to catch fish.

3 photos under the spoiler:

  Hide contents

Belted Kingfisher. This one's a female because she has two bands across her chest/belly. Males only have one band, and it's the same blue-gray color as their back..

About to take off!

And my favorite photo from today, the kingfisher in the middle of a dive off the pier for a fish!

 

Isn't milkweed sap the stuff Kaladin used as disinfectant in Wok?

[+Sorana she/her]

6 hours ago, Delightful said:

Isn't milkweed sap the stuff Kaladin used as disinfectant in Wok?

It is if my memory doesn't misleads me.

[Mestiv he/him]

8 hours ago, Delightful said:

Isn't milkweed sap the stuff Kaladin used as disinfectant in Wok?

I think it's something similar. They don't have milkweed on Roshar after all.

[Wyndlerunner he/him]

1 hour ago, Mestiv said:

I think it's something similar. They don't have milkweed on Roshar after all.

I believe it's called Knobweed sap

[Sunbird she/her]

19 hours ago, Delightful said:

Isn't milkweed sap the stuff Kaladin used as disinfectant in Wok?

 

10 hours ago, Mestiv said:

I think it's something similar. They don't have milkweed on Roshar after all.

 

8 hours ago, Wyndlerunner said:

I believe it's called Knobweed sap

As Wyndlerunner said, the stuff on Roshar is called knobweed, not milkweed.

Edited to add: Milkweed sap is actually pretty toxic, and putting it on/in a wound would be a Very Bad Idea (TM).

Edited November 7, 2018 by Sunbird

[+Sorana she/her]

So this week in general was great. Especially yesterday, but all in all I am really happy right now.

Yesterday we went to a concert of my favourite band and they were fantastic. They played lots of great songs, especially lots of older ones. It was really fun to see, how the crowd was quieter when they announced their old ones. I have almost no voice today, because I had to sing every song along. Their music helped through a lot of darker times in my life and to see them again after three years, I can't really describe how much that means to me. And I decided to go to another concert of them again in two weeks. There are still tickets available

And my brother and I decided to fly to Australia next year and right now it looks like my company will play along and I can go.

And Skyward hit the market this week and it was great!

Edited November 10, 2018 by Sorana

[Silva]

I discovered you can change to the direction you write in. 

אף פעם היה יותר קל לעשות את זה. 

This is officially my favorite technological feature. Now punctuation can wind up on the wrong side when I type in English.

 

[Sunbird she/her]

Today I saw a new bird that I had never seen before! It's called a Bewick's Wren and it is very smol and cute.

2 photos under the spoiler:

Spoiler

 

[Delightful]

8 hours ago, Silva said:

I discovered you can change to the direction you write in. 

אף פעם היה יותר קל לעשות את זה. 

This is officially my favorite technological feature. Now punctuation can wind up on the wrong side when I type in English.

 

Oooh how do you do that?
The worst is Hebrew and English in the same post on Facebook. Can this feature solve that mess?

[Silva]

4 hours ago, Delightful said:

Oooh how do you do that?
The worst is Hebrew and English in the same post on Facebook. Can this feature solve that mess?

Possibly. It doesn't appear everywhere though. You right click and go to the choice of writing direction.

[Kidpen he/him]

8 hours ago, Sunbird said:

Today I saw a new bird that I had never seen before! It's called a Bewick's Wren and it is very smol and cute.

2 photos under the spoiler:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Yay! Very smol and very cute.

[Blessed peace he/him]

11 hours ago, Silva said:

Possibly. It doesn't appear everywhere though. You right click and go to the choice of writing direction

I'm on mobile so i just have two keyboards,  one English and one Hebrew. 

[Silva]

8 minutes ago, blessed peace said:

I'm on mobile so i just have two keyboards,  one English and one Hebrew. 

Same, right now. But it’s awfully convenient for computers.

[Blessed peace he/him]

3 minutes ago, Silva said:

Same, right now. But it’s awfully convenient for computers.

I think you  meant inconvenient. 

I Found out that i type faster in heberw if i have stikers, but that they mess me up in english.

[Zelly]

Watching my kindergarten class learn to read.

It's beautiful, humbling, and inspiring.

[Delightful]

8 hours ago, Zellyia said:

Watching my kindergarten class learn to read.

It's beautiful, humbling, and inspiring.

Thats adorable.  

[Sunbird she/her]

I took an all-day birding trip on Thursday and saw some great birds, including one I'd never seen before! And you know what that means... Nature photo spam!

Birds of prey (5 photos):

Spoiler

Northern Harrier. The males, like this one, are popularly nicknamed "gray ghosts."

Great Horned Owls. These two are always sleeping in the exact same barn during the day, and I've posted pictures of them here on the Shard several times before.

Closer view of the owl on the right. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here??"

This is also a Great Horned Owl, but a different individual that hangs out in a different area of Antelope Island, a ranch on the southern end. He's not as easy to find on a regular basis, but an owl sitting in a tree is always a prettier photo than an owl in a manmade barn.

Check out those wicked talons!

Other birds (5 photos):

Spoiler

Loggerhead Shrike, popularly nicknamed a "butcher-bird" for its habit of impaling prey on sharp objects such as thorns or barbed wire. They're rather skittish of people, so I think this is probably the best photo I've ever gotten of one.

Black-billed Magpie. A much more common bird than the shrike, but also not very cooperative for photos most of the time!

A pair of Killdeer. I swear there had to be at least 100 of these guys running around in the mud next to the road to Antelope Island when I was there on Thursday.

This next one is called a Black Scoter. It's a type of duck that normally hangs out on the ocean, so it was a bit unusual to find one in landlocked Utah. Plus I had never seen a Black Scoter before, so that was doubly exciting!

And here is a Surf Scoter. They also are not usually found far from the ocean, but I had seen one before.

Dragonfly (2 photos):

Spoiler

I'm no expert at dragonfly ID, but I think this one is called a Variegated Meadowhawk. (Thank you, Google!)

 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

@Sunbird Those dragonfly wings….so cool.  And is it just me or do those two Great Horned Owls look very judgey? 

Good news for me: I've finally broken out of my writing slump! 

 

[Sunbird she/her]

@TwiLyghtSansSparkles It's not just you, but Great Horned Owls pretty much ALWAYS look judgey.

And congrats on getting out of your writing slump!!

[Zelly]

@Sunbird Great photos as always! That shrike one looks like it could be on a calendar or magazine.   Love your new avatar as well XD

[Briar King]

NFL fans I hope y’all watched that historic Monday night game tonight.

i wished the other had won though.

easily the game of the season thus far for me.

[Sunbird she/her]

A few more photos from my Thursday birding trip: ravens!!

5 photos under the spoiler:

Spoiler

These are two different birds in two different spots, but they were both being very vocal. The first one was honking like a goose when I first saw him.

This second one was sitting on the roof of the visitor center and making the most bizarre "glug-glug" noise every time someone walked underneath him. I seriously couldn't stop laughing.

 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

3 minutes ago, Sunbird said:

A few more photos from my Thursday birding trip: ravens!!

5 photos under the spoiler:

  Hide contents

These are two different birds in two different spots, but they were both being very vocal. The first one was honking like a goose when I first saw him.

This second one was sitting on the roof of the visitor center and making the most bizarre "glug-glug" noise every time someone walked underneath him. I seriously couldn't stop laughing.

 

Crows are better, because they don't talk with a lisp