My most used hashtag in 2025 on Mastodon was #volunteer. The stats say I used it 95 times. Now I've used it 96. Four more for an even hundred this year.

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@tutormentor1

Fortuitous timing...though to be completely honest, I had been up for several hours!

It is no surprise, sir,
I'm an early riser.
A good time to donate
Is before it is too late.

RE: https://daily.ds106.us/tdc5082/

"I did it my way" could describe my work to help kids in high poverty big city neighborhoods for the past 50 years.

"he always paints another"
- Abbie Kiefer, On “The Joy of Painting,” at 3 A.M., Bob Ross Promises Anyone Can Do This
https://poets.org/poem/joy-painting-3-am-bob-ross-promises-anyone-can-do

Ink spots
on fingertips
and a bit
of green paint
on the lips
from lost thoughts
caught up
in a moment
of wonder,
staring at an
empty canvas

#SmallPoems for Advent Of Joy Calendar poems

"trying to think and all I come up with is a texture without
ideas"
-- Brian Teare, When we are on the right track we are rewarded with joy
https://poets.org/poem/when-we-are-right-track-we-are-rewarded-joy

As if I might rub
to the surface
another poem
on the page,
or another song,
with lyrics, lost

Some days,
I feel abandoned
by the muse

Other days,
she resides
so deep in me,
it's as if we're in
constant conversation;
art, without words

#SmallPoems for Advent of Joy

@Algot

Thanks for sending a contribution today to help me help others.

Just prior to you making your donation another donor, and 1964 high school classmate of mine, told me the website was not opening. I contacted the hosting company immediately and they fixed the problem.

Just as you got out of bed and sent your own!

What's the carrot got to do with helping kids in high poverty areas? Read https://danielbassill319958.substack.com/p/knowledge-based-problem-solving-explained

Does someone in your community maintain a library like the one I've built over the past 30 years?

I don't understand why ComEd user fees should go up, when it is AI centers using more electricity that causes greater demand. Why isn't Illinois making the data centers pay the extra costs?

Asking for users looking at huge fee increases.

Day 9
"Dark was the night save for the snow’s weird light"
-- Claude McKay, "Morning Joy"
https://poets.org/poem/morning-joy

Yet upon the horizon -
Mercury, with its glimmer
of possibilities, and Jupiter,
not far to follow; Sometimes,
the dark unveils what would
otherwise remain hidden

#SmallPoems for Advent Of Joy calendar

@davew I feel that there's a lot less interaction on Mastodon that a year or two ago. I still visit Twitter at least once a day and find more posts that I value than I do here.

Yours excepted.

What's the carrot got to do with helping kids in high poverty areas? Read https://danielbassill319958.substack.com/p/knowledge-based-problem-solving-explained

Does someone in your community maintain a library like the one I've built over the past 30 years?

In a world full of people who no longer trust each other, sometimes a small thing happens that just makes everything better.

A week or so ago I asked for German sci-fi books for my middle kid, who is struggling with his German grammar.

He's dyslexic and loves reading *my scifi books* in English, to the detriment of his German.

I asked on the internet, and I got a lot of fantastic advice, including from @lk108 who replied and said he had a whole series, and offered to send them.

So he did, and I happily paid for the postage as soon as he said he'd sent them.

The box arrived today! I had no doubt that they would, a random person who I did not know at all, said they would do something really nice, and I was sure it would be so.

Anyway thanks @lk108 for the lovely offer, and I'm sure Theo will be delighted.

Please give this post a round of boosts because a nice thing happened and we don't hear enough about that.

#GoodThings #SmallPackages

Literary Maps: Real Maps for Imaginary Places
https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2025/12/literary-maps-your-imaginary-guide-to-famous-fictional-places/
Kind of connected to a #ds106 Daily a few days back

"so joy.us"
-- Vladimir Lucien, uses of the erotic
https://poets.org/poem/uses-erotic

silence/spoken
poets woven
by words your
words my
words our
words
us

#SmallPoems for Advent of Joy prompts

#SundaySillies
Wicked Wonderful Wordies - #wordplay #wordies #idiom

Happy weekend from here, #puzzle fans!

Idioms or common phrases (American/English) are represented by the position, shape or arrangement of words in or around the puzzle frame.

Can you figure out this week's wordie? It would be wicked wonderful if you can.

Please use CW to submit your answers, thanks. Give everybody the chance to guess.

Hint: current

Created with the Free Software SVG editor #Inkscape

RE: https://mastodon.social/@tutormentor1/115667708072866678

I've used #GIS #maps since 1993 to show where poverty is concentrated in #Chicago and where existing volunteer based tutor, mentor and learning programs were located.

The goal was for leaders to use this to build on-going support to help existing programs constantly improve while helping communities understand where more programs were needed.

I pointed out that Trump and Hegseth have literally killed more people (59 and counting) than did serial mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer (17).

Why are we tolerating these horrific violations of international human rights law? Indefensible.

Also, bragging that you've killed more people than Dahmer isn't a flex, it's unhinged.

Support my advocacy: https://lets-address-this-with-qasim-rashid.ghost.io/#/portal/signup

I've shared my lists of #Chicago #tutor #mentor programs since 1994. Who in your city has a similar map/list? I use this to draw attention & resources to every program. https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2025/06/help-volunteer-based-youth-tutor-mentor.html

@dogtrax @Wiobyrne

I recognize that it's up to each person to re-learn and apply these habits, but how do we motivate millions of people to do that?

Here's an article from one sub section of the Tutor/Mentor library about building "personal learning networks". https://idreflections.blogspot.com/2015/01/personal-learning-networks-for-ongoing.html

It's from 2015. Still applies.