[penelope, Software] And gifted by others to imply contempt based on the assumption of that very behavior. It's interesting that an Englishman here is often called an "ex-pat" but Hispanic ex-pats are universally "immigrants".
Exile
[penelope et al] Penelope and I are both immigrants and expatriates. I was expatriated forcefully (in the sense of having no choice in the matter) and penelope voluntarily (unless finding a husband in another country is considered an hormonal dictate). Of course the use of the term expat (or ex-pat) is just silly idiomatic waffling. I have heard the term used to describe someone who is working in this country but will, in all likelihood, return 'home' after a time - which is quite the opposite of its true meaning.
[Duj] I'll have you know I tried out lots of potential husbands in the UK, but none of them met the required standard.
Didn't try me!
[pen] or height?
Possessing a windmill could be a criterion, I guess?
Work, Work, Work . . .
Grad school is NOT for the faint of heart . . .
Just popping in to say h'lo
Yes, it's me, sans plus sign (which I dropped ages ago). Good to see MC5 is still alive and well. ????????
Now there's a blast from the past. G'day.
dr q
You're not fooling anyone Raak, which is of course to say "Dunx" impersonating "Software" in his "Dan"-pretending-to-be-"flerdle" persona.
Welcome "back".
Welcome "back".
Doctor Q! Wotcher, mate. Still at Pittsburgh Uni? Great to hear from you.
So yeah, a few of you know, but not everyone does, so here goes…
My real name is now Gracie Jane; pronouns are she/her. But I'm still in Pittsburgh, and people still call me Quuxum, even IRL.
[Duj] You might be on one of the meds I'm on as well :)
My real name is now Gracie Jane; pronouns are she/her. But I'm still in Pittsburgh, and people still call me Quuxum, even IRL.
[Duj] You might be on one of the meds I'm on as well :)
[drgj] Good for you! =) Out of interest, how long do people usually pronounce the "u" sound in "qu...um" for?
[drquuxum] Pleased to meet you, Gracie Jane. Great good luck in your new life.
[drq] Glad to see you back here. The more the merrier. And following on from Tuj, how do you pronounce "quuxum" (in my head it is kw-uck-zum)?
And thinking about it, how is Tuj pronounced?
And thinking about it, how is Tuj pronounced?
[Bool] Yup; I usually spell it out as Kwucks-um, or even K????-?m.
Yes, how is Tuj pronounced? Tudge? or as in French "touge"?
"Tuy". That or "Mangrove-Stoat Frog Warbler" depending on where one is pronouncing "Tuj".
The entity known as Tuj
Unpronounceable in this solar system, I have always thought, existing only as a symbolic representation in ASCII of a different existence. 1945166590+22554-171, if your Gödelising is up to it.
Alas, your instantaneous translator is on the blink. "Bismarck" is easily pronounceable in almost every language on Earth.
Hello again
Been tweaking. Hopefully nothing broken...
Rhymes with "smudge" in my head, but YMMV. On this line, there aren't any truly unpronounceables among us, a la Drewsxpa, at present are there?
[rab] You'll ruin your teeth.
Pronunciation
[Tuj] But what would you know.
Mornin' all. Comment ally voos?
Trebonski, as my Dad would have said. Bilingual but French wasn't one of 'em.
dokodo don, dokodo don, dokodo don, dokodo don
Our taiko group played for a friend's wedding yesterday. At the party afterwards, that is, not the ceremony itself. The bride is one of the group, so she was playing with us, with a shoulder-slung drum over her full white wedding rig. Later today I expect to be very happy when the restoration of my Mac from backup completes (touch wood). The disc failed last weekend and I've been poking at the Internet through a variety of letterboxes since. Or maybe I shall be happy in a couple of days. It has just announced, "About 37 hours and 2 minutes remaining."
Happiness is restored, along with the backup.
Backups
37 hours? How much were you recovering?
About 1.75 TB. I got the machine back from Apple yesterday with a new disc, the current OS, and nothing else. I booted it, it saw my Time Capsule, and in just a few clicks and 18 hours, it's back to normal. It reported a transfer rate varying between 8 and 25 MB/second, I'm not sure why it would be that low. My broadband is faster. Maybe I should have remembered to plug in the Ethernet before it started over Wifi.
Was it a Time Machine backup? These are very slow, for some reason.
Having said that I had a backup that ran for a comparable time over USB2 last week. I had resized my hard drive from 3/4 TB to 1TB and told windows to do a backup to the same drive I had used to do the restore from the smaller image. Part of the problem was I forgot to disable Malwarebytes until 24 hours had passed uneventfully (as in the "end of backup" event hadn't fired), but I think that there was some sort of messing around comparing block usage with bit maps too. I should have used a clean USB drive from the get-go.
[rab] The backup was made with Time Machine, but the restore process was handled by the Migration Assistant. Apart from whatever speed issues there may be, it seems to me that Time Machine works the way that all backups should, ever since disks superseded magnetic tape. You aren't limited to just doing a full restore, you can look at the backup and see all the individual files and access them just like they're ordinary files on a disc, which of course they are, not hidden in some opaque archive format. Automatic hourly backups meant that without having to think about it, when the disk failed I lost no data. Do modern backup solutions for other systems provide this level of does-it-right-ness?
Discs haven't superseded mag tape. The cost factor is with the disc, but in streaming mode tape can beat a spinning disc in speed of writes. Not only that, you might be surprised at how robust the tape market has become since defense in depth backup strategies were developed in the wake of cheap,reliable discs. Of course, it is all about to change again as Flash becomes cheaper and more reliable.
Tape me up
If your tape breaks, you can splice it, losing only certain files. Solid state memory and optical disks do not have that option.
[Bismarck] Don't they splice themselves?
Light Show
Spectacular thunderstorm here. Some of the lightning made the scene look like daylight. Not all that much rain, surprisingly.
Electric Light Pourchestra
What Rosie said, but with a very hefty downpour of rain followed by a few hours of drizzle.
[Rakk] My understanding is that discs can recover lost blocks if they are in the right sort of configuration, and Flash has hardware redundancy built-in for its peculiar fail modes, so I guess the answer is "Yesnabe".
But in order to get the sort of speed and reliability from spinning discs that tape offers (in streaming mode - important specific there) you have to "waste" a lot of discs. Personally I think tape is neat just because of the robot silos. Technology should have moving parts to provide visual interest. Today's tech is all solid state in boring boxes. Some years ago I toyed with the idea of using tiny motors like the ones in toy helicopters to drive lightweight gear trains, the whole on an appliqué that could be stuck to a tower casing to make it look like it was doing useful stuff. Might still try that.
[Stevie] So it was you that invented the fidget spinner?
Cumulonimbi
Made it over here late morning, flood-like and loud as anything. Which was fun as I was having a job interview, to which it added some useful absurdity. Didn't manage to use it as a proof of divine support, though.
Thunderstruck
[Bis] I got one of my loveliest-ever jobs during a day or so of deluges and flooding. I even had a refugee friend staying over because his street was flooded - I was reluctant to take him in because I wanted to read-read-read before the interview, but humanity prevailed, and the job was a good fit.
Where's 'over here'?
Where's 'over here'?
Fidgit Spinner
No. If I had, it would glow green and spark as it span.
Job Interview With Weather
You should have calmly placed your smartphone on the table between you and the interviewer and had it play Ride of the Valkyries as the weather crescendoed. If it had been me I would also have thought to wear 15 inch cymbals attached to the inside leg of my trousers at knee-level so I could join in the fun as I interviewed, but that's just me and my over-preparation thing at work.
AS the weather glooms, looms, flashes and crashes about outside, two people sit opposite each other at a table while tinny Wagner belts out of one of the glass slabs on the table..
"What would you say your biggest faults are?"
"WHAT?" syncopated metallic crashes are heard coming from from under the table
"I SAID: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOUR BIGGEST FAULTS ARE?"
"MY INCONVENIENT INTROVERSION. ARE WE GOING TO DO THE ONE ABOUT WHICH TREE I WOULD BE NEXT, BECAUSE IF WE ARE THE ANSWER IS THAT ONE OVER THERE."
AS the weather glooms, looms, flashes and crashes about outside, two people sit opposite each other at a table while tinny Wagner belts out of one of the glass slabs on the table..
"What would you say your biggest faults are?"
"WHAT?" syncopated metallic crashes are heard coming from from under the table
"I SAID: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOUR BIGGEST FAULTS ARE?"
"MY INCONVENIENT INTROVERSION. ARE WE GOING TO DO THE ONE ABOUT WHICH TREE I WOULD BE NEXT, BECAUSE IF WE ARE THE ANSWER IS THAT ONE OVER THERE."
[Stevie] I've downloaded RotV for future reference, you never know. Didn't get asked what my faults are (there's a Pandora's box...), did you ever support Communism and would you rather plant a tree, cut one down or cut one down and lie about it.
[pen] One linguistic border to the south of you.
[pen] One linguistic border to the south of you.
Wagnerian Aids To Interviewing During Thunderstorms
and the knee-cymbals?
[Stevie] Still in two minds... Wagner didn't score for knee-cymbals, so it lacks authenticity for the purist, which might count against me if the interviewer knows their stuff.
Answering Rosie, earlier
It was Wednesday, I think, we had very hot thundery weather, torrential storms all around us but only a few hot drops of rain chez windy miller. Thursday - I think the neighbour's weather station recorded more than an inch of rain. It was spectacular.
[Bis] Bonjour. (Not 'ow-do' - hoedoe - as the Brabantsers confusingly say instead of 'bye'.)
(pen) Ah, those weather charts were right, then, though I'm not sure exactly where you are in The Netherlands.
In a thunderous voice
I looked at central Europe on, I think, my Friday. There was a spectacular string of storms in an elbow, almost a right-angle, from north of Hamburg curving down to southwest of Saltzburg then a bit of a gap to western France (SE from Paris) where a smaller but significant area was also producing much electrical activity.
Given that the lightning markers are coloured from white to yellow to orange to three shades of red depending on six 20-minute periods it was a most colourful sight.
Given that the lightning markers are coloured from white to yellow to orange to three shades of red depending on six 20-minute periods it was a most colourful sight.
[Rosie] South of the Netherlands; the big islands of Zeeland just to the west of us, and to the North, via the big Haringvliet bridge, Rotterdam. We would be able to see the lights of the bridge if it wasn't for our neighbours' house.
Whoops
Saltzburg sb Stuttgart.
Wagner Not Having The Foresight To Score For Knee Cymbals
I see your point, but it would be difficult to answer the interviewer's questions while playing a trombone or french horn. Perhaps you could join in one of the brass parts by playing it on those Irish Armpit-Actuated Bagpipes. Now I think on it, the vigorous Clouseau parrot-inflation arm movements would augment any interview process, thunderstorm or no thunderstorm.
Nowt since July?
So what's everyone been up to? I've had three weeks off - spent 8 days in the UK. Ate fish and chips by the seaside watching the rain and visited the Mary Rose at Portsmouth's Historic Naval Dockyard - the best museum I have ever visited.
re: Nowt since July?
[pen] I just got back from a road trip across the north of Pennsylvania (and a small bit of Western New York). Quite lovely, and I'll be uploading some pictures soon-ish.
Chewing my own leg off so I can escape work and go to Florida for a week.
Legless in Florida
[Stevie] Splendid. I have worked so bloomin' hard this year on supporting my department with all of its projects (*ahem*) that I have been unable to use up my vacation days at the correct rate. So I've had a bit of a session in the working hours part of the SAP platform, which fell over only twice as I tried to use it. As a result I'm having at least a week off per month between now and the end of the year.(Smug, I know, but this is a benefit of being a Dutch university employee).
Hey, August is cool
Warmest day of the month here, 24.5°, which frankly is crap for a highest-in-August and the second worst ever, i.e. post-1983.
[Rosie] It's that time of year. Time to fire up the genny and clean it's pipes out. Hopefully it either blows itself out or goes someplace else before I have to drive through it in a week and a bit.
Gulf of... Mexico?
I can't help feeling that building a wall in Texas would help stop these foreign storms.
(Bismarck) Some wall.
Officially autumn
So how was everyone's week? And what's planned for the weekend? If I apply myself, I could be making jam for the fourth Sunday in a row - it requires a foraging expedition by cycle from the windy miller's mill tomorrow (but first, the bicycle must be retrieved from another windmill where the apprentice left it a couple of weeks ago). Pffft.
Domestics
My week was good, thanks pen. I'll be making crabapple jelly this weekend
My week sucked balls but tomorrow I plan to vent my spleen by putting three intrepid investigators into the middle of a den of vile cultists doing things so unspeakable to anyone falling into their clutches that the very minds of all will be torn asunder by the mere contemplation of the foul ... but I've said too much. Delta Green day. My favorite day of the month. Crippling SAN loss all round if it all plays out properly.
Jammy jam
Blackberry-picking expedition very successful. I bled only twice. Jamming tomoorow then. And I got a tax rebate. A good weekend so far.
Hmmmm
Sun blacked out; Texas flooded; Los Angeles on fire; N Korea about to launch nuclear missiles. You'd think God was upset with America about something.....
.
.
.
The Russians have planted a flag in this forum. What will you do about it?Ave Maria.
You've probably spotted by now that I tend only to drop by whenever I fiddle with the server config. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I'm now running mariadb instead of mysql.
Hello rab
How's tings?
Backatcha
Fine, although it would be nice to create around another 20 hours in the day. Although if that was 20 more hours of being shouted at by the world's loudest six-year old, I might well revise that opinion.
Surely there's a use for loud six-year olds?
Can we not usefully employ the six year old to shout over Nigel Farage or Trump or something?
Fortissimamente
Hexamegaphone.
Portents of Doom
[Phil] Paraphrasing something I just saw on Facebook: If Irma destroys Mar-a-Lago while leaving the rest of Florida unscathed, I will hand in my atheist card.
Urasdfghsfgfk
OS upgraded... is this 'thing' still on?
Another test
Another test
(rab) So you speak Czech?
The Phone Book
For the first time in I don't know how many years, BT have sent me a "phone book". How quaint!
Yeah, we just got one too. Had no idea where to put it.
I put mine in the bin.
When I'm cleaning windows
After three years in this house, I FINALLY found a window cleaner to do the ones I can't reach. You cannot imagine how happy this makes me.
*puzzled* Can't you just tie squeegees and sponges to the windmill blades?
squindmilleegee
[Stevie] We don't live in a windmill. They're too full of machinery - and drafty gaps to ventilate the dust out - for anyone to live in. However, I have often considered how convenient it would be to attached the wet laundry to the sails and have them dried and straightened at the same time. Less ironing to do is always a good thing.
[penelope] *puzzled* But don't all the houses in Holland have windmill sails on them? I'm beginning to think the Junior Boys Bumper Book of Foreign Places (1962 ed) was perhaps less authoritative than I was led to believe by the Raptnuckle Infants School librarian. You'll be telling me next that the skies over Berlin are not darkened by fleets of dirigible warships, waiting for the Next Big One.
I've been about 2/3rds of everywhere, and it was in Utrecht that I realized that Holland is almost certainly a better place to be a human being in than anywhere else I've ever been. One day perhaps I'll even find the words to explain why. I think the words exist but I'm pretty sure they're Dutch.
A belief in the power of gezeligheid and the 'keeping our feet dry' polder model of discussing everything to the nth degree before making a decision (and the ability to have a proper discussion that this necessitates - missing in 'other places' where political point-scoring is seen as winning), probs. Actually, it is pretty organised here. Lots of red tape and regulation, and plenty of tax to pay, but the roads don't have holes, the water stays out, and I can get a next-day appointment with my GP.
If only I could speak better Dutch.
If only I could speak better Dutch.
Holland == Heaven On Earth
Notwithstanding the heartbreak of dry-rot in the klompen of course.
Party time
Woo-hoo! Did my usual application for a TV license and was told I now get it free as I was very close to a certain age.
Gratis
It's a good feeling is it not, Rosie. I had the same sensation when I fronted up at the local traffic authority to renew my drivers' licence (5-years and a few bob) and was told that as I had reached 'a certain age' they declined to take my money. I would like to thank the taxpayers of this blessed country for your magnanimity.
We don't have TV taxes here, by the way, although we used to. I think someone in the public service did some number-crunching and found that enforcement didn't really work and that it cost more to try to enforce licensing than the income garnered.
We don't have TV taxes here, by the way, although we used to. I think someone in the public service did some number-crunching and found that enforcement didn't really work and that it cost more to try to enforce licensing than the income garnered.
[Rosie] Good News: Free TV. Bad News: TV Programming.
[Stevie] Good News: Everyone can have free TV by not watching TV.
Bad News: If you have one of those globe chairs in the room, the tendency to fill the time by plotting World Domination can consume one.
(Stevie, Raak) All I watch regularly is Match of the Day 1 & 2, HIGNFY and University Challenge. I never watch anything live but record it and play it back about 2 in the morning with a strong cup of coffee or a stiff brandy. That way you can fast-forward through the interviews, which tell you nothing, and the sages on the panel. I reckon that on ITV could watch the entire World Cup in about 20 minutes.
(Dujon) The driving licence for over 70's here is only for 3 years and you have to self-certify that you're fit to drive.
(Stevie) Can't even dominate the sodding back garden.
(Dujon) The driving licence for over 70's here is only for 3 years and you have to self-certify that you're fit to drive.
(Stevie) Can't even dominate the sodding back garden.
Self certify
"Are you fit to drive?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
Good News: Plotting world domination can make you an international bestselling novelist.
Bad News. Being an international best-selling novelist didn't do Solzhenitsyn an awful lot of good.
Chain poem
'Twas Brexit, and the slimy Gove / Did gyre and gibber in the halls / All mimsy was that Johnson cove / And the "OUT" maths was balls.
Someone do the next stanza...
[Superman] Nah. This is the chat thread, and you're just wanting to rant poetically. Who knows where it will end? Start a game for it if you really want to. (I do an awful lot of it on Twitter - in fact I troll 'Brexit Central' daily.)
In other news, I have successfully used my Dutch network *smug* to get new tyres installed on the windy miller's 70-year old Fergie tractor, as a birthday present. And the local GP surgery has offered me a Vitamin D shot to counter the winter gloom.
In other news, I have successfully used my Dutch network *smug* to get new tyres installed on the windy miller's 70-year old Fergie tractor, as a birthday present. And the local GP surgery has offered me a Vitamin D shot to counter the winter gloom.
(pen) I like the idea of you trolling the rabid loonies. I hope you're not too rude.
Plans fr the weekend, anyone? I actually don't have any. Which is nice.
This Weekend
Eat. Sleep. Archery. Repeat.
Some alcohol may be involved as well.
Some alcohol may be involved as well.
[Blob] Archery? I dint no you did that. At targets I presume, rather than rabbits and edibles.
Middle-class darts
[pen] Yes targets. Although I have done field archery shooting at pictures of rabbits and other game.
Oops
Ah. Soz.
The Archers
[Blob] So you and your friends basically spent the entire weekend on your butts?
Buttering up
It's not too early to start discussing plans for the weekend, is it? it's the English Editors' association dinner in Utrecht on Sunday. We'll all be minding our Ps and Qs, obvs.
No butts but...
We tend to call our butts bosses 'round these parts. So after a bad week at work I can enjoy filling my boss full of arrows. As for this weekend I shall be avoiding shopping and will continue to do so until it is safe to venture out in 2018.
Kerrrrching!!
[Boolb] I think I've done all the shopping instead of you.
What the Hallibut?
I doubt Britain will run out of fish puns . . . http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2017/11/18/britains-fish-pun-stocks-critically-endangered/
(KS) There is no Cod but Halibut. I nicked this from the great Steve Bell
Get thee to a fish punnery
OK, save it for a spare game slot, chaps. Or kill one of the slow moving games and raise your fish stocks in there.
In other news, I usually order the fish if I'm eating out. Best dish is mackerel or trout or John Dory grilled over a fire in this restaurant (which although tiny is in the top 500 in the Netherlands). If you plan to go, the windy miller's mill is 500 yards away and is open every Saturday.
In other news, I usually order the fish if I'm eating out. Best dish is mackerel or trout or John Dory grilled over a fire in this restaurant (which although tiny is in the top 500 in the Netherlands). If you plan to go, the windy miller's mill is 500 yards away and is open every Saturday.
sentient websites
The MC5 website just complained that my last post smelled fishy. Incredible.
[pen] It must have been the mention of an open game slot - this isn't the site for that!
Last weekend, at LI Whocon 5, I ran into the son of Patrick Trouton.
miscellaneous
[Tuj] I am shocked!
[Stevie] Who? Was he hurt?
[Stevie] Who? Was he hurt?
Eel be ok.
Decemberation
Things seemed to have slowed down a bit in here. Are you all sitting on your Christmas puddings, waiting for them to hatch?
Satin tights.
I've had a 2 day cold. Gave me a chance to watch my Wonder Woman box set though. Watching Lynda Carter throwing Nazis around is a strange but delightful pleasure.
T minus three
If all goes to plan, I will lock my office door on Friday afternoon and won't go back until NEXT YEAR. Have just about had it up to here *points to gullet* with ridiculous requests for work, and I found a couple of days holiday going spare. I'm going to take them.
Party pooping
Thursday - Today I am mostly doing parties three and four.
The first party (6th floor potluck on Tues) I managed to avoid although not without being interrogated about my reasons for not wanting to go (umm... you're colleagues, not friends. My time is my own).
Yesterday's lunch party (#2) was actually worth doing - the research institute's awards and nice food.
This lunchtime? Not so good. Quarterly staff update meeting for the whole business school, masquerading as Xmas Lunch. There are never enough dining spaces for everyone (so you have to stand for the whole meeting before they open the buffet) and the queues are enormous. Cannot avoid this one but won't bother with queuing for food. Will head back to my office and buy a sandwich.
Party Four this evening - the windy miller's company do. The company is growing fast, and seems to attract the reformed protestant type, although the WM, like me, doesn't do religion. It's their habit to invite all wives and children, and the Xmas party is now up to about 50 people. Most of them have at least four children each and dress traditionally (you can spot 'em a mile off). I'm usually the only childless woman there, and the only one wearing trousers.
Bah humbug.
The first party (6th floor potluck on Tues) I managed to avoid although not without being interrogated about my reasons for not wanting to go (umm... you're colleagues, not friends. My time is my own).
Yesterday's lunch party (#2) was actually worth doing - the research institute's awards and nice food.
This lunchtime? Not so good. Quarterly staff update meeting for the whole business school, masquerading as Xmas Lunch. There are never enough dining spaces for everyone (so you have to stand for the whole meeting before they open the buffet) and the queues are enormous. Cannot avoid this one but won't bother with queuing for food. Will head back to my office and buy a sandwich.
Party Four this evening - the windy miller's company do. The company is growing fast, and seems to attract the reformed protestant type, although the WM, like me, doesn't do religion. It's their habit to invite all wives and children, and the Xmas party is now up to about 50 people. Most of them have at least four children each and dress traditionally (you can spot 'em a mile off). I'm usually the only childless woman there, and the only one wearing trousers.
Bah humbug.
Radioactive
9 down, 28 to go. Prostate cancer radiotherapy sessions. Side effects - say no more. But it will work.
Chin up, Rosie. There's a few of us 'old blokes' cheering you on. Your doctor(s) seem, from your past comments, to believe that you have a very good chance of full remission; now that's something for which to look forward.
Cheering you on
[Rosie] Keep up the good work, sir. Let's think laterally. What fun or usefulness can you have with your radioactive (*ahem*) parts? And can we write limericks about them? (The adventures, not the parts).
[Rosie] Canonically, when exposed to radiation, human beings are reported to develop mutant super-powers somehow related to the circumstances and body part that got zapped. I look forward to tales of a mysterious new masked vigilante stalking the streets of London and the incredulous stories told by those foolish enough to cross your path as you flit through the foggy night, fighting crime by means of your awesome new powers.
Prostate power
Thanks, people. (Duj) "Cure" is aimed for and will very likely be achieved. If not the thing will be kept quiet and maybe given another radiative bashing. I won't die of it, but maybe with it. Once a cancer patient of course, always a cancer patient and there'll be regular monitorings every few months. (pen) Let your pen (sic) flourish. Keep it clean. (Stevie) Cum, cum, sir, your imagination is in overdrive. :-)
I'd like to give a word of praise to the hospital which is The Marsden, Sutton. The staff are brilliant. Both patients and staff have a smile for each other. In addition, transport has been arranged which saves shuffling/barging/swearing through heavy suburban traffic.
RIP Heinz Wolff
Much regretted. I hope the funeral directors will challenge well-wishers to find a way of transferring the coffin to the grave from a distance, using only a piece of wood, some cloth, an eggbeater and a long pole.
Rosie - what to look forward to ...
(Blob) I get through too many fags as it is but that can't be the source of my current problem simply because I don't smoke them through my membrum virile, or membrum pretty fucking useless as it is currently. I have discovered yet another recovered prostate cancer survivor, total now four. This was someone I haven't seen since 1963, a very good mate at University.
Merry Christmas
(Giertrud) And to you m'dear. Actually it bores me silly so I'm just going to stew and scoff one choccy after another. There's not even any football - I dunno.
High spot of the day: The soundtrack of my mother in law (deaf as a post) on the phone to my mother (also deaf as a post). Neither could understand what the other was yelling about even when they weren't yelling at the same time and making their phones decide who to give priority to and for how long.
Highlights
Highlight of my day was finding that my sausage rolls were pretty darn good. First time for me, but you can say this for Delia Smith recipes - They work!
Highlight
Nearly being beaten at Triv Purs by my 12-year old nephew. In the end my brother in law beat both of us.
Gasping for air
The barometer here is down to 978 mb, the most interesting thing to have happened round Christmas apart from Mount Mourinho erupting yet again. Ho, ho, ho.
TrivPurs
[pen] Mrs Stevie and I used to be challenged regularly to TP by friends of hers, who gloried in our lack of any sort of knowledge of sports (in which they excelled). In two consecutive games we were first to the middle (me on point with science, geography and history, Mrs Stevie on Arts and Ents) and they chose "sports and leisure" as our game-breaker. Game one the question was "How many men on a cricket team?"
This was doubly funny because all game there had been questions on English history, Science done in England and the Geography of England. Every other question was asked and appended with howls of "Another English question!"
The second game went much like the first, with us romping home and being asked a Sports and Leisure question again: "How many holes in a bowling ball". I laughed so hard I thought I'd pass out.
The next time we got together with that pair we'd been to the UK for a visit and acquired a UK set of TP. We smuggled one box of cards into their American set and they didn't twig why the apparent quota of English questions had doubled until we both cracked up and confessed.
Happy New Year
I really should give this place a spring clean...
The rabling has discovered Monopoly and invented a variety of quantitative easing schemes, including mortgaging his socks.
HNY
[Rab] How old is the rabling now? 35? 36?
In other news, I'm back at work after two and a half weeks off and having a stab at pretending to be an editor. What the heck do I know about copywriting?
Is it lunchtime yet?
In other news, I'm back at work after two and a half weeks off and having a stab at pretending to be an editor. What the heck do I know about copywriting?
Is it lunchtime yet?
Editation
Don't editors just have to dress badly, wear an eyeshade, chew rope cigars and yell at everybody?
Dream job then.
Bonce bashing
Most satisfying. Don't overdo it.
Radiation
[Rosie] It just occurred to me, after watching another Dr Who Xmas special, that there is a slight possibility of not developing mutant super-powers, instead devolving into a revolting blob, retiring inside a giant pimply salt shaker and going homicidal on everyone & his dog.
No sudden urges to hide in a dustbin and kill everyone on the street I hope?
Editation
Dessed badly? Check (I'm still getting dressed in the dark here in the Januarial low countries); wearing eye shadow (not eyeshade, but close enough) - check; chew rope cigars? Eeeuuuuwww. Yelling at everybody - check.
I think I qualify.
I think I qualify.
[penelope] Do you still get to rip open your office door, wave a fistful of paper in your hand and scream "Stop the Press!", or throw people out of your office, yelling "Either bring me the straight dope on the Mayor and the actress or find another job Kilcullen!"?
Fluorescent naughty bits
(Stevie) No, none of that but don't get too close.
pen is mightier than the sword
[pen] Sounds fun. Maybe before Britain completes economic suicide I should be begging you for a job =)
Apparently my 'serious' demeanour prevents people from calling into the office and asking me to do things for them. I'd call that a result.
[Stevie] I'm not a newspaper or publication editor - I'm an in-house editor, so work on webpages, internal messages, brochures, our own news items. I miss the days of real newspaper work though - two decades ago now, when the most fun was finding puns to put into the reports of garden shed burglaries from the weekly CID briefing at the police station, and deciphering the spidery handwriting on the back of an envelope that had been shoved through our market place office letterbox, describing the weekly meeting of a village branch of the WI. *sigh*
The pay was utter rubbish though.
[Stevie] I'm not a newspaper or publication editor - I'm an in-house editor, so work on webpages, internal messages, brochures, our own news items. I miss the days of real newspaper work though - two decades ago now, when the most fun was finding puns to put into the reports of garden shed burglaries from the weekly CID briefing at the police station, and deciphering the spidery handwriting on the back of an envelope that had been shoved through our market place office letterbox, describing the weekly meeting of a village branch of the WI. *sigh*
The pay was utter rubbish though.
[pen] I fail to see why any of your description of your actual editing duties precludes the stuff I brought up.
His Girl Friday
That last entry sounds like Stevie calling pen into his office and telling her what's what.
fake news
[Bism] I can assure you that didn't happen. Stevie was too busy shovelling snow back into his neighbour's yard. Or should that be 'neighbor's yard'?
[pen] It should, the gardens in question being in New York.
[Bismarck] I've never warranted more than a cube in my life, and I haven't been in charge of anyone else since 1995, when my pig-headedness when it came to repeatedly requesting training for my staff and in giving them glowing reviews when the richly deserved it ensured I'd never be put into management again.
Never being in charge
[Stevie] Quite. I've never wanted to be a manager - it's just trouble. However, I do want to become more expert at what I do (editing and copywriting). Trouble is, the career progression of most places, including this one, is set up assuming that everyone wants to be a manager. Therefore, I am unable to move up to the next pay grade unless I change my job and move to another department, no matter that I am nine years and umpteen training courses into becoming better at this one. Folly.
I have to take this semester off for financial aid reasons and I should concentrate on my class proposal, but then I get distracted . . . I need to treat this like it is a class and have some self-discipline.
May we know your subject?
Prostrate on the carpet
31 down, 6 to go. I think I'm actually going to miss this routine.
Of course . . .
I'm getting my Master's Degree in Theatre.
Job vacancy
Anyone looking for a job? I'm recruiting for an IT assistant to join me. Need to have good knowledge of databases (Oracle and/or SQL) and programming skills in e.g. VB/C/C++/C# and ideally .NET environment. Salary negotiable, but think along the £50k lines
...
Ah, should mention location - Potters Bar, Herts, UK
February innit
I’m just procrastinating - I should be hoovering.
Sad to be driving New Yorkwards from Florida, where I’ve been lounging around and playing in Diagon Alley in my Slytherin drag.
Note to the LIRR
There is a small group of Confederate flag waving reptiles heading your way. Please, please, prepare - if only for the sake of Stevie, who likes to arrive at work on time and then arrive home in time for his evening meal.
Yours etc.,
Duj
Yours etc.,
Duj
LIRR
59 “we suck” advisory emails from the LIRR since Jan 29th. That’s just the Ronkonkoma branch suckage. 59. Only the LIRR could send “normal service restored” emails and think they were achieving greatness by doing so.
[Stevie] by those statistics, the advisory notes constitute normal service. I have submitted a petition to the MTA that the East Side Access should be opened by you and renamed the "Carpal Tunnel" in your honour, as of the pain and anguish caused by years of commuting.
East Side Access
Another example of wonderful planning. A tunnel between Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. This will solve ... what exactly? I mean, the choke point in the whole sorry mess is the fact that of the four tunnels under the East River, only two are signaled in both directions allowing for bi-directional travel without the need for time-consuming emergency train orders. One of the two is permanently assigned to Amtrak traffic. The other two tunnels are signaled in one direction only. One is signaled into Manhattan, the other out of it. Thus traffic will be disrupted in 3/4 of the possible tunnel signal outages (since if Amtrak's tunnel is lost, they immediately take possession of the other bi-directional tunnel (which means effectively that the bi-directional tunnel is twice as likely to fail as any of the others from the LIRR point of view.
So the extra Grand Central traffic will not only add to the system congestion, it will be f*cked-up by the same tunnel idiocy from which the existing network suffers.
Hidden text
The utterly stupid part of all this is that the tunnels flooded during superstorm Sandy and the signals had to be replaced using "Obama Dollars". Instead of wiring them properly (as had been known to be needed for at least the 33 years I've been travelling on the LIRR) They put them back the same retarded way they were before the flood happened.So the extra Grand Central traffic will not only add to the system congestion, it will be f*cked-up by the same tunnel idiocy from which the existing network suffers.
Bring back the staff.
Talking of staff
I'm interviewing a domestic cleaner tomorrow. I'll get my weekends back (but will of course pay for the privilege).
Staffing
[pen] Do they need special qualifications to tackle a windmill?
[pen] I thought y' had ter pay miller fer privilege.
[Bismarck] Just a long squeegee for the sails, I think.
'Squeegee for the sails'
That's a song. Or part of a limerick. Or a concept. Not sure.
[pen] It should be a band name.
[pen] Will the staff have to call you "mill-mistress" or is the proper term of servile respect "madame miller"?
Paying for a clean house is next to godliness
I was 49 when I got my first-ever dishwasher. I am now 52, and have just engaged a cleaner. Why the hell didn't I do this years ago when I could barely afford it? It's unbloomingbelievable what a difference it makes. Now I have time at weekends to go and hoover the windmill.
I used to be a dishwasher, but now I'm single.
Weekenderations.
Weekends are filling up. I can blame the windy miller for most of this. Next weekend is a late Valentine's Day stay at our favourite aubergey kind of place in the Ardennes to eat beautifully prepared wild things and drink a lot of wine before sleeping it off; then the weekend after it's a hotel dinner, bed and breakfast en masse to celebrate my husband's business partner's 10 years in business (with a few other of his colleagues and their wives, who are all a great deal more fastidious about saying grace before and after a meal than we are because most of them come from the Dutch bible belt - this one will be interesting rather than fun), followed by, the next weekend, a few days in Blighty to celebrate Mothers' Day with Mater.
But this next one is empty. And the forecast says it won't rain,. Suggestions?
But this next one is empty. And the forecast says it won't rain,. Suggestions?
For the dinner appear in ceremonial garb appropriate for summoning Dagon on the dank shores of Innsmouth. As the others say grace murmer your own favourite lip-sync ("lobster thermidor") until they are done and then "ritualistically" sacrifice a king prawn, scattering the bits onto a side plate before pouring a ring of salt around the rim of the plate. If anyone asks, look startled and murmur "best not talk about it openly under this moon".
Spare time
Hey pen, give me the name of that Ardennes place will you, since it's in my area and I'm looking for a place to take Mrs Bismarck.
For the weekend, take the train first class from Rotterdam to Marseilles.
For the weekend, take the train first class from Rotterdam to Marseilles.
Ardennes inforrmation
[BIsmarck] It’s here www.lamaisondemaitre.com/english. On me ipad thus no fancy html stuff, sorry. Food excellent, one sitting for dinner, no telly in rooms, excellent walking/hiking country. Will report back after next weekend.
Amused.
[Bismarck] Blooming excellent, it was. Lovely B & B (we got a room with a four poster bed & bathtub), plus aperitifs, amuse bouches, delish three-course dinner (proper cooking innit - posh sauces and all) including wine for each course (they’ll top up your glass if you’re swigging it), came to just over 170 euros. Lovely scenery, lots of snow on the hills up there (it was -5C and bright, bright sunshine when we left there about 10 this morning) and less than half an hour’s drive to the shopping centre just over the border in Luxembourg where there’s dead cheap fags and booze. A litre of Ricard for 14 euros... (we pay 20-ish here in the Netherlands, and no doubt even more in Blighty.)
That was our fourth stay there. Highly recommended.
That was our fourth stay there. Highly recommended.
Pilgrimage
Hello all, on the off chance there's anyone posting here who doesn't visit MCiOS - there's a tentative plan for a Pilgrimage on Sunday 8th April to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that server... This may take the form of a drink in a pub somewhere in the vicinity of the Great Station itself, and general chat and playing of silly games in person... Head to MCiOS for details...
(blamelewis) I really hope to make this one.
[Rosie] It'd be a pleasure to meet you after all this time!
(blamelewis) Reciprocated. You are very kind man. I'll have to get the Choob from Morden. I am transpontine-located, just in snooty Surrey.
Pilgimage
I will have to send a cardboard cut-out. So many of you I haven't met... (I think I first actually pilged in 1999...)
Image of the Pilgr
Anyone got Skype? Pen, Gil and I could maybe make that place in the Ardennes...
I’ve only just seen Bismarck’s post. Hmmm... Where is Gil? I met him at a Euston pilg once and thought he was Blighty-based, but that was nearly 20 years ago, obvs.
in other news, I’m currently making a scarecrow prototype for a village festival in July. It’s my own fault. I came up with the idea and wrote the plan.
in other news, I’m currently making a scarecrow prototype for a village festival in July. It’s my own fault. I came up with the idea and wrote the plan.
*snicker* Total trolling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGzp-s-xyw4
Pilgrimage
You were missed Rosie... and then commemorated in absentia in the MCiOS limerick game.* Fun was had, we had five ultimately, the perfect Limerick team... Links to photos at MCiOS chat. Two games of MC were played, the first won by Projoy, the second by Simons Mith, with a bit of help from Peter Pan. The second game truly was Mornington Crescent in Outer Space, with moves like "Sea of Tranquility" resulting in an sharp increase of the importance of spin to the plays thereafter... Nice to have seen the folks there, and let's do another one sooner!
*By commemorated, I may mean ribbed...
*By commemorated, I may mean ribbed...
(blamelewis) See latest in MCiOS Limerick game.
[Rosie] Can you dial up some better weather please?
(pen) I tried but was put on hold. After some Vivaldi a voice advised me to ring in about eight weeks.
[Rosie on hold]
But was your call important to The Voice?
S'OK, we've had a couple of days of hot weather and I have decided I don't like it. You can take it away now.
Michael Fish Replacement Service
(Stevie) Oh, vital, a veritable sine qua non. Without my call the whole organisation would have folded. I wish.
(pen) Hot weather removals are not as straightforward as you might imagine. The First Law of Thermodynamics ensures that. Give me a decent oven cloth and I'll dump it in the sea off Cape Horn.
(pen) Hot weather removals are not as straightforward as you might imagine. The First Law of Thermodynamics ensures that. Give me a decent oven cloth and I'll dump it in the sea off Cape Horn.
More weather
Moderately feeble thunderstorm at Plas Huws about 1.15 a.m. It means that ghastly gnome-like little creep Matt Taylor with his weird hybrid accent was right.
Diversion
Three days of thunderstorms have drifted over the country, watering every garden except chez nous. The thundeheads have neatly parted before they reach our house, leaving us dry but giving out tantalising rumbles and flashes audible and visible from the deck.
But this evening might be different...
But this evening might be different...
Even more weather
Good thunderstorm Saturday nite. Nearly continuous lightning (cloud-to-cloud most of it) and a good downpour. More!
Aridicity
I wish, Rosie. Zero precipitation so far this calendar month at Chateau Dujon even though we experienced a couple of dry periods of electrical activity. Perhaps this little note will help in remedying that rather sad situation. Mind you, May is normally dry(ish).
Aqueous perceptions
(Duj) Yeah, I suppose for Aussies rain is generally a Good Thing whereas for us lot it is not. I've never had a rainless month though actually come quite close to it with about 2 mm in a few months in the past. The thing about this May is the warmth and sunshine. Some May days can be 'orrible; I've had two May days in the past when the temperature has failed to reach 7°C and there was a bit of sleet as well.
Up Periscope here at Chez Stevie.
Well, Rosie, my jinx worked. 7.5mm overnight (29/30) put the kybosh on a clean sheet.
(Duj) My sheet has been thoroughly cleaned by yesterday's downpour. Intermittent rain, heavy rain, light rain all day from an utterly featureless sky. It came to 32.2 mm, a May record for Plas Huws.
Weathermen
Eight straight days with a thunderstorm, this is the first without rain. Filled a plant pot to three inches, though uncalibrated. Nice warm weather and I've never seen strawberries so cheap.
(Bismarck) Wherzat den? Netherlands, N Germany?
Belgium, southerly of Pen. It did rain again overnight and then solidly the next day. The weather where I am at the moment shows no sign of rain.
Belgium, southerly of Pen. It did rain again overnight and then solidly the next day. The weather where I am at the moment shows no sign of rain.
Crossposted
Merlyn, are you sending out mails from a yahoo account? Because I got one consisting of a short link. If really sent it and really want me to open the link please resend with a subject and your MC name in the body.
[Bismarck] I've been watching the weather radar and seeing the intense storms drifting northwards from you to us over the past week, but either petering out before they arrive or slipping off course as they cross the rivers. It was mostly hot, or hot and and muggy last week, but there was lots of rain on Friday and much cooler and fresher Saturday/Sunday. Back to 20C and murk today, Monday, first day back after a week off work. *shrugs*
Winders
[Rosie] Oooh. I also use www.buienradar.nl, plus the weather station belonging to the neighbour over the road, which has its own website and tweets - telling me if my washing is getting rained on while I’m 40km away at work.
(pen) And if it is?
[Rosie] This morning, yes. No rain on the rain radar but I forgot to check the drizzle radar.
Back to autumn
This morning's weather, according to Dutch parlance, is 'sour apples' - autumnal weather when it should be summery.
(pen) It will very soon be sunny like it is here, 24°C and a bit of a breeze. Nice.
I expect it is warm in Nice.
Just come back from thereabouts and had rain most of the time, but it was warm rain.
Hot stuff
It got up to 30.2° today in the grounds of Plas Huws. Just after 5 pm a southerly breeze sprang up and the temperature dropped an almost instant 4 degrees. This must be the sea breeze - unusual because it doesn't normally reach this far north.
Non-weatherishness
On the (delayed) Paris train, with eight Dutch people in the carriage making enough conversation to invade my noise-cancelling headphones. Jajaja!
It never rains but it drizzles
(Duj) Your annual average in the parched Australian outback is higher than mine in the Elevated Surrey Wetlands, which is 822 mm. (35 yr). But your rain-days are less than 2/3rds of mine. I've never had a rainless month but this June came closest (1.2 mm) which by UK standards is the square root of a mouse's ear'ole. Good; the "lawn" stops growing so less work. Heat Is Work and Work Is Heat and it's quite warm enough.
Wet and dry
True, Rosie, but here it tends to come down in lumps. This, as you well know, results in run-off which is good for the creeks and rivers, but not for much else. Here will be found records for three consecutive years each of which is different. It also, though not deliberately, includes the heaviest rainfall I have recorded over an Australian Meteorological day (0900 to 0900).
Quite lumpy
I see 188 mm in a day. I bet that caused some mayhem. The best I've done is 68 mm but before I started recording there was a case of 175 mm over 2 days (1968) which put half of Surrey under water. We get a different kind of lumpiness, of course, solid cold lumpiness. Biggest level depth here 16" or 39 cm. (1987). Those were the days.
AVMA
I will try to keep up with the AVMA this week. However, I have to write my comp exams for grad school this week, so I may fall behind a bit. I'll make sure to come back after they are all submitted to check on it and that I've answered the questions!
Never liked hosepipes anyway
Last three days minimum 28°C, clouds and even cumulonimbi scudding across the sky, not a drop of rain. Late fruit and veg harvest going to pot.
Hosepipe broken. Send buckets.
32C as I drove home from work yesterday afternoon. Black clouds approached, squally winds sprang up and blew all the windws shut, yet there was only the slightest wetting from rain. What a bleedin' let-down.
Dry windows
Those European cars must be a little different to those we drive over here, penelope. What I find with the storm bit of your comment is that my wife and I, or one of us, race out to bring in the washing - quite unnecessarily. Still, one cannot ignore the lumps - as mentioned to Rosie - so the odds are 'bring it in', regardless.
Blowing hot
[Duj] When it's 31C and bowing a hooley, the washing dries in about 20 minutes.
And yeah - I nonned sequitured on the windows shutting thing - I meant the house windows blew shut.
And yeah - I nonned sequitured on the windows shutting thing - I meant the house windows blew shut.
Just waiting . . .
Just waiting to hear results of my comp exams now. I've still got school work, but it's back to "normal" . . . for grad school.
[K] Hope they went well. What are you studying?
Too darned hot
The temperature in the grounds of Plas Huws has now risen to 33.7°C, no less. I'm not sure why it's nearly 4 degrees warmer than yesterday but I suppose I ought to. Last night on Radio 4 that blithering twat Schaffernaker offered no help, not that he ever does.
To darn dot
I was at the barbers who had the BBC news channel on silent with the subtitles switched on. Apparently it was "the hottest day of beer so far." Oh, and they said "not to leave God in your car."
two barn dot
The car's temp readout yesterday (not up to Rosie's demands for scientific accuracy but it's the best I have on the move) as I drove past Ikea in Rotterdam said 37.5C.
An hour and a half later, we had a squally thunderstorm and it said 20C. Turns out that only the raindrops were cold because the temperature was back up around 30C when the rain stopped. It's currently at [checks neighbour's weather station - Meteo Heijningen' if you're curious] 36C. I'm working at home in front of a big fan. (No, not the windy miller, he's in his air-conditioned office).
Change is coming tomorrow - and we're doing a 24-hour marathon at the mill until Sunday lunchtime. [Molen de Korenbloem on FB if you're curious].
An hour and a half later, we had a squally thunderstorm and it said 20C. Turns out that only the raindrops were cold because the temperature was back up around 30C when the rain stopped. It's currently at [checks neighbour's weather station - Meteo Heijningen' if you're curious] 36C. I'm working at home in front of a big fan. (No, not the windy miller, he's in his air-conditioned office).
Change is coming tomorrow - and we're doing a 24-hour marathon at the mill until Sunday lunchtime. [Molen de Korenbloem on FB if you're curious].
It is 37ºC in my sun-trap of a computer room. I have not ventured out into the furnace the last two days, but thunderstorms are promised for this evening. As is (rather more reliably, I think) a total lunar eclipse. Moonrise 20:48 where I am, during totality, which continues until 22:13, followed by the partial phase until 23:19, which is effectively the end of the show. Astronomers also define the penumbral phase (when the Earth blocks at least one point on the Moon from seeing at least one point on the Sun), which ends at 00:28. More information here.
Still too darned hot
(pen) Was IKEA on fire then? Good. Awful place. There's one in Croydon to which I've been once but never again. Just weird. Your car thermometer's probably not far out. It got up to 37° at Schipol.
We've just had a big thunderstorm. Nice bit of rain (about 10 mm) and the temperature is 18°. That's my drought f*****d, then. Goodbye, drought - 39 days no measurable rain.
(Raak) Thirty seven? Would it be indelicate to enquire as to how you are attired? It's cooler outside y'know. I don't think I'll see the eclipse because there's a skyful of residual medium cloud from the thunderstorms and this sort of stuff takes ages to clear.
(Boolbar) God should be able to withstand the inferno.
We've just had a big thunderstorm. Nice bit of rain (about 10 mm) and the temperature is 18°. That's my drought f*****d, then. Goodbye, drought - 39 days no measurable rain.
(Raak) Thirty seven? Would it be indelicate to enquire as to how you are attired? It's cooler outside y'know. I don't think I'll see the eclipse because there's a skyful of residual medium cloud from the thunderstorms and this sort of stuff takes ages to clear.
(Boolbar) God should be able to withstand the inferno.
[Rosie] Thong and nipple rings. Running shorts. It looks like I won't be able to see the eclipse either, too much cloud. There was the briefest flurry of rain as I went out to hopefully look at the horizon, but no more. The forecast on the BBC is currently saying 100% chance of rain around 11pm. If it does rain properly I shall go out for a cold shower.
(11:57 pm) Well, call that rain? The lightning was quite impressive though, bright flashes diffused by the screen of cloud.
Can't be too careful
(Raak) So you didn't suffer "localised surface water flooding issues" then? Lucky man.
There's another lunar eclipse in 6 months on 21 Jan 2019. 4.41 to 5.43 a.m. 25° altitude in the west. We won't see that one either.
There's another lunar eclipse in 6 months on 21 Jan 2019. 4.41 to 5.43 a.m. 25° altitude in the west. We won't see that one either.
Not even puddles. It's noticeably cooler outside this morning, although my cold water supply is a degree up from yesterday, 23ºC.
Raining moons and thermometers
[moon] We should have had a decent view of the lunar eclipse but, as one of my nieces commented later that morning, "weeks of almost cloudless skies and suddenly the roof of the world is &#@%*! clouded over".
[Rain] It's a problem here as well - lack of rain that is - much of western New South Wales and, thus, most of the state's farmers have received less than 50mm precipitation thus far in 2018. Farms are or have already turning into dust bowls. Livestock is being destroyed by bullet as transport to market cost more than the price available (for those who survive the trip) and the farmers cannot afford the cost of bringing in fodder. It's all very sad.
[ºF/ºC] There is many a million people around the world who welcome you to the world of HEAT. It must have been a terrible shock to many an individual's internal ecosystem, particularly the young, old and frail. I fervently hope that no deaths occurred directly attributed to the heat-wave.
(Raak) Do you make regular readings of your cold water temperature, or is it a built in monitor designed to warn you of freezing water-in-pipes?
[Rain] It's a problem here as well - lack of rain that is - much of western New South Wales and, thus, most of the state's farmers have received less than 50mm precipitation thus far in 2018. Farms are or have already turning into dust bowls. Livestock is being destroyed by bullet as transport to market cost more than the price available (for those who survive the trip) and the farmers cannot afford the cost of bringing in fodder. It's all very sad.
[ºF/ºC] There is many a million people around the world who welcome you to the world of HEAT. It must have been a terrible shock to many an individual's internal ecosystem, particularly the young, old and frail. I fervently hope that no deaths occurred directly attributed to the heat-wave.
(Raak) Do you make regular readings of your cold water temperature, or is it a built in monitor designed to warn you of freezing water-in-pipes?
[Dujon] I finish every shower by turning the water to cold, and measure the temperature. In winter it was 5ºC, and I could only manage about 40 seconds, but above 20º I can stand in it indefinitely. This is part of following the Wim Hof Method for improving cold resistance.
(Raak) That sounds more like a course in masochism to my mind. Brrr!
studies
I'm studying theatre. As long as I pass my comp exams, I should have my Masters in Theatre sometime in August.
theatre
[KagomeShuko] Seconding the good wishes for the exams - what areas of theatre are you studying? I work in the industry (I design video for shows), and long ago did an MA in Theatre Studies at Glasgow Uni - can't say I was very academically successful but loved the industry enough to forge a career in it! :) (Twenty-five years on no one has *yet* noticed it's a forgery...)
When I am near ter...
[Blamelewis] Isn't ALL of theatre a forgery?
Quote Unquote
Far from it, pen..
In other news, July was the hottest recorded at Plas Huws (since 1983) but only beat July 2006 and July 1983 by the teeniest margin.
In other news, July was the hottest recorded at Plas Huws (since 1983) but only beat July 2006 and July 1983 by the teeniest margin.
Big Data Weather
Looking at this snazzy app that my power company provided me with showing the output of my solar panels, I am wondering if it is possible to extract useful stuff like "it was a nice day" and "this month was hotter than normal". Any suggestions?
I wonder if it is possible to use the app to hack your home network, unlock your IoT front door and stealz your neat stuffs.
Did the panels come with a hideously deformed hunchback assistant to turn them on and off?
Henchhunch
[Stevie] No, you have to provide that yourself - there's a job ad out if you'd like to apply.
HDHBA
I shall have to dig out an email exchange I had in 1999 or thereabouts that revolved around the hiring of HDHBAs to work automatic generator cutover switches enfeebled by Y2K upgrades. I could get a worthwhile TOS post out of it.
Automation alert
(Bismarck) Don't tell the Met Office - they'll get ideas. Nearly all weather observations are now automated; the numbers go automatically into a computer and a forecast is produced. A sort of human may then intervene and tell the awaiting masses it will feel warmer/colder or whatever, this idiot savant having access to the thermal responses of the entire population, ranging from 6-yr-old boys to old dears of 92.
Serendipitous reporting
There's probably been a game like this, but I'd like to suggest a re-run after reading here this comment about Boris Johnson: "It looks to me like he's digging his political grave. It's one to deploy humour and charm and intellect and all these things he has in spades". Anyone interested?
Time is an illusion, summer time doubly so...
Europe is thinking of getting rid of the hour change. It looks like being one of those weird decisions - if voted on before end October, Europe remains on summer time; if after, winter time. Which should we vote for?
Serendipidous
[Bismarck] When Robert Maxwell had disappeared from his yacht, before his body was found, one of his friends was interviewed on the TV and said - utterly without inflection - that "He seemed in a buoyant mood the last time I saw him." I was somewhat delighted...
Totally tropical
At 2 o'clock this morning the temperature in the grounds of Plas Huws was 19.0°C. It's October FFS. About 10 degC above what it should be.
Credence
It can't be global warming because Trump says it's not.
Ad hominem
I read him as saying that it is OK to believe in climate change, as long as you are willing to be blamed for it. To show his acceptance, he is looking for volunteers.
25°C two weeks ago, now it's snowing. Is it going to be a hard winter or a mild winter?
25°C two weeks ago, now it's snowing. Is it going to be a hard winter or a mild winter?
(Bis) I suppose I ought to say something, being ex-Met Office. Well, mild or cold, FIIK.
Come on Rosie, you can do better than that. Where's your experience from previous years, observation of migration patterns of sparrows, wind direction causing bunion growth, modern glaciation etc etc to say nothing of the advanced abacus climate models?
The Met Office's Abba Cuss has been given over to accountancy. Helen Willetts will continue to suppress giggles on Radio 4. Tomasz Schaffernaker will say "cunt" on air and become "A" list. An inch of snow will cause widespread points failures. Points mean derailments. What do points mean?
Belated MHR for Sat. last, Rosie.
(Duj) Many thanks mate. Trombones abundant.
non-sensical riddle
I have a riddle: If you're going down a river at 2MPH and your canoe loses a wheel, how much pancake mix would you need to re-shingle your roof?
3.
[KagomeShuko] *Holds hands about 3 feet apart* This colour.
(KS) At least 5 foot 8.
[KS] Fish
[KS] If it's the roof of your mouth we're talking about, the answer is to change your brand of pancake mix pronto.
Merry Christmas everyone at MC5
Happy Christmas and especial thanks be unto Rab, Rob, Dan, Dunx, Jim, Rich, Wild Pants, Yoz and all the other hosters of international silliness.
Gratitude
(SM) Hear, hear.
What SM said
Also, what Rosie said.
Christmas isn't over yet!
Merry Christmas, all!!!
I bought this CD by U2, but I want my money back. It never told me how to dismantle an atomic bomb!
Not me
Ha well you'd have thought that a spy plane would know something about it. But on further investigation it's written by a bunch of Irishmen, a nation not known for their atomic status nor for spying prowess.
2019 A day or so ago I wished a friend a happy new year to which he answered "You too."
So I echo his sentiments, late as they are, to all participants in this world of oddness.
Can't stand the pressure
(Dujon) I don't know if this sort of thing happens in Oz but the barometric pressure in the last few days in the UK has been up to 1045 mb but the weather associated with it has been some of the most boring I can remember. Saw the sun today for the first time since Christmas.
It might, Rosie, but an hPa/mb reading above 1040 at Maison Dujon is unusual, although not unheard of. High pressure systems generally produce settled weather and clear skies, but that's not always the case.
Locally we have been having a short spell of hot weather. Rather than fill this space with data, I refer you to this (rather rough) image.
You jammy git
(Duj) Those curves are quite unlike anything I get, quite apart from the warmth. On a fine day here the temperature rises very rapidly to start with then the rate tails off to a fairly smooth maximum apart from the jagged short-period variations of about one degree. What's the "apparent temperature"? It seems to be about 2° above the actual temperature, day and night. I see something rather dramatic happened in the afternoon of the last day. Cool southerlies taking over? I bet you're relieved.
Just a bit of melting chocolate
[Rosie] Apparent Temperature? It's a "feels like" approximation relating to how the human body reacts to current conditions. If you pop off to one of my web sites here and open the INFO section of the menu bar you will find a few other methods of calculating that in the middle "Bio Indexes" [sic] choice.
If you bang around the site you will find other data showing local conditions, current and historical. As far as the temperature curves, yes, it tends to trend to maximum and then descend to minimum readings at a fairly rapid rate, although the falling temperature is generally somewhat slower than the the rising one.
After two days of relatively cool maxima as I type the outside temperature is a little over 31ºC with a projected maximum of or about 35ºC.
If you bang around the site you will find other data showing local conditions, current and historical. As far as the temperature curves, yes, it tends to trend to maximum and then descend to minimum readings at a fairly rapid rate, although the falling temperature is generally somewhat slower than the the rising one.
After two days of relatively cool maxima as I type the outside temperature is a little over 31ºC with a projected maximum of or about 35ºC.
Yeah but you're used to it
(Dujon) I've only had two 35's in 36 years, 3 Aug 90 and 10 Aug 03. Highest minimum was 20.0°C, lowest max was something I didn't think was possible, viz -9.2°C and on this day in 1987.
Used and abused via frigidity
(Rosie) -9ºC maximum? Blimey, that is a bit on the parky side. Since I've lived in this part of the country we haven't had a minimum that approaches that level of coolness. I have three Canadian cyberfriends who would giggle at that - one is in Quebec (Montreal) and the other two out west in B.C. where a maximum of -20ºC is apparently a balmy winter's day.
Warlingham, coldest place on the planet
(Duj) It was a sunny day with snow on the ground and a light easterly wind and it just wouldn't warm up. The reason lay in the air above, an import from north-west Russia. Even the high June sun falling on dry ground would have made little impression on that column of frigidity so the January sun slanting in on a snow surface had no chance. AFAIK my recording was the lowest in the country (unofficial) but if there'd been a weather station at the top of the North Downs, nearly 900 ft, it would have been colder still, the opposite of what normally happens when it gets very cold. The temperature was below freezing continuously for 11 days and stayed below -5°C for 3 days. The UK record for a low max is -19°C (Braemar, Scottish Highlands, 10/1/82). Nothing could move; all the diesel had waxed out.
Weather
[Rosie] Extremes like that don't happen here on the rock. Currently 9.6C, forecast minimum 6C. And my wife says it's cold.
La Bête de l'Est
(Softers) I'm sure there have been a few occasions when Jersey has been the hottest place in "Britain", being affected by a hot blast from France.
It's not getting much better *perspires*
(Rosie) Don't expect any short term communication. The BoM forecast for our Penrith. As a rule of thumb knock off 2ºC for Chateau Duj. Image here
As I type it's just after 1430hrs and 38.0ºC outside in the shade.
As I type it's just after 1430hrs and 38.0ºC outside in the shade.
(Duj) It's about 38°F (3°C) here. The scene is brightened by a couple of inches of snow on the ground and brilliant low sunshine.
Weather
[Rosie] Hottest? Only once or twice ISTR.
[Dujon] I’m in Lithuania for a few days. A concert of Armenian music on folk instruments last night, now seeing the sights of Vilnius before coming home Sunday.
More weather, I'm afraid
Another warm, still, sunny day - up to 16°C in the grounds of Plas Huws and it's still only February. Knowing that March and early April can be utterly foul I'm not looking forward to the end of this spell.
I believe I am having a touch of hay fever. In February! 13°C here, bright sunshine, and promising so for the next few days.
(Temperature estimate from the BBC weather site, not an actual thermometer in my garden.)
(Raak) Assuming you're in Naarj I'd say the temperature was a little higher than that - possibly 15-16°C. Max 15.9° here in the Elevated Surrey Desert.
Even more weather, alas
It's been 18.8°C in the grounds of Plas Huws today, a February record (for here) by some distance, the previous best being 17.0°C in Feb 98. I even had the back door open, unheard of in Feb.
It's summer, that's what it is.
Summer what, Raak?
[Dujon] It's icumen in.
(Duj) It's already come in. 20.8°C here this afternoon. This is higher than the average max for June. You may laugh.
Same in Glasgow, where Gorbals' warming is now obvious.
Why would I laugh, Rosie? If you thought that I might, then I suspect you would break into loud guffaws should I reveal how often the minimum temperature at Castille Duwhan dropped below the freezing point (of water). ;)
If it will make you feel any better it's 11:00 on Wednesday as I type; The outside shade temperature is 22.1ºC. As we use the meteorological seasons in this country, this coming Friday is the first day of our Autumn (as opposed to the equinox on 2019-03-21 08.59 my summer time *bring out George Gershwin or it'll be too late*).
If it will make you feel any better it's 11:00 on Wednesday as I type; The outside shade temperature is 22.1ºC. As we use the meteorological seasons in this country, this coming Friday is the first day of our Autumn (as opposed to the equinox on 2019-03-21 08.59 my summer time *bring out George Gershwin or it'll be too late*).
It's grim up north
(Dujon) It freezes overnight here on an average of 39 days a year and stays below freezing all day on 3 days.
Ourhot very mild spell has ended. March will probably be 'orrible, wet and cold with an average temperature about 6°C with sleet and floods. (That's not a forecast, it's a miserablism).
Our
Water, water everywhere
I came across this today:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190310-why-britains-rain-cant-sustain-its-thirst
Is it that serous? It must be admitted that more people means more use of water. Ergo, reduce the population? Stop all immigration? One child per couple? A shower per person per month? Desalinate the Atlantic and the North Sea?
To save you from a cut-and-paste exercise, the link is: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190310-why-britains-rain-cant-sustain-its-thirst
My apologies for the carelessness.
My apologies for the carelessness.
Dehydration
(Duj) The average annual rainfall here at Hughes Hall since 1983 is 822 mm, considerably more that the 500-600 mentioned in the link for SE England and there is no significant trend over the period. It's not enough partly because a huge amount leaks from the mains and partly because people are extravagant with it, laying it out to dry in the garden for instance. Metering ought to be compulsory.
Metering, leeks etc ;)
Yes, Rosie, metering here is compulsory. In other words you pay for what you use. Then again, my son who lives about a half-hour drive to my west does not have reticulated water - he has a 50,000 litre storage tank system (i.e. water collected from his roof). Many households have the same, regardless of reticulation.
As an aside, I have a solar panel array on my roof, even though I have electricity 'piped' to my residence. It will take some years to pay off the initial investment, but it sure as heck saves me and the grid many KiloWatt hours of usage.
This just in: Solar panels designed to secretly suck power out of the grid during night hours. Power companies implicated in complex billing scam. Film at eleven.
Orlando area Florida fields were awash in solar panels last summer. Everywhere here wasn't an amusement park or timeshare complex, there was a few acres of solar panelage. I even saw an enormous solar panel installation to one side of a development that had yet to break ground as far as housing went.
It's all those condominiums, Stevie. Are you not aware that they soak up all the infrared radiation during the day and, come evening, release the stored energy to heat the beaches?
Pythons
(Duj) penult. Here, we just call it the mains. Quite harmless.
Slithering and Winding
(Rosie) Not to my wallet it isn't.
Prayers, please
I know I've not been here in a long time. Right now, the main reason being my sister Briana (Giertrud here) is in the hospital. I brought her to the doctor on March 25 afraid of signs of concussion and her doctor sent her to the ER. She was sent to a room and a night later went into respiratory distress. She was on a ventilator and sedated for a few days because she had a rare form of pneumonia. The doctor thinks that is gone, but she still can't seem to breathe on her own, her temperature keeps going down and they don't know why, and now, she can't seem to swallow either. We need prayers for the doctors to be able to figure out what is going wrong and know how to fix it and also for Briana to get better.
Oh, when she went into respiratory distress, they sent her to the ICU. They tried sending her to a floor, but her temperature was staying low and she still couldn't breathe. Hopefully things will be better this time, but she does have a nasal cannula and she also has an NG tube feeding her right now.
Ok, we're on it.
[KagomeShuko] That is distressing news. I do hope there is a positive outcome for you both.
(KagomeShuko) I hope they can discover the problem and can fix it not just for her sake but for yours and everyone here.
Giertrud
[KagomeShuko] any updates?
Water, water everywhere
Since about 3 a.m. Monday we've had 3.8 inches of rain here. My gauge nearly overfloweth but not quite. This afternoon it took me over 10 minutes to drive 0.7 mile locally, all in bottom gear, along the mighty B269 which like every other road round here has blocked drains, Surrey CC being too impoverished to clear them.
Pluvation
[Rosie] Tsk. Brexit fever has robbed you of your hard-learned Metric abilities. No longer able to measure things in milli-hogsheads per pascal-coulomb you revert to the anachronistic inches. Good for you. Like putting on an old pair of slippers. Pleasant once you get past the two-bob bit in the lining of the right one.
I shall attempt to have someone record the amount of wet that will fall on us during the Stevielings Open-Air Nuptials in Florida at the end of June. Fearing the worst I have arranged for the congregation to lurk within tent. A tent with no sides so that they will be lured into a false sense of weatherproofing until the winds pick up. Bwa-ha and I might venture an additional "ha" into the bargain.
Heatwave a-coming
Midday 18°C, evening 27°C. Tomorrow and the rest of the week forecast 35°C, and this is only Belgium. Cat dehydrated, am attempting dripfeed with milk.
Heatwave abandoned
(Bismarck) We will miss the heatwave by about two hundred miles (i.e. a meteorological hair's breadth). Shame - I was looking for a genuine excuse not to do much except gawp at thunderstorms.
Is milk the best thing for cats? A lot of people don't seem to think so. Put a dirty old frying pan out in the garden with some water in it - he'll go for it.
[Rosie] The essence of experimentation has the subject's welfare only tangentially in mind.
The milk of human kindness
For cats, Rosie, it is not. I have been advised so over the years by various veterinarians. The cats over those years who deigned to live with us have been offered only water. They drink very little of it. Perhaps they collect enough of the stuff from the food that they eat - or maybe the few shallow trays we keep topped up in the garden for the use of our avian friends.
Beware of the cat
(Dujon) A cat's paw moves faster than light if it means business. Are the little dickies aware of this?
[Dujon] Perhaps they drink very little of it because they keep waiting for the milk!
The defeat of Einstein
[Rosie] Yes they are. In all my time here I have not come across a bundle of feathers in my gardens. Nor has my wife, the gardener of the Dujon Estate. I put down that to the calls some birds make when danger is imminent, particularly from the colloquially named 'Noisy Miner'.
[CdM] Given that most of them there cats lived to seventeen years on average, I have to doubt that supposition. :)
AFPD
Hidden text
absolutely fucking pissing downHappy birthday, "A Sticky End". It is exactly one year since you last had a move played.
[Raak] With good reason, it must be said.
Annual checkin
Hello. Apologies once again for my continuing absence. Yes, there's a been a server upgrade. So you will see some ‘tésting’.
Hmmm... seems to be going a bit too smoothly...
Still here?
It's surprising how much stuff you can delete...
Checking in
*Beep*
Unexpected item in the bagging area
Itemised
[Electronic Voice] Expect the unexpected.
Sticky End
dah dah de dah de dah de dah, da da da da da tissue???
Blank look
[blamelewis] Musical sneezing?
Din B Denby
[blamelewis] Delius with a cold?
Hello, I still exist
[blamelewis] MAP, 0 in Morse code?
(Kn) That's good, but how are your knees?
Hmmm
At first I had no memory of what the hell I was talking about. Troubling. It was a suggested move/rhyme for the moribund Sticky End game.
Hipster
Just been back to Paris, and saw a shop selling quinoa vodka. How hipsterish is that?
Nipster
Just been back to sunny Lincolnshire to visit family and friends and for a project meeting for a new annual festival for which I volunteer my comms expertise (Louth Pie Day, in case you're hungry). As part of that, I met up with the wife of a guy I worked for 7 years after I graduated. Their son and daughter (mere dots when I worked there) are about to set up a VERY Lincolnshire flavoured business.
Potato vodka.
I'm interested to konw what that entails - I hestitated to write 'artisan potato vodka' because I knew some clever bottom would ask me what an artisan potato is.
Potato vodka.
I'm interested to konw what that entails - I hestitated to write 'artisan potato vodka' because I knew some clever bottom would ask me what an artisan potato is.
Slavic booze
(pen) Ferment spuds in a freshly cleaned dustbin. Transfer, using a bucket, to a 50-litre flask and fractionate carefully by distillation. You can make it as strong as you like. No additives allowed. Potatoes are intrinsically artisan as are dustbins and buckets. Note - I have done a fair amount of "bucket chemistry" as it is termed.
Vespula vulgaris
55 years and 4 days on this planet without being stung by bees or wasps, until now. A pesky wasp was hiding in my top.
Wodka
[pen] I thought that *all* vodka is made from potatoes. You use grains, you get whisk(e)y. You use grapes you get brandy. You use spuds you get vodka. You use old tea bags, banana peels or beetroot*, you get what you deserve.
* - As per a bloke on the same corridor in Waveny Terrace as me in my 2nd year at UEA. If it stopped moving, he fermented it and drank the results. Heart of gold. Nerves of steel. Bowels of water.
Manic fermenter
(Stevie) A choleric personality, then?
Not much you can't make booze from if you try hard enough. Elderflower champagne? Actually rather nice if you can do it without exploding bottles everywhere
potato peelings
My first taste of poteen was during the beginning of my second career (in comms) sitting at my desk, offered by my boss. Sadly all I could smell were rotting potato peelings, an odour I'd had a professional interest in since my first career as a lab technician, analysing waste water from veg processing plants.
I guess if you're desperate for a drink then it'll do the job. or you could put it in tea or coffee.
I guess if you're desperate for a drink then it'll do the job. or you could put it in tea or coffee.
Strange idea of your PR boss coming around with something a) homebrewed b) alcoholic c) of uncertain content and expecting you to drink it - was he an Irishman trying to pick you up?
Sorry, I've been amiss
Sorry that I've been amiss. Things with Briana (Giertrude) haven't been great and I've been job searching. Briana has gone back and forth. They had her eating, but things were getting beyond difficult for me with being a caretaker. I've needed space for years, but I love my sister, so I wouldn't NOT take care of her. They got her into a group home and she's had to be transferred to a different one that is not as close to me as the first one. She was at the first one and eating and she started having problems breathing, so they sent her to the hospital. She had aspiration pneumonia. They did some swallow tests on her and they found that her epiglottis (the part that closes off in your throat so you can swallow without choking on or breathing in your food) isn't working. She has a PEG tube (feeding tube) inserted into her stomach so she can be fed. She needs 24/7 nursing care, so that's why she is now in a different group home, but it's a two hour drive from where I live. She's had to have her dogs given to a foster who is looking for a new home for them. And I'm still job searching. I can't get out to see her if i don't have money.
[KS] Sympathy. You're going through something terrible. I am sorry. Got a fund page we could chip in to?
Sympathy
[KS] 8o(
[KS] So sorry to hear that. I do hope things improve soon for you and your sister, and offer a hug if you are ever in my vicinity.
Funds . . . blech
[Superman] I don't have a fund page. Whenever I have one, people don't tend to chip in - I may get a few dollars here or there, but it's never enough. I hate fund pages by now, partly because of that, but then I learned that they basically run by taking money that is donated because they all take a percentage from what is donated that could be going to the person or people who really do need that money. It's not like a hope thing with Kickstarter. Sadly, things are not going well. She's been admitted to the hospital out where she was. Then she's been released. I've not been given updates like the group home organization promised. I only found out that she had been admitted to the hospital because a nurse called me when Briana (Giertrud) was asking to talk to me.
Weather - others need not read
(Rosie) Rain December 2019 - 0.3mm: Rain 2019 - 500.2mm: Rain Days 2019 - 78. Yesterday 2019-12-31 max temp 43.6ºC (110.5ºF). Phew!
Good day to hang out the washing
(Dujon) Forty-three? Faaaakinell. 8.3° here - rather mild, a bit misty, hardly any wind, boring really. Rainfall 141 mm this month so garden a bit sodden. Swapsies? I hope the inferno is nowhere near you.
The new normal
[Rosie] Temperatures in the mid 40s are rapidly becoming commonplace here. At this point the amount of Australia that has burned is about 44,000 km2. That's more than the area of Switzerland. Or more than two Waleses, if you prefer. Here in Melbourne we have so far been spared any serious impact, but I suspect things are much scarier in Dujon's neck of the woods.
[KS] Sorry to hear that things are so tough for you. Hang in there.
Wrung out?
(Rosie) We're fine at the moment, thanks, other than some pretty severe smoke being intermittently in evidence. That doesn't mean that we are not alert to what is going on around us; the 'local' fires are not all that far from us, and we are practised in packing suitcases and shoving the cat into its carry basket.
(CdM) I don't think your comment regarding the mid-forties becoming more common is true - not here anyway. In fact it's not common to have max. temps. at 40ºC. I shall have to dig into my data base to check that, but I am sure that I am correct.
(CdM) I don't think your comment regarding the mid-forties becoming more common is true - not here anyway. In fact it's not common to have max. temps. at 40ºC. I shall have to dig into my data base to check that, but I am sure that I am correct.
Degrees of hotth
[Dujon] I'm glad that you are OK (at least for now); I do always keep a particular eye out when fires seem to be approaching your neighbourhood. I should know better than to present to you and Rosie a vague impressionistic generalisation about the weather in the form of a fact-checkable statement! Guilty as charged. I suppose it all depends on your definition of "mid" and "commonplace". :) We do know that Australia has just experienced its hottest year on record and in December experienced the two hottest days on record. We had two days above 40 here in Melbourne last month, and while that's certainly not unprecedented, it's definitely unusual for December.
How warm has it been recently?
(CdM) Fires are more caused by extreme dryness and the density and type of vegetation than by heat alone though of course heat and dryness are often associated. There have been fires in Britain, nearly always in early spring after a very dry winter. This is the problem of using proxies - some are very sensitive to environmental change whereas others have a multitude of causes and may tell you very little. By far the safest assessment is to use measured and quality-controlled data and proper analysis will tell you if anything's happening. (It is. It's getting warmer)
Where have the archives gone?
I clicked the "See More" button on the front page, and only got games up to February 2016.
Fake Views
[Raak] I can see back to 2003. Oh look, The Beige Allegro!
Old games, yes, but it seems recently we've been getting too shy about killing games off. I think all the sites might benefit from greater turnover.
[SM] 'sbeen that way for years, they just tend to dwindle into total inertia. Presumably because no-one feels like sufficiently involved in a given game enough to be the person to end it. I fear there aren't many budding ideas waiting to be started though (I'd love to be wrong).
Not just involvement, it's respect for the denizens of this universe in following their lead. Make it clear that anyone has the right to kill off a game, and that running a new version of an old game us not a problem. Also rules for the bloody ostrich game and Wigwam would be useful.
Can't stand the pressure
Barometers - tap! Mine reads the highest I have ever seen it - 1048 mb. (Dujon) This is one meteorological element in which we beat you hands down. The other one is low pressure. UK record is 925 mb (Scotland of course). I don't think it was caused by global warming, not in 1884, part of a cool stormy decade.
Pressure? What pressure?
Pressure at ours: max was about 1044mb according to my neighbour's weather station. I can see it on the roof opposite from my kitchen window.
Synoptic situations wait for no man or woman
(pen) Too late - you've missed it. There was a 1050 centre over Belgium. A paltry 1047 now.
[Rosie] In NY in the last four days it has been roast city, intolerable heat, sweatbox weather, then snow. It would seem that the weather system hereabouts now functions the same way the pop-o-matic does for certain board games; three numbers the same then one properly random one.
(Stevie) That's North America for you. What you need is an ocean round you - moderation in all things.
[Rosie] I'll have you know I have the same ocean round my part of North America as you do in Standalone Great (Again) Britain. The Long Island Sound is part of the Atlantic doncher know.
I don't mind snow, I just want it to be proper snow, not "here's an inconvenience to bugger up Saturday" snow. There wasn't even enough to make firing up Troll (the Snowblower of Supreme Spiffiness) worthwhile. Too much to shovel manually, though. I used the Toro electric snow broom I had for years before I got serious about snow removal.
Crystalline water substance
(Stevie) Shurely proper snow is not just going to bugger up Saturday but the whole weekend and very likely the LIRR to boot.
a) I use Troll, the Snowblower of Supreme Spiffiness to get rid of it once it stops falling. Two hours tops.
2) Snow on Saturday = shopping trips replaced by marathon Netflix sessions.
þ) LIRR broken? Stay-at-home day!
♣) Monday was a holiday anyway.
(Stevie) Excellent attitude. Similar to my Rain = Don't have to do any gardening.
[Rosie] Florida is cooler than it sometimes is this time of year, but still shirt-sleeve weather to this son o' the Midlands. No rain (yet - like cockroaches, it's always there waiting to make a pleasant time less so). This year we are infested with a band of thoughtless pricks all driving the same model of humongous pick-up (and all bearing New York plates wouldn'tcha know) and parking so inconsiderately that we've had to park several spaces away from our villa. Plenty of space if they'd stop being gits. I saw one of them wander out on Saturday night and almost hurled. Grossly obese with folds of fat tumbling down, it was wearing only a pair of jeans and *they* were at half-mast. Jesus! I've describe things that should not be in my Call of Cthulhu game that were less vomit-inducing.
On the plus side, the Stevieling and Mr Stevieling are thriving as a married couple, so somewhere the balance is in, er, balance. I brought some trains with me this time. British trains! Bit o' cork-faced foamcore, some old set-track from 30 years ago and the Minitrix Britannia will steam again! As will the Farish 97xx, the Dapol 57xx and 14xx and sundry BR diesels in intercity livery. Going to experiment with Peco's uncoupling gadget. It isn't as clever as Kaydee knuckles but the rolling stock is so light I dunno that knuckles would work properly anyway. When working right they allow some eye-popping shunting moves with only one uncoupling magnet. I'll have to seed a yard with Peco uncoupling magnets for a similar flexibility. On the plus side, the Peco device is supposed to work with the dreadful Rapido couplings fitted to the stock.
(Stevie) Magnetic couplings? Blimey, there's posh. Wouldn't last long if a big 28xx got hold of them. BTW I have seen 97xx's at Paddongton. They used to go down the Tube to Moorgate, condensing their exhaust. Horrible to drive; no draught, no steam.
I used to know a barman whose surname was Barrett. Trousers at half-mast I thought of him as Bumcrack Barrett. One of the things about being old is you never need be a fashion victim.
Cockup
That big station I mentioned is Paddington, not Paddongton, which sounds a bit phallic and not something the starchy old GWR would approve of.
[Rosie] Well the results have been mixed. I won't have time to construct the test bed needed for the uncoupling magnet thing. The new Dapol 57xx and the new-then-stored-for-years Dapol 14xx run super smoothly over set-track including a dead-frog point. Astounding for an N scale 0-4-2. The two Dapol prairie tanks run slightly less smoothly, but are still impressive. The Farish 97xx I bought to replace the warping and hideously manufactured one I bought when I was 17 runs impressively smoothly too (and for some reason looks prettier on hte track than any of the other locos, even though the others are manufactured to a finer finish), as does the $20 from eBay class 08. The one I bought for just over 20 quid in '91 will sometimes not run in reverse, so I took the body off to diagnose the issue. During the testing, which did not uncover the problem, the spring from the rear coupler launched itself into oblivion and it seems they are impossible to replace these days. Another success there, then. And the Britannia runs very roughly. I think I will have to strip it down to clean the wiper contacts. It is all very annoying.
I want to do shunting operations with this kit, so I need a reliable coupler that can be remotely uncoupled. I think the kaydee knucles that work so well on US pattern stock won't work on the UK 10ft wheelbase stock because the action is one of lateral force applied by magnets and I think the lightweight UK wagons will simply derail. The Peco device is a metal strip that attaches to the rapido coupler, lifting it when the magnet is energised. Only thing is, they are only guaranteed to work with Peco unsprung couplers. Most of my rolling stock is fitted with sprung couplers.
Oh well.
Pressure
(Rosie) I've not been ignoring you; my Internet connection went walkabout for a couple of weeks. That's 'phone, e-mail - the lot.
As far as pressure is concerned you are quite correct for readings at my humble abode.
As far as pressure is concerned you are quite correct for readings at my humble abode.
Being boring
(Rosie) It's 15:55 as I type - temp = 44.4ºC. Perhaps CdM is right.
(Dujon) Well, it's over 44.4 here. Wait a minute; that's Fahrenheit.
It's been a mild and rather boring January here - mean temperature 6.2, 1.9 above average. BTW the pressure reached 1050 for a few hours in S. Wales on the 19th. (World record is 1084, NW Russia, 31 Dec 1968).
It's been a mild and rather boring January here - mean temperature 6.2, 1.9 above average. BTW the pressure reached 1050 for a few hours in S. Wales on the 19th. (World record is 1084, NW Russia, 31 Dec 1968).
need a job, need a job, need a job . . .
*sigh* I'm so busy job searching. I am a teach on VIPkid, but I can't do the overnights that are required. I tried and it just didn't work for me. I MIGHT be able to do them sometimes, but I definitely couldn't support myself with that job. I really need a job, so prayers, good wishes, good vibes, etc, are definitely appreciated because I need something in my time zone . . . or at least in a U.S. time zone that might just make things a little off. Or a decently paying independent contractor job. The problem is that many of those don't pay decently.
online presence . . . or is that presents?
Does anybody here use Facebook or Instagram? Just curious . ..
[KagomeShuko] Facebook, I've left my account to rot, and I find it increasingly creepy how much it continues to 'follow' me about. A pox on Zuckerberg and all his spawn. Instagram, no. I've got a Nerdica account I've never used and a slight Pluspora presence.
(SM) This (and the Other Place)is the nearest I get to Social Media, though I've had some useful interactions on YouTube comment threads.
Ciara the Storm
Other than the strange name for the storm, most of the footie in B and NL got called off. So far a bit blowy here, but hardly a storm.
Getting quite windy here now. From the Met Office there is what is referred to on my weather group as a "Custard Warning", i.e. areas affected are coloured yellow. On the 0030 Radio 4 forecast Helen Willetts said the storm would be "impactful". Helen, you're a poet. Now sod off and speak English.
Naming storms like this, apart from being cheesy, is meteorologically unsound as they have much less of a singular identity than a tropical hurricane and can split up and do all sorts of funny things.
Naming storms like this, apart from being cheesy, is meteorologically unsound as they have much less of a singular identity than a tropical hurricane and can split up and do all sorts of funny things.
Gusts over 60 mph here, so far no trees damaged in the area, though elsewhere there has been quite some damage.
From flames to floods
It seems as though your weather is as barmy as ours. After all the hot temperatures and bushfires we have now inundation. Yesteryear we had a total of 500.2mm of rainfall. Less than six weeks into the new year we have already had 534mm of drips and drops on our roof tops.
(Dujon) I had a look at OZBOM, excellent as usual, but it seems I've just missed the action. I find it more difficult to interpret synoptic charts for semi-tropical latitudes than for areas like Britain. Maybe just a case of what you're used to.
Your rainfall of 534 mm in 6 weeks is phenomenal. That's about 13 mm a day,every day. The "best" I've done in that style is 574 mm in three months, winter 2013-14.
Your rainfall of 534 mm in 6 weeks is phenomenal. That's about 13 mm a day,every day. The "best" I've done in that style is 574 mm in three months, winter 2013-14.
Monthly anniversary
(Rosie) Just an update for you. Jan - 95.8mm; Feb - 552.4mm; Mar ro date - 69.5mm; Total for year-to-date 717.7mm.
Stop boasting
(Dujon) February 552 mm. No answer to that. What were temperatures like during your monsoon?
Deflated
Not being boastful, Rosie, just celebrating. To answer your question re February, rain in mm and max temp in brackets ºC:
7th - 73.2 (32.4) ; 8th - 107.6 (35.6) ; 9th - 203.0 (36.7} ; 10th - 49.5 (42.2) ; 13th - 36.4 (31.9)
There were 16 rain days in the 29-day month, so the balance was scattered around the remaining 24 days.
7th - 73.2 (32.4) ; 8th - 107.6 (35.6) ; 9th - 203.0 (36.7} ; 10th - 49.5 (42.2) ; 13th - 36.4 (31.9)
There were 16 rain days in the 29-day month, so the balance was scattered around the remaining 24 days.
Hot showers
(Dujon) Presumably the temperature was a lot below the maximum each day while the rain was actually falling. Looking at the figures I'd say they were all pretty violent thunderstorms. I'm extremely envious.
Nilpresent
Sorry I keep dipping in and out of this place. I had hoped to join in a bit more after creating a more mobile-friendly skin. You can find it here but be warned. It’s somewhat experimental and plays fast and loose with flex-based layouts, which seem to be supported idiosyncratically across browsers. (My css was never that great anyway). I know for a fact it doesn’t work on Internet Explorer, if anyone actually still uses that, but it seems ok on Firefox, Chrome, Safari etc, as well whatever the latest stock Android browser is (I think).
Give it a whirl, tell me what you think, and if it works for enough people I might make it the default.
Skins
Not exactly the colour scheme I would have chosen, and what is that enormous decorative font? But it works (Samsung phone with Chrome browser). The automatic bold & italic is a major step into the Century of the Fruitbat, thanks!
Technicolor
Not sure it's the colour scheme I would have chosen either :) Being colour blind I always have difficulty choosing colour palettes. Most of the colours came with Bootstrap (which does the responsive mobile goodness), but there are a few that are specific to this site. If you have a css editor extension in your browser, the relevant attributes are the background in the .rab-bg-head, .rab-bg-flip and .rab-bg-flop classes. These cover the bluey tones that appear on the front page, and the top of the game page. The color attribute of .rab-bg-head a, .rab-bg-flip a and .rab-bg-flop a classes controls the colour that the links on the front page appear. If you come up with some better numbers than the ones I did, feel free to share!
The enormous decorative font is called Merienda. Again I can tone down the size if it's too much. (And if it's too much, you should have seen the first one I played with for a while...)
Weirdness
There's something going on here that I don't understand...
Weirditude
Is it to do with having very few cars running, local deliveries available and very few aircraft flying? Yes, as you suspected, you're in a time warp - this is the 1970's again, but this time you're old!
Don't talk to me about old. For blokes, it's the time that every bit of your body starts going stiff except the one bit you actually want to. Call that fair?
Have any of ever you become dog owners for the first time in your 50s? The windy miller and I are both now working at home for the foreseeable, and I anticipate that even after September I'll be working from home quite a bit. We're thinking seriously about it.
A friendly, middle-aged, middle-sized rescue dog of indeterminate breed would do us fine.
Any thoughts?
A friendly, middle-aged, middle-sized rescue dog of indeterminate breed would do us fine.
Any thoughts?
Who let the dogs in?
[pen] I'd say go for it. The dog will soon have you quickly trained. Alas, I am no longer a dog owner in my 50s, which has set me down the road of possibly looking for another.
Well I'd volunteer for the position myself, but I don't have a waggy enough tail. Go for it.
Aging
[Pablo] I know what you mean. My upper lip is not what it used to be.
Stiffness
(Pablo) Fair? Depends how much you spread your seed earlier. That doesn't include the bedroom floor BTW. Try being 77 and hoping for some gloriously horny old bat to turn up. It can happen.
I'm beginning to notice that the lockdown is having an effect (on me at least) similar to large quantities of alcohol in that inhibition is disappearing. Do other morniversers notice this? Who wants a fuck?
[Rosie] As I understand the Human Condition, everyone wants a fuck, but no-one is willing to give one.
Inhibitions, lack of in Castle Rosie
Pwy eisio ffwc
(Stevie) Shurely I at least have indicated my willingness to attempt the required act. Success, of course, cannot be guaranteed.
Still ROFLMAO at your second item. Top drawer.
Still ROFLMAO at your second item. Top drawer.
[Rosie] Er, something about alcohol increasing the desire but decreasing the performance? I believe you can get good beer goggles online these days ;-)
(Pablo) Androgen Deprivation Therapy Is even more effective but I've just come off it after 3 years. Hooray!
[Rosie] Ow! that sounds diabolical
Bollocks, irrelevance of
(Pablo) Doesn't hurt, just reduces the libido (to about zero). Some men sprout tits but fortunately I didn't. A prostate cancer needs male hormone in order to grow. Deprive it and it goes "to sleep" and can then be zapped with radiotherapy. It seems to have worked. Well done the Royal Marsden.
Irrelevant bollocks or not, [Rosie], that's excellent news.
(pen) Tiz, innit. I look forward to putting the improvement into practice.
[Rosie] Good news indeed. Sometimes libido reduction just happens, no drugs needed. Wish it didn't. Or maybe red wine counts as a drug?
(Pablo) I don't expect at my age to go round shafting anything that moves (and certain things that don't) but it's nice to have a bit more energy, you could say.
Prayers if you pray, please
First, Giertrud is in the ICU in the hospital in the city with the nearest hospital to the group home where she has been. Same issues that she's been having and is on oxygen. Was so sick that they thought she was non-verbal when she was admitted.
Second, that I do well with my new job. I REALLY need and am very thankful for it. I pray I do well and I hope it leads into me being able to do something that I really WANT to do. I have a few things and it might just be the company that I need to be with in order to get things going.
Second, that I do well with my new job. I REALLY need and am very thankful for it. I pray I do well and I hope it leads into me being able to do something that I really WANT to do. I have a few things and it might just be the company that I need to be with in order to get things going.
[Rosie]
Hidden text
Riiiight. So will the pornhub servers be featuring a "Hot'n'Horny Retired Chemist Action" category soon? Will "checking the raingauge" become a Rule-34 meme?Found my old Mammod traction engine in the basement and decided to fire the old girl up to check she was in good repair after years sitting in a box.
The burns are healing nicely, thank you.
The burns are healing nicely, thank you.
(Stevie) Not quite yet. You see, most people think I look about 6O but I know better. Rain-gauge? No activity all month ym Mhlas Huws. Forgotten how to do it. That's another thing.
(KagomeShuko) Best wishes for your new job and for your poor sister.
(KagomeShuko) Best wishes for your new job and for your poor sister.
Decided to use the new Air Fryer to make a hamburger while Mrs Stevie was looking after her mother.
The burns are healing nicely, thank you.
[KagomeShuko] we're on the case.
Burnt hamburgers
Ah, the airfryer. It’s our patriotic duty right now to eat our bodyweight in potatoes every week to save the Dutch potato farmers whose produce is no longer being made into chips and eaten by hordes of diners and visitors. Airfryer chips/frites/frieten/patat every other night, innit?
Chips should be deep fried in beef dripping. There is no argument that can be effective against doing so.
The Flood
Bugger! My May drought has been ruined by a brief shower Saturday lunchtime, amounting to 0.2 mm and therefore counting as a rain day. It still might be my driest month EVER, as people say, the Universe having been created in 1983.
Deadly dripping
[Stevie] I’d like to live a long time AND eat chips. Beef dripping is summingelse, although I’m not too keen on the lingering greasy sensation around the chops afterwards. As my dear daddy used to recite - and humour me here because we grew up 15 miles from Grimsby which had its own fishing port town reputation at the time - :
Little girls from Grimsby
Blue eyes and cherry lips
Every time you kiss them
They taste of fish and chips.
Little girls from Grimsby
Blue eyes and cherry lips
Every time you kiss them
They taste of fish and chips.
(pen) Nothing wrong with that. Award yourself an LLB, Lincolnshire Lip Balm. Sooooo much nicer than garlicky breath.
[penelope] And your point is? I agree wholeheartedly and unreservedly with Rosie. Watch out for avian pigs.
Lincs Lip Balm
[Rosie] I guffawed! (which looks like it might be a Welsh word but I bet it isn't and now I have to go google its etymology.)
Linguistic indeterminacy
(pen) It does rather, doesn't it, but it's not in my copy of Y Geiriadur Mawr, ("The Big Wordery"). It can join my other favourite warthog. Incidentally arthog literally means bear-like and as in English the sub-text is "grumpy". BTW can't wait to hear you guffaw.
It's awfully quiet in here. Is everyone well?
[pen] The usual ta. My Chambers Dictionary says guffawed is onomatopoeic, disappointingly.
(pen) I'm very well, thanks, but bored stiff. Could do with a bit of conversation.
[pen] Well, how's Project Dog coming along?
Doggone
[Simons] Had two hot leads this week (see what I did there?) but one (Stanbijhoun/Collie cross) was withdrawn from sale and the other (wire-haired fox terrier) was sold before we could go over to see it. We keep searching, and some friends are putting the word out for us too - which might prove more fruitful.
Projects Foo.
Well I have just enacted Project Beer and Project Less Hair, but I really ought to get on with Project Barstools, Project Chair and Project Plates. I have been having a smashing time recently. I should also enact Project Washing Up, but I particularly hate that one. But no space for a dishwasher, unfortunately.
Project Star Wars Rulebook is in the home straight, but that's a marathon, and there's still weeks at least before I'll finish it. Especially as there's content I'd like to farm out into a couple of other books which are barely into draft stage.
thankful for job, but it is very tiring
I am so thankful that I have a job and that I can work from home with this virus being so rampant, and especially now, that the area where I live has one of the highest rates of people infected with the virus (I don't go out and do all that much as it is - I prefer small gathers, but even those are happening much). Anyway, though, this job is tiring. I worked 50+ hours last week. I need to spend some time putting out job proposals when I happen to have time. I'm praying that I can start teaching theatre online somehow - and be paid for it, not just independently.
[KS] How is Giertrud?
Not well
Thanks for asking. She's not doing well. She's still about a three hour drive away from where I am. They want to move her into a nursing home because they said her medical issues are too much for her to go back to the group home. In a way, I think she will be happier, but I also worry about her. She's not supposed to eat anything by mouth, and she is very hard headed about what she wants to do and I worry she'll get a hold of food or the nursing home will make a mistake and give her food and then she'll eventually not make it because somebody won't catch her pneumonia. I'm quite angry at the medical community in Louisiana right now since nobody had actually tried to find what is wrong now and they just keep tossing her from place to place.
Giertrud
8o(
Giertrud
What Stevie emojied.
System update
My usual "system update" check 'post' also for funny stuff
Giertrud
Giertrud called me recently. She is now at the nursing home Legacy in Plaquemine, Louisiana. She sounded much better and much happier than she has been for a long time. She told me that they did a swallow test and that this time it was different as they put a camera up her nose and watched her eat live. She said that they give her a medicine to break up secretions and that it tastes bitter. However, it seems to help. She said that when she eats, they saw that secretions seem to pool in her throat. She told me that they are going to soon try to allow her to eat soft foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She's been going to speech and physical therapy and there is somebody who helps her remember how to brush her brush her teeth. She also said that she sleeps sitting up. That might help with the secretions.
We actually talked for over a half hour. I could mainly understand her. The conversation didn't get too repetitive. She's in room 421 and she loves her 420 jokes, so of course she had to say it was a minute past time to smoke marijuana. We mainly talked about the dogs and dogs that we've had. She didn't dwell too much on Krueger and Nala and agreed if she is ever able to come home, small dogs like chihuahuas are much better for her. They at least have to be calmer.
So, I'm praying that she is finally in a place that can help her get better. Who knows what will happen if she gets better, but right now, not much really matters with this virus.
I'm sure the nursing home environment is better for her than the group home. She was actually out in a public area and able to call me.
We actually talked for over a half hour. I could mainly understand her. The conversation didn't get too repetitive. She's in room 421 and she loves her 420 jokes, so of course she had to say it was a minute past time to smoke marijuana. We mainly talked about the dogs and dogs that we've had. She didn't dwell too much on Krueger and Nala and agreed if she is ever able to come home, small dogs like chihuahuas are much better for her. They at least have to be calmer.
So, I'm praying that she is finally in a place that can help her get better. Who knows what will happen if she gets better, but right now, not much really matters with this virus.
I'm sure the nursing home environment is better for her than the group home. She was actually out in a public area and able to call me.
Giertrud
(KagomeShuko) I wish her the best and I'm sure the whole Morniverse does too. Maybe things are on the up. We all hope so.
(KagomeShuko) That does sound like a positive improvement. My best wishes to you both.
Maybe not so positive, maybe okay
So, it seems like the issue with Giertrud isn't going away. I got a call from the nursing home/rehab facility and they said they were sending Briana to the hospital because it seemed like she aspirated. I don't know what that will mean for her eating. I know she was thrilled to be eating again.
Hurricane Laura
Hey all. So, when they called for the mandatory evacuation from Lake Charles, I picked up a few things and got out. I didn't take time to pack up tons of things. I didn't want to get stuck at home or in traffic. I went north and found myself in West Monroe, Louisiana. I found one single hotel room. It was literally THE hotel with a room vacancy that I could find. Somebody had ended up cancelling that night. So, I had my service dogs, no change of clothes, and my laptop, basically. I had a few other things, but I couldn't pack up everything because of my back problems and not wanting to get stuck in the traffic or in heavy rain. Lake Charles is in awful condition. My house had a tree fall through the roof of the back of my rooms. So, the roof and ceiling is all ruined in two main rooms, maybe a little bathroom, and a little area where a file cabinet can fit. Some people have helped me with donating some money so I could get some clothes and eat and should be able to travel when I check out of the hotel on September 4th. My job is one that I do from home as it is. At first, I thought I wasn't happy with the company, but they have really stepped up. They payed for the hotel from the day Ii checked in and then checking out on the 4th. I will have a host up in Tennessee while Lake Charles and my house are all being repaired. Lake Charles does not have any running water or any electricity. I think it was only one life that the storm, itself, took. I know another one was taken when somebody fell off of a ladder. Most of them seem to end up being because people will get a generator, they won't get a CO alarm, and they will run the generator and they will place it somewhere they think it safe and it may seem so, but CO gas seeps into their house. That's sad and it is sad seeing all of the destruction in my hometown. I know we will rebuild, but it certainly hurts my heart.
Slings and arrows
(KagomeShuko) Life is dealing you some lousy cards just now. At least you have somewhere to stay and don't forget you will always have friends here.
Made it but sad for my city
I made it up to Tennessee. My host will be home this evening. I'm sad for Lake Charles. There are people who rode out the storm. There are people who were only able to leave for a bit while the storm hit and had to go back. They say it will be at least three weeks before electricity is restored to the city. Water is iffy and if people can get water, it is under a boil advisory . . . which, if people have electric stoves, is basically impossible for them . . .
[KagomeShuko] Let's hope this brings out the best in neighbours so they can help each other until things start to get back to normal. A colleague was with her family in Florida and was caught in the storms there a couple of years ago - she blogged in detail and very movingly about the incredible neighbourliness she experienced. I hope that happens for your community.
And don't forget to take good care of yourself too - without feeling guilty. Without that, you can't look after anyone else either.
And don't forget to take good care of yourself too - without feeling guilty. Without that, you can't look after anyone else either.
Across the seas.
Another fortnight, another two weeks working at home, and still no closer to being able to return to the UK for a visit. (Complicated by my UK family's bubble to protect my sister who's about to start chemotherapy to complete her treatment for ovarian cancer - thankfully she should make a full recovery.)
Feeling a bit exiled TBH. Distracting myself by walking the dog loads and have raised 200 quid for Cancer Research as a result - and have lost weight - so it's not all bad.
Feeling a bit exiled TBH. Distracting myself by walking the dog loads and have raised 200 quid for Cancer Research as a result - and have lost weight - so it's not all bad.
Sad News
Giertrud passed away today.
[KS] So so sorry to hear that. You're in our thoughts.
[KS] Sad news indeed. I'm sorry for your loss.
[KS] So sorry to hear of your loss. I have just been re-reading some of her contributions here: she will be missed.
[KS] Sincere condolences.
Sorry for your loss. Very sad to hear.
Vale Giertrud.
Chin up, KS, time does heal - as I can verify (my daughter was killed earlier this year in a MVA.) You seem to have had a bad trot of late, so it's time to think positive and take care of the future. Good luck.
Chin up, KS, time does heal - as I can verify (my daughter was killed earlier this year in a MVA.) You seem to have had a bad trot of late, so it's time to think positive and take care of the future. Good luck.
[Dujon] Please also accept my deep sympathy; that is just awful to hear.
Thanks, CdM, but I should not have let that slip. Grief is very personal thing, so, please, no more messages, everyone.
That is not to criticise KS as Giertrud was a contributor to the MC community.
That is not to criticise KS as Giertrud was a contributor to the MC community.
After such a period of respectful silence, I propose that we now resume doing what made us all come here in the first place - to celebrate life, intelligence, being funny, and being too-bloody-clever-by-half with words.
You go first.
You go first.
As the World Turns
I shall, penelope.
See, I've done it.
See, I've done it.
As the World turns nasty
This is the one place that keeps me sane. That and the piano.
Sanity
For me it's my collection of singing potatoes.
[SM] Are they accompanied by a Maris Piper?
Well they are now...
(Boolbar) V good. But can he do the theme from MASH?
I did wonder what Rosie was doing in the piano.
(Dan) Poking around with a screwdriver, as ever. Got a Yamaha keyboard - no strings attached, and you can play it with the headphones at two in the morning, fortified with a good slug of brandy. Some aspects of life are not bad.
[Rosie] Being able to use headphones is incredibly liberating, isn't it? To say nothing of being able to select from a wide range of voices. Since getting my Yamaha wind midi synth about 15 years ago, my sax has sat in its case, its leather pads slowly turning to stone. Every now and then I think about getting it serviced...
[Rosie] I look forward to the time you will tell us of the triumphant performance of "The Ride of the Valkyries" at 2am, the removing of the headphones to discover the blue flashing lights and banging on the door and the dawning realization that the headphone plug was not pushed all the way into the socket.
Mrs Stevie is an expert at doing this with her iPad so I get to listen to her dreadful musical theatre stuff at full blast because she did not realize that the reduced volume in the headset was due to half the signal still going to the external speakers.
Turn that bloody racket down
(Dan) Play your sax, man. It's not an instrument I can play but picking up the 'bone and giving it a whirl is most satisfying especially if you find something to play along with (stuff on YouTube usually).
(Stevie) I've occasionally forgotten to plug in and muttered to myself "this doesn't sound right" followed by "plug it in, twatface". The neighbours are upstairs, sleeping the sleep of the just, and are not disturbed, so I have ascertained.
(Stevie) I've occasionally forgotten to plug in and muttered to myself "this doesn't sound right" followed by "plug it in, twatface". The neighbours are upstairs, sleeping the sleep of the just, and are not disturbed, so I have ascertained.
[Simons] Do you dance the mashed potato to their tunes? Are they called the Tuber Tunes or Tater Tunes?
Has anyone gained a new skill during enforced home-staying? I've been at home for 7 months now, but worked 40 hours a week throughout.
[pen] I learned the front crawl. Actually, I had a series of lessons before lockdown, and then the pool closed, but since it opened a couple of months ago I've been practising. I can just about do a 25 metre length without stopping. The skill of breathing air and not water is the difficult part.
I've improved my typesetting and CSS skills. And finished (bar user feedback) a writing project that's been lingering for years.
I have had more work to do since I've been working from home. I'm sure my boss thinks I'll go idle otherwise.
Other than that I've learned how to play a few modern board games and apply liquid eyeliner without looking like a ham-fisted goth.
Other than that I've learned how to play a few modern board games and apply liquid eyeliner without looking like a ham-fisted goth.
Resonance
I can now reliably get a top D on the 'bone and as a result all the windows in the house are broken.
[Boolbar] Are you interested in roleplaying games? My project was a rewrite of Star Wars 1st Edition D6.
[KagomeShuko] I'm trying to work something round 'Spud-u-kelele' but I haven't managed anything yet
As travel and eating out has been off the table for the past few months I have expanded my cooking horizons by doing a different cuisine each weekend. My youngest is fairly fussy but I've managed to do French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Israeli, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian, Jamaican, Southern US. I've learned some new techniques and discovered some great recipes. But the waistline has taken a hammering so the adventurous cooking has stopped for a while.
New Skills?
Nothing thrilling, but I did finally get a job in May. I don't like it, but I've learned how to do the job.
Wait... that's a lot to take in...
Broken windows, liquid eyeliner, breathing water...
I wear far less make-up now BTW. I used to wear it six days a week, now only on Saturdays. I'm saving a ruddy fortune.
I wear far less make-up now BTW. I used to wear it six days a week, now only on Saturdays. I'm saving a ruddy fortune.
Glorious food
[nfras] When you start up again I've got a recommendation for a chicken recipe so simple even I can make it: a Fillipino staple called Chicken Adobo. I do have to admit, there's only about six data points on the entire graph of Things Simons Mith Has Successfully Cooked, but that's one of 'em. It's a really everyday dish, so there are many variant recipes to choose from.
[Simons] I'd love it, thanks. I like to try new foods, even if the youngest can be a pain in the bum when deciding she doesn't like it before she has tasted it.
[KS] Doing a job you don't like is really hard, so I definitely feel for you.
Mrs Nfras decided to try crocheting. She bought the wool and hooks and stuff. Anyone want some second hand wool and crochet hooks?
[KS] Doing a job you don't like is really hard, so I definitely feel for you.
Mrs Nfras decided to try crocheting. She bought the wool and hooks and stuff. Anyone want some second hand wool and crochet hooks?
Chicken Adobo. I think that's the recipe I used, but there's dozens of variants readily findable online. If I did it again I'd try one of the variants that uses ground pepper rather than peppercorns. But the overnight marinade is definitely a bit to keep in. I got the recipe from a Fillipino Google plusser I used to follow, for whom adobo was a much-loved childhood dish.
Hopeless Gardeners' Corner
The past year has allowed me to ignore the garden to a great extent, but being out of work has forced me at least to plan stuff and mow the grass. The Bismarckette decided that this year's project would be tomatoes, and bought a bunch of grow-stuff necessary for the production of the red veggies-fruit-whatever. They were supposed to grow into big, fat tomatoes, but stubbornly refused to get above the smallish size, and the plants tended to brown, apparently due to a lack of calcium in the soil. This was addressed by decorating the soil with crushed eggshells (Bismarckette, success 0/10) and mixing gardeners chalk into the soil (yours truly, success 10/10). The final crop ended up with a unit price of about three quid, which is about par for the course with the Bismarckette's projects.She was then miffed to see that tomato seeds that Mrs Bismarck had thrown around the side of the house had actually grown into two full-scale tomato plants with absolutely no effort.
We've been here for fifteen years and have finally found out what the tree at the bottom of the garden is. The previous owners planted it, but it was in the shade of a massive Leylandii hedge and grew hardly at all. When we chopped the hedge down a couple of years back (as a result of The Neighbour Who Does Not Like Trees invoking a local by-law that no hedge can be more than one metre 50 tall), the tree took off and this year produced eight fruits which on inspection by the health authorities were pronounced to be quinces. Quinces are massive fruits and have a very strong pear-like perfume. Mrs Bismarck has Plans for them, though what remains to be seen.
Funnily enough, The Neighbour Who Does Not Like Trees was hoist by his own petard this year, when the inheritance of the next-door house was sorted out. The old Italian Neighbour Who Grows All His Own Food died at an advanced age last year, and his son of 75 years turned up with wife and dog. It seemed that the laurel hedge forming the border between their gardens was a matter of inches inside the wrong garden (I was called out to verify the position of the boundary markers and swear on oath that the small fence between us was mine, and not his), and he was forced to dig the lot up. They don't joke about property limits around here, I can tell you.
Now I have to research in depth the pruning of quince trees, nut trees, and figs, and also think of something to do with The Shady Patch Where Nothing Grows under The Neighbour Who Doesn't Like Christmas's hedge. Which I did not pay to have trimmed, that did NOT happen.
We've been here for fifteen years and have finally found out what the tree at the bottom of the garden is. The previous owners planted it, but it was in the shade of a massive Leylandii hedge and grew hardly at all. When we chopped the hedge down a couple of years back (as a result of The Neighbour Who Does Not Like Trees invoking a local by-law that no hedge can be more than one metre 50 tall), the tree took off and this year produced eight fruits which on inspection by the health authorities were pronounced to be quinces. Quinces are massive fruits and have a very strong pear-like perfume. Mrs Bismarck has Plans for them, though what remains to be seen.
Funnily enough, The Neighbour Who Does Not Like Trees was hoist by his own petard this year, when the inheritance of the next-door house was sorted out. The old Italian Neighbour Who Grows All His Own Food died at an advanced age last year, and his son of 75 years turned up with wife and dog. It seemed that the laurel hedge forming the border between their gardens was a matter of inches inside the wrong garden (I was called out to verify the position of the boundary markers and swear on oath that the small fence between us was mine, and not his), and he was forced to dig the lot up. They don't joke about property limits around here, I can tell you.
Now I have to research in depth the pruning of quince trees, nut trees, and figs, and also think of something to do with The Shady Patch Where Nothing Grows under The Neighbour Who Doesn't Like Christmas's hedge. Which I did not pay to have trimmed, that did NOT happen.
Skills
I'm one of the lucky ones who (a) still has a secure job and (b) can work from home. But the downside is that the WFH has been much harder work than NWFH, as I have had to adapt a lot of materials and plans for distance/online learning. My video editing skills are improving, but that's about it. Though I have welcomed the opportunity to cook and bake more: those are not new skills for me, but in recent years I had been doing less and less due to being time-poor and having lots of good restaurants and cafés nearby.
Quince Luck
[Bis] wow - a Quince! That's quite a thing to have. They are rare.
A couple or four years ago I did a fruit-tree pruning course with the local protected landscape foundation (in Dutch - I was v proud of myself) and did a few volunteer January pruning sessions in a heritage orchard. The point was to get myself out of the house on January Saturdays and get more involved in Dutch stuff. Anyway. I've successfully pruned our baby fruit trees (they all came from Aldi) and the neighbour's pear tree (which is much bigger and gave a bumper crop as a result - phew). I imagine quinces are similar in that fruit-bearing wood is last summer's growth so you only cut off enough twigs to make sure that every fruit-bearing stick is strong enough to carry the weight and that every twig can see the sun. The Dutch are pretty good at growing fruit, so maybe I've learned the high-production method, but there you go. There'll be videos on YouTube I'm sure. And it's coming up to tree-pruning season - when the trees are dormant and you really don't feel like going outside and stretching up so that your vest becomes untucked, baring your midriff flesh to the elements. Or maybe that's just me. Good luck!
A couple or four years ago I did a fruit-tree pruning course with the local protected landscape foundation (in Dutch - I was v proud of myself) and did a few volunteer January pruning sessions in a heritage orchard. The point was to get myself out of the house on January Saturdays and get more involved in Dutch stuff. Anyway. I've successfully pruned our baby fruit trees (they all came from Aldi) and the neighbour's pear tree (which is much bigger and gave a bumper crop as a result - phew). I imagine quinces are similar in that fruit-bearing wood is last summer's growth so you only cut off enough twigs to make sure that every fruit-bearing stick is strong enough to carry the weight and that every twig can see the sun. The Dutch are pretty good at growing fruit, so maybe I've learned the high-production method, but there you go. There'll be videos on YouTube I'm sure. And it's coming up to tree-pruning season - when the trees are dormant and you really don't feel like going outside and stretching up so that your vest becomes untucked, baring your midriff flesh to the elements. Or maybe that's just me. Good luck!
Jobs are unfortunately required
[nfras] I'm at least blessed that I can do thejob as long as I have my laptop, headphones, and WiFi and that it can be done from anywhere with those things.
I work Customer Support or Restaruant Support for Bite Squad - which is a third party food delivery service like Postmates or Dash.
Restaurant support is better than Customer support, but both can get irritating. Customers complaining are the worst, though. There are some that are fine, but plenty that are very rude.
I work Customer Support or Restaruant Support for Bite Squad - which is a third party food delivery service like Postmates or Dash.
Restaurant support is better than Customer support, but both can get irritating. Customers complaining are the worst, though. There are some that are fine, but plenty that are very rude.
I am in sales, so working from home is not a new habit for me, and for the first time in months I have all of the kids and Mrs Nfras back at school.
My previous company decided to shut down all of APAC on the 1st of April but I was lucky to pick up another job pretty quickly. My previous manager is still not working so things are pretty tough in the job market.
My previous company decided to shut down all of APAC on the 1st of April but I was lucky to pick up another job pretty quickly. My previous manager is still not working so things are pretty tough in the job market.
Quince
I thought quince was a made-up thing eaten in medieval banquets like hippogriff or capon. Learn summat every day. Is your tree now a listed structure? Some years ago The Neighbor from Hell broke another of our fences so we decided to replace the lot, had the land re-surveyed and it turned out we owned about 12" of one corner that had been on the other side of the broken fence. Then, he put up chainlink alongside our stockade fence. Why, I'll never know since by code we had to show him the pretty side. Now TNFH periodically trims the honeysuckle that grows between our fences and throws the debris over into our yard, presumably because he has forgotten that we fenced to the property line so the vines are growing on *his* land. Total git.
Quincey moans
(Stevie) I have two quince bushes in my garden and at this time of year they drop their fruit which are yellow and somewhat smaller than a cricket ball. One year I thought I'd have a look at them. They're as hard as nails and if you really chucked one at someone it wouldn't do them a lot of good. Heavy equipment is needed to open one then you find a large cavity full of seeds and a tooth-breaking outer part with a pH of about 0 like conc. sulphuric. I would have more success making jam out of boiled-up breeze blocks than I would out of these buggers.
Man up you blokes
Have any of you participated in the delightful sport of cracking macadamia nuts? This a tough game involving plenty of hilarity for spectators, loads of frustration for the nominated cracker and much exuberance exhibited by all when the aim is achieved.
(Dujon) Macadamia? Isn't that what road surfaces are made from? Not surprising they're hard to crack. Maybe that's a British joke.
Appropriate apparel for the discerning player.
Yeah, Rab! :)
November?
How the hell did that happen? Here I am, sitting in my home office (the top bedroom) eating instant noodles at my desk and working through lunch again as if it was perfectly normal and I had been doing it for for nearly nine months.
Which I have.
Which I have.
Lunch?
Oh, is that why everyone else disappears for an hour and leave me to take all the phone calls...
Instant noodles
[Boolbar] Phone calls? I don't talk to anyone anymore.
[penelope] Good policy. You wouldn't believe how much bollocks people are talking these days.
The Stevieling and Mr Stevieling celebrated their first anniversary in lockdown.
That'll be one to tell the grandchildren, assuming there are still human beans on the planet by then.
Lockdown . . .
I can hardly wait until this pandemimc is over. I know, we can't have a timeline because who knows when it will be over. I still hate this and REALLY want to be able to hug people again.
An Election
People on my street are now out on the walkways in front of their houses making noise with whatever's to hand: pan lids and ladles are popular. Many still in their pyjamas. In the rain, I might add.
(Dan) Glad you live in a civilised place but what about Banjo Crossing, S. Dakota? ©P G Wodehouse.
Wodehouse really is timeless, isn't he? Effortfully, I will be brief: Nothing has changed about the Dakotas.
Boring up here
I'm still in Knoxville and have to head down towards Lake Charles later this week - slowly. There wasn't any celebrating that I know. I wouldn't get into any of the comments on my local news's Facebook post as I heard from others that the crazies were at it again in the comments. They never care about good things and fair things that happen.
positive check-ins
So, peeps, how are you all doing? Same-old here, but still healthy.
My taiko group was just about to restart when the second lockdown came.
I have also been attending life drawing classes online. The classes have been online because of Covid.
Writing, programming badly, cooking slightly more, going out much less (I'm trying to be good). finished a Star Wars ebook a few weeks back, and am waiting for feedback. But it's well over 300 pages so I can't expect instant responses, and I do actually want the feedback before I send it on to someone else who's never seen it before. Stevie's and nfras' comments have been incorporated, but the players from my past Star Wars games haven't come back to me yet.
Personally, I find this *is* a development.
I've got two 'personal development days' to use up this year. They are today and tomorrow. So far today, I have had a bacon sarnie for breakfast, ironed my hair so I don't look like I've given up on my coiffure, arranged the windy miller's and my pyjamas into a comical pose on the bed so it'll make him giggle when he gets home this evening, rearranged the fairy lights in my office, done the crossword, looked at the MOOC I'm supposed to be starting, and lit an incense stick in my home office.
And then I thought 'Oooh, I'll have a look in the Morniverse and remember old times!' So here I am.
And then I thought 'Oooh, I'll have a look in the Morniverse and remember old times!' So here I am.
Old Times
(pen) I've been visiting some MC Archives in MCiOS and MC5. The early Limerick games, particularly in here, reduced me to tearful laughter - some of it out loud. Mr Chalky was very envious. And I was reminded of Humph's words back in the day: "As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation."
Old Timers
[Chalks] Silliness and procrastination. I am ace at the latter and refining my skills as we speak. Have just hunted for and found the uncorrupted recording of a lecture my father gave at the Boston Athaneum in 1998. I thought I'd lost it forever.
And silliness? I seriously need to exercise that muscle. Might have to join you back in the archives. Shall we take gin in teacups and crisps with us?
And silliness? I seriously need to exercise that muscle. Might have to join you back in the archives. Shall we take gin in teacups and crisps with us?
Don't forget your pith helmets, and maps of the Sea of Memes.
(pen and SM) Just lead and I'll follow ..
A pith helmet on a plinth
I just wanted to write a phrase that sounds like it's got lisping in it but that does not actuually contain the potential for lisping.
What time do the archives doors lock tonight? I don't really want to be in there for the whole weekend.
What time do the archives doors lock tonight? I don't really want to be in there for the whole weekend.
[Raak] Sorry to hear about your taiko class. Nothing like doing some drumming to relieve pent up frustrations, unless you're a professional percussionist, in which case it will be the cause of your frustrations. And especially taiko drumming, which is VERY VERY LOUD. (do not try this at home)
reply to pen's check-in
My sympathy to all of you dealing with new lockdowns. The news here in Melbourne (thus for nfras and myself) is good. We have now officially eliminated the virus in the state of Victoria: we have no active cases and have had no new cases for 30 days. Which is not to say that it won't pop up again, but right now things are starting to feel almost normal here. We paid our dues to get here—two months of one of the strictest lockdowns in the world—but right now I think pretty much all of Melbourne would say it was worth it. South Australia is dealing with a somewhat worrying cluster, but looks like it is getting on top of it.
Ah feck
[CdM] Sounds marvellous. Something to look forward to here. we’re still knuckling down here in the Netherlands and the rate of growth in the second wave is slowing but it’s still growth so there’s no room for complacency. I’m worried by and despairing at the number of nutters and deniers in the comment sections of local newspapers in the UK. I have an ageing and bored mother, and a sister waiting to start a course of chemotherapy there. My sister knows what to do but has a 15-year old son in school . Half measures don’t work.
Swear properly!
(pen) Best wishes for your sister. As for the 15-denier nutters, they are indulging in British exceptionalism, i.e. they are exceptionally bone-headed. This goes a long way to explain why we have Brexit which these dopey muppets will find will do them no good at all.
The Century of the Nutter
The internet is a wonderful tool. It allows speed of communication, opens up a world of possibilities, but has sadly seen the growth of the Dunning-Kruger Effect on a scale unimagined. There is now so much information available to the average person, that many people can now pick their truth and live in ideological echo chambers, untouched by reason and fact.
If the first half of the 20th century was defined by the rise of dictators (Hitler, Mussolini, Tito, Franco, Stalin etc) then the 21st century seems to be the rise of the nutter. Fact-free, self-aggrandising nut jobs who seem to be able to get all the air-time they need to influence the uneducated and angry of the world (Trump, Farage, Johnson etc). As much as they have made life miserable for a whole swathe of people, how much worse would it be if any of them were even vaguely competent?
If the first half of the 20th century was defined by the rise of dictators (Hitler, Mussolini, Tito, Franco, Stalin etc) then the 21st century seems to be the rise of the nutter. Fact-free, self-aggrandising nut jobs who seem to be able to get all the air-time they need to influence the uneducated and angry of the world (Trump, Farage, Johnson etc). As much as they have made life miserable for a whole swathe of people, how much worse would it be if any of them were even vaguely competent?
@#&%***!
[Rosie] I'm pretty good at swearing. I got an award for it in the end-of-year awards when I worked at the Woodland Trust in the UK. The incident involved the PR manager, the HR manager and the head of IT (who apologised to me for his team's office-wide Xmas prank which caused me to swear at the entire IT team by email in the first place.
My sis should make a full recovery after her clean-up chemo, thanks. She had successful surgery for ovarian cancer in August and is waiting to finish the treatment.
[nfras] Exactamundo. Believing consipracy theories that someone is out to get you is much easier than admitting that things are actually shit and are being handled badly by people who should either know better or resign and let someone competent get on with it.
Has that photo of Jennifer Aniston disappeared into the Last 100 Moves yet?
My sis should make a full recovery after her clean-up chemo, thanks. She had successful surgery for ovarian cancer in August and is waiting to finish the treatment.
[nfras] Exactamundo. Believing consipracy theories that someone is out to get you is much easier than admitting that things are actually shit and are being handled badly by people who should either know better or resign and let someone competent get on with it.
Has that photo of Jennifer Aniston disappeared into the Last 100 Moves yet?
bar stewards
(pen) Nah.
Cake for breakfast here. Walnut actually.
Cake for breakfast here. Walnut actually.
Cakeism
[Chalks] Flippin' heck. I had a poached egg. I plan a fish finger sandwich for lunch though - after the lunchtime half-hour dog walk in gloomy windy misty 2C I'll need it.
Upwardly mobile
[pen] Any particular reason we need to send Jen up the page?
Below the Line
[Tuj] Just sick of seeing her! (And secretly jealous because I could never work out how to post a photo in here).
nudge nudge wink wink
(Tuj) Jen will be in 'Expose More' or 'Expose All' in 10 or so moves ...
posting pictures
It's similar to a hyperlink, but you use <img src="http://website.com/imageurl.jpg" alt="A picture from the internet" width="640" height="480" />
You can get away without the width, height, alt text and trailing slash but they're nice to have, and watch out for accidentally posting a page-filler sized image. If the file you want to link to doesn't end in gif, jpg, jpeg, png or possibly webp it may not work. And some dumb web sites will occasionally post a jpg file but name it as png or something, which is another rake in the grass to be aware of. It usually works anyway, but it's kinda rude, and always makes me question the competence of whoever put the image up in the first place. And it's easy to get caught out in turn because one usually trusts file extensions to be correct. The concept of a file extension isn't that difficult to grasp, although MS have been valiantly trying to obfuscate it for everybody for years.
If you post a file link (.zip, .jpg, .md, anything) inside an <a href="...> you get a clickable download instead of a web page opening.
Finding the right URL for the image tends to be fiddlier these days. Right-clicking and choosing 'open image in new window', or 'copy link to image' may be needed. And some image links will will broken by the remote server if you attempt to reshare them. It was simple, once upon a time. Then techies, marketing, sales, the bean-counters - people, basically - got to it, and we ended up with the current mess.
(SM) Thanks for that - I, like pen, have no idea how to get a pic in here. Do I take it that the pic must come from the Internet? What if I want to post one of my own from say, My Pictures?
(pen) I am heartened to hear of your Profanity Award.
(pen) I am heartened to hear of your Profanity Award.
Pictures from da intarwebz
[Rosie] No, needs to be a publicly accessible location, somewhere available even when your computer is switched off. Somewhere that begins http, basically. Linking to third parties is unreliable - look at one of the old caption competition games to see how many links still survive. The ideal is some area of the web that you control. Most reliable is your own web site, or at least your own blog, image-sharing site or whatever, even if hosted by a third party.
Archive hole! Attn, rab: help!
Oh no, the malign influence of the Podume of Infinite Darkness is spreading!! After taking a big chunk out of the middle of the Dunx archive, it's spread here, and has eaten everything from early 2106 onwards.
You say that, but...
[SM] I think... I think there just haven't been any games created here since 2016 :(
[pen] Ah yeah, it can be irksome to notice something travelling slowly up a chat page! I must have forgotten that since starting to use the 'End' key. I only asked to help nudge her along, and now we learned some HTML, which is nice.
[pen] Ah yeah, it can be irksome to notice something travelling slowly up a chat page! I must have forgotten that since starting to use the 'End' key. I only asked to help nudge her along, and now we learned some HTML, which is nice.
I have a few photos on Flickr and Dropbox but how do you get to them? No idea. I'd like to shut down both accounts but how do you do that? No idea. Fuck these sites, fuck them. No pics from me - too fucking complicated.
Catch 22
Well if you could post a link to them, I could use one as an example. But if you can get that far you probably wouldn't need the help any more.
[pen] Or you can just view the source code and copy it. Like this:
Creating games . . .
I somehow got that "I'm wearing no pants" game started years ago. I am not sure how it was able to be created, but I had ideas for other things we could play if I knew how to create games if that is possible.
How to post a picture
.
__/ \__
\ /
/.'o'.\
.o.'.
.'.'o'.
o'.o.'.o.
.'.o.'.'.o.
.o.'.o.'.o.'.
[_____]
\___/
I'll stick to being good at commas and colons
All those little symbols just look like typos to me! I think I'm code-blind. In fact I'm still using copy-paste from DrQu+xum's Basic HTML primer to appear clever at work and have been doing for the past 20 years in at least three different jobs.
Let's have a new game then
This does require killing off an old one. Once there's a vacancy, KagomeShuko can have a go
Read My Lips: No New Pants!
Why not just wake up the old one?
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
Not wearing your pants.
Boolbarian Values
Clapclapclap!
(Boolbar) That must have taken you ages. Gwych - deg allan o ddeg.
Hidden text
Brilliant - 10 out of 10Plagiarism
I confess I copied and pasted it. But I'll take the praise for having to carefully handstuff it with non-breaking spaces to make it line up properly, and the cunning use of the <pre> html tag.
Gamey game game
(Simons Mith) I have no idea how a vacancy even happens, I just happened to see that it was open and was surprised, but happy, I could start a game.
(Stevie) I've got some other ideas . . .
(Stevie) I've got some other ideas . . .
When a mummy game and a daddy game love each other very much...
Well actually the MC sites operate on a one in one out basis. So you have to end a current game before a new one can start.
Glottal stops, from the limerick
(Rosie) This is the query ? whilst the glottal stop is ʔ
Should you really desire to use it, then use the decimal & # 6 6 0 ; without the spaces between characters. Do not ignore the semicolon.
Should you really desire to use it, then use the decimal & # 6 6 0 ; without the spaces between characters. Do not ignore the semicolon.
IPA
(Duj) Thanks for that - you hear it quite a lot in this country as you probably know. The thing is, will people merely regard it as a typo. In these august surroundings, probably not.
This sucks . . .
I need prayers and good vibes, etc. On Friday, I was terminated from my job and I need to be able to find a new one. I hated the job, but I need the money.
blech . .
These are what scones are in the U.S. and I find that they are just hard and icky and being covered in sugar crystals just makes it worse. U.S. Scones
[KagomeShuko] Sorry to hear about the job, and the scones. I bet they don't pronounce "scone" correctly either.
pronunciation
Oh I know that one: it's 'jif', isn't it?
Or perhaps ..
Basil?
those aren't scones!
[Kagome S] Sorry about the job. That's a bummer. Does it mean you're free to move wherever you need to be for the next job?
American scones sound a bit over-sweet and over-rich. British scones are just an 8:1 ratio of flour (+ raising agent) to butter, perhaps some sugar, and milk to bind the dough. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers, add a dot of sugar, add milk to bind, pat out dough to 1.5cm thick (do not roll it), cut into rounds (I use a gin/hi-ball glass), bake at 200C for 12 minutes. I can have emergency scones on the table in less than half an hour, and I've been experimenting with baking them in the AirFryer too. Done. Hot, light, fluffy and not too sweet (so you can pile them with jam).
American scones sound a bit over-sweet and over-rich. British scones are just an 8:1 ratio of flour (+ raising agent) to butter, perhaps some sugar, and milk to bind the dough. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingers, add a dot of sugar, add milk to bind, pat out dough to 1.5cm thick (do not roll it), cut into rounds (I use a gin/hi-ball glass), bake at 200C for 12 minutes. I can have emergency scones on the table in less than half an hour, and I've been experimenting with baking them in the AirFryer too. Done. Hot, light, fluffy and not too sweet (so you can pile them with jam).
One can't really complain that American scones have too much sugar if one eats the alternative "piled" with what amounts to fruit polymerized with sugar. I have a sweet tooth but I cannot tolerate the sweetness of the average jam, marmalade or compote with or without a scone substrate. My teeth ache just looking at the jars.
So, did you festoon the sails of the mill with fairy lights for Xmas?
KS
Here's hoping that other door opens as quickly as possible.
Merry Christmas everyone at MC5
gotta stay . . .
[pen] No. I own my house where I live and it needs to be repaired from Hurricane Laura as is . . . and with my disabilities, it's best to have an online job because that way employers can't complain about having to use my transport chair or my service dogs.
[KS] Sorry to hear about the job. Hopefully something comes your way soon.
[Stevie] I agree. My preference is a sharp jam like raspberry or rhubarb. We spent Christmas Day with friends who have a plum tree. As they don't eat them, I came away with about 8kg of fruit. First batch of plum jam is now in the jars.
[Stevie] I agree. My preference is a sharp jam like raspberry or rhubarb. We spent Christmas Day with friends who have a plum tree. As they don't eat them, I came away with about 8kg of fruit. First batch of plum jam is now in the jars.
If you are eating sharp jam it is a good sign that the jam owner dropped the jar and scraped the contents into a new one.
Happy New Year!
Well things are a bit odd this week innit.
Oddity
Which is unusual for week 2.
Er.......
I really can't think of much to say at the moment.
Neither can I, but we might as well keep la Aniston's upward progress going.
Default weather chat.
It is foggy here, and chuffin' cold.
Ideal weather for a bike ride.
Clear and sunny, 4°C when I set out, -2°C when I got back.
Currently 31; supposed to reach 36 today.
(CdM) A pretty accurate description of what it's like here, but in Fahrenheit.
Cool is cool
(Rosie) Heh - but I'd still rather be here. Can't do heat.
Cool is cooler
I can't do heat either. Just been out for lunchtime dogwalk; 4C and strong winds is a bit brutal but if you keep moving it's OK. I was so bundled up as to be unrecognisable walking into the wind but had to take off me hat walking back with the wind behind me
What gets me is the freaking gloom here. It was midday and gloomier than a gloomy thing. Awful.
What gets me is the freaking gloom here. It was midday and gloomier than a gloomy thing. Awful.
Shiny orb
It is sunny here, but still a tad chilly. I also have toothache, and an expensive looking sheet of dental treatment. Pliers and DIY wooden teeth might be an alternative.
Thermophobic ladies
(Chalky, pen) As part of my weather-nut activities I have just discovered that in Jakutsk, Siberia, the current temperature is -50°C. Minus fifty. Not a breath of wind but a thin fog. Wrap up well.
(Rosie) So what they say about Siberia is true.
(Chalky) Parts of it, yes. Jakutsk is a large and quite agreeable city. All the buildings are on stilts about six feet high so the heat from them doesn't melt the permafrost. In the brief peaky summer it's warmer than London and very sunny.
Snowy Beds
Ooh! It is snowing!
And JA has almost gone.
And JA has almost gone.
(Rosie) Googled. Mammoth Museum!
(Boolbar)Where?
Gone.
(Boolbar)Where?
Gone.
[Chalky] In Bedfordshire: hence "Snowy Beds". And it only lasted a few minutes. The bulk of the snow is probably held up at customs along with all the lorry drivers' sandwiches, so it won't go hungry.
Frostbite
Currently in the wilds of Zeeland at the mill. 2C and windy. Cannot move for thick layers of clothing and ski socks, yet fingers frozen. Waiting for snow (due in about 20 minutes). The neighbours have a big shed/workshop with a wood burner in it and have invited us for chicken soup for lunch. I made 2 dozen mince pies last night to contribute and warm up in the stove’s oven. It’s not all bad.
Keep wrapped up
(Chalky) Jakutsk is now down to -53°C. This is the "best" fog I have seen in years of monitoring this place. So far it's lasted well over a fortnight.
[Rosie] I have to wonder how many people die of the cold there every year. The temperature, that is, not the mostly harmless virus.
Hypothermia
(Raak) I don't have any figures but I would guess the answer is none. Every winter it goes down to at least -45° so the cold is part of the environment and everybody knows it, even pissed teenagers at a guess. Sudden blizzards and storminess are pretty well unknown. There is actually very little weather in winter except a persistent thin fog, largely produced, it seems, by the city itself (people breathing, car exhausts, hot cups of tea etc).
What the...?
How can I be staying late at work when I work from home?
[Pen] Maybe those rioting people in your neck of the woods are simply marking the end of the workday by leaving home and finding something else to do.
[Bism] Could be.
Staying late
[pen] I often did that before I was terminated from my job. We still had to keep hours and I would have to finish up dealing with customers. I HATED customer service. What good does having an MA do if nobody cares that you have it?
staying true
[KS] You care. And it shows something about your intelligence and diligence that you have it. All of that feeds into what you do and how you do it and none of the experience is wasted. I have one in technical writing but nobody cares about that when they ask me to write a series of tweets about a conference. In fact, that isn't even the real me - the real me happens at evenings and weekends when I cook and do experimental baking and get outside.
[KS] What pen said.
[pen] Do you have to get outside because of the experimental baking?
Hidden text
Well, except for the bit about having a degree in technical writing. I don't have one of those.[pen] Do you have to get outside because of the experimental baking?
vinaigrette regret
[CdM] The only time my cooking upset the household was when I made chutney. The smell of boiling vinegar permeated the entire house and I was forbidden from making it again. The windy miller is Dutch and I think they're all allergic to vinegar (except that they're very keen on using it as a cleaning agent and a weedkiller - maybe that's why they think it shouldn't be in food or even on chips/fries *shudders*).
The Whole House is a Fume Cupboard
[penelope] Wot, no extractor hood?
What is it with women and not turning on the extractor hood when preparing to generate large volumes of offensive and/or corrosive gas under the guise of home economics? Mrs Stevie did some pork chops in the air fryer last night and by dint of adding some sort of powdered seasoning with onion to the meat she tear gassed the house. She was quite put out when I rushed into the kitchen, eyes streaming, mucus membranes all-but corroded away, and turned on the extractor hood.
Jeez - those pesky women and their questionable extractor hood methodology
Hoodies
[Stevie] Nope - not in that house. We'd only just moved on from having only a gas hob sitting atop the tiny refrigerator to having a cooker with an oven underneath it. Until recently, many Dutch kitchens were not designed for cooking in.
Perhaps Mrs Stevie has her own way of making you pay for having your dinner prepared for you.
Perhaps Mrs Stevie has her own way of making you pay for having your dinner prepared for you.
[penelope, Chalky] Her choice to cook . Why does the entire house have to reek? I don't use spray paint in the kitchen ffs.
Hidden text
I am amused by the assumption that in our marriage the woman has the traditional role given the amount of feminist sentiment espoused here over the years[Chalky] Well, given the choice, would you really rather the dilute acetic acid vapour were caught by the extractor hood filter or by your lungs? There's a reason your senses are offended by the stink. That is nature's way of telling you WARNING WILL ROBINSON!
[penelope] Begs the question, what were Dutch kitchens designed for?
Nasal unreliability
(Stevie) Your senses would not be in the least offended by the smell of cyanide (nice almond-like pong) but get too much and you'd quite quickly be seriously dead.
[nfras] There'd be room to boil a pan of potatoes, carrots and onions and mash them together for stamppot, and to fry a pan of fat bacon. Or open a bag of pre-washed salad leaves. Loads of families keep a deep-fat fryer in the shed and use it there when they want to cook something 'fancy'. I think that's the entire Dutch cuisine of the 20th century summed up. There was much more variety in the days of the VOC apparently.
what's cooking
(pen) When I lived on the W Germany/Netherlands border we had Dutch TV - I can't remember their cuisine featuring on either regular shopping trips to Roermond or on TV celebrity chef-style zoals Fanny Cradock :^)
(Stevie) For clarification - my other half is the guilty party when it comes to cooker extraction methodology or lack of. He's a chap.
(Stevie) For clarification - my other half is the guilty party when it comes to cooker extraction methodology or lack of. He's a chap.
Cyanide
[Rosie] I'm told the exact nature of the smell depends on the concentration.
Abraham Lincoln
Met with a tragic death, it's his birthday today and mine as it happens. Hope i don't succumb to the same fate.
The real me
(qua Rosie) I've smelt HCN several times, never in large quantities obviously, and it always has that nice bitter-almond smell. Apparently about 25% of the population are unable to smell it at all.
Lincoln
[Softers] Hope you don't, as the memorial for your birthday is already taken by the eponymous president, so you'd die in obscurity. He also had a biscuit named after him, maybe that would be an acceptable alternative?
Rules of origin
I thought Lincoln biscuits were named after the city. Also Nice biscuits. Or maybe I'm just dough-minded. I've taken up baking again - in the past fortnight I've made a massive batch of Belgian buns (not Belgian at all, apparently) and chocolate chip cookies. This week, it'll be lemon cookies and an apple-topped yogurt cake. (Most of this stuff gets shared with neighbours and millers at the windmill on Saturdays when we have shed coffee).
Coooookie!!!!
[pen] I'm always on a search for good chocolate chip cookies!
Yum
[pen] I like the sound of the apple-topped yogurt cake myself. Are there any vacancies for being your neighbour at the moment? :)
crumbles
[KagShuk] This is why I have stocks of butter in the freezer for when I get the urge to put the oven on and create something. It's now a exactly a year since I have seen any of my family IRL, and I've come to realise it's therapeutic to create something delicious from time to time [every week]. I'd never made US-style soft cookies before. Sooo easy. Impossible to get wrong. Soooo easy to eat too.
[Boolb] A friend (a profesh cook) put the recipe on Instagram. She made it sound easy - let's see.
[Boolb] A friend (a profesh cook) put the recipe on Instagram. She made it sound easy - let's see.
[Rosie the Original] I heard that in certain concentrations cyanide has a tang of garlic.
In any event: Women! Stop stinking out the house/windmill with your experiments in chemical weaponry!
[Stevie] Is food (and specifically patisserie) considered chemical weaponry now?
(the real Stevie, probably) I've never smelt it as garlic, always almonds. A bottle of potassium cyanide has got this smell due to hydrolysis. It's true that some smells can change with concentration. H2S is bad eggs when dilute but The Full Monty is odourless and dangerously toxic.
[penelope] Weaponry for sure, and not just chemical! Haven't you heard of dwarven battle-bread? I think it highly likely that the late Sir Terry got the idea when he cut his lip open on a bit of stale baguette or something.
[penlope] Depends on the stench produced.
I've been out
This week's outing: got my tyres and windscreen wipers changed this morning. Left my thermal cup where I was working on my laptop in the waiting area. *rse. I'm not fit to be allowed out any more.
Never again
I'm definitely not fit to be allowed out. The thermal cup was at home but I have absolutely no recollection of bringing it in from the car nor of putting it in the sink.
In other news, the Netherlands' non-essential shops are now allowed to open for shopping-by-appointment. I have booked a 10-minute slot at the hardware and household goods shop in the village for Friday at 17:15. I need new baking pans, a mop and bucket, and a dog brush. This is going to be like Supermarket Sweep.
In other news, the Netherlands' non-essential shops are now allowed to open for shopping-by-appointment. I have booked a 10-minute slot at the hardware and household goods shop in the village for Friday at 17:15. I need new baking pans, a mop and bucket, and a dog brush. This is going to be like Supermarket Sweep.
Losing your marbles
(pen) Wait till you get to my age. "Now, what did I come up here for?"
Hairdressers open? I'm beginning to look a bit 70's-ish, instead of 70-ish.
Hairdressers open? I'm beginning to look a bit 70's-ish, instead of 70-ish.
In short, yes.
Hairdressers open. My favourite hairdresser now does it from home in Rotterdam but her husband is a Covid denier so I'm not going to go back there yet. I don't know where he's been. And the nearest village hairdresser made a hack of it when I went there in November so I'm not going back there (although it's had plenty of time to grow out). I might have to try the next town over - the historic one with a marina and a few posh shops. They're probably only any good at the windswept-been-out-sailing-all-day look though, and I can manage that all by myself.
DIY
Keep it short enough, and you can keep it short enough yourself.
(Raak) Logical enough but having a good thick mop at my age is something you tend to hang on to and it needs a bit of professional attention.
Anything else, Sir?
I'm never having short hair again. I was mistaken for a boy too many times in my teens when I had short hair and it left scars.
[Pen] Could be worse. When I think of some of the boys who were mistaken for girls (shudder)
yummy, yum,y!
[pen] Yep, I'm always on the lookout for a good soft chocoate chip cookie that has gooey chocolate chips when warm. I';; eat other ones to try, but I'm never satisfied with those. So many places in the U.S. sell some version.
Also good to try different chips when baking. I don't know what all you have over in the U.K., but in the U.S., they have peanut butter chips and butterscotch chips. It can be fun to substitute or mix the chip types.
Also good to try different chips when baking. I don't know what all you have over in the U.K., but in the U.S., they have peanut butter chips and butterscotch chips. It can be fun to substitute or mix the chip types.
chip butty
[KagomeShuko] I used odd bits of chocolate I found in the cupboard, chopped it up, and in it went. Chocolate is a staple on my shopping list, but I buy it in odd places and keep trying out the new combinations. Some I like better than others for eating on their own. The remainders of bars of chcocolate that I don't like so much go into cooking.
And yes, I buy discount supermarket own brands...
And yes, I buy discount supermarket own brands...
And I thought I was a bit of a chocoholic.
[Rosie] I think I eat it every day, although only during the week as compensations for having to work!
[Rosie] You not only approve of the term "chocoholic", you use it yourself? I'm amazed. Does that mean I have to be the one to rant about "chocohol"? 8o)
Chocolate is the one thing that mankind has invented that is worthwhile.
Apart from all the other stuff like antibiotics and heart valves and electronics and like that.
(Stevie, penult) Don't forget that despite a basically intellectual approach to life I can be a bit common. When you've disembowelled "chocohol" have a go at "workohol" - dreadul stuff, ought to be banned.
Well the Pope's noted for being a catholic, so if that word's okay for him...
Well!
[SM] Fittingly, your observation has given me an epiphany. His followers must be behind cats being so popular on the internet!
chocolate, chocolate, chocolate
I always try to have chocolate on hand!
I have Girl Scout Thin Mints right now!
I have Girl Scout Thin Mints right now!
(KagShu) Stop it! You exacerbate my cravings!
[KS] Surely any chocolate on hand would melt? It would be better in the mouth. Also, what Rosie said!
mmmm chocolate
I take your random chocolate and raise you one banana toastie. I spent a whole dog walk in the rain thinking about it, and made one for lunch when I got in. (Also made a cheese and onion toastie too - it was cold out.)
I don’t actually like chocolate.
There speaks a brave man. Respect, bruv. Er, can I have your bit, then?
Not a cliché
I'm not that excited by it either
[Rosie] Considering I live in Belgium, there’s quite a lot to go around, so be my guest.
Heresy
I have to admit, I prefer a nice fruity pudding or cake to a chocolate one.
Any pudding, any cake.
Except Battenburg. Marzipan is the Devil's earwax.
Emetic
In that case, pen, how would you describe spinach purée?
[Rosie] Green. Best stirred into a good, strong curry until it disappears.
Desserts
I have all kinds of desserts right now. I have Girl Scout Cookies - thin mints, toast yay! (which taste like French toast), Lemonades (lemon shortbread), and shortbread cookies. I always like to buy Girl Scout cookies if I see them being sold by troops or by somebody that I know selling them.
For my snackage, I've got Fritos and Bugles and then some Frito's Bean Dip and Anthony's Cheddar Cheese Powder (mix some in with some of the bean dip).
I also got some pomegranate juice and cherry coke. Put some ice in a glass, a tiny bit of pomegranate juice, and then fill the glass up with cherry coke and that is extremely relaxing. If you put too much pomegranate juice, it becomes too bitter.
For my snackage, I've got Fritos and Bugles and then some Frito's Bean Dip and Anthony's Cheddar Cheese Powder (mix some in with some of the bean dip).
I also got some pomegranate juice and cherry coke. Put some ice in a glass, a tiny bit of pomegranate juice, and then fill the glass up with cherry coke and that is extremely relaxing. If you put too much pomegranate juice, it becomes too bitter.
snackchat
[KS] You sound like my granddaughter
A Sticky End Game
My interjection back in December 2020 appears to have stalled Bin Laden's moribund progress (or was that Software's buxom lass?) - so I've returned to apply CPR - to the game not the corpse
[Chalky] I just got my first interjection yesterday. I get my second one on April 12th, and then I am free! Free to ride the Long Island Rail Road and sit in an office of miserable ingrates while I listen their snarky comments.
Interjection
(Stevie) Stop interrupting. BTW I get my second jab before you, on April 8, so there. I shall then be free to sit at home and wait for the pubs to open properly and the barbers because I am now quite hirsute, you could say. 70's-ish even.
Ha! My hair is now at Epic Back To The Future Amateur Scientist levels. When I was 17 this length of hair would tumble over my shoulders in tight ringlets a-la '70s Jimmy Page. These days, what there is of it sticks out a-la Van der Graff generator.
I'm getting a haircut tonight - the first since November. Salons here were allowed to open up a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I'd let them practice on a few other heads first and get their hands back in before letting them loose on mine. I haven't had hair as long as this since 1993.
jabby jabby
[Stevie], [Rosie] I get my second shot on April 9. It's at 11am Central time, I think, so late morning for me, but I think that makes it somewhere around 4pm ove in England . . .
Chronometric dislocation
(KagShu) I noticed you posted that at 8.28 a.m. GMT which is (I assume) 2.28 a.m. CST. You're as bad as me nocturnality-wise. Maybe not quite as bad.
I am absolutely using "interjection" instead of "vacillation" from now on.
We should have some sort of poll on what flavour of interjection everyone was subjected to. I had a Pfizer interjection.
Ouch!
I'm jabsolutely with you, Stevie.
(Dujon, Stevie) You're a couple of pricks.
[jab] I had that one that sounds like a type of car owned by bad drivers who like to change lanes for no good reason and have lots of children who gawp at you through the rear window.
[hair] on Tuesday they decided to close all the hairdressers again for an indefinite period, so I managed to squeeze myself in immediately before the shutdown. Prior to that I had looked after my own hair, which didn't work too badly, although the barber did spend his time sniggering when he saw me.
[Jab] the government in Belgium reckons that it will have finished with all the interjections by about 2025, so I am wondering whether I should make a definite attempt to become one of the people at risk, maybe go for obesity or a small heart murmur or if the whole thing will take so long that in any case age catches up with me. Although there is always the free version...
[Jab] the government in Belgium reckons that it will have finished with all the interjections by about 2025, so I am wondering whether I should make a definite attempt to become one of the people at risk, maybe go for obesity or a small heart murmur or if the whole thing will take so long that in any case age catches up with me. Although there is always the free version...
Lots of stuff . .
[Rosie} Yes, I am terrible about going to bed on time unless I make myself like I did last night so I could get up and go to church.
I got the Pfizer vaccine. I'll be so glad once it is two weeks after my 2nd injection. It won't change much for me, but still ready to get back to some semblance of normalcy.
Had some little kids add to my art car today, so that was fun.
I am not sure if these are good cat names or bad cat names . . . Dreaming last night, lots of things where I was talking to somebody and don't remember, but I do remember that in my dream, somebody had two cats. One was named Four Face and the other was named Garbage Can Corners.
I got the Pfizer vaccine. I'll be so glad once it is two weeks after my 2nd injection. It won't change much for me, but still ready to get back to some semblance of normalcy.
Had some little kids add to my art car today, so that was fun.
I am not sure if these are good cat names or bad cat names . . . Dreaming last night, lots of things where I was talking to somebody and don't remember, but I do remember that in my dream, somebody had two cats. One was named Four Face and the other was named Garbage Can Corners.
(KagShu) There was man who had two cats
And these two cats were brothers
Four Face was the name of one
And Garbage Can Corners the other.
And these two cats were brothers
Four Face was the name of one
And Garbage Can Corners the other.
There's just nothing to say to that.
Hardly any vacillations or interjections happening here yet, Dujon notwithstanding. On the plus side, we also have no COVID, so there's that.
Jabberwocky
We two - that's me and Mrs Dujon, not me and the cat - a few days ago booked in for our treatment at the local clinic. The first available date? May 12th.
(Duj) Makes me think of the Fire Brigade joke - "Keep it going; we'll be along in about an hour".
Winter is coming
Minus 2 °C, a bit more than an inch of snow overnight.
Back in boots
Hovering around 1°C here (I'm a few dozen km NW of Bismarck, I reckon) so the wet snow and sleet that's being hurled along by the stiff wind doesn't settle. It's grey. It's darker than it should be. I'm in the top room in the house working and the wind outside is howling mournfully around the corners.
Last Wednesday - only a week ago - I took an afternoon off and was walking along one of the big rivers with the dog and picking tulips under blue skies and in 22°C.
Ruddy weather.
Last Wednesday - only a week ago - I took an afternoon off and was walking along one of the big rivers with the dog and picking tulips under blue skies and in 22°C.
Ruddy weather.
Chilled out
Still -3° here - feels like -5° my phone app tells me. Not going out to find out for myself.
I may be some time
I went out just now. Back to full winter dogwalking gear (three layers minimum on every body part except knees). Could not hear a thing due to fleece band over my ears, flapping hood and roaring wind.
Not really much fun at all but the fish finger sandwich I made when I got home was excellent.
Not really much fun at all but the fish finger sandwich I made when I got home was excellent.
So, how's the dog?
Now where did I leave my fingers?
(pen) Him indoors loves fish finger sandwiches. Puts my teeth on edge - the double breadness eek
Dog fingers
[Duj] Dog was fine. If we keep moving he keeps warm enough, and he sleeps afterwards for most of the afternoon on the spare bed in my home office.
[Fish] where did you last have them?
[Chalks] I'll make an exception for a FFS, but I cannot do lasagne and chips. Double carbs, noooo!
[Fish] where did you last have them?
[Chalks] I'll make an exception for a FFS, but I cannot do lasagne and chips. Double carbs, noooo!
Vroom!
(pen) Double carbs? You got an old Mini Cooper?
always more stuff . . .
Things have been a bit crazy for me, still.
Things worked out as I had some friends from the Methodist church where I am an associate member come "resuce" me. I was able to get my 2nd vaccination and get my taxes done.
My problem was my car is in the shop and everywhere that used to rent a car or a vehicle to me now wouldn't because I don't have a major credit card. I keep getting declined when I apply for one. Some stupid law went into affect in March that makes it difficult for anybody that needs to rent any type of transportation.
My key broke out of my key fob and since I and the secretary from my Lutheran church were having trouble with it, with it sometimes seeming to run the radio and lights, the battery might also be dead.
And this was after actually finding a mechanic open on Good Friday because my car was "stuttering" and jerking when I would try to accelerate and it wouldn't go over 40mph (64.3738 KPH) most of the time unless I was going downhill.
Mechanic found that the VVT solenoid needed replacing and actually had the part right then and fixed up the car!
This time, though, it had to be towed to the closest Honda Dealership since the key was broken out of the fob
Things worked out as I had some friends from the Methodist church where I am an associate member come "resuce" me. I was able to get my 2nd vaccination and get my taxes done.
My problem was my car is in the shop and everywhere that used to rent a car or a vehicle to me now wouldn't because I don't have a major credit card. I keep getting declined when I apply for one. Some stupid law went into affect in March that makes it difficult for anybody that needs to rent any type of transportation.
My key broke out of my key fob and since I and the secretary from my Lutheran church were having trouble with it, with it sometimes seeming to run the radio and lights, the battery might also be dead.
And this was after actually finding a mechanic open on Good Friday because my car was "stuttering" and jerking when I would try to accelerate and it wouldn't go over 40mph (64.3738 KPH) most of the time unless I was going downhill.
Mechanic found that the VVT solenoid needed replacing and actually had the part right then and fixed up the car!
This time, though, it had to be towed to the closest Honda Dealership since the key was broken out of the fob
What a mess
(KagShuk) In the UK, where we are a bit sweary, there's an old joke that goes like this:
"Have you given your car a name"
"Yeah, f****** car".
Hope you get it all sorted. Are you back in Lake Charles?
"Have you given your car a name"
"Yeah, f****** car".
Hope you get it all sorted. Are you back in Lake Charles?
[KS] No credit card in the Land of the Free? Life must be super difficult. The trick to getting round the first card bck in the mid 80s used to be to apply for American Express, as they would give a card to anyone with a flat credit report. With the Stevieling we started with store charge cards and worked up. What a colossal pain in the rear.
credit where credit's due
Hmmm. Credit cards are hardly a Thing in the Netherlands. I don't think I have used mine here for more than a year - although I do use it to order flowers and stuff for my mum over the phone with businesses in the UK.
Keys on the other hand are deffo a thing. I am proud to announce that I have been allowed to put the keys to the windy miller's windmill on my keyring - after 12 years here.
Keys on the other hand are deffo a thing. I am proud to announce that I have been allowed to put the keys to the windy miller's windmill on my keyring - after 12 years here.
Cards
[penelope] So how does one hire a Dutch car without a credit card?
(Stevie) Halve the cost by going Dutch.
[Stevie] Companies expecting furriners as customers will accept them, but in general supermarkets don't.
But how do you hire a car without a credit card? The first thing Avis/Hertz/Budget/Whothehellknows want to do when you start signing paperwork is a valid credit card. If credit cards are "hardly a thing" what replaces that process?
As an aside, I've never understood why UK people prefer to use *debit* cards to credit cards. The issue being spending one's own money over spending the bank's. The whole fraud impact shifts to the individual with debit cards. With a credit card a fraudulent transaction *never* puts one out of pocket. Someone takes your card to Las Vegas, with a debit card you are in the position of arguing to get your money back, as opposed to contesting the spending of the bank's money with a credit card.
[Stevie] On the other hand, when a disute arises, cancelling a direct debit arrangement is easier than cancelling a recurring charge to a credit card. A direct debit is an instruction from me to my bank, that I can revoke at will, without the involvement of the party I am paying. If they think I still owe them money, it's up to them to chase me for it. The same thing on a credit card is an agreement with the person I am paying, and I have to chase them to stop presenting their bills to my card issuer. This caused me some hassle years ago when I was trying to sever my relationship with an ISP that I could see was about to go out of business.
[pen] Do they use debit cards over there, or is it wads of cash only?
[pen] Do they use debit cards over there, or is it wads of cash only?
I hope it's not tulip bulbs again. That went badly wrong last time.
[Raak] Well, I honestly don’t know why anyone would set up recurring payments for anything. My memory of cancelling standing orders on UK bank accounts matches what you describe for credit cards. Innever set up recurring payments if there are any other options available. I think I had one annual one with Malwarebytes, but it expired with the card (replaced due to fraud).
Not only am I unconvinced on the preferability of debit cards, I still don’t understand how one hires a car without a credit card. Or reserves a hotel room. When I went to Canada I used a debit card, but it only worked because my US debit card could be processed as a credit card. The Canadians at the hotel and airline were adamant a Canadian debit card would not process that way and therefore would not be accepted for payment. I had to insist they tried each time I needed to do it as they didn’t think it would work.
So I ask again, how do you rent a car without a credit card?
Also, although you are right that an agreement tompay is with the seller, itbis negotiated via the bank who (with my credit record) guarantee good faith of the seller. I’ve disputed a few charges in my time with this bank, always resolved in my favor with a phone call to a toll-free number. I’ve executed three “charge backs” in my credit life too. That’s where the vendor does something sneaky and takes the cash, I argue with them for a bit and then ask the credit card company to get a refund for me. A single phone call, a discussion to demonstrate I’ve exhausted all other avenues, and a credit.
Just did one last week. I ordered a tool case before xmas. Never arrived. Each month I checked and the order was marked “open”. I sent three emails, one a month asking for an update, and pointing out how many emails I had previously sent. Instead of sending a fourth I made a call to the CC company and bang, that was the business. I got an email this week from the cheeky buggers I placed the order with, cancelling the order and telling me how sorry they were ... that I had cancelled the order. Not word one about how I'd made them an interest free loan for four months.
Pinning
Hardly any cash any more - contactless payment is encouraged now, especially since Covid-19 made cash so filthy (I was a cash carrier by habit - always preferred to feel real money before I spent it). You don't even have to put your PIN in for anything under 50 euros. But the automatic egg-and-potato shop machine near the windy miller's windmill (the BEST eggs - you can wave to the chickens in the orchard as you drive past) still takes only cash. If I need small change (for example to leave the right amount of cash for my cleaner) I feed my bank notes from the ATM into the egg machine and get eggs and coins in exchange.
Don't ask me about ApplePay - that's beyond my knowledge. Probably more common in the cities but I don't go there any more.
And as I think I've said, you can hire a car with a credit card - I would imagine. Never tried it here.
Don't ask me about ApplePay - that's beyond my knowledge. Probably more common in the cities but I don't go there any more.
And as I think I've said, you can hire a car with a credit card - I would imagine. Never tried it here.
But that won't put a lien on future responsibilities like a trashed hotel room or a dinged-up car. That's why Avis etc want to run a card here. And I wouldn't be caught dead using a phone to pull my cash out of my bank account. Two whole levels of potential screwery in one transaction - that could be the bank's problem instead. Matbe I'm super-sensitized from reading all the uckfups in the trade papers, but phone payments against a bank account? Madness.
According to This web site "Hiring a car in Netherlands is a must in order to get around. Debit card car rental can be tricky to find as it’s rare that you come across a company that will let you hire a car without a credit card in Holland. "
Which suggests that Holland is like anywhere else in that the norm is you need a credit card to hire a car (but that this company might let you do so with a debit card; restrictions apply). I knew Steve Martin couldn't be that wrong.
*lets Stevie ask questions and ignore suggestions while answering them himself*
It's like watching someone's Googling process in real-time.
It's like watching someone's Googling process in real-time.
[pen] Never mind that, tell us more about this amazing egg machine! Is it transparent-fronted? Does it have a many-lettered Dutch name?
Speaking of the Netherlands, that's where this was ordered . . .
Praying that everything goes well with the international payment and shipment for my laptop with linux. I'm having it sent to a friend's address because of this constant moving around. I'm excited as I have needed a good laptop and I like Linux. I have a much better time with it than Windows (and I have a much better time with Windows than I do with Macs/Apple products, but it seems both always want to just take your money). My tax return is paying for this. Here's what I ordered.
Clevo NV41MZ 14-inch Linux laptop
Processor: i7-1165G7 (2.80 tot 4.70 GHz – 4 Cores – 8 Threads – 12MB Intel® Smart Cache)
Grafisch: NVIDIA GeForce GTX-1650Ti - 4GB DDR5 - 120Hz display - NV41ME
Memory: 64 GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz CL22 (2 x 32 GB)
Operating system: Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon (64-bit)
OS Drive: 2 TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (Seq. Lees: 7000 MB/s, Schrijf: 5000 MB/s) Fastest choice
Full-Disk Encryption: No full-disk encryption (LUKS)
Language of Linux: English (default)
Notes: Can Zoom and OpenShot Video Editor be pre-installed on this, too?
Additional Software: Firefox, LibreOffice, Gimp, Skype, VLC, Audacity, Steam, Spotify, PuTTY, Calibre, digiKam, Inkscape, Kodi, LibreCAD
Wireless: Intel AX200 WiFi tot 2400 Mbps + Bluetooth 5.1
Keyboard: United States International QWERTY (with super-key)
Cooling Paste: Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut 73 W/mK
Power Plug: US power plug
Accessories: Additional 90W Charger (with selected plug), Free install/recovery USB with selected OS (32GB USB 3.2 gen1), External USB DVD-RW Drive
Warranty: 36 Months (3 years) Warranty + Free Pick-up & Return (EU countries only)
Clevo NV41MZ 14-inch Linux laptop
Processor: i7-1165G7 (2.80 tot 4.70 GHz – 4 Cores – 8 Threads – 12MB Intel® Smart Cache)
Grafisch: NVIDIA GeForce GTX-1650Ti - 4GB DDR5 - 120Hz display - NV41ME
Memory: 64 GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz CL22 (2 x 32 GB)
Operating system: Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon (64-bit)
OS Drive: 2 TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (Seq. Lees: 7000 MB/s, Schrijf: 5000 MB/s) Fastest choice
Full-Disk Encryption: No full-disk encryption (LUKS)
Language of Linux: English (default)
Notes: Can Zoom and OpenShot Video Editor be pre-installed on this, too?
Additional Software: Firefox, LibreOffice, Gimp, Skype, VLC, Audacity, Steam, Spotify, PuTTY, Calibre, digiKam, Inkscape, Kodi, LibreCAD
Wireless: Intel AX200 WiFi tot 2400 Mbps + Bluetooth 5.1
Keyboard: United States International QWERTY (with super-key)
Cooling Paste: Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut 73 W/mK
Power Plug: US power plug
Accessories: Additional 90W Charger (with selected plug), Free install/recovery USB with selected OS (32GB USB 3.2 gen1), External USB DVD-RW Drive
Warranty: 36 Months (3 years) Warranty + Free Pick-up & Return (EU countries only)
Not in Lake Charles, car finally fixed, I think . . . and it's an art car becaues I wanted it that way
I'm not back in Lake Charles. My insurance on the side of getting my house repaired is being difficult. I'm in a hotel in Port Arthur, TX and on Friday, I have to move to a different hotel in that city.
The hotel where I am was very rude and let somebody come into my hotel room while I was gone when I didn't ask for housekeeping service (and I was in Lake Charles/Sulphur for a night because I had to take care of some things - and one thing was getting decent laundry bags so I could clean and do laundry) and they complained about "the condition of the room" because I have clothes on the floor and dog food out for my dogs.
Even after getting my key for my car, it was having the same problem again and I want to say it was "juttering" with starting/stopping and stuttering and kinda jutting here and there. I took it back to the mechanic that fixed the VVT solenoid and it needed a new air intake hose.
I have lots of fun with it being an art car and it makes me smile when I see it. I named it Hodge Podge (but it's a Honda and not a Dodge). I've got things all over it - things that are cute and inspirational - and there are a couple of little boys at my church in Bridge City, TX and their mother talks t them about the car and they put new things on it. I want it that way, where different people add things to my car.
There's hardly anywhere to stay in Lake Charles. There aren't apartments with places and there aren't hotel ready for any long term guests. I sure wish my insuranace would get on the ball.
The hotel where I am was very rude and let somebody come into my hotel room while I was gone when I didn't ask for housekeeping service (and I was in Lake Charles/Sulphur for a night because I had to take care of some things - and one thing was getting decent laundry bags so I could clean and do laundry) and they complained about "the condition of the room" because I have clothes on the floor and dog food out for my dogs.
Even after getting my key for my car, it was having the same problem again and I want to say it was "juttering" with starting/stopping and stuttering and kinda jutting here and there. I took it back to the mechanic that fixed the VVT solenoid and it needed a new air intake hose.
I have lots of fun with it being an art car and it makes me smile when I see it. I named it Hodge Podge (but it's a Honda and not a Dodge). I've got things all over it - things that are cute and inspirational - and there are a couple of little boys at my church in Bridge City, TX and their mother talks t them about the car and they put new things on it. I want it that way, where different people add things to my car.
There's hardly anywhere to stay in Lake Charles. There aren't apartments with places and there aren't hotel ready for any long term guests. I sure wish my insuranace would get on the ball.
[penelope] I remind the member from Windmill-on-the-Dyke that *she* was the one that said "Credit cards are hardly a Thing in the Netherlands" then prevaricated around the bush when asked an honest question about how that society handled fairly common stuff that absolutely requires a credit card Chez New York. Extraordinary claims and all that. I hardly think that having made a blanket statement about credit card usage in the Netherlands then forcing the audience to go and check for themselves qualifies one for the moral high ground and implied "let me google that for you" smugness harrumph harrumph.
Vending machine love
[Tuj] Have you come across the Car Vending Machine?
Credit
In the days when currencies were multifarious, credit cards were a great way of avoiding having to carry various denominations around Europe with you. Except that some countries didn't believe in them, like Germany, where if you couldn't bite it wasn't money. My father-in-law drove down once and tried to fill up his car at the local petrol station, but they didn't accept credit cards, and pumped out of the exact quantity from his tank and told him to get lost. Later, when credit cards started to exist there, the company that I was working for there decided that everybody should have company credit cards, which they being American decided would be American Express. Unfortunately nobody within 100 miles accepted it, and they were all on the other side of a border.
Yes, I remember distrust of credit cards when I was young. However, I wasn't evangelizing their use to anyone else, just pondering the seeming national UK preference for debit cards and wondering about how some US-centric "credit card or on yer bike" stuff gets done in places where credit cards are not favoured.
So how is Brexit playing out in the UK? We only get the gleeful schadenfreude write-ups of the things that are reportedly falling apart. Is it still seen as the Last Best Hope for Peace ?
Hidden text
in our timeNot looking to start a fight I hasten to add. Just not getting the real story from the various sources I use. I don't care if you are pro or aginnit. The huge bloopers that the press love (fish, NI) must be masking other "smaller" wins no-one is writing about.
(Stevie) Brexit is off the agenda for the moment as it is now slowly dawning on people that maybe Boris is not quite the wholesome jolly fellow they thought he was, or, if they didn't but thought it didn't matter, they think it does now, a bit more at least. The front of Private Eye invites us to enjoy the carnage as Johnson and Cummings beat the shit out of each other. No wonder Boris didn't sack Cummings after the latter's optical quest in County Durham. Cummings probably knows a lot and is nasty enough to use it. Come on, Dom, do 'im over. BTW I hope you know over there pondwise what I'm on about.
Gunboats
WTF? I knew Brexit was going to be bad but didn't think it would get to this point after just 4 months.
You are a mere slip of a gel and do not remember the Iceland debacle.
(Stevie) That wasn't a proper war, just a cod one. BTW you won' 'arf get it from pen.
[Rosie] Gunboats in the water, trawler nets cut. Isn't this the way the current contretemps is heading? Reads that way over here.
is lost . . .
I know some of that was poly-ticks. Still, I am lost. I know there was an ostrich war and the ostriches won . . .
And then the dragoons arrived.
Let them eat sweeties.
I'd much rather have dragees than dragoons.
Anti Rrhinums
Prefer a Snapdragon to all the above. Beautiful prolific garden stalwart.
A plague of greenfly upon all gardens! AaaaAAAAAAAHCHOOO!
I like dragonflies . . .
(KS) I hope you cook them first.
Just had lovely text message from my sis (who has undergone almost a year of surgery and recovery followed by shitty chemotherapy) and was having a follow-up with her oncologist this afternoon. "It's all gone!!!!!" Phew.
(pen) Great news. Your sister may take some time to recover from the treatment. I'm very glad I didn't need chemo - radio- and hormone therapy rather knocks you about a bit anyway but is much better than being dead. Much better.
[pen] good to hear :^)
Great to hear good news.
Thanks folks. Today is her birthday so she's giddy with excitement (even at the age of 53) and I've just eaten a LOT of cake (because, why not? I haven't seen any of them for almost a year and a half and still can't visit but we can have family solidarity through the medium of cake).
Does cake work better than Zoom?
pen's sis
Great news.
[pen] Great news about your sister, and also about the cake :)
[pan] Good stuff for both you and sis. All hail the power of cake. {see old Chris Morris videos}
[Rosie] Not like that! But you made me curious and I found out they are edible. I still have zero desire to eat them. They are pretty to see, though!
Is it just me?
I'm pretty sure that it's exacerbated by enforced staying-stillness right now, but I have seriously itchy feet, so much so that I constantly have the marine traffic app window open as I work, and I watch the progress of ships through the day. Does anyone else get a massive feeling of wanderlust when the days get so long that it's still light at 10pm? I feel like buying a campervan and taking four or five months off work to mooch about this corner of the world seeing the people I've missed over the past year and a half. I've always got this feeling around now - particularly since a road trip into the Arctic Circle in midsummer 1995, then working on motor rallies with night stages in the north of Scotland, or driving through the night down the M4 to go camping in Cornwall... Midsummer (even though it's flipping chilly right now) is not meant for staying in. That is all.
Waltzing Matilda
[penelope] Not so much that I yearn to join the Merchant Navy. I do have genuinely itchy skin right now, which ius driving me nuts.
Always dark by 10pm
Where I live, it's never light at 10pm. Sunset MIGHT happen as late as 8pm . . .
[Stevie] But one can buy a passage on cargo ships as a non-working passenger. There used to be a website that listed the ships offering it and their destinations. I now know how I'm going to spend my next break from writing this dull thing today.
[KagomeS] If you ever get the opportunity to make a road trip, drive north (a long way north) in midsummer. It's fabulous.
[KagomeS] If you ever get the opportunity to make a road trip, drive north (a long way north) in midsummer. It's fabulous.
I like summer morning walks over the meadows before 5am. I saw a deer last week, which I never saw there before in many years of living here.
[Raak] Impressed. I thought 6:30am is an early time for a walk. The lack of people at that time allows a lot of wildlife to be spotted. I often see muntjac deer and hares.
Views from windows
I’m lucky. I saw hares in the field behind the house from bed this morning, and watched buzzards riding the thermals from the kitchen window as I was making pizza last night.
[pen] that must be one hot pizza oven to produce buzzard bearing thermals via your windows!
(Boolbar) ROFLMAO. This is why we have Global Warming.
penelope
Traveling the world by tramp steamer is a staple of my secret vice - the Call of Cthulhu RPG. Pre-website, one had to use a shipping agent.
Hidden text
Of course, inevitably the ship would be becalmed in dense fog or lost in the Bermuda Triangle or fetch up on the rocky shore of an island newly risen from the stygian depths and then the screaming would generally start and only I would survive bwahahaBoat-cars?
[pen] Unless there are some MAJOR upgrades to cars, it's goig to take a lot more than driving to get to where it is light past 10pm for me!
Buzzards
[Boolbar] *<nods>* Were I to observe thermal-riding buzzards o'erhead I might suspect a roof fire. I was once driven from Mrs Stevie's gas barbecue by a very threatening praying mantis, all of 1 inch long.
How it reached the pedals with its tiny legs remains a mystery.
Light nights
(KagShuk) Even here in the south of England there is quite a lot of light at 10 pm BST (9 pm GMT) and in the north of Scotland it barely gets dark in June, given a clear sky.
Ay, why wud ye want the dark anyhoo, tis only fer miscreants ter get oop ter evil deeds in (Playing Calvinist card kept from my NZ upbringing)
Raised vowels
Shurely the dark is the bist time to have six.
I lived up near Sunderland for a while, and what the summer days lacked in warmth, they made up in length.
Mr Logic
That, I'm afraid, is a false equivalence. The same could be said for winter at the North Pole or even southern England.
Do that have water cars?
[Rosie] Well, that's nice, but I live in the United States. I find that it even gets dark fairly early in the northern states. I don't know about Canada, but I've heard that it's around 8pm or 9pm at the latest when it gets dark there.
(KS) The 49th parallel misses us by some way. The latitude of my place is 51.318 and Edinburgh and Glasgow are not far of 56°N. The clocks are an hour ahead of the Greenwich meridian in summer but not in winter. There are few things more gloomy than a cloudy December afternoon in Britain. Pretty well dark at 4 pm.
Back-endish
From 30-odd degrees last week to 18-odd degrees this week. Honestly, I am struggling to know what to wear [to sit at my desk at home alone all day except for a dog walk but I do know that those comfy old shorts are going in the bin - I caught sight of my reflection and recoiled I tell you. ]
changing weather and inside temperature
[pen] I often feel like I need three to four different sets of clothes to bring along with me everywhere, each day, when out and about in Southwest Louisiana or Southeast Texas.
a closed-toe shoe day.
So, any plans for this weekend, peeps?
no rest ..
[pen] Worked. Took a break to watch a football game so it wasn't quite all work and no play.
(Chalky) Fair enough. But what are you doing up at quarter past six in the morning? 0615 hrs simply does not exist in any way, shape or form.
[Rosie] awake but not up.
(Chalky) Ah! Unlike me before midday then - up but not awake.
Weather
[Rosie] that anomaly in Canada/US seems to have seen record temperatures increase locally not by the odd degree C, but by ten or so. Ever seen that elsewhere?
The weather in the U.S. had definitely been strange.
(Bismarck) Well, five, actually but even that is quite something and I'm not aware of anywhere in the world whose record has been busted by such a large margin. Having said that, one needs to be extremely rigorous in investigating the circumstances of any weather record. How long has the site been operating? Is the site representative of the area? Has it become built-up? Are the instruments reliable? Is the observer honest? That may all sound a bit dampening but it's absolutely necessary if the figures are to be put into historical context. I'd like to read some scientific articles about the heatwave; they should be appearing pretty soon. Certainly ignore the media who all have their agendas, one of which is to attract readers.
Waiting for enormous amounts of water to come gushing down the Rhine/Rijn through the Netherlands in the next couple of days. They're estimating record flows.
Belgium is under water. It's been raining for weeks. Aaaand it's St Swithin's Day.
40 days of . . . .
(Bis) Well, it was here, yesterday. Isn't the Belgian equivalent St Godelieve, whose day was 6 July. It's bollocks, I tell you, like all weatherlore.
[Rosie] Wet bollocks innit? 'Ash before oak' and all that. (I didn't notice which was first this year, despite walking out every day past both kinds of trees...)
That's a safe assumption for any 'wise' saying that you can reverse engineer from just a couple of words. I wondered if the word 'soak' was going to show up in the rest of the rhyme before even looking it up. Imagine my amazement when I discovered it did.
Water, water everywhere
(pen, Bismarck) This is quite a big one but European summer floods occur every now and then. Technical explanation here.. (V heavy going - don't bother). The world's a warmer place but whether that had anything to do with it is the subject of great debate. After all, Lynmouth was swept into the sea in 1604, 1769 and 1952 and it'll certainly happen again. The first two dates were in the Little Ice Age, when it was cooler and stormier.
Pi Approximation Day
Worth celebrating?
Water, water in a very specific place
We sold our house in France earlier this year, which broke my heart, because I loved the place. BUT I am relieved not to have to worry any more about it being underwater. In 2016, we came within about 50cm of having the Seine fill our basement rooms floor to ceiling.
To have kept such a house would have been in-seine.
[Oblig]
[RTG] Almost.
(CdM) That's a bit too close.
(RTG) No good. Pi=355/113. Even better pi = the fourth root of 2143/22.
(RTG) No good. Pi=355/113. Even better pi = the fourth root of 2143/22.
early here
It may be 2:42 in the morning where I am, but I need dark chocolate and am going to eat some and I don't care if anybody cares.
Nocturnal indulgence
(KagShu) Very gratifying to note that I am not the only nutcase here though I must say I prefer brandy at that time of night.
Nocolate
[KS] Whatever gets you through the night. For me, it's not usually chocolate (that would involve climbing stairs and I usually eat it before bed anyway) but quite often another half-hour episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot is in order.
Three in the morning
In the dead space of the night
Bach and Pachelbel.
In the dead space of the night
Bach and Pachelbel.
Sleeplessness
Couldn’t sleep last night at all. Blamed on the Covid jab for want of anything else, and on the anti-apnoea device. It’s a real bugger to be a light sleeper like me.
I usually have no problems getting off to sleep, it is the waking up at sparrow's fart and not being able to get back off to sleep that is wearing. Perhaps I ought to accept 4 to 5 hours at night plus one after a nice lunch is enough at my age. My eyes disagree.
The siesta is definitely a good idea. Those Spanish are on to something.
Mrs Tuj has had this week off work specifically to watch the Olympics, and has been roughly living on Tokyo time. It's been a wee bit disruptive!
Raak's insomnia cure
Canon to his left
Canon to his right. Into
The valley of sleep
Insomnia, Raak?
Allow me to read to you
From this C text book
Allow me to read to you
From this C text book
Stuff sucks
So, now on top of everything else, I fell in the shower at a hotel because it was THAT slippery (I had turned the water on from outside of the shower, took one step in and fell . . . hit my elbow and it was hard enough that it caused something to go wrong with my shoulder. It's now EARLY Thursday morning where I am and it happened on Saturday. It popped and became worse Wednesday morning as I was getting ready. I have an MRI they are going to do. I've been seen by a doctor at an Urgent Care and they set me up with an orthopedist that saw me who wants me to get an MRI to see if I'll need surgery. It HURTS badly.
Ouch
In sympathy. Did you happen to push on that arm Wednesday? If so, reckon you've broken your radius. Had something similar. More sympathy.
Oh no! That sucks mightily. So sorry to hear you're in the wars. I've just triple-checked my voodoo doll collection and you're definitely not in it. Let me offer you a big virtual hug. Virtual hugs may be intangible, but they're also guaranteed not to hurt.
[KS]- what an arse. Sympathies, but you seem to be getting good treatment. I won't bother you with my story of 5 hours in outpatients because of a poisoned hand. That bloody hurt but not as much as a popped arm I'll bet. May the depopping come soon.
Does anyone know how to start a new game?
Yes, but I'm not one of them, being older than Methuselah, totally computer-illiterate and ethnically Welsh. Someone will help you, I'm sure, but it would be good form to announce what sort of a game you intend.
New Game
New game slot unavailable here.
New fish to fry
[Fish-Monger] There are a limited number of game slots. Win one of the existing games with a move of pure genius to close that one and open up space for a new one. What kind of game were you thinking of?
[KS] I hope you have managed to stay safe and dry.
[Stevie] I hope you have also managed to stay safe and dry.
Taps mic
My annual visit to check that the system upgrade didn't kill anything.
Testing...
Gosh!
*waves at rab*
Blimey!
[rab] Oooh! But it appears that you are late this year. It was July in 2020 and August in 2019. Perhaps your orbit is being perturbed.
Waves back
Yeah sorry I don’t drop by as much as I used to. But I’m doing well thanks yeah.
Possibly. The debian release schedule is of the “it’s done when it’s done” type, and also it requires me to go and check their website to see if there has been a major release since last time I looked. This was one of the few upgrades that didn’t break anything, apart from forcibly deleting PHP for reasons I still don’t fully understand.
Weekend plans
None. Phew.
[pen] I'm sure your doggy will have things for you to do.
My ouchie . . .
Turns out I broke my collarbone. It's not been fun, but at least it was getting better. The first six weeks are miserable.
Happy Punctuation Day! Site does't want to let me add my examples of lesser known punctuation marks.
https://www.facebook.com/kagomeshuko/posts/10159851060059529
https://www.facebook.com/kagomeshuko/posts/10159851060059529
That's a bummm*r
failed cook
I managed to burn two pans of stuff yesterday. And the container I got out of the freezer to defrost for dinner wasn't goulash, as I thought, but chicken curry. I think we'll have beans on toast today.
That's another bummer. I'm always doing it. Most of my stuff is overcooked.
Here's a thought - learn to not live out of the freezer! (Pablo ducks as various rock-solid tupperware containers of unidentifiable foodish products are hurled at him, but stands firm in his unwavering belief in fresh food. Unless it's all run out, of course)
[Pablo] You're an urban dweller, I take it?
Learn ...
Excellent advice Pablo. Also, everyone stop whining about pollution, just learn to breathe only healthy O2/N2 mixture.
Something very weird is happening with AVMA. I keep trying to post to the game, and it won't accept my post. Meanwhile the front page now describes it as a "Brand spanking new event"
Never mind. I think I broke it by trying to include some Japanese characters. I took those out and normal service appears to have been restored.
I don't seem able to load the home page of that wily Scotsman McIos today.
Seems ok from here... http://mcios.pathetech.com/
[Micky Os] I had a problem after a recent Windows "update". My browser then claimed Mcios had a wonky certificate. I found tipping my laptop to one side helped.
(Bools) Did your browser actually use the word wonky?. If so, there is hope for the world.
[Pen]Yes, very urban, but if I were rural I'd be into stealing vegetables, strangling chickens, eating grass (both sorts), foraging for mind-bending mushrooms, punching cows and generally making a bloody nuisance of myself. Only way to have an interesting life as far as I can see.
hullo clouds hullo sky
[Pabbers] No need for stealing vegetables - they drop off the harvest wagons as they turn the corner in front of our house. And once the harvesting machines have been through the fields, gleaning is tolerated, so you could easily get 50-60kg of potatoes for nowt if you put your back into it. Other aspects - such as the peace and quiet (ignoring loads of tractors, obvs), open views and panoramic skies - make it worthwhile. I'm hating cities more and more, to be honest, but then I'm in the lucky position of being able to do that from a distance.
Free Veg
[penelope] So did you go for the speed bump or water-filled pothole to enact your nefarious-yet-brilliant veg "acquisitions"?
Desperate measures
We already have the water-filled pothole - everyone knows it's there. I feign reversing out of our parking bit in front of tractors to make them brake suddenly*.
*Seriously, I don't need to - there are enough idiot drivers causing tractors to take avoiding action and there are spuds all over the roads.
All round penelope's windmill for some chips done in beef dripping then!
<*drools*>
Chips in dripping
There's still one chip shop around here that does them like that.
Nothing in particular
And,um, where ... exactly ... is "around here"? Asking for, er, a friend.
Aaaaarrrghgurglethrobflutter
Hogs y sglods!
Hidden text
properly Hogia sglodion (chip lads)Sling this into Google Maps and you'll see it.
F67M+5C Morlanwelz
F67M+5C Morlanwelz
Chips
I just found that it has a website, too. The name is Friterie de Mariemont.
For the anecdote: A few years back, Belgian law changed because the chip shops were semi-mobile affairs with propane stoves which tended to explode. The majority of the shops were classed as "mobile" - that is temporary construction by the side of a road on public land, and prohibited. The idea was that anyone who wanted to remain open had to construct a proper building, but most got around it by putting a veranda up in front. This one was moved fifteen metres from the road on to private ground, and then they put the veranda up.
For the anecdote: A few years back, Belgian law changed because the chip shops were semi-mobile affairs with propane stoves which tended to explode. The majority of the shops were classed as "mobile" - that is temporary construction by the side of a road on public land, and prohibited. The idea was that anyone who wanted to remain open had to construct a proper building, but most got around it by putting a veranda up in front. This one was moved fifteen metres from the road on to private ground, and then they put the veranda up.
Patat, Pataje, Friet, Frites, Chips met mayonnaise.
[Bismarck] I see it - tucked into the back of the car park. We used to occaisionally drive the 15km over the border into Belgium to have chips for dinner at something similar They're everywhere. Our dog is called 'Chip' (or 'Chippie') after the food, BTW.
[pen] I expect he has a 'chippie tea' at feeding time
[Chalks] We call it a 'Chippie dinner' (but the windy miller doesn't get the allusion to the colloquial chippy at all).
(pen) How do you know what carpenters have for din-dins?
[Rosie] Dunno, but they probably eat it with a wooden chip fork.
While digging around in an old bookmark file...
... I found my MC bookmarks! I'm so pleased to see everyone still here!
Greetings, nights!
resurrections and aging
(nights) Good to see you.
(Rosie) MHR OM.
(Rosie) MHR OM.
[nights] Pleased to see you too! (And to have more than 8 words to say so)
I honestly can't remember the last time I played. But (to put on my serious hat for a moment) I find that with the world being so grim, some light hearted fun is all the more precious. It's also nice to see that community online is still a thing.
With that said, doffing my serious hat with a flourish and putting my balaclava of fun back on, I return to trying to find my rhyming dictionary...
With that said, doffing my serious hat with a flourish and putting my balaclava of fun back on, I return to trying to find my rhyming dictionary...
Anyone else having trouble reaching MCiOS?
(Proj) No problem here.
Belated Birthday Greetings Rosie!
MCiOS
Yes, Projoy.
MClostiOS
Yes - me too.
I'm not seeing any problems at MCiOS.
(Chalky) Cheers, m'dear.
Anniversaries
(Rosie) It's got to be 20 years since WildPants? I know other MC servers existed in the last century but vaguely recall I didn't venture into them until Rab fashioned this one.
[nights] Welcome back! Do stick around for a while.
Wildpants
(Chalky) I remember posting something in WildPants which for some reason mentioned my age, a mere 58. So yes, over 20 years ago. I seem to remember there was a Rogues' Gallery associated with it. Maybe we could have one here.
MCiOLOSS
[Projoy et al] I'm also having problems getting to MCiOS...
MCiOS
I too cannot access MCiOS. I seem to remember something recently about changing its domain or IP or some such techobabble?
Finding MCiOS...
It appears to be accessible again. It's always in the last place you look, isn't it?
Mr Logic
(nights) Sorry to be a clever c*** but can I cautiously point out that it must be in the last place you looked because once you've found it you stop looking.
Censorship
Wow, who knew rab hates Dutch shoes?!
Another string to my bow is theatre tech. I've just spent ten hours plugging things in, unplugging them, bonking myself on the head with them, turning them around the right way, programming them, and that was just the actors.
So. Decision made. We're not going back to England for Xmas for a second year. Luckily I managed three trips between September and November (the latter for my mother's 80th birthday) before it all went loopy again. We've had half a shutdown in the Netherlands for the past 3 weeks (all evening stuff is closed, except supermarkets and petrol stations). The rate of booster vaccinations is speeding up so it might be before or just after Xmas for me and the windy miller.
But folks, I'm curious. Who is still stupid enough to spread it after nearly two years of this shit? Come ON.
But folks, I'm curious. Who is still stupid enough to spread it after nearly two years of this shit? Come ON.
My sister, apparently. I'm told she thinks 'healthy people don't need vaccines'.
[pen] Students. "I'm young, I won't get sick even if I do get it." It's getting to the point that I dread going to work, which is a new and sad feeling.
(pen) Not just that, but practically all patients in Intensive Care Units are unvaccinated. They are brainless, selfish and completely up their own arses.
I despair, I really do. Looks like the Dutch government is also going to eschew closing schools early for a firebreak over Xmas and the new year holidays so as 'not to interupt education'. Seems to me it would be the obvious thing to do at this stage. Co-worker's husband is a maths teacher and yesterday he tested positive. She's pregnant with twins. They are both vaccinated.
This sucks.
This sucks.
Gathering rosebuds
Off to London this Sunday for some culture. I wonder if this is the last time it will be possible for a while.
Glub glub...
Off to the UK via the tunnel on Saturday in my little COVID-safe Clio. Haven't driven on a British motorway in a good ten years. This is going to be entertaining!
Traffic report
Apart from a minor contretemps near Heathrow, I have safely arrived in the Midlands. My little car behaved admirably and is going to be valeted as a reward.
Clio capers
[nights] Have a wonderful time with your nearest and dearest.
Do motorways have a Clio Lane specially for samll Italian cars?
[Rosie] It's probably the same lane that a Mini Driver would use.
(Boolbar) V good. ROFLMAO. I've had five of the little buggers and if you're not careful I'll give you all their numbers.
1000kms later...
Despite all the extra protocols, checks, tests, paperwork, swimsuit competitions and tie-breaker round ("In ten words or less, explain why you should be allowed to enter France"), the drive back home was excellent and I have brought back more PG Tips and Club biscuits than is strictly necessary.
Le premier thé Anglais!
2022
And may I be the first to wish my lovely friends a happy, properous and cheerful 2022! The evening was spent with a small group of friends, LFTs in hand, playing Mysterium, and drinking a reasonable quantity of beer.
[Nights] Good to hear you were allowed back - and you successfully managed to drive on the wrong side of the road for a bit! Apparently tea and chocolate bars are OK (vegetable origin) but filled chocolates (truffles, bonbons) are not - they contain something more closely related to dairy - so the Dutch Marechaussee told me. And if you can't eat the whole box of chocolates in the car at Customs, then just order them all from Amazon in France or Germany. That's where I get my Yorkshire Tea and Fry's Chocolate Cream bars from.
(pen) I get Yorkshire Tea from Waitrose. Good stuff is that.
[Rosie] Waitrose? There’s posh.
(CdM) Not really. Not ridiculously expensive either. Nicer people than the Co-op.
(CdM) and wider aisles. Better loos too.
The radio in the car on the way to work told me that there are signs that the pandemic may be slowing down. I then get into the office, open my inbox, and reel at the number of students off with COVID. It's almost as if... the media... has some kind of interest... in getting people... to worry about something else...
[nights] It may well be slowing down, but only after it got up to a fairly high speed to begin with.
Oh FFS. Vax-refusing neighbour over the road was ill last week but won't even take a home test - she's convinced there's something on the cotton swabs. There's no helping some people.
(pen) What's her name? Mrs Djokovic?
Can you hear me now?
Well, back to doing some classes online, which pleases absolutely nobody.
[nights] Least of all those of us who have to teach the bloody things
Can you turn your cameras on please?
[Pablo] Tell me about it. I had fourteen in my Friday morning class, not a face amongst them. Feels like I'm teaching my houseplants.
[nights] So, much the same as teaching in the classroom then?
[Raak] Somewhat, yes, although I do find that it is frowned upon if I take things to their logical conclusion and teach in my pyjamas.
I have started telling my team that they have to turn up in the video conferences with the most interesting background they can make.
[nights] Have an on-screen hat day. Also, have you tried the 'hold up something green if you agree' or 'hold up something red if you disagree' rapid-fire quizzy-type thing instead of relying on mentimeter or other electronic gizmotrickery?
IT mischief for pedagogical amusement
[pen] Nope and that is absolutely happening in my next online thing.
In my last in-person thing, in the IT lab, I was practising using the software that allows me to look at the screens of my students from my desk. Not only does it nip any potential misuse of university facilities in the bud, but it allows me to send messages to all terminals in the session.
My favourite message I sent ended, for a lark, "Please stand up and sit down again briefly to acknowledge receipt of this message." Within moments, there was a gentle wave of students gently bobbing up and down. Absolutely splendid.
In my last in-person thing, in the IT lab, I was practising using the software that allows me to look at the screens of my students from my desk. Not only does it nip any potential misuse of university facilities in the bud, but it allows me to send messages to all terminals in the session.
My favourite message I sent ended, for a lark, "Please stand up and sit down again briefly to acknowledge receipt of this message." Within moments, there was a gentle wave of students gently bobbing up and down. Absolutely splendid.
[pen][nights] Loving all this, only wish I had the wit to think of this stuff. As I teach music, perhaps I could declare that everyone must turn up with a sousaphone?
[Pablo] Surely you'd insist on a kazoo or Swannee whistle? Let battle commence.
Well, off work for a week. I've celebrated this fact by getting up just as early as ever on a Saturday morning to have a cotton bud inserted into what felt like my frontal lobe. Anyone else had particularly sadistic COVID tests?
Sadism
(nights) Not a COVID test but can I bid One Prostate Biopsy?
[Rosie] Oh that doesn't sound nice. Hope the results are good!
(nights) It was nearly 5 years ago, very painful but brief and the results were not good. Extensive treatment has cured it - it can be done. The Gland Of My Fathers, a naughty boy. Bachgen drwg!
[Rosie] Glad to hear that things are better now. I went for an endoscopy at our local public-private-partnership hospital on Monday, and while I was impressed at how well everything went (it being my first time under general), I'm now slightly dreading the bill.
(nights) That's one thing I don't have to worry about - I even got a free car park pass as a regular patient. Radiotherapy, i.e. 37 consecutive zappings with high-energy X-rays but at least you get the weekends off.
Are you dreading the bill more than the result? I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad one. Whichever it is I hope they didn't find anything nasty.
Are you dreading the bill more than the result? I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad one. Whichever it is I hope they didn't find anything nasty.
[Rosie] There aren't many things I miss about the UK, but the NHS is one of them. Something of a stereotype I know. Anyway, went in for the followup visit today and all is well. Have also paid the bill, and informed the children that Christmas is cancelled.
[nights] They gave me the best drugs for the drainpipe-up-the-rear session I underwent. Much better than the carpal tunnel general. Needle went in after the usual faffing about trying to find a vein under the layers of manly blubber relaxed muscle I cultivate in my arms, turned on the faucet and the sitar music began almost straight away.
After a fractious meeting or two and some very colourful emails, I have now made sure that the right ticks are in the right boxes for all of our students will be able to do their external English exams (rhymes with STOIC) at no cost to them. It's the small victories, eh.
Ticks
Not ... the dread Brotherhood of Luxor Death Ticks?
Death Tick
Death ticks are clockwork menaces resembling ticks, but about the size of a man’s hand. They are programmed to seek out a living target, jump onto that target, and siphon the victim’s life fluids. Once the enemy is a dry husk, the tick returns to its sender. Any tick failing to reach the sender in 10 hours releases a corrosive acid and destroys itself.
Ticks
And you surely can't mean ... the foul Prairie Tick?
Prairie Tick
Prairie ticks are the scourge of the High Plains. These horrid bloodsuckers live in underground burrows and are controlled by a single, giant queen that rules over each nest.
Ticks
[Stevie] The only ticks I am experiencing are those of the clock marking off the seconds of the exam that I spend thinking of all the ways I could be using this time more productively if I wasn't required to be here watching students do an exam.
Never mind, at least Saturday is open day, an entirely DIFFERENT way of wasting time...
Never mind, at least Saturday is open day, an entirely DIFFERENT way of wasting time...
This Saturday
I'm running another episode of the increasingly hysterical Planet Mercenary RPG. You could join us if you weren't doing something else.
Last Saturday
[Stevie] Ta verymuchly for the invitation, but I'm already part of two RPGs that never have the time to meet up - three would be an extravagance, I fear. That being said, I can confirm that D&D in French is hilarious when you don't know the right vocab.
Well, May 7th we're back on Mars for some Space 1889. Dead easy Savage Worlds rules. Offer stands. Noon EST. Well, DST I guess.
D&D off-planet
[Stevie], how easy is it to learn?
Space 1889
[Superman] So easy I can do it. Very, very easy. But don't take my word for it, come and join us and see for yourself. We can fold new players in without breaking a sweat. If they don't want to stay the course, that's OK too. Characters are easy to build. The Savage Worlds core (which is the "engine" under the bonnet) I usually describe as designed to reproduce Indiana Jones movies as a role-playing game. We use the same engine for my friend Craig's Dealands Reloaded weird west game, though I'm using an older version of the rules with some of the really neat new ideas bolted on for Space 1889.
Here is the campaign blog though the last two entries were rushed due to Xmas and Vacations from Hell and pipes bursting and ceilings falling in and life generally sucking.
Well that's a month gone by in a flash. How is everyone doing? Anyone seen a swallow yet?
Bird Brained
No swallows, not even a gulp. However, seen on the bird feeder today: sparrow, pigeon, great tit, blue tit, dunnock, nuthatch, squirrel, jackdaw, mouse.
...and having just popped to the kitchen I can add a female blackbird and a magpie to that list. It is all go today!
Oh look, I've got a special 4-legged furry bird that goes miaow.
I'll go out and talk to it
I've spent the day interpreting for a meeting where everyone's second language was English, and I now have a headache the size of a zepplin. Good lunch though!
Dwyieithrwydd
(nights) My Dad's second language was English. I take your point, though.
I sympathise, used to do the same thing very regularly. Have you tried doing both sides of a German-French conversation? Imagine so, given you location. There's a reason interpreters only do twenty-minute shifts...
Talking of second languages, I need to practice using my Dutch in shouted conversations with farmers across fields. Either that or just shut up and wave when I'm on lunchtime dog walks.
(pen) Could depend rather crucially on what you say, or what they thought you said.
Outages
Dunx.org has dropped off the web. And we have not heard from Dunx for quite a long time. I hope this is just because he is too busy to participate in the Morniverse. Is anyone in regular touch with him? MCiOS seems to have a problem also: when I tried to post this there, I got “An error occurred while reading CGI reply (no response received)”.
Can't see anything wrong from here...
~: ping dunx.org
ping: cannot resolve dunx.org: Unknown host
~: ping www.dunx.org
ping: cannot resolve www.dunx.org: Unknown host
And I'm still having the MCiOS problem in the chat game, but not in Room 101.
ping: cannot resolve dunx.org: Unknown host
~: ping www.dunx.org
ping: cannot resolve www.dunx.org: Unknown host
And I'm still having the MCiOS problem in the chat game, but not in Room 101.
dunx.org
It took some hours for the error to propagate, but now I see the same as Raak.
dunx.org is back in working order.
Look away NOW
Rather feeble thunderstorm this afternoon ym Mhlas Huws. House still standing.
Quiet in here, isn't it?
Y tawelwch
YMA O HYD!
That's Welsh for "The Saints go marching in", isn't it...
Dropping by
Howdy, folks!
(Phil) Iawn, cont! mode=<cofi>
Howdy Phil! Are you recovered? And aren't you about to move house?
[Pen] That's a disguised threat if ever I heard one.
Ummm....
[penelope] I can't remember what I was recovering from, but other than my right shoulder (my bowling arm) responding well to physio after seizing up a bit over the winter, I'm very well thank you.
I do plan to move house later this year (even closer to Rosie, I fear), although it seems to be a safe bet at any time in the last 25 years to ask me if I'm about to move house :)
I do plan to move house later this year (even closer to Rosie, I fear), although it seems to be a safe bet at any time in the last 25 years to ask me if I'm about to move house :)
Ohhhh
[Phil] Good to hear. I'm asking because I thought you had Covid the last time I saw you in here
[Bismarck] If you hear a threat, that's entirely your interpretation, mwahahaahaha! It would be worse if the threat was to make sure you moved into a bungalow - no stairs. Euphemism for knee-breaking perhaps.
I have no idea where I get these ideas.
[Bismarck] If you hear a threat, that's entirely your interpretation, mwahahaahaha! It would be worse if the threat was to make sure you moved into a bungalow - no stairs. Euphemism for knee-breaking perhaps.
I have no idea where I get these ideas.
[pen] That must have been the week before Christmas. I had a fun time in solitary with food and drinks being dropped off at the door. I genuinely enjoyed it :)
A random late-night thought
I was just thinking about an annoying recurring dream I keep having - you know the one, where you're back at school/college/uni and you have a load of work to hand in that you haven't done because your darn brain only invented it a few minutes ago. I think one of the reasons it annoys me is that I'd started to notice this no-win part of the problem even while asleep. I begin to wonder if I might start metagaming about that in the actual dream before too long.
And then, thinking back, I noticed other things - such as the fact that you rarely have conversations with other people in dreams, and that most people, if they can find a dream-book to open, find nothing useful or intelligible inside.
And then I thought, these kinds of limitations are quite understandable - after all, your brain is literally inventing an entire fantasy environment around you in real time. Looking at it like that, it's staggering how realistic dreams are, in spite of their shortcomings. On the Crescent sites, a lot of us are creatives of some kind - including writers - so we know how hard is is to produce something halfway realistic in real life. In fact, it suddenly struck me to ask, 'Looking at the sheer amount of creativity that goes into a dream, and knowing how much mental effort it takes to do anything similar when up and about, how come dreaming isn't more mental effort than being awake??'
(SM) I'm not convinced about creativity in dreams. I think most of the stuff is already there from previous life experiences, even the most trivial things, and they just get mis-associated. I have had rather vivid dreams but they are based on an enhancement or exaggeration of a reality I have experienced plus some imagination. They wake you up which can be briefly disturbing but whatever you do you cannot recreate that dream, be it nice or nasty, and it fades remarkably quickly. Alcohol has little effect - it's a small molecule that fits anywhere. A work colleague (a chemist) said it goes round the brain pulling out a few plugs.
[Creativity - yebbut stitching material together in new and unexpected ways is what creativity is. The amount of creativity in different people's dreams may vary, but from what I can tell it easily matches and frequently exceeds the degree of creativity the same person can achieve when awake. Although I will concede a Captain Scarlet level of plot holes, for sure.]
Creativitiness
The idea that creativity is a matter of becoming unshackled, freed from restraint, when we would all be massively creative if only we could let go, is bollocks. Discuss.
No art without craft, but try saying that in an art college these days.
I never said dreaming was unshackled creativity. It has at least one inescapable limit - the highly-connected blob of meat in charge of the whole mess.
Or in the words of Humph, "The teams can say any word they want, limited only by their own imaginations.
... It's stiff, that rule."
Isn't "meatbrain", as implied by your metaphor, something of an oxymoron?
Brains can be made out of meat! [Archive link to www.terrybisson.com]
Agreed that dreams are mostly mashups of one's past life (at least mine are, and it can be confusing to be in 3 countries at once). "An infinite capacity for taking pains" is a lousy definition of genius - that's just control freakery. Much better is "the ability to make connections where none were seen before". Whether those connections are made awake, asleep, or somewhere between really doesn't matter. That begets creativity.
Genius
Genius
(Pablo) Your second definition is by far the better. And of course these connections are made in effect instantaneously. There just has to be some loose software flopping about in there. Use it well.
If I may make a slight amendment
I would suggest "the ability to make fruitful connections where none were seen before"
Dreams
I don't think that I have any real life experience of anyone inserting an inboard marine engine into a golden retriever's arse and setting it off around the dock in a wide loop, saying "Watch this bugger go!"
My dreams baffle me.
My dreams baffle me.
(Phil) Got just about enough energy to ROFLMAO.
[Phil] Yeah, that is unusual. Only about 8% of people have that dream.
This place is dead, or at best dormant.
[Rosie] I guess the pandemic disrupted the regular supply of banter and the import of witty discourse into the UK is being held up due to the extra paperwork required post-Brexit.
(Boolbar) But we have no need to import banter - we already have a unique top-class product that, given some loose translation, would sell like hot cakes throughout Europe. Alas, we are governed by cretins and the newly-erected barriers and associated bureaucracy make it just too much hassle. What a silly country we are.
Gas go bang
[Rosie] I hope you weren't affected by the explosion in your locale!
Down go house
(Phil) Are you insinuating that my abode is in Forneaf? How dare you! I'm a good six miles SSE. In any case it's not really Forneaf, more like Norbury/Mitcham Common. That shows you how much the media 12-yr-olds know about south London.
Hidden text
Thornton HeathApols
[Rosie] I knew I'd heard you mention it. My sincerest apologies for such a slur. My daughter now lives in Surrey, but about as far from you as it's possible to be, while still in the county. She assures me it's not deliberate.
(Phil) So she's in Haslemere, is she? Well, there's posh. I don't think I could afford a garden shed there.
I'm looking for a way to represent a glottal stop without resorting to IPA. There is a distinct glottal stop after the "r" in Forneaf, to say nothing of the "th fronting".
I'm looking for a way to represent a glottal stop without resorting to IPA. There is a distinct glottal stop after the "r" in Forneaf, to say nothing of the "th fronting".
MCiOS
Hi folks - what's happened to MCiOS???
[Blob] I was wondering that, although I have a feeling that it was mentioned that the domain name was meant to be changing at some point.
[Boolbar] That rings a very muffled bell for me, but my browser autofills the whole name as soon as I type "m", so if there was a new domain coming in, I never trained it to use it.
(B,B,R) This is ridiculous. What is the new domain name? It's like changing your address or phone number without telling anybody.
MCiOS
[B,R,R] Hmm, it doesn't seem that long ago that it changed from parslow.com to mcios.pathetech
Does anybody have Dan's email address?
Does anybody have Dan's email address?
If anyone feels like having a rant give me a bell on 020 8657 4109
MCiOS is back.
MCiOS is gone again.
Back again!
Gone again. I don't understand this. Someone is taking the piss.
Dial M for moaning
[Rosie] I reversed-searched the number (seeing as I have nothing better to do this morning - or at least nothing I'd like better to do. Haha!
(pen) Couldn't you have just dialled the number? No need now - Dan has explained how a singularity in the Universal Force Field led to temporary withdrawal of the source of our addiction. Better have a fag - ah, that's better. Popeth yn iawn rŵan
Daughter location
[Rosie] Farnham. My daarn saarf geography is woeful. I still get Woking and Wokingham mixed up. Ditto for Maidenhead/Maidstone.
Do try to keep up!
No-one's said anything for a couple of weeks. Are you all OK?
Last day of summery weather today, and aside from useing it to dry blankets and quilts today, I have no further use for it. Throughly fed up of being sweaty. Next Saturday is forecast to be 16C ALL DAY. Can't wait!
Last day of summery weather today, and aside from useing it to dry blankets and quilts today, I have no further use for it. Throughly fed up of being sweaty. Next Saturday is forecast to be 16C ALL DAY. Can't wait!
(pen) 16°C all day? That means total cloud cover, probably a strong breeze and quite possibly continuous rain.
(Phil) Farnham. That's very nearly Hampshire. I'm at Hamsey Green, a part of Warlingham.
(Phil) Farnham. That's very nearly Hampshire. I'm at Hamsey Green, a part of Warlingham.
rainy days are here again
[Rosie] Yup! Every excuse to either sit in the car at the mill listening to the rain on the roof while drinking tea and reading books while the windy miller does his thing, or sit at home reading books and drinking tea while the windy miller does his thing at the mill.
Nope, the continent refuses to play sensibly and it's 27°C for some reason.
1
1
1
1
1<b><i><p><hr></i></b>
I think it might be time to turn the North Wales connection on for all games by default...
Y cysylltiad gogleddol
Ti 'di'n meddwl Mrs T?
Howdy
How are things with y'all? Over here the school holidays got changed to two-week half terms and I am wondering if becoming a teacher is still on at my age. Currently jobseeking, so you never know.
Demused
I flogged my writing muse yesterday to great effect and today she's gone AWOL just when I need her to help me write a webpage and a bunch of campaign emails. And the windy miller is having a day-long snooze after overdoing it (not Covid - we've tested). On the plus side I've booked a trip to England in late Nov instead of at Xmas. At least I'll get a decent break in December instead of dashing all over the place.
I have no idea how people do teaching. My pa was a teacher for 35 years.
I have no idea how people do teaching. My pa was a teacher for 35 years.
Wot my old man did
(pen) Mine too. He taught English, a language he couldn't speak until he was about 8.
[Rosie] That's impressive. Mine was an art teacher.
(pen) Have you inherited his talent? I can only draw steam engines.
scribbler
[Rosie] I did Art O-level in one year and got an A (I did the still life and calligraphy papers) but that's as far as I took it. I thought I could 'always do art at home' so I studied science instead. I think I might have a bit of talent but it's completely untrained and I get frustrated that my lack of training doesn't let me produce the things I want to produce. But I've got all the kit should I ever feel the urge to practice...
Art
[penelope]I have no talent for art whatsoever. I’ve tried, but lack the whatever-it-is to convert what I imagine to what I can draw. The Stevieling is *extremely* talented, but refuses to work at it. She draws manga-style for fun, but is capable of much more - we persuaded her to take a class in college and she claimed she enjoyed it but she dropped it next year. Very frustrating for me. She has fantastic ideas and a great imagination. I’ve tried to get her to draw comics or illustrated stories but to no great success. Aaaaargh.
[Stevie] Bad luck. I bet she's not going to fall for reverse psychology any more either
I can't art either, but I can script and I can program. Not well, but I can. So I use PoVRay and/or Blender, and that lets me program a computer to do what I want. Yes, this is easily as difficult as just drawing the stuff, and in many respects it's much more work, but it's something I can do, whereas I cannot draw
End Times
The barometer has fallen to 982 and it's gone dark outside.
Was it the End?
[Rosie] You still 'ere mate? I've been across the North Sea and back since you posted that and I can confirm both sides are still here. (the crossing last night was very smooth, by the way)
(pen) Yma o hyd, to use a well-known phrase or saying.. Extensive research has revealed that the darkness was due to the well-attested rotation of the earth and it was twenty past four. It's going to get cold - you'll be able to skate here soon. I'll be there with my camera.
Hidden text
Still 'ereBaltic
[Rosie] Indeed. I watched a few of the models this morning. Mentally making a list of my thickest socks and their likely locations.
Kin-taters
(pen) Went down to -3.5°C last night ym Mhlas Huws. First frost of the winter (v. late) but I think it's now going to seriously rectify this happy anomaly.
Degrees
Frost here also, and the thermometer didn't make it above 0°C all day. Another thermometer is showing 38°C, as I've managed to get Covid again.
I went out for a bicycle ride this afternoon, but I had to turn back in half a mile. It was too dangerous, with patches of frozen ice everywhere, unmelted frost from last night that was still frozen, even where the sun was shining and some traffic had passed.
[Bismarck] Bummer. Hope you start to feel better soon.
Just above freezing outside in N Brabant but clear blue skies and sun (warming up the living room to 21C but my home office is on the north side of the house so still cold in 'ere - and no heating on in the house today...)
Just above freezing outside in N Brabant but clear blue skies and sun (warming up the living room to 21C but my home office is on the north side of the house so still cold in 'ere - and no heating on in the house today...)
A tad of snow here in Bedfordshire. Just enough for the seasonal crop of cars in ditches.
Brr
–7°C in my NE-facing front porch this morning. The lowest I've seen it since putting a thermometer there some years back, so I can assess the cryotesticular potential without stepping out of doors.
I would imagine the repair of the copper/zinc primate, now meteorologically appropriate, is a matter of some delicacy.
BMW
[Raak] Got very cold over the weekend here too. So cold, in fact, that the brass shut-off I have on the sillcock at the back of the house split because I shut the valve in the brass part but stupidly did not remember to turn off the sillcock itself, so a column of water about the size of the end joint of my thumb was residing in the brass manifold, which was enough to fracture it.
To maximize the fun I did not realize this had happened until the thaw, when I went down to the basement and discovered a nice new paddling pool.
The water had sprayed up the side of the house for about a day and a half and frozen in many interesting patterns, but had also soaked into the ground and waterlogged it, causing many leakes through the basement wall and seepage through the floor itself. I took over 40 gallons of water out using the wet-vac, a submersible pump and a stream of class four Words of Power.
Class IV Words of Power
[Stevie] Are those adult words?
Power Words?
Like Kinell or Effeffess?
Word of Power
Words of Power are the way one forces out the anti-handyman demons infesting whatever it is one is attempting, in this case, keeping my machine tools dry and unrusted. I went directly to class fours as I had only just solved a similar crisis brought on by my having new gutters installed on the house and the gutter guy not understanding that if he dumped the rainfall on umptytump square feet of roof next to the basement wall, the water would soon be inside the house. I have to come up with a proper solution to that one. right now I just have an 8 foot pipe running to the edge of the property where a nice new pool forms every time we get a storm.
Does "edge of the property" = "neighbour's basement wall"?
[CdM] 8oD
Anyone had enough of 2023 yet? Gripe warning!
Among other hindrances and irritations (including starting the year with Covid) the windy miller has a case of the burnout from his real-life job and is taking at least two weeks off to sleep, and I have eczema on my effing eyelids (that's a new and unusual place, even for me).
Still to look forward to: three months of my route to work in Rotterdam being absolutely shut during June, July and August because of repairs to the massive Haringvliet bridge and a tunnel under the river a bit further north. I don't fancy joining everyone else on the road coming from Antwerp and Zeeland heading to Rotterdam taking two and a half hours to drive 40km. Hmmph.
Still to look forward to: three months of my route to work in Rotterdam being absolutely shut during June, July and August because of repairs to the massive Haringvliet bridge and a tunnel under the river a bit further north. I don't fancy joining everyone else on the road coming from Antwerp and Zeeland heading to Rotterdam taking two and a half hours to drive 40km. Hmmph.
Feel your pain with the eczema. I get it inside my ear tubing sometimes. As far as bridges and tunnels over a river, time to buy an army surplus DUKW. You could run a bus service to recoup fuel costs. It seats about twenty .
Hidden text
so c'mon and bring your juke-box money[Pen] trying saying you have COVID (Congenital Objection to Vehicular Ingress by Dams) and say you have to isolate at home.
And thirdly...
The dishwasher is broken. All it can manage is a 10 minute rinse. Aaargh.
Eyelid eczema is clearing up - I already had some evil cream but I didn't know if I'd be allowed to use it on my eyelids. Apparently I can use it for a couple of days. Last day today then. Let's see how it goes from here. (If anyone needs a recommendation, I've found that Aveeno oat-based cream is the best for keeping eczema at bay once you've swatted it with steroid creams.)
Eyelid eczema is clearing up - I already had some evil cream but I didn't know if I'd be allowed to use it on my eyelids. Apparently I can use it for a couple of days. Last day today then. Let's see how it goes from here. (If anyone needs a recommendation, I've found that Aveeno oat-based cream is the best for keeping eczema at bay once you've swatted it with steroid creams.)
That oat-based cream puts you at risk of being kissed by a horse, I'm sure.
Oatmeal
Yep. Oat-based products were always thought to be a palliative when I were a lad, and I use Aveeno hand cream myself on my hands and in my ears. That said, I also use Mometasome cream and lotion, and on a recent re-occurrence of the odd leg-scurvy, some ointment made of what looks like petroleum jelly mixed with coal tar. I feel like the bloke from Going Postal who had the explosive socks sometimes.
Eeep, not been here in a long time!
Eeep, I've not been here in a long time! It's crazy. My hurricane lawyer now HAS my funds for repairing my house and how I'll have to take $9000 out to be able to keep staying at this hotel and pay my bills while my house is being repaired, but they are taking FOREVER in getting it to me! I'm definitely not happy with this lawyer. I'm struggling and have pulled some funds together for one more week right now . . . some of which I probably shouldn't have used, but I need to be able to extend and hopefully will have funds back . . . I will NEVER recommend this lawyer to anybody.
Getting blood out of a stone
(KS) Welcome back
[KagomeShuko] Very welcome back. Was worried!
[KS] You've been having a rough time over the last 2 years also. Will your settlement or other relief funds also pay for all your accommodation costs since the hurricane?
No auroras on Belgium, but a cracking conjunction this evening of Venus and Jupiter.
Ugh, it's awful!
[Simons Mith] [Bismarck] It's so awful! The settlement will get my house fixed, but I've already been depending on donations to stay the hotel! I told my contractor that I'll need to take out funds to stay. It won't get my house to the way she was going to make it all accessible for me, which isn't great, but I'll have my house back. Hopefully I'll get the last bit of money from a car accident settlement (different lawyer) and maybe that'll pay for my house to be more the way that I want.
Project Tiddles (South)
Following in the footsteps of Rab, I'm starting my own Project Tiddles.
Phase 1: gotta get a cat flap, or no one will even consider me for entiddlification. That's due for this Thursday.
I had never really considered getting a cat at this address before, because I'm right on a main road and I'm not really willing to accept even a low probability of a poor mog getting squished.
But then I belatedly realised (belated by $%&^$% years) that if I got a cat that was elderly, defective or otherwise unable to go out, then the road wouldn't matter nearly so much. So that's the plan. Find an old slow animal that can't be bothered to move much and spoil it rotten for its retirement
I've laid on Bird TV for it already, so we'll both have something to look at out of the window
Pets, slow
[Simons Mith] have you considered taxidermy?
[Radox] That's... not a bad idea except that a taxidermied cat would need at least occasional dusting. I consider that a step backwards from the live versions, which are self-cleaning.
Playing the Rosie Card.
When did "taxidermied" (which MS Edge doesn't even think is a word) replace "stuffed" in the discourse concerning dead, straw-filled roadkill?
I asked this in another forum recently and was assured it was to spare the sensibilities of those who would confuse a once-live but now stuffed animal cadaver with a build-a-bear.
Rebuild-A-Bear
[Stevie] You've just given me the most marvellous business idea.
Mister Flopsy, TriColour Dutch: a rabbit dead as a doornail
Gentlemen we can rebuild him
We have the technology
We have the capability to make the world's first bionic rabbit
Mister Flopsy will be that rabbit
Better than he was before
Better, Smarter, Fluffier
Gentlemen we can rebuild him
We have the technology
We have the capability to make the world's first bionic rabbit
Mister Flopsy will be that rabbit
Better than he was before
Better, Smarter, Fluffier
Taxidermiing
[Stevie] If you can't verb taxidermy, you can't have taxidermiing as a gerund. That alone should be reason enough.
(SM) Good thinking. You can't verb anything because verb is not a verb except when it is. I have now fulfilmentized my role as a member of the grammar and style police (fel aelod yr heddlu gramadeg ac arddull in Welsh BTW FWIW).
I'm half-Welsh, but I'm struggling with how to pronounce Btwfwiw.
(CdM) Try half of it then. The bigger half.
Since nouns are too often verbed, can we balance the trend by nominalizing verbs (other than the speaking entirely in gerunds)?
What's the verb form of 'nutrition'? Nutritioned? Nutritised?
nutrit, nutritted, nutriting
It's not a popular word. In use, it sounds a bit too much like something else.
(SM, pen) Nutrify. Sgoddaby.
Nourish, surely.
You can't fool us
The adjectival -ish suffix means like, or somewhat, so 'nourish' clearly means something that's a bit noury.
(SM) I have a cousin-in-law who I wouldn't be so ungallant as to describe her as a large dog but she is nevertheless Danish.
Does that imply "dish" means "like the letter D" then?
Yes, and the same for 'fish' and 'wish' too. One of the great benefits of having a highly consistent language like English is that these rules are 100% reliable.
Langur ages
Ah, but you speak of Engl, not the debased English!
Oh yeah. That is a good point.
So, if some town planner decides to make a location vaguely resemble a Birmingham suburb, would that be astonishing?