(KagShu) Just had my booster. I agree with you about anti-vaxxers. Politely, they are misguided; less politely they're thick as pigshit and completely up their own arses. I despise them. BTW do Americans refer to The Jab? The term is universal over here.

Visiting my students on their apprenticeships and seeing them really excited and enthusiastic about what they're doing. Whenever I start getting a bit cynical about teaching, I think about a student excitedly showing me the production line that he's now responsible for maintaining. Warm glowy feelings a-go-go.

[nights] could I ask what/where you teach?

[Bismarck] You can indeed - I teach at a further education college in France on the local equivalent of an HND in Industrial Maintenance and another in Physical Measurement. Our kids are training to be maintenance or metrology techs of all stripes, or to go on to further study at engineering school. My speciality is technical and scientific English, as the French have finally realised that all the innovation in the world is useless if no-one can understand them. I'm also involved in the administration of our apprenticeship scheme, and I genuinely feel like I've found my niche. [/advert]

[Nights] Anything to do with IUT Louis Pasteur (near Strasbourg) or Karim Kalfane's maintenance programme?

[Bismarck] Er, yes indeed - Karim just retired in October! I've taken over two of his apprentices!

Wandering through Google Earth in a VR headset. Rome, Florence, Burning Man, all right there in my computer room.

Getting my Jehovah's Witness advent calender. Every time you open a door, someone tells you to piss off.

Mobile phone signal in the Channel Tunnel "Hi! I'm in the car! On a train! In a tunnel! Under the sea! Etc!"

Doughnut season. Hot and fresh from the baker and, although not the anglo-saxon kind, soft and delicious. Lovely just with cinnamon and sugar.

[nights] Shame on you, hunting innocent doughnuts

London. If I had seven zeros in my bank account I’d live here. Instead I content myself with visiting from time to time. London Festival of Baroque Music this weekend (and all week, but a weekend is a long enough break).

(Raak) 10^-8p should last several nanoseconds.

[Rosie] But what nanoseconds!

(Raak) Indeed, but what about the other 10¹⁸ or so?

I have a new pleasure to add: Using 'phut' as an expletive.

Experiencing a good night-time thunderstorm. There's just been one here but they were a lot more frequent in the '50s and '60s.

A follow-on from the last: florid and exuberant words.
Bamboozle, euphonium, badonkadonk, oleaginous, hornswoggle, sonorous... 'Exuberant' itself, for that matter.

Using singular verbs for "none" as it sure as heck isn't plural
Something I have inherited from my late dad is saying, for example, "none of them is even remotely competent". It genuinely gives me pleasure in a way that using the subjunctive in conversation no longer does.

(Phil) Similarly, Not inserting an intrusive "r", as in "Aston Villa is a football club."

Seeing someone rocking cool or fun clothes
Sharp blue trouser suit, fluorescent orange heels - although it did look like the heels were killing her

Having just moved to Sheffield ("that city of razors and knives" - John Betjeman), getting in a pint for well under a fiver. This is a beer city for sure.

[Raak] What a ... creature. And we're told, "The tasselled wobbegong can be readily identified by the fringe of dermal lobes on its head." Which is all well and good, but I can't help but notice that the reader is left entirely to their own devices for identifying which part is the head.

"The tasselled wobbegong can be..." A sentence worthy of Jack Vance!