A nasty, dull day with rain at times but warm. Washed Doc’s car and cut some more of the privet hedge. Nell gone to Dot’s for the day.
You can see why I had to post today's photos as a pair! They're not super exciting, it's fun to see this groovy gal posing next to the beautiful Sub Lagoon, filled with Bombay sapphire gin. I blink in about 90% of the photos taken of me, so I feel a camaraderie with this girl. I'll bet dad waited too long, fiddling with some knobs or something.The second try came out perfect! Knobs were properly twiddled. The girl's short hair, Op Art dress, and frosted lipstick all say "1967" to me.
A: No. Councils should be allowed to drive homeless families to breakdown. Councils have a duty to house homeless families as safely and securely as they can. They certainly do not have a duty to make life as hard as they can for people in need. In my latest podcast, we return to Hackney council – and the council’s ongoing attempts to evict a disabled and autistic 8 year old boy and his family from their council home. As regular listeners will know, the council wants to evict the family and put…
Perfume PosseSummer Skincare in the Heat As I finish this up on Monday we’ve just gotten a new prime minister. We’ve had a number of them in the past few years. Anyway, one must remain hopeful. I prefer being able to change leaders when needed. Our… Continue Reading → Perfume PosseSummer Skincare in the Heat
LONDON A-Z O is for Osidge Osidge is a loosely-defined 1930s suburb in north London, marginally in Barnet. It started as one big house and is now thousands, sloping down to the Pymmes Brook in a generally overlooked manner. It's a product of the extended Piccadilly line, expanding to the west of Southgate station, and is often marked on maps some way from where it actually began. It's been home to a grocery magnate, a noted meteorologist and a kohl-eyed singer. And yes it rhymes with sausage,…
Both the source and the goal. The origin and the final destination. The road itself and everything in between. The all and the nothing. All condensed, but not confined, to exactly one.
Tuesday 21st July 2026 It was many years ago when, knowing my love of scenic bus routes as well as the West Highlands of Scotland, blog reader ‘Tarkaman AC120’ recommended I take a ride on Sheil Buses route 506 between Fort William and Kilchoan. It’s been on my to do list ever since, not least because the route comprises just one return journey a day along an amazingly scenic route as well as involving a ferry crossing over the Corran Narrows. The timetable has just an outward journey from…
Watching the sun set behind tall palm trees at the Manhattan Beach Pier. パーム・サンセット マンハッタン・ビーチ・ピアで、背の高いヤシの木々の向こうに沈む夕日を見ている。
My partner adopted Astro some months ago. He already had another cat at home. At first, they didn't get along but now they are within five feet of each other. Now I hope they can cuddle together soon. Don't get me wrong, they still have issues with territory or getting too close to each other. I think Astro being a one-year old cat, he still has that kitten energy that he always wants to play. Franklin is an older cat. He's not much for playing around but more fore hanging out and doing his own…
Players Capt. Minnow Blux (Oldhawkeyes) Castrucci Frankfurters (Jay_zer0) Dr. Aarav Papadopoulos (Epistellar) Summary(Thank you to Epistellar for keeping session notes.) It has been three weeks since the Krongu crew departed for the industrial world of El Zocalo. Two more Krongu employees from the El Zocalo branch office were activated: a dissolute and prematurely-aged doctor, and an extraordinarily hearty rake with a background in aquatic piracy. The crew decided to follow up on investigating…
Ian Bogost on the Post Games podcast disucssing his new book: My wife plays not like Candy Crush, but one of those match three mobile games that are Candy Crush clones, not obsessively, but regularly, right? While we’re watching TV or whatever. And what is she doing? Why is she doing that? What she’s interested in is the same thing that makes people want to knit while they watch TV. It’s something to do with your hands. I’m just manipulating something. I’m moving around. I’m feeling the…
I said we were lucky with the weather, and this is true. Except for the day we ascended Snaefell. Knowing how fickle things can be 2037 feet up, we tried to pick a day when my sister might see the view. The trouble is, you don't really know. Although the webcam looked OK, by the time we made it up there, things were more reminiscent of my Dad and my first few visits, 33 years ago. Manannán's Cloak had descended, and there was no view. You can recreate this at home by glueing cotton wool on your…
The final whistle blew and Spain is the new FIFA 2026 World Cup winners for the next four years. It was great getting to watch the World Cup this year as the family was more into the games than previous years, so we watched a lot of soccer. We followed USA, France, and Argentina through the tournament. First, you always root for your home country and enjoy watching the other teams play as well. There is a lot of hype around Lionel Messi coming back to play in this World Cup this year. He’s had…
It happened late last night. Cruising down the highway, heading home from the airport, my friend Shiv absentmindedly rifled through my passenger side door full of old computer-printed directions, parking stubs, and cracked jewel cases. “What’s this?”, she asked, popping open a flimsy case and pulling out a dusty, scratched up mix CD. “It just has the date marked on it with a Sharpie. Uh, let’s see, what happened on November 14, 2006?” “No way!,” I said, glancing over my shoulder and seeing one…
This group of Misfits came out of Dallas and North Texas State University in nearby Denton. They cut a fine original folk-rock song, “No One Else” backed with a good version of “Route 66” on Repent 520 in August, 1966. This was not the same Misfits who became the Lost and Found. The Misfits who became Lost & Found were from Houston, and, according to an old interview with Jim Frost, never played in Dallas, and never recorded as the Misfits. This news clipping shows all the members’ names are…
A fair fight, a sentence to death. In the center of a sniper’s sight, I miss you already. An apparently humorless man, but still I saw you, when you turned away, smiling at the way I stood there with the wet on my hands. Later, in bed, I wonder if I make you proud. Shocked, to want that, for the first time, when even my progenitor’s pride horrified me. No one’s fault. Just a stain I could never parse. Parallax of the heart. Forever a side-sleeper, and I turn away, towards the wall. Inkblot on…
Content Warning: Chronic back pain for an animal. Also, as a reassurance, my dog is okay and is on the mend Our dog, Oolong, is about seven years old. Not exactly sure how old (he's an adoption dog) but we've had him since May of 2020. Not sure what he is, but he was listed as a corgi mix. Regardless, he is a short legged, long bodied dog and suffers from all the back problems that entails. He started moving a little slower starting on Saturday, but he had a vet appointment for Wednesday, and…
I was going to write a post about how the World Cup is a great cultural event and an entirely underwhelming sport, but this is much more fun and captures my experience perfectly. I Watched the Copa Mundial Non-Stop on Telemundo for Cinco Weeks and Now I Don’t Hablar Inglés Anymore by Stephen Ruddy.
Mondayyyy. I did some stuff last week and have some things to write about. The world cup is over! I didn't really watch it that much but I had fun watching the handful of games I caught over the last month. I am going to miss the excitement in Boston though!! It really felt like a huge mood booster for the whole city and I think everyone remembered we're allowed to have fun and be happy for a change. Hopefully some of the stuff local govs did like expand public outdoor drinking stays in…
First, the good stuff. My husband’s condition has stabilized, and he is feeling so much better. He’s looking a lot better, too – though some of that is partly because, with the heat we’ve been having, he finally shaved his head and most of his beard off, a few days ago. Today, however, was a … Continue reading Good stuff and not so good stuff
Today has been ok. Work was kinda bleh, but at least it went by fast. But I was so emotional today, I kept crying because I was sad about things in my books, even the book that I finished that I didn't like. Just a lot of 'what if things had been different' thoughts, especially regarding my family. But work eventually passed, and now I'm home. I got a nice shower, and the dev for Rush is streaming so I played some more. The dev is very nice, he's been giving me lots of complements for my play,…
Back in the day, I was a bit of a gym junkie. I would train pretty hard, consume a lot of supplements, and read a lot of bodybuilding magazines. Despite being totally unblessed with the necessary genetics, I would quietly obsess over growing bulging biceps, thunderous thighs, and washboard abs, just like the magazine ads promised.Back then, mirrors rather than smartphones were the screens of ruthless comparison. It was all about the body image. The body image and the projection of what today…
...and it ended yesterday, with Spain defeating Argentina in the 2026 World Cup final — an ignominious match, one of the worst finals in recent memory, imho — one must deal with the inevitable W.C.-withdrawal symptoms by looking for a book [any book!] related to any aspect of beguilement this year's epic invoked. [ in progress... ]
This past year has been a bit of a whirlwind. Between starting one job, completing the 2025 Tour, then in the fall starting another job where I pivoted back into hands-on development, only to find myself in the midst of the greatest upheaval the tech industry has ever seen1, honestly, it’s all been a lot. The result is that I have been woefully neglectful to my commitments around the Tour. First, and worst, I’m still not done the socks from last year’s raffle (in fact, I’m only 1.5 pairs in on…
I’m down to just five habits now. Today ends the 100 days of connecting with my sister. Most days this amounted to sending her a video to update her on my life and she would send a text reply of what was going on with her. The videos and texts started out pretty short, but by the end the videos crept up to the four minute mark and her texts went on for pages. This habit was sort of a last minute idea (spawned form the fact that Kira calls her sister every day) and it ended up being something…
surpriseday unsure i really stand by anything i wouldn't really know where to start i'm always kind of just here then i'm kind of just there warm erasence like you spotted the moon behind me today on a monday afternoon i was painting a gateless gate in a city garden and where's mind gone? i guess it's just a series of columns other things said it's a long list not the gate Yesterday :: Monday, 20th July 2026
Yesterday, Unattributed posted a long response and dissection of my article What have note-taking PKMs accomplished, really?, analyzing the lack of intellectual rigour, nebulous wording, and poor research I did throughout. I already added an update to the post in question, so I won't get into the weeds here. I tried my best to respond graciously and with appreciation towards the author of the response. The writing was critical, but it was also fair and written in good faith. That said, seeing a…
This will serve as my post-race wrap-up and my Random Thoughts that I usually post on Mondays following a race – so please bear with me. It was another race and another Alex Palou win. That makes five out of twelve races that have gone to Alex Palou. As I said in this morning’s post, […]
I guess I didn't understand the degree to which Against the Storm is designed around roguelite progression. It's a fun colony sim that screeches to a halt every minute and a half so you can choose some minuscule resource production boost or an uninspiring 2% stat increase. Maybe this implies that I've enjoyed my time with the game less than I have, but what else can I say? It is very much what it is. Obviously a colony sim organized around missions with specific objectives isn't a bad idea. We…
