Thursday 1st October 2026 Time for another delve into my inbox and feature some of the emails readers have been sending to busandtrainuser@gmail.com over the last month or so. But first something that dropped through my PostBox just a couple of days ago… Shrewsbury Area Bus Timetables … yes, it’s another Omnibus Society produced comprehensive timetable book and this time for the Shrewsbury area. It’s been compiled once again by Keith Shayshutt, together with Gary Nolan, and features every…

Here is my late entry for the IndieWeb Fiction Carnival for September! The theme was: Moonlight, hosted by James. We are always three I was told about the astral bodies in the sky, of how the darkness used to be full of dots of light. I don’t understand the stories, there is no sky outside. We are going to a new sun now, Dad says this one is younger, but still older than me! The other one was the moon, a big rock that shone at night, how can it be dark when there’s a light above? We used to be…

I’ve been posting a little recently about my experiences coding for the Pimoroni Presto, a microcontroller-powered device with a 4” screen, at 480×480 pixels. That makes it a square.Square displays are surprisingly rare, with the only exceptions being relatively small (either physically, in resolution, or both). As well as the 4” panel Pimoroni use, there are a handful of other screens like 1.3” 240×240 pixel Raspberry Pi hats and ESP32 widgets, but not much larger than that. There is…

★★☆☆☆ An extremely minimalist Gopher client for Android. I kind of like the text-based toolbar, though I had to experiment to figure out what each button does. ^S does search, settings, adding a page to bookmarks, etc. |^| shows your bookmarks @ lets you enter a new URL ^R reloads <- goes back a page in your history. (As with DeBurrow, the system back button closes the app.) Menu items are also displayed using text labels, which furthers the retro look and feel. Downloads get saved to the app’s…

Watching the sunset from a table along The Strand, the entire view of Hermosa Beach is refracted in a wine glass, upside down of course. グラスの中の夕日 ストランド沿いのテーブルから夕日を眺めていると、ハーモサビーチの景色全体がワイングラスの中に映り込む。もちろん、逆さまに。

Lots of making going on in November's issue of BRM. I start with some etched metal nettles. Very nice, but definitely a foreground plant, as they aren't cheap. That said, when only the best will do, this is a very good option. Very easy to use too. Next, a seriously time-consuming model. MMR Models GWR station is a stunner - but be prepared to put the time in. Nothing is difficult, but there are a lot of parts, and you really need to be pre-painting most of them too. Is it worth it? In my…

The phlegm is present throughout the system, and can now cleared and gently removed. Every joint is picked apart, inspected, greased with love, refurbished. Meditated upon, revered and finally surrendered to, before being put back together. Soft and flexible.

Not Dead...Yet...Related to this very long ago post, but demonstrates why blogging is peak when its just half-scribbled notes to yourself. Maybe also related to skeleton as class. Basically, I was thinking of an OSR game where one wouldn't die, but maybe could become a shade when at 0 or negative HP. But what would a shade do? Then it hit me that perhaps the PC would then be made of a bunch of magic spells. Hear me out.Shade As Class"Shuffle off this mortal coil": The player character manifests…

It feels like I was very recently writing about how I hadn’t been to California in 20 years. That post is from 2023. Allison and I had been talking for a while about doing a week long roadtrip, with little kids, for years. Weaving in and out of some of the biggest trees on earth. Yes we even drove our rental Prius through one. I’m going to write a bit more, then get to the images. The map here illustrates the major stops we made. It was about 900 miles of driving over 8 days, which is…

Happy Halloween 2026! Welcome to this year's installment of 31 Days of Toy Terror which is titled: Trick or Treat Through 31 Days of Toy Terror! I love horror themed toys but not all of them are really themed around Halloween, are they? No, of course not! This year, my focus is on toys that are directly connected to the holiday in some way. Pumpkins and Jack-O'-Lanterns? Absolutely! Toys that are based on media connected to the holiday like Trick 'r Treat and Halloween? Bring 'em on! Toys…

Summer unfolds.

The Explorateur: Year 3!This is the 24th issue of The Explorateur, which makes next month's issue the start of its third year. As is tradition, here are a few updates and improvements.New title system. This issue is the first one with the month and year in its title. This will make it easier to know which issue is the newest at a glance. Keeping to the niche. In case it isn't obvious, The Explorateur is limited to design-focused links and resources. If it doesn't help rpg designers, it isn't…

October's offering is Planetfall, Steve Meretzky's first title. As usual, the source code repository is also live, licensed with the open-source MIT license. In addition, I've posted high-resolution scans of the original folio manual and feelies. The package promises space comedy. Notice that the Infidel package refers to Planetfall as "Infocom's nuu SF laf klasic". And yes, Meretzky is a dab hand with a tension-breaking joke. The mutants lap up the chemical, howling with delight. One…

It’s just so satisfying to look down at the clumps of hair shards covering the floor of the salon and think to yourself “That just came off of me!” Of course, the runner up to this feeling is when you notice a big hair haystack clinging for dear life onto your slippery nylon apron and then you just flick your fingers underneath it so it slides slowly down to its doom. AWESOME! Ready for more awesome? Get brand-new daily awesome things straight to your inbox: Photo from: here The post #581…

“So long and take it easy, because if you start taking things seriously, it is the end of you.” –Jack Kerouac Continuing on where its predecessor left off, Azur Lane: Slow Ahead!‘s second season opens with Akashi foisting a virtual reality game on Javelin, Z23, Ayanami and Laffey. After finishing their testing, the girls help […]

I should call this game Warlords of the Spring and Autumn, or something along these lines. This Reiner Knizia title was first released in 2005 in German, as Bankuberfall. An English edition was released in 2007, and it was called Gravediggers. A Japanese edition Bank Robbers was released 15 years later, in 2022, and so was the Chinese edition 《乱炖春秋》, which I would

I'm writing earlier in an effort to, IDK, write earlier so I'm not sitting there at 11:35pm thinking about the day that just happened and trying to figure out if anything that happened was worth mentioning. Or something. SMASH CUT TO: It is now ~11:35pm and I spent my whole day writing and editing posts about the WNBA Playoffs for the basketball-focused Substack I started with a friend the other day. As Tracy Jordan once said, "You want to make God laugh? Make a plan. Or read him a Dave Barry…

1 hour, 30 minutes | sequel post to [photos] in search of home: goodbye, southwest i was invited in the last few weeks to aak'w kwaan aani (juneau, AK) for a language revitalization gathering! despite working in sm'algya̱x for over 5 years at this stage, i've only had the opportunity to meet just one parent-child duo of learners in-person. i'm an internet kid by upbringing. i've always lived remotely from anyone i truly connected with, let alone other tsimshians, and i'm very used to keeping…

How was the month? Hectic school again. 17 credits is not for the weak. No idea how my friends manage like 20+ fucking credits and one fucking 30+. Inhuman. But at least these 17 credits are totally worth it; I get to complete a requirement early and take higher-level classes sooner. The classes themselves, though? Not going particularly well. Sigh. I want to feel useful and productive but I don't know how to achieve that… Period so bad I skipped a class on day 1 and left halfway through…

Work gives me a certain cheap sense of purpose that makes me feel good. And yes, I’m talking about corporate work, the 9-to-5, the most basic kind you can think of. It makes me feel good because every day I show up at the time I was told to, do what someone else asks me to do, and then leave at the time I’m allowed to leave. It’s incredibly easy. I don’t have to think about my next move; I don’t have to worry about whether projects succeed because they’re not mine. If the company goes under, I…

Thursdays in 1978 did not come to mind when I thought back on standout nights of television from my youth. But when I looked back at the schedule it was surprising how many shows that are still fondly recalled all aired on this same night. Nine of the 11 shows across all three networks would get DVD releases and are still streaming somewhere, a testament to their enduring popularity. ABCMork & MindyWhat’s HappeningBarney MillerSoapFamilyMork & Mindy was a huge and immediate success following…

The sheer beauty of Selway River whitewater never ceases to mesmerize me. Even at lower flows such as we saw backpacking in early July, the river’s power is unmistakable, but that power is always intertwined with grace. There’s an oft-repeated notion that Selway (Sélwe in Nimipuutimt, i.e. Nez Perce) means “smooth water”, or perhaps “easy canoeing” (as opposed to the Selway’s twin the Lochsa, allegedly “rough water”). I’ve been unable to find any support for this claim from a reliable source.…

Towers Near Brooklyn Bridge – New York, New York My wife and I got off at the Brooklyn Bridge subway station when we went to Chinatown. As we headed back to the station, I saw a cluster of skinny towers from different architectural eras. While all unique, they created a balance that I liked. It might be my imagination, but two of the newer buildings seem to echo the classic pointy designs of the earlier skyscraper. They add more architectural interest than a flat-topped roof. The Brooklyn…

In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Jasḵwaan Bedard, a Haida language educator and advocate from G̱aw Tlagée, Massett, Haida Gwaii, and Assistant Professor in the Indigenous Languages Program in the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University. Jasḵwaan’s work centres on X̱aad Kíl, the Old Massett or Northern Haida language, and on immersion, pedagogy, translation, transcription and language learning guided by Haida community laws and values. Jasḵwaan prefers the term language…

Wow. Just… wow! I’m pretty sure I was saying that yesterday, too. We’re going to run out of space. Last night, my brother and SIL picked up and dropped off another load of haskaps in large pots. I’d already gone to bed after taking my evening meds, so I wasn’t able to see them until … Continue reading So. Many. More!!!!

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.The Three Ws are:What are you currently reading?What did you recently finish reading?What do you think you’ll read next? Read more »

In my opinion, this vacuum cleaner sucks at sucking, I only got it due to the wife approval factor, and the fact it shares batteries with my power tools. If you’re looking to buy one regardless, buy the one with the normal plastic. If you’ve already made this mistake, then the replacement part name is 451235-0, and in Estonia it was about 6 EUR to get a replacement from an e-shop specialized in selling these parts. The replacement part only includes the plastic shell, you have to transfer over…

Recently, for reasons I shall not mention on this hand tools blog, I retrieved my old Fein Turbo II (model 9-55-13) shop vac from storage, where it's been for the last 13 years. It's probably 25 years old now. I mentioned this to a friend in passing and he said "Oh, make sure the sound-deadening foam isn't all falling apart. You'll know it is if you get black foam bits coming out of the exhaust." Well guess what - he was exactly right.The Fein shop vacBits of black foam all over the floorHe…