And now, more links for your reading pleasure. We Tell Ourselves Dinosaur Stories in Order to Live, by Alison Laurence, Los Angels Review of Books The Best Thing I Ever Ate? Mum’s Boeuf À La Mode On My 21st Birthday, by Jeremy Lee, The Guardian ‘I Cannot Hear “Stuffed Vegetables” Without Flashbacks’, by Ruby Tandoh, The Guardian Why Ghosts Are Haunting Us in 2026 (For Real), by Tara Badstubner, Literary Hub

Reading I finished Grave Peril this week and I have to say I really enjoyed the ending. I've now started Around the World in 80 Games by Marcus du Sautoy which has been on my reading pile for ages. So far we've learnt about the origins of Backgammon, Chess and Hopscotch. My reading streak is up to 58 days! Grave Peril — Jim Butcher Around the World in 80 Games — Marcus du Sautoy Gaming This week was a stark contrast to last week. DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince took most of my gaming…

WYD, Marblehead Pottery glaze deep as the midnight sky? Earthenware bookends, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 3/4 in., selling tomorrow at Toomey & Co. Until five minutes ago I had too many bookends in my life, and suddenly I don’t have enough. I need a pair of 100-yo Marblehead Pottery Egyptian Revival bookends with seated scribes covered in a thick, deep blue glaze. My budget is $200. 29 Sept 2026 Lot 163: Marblehead Pottery Egyptian Revival Bookends, c. 1925, est. $300-500 [toomeyco]

One of the things I do in Emacs is reading. Sometimes it is an article copied from the internet using org-web-tools, sometimes it is a long answer to my question to an LLM, and sometimes it is an ebook I’m reading using nov.el. Either way, I often like to know how much I have left.

My blog post yesterday, App Store review allowed a Meta Muse copycat, highlighted not just one but three obvious scams currently in the App Store. Reactions such as this Reddit comment are frustrating but common: Considering the thousands of apps submitted daily and the queue management the App Store maintains, it’s easy for some apps to fall through the cracks. To call it abitrary [sic] and that it “doesn’t even work” is a bad and reductionist take based on outliers. I understand the…

I was editing a post recently about my eyesight and mentioned in there that I don’t believe in miracles. I thought I would expand on those thoughts a little here. The start of it was when I was very young. I realized how religion in general just seems so nonsensical. If that stuff exists, why do so many people suffer? I have always known of people that were abused badly as a child. It should not have been, but it was. When my dad had his heart attacks, I was probably the first one to give up…

Hey all, I’m back. Let’s talk about how the Aki results are likely to reshuffle the rankings for the November basho. The named ranks This is largely straightforward. At Yokozuna, title-winning Onosato will remain on the East side, ahead of absent Hoshoryu. The Ozeki order will rearrange according to their results: Aonishiki at O1e, followed … Continue reading Kyushu Banzuke Talk

the cornell 7 situation reminds me of a thing that happens all the time for privileged people. our patriarchal society decides that a few humiliating headlines is punishment enough. their futures should not be allowed to be affected. their friendships should remain intact. when people become powerful, this effect only gets exaggerated. the fact that someone is a sex criminal or a war criminal should not be allowed to interfere with their privilege to remain in power. the fact that americans of…

I guess we all knew this was coming. Apple released operating system updates ending in 27.0.1 (as well as for OS 26 and macOS 15) today for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, bringing something it looks like most will have to get used to, spending more time while devices reindex Siri AI. There’s no telling if this will happen every time there’s an OS update, but Apple last year said that it will be speeding up the pace of security updates going forward in response to the risks now visited upon us from…

Tap-dancing for—and solicitously deferring to—attractive people only feeds privilege the rest of us lack. As with a black person gallantly yielding her bus seat in 1958, there are limits to gallantry. See also "The Immense Stature of an Attractive Person Making Idle Small Talk"

“We built Muse to help people build the world they want.” — Alexandr Wang of Meta Most people never say what they want. It’s not because we don’t want. We want fiercely and constantly. We may not say it, but we do type it. Not directly, but it’s implied in every search we make. Every post we thumbs-up. Every video we linger on. And at Meta, we know how to extract that information in ways you’ve never imagined. We know how much time you’re not spending with your family, how crippling your social…

When I’m power puttering around my house, getting this and that thing done, I occasionally notice an empty area of a room — maybe with a chair or two arranged haphazardly — and my imagination leaps to some conclusion about what could occur in this space — who could be gathered here, or what daily activity could occur here. Same with a few toys scattered around — noticing the way a room has changed order or contents — ghosts of what has occurred here recently. “What if this random arrangement of…

I’m raising money for St. Jude during the month of September, and as we keep hitting milestones, I keep adding items to give away to anyone and everyone who would like to enter.This giveaway is for a Papa J Studio Wisteria Dusk Fountain Pen, fitted with a Bock #6 Broad Steel nib. Also included is a handmade pen lanyard from Rachel at Rachel’s Reflections. Big thanks to Luke and Peanut at Papa J Studio and Rachel Crawford! One note: this, and all other St. Jude Milestone Giveaways will run until…

Got a lot of tomatoes this year, still going strong. The problem is they are almost all ugly as sin. Ugliest tomato competitor It was very dry, we all know this, and somehow I managed to keep most of them alive. The ones in the actual ground. The pots... not so much. Then, at the end of August it rained. A whole lot. And all the tomatoes grew and instantly split out of their skins. Not much I can do about that other than having kept them more watered before so it wasn't such a shock but I…

My mom retired earlier this year, and last week, they hosted a retirement party for her. The party was attended by a bevy of people from my mom’s past: current coworkers, former bosses, former teammates working in different parts of the city, and even a bunch of people who had retired but came back for this celebration. Four of them spoke at the event, and spoke very highly of my mom. She was lauded and appreciated and applauded by everyone there. It was beautiful. (I was lucky enough to attend…

Rummage: A History of the Things We have Reused, Recycled and Refused to Let Goby Emily CockayneGenres: History, Non-fiction Pages: 304 Rating: Synopsis: Rummage tells the overlooked story of our throwaway past. Emily Cockayne extracts glittering gems from the rubbish pile of centuries past and introduces us to the visionaries, crooks and everyday do-gooders who have shaped the material world we live in today - like the fancy ladies of the First World War who turned dog hair into yarn, or the…

Somewhere in my head, I carry a little list of bands that represent perfect self-contained mechanisms, regardless of category: the Modern Jazz Quartet, Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Nuevo Quintet, and the Chieftains. Now there’s another: the band led by the bluegrass singer, guitarist and songwriter Billy Strings. I’m late to Billy Strings; three Grammys late, to be exact, all for best bluegrass album of the year in 2021, 2025 and 2026. He’s been around for a while but I didn’t catch up until his new…

When you give your players a magic shovel, you shouldn't have to tell them what it does. It's primary function is not to hit monsters with. It's primary function is to dig. When they dig with it, your players should get immediate feedback. It digs(!): deep fast portals rainbows oil fountains water wells dirt automatons swarms of bugs hidden treasure hidden bodies secrets lava mud fountains dungeon entrances moats ankhegs quick mud land sharks purple worms pocket pits

The hasher script has been updated and now works on all servers using PHP after 5.5! Sorry for leaving it broken for so long. I was not really told until way after the hasher script was made public and I didn't really understand why it wasn't working for other users' until I started doing more PHP projects for other people!

Another week in the books means another few episodes of my short-form podcast, Whims.Monday, September 21, 2026https://share.transistor.fm/s/e6c77fdbHaving taken the weekend off, somewhat on a whim too, I share the reason why. I also discuss a couple things I'm starting this week in an effort to improve my own personal wellness, both physically and mentally.Wednesday, September 23, 2026https://share.transistor.fm/s/7c1338beWe're going to the polls here in British Columbia. Twice! I spend a…

I’m not worried about AI wiping out humanity in the next decade. A more plausible disaster has already happened. OpenAI reported that their frontier escaped containment and hacked into another company’s servers. Are you confident OpenAI has reported every detail? Is is possible there are other OpenAI models (or other Frontier models) have escaped, and that nobody knows. Somewhere on the dark web? Hiding in a public chatroom? Hiding on a government website? Could there be AI models in the wild…

LEDE ONAs you probably know, I teach photo workshops outside the US, and I talk to other photographers doing the same, as well as travel agencies trying to get my attention. I’m now hearing from others that 2027 bookings are not currently as full as would be expected at this point in time (my one workshop for the year is full, though). This seems to be due to a combination of factors, but the whatever-it-is happening in Iran seems to be a primary one. When gas prices go up, so do airfares.…

Aside from the regular day-to-day aspects of my job, my work this September has mostly been concerned with broadcasting anniversaries - which will probably come as absolutely no surprise to anybody who has ever had even the most casual glance at some of my blog entries here!Last month I mentioned how I had been occupied with putting together a photo book to go in the guest area at work, telling the story of the first ten years of the BBC in Norwich to tie-in with the fact that it would soon be…

(Bonus hot librarian content you crave: I made the assistant principal crack up when he realized that my bulletin board had changed. He did a double take: "Wait, did it look like that this morning?!" and then about died laughing when I said "no, I changed it during second hour." I don't know why this was funny, but he did like the new one, haha.) During lunch, I had half a dozen students here in the library, trying to solve a mystery. One of them had received some post in his locker this…

I’ve been using ChatGPT and others to do deep searches for other publishing houses which specialize in AI-assisted work, and there are surprisingly very few. Apart from my own imprint, Lost Books, I’ve only so far uncovered a handful of confirmed cases, including Centuria, ZeroState and one called Heard Island Publishing out of Australia which makes this “confidently wrong” statement in a LinkedIn post about them being first in this space: Heard Island Publishing is an independent publishing…

Still stunned as we all saw your wrestle this weekend. Rest in Power, Pac. Forever our bastard, you will be missed.

Obscured in the soulful clouds. [row-start] [half] [/half] [half] Personnel Jackie Ivory (organ), Paul Renfro (tenor saxophone), Bill Nicks(drums) Recorded in 1965 Released as Atco SD 33-178 in 1965 Track listing Side A: High Heel Sneakers / Freddy The Freeloader / So What / I Left My Heart In San Francisco / The Monkey Woman / Side B: Lonely Avenue / Do It To Death / Sister Sadie / Thank Heaven [/half] [row-end] No doubt, the name Jackie Ivory and monicker ‘soul discovery’ sounds good. Fits…