Abstain from LLMs for a month challenge? I just stumbled on the No Sloptober page and it sounds like a fun idea to try. I'm not sure I will, though. While some projects I work on require me to use AI for coding or process (WoW) related activities, most of my day to day things are technically also feasible without any help from the bots. Think of this as a fast for your mind! This is not a judgement of others, but a personal challenge to you. At this point, I have been a software developer for…

It’s Wednesday so here we go again with progress from our members. We start this week with Mark J and another building for his Arnhem project, there will be lots more about that in the coming months. Moving on and Andy has gone from painting small 28mm sci-fi to painting big 28mm sci-fi. Here we have the start of some Konflikt 47 Stahltruppen Heavy Infantry. Sticking with sci-fi and Tony F has painted himself a miniature for his character in a game of Traveller. The last couple of years have…

Bel AirNikon N90s28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D NikkorAristaPan 100Bellini Ecofilm 1+12026 This 1953 Chevrolet at a car show had rust spots. Yet it had all of its chrome trim. Is it partially restored, or just a car that had great luck keeping all of its bits across the decades? Get more of my photography in your inbox or reader! Click here to subscribe.

Stumbling into success. Read here.

For some reason over the last week, Insta has shown me videos of disabled British people having problems with accessibility, flights, railways, coffee shops. Its appalling that in this day and age accessibility isn't simply the default and should something break alternative arrangements not be made immediately to accommodate people. However - there is one form of discrimination that still pervades society and needs to be stamped out. I speak of discrimination against the tall. I'm 2m tall…

My son's friend just killed himself. He was only 21 years old. My son knew him since high school days. My son is distraught from the news. This friend introduced obstacle racing to him. Given that my son is socially awkward, he really cherished this friendship. He was a popular student; he has multiple interests from culinary to Ninja Warrior. According to the family, this person did not want to die but he kept hearing voices inside his head. Sadly, the voices won. I do not want to speculate…

Today’s morning journaling. Recalling a generous free hour given decades ago by a talented business consultant. I was a writer with only one small book in print, the other self-published run of 300 long sold out. I had no assets or entrepreneurial skills. Gushing with Grand Ideas for future books and add-on ‘passive income’ (the new term I'd just discovered), Bob reined me in immediately. [paraphrasing] ‘This will sound like a very odd question to begin with, but it will shape your entire…

One of the big non-rules changes I’ve made to Intergalactic, just added in the latest update, is a downgrade of galactic communication. So far it’s been fun to play with, and creates a groundwork that dodges some of the issues with a game with abundant long range communication.CommunicationSpace is not a silent void, but is loud and thick with the stuff of the stars, rippling in the wake of the god-lanterns. This renders wireless communication almost impossible. Short Distance - Wires, Pipes,…

"Hearts on Fire" by Gram Parsons What’s a song you’ve had on repeat recently? Hearts on Fire by Gram Parsons If by recently, if you mean for the last twenty years. View Lou Plummer's Crucial Tracks profile

Can a landscape be still and noisy at the same time? There is a wonderful haiku by Matsuo Bashō that plays on this paradox: 'shizukasa ya / iwa ni shimiiru / semi no koe'. The first word means 'stillness' and the cutting word 'ya' suggests that this applies to everything that follows: 'penetrating into the rocks, voices of the cicadas.' We might imagine the poet becoming gradually aware that the constant sound of these insects is permeating everything, even the rocks, even himself. Haiku…

https://www.bram.us/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/show-keystrokes.mp4Recording of the <show-keystrokes> Demo & Playground. ~ When recording screen casts or doing live demos, I typically rely on a native macOS app to visualize my keystrokes on screen. Recently, however, that app got blocked on my work machine by a corporate security policy. Additionally, the keystrokes visualized through that app don’t show up when screen sharing a specific window or tab. Because I needed to demo a…

Safari 27 adds scroll anchoring, tighter HTTP caching, and static Service Worker routes, while Chrome improves performance tooling.

Petromasculinity not only kills people on the road. It spills into our politics, fuelling far-right individualism. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 17th September 2026 Where is lawbreaking not just visible, but designed to be seen? Where is antisocial behaviour worn as a badge of honour? Where is pleasure gained directly from causing distress? And where is reckless endangerment often ignored by the police or treated with the mildest of punishments? The answer is on the roads. Last…

These are the countries of the world as drawn by over 3,000 people on the Borderline country border game.The object of Borderline is very simple. You are shown a map without borders and asked to draw the outline of a named country. You are then scored on the accuracy of your drawn border. The scoring appears to be based on two measures of accuracy. The game calculates how far the real border is, on average, from your drawn line. The game also compares the length of your line with the actual…

1964 war, dir. Sidney Lumet, Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau: IMDb. Once the machinery of apocalypse has been started, do you even want to stop it?

In the second week of my superintendency in the mid-1970s, the head of the principals group (there were 35 schools in the Arlington, VA school district), met me in the stairwell of the Administration building and we chatted a few moments about the weather and the beginning of the school year. He leaned toward me and whispered whether I would like to join a Friday night poker game with a small group of veteran principals in the district. He added that my predecessor and key district…

The Man of Steel #5 Date: 1986 Publisher: DC Comics Cover Price: 75¢ 2013 NM Price: $4.00 Stats: 23 color pages plus 12 page "Mask" insert and ads Writer & Penciller: John Byrne Other Artists: Dick Giordano, John Costanza, Tom Ziuko Notable Notes: The origin of Bizarro! Are There Any Good Clones? Why is it that in science fiction in general, and comics specifically, the cloning process always seems to have some fatal flaw? Has no big-brained superhero figured out how to correctly do it yet?…

It is fall, and even though not much changes here, the light becomes low and golden. I feel like every season is my favorite time of year when it arrives, but this time, I really mean it. Here is a beautiful tree of gold from a trip to Japan, and here’s a post I wrote about that tree, another moment of golden light. I fell in love in Japan. He was older, and so very tall. There was a glow about him, warm as sunshine. I could have sat and watched him for hours. Even though we didn’t have that…

I'm all in favour of small breweries diverging from the ubiquitous craft styles, but a Rotbier, Rascals? I'm not, generally, a fan of Nuremberg's totemic red lager. This example at the Rascals taproom, Pilot #155, is 5.2% ABV and immediately departs from the Franconian standard by being a gorgeous clear shade of copper. Clean look, clean taste: primarily crisp with a hint of near-Schwarzbier toasted grain. Only then does the caramel and red liquorice creep in, and while that taste profile does…

Spooky season is here! 🦇 I’ve never read this classic, so… what better time than now? *Still in progress* 🏃Hey, thanks for reading my blog via the RSS feed! Feel welcome to get in touch!

My brother suggested this book to me, and I loved it! It’s a fascinating idea, but I’m glad I’m not the only one to have found the final scene confusing! Rating: 😵‍💫🫨Hey, thanks for reading my blog via the RSS feed! Feel welcome to get in touch!

Bikes are cool. Easy to get around, cheap, convenient, lots of parking opportunities, fun to ride. They're also pretty easy to maintain yourself - one of the biggest benefits of bikes and something I've always wanted to like but in reality, dreaded. Even the simple acts of oiling & tensioning the chain felt like a draaaaaaaaaaaaag. Until today. Whilst doing brake maintenance, I somehow found a strange kind of peace and calmness in the mundane act. Screwing screws, tightening cables, making sure…

Double Maths First Thing is “Ruining Christmas” Hello! My name is Colin and I am a mathematician on a mission to spread the joy and delight of mathematical thinking and practice. I’m currently experiencing the joy of being told by Helen Arney that she liked I Like The Pope. Helen Arney liked my song! The whole Pseudorandom Ensemble show at MathsWorld was a blast, and we were glad to have Helen warm the crowd up for us. (She’s working on a musical about Cambridge’s first all-female fire brigade,…

🚴 Morning commute to the office. Happy to have gone by bike again.

September 23, 2026 Always a favorite post for me! It takes HOURS and HOURS to find things that even come close to the “new” colors, but it’s always weirdly fun… I’m a weirdly fun woman! First, a painting that I’ve seen a few times in the last few weeks, which reminded me of these colors: Just a random art gift, from me to you! What’s the point of an accent color, anyway? For me, when you have all of the core colors of your wardrobe chosen, and you own sufficient neutral things to be able to get…

Desert Brat 2026-09-23

Power Cat 2026-09-23

I don’t know if the owner recognises me but he is asking a lot of questions. How is the focaccia? Is the wine okay? What do I think of the menu, the pasta, and the pizza? I answer, mostly, in nods and half smiles, telling him on one occasion, half-jokingly, that I am difficult to please. Sophie says that my face is incapable of lying. He tells me that he wants the truth, and, quite brazenly, that he wants “the worst reviews in the world now so that they can get better”. Okay, the focaccia needs…

Have you ever printed a web page or thought about how your website looks like if someone were to print it? Let this short guide provide you a starting point on your journey to make the reader’s experience better if they decide to print your page. Why should you make your web page printable? There are a lot of different reasons why someone would print a website in 2026. First is to read a longer piece in a better format. Reading from paper is generally better for your eyes than staring a screen.…