Sunday, May 25th, 2025 10:22 pm
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Seed Pod. Mixture of watercolor and markers.

I made sushi for Sunday dinner tonight. That's always a popular meal with everyone. I got out the Shut The Box game and we actually got Sebastian to play. He never plays. It was a momentous occasion. Jules played too. He's hard to get to play games most the time but not as hard as Sebastian. I think Shut The Box is a good game to draw people in. Everyone is moving little clacking wooden levers and the sound of the dice is attractive too. It's mostly all luck but there's some decisions that need made.
Sunday, May 25th, 2025 10:19 pm
Red sky at night, superheroes' fright.
Red sky in the morning, superheroes' warning.

Comics fans will either know or quickly learn why Wolfman and Perez are named here.

Scalzi? Here's why.

https://bsky.app/profile/scalzi.com/post/3lpzynapmmc2q
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Sunday, May 25th, 2025 11:00 pm

Posted by Samuel Pepys

(Lord’s day). To trimming myself, which I have this week done every morning, with a pumice stone,1 which I learnt of Mr. Marsh, when I was last at Portsmouth; and I find it very easy, speedy, and cleanly, and shall continue the practice of it. To church, and heard a good sermon of Mr. Woodcocke’s at our church; only in his latter prayer for a woman in childbed, he prayed that God would deliver her from the hereditary curse of child-bearing, which seemed a pretty strange expression. Dined at home, and Mr. Creed with me. This day I had the first dish of pease I have had this year. After discourse he and I abroad, and walked up and down, and looked into many churches, among others Mr. Baxter’s at Blackfryers. Then to the Wardrobe, where I found my Lord takes physic, so I did not see him, but with Captn. Ferrers in Mr. George Montagu’s coach to Charing Cross; and there at the Triumph tavern he showed me some Portugall ladys, which are come to town before the Queen. They are not handsome, and their farthingales a strange dress. Many ladies and persons of quality come to see them. I find nothing in them that is pleasing; and I see they have learnt to kiss and look freely up and down already, and I do believe will soon forget the recluse practice of their own country. They complain much for lack of good water to drink. So to the Wardrobe back on foot and supped with my Lady, and so home, and after a walk upon the leads with my wife, to prayers and bed.

The King’s guards and some City companies do walk up and down the town these five or six days; which makes me think, and they do say, there are some plots in laying. God keep us.

Footnotes

Read the annotations

Sunday, May 25th, 2025 03:06 pm
This book is about how the rise of tiny pocket computers has been bad for children. It goes after, not only the pocket computers, but social media and video games. The video games bit feels a little "old man yells at clouds" and reminds me of the concern trolling about metal music and rap music. It just feels like someone doesn't like video games and has not played them with their friends.

Chapters five, six and seven are probably the most important parts of this book. Chapter five talks about social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and addiction.

Then chapter six insists that social media harms girls more than it harms boys. Basically, girls and boys use social media differently. The girls are more social online, and this can make disorders that are social worse. For example, eating disorders can become worse when girls engage in social media. If you are interested in girls sports, social media will be happy to send you down an anorexia rabbit hole. Self-harm can become worse when girls are discussing it. There are girls who do not have dissociative identity disorder acting like they have it because they see it on the internet, and it seems cool. The same thing happens with Tourette syndrome. Girls are more affected by visual social comparison. Their aggression is relational. They will harm each other's friendships to attack one another. Girls share emotions and disorders. It says that girls are more subject to predation and harassment, but I think we should worry about boys with this too because over the past few years there have been sextortion scams against teen boys that have led to suicide.

Chapter seven on boys is more vibes-based. Boys are not engaging socially on the internet. They are watching a bunch of YouTube and playing video games. Haidt leans heavily into Johann Hari's book Stolen Focus that I reviewed here about two years ago. This chapter has graphs, but it is vibes-based because they did not actually find evidence of pocket computers harming boys in the literature. There is some discussion about how boys fail to launch, and hikikomori, a Japanese term for man children who hide in their rooms and come out at night when the rest of the family is asleep. There is a section on boyhood without real-world risk that was common in boyhood before. Mary Pat Campbell, an actuary, likes to discuss "the fatal stupid period" where boys are taking the type of risks that lead to their own deaths. The age range that she is discussing is probably in the early twenties while the one that Haidt is discussing is in the teens. Anyway, the chapter on boys discusses a lot of addictions that are not real like "video game addiction" and "porn addiction." I mean, people can choose not to control themselves with this stuff and can get into repetitive habits, but classifying a bunch of this as addiction feels like people should be exerting some self-control. Haidt mentions that the research on video games shows that video games have benefits.

Then in Chapter 8, he talks about spiritual degradation, and how people should have spiritual practice. This is the type of Haidt nonsense that drives me up the wall. If you think spiritual practice is important, then let us know what spiritual framework you are working in. A lot of people are honest about what religion they are operating in but Haidt always has a spiritual view from nowhere in his books. There was a graph with an x-y-z axis in this chapter to make it feel more science-y. My son was looking over my shoulder and made fun of it. The x axis was closeness. The y axis was hierarchy, and the z axis was divinity.

Chapter 10 is asking for laws, and it mentions that the Age Appropriate Design Code was passed in the UK. Then it mentions the US Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). A lot of people were concerned about KOSA because some implementations seem to want companies that are doing bad things with user data to collect more user data on children. Haidt proposed that the information be gathered by a third party, but having a third party gather the information does not reduce the risk of a database of children's information being out there. He suggested blockchain could fix this problem, but I am not sure how blockchain could fix this problem. This chapter discusses how congress has been pretty useless on passing laws related to tech, and he is correct on that one.

This book seemed very tech-forward for a book that is telling you to keep your kids away from phones. It is talking about blockchain and AI as if these are useful things. It is talking about the metaverse as if it is a positive thing. And some of this stuff like the metaverse has not actually proven to be useful in any way at all. With AI, it is just too soon to tell, and we probably should not be throwing AI at kids just to find out if it is useful or if they are going to be using it to generate porn.

Chapters 11 and 12 about what schools can do and what parents can do were a lot stronger than some of the earlier chapters.

The Facebook whistleblower testimony from Frances Haugen was mentioned in this book, and that was some of the stronger stuff about the ages of kids Facebook is collecting information on.

There are probably a lot of people doing research on Human Computer Interaction who have studied the behavior of teens online, but the folks who worked on this book did not look into any of that it seems. I think it would have been stronger if they looked into some of the research in that field.
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Sunday, May 25th, 2025 06:00 pm

Last week's bread seemed to be holding out but got very dry and was eked out with the rolls.

Friday night supper: the rather ersatz 'Thai fried rice' with Milano and Napoli salami.

Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, something like 60:40 strong white/white spelt flour (end of bag of the latter).

Today's lunch: venison crumble, with this diced ragu which is more or less rather more finely diced than usual venison, cooked in a moderate oven in red wine with shallots and garlic and a few juniper berries for a couple of hours and then a crumble topping of 2:1:1 strong wholemeal flour/strong white flour/pinhead oatmeal + butter + seasoning + crushed coriander seeds (I think I made rather more of this than I usually do) spread on and baked in somewhat hotter oven for a further 30 minutes; served with Boston beans roasted in pumpkin seed oil with fennel seeds and splashed with gooseberry vinegar, and baby pak choi stirfried with star anise.

Sunday, May 25th, 2025 11:53 pm
It's late Autumn and getting colder so I threw together a crumble topping for the big pot of stewed apples I'd made. It worked really well - mostly luck as I ad libbed it.

Apples
: washed, cored, chopped small but not peeled, stewed with a cinnamon stick and 3 cloves, a few squeezes lemon juice and raw sugar. Add as little sugar as possible so it's sweet, but still a little tart. Simmer well until the skins are soft, about 30 min.
(Equivalent vol. of about 8 Granny Smith apples although half of mine were sweeter red-striped ones)

Crumble:
1.5 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups rolled oats blended to a coarse flour
4 Tbsp butter, cut up and rubbed in until the mix is a crumble

Then mix in
0.5 tsp salt
1 cup shredded dessicated coconut
0.75 cup chopped walnuts
0.75 cup brown sugar

Remember to get the cloves and cinnamon stick out! (or use powdered spices). Top the stewed apples with crumble and bake for 30 min at 180C (355F) with a foil cover. Then remove foil and give it a last few min uncovered. I had it with cream, also great with Greek yoghurt. Or ice-cream if you like it sweeter!

This made 5 crumble serves and used about 1/2 of the apples - I had the rest of the apples with yoghurt for a few breakfasts.

Sunday, May 25th, 2025 08:35 am
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Blossom Tree. Played around last night with masking fluid on a Q-tip and watercolor on cold pressed paper.

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Today's doodle: Enclosed. Watercolor and I used the biggest quill brush.

Leaving soon to go shopping with Jules. It's still cold (for end of May). 40F right now. 
Sunday, May 25th, 2025 07:44 am
A note to anybody who wants to read this: I get the impression that we're supposed to think that the "original" book was written with prose so purple it might as well have been in grape-scented marker. The effect can be a little much, but hey, at least nobody gazes outward with a glint in their silvery orbs, limpid, lambent, or otherwise! But yeah, if you aren't able to get into it within a chapter or two, that's not going to improve itself.

I liked it, but to be fair, I like most things I read.

Oh, one more warning - somebody at Goodreads was going on about the fact that the author either misunderstood or willfully misused the term "Ladies in Waiting" for this book. I don't quite agree that it's something to get so annoyed about, but we've all got our thing. I don't like books which have potatoes in pre-Columbian Europe (or not!Europe). You'll all be pleased to note that I observed no potatoes in this book.

Spoilers )
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 09:23 pm
I still see a lot of Tesla sedans around here, and have yet to see one with an anti-muskrat bumper sticker. It's possible some of them belong to people who work for the company. But I'm seeing fewer Cybertrucks. However, today I almost fell over on my walk when one passed me on the other side of the road—in hot pink, with some graffiti'd brand name on its arse.
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 11:00 pm

Posted by Samuel Pepys

To the Wardrobe, and there again spoke with my Lord, and saw W. Howe, who is grown a very pretty and is a sober fellow. Thence abroad with Mr. Creed, of whom I informed myself of all I had a mind to know. Among other things, the great difficulty my Lord hath been in all this summer for lack of good and full orders from the King; and I doubt our Lords of the Councell do not mind things as the late powers did, but their pleasures or profit more. That the Juego de Toros is a simple sport, yet the greatest in Spain. That the Queen hath given no rewards to any of the captains or officers, but only to my Lord Sandwich; and that was a bag of gold, which was no honourable present, of about 1400l. sterling. How recluse the Queen hath ever been, and all the voyage never come upon the deck, nor put her head out of her cabin; but did love my Lord’s musique, and would send for it down to the state-room, and she sit in her cabin within hearing of it. That my Lord was forced to have some clashing with the Council of Portugall about payment of the portion, before he could get it; which was, besides Tangier and a free trade in the Indys, two millions of crowns, half now, and the other half in twelve months. But they have brought but little money; but the rest in sugars and other commoditys, and bills of exchange. That the King of Portugall is a very fool almost, and his mother do all, and he is a very poor Prince.

After a morning draft at the Star in Cheapside, I took him to the Exchange, thence home, but my wife having dined, I took him to Fish Street, and there we had a couple of lobsters, and dined upon them, and much discourse. And so I to the office, and that being done, Sir W. Pen and I to Deptford by water to Captain Rooth’s to see him, he being very sick, and by land home, calling at Halfway house, where we eat and drank. So home and to bed.

Read the annotations

Saturday, May 24th, 2025 08:35 pm
 Here is the archived version of the article from the Daily Mail. (Does not give them clicks.)

I do not believe this far-fetched story because 1. I don't see Freddie as a faithful diarist and 2. Unless there are also secret recordings, he never wrote songs about this beloved child, or about beloved children, or about children. He wrote songs about cats. He wrote songs about Mary. He wrote songs about men. No "secret child of my heart" song? 3. Entire story of secretive child who wants this news out there while remaining private is ridiculous. 

I sort of wish it was true. I will probably read the book anyway. But I really can't believe it.

What about y'all? Am I being too skeptical? 



ETA: I meant to post this to [community profile] freddiemercuryfans but posted it here by mistake, but I guess that's OK. 
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 05:40 pm
 Didn't get to post this yesterday. 

Some people are  more surprised than others by this turn of events...

... one of them for different reasons... )




But why wait?
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 05:09 pm
I accidentally walked up on this lovely heron at the lake today (US Midwest, small man-made lake that just happens to be close enough for me to walk to), and he was obliging enough to stand still until I had a chance to get out the camera! I see a lot of birds out there every year (right now we also have ducklings, a small geese population, and a lot of red-winged blackbirds), but this is the closest I've ever gotten to one of the herons, and I thought this community might like to see him.

a gray and black heron taking flight from a lake

Fairly sure it's a great blue heron, though I'm not a bird-identifying expert.
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 12:07 pm
Donald had concert tickets on Thursday night.  He was prepared to take public transit down to and back from SF, which would have taken him at least 10 hours of transit time to do a 4 hour round trip. Added to that; We have pretty much decided on a contractor to do the rebuilding project in SF and that contractor is asking us to clear the whole garage.  Eeeekk!  There is 20 years of stuff in that garage.  We knew the "stuff" would need to be pared down and have been working on it;  but total removal?  That is a big job.   There were four items that I was struggling to figure out how to move: my good table saw, my dust collection system, a lime tree and a lemon tree.   All four are too big to get into my car, or even M's Suburban,  and three of the four were heavy enough that I wanted help loading.   Out of the blue my friend Mike B. contacted me. Something about a little fire that Watch Duty reported up here.  We texted back and forth a few times before I asked if he would mind moving my four items in his truck.  He would - but as any good stagehand does, he wouldn't commit to when he was available.   I spent the evening on Thursday and the morning on Friday disconnecting and removing the dust collector and at least some of its piping.  The table saw also needed to be taken apart:  the third party fence came off, the extension table was removed and the two, heavy, cast iron "wings" on either side of the body of the saw were unbolted.  The butcher-block table was removed from the back wall of the shop. I pruned the lemon and the lime trees severely, removing more than half the wood (they needed it, the lime had lots of dead branches, the lemon had lots of branches that some critter (rats?) chewed the bark off of).  They will be happy about the pruning once they get over the shock.  I called Mike on Friday morning.  Thankfully he was not working.
It was SO nice to work with someone who is used to moving heavy things, and does it regularly.  We loaded his truck with my four items, plus a couple of other things that were bulky.  My car was filled with dust collection pipe, and the first load of things like clamps and wood stains. Also some boxes of folk music on CD's.  Wood and some PVC pipes were on top.  Driving north took 4 hours to do a trip that normally takes 2 hours.  Miserable.  Mike stayed the night rather than drive back last night.  We had a nice visit.
My friend Kim had booked herself, and her new pup Twix, for a dog training class.  Twix is a 6 year old, tiny Jack Russell Terrier, who is just sweet. Kim really wanted me to come to the class with her. Of course the class was this morning.  The instructor supplied a 2' square mat, and a chair for each of the 6 human/canine teams, spaced around a warehouse room. She went over basic commands: place (the mat), sit, down, stand, off, look (at me) and leave it.  She stressed that dogs are visual learners. She showed how to use a treat to help position the dog. Chena was majorly distracted by Other Dogs. Over all though Chena was by far the best trained dog in the room and did keep reasonably good focus.  The two new commands for us; "Look" and "Stand" were challenging.  I've been struggling to teach Chena "stand".  The instructor said: start with the dog sitting take a treat in front of your dog's nose and move it forward.  Sure enough this method was very clear to Chena and she stood.   Sadly I won't get to next week's class, I'm off judging in Martinez, but will resume for the final two.
Ok, time to go unload the last things from the car.


Saturday, May 24th, 2025 04:15 pm
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Hills. Playing around, experimenting with watercolors and a new set of brushes.

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They're called "quill" watercolor brushes - very soft and full but they make a nice point too. I've never used quill type brushes before. It takes some getting used. I really like the look of them though - especially the way the ferrules are cinched with wire.

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Flowers. Acrylic paint. For this one I used another new art supply - masking fluid. I laid out details on the paper first with that. I have a lot to learn in how to use it to best effect. It will be fun to experiment some more. I haven't even tried the new cold pressed watercolor paper I got yet.

Now back to real life. Housework. A house that needs cleaned for company tomorrow. The weather is still cold. 54F at the moment. I want to get out for a walk down back. At least it's not raining.
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 02:02 pm
Nice to be here.  Here at the long weekend, here posting, here on my own computer.  Here with the coffee circulating in me.  Here after my meeting. Here with cats sleeping and the heat on cuz here it's the end of May and still chilly outside.  Here breathing.  Here.

Glimpses of clarity on what-all is and isn't my responsibility:  thank you for popping in.  How can I make you comfortable?  Would you like a cup of tea?  Probably not, hunh.  FWIW, I declare you welcome.  You delight me.  Let's hang out more.

Just added a buncha movies and shows to watchlists.  Been prone to rewatch stuff, or watch some mediocre thing in front of me, rather than seek out new and new old things.

House painting coming up.  Kinda exciting.  Nervous, as always, about what the workers/contractor'll be like, but there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Time to make something to eat.  Weekend's moving quickly already.
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 10:26 am
My college chum H, with a couple of days notice, told me that she & her hubby were coming up to Seattle for the Folklife festival, and could we get together? Shyeah! She was even willing to get on a bus, so we met in lower Fremont, ate some malatang at 19 Gold, walked around while I played tour guide, had some mead at Mr. B's, and then had to walk all the way to Wallingford to find a stop for their bus that wasn't closed! Even in sensible heels, it was a hike for me.

But yes, it was a lovely evening!

In other news, Good Sister is hip deep in the nitty gritty of plans for fixing up and selling Mom's house. I applaud her, and once again I think I have to whack somebody if she says to. Not that she would ever do that.

And what have I been doing instead of writing Dreamwidth entries? Hanging homemade devil girls* up high with the Wendling's help, staying up too late reading The Expanse, and cleaning up for a joint visit by Dancer and the Tickler. Ahem.



*Based on a drawing from Stjepan Šejič's "Fine Print".
Saturday, May 24th, 2025 04:51 pm

Do we think this trip is doomed already???

My best friend Kady and I are planning a backpacking trip around south-east Asia in a few months and I have proposed the idea of us getting matching tattoos:

We’re both 20, and I think we’ll look back on them when we’re older and remember what a fun life we’ve lived. Tattoos are a reminder of a particular time, and I want to cherish our youth. I’ve found a cool tattoo parlour in northern Thailand, where we’ll be staying. I’ve seen videos of people having great experiences there and the tattoo artist is really talented.... It’s not like I want to get a random tattoo. I’m quite creative and have already started sketching ideas that represent who Kady and I are.

You're 20, duckie....

***

In other gruesome news, okay, it is not one bloke spreading his seed to 100s, but I'm not actually sure that 'a worldwide limit of 75 families for each sperm donor' as applied by the European Sperm Bank isn't somewhat on the high side, even when it doesn't turn out further down the line with more sophisticated testing that a donor has a rare cancer-causing mutation.

***

And this is sad, rather than gruesome, and makes me wonder about the whole marketing of the 'freezing eggs' thing as 'a groundbreaking act of empowerment', especially as it hasn't turned out like that:

I did not anticipate the emotional landscape that I would face a decade later, as a scientific intervention became a personal meditation on time, money, and unfulfilled dreams.