<unnamed>

Public Key

npub132c9y07x3njxdv6gn9sw9ccka7qa6yp9plrrhalaxhpl9r38axuqpcg5ml

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsg4vzj8lrgeerxkdyfjc8zuvtwlqwazqjsl33m7l7ntslj3cn7nwqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntnrcrhs

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Last Notes

2026-08-30 09:37:57 UTC

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Flashback to English school geography lessons on Scandilands: mountains, pine forests, hydro-electric power, matchsticks, and how to pronounce Jönköping and other -köpings.

2026-08-04 20:35:59 UTC

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Some Heinlein I liked very much. This one, no. Friday was worse, especially for a woman: he tried to write from a feminist point of view and missed.

2026-07-30 15:27:53 UTC

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I would prefer that they be stopped before they do that.
Do we trust them to know the difference between a rare book and a chicklit paperback?

2026-07-27 10:47:12 UTC

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An idea for investigation by anyone living near a wildfire area.

2026-07-24 12:13:04 UTC

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Ah, I was thinking of the village in Switzerland where I used to attend a music course during their off season - i.e. the month between ski-ing and hiking/climbing, when they did spring cleaning and repairs and cheap offers. Not keen on waste around there.
Sounds like your ski resorts would be very attractive for next summer. They don't have wildfires, do they?

2026-07-24 09:04:36 UTC

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Why aren't they used for other activities in summer?

2026-06-18 17:51:01 UTC

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Sounds useful. Will it cause any problem for those of us who mix languages?

2026-06-03 18:31:53 UTC

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I often feel wistful on summer evenings, as far back as I can remember. A kind of hiraeth for I know not what.

2026-05-10 21:32:42 UTC

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According to the definition, technocratic they most definitely are not.

2026-05-09 17:23:33 UTC

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I looked him up. Orthopædic surgeon, proper medical type, for health minister - oh yes! Way to go, Zsolt!

2026-04-26 08:15:10 UTC

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Your compositions? I love this morceau especially.

2026-04-23 08:02:14 UTC

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I don't like to dump things that still work (or even might be made to work by someone competent) so I've been holding off replacing it, with a phone that isn't Google or Apple, until September. Now may have to try to install a different OS.
Banking apps, though. Sigh.

2026-04-23 02:21:54 UTC

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I keep refusing the update, having regretted allowing the last one or four.

2026-04-11 08:20:39 UTC

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On coding non-Latin sounds with the Latin alphabet: it really doesn't work well for English, either. Putting in an 'h' to denote something that doesn't feature in Latin is bad enough, but trying to represent the plethora of English vowels with far too few letters is a mess. Still, it provides comedy.

2026-04-11 08:13:35 UTC

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The consonants wouldn't stump me, but the ä would. There are consonant groups in English too. However, some English people can't pronounce sequences of consonants in English (e.g. rendering umbrella as umb-uh-rella).
Swedish words are hard for an Anglo to pronounce from the spelling. I sang in a multi-lingual vocal group: Japanese ok, Czech yes, German and French a doddle, Swedish we had to take out of the concert programme. We'd have done better if we couldn't read the words.

2026-02-01 22:50:45 UTC

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A minor publisher. Author was a technical writer, worked on Shrek, and studies history.
And now pirates have turned up, fighting our heroes for the statues they found around Mykonos...

2026-02-01 22:18:06 UTC

Currently reading a series by a writer who confuses me. Some of the books go into delicious detail about 19th century archeology or botany, with verifiable descriptions of Sicily and Greek islands, but they are flanked by a volume or two of drivel interspersed with tedious sex scenes. And often amusing spelling mistakes! "An imminent professor" is a favourite. Fortunately all the technical terms are correct, because I frequently need to check something on Wikipedia.

2026-01-30 21:25:12 UTC

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I have downloaded some from [@gutenberg_org](https://mastodon.social/@gutenberg_org ) :-)

2026-01-30 20:13:54 UTC

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I feel sad that books I loved have disappeared, though I suppose it would be difficult to retain them all when so many new books come out.
Might you translate some of her other books? Not that I could read them - my only encounter with Swedish was singing a choral work, and even with a recording of the words for practice, it was hard work.

2026-01-30 19:22:50 UTC

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As a child I read a lot of Nesbit, but most of her books went out of fashion so I was delighted to see one in the children's section of the library. Took it home for small daughter. Fortunately, as it was a title I didn't know, I read it first. I hadn't known she also wrote horror for adults. Gave me nightmares.

2026-01-08 09:50:30 UTC

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No problem if applied to a fictional county. Barsetshire, etc.
Some USian writers' habit of making up *town* names ending -shire garners a totally different reaction of grrgrrrrGRR.

2025-12-31 13:31:14 UTC

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One of an enormous slew of decisions which damaged people other than themselves and their cronies.

2025-12-31 11:37:17 UTC

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I was with a company whose software R&D department had no preference (manager said education was for teaching people to think: the subject didn't matter). Then Head Office HR took over and insisted on computer science degrees.
A company with such central control probably isn't good to work for, anyway. There must be better.
Of course, if archeology is your love... :(
Parts of Britain restarted digs, after decades of uninterest. I suppose you know about BAJR. UK & low pay, though.

2025-12-26 12:13:25 UTC

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This is quite possibly the most frightening thing I've read about so-called AI.

2025-12-26 09:21:13 UTC

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Harrrmmonics!
Does the sound vary with the acoustics of the environment?

2025-12-20 12:08:59 UTC

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Both my sons were in a dance troupe from age 7, surrounded by girls who adored them. Older son, aged 12: "The other boys in my class at school are idiots. They won't talk to girls. Girls are interesting."
Both married now and still fending off women.

2025-12-16 16:07:35 UTC

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They were so fortunate, having a rich oral tradition. Bit further south all that had been rather trampled on by the boots of the Romans, much earlier.
I'm having flashbacks of having to translate large chunks of Julius Caesar's reports and memoirs of 1st century BC. Urgh.

2025-12-16 14:16:25 UTC

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Just the Latin, then? And Greek to the south.

2025-12-16 12:36:38 UTC

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Has "prehistory" been re-defined? It was taught in English schools (was, because dunno what Gove and his ilk have done now) as "before written accounts".
Trouble is, archeology has pushed back the dates of earliest written records in many places, so IDK. N Europe: is history Latin (Gallic wars etc) or runes?

2025-10-17 19:06:14 UTC

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There are sometimes good reasons for knowing gender. Very few times, I think.
Old habits?

2025-08-31 12:06:44 UTC

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I've seen "coronated", but only (so far) by USian writers.
After initial puzzlement the accompanying mental images are... very wrong.

2025-05-18 11:30:44 UTC

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On the interwebs I've learned of many curiously unfounded beliefs, including *some* men's about menstruation (even, shockingly, some married men). When I was a smol at school, the 10-11 year old girls were given a talk on menstruation. Didn't strike me until years later that the boys needed it too.

2025-05-16 16:12:06 UTC

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Good!
I'm fighting the temptation to keep checking the site until after the deadline. Watching those numbers mount could be addictive.

2025-05-09 13:05:39 UTC

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As well as other horrified reactions (being a tree-hugger), I think "What else might such as they do, and how could we hope to guard against such bizarre destructiveness?"

2025-03-10 16:08:38 UTC

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I was stumped by only being able to vote for one. It's one of those "What's your favourite?" questions where the correct answer is "it depends"... on how I feel, what's been happening, etc. It would also require measurements and computation.
All of the above plus pet-photos, gardening stuff, meal ideas, holiday and travel photos/videos, sky at night, trees, music, art, crafts...

2024-12-16 10:09:53 UTC

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I always loved that there were several archives of All the Books.
What are the effects of ebooks and self-publishing?

2024-11-15 09:01:42 UTC

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Ursula K Le Guin! Also for various types of government. A visionary.

2024-10-14 11:09:45 UTC

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with the Proper Illustrations :)

2024-10-07 08:14:31 UTC

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I'd prefer more Repair, Re-use, Restore, Re-purpose, to extend a slogan.
Aside: Is it true that Thatcher said people shouldn't have to live in a secondhand house? I hope it's not true because it's a weird opinion.

2024-09-01 11:51:53 UTC

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Reminds me of the opinion of a childless friend when someone asked why he was so concerned about the state of education in England. His furious reply (expurgated) was " Of course I'm worried! One day those kids will be in charge of the country and my pension!"

2024-08-13 10:35:16 UTC

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Standard textbook on my music degree (a more recent edition... and electronic).

2024-08-11 09:43:51 UTC

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Lovely photo and superb alt-text. Thank you for both.