MICROBLOG
Julian Simpson is about to start fundraising for his next Lovecraft Investigations project, Crowley. VERY exciting news.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crowleyaudio/1209935413?ref=31yl3f#lovecraftinvestigations
I’m sitting in the glorious warmth of the sunshine in our backgarden. I’ve picked up a terrible cold but sitting here is retorative.#blog
LBC radio this morning: how awful it is that millionaires & billionaires are being taxed more. Those guys are barely breaking even, work so hard, are already so generous. So sad that they are cash poor and asset rich. On the other hand the idle poor are just so idle and in their idleness are idling away their days on benefits. Idlers. We're going to miss those millionaires & billionaires when they leave the UK. Those idle poor aren't going to be leaving the UK – they can't afford it. Bastards.
“UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill.”Hmmm. I’m sure I saw this years ago. Wasn’t it a tv series called Person of Interest? Or Spielberg movie? Or Philip K Dick novella?Hmmm… UK’s Ministry of Justice seems to be developing Pre-crime which they called “homicide prediction project”.We are really now living in the future.https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/08/uk-creating-prediction-tool-to-identify-people-most-likely-to-kill#uk #ukpolitics
Bloomin' dual booting! Somehow I've messed up. Tried as much as I can but I just can't make the linux install visible in the bootloader. I'm going to try one more clean OSX+Ubuntu install. My instinct (and my head is telling me to ditch OSX and single boot Ubuntu… I'm heading in that direction anyhow.#blog #tech
And while I’m on about techy things, the improvements to NextCloud are very much welcome. I forget how much I rely on NextCloud these days. #nextcloud #tech #blog
Thank Goodness for Open Core Legacy Patcher. Upgraded my 2012 MacBook to Ventura (I guessed that trying to run Sequoia is probably trying my arm a little too far). Those pesky apps that wouldn’t run on my “obsolete” MacBook now work again.#OCLP #tech #blog
V E R Y F E D UP with enforced obsolescence of tech. I really don't need the cosmetic upgrades and, now, the so-called AI-integrations. Most of my day-to-day devices are nearly 15 years old and work perfectly. I'm stll using OSX (through habit, convenience and because it ties up with my iphone more than anything) and must make more use of linux. It's just laziness on my part.#tech #blog
In a country like the UK where over half the adult population drink alcohol almost daily and a quarter drink excessively, this new research out of John Hopkins – that shows the detrimental effect on longer-term decision making (memory, strategic thinking) – most likely explains a great deal.(The effects seem to NOT been seen in the brains of females. Make what you want of that.)https://futurism.com/neoscope/alcohol-brain-damage-study#alcohol
"They are German singing Power Rangers!"I've become strangely fascinated with Dschinghis Khan.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsr3YYPk4A2rG6V88CwWTFA
While I was at hospital today, I bought a copy of Frank Herbert’s Dune from the hospital’ League of Friends shop for £1. I first read Dune when I was 12. I re-read it again about 15 years ago but not read further on than this in the series. (This copy is UNREAD & in perfect condition. Makes me wonder how many people have bought a novel like this & not even opened it. Also a shame that the publish puts “NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE” on the front. Does that actually increase sales?)#booksbuy
After finding the Brothers Grimm movie souvenir book yesterday, I sought out and bought (for £1) the DVD version of the 1952 Hans Christian Anderson movie starring Danny Kaye. Not sure why these films have caught my attention other than maybe some vague memories of watching them on tv when I was a small child. Maybe I’ll try and show them to my children – but I can imagine they’ll find them quite odd and so removed from them culturally that they won’t even attempt to watch. #blog #movies
I read Pippa Bailey's cover feature about the purpose of school eductation in this week's New Statesman with interest. Sadly, it takes the comments of almost-exclusively right-wingers as gospel (such as the unverified "standards have improved"). Arch-Tory, Kenneth Baker, is presented as a progressive! Blimey.What you learn from the piece is that nothing will change in schools other than AI will be used to "improve" standards.https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2025/04/what-is-school-for#ukeducation #education #schools
Sunny days are always an opportunity to charge all those little devices. Slow, but you can charge a device in a morning or aftrnoon.#blog
Book buy this morning: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm. It’s a souvenir book of George Pal’s 1962 fantasy biopic of Jacob and Wilelm Grimm. It has a whole section devoted to an elaborate explanation of “What is Cinerama” (which seems to me just a wide-screen triple-lense camera – but I could be wrong as it sounds incredibly complex and amazing here). I remember enjoying this movie and the Hans Christian Anderson one starring Danny Kaye as a kid. More forgotten nostalgia.#booksbuy
And second hmmm of the day: I see that Trump isn’t putting tariffs on Russia… hmmm…#politics
Hmmm… First it was a pandemic and prices went up and billionaires increased their wealth. Then it was war in Ukraine and prices went up and billionaires increased their wealth. Now it’s Trump’s “liberation” tarrifs and billionaires….I’m seeing a pattern of narratives being spun in the 2020s in which we’re all being impoverished because of something far away that we can’t control. All of us, that is, other than the already excessively wealthy.#politics
This piece about reframing success and worth by Karen Rosenkrantz has resonated with me.https://cityquitters.substack.com/p/06-not-the-best-not-the-worst
Status anxiety.
Performative hustle.
