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Friday, February 6th, 2026 01:30 pm
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 01:26 pm
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 12:14 pm
When I took the food scraps out to the compost bin yesterday in the late afternoon, I stayed out longer to shovel some more of the snow away from the front of my car since it was still full daylight and if anything, a degree or two warmer than it had been when I was shovelling in the morning. The snow immediately in front of the car was more icy than the rest because people (including me) had been walking there and had compacted the snow, but I was able to shovel out a clear enough path in front of each wheel that I should be able to get the car out if I need to. I felt quite accomplished after that.
I slept well last night and nobody woke me up before the alarm this morning, but I did wake up just after 3 am with that ear pain, and although I went back to sleep with the ear pressed into the pillow, when I woke up in the morning the pain hadn't completely gone. I lay down again for a couple of hours after breakfast but it's still lingering, but it's not nearly as bad as usual and I feel that I can function perfectly well in spite of it.
I started reading a novel about a grandmother recounting her time at Woodstock to her teenage granddaughter, and I have to keep going to YouTube to listen to the music she talks about. I of course heard about it at the time it happened, but the actual logistics of that many people being concentrated in one place with not enough basic facilities (toilets etc) for the sheer numbers didn't register with me. Now, reading this book, it all sounds just horrible. The narrator casually mentions "going to the bathroom" in the woods, and I can't help thinking what it must have been like if even a fraction of the 100,000 or 200,000 or more attendees did the same. Plus there were two hour or more queues for food and water; the attendees were outside without cover when it rained; people were passing around bad drugs. And so on.
=========
Huh. The ear pain disappeared completely while I was writing this post. Phew.
I slept well last night and nobody woke me up before the alarm this morning, but I did wake up just after 3 am with that ear pain, and although I went back to sleep with the ear pressed into the pillow, when I woke up in the morning the pain hadn't completely gone. I lay down again for a couple of hours after breakfast but it's still lingering, but it's not nearly as bad as usual and I feel that I can function perfectly well in spite of it.
I started reading a novel about a grandmother recounting her time at Woodstock to her teenage granddaughter, and I have to keep going to YouTube to listen to the music she talks about. I of course heard about it at the time it happened, but the actual logistics of that many people being concentrated in one place with not enough basic facilities (toilets etc) for the sheer numbers didn't register with me. Now, reading this book, it all sounds just horrible. The narrator casually mentions "going to the bathroom" in the woods, and I can't help thinking what it must have been like if even a fraction of the 100,000 or 200,000 or more attendees did the same. Plus there were two hour or more queues for food and water; the attendees were outside without cover when it rained; people were passing around bad drugs. And so on.
=========
Huh. The ear pain disappeared completely while I was writing this post. Phew.
Tags:
Friday, February 6th, 2026 05:10 pm
For the first time this year I've left the office and it wasn't pitch black outside. Dark, but not *night*.
(Sunset was at 16:56)
(Sunset was at 16:56)
Tags:
Friday, February 6th, 2026 09:28 am
The internal classified version was started in 1962 as The National Basic Intelligence Factbook. It was a resource that gave you very detailed information about countries around the world: form of government, economic information, population and make-up, etc. Very useful information. It went public in 1971 as the World Factbook and later joined the World Wide Web in 1997 in an unclassified version. It was available between '71 and '97 in print form and on CD.
And now it's gone. Any page for any country that you may have had linked now redirects to the closure notice. Everything's now inaccessible. Of course, you can still look into it via archive.org, but the information was updated regularly when the site was live, and it will now grow increasingly stale.
No reason given. The CIA was subject to the same chainsaw-trimming that most other government agencies were given courtesy of DOGE and the Muskbrats. We also have the intense administration's dislike of facts. Either or both could have contributed to its demise.
But with a little luck, in a possibly truthier future, it could be resurrected. There's no doubt that the CIA found the resource useful, so it may again become available to the public in a better tomorrow.
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-cia-stops-publishing-the-world-factbook-184419024.html
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/spotlighting-the-world-factbook-as-we-bid-a-fond-farewell/
https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/05/187252/cia-has-killed-off-the-world-factbook-after-six-decades
EDIT: added Slashdot link.
And now it's gone. Any page for any country that you may have had linked now redirects to the closure notice. Everything's now inaccessible. Of course, you can still look into it via archive.org, but the information was updated regularly when the site was live, and it will now grow increasingly stale.
No reason given. The CIA was subject to the same chainsaw-trimming that most other government agencies were given courtesy of DOGE and the Muskbrats. We also have the intense administration's dislike of facts. Either or both could have contributed to its demise.
But with a little luck, in a possibly truthier future, it could be resurrected. There's no doubt that the CIA found the resource useful, so it may again become available to the public in a better tomorrow.
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-cia-stops-publishing-the-world-factbook-184419024.html
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/spotlighting-the-world-factbook-as-we-bid-a-fond-farewell/
https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/05/187252/cia-has-killed-off-the-world-factbook-after-six-decades
EDIT: added Slashdot link.
Friday, February 6th, 2026 03:36 pm
Do I need to ask, guess the critic, given the headline on this review of the Gwen John exhibition: In a superb, mystical retrospective, the painter sheds social trappings – and her clothes – as she uses her enormous intelligence to paint purely. JJ, go and take a cold shower!
***
I am not sure that exorcism is quite what is needed in the case, unless he starts doing manifestations in galleries of writhing and speaking in occult tongues and so on: Demand for exorcisms rises as faithful want ‘deliverance from evil’. And in fact it all sounds rather low-key:
Even when an Anglican priest does perform an exorcism, they are nothing like Hollywood horror scenes with “shouting and screaming” and demonic drama.
They are “quiet and calm” affairs where a priest prays with a troubled person, usually after consultation with a psychiatrist and safeguarding experts.
One does feel that this is in the tradition of the C of E! Maybe with a nice cup of tea afterwards....
***
Knepp: Wilding from the Weald to the waves:
After inheriting the estate from his grandparents in 1983, Charles Burrell soon realised that large-scale farming was impossible on low-lying clay land. So, in 2002 he and his wife, author, and journalist Isabella Tree, embarked on what has become a pioneering rewilding project converting pasture into a patchwork of grasslands, scrub, groves, and towering oaks. Now home to storks, beavers, and nightingales, to name a few, Knepp’s ever-evolving experiment is open for all to enjoy.
Call me a cynical old bat, but I can't help feeling that this is in a Grand Old Longstanding Tradition of landowners doing whatever is The Latest Thing with the estate they inherited. And these days it is not either, tart it up like unto the gardens he saw on his Grand Tour in Italy, introducing various invasive species animal and vegetable, or, set up a funfair and safari park as a remunerative enterprise to enable him to pay off the crippling death duties the iron heel of Clem Attlee and Co has imposed, but to get acclaim for this absolutely on-trend thing to do with his land.
***
This is a different kind of heritage: Heritage Unlocked: Birmingham’s Unique Municipal Bank:
Birmingham Municipal Bank (1919-1976) was unique as the first and only local authority savings bank in England. Unlike other savings banks (such as the Trustee Savings Banks), customers could borrow money through the House Purchase Department to buy their home. Unlocking the Vaults, has been uncovering the Bank’s history and how it helped shape Birmingham’s story. The Exchange (opposite the Library of Birmingham) was once the head office for the Municipal Bank, and it lies at the heart of this project with many projects and events taking place in the historic Vaults.
Historic black and white photo of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, showcasing its grand architecture with tall columns and detailed facade.
....
A key finding of the project has been the significance of the Municipal Bank, not only as a financial institution but also as a cornerstone of community life, with local branches established on high streets across the city between the 1920s and 1970s.
***
The rise of ‘low contact’ family relationships - in fact, point is made in there that perhaps what there has been is a rise of is families being all up in one another's business because of Modern Technology and tracking devices, family group chats, the ability to know where family members are and what they are up to at all hours of the night and day.
Because I would not at all describe my own family as 'low contact', we just did not live in one another's pockets and need to be constantly informed and have opinions about each other's lives. Weekly phone-calls - occasional visits- etc etc.
I'm not surprised people feel smothered and overwhelmed when I read some of the shenanigans that families do but then, am introvert to start with.
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 10:01 am
Hello, and Face. I was just playing with making marks in a very old block of carving rubber I had. After I printed it (on the right) it looked like a face to me. So I carved it some more and put on a word (the left). Maybe I'll feel more comfortable with carving into the new blocks now.
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 02:45 pm
1998: Geoffrey Robinson loan affair
Peter Mandelson accepted a £373,000 unsecured interest-free loan from businessman and fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson to buy a house. He did not declare this loan or inform Prime Minister Tony Blair about it, or his permanent secretary. As the story emerged, he gave false and misleading statements to the Commons Committee.
This led to his resignation as Trade and Industry Secretary.
2001: The Hinduja passports affair
Peter Mandelson, then a government minister with responsibility for the Millennium Dome, denied any personal involvement in supporting successful UK passport applications made by Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja, super-wealthy businessmen brothers, who had expressed an interest in contributing to the costs of the Dome after their initial passport applications had been refused.
Mandelson is revealed to have lied, and is forced to resign for misleading conduct.
2009-10: Epstein relationship
Peter Mandelson downplays and minimises his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in ways that were shown to be false around 2019-20, when press investigations revealed that he had had multiple meetings with Epstein, had stayed at his home, and had been introduced by Epstein to major figures in global finance. This relationship was shown to have continued after Epstein’s conviction.
2024: Keir Starmer appoints Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the United States.
2026: Keir Starmer expresses shock and outrage that Peter Mandelson lied to him.
Peter Mandelson accepted a £373,000 unsecured interest-free loan from businessman and fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson to buy a house. He did not declare this loan or inform Prime Minister Tony Blair about it, or his permanent secretary. As the story emerged, he gave false and misleading statements to the Commons Committee.
This led to his resignation as Trade and Industry Secretary.
2001: The Hinduja passports affair
Peter Mandelson, then a government minister with responsibility for the Millennium Dome, denied any personal involvement in supporting successful UK passport applications made by Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja, super-wealthy businessmen brothers, who had expressed an interest in contributing to the costs of the Dome after their initial passport applications had been refused.
Mandelson is revealed to have lied, and is forced to resign for misleading conduct.
2009-10: Epstein relationship
Peter Mandelson downplays and minimises his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in ways that were shown to be false around 2019-20, when press investigations revealed that he had had multiple meetings with Epstein, had stayed at his home, and had been introduced by Epstein to major figures in global finance. This relationship was shown to have continued after Epstein’s conviction.
2024: Keir Starmer appoints Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the United States.
2026: Keir Starmer expresses shock and outrage that Peter Mandelson lied to him.
Friday, February 6th, 2026 05:58 am
Find the full list of February questions here.
6. In 1869, Harper's Weekly published the first picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers. Do you know anyone with a beard or a moustache?
I myself have worn a beard almost the whole time I've been able to grow one, the only major exception being when a company I was working at was acquired by another. We had to adopt their dress code, and the only facial hair allowed for men was mustaches and sideburns, and neither could go lower than the corner of the mouth. It was extremely ridiculous, because I worked in a warehouse and saw maybe two customers a week, whereas our drivers who saw customers all day every day could still wear beards.
7. Is there a subject at school which you disliked, but you would consider learning now?
I can't imagine going to school again or really even taking any classes that would be taught in one.
8. How often do you read fiction?
It's been a long time! I used to read about a book a week when I commuted to work via bus and have found it very hard to get books back into my life ever since I started working from home. I recently almost finished Freak Unique by Pete Burns on my return flight home from a recent getaway. I wouldn't have come so close to it but there was a medical emergency on board and the plane was diverted, doubling the flight time.
9. This year is the 40th anniversary of the release of the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – have you ever seen it? Bueller…. Bueller…. Bueller….
I've seen that movie so many times and love it. John Hughes really had a way with film and that one is unique for him as a director because of its scale. I didn't realize until just now that he only directed eight movies!
10. Have you ever owned a Tamagotchi?
No. I never really saw the appeal of toys and games that are highly demanding.
6. In 1869, Harper's Weekly published the first picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers. Do you know anyone with a beard or a moustache?
I myself have worn a beard almost the whole time I've been able to grow one, the only major exception being when a company I was working at was acquired by another. We had to adopt their dress code, and the only facial hair allowed for men was mustaches and sideburns, and neither could go lower than the corner of the mouth. It was extremely ridiculous, because I worked in a warehouse and saw maybe two customers a week, whereas our drivers who saw customers all day every day could still wear beards.
7. Is there a subject at school which you disliked, but you would consider learning now?
I can't imagine going to school again or really even taking any classes that would be taught in one.
8. How often do you read fiction?
It's been a long time! I used to read about a book a week when I commuted to work via bus and have found it very hard to get books back into my life ever since I started working from home. I recently almost finished Freak Unique by Pete Burns on my return flight home from a recent getaway. I wouldn't have come so close to it but there was a medical emergency on board and the plane was diverted, doubling the flight time.
9. This year is the 40th anniversary of the release of the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – have you ever seen it? Bueller…. Bueller…. Bueller….
I've seen that movie so many times and love it. John Hughes really had a way with film and that one is unique for him as a director because of its scale. I didn't realize until just now that he only directed eight movies!
10. Have you ever owned a Tamagotchi?
No. I never really saw the appeal of toys and games that are highly demanding.
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 01:19 pm
Mitski is playing in London in May and I don't have enough internet to do so much as open the ticket site.
My plague of ill concert happenings, I swear.
My plague of ill concert happenings, I swear.
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 12:00 pm
- 1. The magnetic secret inside steel finally explained
- (tags:materials magnets )
- 2. National security assessment - global biodiversity loss ecosystem collapse and its effects on the UK
- (tags:uk nature doom )
- 3. "We had no way of knowing man forced to resign twice for corruption would be corrupt" insists Starmer
- (tags:politics corruption UK Labour )
- 4. Publication bias or research misconduct? (an investigation into missing research results)
- (tags:research statistics )
- 5. Invention of DNA "Page Numbers" allows us to write long sequences of DNA with groundbreaking accuracy
- (tags:dna Technology )
Tags:
- corruption,
- dna,
- doom,
- labour,
- links,
- magnets,
- materials,
- nature,
- politics,
- research,
- statistics,
- technology,
- uk
Friday, February 6th, 2026 11:33 am
Well, it's a while since I learned some of the extent of them (first clues were here) and this morning the unfixable one made itself known in a now-do-surprise-laundry way. I had a bit of a cry about it. I note that when I first learned what had happened I thought it was my own fault for not agreeing to a c-section, because it took a LOT of reading to discover that he hadn't sewn me up properly.
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Friday, February 6th, 2026 06:48 am
Winter Storm. Another dumb picture. I got a black waterbased ink pad recently and was playing around with some snow stamps I had, then sprayed it with water so the ink would run.
My bent embroidery needles are supposed to arrive today. I'm looking forward to using one to sew my latest little crochet toy together. Hopefully using the new needles will improve the look of things (invisible stitches).
We're driving Roswell to work this morning since his car is in the garage. Leaving soon for that.
Friday, February 6th, 2026 12:00 am
Comic strip for 2026/02/06
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 09:56 pm
Branch: refs/heads/main Home: https://github.com/dreamwidth/dreamwidth Commit: ba0d37394abf33d74665d3583cbf76bf7230e566 https://github.com/dreamwidth/dreamwidth/commit/ba0d37394abf33d74665d3583cbf76bf7230e566 Author: Mark Smith mark@dreamwidth.org Date: 2026-02-05 (Thu, 05 Feb 2026)
Changed paths: M bin/ecs-shell M cgi-bin/DBI/Role.pm
Log Message:
Fix DBD::mysql binary data corruption on Ubuntu 22.04
DBI/Role.pm: Add mysql_enable_utf8 => 0 to preserve binary gzip data stored in TEXT columns. DBD::mysql 4.050+ on Ubuntu 22.04 auto-enables UTF-8 handling, which corrupts compressed data. This option is safe on older versions where it was already the default.
bin/ecs-shell: Prefer 'web' container over 'cloudwatch-agent' sidecar when connecting to ECS tasks. Fixes "no such file or directory" error for /bin/bash since the cloudwatch-agent container uses a minimal image.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 noreply@anthropic.com
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Thursday, February 5th, 2026 10:10 pm
The new CPAP arrived today. I suppose that I should go unpack it now, but first, a piece of important cat news.
Sunshine has taken to sleeping on top of the heating vent in my office. It is, of course, nicely accessible.
And nicely warm.
Sunshine has taken to sleeping on top of the heating vent in my office. It is, of course, nicely accessible.
And nicely warm.
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 09:41 pm
Friday, February 6th, 2026 01:16 am
[phone rings in my hotel room]
Me: “Hello?”
Concierge, sounding very uncertain and slightly bemused: “Um, hello, is that Nanila, who just checked in with us today?”
Me: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Concierge: “Um…I have a gentleman on the line who would like to speak to you. I…I think he’s your father? I’m so sorry, I’m really not sure.”
Me, chuckling: “That sounds like him. Did he say his name was [Firstname Lastname]?”
Concierge: “I couldn’t understand him when he said his name. I think it’s my phone line.”
Me, drily: “Please don’t be sorry. That will be one of two things: his accent, or he hasn’t got his teeth in.”
Concierge, now relaxing a bit and giggling: “Would you like me to put him through?”
Me: “Please do, thank you.”
*pause*
Me: “Hi Dad, how are you doing?”
Dad: “I tried to call you but I kept getting the prison! Where are you? Are you in XX hotel?!”
Me, patiently: “Yes, Dad, I’m in the hotel.”
Dad: “What room are you in? I need to write it down. Are you sure? Are you okay?”
Me: “Dad. I’m in Room NN. I am fine. And if this is the prison then it’s had a tremendous facilities upgrade.”
Dad: “Oh, okay. Was the traffic awful? Are you very tired? When do you want to meet for dinner? Should we go to the sushi place? Do you remember the sushi place? I need to put my teeth in!”
Me: “Yes, yes, whenever you want to eat, yes, yes, and yes, you do.”
For anyone who has met me in person and has thought to themselves, “This woman has no idea how to hold a conversation like a normal human being,” this is 100% where I got it from. Thanks, Dad.
Me: “Hello?”
Concierge, sounding very uncertain and slightly bemused: “Um, hello, is that Nanila, who just checked in with us today?”
Me: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Concierge: “Um…I have a gentleman on the line who would like to speak to you. I…I think he’s your father? I’m so sorry, I’m really not sure.”
Me, chuckling: “That sounds like him. Did he say his name was [Firstname Lastname]?”
Concierge: “I couldn’t understand him when he said his name. I think it’s my phone line.”
Me, drily: “Please don’t be sorry. That will be one of two things: his accent, or he hasn’t got his teeth in.”
Concierge, now relaxing a bit and giggling: “Would you like me to put him through?”
Me: “Please do, thank you.”
*pause*
Me: “Hi Dad, how are you doing?”
Dad: “I tried to call you but I kept getting the prison! Where are you? Are you in XX hotel?!”
Me, patiently: “Yes, Dad, I’m in the hotel.”
Dad: “What room are you in? I need to write it down. Are you sure? Are you okay?”
Me: “Dad. I’m in Room NN. I am fine. And if this is the prison then it’s had a tremendous facilities upgrade.”
Dad: “Oh, okay. Was the traffic awful? Are you very tired? When do you want to meet for dinner? Should we go to the sushi place? Do you remember the sushi place? I need to put my teeth in!”
Me: “Yes, yes, whenever you want to eat, yes, yes, and yes, you do.”
For anyone who has met me in person and has thought to themselves, “This woman has no idea how to hold a conversation like a normal human being,” this is 100% where I got it from. Thanks, Dad.
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 06:39 pm
That's not hyperbole. This one's truly gasp-worthy.
Over at Love And Hisses, they have a male tortoiseshell foster kitten! Yes really, a male tortie! They're also fostering his equally tortie sister, plus two sweet tabby boys, all of whom are being treated for or monitored in their recovery from a medical issue. Things are looking better every day over there, and oh my goodness, a male tortie...!
I've never met a rare male tricolor cat. The closest I've ever come is one fictional representation purring in Adrien Agreste's ear, and one childhood misunderstanding of a sweet brown tabby's coloration. Someone in the old livejournal tortielove community had one, which was amazing enough, and there were a couple stories of others around - one calico, one dilute calico with extra toes. Maybe some day I'll actually meet one, and then someone will have to pick me up off the floor! XD In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the adventures of Ollie the male tortie and his friends in north Alabama.
Over at Love And Hisses, they have a male tortoiseshell foster kitten! Yes really, a male tortie! They're also fostering his equally tortie sister, plus two sweet tabby boys, all of whom are being treated for or monitored in their recovery from a medical issue. Things are looking better every day over there, and oh my goodness, a male tortie...!
I've never met a rare male tricolor cat. The closest I've ever come is one fictional representation purring in Adrien Agreste's ear, and one childhood misunderstanding of a sweet brown tabby's coloration. Someone in the old livejournal tortielove community had one, which was amazing enough, and there were a couple stories of others around - one calico, one dilute calico with extra toes. Maybe some day I'll actually meet one, and then someone will have to pick me up off the floor! XD In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the adventures of Ollie the male tortie and his friends in north Alabama.
Tags:
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 04:41 pm
Library hold for The Rose Field came in. The TOC divides it into 3 parts, so this is the liveblog for Part One.
Previous HDM-related posts here. To start from the earliest Book of Dust reactions, see The Reaction Posts of Dust on AO3.
I’m going in mostly-cold. Got spoiled for a few individual details, but the rest, including basically all the actual plot, is a mystery.
When doing the original reactions, I usually don’t stop and rewind the audiobook to make sure all the quotes are exact. For this roundup, I have an ebook version I can text-search, so I’ll try to correct them. Carefully, because I’ve only read chapters 1-17 in total, and don’t want to spoil myself by seeing search results from chapters 18-36.
For visual interest, I’ll throw in some screencaps of relevant people/places/items from the HDM TV series.
Chapters 1-8 ahead:
( Look, I’m connecting some dots here (one of the things that generates Dust is conscious beings using their imagination, the red building is a source of roses whose oil lets you see Dust), but I have no idea how or whether Pan is connecting those dots. )
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 01:01 pm
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 02:43 pm
My exciting day: I shovelled more snow from in front of my car, a strip perhaps slightly bigger than the strip I shovelled yesterday. At least it got me outside; I didn't feel like walking but I had used the rebounder for an hour so I was well exercised. I think I'm getting addicted to rebounding.
I need to start going to bed earlier so I can get up earlier, because there are many mornings when I'm woken up around 4:30 am or even earlier by my son in law moving around in the kitchen. I originally started getting up at 5 (instead of my previously normal 5:30 am) because whenever I stayed here I was woken around 5 by the son in law; now he seems to be up and about even earlier than he used to be.
I need to start going to bed earlier so I can get up earlier, because there are many mornings when I'm woken up around 4:30 am or even earlier by my son in law moving around in the kitchen. I originally started getting up at 5 (instead of my previously normal 5:30 am) because whenever I stayed here I was woken around 5 by the son in law; now he seems to be up and about even earlier than he used to be.
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 12:06 pm
OK, let's see...
Thursday. Sunny and cold. Feeling much more the thing than yesterday, which -- just let's say that it was a day when you drink peppermint tea and honey because your stomach hurts and that turns out to be a bad idea.
Got in an early four hours with the WIP this morning, and have verified that I'll be removing about 9,000 words. This is not a surprise; I kinda sorta knew I was going to hafta do it, unless I Thought of Something. Which I haven't, so -- into the Pull File they go, and maybe they'll be useful later.
I have a doctor's appointment at 2:30, and need to verify where I'm going. Also, I have emails that I need to answer, and! I need to tell Draft2Digital that, yes, I do want Pinbeam Books to be listed with Bookshop.
Still waiting on that one outstanding 1099-MISC.
I see that the judge overseeing the Anthropic Settlement has extended various deadlines for opting in, out, and sideways, which will likely put back the expected payout schedule, originally projected to begin in August. Granted, I never expected to see any money from this "settlement," but the whole thing's so infuriating that even reading the subject line kicks up the blood pressure.
And FedEx has just arrived to deliver a letter, so it looks like the range for hitting my house really is between 11:15 and noon. Which is actually useful information.
Trying to figure out if I want to try to see John Mellencamp's off-Broadway fine-tuning of his play at Ogunquit in October. I expect if I want to do that, I'll have to reserve a room at Ogunquit realsoonnow. Must lookout prices.
For now, I need to do my duty to the cats, and then heat up the soup I didn't eat yesterday, ref stomachache, and -- oh, yeah, find where the heck I'm supposed to be at 2:30.
How's everybody doing today?
Tags:
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 03:41 pm
I saw this post and really liked it: https://skibbley.dreamwidth.org/683386.html.
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 07:13 am
As the subtitle of the blog says, a touch of Freemasonry.
My lodge meets the first Wednesday of the month, so last night was it. We initiated a new Brother, and observing or participating in any of the three degrees is always a nice night.
I am frequently asked by non-Masons: "What do Masons do in their meetings?"
I guess the answer is: "Pretty much what any group does, Rotary, Elks, etc." And that is true. We are a club and as such we have formal meetings to keep the thing moving forward. We pay bills, respond to correspondence, almost always have some kind of educational presentation, and go through the process to admit new members. Probably one of the very different things about Freemasonry is that once we admit a new member, that is just the start for that Brother. There are three degrees to go through, the first initiation degree is simply the start. And, much like actual school, he cannot proceed to the next degree without putting considerable work into proving he has learned the lessons of the current degree.
Freemasons are also big on "fellowship" which is our ancient word for "hanging out." Almost every lodge has some kind of meal, either before or after, the meeting. It seems to me that most lodges have the meal after but as it is usually 9-10pm at that time, it's questionable how healthy that is! But it is not about the food, per se. That is just the vehicle that causes us to sit down with each other and talk.
( history... )
Tags:
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 07:16 am
Calling. As I've said before, recently I've been a bit disappointed in my art work. I'm always in a hurry and try to slosh my way though these daily pictures but at some point I want to sit down and exercise some finesse. I feel the desire to do better art building in me, in a hopeful way. I ordered a new book that I'm looking forward to reading called, Sketch by Sketch: The Creative Path to Emotional Healing & Transformation. It has good reviews and seems to promote the kind of things I'd like to express more. Maybe returning to the simplisity of black pen and white paper will be invigorating.
Dave has already headed off to ice fishing. Today is Women's Group.
Tags:
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 12:00 pm
- 1. From Crisis to Comeback: The Aral Sea's Recovery
- (tags:kazakhstan sea GoodNews )
- 2. Some good news about writing.
- (tags:writing ai comic funny )
- 3. 'Lord Of The Rings' Reader Can't Believe How Long It Taking Sam And Frodo To Fuck
- (tags:satire slash lotr funny )
- 4. If I was as terrible a person as this, I don't think I'd tell the world about it.
- (tags:relationships OhForFucksSake )
- 5. Epstein celebrated Brexit and 'return to tribalism'
- (tags:conspiracy uk europe OhForFucksSake )
Tags:
- ai,
- comic,
- conspiracy,
- europe,
- funny,
- goodnews,
- kazakhstan,
- links,
- lotr,
- ohforfuckssake,
- relationships,
- satire,
- sea,
- slash,
- uk,
- writing
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 10:21 am
(This may get updated over the course of the day)
After struggling to get Zoom link downloaded and operating etc, managed to get into first session I wanted to attend, Foundling Hospital in early C20th, good grief, practices had not changed much in a century had they? Recipe for trauma in mothers, children, and the foster mothers who actually bonded with the children until they were taken away to be eddicated according to their station in life.
Then switched to a different panel and was IRKED by a lit person talking about the Women's Cooperative Guild Maternity: Letters from Working Women (1915) which they had only just encountered ahem ahem - was republished by I think Virago? Pandora? in 1970s - and women's history has done quite a bit on the WCG since then so JEEZ I was peeved at her assumption that the working women were not agents but the whole thing was being run by the upper/middle class activists who were most visibly involved. And wanted to query whether working women thought it was very useful to have posh laydeez able to put their cases re maternity, child welfare and so on in corridors of power, rather than deferentially curtseying??? (I should like to go back in time and ask my dear Stella Browne about that.)
Also on wymmynz voices not, or at least hard to trace, in the archives, I fancy this person does not know a) Marie Stopes' volume Mother England (1929), extracts of letters she had from women about motherhood and b) based on 1000s of letters surviving and available to researchers. I could, indeed, point to other resources, fume, mutter.
Update Well, there were some later papers I dropped in on and enjoyed (and was able to offer comment/questions on; but I was obliged to point out certain errors in a description of Joanna Russ's The Female Man (really I think if you are going to cite a work you should check details....) (and I suppose Mitchison's work was just outside the remit of what they were talking about, so I was very self-restrained and failed to go on about Naomi.)
Tags:
- academic,
- activism,
- annoyance,
- archives,
- class,
- conference,
- history,
- inaccuracy,
- mitchison,
- motherhood,
- peeve,
- research,
- russ,
- sff,
- stopes,
- technology
Thursday, February 5th, 2026 12:00 am
Comic strip for 2026/02/05
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 10:11 pm
Branch: refs/heads/main Home: https://github.com/dreamwidth/dreamwidth Commit: 0c56d95cb6eee98db461ea2ac573c4c005441e2b https://github.com/dreamwidth/dreamwidth/commit/0c56d95cb6eee98db461ea2ac573c4c005441e2b Author: Mark Smith mark@dreamwidth.org Date: 2026-02-04 (Wed, 04 Feb 2026)
Changed paths: M terraform/load-balancing.tf M terraform/locals.tf M terraform/web.tf
Log Message:
Configure Starman (port 8080) target groups for canary and shop
- Update ECS services to register with -2 target groups on port 8080 (Starman) instead of 6081 (Varnish) for canary and shop
- Enable traffic to -2 target groups by setting weights to 100
- Refactor target group references to use resource refs instead of hardcoded ARNs, allowing proper dependency tracking
- Remove ignore_changes from shop and canary listener rules to allow Terraform to manage weights
- Fix canary listener rule condition to match AWS (cookie-based routing)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 noreply@anthropic.com
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 09:37 pm
Branch: refs/heads/main Home: https://github.com/dreamwidth/dreamwidth Commit: 74c1d9d89f13516a90c1feda8564e18a27111d6b https://github.com/dreamwidth/dreamwidth/commit/74c1d9d89f13516a90c1feda8564e18a27111d6b Author: Mark Smith mark@dreamwidth.org Date: 2026-02-04 (Wed, 04 Feb 2026)
Changed paths: M .github/workflows/tasks/web-canary-service.json A .github/workflows/web22-build.yml A .github/workflows/web22-deploy.yml A etc/docker/web22/Dockerfile A etc/docker/web22/config/.dir_scope A etc/docker/web22/config/dreamwidth-dev.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/dreamwidth-prod.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/apache2.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/conf-available/charset.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/conf-available/localized-error-pages.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/conf-available/other-vhosts-access-log.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/conf-available/security.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/conf-enabled/security.conf A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/envvars A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/magic A etc/docker/web22/config/etc/apache2/mods-available/access_compat.load A 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A etc/docker/web22/scripts/startup-dev.sh A etc/docker/web22/scripts/startup-prod.sh
Log Message:
Move canary to ubuntu 22.04
This builds canary (ONLY) on the base22 image, which we use for shop, so we can start testing and make sure that Ubuntu 22.04 works with the main service.
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Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 05:00 am
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 09:00 pm
Texts From SuperheroesFacebook | Threads | Patreon | Instagram | BlueSky
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 09:42 pm
After a whole lot of work on my VM, I finally just deleted the directory that holds all of the configuration information for my JDeveloper and now it is working properly again. I suppose I should have tried that first.
We had a walkthrough of the new Windycon hotel today and are discussing various items of space allocation that we will settle eventually. Figuring out how to carve up a new set of rooms is always interesting. :)
Gretchen and I had new passport photos taken today, because we are just within the deadline for being able to renew our passports online. Those applications are now filed. This is more immediately useful for me than it is for Gretchen, as I have now paid for my FilkONtario membership and just need to book a hotel room. Sadly, the website wasn't working earlier tonight, so I'll just try again tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Capricon starts tomorrow. Because a full day of work is a good choice for me, I'll be showing up Friday with my dealer table. At an annoyingly early hour, but I have a panel at 1 PM and want to take a run at having the table set up when the dealer room is actually ready to open.
Wish me luck!
We had a walkthrough of the new Windycon hotel today and are discussing various items of space allocation that we will settle eventually. Figuring out how to carve up a new set of rooms is always interesting. :)
Gretchen and I had new passport photos taken today, because we are just within the deadline for being able to renew our passports online. Those applications are now filed. This is more immediately useful for me than it is for Gretchen, as I have now paid for my FilkONtario membership and just need to book a hotel room. Sadly, the website wasn't working earlier tonight, so I'll just try again tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Capricon starts tomorrow. Because a full day of work is a good choice for me, I'll be showing up Friday with my dealer table. At an annoyingly early hour, but I have a panel at 1 PM and want to take a run at having the table set up when the dealer room is actually ready to open.
Wish me luck!
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 08:23 pm
A Curious Beginning
by Deanna Raybourn
This is the first of the Veronica Speedwell mysteries, set during the late Victorian era. Veronica is a young woman and naturalist whose elderly aunt and guardian has just passed away, leaving Vernoica with even more freedom to pursue a life of adventure and lepidoptery. When an attempted abduction leads her into the company of a German baron, Veronica discovers that her true origins are more mysterious and perhaps dangerous than she'd been told. The baron leaves her in the care of his associate Stoker, another naturalist. But then the baron is murdered and Veronica and Stoker find themselves on the run and in search of the truth.
This was a pretty good start to a mystery series. I liked both Veronica and Stoker, and the simmering sexual tension between them. Veronica is brash and brave and very observant. Stoker is brooding, loyal, and also quite clever. They make a good team, and their banter is quite good. The mystery itself was fine, but not super compelling. I do wish that the episode with the circus had added up to more or come back around later in the book. I hope it does so in future books.
by Deanna Raybourn
This is the first of the Veronica Speedwell mysteries, set during the late Victorian era. Veronica is a young woman and naturalist whose elderly aunt and guardian has just passed away, leaving Vernoica with even more freedom to pursue a life of adventure and lepidoptery. When an attempted abduction leads her into the company of a German baron, Veronica discovers that her true origins are more mysterious and perhaps dangerous than she'd been told. The baron leaves her in the care of his associate Stoker, another naturalist. But then the baron is murdered and Veronica and Stoker find themselves on the run and in search of the truth.
This was a pretty good start to a mystery series. I liked both Veronica and Stoker, and the simmering sexual tension between them. Veronica is brash and brave and very observant. Stoker is brooding, loyal, and also quite clever. They make a good team, and their banter is quite good. The mystery itself was fine, but not super compelling. I do wish that the episode with the circus had added up to more or come back around later in the book. I hope it does so in future books.
Tags:
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 08:24 pm
Those who are interested in the Liaden Read-Along, the summing up of Conflict of Honors may be read here
Tags: