Sun Mar 01
The first day of Meteorological Spring, and the sun has been sighted here in Lichfield, though it seems to have disappeared again now. It is also Chopin's birthday (born 1810) – and St David's Day. To mark the last of these, here is a poem by R.S. Thomas – one that requires a word of explanation. First, the title:...
(image courtesy of Deborah Di Salvo) how does one truly free oneself from the tyrannical grip of rules, routines and restriction, within an environment that is utterly governed and dictated by them? i've been pondering this question—on tolerance, "group norms", expectations and behaviours—for a few days now. and i'm...
Never lose a hard-won process again This week a potential customer asked me for an evaluation preview of one of my educational PDF ebooks. “No problem!” I said, “I’ll get that to you today.” Right! Time to watermark a lower resolution copy of the PDF and upload it to the files section of my website. This is a...
The modern World-Wide Web is broken. Is Gemini the repair?
Previously. Blocking Claude via Kyle Kingsbury, a.k.a “Aphyr”: Claude, a popular Large Language Model (LLM), has a magic string which is used to test the model’s “this conversation violates our policies and has to stop” behavior. You can embed this string into files and web pages, and Claude will terminate...
Consumption versus Creation. I’ve long been conscious of two contrasting categories of pastimes – those that consume, and those that create. Consumption is fast. Consumption is passive. Consumption is easy. Consumption in today’s world is limitless, as there are an infinite number of sources that each provide an...
Llevo queriendo actualizar portátil desde antes de volver de Inglaterra. Y llevamos hablando en casa de la posibilidad de tener un “ordenador doméstico” desde incluso antes. Con esto segundo me refiero a un equipo que cumpla el rol que solían tener los ordenadores en los 90 y 2000, una máquina para tener documentos...
March 1, 2026 The ldstephens.net site was migrated from WordPress using the 11ty Base Blog and the WordPress import plugin. While I initially used the base blog, I've since replaced it with my own custom 11ty build. With around 50 markdown files exported from WordPress, that I wanted to add to this site, I needed to...
I have been a loyal customer of 1Password since 2013. It has served me well and I never really looked into the alternatives. I didn’t mind occasionally paying for an upgrade to the newer version, or even switching to a subscription model a few years ago. In recent years though, my list of frustrations with 1Password...
What a blur. We moved house to get closer to schools. We lasted exactly 13 months in the previous place. It was in an out-of-the-way village which was a bit too far out of the way. A real one-horse village, quite literally. I could hear it neigh on the odd occasion in the early hours. The move was swift. Five guys,...
The March issues of Foofaraw Zine and Four-headed Foofaraw are here!This is an extra-special month for us, with it being the inaugural edition of Mindlessly Massive March: double the stories; triple the word count; 150 pages of goodness! Plus, it’s in print! Print copies will be going out to our Patrons shortly...
Welcome to the 90th issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Startups. In this edition: Graham analyzes how startups could evolve in our world of AI and agents. Adrian ponders whether working as a software engineer in a fast-paced startup is worth the effort. In our Vidéothèque section, we watch “The AI Startup Grift...
February 2026. Hull. Getting your GBG tick done early is a good idea, as anyone who’s been on Orkney worrying if the death of the Queen will mean your penultimate Guide pubs will close as a mark of “respect” will confirm. But it does raise the question, “What next ?”. There’s plenty of heritage pubs like the Black...
Naarm/Melbourne based Australian poet Evelyn Araluen has won both the Victorian Prize for Literature, and Prize for Indigenous Writing, in this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, for her second collection of poetry, The Rot. Araluen won the Stella Prize, one of Australia’s major literary awards in 2022, for...
I use my phone more than Aleem does. Way more. There is a part of me that feels the same, that I use it too much and that I should try to slow it down. The other part of me knows exactly what I’m doing and is okay with it. I use my phone for everything, some of them even productive. It’s the non-productive things I...
Recently, Current RSS reader hit the headlines and I had a gander at what it is, how it's designed and what the underlying philosophy is. It's a beautiful-looking app. But the fundamentals are problematic and repeat the same mistakes that lead to different kinds of problems you and I face w.r.t. digital content...
For over fifteen years, i’ve been photographing storefronts to document a rapidly fading typographical tradition. These “architypes” inform my practice as a budding typeface designer, but i don’t want to selfishly keep them for myself. I’ve been mulling over this idea of a single-page gallery with infinite...
23rd February - 1st March The dog is lying in a parallelogram of golden sunshine streaming through the patio doors across the tiled floor of the kitchen. Her eyes are closed and is still as death; only her gently heaving chest tells me she is alive. That and the way she is immediately behind me, awake and expectant,...
“The main thing is this — when you get up in the morning you must take your heart in your two hands. You must do this every morning.” “For old people,” Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in her sublime meditation on aging and what beauty really means, “beauty doesn’t come free with the hormones, the way it does for the young…...
Publieke of in ieder geval breed aangekondigde praatjes. Tenzij anders vermeld was het onderwerp minstens deels digitale autonomie, soevereiniteit, of cloudafhankelijkheid. Share on Mastodon De lijst is nog niet compleet. Eerdere jaren zijn op mijn oude praatjespagina te vinden. Ook zijn er praatjes die niet...
It is March now, and today being March 1 also means it is Zero Discrimination Day. Returning to School After Lunar New Year Break Permalink to section 'Returning to School After Lunar New Year Break' # After taking one week off to celebrate Lunar New Year, I have returned to school on last Monday, February 23. Aside...
I spend my morning watching reels from expats in Dubai and yes, you’re right, iOS. I have indeed reached my limit on Instagram. Meanwhile I have fallen out of love with Wallabag. Mostly because it suddenly didn’t let me log in anymore and I don’t have the energy to look into what happened. Ugh. While I already...
I was asked a good question: What are these things? What are the differences? I will try to explain what they are in this post, in bit less technical manner. I will keep some of the parts bit short here, since I am not 100% knowledgeable about everything, and I rather people read documentation about it instead of...
A late afternoon walk along the Katsura River, near Matsuo Taisha shrine. 松尾大社近くの桂川沿いを、夕方に散歩する。
This is an entry from my journal. The conflagration in the Middle East threatens to pull Cyprus into the conflict. The Republic of Cyprus is not directly involved in the hostilities. Though the island has two “sovereign” military bases of the United Kingdom, at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The bases can be used by the...
Quando aquele mês que nada parece dar certo continua entregando problema atrás de problema. Parece que terminar uma tarefa ruim só gera outra pior. Você para às vezes e se pergunta como é que dá pra continuar indo em frente assim. Sorte, ou falta dela, não fazem muito sentido. Você achar que só você recebe coisas...
Camille Pisarro, L'Île La Croix, Rouen, 1888. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons. Here’s something I don’t know how to work out: maintaining reverence for the planet and its forms and creatures without falling into schlock. And here’s why I’m immersed in yet another cycle of thinking about that balance: I...
Febrero ha sido el mes para probar una especie de desconexión digital en el móvil. Aunque el reto OFF February, se centraba únicamente en las redes sociales, he querido ir un poco más allá. Para ello, lo primero que hice fue desinstalar un montón de aplicaciones que tenía en el móvil y que no utilizaba...
Mood: Feeling like an archaeologist of breakfast foods. Also, smug. If a wealthy racialized friend asks me to dinner—I say yes because I am poor and I need all the luxuries I can get. My country hates artists more than cockroaches, so I have no poverty pride at all when someone far wealthier than I says he will pay...
A collection of prints from the early 1600s, mostly with female dresses and attires.
There has been miles of words written about Note Taking apps — available on the web, your phone, tablet, or even as a paper and pen setup. Me, I have a traditional paper note book with me at all times. However, there are times when I want to take electronic notes. I've used many of the current offerings. Some for...
We wanted to check whether we can ride for long hours if required. Also, just check our physical condition. To check this, we had to do a loop around Bangalore, covering various types of roads and grades in a day and at least 600 km. We had an idea of the route, then we rode. We were generally slow; it took longer...
I finally have a lifetime subscription here on Bear Blog! Thankfully, I paid 50% less than the original price for that since I live in the Philippines.1 That means that I can get the same upgrades (like custom domain and embedded images) as someone who pays the full amount. Custom domainLoreleice's Virtual Writing...
Another walk through the woods and another Robin photoshoot. I really did try to use just the JPGs straight from camera, but they looked a little under exposed and somewhat noisy under closer inspection. I can do better to fix the under exposure whilst taking the shot, but I thought I would see how the JPGs compared...
A few days ago, I opened the window and heard a familiar sound I have not heard in a while: it was a fieldfare’s call, probably one of the first who migrated back to my town this year. And just today, I saw my first chaffinch of the year perched on top of a branch. These birds are very common where I live, so this...
Aborted reading after about a third. Even though I was enjoying the story, it was too slow paced and too much happened between the lines. You had to read everything carefully due to the writing style to get everything. I am still curious about the book and might take it up in the future when my reading style...
Nobody warns you about the dreams. Not properly. Yesterday I killed my inner Necron — wrote the whole thing by voice from my hospital bed, felt the deepest peace of my life, went to sleep on whatever cocktail of post-op medications they had me on. Seroquel and Xanax, among other things. Doctors mention "vivid...
The Hill“This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup’s public work with its mission,” a spokesperson for Gallup said. “We look forward to continuing to offer independent research that adheres to the highest standards of social science.”Yeah, I believe them when they say it has nothing to...
It’s not every day that one of our favourite bands tours Germany and brings along guests that we like just as much. We last saw Alter Bridge in Frankfurt 2016 and had never seen Daughtry before. So there was no question about whether we would go to Munich. Of course we would. And since the concert was on Friday...
These are a series of interviews about music, what I listen to, how I got into music, things like that. I'm honored to be the first one. I really like the idea and I can wait to read the next interviews! Here is the link. Thanks for reading :)
Comenzó Marzo, el mes génesis, el mes que marca el inicio del año y el mes que marca el ritmo, al menos el inicial; luego se regula. Uno de los principales objetivos de este decálogo de meses que restan hasta las fiestas, es no quejarme por el dinero, es un mal que me viene agobiando desde hace varios marzos, hace...
It's been 3 years since the last movie. The Elders had to wait 3 full years to learn what will happen to frozen Han and what will papa Vader do. We waited a week. But what a mess it is! Return of the Jedi is the most chaotic, uneven episode of the Original Saga. It started with pig-aliens, and ended with The Kid...
While Candide, the Baron, Pangloss, Martin, and Cacambo were relating their several adventures, were reasoning on the contingent or non-contingent events of the universe, disputing on effects and causes, on moral and physical evil, on liberty and necessity, and on the consolations a slave may feel even on a Turkish...
Roshan: [[File:{{#setmainimage:Screenshot - Admin UI Skybright.png}}|thumb|Hit Copy To AI and then paste into your Claude Code to drive from there]] One of the things I find annoying these days is not being able to unleash Claude Code on a problem and let it spin. You have to copy out a cookie and instruct Claude on...
Days without turning off site blockers: 12 I finally cleaned up all the collatoral damage produced when I was sick (laundry) and other household stuff I neglected. Even applied for some jobs. Still learning how to "do nothing" (aka relax). I find myself craving time to do nothing the longer I'm away from screens. I...
One of the most famous ST:TNG episodes is “Darmok,” and many years ago Ian Bogost published a long essay about it that’s a fascinating combination of the importantly right and the importantly wrong. Bogost’s theme is the curious character of the Tamarian language, and if you want to know what’s curious about it I...
As a former ISP employee I occasionally like dipping my toes into some networking stuff, and this 25-minute video from The Serial Port is a good retelling of the day in 2014 when one of internet’s important routing tables crossed a threshold of 512K, which caused all sorts of trouble: What I appreciate about The...
Acabo de descubrir el blog de Juan Silva y ya van varios de sus posts que resuenan conmigo. En este post que publicó hace ya “casi” dos años, habla de cómo la mayoría alimentamos Instagram de contenido (o cualquier otra red social actual) de manera gratuita. Claro, en estas redes, es posible monetizar el contenido,...
A few days ago I replaced the battery in an old iPod classic I bought a while ago, because the original battery only lasted for about an hour or so before it gave up. So I decided it was time to give the iPod some TLC and treat it to a new battery. These iPods are a nightmare to take apart because the housing is all...
Museums and galleries are places we can go to learn about the past, think about the present, and consider the future. Museums are places we can connect: with times, people, and place. We can have conversations in museums. We learn in museums. We can explore.The topic I have chosen for this month’s IndieWeb Carnival...
Check out As in guillotine... for more. In which I briefly comment on the books I read each month, so a few years from now when I’m trying to remember one of them, I’ll be able to find it here. Since I’m a media omnivore, it also includes games, movies, and any other media of note that I engaged with. Do we have...
You know the feeling of writing (or creating) something, and it's just... not that good? Here you are, after just having put down a decent amount of effort, and it's not as thoughtful as you hoped it would be. Perhaps it's just better not post this publically, leave it uncreated. I want you to note a dissonance...
I didn't sleep well last night. My first church meeting was at 7am this morning and it was another busy day. I also had to take allergy medicine, which always makes me feel tired. Needless to say, I'm running on fumes a couple hours before my normal bedtime. I have good moments on these busy Sundays, but I spend...
Holding on to what you got while everything goes to hell Moon photos first, then words: 2/27/2026 04:41pm 02/27/2026 9:55pm 02/28/2026 04:25am Friday afternoon I got excited because my partner Della told me how good a daymoon we were experiencing when she was trying to decide what to use for her daily instant film...
SECRETS REVEALED!!! I know a lot of you have been waiting for this update. The unfolding of a brand-new fitted sheet set. What will we discover? Let's find out...
February is already over, and a lot of interesting things happenes during the month. It is the shortest of the year, after all Podcasts This month was rather light on podcasting, only listening to 28 hours of podcast episodes, which is less than half compared to January. Into The Aether - Same weekly listening as...
Brennan.day has been writing about the future of the internet and whether or not our websites will survive into the future. He has a lot of good points, and you should definitely give the article a read: How Are We Preparing for the Long Web Several of the points in that article jogged my memory, though, and...
I think we should shit on any art that uses generative AI; no exceptions, no matter what it’s being used for. I read Future Perfect post, and it inspired me to talk about it. He talks about the frustration of hearing others talk shit about a local band’s poster that used AI, and he says: Like, for fuck’s sake! These...
Sooooooo. It's the 1st of March, you know what that means.
« Dépendamment de la météo, je vais venir en auto ou à vélo. » La première fois, ça surprend. Pourtant, ce n’est que le contraire de indépendamment. C’est juste que les deux adverbes se ressemblent lorsqu’on n’a pas les oreilles habituées. Dans le milieu professionnel, on aime définir des indicateurs clés de...
your mom is so phat I want her to adopt me and make me cookies Send me an email Latest 3 posts 01 Mar, 2026 Haiku for Your Mom 01 Mar, 2026 Haiku for War Criminals 26 Feb, 2026 Haiku for Dr. Manhattan’s Hotel Cleaning Service Older Posts I'd Like You to See 05 Nov, 2024 Election Night, Anxiety Night 03 Jul, 2024...
I am late with today’s selection of Pook-Emu Bee Links, but we need not allow a backlog to form (I have enough backlog as it is). 1. The Eerie ‘Blood’ Moon Will Grace the Night Sky Next Week, Thanks to a Total Lunar Eclipse (Margherita Bassi for Smithsonian Magazine. February 27, 2026.) Sounds neat but New York City...
Insphex adds the Hexdump item to the File Browser menu to view the hex dump of the selected files. The initial implementation called the public API for adding commands at the top level of the menu. To later move the item to the See sumbenu that groups various file viewing commands I resorted to list surgery, as the...
