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Slightly embarrassing moment at work yesterday. There's been a bit of a bug going round various people in the office, so when a coworker walked in saying "ooh, I'm feeling a bit grotty today" I moved to jokingly make the sign of the cross to ward off the plague before stopping myself because I remembered he's Muslim.

I'm atheist, but societal Christian defaultism can always rear its head!



Upgraded to iOS 18?

Check the calendar month view our. Try pinch zooming. Thank me later.



Rings of Power: is it just me thinking that the last words Pharazon will ever hear are, “I am no man”?
in reply to Sarah Brown

I wondered that too, but apparently if they do that it'll be non-canonical
Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Sarah Brown
@Ghost of Hope His nepo boy son is definitely one of them though.


Been thinking about Sarah’s history of English royalty since William t he Conquerer. Let me know if I left anything important out:

Succession crisis -> civil war.

Civil war resolved, negotiated succession.

Descendant of negotiated successor pisses everyone off -> civil war.

Descendant forced to accept terms.

Stability for a bit while they’re busy fighting other people.

Succession crisis -> civil war.

Civil war resolved violently.

Succession crisis (religion). Civil war narrowly averted.

Dynasty goes extinct. Succession negotiated.

Descendant of negotiated successor pisses everyone off -> civil war.

Civil war resolved through decapitation.

Succession crisis. Civil war averted via negotiated succession.

Succession crisis -> civil war fizzles

Dynasty goes extinct (yes, Charlie, it did. Shut up)

Parliament is finally utterly fucking sick of this lot starting civil wars, installs German puppets. The end.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Until the last year or so, I had believed something more or less along the lines of "England has been uniquely stable over the past 1000 years. Other countries have had bloody revolutions (France, Russia) or pulled themselves together out of fragmented parts (Germany, Italy) but England has missed out on all that, the elites here have always known how and when to soften and to give up a little power in order to avoid those excesses".
in reply to Ben Curthoys

@goatsarah Listening through The Rest Is History podcast has disabused me of this idiotic idea. We've had just as many usurpers, revolutions and civil wars as anywhere else, it's just that the English have had better marketing.
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Ben Curthoys

@bencurthoys @goatsarah Fair. I think most of that view derives from Britain being the odd one out while everyone else was doing 1848/midcentury civil wars. We wrote that up as ‘look how stable we are as we loot the rest of the world’ and it was never internally criticised.
in reply to Ben Curthoys

@Ben Curthoys lol, yeah. The Anarchy, 1st barons war, 2nd barons war, Wars of the Roses, Mary marches on London, 1st civil war, 2nd civil war, Restoration, Glorious Revolution, Jacobite Rising. Probably missed some.

GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) reshared this.



You’re scared we’re going to beat you at sports.

We’re scared you’re going to beat us to death.

We are not the same.



My watch just informed me that today is my personal record for single day calorie burn. I can believe it. I am having difficulty moving now. strava.app.link/ak7QiUQwTMb
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

@Alexandra Lanes @gz You … you … shut up with your remarks about how I’m definitely not going to be trudging along Curbar edge in September 2025 wondering why the fuck I did this to myself.

Unknown parent

@Sarah Brown @Miguel Arroz I have unexpectedly managed to sunburn my face on an overcast day in the UK in September. This is most unreasonable.
Unknown parent

@Sarah Brown @Miguel Arroz Also the wind was in our faces on Stanage which would have made it feel less sunny.


If @Vagina Museum had a cafe it would _obviously_ have to get baristas to draw vulvas in the cappuccinos.


BREAKING! In a move that the Liberal Democrat party hopes will finally deal with their transphobe problem, they have handed the Sudetenland to the transphobes.

In exchange, the transphobes pinky promised that they won’t demand any further concessions, “you know, for a bit anyway”.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

A transphobe spokesworm was later overheard muttering something about what a shame it would be if something happened to that nice Poland you’ve got there.


News coming in that a second debate invitation has hit Donald Trump.


Nothing quite illustrates the desperate need for proper civics education than a man with a policy platform of “stopping imaginary transgender immigrants eating your cats” being neck and neck to be US president.


NEW! Force femmed immigrants in YOUR neighbourhood eating YOUR cat!

Trump watches some very weird porn.

gz reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

I only saw bits of it on the news this morning and switched off immediately. I really feel sorry and scared for my US friends.


Apple: “And our new iPhone 16 has hardware ray tracing for unparalleled mobile gaming performance”

Mobile gaming:

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in reply to Sarah Brown

but also mobile gaming:
youtu.be/Rf5pB31k3dw?si=dRuPVG…
in reply to Alan Braggins

@Alan Braggins bet I know which ones get played and played and played.

Never seen anyone on a train or plane or bus playing a 3D FPS thing on their phone.

But word searches and distant descendentes of Tetris? All the time.



I’m assuming the answer is, “the power would go off”

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

how many hours/days would you give your current location of living, until looting and riots would start, if the power was completely down?
in reply to mxk

@mxk I have experienced a 5 day power cut before. None of that happened. People pulled together.
@mxk


Now smartphones are mature products we’re into the annual “this is an incremental upgrade over last year. I’m so mad replacing my 2 thousand quid perfectly functional phone with one that’s almost the same for another 2 thousand quid” cycle.

My brother in Christ; have you considered just … not?

I’m upgrading this year. My phone is 3 years old and the camera stuff is worth it for me. My step daughter is getting my old one, which she is thrilled with.

in reply to Sarah Brown

yes, which I have done a few times, however, and this might be due to my obtaining cheap highstreet repairs, they never seemed to last long.


Why the ever-living zombienuggets does my DNS server have libtiff installed?!


Weird phrasing on the radio just now. “The winds will be into the forties of miles an hour”
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

It's not a number, it's a metaphor. Later the outlook is for the winds to be into the Cromarty of miles an hour.

Alexandra Lanes reshared this.




Yesterday I saw a discussion about whether you can smell in a dream.

As fate would have it, I had a lucid dream last night (I have a cold. That’s probably why), so I decided to test it.

Yes, you can smell in dreams.

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Spoilers for Netflix's Kaos
Loved Kaos, but it tickled me to realise that it is basically the same plot as Jupiter Ascending, only in this case Jupiter is the baddie.

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

and the difficult decisions are always the ones that hurt poor people rather then the difficult decisions that hurt rich people.


It would be justifiable homicide to off the eejit who decided to put capacitive controls on hobs, right?
in reply to Sarah Brown

Yes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with rotary knobs and other physical controls.
in reply to Ozzy

@Ozzy Can even make them waterproof by using Hall effect sensors.
@Ozzy


Long form - ADHD and suchlike
in reply to Sarah Brown

Long form - ADHD and suchlike

Sensitive content

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to 1ngi

Long form - ADHD and suchlike
@1ngi Feeling is mutual, my lovely x
@1ngi


NORMAL PEOPLE: "I couldn't find anything about it in the docs"
ME: "The documentation is not obviously loquacious on the subject"


I'm going to just leave this here for no particular reason. inhousepharmacy.vu/p-1120-prog…

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Have taken the plunge and changed the physical SIM on my iPhone 13
To an eSIM. I was previously dual SIMming with one physical and one eSIM, but now I’m dual eSIM and the SIM tray is empty.


Haven't boasted about it yet on these social media parts, so I shall toot/skeet my own trumpet a bit. I got my OU Family Law module result yesterday, and it's another distinction, to add to the ones in Criminal, Civil, and Public law. Next up is Contract Law!





Pretty empty Greater Anglia class 720. 1043ppm CO2. Higher than I’m used to seeing on modern trains.
Unknown parent

@Mike Nice aircon in summer, usually not too crowded. On the other hand 3+2 seating which isn’t the most yielding, and no tables.



I know it's only a date and in fact it's quite a nice warm day out there, but I'm kind of sad that it's the first day of meterological Autumn. It feels as if I've lost the summer somehow amidst tiredness and sadness, and not been able to make the most of it for all sorts of random reasons. Worldcon was a massive highlight and perhaps I've got a bit of comedown from that and am feeling sad because I'm still fighting post-Covid tiredness. I dunno. Maybe it's just depression or hormones.



Well, this is a thing. Brazil has banned Twitter, imposing a fine of R$50000 per day for accessing it. noticias.stf.jus.br/postsnotic…


I appear to have a file in my downloads folder on how to operate a Solent Fort. (For the purposes of living there or running a hotel or something, rather than defending against Napoleon, which is probably now frowned upon.)
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

I think if you are attacked by Napoleon even in these times, self-defence is indicated.
in reply to Adam

@Adam They might prosecute you for unlawful possession of heavy artillery afterwards
@Adam

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

This is great and actually explains a few things that I sort of knew but often figured out by trial and error.

I especially like "[USB] has the huge upside that you can generally plug a USB device into your computer without having to spend a lot of time thinking about the details of the interconnect.

Fortunately, USB-C, Thunderbolt, and Lightning have come along to fix that."

reshared this



Dear menopausal cis women:

The trans women in your life evangelising HRT are subject matter experts. They are on your side. They are trying to help you.

Stop fighting them, FFS.



Whenever Government says it’s doing something for hard working people I want to scream “what are you doing for idle layabouts?”
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

Almost everything they do is for the benefit of idle layabouts like landlords or other owners of capital.


Behold my awesome goblet. I got it at the Silves medieval fair. It appears to be 3D printed.
in reply to So‑Called Vaughn

@So‑Called Vaughn Oh, that’s a hydrocolloid bandage. There was an unfortunate percussive issue and I lost some skin. There may have been screaming.
in reply to Sarah Brown

There may have been some wincing here as I rendered a mental picture of the percussive issue and bloodcurdling SFX