I enjoyed, if that's the right word, giving blood and then plasma regularly in the UK. Since moving to Italy, I have tried a couple of times to donate, but they won't have me, on the grounds that I lived in the UK during BSE. I know I shouldn't, but I take it personally.

I rant often about podcast web pages that hide their audio behind layers of obfuscation. It makes trialling an episode in huffduffer.com impossible. But ones I subscribe to, like @5x15stories, that can't even supply a decent feed are beyond my understanding.

Tidiness certainly can be over-rated, although less so in the physical space than in digital space where searching is so much fast. Or, as I used to say of one long-term partner:

"A place for everything, and everything in a place."

Absolutely fascinating, and just a teeny bit disquieting. I love the idea of a fish-filled moat to keep them in. I'll probably stick this in the next newsletter.

Noted.

Please Sir,

What does hypeisis mean?

The internet does not know and keeps thinking I mean hypnosis, which I do not.

Thanks

Jeremy

Is there no way to stop the idiocy of having to prove I am a human when I try to use my phone to access a site “protected” by @cloudflare?

I went to your site at https://simulacrum.party/, as advertised in your profile, to see what your interests might be, with a view to making a sensible suggestion. It returned a 404. So, you know, maybe tech is hard?

I have Chrome installed for one reason only: to chat with a good friend who won't use anything else. I used to use Adium, but it won't do it any more. What are my alternatives to interact with Google Hangouts?

#IndieWeb

I too have been ignoring Spotify's apparently magical Discover Weekly these past several weeks, not because I was feeling algorithmicly manipulated, but because I've just had more of a hankering to listen to whole albums. Unfortunately, unlike Phil Gyford, even when I was doing Discover Weekly regularly, it didn't seem to surface anyone in particular for me. Maybe I should try again.

Watched The Right Stuff, which I had never seen, for the obvious reason, and was very pleased to have done so. 🎥

I was tempted by a fully electric car earlier this summer, but the cruel fact is that in a city or apartments, in which we have no access to a garage (or "box" as they are known here) there just wouldn't be any way to re-fuel. So I got a hybrid. Then, over the past few weeks, the city has been hard at work installing two charging stations on the corner. Currently they are not yet functional, and occupied by gas-guzzling SUVs.

When they are functional, I wonder how the city plans to keep other cars from occupying the spaces. I suspect they won't.

I have not yet been bitten by this particular version of helpfulness gone awry, but I am aware it could happen, and I agree with Peter that there really ought to be a simple way to indicate that someone is no longer available to be shared with.

The past month of micro posts served to reinforce my belief in my need for extrinsic motivation.
#mbnov

Crossing pedestrian off my list.
#mbnov

I absolutely refuse to be bullied by a “random” word generator into using a word like mask. #mbnov is a hoax.

Dilemma is one of those words that never looks correctly spelled to me. I dither between dilemma and dilemna for reasons that escape me.
#mbnov

It seems I’ve done nothing but adjust for the past nine months.
#mbnov

Call me the breeze?
#mbnov

A university press department that can't be messaged on Twitter? That's a new one for me.

I’m a good listener. I can say things like “provision another instance,” and have no idea what I’m talking about.
#mbnov

I confess, I’ve never really liked the idea of “nice capture” applied to a photograph, even a stunning wildlife image. It smacks of snapping the soul, and the hunting side of it doesn’t appeal either.
#mbnov

Not sure when I will next cross a physical border to another country, but independent cyberspace remains open, for which I am thankful.
#mbnov

Fade to black.

Not the end
#mbnov

No, anything is not possible.
#mbnov

I need to train myself to dig deeper before trying tricky computer stuff, but it is actually quite hard to find the tutorials that give understanding before they give instruction.
#mbnov

My memory is that my first USB stick had 128Mb of memory and cost and arm and a leg, in 2001, I think.
#mbnov

The Far Side used to be one of my favourite cartoons, but Gary Larsen’s return hasn’t really stuck with me.
#mbnov

I’m just not very good at spooky movies, can’t suspend disbelief for things I find it hard to believe in.
#mbnov

Keeping things minimal, I guess this will have to do.
#mbnov

Wear and tear is a concept that I like to embrace. My jeans, for example, are worn and torn in a way that directly reflects how and why I wear them, not a fashionista decree.
#mbnov

Say what?
#mbnov

I wish I could force m.b to look further back in my RSS feed and find yesterday’s microblogvember post.
#mbnov

I have enormous admiration for John F. Appleby, who in the 1870s perfected a machine that would tie a knot in twine, thus enabling a machine to bind sheaves of grain together and setting in motion the giant combine harvesters that enable our daily bread.
#mbnov

There is no way I can inflate my relief at the day’s events, or my gratitude to cyber-friends here on mb for their generosity of spirit.
#mbnov

Erk. I seem to have misplaced today’s #mbnov prompt.

Puzzling? This stuff writes itself, doesn't it. Not that I am going to let it, but the thought is definitely there. We've had near and anxious (ha; not anxious, astonish. Mr Freud, your slip is ready.) and stoop and now puzzling, and you still expect me to believe the choices are random?
#mbnov

Is the architectural stoop derived from the same word as step, and what exactly is it? Is it what I might call the front porch? Or is the little flight of steps leading up to the porch?
#mbnov

I have resisted the temptation to look at the news today, aside from scary hints in social media, and I am going to sleep. Perhaps tomorrow will bring actual information, reducing uncertainty.

The only thing that makes life bearable right now is that I am near the person who makes my life worth living. I can’t imagine surviving so much forced proximity with anyone else at all.

#mbnov

Whatever happens today is likely to astonish me.
#mbnov

I do remember orange juice made from concentrate and it seemed sensible; remove the water, ship, replace the water.
#mbnov

Not at all dreary the past few days. We had a great outing under warm, blue skies to stock up on culture. It may be a while before we can do that again. #mbnov

Sad to learn that James Randi, magician and stage artist devoted to debunking the paranormal, dies at 92 - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/james-randi-magician-and-stage-artist-devoted-to-deb...

I had the honour to know and work with the Amazing Randi for a while in the 1970s and 1980s, and it was always fun.

Currently reading: Our Daily Bread by Predrag Matvejević, ISBN: 9781912545094

#non-fiction
#food
#history
#mythology

Started to install tailwindcss rather than rely on the full stylesheet via CDN, and all I can say is, "so far, so good". Forced by actual work to take it slowly, which is probably a good thing.

Delighted to learn that Subway bread in Ireland is cake, in the same way that Jaffa Cakes are cake, at least as far as VAT is concerned.

Pleased, in a nerdy way, that tomorrow's podcast episode, in which I chat with a chef and teacher in Aoteora, will go out on a day when we all will have almost the same times for sunrise and sunset.