arkessian

@arkessian.bsky.social

215

Posts

Health stuff after a heart transplant, lefty UK politics, cats (who won't want cats?), general life issues, hilarity about local village shenanigans, occasional SFF book reviews (always positive) plus anything else that takes my fancy.

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arkessian

www.patreon.com/posts/squirr... TLDR, Help, we have squirrels, please support my Patreon. This post is public. Should you be inclined to support me, you would ordinarily get cat photos, reports on the process of revising a very ill-fated novel, deleted scenes, and bits of other works in progress.

Squirrels are winning | Pamela Deanwww.patreon.com Get more from Pamela Dean on Patreon

Ok. I'm not fool enough to click through, but I am curious. Why exactly might NASA be "concerned about an off-grid generator"? Answers on the back of a postage stamp please. 😄

If I'm posting a lot today, it's because I'm getting really uncomfortable flashbacks to a rollout 35 years ago. 1/

I'm sure the airspace above my house would be a dream for a military air enthusiast.

actionnetwork.org/petitions/op... I've signed, as a member of the Labour Party, but you don't have to be a member to add your support. UK signatures have most value in this case.

Open Letter to the Health Secretaryactionnetwork.org We're appalled that Wes Streeting plans to continue the Tories' ideological ban on puberty blockers. This move is not in the best interests of young trans people, and we will need the full unity of th...

Had my crystal ball been in working order, I would not have organised the redecoration of my study on a day when my BP was 96/80. The fallback workroom is upstairs, and might as well be at the top of a mountain.

Oh lord, I have some practical nieces. 2 of them were scheduled to visit me on Saturday for (one with a mother in tow and one with son). And I've just been informed that the decorators will turn up on Monday to paint my study among other things.

I no longer live in a Tory stronghold! Lib Dems clinched it. Labour were never in with a shout in 'South Cotswolds'.

Well, today has been a delight. Blood test (but I bagged the competent nurse)

I am very busy. So of course I have a new story idea. Novelette, novella, novel... who knows. But it has dragonettes and dragonelles and very full grown dragons (allow me to introduce you to The Great Lady) and a bookish heroine and a coming-out ball and is not a romance. It might be a whodunnit...

Kitty calisthenics. According to Little Madam aka the Squeaky Queen.

If I get a letter from Boris Johnson, and return it to sender, does it cost him or the Tories anything? Just asking...

Boycat does not approve of closed doors.

Advice, oh ye BlueSky denizens. My nephew is neurodivergent but we think he' a shoo-in for pTerry Pratchett (right reading age, same sense of humour). Suggestions from those with the right experience for entry points?

Little Madam is not impressed with Saturday

Behind a paywall: 'She lights up talking about reading and her tastes are eclectic: anything [..snip..] and, er, Star Trek novels. “You’re in a different world and I love it. Oh my bloody God,” she says, giggling. “They are called Spirk novels [a portmanteau of the characters Spock and Kirk].”

Working with ChatGPT is like working with an enormously bright trainee whose attention to detail wanders. Here is a spec; please code it. Here is an additional requirement; please include it. Now add back in all the things you left out that I asked for before...

If I was 40 years younger, I'd pull an all-nighter to get this coding job done. But I'm not, so I'm going to go listen to some relaxing music, and then get a shower and go to bed to be cuddled by my cats. There are benefits to getting older.

In other news, the Little Monsters *are* *not* *happy*. We are expecting bathroom fitters tomorrow. (To be fair, we have been expecting bathroom fitters for weeks but they have finally confirmed a date and scheduled deliveries, so Thunderbirds Are Go.)

I was noodling through old emails trying to tidy them up and... Do you know what? This was a damned good essay: theportalist.com/a-matter-of-...

What Happens When an Old Woman Steals Your Story?theportalist.com "A Matter of Oaths" author Helen S. Wright reveals how her space opera found an unexpected protagonist.

It's autumn and my annually recurring question is: Are these the same male wasps I am evicting every day in their dozens from my des res, because they are incapable of learning from experience? Or are they new male wasps? In which case the queen in their nest was seriously oversupplied.

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arkessian

Hi, I'm Jaime and I've been working for 8 years for the Wikimedia Foundation. The following are personal views and do not represent in any way the position of the Foundation (I don't and cannot speak on behalf of it). However, you may have seen this question by Mr. Musk and I wanted to respond A 🧵:

I have spent the summer (and now the autumn) rescuing wasps that have found their way into my kitchen... probably via te utility room vent.

Suppose I ought to start posting...

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arkessian

People are the absolute fucking worst. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...

Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian's Wall 'felled overnight'www.bbc.co.uk Northumberland National Park Authority officials asked people to stay away from the site.

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arkessian

A reminder once again that Bluesky WILL NOT promote bad actors onto people's timelines because there's no centralized algorithm. If you want to prevent bigots from spreading their hate, REPORT, BLOCK, MOVE ON. Do not reply to them. Do not quote them. Do not screenshot them. Cut off their exposure.

Sexually Suggestive

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arkessian

RT only if you are NOT becoming more conservative as you grow older.

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