Recently updated blogs

To a visitor from lands afar (me) who sees this part of the world in little two-week periods twice a year, Jeune & Jolie feels like it did all the work of establishing itself as one of the best restaurants in California in a metaphorical blink of an eye, a few short months between opening, winning its Michelin star and becoming the last word in sophisticated Cali-French dining. Of course, …

Account of a trip round England by the Czech writer who introduced the word “robot” to the world.

It’s been a while since the last update, summer, holidays, birthdays, etc have all taken precedent over the last few months but there been progress! We’ve laid a lot of sleepers! I did make full use of child labour too! Abbie’s made a decent job of the sleepers she’s laid, probably between a third and a half of this board. My wife Kerry was helping me thread chairs as some …

Top stuff from English jazzman John Surman. View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize View fullsize A lovely album with a mix of avant-garde/free/spiritual/post bop. A majority is on the free side though. It’s bombastic and chaotic at times and slower paced and more melodic in parts. There are plenty of different interesting passages throughout. It keeps …

Also featuring Keep The Kid Killers Off The Road, Get Off Your Butt And Be A Man, and So Lovely, My Sweet, To Die Screaming! via

Specifically in this case a Tenor Baritone guitar? I mean, I already have a tenor guitar (more than one), and I have a baritone guitar too. Why would I need a tenor baritone? That’s just silly. And yet. Here is one anyway. A mystery, it is. Anyway, hi. How are you? — JS

The Arabian Heritage Collection by Areej Le Doré is a deliberately minimalist collection, focused on the three materials that are not only critical to Arabian or mukhallat style perfumery but happen to be the recurring motifs of each Areej Le Doré collection – ambergris (Al Ambar), oud (Al Oud) and sandalwood (Al Sandal). As always, when I smell an Areej Le Doré collection, I try to evaluate what I am …

… The only thing more vexing than being a Trump critic is being a Trump ally. – Jonathan Martin, “Here Are the GOP Senators Best Positioned to Take on Trump,” Politico, November 21, 2024.

The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own. I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before. In this thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is …

I joined my Silver Lining for Learning (SLL) co-hosts – Chris Dede, Curt Bonk, and Lydia Cao (with Yong Zhao unable to attend due to travel) – to deliver a keynote at the Global Learning for an Open World Conference. SLL has been a labor of love over the past five years, with more than […]

Back in the summer, I decided to get more serious about controlling my Type 2 diabetes, and I enrolled in a program that I found through my insurance company. Overall, things have gone quite well: my blood glucose is down, my weight is down, and I’ve been able to cut my medications to about a third of what I was taking before. But nothing is perfect, and the iPhone app …

Reddit wiki has up to date URLs for accessing the download site for unlicensed books

I have always been interested in adventure games — ever since I first played Scott Adams’ Adventureland and issued the command CLIMB TREE and I entered a whole new world. Castle Adventure is another entry in the “early work of a person who would become notable” genre. Other examples include Temple of Disrondu, with two of the Magnetic Scrolls authors (Rob Steggles and Hugh Steers) in a team-up; Brian Fargo …

The narrator of Sharon Bolton’s new novel is the very definition of a nosy neighbour. Living in the middle of three adjoining cottages with very thin walls makes it easy to hear the people on either side: the narrator knows what music they listen to and what they watch on television, who they speak to on the telephone and what time they get out of bed in the morning. In …

Also rated feeders, AllHere fraud, expensive banana and AI on the blockchain.