Recently updated blogs

The forecast was for storms but thankfully it was another beautiful sunny day at Bondi Beach! I had another volunteer shift at The Whale, helping hundreds of beachgoers have fun with this amazing installation of puppetry. Thanks to my fellow volunteer Christy for joining me, as well as the Waverley Council folks and the talented team from Spare Parts!

The acclaimed Dutch architectural studio Mecanoo excels at crafting renderings of unbuilt projects that faithfully convey the design and atmosphere of the project ultimately constructed. As modern rendering engines offer architects unprecedented capabilities to create dynamic imagery of design proposals from every angle, the firm is acutely aware of the dangers of overpromising and underdelivering, choosing instead to champion restraint and careful consideration. In the latest edition of Archinect In-Depth: …

I was feeling better today and almost at 90% but that changed as the day progressed. I had to help my wife out at the storage unit the dead people society rents to store their books and publications. I didn't pay attention to the foot and did what my wife wanted me to do. By the time I was back at the barn the foot was hurting again, I was …

This summary is about cities and towns I’ve posted about. I don’t tend to do these posts very often, so there aren’t many. Again, you can also see the attractions from 2023, from 2022, and from 2021. And you can see all of the attraction-related blog posts via the exploring category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top, or more specifically the town …

As we head into the endgame, please review the Community Guidelines and take care to express yourself with appropriate respect for other players and their own view on their games. In particular I shall note that direct allegations of lying or deceit should be approached very cautiously - if the target of such an allegation does not believe themselves to have carried out a deliberate deceit then such an allegation …

Minus 3 all the way to the Prancing PonyThe cold snap offers unexpected advantages to the year-round rambler. The usually treacherous mud in the horse fields is frozen firm, sparing one from the threat of trench foot. On the frost-hardened ground, the ice holds the weight of a 14.5-stone man with just the faintest suggestion of splintering.But you've got to keep moving.Officially, I have finished the Rail Trails on the …

Good morning, everyone. Sunday Morning Uni Watch may be done for the season, but college football just keeps rolling along. Today I’m going to carry the proverbial ball all the … Source

Since 1939 when I entered first grade in a Pittsburgh elementary school until becoming a nonagenarian last year, three national movements swept across American public schools: the Progressive Era (1890s-1940s); Civil Rights movement (1950s-1970s), and business-inspired standards, testing, and accountability reforms (1970s-present). As a student (1939-1951) I was the object of Progressive education reforms. As a teacher and administrator in Cleveland (OH) and Washington, D.C. (1950s-1970s) I designed and implemented …

Candy is the penname of a doctor called Barbara Alison Neville (1925-1993) nee Boodson, who wrote several books, including three mysteries. Words for Murder is the final one, but the earlier two were: Which Doctor (1953) and Bones of Contention (1954). This was one of the books that I received from my Secret Santa. Synopsis ‘Little does Mr Roberts suspect, what he’s in for when he calls the roll for …

Looking back through the years, I have, more than once, used the terms "Super Bore" or "Stupor Bowl" to refer to the Super Bowl. The game is only a small part of what has grown to encompass special commercials made for the occasion, pregame and halftime concerts featuring superstar artists, and marathon analysis both before and after the game. (It doesn't hurt that there have actually been some pretty good …

A London walk through some of the most historic locations in the City of London We’re back to unpick more of the City of London’s stories and discover some of its treasures. This classic London history walk includes some of the City’s most important locations as well as its centres of power. We start by going in search of a plaque marking the site of Shakespeare’s lodgings in London and …

It happened again when I was bleeding out in a hospital in Conroe, Texas. We had flown in from Colorado to visit my parents the day after Christmas. My husband and my dad didn’t get along so well, but my mom had begged, pleaded, and then bribed us to come, paying for the plane tickets and a rental car because she was dying to meet Leila, our toddler. Because of …

I’m extremely delighted to announce that I have a new book on the way, which will be published in the UK on May 15th and in a North American edition in Spring 2026. Regular readers of my blog posts here will know that I live above the Prespa lakes, and it’s this place that sits … Continue reading Lifelines: new book announcement!

If all you want is weed to smoke in a bong the economics of home grown in a tent vs. store bought in a legal state doesn't favor home grown. As an example on 12/23/2024 I bought 1/2 oz of top shelf Cannabis (THC 31% on the label, tested to 28% by my test equipment) for $140 USD. I'm a daily bong toker, often wake and bake for pain relief …

Much of the Hawkeye comic I recently read takes place in and around a small apartment house in Bed-Stuy. The artist captured the feel quite well, without this necessarily being any particular building.