Recently updated blogs

For Christmas 2022, I bought my husband a Steam Deck. It's a handheld games console that runs a version of Linux (so you can also use it as a computer and plug it into a monitor, if you want), and works seamlessly with nearly every game in your Steam Library. It's GREAT. I 100% use it more than he does, to play all manner of weird and wonderful things. It …

Lavender is one of the most misunderstood perfume ingredients. “Too simple” is a common response from many who’ve long grown to associate it with aftershaves and soaps. Among perfume materials, lavender may not have the femme fatale allure of jasmine or tuberose, but in terms of versatility, the essence derived from the tiny violet flowers outflanks much more exotic blooms. You can find it in fragrances all over the perfume …

In my opinion, mountains in a Gothic Fantasy setting are for putting isolated and hidden secrets in. Here's the overview of the Karthax Mountains before we zoom in on some specific locations.The Karthax MountainsForeboding Mountains Hiding Terrible SecretsThe Karthax Mountains are an immense, fang-like range that divides Krevborna. The mountains possess a sublime and terrifying aspect; the unrelenting thunderstorms that rage amid the peaks fill their beholders with awe and …

One of my all-time favorite essays, Zoe Smith’s “4 Colorism,” starts with a page from Gold Key Comics’ Brothers of the Spear #11 (December 1974) where “black people” appear “thoroughly and intensely green.” Why? Because, Smith concludes, “print methods adopted by the comics industry early in its history didn’t have any way to consistently reproduce the color brown” (2019). That’s certainly true, but because the rest of Smith’s excellent essay …

Every choir has a reputation to maintain. Your choir and its name are essentially your 'brand' and, as such, need protecting. When anyone shares an unauthorised photo, video or audio recording in public, it has the potential to damage your brand. It's great to share images and recordings of your choir performances. But what if a ropey, out of tune, "we were having a bad day", early rehearsal version gets …

Artist: Rite Of Decay Album: Instrumentalities of Flesh Year: 2024 Genre: Progressive Death Metal / Thrash Metal Web: https://youtu.be/xj_wsiYPaVM / https://www.facebook.com/riteofdecayband Country: Canada Quality: 320 Kbps Tracklist: 1. Massification Proficiency 2. Salazar 3. Final Chapter of Human Era 4. Oligopoly (Mania) 5. Cryogenic Enslavement 6. Celestial Invocation 7. Maelström Witness: -[*]- I like this one.

On 7 January 2025 Meta made sweeping changes to its policy on Community Standards – Hateful Conduct the (“Standards”). This article examines how these changes put marginalised groups at serious risk and how they, in the context of the Online Safety Act 2023 (the “Act”) are in breach of their duties to prevent and protect these users from harm. In particular, these changes allow LGBTQ+ persons to be called mentally …

I recently finished reading Blake Butler's memoir Molly. I've not been so taken aback by a memoir in a long time. Butler tells the story of his life with Molly Brodak. I highly recommend the book as a deeply emotive and insightful look into a person whom Butler obviously loved and as a mirror into oneself. The abyss certainly stares back. Blake Butler's latest book is Void Corporation, published in …

This week’s theme: Ella Sings From the Songbook Series. Featured artists include Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman, Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, and many more.The post Podcast: Ella, Songbooks first appeared on jazzcollector.com.

Following up from my previous posts (Part 1, part 2) , I'm headed back into the realm of my own observations. PART 5: GET THIS SHIT OUT OF MY DRAFT DOC** Observation: Wraiths, Vengeful Spirits, and HexesThis is just one of those weird minor things where the pieces have fit together somewhat nicely (how about that for a change?)“Wraith” is used only three times in the corpus, in the descriptions …

There’s far too much going on in this winter photo of the Avon river. A background of trees in haze, then a bridge with vehicles. Closer, more skeletal trees against reflected ripples on the water of a river. Across it, just visible behind blurred briars and wood smoke that drifts across the whole scene, cuts a racing boat with eight – nine? – rowers. The colours are weird: blues and …

Speaking of Mark Zuckerberg, Nick Heer did an excellent job compiling a series of news stories on Facebook Meta’s “free speech” changes that demonstrate the cruelty is the point: If anybody is still committed to the idea that Meta changed its policies for principled speech reasons, this ought to shatter that belief. It created explicit carve-outs to permit discriminatory speech based on gender and sexual orientation, and Meta — as …

India's POEM-4 has successfully germinated cowpeas in space, and is also growing spinach tissue.

Anyone knows who were behind June Evenings? There is the one song I am aware of, just one… called “I Wasted All My Wishes On You” and as you might notice it is really great. Problem is that even though it rings a bell to me, I can’t remember anything about them. My thinking is that it is not an old song. Not older than 15 years at least. Has …

In 2006, a high school student from Ontario named James Hobson started posting to a new platform called YouTube. His early videos were meant for his friends, and focused on hobbies (like parkour) and silliness (like one clip in which he drinks a cup of raw eggs). Hobson’s relationship with YouTube evolved in 2013. Now a trained engineer, he put his skills to work in crafting a pair of metal …