GreyShuck @ GreyShuck @feddit.uk

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163

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219

Joined

2 yr. ago

According to Antennapod:

• In Our Time
• Thinking Allowed
• Revolutions

However, I was listening to a LOT of Philosophize This prior to switching to Antennapod, so I expect that that would really take first place.

Sat - we'll typically watch a movie, which may be at the cinema or, if not, then on a TV via my Plex setup. Sun - we may watch a couple of 50min episodes of something, again on a TV from my Plex collection.

Not sure if you'd count both - or either - of those as watching TV.

The closest to me AFAIK is Sealand, but I'd rather not, tbh. I do actually have a passport from Waveland, declared as part of a Greenpeace campaign some years back and based on Rockall, but also not too appealing as a long-term residence.

At one site that I lived and worked on for several years, we discussed declaring unilateral independence on several occasions. It was a shingle spit nature reserve and seemed a promising location, but we never did. Well, not so far.

Overall, the Free Borough of Llanrwst looks a good bet. I have been there and definitely enjoy the area.

I'm a pagan, so it is all about the solstice for my SO and I.

We will typically go somewhere for the sunrise that morning. I have been to Stonehenge and a couple of other stone circles in the past, camping out overnight beforehand - and more recently have watched the live stream from Newgrange. For the last few years we have also celebrated Brumalia - a Roman and Byzantine winter festival that started (in its later period) on Nov 24th. So we progressively decorate the house with lights or holly, ivy, pine cones etc each day from then until the start of Saturnalia on Dec 17th. I have also made an advent-style calendar with chocolates in matchboxes that runs throughout Brumalia - Nov 24th to Dec 25th.

On Dec 5th, which is Krampusnacht and also a Faunalia festival, we will hang a Krampus figure up and have taken to watching the 2015 movie for the last few years.

During Saturnalia itself we will have at least one meal or party with friends - which usually has some element of mis-rule. On the solstice itself, as well as watching the sun rise somewhere or another (probably a local beach this year, as we are on the east coast), there is a local Mummers' play that we usually go along to in the evening. The solstice is also when we do our gift-giving.

On the 26th, there is a Cutty Wren ceremony locally that we will go along to and then there is some morris dancing at another location on new year's day.

Thanks to a radio sitcom a few days ago, my brain is currently obsessed with Bert Kaempfert's Swinging Safari and has been repeating it - or at least phrases from it -pretty much continuously for the last 48 hrs. I don't have much say in the matter myself.

A very under-rated pass-time.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

I suppose that I have had some kind of alarm with a snooze capability since about 1980. When I first had a clock radio with that option I recall trying it a couple of times, but I have never touched it since. I was just lying there waiting for it to go off again. Nothing in any way restful about that.

Perhaps the Peter Cushing version of Dr Who and the Daleks when it was first shown on TV in the late '60s. It's pretty weak - toned down to get a 'U' cert - and not a patch on Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. from the following year. When I saw that one, I recall that I was drawing scenes from it for some time afterwards. I don't recall that from the first one though.

If this involves some kind of adjustment of orientation, then I will be doing an early Father Christmas act and coming down from where I have appeared halfway up the chimney (being generous about how wide that chimney is). If it doesn't, then I am going to be part of the brickwork - except for my guts and arse, which will rot in place in the chimney over the next few weeks.

To a colleague arriving 10 mins late: "Afternoon."

To a colleague arriving 10 mins early: "Shat the bed?"

This is an idea that has been around for very long time. Plato used the Ring of Gyges to talk about it - which went on to inspire Wells' The Invisible Man - and influenced Tolkien among others.

Very much the same in the UK - with a similar range of species, and C. danica the most prominent - and no doubt elsewhere.

The article goes on to talk about research into suitable species for various climates and soil types etc.

Well, I am sure that we can always learn more, but arboriculturists and foresters have been doing this literally for centuries. There are very well known species lists precisely for this kind of work, and if we are talking about native species, particularly, then anyone who has been working in these fields will know them off the top of their heads. It us not exactly difficult or cutting edge.

• At work - recruiting another team member, so we are not all constantly plate spinning and I might actually have chance to spend time planning.
• At home - finally getting the pictures etc up on the walls.
• Nationally - voting the Tories out.

The alternating blue and white are derived from the arms of the free state of Bavaria. The exact pattern is adapted partly because it was illegal to use it directly but ultimately from there. More details on the Wikipedia page, as always. The propellers idea only came about as a result of an ad campaign later.

I'm in the UK, but I live in a small village. The nearest place with a menu at all (a pub) is about 3 miles away. There is a bakery around the same distance - but their bread is nothing to write home about.

Closest small town - 6 miles - has a few choices but also nothing really outstanding. If I had to choose from there, there is a pizza place with an decently spicy Vesuvio. To get to actual food producers of any size or quality I need to go further afield. One of these is based on a farm. The other in an old malthouse - both also in the middle of nowhere.

How local do you mean?

There is an icecream brand based around 20 miles from me that makes some spectacular Gooseberry and Elderflower icecream.

There is also an artisanal bakery about the same distance the other way that does some of the best pizzas that I have ever had, as it happens.

Either of those probably.

HMV for obvious reasons.

Both BMW and Alfa Romeo have logos that originate in heraldry.

Cisco - the golden gate bridge was built in the 1930s

Disney - a castle

Starbucks - a mythical figure

I experience suboptimal viewing by having to watch ads. If I had to pick one or the other, I know which one I prefer.

Since it is well established that Die Hard qualifies, by the same criterion so does Gilliam's Brazil from 1985, and that would be mine, for its gloriously nightmarish dystopia - closely followed by Klaus (2019), which is a far more conventional seasonal tale: an animation with a beautiful style of artwork and a great story.