I finished This Is How You Lose the Time War earlier

It's good, fun, a romp
Easy to get into
Quick to read

It's a bit over-the-top with the prose at times. But I see why it's a book club choice (I cannot do book clubs, I read at my own pace and it varies massively)

But yes, would read 👍
#bookstodon #scifi

Folks are gonna need to stop with the "grandma on the computer" to mean uneducated users tropes soon.

I was writing and debugging code to a cassette tape drive before a lot of folks who say this nonsense were even born. I have built my own computers from the case up. My first computer class in college was COBOL. I hard coded websites before there were any tools to do it with.

I'm 52.

What I find is that most of the yunguns have no fucking idea how they work and couldn't find a command line if their life depended on it.

So, yanow, maybe stop.

A Tale of Two Flowers

May 1, 2025

It is May Day, and the daffodils are having their day in the sun as well they should on this festival of spring. Over the years, I have accumulated many different varieties, and I’ve learned to plant both early and late bulbs so that the bloom time is extended. The planting usually happens on a late fall day when I realize that I need to get them into the ground before it freezes solid. So, I scatter bulbs here or there and then promptly forget where I did plant them until they pop up in the spring. I know I could use markers, but they are some of the first green shoots to lift out of the ground. Anyways, it is always exciting to have an unexpected discovery. One needs this in late February and early March when spring is still just a dream.

This year’s new blooms are a late variety with creamy white ruffled petals and a lovely scent thanks to a special order from Johnny’s Selected Seed in Maine. I used to think all daffodils are basically the same until I did a little research and found that there are over 26,000 cultivated varieties. They are all in the amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae) which also includes alliums like onions and garlic. I guess there is zero chance of collecting them all.

Daffodils are poisonous to deer, and that is why they avoid them. I’ve read that if you plant daffodils around a deer delectable plant, they will keep away from it. It is important to note that they are also poisonous to humans. The leaves, bulb and stem contain the highly toxic chemical lycorine. I have never heard of a daffodil poisoning because who would think about eating one? We have this wise sense about us. It may be part of the sixth sense which tells us: Yes, it is lovely to look at and the smell is divine… but don’t even think of eating it. Ironically, this plant also contains an ingredient which is used in treating Alzheimer’s. Nature seems to have this thing with medicine disguised as a poisonous plant.

The term daffodil is interchangeable with the name Narcissus which brings me to the second part of my tale. Long ago back in grade school, we learned about the Greek god Narcissus. Well, at least some of us did. That was something we skipped right over at St. George School; and yet, somehow, we learned about it anyways. According to Kew Gardens, “The scientific name of the daffodil genus, Narcissus, is believed to come from the Greek myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his reflection in a pool of water. The nodding head of the daffodil is said to symbolize Narcissus gazing at his reflection.”

That’s just weird right. No one in real life would do something like that. But the myth is meant as a cautionary tale that warns us of the danger of thinking too much of oneself. I am realizing lately that there are a few too many narcissists hanging around in high places. I would recommend that they study the ending of Narcissus’ tale where he eventually dies from a heavy dose of self-infatuation. If one doesn’t want to look to the Greek gods for advice then perhaps one of the many thousands of daffodil types can help. There’s the Rip Van Winkle from the Victorian Era or the Original Poet’s variety. There is even a Trumpet daffodil if anyone is interested. There’s just one thing to remember… they are poisonous!

Sources:
Kew Gardens: https://www.kew.org/pla

A few people who are out there following my posts may have known Georgie Gobel (the Purdue George, not the comedian from the last century).

George apparently died last month. He was a passionate early Unix user, inventor, and experimenter. Besides early work with multiprocessor Unix, he is perhaps best known for his 3-second lighting of a charcoal BBQ, a feat that earned him the 1996 Ig Nobel in Chemistry.

RIP.

https://www.jconline.com/obituaries/psbn1445636
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Goble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sab2Ltm1WcM

I don't think people fully appreciate how apocalyptic things are for US science. I haven't received any new funding since 2024, but I'm still ok since grants are typically for 3 years. This means next year I will be completely out of funding and will have to fire everyone in the lab. It's not great.

In my 25-year career, I’ve never NOT had funding. I typically have 4 to 8 grants, which you need if you’re running an observation science program and have a technician, students, and postdocs.

Well it's done. So many hours gone. It's been the bane of my life for the last two weeks. So many broken branches! Hand carved from boxwood (bird and leaves) walnut (branches) and oak (scrolls).

#carving #woodcarving #miniature #birdart #miniaturecarving #tinyart #art #sculpture #wood #woodart #woodartist

#curl decomplexification continued

https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2026/02/24/decomplexification-continued/