Moved/moving to @wibble
Formerly: schoolteacher, academic editor, helpdesk operator, database designer, project manager, crate-catcher and tree-surgeon's assistant.
Interests: #ClassicalMusic, #StringQuartets, #Physics, #Biology, #Fiction, #Trees and #Ideas.
All photos (if not credited separately): @wibble, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Interests: #trees, #birds, #ideas and sometimes #TheArchers
| Mostly In | London, UK |
| Also Procrastinating At | https://www.simonwilks.co.uk |
@martinhowitt Possibly, but they switched "fiscal hosting providers" last year (to HCB, per below), and something's keeping the Mastodon version current, so I wouldn't want to panic.
On the other hand, although it's still nice and quiet here with not a lot of obvious nonsense, quiet isn't great when there are bills to pay, and nor are missing admins. And so I, for one, willl be hatching an escape plan, just as soon as I can be bothered.
Yesterday's walk was to Peckham Square where plans are afoot, or thereabouts, to demolish the arch - a monument to regeneration, apparently* - and fill the plaza with unwise fountains.
In the meantime, they've put a Christmas Tree under it and, nearby, a banner advertising unlimited fun that doesn't, on the face of it, seem to be working.
@elduvelle You're right to feel nervous; owning anything brings (or should) responsibility, if only for disposing of it.
But we live in a world where taxable inefficiencies drive the economy, so shared- and public-ownership, even of natural monopolies, is rare, leaving us the choice of living with threats of eviction and rent-rises or mortgaging ourselves to financiers.
I bought a flat and resented it but I resented my landlords more. So I'm less resentful now but that's not the same as happy.
#TodaysWalk turned out to be to Lewisham, expectedly via Catford and Sydenham and Forest Hill but unexpectedly via Crofton Park, which is really Brockley and not a park and nowhere near anywhere called Crofton. The area is, however, dotted with many streets (e.g Elsiemaud) that echo the geneaology of a land surveyor, and it's possible he was busier than his lawful relations understood.
Whatever it is, it currently boasts a celebratory spruce, as pictured, which is something.
#TodaysWalk was to Brixton by way of the fancy bits of Dulwich where neither inflated carrots nor superflu have yet defeated Christmas mania.
Coincidentally, I also saw my first deflated Santa of the season. I can't be sure it was the work of a cat, but there aren't many other animals here that are quite so discerning..
#ScribesAndMakers 10, Have you ever seen a theatre production where you were impressed by the props?
Not exactly. Though, many years ago, preparing for a school production of a Lorca play, I was given a wheelbarrow and told to collect a coffin from a funeral parlour a mile away in what was, and remains, a very hilly town. The barrow was small and the lid got cracked, but I never suffered stage-fright again.
It's a grey sort of Wednesday in London, where the morning promises only emails and, if time permits, a grocery run.
Despite which, there are people out there who make it their mission to force fragments of joy into the humdrum lives of their fellow taxpayers, so here's a picture of a Celebratory Spruce at Honor Oak Park Station.
@marxistvegan According to "Rest Of World", which may or may not be reliable, 32 data centres in Chile will result in 909 permanent positions, or about 28 jobs per centre. Most of those, as you might expect, seem to be in security and cleaning, though as many as 20% might conceivably be technical and thus slightly better paid.
https://restofworld.org/2025/data-centers-jobs-microsoft-google-chile/
Joxean Koret (@matalaz)