Little things

Jul. 11th, 2025 01:33 pm
wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
[personal profile] wildeabandon
- Yesterday I made avocado salsa, and the avocados were in that almost unattainable spot of perfect ripeness which lasts for approximately five minutes. I am pleased with past me for noticing that they were getting close to that state a few days previously and putting them in the fridge so they didn't go past it.

- I sent the next page of my Syriac translation to the professor and got back some comments, and I feel like I'm starting to move beyond just decoding the grammar and vocabulary, to noticing wordplay and making accurate guesses about things that are implied but not stated. Levelling up ftw.

- I have a ticket to see Tristan and Isolde in a few weeks. This might not quite make up for having to miss the same opera company's Ring Cycle earlier in the year due to a Wrong Country Error, but it will go some way.
emperor: (Default)
[personal profile] emperor
It's time to vote for the next Chancellor (previously); I've looked at the candidates and their statements, but still don't have an obvious-to-me choice of who to vote for.

When I asked on mastodon, I got two responses (one for Sandi Toksvig, one for her or Gina Miller); FB has shown me one friend saying that Chris Smith is "a nice bloke, but also the only candidate worth of the role"; and I've been sent this from someone who evidently doesn't share my general political view (though I'm inclined to agree that being the author of tuition fees probably rules John Browne out).

I can see why people might think Wyn Evans is a good option, but his proposals seem to me more the sort of thing you'd expect the vice-chancellor to do, rather than the chancellor who is not really involved in the running of the university directly.

I'm currently inclined to put Sandi Toksvig first; I'm sure she'd be great at the schmoozing-major-donors thing, but also at engaging with staff & students and advocating for the University.

I'm planning to vote in person on Saturday...

[this post is public, I am screening comments by anyone not already on my DW access list, will unscreen if I think they're making a useful contribution]

Mixed blessings...

Jul. 8th, 2025 02:17 pm
wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
[personal profile] wildeabandon
I have not, as yet, managed to find any work for over the summer, and am now slightly doubtful whether I'm going to be able to at all - it's quite rare for a contract to be shorter than a couple of months, so unless I get something starting in the next couple of weeks I'm probably not going to have enough availability.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, if I don't have any income at all this year, then my savings will be pretty much entirely exhausted by the end of the year. On the other hand, I am quite enjoying being a gentleman of leisure...

To-read pile, 2025, June

Jul. 5th, 2025 08:00 am
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[personal profile] rmc28

Books on pre-order:

  1. Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)

Books acquired in June:

  • and read:
    1. Playing for Keeps by K A Findlay (Kim Findlay) [7]
    2. The Charlie Method (Campus Diaries 3) by Elle Kennedy
  • and unread:
    1. Dying to Meet You by Sarina Bowen
    2. Sort Your Head Out by Sam Delaney
    3. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Borrowed books read in June:

  1. Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
  2. The Domino Pattern (Quadrail 4) by Timothy Zahn [8]
  3. Judgment at Proteus (Quadrail 5) by Timothy Zahn [8]

Annoyingly, when I thought I'd cancelled my KU subscription in May, Amazon thought I'd suspended it for a month, so I got charged again in June. And as the above makes clear, I didn't really get my value for the month of it. The Timothy Zahn Quadrail series is really fun (Trains! In Space! And also galaxy-spanning conspiracy and action adventure with really interesting aliens!) and I'm glad I got to finish it, but I have now definitely and for real cancelled the subscription until further notice.

I don't expect to read much this month either, with the women's football Euros running most of the month. Farocation is running again and I didn't yet get through all the books from last summer, so I'm being even pickier about which ones I decide to pick up this summer.

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

And breathe...

Jul. 4th, 2025 04:26 pm
wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
[personal profile] wildeabandon
Oh look, once again it's been forever since I posted. Since my last update I got hit by another rather tough challenge, albeit this time largely self-inflicted, when my application for Belgian residency got turned down because I was a bit late with some of the paperwork. This led to a certain amount of panic, but fortunately I had just enough visa free days left in the EU after my provisional residency card expired that by returning to London and missing the last week of lectures (most of which were fortunately recorded and made available online), and shifting some of my exams around so they were all the same week, I was able to take them all.

I got my results on Wednesday. No perfect 20s this time, but two 19s, two 18s, and four 17s, which gives me almost exactly the same 89% average as the first semester's rather wider spread. The highest accolade available at KU Leuven (summa cum laude, with the congratulations of the examination committee) kicks in at 90%, so I need to slightly up my game next year, but now that I've got a much clearer idea of what's expected of me I think that it should be achievable, especially if I don't have quite so many curveballs to deal with as I did this semester.

One of favourite modules this semester was Syriac II, where instead of an exam we had to produce a portfolio, the largest part of which was a translation of a portion of a text chosen in consultation with the professor. I did a part of the "Syriac History of Joseph", which retells the story of Genesis 37-39 with various additions. I enjoyed doing this sufficiently that, having done the first three pages for my portfolio, I am going to try and do the remaining 16 over the summer. The same professor is teaching Coptic next year, which is not a language I realised I was interested in learning (nor, for that matter, was Syriac), but he's such a great teacher that I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm now back in London for the whole summer, which hadn't been the original plan, but I am enjoying seeing more of [personal profile] obandsoller and looking forward to doing so even more when he emerges from the pile of marking and admin that accompanies the end of term for the teachers, when we students have finished our exams and are enjoying sitting on our laurels...

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Jul. 3rd, 2025 05:36 pm
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[personal profile] emperor
This is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, and provides the backstory for Imperator Furiosa in that film. So here we see her life from a child in one of the remaining green places to the Imperator we meet in Fury Road.

Aside from the opening, this film is very much in the orange-and-black dieselpunk post-apocalyptic vein of Fury Road. There's a lot of high-speed chase-come-fight sequences, which are quite the spectacle, a fair amount of bloody violence, and some quirky funny moments (especially from Chris Hemsworth as Dementus), which provide a little comic relief.

Furiosa doesn't let off full throttle very often, so this is not one to watch for interesting ideas or a nuanced plot. But if you can avoid thinking too hard about how plausible it all is (or isn't), it is pretty entertaining.

clamp / median / range

Jul. 2nd, 2025 02:45 am
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[personal profile] fanf

https://dotat.at/@/2025-07-02-cmp.html

Here are a few tangentially-related ideas vaguely near the theme of comparison operators.

Read more... )

Wicked (2024 film)

Jun. 30th, 2025 03:25 pm
emperor: (Default)
[personal profile] emperor
This is the first in a two-part adaptation of the musical of the book (which is in turn a re-interpretation of The Wizard of Oz investigating the Wicked Witch of the West's backstory). It's a very long time since I saw The Wizard of Oz, and I've not read the Wicked book nor seen the musical. review, with spoilers )

The songs are reasonable (though none of them have stuck in my head), the leads are very good, and it's very pretty. And I was pleased to recognise Peter Dinklage by his voice :) But I don't think I'd recommend it as a film.

Packing

Jun. 30th, 2025 10:03 am
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

Regrettably, we have to go home again this afternoon. I am packing with the intention of leaving our luggage at the hotel while we do one last amble along Southsea beach.

Swag count:

  • 11 pens
  • 9 commemorative guidebooks (to the various ships, museums, and the dockyard as a whole)
  • 2 notebooks
  • 2 postcards
  • 1 travel mug
  • 1 fridge magnet
  • 1 birthday card from the Spinnaker Bar staff

Also some chocolate from the Lindt outlet store. My suitcase was fairly full when we came. I'm sure I can make it all fit ... somehow.

The seed for choosing Portsmouth for this getaway came from seeing a sign for "Explosion Museum" while driving a bunch of hockey players to Gosport rink back in May. I'm very glad I went with that impulse, it's worked out well.

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Matthew Garrett

About Matthew

Power management, mobile and firmware developer on Linux. Security developer at Aurora. Ex-biologist. [personal profile] mjg59 on Twitter. Content here should not be interpreted as the opinion of my employer. Also on Mastodon.

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