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Current Music: Madness

(no subject)

That damn watch broke right after I made my entry yesterday but it only cost me five dollars and I couldn't bring myself to take money away from cancer patients so I didn't return it. I went to a leather worker but he didn't make watchbands so I just decided fuck it, I'm going to be one of those people who just looks at their cell phone when they want to know what time it is. The concert last night was just great. My cell phone got screwed up but I had it fixed this morning and it didn't cost me anything. Then I went to the Temescal street fair with a friend, it was super fun! Went home and went swimming, also L. texted me to let me know to pick up some tea I ordered at their house tomorrow, unfortunately L. will be too busy with home stuff for me to hang around tomorrow but at least I got my tea.

Current Mood: still hot

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Hot again... but less hot!

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162/365: Worcester Engine Works
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It was a mere 32 °C today. I was in Worcester, and it was still fiercely hot in the unbroken afternoon sunshine. Today's photo subject will be a familiar sight to those who know Worcester, as it's very close to Shrub Hill station. This imposing (if rather neglected) structure is the Worcester Engine Works. The company of that name existed for under a decade, having been set up in 1864 as a reaction to the Great Western Railway moving its carriage works from Worcester to Swindon after a fire. The Worcester company did well initially, but it faltered during the Panic of 1866 and never really recovered, going into liquidation a few years later. In recent years the Works building has rather struggled to find a role: its Grade II listed status restricts how much alteration can be made, and mostly it's been occupied by a succession of small commercial offices.

Current Mood: accomplished

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Grizzly and The Bear Patrol 37

My mother used to sit for hours and hours crocheting while watching television. Often she was crocheting a new blanket with a new pattern, or just burning through some scrap yarn to make something random. Either way, it was usually amazingly beautiful as my mom had serious creative talents. It kept her mind occupied and her hands busy.

I completely understand that thought process. I often do my comic book for the same reason. Creative outlets are relaxing, especially in stressful times (like now).

I finished the final edit last night and posted Issue 37 today. I love the feeling of getting an issue done. This issue has been oddly fun, as some of the panels turned out far better than I expected, if I do say so myself. I'm happy with the final result, especially the cover. There is something so pleasing about drawing Grizzly and then coloring it.

I hope you enjoy Issue 37 - "Wrestling Demons." You can read the whole issue by clicking the cover below.

Grizzly & The Bear Patrol #37 - Wrestling Demons

Questions, comments, or criticisms? Hit me with them. :)

Current Mood: hot

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34 °C today

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Hottest day of the year, Bewdley, 11th July 2025

161/365: Hottest day of the year, outskirts of Bewdley
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As the subject line says, it was indeed 34 °C here today, and Astwood Bank elsewhere in Worcestershire seems to have taken the daily record at 34.7 °C. Looking quickly back, I think the temperature I recorded makes it the third hottest day where I am since I started keeping notice over 20 years ago. Only 18th and 19th July 2022 beat it, and then only by one degree. Certainly it felt unpleasantly hot when I briefly ventured outdoors. Tomorrow looks like being very similar, perhaps only a degree or two cooler at best. That said, it's probably the lack of rain that's bothering people more, especially farmers. You can see pretty well why that is in the photo. That grass is not often this yellow even at the height of summer. It certainly wasn't with all the rain last year!

Current Music: David Bowie

(no subject)

PG&E doubled their damn rates. My landlady told me my electric bills should go down once they hook up the solar panels, which I thought they already did. There's supposed to be a bldg meeting about that Thursday, the odd thing is they're having the meeting 2 and a half hours after they normally leave.
I also got a new watch, the band on my old one broke, I was just going to have the band replaced but I found a nice watch in this second hand store that sends its money to cancer patients and they only wanted 5 dollars for it. It probably would have cost a lot more than 5 dollars if I just got a watchband at some other store. Plus, of course I'm all for helping cancer patients.
Looking forward to tonight, I'm going to the East Bay Gay Men's chorus concert!

L.M.A.O......

The Ladies are back.....

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A Day In The Life.....

It always comes back to bite me in the ass...

I've had it with my fellow aides at work and decided to "work" just has hard as they do.
So last night I was told, by the two aides working the evening shift, the empty patient rooms were set up and ready.
Charge nurse told me we would be getting a patient at some point during the night, so I went to check on the room that it was going into.
BIG F'ING SURPRISE to room was not set and ready for a patient.
So I got it all ready for the admission.
In the process of quality checking the glucometers in all the rooms, I saw that the other empty rooms weren't ready for admits either.
I made the comment to a couple of nurses that wasn't going to fix any of the other empty rooms unless we were going to get admissions because I am tired of picking up after everybody else.
Flashforward to the end of the shift and manager comes up to me and tells me she wants to see me in her office after I punch out.
I go to her office and she proceeds to tell me, paraphrasing, how lousy of a employee I was.
She said nurses complained that I wasn't doing my job and being lazy about things. And tonight wasn't the first complaints she has gotten.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will put my work ethic up against any aide on our station.
But when I take a stand I am the one that gets in trouble for it.
I finally ended the "conversation" by telling her, I guess I will be a good little aide do my work, and in my head, I will do everybody else's work too.
If she wants a cold worker drone, I will give her a cold worker drone.
They are making really easy to say I F'ing Quit.
If I didn't need the healthcare coverage, I would be really tempted.

On another note, my car went into the shop this morning to be repaird.
They say it will be at least 10 days, which means at least two weeks because the shop is not opened on Sat or Sun.
They gave me a lift over to Enterprise Rental, the company State Farm uses.
Signed all the paper work and they gave me a Chevy Equinox.

Current Mood: hot

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Duck season!

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Ducks in Dog Lane, Bewdley, 10th July 2025

160/365: Toy ducks, Bewdley
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An even warmer day today (Thursday). My highest reading was 31 °C, which is the equal hottest day of the year for me. There's a strong chance that Friday will beat this mark. I needed to go down to Sainsbury's in town for a couple of things, so I made sure to do that well before nine. On the way I found these amusing toy ducks in Dog Lane, not far from Sainsbury's. The road name's etymology is not certain, but it may be a corruption of "Duck Lane", since the road runs down to the river and the town's ducking stool may have been situated there centuries ago. The residents of this house have given that possible earlier name a much cuter interpretation in their tiny front yard!

Current Music: Nina Simone

(no subject)

I was so out of it when I got up this morning that I turned on the wrong stove burner when I was trying to make tea and I got a bunch of smoke in my apt. that stupid smoke alarm goes off if I just turn the stove on to do anything more complicated than make tea or if I turn the oven on at all unless I open the window and turn the stove fan and box fan on full blast (and, yes, I cleaned the oven). It's a pain because I love to watch TV or listen to music when I cook and I can't do that anymore because the fans are very loud and I can't hear the TV or music at all well when they're on.
I think deviled eggs go great with barbecue ribs so I hard boiled some eggies and put them in the fridge and I will devil them later.

Current Mood: confused

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A little piece of Ukraine in... Kidderminster?

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Ukrainian APC, Kidderminster, 10th July 2025

159/365: Armoured personnel carrier on back of lorry, Kidderminster
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Another very warm day. I saw this armoured personnel carrier on the back of a lorry in Kidderminster today. If you look carefully, you can see a Ukrainian flag near the front (left) of the vehicle. I'm afraid I know very little about military vehicles, so I can't tell you what model it is or anything. I have absolutely no idea what this thing was doing in Kidderminster at all, let alone this particular road; this area is a boring stretch of offices, commercial warehouses and the like with no obvious military relevance. I suppose it could be being repaired, but why here? You can't see the number plate in the photo, but I did check something: the lorry carrying it has an ordinary UK civilian number plate.

Current Music: Johnny Cash

(no subject)

Went to the grocery store, among other things I got some ketchup and whisky to make barbecue sauce, I have some baby back ribs I got out of the freezer and I'm gonna make cornbread.

Monday At The Movies.....

Netanyahu says he nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, really

Emily Singer, author

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/8/2332307/-Netanyahu-says-he-nominated-Trump-for-a-Nobel-Peace-Prize-Yes-really?detail=emailrecap

Current Mood: relaxed

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Walking in the forest

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158/365: Eastern edge of Wyre Forest
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Well, on the outskirts of it, at least. The Wyre Forest is a pleasant place on a warm day, given the shade it provides. Here's a photo from near the eastern edge of it at Coppice Gate. As you can see, this afternoon was pretty much cloudless, and although the air itself wasn't uncomfortably hot, we're at the peak of sun strength with UV up to 8 (as high as it can get here) so I was careful to keep to the shade as much as I could. This particular location has no facilities bar a small car park and a simple map board, so it isn't usually very busy. That was the case today -- I only saw one person walking her dogs all the time I was there. The lack of rain is starting to tell, though, as you can see from the yellowing of the grass here.

Also, have a meme question I noticed somewhere:

What is an unusual form of transport you have used?

(The original says "transportation", but I ain't American! :P )

To many people, I suppose "steam train" would count, and I've been on those masses of times -- but it's not unusual to me. That being so, the obvious answer is "hovercraft". Back in 2007, I flew (you don't sail a hovercraft) from Portsmouth to Ryde on the Isle of Wight (and back) with Hovertravel. That route remains operational and is the only regularly scheduled year-round passenger hovercraft service in Europe.

Current Music: Tsaichovsky

(no subject)

I'm just hanging around here until I have to go to physical therapy this afternoon, looking forward to going to skeptics in the pub tonight once I hear from Dave. My legs hurt too damn much to go swimming the other day. I wish my neighbors would shut up, they're yelling at eachother, I don't know what they're arguing about and it's none of my business anyway but one of them has a very annoying voice.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

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Thought for the day

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("You" here is a general term, not aimed at any specific person.)

My feeling is that it is almost certain that you have already seen and liked and/or favourably commented on an image, song or video that has been created at least partially with AI, without knowing it. Unless you're in the industry and/or a specialist, I suspect you are quite a bit less good at picking human from AI than you think you are. I know I am. It's not 2022 any more. As an imperfect analogy, think back a couple of decades to when 320k MP3s first became widespread. Lab tests at the time demonstrated that most people, including self-professed audiophiles, couldn't reliably tell the difference between 320k MP3 music and lossless under remotely normal conditions, however much they'd previously insisted they could. I suspect something similar is going on with AI imagery/sounds. Cheerful, eh?

Current Mood: sad

Entry tags:

7/7

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157/365: The White Swan, Bewdley
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It is twenty years to the day since more than 50 people were killed and nearly 800 hurt in the London bombings, caused by extreme Islamist suicide bombers. This was the first Islamist suicide attack in Britain, as well as being the deadliest terrorist attack since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. It was a terrible shock at the time, all the more so because the targets were public transport vehicles: three London Underground trains and one double-decker bus. At first the news was simply of a "power surge" on the Tube, and it took a couple of hours before it was fully clear that it was something more sinister than a simple fault.

On a happier note, someone on my list here asked me recently whether the White Swan pub in Bewdley was still around. I said yes to them at the time, but here's some visual evidence! The White Swan was for a long time a slightly down-at-heel pub -- not dangerous or anything, just rather shabby and tired -- but it's had a substantial makeover in the last year and has gone significantly upmarket. It's recently started to sell itself more on food than beer, and the patio area at the back has been given a good polishing up as well. It's at the top of Load Street, Bewdley's main street.

Current Music: ELO

(no subject)

Had some orange blossom tea. I would have loved to get together with L. today but she was busy. Forwarded some SS threatening shit to my dad at his request and got a bracelet repaired by this super nice lady who works at one of the bookstores in my neighborhood (the jewelry stores were all closed, contrary to what it said on my cellphone). I heard today was world chocolate day so I went to my favorite cafe to get a piece of chocolate peanut butter roll cake but they stopped selling it. Booooooo! They didn't do the lemon cake anymore either, I know there's no chocolate in that but I really love that lemon cake too. Double boo! Ordered some new teas, one Yunan for me and one red chai for L. Talked to T. and confirmed that he will be picking me up Friday at 4:30 to go to the concert. I have been wanting to go to the movies lately but nothing seems to be playing around other than movies I already saw and wasn't that impressed with and the usual superhero bullshit. I heard there's something around called Fucktoys that sounded really interesting but it's not playing around here.

Monday At The Movies.....

This Week's Movie Quote...

M. T.: What am I allergic to?
A. P.: Pine nuts, and the full spectrum of human emotion.

Poll #33331

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

View Respondents

Which Movie Does This Quote Come From?

View Answers

The Devil Wears Prada
2 (40.0%)

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
0 (0.0%)

The Proposal
1 (20.0%)

I Don't Have A Clue...
2 (40.0%)

Last Week's Movie Quote...

Walt Koontz: I'm not as stupid as you think I am.
Rusty Zimmerman: Honey, you could never be as stupid as I think you are.

It comes from the 1999 movie, "Flawless".
It stars Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
De Niro plays and UltraConservative security guard who suffers a severe stroke and for therapy,
Takes singing lessons from a neighbor. One little problem, the neighbor is a flamboyant Gay man who is also a drag queen.
A match made in heaven, NOT...

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Those Who Knew or Guessed Correctly...

gwendraith

adminbear

sidhe_uaine42

thoughtsbykat

christalin80

sunshine_two

seaivy

merlinwon

Songs From The Movies.....

From the 1948 Disney movie, "Melody Time", we get a little bumble bee action in "Bumble Boogie"...

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Blackberry!

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156/365: First wild blackberry of the season
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I always look forward to the start of the blackberry season. I'm not a proper forager, so blackberries are the only fruit I regularly pick wild. In fact, they're about the only fruits I don't really eat much at all out of season; it's extremely rare for me to buy tinned blackberries, for example. The law in this country allows non-destructive foraging, as long as it is for personal use and not for commercial purposes. Obviously you can't go into someone's garden and pick their carefully planted fruits, but a wild bush by a right of way? Yep. Anyway, here's a photo of the very first blackberry I picked this year: 6th July is a bit earlier than usual, which says something about our dry, warm summer so far.

In other news, it's always irritating when people do idiotic things that mean I have to come down on the side of other people I dislike. There's been an example of this today: the leader of Brighton & Hove Council, Bella Sankey, has said she has reported Rod Liddle to the police for a Spectator article in which he said things would be improved by a nuke on Brighton and another on Glastonbury. I detest Rod Liddle, for a whole variety of reasons -- but in this specific case, the Spectator article in question is very obviously satirical and about as worthy of police attention as John Betjeman's "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!" was -- which is to say, not at all. Please, Ms Sankey, don't make me defend Rod Liddle again. It's really not something I want to be doing.