attimes_bracing

This is from a post made here on Facebook. I'm copying it here, with the permission of the original author, so that people off Facebook can see it.

I had the pleasure of Terry’s company on a week-long Writer’s Retreat twice, in 1990, as part of a company of eight interesting people in Diss, Suffolk.

Terry later came to my wedding and gave me a proof copy of ‘Lords and Ladies’ as a wedding gift! I had never read his books before I met him, so I began with ‘Wyrd Sisters’ - and have carried on reading them ever since.

When he learned I was meeting up with Terry again, my local Librarian shouted ‘Oook!’ and collected up every book by Terry which he had in the Library, and asked him to sign them. This amused Terry - and shocked other participants! "You shouldn't write in Library Books" etc...

Terry and I were both reading Henry Mayhew’s ‘London labour and the London poor’ at the time.

I asked Terry to make a list of other books which he found inspirational. Here they are:

• ‘The Evolution Man’ by Roy Lewis.


• ‘The Specialist’ by Charles Sale.


• ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Chaucer.


• ‘Fairy Tales’ by Charles Perrault.


• Jacqueline Simpson’s folklore books.


• Everything by J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis.


• ‘The Wind From the Sun’ by Arthur C. Clarke.


• ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ by Stella Gibbons (my favourite book).


• ‘Mistress Masham’s Repose’ and the Arthurian Trilogy by T H White.


• I also add the new series of novels set in St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, of whom I am a keen fan, and strongly recommend. Terry told Jodi how much he liked her writings. Start with ‘Just One Da*ned Thing After Another’ and carry on enjoying!


• Edit - I forgot 'The Moomins' series!

Following yesterday's illness, I was vaguely hoping that he would stay asleep through the night. Alas:

12:05
"I need a wee"
Took him to the toilet.
"Daddy, my tummy hurts"
Gave him some medicine
"Do you want to be in pyjamas or just straight back to bed?"
"Back to bed"
And then he closed his eyes.

12:20
Thundering footsteps "Daddy, I feel sick"
Told him to go to the toilet. Kept him company, got him a bucket.
He wasn't sick.
Persuaded him to take the bucket to bed.
Sat on the floor next to his bed until he closed his eyes.

12:35
More thundering steps
"Daddy, my arm and leg hurt"
By the time I'd found him medicine he was asleep again.
But woke up again and let me give him some Calpol.

03:30
"I'm hungry" (not surprising as he didn't eat yesterday)
We agreed on cream cheese crackers.
He ate ⅘ of the cracker and drank some juice and passed out again.

06:30
"I checked the light coming under the curtain and it's morning time"
I told him to go play games on the Switch downstairs.
Fifteen minutes later I could still hear him wandering about and I hadn't heard any game noises.
Went to check on him and he told him that he'd found various points around the house where the floor isn't flat.
Got him settled with the Switch, and then went back to bed and stared vacantly at my phone for an hour, before getting up to face the day.

The first time Gideon fell asleep in front of the toilet we moved him to a comfy chair. From where he woke up still feeling sick and Jane found him lying on the floor with a bucket he'd found and relocated him back to the toilet, where he then fell asleep again.

I missed all of this because I had passed out in bed feeling rubbish. I did wake up to various noises, but each time I did I tried to open my eyelids, failed, and fell back to sleep again. Thankfully Jane isn't feeling as bad as me, and Sophia was off having a play date at the other end of the street.

So far nobody has actually thrown up. Fingers crossed that continues.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. This 18-year-old Afghan girl had offers from York and Reading - thanks to Shabana Mahmood, she will now never escape the Taliban

(tags:Afghanistan women UK migration asylum education OhForFucksSake )

2. AI toys for children misread emotions and respond inappropriately

(tags:toys children ai )

3. PEGI to give 16 age rating to games with loot boxes (amongst several other changes)

(tags:gambling children games )

4. Have two people being *ridiculously* good at a Dance Pad game

Streamed live at: https://www.twitch.tv/tomatoniumWorld 1st PG on Sarabande CoopP1: ElijahTSP2: Tomatonium

(tags:games dancing video viamybrothermike )

5. New NHS England Review Excluded 97% Of All Trans Studies To Say Care Doesn't Work

(tags:LGBT bigotry healthcare OhForFucksSake transgender )

6. Tracing the lobbying behind age verification laws

(tags:age surveillance USA law politics )

1. Hereditary peers to be removed from Lords as bill passes

(tags:uk houseoflords goodnews )

2. Wildlife conservation charity urges change to weather apps as misleading forecasts deter thousands of visitors

(tags:zoo weather Scotland )

3. Unite vote to cut Labour affiliation by 40%

(tags:unions uk labour )

4. Louis Therous's "Inside the Manosphere" exposes red pill men for the hypocritical grifters they are

(tags:men patriarchy hypocrisy documentary viaSwampers )

1. The neurons playing Doom are actually testing a theory of intelligence

(tags:doom games intelligence ai )

2. Stay Classy (a history of the awfulness of Prince Andrew)

(tags:royalty UK OhForFucksSake corruption )

3. How good are you at spotting colour differences? (I scored 0.006 - see if you can get yours lower)

What was particularly interesting was that on some of them I had to let my eyes "settle". They'd see a wall of colour, get overloaded, and then after about 10 seconds I'd easily see the line. Oh, and I'm much better with shades of green than with shades of blue.
(tags:colour viamybrothermike )

I was chatting to a couple of friends last week, and realised that I really fancied having one of those "bar chart race" videos for my links, showing what had been the most popular links over the last 21 years that I've been saving links (to Delicious, and then Pinboard).

So I downloaded the JSON blob of my whole link history, used some PowerShell to slice and dice it into a CSV, and uploaded it to a site that converts a bunch of data with dates into a bar chart race. And voila:

Unsurprising to see "Europe" break the top 20 in 2017. Followed a year later by "OhForFucksSake".

Both files available here, for the very curious.

About two months ago Gideon discovered Mario Odyssey. He played ¾ of it with me, and then restarted and played the whole game by himself.

And then followed that up by playing all of Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

And then, this afternoon, discovered that we have a PS4. So now we're playing The Last Guardian. He is delighted by his pet dog-dragon.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

1. Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like "synergistic leadership," or "growth-hacking paradigms" are less competent

(tags:intelligence business language psychology )

2. Global Warming has Accelerated Significantly

(tags:globalwarming doom )