I let the elder kid choose her lunch. She chose a pizza so huge that each slice is larger than her entire face. Needless to say, she needed a little help with it!
Kind: Notes
My Biggest Fan
As both the UK’s heatwave and my up-and-down England road trip continue, I think I’ve finally found a fan big enough to cool me off.
Pied Wagtail and Coffee
Drinking a coffee while editing a podcast episode in the beautiful Ullswater valley, and this lovely little pied wagtail came by to say good morning!
Self-clear area
I spent a while failing to interpret this sign. It seemed to be saying that if you didn’t clear your tray… then you’d get ketchup poured on your wrist?
It turns out there’s a baby bottle warming station on the other side of the bins.
(It is possible they my brain is struggling from a lack of sleep.)
Note #29298
It’s been too damn hot out, so Ruth, the kids, and I took refuge at the snow park of an indoor ski centre!
Wikipedia @ 25: Milices Patriotiques
My random Wikipedia article of the day was Milices Patriotiques, who were a 22,000-strong communist group and part of the Belgian resistance in the Second World War. Which sounded really interesting, but their article was tragically short so that’s pretty much all I have to say about them!
Note #29294
Hold your head up high and show some PRIDE.
Roman Bingo
If the Romans played bingo, do you think the callers would have used ‘bingo lingo’?
- Legs two
- Growing up the wall, four
- Seagull in flight, five
- Long-nosed dead man, nineteen
- Pornography, thirty
- Use your tongue, fifty-nine
- Smiling in a blindfold, a hundred and one
Wikipedia @ 25: Jim Marshall
Today‘s random Wikipedia article was Jim Marshall (photographer). I enjoyed reading about him and even looked up some of the many photographs that he took of musicians in the 60s and 70s, but decided that because I was literally just writing about a photographer that I learned-about on Wikipedia, it probably wasn’t the time to write about another!
But here’s a fact for you: Jim Marshall was the official photographer for the Beatles‘ final concert in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, and he was head photographer at Woodstock. There we go; that’s my Wikipedia article of the day!
Wikipedia @ 25: The Bugler of Algiers
Today‘s random Wikipedia article, which didn’t make it into a full blog post or podcast episode like a few earlier ones did, was The Bugler of Algiers. This 1916 silent film, based on a novel called We Are The French, has no surviving copies and it’s no longer even known what role some of the billed cast played in it!
Among others, it starred Kingsley Benedict, who would later go on to feature in Fast and Furious! No… not that one… the 1927 silent comedy (which you can watch on YouTube… it’s… about three times as long as it needs to be, IMHO).
Rubberdogging
Rubberdogging, verb: attempting to invent a solution to a technical problem by explaining it out loud to a pet. From “rubberducking”, the practice of doing so to an inanimate object, and “dog walking”.
Wikipedia @ 25: Presto Card
Today’s random article was Presto card: a contactless transit prepayment card used in Toronto and the surrounding area. It’s powered by MIFARE, the same underlying system as the Oyster card uses. I enjoyed learning about its rollout and history but it wasn’t quite interesting enough to be worth a full blog post or podcast episode, especially as I was just writing about public transport as a result of yesterday’s dive. So you just get this note.
Note #29114
This plant has sonehow managed to grow through the atrtoturf lawn of our temporary home!
Life… uh… finds a way?
Soccer Slash
Observation:
Media franchises attract fandoms, and many get their fair share of character ‘shipping (especially of the attractive characters).
Soccer also attracts huge fandoms… but I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of “soccer slash” (even of the attractive players).
Car Climate Control UI
Why, when I change the temperature on the thermostat of my Renault Zoe does it change the fan direction, too? Is this a UI affordance for people who want their faces colder but their feet warmer? I don’t understand!
