Does anyone else play Wordle? https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/
I'm getting quite fond of it, as a morning brain teaser.
It's guessing a five letter world with the rules of Mastermind (if you ever played that as a kid, which I did)
You make a guess, right letters in the right place are marked in one colour, right letters in the wrong place are marked in another colour.
You get a maximum of six guesses.
I got it in three this morning.
There's a new one every day. No flashy graphics, no adverts, just a nice little puzzle.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it hasI've been trying many things to try and help the sciatica. One of the things I've tried is a sit-stand desk, very similar to the one in the photo - it's a Yo Yo desk. (but mine has the risers crossing in the centre rather than at the side)
Has it helped - yes, I think it's been an overall improvement. The sciatica still hurts, but I've noticed an increase in the time I can spend sitting down - which makes a bit difference when board gaming. It's as though I have a ration of how many hours I can sit for, and standing at my desk helps me use those 'sitting hours' for other things.
The think I most noticed when starting to use the desk was that I got a lot of pain in my calf and other leg muscles.
I'd noted this as a potential problem from people writing about their experiences with standing desks and it's why I went for a sit-stand desk rather than a pure standing desk.
Being able to lower the desk again when I needed to ease out my legs made a big difference. Now I've been using it for a month, I find I'm choosing to use it standing for most of the time. I'm often more comfortable that way - but I can still sit down if I want to.
It was the fact that the desk could be easily adjusted from sitting to standing that sold it to me. It needs a bit of a yank, but there's assistance from a gas lift and it really isn't too difficult.
I got this one cheap as it was a return, and I've no complaints.
One side effect is that I've noticed my leg muscles are getting stronger. I can feel the difference when I'm doing morris.
Would I buy it again? Definite yes.
I notice they've still got some returns - https://mailchi.mp/8283b51ff5a6/clearance-sale-off-sit-standcom-limited-period-offer-284022?e=%5bUNIQID - and their sales guy was very helpful when I bought mine.
I'd definitely break yourself in gently if you do get one. Try standing for 10 mins every hour to start with - you spend less time on your feet than you think!
A friend of mine is an excellent DIY engineer who can creatively fix all kinds of things. He's okay with me sharing this story with you (He reads this blog, Hi, Adrian!)
"You might be interested to hear the saga of our neighbourhood Christmas emergency: it all began on the Friday before Christmas week, when the local butcher's vacuum bag-sealing machine packed up. With all his Christmas stock waiting to be vacuum packed, that was a major catastrophe. We eventually tracked the fault down to a problem in the pneumatic cylinder that pinched the bag seal shut. The diaphragm was torn, so I ordered a new one and then received an e-mail to say it would be out of stock until the New Year;
To get the machine going again, I dismantled the cylinder and after a lot of trial and error found that a patch cut from a condom was flexible enough to stretch as the diaphragm rolled. We got the machine working again and by Monday morning his shop display was full of vacuum-sealed packs.
I had bought the packet of condoms from the newspaper shop (the chemist was shut on Saturday) and on my way back past the butcher's shop, I attracted the attention of his sister, who was serving, and held the packet up to the shop window. She burst out with hysterical laughter and called out something to her brother, who also doubled-up with laughter.
At that point I realised that the mystified-looking customer at the counter was my next-door-neighbour.
(I have since seen her and offered an explanation, but she said there was no need, as the butcher's sister had told her what was happening at the time.)"
I've been following some fiction recs from SelenaK and one I particularly liked also led me to this one - https://archiveofourown.org/works/35797606
A short, spooky crossover between 'Grand Designs' and the Cthulhu mythos.
'Grand Designs' is a TV programme about an architect visiting people who are doing interesting builds on new/restored buildings. I'm familiar with it, but the story should still work even if you aren't.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it hasI'm helping GM a role-playing space opera game. The six players have various factions, all the way from rats who steal everything that's not nailed down (and have a fascinating culture to go with it), to an AI whose task it is to look after a race of humanoids who have all entered virtual reality pods long ago and may/may not still be alive.
A major part of the game is exploration and colonisation.
What I'm after is ideas/suggestions for things they can find when they explore.
These can be anything and everything. The idea is that they should give several turns of activity and possibly produce something of value at the end (with a few possible duds)
We've created a number of these related to the background plot of the past history of the star cluster, but it's a large cluster and there's room for plenty more.
I want things that they can explore/analyse/learn things from/be puzzled by/etc.
What can your collective space opera brains come up with?
PS. There might still be space for another player, if anyone is interested. It typically involves a fair bit of in-character chatter over Discord in between the turn deadline every other week. The role-playing from some people is brilliant (and sometimes hilarious). We're only one turn into the game, so easy to fit someone in in an unexplored area.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it has
(Sorry for posting so little of recent. I've had a lot of trouble with sciatica. )
Star Nomad is a reasonably good story.
The war between the Imperials and the Alliance is over, with many dead on both sides.
Alisa, who was a pilot for the Alliance (who won) is trying to get back some to her daughter.
The only way home is to use her mother's old freighter, Star Nomad, which is in poor condition sitting in an old scrapyard, and turns out to be occupied by an Imperial cyborg...
She needs to find enough passengers to cover the costs of getting home, but several of the passengers (including the cyborg) have their own agendas....
Has a flavour slightly reminiscent of Firefly - assorted crew, struggling to keep flying in the aftermath of war - but where it suffers is in the characterisation.
Some of the characters are reasonably well drawn, but some remain very cardboard. For instance, Beck, who is hired as security (and has his own combat armour) turns out to like grilling meat and to want to develop his own line of sauces. But given that promising start, he never talks about anything except the sauces (and even than in vague detail). No mention of side dishes, different grilling techniques, how he actually makes the sauces, etc.
They have no lives outside the plot.
I find myself comparing with "The Long Road to a Small Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers.
Chambers's characters have far more personality and life to them.
This isn't a bad book. I got the first three as a set and am already reading the second, but I think they'll probably be 'read once' books, whereas Chambers is definitely in the 're-read' category.
I'm looking at Pluto TV, but no matter what I put into it's search, I can't find Discovery.
Help!
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it hasI'm back in learning German mode. Helps my stress levels - which are way too high after COP26...
And cheerfully making mistakes...But it's good, because I keep learning.
For some reason, I find poetry is a good way of learning the language.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it hasI'm going to cover Banks, Investments, Insurance Companies and Pensions. All are important, and some are very easy to change.
Much of the information in this post comes from Ethical Consumer Magazine https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ They've done some excellent articles on ethical investments, and if you're a subscriber you get full access to the stuff on their website which has all the information from previous issues in a very useful format.
They're a useful resource for a lot of information and I highly recommend getting a subscription.
So, where do you start?
You have several areas:
1. Change your bank.
2. Change your insurance company (Insurance companies have very large fossil fuel investments)
3. See if you can change your pension to a greener option. (best to do this BEFORE you retire, as you may not be able to do so afterwards)
4. Move your savings and investments.
BANKS
The very worst offenders are Barclays, followed by HSBC (First Direct is part of HSBC and M&S Money is 50% HSBC - so avoid those too) Citigroup, Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland), NatWest Group (NatWest, RBS, Coutts) and Santander (Santander, Carter Allen) are all financing of fossil fuels - but they're not quite as bad as Barclays and HSBC..
The best bank for ethics by a fair margin is Triodos (not just climate change -other ethical issues too). (you have to pay a small monthly fee for a current account, but you are far less likely to get charged large fees for things like accidental overdrafts, etc)
Other good ones include:
Cumberland BS current accounts, Monzo app-based bank, Nationwide current accounts, Starling Bank current accounts
INSURANCE
There's nothing like being in the business of assessing risks to convert you to seeing the dangers of climate change.
There are no clear winners in the insurance industry, they all have a way to go (they have big reserve funds which include a lot of money in fossil fuels). However, action is starting to happen, and there are insurers who refuse to insure coal power stations, etc.
I would study the Ethical Consumer guide to insurers to make your own choice.
We moved to AXA who are one of the better ones (they're part of the group unfriendly to coal, but still have progress to make elsewhere) - and saved money on our policy as well.
INVESTMENTS and PENSIONS
If you're lucky enough to have savings and investments - and this includes your pension - this is an area where you can achieve several gains all at the same time:
1. You reduce the risk of your investment losing a lot of its value - especially important if it's your pension. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/nov/04/fossil-fuel-assets-worthless-2036-net-zero-transition
2. There's nothing like taking away your money from an institution to send a very pointed message - but when leaving, it's important that you write to them to explain why you're leaving.
3. Some of the fossil free funds have really good rates of return.
4. You get the pleasure of taking a positive step that costs virtually nothing, takes very little effort, and helps keep fossil fuels in the ground.
There's a really good guide in Ethical Consumer, which shows you rates of return as well as ethical ratings.
The clear winners on fossil fuel free (and overall good ethics) are:
FP WHEB Sustainability Fund [C] WHEB Asset Management LLP and Triodos Pioneer Impact Fund [C] Triodos Bank UK Limited
WHEB have recently made it much easier for small investors, so we may try their fund as well.
PENSIONS
The amount of control you have over your pension investments will vary. If it's a plan with your employers, then try talking to them about the risks inherent in long-term fossil fuel investments. Both to the planet and to the security of your income in retirement - if there's still a habitable planet left when you reach that age...
If you're organising your own pension, then firms to look at include: for workplace pensions is Nest (not-for-profit and carbon divestment policies) and for personal pensions Royal London (high scoring mutual).
Firms to avoid - Fidelity, Old Mutual Wealth, Virgin Money, Scottish Widows
But I would strongly recommend reading the Ethical Consumer guide in full. It goes into a lot more detail than I can cover here.
It costs less than a fiver a month to subscribe, and it's more than repaid my two year's membership by finding me a fund that was more ethical (in the areas I'm interested in) than the one recommended by my local Financial Advisor, and with a significantly better rate of return as well.
Today COP 26 themed post is about electric transport. the12daysofcop.wordpress.com/drive-elect
It's a big gain carbon-wise, but this one - unlike many other climate saving actions which can cost virtually nothing - is an expensive step.
Electric cars are wonderful - we've just bought a second-hand Renault Zoe - and for the first time in my life, I actually enjoy driving. It's incredibly smooth, quiet and responsive. (It has a 200 mile range in Eco mode)
It's not a step we'd expected to take for several years. With nearly everything, the best item carbon-wise is the one you already own. Cost of manufacture is never trivial. But, when the garage investigated why our car was behaving in a manner that made it dangerous to drive, they finally (after several weeks trying to trace a transient fault) told us that the cost to repair it was a lot more than the value of the car.
So, we bit the bullet and went electric.
Not everyone is going to be able to afford to do this in the short term. It will be a while before electric cars trickle down to the bottom of the second-hand market, but it will be increasingly viable as time passes.
Charging networks should also improve - I know people who are concerned that they won't have a charging point where they normally park at home - I suspect the likely solution will be available charging points where people work and shop. A lot of car parks and supermarkets are already introducing chargers.
BUT - and it's a big but - the best environmental options will still be walking, cycling and public transport. (yes, guilty here - it turned out that getting our granddaughter to school was the killer - there's no bus service from here. She can get the school bus from where her parents live, but not from here, and it's only walkable when the weather in fine and we have an hour for the walk there and back again.)
Electric cars are lower carbon, but not zero carbon. It's important to remember that.
With any new energy saving technology comes what is known as the 'rebound effect'. If it gets cheaper, people do more of it, and thus wipe out much of the carbon-savings.
If you start driving further because your electric car is cheap and green to run, then it isn't as green as you intended.
Electric bikes are so efficient that they're actually more carbon-friendly than walking the same distance. (The carbon cost of the food you burn is higher.)
I went out this morning on mine and came back with two charity shop curtains (in the panniers) that will hang in our office. They have linings, so will keep in more heat than our existing curtains.
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it has
Comments
But LJ isn't offering it on the picture menu...
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Would you like me to have a go? I would try to keep it simple.
I think it's one of my best so far. Fiddly, but I wove most of it on the canals and it was very relaxing as we drifted along.