Lovely to see empty seats towards the end of a Chelsea away match

⚽ #MastodonFC

TV grab showing seats vacated by west ham fans....and who can blame them?

The Bible tells us that i is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

I feel that Levi Colwill could pass a camel-sized football through the eye of a needle

⚽ #MastodonFC #cfc #ChelseaFC

Levi Colwill from https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Levi_Colwill.png

Powershelling my twitter archive

I’ve been looking at my twitter archive, with a view to importing bits of it into micro.blog (the automatic import didn’t quite work…I’m blaming Musk!)

I’m using PowerShell

Anyway so far I’ve learnt two things

You have to take this bit out of the first line of the tweets.js file for convertfrom-json to work:

window.YTD.tweets.part0 = 

Some tweets seem to be truncated with a special character that looks like three dots….but this seems to mainly but not exclusively be retweets and the display url

      "created_at" : "Sun Apr 16 12:55:38 +0000 2017",
      "favorited" : false,
      "full_text" : "RT @SkrMkrSean: I'm at Ashton United v Blyth Spartans and all the Blyth are dressed as Mexicans holding up a wall banner behind a guy in a…",

I’ve been watching The Hour on Netflix.

It’s set in an office in the 1960s.

I’m particularly enjoying the fact that they refer to each other as Mr Wengrove, Miss Rowley, Mr Cilenti etc, just dropping into first names for friends, or in moments of stress

It seems quite complicated

the hour publicity graphic

I don’t agree with Marina and Richard about twitter but I like this quote

“To be insulted by you is to be garlanded with lilies” - Aristophanes

The Rest Is Entertainment - Should you leave twitter?

Spoiler alert for 1930s play Gaslight

I learned today that the play Gaslight was renamed Angel Street in the US.

It was being performed as such into the 1970s

The other thing I learned (or, I guess, re-learned since I’ve seen the play twice) was that the ‘gaslight’ in the film isn’t actually part of the gas lighting.

The villain in the film is trying to make his victim think that they are going mad…but the gaslight effect is accidental.

Origin Story - Gaslighting

film poster

I’ve got a cold. Please send chocolate and curry.

Happy Hope-They-Both-Lose-Day to all who are celebrating it today

Spurs - Arsenal

#MastodonFc ⚽

Match graphic from the Guardian

“in a way that has no analogue in the world of conventional commercial transactions, customers continue to give their custom whilst vociferously criticising the product”

David Horspools on football in More than a Game, quoted here: The fixtures that forged a nation

Book cover

A small part of me is pleased that Old Street roundabout has retained its character, even if that character is being a bit crap

“Boasting hovering haloes and futuristic forests, Old Street roundabout was meant to be a shining beacon for Britain’s very own Tech City. Instead, we have 120 hefty bollards and paving built to deter rough sleepers”

Total bollards: the iconic ‘eco-Blade Runner’ roundabout that became a grim £132m ‘abomination’

This evening’s Quorn chilli will be enlivened, and hopefully enhanced, by this sauce

I’m slightly dubious about chilli sauces with overly macho branding*, and I’m never quite sure how to use the for-cooking-only ones….so we’ll see what happens

  • Psycho Juice is an exception because it’s good
God Slayer chilli sauce with my thumb covering up the swear

#TodayILearned, from watching the TV quiz The Chase, that “Originally, rhinestones were rock crystals gathered from the river Rhine”….that had never occured to me before

Rhinestone - Wikipedia

LP cover of Rhinestone cowboy

Something I didn’t know…

Henry VIII’s disappointment with Anne of Cleves began when she failed to recognize him when he was in disguise, and they’d never met before.

Six wives | 4. Anne of Cleves - History Extra podcast

Anne of Cleves

I google-ized ‘England fixtures’…and as well as tonight’s fixture it gave me a little summary about our national team.

All good…except for ‘Fight Songs’, for which it lists both Three Lions and the Take That song ‘Greatest Day’

Neither of these seems much like a ‘Fight Song’….and what’s that anyway?

Screenshot of England info, showing league table, manager and the very dubious 'Fight Songs'

" “Processing fee”, “service fee”, “delivery fee” – truly it has 100 ways of saying “because-we-can fee”. If that feels like you accepting a wage for your job, then charging your boss a supplementary “doing my job” fee each time you feel you’re doing your job … try it, see how you get on! "

Process fee, service fee, delivery fee … Who wouldn’t pay to see Ticketmaster rinsed by the regulator? Marina Hyde

Since I’ve seen a few posts about people using or not using Linux, I thought it might be time to explain my personal IT strategy.

It’s this.

Buy a cheap Windows laptop, and keep using it until it can’t run Windows any more.

Then install Linux

It won’t work for everybody, but it works for me.

extract from some sketch note or other id did, showing symbols of Microsoft, apple and linux

I’ve been creating a page of podcast episodes I’ve liked

I’ve extracted all of those I’ve commented on on Mastodon

mattypenny.micro.blog/podcast-e…

The photos in Salisbury railway station, and the Clock Tower

Took a picture of this to say how much I like the old photos that they’ve got at Salisbury railway station now

….but my inner smartarse can’t resist questioning the date on the caption. It says 1930, but the clock tower was built on top of the structure at the end of the bridge

This has some great photos and clipping about the clock

https://salisburyhealthcarehistory.uk/clock-tower/#lightbox[group-32051]/11/

…and this says it was built in the 1890s

www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/2346…

I’m sure there have been letters :)

In any case, the old photos are great

Picture of fisherton bridge and the Bridewell(?) before the clock tower was built

I asked Alexa to play the Sisters of Mercy this morning (yes….I’m an aged Goth, I guess), and got this

I quite like it, tbh

open.spotify.com/track/4XV…

Screenshot of Spotify playing the Sisters of Mercy from 'Absolute Gregorian'

If I watch enough tech videos at 1.75 speed, will I start dreaming in 1.75 speed? 😟😟

Youtube playback menu