The Micro Blog of SeiShonagon

TIL that I’m the same age as Unix

We took our kids to see The Cure last weekend. 11yo has now stolen CD and is listening to Head on the Door while getting ready for school year. 🎼

🎬🇫🇷 La Vie Scolaire - une plongée douce amère dans une année de collège. Pas de faux enthousiasme, mais pas de désespoir non plus. Les personnages et leurs doutes sont parfaitement croqués. Un vrai bonheur.

I’m now the proud owner of about 700g of brass and 300g of glass. When a 2mm washer and a 5g pack of lithium make it to my house, I’ll have an actual camera!

Finding a graffiti celebrating a 1930s fascist/royalist organization in 2019. I keep thinking of Weimar.

One thing missing from this (otherwise spot on) analysis by Matt Stoller is the fragmentation of the Europeans political landscape: getting a grassroots movement to support courageous politicians like Mundt is exponentially more difficult here than in the US.

I don’t remember if someone here recommended The Sparrow. If so: thanks! I have to say I’d never thought jesuits in space would be a thing. Also: 2019 seems a little dystopian, seen from 1996. Oh - wait…

These allergy tests look like Tatoos! The good thing? My wife is not allergic to iodine tracers, despite what she was led to believe for 30 years. The bad? She’s allergic to “grasses” - goes a long way to explaining continuous illness since we moved back from the desert!

I’m looking at buying a Leica M5 and a Voigtlander 50mm 1.5 - Am I being stupid not to hold out for an M3/4? - is there another “cheap” M mount lens to recommend? 📷

I just realized there’s a used Leica shop 100m away from my office. (After 1 year of working here).

Now I have to decide if I get an M4-2, or if I’m uncool enough to buy an M5, or if I wait for an M3. I also now know I can’t afford an M6 AND glass.

Oh the horror of turning 50.

3Quarks Daily is heavy lifting, but I should spend more time there. This piece on hedonism as an antidote to the ills of the time remind me of a gentler Michel Onfray.

This Friday - the Cure in concert! Robert Smith is pushing 60 but apparently they’ve got a great set going. Can’t wait.

I’m sympathetic to the idea that ethics should be taught to science students very early. But this seems a bit of a marketing ploy: Maths and tech specialists need Hippocratic oath, says academic | Science | The Guardian (not to mention unenforceable)

I may be late to the party, but is there an index of podcasts hosted on micro.blog, somewhere?

I’d missed s3 of The Good Fight when it came out earlier this year. I don’t know if I’m more surprised at how weirdly awful some of the (real life) incidents are or how overt the show is in its criticism. 📺

A year ago, I was complaining to a friend that (my) kids didn’t use fountain pens. She confessed she stopped as well because she kept breaking them so I gave her my trusty Lamy Safari.

Yesterday, she gave me a signed copy of the short story she wrote with it!

Monument à Jean Moulin. #streetphotographers #in_the_streets #french #streetphotography #streetphoto #sidewalk #monochrome #bwphotography #instablackandwhite #blackandwhiteart #blackandwhiteonly #blackandwhite_perfection

As we ease out of the summer into another hectic year - a memory of this past vacation. VacationCat thought the pool was a very big water bowl.

so the postman delivers this just at the start of a four day week end!

The only way to brew iced coffee.

So here I am, looking for help with .css styling for my Pandoc chain, as one does. Turns out one of the articles I end up using is by @devilgate. So thanks for the tip!

One year today, I started my fourth career. The 4 hour commute is tiring, but the job is still worthwhile. Time to reflect on bad old habits creeping back in the work routine, though.

📚 “A memory of Empire” by Arcady Martine - ***** - an excellent read - slightly reminiscent of « The traitor Baru Cormorant » with a more intimate take.

Really disappointed by “Another Life” - 4 episodes in and nothing is working for me. Not the characters, not the story, not the cinematography… 📺

Matthew Butterick’s take on campaign typography: TYPOGRAPHY 2020: A SPECIAL LISTICLE FOR AMERICA

Nerd heaven.