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pauamma posting in

The Arctic vortex thingy must be out in force today. Snow's falling here, which hasn't happened in December or early January (despite it being winter here) in... I think decades, maybe 30 years or so.

pauamma posting in

dw_dev

It's time for another question thread!

The rules:

- You may ask any dev-related question you have in a comment. (It doesn't even need to be about Dreamwidth, although if it involves a language/library/framework/database Dreamwidth doesn't use, you will probably get answers pointing that out and suggesting a better place to ask.)
- You may also answer any question, using the guidelines given in To Answer, Or Not To Answer and in this comment thread.

swingandswirl

Ganked from

muccamukk.

01. Grab the nearest book.

02. Turn to page 126

03. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026.

So the closest book to me was Indian Christmas: Essays | Memories | Hymns, about how the nearly 30 million Christians in India celebrate the festival.

Sentence #6 on page 126 is from the chapter 'Did Your First Christmas Cake Come Out Of An Ammunition Box, Too?' by Estherine Kine.

Mrs Tanquist baked her cakes in a big mud oven, but her students ingeniously used ammunition boxes after the men discovered they were airtight and preserved head very well.

So for context, cooking on gas ranges rather than wood- or kerosene-fired stoves only came to India in 1965, and even then, it was limited to larger urban areas. Electric ovens came even later - my mother, born in 1961, has stories of my grandma baking cakes in a 'sand oven' - a large pot filled with sand that was heated over a flame, functioning as a sort of bain-marie. Even now, gas is standard in any home that can afford it rather than wood or kerosene. Electric stoves are not common, or are used as a sort of secondary cooking device, since power cuts are pretty common even in big cities.

The ammunition boxes mentioned were left by British troops when they quit the subcontinent in 1947. Mrs Tanquist, the wife of a missionary, taught the author's mother and her friends how to bake Christmas cakes, among other things.

Given the state of the world around us, let's hope this sentence heralds a transition to peace after years of conflict. We can hope, right?

(For my own sanity, I am choosing not to delve into RL politics on DW. Let's keep it that way in the comments, please.)

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: enthralled

the_wanlorn

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

Forgot to do this yesterday (Saturday) because I was at the emergency vet with Gremlin Steve! As one does! He's """""""""fine""""""""" in that the emergency vet said that x-rays can wait until Monday at my regular vet, he is not fine in that he's been limping for a month, month and a half, and the (regular) vet thought it was because of a split toenail that then split further (a valid conclusion) but now he has a lump of swelling on his wrist joint. So into the emergency vet we went.

The thing is, the e-vet decided it was nbd based on Grem letting him move his leg and flex the joint, and how he didn't have a temp. Grem will not let me even touch his leg so like clearly it hurts which to me says something is up. At least they sent me home with pain meds for him?

Ugh. Anyway. I have more pets but Grem is my problem (expensive) child.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: the recliner in my living room
Current Music: Heated Rivalry, s01e06

ceb

Usual annual WGT band mini-reviews.

Declared prejudices: I generally like goth, punk/horrorpunk/psychobilly, 80s, pirates, and the near end of metal, electronica, EBM, industrial. Also weirdo up-itself French/Spanish noodling with drums, for some reason I cannot adequately explain.

I generally do not like folk/mittelalter, indie, noise, the noisy end of electronica &c., the beepy/clubby ends of electronica &c., the washing-machine/sore-throat/hit-it-as-fast-as-you-can ends of metal. So if you like those things, take my reviews with a pinch of salt and listen to the bands anyway. (Also while I generally like classical, it's not what I go to WGT for, so I tend to skim over classical artists.)

When I say unqualified 'trad' I mean trad goth.

https://www.wave-gotik-treffen.de/forumwgt3/viewtopic.php?t=26345

( band reviews beneath )

rolanni

Liaden Read-Along folks! New post, in which the author answers some questions/commentary.

Or maybe not.

Here's your link.

princessofgeeks

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andrewducker

It snowed today, just a little bit. But it was totally worth taking the children out for a walk round the pond and up the hill to be in it.
Original is here on Pixelfed.scot.

andrewducker

If you want a picture of the future, imagine me sitting on the sofa trying to read a book with Sophia on my left asking for help with Stardew Valley and Gideon on my right asking for help with Lego Star Wars - for ever.

dewline

May we live - to our shared joy - in interesting times!

Current Mood: hopeful

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: tired

james_davis_nicoll

True love blooms in authoritarian Airstrip One.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

princessofgeeks

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brooksmoses

As a result of a very random bit of internet research rabbit-hole exploration today, I came across a tale of politics-and-railroad chicanery in 1860s North Carolina that is far too good not to share. I present: "The Chatham Railroad", by Robert Wiesner, from the Chatham County Historical Society.

It is hilarious. Darkly hilarious, at times, but hilarious. It's well worth the read.

The short version of the tale is that the Chatham Railroad was chartered several times in the 1850s and early 1860s with the intention of carrying coal from "inexhaustible" coalfields that were much smaller than expected to markets that mostly didn't exist, finally got properly started just in time to be interrupted by the war, changed its plans in violation of the North Carolina state constitution basically as soon as the constitution was written, and was dissolved in 1871, in that decade-plus of time having built 30 miles of track and successfully purchased one locomotive, 27 freight cars, two passenger cars, and two state legislatures.

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: enthralled

rolanni

The Long Back Yard:

Saturday. Late getting up. Sunny and cold.

Firefly joined me on the couch last night and went to sleep really hard so I stayed with her and finished my book. Then I got up and wandered out to my office which was so bright that I thought I must have left the light on.

But no, it was the Moon. What a beautiful, beautiful moon, and the world turned black and white.

Shadows black and magical across the snow filled yard.

I sat on the cats observation table for a while and communed with the moon, which meant I didn't get to bed until after midnight.

And here we are.

This was dictated via my phone
#
So, today I'm taking down the decorations; have a couple of errands in the afternoon. Any writing will likely be of the Sitting with the Manuscript variety. Also need to swap out the cat fountains, in anticipation of which the dishwasher is doing its thing.

How's everybody doing this morning?
#
Decorations down -- I nearly forgot the window star, but remembered it when there was a box with nothing in it.

Errands run. I have a grinder on loan, thanks to the generosity of Carmela Patriotti. Ordered in dunch while I was putting the taken-down decorations away. Dishwasher emptied and now it's time to swap out the cat fountains, after which I do believe I may collapse on the couch and avoid the news.

All that said, I'll just say my goodnights now.

Everybody stay safe, be careful, hug the people you love.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Today's blog post title brought to you from the man who wrote Shakespeare's plays, from Twelfth Night: "Some are born to greatness, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

Firefly helped me take the tree down: