Your wish is my command
All the MidJourney pirate weasels were good, but this one was the jauntiest. And check out the animated version.
Hey, I learned something neat today. If you take a picture of some text – phone pic is fine – upload it to your Google Drive and then open it with Google Docs, it automatically OCRs it. Does a pretty good job, too!
December 17, 2025 — 3:52 pm
Comments: 4
It ain’t natural
Some clever bugger has worked out how to grow strawberries in Sussex all year long: 36,000 square yards of greenhouses full of bees and LED lights. I bet they’re expensive.
I’m recovering nicely, thank you. No pain and just a few more floaters than usual in that eye. But I’ll use any excuse to languish on the couch all day.
December 16, 2025 — 7:35 pm
Comments: 5
Adventure, and not the good kind
Long story short, I got hustled into the hospital over the weekend to fix a possible detached retina. A nice Romanian ophthalmologist stitched a ring around my retina with a laser. No loss of vision, very little pain. Should work out.
I can’t fault the quality of the treatment or the promptness of it. If anything let the process down, it was the bureaucracy. For example, I wandered lonely as a cloud through a completely empty hospital on a Sunday morning, begging to check in with someone. In the end, I stumbled on a surgical team waiting to perform an emergency surgery and whimpered until someone took pity and led me away.
I’m fine, thankee.
The not-very-good picture is one I took out the train window. It was a stand of trees, and every one of them was laden with multiple balls of mistletoe. Never seen anything like it.
We’ll do the tree now.
December 15, 2025 — 4:22 pm
Comments: 13
Ewww…
Is that Christmas tree bolted directly to that weasel’s neck? Ewwww, MidJourney.
We were going to put up the tree today but we ran out of daylight; we’ve bought it anyhow. Trees here have had a real jump in price this year. My BiL, who lives in a posh town, paid £60 for a six foot tree.
We have an especially cheap place we’ve been going to for a couple of years and paid £30 for the same. What’s it like where you are?
Good weekend, all!
December 12, 2025 — 5:58 pm
Comments: 11
Yaaaawn…
I went to a Christmas lunch today and drank too much wine. I’m not much of a daytime drinker, so it’s floored me. I am a sleepy bunny.
Hey, guess what’s on TV next week?
December 11, 2025 — 7:13 pm
Comments: 7
Now that you mention it
In the thread below, Uncle Al laments that cargo ships containing whisky never run aground. Au contraire!
In 1941, the SS Politician ran aground near the isle of Eriskay carrying 22,000 cases of scotch whisky. The locals salvaged it – in the middle of the war, they must have thought this was heaven – and got prosecuted for their trouble.
It spawned a novel (haven’t read), a 1949 movie (have seen) and a 2017 remake (haven’t seen).
I don’t remember it all that well, but I suspect the film had a happier ending.
December 10, 2025 — 5:59 pm
Comments: 4
Bananas!
Sixteen containers washed up on West Sussex beaches: eight containers of bananas, two of avocados, one of plantains and five empty. The Coastguard said you have to report anything you find or you’re breaking the law, but then said it doesn’t apply to perishables.
Seems to me they could have given plainer advice than that. Can we pinch bananas or not? Eh, never mind…too far to drive for a free banana.
As you might imagine, the English Channel is a busy, busy waterway. This is a fun tracker for ship watching – like FlightRadar24, but for boats. One of the fish and chip shops we go to has this playing on a big monitor in the main room and I find it kind of hypnotic. Doesn’t like my VPN, though.
December 9, 2025 — 4:43 pm
Comments: 3
Two cats, two statues
So I tried to follow up on this story about a cat statue in Kyoto Park, which is (confusingly) in Kyiv, Ukraine. AI found it confusing, too, because it led me to this story about a whole ‘nother cat from Kyiv, Ukraine with a statue (the one above).
Note: I would normally stick to the good old English spelling of Kiev, but the articles quoted say Kyiv, so it felt weird.
The first cat was some kind of special needs cat (that’s the bit I wanted to know more about) named Tyapa who got nursed along for seven years, and the big Persian beast named Pantyusha lived in an Italian restaurant until it had a fire and smoke inhalation got him.
Both stories at the respective link. Neither one is very interesting, but I piddled away my afternoon following this up, so I share.
December 8, 2025 — 5:12 pm
Comments: 5
I haven’t posted?!
Sorry, everyone. Late home and frozen stiff. Have a good weekend!
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Posted from my phone, which is a lame-ass Pixel 7
December 5, 2025 — 5:47 pm
Comments: 6
Yes, that Hastings
Yes, Hastings is supposedly where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. Nearby Senlac Hill, to be exact. William vowed to build a monastery on the site of the battle, which is still there (though partly in ruins). The high alter is said to be built on the spot where King Harald fell.
That’s a lot of supposedlies, because there is some debate. A fringe debate, perhaps, but a debate. Not a single artefact of the battle have been found on the spot, which has led some to speculate the actual fight was elsewhere.
But as far as I know, artefacts haven’t been found elsewhere, either.
Uncle B and I walked across that field once and I found a shot glass. I think I still have it. Interesting, but not medieval.
December 4, 2025 — 5:26 pm
Comments: 9