GreyShuck

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
  • In meetings at work, for my actions or actions that I need to follow up on etc. If I am prepared, I will add them to an existing document that we are working from in the meeting or will create a specific actions email as we go. If I am not prepared, it will be notes jotted in a physical notebook. In either case, I will then copy any actions for me to MS TO Do - which is one of the very few relevant apps that we have available on both the locked down phones and laptops. Just occasionally, it is more appropriate to make notes directly in the TO Do app.

  • Generally for non-work stuff, I will use Google tasks - since it available on all platforms and integrates with the calendar etc. I would love to find a good alternative to google and have tried a few over the years, but have never found anything that I can get to at work and on all platforms at home and will integrate with a calendar that is also available on all platforms - including those that my SO uses - as well as this.

The majority of notes that I make these days are either things that I have to do or are updates on the status of particular projects or systems though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago
  • Historical Fiction: I, Claudius from 1976. It stands up staggeringly well.
  • Fantasy: Extraordinary (2023), Neverwhere (1996 - Gaiman's first TV series)
  • Crime: The Night Manager (2016), Slow Horses (2022), Mare of Easttown (2021)

Also Beforeigners (2019, Norway), which kinda qualifies for all of these categories.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Bbc Radio 4 have any number of dramas in their back catalogue. One that I particularly enjoyed is Alan Plater's Only a Matter of Time - available on the Internet archive, I find.

Then Orson Welles original War of the Worlds by the Mercury Theatre on the Air in 1938 is well worth a listen. That is available in several places around the Web.

Then, of course, there is Big Finish, who started off doing Doctor Who audios and have produced hundreds over the years - far more hours than there are of T V Doctor Who, classic and new - but they also produce a lot of other dramas, based on other properties and some completely original.

Overall their earlier ones are where the standout tales are, but they are fairly reliably entertaining throughout.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Last was in May this year and the next - probably just camping - will be in September.

I am very fortunate in having a friend with a holiday chalet. A group of us go down to open in up and stay for a week or two most years. The only cost is the fuel to get there.

My SO and I usually aim to get another week away - maybe camping, maybe a holiday cottage - later in the year too.

We are in the UK and always go to other location in the UK for holidays. Neither of us have flown since the '90s and have no intention of doing so again.

 

UK ministers have scrapped plans to use Whitby near Liverpool as a testing ground for hydrogen in domestic heating following objections from residents, in a sign of the difficulties involved in decarbonising homes.

Its suitability is fiercely contested, however, with critics saying that hydrogen is an expensive distraction whose use should be limited to industrial applications.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I've got the same one here as on reddit, and on tildes as it happens. It is a variant on a local mythic being in my part of the world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Archive.is link..

Personally, I always used to carry a paperback with me and would read in the odd moments that this writer seems to recall as being so dull and soul destroying. I still do carry e-books on my phone of course and use them in exactly the same way - but also with the option of doomscrolling, of course.

As for TV, I was never one for TV - or radio - as background noise. With fiends, I had a bit of reputation of going round and turning such things off when I entered the room, so that we could talk without distraction. I would ask them first, of course.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't get a lot further than the garden this weekend but, having moved to a rural spot (East Anglia, UK) only a couple of months back, we are still finding new things in and around the garden.

One of the most notable is that a Kestrel has recently fledged in the woodland at the end of the garden - so it and parent are quite prominent and vocal on the several suitable perches around and about. We have set up the bins on a tripod in the front window and are getting some great views.

We also have a red kite passing overhead quite frequently.

Otherwise, brown hare loping through the garden, plenty of grey squirrel and occasional muntjac, green and occasional great spotted woodpeckers. Most smaller birds are steering clear at the moment due to the predators though. Then a southern hawker made a few passes on Sunday, and a several meadow browns and a red admiral were flitting about. We have burdock growing along the edges in a few places and just noticed a cluster of lords and ladies at the bottom.

We also noticed a branch had fallen from one of the adjoining ash trees and was hung up on the power line. A call to UKPN brought them out to deal with it surprisingly quickly. Looking at the canopy, I fear that it is succumbing to ash dieback. I expect that we will have more falling branches and that it will need to be felled this winter or next.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The Shannara series by Terry Brooks has a reputation as being an homage to LotR, and they are quite enjoyable.

Waaay back, this was what I turned to after reading LotR. He had only published the first then and it was what made me understand the difference between good writing and bad. It gave me nothing else other than that lesson and certainly didn't scratch the itch that I had for something like LotR. In fact nothing did and I found it best to look for something completely different that was good in it's own right rather than poor imitations.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

A regular weekly schedule would look something like:

  • Practical volunteering with a local wildlife organisation.
  • Studying something, maybe with the OU.
  • Working on the house and garden
  • Reading
  • A decent length hike
  • Working on a particular project: woodworking, writing, painting, coding, maybe putting whatever I have learnt recently into practice.
  • Visiting somewhere.
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It is pretty clear that this is a joke sign/poster - akin to "you don't have to be crazy to work here but it helps" and so on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Another BF listener here - I really liked Walker and McGann on screen in Annika too.

Otherwise, my SO and I have the Ted Lasso finale lined up. The third season (yes, I know, but I agree with the Americans that there is a distinction between series and season) has been a necessary conclusion to the material in the previous two, but not without some fun moments.

And - in terms of other UK TV - we are just on to season two of Jam and Jerusalem which I totally missed at the time but am enjoying now.

Otherwise, in non-UK shows, Drops of God and Shrinking are the clear highlights in our lineup at the moment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Some that I have enjoyed:

  • A Spy Among Friends
  • Slow Horses
  • The Ipcress File (both the recent TV show and the 1965 film are great)
  • Traitors (2019)
  • The Night Manager
  • London Spy
  • The Game (2014)
  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (both the TV show from 1979 and the 2011 film are great)
  • Smiley's People
 

I'm enjoying this AMC show so far - and would say it is the best SF airing currently - that I am aware of.

I have not read the books but my SO has read the first of them and is also enjoying it. She can't recall a great many details from the book though - her memory doesn't work that way.

One tiny point that I am curious about - a detail that my SO doesn't remember - is whether the characters who have seen the Pez dispenser actually recognise duck as a duck? Do they know what ducks - or birds in general - are?

From episode 1, IIRC, it seems to be suggested that they did not understand what the things flying in the sky in the outside world were.

Anyway - what are your thoughts on Silo?

 

In my case it was very nearly a year ago. A contemporary opera, which I had my doubts about - having only seen one about 30 years back and finding it immensely dull (I should have twigged since they were handing out free tickets: the only reason I went. However this one was actually pretty good: Violet by Tom Could and Alice Birch - a metaphor on climate change with a great concept and some memorable performances.

It was part of a festival, and I also saw a couple of comedy shows in the fringe, both needing a deal of work before they would be going much further.

I was surprised to realise how long back these were. There was a time when I would expect to get to some type of stage performance at least every few months or so. However, I live in a fairly rural situation now, and it doesn't happen so often.

How about you?

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