howfar @howfar@octodon.social

New Adventure Zone and a new Mountain Goats album. The MeFite nerd demographic is heartily entertained this weekend...

Chilling. It's like they're sending some sort of warning. https://octodon.social/media/RYPEyFBxoLrhTZcQ_iU

I love the old BBC Light Programme 'Paul Temple's serials, as they are some of the most glorious escapism that exists, but even I must admit that the plots are nonsensical to the point of utter incomprehensibility. Still, the vicarious whiskies-and-soda more than make up for it.

Here's one from the Internet Archive

archive.org/details/PAULTEMPLEANDTHEVANDYKEAFFAIR

And the current BBC on demand one:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pc96p

@hntooter It does very much seem like the invention of someone who, finding himself with a rare opportunity to learn the language and make friends in Malawi, decided that the best option was to stay in his bedroom and sulk for two years.

@DaveHiggins Thanks for the confirmation of my suspicion. I tend to block mass/fake followers on the principled basis that they get on my wick, so it's useful to get a bit of triangulation data.

@fenwick67 @koos I finally had to prise the "power" and "sleep" keys out of my desktop keyboard this week, after bumping them once too often. What monster thought that introducing additional methods of accessing the "off" switch was something that people were calling out for strongly enough to justify the howls of rage continually echoing around the world as our computers leap at the opportunity for a little nap?

Overnight 5 different accounts, from 5 different instances, with no profile pictures or previous updates, followed me. They're not identified as bots.

Anyone else experiencing anything similar?

I mean, they might just be drawn to my wit and erudition, but somehow I'm sceptical.

@Talyaa it's a divisive issue.

(I rejected more offensive goofs, mainly puns, partly on the basis of decency but mainly because I'm never really sure how to pronounce "cloaca")

@Talyaa Are we sure they actually exist​? Early British naturalists were sceptical of the veracity of the first preserved specimens they received, and every fresh fact I learn of platypuses makes me wonder if someone isn't having me on. Electrolocation, you say? Ok...and they have venomous spurs too? Hmm.

HOW MANY PENISES???

Did the people who didn't make a Harry Potter MMORPG just really not like money?

Blood & Wine Witcher DLC is good, and I'm enjoying the change in the weather, but is the plot twist is perhaps a touch too obvious? Maybe I'm wrong, of course, but it seems like it's going to turn out to be some sort of combination of the Holmes story 'A Case of Identity' and The Big Lebowski.

@jalefkowit It's baffling. If they want people to actually use 10 S, why release the Surface Laptop with free Win 10 Pro upgrades *and* ensure that lots of users who would otherwise accept the walled garden decide it's not worth the hassle? Alternately, if they want people to use the Surface Laptop, why anger so many people from the outset? There's something fascinating about a corporate culture dysfunctional enough to mess that up from every direction.

It's a funny thing, going to sleep. Knowing that I'm about to embark on (at least) a day's worth of experience that I will only remember the briefest scraps of in the morning. Knowing that the low value I place upon this unremembered experience when awake doesn't diminish its reality any more than my dreaming self's disregard for waking reality diminishes that.

And so I pass through the gates of the silver key, never to return unchanged.

@going_to_maine That's a great question! Ideas about the audience seem important. Maybe linked to:

- Radio's portability. Radio has no implied location. Daytime TV implies being at home in the day, invoking stereotypes about gender, age & economic status.

- Radio being seen as background, including to work. Watching daytime TV is taken to imply inactivity.

¿Hence daytime TV is seen as the province of marginalised groups, and stigmatized accordingly, including by broadcasters​?

@Talyaa Not at all. To be honest he doesn't really mind anything, as long as he has company. He's always been an exceptionally​ sanguine cat, if a bit odd. He used to disappear for weeks (one time months!) then come home as if nothing had happened. Was never clear if he was staying with other people or living wild, but his temperament is remarkably reliable and relaxed for a cat. On the boat he just sleeps in the cabin when they're sailing, and hangs out in the cockpit in port.

@Talyaa It was brilliant! It made the children in the pub very happy.

My parents are retired now, and doing a lot of sailing. So our cat Meriadoc is spending his own retirement (being 18 and having given up the wild rabbit extermination partnership he used to run with his late brother) sailing the​ Spanish coast. He's probably a bit old to learn the parrot perch technique employed by the cat in the pub, though. https://octodon.social/media/oZgAVLtCVUTRex4SfMI

In a pub on Gloucester Road, Bristol and a man has just bought his drinks at the bar with a very good tabby cat, wearing a leash and hi-vis collar, on his shoulder. More of this sort of thing!

I have always placed Ian McShane in my top five sexiest men. Apparently, however, he is very hard to dress for roles because he has such a small bottom. As I am, myself, similarly anticallipygian, I find this a great comfort.

Last toot needs an #eastangliangods tag too.