Matthew Adams

It's superb.

The news was on in the chippy while we were waiting for our fish.

12yo: Who is that?
Me: Keir Starmer
12yo: The prime minister?
Me: Yup
12yo: Oh dear.

Harsh. But fair.

No, it is certain to be the start of a run of festive good fortune. 💜

It's time for my favourite blog post of the year - the annual performance benchmark of our .NET based AIS (Automatic Identification System) - Marine Vessel Telemetry - parsing library. Every vessel over a certain size has to transmit information (name, location, status, direction etc).

Aerial photograph of Malmesbury town today looking west showing houses surrounded by rivers and green fields

Reconstruction painting of a hillfort from the air looking west with interior roundhouses surrounded by rivers and fields

Beneath the #Wiltshire Medieval hilltop town of Malmesbury lies a 9ha Iron Age hillfort

Here looking east:

Now (© Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard) and then (© Athelstan Museum)

A wee thread for #HillfortsWednesday 🧵👇

Is/was the course of the river east and west of the settlement managed?

iPlayer have the surviving episodes. Plus some cheese and wine party episodes.

A Christmas tree stands next to a television screen displaying "Fanny Craddock Cooks For Christmas" "Royal Mincemeat" surrounding a hand drawn image of a turkey, a spherical plum pudding and assorted Xmas treats.

Christmas is underway.

bsky.app/profile/levp...

Attention @unamccormack.bsky.social

pic of Simone Segouin 28mm fig in her iconic plaid shirt, skirt, cap and smg --- more info: Simone Segouin aka Nicole Minet, is one of the most iconic French Resistance fighters, partly (or largely) to the photograph of her published in Life magazine. Far more than an iconic photo though, Simone began, typically, as a messenger and soon moved into the world of blowing up trains. Classic. Joining the Francs-tireurs et partisans aged 17 threw her head first into WW2 where she was trained with an SMG and off on her way. Like many of the women we've covered in this project who were lucky enough to survive the war, she lived a long life, dying aged 97 in 2023. Her post war career was nursing, the urge to take care of fellow humans still strong. Sculpted by Alan Marsh, shown painted by Mystic Spirals Miniatures and available from Bad Squiddo Games.

Simone Segouin aka Nicole Minet, is one of the most iconic French Resistance fighters, partly (or largely) to the photograph of her published in Life magazine. Far more than an iconic photo though, Simone began, typically, as a messenger and soon moved into the world of blowing up trains. Classic.

I admire your restraint in steering clear of the House of Commons Jerk Seasoning.

A Christmas tree stands against a wall. It is heaving with lights and decorations in a totally non-themed way. More is definitely more.

Our Christmas tree is up. All the usual sprouts, TARDISes, Xmas Bees and assorted nonsense. Plus our ancient decos, a few of which are over 100 years old now.

And The Angel #Duggee on the top, as is traditional.

I have a joke about Eisenstein but I'm always confusing Philm and Fysics.

With their hit single Santa Delivers.

There is a copy of the Whizz Kids Handbook on the daughter's shelf. Or technically in a box of books that will be unpacked onto the daughter's shelf.

Just checking.

Bashir is Frog?

Be he moth
Or be he not
He be noth-
-ing when I swat.

Picture of the staff who operate this BlueSky account.

Where's he put his TARDISes, though?

Those are the vestiges in question.

The battery on my drill has run out 1/2 a screw from a Kallax. And the only hex head driver I have is the drill bit one.

You wait...time passes.

For the avoidance of internet cancellation I should add that I do not think that Elijah Wood is bad at all - I think he does a great job of following the directorial intent.

H.A.R.S.H.

It's one of those things people wrote on the back of letters home during WW2 to evade the censors.

Has A Really Shaggy Hairdo?

The last vestiges of Frodo's personality?

The grey havens look like they ran out of money and the will to live.

He does all the trolls well, though. And the Haradrim.

Is it pot? Is it CBM? NO! The only explanation is a 1978 Play-Doh Barber Shop Fuzzy Pumper and two toddlers, somewhere within 500m of the trench.

The kitchen in the new place is now irrevocably suffused with the smell of beef stock/red wine sauce so all is well with the world.

He's being powerfully masculine there.