Patrick Mackie

A career break or sabbatical is a great thing, and should be a normal part of a working life. I only got mine after a mental health crisis.
Glad things are getting better for you.

My RTW ritual was to group by sender, then I could block-delete the crap. Usually less than 10% required any further attention.

Thanks Chris. Always a hard decision, but the right one.

Vale Tinkerbell.
b. 01/06/2007
d. 25/05/2025.
A good and faithful cat.

A growing list of cases including this one here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activis... No wonder Musk told his followers to stop supporting Wikipedia

Clip from Oxford Languages defining "diktat" as "an order or decree imposed by someone in power without popular consent".

Trump's "Executive Orders" are, in plain English, diktats, which makes him ... er ... a diktator? Have I got that right?

Extract from a menu reading "Panko breaded melt in the middle camembert with a cranberry sauce dip".

If I'd ordered this and not been served breaded spleen stuffed with cheese, I'd be very disappointed. #WhyPunctuationMatters

Never forget the 5 Ps Principle:
Proper Procrasination Prevents Premature Performance.

When This Stanford Professor Got Cancer, He Decided to Teach a Class About It Dr. Bryant Lin, who teaches medicine at Stanford University, was given a terminal diagnosis. He wanted his students to understand the humanity at the core of medicine.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/u... But remember what JD Vance said: the Professors are the enemy 🧪

All my duvets are now wool.

Utterly gorgeous.

Gorgeous!

Smoke at sunset | AideDeCat Short winter afternoons give early dusks, this one enhanced by the smoke from burning a fallen tree.

Smoke at sunset
www.blipfoto.com/entry/332188...

Sunbeam | AideDeCat If there's a sunbeam to be found anywhere in the house, Tinkerbell will find it.

This Bengal cat knows a thing or two about chasing sunbeams.
www.blipfoto.com/entry/332152...

Dog search | AideDeCat Hogmanay for some friends was completely upset when their blind collie went missing about five o'clock yesterday afternoon. The area behind...

Dog search
www.blipfoto.com/entry/332110...

Wotcha.

Got to be more than that. What about the ferries? The cruise ships?

Happy Christmas yourself.

A stags-horn candelabra with lit candles.

Christmas Eve highlights.

Musk is going to disband all of SpaceX's regulators and competitors, isn't he?

Always block.

The cheek and the fall of long hair of a female face. There's a shelf behind her with just one thing, a bolt, or screw, sitting on it.

Some rando called Tammy-many-numbers has followed me.
Tammy has a screw loose. It's there on the shelf behind her.

I've always refused to use them because they are blatantly the most stupid product ever to come on to the market. And Nespresso is by a country mile the most disgusting coffee available, even accounting for the existence of Starbucks and Tim Hortons.
Not that I've got a strong opinion or anything.

In lieu of sending out Christmas cards to everyone I know, I've once again made a donation to the very excellent www.refuweegee.co.uk.
So, have yourselves a very happy Christmas, and may the New Year be all you may wish for yourselves and those you love.
Patrick

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy Nationalising essential utilities – like water – should not cost taxpayers anything at all

Nationalising essential utilities – like water – should not cost taxpayers anything at all youtu.be/TlVbKVBLOiM?... Labour claims taxpayers would face a massive bill for nationalising the water industry. But that’s not true.

Congratulations.

Precisely this.

If your country has a lot of hydro power then any installation of intermittent renewables automatically gets grid storage.

Every hour on a panel, every rotation of a wind turbine means less water through a dam which is saved for later when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine.

The pre-dawn sky with bands of rose and pink against a dark-blue sky. The silhouette of a chimney stack. Trees on the horizon with the old crescent moon rising.

A frosty morning here in #Argyll, with a wintry dawn.
Nice to work from home this morning.

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVibrant
#NaturePhotography #FlowerPhotography #Nature #Flowers