Soon Lee

Boats moored at Whau RIver mouth in the morning light. The water is still, the sky is pale blue, but golden dawn light reflects off the boat hulls.

This morning's view of the Whau River mouth from the bus. #publicTransport #Auckland #TamakiMakaurau #bus #somethingBeautiful #aucklandScenes

Dinner as described served on a round white soup plate.

Lamb stew ingredients clockwise from top left of a bowl of potato pieces in water, a bowl of carrot pieces, a black soup plate with chopped onion, sliced garlic, and a bay leaf, a mixing bowl of lamb pieces bone in.

Made a lamb stew. Had some sweetcorn that needed using p, and tomato. #cookingDiary #kai #food🍜 🍽️

I'm GenX. We grew up in an all-print world. We read really fast. So, my Millennial and GenZ peeps, I beg you for the love of Bananarama, please just send me the article and not the TikTok of the dude talking about the article. In Prince's funky name, amen.

I avoided the Vorkosigan Saga for years despite strong recommendations from a friend because of the eye-watering Baen edition covers. But she became one of my favourite writers once I got past that stumbling block. "The Warrior's Apprentice" was my entry point & it worked really well as that.

WHO membership doesn’t threaten NZ’s sovereignty – walking away from it would The World Health Organization is a global body, but decisions affecting New Zealand are made in Wellington, not in Geneva.

Helen Petousis-Harris's piece on how the WHO is vital for New Zealand just nails it. While I am here, can I also just say that @helenp-h.bsky.social is a national treasure. theconversation.com/who-membersh...

#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1696 Wordle 1,696 3/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Second guess removed lots of options.

#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1695 Wordle 1,695 4/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩This one took me ages.

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I've mentioned this before: think about food. Food culture permeates across all borders, survives the worst atrocities. It is damn near impossible to kill a recipe.

Now think of how many Native American *recipes*, not ingredients, there are

That is how thorough the genocide of manifest destiny was

#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1694 Wordle 1,694 3/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Second guess didn't leave other options.

Oh screw that. 19 minutes notice is disrespectful.

#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1693 Wordle 1,693 3/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Quick three for me.

Well that does make it harder.

"What are three things you would like me to know about you?" can be fun & informative.

Auckland Transport urging us to take public transport over Waitangi day long weekend.

also Auckland Transport:

Voter turnout statistics These statistics show how many people voted in the 2023 General Election by electorate and neighbourhood.

It's the expectation that everyone is taking part in the election as part of their civic duty. A high participation rate makes the results more meaningful.

Aus (2023): 98.2% of voters enrolled
NZ (2023):77.5% of eligible voters voted
www.aec.gov.au/election/fe2...

elections.nz/democracy-in...

What are the penalties for not voting in the election? Voting in Australia is compulsory for everyone aged 18 and older who has enrolled to vote. But what happens if you don't get to the polling booth?

Australia has compulsory voting. The "administrative penalty"/fine is $20.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...

New Zealand does not have compulsory voting, but if you are eligible, you are required to register to vote.
www.govt.nz/browse/engag...

Both are better than what you've got IMO.

Wow if only there were people who know how to do dairy that they could have talked to

like, literally anyone who works in dairy

“A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does. In the same way, critics who set out to talk about a fantasy novel without having read any fantasy since they were eight, and in ignorance of the history and extensive theory of fantasy literature, will make fools of themselves because they don’t know how to read the book. They have no contextual information to tell them what its tradition is, where it’s coming from, what it’s trying to do, what it does. This was liberally proved when the first Harry Potter book came out and a lot of literary reviewers ran around shrieking about the incredible originality of the book. This originality was an artifact of the reviewers’ blank ignorance of its genres (children’s fantasy and the British boarding-school story), plus the fact that they hadn’t read a fantasy since they were eight. It was pitiful. It was like watching some TV gourmet chef eat a piece of buttered toast and squeal, “But this is delicious! Unheard of! Where has it been all my life?” ― Ursula K. Le Guin

I always think of this LeGuin spiel (roasting Rowling ofc)

#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1692 Wordle 1,692 4/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Elimination game.

Dinner ingredients on cooktop clockwise from top left of a bowl of sliced shiitake mushroom, a small dish of chopped ginger & chopped garlic, a ramekin with sliced spring onion, a bowl of lettuce pieces, a bowl of sliced woodear & lily buds, a frypan of chicken thigh pieces.

Dinner as described served on a round white soup plate.

Rice. Chicken thigh, shiitake mushroom, woodear, lily buds, ginger garlic, soy, garnished with spring onion. Lettuce wilted in oyster sauce & garlic. #cookingDiary #kai #food🍜 🍽️

Bunch of houses with one of them where a smiley of two eyes and a smile has been painted in white on its gray roof. In the foreground of the picture are Auckland foreshore & coastal plants.

Took me until this year to find out about the house in Pt. Chev with a smiley painted on their roof. As seen from bus to work. #publicTransport #Auckland #TamakiMakaurau #bus #somethingBeautiful #aucklandScenes

It is as if undocumented immigrants are not the problem, CBP is the problem.

Have you met people?

[We (humanity) are mighty, we contain multitudes, including individuals who are stupid, unwise, gullible. Who are cynical swindlers. Who actually believe in the the wrongs they peddle.]

This was a very good pork & fennel sausage, I didn't need it to be browned/charred to taste good.

Weißwurst - Wikipedia

They were fully cooked. I was going for a light cook, like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei%C3%...

#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1523 Wordle 1,691 4/6*
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Elimination game.

A female kākāpō on a nest with three eggs. Credit: Andrew Digby

Female #kakapo Kohengi on her three eggs on Pukenui/Anchor Island today. We don't yet know if they're fertile, but will investigate soon. So far fertility on Anchor is very high: only 8 infertile out of 33 checked. We expect many more infertile eggs though. #kakapo2026 #conservation #birds

Dinner as described served on a round white plate.

Ingredients on cooktop, at top is a frypan with pork & fennel sausage. At bottom is a round white plate with a cob of microwaved corn & tomato wedges on a bed of lettuce.

Pork & fennel sausage, Sweetcorn cob microwaved, tomato & lettuce. Hardly any prep needed. #cookingDiary #kai #food🍜 🍽️

In the event that say Gaiman or Rowling or Orson Scott Card or [insert name] magically redeemed themselves, we still wouldn't owe them our time, money or attention nor would they deserve the status they once had. There have always been other people to read.