It’s been a while since I biked the dogs to the beach. On this mid-winter day that feels more like summer, it was a good opportunity to combine a dog walk and a bike ride. 🐶
I visited our neighbours to the west again and took a photo of our house — the whitish rectangle in the middle of the photo (not the foreground container), with farmland behind and the Tararuas in the distance. Also, bonus photo of Glee the quail, all grown up now.
My online pal Virginia talked up Rita so now I’m watching it. She’s right: it’s a great TV show.
Rita’s a rebel, an anarchist, and a wonderful teacher. She’s a pretty good parent… She’s a train-wreck in the personal realtionships department.
Oh, and she smokes SO much! Photo
Halide is a superb iOS app for taking photos. Except for random times when I’m ‘clicking' away and it fails to save my photos. Like today, after a visit to the neighbour to see the enormous earthworks another neighbour is doing. Suggestions for an alternative? I’m beyond fed up.
In the 70s and 80s I spent a decade teaching teenagers at Ashburton College. It was an S68 plan school. With an opening roll of ~1600 each year it was one of NZ’s 5 biggest schools at the time. 1 photo shows A block where I spent most of my time. #2: aerial view, May 1981.
There’s a colony of pied shags by the river. Photo from last year. Today I recorded them screeching. In the video see the tiny white dots in the trees in the middle — that’s them. It was a shame the sun was right behind them.
I spotted this Southern Bell frog on a tire in the garden this morning. Always happy to find frogs in the garden.
emoji in our digital messages is similar to the way we use gestures when we talk. … celebrate that emoji are creating a richer form of online communication that returns the features of gesture to language.
Related — this 2.5 minute video: Victor Borge - Phonetic Punctuation
Good to see local Councils asking the Government to ban private fireworks:
Local government leaders are calling for a ban on the sale of fireworks for private use. … private fireworks caused significant harm and distress - including damage to properties and worry for animals.
Ares is such a good boy. 🐈
And in other dog photos, my girl Sasha joined me in my morning selfie today. 🐶
Look, I don’t know the original source for this photo, but I found it from a link to Dana Schwartz. Since I saw it this morning though, I can’t get it out of my head. It may be one of my all-time favourite photos. 🐶 I just want to share the joy.
From the setting up of the Waikawa Beach Ratepayers Association in 1974, before women were people too 😳:
Present: 27 Ratepaying residents, whose names are attached herewith, some of whom were accompanied by their wives or friends.
I have two new daily tasks that are working well so far: delete a physical item and delete a digital item. I usually delete more than 1. 😀 So far I’ve tossed out some old papers (eg receipts, study notes) and am working my way through old old Dropbox folders. Feels good. 🐌
It’s not easy to get a photo when my boy Ares is on my lap. Persistence paid off today though. 🐈 One of his eyes is dark, but at least you can see it glinting here.
Interesting about quiet fireworks:
quiet fireworks can actually be more colourful. All fireworks are a balance between “colour-producing material in the shell versus the kaboom-producing material,” … quiet fireworks don’t need as much kaboom, they have more room for colours.
Why was I surprised to learn that schools for deaf or blind people were originally set up by religious folks to ‘save souls’? I also never knew about systems other than Braille for blind folks. Heaps of fascinating discussion in this 30 minute audio: Touch This Page @dancohen
I watched the movie Full Out. It’s simple and positive, and based on a true story of Ariana Berlin, a top-level athlete injured in a car crash who then makes a comeback. It has good music and great moves. An enjoyable, feel-good 90 minutes.
Hmmm, things that are a bad idea: letting WordPress create a URL that includes an emoji. I realised just after I’d pressed Publish. Thank goodness for a .htaccess redirect.