A wee reminder for Kiwis who may have $20 to spare. This time of year family violence intensifies. Gift A Safe Night to Women's Refuge:

One night of safety at Women's Refuge for a woman and child costs just $20. It includes A safe, clean bed; Secure transport; Hot meals; Supportive staff; 24/7 crisis line; Helpful advice.

Beautiful and amazing 5 minute video — 5,000 drones light up the night sky in a record-breaking winter show – The Kid Should See This — included Santa and his reindeer flying over planet Earth:

Like pixels in a three-dimensional display, each drone carries programmable LED lights and precise positioning systems. Computer programming orchestrates the images, maintaining exact coordinates, colors, and movements within the dark canvas above.

Thanks to Collin Donnell for the Image Playground inspiration. This was fun. Our two dogs, Oshi and Sasha, as camper and astronaut …

I asked Image Playground to make one of my dogs a fantasy hero and the other a chef. Seems pretty accurate.

Last night around 10 pm a southerly storm arrived suddenly. I went round and closed all the open windows. Rain lashed, wind, where gusts normally rock the house, was almost vibrating the house, sheets of lightning flashed frequently and thunder rumbled.

This morning we had a wee earthquake …

Someone needs to get on our roof to pull a huge clump of grass from the gutter. Foolishly I went with some rando who advertised on the local Facebook group.

The day he was meant to come it was rainy so he begged off — fair enough.

Since then communication has been terribly lacking. Just cancelled.

I had Claude help me write an AppleScript and prepare this blog post. The AppleScript helps solve the problem of counting posts in categories on my Micro.Blog.

Mars Edit Post Category Counter AppleScript

This AppleScript is designed for bloggers and writers who use Mars Edit and want to quickly analyze the categories of their selected blog posts. The script provides a simple way to count how many posts are in specific categories without manual tallying. Before running the script, you'll need to:

• Have Mars Edit installed on your Mac
• Select the posts you want to analyze in the Mars Edit interface
• Ensure your posts have categories named exactly "Birds" and "Books" (or modify the script for your specific categories)
• Have AppleScript enabled on your system

The Script

-- Mars Edit Post Category Counter
-- Counts selected posts in Birds and Books categories

tell application "MarsEdit"
    -- Initialize counters
    set totalSelectedPosts to 0
    set birdsPosts to 0
    set booksPosts to 0
    
    -- Get the selected posts
    set selectedPosts to selected posts
    
    -- Count total selected posts
    set totalSelectedPosts to count of selectedPosts
    
    -- Iterate through selected posts and count categories
    repeat with thisPost in selectedPosts
        set postCategories to category names of thisPost
        
        -- Check and count Birds category
        if "Birds" is in postCategories then
            set birdsPosts to birdsPosts + 1
        end if
        
        -- Check and count Books category
        if "Books" is in postCategories then
            set booksPosts to booksPosts + 1
        end if
    end repeat
    
    -- Prepare report text
    set reportText to "Category Count Report:" & return & return & ¬
        "Total Selected Posts: " & totalSelectedPosts & return & ¬
        "Posts in Birds Category: " & birdsPosts & return & ¬
        "Posts in Books Category: " & booksPosts & return & return & ¬
        "Note: This report has been copied to the Clipboard."
    
    -- Display results in a dialog
    display dialog reportText buttons {"OK"} with icon note
    
    -- Copy report to clipboard
    set the clipboard to reportText
end tell

How to Use

1. Open Mars Edit
2. Select the posts you want to analyze
3. Run the AppleScript
4. A dialog will appear showing the category counts
5. The report will be automatically copied to your clipboard

Note: You may need to modify the category names in the script to match your specific blog categories.

I quite often have good ideas for work someone else can do. 🤣

I've just sent in a Mars Edit feature request for some kind of on-demand Stats report.

I've easily discovered that in this calendar year to date I've posted around 842 times. Getting categories is a bit more fiddly.

Yummm. The 2-hour Fastest No Knead Rolls, Crusty Rolls | Jenny Can Cook were delicious.

After browsing the comments I changed the recipe in a few ways: I brushed the rolls with butter before baking, and I baked them for only 20 minutes. I also placed them on two baking mats.

The other day Deb cleared and planted one vegetable bed. Today I added mulch and netting to keep the wild rabbits out.

Darn it — I backed the car into a low fence at an unfamiliar location today. Luckily it's done minimal damage, but Grrr. 🚗

Nice one! When getting nowhere with the lackeys, go instead straight to the boss:

The Iwi Chairs Forum has penned a letter to King Charles III, urging the monarch to intervene over state actions in relation to te ao Māori. “Your new coalition government … has promised to attack Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the rights of our whānau … We seek your intervention to ensure that the government does not diminish the Crown’s honour. Please remind them to respect their responsibility to act as an honourable partner on your behalf.

Via: The week in two minutes and 10 stories | The Spinoff.

Sleep update: Deb left the house around 0430 to drive to Wellington airport for an early flight. I enjoyed a cuppa and 2 hours additional sleep, moving me from woefully inadequate to merely inadequate.

I predict more daytime sleep. 😀

Drat. For no particular reason it was one of those nights where I was asleep not very much and awake far too much. I ended up finishing my book, but the day is starting with much yawning. 🥱