How Trump woke me up for surprise interview - and the key takeaways
2025-07-15T18:25:22Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yg7eg8w98o
I never expected to hear a Trump interview on the radio this morning yet here we are.
Smoking Regulation Idea
2025-07-10T20:22:29Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
I had a random fantastical idea for regulating smoking after experiencing someone smoking in the office stairwell (a violation of local bylaws by the way).
We should treat smoking like the dangerous activity it is and require a licence. Smokers will be required to demonstrate that they can be responsible smokers such as being mindful of their second-hand smoke and proper disposal. Violations would result in revocation of said licence requiring retraining and other penalties.
I know this idea is complete fantasy but one can dream, can't they? And yes, I'm aware that smokers tend to smoke right next to no-smoking signs (do they purposely do this?).
Shin Toomba
2025-07-05T00:41:18Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
https://nongshimusa.com/product-detail?pid=82
I recently discovered Shin Toomba and that it has a cheese powder mix. I tried it as-is and it tasted pretty dry to me.
So, thinking it was like KD, my next attempt included milk and butter and as with KD, doing so made it a whole lot better! They should update their instructions to include milk and butter!
CACM July 2025 Cover
2025-07-04T23:29:06Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
The latest cover of CACM reminded me of Born Yesterday: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-3/born-yesterday/
In particular, this moment: https://www.bluey.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Born_Yesterday_Still_8.jpg
As I was doing the same staring at this (physical copy of the) cover...
Sunday Roast
2025-07-03T18:04:38Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
https://www.bluey.tv/watch/minisodes/alongside/
This mini-sode unlocked something in me: Honey's family had Sunday roast for dinner complete with the gravy oozing off the Yorkshire pudding!
Sunday roast is an ever-elusive dish for me in the US. Every American I mention it to think I'm crazy whenever I bring it up especially when I describe Yorkshire pudding!
I recall enjoying Sunday roast as a regular meal on campus in my university days in Canada.
For my American friends: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Traditional.Sunday.Roast-01.jpg
NPR's Scott Simon inducted to the Radio Hall of Fame
2025-07-01T16:39:58Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/01/nx-s1-5452538/nprs-scott-simon-inducted-to-the-radio-hall-of-fame
Whoa, I had a brain fart when this segment came on the radio this morning.
"What day is it...?"
I'm glad this reel remains available: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=d4xr_i3aRxU&t=90
The Trump administration is making an unprecedented reach for data held by states
2025-06-26T19:54:43Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/24/nx-s1-5423604/trump-doge-data-states
Personally, I prefer that sensitive data remain in silos requiring a traceable process for its extraction. Yes, it may be slow and painful to get things done but the safeguard provided is the point.
It reminds me of a recent interaction with CBSA when I went to update them on my information change in my trusted traveller profile. The officer apologized for the inconvenience but assured me it was due to stricter Canadian privacy regulations where they can't just fetch the update from the US. He even remarked that while travellers can be trusted, governments cannot.
Jim Fulner likes this.
Regime, the word is "regime". The Trump Regime 🙄
JanKusanagi at 2025-06-28T01:45:13Z
Jim Fulner likes this.
Bluey Complete
2025-06-22T18:43:59Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
I did it. I completed the entire series and it was worth the time; it is a well-written and produced series. It never occurred to me how familiar the Brisbane lifestyle is with Honolulu -- it's no wonder there are many Australians here.
My favourite episode was Camping: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-1/camping/
In these short 8 minutes, we explored what can be achieved when we work together beyond cultural and language barriers to make use of the world for our basic needs. It's a peek of what our society can achieve if we don't find reasons for division and tribalism.
We also learned that people in our lives come and go. This episode is the only occurrence where Bluey is beyond tears (no tears during howls). They animated her sobbing!
Jean-Luc's French sounded very informal to me so I suspected a Canadian. The maple syrup on his table somewhat cemented this suspicion and it's officially confirmed: https://www.bluey.tv/characters/jean-luc/. The official site confirms that he was visiting -- I wasn't sure if his family relocated or were just visiting.
If they ever do a spin-off of Bluey's adolescent years, it better include Jean-Luc! I want closure! I'd like to think that Bluey's child in the final scene of the series has Jean-Luc's colours: https://www.bluey.tv/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DuprFam.png
Finally, Jean-Luc's dinner reminded me of Anthony Bourdain's depiction of Quebecers insisting gourmet in rustic settings: https://www.bluey.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bluey-S1-Ep43-Camping-006.jpg
Also, no Americans at all in the series! Only Canadians. Hah!
I identify with Chilli the most. She and I do exactly the same thing at the beach: walking along the shoreline alone or try to get some reading done. The heart-to-heart moments with her is often existentially dreadful (I love it!) where she is aware of her mortality and it's understandable given that she seemingly lost her mother relatively early and with her sister being infertile, I wonder if there was family medical history that looms over her. So what a joy it was to see her make it to old age in the final scene! I also love that Bingo is STEM-oriented with the flash-forward showing her winning a science fair along with her curiosity throughout the series. Her bedtime book is about our solar system!
A key takeaway for me from this series is that kids replicate life in their play especially for emotions they can't express. For example, dealing with death: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-1/copycat/ and perceived abandonment: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-3/space/. It took me a very long time to appreciate what was going on with Mackenzie in Space.
Gotta mention the timelapse of an animator working on the final scene of Puppets: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-3/puppets/ They should've also included a short clip of the voice recording session for completeness! It's weird to me that the kids are never credited in this series.
Honestly, I think anyone interacting with kids should watch this series. I feel there's more for the adults here.
Now on to the mini-sodes and bonus bits.
Should you toss your plastic kitchen tools for health reasons? Here's the scoop
2025-05-29T18:17:01Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
I've been avoiding plastic for a long time not for health reasons but I just can't stand the taste of it when used with food. So I've been preferring glass, stainless steel, and wood.
Also in the kitchen, I prefer to use terry towels that are used once then washed because using sponges feels gross to me.
Yes, plastic tools for cooking SUCK 😁
Full Score
2025-05-17T01:37:09Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
Wow, someone actually captured and uploaded it: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=H0Ot5zHaMSY
While I can use this, I wish they would officially release an album of the full score cleaned up.
I've been searching for something like this to find this cue from The Sign: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=H0Ot5zHaMSY&t=13h43m10s
Which peaks at about: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=H0Ot5zHaMSY&t=13h48m30s
Indeed, there are several classical quotations in the score. A lot of it so teasing as it builds up and then abruptly stops. What a joy that they use live-recorded instruments! Confirmed in: https://www.bluey.tv/blog/bluey-musicians/
I guess I now have to watch the entire series to understand the context of these cues.
PINE64 Store Notice
2025-05-13T05:52:02Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
On PINE64 Store's cart page:
“Notice to US buyer, please note that the shipment arrive US between May 2 till 31 may have 120% custom tax or $150 (whichever is higher); after June 1 is $200.”
Ouch. Glad I have Canadian ties.
EDIT: typo
Dance Mode
2025-05-06T05:25:44Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
I kept hearing praise about the Sign episode from Bluey so finally gave it a watch. Overall a positive reaction from me. I'll just say that I think Bandit's first mistake was hiring Bucky as the seller agent -- so many red flags and the fact that I'm thinking about this after watching this speaks volumes of the quality writing.
The cue where they dance at the wedding reception reminded me of the instrumental break of Straight Ahead for some reason and unlocked early web memories: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=f3Nt0iAu3qw
The cue was too short so I sought after the full version and found it: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=oPGWqhjfF9Y
From this interview with the series composer, it seems there are a few more episodes I should watch: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Rz7tsWrw4wc
Jim Fulner likes this.
@d6chung@identi.ca honestly I think everything about Bluey is awesome and I wish my kids would watch it even more than they already do. Honestly some of the best media I have ever consumed.Barber of Seville
2025-04-24T01:18:15Z via Identi.ca Web To: Public CC: Followers
Ah, it's as if the radio is rubbing it in of how I no longer have streaming access to Looney Tunes because every time I hear this overture, I think Rabbit of Seville.‘Looney Tunes’ has been removed from Max.
2025-04-21T19:14:23Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
Tragic: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2025-03-18/looney-tunes-shorts-removed-max
I only recently discovered this. Funny that the article uses a scene from Rhapsody Rabbit, which was exactly the short I was looking for after re-watching Cat Concerto.
Back to physical media, I suppose.
You can only trust what you have in your hands. None of the online media platforms can be trusted to keep stuff forever.
Productive Holiday
2025-04-19T02:08:28Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
I spent my holiday finally creating a scheduled script that updates the name record on my domain provider's web service via a series of curl calls to their management portal whenever my home IP changes. That way, the name record that points to my home VPN is kept up-to-date. They used to provide this feature where I can call some endpoint and they'll automatically update name records. Unfortunately, this feature is no longer provided on their end so I had to come up with something on my own.
I've been meaning to do this for a while but I finally discovered two quirks about my provider's service:
- it is sensitive with quotes being sent in with requests
- request keys are also URL-encoded (curl encodes only the content/values)
- but the worst of them all: invalid requests are responded with a successful message! An actual successful message also includes details of what record was updated so that was the subtle detail to watch for.
I was using jq to parse out JSON responses from my provider to build out my request but neglected that it needed raw strings without quotes and spent a good time tracing my curl calls and comparing it with browser traffic to finally see where the discrepancies are.
I did get to wake up later than usual though.
Loading Overlays
2025-04-15T00:08:19Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
I seriously believe that loading overlays on an entire web page is a UX anti-pattern. In general, if I have to access/modify the DOM of your website to use it, then your website is broken.
Sometimes I miss the days of static web pages where I can still navigate the website while assets are downloading.
Yep!
The Last of Us: Future Days
2025-04-14T08:22:07Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
That supermarket scene brought back memories of the gameplay. I'm such a nerd thinking "where's the brick?" when I saw the bottle in play.
That is all.
Tupulpo likes this.
Sneaky Chromium
2025-04-07T22:07:45Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
Recently updated to chromium-135.0.7049.52-1.
Upon launch, it disabled the uBlock Origin extension. Sneaky.
Fortunately, chromium isn't my main browser so I can easily just uninstall it.
Maurice Ravel's La Valse
2025-04-04T20:16:51Z via Dianara To: Public CC: Followers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_valse
An upcoming HSO concert includes this work: https://www.myhso.org/concerts/2025-spotlight-with-your-hso
As usual, I prepare myself for these concerts by listening to the programming on repeat the week prior to the concert and I've been thinking a lot about La Valse.
My interpretation of this work is Dancing Mania occurring at a Viennese ballroom. It starts out as a fade-in to the dance floor with couples dancing as normal. With the lack of a musical conclusion, we see the dancing never ends as we fade-out and transition back to the dance floor again but this time the dancers are now in a dilapidated state and perhaps some of them already collapsed. I love the instrumentation and tonal shift here! We then end with the last few couples madly dancing with what seems to be flames surrounding them until they too finally collapse with the final notes of the work.
I look forward to experiencing this work live!
Jim Fulner likes this.
