Early Risers.

[The White Rabbit]

14 hours ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

...snip...

 

Now, given my uneasy relationship with technology, it may appear odd that I am thinking of opening a Twitter account.  There is no need to remind me that I have berated it in the past.  The principal reason I did is about to become history – one Donald J Trump!  The medium strikes me as one which could enable me to keep abreast of what is happening without going away too much of my own doings.  You do recognise famous last words, surely?!  That aside, I would welcome any advice or tips that gentle readers can offer before I decide whether to take the plunge.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

 

I confess to being prejudiced about it. A former Prime Minister once said, "Too many tweets make a tw*t". It was one of the few things he said I ever agreed with. (And that was pre-Donald). However, I set an account up for the autocar and have used it for publicity before my current troubles started. I didn't find getting started a problem. We did OK, I don't think it ever upset me or caused IT problems, though I was never sure about Twitter's USP compared to our own web-site or forums such as this one. I think it suits some people and organisations but less so for others. The autocar and Trust were already known and people did seek us out and were keen to follow us. I saw some interesting posts from others but didn't post that often, only when things were happening at short notice or to mark major events.

 

I think if anyone is going to use Twitter, they need to wholeheartedly embrace it and use it several times (or more) a day. I was a bit too cynical to do that very often. It was part of my autocar publicity activities, but Twitter was usually a duty whereas very similar activity/interactions on here or other forums was more of a pleasure. I would view it as entertainment than a source of news though. And I've heard/seen far more trolling/spats on Twitter than anywhere else, including forums, and some of it was really nasty. But other opinions are available and if you want to try it, I'd say give it a go, you can always stop. 

[petethemole]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

I suspect it would've ended up in a great big firefight, and the security on duty just didn't have the manpower.  I wonder how many of the demonstrators were tooled-up, and what with?  Can you turn up at such a venue in DC with an SLR?

I was watching the coverage on CNN who had several cameras there.  They tended not to get close to the protesters as the media were getting some abuse, so I didn't notice any open carry.  I did notice one guy who had a full length axe handle protruding from his rucksack.. Obviously I couldn't see whether it actually had an axe head attached (very nasty weapon) or was just the handle (effective melee weapon)  but either way he was armed.  Turn up at a UK demo like that and you'd be on the floor in no time.

[Coombe Barton]

I still have my dad's steam turbine books - saw them when I boxed stuff up prior to rebuild - they'll come to light again some day.

[pH]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

What's "the Leopard"?

Western SMT Leyland Leopard, fleet number ML2341. 
 

Andy restored it - his avatar used to be a picture of it.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

As it was fine and sunny this morning we decided to go for a walk even though the VAT needed doing. Thankfully that got done in the afternoon followed by fish and chips. Nothing else after tea, just lazing around and had a look at my ‘special interest’ magazine that I get sent from Germany.
Manager is going for his Covid-19 vaccination tomorrow morning so I’m going in to cover for him for an hour or so. Not sure what SWMBO has got planned but I’m short of breakfast cereals.

Tired so an early night,

Goodnight,

Robert

[leopardml2341]

Fell asleep on the sofa.

 

Off to mi bed now, goodnight all.

 

Sleepy..........

[Gwiwer]

Home made mushroom ragout with equally home made pasta tonight.  Much enjoyment on a cold cold night.  Assisted into the alimentary canal with a glass of Cape Shiraz - not my normal tipple but a bottle which arrived over the Christmas period and which could not be enjoyed at the time owing to illness.  

 

Now off to bed with a large glass of cherry juice to assist the gout into oblivion.  Who knows why but it seems to work.  

 

G'night all.  

[tigerburnie]

I seem to be struggling to keep the eyes open too,

G'night all

[simontaylor484]

Mmm special interest magazine from Germany an interesting euphemism

Hope its S bahn or u bahn

When me and our kid were younger my Grandad would come and stay with us if our parents went out. One night we were taping a film on vhs. Due to a quirk withour sky box if you turned on a sky channel it recordedthat channel. Lo and behold watching the film it suddenly cut to RTL and a german blue movie it was hilarious. Especially when my brother who is now a policeman started lending it to his mates

Edited January 7, 2021 by simontaylor484
Predictive text

[Coombe Barton]

... bookshelves no longer naked ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/01/07/merry-orthodox-christmas/

[Tony_S]

My Thornton slide rule at school had my name rather nicely engraved on it instead of scratched on like most other students. My Dad had a hand engraver for identifying all his own tools. His engraving was as neat as his handwriting. He knew how to use a slide rule but 2 or 3 significant figures wasn’t accurate enough for his work. He had a very large book of log tables. 8 figure logs I think.

Tony

Edited January 7, 2021 by Tony_S

[simontaylor484]

Police still outside one idiot has just lifted the tape and tried to walk under Pc on duty sat in car was not happy with them

[Erichill16]

3 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Mmm special interest magazine from Germany an interesting euphemism

Hope its S bahn or u bahn

 

N Bahn Magazin

[brianusa]

1 hour ago, petethemole said:

I suspect it would've ended up in a great big firefight, and the security on duty just didn't have the manpower.  I wonder how many of the demonstrators were tooled-up, and what with?  Can you turn up at such a venue in DC with an SLR?

After watching this whole sorry episode, it is possible that authorities did the right thing.  In view of the location, "the bastion of democracy" as some would have it wouldn't have looked too good with  a firefight on their hands.  Five people were killed as it is.  This is the same rentamob that shows up regularly, but rarely with the backing of a president.

[polybear]

6 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Police still outside one idiot has just lifted the tape and tried to walk under Pc on duty sat in car was not happy with them

 

Sounds like something a bit naughty has happened.  I wouldn't be surprised if you get a knock on the door from the Boys in Blue...time to hide the swag quick.....

 

In other news:

Does anyone find they sometimes have to refresh the page before they can reply to a post?

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[newbryford]

On 05/01/2021 at 23:26, Erichill16 said:

Can’t sleep and I’ve still got my Waterstones voucher to spend so looking for something to spend it on.

This looks like a topper, has anyone read it? It may be of interest to those who find sleep not easy to come by. 
It 

 

I hope you're sitting down to read it.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. About an hour ago I had a chat with my niece. My brother usually books a table ay a local pub or restaurant for his Christmas dinner. This year of course he was unable to do so so he went and got a turkey and cooked it himself. The problem is that he didn't cook it properly and he's now gone down with food poisoning. Ridiculous thing is that as there's only him and his wife a turkey crown would have been more than enough. Fortunately he's now on the mend.

[PhilJ W]

5 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

I hope you're sitting down to read it.

[simontaylor484]

40 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

N Bahn Magazin

Some lovely stuff in there just a shame my German isnt good enough to read it properly 

[Ozexpatriate]

Today feels a bit better than yesterday. Along with the scenes unfolding on television at this time, yesterday was very dark and rainy.

 

Today after heavy morning fog, the skies are now clear. Despite being about two weeks since the solstice the sun is, of course, still quite low in the sky but it's nice to see that it is there.

 

We've had unseasonably warmer temperatures than usual. This time of year normally sees our coldest weather with highest chances of icy precipitation. Temperatures are in the range of 5°C - 10°C, so other than in the mountains there is no sign of any icy precipitation in the valley forecast. We've been cycling between dry and wet on an approximately 24 - 48 hour cycle. It's nice to see the sun and the 'normal', albeit tragically banal, daytime television programming.

 

Yesterday's events, punditry for the next thirteen days, and some reporting earlier of politicians suggesting the event was a "false flag operation", make me want to metaphorically howl at the moon. Rest assured that I shan't be doing that here.

 

It is time to walk into the sunshine to see what I might find in the post.

[newbryford]

Evenin' all.

It's been busy at NB Towers in the past few days, so a skim read thro 20 or so missed pages.

 

Belated HB to The SM.

 

My work rota is now one week office/one week home alternating with my office space sharing person. 

The WFH will mainly be phone/email support. but also working on a few bench projects that can be done away from the work workbench. These will involve some m*delling -  that may overlap to some of my own stuff.........................

 

Stay safe out there.

 

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BokStein]

48 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Some lovely stuff in there just a shame my German isnt good enough to read it properly 

 

Don't be put off by your lack of self confidence! I guess, however, much depends on how you define "properly"

 

When I subscribed to N Bahn, I never read every word and tried to make sense of it in the English context.

 

With a basic understanding of the language and the usually copious photographs with the articles, it shouldn't be too difficult to get the gist. If all else fails, there's always google translate from German to English!

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.