Zompist Bboard Again

Now I have learned a name for a date... I'd never heard of Whitsun before myself.

And we just had our first serious summer thunderstorm of the year. Just turned my desktop PC back on after it.

In other news, doing my usual semi-regular financial calculations for the coming month showed me that by the end of June, if nothing big and unexpected happens, I should have a little bit more money than I thought I would have at that point. Which is good for some plans of mine. But getting this calculation result makes me worry a bit that there might be some kind of big regular expense that I somehow, for some reason, wasn't thinking about when I made the spreadsheet.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Fri May 29, 2026 11:42 am Now I have learned a name for a date... I'd never heard of Whitsun before myself.

Is Whitsun a date? It's 7 weeks after Easter, which is notoriously unfixed with respect to the Gregorian calendar.

I know it's not the same day every year...

Oh fuck. This is way too close to where I live for comfort: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ws-updates https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17yzzw1vkjo

Especially given that my Mom works part-time in a youth center, though not that particular type of facility.

No information on motives officially confirmed so far, but if it's a "youth welfare facility which includes supported accommodation for young mothers", this looks to me very much like we're talking about an abusive entitled male shithead scumbag who decided to "get back at" a woman who had eventually rejected his notion of being entitled to abusing her.

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Jun 29, 2026 9:44 am Oh fuck. This is way too close to where I live for comfort: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ws-updates https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17yzzw1vkjo

Especially given that my Mom works part-time in a youth center, though not that particular type of facility.

No information on motives officially confirmed so far, but if it's a "youth welfare facility which includes supported accommodation for young mothers", this looks to me very much like we're talking about an abusive entitled male shithead scumbag who decided to "get back at" a woman who had eventually rejected his notion of being entitled to abusing her.

Yep, that must be scary. I agree on the motives, too.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2026 1:55 am

Yep, that must be scary. I agree on the motives, too.

Thank you.

All listening to podcasts and checking social media and no work makes Raphael a very unproductive boy.

On the plus side, I managed to pick a sieveful of blackberries in early July. On the other hand, I managed to pick a sieveful of blackberries in early July!

Lērisama wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2026 1:35 pm On the plus side, I managed to pick a sieveful of blackberries in early July. On the other hand, I managed to pick a sieveful of blackberries in early July!

Wait, do you mean, that's a climate change issue? Or is there some other downside?

Raphael wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2026 2:20 pm

Lērisama wrote: ↑Sun Jul 12, 2026 1:35 pm On the plus side, I managed to pick a sieveful of blackberries in early July. On the other hand, I managed to pick a sieveful of blackberries in early July!

Wait, do you mean, that's a climate change issue? Or is there some other downside?

Yeah, it's a climate change. They used to only very rarely come out in force before mid-to-late August. Picking them in the very hot is a bit odd. The correct time to pick them is a long late summer/early autumn evening¹.

¹ Okay, the evening bit is more tradition for me, rather than generally, but there's little better than ending the day by gorging yourself on freshly picked ripe blackberries.

Yesterday, the folded blanket that I had put under the cushion on my desk chair got kind of entangled and messed up and "asymmetric" and uneven, and I thought that was no big deal at first, and so I kept sitting on it while it was uneven in that way, until I eventually got fed up and removed the folded blanket. And I apparently strained my hip during that. Ouch.

On the last day of the deadline, I did and filed my taxes! Must make sure that I don't hide those 2 Euros and some cents from the relevant authorities.

Would have posted this under Happy Things, but I'm a bit annoyed that I procrastinated to the very last day.

A good friend of my Mom has been diagnosed with a serious, possibly terminal, illness. While the diagnosis came more recently, she first heard that there was something wrong a few weeks ago, on her birthday.

Raphael wrote: ↑Mon Jul 27, 2026 7:37 am Yesterday, the folded blanket that I had put under the cushion on my desk chair got kind of entangled and messed up and "asymmetric" and uneven, and I thought that was no big deal at first, and so I kept sitting on it while it was uneven in that way, until I eventually got fed up and removed the folded blanket. And I apparently strained my hip during that. Ouch.

More than a week of occasional intermittent back pain now. I guess that means I'm officially Old.

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2026 7:14 am back pain now

less sitting conlanging...
conlang while walking...

Once again, I bumped my head against the slope of the roof.

In very minor and trivial but somewhat annoying news, a few days ago, our electric kettle got some kind of mood swing or something, and ever since, it's been pretty difficult to separate the kettle itself, that is, the part with the water in it, from the base when it's done.