And the keyboard has a nice touch. If you’re used to Dells. The sd reader does not let you leave the card in…it sticks out about halfway, so it wouldn’t be wise. And we have had issues with that. But the screen is nice, the speed is good, and thanks to Carbonite’s excellent on phone assistance, we managed to get both my Win 7 and my Win 10 computers happy at once with the same files. It’s different. I haven’t been able to dissuade it from powering down (but not off) when I close the lid, but that’s minor.
I am slowly dragging stuff *I* want into the display of choices. Jane found me Spider Solitaire and Mahjong, which are necessities of life.
And last night our garden prowler was back. Jane chided me for going out after it in the dark without waking her, but I’m pretty sure it’s a neighborhood cat, nothing too fierce. I have sprinkled Havahart black pepper where it can get to the water, and maybe that will discourage it. Fish do swim on bright nights, since they have a kind of radar that operates along their lateral line, and I don’t want them investigating that pond edge with company perched there.
Depending on what you do with the SD card, a micro-sd adapter you can leave in may make you happy. One example:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HV4YFYU
Lid close behaviour (unless Dell is doing something sneaky…)
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings-winpc/win-10-computer-wont-lock-or-sleep-when-lid-is/d1214504-d926-4fac-a914-4e4e5d2b1605
And I like Start 10 for a more classic start menu:
https://www.stardock.com/products/start10/
Thanks for those.
The micro SD adapter now comes in black:
https://smile.amazon.com/Adafruit-Shortening-microSD-Raspberry-Macbooks/dp/B00OKJFTNA/
Spider Solitaire !!! I am so addicted to that game. While writing, do you find yourself switching over to it and playing a game or two while the back brain is still chewing on something, but hasn’t told the part of the brain attached to the hands yet? That’s also why I have a bowl of knitting next to my computer. . .
Which Mah Jong do you have? I have three. Mahjong Titans is my favorite.
Will one of the cats come in and keep you company while you write? Sharon Lee typically has an in-basket full to overflowing with Maine Coon on her desk when she writes. (The cats divide themselves between her and Steve so everybody has at least one cat presiding over them.) She frequently has a great wad of Maine Coon on her printer as well.
I think what I have is Titans. Oh, yes. I have BOTH cats, since my workstation is next to the bed. I try to eject them out into the garden in the morning, to get some exercise. But by afternoon—they’re snoozing away near my workstation.
Glad to hear the computer is mostly sorted.
A propos of the cats helping you work, how are Tanner and Tracker doing? Has Sei shown any interest in the basement, or in their smell on your hands?
I’m still on my summer holiday on Texel, the very touristy but also oldfashioned bucolic island less than 50 miles from where I live. We’re having lovely sunny weather, about 22- 25 degrees Celsius. The sea is always a bit cold for swimming, maybe 14-15°C, but there are often (kite)surfers at several points along the beach – there’s always wind. The island has endless silversand beaches along the North Sea side, nature-reserve dunes threaded with walking paths that are either wooded or with low shrubs like dune roses and grasses, and in the interior lots of small farms with the small fields with sheep and many different crops edged in hedgerows or small dikes, and a few little historic fishing-and-farming villages with some small museums or historic buildings (a whaler’s cottage from 1540 with intact interior, those sorts of things); with lots of cyclepaths everywhere. It’s sort of the dollshouse version of historic Holland, good for an unexiting but nice and relaxing family vacation. Today we went to the seal rescue annex wetlands museum, that was interesting – the Wadden (shallow tidal sea all along the north coast of Holland, between the mainland and the island chain starting with Texel and stretching all the way to Denmark) is a world heritage site, famous for seals and coastal waterbirds. At low tide half the Waddensea falls dry and people can walk out on it with a guide, to watch the seals and foraging birds, getting very muddy up to their armpits – we didn’t try that!
It sounds lovely and peaceful.
Several years ago, DH and I overnighted on Mont St. Michel. One of the big attractions is watching the tide come in quickly across the mud flats. Naturally one of the tourists ignored all the warnings about being careful where you walk and beware of the tide. He got stuck up to his knees right when the tide was starting to come in; fortunately he escaped and got away with nothing but a good wetting.
Tanner and Tracker are becoming much friendlier. They’ve never been picked up much, but they love being petted, and since our appearance in their lair means food, there is a lot of excitement and head rubbing and petting. I think they are getting happy again…and ours have tended to avoid the basement. Jane has been working hard to get the basement door reinstalled so we can let the two newbies out of the library and let them explore. We HOPE this will not provoke sanitary errors, or marking. But we are going to try this as an intermediate step before trying to introduce the four to each other.
I hope the transition from two pairs to.a foursome of males will go smoothly. Since there hasn’t been undue umbrage thus far on either side, it seems like there’s a good chance they will do all right together. Two opinionated cats in Sei and Shu, confirmed good friends, and two a bit more anxious about things but evidently good friends, in the two T’s. And I get the impression the new two are mostly well behaved fellows. (But yes, both pairs might feel threatened over new surroundings with new cats taking up residence versus already in residence. Even friendly cats could get testy over that.)
Possibly, they’ll decide there’s enough room to spare, much to investigate, and the other guys are intriguing potential pride-mates, after some investigation.
Every cat is unique in personality. I’ve never seen any exactly alike, only a bit similar now and then. This is one of the many reasons to enjoy cats’ company.
My current two still have a bit of possessive jealousy about wanting me all to themselves. Sigh. And yet they mostly get along, despite the assertive./ non-assertive dynamic between them, enough to tag-team the human when it suits them, or to cooperate and be companionable, also when it suits them. They’re good cats, overall. Smokey’s the one who tends toward making trouble for Goober. Goober is dismayed that anyone at all should ever be hostile, and it offends his gentlemanly good nature that anyone would. He has a brave streak, however, and some sense about things, better than he used to have.
As experienced as I thought I was, I did learn a lot when I introduced these two, under less than ideal conditions, and I learned from a couple of mistakes, such as, I was wrong to scold Goober when Smokey, as a kitten newly introduced, tried to steal Goober’s food bowl. If Goober were most male cats, his (rightful) objection might have been beyond drawing himself back and catering, his courtesy affronted, chiding the new little guy. He might have swatted or attacked, if he were like many male cats. And yet older males will also bring in a junior stray, male or female, adopted by them to be adopted by their humans. Well, I should not have scolded Goober, because he and Smokey took this to heart, and it’s been an issue ever since. I, however, am not above picking up Smokey, telling him no, sternly, or bad-kitty, and plopping him down at his own bowl, quite definitively, displeased. This in general does not faze him, though it works better lately. (It worked on both sides, yesterday at supper, Goober went back to his bowl and ate, and Smokey stayed at his bowl and ate greedily but without further ado.) This, after 8 years, is progress…. (LOL)
It’s entirely possible that after a short period of sorting themselves out, the foursome will become a foursome of companions. (Les Quatre Mousquetiers? 😉 ) … However, one does not recommend either a clever brown mouse, nor a cute and clever duckling as an addition to the band! 😀 (Subject to the requirements of the service.)
Well, I’d hope the two pairs become a quartet “right soon” and enjoy many misadventures. 😀
Texel and the Waddenzee sound lovely, both for the natural side and the historic side.
Mon St. Michel, oh, interesting.
My cats have once again decided the bed is neutral territory, and are mostly willing now to share the desk off and on. So it’s just after their supper but before mine, and I have “bookends” with a cat on each side of the makeshift desk, haha. They’ve been getting a bit more attention from me the past couple of weeks and are very pleased with themselves, enough to be pleased with each other. Whether they remain in balance or get jealous of the other guy getting more attention (they think) again remains to be seen.
When Tanner and Tracker do get fully acclimated, four cats, my, you’ll have either an aishid or half a Pride’s crew; well, or maybe a third of a crew.
Two islands I’ve always considered magical: Mont St-Michel and the Eilean Donan castle. I’ve been to Eilean Donan. 😉
The castle is featured in a number of films and videos; I remember Highlander and more recently, the Piano Guys performed ‘This Is Your Fight Song’ in the courtyard there, accompanied by bagpipes. It’s very picturesque and recognizable.
I just saw the video of “This is your fight song” and you’re right, the castle is quite outstanding.
Eilean Donan is in much better “nick” than Kilchurn Castle, built by my 14th or 16th GGF, both named Colin.
Ah, you’re a Campbell by ancestry then, Paul. I did my PhD thesis on the Campbells of Argyll but have never been to Kilchurn or actually out to Eilean Donan, despite having gone by the latter on the bus.
Cadet Campbells of Glenorchy, not Argyll. 14th GGF was Colin, 3rd Laird. 15th GGF Duncan died at Flodden Hill, “the last great medieval war charge”, but alas against a newly professionalized British Army–lost one or two generations of the Scots nobility never fully recovered. Campbells of Glenorchy seemed to alternate between Colin and Duncan so much you can’t tell which one you’re reading about unless there’s a DoB! But Colin’s wife was Marjorie Stewart, daughter of John, 1st of Atholl. Lots of Stewarts, Robert the Bruce is up there too, though when you came to names like that one might best be a little skeptical.
Yes, Colin and Gilliesbuig (trans into English as Archibald but actually a totally Gaelic name) are the two Campbell male names par excellance, with Duncan a close third. Glenorchy is an old and major cadet branch of the Campbells. Argyll is broadly used to refer to the entire clan’s territory as the Earl (now Duke) of Argyll is head of the entire clan (not that you didn’t know that).
The dreadful loss of Scottish life at the battle of Flodden forms the start of my Scottish historical fantasy novels.
A few years ago I bought Glenorchy tartan scarves for my sister and myself as Xmas presents. I _think_ I got the original, pre-Breadablane. Something very close to the “Black Watch” tartan is sometimes used on various fabric items with little thought of the Campbells. I got a “throw blanket” and flannel shirt with it, before my sister had established the genealogy. Not that the Black Watch isn’t a respectable pattern to wear anyway.
I was checking Science Daily today and caught a report that interstellar, perhaps even intergalactic, space is greasy! It’s one of those “outrageous” things I read sometimes when, once introduced, one has to say, “Of course! It’s obvious. Why didn’t someone think of this before? We knew enough.”
“Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” JBS Haldane
Carbon is one of the main “waypoints” in nucleogenesis. (As is oxygen, by the way.) Small stars don’t have enough gravity to heat up enough to fuse beyond carbon, so it’s thought lots of white dwarf stars are literally “diamonds in the rough”. So carbon is one of the common elements that gets thrown out when stars explode. There’s plenty of hydrogen, of course, and lots of ionizing radiation. Ionize carbon and/or hydrogen and they’ll bond every which way. Short lipids, such as make cell walls, are certainly possible, even perhaps plausible. They’ve already identified simple amino acids out there. It’s not so outrageous to think some of life’s precursors just drifted or were carried in from space dust.
Time to throw another of our assumptions, that space is empty except for some rare hydrogen atoms drifting around, into the dustbin. Now it seems rather than rare, most stars have planets. Solitary stars is another one in the dustbin.
I looooove my solid state drive laptop. Since it travels with me when I go house sitting, it’s nice to know it’ll be a little bit more robust in the event of an incident. 🙂
Tonight, it’s now full dark outside, and I’m very tired. This interferes greatly with my chances of seeing who and what is going on outside. Big bummer, that.
Tonight, neighbors are having a big blow-out party, a full fiesta with a sound system and someone singing live, and yes, entirely in Spanish. It’s brilliant and they are having lots of fun. — And I wish I could see out there and felt like joining in. — Maybe if anyone’s doing anything during the day tomorrow or during the week, and maybe early evening during the week, if anyone’s partying, I might get the chance to join in and meet people and have a good time.
This started with Happy Birthday (in Spanish) so it may be a Quinseñeda, but I think it’s mostly just a fiesta for the 4th of July. 😀
Given the current news, and because I love languages and I’m a Texan — I am perfectly fine with my neighbors celebrating entirely in Spanish. It’s really brilliant, and people need a chance to let loose and celebrate. This is what’s good about our country: At our best, we can be inclusive and we can celebrate all our differences and enjoy each other; we can use all those very different, competing ideas to come up with new solutions, and if one thing dossn’t work, we can try something else. But there must be this room for these differences. I like this much better than the racists who only want to hate others. So it is good to hear neighbors having a good time, and the music and language is beautiful, may hermosa de oirle.
A happy 4th of July, despite the mess that is the current news, and a good 14 Juillet upcoming for Francophones.
This is one small planet, a little oasis in a vast empty desert of space. The sooner humanity realizes that, the better we will be. We are all dependent on each other and the health of our planet.
And Pyanfar was entirely right about not keeping all the eggs in one basket.
(Off-Topic: Little Kids Being Best Buddies)
https://youtu.be/8s8i77IpRmc
Feeling kinda frustrated and at loose ends tonight, bouncing around on YouTube before stopping to read, likely, and then a random video came up.
A major network news, human interest piece about two little friends, 1st grade boys. One boy had to have chemo for cancer treatment, a form of lymphoma. His best buddy got very concerned about him and studied up on cancer. One set of parents were making scarves to sell to raise funds for treatment. The boy’s friend “wanted to sell a lot of them” (his own reasoning) and did, over $200 worth. (How much each was not stated, but likely that’s 10 to 20 scarves from the little guy’s efforts.)
In the interview, these two little boys are shown as bright, active small kids, and naturally affectionate. (“Hi, Mister Camera!” They both giggle and hug and kiss the camera. No idea if they hugged the cameraman, but likely.) They hug each other freely, smile, laugh, they love each other. The sick boy’s shown with his stuffed animal in a hospital bed, not so happy. But in the next scene, he doesn’t miss school, because he wants to be with his best friend.
But his best friend comes to school with a surprise, and shows his teacher. (This had happened some weeks back.) The boy lifted off a stocking cap and — he’s bald. He’d shaved his head so his best friend wouldn’t feel like he was the only one. (We’re going to assume his parents or a barber shaved the boy’s head, but the TV reporter frames it as, the boy did this.) By the time the news reporter had gotten there to do the interview, the (well) boy has a rather thick head of very short hair, a little more than crewcut length, so it was more than four to six weeks ago.
The boys stare a couple of silly little-kid level jokes and there’s a bit more to it. The report shows the pair bumbling down the school hallway together, veering off at random, bumping together or to the wall, then back along the center, bumping again, the whole length, and fades to quiet and ends, with the two little guys arm in arm the whole way, just having a good time being best buddies.
What strikes me as an adult male who’s gay is — The two little boys are best friends. They love each other as friends. It is that simple and pure; no other complications. They could be best friends or brothers or boyfriends, and it would be the same to them, because they are so little that it is before any of those things make any sort of distinction or difference. At that age, they are just two little boys who love each other as best buddies, and that is more than enough for them to be happy and complete in their relationship. Uncomplicated by any adult notions of anything whatsoever, mine or anyone else’s.
The pair are maybe 7 years old or so, as 1st graders. They are still at the stage where any of those notions older boys or teens or men get, or any girls or women get, about what is or is not appropriate behavior for two boys together. It doesn’t matter; they’re friends, they love each other, that is all that they need for it to be. They can be silly and laugh and hug and be affectionate, play, be just as boyish as they like, and it’s all fine. Like the bit with the camera or the bumbling walk down the corridor, no particular need to get there too soon, not hurrying, not delaying either, just enjoying the walk, an arm over each other’s shoulder, having fun as friends, being together.
And as an adult male and a gay guy, I look at that and I recall good times and bad times when I was a little boy and a bigger boy growing up in elementary school. But overall, I suppose it was mostly OK; I got through it, sometimes not so happily, but many times happy enough, and I did have friends, both boys and girls, and a few best friends along the way.
But also from that adult male and gay perspective — It is a wonder to see these two little guys, this wonderful, simple, pure friendship and love, so complete in itself. And I wonder, from my perspective, how is it that as we grow up, very quickly, boys in our culture get a little less openly affectionate, a little less naive and open and (vulnerable is not quite the right word). Affection for boys becomes less shown, more guarded. Boys become more aggressive or more reserved, thicker-skinned, rough-and-tumble, even the “sensitive” boys. — And I wonder, is that a necessary thing for survival, to toughen up? Is it an inherent difference about being a boy or a girl? Or is it a learned, cultural response, a norm we expect, which we teach without even knowing it? Maybe even from folks like me, who have a slightly different approach to what it means to be a boy. Because I grew up conservative and religious and with those same expectations and norms of what it is to be a boy in my culture, so those are ingrained in ways I don’t even always realize.
So I wonder, do we lose something precious and good there? Girls, on the whole, remain more openly affectionate and nurturing and emotional. That is the role we accept as for girls; and partly, that is because women are biologically the ones who become pregnant, give birth, and raise children, so a nurturing character is required in some ways. (To be fair, many of us guys, even the most macho guys, can be good fathers and nurturing and care for their kids, both girls and boys.)
So do we lose something, in how boys are raised, that we’d be better off retaining somehow? How should we go about that, to make sure boys (and girls) are equipped to deal with all the problems they may face in life, yet still be social and good, and loving and friendly? — And I concede that life is rough, you have to be tough to a certain extent to fight through some of the things life throws at you, to get food, defend yourself and your loved ones, and all those things necessary to overcome the obstacles in life and remain together and succeed.
So I was heartened by those two little guys, and it raised a few questions, and I am so glad they can have each other, I hope it will continue as long as possible. It would be wonderful if they get to grow up and stay friends. But I also get the feeling, these two little boys will be good friends to whomever they meet in life. They have the really important stuff of friendship and love already figured out. And when they’re old enough, I think they’ll likely be good partners to their loves, whether girls or boys or each other. (Likely, they’ll both grow up to love girls, but every once in a while, a boy loves boys.)
What a great deal that video said, without saying a thing, about the nature of friendship, of love, of young childhood.
And yes, I have always been a dreamer and kind of romantic and sappy. I can’t help that. I would love to have a relationship that complete and fulfilling. Yet that is a little-kid relationship, not an adult one. I remember the best friends I had as an older kid and as a teen, and in a few of those cases, for me, it shaded into first crushes, from puppy-love stage to a more mature but still very adolescent stage. I miss those guys; life moved on and we moved on, life separated us. And one of them is no longer in the world of the living, gone several years now. So, but that’s from my own life, separate from the two little friends who are so lucky to have each other.
Anyway, that was great to see, heartwarming. Someday, when they’re both grownups, they can look back and see that they had part of life truly figured out, for at least a while, and maybe, I hope, they’ll be able to retain that to some degree into adolescence and adulthood. It would be nice if they are lucky enough to stay best friends forever, but life usually does not happen that way, even with the best of intentions.
So, well, I thought it was great. I wonder if we boys have to lose that, or if we all (boys and girls) outgrow that innocence into our more mature and experienced selves. Points to ponder, just because the video struck me so much.
Scottish tartans – assigning them to clans is pretty much a 19th century invention. Earlier tartans varied more by region than by clan. The colours used depended mainly on which natural dyes were easily available locally. The bright colours of modern tartans come from chemical dyes which were only invented in the 19th century. In earlier times people wore whatever designs they liked or could afford or were available, regardless of clan.
Kilts only came into use in the 16th century (tunics were worn before then), and the modern style of kilt was invented by an English tailor in the 1720s.
Eilean Donan castle – was rebuilt between 1911 and 1932. Here’s what it looked like before. The earlier castle was defended by Spanish troops in 1719, and captured and blown up with gunpowder by the British navy.
Scottish history, and particularly Highland history, often needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Kilchurn looks a little better than that, but not by a lot.
Yup, you’re correct on all that. The so-called “Sobieski-Stuart” brothers in the 19th C. invented most of the original clan tartans. They were capitalizing on the growing, romantization of Scottish Highlanders. The Highland population had pretty much subsided as a threat to centralized government (after the failure of the ’45 and the subsequent, severe pacification of the Highlands and outlawing of wearing highland dress) and so could now be safely objectified as historically quaint and safely different.
The first set tartan was that of the Black Watch (in the mid 1600’s if I remember correctly: I’m doing this from memory as I’m not at home with my books on the topic). It’s no coincidence that the Campbell tartan so closely resembles it. Tartan was not conceived as a firm pattern of set colors/stripage that could not be mixed and matched or varied the next time a woman set up her loom… Except by the British government that had to cloth its new, Highland regiment in a single, uniform cloth that it could order in vast quantities.
As to kilts, sadly (to me who was first and still attracted to the study of historical Highland Clans for the exact same romantic views as the Sobieski Stuarts made their name on), there is no solid evidence pre-mid or later 1500s, but then, that’s the cut-off date for much of Scotyish social history documentation, which is why I ended up doing my thesis on medieval Highland clans… I couldn’t get enough material to analyse satisfactorily.
I’m doing this from recollection too, but it’s no coincidence the “Black Watch” is the Campbell tartan, or vice-versa. There came a time to impose some order in the Highlands, bring an end to the cattle thievin’ and all. Ten cadres from the clans were created, and the biggest part were Campbells, six ISTR. I guess the Black Watch didn’t make the Campbells best loved by all the clans.
I agree, it is probably no coincidence that the Campbell tartan so closely resembles the Black Watch’s. Alas, however, the clan and especially its elite members and heads of lineages were disliked by other “Houses” before the Black Watch was formed.
The Earl of Argyll, Mac Cailein Mor — the chief of Clan Campbell — threw his faith & backing into the emerging centralized Scottish government and the power of legal ownership/documentation (backed by said government) as he expanded his and his clan’s control of land in Argyll at the expense of the MacDonalds, MacLeans and other, smaller clans who were relying on heritable tenure/traditional but often undocumented claims to land. ‘Course, it didn’t hurt that the Earl also had lots of fighting men he could call on of his own… and the Scottish crowns.
Religion and politics played a big role. The Campbells were Covenanters and Whigs. Several other clans were Catholics and Royalists.
The Campbells fought against the Royalists in the Civil War, and in 1685 the Earl of Argyll was beheaded for supporting Monmouth’s uprising against the Catholic James II.
After the Glorious Revolution, the Campbells stood high in the favour of the Whig government.
Yes, I completely agree.
IIRC, it was the Campbells who, on a technicality, massacred the MacDonalds of Glen Coe.
It was a lot more complicated than that.
Even the Wikipedia article, which is reasonable, skips or barely mentions many of the complexities and issues.
On my mother’s side, I am Rayburn and Baggett and Thompson and Brodie and several others I have forgotten. My maternal grandmother had a brother and a brother-in-law both named Grady, and both were very good guys. And on my maternal grandfather’s side, there are two items of note. One is that an ancestor with the last name of Brodie was a town sheriff of enough note that someone wrote a slim volume about him, in which he had one shootout against bandit gunmen down the Main Street of the town square, such as it was, a small town in 1800’s Texas. However, apparently, he was not favored towards violence. The other notable item is that a great-great-grandmother (or great-great-aunt, my memory is fuzzy) was a Native American Indian woman in pioneer Texas. There was a photo taken in the mid to late 1800’s, but unless I am more lucky than I think, that has now been lost to moves and damage. The photo showed her in a pioneer dress, veryIndian features, the common double braided hair. The marriage was accepted by both sides of the family. However, I don’t know the tribal affiliation, only that it was north-central Texas. She could have been Cherokee or Choctaw, from the Oklahoma Territory, or Comanche or Alabama-Couchatta from Texas. Word was that both sides of my mom’s family were English and Scotch-Irish and perhaps a little French, with that dash of American Indian on her father’s side. There were Thompsons and Adairs noted as strong friends/allies of the Cherokee in Oklahoma, but if my family’s branch of the Thompson family was related, that was lost in living memory and was not passed down to me. One ancestor was an English doctor who immigrated to America in the 1800’s. So there are all sorts of thing running around on both sides of my family, most of it lost over time, even when there had been written records and photos from the 1800’s and earlier written records and heirlooms.
My daddy’s paternal grandmother was a Dalton. His grandfather used to tell her not to be talking about her family tree because most of her relatives were hanging from it. . . .
We’re supposed to have Scottish blood in there somewhere. The story goes that they were refugees from the Highland Clearances. My dad’s paternal line came originally from Coffee County, GA.
Budgetary constraints make it difficult for me to spring for a subscription to Ancestry.com or to get one of those DNA kits, which I dearly long to do. I know a lot about certain lines in my mother’s family history back into the 1830’s but very little about any of my dad’s. I’d like to find out if I have Scottish heritage, and I’d like to find out about those Daltons . . .
I always used to say I’m half German, a quarter Hungarian, the rest is Heinz 57!
A couple of my brother’s grandkids qualify as Heinz 57: Northern Europe from Ireland to Russia, plus Ethiopia.