Votin'

I will never forget taking over a course taught by a famous scholar, he made all core readings a chapter from his book AND the second page of the syllabus was a promotion page for that book plis discount to buy it from Amazon 🥲 Only one reading was by a woman scholar....

Man invented a competition and gave himself the first prize (comparing it to the Nobel Prize) to get a promotion is peak academic men behaviour. So after men citing themselves, teaching themselves and promoting themselves now they also invent prizes. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Watched a gorgeous 70mm print of North By Northwest. As I was watching it, I thought that it has similar ideas as my favourite Hitchcock film, Notorious, but while Notorious is dark and twisted, North by Northwest is light-hearted and silly.

Please go and vote today. It is important. In ancient Greece democracy was a way of life for all citizens. It meant that ALL citizens not only got to vote but took part in political decisions and were politically educated and informed.

Went to the British Museum with @tamsinwilson.bsky.social to check out the Sutton Hoo helmet, and ran into these very Pratchettian chess pieces found in Scotland.

On this so-called Star Wars day, I choose complexity and depth over the awful binary world of Star Wars, where you have to choose between violent fascism and violent religious extremism. No thanks.

Terry Pratchett has become a portal into a whole world of reading. His books brought me back my joy of reading. I'm going to create a thread of all the books I read following Pratchett. I have learned a lot from his books. I write a blog about it. 📚💙🪐📚 #booksky #Discworld ko-fi.com/ayavandenbus...

Finished The Sign of the Four. One of my favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. The flashback is far more interesting that A Study in Scarlet. Interestingly both stories have 'villains' who are seeking revenge. The Brett TV version of this is excellent. John Thaw as Jonathan Small.

Every time I watch Picnic at Hanging Rock, I say to myself that I need to read about it. I was impressed to discover it's a completely fictional story. Apparently, the disappearance is explained in the last chapter of the book, which was published 20 years later.

Today!!! :)

Tomorrow!

Lovely to see Linett Kamala in the Guardian today with her Jamaican Maypole. It was great to work with her performing Jonkonnu at Notting Hill Carnival last year.

I meant to order a book about the history of guns. This is not a good look for me at the British Library. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Good point! However, Alexa was named after the Library of Alexandria — the ancient repository of all human knowledge — whereas modern LLMs are just confident bullshitters that just guess stuff, so male names do seem appropriate

What a trio!

Happy birthday, Dad. Wish you were here. You’d know what to do. Or at least you’d know what to write. ❤️

This book I'm reading about the Strugatsky Brothers seems to be the most elusive book in the British Library. I booked it last week, knowing that it requires 48 hours to arrive at King's Cross. Yet it hasn't arrived today. 😪 I feel like I'm being prevented from finishing this book. 😭

Excited for this! Many of you know what huge Moomin fans Pratchett are. We originally called Sam ‘Moomin’ on our baby cam app, but getting notifications saying ‘Moomin is crying’ was heartbreaking. www.theguardian.com/books/booksb...

rhyhtm

'Necessary' someone once taught me a mnemonic (that's definitely another one), Never Eatt Cake Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young, and now I can't spell it witout saying this in my head, which takes time. You're welcome.

Both the OED and Britannica website, which I often use as what I consider reliable sources in my research, I pay for elaborated OED acess, are offering AI assistant and I am finding it so off-putting it breaks my flow. It's only an optional tool at this point, but it's infuriating me.

I really enjoyed Guy Garvey's Finest Hour with Mackenzie Crook as a guest and choosing some excellent music.

It's been garden clearance and 6 music kinda day.

Since I no longer have Spotify, I've gone back to listening to BBC radio, which is great, apart from when the news come on and ruin everything.

Enjoyed Stevie Martin last night. Energetic and sweet.

Summer cat. #caturday #cats

Gonna do a bit of a reading day today before going to eat some food and see Stevie Martin. I might even sit in the garden if it gets a bit warmer.

I am really very bad at enjoying the nice weather, or taking advantage of my lovely garden. I sit in my 'cave' (my study) researching and writing instead.

I tend to forget how good Men at Arms is. When I think of the Watch books, it's not the first that comes to mind. I forget that it's actually quite a dark book. Researching it is going to be interesting. You can check out my in depth research into the Discworld books. 📚💙🪐📚 ko-fi.com/ayavandenbus...

People at my work have an annoying tendency to post stupid AI generated bulshit, like what a staff member would look like it they were a squirrel, into the group chat. The other day I told them that I'm gonna go on a rant if they keep doing it.

If you work in a cinema in London, whether you're a projectionist or front of house, you should join BECTU, the union for the film and cinema industry. We're trying to create a cinema employees' alliance. We deserve a strong union to fight for us. We matter.

Never seen Leicester Square Station, or Leicester Square itself as quiet as I do this morning just before the tube drivers strike starts at midday today. It's kinda nice.

"Category I Languages: 24-30 weeks (600-750 class hours) Languages more similar to English."

How many weeks to learn geography though? German and Italian, which I would love to learn, might be achievable.

DS9's The Visitor has a very high score on imdb for some reason. I don't get it. I find this story very poor. If it wasn't for Tony Todd's excellent performance, it would be unwatchable.

The itv Up series is coming to an end this year, as the people are turning 70. 😲🥺 I'm going to rewatch from the beginning, I reached 49 Up last I remember. I'm bracing myself for Neil's story. 💔 All the episodes are available on YouTube.

Enjoying @tamsinwilson.bsky.social book updates on The Other Bennett Sister book immensely, and how the book differs from the show. Since I'm unlikely to get round to reading it any time soon, this has been an excellent help. 📚💙

Finished reading Terry Pratchett's A Slip of the Keyboard, which was very enlightening, and a great companion for my Discworld read/reread. #booksky

I really want to do a bit of a rewatch of Akira Kurosawa films and also catch the ones I haven't seen yet. I forgot how much I love his beautiful and gentle films.

Just before I published this post, I saw an article in New Scientist about bumblebees and their sense of rhythm, which makes sense as they communicate with each other about sources of food via a waggle dance. #Discworld #bees #terrypratchett #booksky #fantasy 💙📚🪐📚 ko-fi.com/post/What-I-...

Came second at a film quiz in Picturehouse this evening, with fellow choir friends.

In other news, please enjoy my latest post about what I learned from Lords and Ladies, which is more than I could possibly fit in one post. #Discworld #terrypratchett #booksky #fantasy #folklore 💙📚🪐📚 ko-fi.com/post/What-I-...

Refreshingly interesting to read and Soviet science fiction, which was compelled and felt obligated to be political or 'woke' in quite a utopian way. Very much in contrast to whinning of, let's face it men mostly, about how everything is so woke and political.

I, for one, do not welcome our algorithm overlords. I wish to destroy it. Probably because I'm pretty bad at utilising it.

Can anyone on #MedievalBluesky help please? I am looking for a piece of medieval artwork showing a representation of Death hiding his face so as not to frighten the child whose life he is coming to claim. Think it was part of a #DanseMacabre I saved it on Twitter and now can't access that account.

In other news, please enjoy my latest post about what I learned from Lords and Ladies, which is more than I could possibly fit in one post. #Discworld #terrypratchett #booksky #fantasy #folklore 💙📚🪐📚 ko-fi.com/post/What-I-...

I seem to be having many TV rebated morning rants these days.

Why is success in the US valued so much? Especially for TV. So much TV either gets a US version or is made with the US in mind, to the point where it almost loses some of its British nature. Are books edited differently or rewritten for the US market?