bookshop.org/p/books/shar... Finished Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Trafalgar. My third or fourth fictional Trafalgar. These are a bit formulaic but enjoyable reads. Evocative of the period. I'm reading in internal chronological order, so Sharpe isn't quite _Sharpe_ yet. #booksky

bookshop.org/p/books/a-se.... Finished Craig Johnson's "A Serpent's Tooth. A perfectly Longmire Longmire book. Good if you like these, and I do. The stakes and consequences in this one are heavier than usual. #booksky

“I just asked ChatGPT”

Post a movie you like with a terrible Rotten Tomatoes score www.rottentomatoes.com/m/titan_ae

Watching “Sneakers.” As one does. Even the supporting cast is stacked. #robertredford #sundance

Battle doomscrolling by posting five small pleasures on life: A cat who insists on a lap An excellent mystery novel The sound of a wooden screen door slamming on a summer evening The call of a loon Receiving a texted ❤️ from a distant loved one

bookshop.org/p/books/scen... Finished "Scent of Evil" third in Archer Mayor's long line of Vermont police procedurals featuring Joe Gunther. This one really got at what its like when everyone has been in town forever and the entanglements run deep. #Booksky

I took a terrific box turning class at the wondrous Adirondack Folk School yesterday. What a pleasure. #woodturning #woodworking #making

Favorite TV Themes Rockford Files Hill Street Blues Perry Mason Ellery Queen Deep Space Nine M*A*S*H Hogan’s Heroes Jonny Quest Greatest American Hero Peter Gunn Barney Miller WKRP

Bottom line, there are a lot of horrors abroad in the world, but if you’re cis and you don’t grasp that the defense of trans people has to be one of _everybody’s_ top priorities, you’re asking to live in a world run by the worst born-to-be-a-hall-monitor garbage people you can possibly imagine.

bookshop.org/p/books/kydd.... Finished "Kydd" by Julian Stockwin. Naval adventure in the Age of Sail. Kydd starts as a pressed man in this, the first of the series. All of the pleasure expected -- these sorts of books are comfort reads for me. #booksky

Good god with the heat of a 1000 suns. For heaven's sake, have enough of an inner life, humor, and basic decency to make your eyes twinkle, and you're 3/4 there. That, and be genuinely interested in other human beings, including the one you're talking to. Patience. Done.

bookshop.org/p/books/jade.... Finished "Jade Legacy," the conclusion of @fondalee.bsky.social e.bsky.social‬ 's glorious Green Bone Saga. The organic, believable growth of characters and society over the course of the books is extraordinary#bookskyky

bookshop.org/p/books/a-te.... Finished “A Test Wills” by @charlestodauthor.bsky.social An English country mystery with all the expected pleasures. Excellent depiction of a post WWI traumatized country #booksky

This just looks like fun. Looking forward to reading it

Rereading early Astro City by @kurtbusiek.bsky.social Boy howdy do they hold up well

Sometimes you just have to answer he question “If Indiana Jones had a computer monitor, what would it look like? Presuming Dr. Jones had as involved with #hamradio of course.

Speaking as someone at the tail end of a satisfying computer science career, this is important. Also, something I've seen time and again: throwing yourself at a career that isn't suitable, especially coding or engineering, damages the relationship with learning things in general

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” - William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Please help me spread the word about this rally in support of the National Park Service, which will take place at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial at Gettysburg National Military Park on June 16 from 4-6:30PM. Thank you. #NationalParks #PublicHistory 🗃️ open.substack.com/pub/kevinmle...

"...there is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” - The Wind in the Willows. Starting to assemble the frame of Dave Gentry's PH13 solo canoe. #woodworking (gentrycustomboats.com/PH13page.html)

My daughter teaches fourth grade and wanted pens her kids could earn the use of so I turned these for her. They name their classes after colleges.

The problem with having hobbies and interests is having places to store the “stuff.” These are my solution. This one will be a seat/ottoman in my study.

Finished cutting and acquiring the bits needed to build a Provisional Press (www.provisionalpress.com/laser-cut-pl...)

Every year on Memorial Day, I share this video of French caretakers who take sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy, and scrub them into the letters to give them the gold coloring. They do this for all 9,386 US soldiers who died. France also gave us this land as American soil.

Finished "Murder by Memory" by @oliviawaite.com . I _really_ enjoyed this. "Miss Marple in space," indeed, complete with a troublesome nephew and a nemesis. The central crime is clever and well-grounded in the SF premise. I'd only wish for a deeper look at the world and its denizens. #booksky

Finished "Dead Lions," the second in Mick Herron's Slow Horses series. These read like a cracked mirror sequel to LeCarre's Cold War novels. Interesting characters with complex interactions and a well-paced underlying story. I look forward to reading more. #booksky

The Society for Military History is now archiving historical materials related to military history that are disappearing from federal or state websites. We are open to submissions, anonymously or otherwise. Please see www.smh-hq.org/archivedreso... and note there the submission links.

Read "Death in a Darkening Mist" by Iona Whishaw. Mystery in post-WWII British Columbia. Compelling core mystery. Fits and starts romance because life and people are complex and not because they don't talk. Excellent. bookshop.org/p/books/deat... #booksky

This video is for all US citizens who are currently overwhelmed by Trump's more than 200 executive orders. THIS should be retweeted to the MAX. I never saw a more helpful video. (It's about two minutes long. It's worth a lot.)

I’ve been reading TPM since it was Josh’s and a member since they’ve had members. They’re very very good

Ahem ... Is this on? Yesterday our crew at @TPM launched our annual March membership drive. If you're not a member, I hope you'll consider joining. The link is right here. I wanted to take a moment to give you what I hope are good reasons to join. talkingpointsmemo.com/memberships?...

I Enjoyed Charles Finch's "A Stranger in Mayfair." A Victorian gentleman detective, Charles Lennox, tries to balance his passion for detective work with his new responsibilities as an MP. An evocative picture of a particular time, place, and social strata. bookshop.org/p/books/a-st... #booksky

Finished Ramage at Trafalgar, #16 in the Lord Nicholas Ramage series by Dudley Pope. If O'Brian is grad school for Age of Sail military fiction, then Pope's Ramage is a great undergrad elective. I enjoy both a great deal. www.mcbooks.com/978159013022... #booksky

Finished "The Apothecary Rose," the first of the Owen Archer mysteries set in 14th century York, partially due to the author's (@candacerobbauthor.bsky.social) presence here. I like mystery novels with a strong sense of time and place; this one satisfied enormously. bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

At the Railroad Ha hobby Show in Springfield Massachusetts. Vast. Picked yo some N scale laser structure kits #modeltrains

Made myself a big ol’ carpenter’s bench pencil. Wood (Ashe) from the lot we built our house on. #turning #woodworking

Just finished "The Dead Cat Tail Assassins" by @pdjeliclark.bsky.social. As always, deftly executed world-building and compelling characters. He has a knack for taking characteristics of our mundane villains and adapting them for his more colorful ones. "The Three Beards" indeed. #booksky

I'm working through Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga (internal chronology) on audiobook. First up: Falling Free, which takes place several hundred years before the Vorkosigans. SF where people of skill, good intention, and good faith use science and technology to work their way out of difficulties.

I'm going to try logging my reading here. I've been rationing @marthawells.com Murderbot Diaries because otherwise, I'd read them all in a week. I just enjoyed Fugitive Telemetry, which is more or less a SecUnit procedural as Murderbot solves a murder on Preservation Station.