@simonvarwell@mastodon.scot
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simonvarwell

@simonvarwell@mastodon.scot

Loves trains, the outdoors, travel, Esperanto, ambient and post-rock music, good food and scrontous beer. Hates car-centric societies, late stage capitalism and courgette. Slow reader, infrequent writer. Day job in education but I never talk about it here. He/him. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Avatar: white 40ish man with black woolly hat and backpack, standing in front of old red phone box and ruined church.
Banner: text saying “Geesperantistoj el la tuta mondo agu energie kontraŭ la internacia faŝismo!"

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Good news that ScotGov is to declare a housing crisis. Communities are being squeezed by second homes, short term lets and unequal land ownership.

However it is bizarre that reserve powers will be blamed. So many competences in this area are devolved, eg equipping councils to ensure planning oversight of property usage, introducing a land value tax and so forth.

Such a paucity of imagination and ambition.

https://news.stv.tv/politics/scottish-government-to-declare-national-housing-emergency

simonvarwell,
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@RuthSalter I’m so sorry Ruth. I’d love to say I’m surprised at this sort of story. Good luck to you, but change cannot come fast enough.

simonvarwell,
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@RuthSalter don’t apologise for your rage or trauma. Your experience was entirely relevant. I had high hopes for the SNP-Green deal and while they did some things on tenants’ rights they did little on actually shifting the power locked up in wealth. I wonder personally if a Labour-LD-Green alliance next time would be focussed on using the existing powers better on those like this.

simonvarwell,
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@RuthSalter I know. That’s my problem. I’m probably (but not definitely) sticking with the Greens because their underlying philosophy is admirable and I respect many in the party. I could be persuadable however, as I’d be voting for them in hope rather than expectation.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Hrmph. Same to you.

simonvarwell,
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@kommadieb I took it personally.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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I often dwell on how generations heading into middle age are in weird in-between times: while older generations’ experiences were mostly not digitised and today’s young folk are over-digitised, only some of my generation’s past is digitised. That leaves us in an existence where life is patchily recalled.

I’d never imagined there being equality dimensions to this, however. A fascinating article.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/13/tv-episode-black-britain-gay-history

simonvarwell,
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@timrichards yes, in basements, on old videos etc. And the unfashionable or prejudiced-against will in many ways be the most interesting. I have a bit of a fascination with lost media stories.

simonvarwell,
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@Susan60 @timrichards hopefully.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Knowing that Steve Albini, who died recently, had produced Nirvana’s In Utero, I presumed he was quite a legend. However I’ve since read that he was beyond unpleasant.

Interesting then to get stories from musicians in this article of what he was like to work with.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/13/pj-harvey-mogwai-sunn-wedding-present-jon-spencer-on-steve-albini

simonvarwell,
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I didn’t know he’d produced Mogwai’s My Father My King, a glorious epic of theirs I love.

Clear your diary for twenty minutes and listen to this belter with the volume up.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4WYnSFqh6k

simonvarwell,
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@problemsdog well that’s impressive and can’t have been easy. I think I read something like that in another article.

simonvarwell,
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@problemsdog aha yes that’s what I’d read! Thanks.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Imagine if the Three Wise Men had brought gold, frankincense and mirth.

Things would have been so different.

simonvarwell,
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@bazzargh undoubtedly. He's quite the grumbler.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Was out all last night in my safari suit and unfortunately didn’t see a roarer.

simonvarwell,
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@withaveeay yes and I had to jackal my plans in.

goo, to random
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Pic from one year ago today when Burgess St was closed off & seating and planters put in.

The peace that descended after constant traffic ended & how safe crossing that junction became have been fantastic.

The seating is well-used, in summer & also during the rest of the year. Cold & wet don't put off those who fancy stopping for a while!

simonvarwell,
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@goo sounds like a relief. Or a releith… Never been down that way and must do when I am next in Edinburgh.

bastardsheep, to random
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So Russia’s invasion of Ukraine resulted in numerous countries suddenly entering the UN which is the opposite of what they wanted.

Now Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people has resulted in Palestine being given UN membership. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/may/10/australia-un-vote-palestine-status-support-israel-war-gaza

simonvarwell,
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@bastardsheep some good news at last!

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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Tha mi cho trang sed eksemajnfiniĝas!

rayckeith, to esperanto
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https://youtu.be/Ei9gedegOzE?si=sVftzCG0AtdbVpye

"Correlatives Lesson"

simonvarwell,
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@rayckeith kia leciono.

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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A lovely insight into the people behind the fabulous Walk Highlands website.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72py4xg2w4o

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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People don’t make Glasgow… https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz9lqv270w2o

simonvarwell, to random Esperanto
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A long time ago on a social media platform far, far away (well, October 2020 on Twitter) I began a chronological watch-through of the Star Wars canon. I am barely on Birdville now, so have moved the thread here.

Below is a link to a pdf with a very crude copy & paste job of my entire thread so far, so you can go back to the beginning and read the whole story. I will pick up the thread again below this tweet.

Happy reading, and may the force live long and shiny.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9nmjj0sd7jth1kq4e94q9/Star-Wars-tweets.pdf?rlkey=vyndd40d23y05ph7ng83dwpa3&dl=0

simonvarwell,
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Well to their credit that’s what they’ve done: a satisfying ending, the clones are more or less written out, the events have literally been vaporised, and everyone disappears into the sunset. There are one or two nice nods to later in the canon, and we’re left wondering if we will meet Omega again. With Clone Wars and Bad Batch it’s been a long plot side track, but some great stories told about the empire. It’s been a long process but now to move on to other bits of the canon.

simonvarwell,
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Next in the timeline (and here below is a reminder of how I’m doing it) is Solo, a film I’ve only seen once in the cinema but enjoyed, then Obi Wan, then back to animated series with Rebels. That, I suspect, will all be a nice way of rooting the story back in the “core” timeline before Andor and Rogue One rush us into the original trilogy. I’m looking forward to picking up the pace.
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a825727/star-wars-timeline-chronology/

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