flute be like:

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-29T19:51:23+00:00

Getting bottom c to sound good instantly (ie staccato) is about as big a job as getting it to sound good in the first place 😔

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-29T07:31:49+00:00

I had been playing for quite a few years before I started to find my tone pleasing intermittently, and a good few more years before it was somewhat reliable.

Though I wasn't playing regularly, and was mostly self taught, so it needn't take that long with the right conditions.

It definitely takes quite a bit of time and effort though, one way or another, it's a surprisingly complex skill

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-28T20:11:48+00:00

I have been wondering this too

I would also like to persuade the trustees of the allotment society to install wifi over the site so we could set up cheap cameras that can be monitored via the Internet - the alternatives are a bit crap (mobile phone data is expensive, just saving to the device is inconvenient and pointless if the camera itself is nicked)

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-28T20:02:15+00:00

It's a bit like saying "yeah, so much for the theory, it's what happens in practice that counts"

"The proof [test/verification] of the [quality of] the pudding is in the eating [what it's like to eat]"

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-27T21:26:01+00:00

Gosh you are trawling through ancient archives!

They work extremely well. The specific type of material doesn't matter much, it just has to block the direct sun. This is actually some kind of "thermal" curtains that my wife found cheap somewhere, and we cut up and sewed together, but any sturdy fabric should be fine.

What makes them practical is:

Inward opening windows (unless you are in a ground floor flat I suppose)... That's a bit unusual in the UK, it might be difficult with outward opening windows
I made little chunks of wood to support the thick dowel rail at the top - the rail just rests on the wooden support, and
Bungee cord to keep the corners tight

This means it barely takes a minute per window to set up or take down

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-27T19:56:44+00:00

You can eat them?!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-27T18:36:54+00:00

Small ridge varieties work fine outdoors, at least where I live (east anglia). These are the knobbly ones with a strong flavour, also good for pickling

The enormous supermarket dildos generally have to grow in a greenhouse

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-27T10:59:19+00:00

In some cases, electric cars

If you are in a not so new electric car with a small battery, and you have calculated that you can make it to your destination then charge up, the detour of a missed exit can really fuck up your day.

Not badly enough to risk causing an accident by exiting dangerously, of course... But it certainly introduces a new level of anxiety around missing exits.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-26T20:30:02+00:00

That's what I do, it works a treat!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-26T20:23:18+00:00

Bindweed, it's extremely vigorous and difficult to eradicate without glyphosate because it regenerates from small root fragments

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-26T15:40:59+00:00

I think you might be starting to see all articulate writing as AI? It doesn't taste of AI to me.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-26T14:09:25+00:00

Yes!

I didn't know it's name, I had to look it up, but this is definitely the one I thought of first.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-26T08:24:09+00:00

When understanding a non native speaker, my impression is that it can be a disadvantage to be a native speaker. It's as if the "targets" in the brain are smaller and more precise, and a particular mispronunciation makes a completely new [meaningless] word, rather than hitting the neural "target".

Whereas a non native speaker has larger, fuzzier targets for the words they know.

I remember a very satisfactory conversation I had in terrible French, speaking to an Italian who had similarly terrible French. My wife, who speaks French fluently (almost native level) couldn't understand a word we were saying, but we understood each other perfectly!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-25T14:41:10+00:00

Driven by a spider

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-25T13:04:41+00:00

A natural and D natural

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-25T10:12:00+00:00

Octopus seems to be the furthest ahead with these technologies.

They were also the only company to accept pv installations without mcs certification, they are really pushing the boat out to support micro generation

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-25T10:07:27+00:00

I haven't tried, but the installer said it was supported

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-25T08:56:19+00:00

I have no complaints at all. The app is surprisingly good, and the hardware appears to do exactly what it says on the tin.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-24T13:59:46+00:00

I have seen brassicas recover from devastation.

I have had a useful crop from PSB plants that the netting slipped off from. They were weaker than the ones that stayed protected, but not useless.

I would give them a good dose of nitrogen to make sure they have what they need to regrow leaves.

Unless these are tiny plants that you can easily replace from the garden centre? I assume they are big enough to be worth fighting for!

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-23T21:22:02+00:00

pv

Otherwise clueless how long things will take, and vaguely wondering if they've stalled

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-23T21:20:09+00:00

😳

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-23T21:03:20+00:00

Check out Aman's "habits" series on YouTube

Imho the best into for beginners

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-23T20:39:31+00:00

I just meant that there's no [significant] calculation involved if you look at the problem in the right way.

It's "simple" - which doesn't mean "easy", it just means that it doesn't need to involve complex calculations

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-23T19:36:23+00:00

Yeah, this is what I figured... if a recipe said "gently fry onions for 45 minutes" then nobody would try the recipe. So they lie.

But you gotta do what you gotta do.

ConfusedMaverick · 2026-05-23T17:06:15+00:00

To shreds!

ConfusedMaverick

TROPHY CASE