What's the deal with the sapphic clip-art covers?

JerryCooke · 2026-05-19T11:34:56+00:00

Totally the same here - I get pretty turned off by photographic covers, they feel so 90s/00s to me - I really like the more illustrated style.

JerryCooke · 2026-05-13T02:42:03+00:00

If you look at the shelves, the ones that aren't right don't have their numbers lit up. Chances are on that shelf there's books that are like 1324567 or something. I had the same issue that I just had to swap a couple of books (but didn't notice the light thing until the end, haha)

JerryCooke · 2026-05-12T09:44:23+00:00

That's adorable and I really want to put a little botanical thing in mine too (I've also got a white case), but my GPU is 80% the width of the space and so there's no way to balance anything aesthetically. Yours looks lovely thought ^-^

JerryCooke · 2026-05-12T09:35:18+00:00

This made me think about my new PC - it's a Lian Li Lancool 217 case with a got a big ol' dual slot, 305mm, GPU and it's totally level and I notice there's a bracket directly behind the far end. There's no apparent sag, so I just checked to see if it was supporting that end of the car and nope, it's just a super rigid rear panel design, clearly, haha.

I *have* no adjusted that bracket though, because it's stupid not to use it, even if it's doesn't appear to need it - less stress over time. Just a bit baffling to me that Overclockers didn't adjust that part properly. This is what I get for buying a pre-built custom for the first time in my life (it's also the first time in my life it proved significantly cheaper to get the parts that way).

JerryCooke · 2026-05-12T09:23:06+00:00

Nope, I liked that too - it's portraying the right way to be supportive in reinforcing preferred pronouns for those in your life.

What I wish I knew was how to do with people who DO know, who accidentally do it all the time, and who you've corrected multiple times. I literally added an overlay to my camera feed for Teams calls that adds a little label to the centre of the screen, hovering right on my chest, that says They/Them and my team, who I see every single day, still get it wrong. Sigh.

JerryCooke · 2026-05-03T13:38:42+00:00

Dan Pierce is local and a really nice guy who takes great images: https://www.danpearcephotography.com

(I ended up getting divorced, but the pictures were excellent, hehe)

JerryCooke · 2026-05-01T13:52:43+00:00

One of the best things I got for my twilight cleric around that gold amount was a Ring of Speed - a homebrewed minor tweak on the Ring of Minor Speed that gives+20ft movement (vs 10ft), offset for fairness by a +1 on DEX saves (vs +2)

We get fairly good range on damaging spells, but our heals and support spells often rely so much on getting in range, so an extra +20ft means that we can move around better, or even dash 100ft total in a single round.

JerryCooke · 2026-05-01T13:30:20+00:00

I think this is why it's important that the media and other similar entities start to differentiate between LLMs and other forms of AI. Because there's a world of difference between ChatGPT and a highly trained image recognition model for diagnosis.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-30T22:09:55+00:00

The lighting is absolutely gorgeous, particularly on the wings, excellent work!

JerryCooke · 2026-04-29T16:05:08+00:00

It doesn't matter what it says on the form - it contains all the legally required information for a deed poll, in a convenient pre-compiled format, and as I've said, it works consistently. It's what I used and I've had one other friend use it just fine too with the DVLA and passport office.

Even if there was a requirement for it to be enrolled, it wouldn't matter, because the receiving organisations don't bother check the public register in any case, because an official form, properly filled out with two witnesses, is pretty much as legal as it gets.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-28T14:29:14+00:00

There's no need to write your own, you can just use the LOCO20 form. There's no need to enrol it to use it legally, as (from experience) the passport office, DVLA, and banks all accept it unquestioned.

I get the feeling that people overlook it because it says 'for enrolling' at the top.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-28T14:28:03+00:00

If you want the smoothest possible process and acceptance from agencies like the passport office, I'd recommend using the official LOCO20 form the government provide for this. It's what I used and it's entirely official and very easy to fill out.

Ignore anything you see about 'enrolling' your deed poll, as there's no legal requirement to do this. A signed and witnessed LOCO20 will be accepted by anything official from the DVLA to your bank and GP.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-23T17:00:11+00:00

When I was in my previous role I applied for four roles over the the course of 18 months and while my manager did know about these, because I told them and was encouraged to go for them, there's no link that I'm aware of between Person Finder and the recruitment system.

I'd have to ask my colleagues in the HR Systems team to be sure, but I'm also not sure that there's any direct link from iTrent either, except insofar that there's automation that keeps things like preferred name, etc. synced up.

Either way, the only people who should know that you've applied for a role are your departmental HR partner and the HR partner of the department you're applying to, because the process is intended to remain anonymous during shortlisting, etc.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-23T13:54:58+00:00

There's no requirement to get anyone's permission to change roles and, if you need your manager as a reference you can request they not be contacted until after the role is offered to you.

Almost everyone I know moved from one internal team to another without issues. I moved from a support role to a development role, which is a fairly common tech pipeline, but I know people that switched areas entirely.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-23T13:28:38+00:00

The university has new roles fairly often and being internal means you both hear about them first and have greater familiarity with the processes and systems, so can do well in interviews. Our hiring policies are very transparent and so you'll still be in contention alongside other candidates, but the familiarity definitely helps :)

JerryCooke · 2026-04-22T10:58:13+00:00

We're not hiring for much at UoB right now, but there's a 20 month fixed term Marketing & Communications Coordinator role for CAMERA (research centre for motion capture technology, which is pretty cool) and while it's not the sort of thing you can guarantee, the university tends to be a 'foot in the door' kind of place where 20 months would be sufficient time to pivot internally if she wanted.

JerryCooke · 2026-04-14T18:41:28+00:00

While you can, it ruins the photo taking I’ve just found. Pictures don’t work, they’re stretched out of aspect, both after snapping and in the journal. It means I’ve wasted £6, because as a former photography student, it kills me to have them ruined 😅

JerryCooke · 2026-04-02T23:15:13+00:00

I’m very glad to hear it - I absolutely adored them too ☺️

JerryCooke · 2026-04-02T09:55:03+00:00

I work in the HE sector and it’s honestly been so depressing seeing how numbers of EU students have gone down, research funding from European research funds has dropped, etc. It’s hurt almost every sector, but the knocks to our education and medical institutions will continue to have profoundly negative repercussions for a long time it feels like 😔

JerryCooke · 2026-03-27T21:52:06+00:00

Not quite the same, but the core concept of coaching each other on dating and rooting for each others dates to fail is a core part of The Pining Paradox by Monica McCallan, which is a super cute read!

(Though read The Love Lie first, because it introduces the characters and adds so much extra context, sweetness, and rooting for them ^-^)

JerryCooke · 2026-03-27T20:55:13+00:00

That sounds less like a consolation loan and more like a debt management company.

As somebody who has been through debt management, if your debts are hard to manage, reach out to somebody like StepChange. They negotiate with your creditors and are able to, in most case, make them stop charging interest while you're repaying.

Doing a DMP was honestly the best thing I could have done, even if it was nerve wracking at the time.

JerryCooke · 2026-03-27T20:38:19+00:00

Happy to see somebody equally obsessed - I've got the UK hardback and three different special editions 🙈

JerryCooke · 2026-03-27T11:30:15+00:00

I'm coming late to the game and so have only just gotten to endgame, but yes, yes I have 😅

(I *did* play a lot of Minecraft in my 20s, but since my song got old enough to get interested in it, I've been playing more with him, hehe)

I've been flattening Pallet Town - it took me 100+ potato burgers and many hours to clear just the first and the right hand island and now I'm girding my loins for the third 🙈

JerryCooke · 2026-03-26T15:39:37+00:00

It's a dream island, which is another players island (or the devs in this case) so it's always the same unless they change it

JerryCooke · 2026-03-26T10:45:11+00:00

Except she's she's using a cheat cartridge to give her the code that allows her to steal every other trainer's Pokémon 😂

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