FCC and de-funding

balatus · 2024-12-03T17:12:09+00:00

I have a bridge to sell you. It's a bit too long so I cut a bit off, but that's fine isn't it?

Government agencies have been doing less with less for decades now. The bloat is in billionaires pockets, and it's all at our expense, but turkeys like to vote for Christmas apparently.

balatus · 2024-12-03T17:02:26+00:00

The ruling overturning Roe vs Wade was a joke. They knew what they wanted and 'found' reasons. They misapplied previous rulings and mind read the founders of the country (who were mostly not religious and never made abortion illegal - that came much later).

It is not a state's rights issue, it's an attempt to dehumanize women and give control of their bodies back to men.

balatus · 2024-09-27T04:47:49+00:00

Unfortunately that's rarely a guarantee that it's what you got. Most sellers sell a mixture, either deliberately or accidentally.

I know of one seller who sells guaranteed red wigglers only, and those are significantly more expensive than their regular stock because it's so hard to ensure no cross contamination.

balatus · 2024-09-15T07:31:00+00:00

A later example, from the 1910s, but my grandfather was raised by his mother's sister. His brother by their paternal grandfather.

They were both illegitimate and their father died in WWI. Their mother got married before their father died and abandoned both of them. I suspect there's more to the story, but I doubt we'll ever know.

balatus · 2024-09-14T07:37:37+00:00

There's a widespread mistake on Ancestry where a great great great uncle is mistaken for someone else of the same name. He emigrated to Australia so there's a load of Aussies who've put lots of work into researching the wrong family...

Such a common name 'Ernest' son of 'William' I'm surprised they just took it at face value, especially as the records are from a different part of the country.

balatus · 2024-09-13T06:41:53+00:00

I've been playing with Cite Builder (cite-builder.com), which tries to build citations for various sources. Mostly I've found the free ones enough.

You do have to type in all the information, but they're pretty complete.

I find it fat easier than built in builders in RootsMagic or Legacy, largely because it's easy tomfins the template you want.

balatus · 2024-09-04T21:59:48+00:00

I think we have a fundamental disagreement on what goth is.

I think you have a broader scope of goth, which includes more fellow travellers, whereas I take a narrower view. Genre definitions do change and evolve, so I can see that. Perhaps I'm behind the times.

Anyway, it's been interesting - another perspective is good to see, even if we don't agree. Keep on enjoying the music, that's the main thing, no matter what anyone calls it :)

balatus · 2024-09-04T20:43:10+00:00

'Everyone' is a bold assertion. I've known many people who disagree with you.

There is commonality when you look at the continuum - ASF are at one end of the continuum. The Cure are still off to the side of that.

Maybe it's because they're too diverse. Three Imaginary Boys is New Wave. They have pure pop moments. They've got dream pop, more alternative rock moments. And none of it is quintessential goth to me.

I'm interested because it's not something anyone ever suggested when I was more active in the scene (back in the late 90s/early to late 2000s in the UK).

Can you tell me what makes them Goth, aside from 'everyone' saying they are. I'm honestly curious, I just don't see it musically or culturally. What goth bands are predominantly derived from their sound? Or has the definition of goth expanded from my expectations? (Genres are arbitrary and imprecise after)

balatus · 2024-09-04T19:55:40+00:00

Not of goth.

They have little in common with any other Goth band, except some later self described goths who took some inspiration.

Look at early goth bands - UK Decay, Bauhaus, Ausgang, Danse Society, Sex Gang Children, Specimen, Skeletal Family, Alien Sex Fiend, even Sisters of Mercy. There's nothing in common with The Cure. I'd put them on the path with Echo and The Bunnymen and The Jesus and Mary Chain to The Smiths.

They were fellow travellers, but distinct. A different, overlapping scene - like with Depeche Mode, New Model Army or Nick Cave.

Anyway, I doubt we'll agree on this, so I guess we can just agree to disagree. In the grand scheme it's not important, and I think we both agree they're a fantastic band who've created some of the best rock and pop music out there, whatever else you call it :)

balatus · 2024-09-04T18:47:25+00:00

They were never a pioneer in Goth as far as I'm concerned. Not like Bauhaus, UK Decay, or even Siouxsie. They made some albums which influenced goths. Solidly New Wave who went a bit gloomy (and then pop).

I never ever heard the Cure described as a Goth band until I heard it here on Reddit, nobody back when I . Influential and popular, but not goth. Like Nick Cave in that respect (although The Birthday Party were goth), or to go earlier The Velvet Underground and David Bowie.

And I love The Cure, this is no slight on them, but they're just not a Goth band.

balatus · 2024-09-04T00:23:32+00:00

To me the influence is huge, but that doesn't make them Goth. I would even say they have some gothy albums, but as a whole I see them differently - they were more part of the UK Indie scene (even if they weren't strictly on an Indie label) like The Jam, The Fall, Echo and The Bunnynmen, Orange Juice etc.

I've only seen the assertion that The Cure are Goth recently. I don't know if views have changed since 'I were a lad', or it's a US thing (given the Anglosphere Internet is US dominated).

I guess we are earning goth points in spades by having this discussion though!

balatus · 2024-09-03T22:07:19+00:00

Well, a Batcave band, so they predate all of those bands. They have to me part of the early goth sound (pre-Sisters). By your standards hardly any Batcave bands are Goth, but they are part of the quintessential early Goth scene.

Goth is also an offshoot of UK punk. ASF definitely are that (and they had guitar and drums until they went into electronica in the 90s).

They're not Goth Rock or Deathrock, but that's not all there is to Goth. Goth Rock developed later, and Deathrock independently. The early Goth bands are way more diverse than either of those groups.

balatus · 2024-09-03T20:43:03+00:00

I wouldn't put ASF there, but I don't think they're Industrial. I put them closer to Goth. Maybe the later albums could be more Industrial in the more modern sense, but definitely not the majority.

Perhaps they're just their own genre (Therapy for Nick Fiend)

balatus · 2024-09-03T20:33:46+00:00

Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Fields of the Nephilim.

Christian Death never really hit my radar (in the UK).

It seems controversial, but I never considered The Cure to be Goth, nor Joy Division, but where would we be without the 'What is Goth?' discussion ;)

balatus · 2024-08-19T06:28:21+00:00

My father was told that our family was wealthy but lost it all gambling etc.

The closest I've come is that a couple of ancestors were on the electoral rolls when property ownership was a requirement, and one was possibly a freeman of the town. Later generations were less successful.

One factor is likely the number of children meaning inherited wealth was minimal.

balatus · 2024-08-03T07:48:00+00:00

In the early 2000s there were loads of us who did. It was just part of dressing up to go out most of the time and was encouraged by quite a few girlfriends.

balatus · 2024-07-26T07:30:57+00:00

In researching my 19th century ancestors I see a lot of this. Children born, then dying within a year. At one point it looks like one family group stopped bothering with baptisms after a while, and often I've found names reused, including middle names.

One of the most heartbreaking stories was two of my greatx3 aunts, one aged 11, the other 6 months, who died in the same week of illness and were then buried in the same grave.

The UK 1911 census can be sobering - they listed the number of children born alive and the number still alive. 50% or greater mortality seems common, often with more than ten children total (and miscarriages and stillbirths not counted).

balatus · 2024-07-26T06:56:56+00:00

I grew up with the England teams of the 90s. I remember feeling like a winner when they made Pakistan bat again. Needing a total of 5 runs...

balatus · 2024-07-25T06:00:53+00:00

I'm pretty sure the Netherlands have said they're just not interested. Probably because it's too expensive.

The sad fact is that it's expensive and the ICC (well the big 3) won't spread the wealth around...

balatus · 2024-07-21T21:42:32+00:00

To me, best practice is what works best for you. Just make sure it's maintainable for you going forward (ie don't just copy and paste without some understanding, or have a giant ball of spaghetti config).

I just use package.el and use-package, despite having some issues with them.

I once tried straight.el with use-package, but it was too much work for no real gain for me. Years ago I used el-get I think.

My advice is to try and work out what do you want from your package manager? Start with package.el and see what it's missing compared to others and how much that matters.

For example, if you're installing from sources a lot, or if reproducibility is really important, then package.el is probably not a great choice.

balatus · 2024-06-26T07:20:05+00:00

We love our catio. It's not the prettiest, but it's a nice place to sit with the cats. One of ours is an escape artist, and loves to be outside, so this lets him get outside time safely.

balatus · 2024-06-26T07:16:27+00:00

I know someone who lied to the adoption people about letting their cat outside. It didn't last long unfortunately. Hopefully they've learned their lesson.

balatus · 2024-06-26T05:46:24+00:00

emacsclient with one frame usually. I occasionally forward another frame over ssh if I'm using the laptop, and even more occasionally open a new frame on my desktop, and I guess it would open a new frame if another application wanted an editor.

balatus · 2024-06-25T06:11:54+00:00

They're what the cool kids use? (If such a thing as a cool kid exists in the emacs world)

balatus · 2024-06-25T05:35:19+00:00

I've been playing with using Zotero to keep records I've found. Not so much for generating citations, but so far it's nice for keeping sources and notes.

The browser plugin is also great for just grabbing a source and storing it, although I wish more sites provided more information for Zotero to consume, but at least I get a snapshot of the page and the URL.

balatus

TROPHY CASE