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Christmas illness
Dec. 29th, 2025 01:47 pmIt's been a slightly challenging time. O came down with what seems to be Covid on Christmas Eve, preventing him from going to midnight mass or his Christmas Day service as usual, and leaving him largely unable to taste our elaborate Christmas dinner. He's much improved now, but still not back to normal. On Saturday I started developing a sore throat, have had two nights with minimal sleep, and am now definitely Ill as well. Also our elderly cat - who has been suffering with chronic diarrhoea for more than a year now, caused by IBD (probably) - has had a flare-up of his symptoms and has been off his food, being sick etc. And of course there's an especially cold snap coming on top of that. But in spite of these things, we've still had a fairly nice time.
I hope 2026 will be an improvement on 2025, for us and the world at large.
I hope 2026 will be an improvement on 2025, for us and the world at large.
Blood donation
Nov. 11th, 2025 03:28 pmThere always seems to be some excitement when I donate blood. The first time, last December, was exciting just because it was new - and also because I felt faint and dizzy afterwards and everyone rushed to look after me. The second time, in July, the session was interrupted when a fire alarm went off and we all had to go out into the car park, which meant that people who'd been in the middle of donating couldn't have their donations used (not me, fortunately). Today, at the end of my third donation, a special alarm went off because the machine hadn't automatically cut off when the target weight was reached, and it took a bit extra :-) The nurses said this hardly ever happens.
Notable poll
Oct. 29th, 2025 09:38 amOne of the pro-democracy groups who send me emails notified me that YouGov's latest weekly voting intention survey shows a remarkable (and, AFAIK, unprecedented) characteristic - Labour, the Tories, the LibDems and the Greens are all polling at the same level: 16+/-1%. (To be specific, Labour and the Tories are on 17%, the Greens on 16% and the LibDems on 15%.) This seems to be the product of long-term Tory decline, shorter-term Labour decline, LibDems being a little bit above their usual level, and the Greens having a significant rise since Zack Polanski became leader and began making himself widely known.
Time series here: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/voting-intention
Time series here: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/voting-intention
A little while ago, I was contacted by 38 Degrees inviting me to order a poster to put in my window about the requirements for photo ID for people voting in person in local elections this May. Apparently as many as two million people could be turned away from polling stations through lack of ID - the government has decided not to run an awareness campaign, and only about 1% of people without ID have applied for it so far.
Now, there won't be elections where I am this year (though I'm still going to put up a poster, on general principles), but I see there will be in Cambridge. If any of you want to put up such a poster, here's the website where you can order one:
https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2023/02/23/voter-id-posters-faqs/
Now, there won't be elections where I am this year (though I'm still going to put up a poster, on general principles), but I see there will be in Cambridge. If any of you want to put up such a poster, here's the website where you can order one:
https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2023/02/23/voter-id-posters-faqs/
My toaster died today. It was given to me by my parents as a leaving-home present when I went up to Trinity in 1992, along with a kettle (which only lasted about a decade, I think). It has therefore been successfully making toast for me, virtually every day, for more than 30 years. RIP, faithful toaster.
NHS consultation
Nov. 30th, 2022 01:32 pmIf anyone's interested, there's an NHS consultation on proposed new treatment pathways for trans young people. Further discussion here: https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/11/30/nhs-consultation-trans-children-healthcare/ together with a link for completing the consultation and guidelines for possible responses from Gendered Intelligence. Closing date: 4 December.
Weird thing
Jun. 5th, 2022 11:09 amLast night, my last lurking wisdom tooth finally decided to come in, breaking painfully through my gum while I tried to sleep. The NHS says they're supposed to come in during the late teens or early 20s. I'm 47!
(no subject)
Dec. 14th, 2021 11:33 amAnyone else been knocked for six by this Pfizer booster? I had mine yesterday morning - first person at the vaccination centre, in fact - and felt fine until the evening, when I became increasingly unwell with flu-like symptoms (high temperature, violent shivering, aches and pains) and consequently got very little sleep last night, in spite of paracetamol. Still not feeling up to much today. I feel slightly aggrieved that both AZ and Pfizer have given me significant side-effects - I thought a first dose of Pfizer wasn't usually that bad, and O had no reaction at all to his booster a few weeks ago.
(no subject)
Jul. 5th, 2021 10:48 pmWell, I had my second Covid jab yesterday afternoon, 12 weeks after the first. I tried to rebook for a week earlier when I was notified that that was a thing, but it turned out there weren't any available slots any sooner, so I was relieved I hadn't taken the risk of cancelling my original appointment first. Also I learnt there were some walk-in centres open last weekend, but when I checked the details, all the centres in Northampton itself were only offering Moderna or Pfizer to young people, so that wouldn't have been any use to me.
Very different experience this time; no queue to speak of, and virtually no side effects (I felt unusually tired for about three hours yesterday evening, and my arm hurts a little bit where I was injected, but it's a totally different sort of pain from the first jab, and entirely ignorable). Incidentally, the muscle/tendon pain from my first jab took about ten weeks to go away, and I still get twinges if I move it the wrong way. I can't help feeling something weird happened with that injection. Anyway, never mind, it's all fine now.
Very different experience this time; no queue to speak of, and virtually no side effects (I felt unusually tired for about three hours yesterday evening, and my arm hurts a little bit where I was injected, but it's a totally different sort of pain from the first jab, and entirely ignorable). Incidentally, the muscle/tendon pain from my first jab took about ten weeks to go away, and I still get twinges if I move it the wrong way. I can't help feeling something weird happened with that injection. Anyway, never mind, it's all fine now.
For gin enthusiasts
Apr. 14th, 2020 11:57 amI noticed this delightful paper on arXiv (note date):
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.13722
Since the discovery of the first confirmed exoplanet, observations have revealed a remarkable diversity of worlds. A wide variety of orbital and physical characteristics are detected in the exoplanet population, and much work has been devoted to deciding which of these planets may be suitable for life. Until now, though, little work has been devoted to deciding which of the potentially habitable planets might actually be \textit{worth} existing on. To this end, we present the Really Habitable Zone (RHZ), defined as the region around a star where acceptable gins and tonic are likely to be abundant. In common with much of the work in the field, we rely throughout on assumptions which are difficult if not impossible to test and present some plots which astronomers can use in their own talks, stripped of all caveats. We suggest that planets in the Really Habitable Zone be early targets for the JWST, because by the time that thing finally launches we're all going to need a drink.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.13722
Since the discovery of the first confirmed exoplanet, observations have revealed a remarkable diversity of worlds. A wide variety of orbital and physical characteristics are detected in the exoplanet population, and much work has been devoted to deciding which of these planets may be suitable for life. Until now, though, little work has been devoted to deciding which of the potentially habitable planets might actually be \textit{worth} existing on. To this end, we present the Really Habitable Zone (RHZ), defined as the region around a star where acceptable gins and tonic are likely to be abundant. In common with much of the work in the field, we rely throughout on assumptions which are difficult if not impossible to test and present some plots which astronomers can use in their own talks, stripped of all caveats. We suggest that planets in the Really Habitable Zone be early targets for the JWST, because by the time that thing finally launches we're all going to need a drink.
(no subject)
Apr. 10th, 2020 08:48 pmIf you're feeling short of things to occupy you in these strange times, here's a delightful podcast about Fighting Fantasy gamebooks made by my beloved husband:
https://www.hauntedphonograph.com/fantastic-fights-and-where-to-find-them/
https://www.hauntedphonograph.com/fantastic-fights-and-where-to-find-them/
ACRONYM: Acronym CReatiON for You and Me
May. 2nd, 2019 10:34 amI had to share this more widely:
"Each year, countless hours of productive research time is spent brainstorming creative acronyms for surveys, simulations, codes, and conferences. We present ACRONYM, a command-line program developed specifically to assist astronomers in identifying the best acronyms for ongoing projects. The code returns all approximately-English-language words that appear within an input string of text, regardless of whether the letters occur at the beginning of the component words (in true astronomer fashion)."
https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.12180
"Each year, countless hours of productive research time is spent brainstorming creative acronyms for surveys, simulations, codes, and conferences. We present ACRONYM, a command-line program developed specifically to assist astronomers in identifying the best acronyms for ongoing projects. The code returns all approximately-English-language words that appear within an input string of text, regardless of whether the letters occur at the beginning of the component words (in true astronomer fashion)."
https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.12180
(no subject)
May. 13th, 2018 10:03 amI've been called to do jury service next month. Have any of you done that? I have to say, I'm quite excited about it.
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2018 10:05 amI came across this short paper during my morning browsing of arXiv astronomy abstracts, and thought it might amuse a wider audience:
Interstellar communication. IX. Message decontamination is impossible
Interstellar communication. IX. Message decontamination is impossible
(no subject)
May. 18th, 2017 09:08 pmI'm in Leuven, Belgium at the moment for a massive stars conference (that's a conference about massive stars, not a massive conference...). It seems remarkably civilised - it's cheaper to get to Leuven from Northampton by train than to Edinburgh, everyone cycles everywhere (but not on the pavement, which is nice for an obligate pedestrian like me), solar panels on roofs are as common as satellite dishes in England, and there are three vegan restaurants, one of which made me the best salad I've even eaten in my life this evening.
This is where my lj as vyvyan has moved to (as someone else has the username vyvyan here, annoyingly). I'll delete the lj once everything has finished being imported over, which will probably be in a couple of weeks by the look of it now! Weirdly, Dreamwidth had imported the bulk of my old entries earlier today, but seemed to be getting stuck on a subset of them from mid-2002, and eventually gave up. Seems to be something to do with old encodings before Unicode (but I don't know why it happily imported entries from late 2001 to early 2002 in that case), so I've changed a setting in lj and restarted the import...
