A welcome swallow landed right next to me yesterday. They're usually very skittish and aloof but this one landed on a post about 3 metres from me and stared at me. When I'd had a good look and a little chat, it flew back up to its hiding spot. Not scared or anything, just like "well, I got stuff to do now, human. Catch ya". Very cool little moment.

You have my blessing, child.

crosses self with much pomp and ado

I very seriously considered writing and publishing a book called "Mind Your Own Fucking Business - The Sane Guide To Personal Belief Systems" and aggressively lobbying to have copies of the book in hotels, airplanes etc. It's probably a good thing I don't have enough money to act on my ideas, because it would cause me so much more trouble.

I met a fundamentalist Christian a few years ago, who just came back from overseas. She flew Air Emirates, an openly Muslim airline. She recounted with a malicious smugness how she replaced the Qurans in the seats with bibles. I asked her what good she thought that would do - did she think such a disrespeful act, done with malice, would encourage them to invite Jesus to their bosom. She frowned heavily and said nothing. I asked why even use an airline you have so much hatred for, why not use a good, clean-living, Christian™ airline? She squirmed and mumbled something about Air Emirates being the cheapest. I asked her if someone replaced her bible with a Quran on a plane, would she be receptive to the message of the Quran, or would she just be offended that someone is being malicious towards her holy book of choice. She looked like she was going to cry, and walked away.

I have a feeling airlines don't really care either.

I think all the money should be taken out of all sport and spent on things that benefit everybody, not just athletes and sports fans. People can play sport as a hobby, like children do. That would remove the gender conundrum.

I don't agree with you throwing Hamas and IDF into the same category, but I appreciate your post because it helps me to understand the pro-IDF side better. So thanks.

I'm not in the USA but this trend is also happening in other countries. I guess USA feels it more because of the already punitive health system.

I've been thinking in recent times about pharmacies. 20 odd years ago, pharmacies used to deal with things too severe to put off, maybe not severe enough to see a doctor for. Now pharmacies are about "wellness" which is marketing crap to make more money. Middle aged woman feeling unwell? Cut your hair short and dye it 3 different colours. You'll look young and feel young! But they're still unwell and still have sore joints etc. Pretty depressing to think about.

Some marbles. I've lost a few over the years.

When I was in Saint Petersburg (Russia), I was asleep at 2 in the morning. My girlfriend at the time - a StP local - woke me up and asked if I was hungry. I said no, I want to sleep. She said we could order pizza. Don't you like pizza? Let's order pizza! By this stage my sleep was completely ruined so I said sure why not. So we ordered and it arrived at about 3am. It was pretty good pizza but I would have preferred sleep.

If the definition provided was:

"A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido. Yeah!"

It would at least have referenced a great song. Opportunity missed. Oh well.

Trying to stay off my broken toe, work on my conlang (possibly start a new one), work on my song in 5/4, explore some classical music to broaden my experience of that world. That's what I HOPE the weekend is like haha.

So far it's just 2 interwoven sections of strummed chords, very simple sections. But it sounds so bouncy! I'll post it if I manage to do something good with it.

My broken big toe is healing enough that now I'm only hobbling a little bit (comparatively). Started writing a song in 5/4. Had a nice Vietnamese meal. Planted some new plants in the garden, including a dianthus which I looked up and found interesting. Signed up to mbin. Those are the highlights.

Diesel - not sniffing the container, but smelling burnt diesel in the air. Also the slightly putrid smell of a creek after it rains and all the gunk has been moved around and the sun has been blasting it and you can almost chew on the odour, it's that thick. I rather like that.

I literally just signed up. I will try to do better in future.