Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org

I was in the back yard just now and saw a house finch land on the anemometer--- you know, those wind-speed dealies on home weather stations-- and go round and round and round. Lucky for her it was only maybe 80 or 90 rpm at the time and not gusty. It was a good ten seconds before she flew off to find another ride somewhere else (I presume that's what she's doing because that's what I'd do if I were a house finch.)

It was hard to tell what she thought of the experience. Finch faces aren't very expressive.

That may have been the first time I ever laughed out loud at something happening in nature. I hope she wasn't embarrassed!

I recently bought a few packs of Post-Its, and they're attached to each other accordion-style. Why the hell would they do that? Am I supposed to remember from sheet to sheet which way to pull them off? For god's sake, make it stop.

@jayarava
Ain't that wonderful?

I sometimes like to imagine what a culture looked like at the street level, and knowing about a common type of pottery goes a long way in helping to do that. In addition to the archeological article I'll find here and there, things like Malalasekera's "Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names" have enough fun little details to help me get a better picture.

I don't know if the original begging bowls would have been that black ware, but for now I'll let myself envision them that way.

@jayarava
Speaking of Iron Age, I read a history of India a few months ago (not the whole book, just from the beginning up to about 100CE or so) that mentioned the most common style of ceramic during what was probably the Buddha's time-- something called Northern Black Polished. I doubt that's news to you, but wanted to pass along this piece I found when looking for examples:

As in the realization that all we have to go on is whatever our interface tells us. And sometimes that interface flat-out lies, like how it smooths out visual input by filling in missing parts on its own. I'd already known about that, but hadn't thought about it from the angle of having nothing fully reliable to rest on.

Earlier today, I was reading an essay by Jayarava Attwood on a Buddhist concept and came across this line:

"Real and unreal are not qualities that can be imputed to experience."

I've been turning that over in my head ever since. I think there's something very important in that observation.

@alanthwaits@noc.social
It's really cool that Thonny is Estonian. Those Estonians really got it going on. I looked into their e-citizenship program at one time because I thought it would be fun, but then realized I'd be setting myself up for all manner of tax unpleasantness, so I wound up not doing it.