Trinsec @Qoto @trinsec@qoto.org

TIL about dryer balls. O.o
Never knew I needed it, but I do now!

'Smart boards', 'interactive boards'. Why not just call them 'digiboards' like us Dutchies do? Short and sweet!
(It took me a while to figure out its English name...)

101 demos later, and I think I've tried out enough games in this Steam's Next Fest. Only a handful are worth wishlisting, maybe 2 handfuls are worth following to see if they'll improve. The rest is just garbage.
#Games #Steam

I think I'm done being outside for today, it's getting too hot now. But while it was still doable this morning, I've continued painting the shed. I think I have progressed nicely so far. Maybe tomorrow some more.

I'm fully making use of this demo event on Steam. I've wishlisted a few games and follow a few. Some games have potential.
#Games

I know one thing for sure: I absolutely do not like to stand on a podium!

Apparently using they as a singular pronoun (to use instead of he and she) is hardly a new phenomenon. It dates back to 1375 in written records!

In fact, singular you is much more recent! Dating back to the 17th century! 😂

Oh, this quote’s fun, and it shows that our gender-related issues has been going on for centuries:

In 1794, a contributor to the New Bedford Medley mansplains to three women that the singular they they used in an earlier essay in the newspaper was grammatically incorrect and does no ‘honor to themselves, or the female sex in general.’ To which they honourably reply that they used singular they on purpose because ‘we wished to conceal the gender,’ and they challenge their critic to invent a new pronoun if their politically-charged use of singular they upsets him so much.

Source:
https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/

I’d say it’s probably safe to use they in general. I do use singular they regularly and it’s the least fuss imo.

#English #Language #Pronouns #They

I’m trying to read De moordclub (op donderdag) which is a Dutch translation of The Thursday murder club. It feels like a slog to me because the translation is a bit too… stiffly following the original English text, which completely ruins the Dutch reading flow. I mean, while reading what those people in the book are saying to each other I can think of a thousand other words I’d have used that’d make more sense for them to say. I even shook my head at one convo, which is bad mojo.

In my opinion, a translator should feel comfortable to go out of bounds a little with the translation so long the original idea is still intact but where the reading feels more natural to the language used. Right now I don’t have the illusion that the translator has actually read the book and is trying to think themselves in the roles of those characters. It feels very jarring because the English style of writing and word choices doesn’t always fit the Dutch flow. It is just annoying.

My mom’s bought this Dutch version (which I’m trying to read), and I wonder if she’s going to enjoy the story as much as I did with the English version.
#Books

Since I enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club so much, I’ve checked if there are other books that could capture that general atmosphere as well; A bunch of old people solving a murder (or two, or more). You know, kinda a Murder She Wrote feel now that I think about it (and yes, I do like waching that series too). Turns out there are a bunch of suggestions that I could check out. The first one suggested is The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, so that’s the one I decided to read first. And I happen to just have finished it.

So we start off with a main character that’s in her 70s (yay, one criterium fulfilled!). She’s great at creating crypto puzzles for a newspaper and is pretty fit for her age. Fit enough for her to go for a swim in the river she lives next to. When she gets close to her neighbour’s place, she hears him shouting and then a gunshot. Drat, she can’t climb up on the neighbour’s shore since she’s an old woman after all! She has to swim back and then calls the police. Turns out her neighbour’s shot dead! Dun dun dun, a murder mystery’s born! (And that’s the other criterium done!)

During her investigation (of course she’s gonna investigate, can’t leave anything fully to the cops nowadays!) she manages to rope in two more girls into her club. Sometimes they get in pretty darn tight situations, and if that’s not enough, more murders happen during their snooping! I mean, during their investigating! It got more gripping in the second half as they took more risks where they really have to work together. I have to say that I already suspected ‘whodunnit’ when I was around three-fourths into the book, so at least the plot isn’t that overly convoluted. :P

It was nice reading overall, a bit a change of pace here. Ok, ok, still about oldbies solving murders but they’re different oldbies with different backgrounds (and while we’re at it, also different murders), so still a change of pace! Just like with the Thursday Murder Club, this story is happening in the UK in the modern day and age where laptops and mobile phones exist. I like that, I appreciate that there are murder mysteries with a slight Murder She Wrote vibe but totally updated to the modern times. I would say this is another series (I read a sequel is upcoming) that I would like to continue reading.
#Books

Chrome's built in captioning isn't bad at all. Just don't run it while a Dutch video is playing. ;)

Home sweet home. Was at a restaurant with all my deaf (ex-)coworkers. It was very nice, I hadn't seen a few of those faces in a too long time. We chatted a lot (in sign language, of course) and caught up on a lot of news and gossip. Feeling pretty satisfied now.

Oh, and the food was great too. ;)

Today's theme was "Rain". And a lot of it!

I’ve finished reading De goede grap van Norman Foreman by Julietta Henderson. Original title is The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman.

It was an alright read. There are two main characters, Norman and his mother. The chapters are written from their perspectives, alternating between those two. The roadtrip in the story was at least something, they did meet interesting and weird characters on the way. I can’t help but feel that the story could have been a bit more dynamic. The guy travelling with them was almost a HAL 9000. Very convenient. :P

My annoyances are that the mother was quite an overthinker in the extreme of ‘We better go home, because it’s too scary’. Norman was the other way around and kept thinking about what his recently deceased buddy would’ve said about the trip. After a while that got a bit tedious to read over and over again.

When they finally came closer to the end of their roadtrip, the pace accelerated like crazy. And you know what? That part was actually very fun to read. It’s ridiculous, very unlikely, but still fun to read. That was a very welcome diversion.

The ending was just a bit underwhelming. I mean, it was totally expected but still… I’ve read books before which has roughly the same kind of deal and they managed to milk their endings more. I wanted to see some more about Norman’s performances there, but ah well. Onwards to the next book I guess.
#Books

I think ferns are my favorite plants. They're so cool to look at.
#Gardening

Heh, today's worldle is a tiny bit too easy. :P

#Worldle #132 1/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr

... lol. From a CD labeled 'Emulator Gallery':

"It is now possible to play hundreds of well known and classic games on your pc computer using the emulators supplied. Including emulators for Amiga, Amstrad, Apple, BBC, Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Comes complete with lots of free games."

Neat, I can emulate Apple! 😁

This shit is from 1997.
#Games

It's sometimes funny when you check out your old CDs. Here I have a CD with Baldur's Gate, but only the first 2 chapters. It's an "introductory journey" which "allows you to experience the first two chapters of the 7-Chapter epic adventure and 1998 RPG of the Year". It needs Windows 95/98.

I've got the game complete at Steam and GOG nowadays. :P
Wonder if I should throw away those kind of CDs..
#Games

Netflix algorithms really suck. Do I watch one programme briefly where a guy is doing his day job but is on the hunt for delicious food in his spare time... now I get bombarded with all kinds of such programmes and most are just stupid. :P

Why can't it instead suggest me some cool scifi after I've watched a few Star Trek episodes?! :P
#Netflix

A few days ago I finished reading The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and I liked it enough that I wanted to continue on with the next book in this series: The Man Who Died Twice. With the same team of our old people who try to solve murders in their peculiar way.

This time it is serious enough that the MI5 and MI6 are getting involved as well. And the mafia from USA. And some local gangsters. We get to take a peek at Elizabeth’s past, watch a bunch of CCTV footages, and frame people in order to get justice done. I mean, people shouldn’t have beaten up poor Ibrahim, they had it coming!

I have to say that this started out a bit slow, and I thought ‘aw no, I don’t really want any secret service involved’. But it did turn out to be a pleasant read once again. Whole sections that could have been boring, weren’t boring because of the great interactions of our bunch of septuagenarians. I love the interactions with Joyce, and I love the chapters from her perspective. Though the chapters with Ron and Ibrahim are fun as well.

I read that there are four books planned in total, so there are 2 more books in this series to look forward to. I definitely would want to continue reading about our lovely geriatrics and their antics. And apparently film rights of the books have been sold to Steven Spielberg, so I’m curious if there’s any movie forthcoming. I think it’d make a fun movie.
#Books