Fernando Gros

Oh, this is cool, I like this!

Yes. On the level of individual artists there was great talent. And some of that music still resonates when I listen it. But I don't think it was an especially good era. And I find it odd when folks assume the music of their youth was the "best." There's always good new music to enjoy.

Yes. That effort is real. And in a way the media landscape is less coherent for finding new music. Album reviews and music criticism are much less prevalent for example.

I need to get my head around this.

Thank you for sharing this. It's fascinating and I feel inspired!

I thought the name Salem in the USA was based on Hebrew (shalom). I don't think Salem in India was named by missionaries or anything like that.

Not really. I don't listen to music from my teens. But that's not typical.

The best predictor of how much you will like music is how often you listen to it. Early teens are a peak for repeat listening and multiple exposures to new music.

By their 30s most people aren't listening to new music.

There's another one - Salem in India and the origin apparently has no connection with Salem in the USA.

Penrith in Sydney, Penrith in Scotland. Fulham in Adelaide, Fulham in London. Heidelberg in Melbourne, Heidelberg in Germany. There's probably hundreds of these.

What's more fascinating is when the name is unconnected and evolved separately. Like Kochi in India and Kochi in Japan.

Yes, I'm hoping for something like that.

Ooh, fascinating. Thank you.

It's a one lens for all day option.

I'll admit I'm not even sure what Bases are. When they were released I saw the usual grifters making videos about how it can turn Obsidian into Notion and I thought "this is not for me."

But, I'm speaking out of ignorance there.

Spent some time this afternoon thinking about how to recreate my blog as a folder inside my Obsidian vault. Then use Hugo to generate a static site. Avoiding WordPress altogether.

Also love the idea of all my blogposts being part of my "second brain" and not just some detached online thing.

Leading lens in the poll (so far) is the XF16-80mmF2.8

That was one of my choices.

It’s a somewhat recent photo of me. I chose it for Bluesky because it had “fresh start” vibes.

United Airlines has a new rule - passengers who listen to audio without headphones can be removed a flight. I'm not sure if that happens in mid air. But I guess consequences are consequences.

All jokes aside I applaud this. Look forward to trains, cafes, and restaurants doing the same.

Blue Mountain is a relic from a time before third wave coffee. It's not bad. But production standards, fermentation processes, and the growth of single estate coffee has changed things. There's a lot of options as good or better.

I don't know if I could remember those lyrics if you asked me to write them out without reciting the rap.

I'm no expert but I think song lyrics (and maybe poetry) get encoded into memory differently than other things.

I only found that out recently.

I don't usually read airport books or books by Australian journalists so I'm not the target market. Still, it's a bit shocking how bad this is.

The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy The fallout from conflict in the Gulf will be much bigger than just oil.

"Far from just another war in the Persian Gulf, this is the first conflict since the Second World War to directly impact cities and facilities that serve as hubs in the globalized economy."

foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/04/i...

Exactly. Beyond a certain point it’s impossible to do the maintenance required to keep things useable. Or have the practical knowledge of each thing’s specific qualities.

Having your name constantly mispronounced is corrosive. No one here ever asks if their pronunciation is correct. I gave up a long time.

Funnily enough everyone in Japan pronounces my name well. Written in Japanese it’s phonetically almost perfect.

I’m reading a non-fiction book about Australian politics. I’m sure it is, or will be, a best seller. It’s well researched and the ideas are clear. But the language is so bad. The prose is pedestrian and cliche-ridden. It’s hard to take. Or maybe I just don’t understand what makes a book “good.”

Do you mean people Anglicising their names? I used to be very judgemental about that when I was younger. Now I don't know.

I think that's part of the definition. For the collector things stop being tools. They are items. For the maker, regardless of whether they write words or work wood, the tools are still tools. And at some point it doesn't make sense to buy more of the same tools if they never get used.

I've never been to Alberta. But people tell me things. The folks I know from BC all speak French. But I can't say how representative that is. Or if they're just more cosmopolitan or something.

There's also the tall poppy thing that can appear if people speak another language or even pronounce foreign words correctly.

I have a lot of "stuff." But I've always tried to remind myself that I'm not a collector. The exact lines are vague for me. But collector is a particular kind of mindset and I don't find it attractive.