Sean Richards | Toitū Te Tiriti | they/she

Does MSU have a laptop loan scheme? My institution has loaners for either short term or long term use — www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/...

In D&D last night my Paladin ran headfirst into her first campaign combat loudly singing Bella Ciao, and got a natural 20 on her first attack roll. No BA to be able to smite, but with her rolls it was still 12d6 with her sword Absolem.

how bad!? I know people in the administration I can talk to about it, if you’re okay with that.

the flagpole even got assembled, and now it just needs writing all over it (taking suggestions! I'm thinking either the names of prominent queer figures now + in history, or solidarity poetry since this can be used for broader than just pride).

and thus, dear reader, a rather long list of todos got completed. and now, to relax with some Agatha All Along and a white wine.

thoroughly productive day today. Third load of laundry on, lawn taken care of, whole bunch of nasturtiums planted. Just gotta cook some meals, rip out some moth plant when the flatmates come home and can help, and (maybe) finally assemble the flagpole for my pride flags.

My danish flatmate in ikea: “what is this half assed bullshit”

Go to Eden park
Get on random train
Go through random door
Look at the man next to me
It’s fuckin @richardhills.bsky.social

Bugs bunny in a tux standing in front of a black background. the meme is captioned "i wish all MY NEIGHBOUR SETTING OFF FIREWORKS IN THE SHARED DRIVEWAY DIRECTLY INTO A POWER LINE a very GO FUCK YOURSELF"

drifting off to sleep and I hear like 10 voices in our shared driveway. and then like clockwork the neighbours start letting off fireworks again. anyway one panic attack later and I’m wide afuckingwake again.

GM: Charisma check.

Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]

GM: that’s a d6 how did you

Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

Absolute UNIT of a hornet beside an array of puny common wasps.

A guide for Aucklanders keeping watch for yellow-legged hornets:

1. “Hmm, is this stripy waspy thing a hornet?” = not a hornet

2. “JESUS EFFING C what the F is that MONSTER, that’s he biggest wasp I’ve ever SEEN, NO Jaden KEEP AWAY, shit I think it has yellow legs” = hornet

alright, now I'm back from holiday (and functional again) its time to get the five books I bought -- and the four that have just been hanging out -- onto my bookshelf, somehow. Wish me luck o7

I’m gonna say it. Auckland coffee is better than Melbourne coffee. There’s just some things NZ does better than Australia. Such as coffee, pavlova, rugby, and indigenous rights.

Melbourne I am in you

still haven't shaken whatever this cold/flu I've had since wednesday is. Finally decided to pull out the heavy artillery in flu-fighting in my experience: a bowl of Phở and a cup of hot green tea. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Luxon on potential rethink of Auckland intensification after State of the Nation speech Speaking to reporters after his State of the Nation speech, Christopher Luxon says the conversation in Auckland was about "how much densification" and "where it happens."

the national government proving it is more efficient than the last labour government. it took labour five years and a change of leader before they started seriously u-turning. luxon does it for free. amazing. totally strong leadership right th-- sorry, im being handed a note

started rereading project Hail Mary for a book club and rapidly reminded why I didn’t like it the first time around.

The Dutch ESA administrator having to ask the American protagonist if 94°C is quite hot is a real annoyance for me.

Mean hourly temperature across six stations in melbourne (Olympic Park, Essendon, Viewbank, Moorabbin, Melbourne Airport, Laverton, and the mean). Data starts at 18ish at midnight, drops to 16ish at 5am, rises to a peak of about 43-44ish at 5ish pm, and then drops off to 30ish at 8pm.

my underlying data (the Mean hourly was my first shot at making a sensible sound, I gave up on that). I used sonipy to sonify the data.

Got the data from the BOM, generated one track per station (at half-integer harmonics of A440) for six stations, and overlaid them. the result is.... something.

(I tried running the .wav through AnthemScore to generate a MIDI so I could get it via Piano -- understandably AS threw a hissy fit).

Cartoon of a happy scientist giving a thumbs up. Text reads: Happy New Year from the arXiv team.

Happy arxiv:2601 to all who celebrate! 😉🎉🔬

We are so thankful for everyone who uses arXiv everyday to share and discover new research.

Happy new year to all - here's hoping for a 2026 full of #openaccess science & lots of new discoveries.

depends on the nature of how the Sun got deleted and the black hole got there ;) If it's got a disk, and if the luminosity of the disk is about the same as the luminosity of the Sun, then there'd be no significant change to the climate, I think. Other than not having the solar wind.

broke: doing sword-and-sorcery D&D

woke: doing a D&D campaign where players get to kill Gods

bespoke: doing a D&D campaign where you players do enough weird shit you have to email your colleagues to ask what would happen to the climate if the Sun was deleted and replaced by a black hole

That’s why HAVN designed the EMF-blocking beanie. Powered by our proprietary WaveStopper™ Technology, it forms a barrier that blocks over 99% of WiFi, 5G, and Bluetooth radiation right where it matters most: your brain.

They gentrified the tinfoil hat

ah yes I should've been more clear about that 😅

happy new year to you too! :)

sorry Laurence...

good luck gang

2026’s inaugural die has been chosen. She has a big legacy to live up to, and she has a very low DC to beat.

I started a thread but accidentally deleted it. Fuck.

Best book: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. Phenomenal. Words can't do it justice.

Worst book: Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. Still solid, and not a *bad* book, victim of some book having to be last.

Final book stats of 2025:

I read 14 books by 6 unique authors this year (3 of which were in the last week!).

By gender, I read 5 female authors, one male author, and zero nonbinary authors.

Most authors (4) were American, with the balance being from China and NZ.

ah shit, guess I’m either an illegal poacher or I’m gonna have to go fight in the Hunger Games

The days between December 25 and January 1 are the Lanthanides and Actinides of the Gregorian calendar