A new twist in the road, my father was just admitted to ICU with COVID.

I received the gift of a Kesar Pista Snickers from India today and just gave it a nibble. OMFG. Almond, pistachio, golden syrup, and saffron. I. Am. In. Heaven.

@david

@CuriousMagpie Those old machines continue to be the best. Just about any Singer/Pfaff/Juki/Kenmore/Necchi machine made before 1975 will suit you very well.

Personally, I prefer the pre-1955 domestic Singer straight stitch models for the kind of work you describe. The 201 being my personal favorite.

We’ve arrived at that inflection point in the year where I feel compelled to write…
1) one can only hold one’s self accountable. The job cannot be delegated, outsourced, or usurped.
2) durable, productive change is hard and doesn’t lend itself easily to arbitrary points on the calendar.
3) one’s own self improvement goals, while laudable, rarely make for interesting conversation.
4) discussion of one’s daily protein/water/<insert supplement name here> intake is especially boring.

@joachim In the Ivory client they do, anyhow. Type any regex pattern into the name keyword field of a keyword filter and then flip the “regex filter" toggle.

To follow art/photo hashtags, I long ago made a regex filter* in Ivory. It's not pretty but does the trick of eating any post with >5 hashtags**.

Sadly, though Bluesky*** will take regex filters, it parses them differently, and my hashtag eater doesn't work! I know one of you knows a better way.

* #\w+\X+#\w+\X+#\w+\X+#\w+\X+#\w+\X+#\w+

** because it's most likely spam or swill

*** it's for my biz; I'm not leaving Masto; don't @ me about it!

Do you feel like vigilante killings are the way to solve the “CEO problem” in the U.S.? Read up on the Reign of Terror period of the French Revolution and get back to me.

For those with cooler heads, consider reading up on how CEO compensation is controlled and limited in the EU and Japan. While imperfect, they serve as templates for an effective way forward.

A few of my favorite selections from the decorative arts wing at Sforza Castle in Milan. I could have spent all day looking at the ceramics.

@GavCortland @robdaemon As someone who has studied France since age 13, lived here as a student, visited repeatedly as an adult, and is currently standing in Nice, I can attest that the atrocities of the French Revolution are *precisely* what come to mind in this moment.

Once it’s acceptable to kill one class of people, it becomes acceptable to kill others.

Such violence is not discreet, productive, or cleansing.

The antidote to poison is never more of the same poison.

@TazPoltorak FWIW many professional pattern drafting CAD apps have this ability already.

@robdaemon Oh, to be clear, I am neither shocked nor surprised that a human who chose to behave as that money pig did met a horrific and abrupt end.

But celebrating his death and calling for more like him to be murdered is not the path to a better world. It’s a shortsighted means to an end that will only beget more violence. And that violence will turn right back on us, starting with the marginalized and vulnerable.

Would any normal person have described the recently slain United Healthcare CEO as morally odious? Obviously. But celebrating the death of another human being is never a cute look. And it’s downright ugly to hope that others should be similarly killed. Praising and normalizing such violence endangers us all.

@valhalla @socalgecko This is excellent information. Thank you so much!

@GayDeceiver @socalgecko 100% accurate. But also, one doesn’t have a closet full of custom designed boots to leave them at home when visiting Milan.

@Nephilim Such good fortune! I’ll bet it purrs like a kitten when it runs.

@valhalla I was being a bit hyperbolic. The case isn’t completely sealed, but it’s not as easy to open as the all-mechanical version. I opened it to oil back in May and have barely used the machine since, but apparently the hook race is super thirsty. That’s what needed extra oil to get the machine working again.

I’ve kinda stopped reading the news. There’s only one headline that I’m interested in seeing, and I imagine that the dancing in the streets of West Hollywood shall tell me when that moment comes to pass.

With some strategically placed oil*, I was able to get my Singer HD6800 working again.

If I had it to do all over again, y’all, I would never have bothered with modern domestic #sewing machines. Vintage (pre-1980) machines are where it’s at when it comes to domestic models (you all know I love my Singer 201!).

* A machine whose maintenance guide mentions nothing about oiling in its manual and whose case is hermetically sealed.

Never will I ever understand those folks on the socials whose output is mostly doom and outrage.

While anger can be empowering, the soul needs hope and joy to carry on in scary times.