Notices by Frank Bennett (fgbjr@indieweb.social)

@darnell @taiyo The X name is what makes me think this entire mid-life fiasco is borne of smouldering resentment over a put-down by some fellow future billionaire back when his work on "X" in the pre-PayPal days was shoved aside. The guy holds himself out as being all about the future, but if my intuition is right, he's all about the past—and only his own little past, at that.

@georgetakei Good on her.

@taiyo Is kuromoji meant to supply transliterations? I used it once for a project but I've forgotten what it's for.

@taiyo grepGPT

@GerryT @atomicpoet @elduvelle Seem to have blown past that threshold now.

@emp One thing Dad drummed into us at an early age was that a ranch should have swinging gates. I'm cat-sitting at a neighbor's house for the next couple of days, and one of their cupboards has a loose hinge, so ...
#日曜大工 #cabinet #fix #repair #woodworking #rancherAdvice #neighborhood #tinkering #cats

Confirmed a hunch this evening. Contrary to what Google Translate will tell you, あけましておめでとうございます does not mean Happy New Year. The English expression is forward-looking ("have a good one"), but the Japanese looks backward ("glad you crossed the line safely"), and so is not appropriate when addressing someone who has lost a close relative.

It's a small point, but a reminder that machine-learning translation systems are basically just sophisticated pattern-matching engines.

@timnitGebru Kinda weird to me, since it was the thoughtfulness behind that post that drew me to follow the poster.

@FrankPasquale "Can [stuff other than actual socializing] help people 'pick' better partners to whom they will dedicate their lives?"

"No, obviously. Would you like me to recommend a therapist?'

@yewi @hajistar Thanks! I'll sharpen up the vegetable knife tomorrow and give them a taste of cell-wall sectioning. :-) Will make a good counterpart to daikon/carrot pickle salad kindly gifted by a neighbor. Very, er, spartan new year spread this year (but it's the, er, spirit that counts :-).

@yewi @hajistar That was the advice of a neighbor as well. The plantings also went in a bit late. 反省！Next year!

@yewi @hajistar (Here's an image of the row, during the recent snowfall in a
Nagoya.)

@yewi @hajistar I should figure out what to do with some broccoli that have failed to bud. They have great gorgeous frost-hardy leaves, but they're pretty "resilient" (tough). Any suggestions welcome! Long boiling? Roasting? Seems kind of もったいない to just leave them out there.

@kotaro It's obligatory to have noisy shoot-em-up scenes in Hollywood "action" fodder. I always fall asleep in those parts. Sometimes I sleep through entire movies.

@yewi @hajistar I may be showing my ignorance, but I'm pretty sure ours were just komatsuna left to flower and self-seed. They sprung up like weeds.

If you're feeling unhappy w/ mastodon, you may need to follow more / be followed more / follow hashtags.

There's no algorithm, so it seems you build what you see.

I don't find this place much different than Twitter anymore (I'm ~1month here, exclusively), except that:

- people are kinder
- it has an edit button
- it has different apps that provide different features
- it has more opportunity to view a wider variety of topics, which only seems to give me more balance

#TwitterMigration

Delivered part of the citrus harvest to neighbors today. Husband of one couple had checked several markets for yuzu with no luck, so it was good to be of service. Yesterday a mother and child dug long onions from my "public" plot. We chatted.

In other news, continuing radio silence in post and online from close relatives in the US. Not sure what's going on with that, but I assume they have a lot on their respective plates. It seems stressful to be an American inside the US these days.

@mastosalo @kotaro (annoying word-nerd alert!) "off the wagon" means "alcoholic returning to the drink after trying to quit." ?

@yewi @hajistar Don't know anything about the kanpō-yaku end of things, but bitter as a flavor is certainly something I've learned to enjoy since leaving the US, where sugar is king. We had heaps of na-no-hana at the table for six months out of every year before we were booted from our large garden plot by its owner, when care for my wife with ALS took priority over weeding. It's something I want to get started again in the remaining garden space. Delicious stuff.

@rachelandrew Commonly known as "distinction without a difference."