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not everything horrible that is reported is true

There is a story going around about Bezos at VivaTech in Paris, the first and last third of which are reasonable, the middle third of which has him saying that water for data centres is more important than “b/a/s/e/l/i/n/e h/u/m/a/n c/o/m/f/o/r/t.”²

His appearance at VivaTech is online. There are multiple near-complete and complete videos, here’s one that includes him being introduced. The middle third is not reflected therein.¹

The middle third DOES, however, appear on BPD News, a PARODY account on Instagram. In particular, that seems to be the origin of the quotes.

I think this is either deliberate disinformation, or AI-slop producing the same result. Either way, I would not boost it, and would delete any boosts already made.

n.b.:

1: I didn’t sit through the whole thing several times, I searched the transcripts of several different postings, and the quotes are in none of them.

2: The hard-coded strikethrough is an attempt to keep the meme from being propagated by AI scrapers. It may not work, but I felt I had to try.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Alan Parsons Projec, "Eye in the Sky"

Entry tags:

Support your local small non-profit.

For the third week in a row, I spent an evening at Lambert House (actially St. Mark's, but only for six more weeks) working on moving their database out of Microsoft Access 2010. (Ptui!) The first step in this project is exporting the database into something newer. This involved writing and generating a lot of SQL, then running it against my DB engine of choice, in this case SQLite.

Populating the DB took 80 seconds on my 2023 Macbook. And that was after I abandoned my first attempt, which tried to write the new DB to the networked drive where it has to live. It took ninety minutes on the director's PC, which someone donated to the house at least ten years ago. I hope old, cheap-ass hardware and network file access don't doom this entire project. If any of you Seattle-area queers or freaks want to donate a Windows (Ptui!) machine to a worthy org, you could do worse than Lambert House.

I'm really glad to have Juneteenth off, even though I plan to spend the day cleaning house. Let me just leave it at that.

Current Mood: various
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Boards of Canada, "You Retreat In Time And Space"

Entry tags:

from the US Depts. of Fun and Death

I've solidified Pride plans. There will definitely be an early Saturday evening with the Siberian Siren and her sweetie at Neighbours. I shall look extra slutty. And I've finally settled on a Friday evening outfit for Trans Pride and my (first night) at the Wildrose.

Also from the Dept. of Fun, I went to a Beats & Bingo night, early, at the Blue Moon. Be forewarned that the dance floor is entirely taken up with tables for bingo. The music was fabulous old-school house, but it didn't start until late. Conveniently, the responsible time for me to leave was also the time when bingo started, 2100.

My clover, lavenders, and hydrangeas are blooming, but the only bees I've seen this year were a few blocks away. I hope they're OK. Save the bees, plant more trees, punch Nazis.

Good Sister's husband D lost his eldest sister over the weekend. Evil Sister's younger daughter O lost a good friend her own age recently as well. I'm really hoping this isn't the kind of thing that comes in threes. And you know, it would be fantastic if my sisters took these events as a hint about how we treat each other, not even me necessarily, but I'm not holding my breath.

Current Mood: surprised
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Boards of Canada, "Prophecy At 1420 MHz"

Entry tags:

clothes,
sfds

what to wear

I have a purple tie-dyed dress that I've had for at least ten years. I got it at Folklife, natch, from Sew It Seams. I'm wearing it today, and I was taking my morning walk with it, complete with purple accessories plus my black hat, back, and sandals. I got compliments from three different people. Wut?

I think I know what I'm wearing for Pride Friday, and it'll be purple at least in part.

Entry tags:

celestial,
sounds

the SC sonic boom of May 28

I was hoping they'd have a confirmed answer by now as to what caused the sonic boom here on May 28. A jet? A meteor? But there is no consensus. NASA says no meteor. A couple of people who track meteors have indications it was a meteor.

I felt it as a big ::WHOOMP:: - similar to the booms earlier this year when Fort Jackson exploded old ordinance. The cams rarely pick up earth movement but this time even one of the cams shook a little, along with picking up the sound.

NASA Verifies Boston Bolide; South Carolina Explosion Remains Mystery (June 2, 2026, weatherboy.com)

Sonic boom mystery deepens as experts debate what shook Columbia last week (June 2, 2026, thestate.com)

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Angine de Poitrine, "Ababa Hotel"

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the mellowest weekend in June

I went down to Tacoma Girl's last night. I brought the mead, she brought the all-important cheese popcorn, and she told me tales of New York City. We agree that MOMA is the stuff, but she and a pal saw all the shows and tore up Hell's Kitchen, while I hit queer bars in the Village and did... things I don't write about in public entries.

I also turned Tacoma Girl on to the glory that is Angine de Poitrine. Quebecois microtonal dada math rock.

I had a fabulous time, and managed to arrive at U District station at exactly the wrong time: forty (f40) minutes until the next bus home. When I am Imperatrix Mundi, I'm running light rail over the Aurora Bridge.

(It has been pointed out to me that the Aurora Bridge might not be strong enough to support light rail trains. I wonder if that's remediable by doing more of what the state DoT did in 2019, namely lowering a giant I-beam with a cross section taller than I am and welding it into place.)

Entry tags:

gadgets,
weather

measuring temperatures

According to the weather websites, it's 96 degrees Fahrenheit (or less) outside in this area.
According to my porch thermometer, it is nearly 106 in the shade!

Indoors, an old round thermometer showed 76 degrees, while my smart thermostat showed 83. After putting the old one outside in the shade of my house for an hour (on top of an upside down cloth clothes hamper to insulate it from the hot ground), it shows 104.5.

I have an electronic forehead thermometer with a mode for measuring the temp of other objects. Even it indicated between 101 and 107 outside in the shade.

I never know which thermometers to trust. But this time they seem agreed that it is hotter than what the websites are showing.

..

The smart thermostat is always warm to the touch. That probably affects its own readings. Based on the electronic one's readings, the thermostat shows at least 2 degrees higher than most of the house. So though I usually have to set it between 83 and 85 for my own comfort, the actual temp is more likely between 81 and 83.

Entry tags:

my body,
sleep

rambling feet

Some nights I'm so tired that I have to fight to stay awake, and other nights I tinker on my computer until the sun rises and still feel uninclined to go to bed. Perhaps it's the difference between 5 and 7 hours of sleep, or between 4 and 6.

For some time, I had an issue with my feet. After a day's sedentary work, they would start to feel strange, tingly and sort of swollen in the ball of the foot area below the toes. I felt it when I walked, but the feet looked normal to me. Until one day I finally noticed my ankles were only slightly visible, which did indicate swelling. The bones and veins of the feet were also less visible.

So I switched to sitting on the floor while working. That keeps my feet on the ground. No more weird foot feelings; no more swelling.

I'm not sure I want to keep sitting low long term, but getting a comfortable padded stool would help. Right now I have some thin cushions and a small sturdy box to switch between. There's also a style of cross-legged chair I've considered.

The pretty sun is brightening while I ramble and delete rambles.

You can go to bed, Darkoshi. You can do it. Caw caw from outside. I finished the week of work. I have 2 days. So many things to do.

Only a few can get done. But none will get done if I just sit and ramble and don't go to sleep. Up, up, darkoshi, up and away and dream dream dream

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: ABBA, "Dancing Queen". Damn you, camp Discord!

Entry tags:

fun, present and future

I finally made it to a latex event last night, dinner at Bai Tong. It was good to see folks and snarf a mussel pancake. And I found out how Mme. Zoie affords all that latex: she owns residential real estate scattered all over the US.

Shallow fashion details: the hot pink & black sleeveless skater dress from Polymorphe that I got in New York. Black Fluevog Truth Alison strappy shoes. Black Stetson hat.

And this just in: I have held my Burning Man ticket in my hot little hand. If the difference between a Burner and a hippie is a ticket, I stopped being a hippie a few minutes ago.

Edited to add: I swung by Vermillion before dinner to say hi to M-the-artist, and also stopped by Passable afterwards. I resisted the temptation to buy art, not least because I'm not sure where I'd hang it anymore.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: Kraftwerk, "Morgenspaziergang"

Entry tags:

bwm,
plans

minor annoyances

Dancer cancelled our date because she fears World Cup traffic. I don't blame her, at least not completely. As for me, though, you know I Must Go Out on weekends unless medically prevented, so I've made alternative, Burner-flavored plans.

Walking two hours a day is – wait for it – time-consuming. I can't wait to go back to bicycling and get back ninety minutes a day, but that'll have to wait for about six weeks.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House

Entry tags:

health,
surgery

the magical six week mark

Acording to the Sculptor's instructions, as of today I no longer need to tape my nose at all (I forgot to last night – really), wear my glasses on that stupid hook on my forehead, or use the evil prescription shampoo. Actually, I think i'll use the shampoo one last time this morning.

I'm cleared to resume "all activities" except those that require a helmet, e.g. bicycling. So, I've got seven more weeks of walking a lot.

Here, once again, is the state of the face from top to bottom.

Top of scalp: still largely lacking sensation, but I think it's coming back around the incision.

Incision: mostly red, with maybe 1 cm of scabbing left. It's mostly flattened out, though, and the bruise-colored dimples are shrinking, fading, and disappearing.

Forehead: there's a small numb patch in the upper left corner, but otherwise everything looks and feels good.

The short-lived bruise-like patches that appeared variously below my eyes or on my right brow bone, depending on the day, have stopped appearing just in the last couple of days.

Nose: looking fantastic! The numbness from the tip to the base of the nostrils seems to be going away. I think there may be a little swelling left at the tip.

Lower gums: my tissue seems to have grown right over (!) all remaining threads.

Upper lip: it seems to have filled in a bit from the lift, which is perfect. The sagging at the corners of my mouth was a little alarming in the first two weeks, but it's mostly gone now.

There's some numbness from my upper lip to my chin, but that too seems to be going away.

Chin and jaw: right on.

But the takeaway here is that this has been a resounding success.

Edited to add: My glasses slipped down my nose before, but now they do it even more. Luckily, I live a short walk from where I got them, and they'll adjust them for me. Life in the big city.

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: The Steve Miller Band, "Fly Like An Eagle"

Entry tags:

a weekend well spent

I did indeed hit the Mercury for the second weekend in a row. M-the-artist, who is trans and whose work is in a show opening at Vermillion on Thursday for you locals, gave my face the stamp of approval. Gratifying.

I spent even more time this weekend doing stuff to move the Lambert House reception database away from Microsoft Access. (Ptui!) I did a complete data dump, but I didn't realize that the schema dump that I have is old and incomplete.

Mind you, "complete" in this case includes "features we no longer use or reimplemented". The sensible thing to do would be not to include those parts, but what I'm doing needs to be reproducible by someone who isn't me. As I sit here typing, I just realized that I can sort of have it both ways: tell my hapless successor to export the whole Access DB, but write my import script not to import certain tables. I should run this by the director first, natch.

Thank you all for being my rubber ducks.

Once I get the whole thing sucked into a SQLite DB, then comes the interesting part: seeing how long it takes to load into a modern browser. My guess is comfortably under five seconds based on a previous experiment with a much older version of the DB. Then the really fun part: writing the web pages.

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: the living room of the Devil Girl House
Current Music: "Frosty the Snowman". WTF?

Entry tags:

yin and yang, D-Day edition

Good: I went to Lambert House to take the first steps in a major project for them. Go me.

Bad:

spinifex23 and I missed each other. I didn't get his message until my train home had almost arrived.

Good: I picked up Fine Print vol. 3 on the way to the train. Quality porn in comics form.

Bad: I didn't go to Snohomish Pride. If you're doing it without a car as I would be, that's at least two hours each way. I just... no. I have too many other things to do.

Good: I paid my camp dues for )'(, which were surprisingly reasonable. Astro Shack has been placed at 8:30 & A, which I'm guessing will be louder than I'm used to. I'm ready, though: somewhere in a bin I have my construction worker's mufflers for sleeping.

Bad: What's a little spendy is getting one's windows cleaned. I don't have a ladder that can reach most of mine, and they haven't been cleaned on the outside since I moved in four years ago.

Plans: I took a look at my calendar, and I think I just might hit the Mercury two weekends in a row. All my other weekends this month (Hello, it's June) are spoken for. The 13th? Tacoma Girl. The 20th? Dancer. And then Pride weekend, which will feature Trans Pride, multiple outings to the Wildrose, the Siberian Siren and therefore Hot Flash at Neighbours, oh yeah the actual ~~parade~~ march, and who knows what else?