Trinsec @Qoto @trinsec@social.cleverlibre.org

Time to check if the kitchen is going to be hotter than outdoors soon.. Oven pizza is on the menu!

Definitely a time to relax right now. It's bloody hot outside. This morning was still nice, so I did very light gardening work then. Wouldn't be able to pull it off now anymore. Even in the shadow feels very warm.

I really like this gardening tool. It's basically pruning shears on a telescopic handle, which you can cut with by pulling on that rope. I can cut branches 2 meter above my head with this toy. Might need one of 3 or 4 meter in the future, because the tree's a bit higher than I can reach currently.

But at least I've managed to trim off a lot of branches which were sticking out of the tree haphazardly. I'm also going to take a well-deserved shower because it's a lot hotter than I expected. A bit too hot to work, but I managed to do most of the job in the shadow which was nice.
#Gardening

I think I'm going to try out those trimming tools today that I borrow from my dad. Time to tame that tree with the murder needles!
#Gardening

First time this happened to me... package left under the bush next to my front door. Gave the delivery company a negative review since this is not an action I want to encourage in the future.

What the hell have I been watching? 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyNF53gmlJ8

Bommen Berend better become a huge event this year to justify this silly video!
#Nederland #Grunn

Woke up way too early as my dream got stuck into an internal monologue where I faced a hearing dad who's got a deaf toddler, and told the dad that he's wasting his boy's life by not teaching him sign language.

I got so annoyed at that fucking imaginary dad that I just got out of bed.
#Deaf

I've been trying to make my 2 backup bikes serviceable again. And here I see the huge difference between an open chain guard (kettingkast) and a closed chain guard...

The bike with the closed chain guard will be able to be put back in use pretty quick, no problem.

The one with the open chain guard however... I think there's like 10 more chain links I have to break up and remove the rust from, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow because my fingers are pretty sore. :p

It's also time, after 2 decades of use, that I order some more Kroon Oil Tefspray. Gods, that's a great rust remover!

TIL about dryer balls. O.o
Never knew I needed it, but I do now!

'Smart boards', 'interactive boards'. Why not just call them 'digiboards' like us Dutchies do? Short and sweet!
(It took me a while to figure out its English name...)

101 demos later, and I think I've tried out enough games in this Steam's Next Fest. Only a handful are worth wishlisting, maybe 2 handfuls are worth following to see if they'll improve. The rest is just garbage.
#Games #Steam

I think I'm done being outside for today, it's getting too hot now. But while it was still doable this morning, I've continued painting the shed. I think I have progressed nicely so far. Maybe tomorrow some more.

I'm fully making use of this demo event on Steam. I've wishlisted a few games and follow a few. Some games have potential.
#Games

I know one thing for sure: I absolutely do not like to stand on a podium!

Apparently using *they* as a singular pronoun (to use instead of *he* and *she*) is hardly a new phenomenon. It dates back to 1375 in written records!

In fact, singular *you* is much more recent! Dating back to the 17th century! 😂

Oh, this quote's fun, and it shows that our gender-related issues has been going on for centuries:

> In 1794, a contributor to the New Bedford Medley mansplains to three women that the singular they they used in an earlier essay in the newspaper was grammatically incorrect and does no ‘honor to themselves, or the female sex in general.’ To which they honourably reply that they used singular they on purpose because ‘we wished to conceal the gender,’ and they challenge their critic to invent a new pronoun if their politically-charged use of singular they upsets him so much.

Source:
https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/

I'd say it's probably safe to use *they* in general. I do use singular *they* regularly and it's the least fuss imo.

#English #Language #Pronouns #They

I'm trying to read *De moordclub (op donderdag)* which is a Dutch translation of *The Thursday murder club*. It feels like a slog to me because the translation is a bit too... stiffly following the original English text, which completely ruins the Dutch reading flow. I mean, while reading what those people in the book are saying to each other I can think of a thousand other words I'd have used that'd make more sense for them to say. I even shook my head at one convo, which is bad mojo.

In my opinion, a translator should feel comfortable to go out of bounds a little with the translation so long the original idea is still intact but where the reading feels more natural to the language used. Right now I don't have the illusion that the translator has actually read the book and is trying to think themselves in the roles of those characters. It feels very jarring because the English style of writing and word choices doesn't always fit the Dutch flow. It is just annoying.

My mom's bought this Dutch version (which I'm trying to read), and I wonder if she's going to enjoy the story as much as I did with the English version.
#Books

Since I enjoyed *the Thursday Murder Club* so much, I've checked if there are other books that could capture that general atmosphere as well; A bunch of old people solving a murder (or two, or more). You know, kinda a Murder She Wrote feel now that I think about it (and yes, I do like waching that series too). Turns out there are a bunch of suggestions that I could check out. The first one suggested is **The Marlow Murder Club** by *Robert Thorogood*, so that's the one I decided to read first. And I happen to just have finished it.

So we start off with a main character that's in her 70s (yay, one criterium fulfilled!). She's great at creating crypto puzzles for a newspaper and is pretty fit for her age. Fit enough for her to go for a swim in the river she lives next to. When she gets close to her neighbour's place, she hears him shouting and then a gunshot. Drat, she can't climb up on the neighbour's shore since she's an old woman after all! She has to swim back and then calls the police. Turns out her neighbour's shot dead! Dun dun dun, a murder mystery's born! (And that's the other criterium done!)

During her investigation (of course she's gonna investigate, can't leave anything fully to the cops nowadays!) she manages to rope in two more girls into her club. Sometimes they get in pretty darn tight situations, and if that's not enough, more murders happen during their snooping! I mean, during their investigating! It got more gripping in the second half as they took more risks where they really have to work together. I have to say that I already suspected 'whodunnit' when I was around three-fourths into the book, so at least the plot isn't that overly convoluted. :P

It was nice reading overall, a bit a change of pace here. Ok, ok, still about oldbies solving murders but they're *different* oldbies with *different* backgrounds (and while we're at it, also *different* murders), so still a change of pace! Just like with the Thursday Murder Club, this story is happening in the UK in the modern day and age where laptops and mobile phones exist. I like that, I appreciate that there are murder mysteries with a slight Murder She Wrote vibe but totally updated to the modern times. I would say this is another series (I read a sequel is upcoming) that I would like to continue reading.
#Books

Chrome's built in captioning isn't bad at all. Just don't run it while a Dutch video is playing. ;)

Home sweet home. Was at a restaurant with all my deaf (ex-)coworkers. It was very nice, I hadn't seen a few of those faces in a too long time. We chatted a lot (in sign language, of course) and caught up on a lot of news and gossip. Feeling pretty satisfied now.

Oh, and the food was great too. ;)

Today's theme was "Rain". And a lot of it!