@bluffcityjk yes as I understand it's not too different from .coffee I mentioned above? Also run by Stux and also in NL. Appreciate the recommendation.

Lil bot to bring you coffee in the morning

#b3d #newart #humanart

Moving my account soon as I want to be on a server in Europe. Feel more comfortable with my data here. Thinking either mastodon.world or mastodon.coffee. Both based here in the Netherlands.

Flew to Portugal and back to see family. We were the only ones wearing masks on both plane trips. Seems like such a small thing to do. But now, we are the rebels in society it seems.

#BooksOf2022

This year, I started the project to read the winners of the Mystery Writers of Japan Award, a prize that honours the best in crime fiction.

I managed to read 18 books, mostly from the 60s and 70s.

I didn’t like all of them, but overall it’s a very good experience. The ones that really stand out to me are the first two winners for long fiction:

- 本陣殺人事件 (honjin satsujin jiken) by Seishi Yokomizo (横溝正史).

- 不連続殺人事件 (furenzoku satsujin jiken) by Ango Sakaguchi (坂口安吾).

#Japanese

The city of Amsterdam announcement of upcoming changes for 2023 includes this tidbit:
"Amsterdam will put its own Mastodon server live in January. This means that Amsterdammers, and the rest of the world, can follow the city's news via social media without being dependent on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram."
#Amsterdam
https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/verandert-2023/

@mobydick This sounds a bit like the Walt Whitman poem which came a little later!

Q. Why do mathematicians confuse Halloween and Christmas?

A. Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.

Happy Christmas.

@raf The northern border is crazier because there are places you go West and end up moving your clock forward!

I am in the Portuguese town of Alcutim. The Spanish town of San Lucar sits across the river. They are in different timezones. I am thinking of staying here an extra week, celebrating the New Year across the river and then ferrying back to celebrate it again an hour later! #portugal #españa #guadiana #timezones #newyear

Xmas reading: a novel by a Congolese writer which I think is not yet available in English but Mexican independent press Elefanta brought to us in Spanish.

Went to see the 5000 year old standing stones of Lavajo in Portugal. They stand on a hill in a rural location accessible via a rough dirt road. The quiet was only interrupted by a herd of goats, their bells ringing as they passed. #lavajo #portugal #lichens #LichenSubscribe #menhir #standingstone #megalith

I might have known that chameleons made it as far north as southern Portugal but this sign still surprised me. They are hard to see, for obvious reasons. #chameleons #reptiles #lizards #portugal #algarve

@ruud Here's the WP article with the line:

"If that all sounds like entirely too much work, you can try just joining a popular general interest server. The largest, Mastodon.social, is not currently admitting new people but some other general spots like Mastodon.world are."

https://web.archive.org/web/20221219114640/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/17/how-to-join-mastodon/#TC7MNYDHXJHFFHOGXD2RVQEY2A-1

@ruud mastodon.world was mentioned both by a washington post article AND a WSJ article showing the how and where new users should sign up.

Oh, wow, Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain. Apparently also his website will shut down "at some date in the not too distant future" so now's a good time to download directly.

"In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.
So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money."

https://tomlehrersongs.com/

@indeed_distract squeak and gibber in the Roman streets

I wasn't familiar with Dean Claudine Gay prior to getting today's announcement, but she sounds like an excellent choice to be Harvard's next president, based on her biographical sketch!

Appointing a leader of color as Harvard's President doesn't solve all its issues, but certainly is a good step. Being the daughter of Haitian immigrants ought to help in supporting the increasingly diverse student body. #harvarduniversity #highereducation #DEI #harvard #Boston

https://www.harvard.edu/presidential-search/claudine-gays-biography/

@seatsixtyone I've been Amsterdam to Prague already on the GreenCityTrip overnight train. Old trains but it did the job!