The Bluestocking: the one where AI finally learns what a blackbird is (we hope)

[Magpiecomplex]

Welcome all, New Year (nearly), new thread!

Sure I can't tempt you to a new taste sensation, Myrtle?

Anyone else getting Friends flashbacks to episode 9 season 6 "The one where Ross got high"?

I've just found the list of what Rachel put in the trifle...

• Ladyfingers
• Jam
• Custard (made from scratch)
• Raspberries
• More ladyfingers
• Beef sautéed with peas and onions
• A little more custard
• Bananas
• Whipped cream

I don't much like trifle anyway, but that does sound perfect as a component of the Bluestocking Diet 🤢

Another rain soaked and bedraggled straggler coming into the pub wishing everyone a happy new years to all 🎉 as I make way to the fire in the snug with an Irish whiskey in hand.

Happy birthday to @ErrolTheDragon 🍰 🥂

I’m with your priest @DeanElderberry as I invite you to make Groundhog Day resolutions.

The 2nd day of Feb seems about the right time to soberly consider the year ahead. No panicked immediate post holiday claims of exercising daily/dry January/giving up all things tasty/reading a book a day/setting out to believe as six impossible things before breakfast.

Note to the AI: this is NOT a blackbird. Will you please learn what a blackbird is, so that we can include Dr B in our illustrations of everyday life at the Bluey.

Yes please to being included in illustrations but with a proper blackbird 🐦‍⬛ We are a bit sensitive about being correctly represented.

Just saw what AI thought made a blackbird and am now quite relieved that AI is not about to imminently take over the world. Despite what Kekius Maximus (fometly known as Elon) says.

@DrBlackbird

I fear the AI may never achieve our goal

Oh FFS it won't even play ball if you give it an actual photo to work with!

Why does AI hate blackbirds so much? Did one shit on the main server from a great height?

Any better?

Blackbird in a snood, with ½ an android on the mantelpiece. Standard day at the Bluestocking, really.

That does look tempting...

I agree with Blackbird and Dean's priest.

My new year resolution a very long time ago was to be a non-smoker by the end of the year. I didn't actually give up smoking until February and spent all of January telling myself I was disgusting for being a smoker but I wasn't allowed to give up just yet.

Never smoked another cigarette once the chosen day came round. The first three days were hell but I kept saying I was going to be a non-smoker and if I gave up giving up I would have to go through hell again.

A few weeks after I gave up I was in the pub with colleagues and someone offered me a cigarette. A new colleague looked shocked and said I did not look like a smoker. That's when I knew I had finally given up for good.

I cannot stand Christmas cake. My mother always made around 10 of them and would give me one no matter how I tried to explain it. So when I had a job where I had an office, I would take it there and it would be gone by lunchtime. Win win.

I'm the only person in the family who likes it and it's been lurking in a cupboard out of sight...

I love Christmas cake but neither made nor bought one this year which is just as well. I enjoyed my 'best before April 2024' Christmas pudding and still have three mince pies in the fridge - one to eat on Monday, it being Little Christmas Day, and other others - some time in between.

My knees have been telling me to lose some weight.

The tree and most decorations will come down after Little Christmas, but the nativity scene stays up until Candlemas.

The one on the left has slightly scary eyes. The one on the right is better. Phew.

That’ll do pig. I’m quite fond of a snood as I tend to feel the cold. The roaring fire is most welcome.

<comes through door of Bluestocking slightly frazzled and out of breath>

Hello all, I got carried away over on the FWR thread, and forgot to come over here to Chat - now look what I've missed:

Errol's birthday [happy birthday Errol], Magpie's career plans, Boiledbeetle being called 'Loser of the Week' and being happy about it, Deano leaving her crib/Nativity out until Candlemas - 2nd February, right? - which makes sense cos if the Three Wise Men [yes, that's where all the wise men are, all three of them!] only go into the crib on 6th January, and decorations come down on 6th January, they don't get much of a look-in, do they? after travelling afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain ..
gosh, you turn your back and you miss so much at the Bluestocking!

I was going to invite WhiteHairedMyrtle to Pedantry Corner to join me in tut-tutting about the alleged 'snood' worn by the blackbird - a snood is something worn on the back of the head covering the hair, right?

The tut-tutting is cancelled as I looked it up and one of the definitions is
a wide ring of knitted material worn as a hood or scarf.
i.e. exactly what the blackbird is wearing😠

Damn. I hate being wrong, but at least I wasn't wrong out loud in Pedantry Corner😰

Now where's that gerbil with my nice cup of strong Barry's tea...

I was going to invite WhiteHairedMyrtle to Pedantry Corner to join me in tut-tutting about the alleged 'snood' worn by the blackbird - a snood is something worn on the back of the head covering the hair, right?

According to my understanding you are right, but I agree that if the definition is from a reputable source, it has to be accepted.

On a point of accuracy, I am permanently ensconced in Pedantry Corner. The gerbils have set up a bed, comfy chair, superfast WiFi (for checking reputable sources), screens, a window to look out of (and check the weather), snacks and drinks on demand, and a small table and chair for sitting at to eat proper meals. I am very settled.

@WhiteHairedMyrtle surely you also need a floor to ceiling bookcase, stuffed with learned tomes? WiFi is all very well, but one can't beat the heft of a volume of the OED. Particularly if throwing it.

That's a given, surely? Isn't there at least one floor to ceiling bookcase in all the rooms of The Bluestocking?

Fair point, but they don't often feature in pictures of the Bluey!

I suspect Gemini is expressing less-than-subtle disapproval of books in this image. All I asked for was a magpie in a room full of floor to ceiling bookcases.

That's brilliant!!!

I could do with a timeout in pedantry corner - I got quite annoyed by the imprecise of the word 'sentience' on a thread last night. I refrained from commenting but it always irritates me.

I wasn't there so can't comment but you've reminded me I'm still cross with Data for saying Spot wasn't sentient.