The Bluestocking - where women are women, and small furry animals are gerbils, quokkas, capybaras, or a red panda called Rosy

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all to the Bluestocking Pub, a haven safe from harsh reality [mostly] full of good company, and excellent food and drink served by the most efficient team of gerbils in the hospitality industry.

ZZZZZZ... What? What happened? I thought the police had charged the neighbour...oh it's a different episode....zzzzzzz What? What's that? oh it's ethernet cable being run through the house..zzzzz Must do booknooking zzz.... AI testing.... later....zzzzzzzz

I’d be very happy if we had Ethernet everywhere instead of the bloody WiFi extender box I keep catching my shins on.

I don't understand any of this. But am happy to be in the dark!

How did you get into my bedroom?!

The walrus has bought a switch that converts the coaxial cable (that carries the broadband, TV and phone) to ethernet cable which plugs into devices that need the internet. They look like old phone cables. The switch (it's a box of electronics) has eight sockets so that ethernet cable can be plugged into the TV boxes, our laptops, Apple TV and Switch console. As a result the internet is carried by wire rather than by wireless signal.

This means our very fast broadband (1Gb+) is providing the internet at that speed to all our devices rather than the WiFi providing it at slower speeds or not at all if they are very far away.

He works in IT comms so this is his bailiwick and he has had a lovely day connecting things together. There was a point when he didn't think he had enough ethernet cables, but he delved deeply into the drawer of cables that has a lot of old kit in it that I really want him to sort out, and found another four cables.

He is like a pig in shit, he's so happy.

I once used an ethernet cable when I was singing with a choir over the Internet. I think.....

I am well impressed by anyone who understands technology. Me= 🦖.

We had a tradesman round today to quote for some work. I'd never met him before, but we turned out to know umpteen people in common. And to have been to lock-in night at the same pub.

The most exciting birds I saw today were the three arsey cockerels who live next to the footpath (onto which they can easily escape). They made threatening noises at Brains and Batshit, who make a show of ignoring them.

@ErrolTheDragon I hope you get some more exotic travel than Scotland in the not-to-distant future. Not that Scotland isn't stunning, but it's a big wide world out there,

@EdithStourton I assume Brains and Batshit are pseudonyms for the sake of anonymity, but I really REALLY want them to be your actual dogs' names!

@Magpiecomplex I couldn't do it to the vet! 'Er, is, um, Batshit here for her vaccinations?' as the waiting room sniggers.

Also, if I actually called Brains, 'Brains', she might work out that I think she's clever.

I understood every word in this post. However, you lost me completely when you joined them up into sentences.

I do know that we have lots of ethernet around our house because WiFi hadn't been invented and we now have some WiFi but it doesn't like solid walls.

I am so pleased that so many of you are enjoying the arrival of Spring. I leave Dorset at about 6 am every Monday and come back home at about 7:30 on Friday. Central London is pretty shit at doing the seasons. There are sparrows and feral pigeons all year round. The only thing that changes is the temperature and the amount of rain.

Against this pathetic whine, I will wake up in Dorset on Saturday morning and will be able to see and hear Spring in all her glory.

Ethernet cables were around long before WiFi!

@JanesLittleGirl I will wave to you on Saturday morning, from Elsewhere In Dorset.

DH is likewise a nerd and we have a drawer full of cables (Michael McIntyre on the Man Drawer is instructive here - see YouTube for a laugh ).

Given where we live (more livestock than people) our internet is amazingly good.

@JanesLittleGirl I did a stint in London, and discovered that I don't like big cities, other than in small doses of max 3 days. Enjoy Dorset - we had a lovely holiday there once when the DC were little (so approx 1,000 years ago).

Now, this Merlin app of which people speak: I let Brains and Batshit out for their morning wee at 6.30 and could recognise some of the massed tweeting going on, but would like to learn to recognise more. Is Merlin good? Easy to use?

I manage to use Merlin and I am the world's most tecchie-inept. It adds so much - particularly once all the leaves emerge and there's nothing to be seen except a screen of green.

Yesterday I saw a hovering kestrel on my way to the next village over for our tea-drinking 'coffee morning', a magpie in that village, and some newly arrived house martins. On the way back saw some grey-backed (hooded) crows. No swallows yet - I was in town in the afternoon queueing to get into a funeral home and pay respects, and scanned the blue sky for 15 minutes - I'm pretty sure if there were any I'd have seen some. Saw a sparrowhawk coming back from that.

When I got home I heard and saw what I thought was a once-familiar bird, and got the phone out for Merlin to check - sure enough, a house sparrow - it's years since I've had spadgers in the garden. I saw a dunnock the other day. And yesterday I was told there were also a treecreeper and a greenfinch, and saw a pair of goldfinches myself.

I promise I'll stop with the bird stuff soon, but SPRING!

Re: that video of snoozing Myrtle. I did like the way she heard a child, opened one drowsy eye, licked her lips, then decided she didn't need a snack just yet and went back to sleep.

In the days when I worked in Central London, the best thing I can recall is hellebores in Lincoln's Inn fields.
And commuting in from rural Kent in a large waterproof coat and boots to find the snow had not reached London ( it never does) and I looked a right fraud!

Here's another pic from our day out. I'm a big Spring fan!

perfect morning for a stroll round the garden in my PJs with a coffee in one hand and phone in the other - in the space of 5 minutes I’ve heard chiffchaff,blackbird,pheasant,woodpigeons, robin,greenfinch,wren, blue tit, dunnock, goldfinch, and great tit.
I’m gradually learning some of them (beyond the obvious like the first three) - getting better at distinguishing squeaky gate (great tit) from smaller squeaky gate (coal tit) for instance.

Its a good thing we don’t have a bird translator app - I’m sure this time of year when they’re particularly vocal it’s all (excuse the language) fuck me or fuck off, or in the case of the alarmist pheasant just ‘Fuck!’

Re: that video of snoozing Myrtle. I did like the way she heard a child, opened one drowsy eye, licked her lips, then decided she didn't need a snack just yet and went back to sleep.

So true!

The walrus and I had eaten really well on his birthday, so I wasn't very hungry at all yesterday. And we had leftovers from the restaurant.

Today, though... <Licks lips, considers hunting small children>

ErrolTheDragon Its a good thing we don’t have a bird translator app - I’m sure this time of year when they’re particularly vocal it’s all (excuse the language) fuck me or fuck off, or in the case of the alarmist pheasant just ‘Fuck!’

😂Beauty is definitely in the ear of the beholder!

My father used to say what a wonderful gift of misunderstanding God had given us when it came to birdsong😄

Actually now I think of it he often commented on how strange it is [or as he was very religious, 'what a great gift from God'] that things as completely functional as leaves being green or trees branching or the sky being blue are perceived by the human brain as 'beautiful' when in fact they are just doing their job..

There's always a Gary Larson cartoon, isn't there?😃

I'm reading a hilarious thread about terrible reasons for calling in sick. One poster said that they had to release their fancy rat from the sofa. Another replied with this:

Had a colleague who did turn up to work having failed to get her kids two gerbils out from their sofa that morning. ‘It’ll be fine’ she said. The photos of the sofa devastation from that evening were astonishing. If you ever need something properly wrecked, leave it to gerbils!

How have we managed to acquire so many wonderful kind gerbils that don't eat the soft furnishings? 🤔

Link to thread so others can have a laugh: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5307382-worst-reasons-collegues-have-rang-in-sick

How have we managed to acquire so many wonderful kind gerbils that don't eat the soft furnishings?

The same way we got sweet treats without calories and strong drink that doesn't cause hangovers, I suppose.

The amazing power of our imaginations (demonstrated daily)? Manifesting? Witchcraft?

(Having a little moment here wishing the Bluestocking was real.)

Thank you for the link, Myrtle, I rarely stray over to AIBU and I can see I'm missing some absolute gems!😂

Hello Cher, been meaning to send a wave and a 'how are you doing?', you haven't been around much since the Bluestocking's last move - awkward bus routes to new place?

Hope things are OK with you, though obvs things are never as good as they are in the Stocking🙁
Now you're here, have a seat, order a large drink from a passing gerbil, pull up a miniature pig for your feet, and be at one with blissful Bluestockingness

things as completely functional as leaves being green or trees branching or the sky being blue are perceived by the human brain as 'beautiful' when in fact they are just doing their job.
I might have read somewhere that humans enjoy the sight of things like green leaves and running water because at an instinctive level we understand that they mean abundance.
Just as when it hasn't rained for weeks (like now), I crave rain, despite loving sunshine and hot weather.

I had a thrilling outing to the ag suppliers this morning as we were almost out of dog food. The drive includes everything from high-speed dual carriageway to lanes with passing places where you really don't want to meet a tractor.

Dh despairs over the way I use the PC. Apparently the way I save documents etc is so unutterably wrong that I am Lady Wrong of Wrongshire, and on the Olympic Wronging Team. I just click on save, choose the location I want the document saved, and save it. I don't know why this is wrong - but apparently it doesn't save to the One Drive, and that is Wrong.

I am clearly a dinosaur too. And happy with it - though I would like to have a go at creating the AI images that other Bluestockingers do so well - I just don't know where to start. I need an AI image of a very baffled, fat woman. 😂😂😂