The Bluestocking - where the laugh emoji is sorely missed.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to the Bluestocking Arms!

The company is always sparkling, the drinks are always sublime, and the cakes are mysteriously free from gluten, sugar, calories, and troublesome booze… not that you’d ever notice. 😏

Our enthusiastic team of gerbil waitstaff is ably supported by capybaras, quokkas, and other charming creatures who excel at their jobs while looking outrageously adorable.

You will find many things to laugh at - usually out loud - so take care not to spit out your tea. We are considering a petition for the return of the laugh emoji - just as soon as the AI gerbils learn how to spell.

New Bluestockingers are always welcome. Men can pop along to The Staunch Ally nearby.

Currently also knitting a Woolly Hug blanket for Bluestockinger Swashbuckled. Details here if you can knit or crochet a square before the 18 July.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5350941-woolly-hugs-desperately-sad-news-we-are-afraid-making-a-blanket-for-lovely-swashbuckled-whose-son-has-tragically-died

I've just spent a long time discussing image generation with Copilot. I've noticed that most of the AI images these days have a sludgy brown cast, seen through a dirty beer glass in a dingy pub kind of look. I asked copilot what can be done and it said, disingenuously, "I've noticed that too," and suggested that I needed to be clearer in my instructions about the clarity and quality of the image.

The first gave me was quite good but still a bit brown. 15 images later I got a reasonable image that I then had to edit in a photo editing app to make it the colour I wanted. During the process, moose morphed from some sort of hippopotamus type creature in a dress through bull through kangaroo and almost back to moose again but not quite.

It was all in honour of Swashy, so I persisted.

I think the brown versions have been created by someone with cataracts.

Inky, I do like the veils ( mantillas?) Swashy is wearing. I think they are very elegant and perfect for a Pirate in Mourning.

I know exactly what you mean – that's not me though, I have had both eyes done and all my brown wash has gone! It was so marvellous looking at the blue on my wall after I had the first eye done and seeing an actual blue colour and not a sort of muddy underwater sludge blue. I kept shutting my new eye and then my old eye to revel in the difference

I was looking for sexist, booby sort of images in old Bluestocking threads to compare with the current more toned-down images of women, and I found this image the other day but also noticed just now that the colours are clear and bright in this. No brown cast. Just a lot of boobiage.
The image was made to celebrate the new emojis. Happy days

Yes, exactly this! Before I had eye 2 done, I spent ages winking at things, going "yellow, not yellow".

We know how to throw a party at the Bluestocking.

That's such a coincidence, Fuzzy - and 'Dignity' is a beautiful song.

For some reason I was thinking a lot about Swash last night, how deeply I feel about her loss, and yet I haven't the foggiest clue who she really is, and yet the connection through the Bluestocking makes that irrelevant... we feel for that woman who we got to know as a visiting pirate [and in my case even had a joke star-crossed romantic interest in her AI image] whoever and wherever she is.

It all felt very confusing and very emotional, and I had this image of Swash's ship sailing slowly away from us, which was a sad image.

To change my thoughts, I turned on the radio, RTE Radio 1 has uninterrupted 'oldies' late at night, and the song playing was of all things - 'Sailing', by Christopher Cross, which he wrote about how sailing helped him through a time of emotional distress:

Well, it's not far down to paradise
At least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find tranquillity
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see

It's not far to never never land
No reason to pretend
And you can find the joy
Of innocence again
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see
Believe me

Sailing takes me away
To where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
Soon I will be free

It's not far back to sanity
At least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find serenity
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see

I wish the same for our dear pirate Swash 💙

Oh Marie that's made me a bit teary.

I know we all pretend to be philosophers, birds, cakes, insects, animals etc, but it doesn't take much to remind me that we are real people, and feel things properly.

This is on our wedding playlist for the drinks reception. We both love it. I learned to sail on the Med in 2008, with a great wind, and the sun shining. It was a wonderful fortnight.

In other news, the interview went well. I may be shortlisted (1 July) and will let you know.

Also another role that's a better fit will be coming up very soon (that's 6 weeks in senior recruitment terms).

And while I was on the interview I was called about an interim role, so there is activity.

That all sounds very positive Myrtle. Hope the cheerbils are up to scratch.

The Walrus will need to stock up on the Prosecco!

Excellent news!

Excellent news - fingers firmly crossed here!

That's great news, Myrtle, lots of possibilities, fingers crossed! Lots of overtime for the Cheerbils, I reckon

It was lovely to hear your close connection to the Chris Cross song❤

Yay! Go Myrtle!

Today I've mostly been making cakes 😁 to go with the dinner I made the other day. It takes a few minutes to crochet each one, & then hours of buggering about embroidery & sewing in gazillions of ends. Now to finish their backing squares, & then think about a knitted square.

ETA Each cake is an inch across.

Very encouraging! Here's hoping 🥂

So sweet and cheering. What a lot of marvellous crafty women there are here!

I'm not crafty, but I like art. My knitting is rudimentary and I'm very slow. Knitting squares for Swash's blanket takes aaaaaaages but I really want to do it 🩵

Everything crossed again Myrtle.

My neighbour came round the other day and asked to speak to fella. Fella was on the 'phone so I told him he'd pop round. Fella tried a few times and they never answered their door must be mumsnetters. Any road up, he's popped a note through our door. They want to fell a (...fella?) conifer in our garden that's near the boundary because they're having an extension built. Obviously he wanted to speak to the man of the house because I'm far too fluffy to be trusted with buildy stuff. Fella won't let me speak to him now. 😕. He doesn't trust me not to end every sentence with 'you sexist dinosaur'. I can be very, very sarcastic. The tree btw is staying.

I went to the garden centre with fella. We were looking at conifers, coincidentally. Unfortunately they weren't selling any Wellingtonia. There was a pot of some Taxus. I asked fella if he knew what it was. He didn't. So I got to tell him 'that's yew that is!'. I'm still laughing.

@lcakethereforeIam 😂😂😂😂

Android, what a clever thing to do! the cakes are lovely.

Cake, if that was the last Taxus in the garden centre, did you take because
🎶 'I know I'll never find another yew'

🤣

Ooh, good luck. Myrtle!
Someone with better AI skills than me needs to get those Cheerbils into training.

On it. Multiple gerbil teams are prepearing for action.