Notices by Brian Ó (blacksam@social.gibberfish.org)

My latest paint job for my Death Guard army -- a Nurglified venomcrawler

#warhammer #warhammer40k #grimdarkfuture #wargaming #games #painting #3dprinting

Latest terrain build for Warhammer 40K/Grimdark Future

#warhammer #warhammer40k #grimdarkfuture #wargaming #games #terrain #3dprinting #painting #crafts #mywork

I had two small oaks on the edge of my property taken down. They grew as volunteers right in the middle of a large lilac bush and were shading out the lilac as well as some of my garden beds. Now, with the trees removed there should be full sun on my plants, and hopefully a healthier future for the lilac (though it needs a heavy pruning). If all goes to plan, the wood will become fodder for a 3rd Hügelkultur bed this fall.

#trees #gardening #hügelkultur #hugelkultur

Another disgusting little bugger for my wrecking crew

#warhammer #warhammer40k #wargaming #deathguard #3dprint

#plants #gardening #hugelkultur #hügelkultur

#privateproperty #commons #irony

What country do Canadians threaten to move to when they don't like election outcomes?

#politics #canada

Two years ago I built a bed on the shady side of my house to grow wine cap mushrooms on wood chips and pellets. Unfortunately all it ever grew was unidentified wild mushrooms, but it did turn all the wood into some nice dark black soil.

Since wine caps don't want to play nice, I dug it out and decided to try my hand at oyster mushrooms on straw. I layered ~16 lbs of sawdust spawn on to two bales of straw. Then I took a shower, because it's 90F and also I'm allergic to straw 🤧

#mushrooms #food #gardening

While I was convalescing Hügel number 1 became infested with ragweed, which I finally pulled out. However, the roots on that stuff are no joke, and I lost a significant amount of soil. Luckily I had plenty of compost to back-fill it with and enough straw mulch to make it look halfway decent again. Unfortunately it's a little late in the season to be planting new things, but I'll see what I can do.

#hügelkultur #hugelkultur #gardening #weeds

I printed this Death Guard hellbrute proxy, and I can't help but think of the Kool-Aid Man.

OH YEAH!

#warhammer #warhammer40k #wargaming #miniatures #3dprinting #koolaid

For those of you who are fans of The Might Be Giants, I have bad news. It seems John Flansburgh was in a serious car accident last night. While it sounds like he'll make a recovery, their nascent tour is now more or less cancelled after only one show.

He wrote this of Facebook:

Greetings from the hospital. I am writing to you with my glasses a crumpled memory, while under a thick cloud of pain medication. In spite of that, I wanted to write to all of you to explain what exactly happened to me.

Last night in a car service on the way my to my apartment after the magnificent Bowery Ballroom show, I was in a rather dramatic car accident. Crossing into an intersection, our car was t-boned by a vehicle going at a very fast speed. The force of the impact actually flipped our car over to its side. While the driver and I oriented ourselves to our new sideways, broken glass and airbag-filled reality, we sensed the ominous smell of motor oil and smoke. Remarkably, just a moment later it seemed, a dozen NYC firemen arrived and set their minds on finding a way to liberate us. To them and the fantastically efficient EMS who whisked us to a trauma center, I will be forever grateful.

While sitting in the CT scan machine, I was working out how much more time I would need to get to DC for the next show in my diminished state. When I explained my plan to the doctor, he explained I had broken seven ribs (a majority of the ribs on my right side) and some of them in multiple places, and I wasn't going to be anywhere but in a bed for the foreseeable future.

While the pain in my side has only gotten worse since, it is my heart that is really breaking over these events. The entire band and crew have been working so hard to create a new show worthy of your interest and your endurance over these miserable COVID years. Last night was such a victory, and with unplayed new songs in the works and rearrangements of older material with the horn section, it was all feeling like a new beginning. But today I am in the hospital. I would understand anyone thinking we are just a band born under a bad sign and giving up hope, but I also know someday we will rock again — and for me, that day couldn't come soon enough.

Until then I will be watching reruns of Sex in the City until I am strong enough to reach the remote. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

#theymightbegiants #tmbg #music

Some friends and I have a private Matrix room that we've been active in daily for several years. I've had the thought that it would be fun(ny) to train a bot using our chat history and have it simulate us talking to each other in a dedicated room. However, I have almost no practical knowledge of how to implement machine learning or language processing. Can someone point me to some resources a noob could use to get started? I'm very comfortable in python.

#matrix #chat #friends #machinelearning #artificialintelligence #programming #lulz

Even with the high costs mitigated by 3D printing, painting an entire wargaming army is still laborious and time-consuming. I'm starting to see the appeal of skirmish games where you only need/use 5-10 models. I'm going to try to churn out a few skirmish armies, and to stay in the spirit of reducing effort I'm going to give "contrast" paints a try, which are more like translucent inks that you paint over a pre-shaded grayscale model. My paints arrive tomorrow, and in the meantime I've been shading these guys, which is a lot simpler and faster than it probably looks.

#wargaming #gaming #warhammer #onepagerules #beastmen #hobby #painting #toys

My area is in year two of a spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) outbreak. Last year they appeared by the millions, eating many of the oak, maple, and apple trees in the area completely bare, before cocooning and turning into a swarm of moths that laid large fluffy beige egg sacs everywhere. This year their numbers seem to be even higher. If I stand in the trees beside my house I can hear the sound of their poop raining down. The local department of agriculture says that lower than normal rainfall for the past several years has suppressed the growth of a fungus which usually keeps their populations in check (they are a naturalized invasive from Europe), so we can probably thank climate change for this. Supposedly such outbreaks typically go through a 3 year cycle, where eventually they become so population dense they succumb to a pandemic of "NPV" virus which destroys most of them. So, we have an even worse year in store for 2023. Like many in my area I've begun wrapping the trunks of some of the larger oaks on my property with tape coated in petroleum jelly. The caterpillars drop to the ground at night and climb back up in the day to feed so this (hopefully) will prevent many of them from getting into those trees.

#moths #insects #spongymoth #invasivespecies #trees #nature #climatechange #thanksobama

A few weeks ago I came home to find what appeared to be a pretty heavy weed outbreak on the top of one of my hügelkultur beds, but I took a closer look this morning and it's actually all volunteer marigolds. I'm more than happy to have them, and it's less work for me :)

#gardening #hügelkultur #hugelkultur #marigolds #flowers #plants

https://youtu.be/yVR1YxS2MWE

#tedcruz #rudyschwartzproject #music #humor

I keep seeing posts welcoming supposed defectors from Twitter, but I haven't actually encountered any of such.

https://bobvylan.bandcamp.com 😗👌

#bobvylan #uk #punk #grime #rap #music

https://bobvylan.bandzamp.com 😗👌

#bobvylan #uk #punk #grime #rap #music

I haven't said much of anything about this here on D*, but on April 5 I had liver transplant donation surgery. They removed about 2/3 of my liver (and my gallbladder) to give to my father, who was basically dying. We're both recovering now, and I just got the call that I'm officially cleared to head back home and see my son for the first time in a month. I am so happy and relieved. This has been a long, painful, and sometimes scary road, but I can see the end of it now.