Selfie. I am standing at a suburban traffic intersection. It’s a big wide crossroads - sea of tarmac. There are traffic lights and… no pedestrian crossing whatsoever. I am making a disappointed face.

A map of the junction showing markers for accidents - 1 black for fatal, 2 red for serious, 5 yellow for slight.

This junction in Old Moat, Manchester is literally lethal. One death, two serious accidents and a clutch of slight ones (probably more unreported) between 2020 and 2024.

Making this safe for pedestrians and cycles is surely a high priority?

It is for me. Vote Green. Vote Sam for safe streets. 💚

Vote Green posterboard. Someone has sprawled REFORN over GREEN.

My poster board has been graffiti'd, probably by the same person who failed to pull it down last week.
Who are REFORN anyway?

Cartoon unicorn graffiti, asking, 'You OK?'

You OK?

I laughed

OO Gauge (1:76) Smoking Shelter A laser cut kit of a simple shelter. Stick it in a corner of a car park for smokers to huddle under.

OO Gauge Smoking Shelter- so your tiny tobacco addicts can pollute a corner of the carpark ;-P
#modelrailway #OOGauge
spinneyworld.com/products/oo-...

Anti racist demonstrators kettled outside Manchester Town Hall.

I managed to avoid getting kettled. I hope the anti racists trapped outside the Town Hall have been allowed to leave now that there racists have run away.

Graffiti- 'Fassion is my Pashion'

Fassion is my Pashion
#graffiti

Wedding photos being taken in the rain behind Manchester library whilst a bunch of racists hold a rally in front of it.

Got to feel sorry for this couple. Not only is it raining on their wedding photos, but they're having to do them behind the library because there's a bunch of racists in front of it.

'Auditors' at an anti racist demo on Piccadilly Gardens.

Statistically, 25-40% of these racist 'auditors' who turn up to demos are domestic abusers. Send them home!

ME: [wincing, covering up Starmer's ears] sorry, do you mind not talking about politics around Keir? He doesn't know about scary things like nuclear war or poverty or Peter Mandelson and we'd like to maintain his innocence for a bit longer

KEIR: my father was a drill bit

ME: that's right Keir!

Normal brain: Bluesky has been a dick all, day, you're free to do what you want.

My brain: refresh refresh refresh refresh refresh

OO gauge laser cut model of a smoking shelter.

Pile of test cuts for the OO gauge smoking shelter.

Another new laser cut structure- a OO gauge smoking shelter. This one went through many more test cuts than others. I now have the makings of a scale bonfire.
Available soon from spinneyworld.com
#modelrailway #OOgauge

Jar of pate, claiming '100% satisfaction FREE'

Disappointment guaranteed?

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought Scientists say finding is ‘very concerning’ as collapse would be catastrophic for Europe, Africa and the Americas

Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Universal basic income is not science fiction. It should exist for everyone. There's enough to make it happen.

The Edge Hotel in Whitehaven, Cumbria

If anyone is in the Whitehaven area, could you pop over to the Jawas and ask if they have any secondhand droids for sale, thanks.

After 9 months, I finally got a Restart adviser who made some good suggestions and didn't try to force AI on me.
Unfortunately, she was only standing in for my usual one.

Marketing's a big weak spot for me, so I never took advantage of anything Amazon offered anyway.

I haven't tried itch.io yet, but Draft2Digital does most of the work in distributing to a lot of ebook stores for me, and pod for any that are long enough.

OO Scale model of a garden pergola, laser cut from wood and card.

3d printed model of a kei sized sports car, inspired by Honda S660. Available in Z and N scale.

3d printed models of the 'hachiroku' Corolla. Available in N or Z scale.

OO gauge model of a garden arbour, laser cut from wood.

I'm not so good at lines on paper or screen, but I am proud of my designs for 3d print, and- more recently- laser cutting.
Products available at spinneyworld.com
#portfolioday

I took my books off Kindle, despite it accounting for about 2/3 of my sales. It's probably still possible to order paperbacks through them, though.
But I was only earning hundreds a year from my books, it's not like I knifed myself in my main money maker.

An Algolaser Pixi on a folding workbench in a backyard.

A bit of backyard burning earlier today. Luckily, I got everything back inside before it started raining.

I'm going to be honest, "The Pope vs. the President" feels like the kind of thing Dan Brown would exclaim as he sits bolt upright, ripped from sleep in the middle of the night.

Dad pun of the year so far, imo

Plus, I saw my first bumble bee of the year today, which may be related to the things blooming in the yard. So that's another reason to leave it in place.

Pretty white flowers in my back yard garden. Probably weeds, but I can't bring myself to pull them up.

This is thriving in my back yard garden, so it's probably a weed.
But it's so nice to see flowers that I'm not going to tear it out.

Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman’s Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto

Man Who Threw Molotov Cocktail At Sam Altman’s Home Claims He Was Following ChatGPT Recipe For Risotto theonion.com/man-who-threw-molotov-co...

A lot of Orbán's American fans are saying that this election proved he was never an authoritarian in the first place.

This is completely wrong — and, in fact, betrays a complete misunderstanding of both Hungarian politics and modern authoritarianism.

Here's why.

Gorton Monastery on a cloudy day.

I was wandering around the Monastery end of Gorton yesterday. Glorious building.

OO Gauge (1:76) Small Garden Pergola Laser cut from 1.6mm basswood and 270gsm craft card, this kit assembles into a decorative pergola with trellis on the sides. Perfect for adding character to gardens on your layout. To aid construction...

Latest product in the Spinneyworld store. A pergola for OO gauge gardens.
#modelrailway #OOgauge
spinneyworld.com/products/oo-...