Wednesday, June 12th, 2030 09:22 pm
The Mass Observation Project (MOP) is a unique UK-based writing project which has been running since 1981, and before that from the 1930s to the 1950s. Every year on 12th May, people not part of the project are asked to contribute a diary of their day to incorporate into the records.

I did that this year, along with a number of other people, and it was so interesting to see what everyone else did, thought I would try my own "mini" version of the Mass Observation Project, and post a monthly "Day in my life" post on the 12th of each month. Other LJers wanted to join in, and on 12th June 2013 a number of us posted our diary entries. But they were all in individual journals, and what was needed was to have them all in one place... and so this Community was born.

It is open to anyone, anywhere in the world, as long as they have an LJ and want to join in.

Membership is moderated, but posts aren't. If you would like to join, please send a message to the community

The rules are very basic:

1. A diary entry is kept for the 12th day of each month, either typed directly onto the pc or written down in a notebook and typed up and posted later.
2. Posts can be any length, but if you need to scroll down more than once, please put some of it behind a cut!
3. Pictures can be included, but please keep them to a reasonable size, and again, if more than one, behind a cut.
4. Each post should be tagged with your LJ name, the year and the month. i.e. hobbituk, 2013, June.

At the moment, the community is set up to be members only able to post and read, but this may change over time dependant on what the community members want to do. There may be polls...!
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Monday, October 13th, 2025 07:59 pm
but I'm not sure I like pink any better.

Maybe they could've eased us into it gradually, with purples?

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Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 10:41 pm
I fall very in the middle - I enjoyed it, probably won't read it again.

But - am I supposed to feel most sympathetic towards the Read more... )
Friday, October 17th, 2025 02:07 pm
These questions were originally suggested by [livejournal.com profile] sumrsue79.

1. How long ago did you join LJ (or DW)?

2. How did you find out about LJ (or DW)?

3. If someone introduced you to LJ (or DW), is s/he still on your friends list?

4. Have you introduced anyone to LJ (or DW)?

5. Is your LJ (or DW) public or friends only, and why?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
Sunday, October 12th, 2025 02:44 pm
I'm meh on the lyrics and music, but the video...! So here it is, with a couple of other videos that inexplicably got skipped last time I posted a lot of videos.

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Fate of Ophelia )

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Two covers of the same song )

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Guinea pigs exit and enter the tube )

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Ghost waltz )
Saturday, October 11th, 2025 07:31 pm
Also, another one of our furnace pipes has developed a leak. Every time we fix one, the next one goes. I've patched this one, so with any luck (and with our keeping the heat pretty low) it should last until we can call in a plumber.

(Does anybody know a plumber who will accept payment in semi-feral kittens? There's a batch around the corner, very adorable, very healthy, and willing to warm up to anybody who feeds them! They do need to be just a little bit neutered, defleaed, and probably dewormed as well, not to mention vaxxed, but that's surely no big deal for the right family! Actually, I think it's two litters, so that should be ample payment for a little bit of plumbing work.)

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Wednesday, October 15th, 2025 01:42 pm
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It was a dull day in London yesterday (15º/59ºF), as you can see from the skies as I walked across London Bridge to meet up with the other U3A members for a guided walk around the City of London.  Tower Bridge is in the background behind HMS Belfast (a floating museum). The ship with U-27 moored next to it is the Brazilian Navy training ship, which tours the world and always ends up in London in October with its cadets.

The walk was primarily to highlight the ties to black history in London, but we looked at much more than that as we walked around the tiny alleyways in the City. We ended up at the Guildhall Art Gallery to see a couple of their paintings at the end of the two-hour walk. More under the cut with photos of things that I found interesting.
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It was a thought-provoking walking tour and one I've been thinking about a lot since I got back home.
Friday, October 10th, 2025 02:10 pm
in the downstairs front hall. Hasn't worked in over a decade. Flip the switch, nothing happens.

I happened to be lying on the floor today when I saw....

Me: Huh. Hey, Jenn? Does that hall light have a pull cord?

Jenn: What? No, I don't think so.

Me: I'm looking right at it. You just can't see it because there's less than an inch of it left, right up against the ceiling.

After I sourced the stepladder and a new light bulb it turns out - the whole time, the only reason it didn't work was because the pull cord was set to off.

Welp, it's fixed now!

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Thursday, October 9th, 2025 11:55 am
Detectives from the vice squad
with weary sadistic eyes
spotting fairies.
Degenerates,
some folks say.

But God, Nature,
or somebody
made them that way.

Police lady or Lesbian
over there?
Where?


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This poem is brought to you by the NYHS exhibit on The Gay Harlem Renaissance, which you should definitely see if you're in the city. They have pay-as-you-wish admission every Friday from 5 - 8.

Also, I'm incrementing my Robert Moses counter up but only a little, because it was a complaint embedded in an exhibit about somebody else, but it was at the NYHS, so it doesn't really count. So it has now been one day since the last Robert Moses mention, but only kinda.
Saturday, October 11th, 2025 08:23 am
We are getting our ducks in a row to get started on renovating my room. I have packed down all the books and most of the loose objects. As part of the project Husband wants to chase some cables into the wall, so he's also been shopping for tools and equipment for that.

Me, I've been looking at finding a rug that I want to put under my desk, because I get chilly feet and I hate this plastic floor protector that always seems filthy no matter what I do. It's like it attracts dust and cat hair and refuses to let go. Ikea seems to have a good candidate in the colour and size that I want.

I have also been searching for curtain fabric. Because it's not a bedroom (normally), I don't have to worry too much about light exclusion, so I have allowed myself to be picky. And I am indeed very picky. Last year, while searching for curtain fabric for the bedroom, I came across some that I thought would be a really good choice, and I was sure I'd be able to find it again. Can I heck! I'm sure I was looking at the right shop, but either I'm conflating several patterns or they haven't got it anymore.

So yesterday I ended up just googling 'fabric shops' and started from the top. Eventually I got to one that said on it's front page, "We've got the things the others haven't got." I was starting to feel a bit cynical at that point, but fine, I'd have one more look before bedtime.

Two, maybe three candidates! They really DO have the stuff they others haven't! AND you could order swatches! None of the other shops seemed to do that that I could tell.
Tuesday, October 7th, 2025 04:35 pm
Nomnomnom )

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Monday, October 6th, 2025 02:38 pm
First, when I was pulling up my panties my thumbnail got stuck somehow on the cotton and ended up half ripped off - ouch! - in what is both the dumbest and most painful injury ever. Then the next day I managed to slip on some clothing on the floor and fall flat down on my face. Fortunately, I landed on my laundry, but still, I can take a hint. My own laundry wants me dead.

(I mentioned this to Jenn and she suggested that if I was wearing my panties they weren't laundry but simply clothing, but this obviously arrant nonsense. They weren't on my body yet, they were just halfway up my thighs, so they were still at least liminally laundry, caught in that weird spot of paradox in between Schrodinger's cat and Xeno's arrow. Also, the salient feature is that they were trying to kill me, not what arbitrary category they fall into while they do so!)

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Thursday, October 9th, 2025 03:18 pm
These questions were originally suggested by [livejournal.com profile] angelicid.

Name five…

1. ... things you can't live without.

2. ... of the best moments in your life.

3. ... celebrities you can't stand.

4. ... books you enjoy(ed) reading.

5. ... items in your purse/backpack/on your desk.

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
Wednesday, October 8th, 2025 09:57 am
Yesterday I went to the National Gallery in London to see their exhibition Radical Harmony: Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists.  Georges Seurat began a whole movement of painting by using small dots to create paintings back in the early 1880s. This style became known as Pointillism, and the movement was named Neo-Impressionism. It was considered radical and different at the time, and many other artists began to copy the style, including Van Gogh, Paul Signac, Anna Boch, Jan Toorop and Henri-Edmond Cross.

The National Gallery has brought together paintings collected by Helene Kröller-Müller (with a few collected by others), who founded the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. As one of the foremost women art patrons of the 20th century, her collection of Neo-Impressionism is one of the most extensive in the world.  Under the cut are many photos from the exhibition because this style fascinates me, and has been a huge influence on modern art today.

Teaser - one of my favourite paintings (usually displayed in the National Gallery as part of their permanent collection). Théo van Rysselberghe's Coastal Scene (1892) reminds me so much of living on the coast in Bergen, Norway, although this is likely painted in the Mediterranean.
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An interesting art movement and some lovely examples. The exhibition is on until February 2026.
Saturday, October 4th, 2025 03:33 pm
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.


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Thursday, October 2nd, 2025 09:32 am
And every once in a while I end up there during the morning rush, which I try to avoid, and find somebody else bitching about how they "always" mess up their order and "always" take forever.

This is true, by the way - or, maybe not literally always true, but frequently true - but all the same, every time I hear the incessant whining I want to turn around and say "You knew what it was like when you placed your order!"

It's not like they're the only place to get coffee and a breakfast sandwich that's not your own home. There are three corner stores, every once of which will be happy, or at least willing, to make your standing order every day or week or however often you like. There's McDonald's right there, there's Wendy's right there, there's a Dunkin Donuts on the boat and another one just down Bay a bit, if you drive. Or, as I said, you can go home and make your own coffee for faster and cheaper, but you didn't do that, so you can't really complain that you're getting exactly what you obviously expected!

(It is my lack of whining, I think, that always gets me out of there a smidge faster. Should they be more efficient? Should they make fewer mistakes? Should I be able to order a muffin without fear that it'll be a bit raw in the middle? Yes to all three, and I've stopped ordering muffins! But they're close and I don't have to cook it myself, and I imagine that's why everybody else is there, so whatever.)

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