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AgentPete

AgentPete

Guardian Platform Plus+
Capo Famiglia From London UK
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  • AgentPete
    United-Nations
    I’ve mentioned this a few times, but it bears repeating: “Training artificial intelligence (AI) models on AI-generated text quickly leads to the models churning out nonsense”. It’s death by iteration! Make no mistake - “they” need “us” more than “we” need “them”
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Want to encourage everyone to post their most iconic book jackets in our new Galleries section. And please comment on others' posts there!
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    MattScho
    MattScho
    I think I did it wrong, but Catch-22 is now on that page
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    Look forward to trying this. As soon as my brain stops reeling. All the visitors have left and suddenly it's just my husband, 18 horses, 4 dogs, 4 geese, 2 cats and a baby mule. Very quiet. However the little Molly has started making noises that could be sold to a sound director for a horror movie.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    It's Pirate Weekend in Hastings - going for the world record. Will keep you posted :)
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    There’s a homeless guy down the road from here, I chat to him most mornings as we go in for an early-morning espresso. This morning, he offered me a tenner to buy a coffee! So here’s the question – would you take it?
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    Hannah Faoileán
    Hannah Faoileán
    I would thank him profusely for the offer, but I wouldn't take it.
    Or I'd take it, go in, buy him a hot choc and ask the staff for an envelope. I'd give him the hot choc and the envelope and walk away before he gets the chance to open it - and find the tenner.
    AgentPete
    AgentPete
    OK, so a diversity of views… which is exactly what I felt at the time.
    So this is what I did: I took the tenner. He wanted to buy me a drink – I appreciated it. A simple human interaction. Made him feel good, I hope, a bit. Could he afford it? I really doubt it. Does it obligate me towards him? Well, I don’t feel obligated.
    He got himself in a mess, literally, a few days ago. I gave him some clean (but used) underwear. Maybe the tenner was a thank-you. Yesterday, he was sprawled unconscious most of the time, it seemed. Who knows how long he’ll be around.
    It just felt like a small piece of “normality”, buying me a coffee, in a life that is certainly tenuous and anything but “normal”.
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    I think it was the right choice. What is more human than chosing to repay a kindness with a kindness, given the opportunity. I say it restored his dignity- as far as possible.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    So there’s a mystery in our new house. There’s some extremely old concrete at the top of the garden, early Victorian, made with pebbles from the beach. Someone made a huge slab of it, about 8 feet square. Underneath, I can see a sort of tunnel. But why is it there? And - should I try to remove it?
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    Rachel Caldecott
    Rachel Caldecott
    You should investigate (it sounds like fun), but as you say, 'treat it with respect' and go carefully. I pray it isn't a mineshaft.
    We found a strange stone slab buried under the earthen floor of our house. Lifted it up to find a stone-lined chamber. Our builder got excited and stuck his hand in to investigate. He pulled out what looked like a rib bone. Chris and I got very excited until he told us it was probably a rabbit bone. After more exploration, he found small tunnels (also stone-lined) leading off the chamber. In France, people kept rabbits for food, just as they did pigeons so this was probably just a rabbit-run. Mind you, we had already found an ancient épée and an old spoon buried under another part of the floor. But, in a house on the other side of the river, the owners found an entire body of a Napoleonic-era soldier, walled up, and someone else found gold coins! I'm not at all envious, really I'm not.
    Bloo
    Bloo
    Old septic system ?
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    How early Victorian? Smugglers. I like Katie Ellen's idea of the dowser. Also he may even know the history because they tend to be old local families and not blow ins. But I'd send in a camera like they use for warrens and septic systems. Surely you have one in your arsenal of gadgets. Or you can put one on your amazon wish list.

    I hate concrete. We broke up so much here. My choice is recycled plastic grids. You can fill with sand and plant it with something to cover or find a crushable gravel. The best solution for mud.

    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Cox update. 2 months in, boxes mostly still resolutely packed. Removed old cooker, found damp everywhere. Kitchen now hacked back to the bare bricks inside and out. New window just gone in to replace old (rotten) one. Ceiling comes down next week. Bathroom floor rotten, water disconnected. On the plus side, a robin flew into my study today, had a nice long chat, then popped out again. Restored my sanity.
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    Ed Simnett
    Ed Simnett
    In the US they like to talk about homes having "good bones". Sadly it doesn't sound like you have even that... gl!
    Sedayne
    Sedayne
    The robin knows something about architecture from his nest-building days. I hope he had some good advice.
    AgentPete
    AgentPete
    We were deceived at every possible opportunity, and our surveyor did a really crap job. However…
    It’s just taking longer, and costing more, than expected. Plus we feel really weary of this whole ******* process… I just want a functioning home again!
    And I still really love the place, it has a wonderful vibe.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    One more journey round the Sun begins... :) :)
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    Claire G
    Claire G
    Happy birthday! xx
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    Fecilitations on this your natal day. Ruiochi Sakamoto died this year. He hung out at a bar I frequented in Tokyo, Le Chat Noir. A little present to have a with vegan afternoon tea.
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    My first year there Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence was big.
    Bloo
    Bloo
    I never saw the movie or heard the soundtrack (until now) However, I remember a song in the early 90s...

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    I bought the 12-inch "Froggy Mix" in '90. I wish I still had that record.

    A couple of years ago, I sent an e-mail to his website asking permission to use a few lines of the song in my novel...

    You...do...me...
    Anyone with eyes can see.
    I...do...you...
    Everybody knows it's true.    ​

    I never got a response. Mr. Sakamoto had more important things on his mind.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Amazing day on Saturday. Heard - and saw - a wren in the morning. Piercingly beautiful song! In the afternoon, Peg asked me which animal terrified me - really only one, the slow worm, last seen when I was four, traumatized. And what did I encounter in the garden that evening? A slow worm! We made up, long time coming.
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    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    A newt by any another name-should be called a newt. As long as it's got eyes and a mouth I'm on board. Especially since I just read up on gizzard worms that kill baby geese. You do NOT want to know.

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    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    I love that Gussie became mayor of London. Wodehouse could be credited with single-handedly preventing revolution in England.
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    AgentPete
    AgentPete
    Fyi, Angie the slow-worm is now a daily visitor. “Angie” from Anguis fragilis. She slithers down into the back yard for some afternoon sun, then I pick her up and plonk her further up the hill again. I think she likes it...
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Merciful heavens, the water is back on :) Living without running water is incredibly difficult.
    Even my vegan fish seem relieved :)
    Some of whom have with me 25+ years
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    AgentPete
    AgentPete
    So, I have to tell you about fish sex.
    It’s amazingly diverse, varies greatly by species. Creatively, it puts humans to shame.
    For my South American vegans, it’s the males (with barbels) who do the grunt work.
    Males compete to dig attractive trenches for the females. This means that the landscape of the tank changes night by night.
    When she finds a burrow she likes, eggs get laid. Then she’s off, the little minx, to look for trenches afresh.
    Meanwhile, daddy moves in, starts fanning the eggs (which prevents mould) for days and days. Youngsters emerge, still looked after by stay-at-home dad.
    They swim as per normal mid-water fish for a bit, before deciding that it’s all too much and opting for la vie troglodytique...
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    Ah there's the fleshy tentacles. And I've always been a sucker for attractive trench work. Who can blame the ladies. Your descriptive piece suggests there is a latent book about la vie troglydytique.

    Long may the water flow. And those that privatised it burn in hell.
    Terry Lowell
    Terry Lowell
    Fish don't touch during sex. Hence the saying - poor old Sole.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    No water since Thursday for many people here in Hastings area. No sanitation, no washing up, businesses closed, long traffic jams for water distribution points (no car? forget it). This is Southern Water at it’s chaotic finest, a rerun of what they did to neighbouring Rye last year. How on earth did we agree to privatise this so-obviously public utility?
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    Ed Simnett
    Ed Simnett
    I don't think you understand- as long as the dividends keep flowing (pun intended) all is good...
    AgentPete
    AgentPete
    Yup. Or as someone remarked only the other day, it’s only wrong for the Uk govt to own UK public services… whereas it’s perfectly OK for foreign govts to own UK public services…
    Ed Simnett
    Ed Simnett
    That's a very profound point. Thatcher would have been horrified to learn that the UK privatized industries were owned by foreign governments, who use the profits from the UK not to pay to financial shareholders (market discipline!), but to, in essence, subsidize their own country's service (socialism!)
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Decayed alien mural in Warminster car park. Alien, left, literary agent, right.
    I read a book about Warminster’s space visitors, “The Warminster Mystery” when I was ten. That’s what propelled us here 18 months ago: childhood curiosity.
    I found no trace of aliens.
    Just as well.
    Instead, I found a mystical landscape as wild and unsettling as anything Lovecraft could conjecture.
    And people whose wit, kindness and generosity is as boundless as space itself.
    :) p.
    alien.jpg
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Warminster's Mors Janua Vitae, Death the Door to Life. A Christian message of hope, or possibly a whisper of something far older. The ancient ones are never far away in fierce, perplexing, bawdy and bewitching Wiltshire.
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    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    I never knew what these spring wreaths really meant, nor would I necessarily have been told: at least, not told the truth, whatever that is.
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    mickleinapickle
    mickleinapickle
    I mean the lavender in the green pot.
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    I know mickle. But that kind of lavender needs a French climate. It's probably had too much water and too little sun. I've give up growing it in Ireland. Augustifloria Munstead all the way. English lavender.

    My comment was on the very old wisteria because there is nothing like it when it blooms. If only I had one growing around my doorway but not near my septic.
    mickleinapickle
    mickleinapickle
    Wisteria is glorious @Pamela Jo. We had one scrambling above the downstairs front window before we moved. It was only about 3 years old, and just about to conquer the world. The young couple who bought the house promptly chopped it down. The dirty rotten scoundrels!

    Here in the retirement complex, an old bloke had one in a pot for about 5 years. He's too infirm now, so I've inherited it. It's starved and stunted, and may never recover. I've planted it in the ground next to a wooden panelled fence. Hoping for the best.

    Interesting posts by BIG Pete. I do like photos and snippets about pagan thingamybobs and suchlike.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Yesterday was Fish Transport Day, a Colony of 30 Golden Ancistrus some 25 years old. Pleased to say all now happy in Hastings, no casualties.
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    Jonny
    Jonny
    Hope the little wrigglers made it safely. You'll need to keep an eye on them as now they are next the sea they could be plotting a great escape.
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    " The feature most commonly associated with the genus are the fleshy tentacles found on the head in adult males; females may possess tentacles along the snout margin but they are smaller and they lack tentacles on the head"

    You had me at "fleshy tentacles." I could not believe they lived to be 25 years. Ancistrus - Wikipedia. So far the only thing I've kept alive that long are my sons.
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    "now they are next to the sea they could be plotting a great escape."



    On little aquatic motorcycles they steer with their fleshy tentacles
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Just a few more days of chaos, but expecting to be back at this week’s Huddle on Saturday! Focus at the moment is on closing down things in Warminster, will be doing two return trips there from Hastings before the weekend… and kipping on the floor in a sleeping bag! Roll on Saturday.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Same boxes, different place :) Apparently I'm an undiagnosed pack-rat...
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    mickleinapickle
    mickleinapickle
    E G Logan
    E G Logan
    Watch out, @AgentPete - you'll be surprised how easy it is to become 'box-blind'.

    The trick (ha! I wish I could always do it) is to not let a day pass without taking something out of a box. Ideally emptying it. Otherwise they just sit there, gathering cat/dog hair, dust and general fluff.
    I've just counted: 24, opened and partly-full – and they've been there since the end of January. Mind you, there were even more then.
    Peyton Stafford
    Peyton Stafford
    Looks OK to me. House in order. Boxes stacked for the next move. What's the problem? You should see the boxes of books where I live...
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Exhausting day, and two more coming up, but here's a summary so far.
    Completed the purchase yesterday. Traveled down to Hastings for electricity and gas visits this morning. Both need a lot more work than expected, ouch.
    But no complaints from me. The place has bags of character. Very warm vibes.
    The best news so far is that the internet gear was ready waiting for me to hook up and it worked flawlessly. Disaster scenario would have involved getting BT to send engineers, literally taking weeks until everything working properly. But that's avoided. Next step will be this weekend when the rest of the network stuff, computers etc are here and hopefully reassembled. For the moment just getting by with my cellphone.
    Getting back very late tonight to Warminster for an early load-up tomorrow...
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Just completed on the house :)

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    Peyton Stafford
    Peyton Stafford
    You Brits amaze me, how you live in government-supported anarchy. Something like the Southern States here. So glad you got a home. If anyone deserves peace and stability, that one is you, because you bring it to so many of us. Thank you..
    Rich.
    Rich.
    Congratulations, Pete, wonderful news! :dizzy:
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    done the lord of the rings GIF
    Now you only have to save the Shire.
    AgentPete
    United-Nations
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    AgentPete
    United-Nations
    Back from coffee this morning to find this guest sitting outside the door. Very tame. But what is it…?
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    Hannah Faoileán
    Hannah Faoileán
    It's definitely a rather battered red kite. Here in Scotland, they're a rare sight round where I live, more in Stirlingshire and further north. There are loads of red kites in the South of England though. Up here, I see buzzards pretty much every day and kestrels most days. I love birds of prey - they are magnificent.
    E G Logan
    E G Logan
    I don't think it's so much tame as just hasn't learned yet to fear humans. Unless it was hand-reared by someone...

    I saw our stork/heron (you pays your money...) again last week by the river. It's a seriously tall bird. I don't see how it's going to find any fish unless they fall out of the sky – the river is full of nothing but rain water.
    Pamela Jo
    Pamela Jo
    EG a woman who lives in a town the County over started feeding raw chicken to a heron. It now stops in for coffee and raw chicken on a daily basis.
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