vivdunstan: Photo from our wedding in Langholm (martin)
My husband’s birds list from his walk today. This is from his usual Saturday walk to the wooded river valley / old railway viaduct very near our home. I post this list every week on Facebook, but thought I'd post it here too today!

28 species seen, 3 species heard (including tawny owl at 12:50!), grey squirrel, bee heard

blackbird
blue tit
bullfinch
chaffinch
coal tit
collared dove
crow
dipper
dunnock
feral pigeon
goldfinch
great tit
grey heron
herring gull
house sparrow
jackdaw
long tailed tit
magpie
mallard
oyster catcher
robin
rook
song thrush
starling
stock dove
wood pigeon
wren
yellowhammer

grey wagtail heard
tawny owl heard
woodpecker heard

grey squirrel
bee heard
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
There's a viral message currently going round where people think they can object to Meta (e.g. Facebook and Instagram) using their content to train AI simply by posting a message in a post on their feed. This won't work. You have to formally object to Facebook using the correct process. Go to https://www.facebook.com/privacy/center and click the "object". Then you have a simple form you can "submit" to opt out. Make sure your Facebook and/or Instagram email address is listed there (it will be prefilled if you are logged in on the web browser). You can add a reason in the text box if you want. I put "I do not want any of my Facebook or Instagram data to be used to train generative AI. Please respect that." but it shouldn't be necessary. Key thing is to click "submit". You will get an email a few minutes later from Facebook/Meta saying you are opted out. This objection form used to be vastly harder to fill out. They have greatly simplified it. Please use this to opt out, not a fake viral message.
vivdunstan: Scene from The Greatest Enemy episode of Robin of Sherwood (robin of sherwood)
Last weekend there was a 40th anniversary Robin of Sherwood convention in Wales. Which I couldn't attend, but was able to follow to an extent through the Facebook group.

A number of the programmes and convention packs for attendees were left over at the end, and are being sold on. Fingers crossed I have managed to nab one.

And a number of dealers who were selling goods at the con are also selling some of their remaining stock. I have today ordered a couple of fridge magnets and a Hooded Bear from Artemis Creations in Birmingham. I shall of course call the bear Robin ...

I also have a crowdfunded new Robin of Sherwood graphic novel to enjoy, and look forward to reading the Look-In comic strips (which I think have now sold out on their second print run).
vivdunstan: Photo of my 72 bass accordion (accordion)
Just been chatting in the comments on my accordion tuner's Facebook page with someone who may have sold us one or more accordions at Clinkscales between 1976 and 1981, and also brought down my first accordion teacher from Lanarkshire to work in Melrose. Bill Sharp was my first accordion teacher when I was aged just 4 in 1976. And again later in the late 1980s before uni. Small world!

Mum loves to recall the story of little me in Melrose glued to the accordion shop's windows. And absolutely sure, though aged just 4, that I wanted one. And always going back to look in the window some more.
vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
I'm just pondering some ideas that I may expand into a full blog post on my academic blog for my musings. I wrote a similar blog post some years ago and it may be a good time for an update.

I'm off Twitter now. My account still exists, and hasn't been closed - I'm reluctant to wipe it or remove the tweets, for historical preservation (haha right, yup in Musk land!) reasons. But I never login, and my latest post says I'm basically off it now.

Facebook is for family and friends. Largely to keep in touch with Martin's close family and also lots of my friends. I also help fellow vasculitis patients from time to time in our Vasculitis UK support group there.

Dreamwidth is for a mix of more fan based posts (e.g. what I'm reading, watching etc, thoughts about Babylon 5) and a place I can vent some more private restricted stuff (including that I can't post wider e.g. on Facebook). Rather a curious mix! But it is working for me. I was on LiveJournal for many years before then.

Mastodon feels like a rather shaggy dog of a social network. I mean that as a compliment. It's rather anarchic and chaotic, but friendly, and I like to post lots of informal things there. It's also a bit of a vent for me. I'm less likely to post serious history stuff there than genealogy things and - and above all probably! - accordion stuff.

I'm newly on Bluesky. I was surprised to find so many familiar faces and friends there. I'm thinking it's probably going to be more somewhere where I engage with fellow academic historians - there are a *lot* of them on there. But my thoughts on that are still evolving. And it will need to open more widely to truly work.

I did try Threads but didn't get on with it - though my account still exists. It doesn't offer as much to me as Instagram and seems more like seeing people interact with famous people rather than wider engagement.

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vivdunstan: Part of own photo taken in local university botanic gardens. Tree trunks rise atmospherically, throwing shadows from the sun on the ground. (Default)
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