the-reading-lemon:GNU Terry Pratchettthe-pen-pot:GNU Terry Pratchettamemait:GNU Terry...

via https://ift.tt/2YdUbUW

the-reading-lemon:

GNU Terry Pratchett

the-pen-pot:

GNU Terry Pratchett

amemait:

GNU Terry Pratchett

botherbother-blog:

Soooo GNU Terry Pratchett

cheeseanonioncrisps:

For people who are wondering, it comes from the book Going Postal, one of the Discworld series.

The book features ‘the Clacks’ a sort of primitive telegraph system run from high towers that Terry Pratchett descibed as “sort of what the internet would be, if all you had was a lot of bits of string” (I’m paraphrasing here from what I remember from the intro to the film). Messages are sent from one tower to another using flashing lights in morse code, until they reach a tower within walking distance of the people they are meant for.

The people who own the business are so set on providing The Best (and most expensive) Service, that they refuse to stop the machinery so as to allow time for maintenance or proper breaks for the workers, leading to multiple people falling to their deaths due to exhaustion/poorly maintained towers. The actual plot of the book is about an ex-conman trying to rebuild the historic city post-office, so as to destroy the Clacks company’s monopoly on long distance communication.

Thing is, whenever a Clacks worker dies on the job, the Clacksmen (and women) have a tradition called 'sending home’, where the person’s name is sent through all the towers, ending at the one closest to their home. The exception is John Dearheart, the son of the man who invented the Clacks system originally (and then had it stolen from under his nose), whose death is rumoured to have been a murder at the hands of his employers.

His name is sent around along with the code 'GNU’, which is a signal to the Clacksworkers recieving it that they are meant to always send it on to the next tower, whatever happens. The idea is that, since a person is said to only truly die the last time their name is spoken, if John Dearheart’s name is constantly being 'spoken’ by the Clacks Tower mechanisms, then he’s not really dead.

After Sir Terry’s death, fans picked up the idea. GNU Terry Pratchett essentially just means 'remember Terry Pratchett’. You’re meant reply with the same, so as to ensure that the name never stops being spoken, and so he lives on.

knowledgefulbutterfly:

ok, but like what does it mean ?

glumshoe:

every few months someone explains to me what “GNU Terry Pratchett” means and then I immediately forget

it’s a vicious cycle
(Your picture was not posted)

Wear a damn mask

via https://ift.tt/31aW5YD

porterdavis:

Mask up, folks!

I did this photo for theleavenkc of a choir director singing, to show why churches aren’t allowing song at services. This was her singing after about a ½ hour of us talking and setting up, so she hadn’t had anything to drink for at least 30 minutes. I did some pictures of her talking in German before the singing, so I could be sure to see spittle fly, as I was working on my lighting. So even if you’re not singing around your friends or even speaking German, the English hard D, G & T will still make this happen. Mask up when you’re out — do it for those around you, and remember that they are doing it for you.
Mask up because you might be an asympomatic carrier and you’re spreading it to others without knowing it, just by talking, singing or breathing.

Edited to add a link to the story from The Leaven: http://theleaven.org/singing-restricted-to-stop-spread-of-virus-protect-parishioners/

Edited to add some info about the photo:
For this shot, I needed to backlight Mary Jo, to best show what comes out of her mouth when singing. A backlight with a dark background helps the spray to be seen effectively. I positioned a strobe under and behind her, about 10 feet away and a bit to my left. It lights the subject fairly unevenly, which is why Mary Jo is bright on her left side and not as bright on the her right side of her face. But there was enough bounce and ambient light to light her on her right side, that it worked. That’s why I shot at a high ISO, to capture ambient and bounce light.

Shot on a Canon 5DIV 1000 ISO at 1/200 f/2.8 with a 70-200 lens at 145mm.

I also lit and shot this in such a way that I could be socially distanced.

Photo ©Doug Hesse/Kdog PHOTO
(Your picture was not posted)

silentauroriamthereal:This, so much. And no matter what you accomplish personally or professionally.

via https://ift.tt/2AV7ssP

silentauroriamthereal:

This, so much. And no matter what you accomplish personally or professionally in any other way, no one will ever give you an entire house’s worth of fancy new kitchen things. Yeah, I’m salty about it.

aviss:

One thing that pisses me off a lot is the fact that the world is not made for single people. Ignore the fact that everyone and their dogs think it’s wrong not to want a partner, I’m talking about practical things.

I’m talking about rent and mortgage in a city like London with only one salary. Yes, it’s exactly as hard as you can imagine. Not easy on a single salary unless you’re senior management level, want to commute two hours each day, or you are lucky enough to have your landlady be your best friend. Or you don’t mind living in a shoebox pretending to be a studio. Otherwise, you’ll be in a shared house.

I’m talking about holiday and travel, where either you go to hostel dorms of pay double price for a room in most hotels. And there are no packages for one, or barely any, and they are in singles holidays where the objective is not so much travel but stop being single.

I’m talking about doing shopping and producing more food waste than I’m comfortable with because everything comes in bigger portions than one person can reasonably eat. Even with freezing more than half of everything there will still be something that goes off because you were too slow to eat it if you do shopping once a week. Or you have to go shopping every couple of days and eat the same those two days.

It’s not enough to have all media telling you you’re wrong for not wanting a relationship, the entire world will try to push you into forming one by making it too expensive to be single.
(Your picture was not posted)

pilferingapples: taksez: pilferingapples: A Midsummer

via https://ift.tt/2Nc3M8x

pilferingapples:

taksez:

pilferingapples:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013) for Free | Globe Player | Shakespeare’s…

The Globe is showing that  production of Midsummer Night’s Dream for free on Youtube until June 28!  

…THAT scene is around 1:16, btw. If you’re looking. 

My god, I’m not even 3 minutes in and I want to eat this whole.

:D It’s a really good production! I hope lots of people get to see it from this!

I watched this when it premiered a few days ago and it was SO delightful. Not just the Puck/Oberon (though that was delicious) but Bottom and the Mechanicals had me roaring with laughter. 
(Your picture was not posted)

asparklethatisblue: captainclickycat: jupitermelichios: Something I feel like the non-British...

via https://ift.tt/3dfHSMb

asparklethatisblue:

captainclickycat:

jupitermelichios:

Something I feel like the non-British parts of the good omens fandom would be interested to know is that those descriptions of Aziraphale’s shop, about how he almost never opens and tries to avoid selling anything, that’s not something that’s unique to him. That’s just a thing here.

There’s an instrument maker in the town where my mum lives. He makes amazing violins and cellos. In the decade my mum has lived there I’ve seen the shop open twice. I went in, out of interested, the second time I saw it open. There was no one behind the desk but there was a sign that said “If you’re not serious about buying, go away”. (So I did).

We went to Haye on Wye for my dad’s birthday one year. It’s a town on the Welsh border that’s famous for being full of second hand book shops. Like, it’s 70% bookshops. We went on a Saturday, at the height of tourist season. We were there an entire day. A good half the shops didn’t open once.

I sort of assumed every country had these, but I’m gathering from a lot of what I’m seen from the American fans that shops that don’t ever actually open aren’t really a thing over there, and I thought you guys would be interested to know that we have them, and no one who grew up anywhere near one thinks anything of it.

In my Welsh uni town nobody would’ve batted an eyelid at an old bookshop with weird erratic hours, a proprietor who’s reluctant to actually sell anything, and a snake occasionally roaming around. That would have been one of the less noticeable ones.

There was one craft shop where a spaniel manned the till.

There’s an art supply shop here which you can only enter by walking into a butcher’s shop and going all the way through it… weird little shops just… exist

I used to live round the corner from an old record shop. The shop was literally piled high with clear plastic tubs filled with cds and records. No system - the owner knew where everything was. He would sit in the doorway in a folding chair, and you could really only buy something if you knew what you wanted. You’d tell him, and he’d go and find it. He didn’t like people browsing (even if you COULD get in the door). 

That is, of course, when he’d decided to open. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to his opening hours. 
(Your picture was not posted)