@Funktious@mastodon.scot
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Funktious

@Funktious@mastodon.scot

Former Midlander, Londoner, East Anglian; currently Glaswegian. Librarian, feminist, knitter, beginner potter-er and Remainer / Rejoiner. Member of the Guardian reading, tofu eating, wokerati. Unbalanced duck fanatic.

Mostly post about books, birds, cats, #Glasgow and Scotland.

Love boosting the many beautiful photos I see here, but only those with alt text.

Just my toots: https://justmytoots.com/@funktious@mastodon.scot

#Knitting #Reading #Books #Bookstodon #Glasgow #Cats #Gaming #Pottery

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Funktious, to glasgow
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Went to get a better view of Bella #TheBeithir, now she's been unveiled.

Absolutely fantastic mosaic work and she really works in the setting. Lots of people stopping to look, take photos and look up the tile making workshops.

Just lovely to see such a massive artwork in such a local setting. Scottish Canals have done a great job with the whole project.

#Glasgow #Scotland

View of the Beithir from the view point at the top of the park showing her in her very urban setting with the canal behind her and warehouse roofs beyond. To the very far left you can make out the Glasgow University Tower.
Side on view of the Beithir, showing her serpentine profile
View of the Beithir from the far side of the canal, showing her in situ over the canal

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
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Today's view across Glasgow and beyond from the flagpole in Queen's Park on the Southside of the city, with the slightest dusting of snow just visible on the highest parts of the Campsies.

Funktious,
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@thisismyglasgow Thank you for a Queens Park view that doesn't have Ben Lomond looming over the city in some weird hyper zoom lens craziness! Nice to see the view as it actually is!

Funktious, to random
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Oh bless, Scottish canals, I hope this works but I have my doubts...

Funktious, to random
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Spot the squirrel!

(It's easy to see red squirrels in Aberfoyle - there's a wildlife hide where they put nuts out for them - so it's a lot more satisfying when you spot them in the wild!)

thisismyglasgow, to glasgow
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Looking down a snow-covered Ben Vane in the Arrochar Alps today to Loch Lomond and across to Loch Arklet and then a distant Loch Katrine, the source of Glasgow's water suppy since the 1850s.

Funktious,
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@thisismyglasgow wow, gorgeous photo and a stunning perspective!

Funktious, to random
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Baking. Trying, as always, to resist just stopping at this point and eating it with a spoon.

Funktious,
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I resisted!

Funktious, to random
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#FensterFreitag #IsleOfMull

Funktious, to Bloomscrolling
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Finally, FINALLY some sun for my daily walk, so specifically aimed for this corner of the Botanics to see what was happening and voila, a carpet of magic!

#bloomscrolling

Funktious, to random
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Funktious, to books
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And, in my ongoing efforts to visit all the indie bookshops in Edinburgh, I got this wee stack from Transreal Fiction near the National Museum which specialises in SFF. Some good imports which you don't normally see but not cheap as a result! I'll definitely revisit.

kimlockhartga, to bookstodon
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@bookstodon What's your favorite book title, whether you've read it or not?

Mine is EVERYONE ON THE MOON IS ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL, by Julian K. Jarboe, which I have not yet read, followed closely by THEY DON'T MAKE PLUS SIZE SPACESUITS, by Ali Thompson, which I have read.

Funktious,
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@kimlockhartga @bookstodon Oooh, I love this. Some of mine are

Look to Windward
To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman
If On a Winters Night A Traveller
A Canticle for Leibowitz
A Night in the Lonesome October
The Left Hand of Darkness

And all the Tiffany Aching books especially Wintersmith, A Hat Full of Sky and I Shall Wear Midnight.

Funktious, to random
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Funktious, to random
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I hope the arsehole that stole a great big heavy box of our doorstep enjoys the large amount of cat food they found it.

I really hope they tore it into with great excitement, imagining multiple games consoles, only to find 12 boxes of fish flavoured renal care cat food.

Absolute bastards.

Funktious,
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So in the world’s most surprising update ever…. THE CAT FOOD WAS RETURNED!!! Woke up this morning to the opened box at the bottom of our steps.

I guess some thieves do have lines? And stealing medicated cat food out of the mouths of cats with rubbish kidneys is one of them?

!

me, to fediverse
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I'm trying to convince the last friends I have left on Facebook, X, Threads, or BlueSky to join the Fediverse. Some have tried but felt a sense of loneliness. Nowadays, many people are so used to doing what algorithms suggest that they can no longer make independent choices.
My timeline here, on the other hand, is beautiful.
I see what I want, I follow people who post what I like, and no one tells me what I should do. Freedom may come with a "cost," but whatever it is, it's worth the effort. Always.

Funktious,
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@ravenbait @patrickhadfield @me good to know - this is the impression I got of it and I chose not to go there so as not to split my attention and focus on one place (I don’t need this for work, it’s purely social for me!) Just sounds like lots of people fighting to get clout and clicks and attention.

Funktious,
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@ravenbait @patrickhadfield @me it sounds like the passivity of Twitter just moved there - my last couple of years on Twitter I got so little engagement, even from people I knew IRL, that it was refreshing to come here and actually get replies and likes from friendly strangers! It feels like a proper community is slowly growing here and I love that.

Funktious,
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@gvenema @me exactly this - people would say ‘it’s so quiet here' and they’d only be following 20 people. It took work to build what I have now but I’m glad I did. I do miss the people who didn’t stay though. I’m still angry at Musk for fracturing our communities like this.

Funktious,
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@Marie_Ranquet @miblo @me It's really interesting, and I'm looking forward to someone writing a social history of all this! I've been online since the late 90s, but I was a teen then, and a shy, nervous one at that so I was very much a lurker and still tend to be. As social media grew I grew more confident posting, but I still tend to hold back more than I post. And a lot of my friends from twitter were from the same generation as me.

Funktious, to books
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Lazy New Year's Day = first book read of 2024!

I've been looking forward to this one and wasn't disappointed. It wasn't quite a five star read, but a solid four star bath read. Uplifting story, lovely characters, and of course, a fantastically snarky octopus who is the best part of the whole book; I loved him.

If only we all had smart, snarky octopi to solve our problems.

Funktious,
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A must read for anyone whose interested in decolonizing the curriculum!

Not perfect, falls off a bit in the second half and relies on some very roughly sketched characters who could have been rounded out earlier.

But the world building is fantastic, the magic system is cool (if more Norrellian than Strangeite and I love you if you get what I mean) and it really makes you think. Letty especially is a challenge for many of us well meaning white women.

Funktious,
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Do we see patterns in chaos because there is a system behind it all, or because our brains are attuned to finding patterns?

Huge in scope covering several countries, family relationships, nature vs nature, the end of the world, neuroscience and a very moral monkey, this is a very cleverly written but very dense novel that ended up being a bit of a slog.

The translation is excellent and the prose sparkles, but it needs concentration.

Funktious,
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I have apparently been so battered by the last 13 years* of everything that I was unable to read this heartwarming tale of an elderly curmudgeon and the community that forms around him as anything other than a libertarian wet dream, or Ron Swanson's ideal society.

Which is a shame as several people I like and respect loved this, so this is probably a ME problem.

(* David Cameron was elected in 2010 - can you even believe it?!)

Funktious,
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You don't need me to tell you that this book is superb, but it's my book thread so I'll do so anyway - this book is superb!

A meandering meditation on the essentially ephemeral nature of our cultures and creations. Things we hold dear for decades, centuries even that then cease to exist or even matter. Could be depressing, but I didn't find it so. Could be boring, but I was riveted and will come back to it over and over.

Funktious,
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As alternate Londons go, this one is fab - very dark and creepy with fantastic ideas and imagery. Literal knuckleheads! An enchanted tattoo! The embassy of the sea!

Sadly the pacing made getting into it a huge challenge as after an initial flurry of plot, bugger all happens for 100 pages. And it's hard to stuck with it for the mostly underdeveloped characters either. When the story gets going though, its good!

In a nutshell: more vibes than plot, but the vibes are great!

Funktious,
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A beautiful and sad read, this. I could call it a Catholic 'Cider With Rosie' with extra generational trauma but that would be too glib. A sensitive exploration of a boy coming to terms with his family's, and his country's, tragic history.

If you love #DerryGirls you should read this as a background to the city, and to Granda Joe's possible past. It makes his remark about "ghost stories" in the finale even more poignant.

#books #bookstodon

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