Campervan Conversion and breaking my wrist at a festival - Jul 2025
The campervan conversion hit some unexpected difficultiesbut worked well enough to get me to Good Vibrations Societyfestival where I was entranced by a harpist and then broke my wrist.
Two days at a festival and a drive home with a fractured fibula
Me
Campervan Conversion
I deconstructed the temporary half arsed shoddy micro-campervan conversion.
Emptied it out, ready for the professionals to do the fully-arsed non-shoddy permanent conversion over a couple of weeks.
Then fun things. The day after I dropped it off he tells me a medical crisis is gonna stop him being able to do the work.
Later find out that now he’s over 50 he decided to go on a health kick, and only drink distilled water.
🤦
So he ended up flushing all the electrolytes out of his system and having a nervous system crisis the week he was supposed to be working on my van.
😆
Consult your doctors about your health-kicks people!
He managed to fit a kit thing, rather than do the custom job. Seems possible that will be enough and it won’t be rescheduled, but live in it a bit first to find out.
Managed to sleep in it okay, even poorly parked on a slope and with a fractured wrist.
Stewart Lee
Went out to see Stewart Lee doing his “Man Wulf” show at the Royal Festival hall. Huge place. Ginormous! Easily the biggest place I’ve ever seen him perform.
He mocks the 60 million dollar netflix special offensive comedians doing their skits about how they’re not allowed to say stuff, while actually saying the stuff they say you’re not allowed to say and suffering nothing but millions of dollars for it.
There are things you’re actually not allowed to say this month of course. But they will not say the things that can get you 14 years in jail: like pointing out the government’s collaboration in a genocide and supporting those who oppose it.
The man wulf just mocks the weak instead.
And Stew does too, while by mocking the wolf inside him showing he could be them. Sort of. Only he can’t, because even though it’s enjoyable and funny and easy to deconstruct, it’s still fundamentally inane.
Stew’s voice and accents and singing and impersonations have improved considerably!
Great costume. See the show if you can.
Improv
Went to see a Hoopla improv show at The Bell, a mix of half a dozen different groups doing different things.
“Shuffle improv” were basing their scenes on a shuffled playlist built by the audience on the way in.
An interesting format from a improv-as-a-second-language group chatting about their experiences in a foreign land and basing their scenes off it. Lots of stuff about cooking and food.
The group called “twelve people” only had six but were goodchaotic fun.
I found myself pondering the optimum size for an improve group.
In general the larger groups seemed more fun to me, with the exception of three-person “burn the script” who did excellent work.
More than eight wouldn’t fit in the tiny stage at that venue. In rehearsal I like to have the group split in half and perform for each other. Hard to do that with fewer than six. Still up in the air if our group will get off the ground or not. More people does mean more calendar clashes even if it makes for a cheaper-per-person room hire.
Everyone has instagram pages, which are no use to me. Won’t link or visit there. Interesting that nobody has a Twitter profile any more and of course nobody seems to have just a damned website which still strikes me as madness. Imagine not wanting to own your own space on the web?
Good Vibrations Society
Had a great time at Good Vibrations Society this weekend.
First act I saw was the most entrancing. Rozsa stroking a harp and singing angelically with a backing track. She was great.
The North London Gospel Choir doing Graceland was pretty cool. They got some mad energy, all those gospel synced dance moves. Lovely to hear that album in a new way.
Enjoyed the Gentlemen Dub Club and Riot Jazz and So Solid Crew. Watched a nice sunset at camp.
Lovely small site, great crowd. Hung with some friends and met old ones I hadn’t seen for years.
Also tripped over a guy rope in the dark on the first night and hurt my wrist pretty bad.
Walked away after a moment on the floor assessing damage but visited the medical tent. My wrist swelled up so much the next day I had to have my wristband replaced.
Drive home somewhat more perilous as a result. Thank goodness for automatic gear boxes.
Later went to the A&E for what I assumed was a purely precautionary visit that just wastes everyone’s time but apparently not. Fractured bones. Plaster-cast for a couple of weeks. The whole bit.
There go a couple of weeks worth of summer plans.
Can’t work or play piano for a couple of weeks.
So tell me, what’s good and really long with many seasons that I haven’t seen? Haven’t seen much on Apple TV I guess, or HBO.
Or anyone know of a great VR game that can be played without a left hand? No handed games?
Online Safety Act
So in theory today is the day when all the sites have to try and get their UK users to verify their age.
Which is mostly done by verifying their ID.
I expect the kids will have little trouble figuring out a way around this.
The boomers will have more trouble though. Expecting calls from my folks asking what’s going on and if they really have to scan their face and indeed how to do that and probably giving up and just not using the thing.
I’ll just be not using the things which demand it in general.
About the only upside in all this is it might get the boomers off of Facebook I guess.
Age verification via uploading ID or face-scan or credit-card coming to UK Bluesky users.
I will be doing none of these things, obviously.
Apparently they’re gonna block DMs and “adult” content somehow for people who nope out of such things. Interesting that they think that will be okay by the law.
Releases
Wordcloud Tarot
Palestine Action
By the Fifteenth of July 2025, nearly a hundred peaceful protestors have been arrested in the UK for holding up protest signs!
What the fuck?
I did a five minute tarot reading to figure out what the hell is going on with the oppressive authoritarian regime now ruling the UK.
https://wordcloudtarot.com/readings/2025-07-15-palestineaction/
Reading
Outland
Read “Outland” by Dennis E Taylor, book one of the Quantum Earth series in which some college students figure out how to make a portal to parallell Earths just in time for their Earth Prime to suffer a supervolcano.
Taylor is pretty good at this stuff, loved his Bobiverse books.
Story was always progressing, even if it sometimes seemed to progress too slowly. Everyone’s hip with all the literature so are comparing their situation to movies and TV shows all the time. Realistic cat-herding difficulties as they try and save as many people as they can and slowly realize that none of them will be going home and their home is doomed.
Looking forward to the next one.
Watching
Watched all of “Ghosts US”, the American version of the UK spooky sit-com.
There’s like seventy episodes that I watched in less than a week.
This is how I like telly to be. Relentless.
The show’s weaker than the UK one in some ways but that shear continuity, the endless-seeming perpetuity of it, drove it into my brain.
US Ghosts are always trying to cop off with each other. Sexy ghosts. Pairing up. Don’t remember much of that in the UK one. Perhaps when you make it 5x longer you’re left with little else in the way of story to write.
Anyway, it’s over now. I miss it in the way you might miss an infuriating neighbour if they moved out.
Links
Palestine Action
The implications of this collapse are profound for international, regional and even domestic politics. Political dissent is repressed, political language is policed, and traditionally liberal societies are increasingly militarized against their own citizens.
Millions of people are aware that their government has facilitated a grave crime, and to protect themselves from scrutiny and accountability, the powers that be must silence those challenging the crime. Democracy becomes ever more imperilled.
Remember: it is an offence to show support for Palestine Action, which is deemed legally equivalent to al-Qaida and IS. If that law is broken, prison awaits. The proscribed organisation promotes civil disobedience and non-violent direct action in protest at genocide. This column has been checked over with that in mind. Ask yourself if this is normal in a self-described democracy. Then ask yourself searching questions about where this is all headed.
Online Safety Act
Let’s be crystal clear about what this law actually accomplishes: It makes it harder for adults to access perfectly legal (and often helpful) information and services. It forces people to create detailed trails of their online activity linked to their real identities. It drives users toward less secure platforms and services. It destroys small online communities that can’t afford compliance costs. And it teaches an entire generation that bypassing government surveillance is a basic life skill."
Consciousness
Scott reviews a series of blogs about the nature of consciousness and self. The homunculus model in which the brain models itself as having a central decider making decisions is no more valid than one in which it models itself as being in the control of a hypnotist or god.
Telescope Images
The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory on Cerro Pachón in Chile has started to repeatedly scan the sky.
Some of it’s first images are available now
Lots of galaxies up there eh?
Language Video
Nice 20 minute history of the English language. How is it that the King James Bible is translated into “english” if so many of the words in it weren’t english words till it was written?
🤔
Many Worlds Video
Kurzgesagt video about the quantum immortality paradox. Looking forward to doing the experiment on my death bed but reckon I’ll leave it until then.
Tax The Rich Video
Will the wealthy leave the UK if they were taxed more? [no].
If they did leave could they take the UK’s wealth with them? [no, they would have to sell UK assets which might get cheaper so other people could afford them].
Would we be worse off if the rich fucked off? [No]
Great explainer video from Richard Murphy.
more
————-That’s just the highlights this month,there’s more in my full public bookmarks from my link-bot on the fediverse or an RSS feed
Around the Fediverse
The Fediverse is just different to the other networksbecause it doesn’t have a big surveillance monopolistcorporate owner.
Fediverse
Fediverse conference FediCon was in Canada this week.
@deadsuperhero@social.wedistribute.org is hpsting the videos of the talks:
Just an FYI: If you missed #FediCon, or just want to see the talks, they are being edited and uploaded to #PeerTube. There’s only three talks up so far, but I am helping @reiver to add more of them, and ensure that there are accurate captions and nice little thumbnails.
You can see a playlist of all #FediCon2025 talks, sorted in order, here: https://spectra.video/w/p/52g7HzMoUCxEm9nU339mPf
“While most social media rely on commercial models harvesting users’ data to sell to advertisers, Mastodon offers a human-centric alternative that doesn’t seek profits from your data and attention. This means better social connections, better controls, and better privacy.
Mastodon doesn’t use your data to make money. This fact alone comes with incredible benefits for data privacy and security. Because the goal isn’t to collect as much information as possible on its users, Mastodon embraces data minimization and only requires providing what is truly needed to run the service for you.”
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io on the freedom given by RSS
Newsletter: In a media landscape dominated by algorithmic feeds that aim to manipulate and extract, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is choose to read what you want, when you want, without anyone watching over your shoulder.
Here’s how to use #RSS.
Technological Agency Thread
@ajroach42@retro.social has a great thread on autonomy:
First, I think we need to state some of the problems as clearly as possible: Modern technology is designed to rob you of as much agency as possible while also maximizing the amount of your attention it steals, and while it’s busy dazzling you and stealing your attention, it’s also spying on you and siphoning up as much information as possible about you so that it can sell that information to people who want to influence your choices or otherwise wish to exploit you.
I worked inside the factory for a number of years. I saw how the sausage was made. I sat in the room while a very excited man explained how they had tweaked some aspects of our application to make it more likely that kids would think about and ask about our platform when they weren’t using it, based on behavioral science or some shit, and my stomach turned and I dropped out of the industry.
I’ve seen the kinds of “telemetry” that otherwise useful software pulls about people, and the ways that information gets repackaged and sold. I have first hand experience in the pit. All of the above is true of basically every commercial software product and platform in existence with only a scant few exceptions. If a piece of software or a website is successful, and it’s not actively operated and supported by a non-profit (and sometimes even if it is) it’s probably fucking you over somewhere.
Coils
@ifixcoinops@retro.social philosophising about coils and Pinball:
… If you’re there to play them you think “Wow cool,” if you’re there to fix them then the scale is incomprehensible.
The brain rebels against this problem, it says you are so small.
You are one person.
This is impossible.
It’s the same feeling that you get the first time you ever open a pinball machine. You look inside and the brain says look at all those wires.
Look at the relays and motors and coils and bulbs.
Look at all that complexity.
Look at all the rat shit.
This is impossible.
Sometimes the brain needs to shut up and wait its turn.
Be quiet, brain, you can speak again when I’ve got a schematic up, until then you can sit in the corner and chew on a podcast because it’s the hands’ turn now.
Without something to gnaw, the brain will only keep reminding you of the sheer scale of insurmountable Task To Be Done.
…
Political Incompetence as a signal
@lydiaconwell@todon.nl is reading about criminals:
I’m currently #reading a book about how criminals communicate in covert ways and one way is through being or feigning incompetence.
This has various uses, but one use is that it advertises to clients what type of person they are.
Incompetence applies to all careers and I couldn’t help thinking about the Boris Johnsons or the Donald Trumps of the world.
If they seem confusing to you, perhaps it’s because through their lying and nonsense they are signalling to the billionaires and corporations that they will do whatever it takes to follow corporate interests.
They are willing to talk nonsense, lie, back track, contradict themselves. They will make up excuses on the spot to justify their policies. They are signalling that they do not care what people think of them; they are obviously ridiculous. But they’ll do whatever the highest bidder wants them to do.
Now someone with rigid principals … they are signalling they cannot be bought, which is why the #media will work hard to destroy them.
Palestine Action
@fkamiah17@syzito.xyz has video of my friend Kitty protesting:
“Are you going to stand up for the search?”, “No I’m bloody well not!”
Warrior.
@alanferrier@mastodon.scot posts a protest photo:
Photo of the year: British police arrest an 83-year-old priest for holding up a sign that says, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” under the statue of Gandhi.
A year in, this is the “change” we got from Labour.
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us Notes the chilling effect:
So, the proscribing of Palestine Action has now led to the arrests of 100 people since the proscription just over a week ago… all peaceful demonstrators.
This is the chilling effect on democracy Yvette Cooper (aided and abetted by most MPs) has bought about… Cooper & her fellow travellers have demonstrated a contempt for democratic protest, that is going to be become increasingly clear.
@Opfoss@c.im compares numbers:
The oh so great British police today has managed to arrest more people for terrorism offences than Israel has killed queuing for food aid.
That is no mean feat.
Israel is really good at shooting people who are starving and requiring aid.
But remember, no action is required in Palestine, as there is no genocide, just a series of unfortunate events leading to forced migration and starvation.
@HeavenlyPossum@kolektiva.social on the developments in Israel:
Three things that happened today:
- Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition has fallen apart, leaving Netanyahu vulnerable to a vote of no confidence.
- Netanyahu’s corruption trial continued, having resumed on Monday after being delayed by a month by the attacks on Iran.
- Israel bombed Damascus, destroying its defense ministry headquarters.
- Oh would you fucking look at that, a fourth thing: Netanyahu’s trial was delayed again!
This absolute piece of shit will wage genocide, risk World War Three, and tear apart every neighboring country for the most venally corrupt reasons.
Art
@martincrownover@mastodon.gamedev.place made an animation:
Here’s the final animation of what I’m calling “Chess Box”. 😄
Created in Blender 4.4, rendered with Cycles.
@davidrevoy@framapiaf.org drew a comic about life:
The Gift of Life
@stux@mstdn.social set up a games shop:
We had this little idea to setup a simple digital store where we could sell our games and source codes without the need of Steam, Apple or whatever
It does not have a fancy launcher but downloads the game itself
This way we can also offer some discount since there is no 30% take
Still a work in progress