Hibernian Zephyr

Eccentric and proud. This is just an outlet for me to share things that I do or find interesting.

[hibernianzephyr]

Thinking of retiring from Tumblr

Hello to anyone who reads this. It's been going on for a while now but I feel the impetus for maintaining this blog is running out. The main things I signed up for no longer seem to be active, I haven't been finding much of interest to share lately, and I don't think my posts get much attention anyway. In short, I think I'll be logging in less frequently from now on. If my blog is important to anyone and they want me to stay, please speak up now.

Have a nice day.

[hibernianzephyr]

Some new live ambient music here. Enjoy.

[hibernianzephyr]

Here is something I have been listening to and enjoying a lot recently. I like oktavism, and Vladimir Pasyukov had a venerable fog horn of a voice.

[hibernianzephyr]

Good book

I just finished reading this fascinating book, and can highly recommend it. Gives a real and necessary insight into how we come to our decisions and beliefs, and some good lessons about admitting when you might be wrong.

[hibernianzephyr]

Here is something highly fascinating I learned about last week. This AI chat program looks very interesting, and reminds me of the book The Creativity Code by Marcus du Sautoy, which is about how artificial intelligence can be used for creative purposes. I have seized upon this thing for just such an endeavour, and had lots of fun with it last weekend. But of course, I feel that it should be used in moderation, and that we must not become dependent upon such things.

Introducing ChatGPT

We’ve trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer fo

[hibernianzephyr]

I attempted to share some of my photos earlier this year from the World Bodypainting Festival in Klagenfurt, but Tumblr's content robots had other ideas. I hope now that I can share this link to the main online photo servers which contain all the photos that were submitted to the photo contest. Some of my own are among them, and the next few days will tell if I might be a winner.

WBF 2018 - 2022 / WBF 2022 / WBF Photo Awards 2022

[hibernianzephyr]

2022 in review

Almost forgot my yearly ritual of making this post.

This year has been interesting in some ways, rather good in some ways, and quite terrible in some ways. The goods is that I am continuing to progress with my work and career in higher education, and I feel I am doing lots of great stuff as part of it.

My creative hobbies have taken a back seat as a consequence and I haven't had the time to do a great deal with them this year, but some small steps have been made, and I have made use of the time off this Christmas period to do a few extra things which I think are turning out well.

I had a rather illuminating holiday to Austria again this year, attending the World Bodypainting Festival for the first time with a Photo Pass. I took some amazing photos which I am quite proud of. I tried to share some here but annoyingly Tumblr decided that they must not be posted, which is a shame. Still, I am glad I went, even though it was ridiculously and uncomfortably hot and not exactly restful. I would like to go again in the future.

Onto the bad news, my mother had a stroke this year, which completely blindsided us. After 2 full months in the hospital she came home in the summer and continues to make slow progress and recovery. It was a very difficult time, but we've come out the other side of it and we're all wishing her well into 2023.

This year I am going to make a start on learning my next language, which will be Italian. In bocca al lupo.

[hibernianzephyr]

7 years on Tumblr

Hello everyone again.

It's the time of year where I look back on what's been going on with my Tumblr account, now it's been yet another year.

I haven't been posting a lot lately, but that doesn't mean nothing's been going on. Maybe I'll say more about that in my end-of-year reflection. Things also still seem less active around here than they always were, and there are people who I miss. Don't know how many people read my posts, as there isn't much engagement. But still, I'm hanging around and usually see what's going on each day, and will post interesting things for the benefit of posterity or myself.

[hibernianzephyr]

Another fine Astro-Chat from Professor Don Kurtz last night, about asteroseismology.

[hibernianzephyr]

For anyone who may be interested, there is a series of talks about sleep and memory coming up this week. Live streamed, free to join, very interesting.

Researcher Live: Sleep & Memory

Join our Researcher Live series to hear about recent research on Sleep & Memory.

[hibernianzephyr]

I attempted to share some photos this morning that I took at the World Bodypainting Festival in Klagenfurt, Austria, but it seems Tumblr decided that they must not be posted and blocked the whole thing, in spite of my appeal. Very disappointing. Hopefully it will not object to this large collage as well that was set up in the park. Sorry everyone.

[hibernianzephyr]

It has been very hot this summer. This may help. Misty music for the coldest, darkest and loneliest of winters. I might have shared this before, but again won't hurt, will it? Also, rest in peace to Mount Shrine.

[hibernianzephyr]

On this day, one year ago, this happened.

[hibernianzephyr]

Exciting new concept album from one of my music friends.

[hibernianzephyr]

New album from The Great Schizm! Released on St. Piran's Day.

[hibernianzephyr]

@dictionaryofobscuresorrows Mine came today. A late Christmas present. Thanks for the hard work.

[hibernianzephyr]

2021 in review

Last day of the year again. Time for some of the usual reflection.

This year for the most part has felt rather boring; felt like I wasn’t being granted the opportunities to do something worthwhile in spite of my attempts to pursue such things (i.e., job searching), but now at the end of it all I have secured something. Technically I have already started (got first payment), but the real action won’t start properly until January. Still, I am pleased about that, and looking forward to what more opportunities it will make possible.

I also feel like I’ve made progress on my creative hobbies. I’ve done some good writing this year on a couple of different projects, although it will be a long while before any of it is published. I’ve also done some good musical development too, creating new tracks, finishing off or adding to existing ones, and even completed an online short course on field recording and soundscape composition. Very interesting. There will be a new album released in the new year some time, so keep an eye out for that.

Biggest achievement is likely to be completing my PhD finally. Defended it in April, graduation (online) in July, and certificate received in September. Make way for Dr Me. 

No parties or celebrations planned tonight (World is still unable to fix itself), so I’m going to watch a film.

Happy New Year.