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Tomi @[email protected] · 2024-12-14 · 16:47 UTC
Home Assistant and air quality – Ikea Vindstyrka
The problem
I’d like to monitor air quality in my kitchen/dining room to ventilate the rooms more frequently. Sometimes I simply forget to ompen windows.
But again, there is no problem really. I just like to play with IoT gadgets and spend money on something else than drugs.
The ‘solution’
So I did a little ‘research’ on cheap air quality sensors and then decided to buy Ikea’s Vindstyrka (zigbee) device.
“But Tomi, you should trust your nose!” some might say. That’s true, but after breathing stale air for some time I don’t notice it anymore.
After some googling I found out I should monitor VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are emitted (off-gassed) from paints, furniture, cleaning products, burning wood, mold, cooking, frying etc. [definition of VOC].
Also small particles (PM2.5) are worth to monitor. They are emmited by cooking (frying, burning food), candles, smoking, plants (pollen) and also by people (skin shedding) [sources of particulate matter].
This Ikea’s device detects both (tVOC – total VOC and PM2.5) besides temperature and relative humidity.
Installation
Installation was pretty straightforward. Firstly, I had to buy USB-C charger (1A) to power it. It comes only with an USB cable, charger is sold separately.
To connect it to my #zigbee network I had to press the big button on top 4x and then allowed the device to join to HomeAssistant/Zigbee2MQTT. Immediately it found a firmware update and installed it successfully OTA.
Long press to pair it to z2m doesn’t do the trick – although the link icon on the device display blinks, it’s purpose is to connect the device to other Ikea devices such as air purifier. I found out that after RTFM. So – use 4x press.
The first biggest issue was – where to place it, physically? Near the kitchen hood? Above the kitchen sink?
Firstly I put it on a kitchen shelf approx. 1.6m above the floor. It wasn’t the best idea, because this device is loud. I read before that the fan emmits audible buzz, but I didn’t expect I will hear it 7-8m far sitting on the couch. Finally it ended in an open narrow kitchen cabinet, directed away from the couch. Maybe the air flow is not so good there, but at least I can’t hear it anymore.
It will definitely not be used in the bedroom.
Adding it to Home Assistant
I’ve added it to my Home Assistant / Kitchen dashboard:
The device doesn’t show tVOCs (only a trend – stable, increasing, decreasing), but it reports values over zigbee (1-500). Nice!
How did I define the colours (severity) of the measurements on the Gauge?
tVOC index
tVOC index is a Sensirion’s way of measuring VOCs. I‘ve used documentation from Sensirion tVOC sensor and defined ranges: green: 1-150, yellow: 150-250, orange: 250-400 and red: 400-500.
Value of tVOC index is a moving average and 100 represent an average VOC concentration in last 24hr. So in a way mimics a human nose. The Sensirion’s image:
While trying to define colours for HA’s Gauge card I found out it can’t be defined using UI.
So I edited Gauge’s yaml and defined ranges of colours. See the other post >>
PM2.5 Gauge
For defining PM2.4 Gauge colours, I’ve used levels from Vindstyrka’s documentation (page 13): green: 0-35, yellow: 35-120, red: >120 ug/m3:
First measurements
After 10 days or so I started to make sense out of measurements.
Temperatue and relative humidity: I noticed it doesn’t report temperature decimals, only whole numbers (20, 21C…). I don’t understand that design decision, because the cheapest Xiaomi BLE thermomethers report decimals and are .2 -.3 accurate. It bothers me somehow that 30€ device can’t report temp. decimals.
Relative humidity measurements are similar to other (Xiaomi BLE) sensors, +- 5%.
What about tVOC and PM2.5? I was most interested in these measurements.
tVOC index
tVOC increases when we cook. It increases more when we’re frying something, using an oven or using a toaster. Only cooking a soup doesn’t increase tVOC as much.
Opening windows decrease tVOCs quickly, 5 minutes are enough.
PM2.5
Small particles are elevated when cooking. There is more to it: sometimes PM2.5 increase when I open windows to ventilate. Now it’s winter and some neighbours use wood for heating, probably that’s the reason.
Automations
I don’t have an air purifyer or recuperation system, so my first automations related to air quality are quite simple.
1. notify when tVOCs > 450 for 10 minutes
This automation notifies FireHD tablet to say: “Warning, the air is dirty, open windows!” and also sends a text message to my and wife’s phone:
It works really good and our ventilation habits improved already.
I’m also playing with automation to turn on bathroom exhaust fan if tVOCs are increased. But the bathroom is on the other side of the house and I don’t know yet if it will have any effect.
Maybe I’ll smartify my kitchen hood.
TL;DR
- it’s a cheap device (30€) in comparison with similar air quality sensors
- it’s works well with z2m and Home Assistant
- it’s fan is loud
- the temperature sensor returns only whole numbers, no decimals
Tags: #homeassistant #zigbee #z2m #zigbee2mqtt #ikea #vindstyrka #tvoc #pm25
If you’re reading this on fediverse and the layout (embedded pics) is off, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/home-assistant-and-air-quality-ikea-vindstyrka/
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m #Zigbee #Zigbee2MQTT
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m
Tomi @[email protected] · 2024-12-14 · 16:47 UTC
Home Assistant and air quality – Ikea Vindstyrka
The problem
I’d like to monitor air quality in my kitchen/dining room to ventilate the rooms more frequently. Sometimes I simply forget to ompen windows.
But again, there is no problem really. I just like to play with IoT gadgets and spend money on something else than drugs.
The ‘solution’
So I did a little ‘research’ on cheap air quality sensors and then decided to buy Ikea’s Vindstyrka (zigbee) device.
“But Tomi, you should trust your nose!” some might say. That’s true, but after breathing stale air for some time I don’t notice it anymore.
After some googling I found out I should monitor VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are emitted (off-gassed) from paints, furniture, cleaning products, burning wood, mold, cooking, frying etc. [definition of VOC].
Also small particles (PM2.5) are worth to monitor. They are emmited by cooking (frying, burning food), candles, smoking, plants (pollen) and also by people (skin shedding) [sources of particulate matter].
This Ikea’s device detects both (tVOC – total VOC and PM2.5) besides temperature and relative humidity.
Installation
Installation was pretty straightforward. Firstly, I had to buy USB-C charger (1A) to power it. It comes only with an USB cable, charger is sold separately.
To connect it to my #zigbee network I had to press the big button on top 4x and then allowed the device to join to HomeAssistant/Zigbee2MQTT. Immediately it found a firmware update and installed it successfully OTA.
Long press to pair it to z2m doesn’t do the trick – although the link icon on the device display blinks, it’s purpose is to connect the device to other Ikea devices such as air purifier. I found out that after RTFM. So – use 4x press.
The first biggest issue was – where to place it, physically? Near the kitchen hood? Above the kitchen sink?
Firstly I put it on a kitchen shelf approx. 1.6m above the floor. It wasn’t the best idea, because this device is loud. I read before that the fan emmits audible buzz, but I didn’t expect I will hear it 7-8m far sitting on the couch. Finally it ended in an open narrow kitchen cabinet, directed away from the couch. Maybe the air flow is not so good there, but at least I can’t hear it anymore.
It will definitely not be used in the bedroom.
Adding it to Home Assistant
I’ve added it to my Home Assistant / Kitchen dashboard:
The device doesn’t show tVOCs (only a trend – stable, increasing, decreasing), but it reports values over zigbee (1-500). Nice!
How did I define the colours (severity) of the measurements on the Gauge?
tVOC index
tVOC index is a Sensirion’s way of measuring VOCs. I‘ve used documentation from Sensirion tVOC sensor and defined ranges: green: 1-150, yellow: 150-250, orange: 250-400 and red: 400-500.
Value of tVOC index is a moving average and 100 represent an average VOC concentration in last 24hr. So in a way mimics a human nose. The Sensirion’s image:
While trying to define colours for HA’s Gauge card I found out it can’t be defined using UI.
So I edited Gauge’s yaml and defined ranges of colours. See the other post >>
PM2.5 Gauge
For defining PM2.4 Gauge colours, I’ve used levels from Vindstyrka’s documentation (page 13): green: 0-35, yellow: 35-120, red: >120 ug/m3:
First measurements
After 10 days or so I started to make sense out of measurements.
Temperatue and relative humidity: I noticed it doesn’t report temperature decimals, only whole numbers (20, 21C…). I don’t understand that design decision, because the cheapest Xiaomi BLE thermomethers report decimals and are .2 -.3 accurate. It bothers me somehow that 30€ device can’t report temp. decimals.
Relative humidity measurements are similar to other (Xiaomi BLE) sensors, +- 5%.
What about tVOC and PM2.5? I was most interested in these measurements.
tVOC index
tVOC increases when we cook. It increases more when we’re frying something, using an oven or using a toaster. Only cooking a soup doesn’t increase tVOC as much.
Opening windows decrease tVOCs quickly, 5 minutes are enough.
PM2.5
Small particles are elevated when cooking. There is more to it: sometimes PM2.5 increase when I open windows to ventilate. Now it’s winter and some neighbours use wood for heating, probably that’s the reason.
Automations
I don’t have an air purifyer or recuperation system, so my first automations related to air quality are quite simple.
1. notify when tVOCs > 450 for 10 minutes
This automation notifies FireHD tablet to say: “Warning, the air is dirty, open windows!” and also sends a text message to my and wife’s phone:
It works really good and our ventilation habits improved already.
I’m also playing with automation to turn on bathroom exhaust fan if tVOCs are increased. But the bathroom is on the other side of the house and I don’t know yet if it will have any effect.
Maybe I’ll smartify my kitchen hood.
TL;DR
- it’s a cheap device (30€) in comparison with similar air quality sensors
- it’s works well with z2m and Home Assistant
- it’s fan is loud
- the temperature sensor returns only whole numbers, no decimals
Tags: #homeassistant #zigbee #z2m #zigbee2mqtt #ikea #vindstyrka #tvoc #pm25
If you’re reading this on fediverse and the layout (embedded pics) is off, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/home-assistant-and-air-quality-ikea-vindstyrka/
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m #Zigbee #Zigbee2MQTT
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m
Tomi @[email protected] · 2024-12-14 · 16:47 UTC
Home Assistant and air quality – Ikea Vindstyrka
The problem
I’d like to monitor air quality in my kitchen/dining room to ventilate the rooms more frequently. Sometimes I simply forget to ompen windows.
But again, there is no problem really. I just like to play with IoT gadgets and spend money on something else than drugs.
The ‘solution’
So I did a little ‘research’ on cheap air quality sensors and then decided to buy Ikea’s Vindstyrka (zigbee) device.
“But Tomi, you should trust your nose!” some might say. That’s true, but after breathing stale air for some time I don’t notice it anymore.
After some googling I found out I should monitor VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are emitted (off-gassed) from paints, furniture, cleaning products, burning wood, mold, cooking, frying etc. [definition of VOC].
Also small particles (PM2.5) are worth to monitor. They are emmited by cooking (frying, burning food), candles, smoking, plants (pollen) and also by people (skin shedding) [sources of particulate matter].
This Ikea’s device detects both (tVOC – total VOC and PM2.5) besides temperature and relative humidity.
Installation
Installation was pretty straightforward. Firstly, I had to buy USB-C charger (1A) to power it. It comes only with an USB cable, charger is sold separately.
To connect it to my #zigbee network I had to press the big button on top 4x and then allowed the device to join to HomeAssistant/Zigbee2MQTT. Immediately it found a firmware update and installed it successfully OTA.
Long press to pair it to z2m doesn’t do the trick – although the link icon on the device display blinks, it’s purpose is to connect the device to other Ikea devices such as air purifier. I found out that after RTFM. So – use 4x press.
The first biggest issue was – where to place it, physically? Near the kitchen hood? Above the kitchen sink?
Firstly I put it on a kitchen shelf approx. 1.6m above the floor. It wasn’t the best idea, because this device is loud. I read before that the fan emmits audible buzz, but I didn’t expect I will hear it 7-8m far sitting on the couch. Finally it ended in an open narrow kitchen cabinet, directed away from the couch. Maybe the air flow is not so good there, but at least I can’t hear it anymore.
It will definitely not be used in the bedroom.
Adding it to Home Assistant
I’ve added it to my Home Assistant / Kitchen dashboard:
The device doesn’t show tVOCs (only a trend – stable, increasing, decreasing), but it reports values over zigbee (1-500). Nice!
How did I define the colours (severity) of the measurements on the Gauge?
tVOC index
tVOC index is a Sensirion’s way of measuring VOCs. I‘ve used documentation from Sensirion tVOC sensor and defined ranges: green: 1-150, yellow: 150-250, orange: 250-400 and red: 400-500.
Value of tVOC index is a moving average and 100 represent an average VOC concentration in last 24hr. So in a way mimics a human nose. The Sensirion’s image:
While trying to define colours for HA’s Gauge card I found out it can’t be defined using UI.
So I edited Gauge’s yaml and defined ranges of colours. See the other post >>
PM2.5 Gauge
For defining PM2.4 Gauge colours, I’ve used levels from Vindstyrka’s documentation (page 13): green: 0-35, yellow: 35-120, red: >120 ug/m3:
First measurements
After 10 days or so I started to make sense out of measurements.
Temperatue and relative humidity: I noticed it doesn’t report temperature decimals, only whole numbers (20, 21C…). I don’t understand that design decision, because the cheapest Xiaomi BLE thermomethers report decimals and are .2 -.3 accurate. It bothers me somehow that 30€ device can’t report temp. decimals.
Relative humidity measurements are similar to other (Xiaomi BLE) sensors, +- 5%.
What about tVOC and PM2.5? I was most interested in these measurements.
tVOC index
tVOC increases when we cook. It increases more when we’re frying something, using an oven or using a toaster. Only cooking a soup doesn’t increase tVOC as much.
Opening windows decrease tVOCs quickly, 5 minutes are enough.
PM2.5
Small particles are elevated when cooking. There is more to it: sometimes PM2.5 increase when I open windows to ventilate. Now it’s winter and some neighbours use wood for heating, probably that’s the reason.
Automations
I don’t have an air purifyer or recuperation system, so my first automations related to air quality are quite simple.
1. notify when tVOCs > 450 for 10 minutes
This automation notifies FireHD tablet to say: “Warning, the air is dirty, open windows!” and also sends a text message to my and wife’s phone:
It works really good and our ventilation habits improved already.
I’m also playing with automation to turn on bathroom exhaust fan if tVOCs are increased. But the bathroom is on the other side of the house and I don’t know yet if it will have any effect.
Maybe I’ll smartify my kitchen hood.
TL;DR
- it’s a cheap device (30€) in comparison with similar air quality sensors
- it’s works well with z2m and Home Assistant
- it’s fan is loud
- the temperature sensor returns only whole numbers, no decimals
Tags: #homeassistant #zigbee #z2m #zigbee2mqtt #ikea #vindstyrka #tvoc #pm25
If you’re reading this on fediverse and the layout (embedded pics) is off, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/home-assistant-and-air-quality-ikea-vindstyrka/
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m #Zigbee #Zigbee2MQTT
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m
Tomi @[email protected] · 2024-12-14 · 16:47 UTC
Home Assistant and air quality – Ikea Vindstyrka
The problem
I’d like to monitor air quality in my kitchen/dining room to ventilate the rooms more frequently. Sometimes I simply forget to ompen windows.
But again, there is no problem really. I just like to play with IoT gadgets and spend money on something else than drugs.
The ‘solution’
So I did a little ‘research’ on cheap air quality sensors and then decided to buy Ikea’s Vindstyrka (zigbee) device.
“But Tomi, you should trust your nose!” some might say. That’s true, but after breathing stale air for some time I don’t notice it anymore.
After some googling I found out I should monitor VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are emitted (off-gassed) from paints, furniture, cleaning products, burning wood, mold, cooking, frying etc. [definition of VOC].
Also small particles (PM2.5) are worth to monitor. They are emmited by cooking (frying, burning food), candles, smoking, plants (pollen) and also by people (skin shedding) [sources of particulate matter].
This Ikea’s device detects both (tVOC – total VOC and PM2.5) besides temperature and relative humidity.
Installation
Installation was pretty straightforward. Firstly, I had to buy USB-C charger (1A) to power it. It comes only with an USB cable, charger is sold separately.
To connect it to my #zigbee network I had to press the big button on top 4x and then allowed the device to join to HomeAssistant/Zigbee2MQTT. Immediately it found a firmware update and installed it successfully OTA.
Long press to pair it to z2m doesn’t do the trick – although the link icon on the device display blinks, it’s purpose is to connect the device to other Ikea devices such as air purifier. I found out that after RTFM. So – use 4x press.
The first biggest issue was – where to place it, physically? Near the kitchen hood? Above the kitchen sink?
Firstly I put it on a kitchen shelf approx. 1.6m above the floor. It wasn’t the best idea, because this device is loud. I read before that the fan emmits audible buzz, but I didn’t expect I will hear it 7-8m far sitting on the couch. Finally it ended in an open narrow kitchen cabinet, directed away from the couch. Maybe the air flow is not so good there, but at least I can’t hear it anymore.
It will definitely not be used in the bedroom.
Adding it to Home Assistant
I’ve added it to my Home Assistant / Kitchen dashboard:
The device doesn’t show tVOCs (only a trend – stable, increasing, decreasing), but it reports values over zigbee (1-500). Nice!
How did I define the colours (severity) of the measurements on the Gauge?
tVOC index
tVOC index is a Sensirion’s way of measuring VOCs. I‘ve used documentation from Sensirion tVOC sensor and defined ranges: green: 1-150, yellow: 150-250, orange: 250-400 and red: 400-500.
Value of tVOC index is a moving average and 100 represent an average VOC concentration in last 24hr. So in a way mimics a human nose. The Sensirion’s image:
While trying to define colours for HA’s Gauge card I found out it can’t be defined using UI.
So I edited Gauge’s yaml and defined ranges of colours. See the other post >>
PM2.5 Gauge
For defining PM2.4 Gauge colours, I’ve used levels from Vindstyrka’s documentation (page 13): green: 0-35, yellow: 35-120, red: >120 ug/m3:
First measurements
After 10 days or so I started to make sense out of measurements.
Temperatue and relative humidity: I noticed it doesn’t report temperature decimals, only whole numbers (20, 21C…). I don’t understand that design decision, because the cheapest Xiaomi BLE thermomethers report decimals and are .2 -.3 accurate. It bothers me somehow that 30€ device can’t report temp. decimals.
Relative humidity measurements are similar to other (Xiaomi BLE) sensors, +- 5%.
What about tVOC and PM2.5? I was most interested in these measurements.
tVOC index
tVOC increases when we cook. It increases more when we’re frying something, using an oven or using a toaster. Only cooking a soup doesn’t increase tVOC as much.
Opening windows decrease tVOCs quickly, 5 minutes are enough.
PM2.5
Small particles are elevated when cooking. There is more to it: sometimes PM2.5 increase when I open windows to ventilate. Now it’s winter and some neighbours use wood for heating, probably that’s the reason.
Automations
I don’t have an air purifyer or recuperation system, so my first automations related to air quality are quite simple.
1. notify when tVOCs > 450 for 10 minutes
This automation notifies FireHD tablet to say: “Warning, the air is dirty, open windows!” and also sends a text message to my and wife’s phone:
It works really good and our ventilation habits improved already.
I’m also playing with automation to turn on bathroom exhaust fan if tVOCs are increased. But the bathroom is on the other side of the house and I don’t know yet if it will have any effect.
Maybe I’ll smartify my kitchen hood.
TL;DR
- it’s a cheap device (30€) in comparison with similar air quality sensors
- it’s works well with z2m and Home Assistant
- it’s fan is loud
- the temperature sensor returns only whole numbers, no decimals
Tags: #homeassistant #zigbee #z2m #zigbee2mqtt #ikea #vindstyrka #tvoc #pm25
If you’re reading this on fediverse and the layout (embedded pics) is off, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/home-assistant-and-air-quality-ikea-vindstyrka/
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m #Zigbee #Zigbee2MQTT
#zigbee2mqtt #zigbee #z2m #vindstyrka #tvoc #pm25
Tomi @[email protected] · 2024-12-14 · 16:47 UTC
Home Assistant and air quality – Ikea Vindstyrka
The problem
I’d like to monitor air quality in my kitchen/dining room to ventilate the rooms more frequently. Sometimes I simply forget to ompen windows.
But again, there is no problem really. I just like to play with IoT gadgets and spend money on something else than drugs.
The ‘solution’
So I did a little ‘research’ on cheap air quality sensors and then decided to buy Ikea’s Vindstyrka (zigbee) device.
“But Tomi, you should trust your nose!” some might say. That’s true, but after breathing stale air for some time I don’t notice it anymore.
After some googling I found out I should monitor VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are emitted (off-gassed) from paints, furniture, cleaning products, burning wood, mold, cooking, frying etc. [definition of VOC].
Also small particles (PM2.5) are worth to monitor. They are emmited by cooking (frying, burning food), candles, smoking, plants (pollen) and also by people (skin shedding) [sources of particulate matter].
This Ikea’s device detects both (tVOC – total VOC and PM2.5) besides temperature and relative humidity.
Installation
Installation was pretty straightforward. Firstly, I had to buy USB-C charger (1A) to power it. It comes only with an USB cable, charger is sold separately.
To connect it to my #zigbee network I had to press the big button on top 4x and then allowed the device to join to HomeAssistant/Zigbee2MQTT. Immediately it found a firmware update and installed it successfully OTA.
Long press to pair it to z2m doesn’t do the trick – although the link icon on the device display blinks, it’s purpose is to connect the device to other Ikea devices such as air purifier. I found out that after RTFM. So – use 4x press.
The first biggest issue was – where to place it, physically? Near the kitchen hood? Above the kitchen sink?
Firstly I put it on a kitchen shelf approx. 1.6m above the floor. It wasn’t the best idea, because this device is loud. I read before that the fan emmits audible buzz, but I didn’t expect I will hear it 7-8m far sitting on the couch. Finally it ended in an open narrow kitchen cabinet, directed away from the couch. Maybe the air flow is not so good there, but at least I can’t hear it anymore.
It will definitely not be used in the bedroom.
Adding it to Home Assistant
I’ve added it to my Home Assistant / Kitchen dashboard:
The device doesn’t show tVOCs (only a trend – stable, increasing, decreasing), but it reports values over zigbee (1-500). Nice!
How did I define the colours (severity) of the measurements on the Gauge?
tVOC index
tVOC index is a Sensirion’s way of measuring VOCs. I‘ve used documentation from Sensirion tVOC sensor and defined ranges: green: 1-150, yellow: 150-250, orange: 250-400 and red: 400-500.
Value of tVOC index is a moving average and 100 represent an average VOC concentration in last 24hr. So in a way mimics a human nose. The Sensirion’s image:
While trying to define colours for HA’s Gauge card I found out it can’t be defined using UI.
So I edited Gauge’s yaml and defined ranges of colours. See the other post >>
PM2.5 Gauge
For defining PM2.4 Gauge colours, I’ve used levels from Vindstyrka’s documentation (page 13): green: 0-35, yellow: 35-120, red: >120 ug/m3:
First measurements
After 10 days or so I started to make sense out of measurements.
Temperatue and relative humidity: I noticed it doesn’t report temperature decimals, only whole numbers (20, 21C…). I don’t understand that design decision, because the cheapest Xiaomi BLE thermomethers report decimals and are .2 -.3 accurate. It bothers me somehow that 30€ device can’t report temp. decimals.
Relative humidity measurements are similar to other (Xiaomi BLE) sensors, +- 5%.
What about tVOC and PM2.5? I was most interested in these measurements.
tVOC index
tVOC increases when we cook. It increases more when we’re frying something, using an oven or using a toaster. Only cooking a soup doesn’t increase tVOC as much.
Opening windows decrease tVOCs quickly, 5 minutes are enough.
PM2.5
Small particles are elevated when cooking. There is more to it: sometimes PM2.5 increase when I open windows to ventilate. Now it’s winter and some neighbours use wood for heating, probably that’s the reason.
Automations
I don’t have an air purifyer or recuperation system, so my first automations related to air quality are quite simple.
1. notify when tVOCs > 450 for 10 minutes
This automation notifies FireHD tablet to say: “Warning, the air is dirty, open windows!” and also sends a text message to my and wife’s phone:
It works really good and our ventilation habits improved already.
I’m also playing with automation to turn on bathroom exhaust fan if tVOCs are increased. But the bathroom is on the other side of the house and I don’t know yet if it will have any effect.
Maybe I’ll smartify my kitchen hood.
TL;DR
- it’s a cheap device (30€) in comparison with similar air quality sensors
- it’s works well with z2m and Home Assistant
- it’s fan is loud
- the temperature sensor returns only whole numbers, no decimals
Tags: #homeassistant #zigbee #z2m #zigbee2mqtt #ikea #vindstyrka #tvoc #pm25
If you’re reading this on fediverse and the layout (embedded pics) is off, here’s the link to the original blog post.
https://blog.rozman.info/home-assistant-and-air-quality-ikea-vindstyrka/
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m #Zigbee #Zigbee2MQTT
#homeassistant #ikea #pm25 #tvoc #vindstyrka #z2m
Ink In My Coffee @[email protected] · 2026-04-28 · 11:39 UTC

Tues. April 28, 2026: Shakespeare & Sonnets
image courtesy of Adriano Gadini from Pixabay
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Waxing Moon
Sunny and cool
Here we are, in another week! I hope yours started well.
You can read the Community Tarot Reading for the Week here.
Friday, I folded the laundry and put it away after breakfast, got some housework done, tried to reach maintenance and failed. I reached them later, and they planned to stop by either late Friday or early Monday.
Sat down and finished/did the polish on the ghostwriting. It took me until nearly 3, but I got it done and out the door – two days early! My next assignment is due May 6.
I decided to call it a wrap for the workday, and put the salmon with miso/honey glaze into the slow cooker. It turned out really well. It only needs two hours in the slow cooker, and tastes wonderful.
It’s the first time I worked with miso soup mix (I love miso soup). I may have to make those packets part of my pantry staples.
Maintenance didn’t make it by the end of the day, which meant first thing Monday.
I was waiting for a delivery that never showed up (although the tracking insisted it would be delivered Friday evening), and missed the closing of the gallery show.
Slept so-so into Saturday, up early. Housework. Most of the day was housework, including a deep clean of the bathroom (in case they had to switch the toilet out on Monday). I mean, it was time in the spring cleaning roster anyway, but it took much longer than I expected, because I moved everything movable out, scrubbed corners, wiped down crown and chair rail molding, cleaned the heating vents, scrubbed out sink, toilet and tub more thoroughly than the weekly cleaning, went through things that tend to pile up on surfaces, wiped the windows, bulbs, etc., along with the regular vacuum and floor mop. You wouldn’t think a small bathroom would take that long, but it did. Willa and Tessa supervised.
In between waiting for things to dry, I worked on contest entries.
The delivery showed up in the late morning, and Charlotte supervised that unpacking, then played in the box for the rest of the day.
The woman who lived in the upstairs apartment in the green house across the street (and parks next to me) moved out. I’m sad to see her go. She was a good neighbor, and only lived here for a year. I hope the next person who moves in is nice (and doesn’t try to take my parking spot).
In the late afternoon, I put on Real People clothes and headed for the gallery. Climbed a ladder and took down my wooden spoon sculpture, and retrieved the collage. Packed those into the car, and picked up takeout on the way home. We ate. I changed into Better Real People Clothes and headed down to Mosaic Gallery and the Elsewhere Shakespeare production of KING LEAR (my cohort colleague co-runs the company).
The place was packed, they had to bring out extra chairs, and it was a really well-done 6-actor, 90-minute version. The way they cut the scripts is always so interesting, especially in the way it informs the acting choices. I enjoyed it, saw a bunch of people I know and had quick catch-ups.
It was a lovely night to be on foot there and back, although the temperature dropped overnight back into the 30’s.
Unfortunately, I checked mail/social media when I got home, and saw the news of yet another staged “assassination” attempt, this time at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. All so That Thing can have yet another hissy fit demanding his ballroom. There is no way in hell that a guy carrying that much hardware got through security. There is no way in hell that, if it was real, the dinner would have continued. They didn’t even do a good job staging it. I mean, the press secretary tipped people off ahead of time.
And yes, I know protocols and procedures in these situations. I make my living writing about them, and have done research/deep dive interviews with enough professionals in that field to know how it works, along with collecting a good shelf of procedural handbooks.
This was a load of crap. I could say so much more, but it’s not worth my time.
I was even angrier on Monday when it turns out the security team had the information on the shooter and allowed him in so That Thing and his minions could push harder for the ballroom. Corrupt, grifting jackasses all of them.
Up early on Sunday. Did the Community Tarot Reading for the Week, which you can read here. This is the last week with the Green Witch Tarot and the Green Witch’s Oracle. Next week we switch decks.
We were supposed to get yet another hard frost Sunday into Monday, so I didn’t dare do any more of the teak oiling.
I papered both the inside and the outside of the kitchen door with the peel-and-stick paper. The inside went well, and I’m proud of matching the panels so carefully. The outside was harder, as though the proportions were slightly off. I’m not sure I like the outcome. I will live with it for a bit. If I don’t, I can always peel it off and try a different pattern.
Instead of going to the artist talk, I stayed to dig into the contest entries. They have to be finished this week. I hadn’t promised anyone I would be there, so I wasn’t letting anyone down. This category has the most entries. I like to go back to the ones I think are the strongest. The first read-through is always how it stands alone. The second is looking at the strongest choices and looking at the details in relation to each other to find the strongest pieces.
Cooked dinner, sat on the porch for a bit. I was tired, and my hip bothered me (it’s been grumpy since late last week). I went to bed early because I was tired, and the hip woke me up a few times. Weird dreams.
Up at the usual time on Monday. We’d had a hard frost – let’s hope this is the last. I want to get things set up outside. The next planting day isn’t until Friday the 1st, so I don’t have to worry about seeds. There are quite a few planting days in May, so I should be able to get in all the seeds.
Posted the Intent for the Week and the Tarot reading. I’m having trouble getting into the computer. I had trouble 3 or 4 times on Monday morning. It better not be going on the fritz.
Maintenance came and worked on the toilet, but the first fix didn’t work, so they had to go out and get more parts for the next fix. Good thing I deep cleaned on Saturday. All I had to do was move things out of that alcove again, and give it another sweep with the broom. But it meant the morning errands had to be moved back.
There’s a big kerfuffle about Xandra Ibarra’s nude performance at the MFA Boston. You can read about it here. The people getting all huffy and offended need to get over themselves. If they don’t like it or agree with it, that’s up to them. But saying it shouldn’t exist/happen – nope. Ibarra made a good point – how much revered art depicts violence against women or nude women? Why aren’t there more conversations about the acts depicted and those histories, as well as the technical skills of the artist? I don’t think it’s a “mockery” of traditional art, as one poster declared it, but a prompt to communication and different ways of viewing the human body in art, policies around the body, and the parameters of a subject’s consent. Laughter isn’t always humor and/or mockery. It can be a defense mechanism. The piece itself was performance art to provoke conversation and part of the museum’s event offerings. It’s not like she just wandered in and started performing. It was a planned performance. Would it have made me uncomfortable if I’d been in the room? Probably, and that means it achieved what it meant to do, and made me look at the issues from more angles.
I’d also like to see the commissioned Buddha sculpture on the High Line in NYC. I’ve never even been on High Line since it was opened. The last time I was in NYC, I was focused on the reading of my play, and didn’t make it over there. You can read about it here.
The toilet was fixed. I’d done admin work during the repair, stuff where I could get interrupted as necessary. I also put together the marketing content calendar for May. I am putting the radio plays into the mix now, too, along with the anthologies in regular rotation. There’s no reason they can’t keep growing their audiences.
Once that was all done, I headed out to the library and then the grocery store. I had to drop off/pick up books. I swapped out the decaf for regular coffee. I showed it at the courtesy desk and the woman burst out laughing, agreeing that me holding a bag of decaf was obviously a mistake, and to just switch them out. Nothing like people in town knowing your quirks! I also picked up a couple of other things.
Home, got everything upstairs and put away. It was too close to lunchtime to start anything else, so I had my lunch and then settled into some work for a few hours. I finished the literary committee work, dug into the contest entries, then switched over to the ghostwriting for a couple of hours.
I didn’t get as far on that as I hoped, but I put in some time and then switched over to contest entries for a couple of hours.
I put on Real People Clothes again and headed down to the R&D Store at MASS MoCA for my colleague’s Sonnets in Conversation event. He’d chosen four sonnets, and five poets created work in response to them, an ekphrastic exercise. One of the poets was from the cohort on which I advised, and it was great to see her again and hear her work. Her work is really wonderful and layered.
The event was interesting, and some of the work resonated with me more than other work did. Which is how it goes. I caught up with a few people, and walked home with someone from the event who turns out to be a neighbor, one house over. We’d never met before, just seen each other on the street. This neighbor is moving out soon, but only about a half a block away, and works at MASS MoCA, so we are likely to keep crossing paths, especially since we’re both Shakespeare lovers.
Heated up some leftovers. I had hoped to get some more contest entries done in the evening, but I was too tired. Instead, I strung the summer lights up on the porch and we sat out there watching the light shift.
Decent night’s sleep, up at the usual time, the typical routine. On today’s agenda: get some of the teak oiling done on the furniture out back, work on BETTING MAN, work on the ghostwriting, work on contest entries. I plan to finally get back to Tuesday night yoga classes tonight. I have to get through a bunch of email – things came through last night that I was too tired to look at, including notes from the ghostwriting assignment I turned in last Friday.
Once I’ve wrapped the contest entries and submitted those, this coming weekend, and ROOTED is open, I need to look over my stage play notes and get those back into the schedule. I need a couple more ten-minute plays, a couple of 20-40 minute plays, and I need to finish up some of the full-lengths. I also have to turn around the edits for the anthology story, but I have until June for that, so I don’t need to rush. I just need to keep it in front of me, so I don’t forget it.
I hope you’re having a great start to your week.
#art #freelance #housework #lies #poetry #Shakespeare #tarot #theatre #weather #writing

#art #freelance #housework #lies #poetry #shakespeare
Andy Arthur - Threadinburgh @[email protected] · 2025-09-08 · 06:15 UTC

Educating Children, Bakers and Tourists: the thread about Castlehill Public School

Preamble. The schools of the “School Board” era of public education (1872-1918) have for some reason a particular fascination for me, one which is more profound where they are either no longer in use as schools or have disappeared entirely. This thread began as a couple of lines for my own notes about each of the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” but rapidly snowballed into an intention to cover each, in alphabetical order, on its own and in rather more detail, but not so much that they can’t be posted quite frequently.
The third chapter of our series looking at the “Lost Board Schools of Edinburgh” investigates the life and times of Castlehill School. This occupied the site of the Gordon House, the 17th century residence of George Gordon, 1st Duke of Gordon who was Captain and Constable of Edinburgh Castle and is remembered for surrendering that fortification all too readily to the Protestant Lords during the Glorious Revolution of 1689. His property came later into the possession of the Bairds of Saughtonhall who gave their name to Blair’s Close that forms the western boundary of the school plot.
Gordon House in 1887, immediately before demolition to make way for Castlehill School. Photo by Alexander Adam Inglis, Edinburgh & Scottish Collection of Edinburgh City Libraries
The school was designed by Robert Wilson, architect to the Edinburgh School Board, and was a radical departure in style from its rather austere Collegiate Gothic contemporaries by the adoption of Scots Baronial Revival; complete with turrets, crowstepped gables and mock battlements. This was seen as more befitting of its prominent location at the head of the Old Town. Another change was the use of red Cornockle sandstone from Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire to add a visual contrast with the more usual yellowy-grey from the local Hailes Quarry.
Castlehill School, north elevation on the Castlehill itself. CC-by-SA 2.0 Neil T, via Flickr
A third change from its predecessors was the extension from two to three storeys; an attic level, lit by rooflights, providing rooms for teaching specialist subjects such as needlework and drawing. This was done to make the best use of a cramped site which amounted to just quarter of an acre; half that of the contemporary Milton House School in the Canongate and even less than the notoriously cramped Bristo Public School. (The only other three storey board school before this was West Fountainbridge, which had a similarly small plot)
Ordnance Survey Town Plans of Edinburgh, 1876 (right) and 1893 (left), before and after Castlehill School opened. Move the slider to compare. Note in the 1876 map that the Church of Scotland and Free Church both have schools in the district; St. Columba’s and St. John’s respectively. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Internally, three original mantlepieces from the Gordon mansion were incorporated into staff rooms as was an old entrance door. To the rear (south), the site dropped steeply away down the slope of the Old Town’s Crag and Tail topography. An additional level was therefore required, originally this was an open colonnade, providing a covered extension to the playgrounds, but later it was enclosed to provide additional teaching areas. A tall retaining wall faced onto Johnston Terrace at the rear, with entrance staircases (separate for boys and girls) up to the playgrounds and a three storey Janitor’s house bridged the two levels.
South (rear) elevation of Castlehill School, showing the plot sloped steeply in two directions; down from the Castlehill and down Johnston Terrace. The additional lower storey to the rear with the arched windows, the retaining wall with entrance stairways and the three-level janitor’s house can be seen. The spire of the Highland Tolbooth St John’s church towers over an already tall school. CC-by-SA 4.0 Stephencdickson via Flickr
The school opened on Monday December 3rd 1888. Although there was no formal ceremony to mark the occasion, over 800 pupils were marched out of their old schools (those inherited by the School Board at Brown Square, Borthwick and Old Assembly Close and Victoria Terrace) up the hill to their new home. A formal opening would take place exactly 5 months later on May 3rd 1889.
Former Brown Square school in 1913. This was one of the Heriot Trust day schools that were merged into the School Board after 1872, immediately identifiable by all the Jacobean decorations modelled off of Heriot’s Hospital itself. Edinburgh Photographic Society collection, via National Galleries Scotland.
Interestingly, the legend carved prominently into both the front and read façades reads “CASTLE HILL SCHOOL”, even though it was nearly always officially referred to as one word, just Castlehill, a change that was also reflected in the Ordnance Survey maps around the time.
“CASTLE HILL SCHOOL” on the north façade from the Flickr of Bob White, CC-by-NC-ND 2.0
From the beginning the school was also used for evening education. But – maintaining the theme of being different – at Castlehill this was not for adults. Instead it catered only for children under 14, pupils given special dispensation by the School Board to attend evening school on account of them needing to work during the school day to help support their families. In 1898 there were 212 boys and girls so registered. In 1890, the school’s first headmaster, John Davidson, resigned on account of poor health. In May 1898 headmaster William C. S. Hunter died and was replaced by James C. Anderson of Leith Walk School. His salary of £340 being equivalent to around £38,400 in 2025 and his “reign” was formally inaugurated with a presentation by Colin G. Macrae, chairman of the School Board, and concert at the school on Wednesday 1st June that year.
The school and its pupils suffered as a result of the harsh social conditions in Edinburgh’s Old Town in the late 19th and early 20th century. Headmaster Anderson was one of a number of his peers in the district who in spoke publicly in 1904 on “how drunkenness [of parents] affects the children“. 150 of his pupils were on the “food roll” due to the inability of their parents to feed then, with a further 30 receiving relief from the district fund. This was almost a quarter of the school and other children of leaving age (14) were being taught with 7 year-olds on account of how much schooling they had missed. Anderson put this down to drunkenness which he said was getting worse, as was thriftlessness. In 1908, under the terms of the Education (Scotland) Act of that year, the School Board instituted a meal scheme for necessitous children, each receiving a bowl of soup and bread during their school day. This was a great success and was expanded in 1911 by converting West Fountainbridge School into a dedicated central cooking centre. One hundred children from Castlehill were among the first recipients to benefit, but as their school lacked a dining hall they went to the Independent Labour Party Hall on Melbourne Place to eat. The tickets for these dinners issued daily at school to encourage children deserving of the meals to actually attend their lessons. They could also be purchased for 6d a week; with a little bit of liberal rounding they became known as “penny dinners“.
Soup and bread is served for lunch at North Canongate School, c. 1914. The man with the moustache and white apron is the headmaster. Note the lack of shoes on a number of the boys’ feet.
Feeding was not the only effort made to improve the lot of the children of Castlehill. In 1908 permission was gained by the School Board to adopt a piece of ground on Johnston Terrace next to the Church of Scotland Normal School (a teacher training college) for use as a playground, that at the school being completely insufficient in size and aspect. In 1909, under the auspices of Patrick Geddes’ Edinburgh Social Union, a patch of wasteland on Johnston Terrace was converted by pupils at the school into a model demonstration garden of their very own. Geddes established numerous such gardens, believing them as living classrooms for teaching both biology and self-improvement. Vegetable plots 150 feet long and 7 feet wide grew potatoes, peas, beans, cauliflowers, cabbages, turnips, leeks, onions, carrots, lettuces and other salad vegetables which were used in cookery classes in the school. This space was used for teaching natural history lessons and the principles of crop rotation. It also allowed the school to apply for a valuable additional grant for teaching gardening from the Education Department.
The Castlehill School garden off Johnston Terrace, c. 1914
The next year, 1910, headmaster H. F. Sim brought the first case of its kind in Edinburgh to the City Police Court under the Children Act 1908, when two shopkeepers were charged with and pleaded guilty to selling “smoking mixture” to to children under the age of 16. Sim had caught boys in the school trying to smoke a pipe filled with the ersatz tobacco and confiscated from them their paper bag marked “The Boys’ Smoking Mixture and Pipe: price One Halfpenny“. On questioning, he had found from them where they had acquired it and reported the matter to the city’s Medical Officer of Health. The magistrate admonished the defendants and said “a warning should be given to tobacconists that the sale of such a mixture was an illegal practice, and that in other cases of the kind the offenders would certainly be punished.“
A production of scenes from Julius Caesar for the benefit of the School Board by the boys of Castlehill School, March 1912. The Evening News recorded that Mark Anthony was played by William Caldwell and that he “made a very excellent attempt at the speech at Caesar’s funeral”.
In October 1912, to remedy a lack of accommodation in the school, the adjacent ancient tenement known as Cannonball House – the last block of old Castlehill – being acquired by the Board for £1,925. It had recently been bought by the Cockburn Association with a view to preservation and the Board spent £3,500 thoroughly renovating and converting into additional teaching spaces. Its four principal classrooms could accommodate 180 children and there were special rooms for practical subjects such as cookery. In the basement were “spray baths“; showers for the children, most of whom lacked even basic domestic sanitation in their homes. The building was substantially altered, with one wing and the old Blair’s Close removed to improve ventilation and daylight. A number of original 17th century features were uncovered during restoration and were retained and installed in the fabric in new locations, making the end result something of a chimaera. The east gable is the biggest give-away way that not all is what it seems with this apparently old tenement; look for the tall classroom windows and the Edinburgh School Board emblem high up on the pediment.
Cannonball House, before and after. In 1900, an image by James C. H. Balmain (left) and in 1957 by H. D. Wyllie. Photos in the Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, Edinburgh City Libraries. Move the slider to compare.
In WW1 the school was requisitioned by to act as a depot and billeting for soldiers of the 5th Royal Scots based out of Edinburgh Castle. The Church of Scotland Young Men’s Guild was given the use of a room the following year to run a canteen and recreation room for them, with a gramophone, games, books, newspapers and writing materials. A teacher at the school, James Bathgate, was injured on war service in July 1915 when serving as a private with the College Company, 4th Royal Scots, in France. In April 1917, Headmaster Sim lost his son, Charles Henry Stuart, who died in hospital having been fatally injured serving with the Royal Field Artillery.
After the war, in April 1922, Headmistress Miss C. E. Anderson retired and was presented with a gold wristlet watch from the parents and her colleagues and a diamond brooch from the pupils. She had been teaching the children of the area since the school opened – a record period of 41 years!
In 1936 a new technological front in teaching was opened up at Castlehill when a room was specifically converted for the use of the Edinburgh branch of the newly instituted Scottish Educational Film Association for the production of educational films. It had been recognised that technology had a part to play in education – in 1931 a group from Canonmills School had been given a trial lesson on the theme of sound recording and reproduction at their local cinema – but further progress was wanting on account of a lack of suitable films for the classroom. The Education Committee thus resolved to make them for themselves: as well as providing the studio for the Association, they also covered the (then) substantial overhead of film costs and in return had a controlling say in the content of films. The first production was a four-part geography film entitled “The Port of London“. The Association would remain at Castlehill until 1957, when they moved to Boswell’s Court.
Members of the Scottish Educational Film Association and school teachers working on a production in the new studio at Castlehill. Edinburgh Evening News, December 19th 1936
On the morning of September 1st 1939, children showed to schools all over the city with their coat, a bag or case and a cardboard label – they were being evacuated. Some 200 gathered at Castlehill before heading to Waverley station and destinations unknown. The school remained open for those children that stayed behind and there were still 273 on the roll in September 1940. The logbook records the peculiarities of an education during wartime; there were separate air raid shelters for infants, girls and boys; all children had to carry their gas masks with them; there were weekly gas mask drills and weekly marching drills to and from the shelters.
Excerpt from the logbook at Castlehill School for February 1940 with notes on the gas mask and air raid shelter drills.
Additional wartime uses were found for the partially vacant school. A central depot for clothing for evacuees was established in October 1939; donations were received and sorted before being distributed to those in need who had been evacuated and found themselves wanting during their “enforced holiday to the country“. This was organised by Miss Cairns, Superintendent of Domestic Subjects for the Corporation, and she had 50 sewing mistresses from across the city under her direction. The supply of children’s coats proved insufficient and so these “clever-fingered” women picked apart the excess of larger items, cut them down to the required sizes and put them back together again. They were joined by women of the Edinburgh Personal Service League who performed a similar operation for men’s clothing, to be sent via the Red Cross to injured servicemen and prisoners of war. Wartime cookery classes were run in the school by the Corporation’s night school teachers. These were aimed at women to try and instruct them in how to eke out their rations, substitute various items that were off ration to recreate old favourites and how to do so more healthily and with less waste of fuel. Mrs Gray of the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) established a group of like-minded women to make soft toys and dolls and clothing for babies and toddlers who were being cared for in public nurseries, their mothers being on war work. Most of these things were no longer being manufactured during wartime. Such was the success of this endeavour that it later relocated to a dedicated workshop at Bristo School as the Nursery Equipment Centre.
A wartime cookery lesson at Castlehill. Edinburgh Evening News, May 14th 1940
Postwar, a shock announcement in May 1951 broke news that the school was to be closed at the end of that term. It had been built for 800 but as a result of the long term urban depopulation of the city it was down to 293 by this point; there was plenty excess capacity to rehouse them at Milton House, Tollcross and South Bridge schools for the same reason.
A Castlehill class, 1947
A secondary reason behind the closure was that the authorities wanted to establish a Central School Of Bakery and Catering where apprentice workers from the city’s important baking industry (as well as more general cookery and catering) could undertake industry-specific further education. Parents protested the decision but the Corporation was unmoved and voted by 14 to 5 for closure. Its only concession was to promise crossing guards to help children navigate the busy roads that they now needed to transit on their way to their new schools.
One mother vents her frustration towards Councillors Thomson and Hedderwick of the Education Committee at a meeting to oppose the closure of Castlehill School, May 25th 1951.
The bakery school opened on Monday 19th January 1954, Councillor H. A. Brechin performed the honours and stated “these new premises, together with the modern equipment, give Edinburgh one of the most up-to-date baking and catering schools in the United Kingdom“.
Mr John Russell shows apprentices a loaf fresh from the oven (left) and John Notman (right) is supervised in the correct way to serve diners at Castlehill School in these photos from the Evening News, October 2rd 1957
It did not last long however and as a result of changes to further education and the city’s industries, it was closed by 1970. While it once again sought a purpose, during the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh that year it served as a temporary museum of regimental history at Edinburgh Castle. In 1971 the main building was converted to offices for the City Engineer’s department and would later be occupied by the Drainage Department of Lothian Regional Council. Between 1972 and 1974 it was also the home for the Theatre Workshop, an arts and drama centre for children, while it was found permanent premises.
1965, the sad sight of the abandoned School Garden. Photo by Ronald Alexander © Edinburgh City Libraries
In August 1986, Lothian Region accepted an offer for £250,000 from William Muir distillers who proposed to convert the former school it into a whisky museum and heritage centre. £2 million was spent on this project which opened its doors on 3rd May 1988, the building’s centennial year. It was an instant success and is now into its 5th decade of offering a very different sort of education than that the building’s planners had in mind.
Cannonball House was retained by the Education Department when the main building became the bakery school and was used for community education, passing to Lothian Regional Council on the formation of that organisation. In 1984 a Children’s History Centre was opened and the building was later properly converted by the Region for £200,000 for use as a schools education centre modelled on Patrick Grddes’ ideas; the Castehill Urban Studies Centre. It was the first such centre in Britain and I recall school trips there in the early 1990s, the name of the guide was Mrs Quick – I’m not sure why that name stuck with me, but it did!. Between 1999 until the opening of the new Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in 2004, Cannonball House was used as a schools education centre for the temporary parliament housed in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland on the Lawnmarket. In 2013, 100 years after it opened as part of the school, it found a new life as a high-end restaurant by the Scottish-Italian Contini family, who themselves had started out in Scotland a century before.
Contini Cannonball Restaurant and Bar, via Contini.com
Want to read more about Edinburgh’s Lost Board Schools? The previous chapter was about Canonmills School.
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Craig Constantine @[email protected] · 2020-07-29 · 14:00 UTC

Performing with a safety net

When recording conversations for the Movers Mindset podcast the guests know I’m not going to edit what they say to change their meaning. They know I’m bringing journalistic integrity to the conversation. (I’m not doing strict journalism, but that feature of journalism is present.) I do my best to set up the correct space (physical, emotional and mental,) so that we can co-create the best conversation possible. I’m not digging for dirt, creating tension, nor trying to create any other saccharine artifice. But that doesn’t change the fact that we are performing for an audience. The final necessary piece to facilitating a great conversation is a safety net.
Each conversation… each performance is better if we can reach just a bit farther than we might normally be comfortable doing. That’s why I bring a safety net. I very clearly give the guest a safe word which they can incant at any time to take back what they’ve said.
I don’t include the guest in the post-production process. They’re not invited to review the material, or to give additional thoughts about what to keep or what to cut. In fact, the only people who have time to do that, are wanna-be cooks, who will only mess up the soup if I let them in my kitchen. Instead, I and my team do all the post-production difficult work which is in fact our responsibility. The guest already did the really hard work of being themselves on-mic.
I do also say, “take your time— silence is free and we can easily trim out 30 seconds of you thinking before you speak.” I’ve also a few other little coaching tidbits I share to prep them for being recorded. But it’s the safety net which makes them feel comfortable trying something they might otherwise hesitate about. Part of the magic of a great conversation is how it develops organically, and without the safety net most people dial their caution up a few notches to be safe. With a safety net, most people are delighted to take a leap to see what they can do.
ɕ
#Apogee #Conversation #MoversMindset #Podcasting

#apogee #conversation #moversmindset #podcasting
jansegers @[email protected] · 2020-07-21 · 13:33 UTC

BASIC1500
a • abdomen • able • about • absorption • acceleration • acceptance • accessory • accident • account • acid • across • act • active • addition • address • adjacent • adjustment • adsorption • advertisement • after • again • against • age • agency • agreement • air • alcohol • algebra • all • allowance • almost • altar • alternative • aluminum • am • ammonia • among • amount • amplitude • amusement • an • and • angel • angle • angry • animal • answer • ant • any • apparatus • appendage • apple • application • approval • approximation • april • arbitrary • arbitration • arc • arch • are • area • argument • arithmetic • ark • arm • army • arrangement • arrow • art • as • asbestos • ash • ass • asset • assets • assistant • at • attack • attempt • attention • attraction • august • authority • autobus • automatic • automobile • average • awake • away • ax • axis • baby • back • bad • bag • balance • bale • ball • ballet • band • bank • bankrupt • baptism • bar • bark • barrel • base • basic • basin • basket • bath • be • beak • beaker • beast • beautiful • because • bed • bee • beef • been • beer • before • behavior • being • belief • bell • bent • berry • best • better • between • bible • bill • biology • bird • birefringence • birth • bit • bite • bitter • black • blade • blessing • blind • blood • blow • blue • board • boat • body • boiling • bone • book • boot • bottle • bow • box • boy • brain • brake • branch • brass • bread • break • breast • breath • brick • bride • bridge • bright • broken • broker • brother • brow • brown • brush • bubble • bucket • bud • budget • building • bulb • buoyancy • burn • burst • business • but • butter • button • by • cafe • cake • calendar • calm • came • camera • canvas • capacity • captain • card • care • carriage • cart • cartilage • case • cast • cat • catarrh • cattle • cause • cave • cavity • cell • cent • centi • certain • certificate • chain • chalk • champagne • chance • change • charge • chauffeur • cheap • check • cheese • chemical • chemist • chemistry • chest • chief • child • chin • chocolate • chorus • church • cigarette • circle • circuit • circulation • circumcision • circumference • circus • citron • claim • claw • clay • clean • clear • cleavage • client • climber • clip • clock • cloth • cloud • club • coal • coat • cock • cocktail • code • coffee • cognac • coil • cold • collar • college • collision • colony • color • column • comb • combination • combine • come • comfort • coming • committee • common • company • comparison • competition • complaint • complete • complex • component • compound • condition • conductor • congruent • connection • conscious • conservation • consignment • constant • consumer • continuous • contour • control • conversion • cook • copper • copy • cord • cork • correlation • corrosion • cost • cotton • cough • country • court • cover • cow • crack • credit • creeper • crime • cross • crown • cruel • crush • cry • cubic • cup • current • curse • curtain • curve • cushion • cusp • customs • cut • damage • damping • dance • danger • dark • daughter • dawn • day • dead • dear • death • debit • debt • deca • deceit • december • deci • decision • deck • decrease • deep • defect • deficiency • deflation • degenerate • degree • delicate • delight • delivery • demand • denominator • density • dependent • deposit • desert • design • desire • destruction • detail • determining • development • dew • diameter • did • difference • different • difficulty • digestion • dike • dilution • dip • diplomacy • direct • direction • dirty • disappearance • discharge • disciple • discount • discovery • discussion • disease • disgust • dissipation • distance • distribution • disturbance • division • divisor • do • does • dog • doing • dollar • domesticating • dominion • done • door • doubt • dove • down • drain • drawer • dream • dress • drift • drink • driving • drop • dry • duct • dust • dynamite • eagle • ear • early • earth • east • economics • edge • education • effect • efficiency • effort • egg • eight • elastic • electric • eleven • elimination • embassy • empire • employer • encyclopedia • end • engine • engineer • enough • environment • envy • equal • equation • erosion • error • eruption • etc • eternal • euro • evaporation • even • evening • event • ever • every • evil • exact • example • exchange • existence • expansion • experience • experiment • expert • explanation • explosion • export • extinction • eye • face • fact • factor • fair • faith • fall • false • family • fan • far • farm • farther • farthest • fat • fate • father • fatigue • fault • fear • feast • feather • february • feeble • feeling • female • ferment • fertile • fertilizing • fiber • fiction • field • fifteen • fifth • fifty • fight • fin • finger • fire • first • fish • five • fixed • flag • flame • flask • flat • flesh • flight • flint • flock • flood • floor • flow • flower • fly • focus • fold • foliation • food • foolish • foot • for • force • forgiveness • fork • form • forty • forward • fountain • four • fourteen • fourth • fowl • fox • fraction • fracture • frame • free • frequent • fresh • friction • friday • friend • from • front • fruit • full • fume • funnel • furnace • further • furthest • fusion • future • gallon • garden • gas • gat • gave • general • generation • gentle • geography • geology • geometry • germinating • get • getting • gill • girl • give • given • giving • glacier • glad • gland • glass • glory • glove • glycerin • go • goat • god • goes • going • gold • gone • good • got • gotten • government • grace • grain • gram • grape • grass • grating • gravel • great • green • grey • grief • grip • groove • gross • ground • group • growth • guarantee • guard • guest • guide • gun • habit • had • hair • half • hammer • hand • hanging • happy • harbor • hard • harmony • has • hat • hate • hath • have • having • hawk • he • head • healthy • hearing • heart • heat • heaven • hecto • hell • help • her • herd • here • heritage • hers • high • hill • him • hinge • hire • his • history • hold • hole • hollow • holy • honey • honor • hoof • hook • hope • horn • horse • hospital • host • hotel • hour • house • how • humor • hundred • husband • hyena • hygiene • hysteria • i • ice • idea • if • igneous • ill • image • imperial • import • important • impulse • impurity • in • inclusion • increase • index • individual • industry • inferno • infinity • inflation • influenza • inheritance • ink • inner • insect • instrument • insulator • insurance • integer • intercept • interest • international • interpenetration • interpretation • intersection • intrusion • invention • inverse • investigation • investment • iron • is • island • it • its • ivory • january • jaw • jazz • jelly • jewel • join • joint • journey • joy • judge • juice • july • jump • june • keep • keeping • kept • kettle • key • kick • kidney • kilo • kind • king • kingdom • kiss • knee • knife • knot • knowledge • lag • lake • lamb • land • language • lark • last • late • latitude • laugh • lava • law • layer • lead • leaf • learning • least • leather • leaven • left • leg • length • lens • leper • less • let • letter • level • lever • liability • library • license • life • lift • light • like • limestone • limit • line • linen • link • lion • lip • liqueur • liquid • list • lists • liter • little • liver • living • load • loan • lock • locus • locust • long • longitude • look • loose • lord • loss • loud • love • low • lung • macaroni • machine • madam • made • magnitude • make • making • malaria • male • man • manager • mania • map • march • margin • mark • market • married • mass • master • match • material • mathematics • mature • may • me • meadow • meal • mean • measure • meat • mechanics • medical • medium • meeting • melody • melt • memory • mercy • metabolism • metal • meter • metric • micro • middle • might • mile • military • milk • milli • million • mind • mine • minute • mist • mixed • mixture • momentum • monday • money • monkey • monopoly • month • moon • more • morning • most • mother • motion • mountain • mouth • move • much • mud • multiple • multiplication • muscle • museum • music • my • nail • name • names • narrow • nation • natural • near • nearer • nearest • necessary • neck • need • needle • neighbor • nerve • net • never • new • news • nickel • nicotine • night • nine • no • noble • node • noise • normal • north • nose • not • note • nouns • november • now • nucleus • number • numbers • numerator • nut • oath • oblique • observation • october • of • off • offer • office • oil • old • olive • omelet • on • once • one • only • open • opera • operation • operations • opinion • opium • opposite • opposites • or • orange • orchestra • order • ore • organization • organizations • origin • ornament • other • our • ours • out • outcrop • outer • outlier • oven • over • overlap • owner • ox • oxidation • packing • page • pain • paint • pair • pajamas • paper • paradise • paraffin • parallel • parcel • parent • park • part • particle • partner • passion • passport • past • paste • patent • path • payment • peace • pen • pencil • pendulum • penguin • penny • pension • people • per • perfume • person • petal • phonograph • physical • physics • physiology • piano • picturable • picture • pig • pillar • pin • pipe • piston • pity • place • places • plain • plan • plane • plant • plate • platinum • play • please • pleasure • plough • plug • pocket • point • poison • police • polish • political • pollen • pool • poor • population • porcelain • porter • position • possible • post • pot • potash • potato • pound • powder • power • praise • prayer • preaching • present • president • pressure • price • pride • priest • prime • prince • princess • print • prison • private • probability • probable • process • produce • product • profit • program • projectile • projection • proof • propaganda • property • prophet • prose • protest • psychology • public • pull • pulley • pump • punishment • purchase • purple • purpose • push • put • pyramid • qualities • quality • quantity • quarter • queen • question • quick • quiet • quinine • quite • quotient • radiation • radio • radium • rail • rain • range • rapture • rat • rate • ratio • raven • ray • reaction • reading • ready • reagent • reason • receipt • receiver • reciprocal • record • rectangle • recurring • red • reference • referendum • reflux • regret • regular • reinforcement • relation • relative • religion • rent • representative • reproduction • repulsion • request • residue • resistance • resolution • respect • responsible • rest • restaurant • retail • revelation • reversible • reward • rheumatism • rhythm • rice • right • righteousness • rigidity • ring • river • road • robe • rock • rod • roll • roof • room • root • rose • rot • rotation • rough • round • royal • rub • rule • rum • run • rush • sac • sad • safe • said • sail • saint • salad • sale • salt • salvation • same • sample • sand • sardine • saturated • saturday • saving • savior • saw • say • saying • scale • scarp • schist • school • science • sciences • scissors • screen • screw • scribe • sea • seal • search • seat • second • secret • secretary • secretion • section • security • sedimentary • see • seed • seeing • seem • seen • selection • self • send • sending • sense • sensitivity • sent • sepal • separate • september • serious • servant • service • seven • sex • shade • shadow • shake • shale • shame • share • sharp • she • shear • sheep • shelf • shell • shining • ship • shirt • shock • shoe • shore • short • show • shower • shut • side • sight • sign • silk • sill • silver • similarity • simple • sin • sir • sister • six • sixteen • size • skin • skirt • skull • sky • slate • sleep • slide • slip • slope • slow • small • smash • smell • smile • smoke • smooth • snake • sneeze • snow • so • soap • society • sock • soft • soil • solid • solution • solvent • some • son • song • sorrow • sort • soul • sound • soup • south • space • spade • spark • spear • special • specialization • specimen • speculation • spice • spirit • sponge • spoon • sport • spring • square • stable • stage • stain • stalk • stamen • stamp • star • start • statement • station • statistics • steam • steel • stem • step • stick • sticky • stiff • still • stimulus • stitch • stocking • stomach • stone • stop • store • storm • story • straight • strain • strange • stream • street • strength • stress • stretch • strike • strong • structure • substance • substitution • subtraction • successive • such • sucker • sudden • sugar • suggestion • sum • summer • sun • sunday • supply • support • surface • surprise • suspension • sweet • swelling • swim • switch • sword • system • table • tail • take • taken • taking • talk • tall • tapioca • taste • tax • taxi • tea • teaching • telegram • telephone • ten • tendency • tent • term • terrace • test • testament • texture • than • that • the • theater • their • them • then • theory • there • these • they • thick • thickness • thief • thin • thing • things • third • thirteen • thirty • this • thorax • thorn • those • though • thought • thousand • thread • three • throat • through • thrust • thumb • thunder • thursday • ticket • tide • tight • till • time • tin • tired • tissue • titles • to • toast • tobacco • toe • together • tomorrow • tongs • tongue • took • tooth • top • torpedo • total • touch • tower • town • trade • train • transmission • transparent • transport • trap • travel • tray • tree • triangle • tribe • trick • trouble • trousers • true • tube • tuesday • turn • twelve • twenty • twice • twin • twist • two • umbrella • unconformity • under • unit • university • unknown • up • us • use • used • utility • valency • valley • value • valve • vanilla • vapor • variable • vascular • veil • velocity • verse • very • vessel • vestigial • view • vine • violent • violet • violin • virgin • virtue • visa • vision • vodka • voice • volt • volume • vortex • waiting • walk • wall • wandering • war • warm • was • wash • waste • watch • water • wave • wax • way • we • wealth • weariness • weather • wedge • wednesday • week • weeping • weight • well • went • were • west • wet • what • wheel • when • where • which • while • whip • whisky • whistle • white • who • wholesale • whom • whose • why • wide • widow • wife • wild • will • wind • window • wine • wing • winter • wire • wisdom • wise • with • witness • wolf • woman • wonder • wood • wool • word • wordlists • words • work • world • worm • worship • would • wound • wrath • writing • wrong • yard • year • yellow • yes • yesterday • yoke • you • young • your • yours • zebra • zinc • zoology • 's
http://storytellinginbasicenglish.net/html/wordlists.html?fbclid=IwAR1ky-bH-1vGtAlGS186sVNoAITaqhmEhYyTQcFQ2z58NC-QuTBHm_5pQ10
I've retained all the words except the 5 onomatopeic words, but with all the words for the word categories.
TOTAL: 1670 words
NOTA BENE :
I still have to capitalize the days of the weeks and the months of the year:
April August December Februari Friday January July June March May Monday November October Saturday September Sunday Thursday Tuesday Wednesday
PS: there is a confusion possible between may / May and march / March
#English #BASICEnglish #BASIC1500 #wordlist #talika_nimi #Inli_pasila

#inli_pasila #talika_nimi #wordlist #basic1500 #basicenglish #english
jansegers @[email protected] · 2020-07-21 · 13:33 UTC

BASIC1500
a • abdomen • able • about • absorption • acceleration • acceptance • accessory • accident • account • acid • across • act • active • addition • address • adjacent • adjustment • adsorption • advertisement • after • again • against • age • agency • agreement • air • alcohol • algebra • all • allowance • almost • altar • alternative • aluminum • am • ammonia • among • amount • amplitude • amusement • an • and • angel • angle • angry • animal • answer • ant • any • apparatus • appendage • apple • application • approval • approximation • april • arbitrary • arbitration • arc • arch • are • area • argument • arithmetic • ark • arm • army • arrangement • arrow • art • as • asbestos • ash • ass • asset • assets • assistant • at • attack • attempt • attention • attraction • august • authority • autobus • automatic • automobile • average • awake • away • ax • axis • baby • back • bad • bag • balance • bale • ball • ballet • band • bank • bankrupt • baptism • bar • bark • barrel • base • basic • basin • basket • bath • be • beak • beaker • beast • beautiful • because • bed • bee • beef • been • beer • before • behavior • being • belief • bell • bent • berry • best • better • between • bible • bill • biology • bird • birefringence • birth • bit • bite • bitter • black • blade • blessing • blind • blood • blow • blue • board • boat • body • boiling • bone • book • boot • bottle • bow • box • boy • brain • brake • branch • brass • bread • break • breast • breath • brick • bride • bridge • bright • broken • broker • brother • brow • brown • brush • bubble • bucket • bud • budget • building • bulb • buoyancy • burn • burst • business • but • butter • button • by • cafe • cake • calendar • calm • came • camera • canvas • capacity • captain • card • care • carriage • cart • cartilage • case • cast • cat • catarrh • cattle • cause • cave • cavity • cell • cent • centi • certain • certificate • chain • chalk • champagne • chance • change • charge • chauffeur • cheap • check • cheese • chemical • chemist • chemistry • chest • chief • child • chin • chocolate • chorus • church • cigarette • circle • circuit • circulation • circumcision • circumference • circus • citron • claim • claw • clay • clean • clear • cleavage • client • climber • clip • clock • cloth • cloud • club • coal • coat • cock • cocktail • code • coffee • cognac • coil • cold • collar • college • collision • colony • color • column • comb • combination • combine • come • comfort • coming • committee • common • company • comparison • competition • complaint • complete • complex • component • compound • condition • conductor • congruent • connection • conscious • conservation • consignment • constant • consumer • continuous • contour • control • conversion • cook • copper • copy • cord • cork • correlation • corrosion • cost • cotton • cough • country • court • cover • cow • crack • credit • creeper • crime • cross • crown • cruel • crush • cry • cubic • cup • current • curse • curtain • curve • cushion • cusp • customs • cut • damage • damping • dance • danger • dark • daughter • dawn • day • dead • dear • death • debit • debt • deca • deceit • december • deci • decision • deck • decrease • deep • defect • deficiency • deflation • degenerate • degree • delicate • delight • delivery • demand • denominator • density • dependent • deposit • desert • design • desire • destruction • detail • determining • development • dew • diameter • did • difference • different • difficulty • digestion • dike • dilution • dip • diplomacy • direct • direction • dirty • disappearance • discharge • disciple • discount • discovery • discussion • disease • disgust • dissipation • distance • distribution • disturbance • division • divisor • do • does • dog • doing • dollar • domesticating • dominion • done • door • doubt • dove • down • drain • drawer • dream • dress • drift • drink • driving • drop • dry • duct • dust • dynamite • eagle • ear • early • earth • east • economics • edge • education • effect • efficiency • effort • egg • eight • elastic • electric • eleven • elimination • embassy • empire • employer • encyclopedia • end • engine • engineer • enough • environment • envy • equal • equation • erosion • error • eruption • etc • eternal • euro • evaporation • even • evening • event • ever • every • evil • exact • example • exchange • existence • expansion • experience • experiment • expert • explanation • explosion • export • extinction • eye • face • fact • factor • fair • faith • fall • false • family • fan • far • farm • farther • farthest • fat • fate • father • fatigue • fault • fear • feast • feather • february • feeble • feeling • female • ferment • fertile • fertilizing • fiber • fiction • field • fifteen • fifth • fifty • fight • fin • finger • fire • first • fish • five • fixed • flag • flame • flask • flat • flesh • flight • flint • flock • flood • floor • flow • flower • fly • focus • fold • foliation • food • foolish • foot • for • force • forgiveness • fork • form • forty • forward • fountain • four • fourteen • fourth • fowl • fox • fraction • fracture • frame • free • frequent • fresh • friction • friday • friend • from • front • fruit • full • fume • funnel • furnace • further • furthest • fusion • future • gallon • garden • gas • gat • gave • general • generation • gentle • geography • geology • geometry • germinating • get • getting • gill • girl • give • given • giving • glacier • glad • gland • glass • glory • glove • glycerin • go • goat • god • goes • going • gold • gone • good • got • gotten • government • grace • grain • gram • grape • grass • grating • gravel • great • green • grey • grief • grip • groove • gross • ground • group • growth • guarantee • guard • guest • guide • gun • habit • had • hair • half • hammer • hand • hanging • happy • harbor • hard • harmony • has • hat • hate • hath • have • having • hawk • he • head • healthy • hearing • heart • heat • heaven • hecto • hell • help • her • herd • here • heritage • hers • high • hill • him • hinge • hire • his • history • hold • hole • hollow • holy • honey • honor • hoof • hook • hope • horn • horse • hospital • host • hotel • hour • house • how • humor • hundred • husband • hyena • hygiene • hysteria • i • ice • idea • if • igneous • ill • image • imperial • import • important • impulse • impurity • in • inclusion • increase • index • individual • industry • inferno • infinity • inflation • influenza • inheritance • ink • inner • insect • instrument • insulator • insurance • integer • intercept • interest • international • interpenetration • interpretation • intersection • intrusion • invention • inverse • investigation • investment • iron • is • island • it • its • ivory • january • jaw • jazz • jelly • jewel • join • joint • journey • joy • judge • juice • july • jump • june • keep • keeping • kept • kettle • key • kick • kidney • kilo • kind • king • kingdom • kiss • knee • knife • knot • knowledge • lag • lake • lamb • land • language • lark • last • late • latitude • laugh • lava • law • layer • lead • leaf • learning • least • leather • leaven • left • leg • length • lens • leper • less • let • letter • level • lever • liability • library • license • life • lift • light • like • limestone • limit • line • linen • link • lion • lip • liqueur • liquid • list • lists • liter • little • liver • living • load • loan • lock • locus • locust • long • longitude • look • loose • lord • loss • loud • love • low • lung • macaroni • machine • madam • made • magnitude • make • making • malaria • male • man • manager • mania • map • march • margin • mark • market • married • mass • master • match • material • mathematics • mature • may • me • meadow • meal • mean • measure • meat • mechanics • medical • medium • meeting • melody • melt • memory • mercy • metabolism • metal • meter • metric • micro • middle • might • mile • military • milk • milli • million • mind • mine • minute • mist • mixed • mixture • momentum • monday • money • monkey • monopoly • month • moon • more • morning • most • mother • motion • mountain • mouth • move • much • mud • multiple • multiplication • muscle • museum • music • my • nail • name • names • narrow • nation • natural • near • nearer • nearest • necessary • neck • need • needle • neighbor • nerve • net • never • new • news • nickel • nicotine • night • nine • no • noble • node • noise • normal • north • nose • not • note • nouns • november • now • nucleus • number • numbers • numerator • nut • oath • oblique • observation • october • of • off • offer • office • oil • old • olive • omelet • on • once • one • only • open • opera • operation • operations • opinion • opium • opposite • opposites • or • orange • orchestra • order • ore • organization • organizations • origin • ornament • other • our • ours • out • outcrop • outer • outlier • oven • over • overlap • owner • ox • oxidation • packing • page • pain • paint • pair • pajamas • paper • paradise • paraffin • parallel • parcel • parent • park • part • particle • partner • passion • passport • past • paste • patent • path • payment • peace • pen • pencil • pendulum • penguin • penny • pension • people • per • perfume • person • petal • phonograph • physical • physics • physiology • piano • picturable • picture • pig • pillar • pin • pipe • piston • pity • place • places • plain • plan • plane • plant • plate • platinum • play • please • pleasure • plough • plug • pocket • point • poison • police • polish • political • pollen • pool • poor • population • porcelain • porter • position • possible • post • pot • potash • potato • pound • powder • power • praise • prayer • preaching • present • president • pressure • price • pride • priest • prime • prince • princess • print • prison • private • probability • probable • process • produce • product • profit • program • projectile • projection • proof • propaganda • property • prophet • prose • protest • psychology • public • pull • pulley • pump • punishment • purchase • purple • purpose • push • put • pyramid • qualities • quality • quantity • quarter • queen • question • quick • quiet • quinine • quite • quotient • radiation • radio • radium • rail • rain • range • rapture • rat • rate • ratio • raven • ray • reaction • reading • ready • reagent • reason • receipt • receiver • reciprocal • record • rectangle • recurring • red • reference • referendum • reflux • regret • regular • reinforcement • relation • relative • religion • rent • representative • reproduction • repulsion • request • residue • resistance • resolution • respect • responsible • rest • restaurant • retail • revelation • reversible • reward • rheumatism • rhythm • rice • right • righteousness • rigidity • ring • river • road • robe • rock • rod • roll • roof • room • root • rose • rot • rotation • rough • round • royal • rub • rule • rum • run • rush • sac • sad • safe • said • sail • saint • salad • sale • salt • salvation • same • sample • sand • sardine • saturated • saturday • saving • savior • saw • say • saying • scale • scarp • schist • school • science • sciences • scissors • screen • screw • scribe • sea • seal • search • seat • second • secret • secretary • secretion • section • security • sedimentary • see • seed • seeing • seem • seen • selection • self • send • sending • sense • sensitivity • sent • sepal • separate • september • serious • servant • service • seven • sex • shade • shadow • shake • shale • shame • share • sharp • she • shear • sheep • shelf • shell • shining • ship • shirt • shock • shoe • shore • short • show • shower • shut • side • sight • sign • silk • sill • silver • similarity • simple • sin • sir • sister • six • sixteen • size • skin • skirt • skull • sky • slate • sleep • slide • slip • slope • slow • small • smash • smell • smile • smoke • smooth • snake • sneeze • snow • so • soap • society • sock • soft • soil • solid • solution • solvent • some • son • song • sorrow • sort • soul • sound • soup • south • space • spade • spark • spear • special • specialization • specimen • speculation • spice • spirit • sponge • spoon • sport • spring • square • stable • stage • stain • stalk • stamen • stamp • star • start • statement • station • statistics • steam • steel • stem • step • stick • sticky • stiff • still • stimulus • stitch • stocking • stomach • stone • stop • store • storm • story • straight • strain • strange • stream • street • strength • stress • stretch • strike • strong • structure • substance • substitution • subtraction • successive • such • sucker • sudden • sugar • suggestion • sum • summer • sun • sunday • supply • support • surface • surprise • suspension • sweet • swelling • swim • switch • sword • system • table • tail • take • taken • taking • talk • tall • tapioca • taste • tax • taxi • tea • teaching • telegram • telephone • ten • tendency • tent • term • terrace • test • testament • texture • than • that • the • theater • their • them • then • theory • there • these • they • thick • thickness • thief • thin • thing • things • third • thirteen • thirty • this • thorax • thorn • those • though • thought • thousand • thread • three • throat • through • thrust • thumb • thunder • thursday • ticket • tide • tight • till • time • tin • tired • tissue • titles • to • toast • tobacco • toe • together • tomorrow • tongs • tongue • took • tooth • top • torpedo • total • touch • tower • town • trade • train • transmission • transparent • transport • trap • travel • tray • tree • triangle • tribe • trick • trouble • trousers • true • tube • tuesday • turn • twelve • twenty • twice • twin • twist • two • umbrella • unconformity • under • unit • university • unknown • up • us • use • used • utility • valency • valley • value • valve • vanilla • vapor • variable • vascular • veil • velocity • verse • very • vessel • vestigial • view • vine • violent • violet • violin • virgin • virtue • visa • vision • vodka • voice • volt • volume • vortex • waiting • walk • wall • wandering • war • warm • was • wash • waste • watch • water • wave • wax • way • we • wealth • weariness • weather • wedge • wednesday • week • weeping • weight • well • went • were • west • wet • what • wheel • when • where • which • while • whip • whisky • whistle • white • who • wholesale • whom • whose • why • wide • widow • wife • wild • will • wind • window • wine • wing • winter • wire • wisdom • wise • with • witness • wolf • woman • wonder • wood • wool • word • wordlists • words • work • world • worm • worship • would • wound • wrath • writing • wrong • yard • year • yellow • yes • yesterday • yoke • you • young • your • yours • zebra • zinc • zoology • 's
http://storytellinginbasicenglish.net/html/wordlists.html?fbclid=IwAR1ky-bH-1vGtAlGS186sVNoAITaqhmEhYyTQcFQ2z58NC-QuTBHm_5pQ10
I've retained all the words except the 5 onomatopeic words, but with all the words for the word categories.
TOTAL: 1670 words
NOTA BENE :
I still have to capitalize the days of the weeks and the months of the year:
April August December Februari Friday January July June March May Monday November October Saturday September Sunday Thursday Tuesday Wednesday
PS: there is a confusion possible between may / May and march / March
#English #BASICEnglish #BASIC1500 #wordlist #talika_nimi #Inli_pasila

#inli_pasila #talika_nimi #wordlist #basic1500 #basicenglish #english
Junicast @[email protected] · 2025-03-06 · 21:12 UTC

Listening to Soup by #BlindMelon is so joyful as it expresses so well how the 90ies felt for me. It truly was one of the best acts during those times. Yes they never got the attention they really deserved.
People bore me telling me they know #NoRain Dig a little bit deeper and don't just scratch the surface.

#blindmelon #norain
Junicast @[email protected] · 2025-03-06 · 21:12 UTC

Listening to Soup by #BlindMelon is so joyful as it expresses so well how the 90ies felt for me. It truly was one of the best acts during those times. Yes they never got the attention they really deserved.
People bore me telling me they know #NoRain Dig a little bit deeper and don't just scratch the surface.

#blindmelon #norain
Junicast @[email protected] · 2025-03-06 · 21:12 UTC

Listening to Soup by #BlindMelon is so joyful as it expresses so well how the 90ies felt for me. It truly was one of the best acts during those times. Yes they never got the attention they really deserved.
People bore me telling me they know #NoRain Dig a little bit deeper and don't just scratch the surface.

#blindmelon #norain
Shaula Evans @[email protected] · 2026-03-17 · 05:38 UTC

CW: food, food joy, miso

I have deeply loved Japanese miso soup / miso jiru from the first time I tried it.
Miso is a fermented soy bean paste that is sometimes made with other beans and/or additional ingredients. The fermentation process makes the protein in miso easy to digest and absorb. Good quality miso is a living probiotic food.
I love the taste and I also really like the way miso soup feels in my stomach and in my body. 1/n
#Miso #Food #JapaneseFood

#miso #food #japanesefood
Leisureguy @[email protected] · 2023-05-11 · 16:48 UTC

@EllieK Well, the next time I buy coffee I'll get it ground to see what the difference is. The thing is that I drink a single mug of coffee 3 days a week. At that rate, I feared grounds would lose flavor and wanted beans, which would (I believe) last longer.
But I am inclined to try alternatives and experiment. Heck, I've already experimented with the veggie bouillon powder recipe, adding a few things, and I haven't even made it yet.
https://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2023/05/07/veggie-bouillon/
#coffee #soup #bouillon

#coffee #soup #bouillon
Jenn Dolari @[email protected] · 2025-04-01 · 03:00 UTC

This Week's Meals: Dad's Hot and Sour Soup (!/2)
This is the third time I've made this dish. The first time, it came out really bad, and almost sweet. Seeing that I wasn't able to adjust it, I gave up on it.
The second time, it came out sweet again, but I decided I wasn't going to stop until I fixed it, and it turned out if I put about three times the spices than the recipe called for, it tasted like I remembered from the restaurants.
This was the first time I made it with the extra ingredients from scratch and it's perfect. Hot, sour, salty, the only thing missing are some bamboo shoots. Which I might add next time I make this!
Title: Dad's Hot & Sour Soup
Yield: 4 servings
Category: Soup
Cuisine: Chinese
Rating: 5/5 stars
Source: Made With Lau
Website: https://www.madewithlau.com/recipes/hot-sour-soup
---
Ingredients
---
2 whole tomatoes
2 oz carrot
2 oz seafood mushroom
2 oz king mushroom
3 whole shiitake mushrooms
1/4 ounce dried wood ear mushroom
2 whole eggs
1 oz red bell pepper
2 whole green onions
2 whole dried chili peppers (optional)
14 oz tofu
5 cups water [soup base]
6 tbsp vinegar
3 tsp white pepper
3 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water [slurry]
3 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cooking oil
---
Instructions
---
1 - Wash all the vegetables
2 - Rehydrate the dried woodear mushrooms in warm water for 10
minutes.
3 - Cut away the roots of the seafood mushrooms and cut the stems in
half.
4 - Cut the king oyster mushrooms into little strips.
5 - Cut the shiitake mushrooms into this slices.
6 - Cut the woodear mushrooms into thin slices.
7 - Cut the tofu into thin strips.
8 - Cut the carrots into thin strips.
9 - Cut the red bell pepper into thin strips.
10 - Mince the green onions.
11 - Dice the tomatoes into small cubes.
12 - In a bowl, mix together cornstarch and water with a spoon until
it becomes an even slurry.
13 - In another bowl, crack eggs and mix well.
14 - Begin boiling the water, so it's ready later.
15 - Set the stove to its highest heat setting, and start to heat up
the wok.
16 - Add a little bit of corn oil (1 tbsp), as well as our dried
chili peppers (2 piece).
17 - Heat and toss the chilies around the oil for about 1 minute as
our wok heats up.
18 - Cook the diced tomatoes for 30-60 seconds, then add our boiling
water.
19 - Next, we'll add white pepper and stir for 15-30 seconds.
20 - Add salt, sugar, light soy sauce, and dark soy sauce. Stir for
15-30 seconds.
21 - And finally, we'll add our tofu, mushrooms, and vegetables (with
the exception of green onion). Stir gently for 5-10 seconds.
22 - Remove the dried chili peppers.
23 - Cover the wok with a lid.
24 - Once boiling, since the cornstarch has probably settled, mix it
up again with a spoon, and slowly pour in the cornstarch over the
course of 50-60 seconds. Stir constantly.
25 - Beat the eggs again, and slowly pour in the eggs all around the
wok, over the course of 20-30 seconds.
26 - Add vinegar to the wok, as well as sesame oil.
27 - Turn off the heat and transfer the soup into a bowl.
28 - Garnish with the minced green onions.
---
Notes
---
Makes 4 servings at ~400 calories per serving.
Calories 363
Total Fat 17g
Total Carbohydrate 30g
Protein 21g
#thisweeksmeals #cooking

#thisweeksmeals #cooking
Paul Balduf @[email protected] · 2026-02-25 · 16:36 UTC

#paperOfTheDay : "The Brownian loop soup" from 2003. This is a #mathematics paper about random walks in the plane, but there is a famous concrete example from #physics : the 2-dimensional Brownian motion. Generically, the trajectory of such a random walk in a plane can intersect itself. A special case are the non-intersecting random walks. They can be obtained by taking a self-intersecting one, and whenever it intersects itself, one discards the "loop" part (shown in blue in my drawing). What remains is a random walk without self intersection (shown in black).
The purpose of the present paper is to prove that this situation has an equivalent second interpretation: One can view it as a non-intersecting random walk that proceeds through a "Brownian loop soup", namely the collection of random self-intersecting detached loops. Whenever the walk intersects a loop for the first time (green dot), one glues in this loop, and thereby obtains a self-intersecting walk. The non-trivial proof is that this is not just "similar", but in fact mathematically equivalent: The properties of distributions are identical regardless if one starts from the loop soup, or from a self-intersecting walk. #dailyPaperChallenge https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0304419

#dailypaperchallenge #physics #mathematics #paperoftheday
Miguel Afonso Caetano @[email protected] · 2026-02-09 · 11:03 UTC

"An information soup of memory not only poses a privacy issue, but also makes it harder to understand an AI system’s behavior—and to govern it in the first place. So what can developers do to fix this problem?
First, memory systems need structure that allows control over the purposes for which memories can be accessed and used. Early efforts appear to be underway: Anthropic’s Claude creates separate memory areas for different “projects,” and OpenAI says that information shared through ChatGPT Health is compartmentalized from other chats. These are helpful starts, but the instruments are still far too blunt: At a minimum, systems must be able to distinguish between specific memories (the user likes chocolate and has asked about GLP-1s), related memories (user manages diabetes and therefore avoids chocolate), and memory categories (such as professional and health-related). Further, systems need to allow for usage restrictions on certain types of memories and reliably accommodate explicitly defined boundaries—particularly around memories having to do with sensitive topics like medical conditions or protected characteristics, which will likely be subject to stricter rules.
Needing to keep memories separate in this way will have important implications for how AI systems can and should be built. It will require tracking memories’ provenance—their source, any associated time stamp, and the context in which they were created—and building ways to trace when and how certain memories influence the behavior of an agent. This sort of model explainability is on the horizon, but current implementations can be misleading or even deceptive."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/28/1131835/what-ai-remembers-about-you-is-privacys-next-frontier
#AI #GenerativeAI #DataProtection #Privacy #LLMs #Memory #AIExplainability

#ai #generativeai #dataprotection #privacy #llms #memory
Miguel Afonso Caetano @[email protected] · 2026-02-09 · 11:03 UTC

"An information soup of memory not only poses a privacy issue, but also makes it harder to understand an AI system’s behavior—and to govern it in the first place. So what can developers do to fix this problem?
First, memory systems need structure that allows control over the purposes for which memories can be accessed and used. Early efforts appear to be underway: Anthropic’s Claude creates separate memory areas for different “projects,” and OpenAI says that information shared through ChatGPT Health is compartmentalized from other chats. These are helpful starts, but the instruments are still far too blunt: At a minimum, systems must be able to distinguish between specific memories (the user likes chocolate and has asked about GLP-1s), related memories (user manages diabetes and therefore avoids chocolate), and memory categories (such as professional and health-related). Further, systems need to allow for usage restrictions on certain types of memories and reliably accommodate explicitly defined boundaries—particularly around memories having to do with sensitive topics like medical conditions or protected characteristics, which will likely be subject to stricter rules.
Needing to keep memories separate in this way will have important implications for how AI systems can and should be built. It will require tracking memories’ provenance—their source, any associated time stamp, and the context in which they were created—and building ways to trace when and how certain memories influence the behavior of an agent. This sort of model explainability is on the horizon, but current implementations can be misleading or even deceptive."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/28/1131835/what-ai-remembers-about-you-is-privacys-next-frontier
#AI #GenerativeAI #DataProtection #Privacy #LLMs #Memory #AIExplainability

#ai #generativeai #dataprotection #privacy #llms #memory
Miguel Afonso Caetano @[email protected] · 2026-02-09 · 11:03 UTC

"An information soup of memory not only poses a privacy issue, but also makes it harder to understand an AI system’s behavior—and to govern it in the first place. So what can developers do to fix this problem?
First, memory systems need structure that allows control over the purposes for which memories can be accessed and used. Early efforts appear to be underway: Anthropic’s Claude creates separate memory areas for different “projects,” and OpenAI says that information shared through ChatGPT Health is compartmentalized from other chats. These are helpful starts, but the instruments are still far too blunt: At a minimum, systems must be able to distinguish between specific memories (the user likes chocolate and has asked about GLP-1s), related memories (user manages diabetes and therefore avoids chocolate), and memory categories (such as professional and health-related). Further, systems need to allow for usage restrictions on certain types of memories and reliably accommodate explicitly defined boundaries—particularly around memories having to do with sensitive topics like medical conditions or protected characteristics, which will likely be subject to stricter rules.
Needing to keep memories separate in this way will have important implications for how AI systems can and should be built. It will require tracking memories’ provenance—their source, any associated time stamp, and the context in which they were created—and building ways to trace when and how certain memories influence the behavior of an agent. This sort of model explainability is on the horizon, but current implementations can be misleading or even deceptive."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/28/1131835/what-ai-remembers-about-you-is-privacys-next-frontier
#AI #GenerativeAI #DataProtection #Privacy #LLMs #Memory #AIExplainability

#ai #generativeai #dataprotection #privacy #llms #memory
Miguel Afonso Caetano @[email protected] · 2026-02-09 · 11:03 UTC

"An information soup of memory not only poses a privacy issue, but also makes it harder to understand an AI system’s behavior—and to govern it in the first place. So what can developers do to fix this problem?
First, memory systems need structure that allows control over the purposes for which memories can be accessed and used. Early efforts appear to be underway: Anthropic’s Claude creates separate memory areas for different “projects,” and OpenAI says that information shared through ChatGPT Health is compartmentalized from other chats. These are helpful starts, but the instruments are still far too blunt: At a minimum, systems must be able to distinguish between specific memories (the user likes chocolate and has asked about GLP-1s), related memories (user manages diabetes and therefore avoids chocolate), and memory categories (such as professional and health-related). Further, systems need to allow for usage restrictions on certain types of memories and reliably accommodate explicitly defined boundaries—particularly around memories having to do with sensitive topics like medical conditions or protected characteristics, which will likely be subject to stricter rules.
Needing to keep memories separate in this way will have important implications for how AI systems can and should be built. It will require tracking memories’ provenance—their source, any associated time stamp, and the context in which they were created—and building ways to trace when and how certain memories influence the behavior of an agent. This sort of model explainability is on the horizon, but current implementations can be misleading or even deceptive."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/28/1131835/what-ai-remembers-about-you-is-privacys-next-frontier
#AI #GenerativeAI #DataProtection #Privacy #LLMs #Memory #AIExplainability

#aiexplainability #memory #llms #privacy #dataprotection #generativeai
Miguel Afonso Caetano @[email protected] · 2026-02-09 · 11:03 UTC

"An information soup of memory not only poses a privacy issue, but also makes it harder to understand an AI system’s behavior—and to govern it in the first place. So what can developers do to fix this problem?
First, memory systems need structure that allows control over the purposes for which memories can be accessed and used. Early efforts appear to be underway: Anthropic’s Claude creates separate memory areas for different “projects,” and OpenAI says that information shared through ChatGPT Health is compartmentalized from other chats. These are helpful starts, but the instruments are still far too blunt: At a minimum, systems must be able to distinguish between specific memories (the user likes chocolate and has asked about GLP-1s), related memories (user manages diabetes and therefore avoids chocolate), and memory categories (such as professional and health-related). Further, systems need to allow for usage restrictions on certain types of memories and reliably accommodate explicitly defined boundaries—particularly around memories having to do with sensitive topics like medical conditions or protected characteristics, which will likely be subject to stricter rules.
Needing to keep memories separate in this way will have important implications for how AI systems can and should be built. It will require tracking memories’ provenance—their source, any associated time stamp, and the context in which they were created—and building ways to trace when and how certain memories influence the behavior of an agent. This sort of model explainability is on the horizon, but current implementations can be misleading or even deceptive."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/28/1131835/what-ai-remembers-about-you-is-privacys-next-frontier
#AI #GenerativeAI #DataProtection #Privacy #LLMs #Memory #AIExplainability

#ai #generativeai #dataprotection #privacy #llms #memory
Crock of Time @[email protected] · 2025-09-13 · 21:41 UTC
Fermented Tomato Ketchup
The end of August means lots of tomatoes for me, and it’s also usually the time of year that I need to travel for a conference*. This is not ideal for making sure they get used. I had almost 5kg of various types of tomatoes on my counter the weekend before the conference, so there’s only one thing I could think of doing:

*The conference being WordCamp US, which was in Portland, Oregon this year and last year.

Throw them in vacuum bags to deal with later!
2025-08-23: Processing Tomatoes
I had a vague notion that I would probably make ketchup from at least some of it, but I didn’t have much time to plan anything complicated, so the process was simple: chop, bag, add smashed garlic, salt, and shio koji*.

*For anyone else attempting this, the shio koji is purely optional, I just like adding it to any paste-like ferment for some enzyme action.

I split the tomatoes into 3 groups based on the type of tomato in order to fit into vacuum bags that were already pretty long, roughly 11×20 inches. Tomatoes were roughly chopped, mostly just to expose the insides and help compact in the bag. To each bag I added a smashed clove of garlic (including skin), 2% salt, and 4% ship koji.
Bag 1: beefsteak tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Italian Heirloom)
- 1440g beefsteak tomatoes
- 8g garlic
- 29g salt
- 58g ship koji
Bag 2: paste tomatoes (Ten Fingers of Naples, Piennolo del Vesuvio, Korean Long)
- 1912g paste tomatoes
- 10g garlic
- 38g salt
- 76g ship koji
Bag 3: cherry tomatoes (Honey Drop, Cherry Ember)
- 1445g cherry tomatoes
- 6g garlic
- 29g salt
- 58g shio koji
These were set in aluminum trays in the basement as I flew off to another part of the country for almost a week.
2025-09-05: Deflating & Cooking
It’s been about 2 weeks and the bags have inflated to the point where at least one has popped.
I deflated and resealed the beefsteak and plum bags, but the cherry bag had popped and I figured I might as well test my approach to ketchupification.
While each had liquefied considerably, each bag did retain some unique aroma and flavor characteristics. The beefsteaks were savory, the plums full-bodied, and the cherries fruity. Of course all smell a bit like pickle soup now as well, particularly owing to the garlic. I’m glad I didn’t add more than one clove to each bag, otherwise it would have likely been overpowering.
As I said, I did not plan ahead much, though I did add a bit less salt than usual knowing that I’d probably be concentrating it later. That means I did also plan to cook the tomatoes, as I would any time I’m making sauce from whole fresh tomatoes. In order to mill them well, and also to extract as much flavor as possible, I cook them with the skin and seeds all together until broken down.
Once cooked down to the point that the liquid did not quickly cover the bottom of the pot when pushed to the side, I put it through my hand mill and then continued cooking the pulp down until I was satisfied with the consistency (and frankly tired of cooking).
By this time it was late and I was tired, so I put the cooked pulp in a jar in the fridge and figured I’d finish it the next day.
2025-09-13: Ketchupification
And so, a day week later, I was finally ready to finish the ketchup.
I had about 380g of thickened tomato pulp. It tasted good but not quite like ketchup, still more like pickle paste. Also, the texture was still a bit pulpy, and I wanted something smoother.
Keen-eyed readers might recognize the vinegar bottle from the Tomato Vinegar Experiment (3 Ways) logbook, this is the version made by adding soju and it has darkened significantly in 4 years.
I put the pulp in my blender and added sugar and vinegar a tablespoon at a time until it tasted right, which ended up being 2 tablespoons (30g) each. Not too sweet, nice kick, a fruity, complex flavor that is still recognizable as ketchup, and most important of all: the pH tested at 3.45, well below the 4.6 considered safe. The blender also got the consistency nice and smooth. I don’t have an empty ketchup bottle, but this mayo squeeze bottle should do the trick.
I might make ketchup with the other 2 bags unless I think of something else more creative, and will update this logbook if so. If you’ve got ideas for what else to use fermented tomatoes for, let me know in the comments!
#condiment #lactofermentation #shiokoji #tomato #VacuumBag
#condiment #lactofermentation #shiokoji #tomato #vacuumbag
Crock of Time @[email protected] · 2025-09-13 · 21:41 UTC
Fermented Tomato Ketchup
The end of August means lots of tomatoes for me, and it’s also usually the time of year that I need to travel for a conference*. This is not ideal for making sure they get used. I had almost 5kg of various types of tomatoes on my counter the weekend before the conference, so there’s only one thing I could think of doing:

*The conference being WordCamp US, which was in Portland, Oregon this year and last year.

Throw them in vacuum bags to deal with later!
2025-08-23: Processing Tomatoes
I had a vague notion that I would probably make ketchup from at least some of it, but I didn’t have much time to plan anything complicated, so the process was simple: chop, bag, add smashed garlic, salt, and shio koji*.

*For anyone else attempting this, the shio koji is purely optional, I just like adding it to any paste-like ferment for some enzyme action.

I split the tomatoes into 3 groups based on the type of tomato in order to fit into vacuum bags that were already pretty long, roughly 11×20 inches. Tomatoes were roughly chopped, mostly just to expose the insides and help compact in the bag. To each bag I added a smashed clove of garlic (including skin), 2% salt, and 4% ship koji.
Bag 1: beefsteak tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Italian Heirloom)
- 1440g beefsteak tomatoes
- 8g garlic
- 29g salt
- 58g ship koji
Bag 2: paste tomatoes (Ten Fingers of Naples, Piennolo del Vesuvio, Korean Long)
- 1912g paste tomatoes
- 10g garlic
- 38g salt
- 76g ship koji
Bag 3: cherry tomatoes (Honey Drop, Cherry Ember)
- 1445g cherry tomatoes
- 6g garlic
- 29g salt
- 58g shio koji
These were set in aluminum trays in the basement as I flew off to another part of the country for almost a week.
2025-09-05: Deflating & Cooking
It’s been about 2 weeks and the bags have inflated to the point where at least one has popped.
I deflated and resealed the beefsteak and plum bags, but the cherry bag had popped and I figured I might as well test my approach to ketchupification.
While each had liquefied considerably, each bag did retain some unique aroma and flavor characteristics. The beefsteaks were savory, the plums full-bodied, and the cherries fruity. Of course all smell a bit like pickle soup now as well, particularly owing to the garlic. I’m glad I didn’t add more than one clove to each bag, otherwise it would have likely been overpowering.
As I said, I did not plan ahead much, though I did add a bit less salt than usual knowing that I’d probably be concentrating it later. That means I did also plan to cook the tomatoes, as I would any time I’m making sauce from whole fresh tomatoes. In order to mill them well, and also to extract as much flavor as possible, I cook them with the skin and seeds all together until broken down.
Once cooked down to the point that the liquid did not quickly cover the bottom of the pot when pushed to the side, I put it through my hand mill and then continued cooking the pulp down until I was satisfied with the consistency (and frankly tired of cooking).
By this time it was late and I was tired, so I put the cooked pulp in a jar in the fridge and figured I’d finish it the next day.
2025-09-13: Ketchupification
And so, a day week later, I was finally ready to finish the ketchup.
I had about 380g of thickened tomato pulp. It tasted good but not quite like ketchup, still more like pickle paste. Also, the texture was still a bit pulpy, and I wanted something smoother.
Keen-eyed readers might recognize the vinegar bottle from the Tomato Vinegar Experiment (3 Ways) logbook, this is the version made by adding soju and it has darkened significantly in 4 years.
I put the pulp in my blender and added sugar and vinegar a tablespoon at a time until it tasted right, which ended up being 2 tablespoons (30g) each. Not too sweet, nice kick, a fruity, complex flavor that is still recognizable as ketchup, and most important of all: the pH tested at 3.45, well below the 4.6 considered safe. The blender also got the consistency nice and smooth. I don’t have an empty ketchup bottle, but this mayo squeeze bottle should do the trick.
I might make ketchup with the other 2 bags unless I think of something else more creative, and will update this logbook if so. If you’ve got ideas for what else to use fermented tomatoes for, let me know in the comments!
#condiment #lactofermentation #shiokoji #tomato #VacuumBag
#condiment #lactofermentation #shiokoji #tomato #vacuumbag
Crock of Time @[email protected] · 2025-09-13 · 21:41 UTC
Fermented Tomato Ketchup
The end of August means lots of tomatoes for me, and it’s also usually the time of year that I need to travel for a conference*. This is not ideal for making sure they get used. I had almost 5kg of various types of tomatoes on my counter the weekend before the conference, so there’s only one thing I could think of doing:

*The conference being WordCamp US, which was in Portland, Oregon this year and last year.

Throw them in vacuum bags to deal with later!
2025-08-23: Processing Tomatoes
I had a vague notion that I would probably make ketchup from at least some of it, but I didn’t have much time to plan anything complicated, so the process was simple: chop, bag, add smashed garlic, salt, and shio koji*.

*For anyone else attempting this, the shio koji is purely optional, I just like adding it to any paste-like ferment for some enzyme action.

I split the tomatoes into 3 groups based on the type of tomato in order to fit into vacuum bags that were already pretty long, roughly 11×20 inches. Tomatoes were roughly chopped, mostly just to expose the insides and help compact in the bag. To each bag I added a smashed clove of garlic (including skin), 2% salt, and 4% ship koji.
Bag 1: beefsteak tomatoes (Cherokee Purple, Italian Heirloom)
- 1440g beefsteak tomatoes
- 8g garlic
- 29g salt
- 58g ship koji
Bag 2: paste tomatoes (Ten Fingers of Naples, Piennolo del Vesuvio, Korean Long)
- 1912g paste tomatoes
- 10g garlic
- 38g salt
- 76g ship koji
Bag 3: cherry tomatoes (Honey Drop, Cherry Ember)
- 1445g cherry tomatoes
- 6g garlic
- 29g salt
- 58g shio koji
These were set in aluminum trays in the basement as I flew off to another part of the country for almost a week.
2025-09-05: Deflating & Cooking
It’s been about 2 weeks and the bags have inflated to the point where at least one has popped.
I deflated and resealed the beefsteak and plum bags, but the cherry bag had popped and I figured I might as well test my approach to ketchupification.
While each had liquefied considerably, each bag did retain some unique aroma and flavor characteristics. The beefsteaks were savory, the plums full-bodied, and the cherries fruity. Of course all smell a bit like pickle soup now as well, particularly owing to the garlic. I’m glad I didn’t add more than one clove to each bag, otherwise it would have likely been overpowering.
As I said, I did not plan ahead much, though I did add a bit less salt than usual knowing that I’d probably be concentrating it later. That means I did also plan to cook the tomatoes, as I would any time I’m making sauce from whole fresh tomatoes. In order to mill them well, and also to extract as much flavor as possible, I cook them with the skin and seeds all together until broken down.
Once cooked down to the point that the liquid did not quickly cover the bottom of the pot when pushed to the side, I put it through my hand mill and then continued cooking the pulp down until I was satisfied with the consistency (and frankly tired of cooking).
By this time it was late and I was tired, so I put the cooked pulp in a jar in the fridge and figured I’d finish it the next day.
2025-09-13: Ketchupification
And so, a day week later, I was finally ready to finish the ketchup.
I had about 380g of thickened tomato pulp. It tasted good but not quite like ketchup, still more like pickle paste. Also, the texture was still a bit pulpy, and I wanted something smoother.
Keen-eyed readers might recognize the vinegar bottle from the Tomato Vinegar Experiment (3 Ways) logbook, this is the version made by adding soju and it has darkened significantly in 4 years.
I put the pulp in my blender and added sugar and vinegar a tablespoon at a time until it tasted right, which ended up being 2 tablespoons (30g) each. Not too sweet, nice kick, a fruity, complex flavor that is still recognizable as ketchup, and most important of all: the pH tested at 3.45, well below the 4.6 considered safe. The blender also got the consistency nice and smooth. I don’t have an empty ketchup bottle, but this mayo squeeze bottle should do the trick.
I might make ketchup with the other 2 bags unless I think of something else more creative, and will update this logbook if so. If you’ve got ideas for what else to use fermented tomatoes for, let me know in the comments!
#condiment #lactofermentation #shiokoji #tomato #VacuumBag
#vacuumbag #tomato #shiokoji #lactofermentation #condiment
Bec @[email protected] · 2025-08-17 · 12:38 UTC

It's been an evening of food-making, and now we have pasta bake, pumpkin and feta tart, chorizo and bean soup and I'm waiting on a plum-bread-and-butter pudding that's still in the oven. Let me know if you want the pumpkin feta tart recipe and I'll post it -- it's pretty good, and I think I'll make another version later in the week with walnuts this time.
I've been struggling with food waste lately which I really hate, but I'm feeling happy about having used up some bits and pieces in the meals tonight, plus adding in some extra vegies and legumes in the pasta bake that the Rabble are surprisingly fine with now.
So now I've got lunches sorted for Adam and me until at least Wednesday and the Rabble at least until Tuesday.
This does mean that the kitchen is still a mess, and it's 8.30 and I don't want to clean it up. Why are we living in the timeline where all our art is being stolen to train AI instead of having a robot in the kitchen to clean up after us?
#food #thoughts #Sunday #UseItUp

#food #thoughts #sunday #useitup
Stuffed Crocodile @[email protected] · 2023-10-16 · 17:22 UTC

Just wanted to show something interesting/neat:
The one article on the blog that actually is doing any numbers at all is me recounting the story of how Terry Pratchett changed his German language publisher because they put soup ads into his books and wouldn’t promise not to do it again.
It gets linked mostly by reddit every few months. This time it was Diane Duane (who herself had books where Heyne added soup ads in the middle) who linked to my blog, causing a visitor increase of a cool 1026%.
Of course nobody ever actually comments or reads anything else (except maybe that short post where I wrote that PTerry died).
Such is the life of the niche blogger I guess.
Of course it might help if I actually posted more often. Oh well.

Rate this:

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/10/16/about-those-soup-ads/
#blogging #dianeDuane #Maggi #pratchett #Soup

#blogging #dianeduane #maggi #pratchett #soup
Tim Richards @[email protected] · 2023-07-29 · 02:37 UTC

We're killing time in the Goondi Hill Hotel in Innisfail, because [amazement] the Spirit of Queensland train is yet again running over two hours late on its way to Cairns.
This pub was chosen entirely on the basis on being close to the station, and is a very old-school place with old blokes propping up the front bar and a bistro out the back.
We're about to give the chef's pumpkin soup a try, the bar staff tell us it's based on his grandma's recipe.
#Straya #Australia #CountryPub #Pub #RailTravel #TrainTravel

#straya #australia #countrypub #pub #railtravel #traintravel
SleepyCatten (referred for ME/CFS, but it's probably P-HSD arc) @[email protected] · 2025-11-06 · 15:49 UTC

Just watched a goodly short by a content creator who struggled with long-COVID for about 2 years.
5 things healthy people take for granted
For anyone who wants to read the text, rather than the short, here's a transcript we generated quickly from the audio using Subtitle Edit. (It only needed one word change and a couple of minor apostrophe edits.)
I haven't done one of these videos in ages, but here are five things that healthy people take for granted.
Number one is being able to do everyday basic things. Getting out of bed, climbing the stairs, cooking, every single everyday thing. Healthy people can just do all of it without questioning any of it. Healthy people are just able to function normally in everyday life.
Number two is that most healthy people can just move their bodies whenever they want. Sorry, what do you mean that you can just go on a run or exercise or move? With all that excess energy they can just push their body to the extreme without any consequences. Unlike like a couple of days maybe recovery time.
Healthy people can just make plans and schedule in a coffee date for a few weeks' time without even like thinking about it. Because of course they're gonna be able to make it. They just plan and then they just do.
Okay, they never have to think of spoons. Only when like they're doing the dishwasher or eating soup. Healthy people do not need to track or ration their energy. So they don't need a language for it. There's no budgeting their energy for different tasks. Spoons are merely pieces of metal they find in their cutlery drawer.
Most of the time, healthy people do not need to advocate for their own health. Most might not even know what the term medical gaslighting is or they may have never experienced it. There's no anxiety around doctors' appointments. They're not fighting anyone for answers or support. It's such a privilege to be believed and receive empathy.
So yeah, if you're healthy and you might not even think about these things or perhaps take them for granted, just know that there are people who are chronically ill or perhaps have poor health that do not have these privileges.
#spoons #spoonie #SpoonTheory #health #PhysicalHealth #MentalHealth
Edit: If you saw the hilarious typo we made before we quickly edited it out, shhhhh 😅🤭🩷

#spoons #spoonie #spoontheory #health #physicalhealth #mentalhealth
We Have Issues @[email protected] · 2026-05-12 · 07:35 UTC

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) – Review

By the end of the 80s, Studio Ghibli was cooking, creatively speaking, but was still finding it tough to get the appropriate amount of traction at the box office. While disscussing something as crass as money when dealing with the type of creative alchemy that have given audiences back to back movies that casually enriched the soul, the simple fact of the matter is, Ghibli was still in its relative infancy and anime had yet to make that relentless, worldwide breakout that still wouldn’t occur for a few couple of years yet. However, with Kiki’s Delivery Service, the studio would finally enjoy financial success to go with the fact that in under a decade, they’d been doling out straight-up masterpieces while other animation houses (cough * Disney * cough) had noticably struggled during the decade.
Let’s not forget that Ghibli released both My Neighbour Totoro and Grave Of The Fireflies in the same year, a feat that showed the emotional dexterity of filmmakers who delivered polar opposite assaults on our emotional well-being. But what did it take to help the house of Totoro get flush? Nothing much, just a thirteen year-old witch and a flying broom.
In a world where witches live alongside humans in harmony despite being relatively rare, we meet Kiki, a thirteen year-old girl who decides its time for her to attempt the tradition all witches her age must do – leave home and live an independent life for a year. While that seems a little much to ask any child, Kiki not only is kind and resourceful, but she has the ability to soar through the sky on her broom and has Jiji, her feline familiar, to keep her company. However, after leaving home she soon encounters a number of minor obstacles such as another, pretentious witch and a rain storm that causes her to first drift off course and then take refuge in a box car until the rain chooses to relent.
However, upon waking up, Kiki finds that she and Jiji have arrived in the city of Koriko and decides to stay and try to make a life for herself – but while she’s enamored of the view of the ocean that she has, her small town upbringing leaves her unprepared for how tough life and lonely can be in a bustling city. Still, the plucky child manages to find a place to live with a kindly woman and her husband who own a bakery and so figures out how to channel her paranormal talents into a form of self employment.
Using her talents of flying on her broomstick, Kiki starts up her own small scale delivery service as she can simply zip across the sky with a parcel and drop it off at it’s destination in no time at all. However, despite the kindness of a lot of her early customers and the constant attention of a local boy named Tombo, Kiki soon finds that forging a life in a big city can be fairly trying and as isolation and depression sets in, she finds that some of her witchy gifts are starting to leave her as the day to day pressures take their toll.
The irony of Ghibli’s first financially successful film being about a thirteen year-old going out and starting her own business isn’t lost on me, but there was always a danger that anything that attempted to follow Isao Takahata’s emotion-flaying Grave Of The Fireflies was going to come across as unbelievably twee – after all, the lethally sad wartime drama had been repeatedly hailed as one of the greatest animated movies ever made and proved to be an unforgettable experience. However, the magic of Hayao Miyazaki is that he’s able to benevolently weaponise things that are ridiculously nice in ways that make even the most basic plots warm your heart. For example, on the surface, My Neighbour Totoro wasn’t really about anything really and just followed the lives of two young girls who were excited about moving house and casually had low-energy adventures with a burly, sleepy forest spirit. And yet, despite having no antagonist, no jokes and no action sequences to speak of, Miyazaki turned such unassuming touch points into genuine chicken soup for the soul.
Well, with Kiki’s Delivery Service pulls off the same trick by adapting Eiko Kadono’s novel into yet another beguiling fantasy that, technically speaking, doesn’t fall back on the majority of animated tropes popular at the time. Once again, Miyazaki shrewdly tells another tale that not only proves that he accurately can put himself (and the viewer) in the shoes of a prepubescent girl encountering the world for the first time, but he impressively doesn’t make it creepy either. On top of this, the movie scatters numerous instances about the film that sees a lot of good advice and protection offered to Kiki by an arry of vastly different, but all equally strong women. From Osono the baker generously giving our heroine a place to stay, to the kindly old women who call Kiki to deliver pies baked with pure love to ungrateful grandchildren on their birthdays, to her encounter with jean-short wearing artist, Ursula who lives in the nearby forest, the young witch is given countless life advice by strong mature women to counteract the rather cold and vapid reaction she gets from girls her own age.
Once again, detailing how rich and glorious the animation is is now starting to feel somewhat redundant, but I’ll still say that no one in animation can animate grass blowing on a strong breeze quite like the hard working scribblers who work under the Ghibli umbrella – and if that looks good, imagine how good the flying stuff looks. Yep, Miyazaki’s documented weakness for all things that fly gets yet another outing, although its amusing that for all the high flying heroines that’s populated his films, Kiki has moments where her broom flying is actually quite ungainly due to external forces or the fact that has to improvise at one moment with a brush.
But for all the dazzling wonder and memorable characters (Jiji the sassy cat is effortlessly the movie’s MVP), once again it’s those deftly buried life lessons that hit the hardest and while Kiki finds that the confidence sapping effects of modern life is draining her powers as depression set in, it’s remarkable that Miyazaki’s simple message of being true to yourself is delivered so organically when other animation houses would probably base an entire six minute musical number about it. Most remarkable of all is the fact that I would argue that Kiki’s Delivery Service actually does low-key fantasy and growing pains even better than My Neighbour Totoro did and while that final rescue sequence seems a little tacked on compared to how organic Ghibli usually is, it makes the likes of Sabrina The Teenage Witch look like purest trash in comparison.
Zipping out from under the emotional heft of Grave Of The Fireflies with yet another delightful flight of fancy, Kiki’s Delivery Service not only cemented Ghibli’s standing at the box office, but delivered yet another overwhelmingly warm cinematic endevor to boot. While the titular witch may not have too many spells of her own, her movie spins more than enough magic to compensate.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
#1980s #1989 #Fantasy #Animation #Anime #Japan #FilmReview #StudioGhibli #HayaoMiyazaki #KikiSDeliveryService #MinamiTakayama #ReiSakuma #KappeiYamaguchi #KeikoToda

#1980s #fantasy #animation #anime #japan #filmreview