Songs from the Little Bird

Aaaaaaaa. This doesn't fix the microfiche problem in the rich text editor of dreamwidth, but it does at least help one zoom while writing in HTML mode.

Unfortunately the effect only lasts while you're on the page; you have to do it each time you navigate to a new page. So I put the javascript bookmarks at the top of my favorites and named them 🔺 and 🔻, making them easy to find/use with two taps (Tap address bar, tap icon for increased or decreased text size).

Note that on static webpages without fancy interactive widgets, there's several built-in ways in iOS to increase font size. On most websites, these are all you ever need:

(1) Screen Reader mode: On individual posts/entries of most blogs and news sites, scroll to the top of the page and tap the screen reader icon at the beginning of the address bar to view the body of the page in a format that strips away everything but text and images.

There's an "Aa" menu with controls for font, font size, and a few text/background color options.  Unlike the JavaScript hack above, the iOS screen reader will remember your settings the next time you use it. 

(2) When NOT in screen reader mode, one can usually double tap a column on a multi column page to zoom it to full screen width.

(3) One can usually spread/pinch 2 fingers on the screen to zoom in/zoom out a portion of the page.

(4) Two finger swipe down from the top the screen for text-to-speech. Scroll down beforhand to the part you actually want to listen to so you pdon't have to hear all the headers.

(5) For full function text-to-speech, letting you select different parts of the page to be read aloud, go to the Settings app, go to "General > Accessibility > Voiceover Shortcut" (All the way down at the bottom) and choose "Voiceover" so that triple clicking the home button toggles voiceover mode. (See "General > Accessibility > Voiceover" for a list of Voiceover gestures. If you're vision-impaired, it's worth familiarizing yourself with them.

I suppose it had better be, since I need to give it time to dry before next Wednesday.
Oil painting is fun but I am still much less experienced than with digital.

Imagine one of those shows you loved as a kid. Two years, five years, seven years. However long it ran, there came a day when it was over, or, on that rare show that didn't get canceled, it moved away from the characters or story styles you loved.

Now imagine you just discovered a cache of ten more years worth of episodes. Good, bad, ugly, who cares. The actors snuck off and made more, and the writers listened to them to make sure their characters were right. It's the show you remember, only they've fixed some of the problems (sexism!) with the luxury of hindsight.

It's like finding more Narnia books, or more Dorothy Sayers. BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE. I've found a way into Lucien's Library from The Sandman, for at least this one shelf!

I was listening to yet another episode last night, and it was a perfect popcorn-quality story (not great art, but with all my buttons pressed and Favorite Characters Being Awesome), and I found myself literally waving my hands in the air with pleasure.

Afterwards, I sat up writing for an hour or so. We'll see how long that lasts, but it would be a lovely side effect if my ever-so-dead creative writing muse finally stumbled awake.

I think the best bit about watching the 50th anniversary special in the theater was looking around and seeing all these kids who weren't born when my Doctors were on the air.

I remember the day a friend came into the dining hall in college to tell us that Doctor Who was cancelled. "But they can't!" we said. "They just can't!"

They couldn't!

Also a delight seeing it start with the opening sequence of the first-ever episode redone in color and 3D. (Not to mention the original opening credits.) And of course the cameo(s).

I suppose I should really sit down and catch up on the new series, with their manpain, "sexed up" companion-Doctor ships and all. I'm so out of touch; I hadn't seen Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's daughter, and she's great.

I really really REALLY wish I had a camera I could clamp onto a good telephoto lens AND tripod, or else a camera that fit my ancient backyard scope.

Holding a point-and-shoot camera against the scope's eyepiece and trying not to breathe yielded these:

(Contrast boosted on most of them to try and make it more visible)


It seemed awfully dim after the first bright snap (top left).

Then I looked at the nearly full moon, and even it seemed awfully dim:



What was going on? Oh, right. Clouds. This is what I saw when I stopped trying to leave the shutter open long enough to collect a little light:



I'll have to try Saturn again on another night. Still can't expect much without the right equipment, but it's at a really good angle right now to catch the sun on the rings.