Germany has a bank holiday on Monday, so I'm looking forward to a long weekend (though weather predictions are rather mediocre...).

Just in case the weather in your place will also be less than inviting to spend time outside, maybe you'll enjoy this offer of the British Library to leaf through digitised versions of some old books - about Renaissance to Early Modern festivals, or the 21 plays by Shakespeare, printed in quarto format.

Or maybe you can get inspired to invent your own boardgame to play on a board like that found in Slovakia, dated back to Roman times?

Or make a toy mouse from leather, like the one from Vindolanda?

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="428"] Image from The Vindolanda Trust, www.vindolanda.com


Whatever you do - I hope you'll have fun!

The Most Patient Husband of Them All has a few days off this week, and I'm taking the opportunity to do so as well. Which means you'll get blog posts again as usual from next Monday - have a good time meanwhile!

The weekend is over, it's back to work as normal, though it's the "new normal", of course, with both of us sitting in the home office, often accompanied by the little cat (who is currently sleeping on her cat bed).

Bavaria is relaxing some of the lockdown rules as of today: smaller shops are now allowed to re-open. To keep infection rates down with this, everyone has to wear a cover over mouth and nose from today on, both in shops and in public transport. We'll see if that works, or if numbers will go up again - though obviously we'll only see it in about two weeks' time. This virus is doing its best at teaching us all patience!

Slowly but surely I also get the impression that it is showing us the flexibility of people, too. Some people have an easier time of finding new things to do, or finding new ways to socialise with friends; others don't really warm to videochatting easily. We're still trying to see the good things as much as possible, and we do find the time these days to do some of the things we usually never got around to.

I'm also really amazed at some of the things other do to keep themselves occupied and others entertained and morale-boosted. One brilliant example of this is the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, who post a video each week. They are absolutely delightful, and we've watched all of them more than once, there's so much to discover and smile about in them. You find the videos, plus a good amount of other goodies, videos, and things on their Ukulele Lockdown page.

Others are also doing things in virtual teaming up now. Such as... stuntmen and stuntwomen. Enjoy! (But maybe keep some distance from your screen while watching... you never know...)

Here's a stack of links for you, hopefully delectable:

The LVR-Museum (which includes the Archaeological Parc Xanten) has joined the many museums presenting things online, so you can have a bit of culture right on your own sofa. Watch the episode about mural paintings, in German language, right here:


The clip also features my friend, graphics designer and Roman painter reenactor Jan (whose hands you can also see on the preview picture, and whose wonderful Roman-style works of arts you can see on his homepage, in both English and German).

While we're at the topic of colours, here is an article about medieval blue watercolour used for illumination - the chemical structure has now been researched successfully.

Not relating to colour at all, but to people and their approach to ask for things: Ask culture vs. Guess culture, a very interesting Tumblr thread. (On the topic of asking and accepting, I can also recommend Amanda Palmer's book "The Art of Asking". As usual, please support your local book dealer by getting it there, if you're interested.)

And finally, if you're looking for weird and creepy things, the #curatorbattle might be just your thing. The Yorkshire Museum is challenging other museums each week to post things on a certain theme - and apparently last week, it was time for the creepiest object. Look for the hashtags #creepiestobject and #curatorbattle on Twitter, or get the digest of the last challenge via the article in The Guardian.

 

If you're using a smartphone, you've probably had the effect of there suddenly being some unexpected sound coming out at you - unexpected and unwelcome, for instance because you're in a train, or otherwise in company, and would have preferred this not to happen.

For me, the most common of these instances is when I look at Instagram stories, where both regular stories and the ads popping up inbetween will sometimes include sound. I detest that, because I don't want to be forced to listen to sounds here, and I find it really annoying to turn the volume all the way down before looking at things, and then back up again to the previous level once I'm finished.

A different kind of sound problem recently turned up on a Jitsi meet (which I can recommend for video conferencing, or meet-ups, including boardgaming sessions...)  where it turned out to be impossible for my phone to get the volume down to zero on the speaking/phone call channel. This led to unwelcome and rather unpleasant echoes and feedback loops - not the thing you need.

Fortunately, there's a rather easy solution for both of these problems. Let me introduce you to:

The Silencer.



This is the earphone-style plug from an old connector cable we did not use anymore - the plug of an old pair of earphones that fits your phone's corresponding port would work just as well. We removed the plug from the cable, and the part where the cable would connect to the plug is covered by a bit of heat shrink tube (Schrumpfschlauch, for the Germans), though that's mostly for optical purposes. (Electrician's tape, or some other kind of tape, would work as well to cover it up.)

When that is plugged into the earphone port, the phone promptly will re-route all the noise into the "earphone"... where it quietly disappears, as it's a dead end. Obviously. So the only sound coming out anymore is the Sound of Silence. Bliss.

Now this nifty little thing is parked on my phone stand, to be there for easy and quick remedy of the Noise Problem:



...and the only remaining thing for me is to remember plugging it in before starting Instagram stories - and to remove it again afterwards, so that the phone can make the necessary and welcome noises that it is supposed to make again!

 

As I'm writing this blog post, our personal little tick transporter is resting her front paw and head on my right forearm and her left hind leg on my left forearm. She's also quietly purring.

I was allowed to remove one sucking tick from under her chin this morning, and in her graciousness, she also shared her loot - by bringing a questing one home, which I found on my shin as it was starting to burrow in. Ah, the joys.

What am I trying to say with this? Tick season has started, and with a lot of us probably spending more time in the garden this year, if you are living in a region where there are ticks, or are planning to visiting one: Please check your vaccination status regarding tick-borne meningoencephalitis.

Ticks and moths are the two pests that get me the most; moths because they eat wool and silk (yes, thank you Captain Obvious, I’m sure no one of the blog readers here would ever have guessed), and ticks because they can transmit both a meningoencephalitis and Lyme disease (among a few other illnesses).

You cannot prevent getting Lyme’s if an infected tick bites you; there’s no vaccine against it. It is a weird sickness that may or may not cure itself spontaneously or linger on for ages, and it can have all kinds of weird effects. The best way to be safe against it is to try and prevent getting tick-bitten; if you have one, remove it safely as soon as possible (safe removal is pulling it out; a twisting motion might or might not help), put some disinfectant on the spot, keep in mind you had a tick and survey the bitten bit for infection – characteristic symptom is a red spot that grows outward, developing into a red ring. There’s no guarantee that you get that ring if you got infected, though. (Yes, Lyme’s is weird in a tricky kind of way. Didn’t I mention it?) So if you develop symptoms from out of nowhere… you might want to ask your physician to test for Lyme’s.

That said, Lyme’s can be cured – antibiotics usually do the trick, the better the earlier you catch it. The meningoencephalitis is incurable once it has set on, so go get your vaccination shot if you are going to be in an area where you can get a tick. That’s about all of Europe, folks. Don’t risk your brains.

By the way, if you have removed a tick, make sure you kill it dead. There are three sure ways to kill a tick, and that is pouring boiling water over them, burning them, or smashing them to a pulp. In our household, the preferred method is an old pair of tweezers (the good ones don’t take kindly to being flambé-d) and a lighter. Once that thing has shriveled to a black thing with glowing legs, it won’t drink any more blood. (Sometimes they pop. Be wary of exploding tick in case you burn one that has already engorged itself.)

Be safe!

I am sitting here again, being distracted from work by Madame Cat's need for getting cuddled, or her chin scratched, or her paw on top of the touchpad... and because I don't want to extract my right forearm from underneath her right now, to stand up and go do the other non-desk work scheduled for today, I guess that means I will do blogging and other writing tasks first.

[caption id="attachment_5186" align="alignnone" width="452"] And how is anyone supposed to work like this? (Apart from the cat, of course, whose work is sleeping, drooling, purring, and being very cute and cuddly.)


We had a nice long Easter weekend, with sunny and warm weather on Sunday and some much-needed rain on Monday (though it was only very little rain). There was some gardening and some video chatting with friends and eating eggs, and some general relaxed laziness. Now it's back to normal work here, more or less. Somehow, though, the lack of work-related events has not led to all the other things on my to-do-list happening, miraculously quickly and painlessly... hm. I guess we'll all be in for some more lockdown time, though, to make sure the curve is flat enough before gently returning to more public life happening again, so there might still be some shortening of the long list of things I could do...

For you, meanwhile, a few links:

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is making use of their homes, recording equipment, and video editing to do some Lockdown Orchestra stuff, which is very much worth checking out.

If you're in an area where it's okay to do sports outside, you might want to check out this study, which warns that the usual 2 m of distance may not be enough when exercising.

Speaking of exercising - if you'd prefer to do that on a stationary bike, here's how to make your own generator out of a bicycle and sundry other parts:


Use at your own risk, of course!