Aleks Scholz

It's my favourite season of the year - mid May to mid August, endless days, the starlings are on their second nest, the water is above 12 degrees, the air occasionally around 20, and the sky is full with swifts. A sense of infinity. I call it screaming sky season.

Well, screaming sky season is here, properly. You can't hear the whitethroat, the sedge warbler, and the meadow pipit.

"Our goal as academic writers is not to make the writing feel comfortable. It’s to make the discomfort feel less catastrophic. " https://patthomson.net/2026/03/08/getting-comfortable-with-being-uncomfortable/

Someone on reddit claimed that living in Britain today is like living in a house that hasn't been decorated in 20 years, with overgrown garden, old appliances, paint flaking. Hey! This is exactly my house, my actual house, and I like it. Maybe I like the UK because it has this feel of being run-down, neglected, post-civilisation.

Seven years ago I was at a proper observatory the last time.

Okay, second attempt. Really no interest in an original 1975 Grand Theatre Organ for a pittance of 50 pounds? https://www.ebay.ie/itm/168273834855

'Aleks is ignoring me, so I am wrapping myself around his chair and fall asleep.'

"You don't get paid to do your job. You get paid not to riot."

Well the trailcam caught Bunny on his morning pee. That's something.

One point from Ukraine. Not sure what this means.

Mische mich jetzt nicht mehr ein, macht ihr mal.

Danke für diese schöne Zeitreise, Österreich.

My dog just ate a piece of broccoli. Is he starving???

In case you are in the market for 18 minutes of noises, mostly from a telescope, here you go. https://soundcloud.com/lickfinndarkie/music-of-the-gears

The most awesome spectacle of nature is the dunnock, most of the year a shy and unassuming and invisible, suddenly becoming bold and loud and boisterous in early March.

What's funny: With the latest UK polls, we have about 40% in left and middle-left parties. Plus the LD and I don't know what they are doing these days. On the other side is 40% right and far right. For comparison, in Germany the current polls say about 50% right/far-right, plus the liberals (which are really right as well). And combined not even 40% left/middle-left.

The complaints about 'block voting' for the Greens are hilarious. Well, and racist of course. As if certain groups of people haven't voted as a block for Labour or Tories for many many years.

All right. We had blackbirds, for a couple of weeks now. Today we got greenfinch, robin, dunnock, goldfinch, song thrush. It's all coming together.

In this place where the soul has no curtains.

There is something about watching a dog in active dream state that really gets to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UMMGgKxuXQ

"I'm not getting involved in this online arguing and guilt-tripping and posturing and name-calling, because I just don't need that kind of thing. I'm a better person and just superior in any way to those others."

Well I certainly learned a lot about the way my colleagues write references.

I'm going to say one thing about hallucinated references and arxiv: There is no way a human would make up references that don't exist. Humans fails in referencing in completely different ways. So, don't move the goalposts.

"Sam was different. Eccentric and engaging, with the uncontainable energy of a shaken-up Coke bottle, he came up with a song that, for once, sounded uniquely British."

Ahja, Selbstzweifel, davon hätte ich heute abend gern mehr gesehen.

Rumänien, ist ja gut. Komme gleich. I can help!

Arpeggien kann man offenbar in Rumänien.

Working on my first published song.

"Anyone who has ever lived with a Husky will tell you the same thing — they have not lived until they have been lectured by one who thinks they are wrong about something."

Here is a plane being fueled. Perhaps a historic picture, perhaps not.

"Users are requested to show more respect for the walls."

This is the hope we need. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niMKvJ-Itq8

Eight years ago, the whole country was grinding to a halt, when the Beast from the East hit us. The university told us not to come to work, but only after I got stuck in drifts of snow outside my coastal village that hasn't seen proper snow since then. Good thing I wasn't going to work anyway, because we were on strike.

This special notice is an official notice.

I would like to ask anyone to take a deep breath before Norway enters the field.

Aiaiaiaia.

Finally a song with an actual bassline.

Jetzt ist es wieder absurd genug. Danke Norwegen.

Really cruel, JWST, to send out emails telling us that your SEARCH ENGINE now works incrementally better, in the week when we are all expecting life-changing emails about proposals.

JWST, that's NOT the email we are all waiting for.

Quick! Only ten minutes left to buy the Transcendent 1000 synth owned my Martin Hannet, currently sitting at just 600 pounds!

"You have a big Universe out there, and you can't see everything."

In case anyone would like to get rid of an old Ipod, let me know.

A company called 'Reflect Orbital' wants to provide 'sunlight on demand', an insane business model, as explained here. https://starryprinceton.org/DeflectOrbital/