Raj

@lordofthemoon.com

139 Followers 139 Following

Irish-Indian software developing geek who's adopted Glasgow as his home. No longer has a turret at the University. Still a European. He/him. All posts entirely personal Website: https://lordofthemoon.com Mastodon: @lordofthemoon@mastodon.scot

A photo of the Jim Burns piece "Spaceport Glasgow", commissioned for the Glasgow 2005 Worldcon. It shows a futuristic spaceport on the banks of the river Clyde, with lots of spaceships taking off or landing, and the Armadillo (I _guess_ you could call it the Clyde Auditorium, if you wanted to make it clear that you're not from, and don't understand, Glasgow) in the foreground, also on rockets, just coming in to land (or maybe taking off, I'm not really sure). In the background of the painting, one of the spaceships on a landing pad is actually a Hugo Award, which is a classic narrow rocket with four fins at the base.
Dinner on the Friday of Satellite 9 (at Namaste in the St Enoch Centre). Clockwise from the left are: Alison Scott, Stephen, Sacha, John Coxon and me.
My Satellite 9 connection badge with three ribbons. The first says "vibrant food culture", the second says "Star Wars or Lord of the Rings" and the third is "Hugo, Girl"
An old software box labelled "Hummingbird BI", with a weird red pattern at the top, and then a hummingbird seemingly coming out of a wormhole (or possibly the time vortex). There's a label in the bottom right that says "Upgrade copy".
A screenshot of a chatbox with me asking: Can plastics marked "recycle with bags at large supermarkets" be recycled in the grey bin? And the Glasgow City Council Chatbot replies: Yes, you can recycle soft plastics and film, including those marked "recycle with bags at large supermarkets," in your grey bin in Glasgow—even if the packaging says not to. Please make sure these items are clean, dry, and placed loose in the grey bin (not in plastic bags). There is no need to remove labels, but please do not include glass, polystyrene, electricals, batteries, vapes, oil or paint cans, metal pots or pans, nappies, or non-recyclable waste in your grey bin.
Eight different varieties of earl grey tea, seven of which are loose leaf, and one (in a fancy tin) is teabags. There is one from Shi-bui, one from Your Ecellen-tea, one from Whittard and a homemade blend containing lavender from the local Hidden Lane Tearoom. There are also three from Eteaket: Royal EG, Edinburgh EG and Earl of Winter, containing lavender and vanilla, which you wouldn't think would work but is really nice. Because I wasn't sure about that one, I just bought a wee tin of it to start with. Now that I've decided I really like it, and since it sounds like a seasonal thing, I went and bought a huge big bag of it. The tin is from Cartwright and Butler. I've not tried the Eteaket Edinburgh EG or the Whittards yet, but the others are all good.
A coffee table with a GM screen taking part of the space, with 4 large bags of weird crisps, several mugs and various sets of dice filling the rest of the space (more crisps off screen)
A bunch of new daffodils starting to flower, in December
A sign attached to a railing that reads: NOTICE: Any time traveller caught interfering with the local time line will be sent back to the Palaeozoic Era for a period of five years. - By order of the Ministry of Time Travel, August 2235
Sign attached to railings in Kelvingrove park that reads: NOTICE: Will all time travellers please stop messing the early 21st Century time line for the purposes of their own amusement. -by order of the Ministry of Time Travel, January 2162 Posted by ASignOfHumour
The new front of the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow, complete with neon sign and statues mounted on the wall above the sign.
A sign on a signpost with a crocodile in a red triangle with the label "Warning: never smile at a crocodile". The Forth and Clyde canal is in the background.
Chart from https://www.behindthename.com/name/rajnish/rating with different stats associated with the name "Rajnish"
The back of a white van, parked on a street, with the company name "Baxter & Gillespie" and giant logo that covers most of the double doors of the van. The logo is composed of the 'g' of Gillespie represented within the negative space of the 'B' of Baxter. And I think that's neat.
The (Old) Adam Smith Building at the University of Glasgow, which is a 1960s concrete building in two distinct halves. The right hand half has 6 visible floors, and the left hand half has 4. Both halves are the same height and were (I think) built at the same time.
A paperback copy of Wiz Duos 2
A pile of nine books, a souvenir magazine, some art, and a con badge (with ribbons) sitting on a table. These were all acquired at Eastercon 2025 in Belfast.
A carpeted corridor in a train station in Belfast. To be honest, it looks more like an airport corridor, but you'll just have to trust me that it's actually a train station.
Diorama featuring six little figures standing around two gravestones. One is carrying a flag with a slice of watermelon on it, another has a picture of a key stuck to her torso, and a third has a big red triangle stuck to the front of his body. I don't know what any of it means.
The cast of the Good Place, from left to right: Tahani, Jianyu, Michael, Eleanor, Chidi, Janet
View of New Lanark from the rooftop garden on top of Mill 3. It's a mix of mills, terraced housing, and gardens
A newly budding branch
Grace and I sitting, on the groundn in a wooded area. It's by the banks of the river Kelvin, although you can't tell that from the photo. I'm dressed for a visit to a tea shop, rather than a campsite, while Grace is dressed more appropriately. I'm smiling while holding a mug of tea. Grace is laughing wildly while holding a marshmallow on a stick that is on fire.
Video of a pink drink with a slice of lime and sprig of mint, in a container with smoke billowing out of it
I'm user 338,953 of BlueSky
The HMS Unicorn from the road, including its roof, unicorn figurehead and big ram thing which the lady inside says isn't a ram, but could be used as one
My dealers' room haul: 7 books, a print of Iain Clark's 'Shipbuilding Over the Clyde), some stickers, an award for not indulging in censorship, a little scrunchie thing and a bunch of ribbons on my badge
A positive COVID test
Selfie of Raj with Jill Bearup on the SEC concourse
Cover of the Glasgow WorldCon souvenir book with the word "Scotland" spelled as "Scottland"
Selfie at WorldCon with half of Hugo Girl. Lori on the left, Kevin on the right, with Raj in the middle
How Carol Monaghan voted on Social Issues * Has never voted on equal gay rights * Has never voted on allowing marriage between two people of the same sex * Generally voted for lows to promote equality and human rights * Voted against allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life
A screenshot of a weather app showing Glasgow in the evening, with a temperature of 12°c and falling, in early July
A street tree within a "cage" of railings with a laminated sign reading "please do not feed the trees"
Plaque on a wall titled "The Great Glasgow Potato Prohibition of 1954" (the full text is too long for the alt text, but you can find it, along with the other GlaIKIT plaques I've found, on my blog at https://lordofthemoon.com/blog/2024/06/the-glaikit-plaques/ )
Mirror selfie of Raj, wearing a white shirt with rainbow checks and a wonderful tartan waistcoat with dominant colours of blue and purple, with some yellow in there too, and silver strands
Artwork at Stockingfield Junction, that seems to be a sort of concrete flower? virus? I don't know. It's cool though.
Close up of the Beithir's head, which is covered in hundreds (thousands?) of mosaic tiles
The Kelpies: two 30m high steel statues of horse heads, one looking down pensively and the other tossing its head and looking upwards
A statue of a woman holding a trident and a shield (Britannia?) on top of a red sandstone building in Glasgow
Poster for the film "Polite Society", showing two South Asian women, one in the "superhero landing pose" and the other standing behind her with fists raised. Both are wearing fancy clothes. The tagline is "Big Trouble. Little Sister."
A pizza crunch on a plate, with chips, mushy peas and a pickled onion. A pizza crunch is a quarter pizza, slathered in batter and deep fried.
A tenement gable end with a mural of a bearded man in outdoor clothes and a hat (representing St Mungo) painted across the whole length. There is a robin perched on his finger, and another in flight, apparently about to land on his shoulder
A 3D printed plastic yellow crescent moon grinning and wearing shades. It looks cool-like-the-Fonz
A cluster of daffodils, crocuses and snowdrops in my garden border
Picture of some actor I don't recognise wearing a tuxedo (sort of like James Bond) holding a fancy drink glass, toasting the camera, with the text "Bravo, Sir! Bravo!
A large moon rising over over the horizon at the crest of a hill with a road running through it.
The river Foyle, looking across the border to the Republic of Ireland
A beautiful blue iron bridge with white railings over the river Kelvin at the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow
A sign on a ScotRail train that reads: "no lithium battery powered micro devices on trains and in stations. This includes all unregulated lithium-ion battery devices including: e-scooters, e-hoverboards, e-skateboards, and e-unicycles"
Colourful mural on a wall in a local underpass. The central image of the collage is the Knightswood Primary School coat of arms (which is a variation on Glasgow's arms, with the bird, bell, fish and tree). The words "Designed by the young people of Knightswood Primary" are written underneath
View from part way up a hill near Glencoe. The road is closed for maintenance work, so I couldn't go any further
Loch Lomond, looking south
A square tower of an ancient castle, set in a field of long grass, with four solar panels on the roof, and a flagpole flying the Saltaire
Graffiti on a metal railing that originally read "migrants out", but someone has edited it to now read "migrants outrageously welcome"