@clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Jun 03, 2026

Replying to @ocktoboy14@mastodon.social

@ocktoboy14@mastodon.social @Gjoel@mstdn.dk @finnmyrstad@eupolicy.social it’s more special offers that are only open to those with a card. Lamb at £15/kg without a card, £5/kg with.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Jun 03, 2026

Replying to @ocktoboy14@mastodon.social

@ocktoboy14@mastodon.social @Gjoel@mstdn.dk @finnmyrstad@eupolicy.social store cards are one of the worst examples of pay or consent - or privacy only available to the rich. There’s no supermarket in the UK (except Aldi) where the discounts for the tracking cards aren’t so substantial that anyone on normal incomes really has a choice. The best you can do atm is where you can have a physical card (not the case for Lidl) grab a few different ones and hand out a random one.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 24, 2026

Replying to @jwz@mastodon.social

@jwz@mastodon.social A blogger has to pay something like £50 to use their own domain, so it’s quite a money spinner for them. Then I doubt it’s so much hiding as just bloggers wanting domain recognition. I probably should do something automatic too, as I hate having to scroll to the bottom to see if a blog is substack or one of a near-identical theme from ghost, beehiiv etc.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 08, 2026

Replying to @JohnAltringham@mastodon.online

@JohnAltringham@mastodon.online one thing to think about is how these designs look on a tablet in landscape. For art sites, having a third of space taken up with header can be an issue (seen this a few times now).

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 04, 2026

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

Also learnt that there will be another free #FolkFestival at the #Letchworth Rugby Club again late July this year. Last year was great music just a bit of shame turnout was pretty low. No website, but preliminary details at https://baldockfolk.org/baldock-letchworth-folk-club-2026/

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 04, 2026

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

Back home but good tunes still going on when I left.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 04, 2026

Tried the BBC’s quiz on every crucible finalist since 2000 - 18/20 - the two I didn’t get was because I thought they might have been a bit before 2000, not that I didn’t know them 🙂. Took a few attempts spelling one of the surnames though. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/articles/c0l2pwejzd2o #snooker

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 03, 2026

Having just seen https://di.day/en, I wonder if anyone was very confused with those times given on the articles. They are exactly where I’d expect read times to be noted, but upon thinking about it, they must be ‘do’ times. I was wondering how you’d manage to write a 20-min article on switching to Signal. Have obviously contacted them say it’s a bit confusing and puts me off sharing, as the likely recipients wouldn’t want to read what appears a 20-min article.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 02, 2026

Planning to walk over to #Baldock sometime for its Irish day on Monday; not much online (I mostly find references to previous years) but I’m told it usually attracts some good musicians. #IrishTrad #FolkMusic https://baldockfestival.org.uk/event/baldock-irish-day/

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 02, 2026

Replying to @ReCyclist@toot.community

@ReCyclist@toot.community @tmcfarlane@toot.community it was fine on red button (freeview 601), but they really don’t promote red button as an alternative to streaming at all.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 01, 2026

Replying to @Parker51@mastodon.world

@Parker51@mastodon.world thanks; we’ve actually been quite dry here as it goes for the UK but we’re definitely no risk for anything catching (in my garden). Really nice to do something a bit special. Also it’s set for a lot of rain tomorrow! Edit: also my iPhone is doing automatic post-processing here making it look a bit more wild than it was.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 01, 2026

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

Move over maypoles; we have marshmallow skewers (now much darker than the photo makes it look though).

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 01, 2026

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

I understand meed is traditional, but closest we could come up with is a honey cocktail.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 01, 2026

Happy #beltane. Celebrating by cooking a stew outside.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · May 01, 2026

Replying to @Floppy@mastodon.me.uk

@Floppy@mastodon.me.uk I’m actually going to try and do the same. In fact my mp replied to me today on identity (age) gating of the internet and I told him just that. Trouble is him being a politician and me being a me, means he could out talk me hands down. I’d likely have to just collect arguments written by those who are far more eloquent. At least he seems to be in favour of the actioning the NHS break clause with Palantir. Edit: MP’s website wrong; date on website, I can do, date it actually is, not.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Apr 26, 2026

Replying to @adhd_coffee@mastodon.social

@adhd_coffee stickers (stickii club, happy planner etc.)

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Apr 25, 2026

Replying to @JohannaForster@mastodon.art

@JohannaForster@mastodon.art if you ever think of updating your website, I’d just note it’s a bit difficult to navigate on a tablet (iPad etc.) in landscape - the header is just too big to make things easy.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Apr 21, 2026

Replying to @Wen@mastodon.scot

@Wen I mean yes, this changed between early and late Tintin era, should be well in the past now.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @kawunngg@mastoart.social

@kawunngg I think yes, this is the case too but in my jurisdiction (UK), you could jump through some very awkward hoops to opt out.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Apr 05, 2026

Replying to @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk

@Giselle I’m not a bad cook, but when I make a tomato sauce myself I’m always trying to limit for fat and salt, for obvious reasons, which isn’t so great for taste!

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 31, 2026

Replying to @coffeenow@mastodon.me.uk

@daj@gofer.social should mention, the apps sections of this post (towards the bottom) was heavily inspired from a 2025 post of yours. That’s in the credits.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 30, 2026

Replying to @maxine@hachyderm.io

@maxine@hachyderm.io to my mind, that’s exactly what grammarly already tried with the awful ‘expert review’ feature in the name of real journalists and authors. Thankfully was pulled (because it looked likely they would lose a class action)..

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 14, 2026

Dinner is dak doritang given it’s cold again! Made good and hot.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 08, 2026

I’ve been using #Deezer rather than Spotify as my music streaming service for a little while now (still try and buy a few tunes/cds from anyone I see live of course), but because there are fewer users, there are also fewer human-created playlists, and the AI ones are a bit bland. If anyone would like to pass on their suggestions on what they’d add to a ‘coffee shop’ #playlist (i.e. nothing too heavy) I’m open to it. Started it off with a few of my favourites at https://link.deezer.com/s/32Et1nPelOXieaVUQ7fTo.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 07, 2026

Replying to @pthane@toot.wales

@pthane the problem was Matt - now it seems to have gone quiet as he’s learnt to actually keep quieter, not really heard much more since early 2025, when we had to deal with all this (best summary around but still a fair lot of it): https://gist.github.com/adrienne/aea9dd7ca19c8985157d9c42f7fc225d Also see https://joshcollinsworth.com/blog/fire-matt

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 06, 2026

Replying to @Schafstelze@don.linxx.net

@Schafstelze I’m just too innocent then!

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 06, 2026

Replying to @Schafstelze@don.linxx.net

@Schafstelze just because it’s excellent. This is a sequel to ‘shades of grey’, which was published about a decade and half ago (not so dissimilar a time to that other very different shades of grey), and many of us had been waiting eagerly for it even since. It was finally published in 2024, but if you missed that, you might have given up actively looking!

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 05, 2026

Replying to @eclectech@things.uk

@eclectech we had to wait so long for Red Side Story - but it was worth it!

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 01, 2026

Out for local concert by Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman. It’s 23 years (I think) since I last saw her at the corn exchange in Cambridge, although Hitchin Folk Club gets me a rather better view (and a relatively although not literally cheaper pint). #FolkMusic #Folk #Singer

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 01, 2026

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

@WTL oh and don’t apply for the London marathon thinking you’re never get in as nobody gets in on the ballot! Sometimes, yes very rarely, but sometimes, you actually do and then you have to train for it 😉 (for 4 years in my case as it was initially supposed to be 2020).

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Mar 01, 2026

Replying to @WTL__dup_3060@mastodon.social

@WTL don’t tie your shoes very tightly - never occurred to me that you need shoes quite as loose as you do. I knew this from the start but of course my main advice is never be ashamed of walking as much as you need to!

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Feb 27, 2026

The wonderfully talented @thebaywindowgirl@toot.wales of Bilberry and Birch (https://www.bilberryandbirch.co.uk) has adapted her super cute ‘lil sheep design into a even more super cute #Beltie cow (I’m biased because these are wedding cows to us, although always loved cows; https://coffeenow.moomop.uk/post/2022/10/haste-to-the-wedding-ii/#:~:text=look%20at%20the%20cows). Can’t wait to start wearing it!
#jewelery #jewellery #fedigiftshop #cows #BeltedGalloway

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Feb 22, 2026

Went to Oughtonhead Common, Hitchin, to see if any of the all-year Longhorn cows were out doing their thing. Was not disappointed.
#Cows #CowsOfMastodon #Longhorns #HeritageGrazing #Hitchin

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Jan 17, 2026

Replying to @DrEdBridges@toot.wales

@DrEdBridges@toot.wales would rather that than a 6-5 with both players playing badly. A fun day out - good to do something different, as it’s very rare I go and see sport.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Jan 16, 2026

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

Ok 6-0 - not so much #snooker for my money there but in time for the last off-peak train back! Congratulations to Wu Yize.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Jan 16, 2026

Off to Alexandra Palace to see Wu Yize v Xiao Guodong in the snooker. Never seen any in person before. Hoping it’s not 6-2.
#snooker #MastersSnooker

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Jan 06, 2026

Replying to @woltiv@mastodon.social

@woltiv@mastodon.social at least that’s obviously an ad, unlike an supposed ‘article’ just full of unchallenged quotes from techbros in the ‘The rapture over Claude Opus 4.5’. Really offputting on the rest of the ‘journalism’.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Dec 29, 2025

Replying to @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk

Making me as an adult use ID with unregulated companies to see every user-to-user site, such as Wikipedia, substantially increases risk of an ID breach. Also there’s a massive issue with treating someone at 13, 16 and 18 the same in what internet they should be allowed. And finally your extreme examples are already illegal content so need no new rules. 2/2

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Dec 29, 2025

Replying to @catnipmedia@social.vivaldi.net

@catnipmedia @Tutanota you can have controls on the child’s device and the home/school routers, as set up by parents/schools, not age gate (surveil, papers please) me as an adult using every safe and well-moderated user-to-user site on the internet, preventing small safe sites even existing (e.g. my running club’s forum vs forcing use of Meta cos of cost of age gating tech). Also regulate the harmful ad-driven algorithms and the moderation of the sites. 1/2

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Dec 12, 2025

Replying to @MastodonEngineering@mastodon.social

@MastodonEngineering@mastodon.social echoing the other comments. Awful survey when most of the options I’m supposed to rank I do not care about at all. Also not at all private if you’re trying to collect our instance and where else we do socials. Needs binning and reworking.

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Clare Hooley @clare_hooley@mastodon.me.uk · Nov 15, 2025

Replying to @Em0nM4stodon__dup_1827@infosec.exchange

@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange was volunteering for something recently and I get a “do you give permission to add your number to a WhatsApp group”, so there it’s an easy reply of “hell no”. If they need me on a messaging app (which is doubtful when they can just email me), they can find something better. At the very least it makes the person who made the (Google) form be aware there is better too.

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