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pomfob.bsky.social
@pomfob.bsky.social
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pomfob.bsky.social
Hello.The Calendar solved having 12 months of 30 days each by adding 5 Complementary Days at the end of the year, 6 in a leap year. Today is la Fête de la Vertu in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. That's virtue, and by virtue of the internet, whatever you think about it, we're here to celebrate it.
A cartoon with the heading HOE DOES THE INTERNET WORK? It's almost laughably simplistic, but it's also idealistic, ignoring all the dirty money and suchlike. Against a background of a blue sky and little fluffy clouds, from left to right is a smiling young white man with short dark hair in an orange t shirt sitting typing on a keyboard at a desktop monitor. Two wires connect the desktop to a globe representing the whole wide world. A wire leading out of the world connects to two rectangular servers, which in turn connect to an oversized open envelope with a card bearing the @ symbol on it. Finally at the bottom right is an open laptop with a web page on the screen. All you can make out is https:// Let's keep it secure.
September 17, 2026 at 9:49 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Isn't this the sort of thing the writer and all round good egg Roy Wilkinson does? Don't think Roy's on here 🙁
happytoast.co.uk HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 1d
Wtf? I've just been sent a letter from the early 80s 🤔
Stamps issued between 1980-85 on an envelope that just came through the door
September 16, 2026 at 10:59 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Well I'll be the son of a gun, we've made it to the last day of the month of fruitfulness. It's décadi 30 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. A celebration is due that we can all enjoy, but tough, we're doing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets because I use them all the time & I like them.
What we have here is a rather blurry photo of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Well, it's actually a photo of my laptop with Excel open on the desktop. Dark grey characters on a pale grey background, gridlines you can't make out because they're so pale, what's not to love? In a reality warping twist, this is the spreadsheet I use to keep a track of the songs Richard posts in reply to the celebrations. We can see he's missed one, but unless Richard reads the alt text, he'll never know.
September 16, 2026 at 10:55 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Hiya! It's nonidi 29 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today may be the most controversial choice of the revised calendar celebrations. The British Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, Auntie Beeb. For any crap it throws up, there's Peel Sessions, Doctor Who & David Bloody Attenborough.
A photo of the classic BBC1 intertitle or identity screen. In between programming, you'd see this and hear the voice of the continuity announcer telling you what was coming up on BBC television. This one would have been from the 1980s and maybe the early 1990s. It's BBC1 in big, blocky white letters at the bottom middle of the screen. Above BBC1 is a globe of the Earth rotates, dark blue for the seas, a sandy gold colour for land. Behind it all is a very stretched out version of the globe in the same colours. Simple and effective. Nation shall speak peace unto nation.
September 15, 2026 at 11:14 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
A cheery wave to all you stranded youngsters out there on octidi 28 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. I'm on something of a lap of honour here, celebrating my favourite things. Anyone who's met me knows I bloody love bread. It's bizarre that it was missed out in the original calendar.
A photo of a loaf of bread on a plain white background. Pure, golden brown, the staff of life. All that jazz. Bread. Yum. I could eat that now, one sitting, no bother.
September 14, 2026 at 10:31 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Joy to the world on septidi 27 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. What are we going to celebrate today then? Well, as I've been keeping the good stuff to last, I suppose we'd better have the most elegant and best format for capturing and replaying music. The record, so simple, perfect.
A photo of a twelve inch dye blackened vinyl disc spinning on a white turntable. The arm is near the beginning of the record. The arm is also black. The clear plastic lid of the turntable is up, reflecting the record on the dark red painted wall behind it. Since it's spinning, you can't make out the label of the record. It's Music For Magnesium_173 by Ian William Craig. I'd never heard of him till about a month ago. I really like this, a cross between minimal neo classical and glitchy techno. Apparently it's a soundtrack to a computer game, which is surely a freaky experience going off the music.
September 13, 2026 at 10:03 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Ahoy there mateys. It's sextidi 26 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're coming to the end of this daft odyssey through the French Revolutionary Calendar, celebrating what's come along since the Revolution. Here's civilisation's greatest achievement. Soft toilet paper! You know it is.
A photo of a white toilet roll held on a white woman's hand against the background of a tiled white wall. Taken from the website of the Pom's bogroll of choice, serioustissues.com. They sell ecologically friendly cleaning products, and the toilet paper is soft, strong and very, very long.
September 12, 2026 at 9:43 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Would you believe it? Today is quintidi 25 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, all along the way. As we reach the end of the French Republican year, I'm getting self indulgent. My favourite TV programme is Doctor Who, so we're going to celebrate its enduring popularity after 63 years.
A still from the greatest of all television programmes, Doctor Who. In fact, it'll be the last shot of the show so far. It's the actor Billy Piper who played Rose Tyler in the 2000s but in the final sequence, the Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa regenerated into Billy as Rose. Maybe. The still shows the head and shoulders of a blonde white woman in a white dress. She has an enormous grin, and gold sparks of regeneration energy are coming off her.
September 11, 2026 at 10:46 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Yoo hoo there all. It's quartidi 24 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today is St Hubbins' day, patron saint of quality footwear [editor's note, are you sure this isn't just a Spinal Tap joke?] Whatever, let's celebrate the best footwear there is, Doctor Marten's, DMs or just Docs.
A photo of two pairs of Doctor Martens, sat on a pale wood chair on a pale cream tiled floor. Yes, it's the Poms' kitchen and those DMs are mine. On the left, black eight hole boots with black laces. On the right, black three hole shoes with black laces. I like black shoes, ok?
September 10, 2026 at 1:29 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Afternoon you lot. We're at tridi 23 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Following on from the RNLI yesterday, to whom I hope you donated, let's celebrate lighthouses. Out there in all weathers, keeping those at sea safe. I got quite obsessed with them during covid. More in alt text.
A photo of a lighthouse. Quite a small, decommissioned lighthouse sat in a park on a cloudy day. The tower is thirteen metres tall, painted white, with sandy yellow brown edges and the dome of the light room itself is black. These are the standard colours of the Northern Lighthouse Board. They're in charge of lights around Scotland and some on the Isle of Man. You may be asking yourself, Pom seems to know a lot about lighthouses. Well, it's the band (British) Sea Power's fault. During the covid lockdowns, we were all looking for distractions. Tim Booth of The Charlatans started organising listening parties for records on Twitter (never X), and one of those was (British) Sea Power's From The Sea To The Land Beyond. That's the soundtrack to a documentary about Britain's relationship with the sea. We and I think most people watched as well as listened along. There's a brief section where the voiceover says something like, if all the lights of British lighthouses were combined, they'd stretch from Dover to Kingston, Jamaica. That sounded like bollocks to me. I started looking into it, and after a couple of years of on and off research, the answer was probably not, but it would have been close and a lot of lights had their distances reduced in the 1990s. So there I was, too much newly acquired information about lighthouses sloshing around my head and a new found admiration of them. One last thing for anyone who hung around the (British) Sea Power internet fan forum too much. The lighthouse above was decommissioned in 2006, is occasionally used for special events and is in Cromarty. Titters childishly.
September 9, 2026 at 2:05 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Hello there good folks of BlueSky. It's duodi 22 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. I'll keep it brief today. We're celebrating the Royal National Lifeboat Institute, the RNLI. They do an important job, as volunteers. Chuck a few quid their way & fuck fascism.

rnli.org/support-us/g...
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
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September 8, 2026 at 10:54 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
A very good afternoon to BlueSky. Here we are on primidi 21 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. For today's celebration, we'll be praising an often overlooked medium for non hierarchical art, dissemination of information & advertising outside the capitalist norms. Stickers! Get sticking.
A photo of a laptop lid covered in stickers. Some of you may have seen it before on the website sticker top.art and if you haven't, it's a fun site anyway. It's the very old laptop of your pal Pomfob. Yes, it's mine. I'm not going to describe all of the stickers as we've only two thousand characters in alt text, but here are some highlights. Top and left of centre, one of several stickers from the Black Iris Brewery. This is a round one, in the distinctive black and white style of Black Iris, advertising their long gone lavender grisette beer, Lovelace. It depicts a young Ada Lovelace at the Analytical Engine that she programmed. Next row down, at the right edge, another round sticker, with lots of stylised yellow parachutes with bunny rabbits attached. This is for the music promoters Don't Panic, We're From Poland. Central, another round black and white sticker from the band worriedaboutsatan. The illustration is a series of black and white stripes of varying width. Bottom and to the left, a photo of the happiest marsupial, the Quokka. Would you like a leaf? Next to that, a round sticker reminding us that Trans Rights Are Human Rights. Bottom right, a curious sticker showing Snoopy the beagle from the Peanuts cartoon strip dressed in a blue pinstripe suit, wearing red trainers, a pair of 3D cinema glasses and waving a small glowing instrument. There's a speech bubble saying ALLONS-Y! What the connection between Snoopy and Doctor Who as played by David Tennant is, I don't know. The sticker looks cool though.
September 7, 2026 at 1:32 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Aloha folks. It's décadi 20 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today I'd like us to celebrate dinosaurs. Let's not get too bogged down in what actually is and isn't a dinosaur though. Any ancient lizardy thing will do. What's your favourite dinosaur? Here's mine, the psittacosaurus.
An illustration of a psittacosaurus. They're a species of dinosaur, about the size of a big dog that ran around on its hind legs in what's now Mongolia, China and Russia. This one is shown as a red brown colour, on a mossy green forest floor. It has some spines on its tail. Sometimes this is shown as a small ridge or sail, sometimes it's omitted. The psittacosaurus has a parrot like beak. That's where the name comes from. This one has big eyes and looks like it's thinking about something. It has a sort of chinstrap, maybe tusks? Some psittacosauri are depicted with quite complicated horns in their head. It's my favourite dinosaur.
September 6, 2026 at 12:13 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Well then. Hope all's well with you on nonidi 19 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today, let's celebrate earphones, handy devices that allow us to listen to our obnoxious music or tedious podcasts without bothering anyone else. Wired or wireless, headphones if you prefer. Just use 'em.
An overhead photo of a dozen or so pairs of chargeable wireless earphones or earbuds on a grey surface. Lots of little plastic cases with two small curved plastic blobs in them. Roughly half are black and half are white. There's one pair of orange earphones brightening up the scene. Or possibly they're for the Rangers supporting loyalist anti-Papist who has everything else.
September 5, 2026 at 8:12 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Would you believe it? Today is octidi 18 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. We're going to celebrate a musical instrument I know little about, but I love the sound. The pedal steel guitar isn't just for country & western. The pedal steel guitar always improves a song, like a sax won't.
A photo of a pedal steel guitar. I'm not going to pretend I know about these things, I just like the noise they make. Forgive my lack of technical knowledge. The instrument is set up in the corner of a room with white walls and a smooth, possibly marble, speckled grey and white floor. There's also a dark wooden skirting board. It looks like a doctor's waiting room and I'd have thought the acoustics would be awful. The pedal steel guitar is a flat, oblong box on four thin, silvery metal legs. You can just make out some wires leading down to the pedals on the floor. The box has silvery metal sides, a black front with the words ReSound 65 on the right. Whether that's the maker or the model, I don't know. The flat top has what looks like a red leather cushion at the back of it, with the majority of the space taken up by the guitar part. It looks like the neck of an electric guitar, but different. It has ten strings and tuning pegs, and the neck is much thicker than you'd expect on a standard guitar. It also appears to be made of a silvery metal. There's no body as such to the guitar, just a flat space where the strings are attached. There's just the one neck here. While I was looking for appropriate pictures, I saw lots with two necks, and a few with four. I don't know which ones are most common or what the additional necks achieve.
September 4, 2026 at 11:29 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Good afternoon and thanks for keeping the faith with the revised celebrations for the French Revolutionary Calendar. Today, septidi 17 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV, is the day we celebrate maps. They can be geographical, political, art or just help you get where you're going.
A map of the Great Lakes region between south east Canada, and various states not yet in Canada. These states are coloured orange, yellow and green to differentiate between each other and the unified nation of Canada, coloured khaki. The lakes are blue. There are five lakes. Superior, Michigan and Huron sort of run into each other. The other two, a little further to the south east, don't connect to those three or each other. These last two lakes are Erie and Ontario. Yes they are.
September 3, 2026 at 3:13 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Let's be having you on sextidi 16 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. I had today earmarked for the celebration of gaffer tape, holding it all together. It's only proper gaffer tape if it's non light reflecting. But then I remembered this fantastic flow chart, so have a twofer with WD-40.
A flowchart on a white background with a blue grid over it, like a school arithmetic exercise book. The chart is titled ENGINEERING FLOWCHART. The question at the top of the chart is DOES IT MOVE? Following the left hand side, if the answer is NO, the supplemental question is SHOULD IT? If NO, NO PROBLEM. If YES, there is a photo of acan of WD-40 lubricant. Blue can, red top, yellow background for the blue WD-40 logo. On the right hand side, if the answer to DOES IT MOVE? is YES, once again there is the supplemental SHOULD IT? If YES, NO PROBLEM. If NO, we have a photo of a roll of silver duct tape. Yes I know I said we're celebrating gaffer tape, and this technically isn't because it's reflective, but give me a break, eh?
September 2, 2026 at 12:35 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Top of the morning to you all, it's quintidi 15 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. As it's the month of fruitfulness, let's celebrate something any gardener, farmer or agriculturist appreciates. Compost! Simple rule, if you cut it up small enough & wait long enough, you can compost it.
A woodcut by Jonathan Gibbs to illustrate composting. As it's a woodcut, it's mainly black with details in white. There are some trees in the background, with at top centre of the picture a compost bin. It's a box made of wooden pallets or fence panels. There's a pile of compost mellowing down to something useable. In front of the compost bin is a strip of plants just poking through the earth, and in front of them a dibber and a garden rake. Note the illustration is from the book Compost by Charles Dowding. He knows his onions about gardening, but he's also a bit of a posh crank. Swings and roundabouts, eh?
September 1, 2026 at 10:07 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
All are welcome at the celebrations of the French Revolutionary Calendar today, quartidi 14 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. You're welcome every day. We're celebrating The Clangers today, another brilliant children's television show made by Oliver Postgate. Joyful whistling abounds.
A still from the original series of The Clangers, made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Clangers were small creatures living on a planet far away. They look like a cross between pigs and anteaters, but bipedal. They're pink, have long noses and communicate by whistling. Here we see five Clangers gathered round three visitors. They're stood on white, dusty ground with a starless, bible black sky behind them. At a guess I think left to right it's Tiny Clanger, Mother Clanger, Small Clanger, Granny Clanger and Major Clanger. Major Clanger is stood next to a metal lid covering an entrance to the planet's caves, where the Clangers live. All the Clangers look surprised at their visitors. These are Froglets, even smaller than the Clangers. They're just orange heads on black legs with flat feet. The Froglets have big eyes on top of their heads and all have serene smiles. They appear to have arrived in a battered brown upside down top hat.
August 31, 2026 at 2:08 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Hi there me hearties. We're at tridi 13 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. It's time to celebrate the gong. By that I mean the big brass percussion instrument not the unbearable hippy twaddle. Sorry, Kavus Torabi seems like a cool bloke & he's a Janner, but musically, needs Steve Davis.
A photo of a gong. A big brass disc suspended from a wooden frame. The frame also has a wooden beater for hitting the gong. Sometimes, the alt text needs to be simple. Especially after a massive essay like yesterday. Especially if I'm down the pub.
August 30, 2026 at 1:52 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Ey up there me ducks. It's duodi 12 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Yesterday we celebrated the porcupine. Since we've already done the hedgehog, that suggests only one thing, surely? For my audience anyway. Let's celebrate the pineapple with this handsome chap. More in t'alt text.
It's a photo of a grinning buffoon. More accurately, a balding, middle aged white bloke with glasses and a laughing cavalier style moustache and goatee. Yes, it's me, your pal Pom. It's maybe fifteen years ago, at the venue Joseph's Well in Leeds. Long closed by it's prick of a landlord who wanted more money. It's been empty ever since it closed. We were at Joseph's Well to see the band Brakes. Two significant points there. Eamon, the singer in Brakes had been in the band British Sea Power. I'm wearing one of their t shirts, a dark blue one with the legend HERE TO GO, and an illustration of the evolutionary ladder labelled with British Sea Power song titles. Other point is that Brakes had a song called Porcupine Or Pineapple?, which live had involved a pineapple being thrown at the crowd. Health and safety concerns meant that was amended to just handing the pineapple to some chud in the front row. Hello! That night it was me, hence me grinning and pointing at the pineapple that I'm holding in my left hand. Took it home and ate it. In my right is a young woman with long wavy hair looking at the stage in what can only be called a simpering manner. Don't know her, perhaps it was an unfortunate angle. On my left is Helen from Hebden Bridge giving me pineapple recipes. She's wearing a purple hooped long sleeved top with a black top over it. Now all this would have been hilariously funny because Brakes are playing the Krankenhaus festival, Helen's there too so I was going to restage the photo however many years later. Unfortunately, trains and weather conspired and I didn't get to the festival. Sad face. If anyone at Krankenhaus has read this far, go on, get a new version of this picture.
August 29, 2026 at 11:05 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Would you believe it? It's primidi 11 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. So today, let's celebrate a spiky little fella snuffling around. Not the hedgehog, we did them back in Germinal. Today is the day of hedgehog's rather extravagant cousin, the porcupine. Best Bunnymen album too.
A photo of a porcupine in what looks like a domestic garden. They're stood on some sandy coloured gravel, next to some green leaves and snuffling about on the patio. Not that Americans call them patios. Pavements in gardens anyway. Porcupines are brown, medium sized rodents, who look pretty unremarkable apart from the really long, sticky up hair on their heads which turns into really long, black and brown spikes on the back and rear end. You aren't going to sneak up on these lads without some serious pricking.
August 28, 2026 at 11:25 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Ooh, hello there pets. Its décadi 10 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Time to celebrate another duck, and what a marvellous duck we have today. Eiders are quite big and look very serious with their stark black & white feathers. If you've never heard eiders

xeno-canto.org/591766

Ooh!
A photo of a male eider duck, somateria mollissima, floating serenely on a pale grey sea. It's a large duck, mainly white with a black tail and rump, black wings and a black cap coming down over his eyes and along his beak. It's a long, strong beak, lemony coloured.
August 27, 2026 at 6:45 AM
pomfob.bsky.social
Good afternoon all you good people on nonidi 9 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Today we're celebrating a cheap, simple and effective way of showing our allegiances, whether that be bands, brewers, clubs or whatever. Wear your badges, buttons or pins with pride, whatever you call 'em.
A photo of a small wooden box filled with badges. Took bloody ages to get it anywhere near in focus and without too much light obscuring the badges. The badges are mainly round, with one square one peeking out top right. Some small, some medium, some large. Here's what we can see, starting top left, working across and down. I'll probably miss a few. Small black and white Black Iris Brewery flower. Medium beige stick drawing of a plant, from the band Good News. Small black and amber iLiKETRAiNS band. Small black and white face of Jesca Hoop. The corner of a medium square Sky Larkin band. You can just make out KIN. Smalll head and shoulders of a sad superhero in green on a black background, from the band Hefner. Large white Whittlesea STRAW BEAR Festival, text in black, straw bear dancing in the middle. Medium white on black F in a circle logo for the Canadian progressive hardcore band Fucked Up. Medium purple on purple from the band The Wind-up Birds. Medium red and blue text on a blue and white background telling you I'm a Cloud Appreciation Society Member. There's a cloud in the middle of the badge, which I appreciate. Medium large white text on black from The Wharf Street Galaxy Band. Medium, very straightforward white text on black for METZ. Small Melt Banana badge. Blue, with a green blob in the middle and a scared looking fish creature. Medium red from the band Esper Scout. A compass to guide your way is depicted. Large, possibly very large black text on white for the band Nots. It has nots written across it over and over again.
August 26, 2026 at 2:25 PM
pomfob.bsky.social
Is everyone gathered in safely on octidi 8 Fructidor in the year of the Republic CCXXXIV. Our celebrations today are for Georgia O'Keeffe, one of my favourite artists. Difficult to choose just one painting to represent her, so go look up some of her other work. The flowers are just flowers, ok?
The painting Sky Above Clouds III, by Georgia O'Keeffe. It's one of her later, more abstract paintings, from her impression of being in an aeroplane looking down on clouds. On the horizon, the sky is a vague blue line at the top, fading downwards through white and very pale pink. Most of the painting is a sea of little fluffy clouds, like white lilly pads or stepping stones in a deep blue pool. Like all her paintings, it looks simple, but then it absorbs you.
August 25, 2026 at 10:27 AM