Done last week/month (20160925Su - 1001Sa)
2016 can go hang itself. In the last week the filk community has lost Lucy Stern, Kira Heston, and JoEllyn Davidoff. Colleen's friend Bev lost her fiance. The folk world lost Oscar Brand. Enough!
The rest of it seems kind of lame. I'll try. Meanwhile, there's this infographic of the stages of grief vs reality.
I successfully replaced the USB port on Colleen's tablet -- I am now feeling fairly confident of my ability to fix modern computing devices. Meanwhile, though, Colleen had expressed an interest in replacing both her tablet and her kindle with a Kindle Fire, so when I spotted a used Fire HD 6 on sale at, well, a fire sale price, I got it for her. So now I have a Kindle paperwhite. I may go back to reading books on the bus instead of news. It would be good for my blood pressure.
My hypertension also provided a convenient excuse for not watching the presidential debate. I already know who I'm voting against, thanks. First election I can remember where Darth Vader and Cthulhu dropped out early.
At work, my sit-stand desk showed up over the weekend. Having a desk that goes down to a proper typing height, which for me turns out to be 25.5 inches, is wonderful. Tried standing a couple of times -- it hurts to do more than a couple of minutes. I'm supposed to work up to 15 minutes out of every hour. Probably not happening, but we'll see.
Also got my Microsoft ergonomic keyboard; it took me most of the week to get used to it, but it may work. If not, I can always go back to the Thinkpad keyboard. I bought one of the newer ones for home, which means that I could swap the older one I'd been using there for the one at work, which had developed a dicey space bar.
Finally got around to paying a few bills. I suck at that kind of thing.
My depression and anxiety numbers were down -- 5 each -- at my session with my therapist on Tuesday. I'm not sure the therapy is doing me much good except as a way of getting something of an objective reading on my mental state, but that's probably a good thing in its own right.
Somebody sent me a link that his daughter found and suggested putting on Interesting Places for Kids. Which I did, but it's so horribly out of date that most of its links are broken, including all of the links to it, now that I've dropped the places.to domain. (Tonga raised the rent, and I didn't think it was worth it.) Oh, and also the build system, which relied on the no-longer-maintained cPIA: XML Macro Processing in C for templating. Need to put that on GitHub. Thought I had, actually.
Oh, yeah: the link: As the father of two 6th grade girls (twins) I've been looking for weather resources to help them with their natural disaster project in their Earth Science class! Your weather guides have been a big help. As a thank you, I wanted to send you this page that one of my daughters found: http://www.aaastateofplay.com/staying-safe-outdoors-in-severe-weather/.
And I'm primary oncall next week. Oh, joy! It's probably going to be a busy one, though hopefully not as rough as the last one.
Notes & links:
0925Sa * up 6:25; W=206.2, P=121/77, p=59; shower * Got Colleen a Fire HD 6 - they had a used one for a good deal less than even the discounted list price. From the reviews, it's better than the newer 7 - smaller screen but same # of pixels. * writing: 484 words in weekly post, which is doing pretty well. Especially since I wasn't tracking -- checked hours after the fact. @ Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 USB port flex cable replacement - YouTube Replaced Colleen's tablet's USB port. Once I realized that the back is attached to the plastic rim, it was straightforward. I now feel pretty confident of my ability to perform many tablet, laptop, and cell phone repairs that I wouldn't have attempted before. Meanwhile _my_ tablet seems to be totally borked, to the point where it claims Play Store isn't installed. -> resetting. I blame Amazon's app store. Which I categorically refuse to reinstall. @ 66 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Right Now - Consumer Reports * take out trash from upstairs bedroom * Drive with Colleen. Up 99, down Lake City Way; stop at QFC for dinner fixings. Surprisingly warm weather. * Bit of music: Stuff that Dreams are Made Of. * Upgrading Purple -- damn thing is slower than a snail on valium. -> turned out to be a copy of initctl running under C's login. :P * On N's recommendation have been applying heat to the sore leg. Helps a lot. 0926Mo * up 6:10; W=206.2, ; laundry, dishes : my sit-stand desk showed up sometime after I left Friday. Managed 3 or 4 standing sessions (5min or less, but still). My Microsoft ergo keyboard also showed up; I am still skeptical. % My right leg doesn't hurt as much tonight. Correlation? ~ Skipping the debate. I know who I'm voting for, and I'm subject to hypertension. 0927Tu * Up 4:30ish; W=206.2, P=151/90, p=56; * Went through some bills, finally. Paid the life insurance for this year, a week or so late. But I don't think I paid last year. Will need to call, I suppose, and find out what I need to catch up. * Sorted through three of the black garbage bags of recyclage. Sorted, because there was a fair amount of non-recyclable stuff in them. As I'd expected. * Picked up an Amazon delivery in Ruby -- the lockers are pretty convenient. * 3:30 Anita Brown D=5, A=5 they've both been low since last time. ~ On the way, got some batteries and a set of brackets for the desk legs, at HD. Looked at the TV wall mounts, but they were both pricey and heavy. * My order of 30-gallon blue recycling bags was waiting for me when I got home. As was the chicken/turkey lasagne, garlic bread, and apple crisp that Colleen had made. Yum. : g is being a teenager. A year early, but still. 0928We * up 6:10; W=204.2, P=128/90, p=61; dishes @ xkcd: Fixing Problems Painfully true. Tech debt. : Lucy Stern died this morning. She'll be missed. * Colleen's Kindle Fire arrived. I have inherited her paperwhite. I renamed it from "Stephen's 5th kindle" -- no idea where most of the others are. One or two are probably still in my box of small computers. At least one is broken. : The really anoying thing about tablets of all sorts is that every damned one needs a custom case, and if you have one you like you can't transfer it to the next device. 0929Th * up 6:30; W=205.2, P=139/77, p=60; dishes : Bev's BF died. Second death in as many days. September is SO FUCKING FIRED % Forgot to bring my laptop home. Ok, as long as it doesn't happen again next week when I'm on call : Came home and looked at the van's tire. Dead flat. Might be able to pump it up enough tomorrow morning, but maybe not. % Frazzled. g gave me some hug therapy - she said I looked like I needed it. * Looks like I have a concert at Orycon. So that means I need to practice. But I already needed to practice, and I haven't been. *sigh* * Is Open Source Really Open? Salon C (LL1) Sat Nov 19 10:00am - 11:00am Blake Hutchins, Frank Hayes, Mark Niemann-Ross, *me (moderator) * Concert: Steve Savitsky Mt Hood (2) Sat Nov 19 1:00pm - 2:00pm * The Changing Face of the Computer Interface Sunstone (3) Sun Nov 20 12:00pm - 1:00pm *Frank Hayes, Jeff Soesbe, Matt Huntley, Matt Huntley, Rhiannon Rhys-Jones, me 0930Fr * up 6:13; W=202.8, P=114/68, p=60; laundry, dishes * pump up van's tire, or change it. (That would be better, if the spare is in any decent shape.) -> it pumped up ok, while I was trying to figure out how to release the spare. So... anyway. " As the father of two 6th grade girls (twins) I've been looking for weather resources to help them with their natural disaster project in their Earth Science class! Your weather guides have been a big help. As a thank you, I wanted to send you this page that one of my daughters found: " @ http://www.aaastateofplay.com/staying-safe-outdoors-in-severe-weather/ : Places is in *really* bad shape. I suspect the templating system (PIA? cPIA?) hasn't worked in years; I added the link directly to the HTML page. There's a whole other copy under /places, and of course the Makefiles are broken, too. Blrg. 1001Sa * Up 6:15ish; W=206.4, P=144/72, p=60; shower % wearing a T-shirt means that I have to carry my phone in my pants pocket, which is inconvenient and uncomfortable. Grump. @ Teen invents 'Sit With Us' app so no student must eat alone - TODAY.com (siliconshaman) @ ysabetwordsmith | Technoshamanic Music amazing performance. * Paid for tabs on the van, toll penalties on Felicity. Turns out that the violation numbers on the license renewal form aren't the ones you need to pay online with. And there isn't a 1-1 mapping between notices and lines on the renewal form. But... done. * Practice: Millennium's Dawn. Left hand hurts on the palm between thumb and forefinger. Ouch! Need to practice more. Maybe next on something that doesn't involve thumb-barres quite so much. @ PHP: a fractal of bad design / fuzzy notepad % Working on set list and thinking of Amethyst Rose. I didn't mark her birthday this year. !sad. Feeling sorry for myself. : JoEllyn died today. 2016, as someone on FB said, can go die in a fire. Kira Heston and Oscar Brand yesterday; Lucy Stern on Wednesday. Victor Scheinman, from SAIL, last Tuesday. @ Richard & Mimi Pack Up Your Sorrows with Pete Seeger f(Blind Lemming Chiffon) % meanwhile, I've been so damned congested the last couple of days that I'm mostly mouth-breathing. Three neti pots today, and I'll go for a fourth before I go to bed. And my right QL is complaining, too. * After getting back from the tea expo with Colleen, Katy baked cookies and Jen did mending. I finally have all my favorite shirts back. @ stages of grief vs reality * hot bath helped a lot with the back, leg.
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