mdlbear | Done last week (20140413 Su

A rather boring week bracketed by great music. Last Sunday we had Heather Dale and Ben Deschamps at Rainbow's End's first house concert. And this weekend we're at Norwescon, with both concerts and filking (see notes)... and the high point was, definitely, Glenn proposing marriage to Naomi during the intermission. She said yes. Heather had ended her first set with "As I Am".

The second set was all about love and marriage. (Not both together, necessarily -- it included "The Devil and the Farmer's Wife".)

On the flip side, I continue to be arthritic and mildly depressed. The low point of the week was filing for an extension on my taxes. Which was a mistake -- I should have filed and then filed an amended return when I finally get all the deductions and business expenses together. It was, of course, horrendous: I sold a lot of stock to buy and renovate Rainbow's End.

I haven't been enjoying Norwescon all that much. Mostly hiding in a corner reading on my laptop. Grump. Grumpity grump. Oh, and the hotel's wifi is seriously overloaded, and the restaurant service is slow and barely competent. *sigh*

There are links in the notes, as usual. The perceptive reader may also notice an item at the end of the notes that will, hopefully, turn into a post sometime soon.

0413 Su
* up 7:40; W=209.2; d, n
@ CIYH - House Concert Guides
www.concertsinyourhome.com/ - How to Host a House Concert
Musician's Guide to House Concerts
: Curio apparently thought I needed a cat on my lap this afternoon. He was there for
quite a while, with lots of headbumps. *melt*
* 4ish load-in, setup, tuning. 6pm listening to Heather and Betsy running though stuff.
Looks like we have seating now for about 35; we can easily get in another 5-10.
They're using my PA speaker and Casio keyboard (which Heather likes a lot). The
Tascam video recorder is set up.
* 7:30 Heather Dale at RE
Smaller audience than expected -- several groups didn't show up -- but high energy and
a heck of a lot of fun. Glenn and Naomi got engaged at the intermission! (After
Heather concluded the first set with "As I Am".)
Apparently failed to record the second set. At least I got the first one, with the
proposal.

0414 Mo
* up 6:40; W=209.2; d, n
: The copy of Animusic that I ordered arrived.
* Finally got extension filed. Mistake -- should have filed as-is, and filed an
ammendment later. *sigh* Probably works out about the same. Basis for the LTEK
worked out to about half what I expected, so bletch. The fact that the 1099 from
Wells Fargo had the wrong ticker symbol didn't help (LIFE instead of LTEK --
apparently it changed a couple of years ago). Idiots!

0415 Tu
% nightmares, one involving losing the cats out a back window that we don't have.
Woke up around 4-something in a pool of sweat; managed to get back to dozing
* up 5:50; W=210.4; d, n
* SDE functional interviewing class in the morning
* leave 4ish
* Dinner with Heather and Ben; Glenn, Naomi, and G; and of course Colleen at Thirteen
Coins in Seatac. We'll be back for a meal or two during the con.

0416 We
* up 7:35; W=211; d, n
@ Too Important for Clever Titles -- Scientific Study Says We Are an Oligarchy
% very close to the edge, volatile, and upset. Fragile. Overloaded. I seem to hold it
together at work, but fall apart when I get home. Possibly because I want to relax
and there's too much that needs doing?

0417 Th
* up 7:15; W=209.4; d, n
* 9am dentist. -> got a late start; left at 8:15 and arrived at 9:19. They still
managed to fit me in, though.
: Ran late and ended up driving to work. Parking in our building is expensive.
@ Plant Breeders Release First 'Open Source Seeds' (NPR) [LWN.net]
@ Dealing with Depression: Self-Help & Coping Tips to Overcome Depression
(The Wordsmith's Forge - Poem: "One Man at a Time")

0417 Th - 20 Su Norwescon

0418 Fr
* up 6:15; W=208; d, n
* pack. Not that there's much for me.
& decided to WFH today
: Ubuntu 14.04 is out, but there won't be an upgrade from 12.04 until July. :P
@ --> APT's New Version <-- [LWN.net]
@ CoreOS: A different kind of Linux distribution [LWN.net]
* Norwescon. Decided to skip Heather's concert and just go down. The room is pretty
much as far away as one can get. At least it only takes one elevator trip.
: Colleen bought an *incredibly* cute purple hat. Very steampunk.
& Tried to start up my mobile hotspot. No dice. After an *hour* on the phone with tech
support, he was baffled too. Maybe a factory reset will work. The fact that the
phone thinks I'm using over 42GB may have something to do with it.
...and now it works. several hours later, and I ditched one or two worthless apps.
But still. I'm really down on Samsung right now. Again.
: Enjoying Vixy & Tony's and Seanan's concerts, but finding that I have trouble hearing
the lyrics. Don't know whether it's the mix, the loudness, or just my aged ears.
: Our room is on one of the party floors. Oh, joy.

0419 Sa
* up 7ish; ; d, n
* Net connection incredibly flaky today
@ Linux is about to take over the desktop but not like you think it will | ZDNet
@ Ellen, Dot Addict - Kickstarter Clues
* call U-Haul - prepaid, conf# 92492524 10mpg
: Lunch at the hotel with Colleen. Typical hotel menu -- the "key lime cheesecake
brulee" wasn't -- they just tack the "brulee" on to make it sound fancy. Idiots!
% pretty much not participating in the con. No panels that interest me today; music
doesn't start until evening. And the first act will probably be too loud. *sigh*
I should probably write.
: Naomi arrived, with Glenn. She bought me a Lorax hat. Amazingly silly.
% There are several plausible writing/publishing projects (as in, dusting off old stuff
and serializing it on DW etc.
- Rosie - probably the closest to "finished"
- Lady M. - this could be interesting: link to the original, gather ideas, serialize
the (total) rewrite as blog entries.
- How I Work - mainly a matter of writing new articles and updating the old ones.
- The River.
% not to mention the recording projects hanging fire.
: The net connection here in the Evergreen (concert) room sucks rocks.
Fortunately, the Doubleclicks do _not_ suck. They rock.
: now listening to Molly Lewis. Don't think I've heard her in concert before.
* Open filking - stayed until 1am. "Jabberwocky", "Get Up and Go", "Lord Of the
Buffalo", "Vampire Megabyte", and went out on "Ship of Stone".
: actually, WiFi all over the hotel sucks. Overloaded. Duh!