Done this week (20150322 Su - 29 Su)

[mdlbear]

Not a good week. Nightmares and (almost entirely silent) meltdowns. Mostly panic over taxes and other money problems, though the fact that Curio isn't eating well doesn't help, nor does ongoing work stress, nor taxes.

On the other hand, I did (finally) go out and get the wood for the Maypole; it was a great deal more expensive than I expected, but... ok. Nobody has redwood, and nobody has cedar longer than 12'. N. suggested using a Christmas tree stand; that will probably work and has some distinct advantages. Like, not putting a hole in the lawn.

I wasted several hours yesterday and today booting up (or trying to) several different old computers, because my laptop is in poor shape. I'll take it in for service on Tuesday. Also wasted a lot of time and spoons fighting with the mac mini. MacOS is almost unusable as of Yosemite; they even turn off scrollbars by default! IDIOTS! Back to using the laptop today, because I decided to do a thorough backup before taking it in. So far it seems to be behaving itself.

Also wasted a great deal of time looking for tax info, which I was too careless and/or stupid to keep track of. That's looking to be another nightmare, what with selling the Starport.

At least the Honda has its mirror and is otherwise working pretty well; service came in well north of two grand, which is about what I expected. They didn't fix the bumper -- I'll probably have to go to a body shop for that. Unless I can fix it myself, which isn't impossible. I think all it's going to need is a few whacks with a deadblow hammer.

My mood hasn't been improved much by getting unfriended over a FB post. Wouldn't mind much except that I liked the person in question, but her posts have been getting more stridently conservative lately, and I'd been getting more and more uncomfortable reading them. My post was a re-share of the link she'd shared and agreed with, with my comment:

Re: Superintendent Stands Up In A Big Way For Principal Facing Atheist Backlash This has attracted a lot of highly predictable agreement from conservative Christians. Ask yourselves this -- would it still be ok if the principal had been quoting from the Koran? How about the Satanic Bible? Do you imagine, even for a moment, that he would still have his job in that case? Because what you would think about that is *exactly* what an atheist thinks about his bible quotes.

Well?

I'll admit that the second paragraph is a bit gratuitously confrontational, but I don't think it's out of line considering the article and the massively approving reactions it got from the original poster and her friends. *sigh*

Looks like I won't be going to Indiana for a while, either.

Links in the notes, as usual.

0322 Su
  * up 7:15; W=208.8; laundry, ..., dishes
  @ The 1 percent rigged everything: Why no one can end Ronald Reagan’s “dead wrong”
    voodoo economics - Salon.com +Jim Dennis
  @ stress: How to Ground and Center: 12 Steps - wikiHow (ysabetwordsmith)
  * 1:45 blood sugar crash/hungry; should learn not to start the day with granola.
  * Chicken tikka masala for dinner.  G. pronounced it suitable for spice wimps.
  : Unfriended over a FB post.  
    Re: Superintendent Stands Up In A Big Way For Principal Facing Atheist Backlash 
    " This has attracted a lot of highly predictable agreement from conservative
      Christians. Ask yourselves this -- would it still be ok if the principal had been
      quoting from the Koran? How about the Satanic Bible? Do you imagine, even for a
      moment, that he would still have his job in that case? Because what you would think
      about that is *exactly* what an atheist thinks about his bible quotes. 
      Well? " (post) 

0323 Mo
  % nightmare mostly about losing my ID on a trip.
  * up 6:45; W=210.2; laundry, dishes

0324 Tu
  * up 3:50; W=210.2
  * 5:30 Colleen - NW Hospital checkin
    -> breakfast around 7:30 after C was taken to the OR.  Should be about an hour.
  & wrote a microfic - in comments to ysabetwordsmith | Computer Programs That Write 
  : Using the Innergie power brick for the first time.  Heats up rather badly, but other
    than that it works.  
  * Back to the house around 12:30 after a stop at QFC for lunch
  * Transferred scooter from the Honda to the van.
  * WFH; managed to put in a fairly solid day of coding and training.

0325 We
  * up 6:30; W=210.2; laundry, dishes
  * 9am Honda of Seattle - -can take the 70 to work- _they have a shuttle
    -> may actually come in under a grand, but as of closing time the tech hadn't finished
       with it.
  @ [GUEST POST] Special Needs in Strange Worlds: Sandra M. Odell on Compassion and
    Hidden Disabilities (ysabetwordsmith)
  * partially assembled G's bed with Glenn.  Damaged the ceiling lamp moving it into
    position, but we can presumably work around that.

0326 Th
  * up 6:40; W=210.8; laundry, dishes
  * Reasonably productive day at work.
  & I seem to have coined a new phrase:  "Medically-induced miscarriage". 
    Also, elsewhere, "Freedom to Discriminate" laws.
  @ Pet Topic: Make Your Own Newspaper Cat Litter : TreeHugger 

0327 Fr
  * Up 6:35; W=210.6;
  @ Richard Stallman’s GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty - The New Yorker (LWN)
  @ On HTML5 and the Group That Rules the Web - The New Yorker
  * Pay bills (medical)
  & turned off the laptop because the fan noise wasn't stopping.
  & Tried a scrounged monitor at work; decided that I will no longer buy devices that
    don't have *physical* controls.  Samsung seems to be especially bad in this respect:
    their newer monitors have light-sensitive proximity switches, which means they don't
    work in the local ambient light.  :P
  : 7ish Work on honda finished; $2300 and change, which is about what I expected.
  : email from Pete Madaffari, who was in my class at Norwalk High
  & Working on Whitewood (the mac mini).  Piece of crap.  Doesn't do gestures on the
    touchpad; alt key doesn't work in X; Aquamacs is ugly as sin; ...  Oh, and Chrome is
    flaky -- the scrollbar disappears, and it doesn't recognize, e.g., C-+.  Sheesh!  And
    it knows that the keyboard has a trackpad, but won't let me configure it, and says it
    can remap keys, but doesn't.  Time to haul out one of the old desktop boxes.  X'ing to
    nova works about as well as one could expect with a crippled keyboard.
  : Chrome's sync works pretty well, though it took me a while to find the list of open
    tabs (in History)

0328 Sa
  * up 5:35; W=211.2; Shower, laundry, ..., dishes
  : Desti and her apprentice Cricket have been knocking over the cat tree in our bedroom.
  : Apparently my 50th high school reunion is this year.  Eeep!
  * pick up Honda.  Took a while, but they have a very impressive coffee machine.
  * pick up 4x4, pair of 1x8's (which can be used as shelves later)
    -> 1x3's -- Compton's didn't have 1x8s that looked decent.  Nobody had 16'; went with
       12.  Pricy.  -> N. suggested using a christmas tree base.  I may want to pick up
       some screw-type tent stakes.
  : Apparently my debit card has a daily limit, which the Honda's work came close enough
    to to have it bounce on the lumber.  Good to know.
  * Costco run with Emmy; got her a card.
  ~ Went to BECU to get a form notarized for Kat; not open.  :(  OTOH, got cat food.
  * Printed replacement SSA 1099 off the website, since I can't find it.
  * desktops:  Trantor.  4GB/200GB.  VGA.  Would be easy to upgrade. Sonata case
    	       old Nova  4GB/none.   DVI and 4 SATA on MB   white case.
	       Dorsai	 2GB/200GB   VGA on MB, Radeon 	    black case.
    -> probably the best course is to upgrade old Nova, since it has the newest MB,
       and later move Trantor into Dorsai's case.  The Sonata case is big and heavy.
  @ Read Ken Liu's "Paper Menagerie" sad.  Didn't hit me as hard as it seems to
    have hit some people (because alexithymia), but it may well haunt me.  f(someone)?
  % another quiet meltdown after getting into bed

Comments

Very mild response

[dialecticdreamer]

I think you were WELL within 'reasonable discourse' levels.

Questions NOT addressed in the article:

- Did the principal quote OTHER religious texts "in a neutral way"? No? They're promoting ONLY one religion,then.

- Do the kids have the option of NOT listening? NO.

- Do I think that /all/ religious discussion should be kept out of public schools? Actually, no. However, I sincerely doubt my /local/ school could deal with a Buddhist quote, or one from the Qran, et cetera, and there are over two hundred native languages in our county.

Until there is PROOF of neutral presentation and at least SOME effort at inclusive presentations, though, I say you were RIGHT.

Re: Very mild response

[mdlbear]

Thanks. That's what I thought, too, but it's always good to get a second opinion; I occasionally come off as insensitive.

[amaebi]

Sorry for the yucky week and the tax stress. :( I got our stuff done and to the tax wranglers before October for the first time since 2006, as we will owe tax this year, but boy do I know how anxiety-creating the whole thing is. To attempt to look for data, even when I'm pretty sure I know where I put it, is a hideously stressful thing. :(

Sorry about the fb thing, too. I am entirely with you, but I know that's not particularly helpful.

*love*

[mdlbear]

*hugs* thanks.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you got unfriended, but you had a very valid point. And when someone unfriends you for asking for the same treatment for an atheist that a Christian would get as a matter of course, well, they were going to stop liking you sooner or later anyway.

As an atheist myself I deeply appreciate seeing messages like this in my feed; it's a message that tells me "this person understands; this person wants fair treatment for us."

*hugs you emphatically*

[mdlbear]

*hugs*

I think it's telling that she didn't say anything when I posted that as a comment on her post, but left a snarky comment and unfriended me when I posted it -- with the same text -- in my own timeline. She obviously doesn't want her ridiculous ideas held up to ridicule.

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

Wow, hadn't seen that article. Pretty crazy. I think your questions are right on point.

I realize FB has decided I shouldn't see your posts. Glad we can connect here anyway (and I'll come through and "like" some things to see if I can get you back in my feed. I still hate FB but still no job, so doing FB.

[mdlbear]

Weird about FB -- try the chronological feed. I don't actually post a lot; it's mostly re-shares.

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

I'm amused by the recipe for cat litter. On the one hand, it probably isn't that hard... but on the other hand...

Who has newspaper anymore?

I'd have to specifically buy newspaper to make into cat litter. I suppose it might be cheaper to buy newspaper than to buy litter, but I'm not certain of it. :)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Thank you for standing against hypocrisy.

In our current political climate, I do not have high expectation for reasoned discourse between disagreeing parties. There are several people I know and care about that I've unfollowed on facebook or even unfriended because things just weren't going well and I didn't think they needed to be bothered by my opinions any longer. There are others I've had to go so far as to block for a variety of reasons. Many of them. This improves my experience on facebook, and I still have friends who will confront me when they think I'm wrong. Just none that attack me personally.

[mdlbear]

Thanks.