mdlbear | Done last week (20160731Su

I've already posted about last Sunday's medical adventure, so I won't go into that except to say that the exercises N gave me seem to be helping -- I don't seem to have much pain in my right hand beyond the usual arthritis. It has, however, taken all of the last week to get to that point.

Since the pain was most likely due to my working position, I've put in for an ergonomic evaluation at work. I need to lower my desk at home, too, by about three inches. A leg length of 25 inches should do it. Not looking forward to that, since it will mean taking everything off the top. Fortunately it's possible -- the desk is nothing but a sheet of plywood sitting on a filing cabinet at one end and a pair of 2x2s at the other.

Come to think of it, cleaning off the top of my desk is probably a good thing to do every couple of years.

Tuesday or Wednesday I saw a woman on the bus wearing a T-shirt that read "Open Source and Feelings", and had a bit of a conversation (should have spoken up earlier, because she got off at the first stop downtown). Turns out it's a conference -- I'll try to remember to go next year. The videos from last year are up, and I spent most of Saturday watching them.

A lot of the videos are about empathy, which I'm interested in and I'm told I'm good at (cf. A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear) in spite of my alexithymia. I realized that my hanging out in a facebook group for people who've lost their cat to FIP is probably good exercise for that particular skill.

I also realized that I could be considered a member of a category -- I hesitate to call it a minority -- that's underrepresented in the tech industry: old people. Whether that insight can be turned into something useful is, at this point, an open question. A quick Google search turned up a lot of links about teaching seniors how to use these scary things called computers -- what used to be called "computer literacy" and maybe still is. I didn't see much about the people like me, who have been working with the things for the last half-century. One of the talks from last year's OSFeels was titled "Back in My Day..." -- by a fifty-year-old. Sheesh! I was working at Zilog making the stuff he talked about using as a kid.

Saw a question go by on Quora to the effect of "what should a fifty-year-old programmer do?" My answer was basically "keep writing programs." Now that I think of it, there's probably a reason why so many of the questions asked there sound naive to me.

Notes & links:

0731Su
* up 5ish; W=203.4; shower, laundry
* writing: 540 words in the weekly post
@ Dive into DuckDuckGo -- it's gotten a lot more
interesting since I last looked at it (shortly after it launched)
& Rabbit came home from work early with health problem; I drove him to Urgent Care.
Didn't get back until nearly 4pm, so Colleen missed her st/roll to Farmer's Market
(I'm a little miffed that she didn't go with Chaos; the latter spent the time cleaning
their room.
& St/roll with Colleen to TJ's for baking supplies. Picked up some tofu for me, for
lunches.
: Quora's UI kind of sucks. It's also addictive. I should stop before I... Oh. Right.
* Work: spent much of my spare time over this weekend working on unit tests. Nice
thing is that I don't need a VPN connection for that. Thank you, git.
* have until Sunday night to nominate for Pegasus awards. Pegasi?
% Started feeling arm, chest, and back pain; called 911; spent the night until 4am at
Harborview. Predictably turned up nothing - labs, EKG, and chest X-ray normal.
N's guess is a pinched nerve; specifically (most likely) Thoracic outlet syndrome
" Pain can be present on an intermittent or permanent basis. It can be
sharp/stabbing, burning, or aching. TOS can involve only part of the hand (as in
the 4th and 5th finger only), all of the hand, or the inner aspect of the forearm
and upper arm. Pain can also be in the side of the neck, the pectoral area below
the clavicle, the armpit/axillary area, and the upper back (i.e., the trapezius and
rhomboid area). Discoloration of the hands, one hand colder than the other hand,
weakness of the hand and arm muscles, and tingling are commonly present. "
Apparently somewhat rare, which would explain why nobody in the ER thought of it.

0801Mo
* up 8ish; ; shower, laundry
% my right index finger, where most of the pain was, is still hurting almost as much as
it was last night.
* pay Giselle
@ Thoracic outlet syndrome - I'm thinking of blaming my trackball -- that's the
only thing that involves overuse and a different position of my right hand. That, and
cuddling Colleen, and I'm not going to give that up.
-> making more use of the Logitech trackpad, with my left hand.
-> but it's horrible because there doesn't seem to be a way to turn off tap-to-click.
It's worse without the gnome control panel, but that fails too when there's more
than one device of a kind connected.
% 1:50 sleepy; should probably try to nap
otoh if I'd done that I wouldn't have gotten any of Colleen's caprese
% After trying sitting on a pillow, I have concluded that my desk needs to be lower.
Ugh. That will mean: taking everything off it, disassembling it, making new legs,
finding a place for the old file cabinet and much of its contents, and putting
everything back. Not doing it, OTOH, means continuing to suffer health
problems like last night's.
& Trying heating pad. Doesn't seem to be helping much. OTOH I can still type without
pain, so that's something. (A little discomfort, but I can put up with that.)
* Trying the logitech track pad. Disable tap-to-click with:
xinput set-prop "Logitech Rechargeable Touchpad T650" "Synaptics Tap Action" 0
* Writing: 1075 words in DW::river
: The yoga socks that I ordered arrived today. Years ago, somebody left a pair at the
Starport, and I wore them occasionally. Lately I've been wearing them more often, in
part because they keep my feet warm, and in part because they have non-skid silicone
dots on the bottom, and we have hardwood floors. They're not as good as my usual
Thorlo walking socks, but they'll do for short trips. They also get a little
uncomfortable after a long day; they're mostly going to keep to their role as
slippers. Did I mention that my last pair of slippers died recently? They didn't fit
very well, either. These make great slippers.
* Posted about last night's adventure. I'm never quite sure whether to cross-post to
FB. I should probably just set it up to be automatic. But...
@ August 2, 2016 Primary Election | Progressive Voters Guide | Powered by Fuse
Next year I'll see if I can track down a couple more.
* Voted in the primary
@ Masters of Love - The Atlantic Kindness and generosity
@ Communal Living in Oregon Helps Parents With Child Rearing and Money

0802Tu
* Up 06:12; W=203.4; laundry, dishes
% 10:30pm - feeling kind of wiped out. Drifty.
@ The Artism Spectrum | Gender, Sexuality, Culture & Life on the Autism Spectrum
: completely missed the fact that this was neighborhood night out. Grump.

0803We
* up 0616; W=203.4; laundry
@ Body Language 101, Part 1: Why? | The Artism Spectrum
Body Language 101, Part 2: How? | The Artism Spectrum @resources
* Dr Chopra's office called and told me that my creatinine levels are high -- I need to
stop taking HCTZ, watch my blood pressure, and make an appointment if it goes over
140/90. Grump.
@ Trump’s Top Strategist Just Quit And Wrote An Open Letter Admitting He’s A Liar And A
Fraud ‹ Winning Democrats f(Howard Davidson)
" Trump acts as if he’s a fictional character. But like Hercules, Donald Trump is a
work of fiction. "
@ Republicans nominate dangerously insane person to lead America, then panic when he
proves he’s dangerously insane - The Washington Post f(Kathy Horning)
* P=100/80, p=71

0804Th
* up 6:15; W=201.6, P=102/77, p=72; laundry, dishes
* put in a ticket for an ergonomic consultation at work. Even with my chair as high as
it will go (which puts my feet about 4" off the floor) my elbows are 4" below the
desktop.
* cleared off the end of the vanity for the mini-fridge.
* filled out Orycon questionaire. Looks like we're going.
* reserve room for Orycon
* BILLS: Amex, Wells, Sound (all out of UB account)
* P=116/73, p=71
: Tonight's Google doodle turned out to be an ad for some android game. May switch to
DDG permanently.

0805Fr
* Up 5:40; W=202.4, P=102/71, p=75; laundry, dishes
* sign up for a shadow interview
* feedback due today
@ Open Source & Feelings conference -- found out
about it from reading a woman's T-shirt on the bus -- wish I'd known in time to go.
Next year. Videos of last year's talks online; assume this year's will get there.
: licked by a cute dog on the bus on the way home. Little black thing.
* Good talk with N about web site ideas and how to start a (tiny house and solar
friendly) town
* 10pm bath

0806Sa
* up 7:30; W=203.6, P=118/77, p=55; dishes
P=127/77, 121/75 with regular size cuff. The wrist cuff is not to be trusted:140/98
% as I feared, my weight appears to be trending upward after going off my diuretic.
We'll see what both my weight and my BP look like after a week or so.
% 11something lethargic Not writing.
* Got the small fridge moved upstairs (Rabbit). The larger one and the air filter are
headed downstairs, but will wait until tomorrow or so.
@ Open Source & Feelings 2015 -
From the Inside Out: How Self-Talk Affects Your Community - YouTube
3-2-1 technique: 3 you feel good about, 2 you don't, 1 to do differently
@ Open Source & Feelings 2015 -
Designing with Empathy by Greg Tarnoff - YouTube
@ Digital remembrance: The colour purple | The Economist
: RebeccaPurple = #663399 (No, it's not what I used for Ame - that's ff66ff
@ Open Source &
Feeling: To Feel or Not to Feel; That is the Questions Something that starts with
the words "at least" is invalidating, not empathetic.
% I'm learning stuff. What Dad said about conferences applies here.
% Being on FIP Fighters is good exercise for how to respond to pain with empathy. It
is, gradually, making its way into other places. Too often, I respond to things on
DW with comments that basically relate the thing to myself. I am starting to try to
change that.
@ Open Source & Feelings 2015 -
Documentation as Empathy by Eric Holscher - YouTube "people don't like to do
things that they're bad at."
: Another under-represented minority in tech: *old people*! There are damned few
70-year-olds actually _working_ in tech.
% somehow it has gotten to be 10pm and I've been watching YouTube all day. Mostly Open
Source and Feelings interspersed with math. Not sure how long I can continue to be
one of them.
* P=140/77, p=68; 136/82. don't like how this is trending. 136/76 with the large cuff,
which I had been using before I realized that we had a regular; I was wondering
whether it had thrown off the earlier measurements. Apparently not. We'll see in the
morning.
% wonder whether using the keyboard in my lap will improve the ergonomics. Arms angle
slightly down. Maybe.
@ 10 skills to land your open source dream job | Opensource.com +somewhere.