Done this year (20170101Su - 07Sa)

[mdlbear]

So 2017 started with an inch of snow on the ground, and the entire week has been unseasonably cold. Welcome to global warming? I spent most of last week trying, with limited success, to catch up on the things I'd fallen behind on over my week of vacaton. I may survive the month.

Now that LJ has moved its servers to Russia (dropping HTTPS and at least a hundred pro-Ukraine blogs in the process), it seemed like a good time to disable comments on my crossposts and direct all comments to Dreamwidth. If you're reading this on LJ you can comment there with OpenID as [yourname]@livejournal.com. But I think you'd be better off making yourself a Dreamwidth account, importing your LJ, and crossposting. Just ask if you need help -- I've been giving out lots of advice.

The other news is that we (N and I) bought a new (to us) car -- it's a 2004 Honda Odyssey which (who?) seems to be going by the name Rosie.

We have also done quite a bit of cleaning-up and downsizing; first order of business is to get the downstairs cleared out so it can have a new floor and kitchen cabinets installed. Needs doing.

... and yesterday I transplanted my storage server into a small case. It's back on the mini-ITX board I'd had it on for the last couple of years; the smaller case makes a lot more room on the shelf. Downsizing.

Looks like it's going to be an interesting year. Lots of adventures. Nasty, uncomfortable things.

Notes & links:

0101Su
  * up 6am; W=204.8; dishes
  : About an inch of snow on the ground this morning.
  @ How learning Smalltalk can improve your skills as a programmer Q
  # so should I post new-year or the weekly first?
    OK, weekly: that way I can incorporate a yearly summary, and get 2016 out of the way
    before looking forward. -> didn't feel up for it, so punted on the summary.
  @ lynnenne | On LJ migrating to Russian servers
  # disabled comments on crossposted entries.  This reduces risk, and lets me stop
    importing comments into DW -- since there won't be any more.
  @ catsittingstill | Okay. 2017 is here. Time to quit despairing and gear up. 
  * To Tacoma with N to look at cars.  Bought a Honda Odessey - N is a fierce negotiator.
  @ Charm: a Python client for LiveJournal command line client.
    Python; currently 1.9.2 from 2013

0102Mo
  * Up 6am; W=203.6; laundry, dishes
  * somehow got into a Wikipedia dive on group theory by way of syzygy (from LJ) and
    Hilbert's syzygy theorem 
  % cold; also scared.  Blanket and heating pad helping only a little.
  % too many things didn't get done over this vacation.  I'm -probably- doomed.
  * I have at least opened my work laptop.  That will probably do nothing but add to the
    list of things I haven't done, but...
  & no rose parade.  Was on at 8; is now after 10.
    -> Colleen found the reruns on KTLA.  Don't know why I was having so much trouble.
  % 11:42 P=152/85
  * A couple of hours downstairs with N and G' sorting books.  Done with the books that
    were in the playroom.
  : G' helping C apply for medicare and social security.  We'll see what happens with
    that. -> huge amounts of anxiety.
  % dinner, which was supposed to have been pulled beef and brussels sprouts, did not work
    out.  Colleen says the beef edible; I am in no condition to say.  The sprouts, made in
    a crock pot with butter and maple syrup, are excellent.
  % Interesting:  my weight has gone down pretty much all week.  Not clear whether this is
    because of increased or decreased anxiety.
  % muscle spasm just above my knee in back.  So one of the posterior thigh muscles.
    I've been having problems there for a while; probably because I overstretched it -- I
    do hamstring stretches while watering my nose.  Heat is helping.
  @ America Becomes a Stan - The New York Times
    " The only question now is whether the rot has gone so deep that nothing can stop
      America’s transformation into Trumpistan. One thing is for sure: It’s destructive as
      well as foolish to ignore the uncomfortable risk, and simply assume that it will all
      be O.K. It won’t. "
  * find cabinets at HD or Lowes
    -> KraftMaid  Edgemont Cathedral White White-RDCDS.HD,EWR4,WH - The Home Depot
       Unfortunately they don't appear to have the cabinets!  Just door samples.  Not a
       good sign.  They also have lousy reviews.

0103Tu 41st Anniversary
  * up 7am; W=202.6; laundry, dishes
  * 3:30 Anita Brown
  % muscle problems: right leg; gastrocnemius this time.
  @ solarbird | so let’s say there’s an emergency
  % 8ish very sleepy.  Felt like I was in danger of falling asleep on the bus ride home.
  
0104We
  * up 6:10; W=204.6; laundry
  @ Hampton Base Cabinets in White – The Home Depot 
  @ Deer Run Cabins | Quality Amish Cabins & Kits

0105Th
  * up 6:30; W=204.6; dishes, laundry
  @ The dark rigidity of fundamentalist rural America: a view from the inside (thnidu)
    It's not that we don't understand them. They refuse to understand themselves.
    " The problem isn’t “coastal elites don’t understand rural Americans.” The problem is
      rural America doesn’t understand itself and will NEVER listen to anyone outside
      their bubble. It doesn’t matter how “understanding” you are, how well you listen,
      what language you use…if you are viewed as an outsider, your views are automatically
      discounted. I’ve had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever
      I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter
      how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they WILL NOT even entertain the
      possibility it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their
      fundamentalist belief system and the fact I’m the enemy because I’m an educated
      liberal. "
  @ Putin’s Real Long Game - POLITICO Magazine (siderea)

0106Fr
  * Up 6:30; W=204.6; laundry, dishes
  @ Get your loved ones off Facebook. - Salim Virani (moem)
    Facebook is not your friend | Andrew Brown | Opinion | The Guardian

0107Sa
  * up 7:30; W=205.6; laundry, dishes
  * Down to Tacoma with N to pick up (new van) Rosie
  * Nova transplanted.  Ubuntu is pretty horrible as a server OS, but we knew that.
    still looking for the top to that case.  It appears to have been housekept.  Lots more
    room on that shelf, though.
    -> on the hearth, behind and partly under a box of partly-sorted envelopes
  * now updating snowflake.
    ... and basically done.  Some oddness with preferred terminal; Honu/Mathilda win.  A
    couple of glitches, but nothing serious.

Comments

Facebook

[montemplar]

Ugh. I returned there with a very minimal profile last year, because several friends no longer blog meaningfully anywhere else. But it's a frustrating process trying to use Facebook in any meaningful way. FB Purity helps somewhat, but I've also had to change my browsing habits, using one browser for Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites that want to track me—and logging out after each visit—and another browser for everything else which is set up to minimise and forget any tracking data.

But now I'm seriously considering zapping my FB profile entirely, and giving friends my email address and telling them where to find me in future. Heck, might even start using DW. Getting my dad off FB will be hard, he's an Angry Birds addict. But I'm going to really try.

Re: Facebook

[mdlbear]

Yeah. I would miss it -- there are too many people and communities that exist nowhere else. Simply cutting back on my activity wouldn't help, and I'm not even sure that "deleting" my account and starting a new one would help much -- the tracking data would still be there.

[madfilkentist]

Thanks for the link to Lynnenne's post. I've got an article about LJ set to go on Techno-Liberty tomorrow, and I'd missed the point of protection by California law (though I'm not entirely sure if it could stop the Russian government from quietly grabbing data under its equivalent of a National Security Letter).

I could still use a good link on the dropping of a hundred pro-Ukraine blogs.

[mdlbear]

Welcome. There were one or two links in the first batch, if I remember correctly. One of the Russian bloggers.

[amaebi]

May it also be a year with an appropriate number of second breakfasts.