mdlbear | Done last week (20171112Su

We had a power outage Monday, from about 2:30am to noon. N and I promptly went and bought flashlights, rechargable batteries, bottled water, and other emergency supplies. Given that the island is subject to high winds on a regular basis (which is why the county doesn't allow living in RVs), we have to assume that some future outage might last days.

The other news is that I have a new phone -- another LG G5, this time from AT&T. Unlike the last one (which I eventually sent back), everything works on this one. There have been a few glitches, but on the whole it's been a pretty smooth transition. Oddly, the MyChevrolet app works! Weird. (The website is still badly broken, of course.)

I've been having some trouble sleeping, or more specifically getting back to sleep after waking around 2:30am. That happened twice this week, including a full-on anxiety attack Friday. Ticia came to my rescue, lying next to my face and cuddling. We have a wonderful cat.

Notes & links:

1112Su
* Up 6:30; W=199.4;
* Out with Colleen to brunch at Charmers; passed on dessert, having had a donut earlier
* drive afterwards - various back roads around Freeland and Langley. Lone Lake Park,
which is tiny and at the end of a one-lane road; has an outhouse and a boat slip.
* 3:15pm Finished Beren and Lúthien; verified that what I figured
would have to be the character entity for "ú", &uacute; in fact exists.
@ Meet St. Louis' Filking champion, Gary "MoFilker" Hanak
* pay PSEnergy - direct transfer from BECU household checking. Late. Set up auto-pay.
~ pay mortgage - next payment due 12/1; looks like auto-pay set up for the 1st.
: EVgo wants me to create an online account, but their password reset email hasn't
arrived. Should try tomorrow when I can call support.
-> worked, the second time I tried it. Weird. The closest EVgo chargers are Lynnwood
and Marysville. And the one in Lynnwood is ChaDeMo, so it's useless.
* Put monitor a bit higher up by sitting it on a box instead of the ream of printer
paper. It's about 2.5 inches _too_ high now, but that's ok for the moment.

1113Mo
& awake 3:30ish - power outage.
-> took advantage of the outage to put the internet modem and router on the UPS
-> PSE says power should be back 4:30-5am.
-> it was, briefly; is now (8ish) back out. Grumph. Ticia woke me around 5:30; that
was probably why.
* up 6ish; ;
* 15min: went to garage and brought in the Ryobi flashlight and all three batteries.
: 8:40 power still out; ETA noon. Raining cats + dogs; hailing taxis.
* 15minL Brought a few books in from the garage, but the main thing was the bin of
computer chargers; three of them have car adapters. Win.
: 11:53 power back, just 7 minutes before the predicted time, which is pretty good.
-> start recharging the phone battery packs
: ...253 boots, but it's not connecting, so lp isn't connected. Blargh. Hmm. Wonder
whether it's looking for -west instead of -west5. That's testable.
* out shopping for lighting, heating, bottled water, cat litter, cat food.
* Monday: Tuna casserole
* ordered LG G5 phone, after a brief discussion with N.
: 9:20pm- ...253 and lp suddenly started working. Weird. ARP timeout, maybe? or DHCP?

1114Tu
* up 6:45; W=199.4;
@ Security
Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core (ysabetwordsmith)
@ Malware Case Is Major Blow for the N.S.A. - The New York Times
: turns out the problem with ...253 (now renamed back to wap3) was that it was
connecting to rainbows-end-west instead of west5. Set up an alias on the gateway (now
renamed back to gw) and it came right up... which is odd, because wap3 says that it's
using west5. Forgot to apply settings? Coincidence caused by timeout?
* check (for 50% down on bed boxen)
* chat with Chevrolet about the flashing charging light; also asked how range is
estimated. -> the light can't be turned off, and the advisor doesn't have any
information that isn't in the manual. So the whole thing is kind of useless to
someone who can read. Which is what I expected, but it was an easy thing to check.
% Huge amount of anxiety and a fair amount (p=3-4) of back pain. Some anxiety, I think,
from realizing that I hadn't put enough thought into dinner planning. That's a silly
thing to have an anxiety attack over.
-> took a naproxen.
* 2:20 Bronx - vet to find out how to give nosedrops -> scruff; i.e. hold by scruff of
the neck. Also learned what sound to make to tell a cat that it hurt you. Going to
try that with Ticia. Sort of a high-pitched owww.
* Tuesday: Beef stew with barley; salad
* finished reading A Brief History of Time (started yesterday or Sunday)

1115We
* up 6ish; W=199.4;
* using oscillating tool to cut down wire shelves for the closet. Not sure it's much
faster than the hacksaw, but it's less work. Better clamping would help.
* 15min: took oscillating tool, a hacksaw, and a short shelf down to the garage;
brought back a bag of books: reference and "to be read", so mostly from my office
corner. Why people used a medium-sized box for books , ...
@ 10 Decluttering Projects You Can Do in 15 Minutes or Less
@ How Will We Live on the Moon? Just Ask ‘The Martian’ Author
@ Back to the Future of the House
* W/F: cut down the 4' shelf. The hacksaw is _much_ faster.
* (11-1) appliance repair - actually a little early
-> Needs a valve replaced. Damage was due to freezing while the house was vacant.
% I really need to get back into the habit of locking my computer whenever I get up.1```
... for example.
# somebody needs to write a parody of "Bold Marauder" for Bronx
* 15min: more books in from the garage. ... Still looking for eSATA external box,
Logitech trackpad, Bosch router, and Dremel rotary tool.
* 3:30ish E and M coming up to get xmas tree and related stuff
Also helped bring up a box of cookbooks and the box with the dragon and the rope lion
E and C are sorting. M is boxing stuff; I'm puttering. A couple of casualties,
notably the NASA globe.
* 15min: adjusted spacing of shelves in the SE corner of the bedroom
* Wednesday: Stir-fry chicken; _ma po tofu_. Came out fairly well - the chicken was
very good. Tofu had not enough chili, and too much cornstarch in the sauce. Colleen
said it was perfect, though, so what do I know?

1116Th
* up 6:10; W=199.4;
: heard something scrabbling around our SE corner drainpipe - Bronx heard it too.
Went out to look; it turned out to be a squirrel
& starting to catch up on LWN after neglecting it for at least a couple of months.
@ About | Software Package Data Exchange (SPDX)
license tags [LWN.net]
@ Tips to Secure Your Network in the Wake of KRACK | Linux.com patch now.
: j's science unit has him creating a website on weebly. I should go make a weebly site
myself to see what it's like. Connecting a domain would be $8/month, so I won't go
that far.
@ Mongoose OS for IoT prototyping [LWN.net]
@ ysabetwordsmith | Cards Against Humanity Saves America
* new phone arrived. Got it into a state where it wouldn't recognize my pin;
fortunately it's easy to do a factory reset without it, thanks to a helpful YouTube
video. It wipes it, of course, but since it was barely set up, no harm done.
-> called AT+T, since after hours for chat.
-> turns out the phone has a manufacturer's warranty for 6 months.
-> after many tries, finally noticed the check-mark key. :P
-> Not clear whether I want to keep the wallet/case; it's thick.
-> setup is tedious. May have most of the apps installed; not clear I can add screens
to the homepage layout.

1117Fr
& woke 3ish; Ticia cuddle; Up ~4; back to bed 4:30
% full-on anxiety attack, at which point Ticia came and rescued me. Finances, close
call on the house, 3 decades of bad decisions. Read for a bit; probably took about
an hour before getting back to sleep.
* up 8:10; W=198.8;
& on chat with AT+T to find out how to add panels to the home screen. The procedure
described isn't working. -> touch and hold an empty place on the home screen; *then*
touch and hold on one of the panels in the display.
: Colleen took a shower while I was out making coffee. Go Turbo Snail!!
I was about to ask whether she needed me to help her put a pad on her chair, but
decided that it would be more useful to make tea
: Not my week for explosions. Baked potato in the oven yesterday, and just now the beef
stew I was heating in the microwave.
@ When Did Humans Become a Burrowing Species? - Atlas Obscura (ysabetwordsmith)
@ an answer to Can you surprise me with a Linux software so good I didn't know I need
it until now? - Quora
@ 7 stages of becoming a Go programmer | Opensource.com
@ sicp - MELPA (2017-11-06 Emacs news) SICP as emacs info
: looks like the most recent reference to LWN before today was in June (0622).
@ Escape from QuickBooks (with data in hand) [LWN.net]
~ Friday: -lamb or beef curry- _leftovers_

1118Sa
* up 6:45; ;
@ User tracking as Chesterton's Fence
Project Wonderful - advertise with us
Asking sites to do something about surveillance marketing
blog.aloodo.org - What The Verge can do to help save web advertising
Aloodo: help people get protection from web tracking
-> blog.aloodo.org - Howto warn tracked visitors on your website
Aloodo: help people get protection from web tracking
Free Tools to Keep Those Creepy Online Ads From Watching You - The New York Times
-> Disconnect NYT's favorite privacy tool
There are Pro ($25) and Premium ($50/year, including a VPN), but both of those are
apparently proxies, and don't work on Linux.
@ Want a security starter pack? | Surveillance Self-Defense | EFF
Nice navigation widget, too.
* 15min: continuing to set up phone.
: my.chevrolet.com is once more failing to connect. Interestingly, the phone app
*is showing the correct efficiency!* It's _still wrong_ on the S5mini.
... and now that it doesn't have phone connectivity, it won't install.
* Put up a low shelf for the first aid kit and blackout bag
: N's chromebook lost its printer info. :P Setup is clunky.
% I still can't decide whether I prefer having my phone with or without its case. I
like being able to carry my ID in it, but it's clunky, doesn't fit the stand (minor,
because I can get a different stand), and I worry about dropping cards when I open
it. That's the biggest worry, really. I want a wallet case with a window for the
always-on display.
@ jesse_the_k | Safer Rolling in the City
* 15min: dishes.
& fired up Kindle app, and it only listed about 8 books. Called customer support.
Reinstalled (actually updated, because it was preinstalled). What finally worked was
deregistering it (by this time there were several versions in the "devices" list) and
reregistering.

1112Su-1118Sa Menu
* Sunday: brunch/leftovers
* Monday: Tuna casserole
* Tuesday: Beef stew with barley; salad
* Wednesday: Stir-fry chicken; _ma po tofu_
* Thursday: steak or lamb chops; baked potato (originally for Friday)
~ Friday: -lamb or beef curry- _leftovers_
* Saturday: date/scrounge