Done Since 2018-07-22

[mdlbear]

Not entirely sure why I put down "odd" as my mood, but it's what popped into my head, so it's more likely to be accurate than anything I could come up with by thinking about it.

So, ... Okay, it's been a week. I've been continuing to have pain issues: a little on the lower back, and more with the left hand, which if anything is getting worse. Grumph. Meanwhile, I've written a couple of curmudgeon posts and started (at N's urging) working on a total revision of my business website. If I'm going to be trying to get hired as a consultant, and it looks like I'll have to, it needs to be more like a brochure than a resume. It's not clear that GitHub Pages is the place to host it, but I'm going to go with Jekyll in any case. For other sites, Ruby and plain Liquid templates look plausible, and they'd be a better match for the way my sites are currently structured.

Part of the thinking behind my move toward consulting was an hour-long conversation Monday with someone who I was referred to (by a recruiter at Google) as a possible employer. I decided over the course of a couple of emails that I wouldn't be a good match for the position he was hiring for, but offered my services as a guru. Whether or not that works out, we had a great conversation ranging over a few high points of my career. Just a few. (You can see the list in Monday's notes.)

I also realized that it was a good start on a memoir. So that is a possible thing, too.

A lot of what I did this week was web work; I also worked on the old Starport site, which has gotten very decrepit. It's still decrepit, but at least it doesn't have two copies of the Interesting Places site, one from before I moved it to places.to, and the other untouched since I moved it back. Sheesh! Most of the work was prompted by wanting to add a couple of new links people have sent me over the last, um..., nevermind.

A little more music than usual, in part because N came up Saturday to watch the first of our two bed boxes getting installed. They are absolutely flat-out amazing. They -- a second is in the works -- are each basically a bedroom turned part-way inside out and stuffed into a roughly cubical box, providing a cozy sleeping and living space inside an otherwise mostly empty room. Like, wow. Baltic birch plywood, which is gorgeous stuff.

Anyway, until next time, enjoy the links.

Notes & links:

0722Su Pi Approximation Day 
  * Up 6:30ish; W=199, S=5:46;
  * 0720 auto loan payment due
  @ mdlbear | Done Since 2018-07-15 | How I want to cross-post (reply to comment)
  @ ysabetwordsmith | Jokes vs. Attacks
  * changed litter boxen.  Should do it earlier in the day next time.

  x 1.5% cortisone cream if available -> it isn't.  1% is max OTC; prescription is 2.5%

0723Mo
  * Up 5ish; W=200.6, S=5:53; cat cuddle, Colleen cuddle, shower
    % quite a lot of back pain; the hot shower helped
  : nothing useful in flexjobs' update email; doesn't quite get me off the hook, but...
  * 8:14 cancel Worldcon hotel reservation  Phone: 408-924-0900 / conf# 32KHRC4N - 
  * 8:50schedule getting Desti's cyst drained. -> Wed at 10
    Has to be done every 3 months or so, and it's due.
  * music: 1952 Vincent
  % pain in seemingly-random places:  left forearm, back of neck; in addition to QLs.
  : C got up fairly early; seems to be feeling particularly well.
  * 11am phone call fron Tom Hansen of Spocket
    -> full hour, mostly me giving him some of my history.  Only hit a few of the high
       points:  Homebrew Computer Club and the Apple I, the smalltalk VM I implemented,
       PIA, the predecessor that was just Perl embedded in HTML, brief mention of the
       first Interesting Places site, MakeStuff and lyrics (didn't mention the blogging
       module), GeoFi, JPEG 2000; CD and home recording (with a little more MakeStuff), a
       little of the sequence from CRC -> Disney -> Amazon but few details, where things
       went wrong with Beach; eQuill, h/w test, hash chains (and similarity to blockchain)
    -> Will get back in touch; this could become a consulting gig.
    -> yeah; maybe I ought to start writing a memoir.
     % starting to realize that maybe my experience has value.  (in the context of
       consulting, rather than just as qualification for a random dev job)
  * Refactored my React app to put state where it belongs, in Main.
  * 5:45 take foil off enchilladas, cook for another 15min
  * Monday: Colleen and V -cheese-_chicken_ enchiladas
  % now I have pain in my right forearm, close to the wrist, from using the trackball.
    -> have to internalize a few more keyboard shortcuts.
    The fact that one has to use a mouse with most websites is annoying, but I suspect the
    biggest problem with the trackball is scrolling.

0724Tu
  * up 4ish; W=200.4, S=5:06;
    % when I woke up I had "trigger finger" on the pinkie side of my right palm; went away
      in about half an hour but still a bit worrisome
      -> meloxicam.  should probably save it and use naproxen more.
    % fair amount of lower back pain.
    % depressed/despairing, mostly over politics, when I woke up.
  * a couple of hours writing on scripting languages.  ~750 words.
  @ Why We Shouldn’t Be Fighting Over Trigger Warnings – Mythcreants (ysabetwordsmith)
  @ Teen Internet Safety: A Parents Guide | Top10VPN.com (email from author)
    Complete Guide to Protecting Your Child’s Safety Online | Top10VPN.com
    The College Student's Guide to Internet Safety | Top10VPN.com
    * put on forParents
    NOTE:  "Top10VPN.com is a professional comparison website funded by referral fees. The
    VPN offers on this page are from companies from which Top10VPN.com receives
    compensation. This may impact how, where and in what order products appear. We do not
    feature every VPN provider or offer available."  caveat emptor
  * PHQ now has changeable title, help, and home pages.
  ~ ?Tandi coming late afternoon -> 2pm Fri
  % mouse is killing my right hand.  Palm right next to the fingers.
    -> trackball but always use the buttons on the keyboard?  Hard.
  * styling on app complete.
  * guitar:  Desolation Row and 1952 Vincent.  % actually helped the hand quite a lot.  

0725We
  * Up 6:30; W=199.4, S=7:43;
  * 9:15 start looking for Desti
  * 10am Desti @ SWAC -> actually 10:20, so I was way early.
    Desti jumped right into her carrier; she seems to like it.
    Ran into Rick and Tess in the lobby.  Sick dog.
    ... and now she's up on top of the cabinet.  Silly cat!  I hope they have a ladder.
    -> vet got her down -- scruff and lift; might have been a little uncomfortable.
    -> lots of tangles in her fur -- needs occasional combing, apparently.  Or brushing.
  : looked at nb in the course of writing the article on shell scripting.
    As one might expect, templates are HTML with shell variables to be expanded.
    The body content gets sucked into $NB_EntryBody, etc.
  * starport /Browse and /places are near-duplicates; Browse is more recent and is
    presumably what was put up on places.to.  places contains the "MOVED" signs.  Any
    changes made in places after the move should be merged into Browse; then Browse should
    be moved into places and replaced by a redirect.  I messed a few things up just now
    trying to fix broken links.
  * Updated thestarport.org.  removed/redirected /places, fixed references to places.to
    and to directories moved to savitzky.net.
  * Wednesday: C+V something with ground beef
  * Singing.  Waltzing With Bears, The Owl and the Pussycat.
  : React's inability to follow symlinks has been an open issue for at least 3 years.
    I'm going to punt and use a makefile. ->    Follow symlinks? · Issue #1 · facebook/metro
  : 8ish C having $TMI
  : Ubuntu 18.04.1 is out, but do-release-upgrade on cygnus hasn't noticed.

0726Th
  * up 6:30ish; W=198.2, S=7:31; 
  ~ Ubuntu 18.04.1 due to hit the streets.  Upgrade remaining 16.04 systems soon.
    -> for some reason do-release-upgrade isn't detecting it as a version it can upgrade
       to.  Weird.
  * cat boxes -> did the one in my room; the one in the cats' room didn't seem to need
    it.  Do that one tomorrow, maybe alternate after that.
  : more TMI -- tomatoes?  bell pepper skins?  (The common factor there would be
    insoluble fiber; that would also include whole corn kernels.)
  % 5:43 naproxen
  * Thursday: C had yogurt, I had the leftover stuffed peppers
  * posted mdlbear | Scripting Languages (started 0721Sa)
  * music:  The Owl and the Pussycat.  I probably ought to learn "Farewell Sweet Lovely
    Nancy" just so I can sing it for NN next week.
  : Annoyingly, Ubuntu still refuses to notice that it can upgrade.  There seems to be no
    mention of this fact anywhere online.
  * tried phq build by putting it on nova -- has the path compiled in, so if I want to put
    it on one of my sites it'll have to be rebuilt for it.  Not hard, just a pain.
    It doesn't build on nova, of course.  needs some node.js setup.
  
0727Fr
  * up 6:05; S=7:04; cat cuddle
  % cramp or muscle spasm, lower right leg, outside.
  @ First point release of 18.04 LTS available today | Ubuntu blog
    " from today onwards (there is a little lag between the ISOs being made available and
      the upgrades being enabled). " so there's that.  May just change the setting.
  @ A Git Origin Story | Linux Journal pre-history and history of git
  ~ change catbox in cats' room -> doesn't appear to have been pooped in and still smells
    ok; check in the evening.
  * 11am C MAC clinic nutritionist Erin Simms
    Crohn's:  soluble fiber; probiotic 10 strains, 2-5x10^9 colony forming units
    oatmeal, chia seeds (soluble fiber) yogurt etc. 2-3oz servings.
    70-80g protein/day.  Nutritional yeast.  3oz of meat/cheese per serving
    cottage cheese 1/4-1/2 cup.  Cream cheese.  Sodium 2000mg/day  Protein 70-80g
    Medicare covers 3 hours of nutritionist to the end of the year; 2/year thereafter
    DaVita; Puget Sound Kidney Center website
    GE Dr. Lura WhidbeyHealth Cabbot Dr.
  : Total lunar eclipse http://www.eclipsewise.com/oh/ec2018.html (not visible from US)
  x 2pm Tandi -> next week
  * grocery shopping.  got a shopvac for the apartment.
  * got gin.  Noting it here so I can tell how long a bottle of New Amsterdam lasts me.
  * 17:20 starting upgrade to 18.04.1 Bionic Beaver.
  : 8ish - upgrade failed.  Boot loop.
  : LUbuntu install failed - no network.  beginning to suspect disk problems
  : Installing Bionic from scratch seems to have worked; didn't download files during
    install, and that may have helped.

Menu: 0722Su - 28Sa
  * Sunday: pot stickers, salad, raspberries
  * Monday: Colleen and V -cheese-_chicken_ enchiladas
  * Tuesday: leftovers -> baked potatoes
  * Wednesday: C+V something with ground beef
  * Thursday: C had yogurt, I had the leftover stuffed peppers
  * Friday:  Thai basil chicken.

0728Sa
  * Up 5:39; W=199.2; S=6:38; 
  * Finished the clean install of 18.10.1 (USB key was 18.10 but of course it upgraded)
    Found that I'd swapped steve and starport; took a while to fix that.  After that
    mounting the old /home worked smoothly, and the new desktop came up with no trouble.
  * Vacuum up drywall dust in apartment.  * Probably worthwhile getting a shopvac
    -> not a great shop vacuum but it works.
  * 11:30 bed box install - N coming up for it
    -> Chris and (daughter)Brooklyn arrived sometime after 3, after some misadventures.
       It's going together very quickly.
  : xmonad -- and Cygnus in general -- seems to have problems with multiple monitors.
  : N pushing me to put together a better brochure site.  Decided to use Jekyll and
    (probably) host it on GitHub.
  * looked at website themes with N -- Jekyll theme called Read Only is the winner.
    Need some copy, of course.
  ~ Move m's old bed (mattress and folding frame) into the bed box

Comments

Baltic Birch plywood

[markc1957]

Yes, the Baltic Birch plywood is gorgeous stuff, and around here at least, is hideously expensive. Only place that seems to keep it in stock is Plywood and Lumber Supply in Oakland. I need to get some of it to make some jigs for the ShopSmith.