Done Since 2018-09-02

[mdlbear]

Another largely unproductive week, though I did put in three job applications (it seems to take me a huge amount of mental energy to write a cover letter, not to mention a lot of time) and got a rejection for another one. One of the job applications, for GitHub, had a really fun set of additional questions. I should probably post those, with my answers, at some point.

I also wrote two (rather small) curmudgeon posts, a PSA and a DW tip, and wrote and tested an alternative method for uploading a Jekyll website using git with a production branch. (The previous methods were simply pushing it to GitHub, which is trivial but only works if it's using GitHub's somewhat restricted version of Jekyll, and uploading it with rsync.) This method, which puts the build artifacts on a separate branch, could easily be generalized to anything else that has to be built locally. I had to do something, because I don't have a good way of running Jekyll (the static site builder used on GitHub) on my web host.

I did get off my arse and make two phone calls following up on healthcare referrals (one of which has been sitting on my desk since last December). One, the PT appointment for my trigger thumb, actually had an opening for Friday. So progress is being made there -- I've been doing exercises, and my Oval-8 thumb splint should be arriving in the mail later today.

I also did some mail sorting, which turned up a fairly sizeable check that I hadn't cashed (and didn't remember receiving!). So there's that.

I was less successful setting up a home office in our unused bedroom. The problem is that the cats have been using that room, and Desti in particular quite reasonably regards it as hers. If I shut her out, she scratches at the door, and if I let her in she promptly jumps up on my keyboard, which kind of defeats the purpose. Not sure what I'm going to do about that; hopefully I can persuade her that a cat tree next to the desk is more comfortable. That may require getting a new cat tree.

Notes & links:

0902Su
  * Up 5:30ish; ;
    apparently I woke up sometime around 3 and didn't put my mask back on.
  : finally gave up on gojekyll.  Jekyll plus rsync works okay.
    will try a build branch eventually
  % restless
  * website work
  * branch works, but not clear that it will have any advantages over rsync uploads in
    this case.  Will work well for CI pipelines, e.g. Travis.
  @ Eliminate Procrastination By Asking Two Incredibly Simple Questions
    " In fact, we procrastinate because of two reasons:
      1. A lack of a clear idea of what to do and/or
      2. A lack of a reason to do it. "
    " Laziness and ineptitude have nothing to do with it, which is why we can reframe
      procrastination with two simple questions:
      1-What do I need to do? (Specific and in detail.)
      2-Why do I need to do it? (Again, specific and in detail.) "
    -> insufficient.  With me, there may be something else going on.  Perhaps add
      3-What am I afraid of?
  & locate to.do| grep -v -e mirror -e CvsRoot -e backups -e rsteve -e home | wc
       19      19     644
    for f in `locate to.do| grep -v -e mirror -e CvsRoot -e backups -e rsteve -e home`;
    > do egrep '^ +o ' $f; done | wc -l
      699
    (see mdlbear | Done Since 2018-08-26)
  @ c.f. Decision fatigue, ego depletion: How to make better decisions. 
  % It is very hard to be depressed with a cat in one's lap.  Also hard to type.

0903Mo Labor Day
  * up 6:15ish; W=197.8, S=7:37;
  @ Opinion | The Religion of Whiteness Becomes a Suicide Cult - The New York Times 
  * make car payment
  * pay amex
  * order rice
  @ Woman with depression explains little known symptom in viral Twitter thread S(L)
    " The Impossible Task "  Yeah.  That.
  @ Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters[,] & Guilds
  * work on c-c.com; experiment with uploading via git.
    Rsync is _much_ simpler; it's not clear that git will even work reliably.
    Probably, but we may need to clean out _site before switching branches.
  : C has been sewing most of the day.
  & nice talk with C and V about selling on Etsy, ren faires, and other stuff.

0904Tu
  * up 6:45; W=196.8, S=3.5+; (woke up and didn't put mask back on. again.)
  * got c-c.com's publishing via a prod branch in git working.  It's not really an
    improvement over rsync.
  @ Remote-First vs. Remote-Friendly
  @ Remote Only (N)
  @ The 20% of Productivity Advice That Produces 80% of the Results
  @ The Productive Benefits of Journaling (plus 11 ideas for making the habit stick)
  @ Find Remote Work (Top 30+ Remote Job Sites) | Skillcrush
    they have a guide to getting remote work: downloaded.

0905We
  # some of this seems to have been deleted by a cat!
    -> but actually, what happened was that I woke up early and started working on xmonad
       config in Blackroot without updating to.do :/
  * Up 5ish; S=5:34;
  * 2pm C Dr. Rochier (presumably V will drive)
  * Job app: Github "Application Engineer - Atom"  Fun questions.  I don't expect to get
    it, of course, but I may get a good phone conversation out of it.
  * good music lesson.  Mary O'Meara; that one's actually getting pretty good.
    Based on the conversation afterwards it might be worthwhile to sing QV next tine
  * The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History | WIRED
  : long phone call with Mom; followed up with a link to my DW blog, since she expressed
    an interest.

0906Th
  * up 6:45; W=196.6, S=6:05; laundry
  @ Public IP Addresses of Tor Sites Exposed via SSL Certificates The server for an
    onion site should be listening on 127.0.0.1, not 0.0.0.0 or *
    Tor Project: Onion Service Configuration Instructions says
    " You need to configure your web server so it doesn't give away any information about
      you, your computer, or your location. Be sure to bind the web server only to
      localhost (if people could get to it directly, they could confirm that your computer
      is the one offering the onion service). Be sure that its error messages don't list
      your hostname or other hints. Consider putting the web server in a sandbox or VM to
      limit the damage from code vulnerabilities. "
  @ Yes, You Should Delete Facebook – Member Feature Stories – Medium
  @ posted mdlbear | PSA: Security ... and have to install charm on Raven.
    # posted from the office, and before reading my am tabs (though not before falling
      down a couple of rabbit holes in slack)
  * C to the MAC clinic for another plumbing job.  V drove, so I could stay home
  * Went through some mail
  * went through another pile of job descriptions.
    Put in applications at GitHub and Gradle
  * scheduled a consultation about the hernia - 25th
  * called to schedule OT for the thumb; left message
  % went to bed a little after 10pm.  Too sleepy to think.
    Anxiety? attack after getting into bed.  cuddle helped

0907Fr
  * Up 5:30; W=197.6, S=6:20; 
  * 10:45 Whidbey Performance Physical Therapy
  ? 2nd week in september plan on coming down to rest stop for several days with C
  $ AX 240 to renew SW@Home
  * ordered oval-8 thumb splints (set of size 10,11,12; I'm apparently a size 11)
  * Humira arrived.  3-month supply ?!  Pens.
  * went through a couple of days worth of flexjobs listings.  Nothing new.
  * 4:30 10 reps of each of the three thumb putty exercises.  (right-associative)
  : egrep -l Tag.*curmudgeon 2018/*/* finds all posts with tag curmudgeon.  It only works
    for posts newer than 2008, because that appears to be when I started the archive.  I'm
    pretty sure that the archive is spotty before about 2017, but it doesn't matter in
    this case.  -> 2017/12?  Before that it's just major River posts
  : 7:20 it's raining.  Been drizzling part of the day; now it's actual rain.

0908Sa
  * up 7am; W=199, S=7:27;  * * thumb putty  * * o thumb goop 7am, 6pm;
  * 15min:  sorted papers (a little); eliminated one of the two tray tables.
    Needs several more passes; most things were just sorted by type.
  & shallow dive into DW development -- it is a worthwhile project to get involved with.
  @ Surface Go review: the better PC the iPad Pro wasn’t Could this replace a Linux
    laptop?  Probably not for everything, but... -> not when it's over $500
  * Another round of mail sorting; still a lot left.  Fresh recycling bag.
  * SL: distilled H2O, stick butter, roll butter, sponges, eggs, bag onions, coffee,
    potstickers, turkey+stuffing TV diner, hungry man riblets TV dinner, salsa verde,
    sweet onions, fruit, walnuts;  x tongs, ~ cat litter, & cat food, & pesto & juice
  * litter boxen
  : The "missing" tongs turned up -- in the dishwasher, under several plastic implements

Comments

[mama_kestrel]

A box next to the keyboard for Desti might be more effective. :)

[mdlbear]

It might. I'll try the cat tree first, since I have one; the "desk" isn't really big enough for a laptop plus a box, so I'd have to do some rearranging if I wanted a bigger one.

[mdlbear]

The cat tree (which I had to repair, but that's another story) worked quite well. Desti still occasionally came over to the desk to demand cuddles, but went back afterward. She makes an excellent villain's cat.

[spiffyvoxel]

I'm finding myself procrastinating more these days, due to the anxiety and uncertainty I'm facing as I help care for my terminally-ill father. Doing self-care helps, but I need to channel that time into stuff that'll also help me move forward in my life and career. Journalling is one thing I should be doing more of, as well as getting more organised and focused.

I'm currently using RescueTime to ramp down the time I spend on social media and other distractions. I'm seriously considering deleting my Facebook profile, again. (I nuked my original one in 2015.) I hardly touch LinkedIn these days, so that might end up on the chopping block too. (Not going back to Twitter, ever.) The alternative would be to switch to blogging to my self-hosted Wordpress website and cross-posting to social media as and when required.

[mdlbear]

Twitter is write-only -- I use it to point to my more interesting Quora answers. I only look at Facebook and LinkedIn when they notify me, and only if it looks interesting. Should do the same with Quora. I'm setting up a couple of secondary sites, but I'll probably be posting from here and crossposting.

RescueTime looks interesting, but... Something called ActivityTime looks better for me, since I'm using Linux full-time. (Except for taxes -- still do those on a Mac)