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Done Since 2018-12-23
It's been a week. Again. It was lovely having the entire household together for Christmas; We had roast beast and Yorkshire pudding. Instead of cooking the pudding under the roast I poured out the fat into muffin tins, then roasted a batch of Brussels sprouts and potatoes in the pan with the remaining drippings. Worked well -- I'm going to remember that.
For the last several months I've been scared about my budget shortfall. Yesterday I found a mistake in my spreadsheet that brought it down from nearly $2K to just under $600. Still problematic, and there's enough uncertainty that it could easily go higher. But...
siderea's post: The Vimes Boots Theory: Further Reflections applies here. I may be able to break even on a day-to-day basis, but I'm all out of savings, and some things are going to require money up front, including everything I need to make the apartment into something that we can use as a vacation rental. And if anything happens... there's no slack at all.
Speaking of slack, I spend too much time on social media. And yet, here I am. At least I've mostly dumped FB except for the occasional email notification that looks interesting enough to follow up. I stopped reading Twitter last year. Or the year before. I don't miss it.
I have a bad habit of letting things go until it's too late to do anything about them. Usually I end up regretting the missed opportunity, and too often for comfort it ends up being a disaster. See trainwreck.
Here: have a listen to Beethoven's Ode to Joy Played With 167 Theremins Placed Inside Matryoshka Dolls in Japan. Apparently a matryomin is a thing. A thing you can make, if you don't want to shell out $400 for one. You're welcome.
1223Su
* up 6:30; S=7:42;
* FIRST THING: re-record the vinyl. Check speed=45 => actually, it's a re-issue as an
LP; the cover image I grabbed must be from an earlier version. So it's good. Won't
hurt to have an extra copy, though.
@ Earthrise: A Video Reconstruction (APOD)
reconstructed from stills taken by the Apollo 8 crew 50 years ago today.
: Apparently there are parts of the island that still don't have power.
* printed CD inserts. Using thin cases for simplicity.
-> delivered two to N after testing them in the living room.
-> she seemed surprised by how well the inserts came out.
% missed the bottom step from the deck in the dark. Tingles but doesn't hurt.
-> N suggested applying cold, since it felt warm. Helped.
: google drive is infuriating. Things like copying a directory full of files require
tedious workarounds for things that would be one-liners in bash. You can copy the
files, but selecting the copies apparently has to be done by hand.
=> apt-get install rclone
& with N to pick up the kids at the ferry
@ potofsoup | DW for tumblrites masterpost (minoanmiss)
1224Mo
* up 6:30; W=198.8, S=5:47;
@ Beethoven's Ode to Joy Played With 167 Theremins Placed Inside Matryoshka Dolls in
Japan | Open Culture (via The Moonlight Sonata But the Bass Is a Bar Late, and the Melody Is a Bar Early)
Open Source Theremin in Matryoshka: 4 Steps (with Pictures) Open.Theremin V3
* Kibble
* mail YD's thumb drive
& opened some mail. Not enough, obviously.
% 3:40 very restless
* tried, once again without success, to reset the troublesome router.
* Welsh rabbit for dinner. quick and easy, and we didn't have any available meat.
& more unsuccessful fighting with the router. It's simply not connecting to west5.
1225Tu Newton's Birthday
* up 6ish; S=7:24;
* get roast out first thing to let it come up to room temp. Rub.
% morning thoughts: I've done everything wrong and have no idea why or what I can do to
fix things. Ostrich.
~ another go at the router.
~ (G) if N and j aren't visible by 9, go after them. m should be left alone.
* start twtytw and new-year posts
* 10am roast in. Out at noon, a trifle underdone.
: the goat I got N was a big hit, especially since L had sent her a picture of the very
same goat last night as a virtual present. It really is the best goat.
* Yorkshire pudding made by pouring drippings into the bottom of muffin cups; extra
(with peanut oil) in a baking pan. Roasted veggies in the bottom of the roasting pan
(I saw that L was having trouble finding a pan) -- worked brilliantly.
@ 37 Self-Care Tips For Anyone Who Feels Sad At Christmas
% how the fuck could I forget C's present? (Possibly related to how the fuck could I
let myself run out of money?) It's too late to fix either of those now, and it's not
clear which is the more stupid.
~ upload wedding pix shared with the group. No idea how to "upload" or what that even
means in the google world.
% left QL hurts like heck. 2 naproxen and heat.
@ Dirty dealing in the $175 billion Amazon Marketplace - The Verge
: Not going to beat my head against wap3 anymore. 2.4GHz band works just fine as client
bridge, 5GHz band does not -- it simply won't connect. Did I ever have it working, or
was I hallucinating?
1226We Boxing Day
* up 5:30ish; W=198.2, S=3:29; shower
* tried on the shirts I got at Good Cheer a couple of days ago. They mostly fit, but
the arms are too long and the cuffs are tight when rolled over and practically
impossible to button one-handed.
* 11:40am C Dr. Rochier (V)
* N and the kids left shortly after C got back from the Dr.
-> never did do any music.
* SL: tikka masala, tube biscuits, ground beef, 1ga ziplocks, farman's dill pickles,
garlic, ginger, cran/blood orange juice, general tso's chicken, hash browns, vodka
(because C got me a gin-brewing kit)
C's magnesium, L's meds -> one won't be in until tomorrow. + B6, B12, 2 rolls of
wrapping paper (solid foil)
-> started gin brew 12/26. Should be ready to taste 1230Su (evening - 4 days); continue
brewing until 0102We, at which point the botanicals should be removed.
% 7:15 or so -- sleepy. Lower back hurts; mostly left QL as usual, but a lot of itching
more toward the middle. Naproxen
% waiting until it's too late to fix is what got me into trouble at $A, too.
1227Th
* up 6ish; W=199.4, S=7:24; ... cat boxes
* Job application at Pivotal
& re-arrange plugs under the desk to make room for the mac. Damned if I know where the
power brick for the Iomega backup drive went. I did, however, turn up my stereo pair
of small condenser mics, underneath the sound baffle.
* Download tax software. Good price expired the 21st, of course.
-> required firing up (Mac mini) Whitewood. ssh with X forwarding on caused it to
fire up my old Xapps configuration, because Honu's dotfiles include .xinitrc. Of
course. Kind of impressive, actually, that that stuff still works.
-> still able to find the laser printer in spite of it being behind the GL300. Nice.
% I'm doing stuff I should have been doing three months ago. Or six. Or twelve.
The later it gets the harder it is to get started.
& tired of typing parts of my password into assorted windows; set screen to lock
immediately when blanked.
* Two job applications
% Gracenote / Nielsen was my first experience with a "gamified" personality test.
Hopefully also my last. Most of them required fast reflexes. Now I have to decide
whether I'm annoyed enough at them to sound off in the interview, if I get one.
I don't like what they did with CDDB, either. Slimy.
@ jesse-the-k | Boost! great local-to-DW reading fandom on DW
* Finally found the missing power brick, or at least I think so: 12V, right size plug.
: I really got too wrapped up in downsizing; should have kept the kids' PC and
Snowflake, at least. That stuff's going to be impossible to replace at this point.
1228Fr
* Up 4:30ish; W=199.4, S=5:08; cuddle, cat cuddle, shower
: widespread CenturyLink outage; 911 is down in western WA
$ tax note: depreciate the boxes and the garage remodel
@ The Shapley - Curtis Debate in 1920
A bit of a dive starting at today's APOD and the phrase "Island Universe".
& dive into Twilio.com because of a job posting.
Somewhat scary - exponential growth and 5 9's. Wants (but does not require) you to
have actually built an application using T, so problematic at this point. Some of the
projects in their blog look like fun, though.
: C-link back up here. Here are the emergency numbers to use when 911 is down:
if 911 down: call 360-679-9567 360-675-3418 360-320-5795 360-320-5735 (Whidbey Is.)
@ FCC investigating major CenturyLink outage and 911 disruptions - The Verge
FCC to investigate CenturyLink as [...] outage continues, 911 calls disrupted
CenturyLink: Service outage that caused 911 failures not related to hacking |
king5.com (auto-play with audio) has list of emergency #s by county
-> 13:17 Still down in some places; Whidbey seems to be okay.
CenturyLink Outage Map - Outage.Report
$ re-req missing check from YD's college fund; request check to cover Jul and Dec
% some cuddle before going to sleep
~ a little "work" (mostly staring at) phq.
* re-req missing check from YD's college fund; request check to cover Jul and Dec
* verified that the check I received a letter about from Vanguard _had_ been cashed. So
no easy money there.
& posted two PSAs: one about the outage, the other listing emergency numbers
@ How Much of the Internet Is Fake?
* paid car loan, builder. both out of household account
With luck this will be the penultimate payment to the builder.
: current budget shortfall is 1310/month, even with $1K from Mom. So I'm screwed.
% some nice lap time with Desti on the bedroom recliner. She still insisted on trying
to sit on the laptop afterward. Silly cat.
$ 54.60 on HX to Philip Morgan Consulting for 2 books: The Positioning Manual and
Specializing Without Failure. Would have been more useful a year ago.
1229Sa
* Awake ~3am; ; cat cuddle; got a little more sleep 5:30-7
* up 7:30ish; ; shower
% the aveeno soap bar seems to have taken care of the itching. so far.
* organized/reformatted emergency numbers for use with PHQ
* SL: probiotics, slow-rel niacin, C's prescription
tabasco, dry-roasted low salt almonds, sandwich bread, (brand)Simply Limeade,
multi-grain cheerios
* tried some of the gin from the ginbrew kit that C gave me. Pretty good.
* s4s
* practice Bells of Norwich (lovely) in drop D, Ship of Stone, Riverheart (g)
Not sure N and m can handle Bells in D, though.
!?% There was an error in my budget spreadsheet -- I'm only $593/mo short!
Computed total monthly total expenses wrong, somehow -- counting something twice in
the month column. $600/month is manageable; it's close to annual/12. Noticed because
the annual shortfall was a lot less than 12 times the monthly.
! I _hate_ spreadsheets.
@ Getting Help | depression comix
world-wide list of hotlines; curated links with descriptions.
@ The Vanilla JS Toolkit I could do something like this with git
: unemployment? " if you were fired due to misconduct, or *you voluntarily left your
employment without providing a good reason for doing so*, your unemployment benefits
application will be denied. " May also have waited too long. N qualifies, though.
There may conceivably be sufficiently good reasons.
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