Done Since 2019-12-22

[mdlbear]

Rather a sparse Christmas celebration this year -- only the four Whidbey residents. We roasted a beast. Actually, I roasted a beast, and it came out just about perfect. I also made mashed potatoes, and S made stuffing.

Sometime between Sunday and Tuesday Dreamwidth's crossposting broke. It looks like it might take a while to fix, so I kludged together a temporary hack involving a second config file for ljcharm and some minor shell scripting. Tested by retroactively cross-posting Thankful Thursday. It needs a fair amount of cleanup; right now it's not at all general. Because kludge. And of course it still needs a decent command-line client rather than continuing to abuse ljcharm.

I've also been working on my circum-new-year posts. I probably ought to write a decade-in-review post as well; we'll see whether I get around to it. I didn't do one in 2009, so it's not as though I have a tradition to uphold.

Notes & links:

1222Su litter boxen (LR only scooped)
  * Up 6:30; W=188.4, S=6:19;
  * brunch with C at Charmers (we'd originally thought of the Chinese place in Clinton,
    but C wasn't up to it.  She probably never will be, I suspect.)
  @ CryFS: Comparison of encrypted cloud storage solutions CryFS looks like a good
    way to safely encrypt a ~/Secret directory -- could use instead of encrypting a whole
    home directory with (deprecated)ecryptfs
  @ The 2010s: A Decade in Review - CNET
  & installed nov.el (implements nov-mode, but anyway it's an epub reader mode for emacs)
  : the left button on my trackball appears to be broken.  Gaaak!  Well, I have options.
    -> fixed the easy way - a blast of canned "air".

1223Mo
  * up 5:51; S=6:30; mask fit only 48%, which sucks.  or rather, blows
  * started with Mondly, including some from early July which is probably before I started
    % my left elbow hurts; I should probably go back to using mondly on the phone.
  @ La Vie en Rose Lyrics & English Translation - Edith Piaf
    Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien - Edith Piaf / French Lyrics & English Translation
  @ Books: English and Scottish Ballads (sorted alphabetically) - Project Gutenberg 
    (via Gary McGath's Yesterday's Songs Transformed (e-book; out of print,
    which I don't remember getting a copy of but obviously I did)
  * bevel and finish ends of coatrack strips
  * bring up the chunk of olivewood -- C wants it where she can see it.  Don't blame her.
  * Set up C's tablet -> was already set up; only had to set up her banking app
  : no singing lesson - lessons resume on the 30th.
  * SL: aveeno intensive care lotion, pantsu; ros\'e wine for C, gin, shallots, dish soap,
    hand soap, cat food  + eggs, roastable beast (they didn't have geese)
    -> Got everything on the (short) list despite not having transferred it to my phone
  * 7ish call Mom
  * C's Christmas list:  * ros\'e wine, * tablet,
    * bamboo crochet hooks and yarn bag (from $A wish list) -> ordered 1218.
    : She's getting me coffee -- imported. -> arrived

1224Tu
  & awake 3:30; C swallowed a gel capsule the wrong way; her coughing woke me up.
    -> got her settled in her recliner.  She can breathe and talk; will be okay
  @ Horoheki (Kami Soul Trilogy Book 1)
  * up 8:05; S=7:32;
  @ Why Tech’s Favorite Color is Making Us All Miserable the case against blue
  * pick up bagels and lox for tomorrow.  Go early. -> went ~10:30; they had plenty
  ~ if Thel calls remind her that she's only coming once this week (on Fri)
  : L returning sometime tonight
  @ How I Finally Learned to Sleep
  @ alt.interoperability.adversarial | Electronic Frontier Foundation
    Adversarial Interoperability: Reviving an Elegant Weapon From a More Civilized Age to
    Slay Today's Monopolies | Electronic Frontier Foundation
    " Pages could open and save most Word files; Numbers could open and save most Excel
      files; and Keynote could open and save most PowerPoint presentations. Apple did not
      attain this compatibility through Microsoft's cooperation: it attained it despite
      Microsoft's noncooperation. Apple didn't just make an "interoperable" product that
      worked with an existing product in the market: they made an adversarially
      interoperable product whose compatibility was wrested from the incumbent, through
      diligent reverse-engineering and reimplementation "
    " Data portability is important, but it is no substitute for the ability to have
      ongoing access to a service that you're in the process of migrating away from. "
      e.g. Dreamwidth vs. LJ
  @ The Woodnotes Emacs Cheat Sheet for Writers (not Coders)
  @ Lonely? Short of Friends? Try Looking at It Differently observability bias: you
    only see your friends when they're socializing.
  @ Sabine Hossenfelder
  * Heifer -> Mom, N

1225We Christmas, Newton's Birthday
  & Awake 4am; W=200.2, S=3:33;
  * up 8am; S=5:32; put laundry in dryer
  * Set up C's pills for the week
  : G and the kids returning
  : gift exchanges
  % put on a knee brace.  The Futuro, which I got several years ago and lost track of.
    -> reasonably comfortable
  : lots of cat time throughout the day
  : The Rymora grip socks seem to be working out well.  snug but comfy.
  * tracked down the box of yarn, which proved to be almost entirely needlepoint yarn.
    There may have been another, but not clear; X may have got most or all of that.
  * roast in ~3:30; 350F; timer set for 90min.  We'll check at that point.
    -> rub for roast: salt, pepper, powdered garlic, crushed rosemary
    -> came out very well indeed; so did the mashed potatoes (only used about half of what
       we had, of course).  L made green beans with shallots and almonds; also very good.
       Served the Portuguese ros\'e.  I'd say dinner was a complete success.  But we
       didn't get to the mince pie, and didn't make or open any cranberry sauce.
  % 7:35 feeling apathetic and slightly out of it.  Probably all that meat.
  @ A holiday carol for coders - Stack Overflow Blog
  * coat rack for Rest Stop: 4' wall 6 triple hooks ~ 9" spacing; 33" short wall for hats
    9" spacing gives 45"; 8.5" gives 42x5 -> use 8.5, use letter-sized paper for layout.
    Dots mark left edge of hook base.  Maybe 5 hooks on ~8" centers for the short one.
  * coat rack:  attached hooks.  The shorter one has 5 hooks, so it was easy to lay out by
    attaching a hook at each end and bisecting.  Spacing worked out to 7.75"

1226Th Boxing Day, Babbage's Birthday
  * Up 5:55; S=6:39;
  # wondering whether to make an end-of-decade post.  Probably not.
  # while researching, discovered that very few of my posts before 2018 are in Journals/*
  * SL: rolls, 3-color cole slaw mix, swiffer pads, capers, cherry pie filling, Hall's
    coughdrops any flavor but cherry,  + cottage cheese, roll butter
  % 9:20 sleepy
  / C having a very hard time standing.  We'll have a huge problem if she can't transfer.
    She hasn't been exercising; been in the chair since 5am.
    -> heating pad seems to be helping with the leg cramps.
    -> at L's suggestion she's going to sleep in the chair.  dicey; if she has to get up,
       but I don't see any other way when she's this tired, sore, and scared.

1227Fr
  & awake 3:30ish; nose-watering (I think I forgot last night)
    checked on C -- the heating  pad had gotten disconnected, so no need to worry.
  * up 7ish; S=4:43, W=201.8;
  / managed to transfer from the chair to the wheelchair.  Meds, juice.
  <- Request #41006 submitted to DW support re:crossposting
    Crosspost of Thankful Thursday to mdlbear@LiveJournal action failed.
    Failed to crosspost entry to mdlbear@LiveJournal: Client error: Your IP address is
    temporarily banned for exceeding the login failure rate.
    -> I closed it -- duplicate.  See
       https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/help?sort=date&state=&cat=crossposter
  * noonish C Thel
  * deposited checks from E's college fund and Mom.
  % 5:44 kind of out of it.
  
1228Sa
  * up 7am; S=7:47; mondly
  @ Sutton Movement Writing (ysabetwordsmith | Alternative Writing and Communication)
    SignWriting
    signbank.org/iswa/
  & posted PSA on LiveJournal about crossposting fail.
    -> working on crossposting; complicated by the facts that ljcharm doesn't print error
       messages in quick mode, and that I didn't remember that I changed my password
       Banned until 9:15 or so
    -> charm-wrapper mostly works now.  Can't get post URL because adults-only, but okay
  * call Mom! (actual birthday)

Comments

[spiffyvoxel]

Yingle Yule! :)

I had a quiet Christmas, family meal on the day but otherwise taking it easy. I did some maintenance on the Mac the last few days, sorting out an issue that was causing one system service to keep gobbling memory up. (Yes, turkey pun. You're welcome. :D)

[jesse_the_k]

That blue light post managed to bully its way past my (blue light induced) haze and make me take notice. NIGHT SHIFT to the rescue!