Done Since 2023-02-26

[mdlbear]

Parts of the week were pretty good, or at least okay. Yesterday N, (housekeeper)E', and E''s mom were up at Rainbow's End on Whidbey, and made very good progress toward cleaning up the house and triaging junk. (Triage is something of a misnomer -- there are more than three categories involved. But still.) At least we're not being as aggressive as we were on the move from the old RE in West Seattle, so there may not be as many regrets. Hopefully.

Parts of the week that included electronics, however, were not. Annoyingly, automatic shut-off has stopped working on my (DS-2)CPAP, and wireless charging has stopped working on my (pixel3)phone. Both had been working originally. On the CPAP I suspect an unannounced software update (and the fact that automatic shut-off isn't something that can simply be enabled from the front panel is simply infuriating). Damned if I know what's wrong with the phone, which was charging wirelessly earlier this week; it's possible that installing the app that controls the Meross smart plug, which I did on Thursday, may have changed a setting somewhere. Can't be the app itself, because I tried booting in safe mode (all apps off) and that didn't work, but it messes with settings.

Parts having to do with US politics, especially as it affects trans people and women, and especially with what's going on in Florida, were not good AT ALL, and I am very worried about (my trans son)R's safety. All I can say is, if you're trans, get yourself a passport and pack a go-bag in case you have to leave the US in a hurry.

Notes & links:
0226Su  * litter boxen (E') 
  & awake 1:30ish; catted on for about an hour before I could get up for a bathroom break
  * up 6:55; S=3:42(+2 or so); exercises
  @ Command Line Interface Guidelines
    The Anti-Mac User Interface (Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen) (1996)
    Argbash: Bash argument parsing made easy
    ronn(1) - convert markdown files to manpages
    What is the exact difference between a 'terminal', a 'shell', a 'tty' and a
    'console'? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
    12 Factor CLI Apps. CLIs are a fantastic way to build… | by Jeff Dickey | Medium
    The Poetics of CLI Command Names pick a good name for your CLI command
  * 11am E'
  ~ missed:  noon (3 eastern) Backers Only concert by Rhiannon's Lark
  * Restore the little GL-300M travel router to (current) factory defaults.  It has a nice
    GUI on top of standard OpenWrt (.../luci/), so I'll just leave it there and do any
    necessary customization when I use it for travel.
    (Very tempted by some of the newer variants of that...)
  % I seem to have damaged my left shoulder somewhat -- probably sleeping on it wrong.
  @ Assessing the effect of
    beard hair lengths on face masks used as personal protective equipment during the
    COVID-19 pandemic | Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
    " Although N95 respirators showed considerable variability among bearded men, they had
      the highest FFE for beard lengths up to 10 mm. KF94 and KN95 masks lost up to 40% of
      their FFE. Procedure and cotton masks had poor performance even on bare skin (10–30%
      FFE) that did not change appreciably with beard length. "  (2021)
  ~ pm m's birthday party  -> tomorrow  
  * 15min:  re-sort USB (etc.) cables.  They'd gotten a bit scrambled
  % 8:15 something like a blood-sugar crash.  Possibly triggered by ^ standing too long ^

0227Mo
  & awake 3:45ish;
  * up 6am; S=5:50; exercises
  @ The return of Flat Earth, the grandfather of conspiracy theories | Ars Technica 
  @ No Linux? No problem. Just get AI to hallucinate it for you | Ars Technica
  @ Linux is not exactly “ready to run” on Apple silicon, but give it time | Ars
  @ Why The Seattle Times is dropping ‘Dilbert’ | The Seattle Times
  * buy/download Lauren Oxford | Lauren Oxford
    -> then spent altogether too much time on fixing the filenames.  Could have used -- or
       at least modified -- the existing `fix` script if I'd taken the time to analyze it

0228Tu
  & awake 3:15ish; S=4:09; politics, cats
    % a little unsteady -- probably combination of sleepy and stiff, painful joints
  * up 7am (sort of); S=7:31 (last 3.5h mask time without (any? much?) sleep);
  * 10am Memory Keepers
  & had to fill out, sign, and upload a form.  Nightmare.  Finally it turns out that
    Dropbox includes a scanner, so I was able to do it by
    1. scan on my phone  2. upload  3. download to my laptop  4. upload to email
  @ Securing the developer: LastPass breach highlights risks of DevOps itself
    " by targeting the DevOps engineer’s home computer and exploiting a vulnerable
      third-party media software package, which enabled remote code execution capability
      and allowed the threat actor to implant keylogger malware. [...]
      this engineer was one of only “four DevOps engineers who had access to the
      decryption keys needed to access the cloud storage service.” "
  @ ChatGPT is enabling script kiddies to write functional malware | Ars Technica
  @ Scott Adams Echoes White America’s Resentful History of “Helping” Others
  * 6:30pm recording class at Earwig - leave ~5:50
    % a couple of close calls driving, esp. on the way back
  @ Stuck in a loop of worrying thoughts? Here’s how to stop it | Psyche Ideas

0301We  * litter boxen
  & awake 4ish; didn't gat back to sleep mainly because politics
  * up 6am; S=6:43; exercises
    % cold - put on the warm hooded red nightgown
  @ siderea | The Two Truths [p/a/s, Patreon]
  @ LastPass says employee’s home computer was hacked and corporate vault taken | Ars
    TL;DR: change your LastPass master password and every password stored in your vault
  @ 3 Simple Tricks for Remembering Strong Passwords | PCMag almost a year old, but
    still good advice given the previous item.
  : call from (other person interested in buying RE)Tanner
  @ Mississippi Bans Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Minors | Them
  * schedule opthalmology appointment - looks like they'll ->text -> call 206-520-6090
    -> Shoreline optometry clinic  -> 0505Fr 3pm 2:45 checkin
  @ What Is Matter? The New Smart Home Standard, Explained | PCMag
  @ 8 Slang Trends That Explain The Internet In 2023 | Dictionary.com
  & looking at installing home assistant on the Pi.  Tomorrow.  rpi-imager.

0302Th
  & awake 3:20ish; no mask
  * up 5:40; S=2:04;
    -> 6am CPAP (DS2) won't turn off.  Great.  It's supposed to turn off by itself, which
       it hasn't done for months, but this morning I can't turn it off with the button.
       Which I can barely reach.
    -> call support.  Their hold "music" is horrible.  Distorted.  Ticket# 315501053
       800-345-6443  844-537-2403 833-262-1871 <- troubleshooting
       transferred me to the recall center which is wrong but...
    -> power cycled.  It was turned on when it powered up, but the button worked.
       auto-off still doesn't work.  (Hasn't for months.)
    -> call Norco to take it in for repair 425.949.4552 -> 10:30 -> will call back
    -> They don't do repairs -- sent me back to Phillips  ->  DME or somebody
       (WhidbeyHealth?? probably) needs to go into Care Orchestrator and turn on auto-off.
       None of the previous support calls reached someone who would tell me that.
       <- will the DS-2 work in Europe?  -> didn't know.
    : note:  received my CPAP 2018-04-09
  % bleeding on my L arm -- probably more like a picked-off scab than a cat scratch.
    -> bled around the band-aid I put on it.  No fun.  Doesn't hurt a bit.
  * install Meross smart plug for the bug trap
  @ albertogeniola/meross-homeassistant: Custom component that leverages the Meross IoT
    library to integrate with Homeassistant
  * order pill pockets -- should be here by 10am tomorrow
  % 11:10 getting twinges from my R knee.  :P.  Maybe good that I didn't exercise this am
  @ It's official: BlackLotus malware can bypass secure boot • The Register
  @ ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI and destroyed • The Register
  @ Enable Raspbian Images to Boot on Libre Computers Boards
  : Raspberry Pi imager can be pre-configured with username, ssh key, etc.
    -> so in spite of having burned one already, I should do it again with the right info
  % Can't find the little bamboo-shaped folding knife I use to cut cheese etc at my desk
    -> (Fr) turned up in my left coat pocket, along with several other things.  Odd.
  % way too much trouble deciding what to have for dinner.

0303Fr  * litter boxen (E')
  & awake 12:30ish (no mask) -> 5ish (mask)
  * up 7:00; (no mask)
  : 8:30am E'
  * order cat litter
  @ The Rainbow Bridge: The True Story Behind History’s Most Influential Piece of Animal
    Mourning Literature | The Order of the Good Death by Paul Koudounaris 2023-02-09
    The ‘Rainbow Bridge’ has comforted millions of pet parents. Who wrote it?|Nat Geo
    Rainbow Bridge (pets) - Wikipedia
  @ Cats know their names—why it's harder for them than dogs | National Geographic 
  @ Learn surprising things you never knew about your cat (paywall)
  * RE:  (to take up from RS)
    * pack: Viking razor (in bag)
  * Update The Rainbow Bridge.
    % Tears.  Those little fantasies can make me tear up pretty reliably.
      Speculation elsenet that inability to cry is related to antidepressants.  IIRC I was
      off them or just recently starting at around the time Curio died.
  * 15min:  set up subscriptions for pill pockets and dental treats

0304Sa
  * up 7am; S=6:44, W=196.6, BP=120/78, P=80, W=196.6; exercises, shower
  @ A mildly less terrible dreamwidth to wordpress solarbirdy/import-dreamwidth:
    This is a tool for importing Dreamwidth journal XML backups into WordPress 
  ~ wake N if she's not up by 10.  Hard-boil some eggs.
  * ~10:45 E' and her mom up to Whidbey for cleaning -> on ferry at 10am
  ~ 11ish trash-hauling guy stopping by to give us an estimate.  messages.
    -> having car fixed; will call when it's done.  360-682-7085 
    -> we'll try to arrange another day
  : N: all the music and all the wall art goes with us.
  : E' and her mom did a fantastic job.  14 hours -- paid for 1 hour with the folding
    leather chair that her mom fell in love with.  So that was perfect.
  : N sorted through her items in the curio cabinet: keeping the ones on the top shelf
  % feels really weird galumphing around the house with shoes on
  : arrived back at RS ~8pm.
  : Lauren Oxford's CD was waiting on my desk.
  : Weird: phone isn't charging on the wireless charger by the bed.  Charges from the
    cable, and the charger's pilot light goes on, but no phone juice.

Comments

[mama_kestrel]

All I can say is, if you're trans, get yourself a passport and pack a go-bag in case you have to leave the US in a hurry.

That that is good advice breaks my heart.