Done Since 2023-04-09

[mdlbear]

I tend to put down the first thing that comes to mind for mood, because that's more likely to be accurate than anything I could come up with by thinking about it. Today it was "bleak". I realize that that word is more often found somewhere close to "outlook", but I don't use M$ products when I can avoid them.

G and N returned from their week in NYC late Friday evening, so it's been me and the cats for slightly over a week. Now I'm up on Whidbey for the weekend -- it's... familiar, but it doesn't really feel like home anymore. On the other hand, Seattle doesn't really feel like home yet. It'll be two years come July. And the US is feeling less and less like home every week, though there are a few bright patches in the impending gloom. Not sure the same can be said for the planet's climate. Warm patches, ... yes, unfortunately.

On the gripping hand, I did get my Federal income taxes done and filed -- except that I'll probably have to file an amended return because of new information about Mom's estate. For some reason it's been incredibly difficult to get anything out of the person (Monika) in charge of her accounts at Raymond James. No doubt my usual procrastination is making it worse. Fortunately my own financial advisor is pretty quick to respond to email.

Notes & links:
0409Su  Easter Sunday  * litter boxen  * house  * lair
  & awake 3:30ish;
  * up 8ish; S=6:25; out of bed 9ish; exercises
  * feed house cats 9:40ish -> 12:40, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40
  @ Musk Overruled Tesla Engineers, And Now They Are In Serious Trouble|Will Lockett
    " in 2021, Tesla ... abandoned all the sensors and opted for a vision-only system. "
  @ 7 ChatGPT Alternatives Ready to Answer Your Burning Questions | by PCMag
    most are free.  HuggingGPT looks particularly interesting:
    Hugging Face – The AI community building the future.
    HuggingGPT: Solving AI Tasks with ChatGPT and its Friends in HuggingFace
    Chat Llm Streaming - a Hugging Face Space by olivierdehaene
    HuggingGPT is a Messy, Beautiful Stumble Towards Artificial General Intelligence
  * 12:30 feed house cats
  @ Is Autism Speaks really as bad as people say it is? ... no, it's worse
  * laundry
  * 3:30ish feed house cats -> 3:15
  @ Mastodon Threads. A step-by-step walkthrough of threads… | by Odin Halvorson
  * 15min:  find ant baits in back bathroom under sink.  There were 4; took 2.
  @ As record California snowpack begins to thaw, flood worries deepen - WaPo
  @ U.N. climate change report warns incremental change is not enough - WaPo
    UN climate change report: Catastrophic warming will claim lives without action
    " The report released Monday by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
      (IPCC) found that the world is likely to surpass its most ambitious climate target —
      limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial
      temperatures — by the early 2030s. "
    @ AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023 — IPCC
  * 6:30ish feed house cats, put 2 chicken thighs in oven.  Check at 7, 7:30
  * bath
  * baked a couple of chicken thighs; unfortunately the skins did not turn out crisp -- it
    would probably have required another hour or more.  Not sure whether I'll keep the
    rendered fat -- probably.
  * 9:30ish feed house cats
  * back in lair, do the catboxes

0410Mo
  & awake 3ish as usual
  * up 6ish; S=6:54, W=196, BP=121/76, P=73; exercises
    % doing exercises in parallel with making coffee seems to work pretty well.
  * move hiking boots to house for possible walkies
  * feed house cats ~7:45  ~11  ~2pm  ~5:30pm  ~9pm ... so can stretch this out a little
  @ Trans Rights Court Victories are Here: Indiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia See Big
    Trans Rights Victories In Court
  @ Brooklyn’s Books Unbanned Continues to Grow | Library Journal
  @ ChatGPT’s inconsistent moral advice influences users’ judgment | Nature
    " Unfortunately, ChatGPT’s advice is not consistent. Nonetheless, it does influence
      users’ moral judgment, we find in an experiment, even if they know they are advised
      by a chatting bot, and they underestimate how much they are influenced. Thus,
      ChatGPT corrupts rather than improves its users’ moral judgment. "
  * swap litter boxes in house
  : 4:30ish the cats haven't finished their food from 2pm, and don't seem about to.
  * guitar:  Wheelin' intro, multiple passes because I was way out of practice.
    % some pain in L. middle finger, so paused for now.
  @ A long-dormant lake has reappeared in California, bringing havoc along with it
    " The re-forming Tulare Lake — which was drained for farming a century ago — could
      remain on the landscape for years "
  @ Event Horizon Telescope  [Wikipedia]
    " The first image of a black hole, at the center of galaxy Messier 87, was published
      by the EHT Collaboration on April 10, 2019 "

0411Tu  * litter boxen  * house  * lair
  & awake 4am??  Might have been 3:50.  headache
    -> spent a lot of time dithering about what to take, and trying to read pill bottle
       directions in the dark
  % 5am headache, R side front acetaminophen 1000mg for headache  Not clear when I woke up
  * up 8ish; S=6:38;
    % really out of it this morning
  * put a flashlight in the med. cabinet.  Also the Hooga, which might work better
  * 9:30ish feed cats ->  * 12ish  * 4pm  * 7  * ~10
  * 10am Memory Keepers grief support group
  @ Will the Adderall shortage ever end? - Vox
  @ The Fitbit-to-Google account migration will start this summer - The Verge
  @ Twitter Inc. has been merged with X Corp. and “no longer exists,” Elon Musk’s company
    says in a court filing.
  @ The Original Take Of The 'Wilhelm Scream' Has Been Uploaded
  % 2pm very restless.  Possibly due to too much coffee?
  * finish fed. income tax -- still need to do the est. tax on Dad's trust
  @ How Bookshop.org Survives—and Thrives—in Amazon’s World | WIRED
  * guitar:  Millennium's Dawn, some noodling.  Fingers recovering
  * finish Beowulf
  * bring another bag of litter to the Lair

0412We
  & awake 3:30ish
  * up 6:30ish; S=5:36; exercises
  * 15min:  put more AAA batteries in charger -- label maker requires 6 AAAs
  * feed house cats ~7:30, ~10:15, ~1:25, ~4:25  ~7:30 -> 10:30ish
  * make kheer from mix.  Tastes okay though the texture is wrong, probably from using
    vermicelli rather than rice.
  * Pay AX gold (full balance), AX Plat. (5K)
  * read through the material about Union Bank -> US Bank transition.
    = the really bad thing is that you have to use Zelle to make transfers to external
      accounts that don't have your name on them.  Zelle has poor security, serves ads,
      and tracks your location.  Bletch.  Best alternative is PayPal.  Second best is
      Xoom, which is owned by PP.  BECU also uses Zelle for non-owned external accounts
    @ The 7 Best Money Transfer Services for 2023 | Free Buyers Guide
  @ A Small Town Became the Center of a QAnon Storm. It’s Fighting Back | WIRED
  @ The Massive ‘Batteries’ Hidden Beneath Your Feet | WIRED
    ATES = Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage -- Carleton is doing something similar
  * swap litter boxes in house
  % 9:20 sleepy.  Also, my scalp itches.  Also, I'm cold.
  * label ALL pain relievers with dosage.  -. will require fresh batteries in label maker
    Acetaminophen, which is the important one

0413Th Passover ends at sundown
  * up 6am; S=6:51; dozing until 8
  * feed house cats:  * 9ish,  * 12,  * ~3:15,  * 6,  * 9
  @ Meet the 'RuPublicans': GOP lawmakers are reimagined as AI-generated drag queens
  @ Equality Florida Issues Advisory Warning For Travel (Dan Wentzel)
    " Today, Equality Florida took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory,
      warning of the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering
      short or long term travel, or relocation to the state. The move comes in response to
      a wave of safety inquiries Equality Florida has received following the passage of
      laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health
      care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education
      by banning books and censoring curriculum. "
  @ Appearing in Florida, Newsom shows Democrats how to campaign in a culture war
    Newsom launches national campaign to fight 'authoritarian leaders' - LA Times
  @ Suspected leaker of Pentagon documents identified as Jack Teixeira - WaPo
  @ Writing Respectfully: Person-First and Identity-First Language | (NIH)
    Identity-first vs. person-first language is an important distinction
  * scoop litter in house; swap pans (back to original locations)
  @ Florida's GOP governor is sleepwalking into Disney's next trap
  @ My Jibo Is Dying and It's Breaking My Heart | WIRED
  @ A Guide for Building Open-Source Communities
  * email to Greg and Monika re: Dad's trust and impending estimated tax payment

0414Fr  * litter boxen (E')
  & awake 1:30; S=3:53 (at 2:20)  give up 2:50; S=4:22
  @ The best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in Apr 2023
  * up 6ish; S=6:35, W=194.2(!), BP=124/76, P=74; exercises
  . feed house cats:  * 7:15ish  * 1ish  * 4:15  * 7ish  o 10
  @ HOME | Walkout2learn
    "  FRIDAY APR. 21 Florida's high school and college students will walk out to learn. "
  @ Lockdowns are over. WFH isn’t. Why? | Tim Harford because it works?
  @ Tennessee City Will Have Pride After Republican Mayor’s Tie-Breaking Vote
  @ Australian mayor readies world's first defamation lawsuit over ChatGPT content
  * 9:45am E'  -> major rearrangements in laundry room.  Yay!
  * Track down Colleen's paperwork for a trip to Union Bank
  * guitar:  1v each of Lily et. al., Desolation Row; Wheelin' (with singing)
    % pinkie hurting a little this time.  If I keep practicing I'll get there.
  & math rabbit-hole on Quanta
  * 8ish start making tuna salad for N and G (and maybe me too) --  * noodles for N
  * 9:30ish N and G return from NY  -> landed ~8:30

0415Sa
  & awake 3ish;
  * up 7:30; S=7:41; exercises
  % some neck pain - L side.  Grump.
  @ Frontiers | Hypothesis: inflammatory acid-base disruption underpins Long Covid
  @ Listen up! Bea Wolf is a brilliant retelling of a classic Old English saga—for kids
  @ A Number System Invented by Inuit Schoolchildren Will Make Its Silicon Valley Debut
  @ Leonhard Euler - Wikipedia (15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783)
  @ NASA's first female Goddard Space Flight Center director swears oath on Pale Blue Dot
    by Carl Sagan - ABC News
    " On Thursday, Makenzie Lystrup became the first woman in NASA's history to be
      appointed the director of the Goddard Space Flight Center.
        She also became the first person to take their oath of office on a copy of Carl
      Sagan's 1994 book Pale Blue Dot. "
  @ Montana’s Looming TikTok Ban Is a Dangerous Tipping Point | WIRED
  @ Why I Left the Bird: NPR, Twitter, and Disinformation | by Michelle Amazeen 
  @ bird.makeup - Tweet
    " “It’s a hell of a thing to wake up to.”  @echozaurora just sent me this email from
      her doctor, who doesn’t have the resources to defend her license from the Missouri
      AG going after trans people. "
  % 11:25 L neck/shoulder (Trapezius) doesn't seem to be any better after applying heat
  : $10K tax bill from Dad's trust.  Sent off an email to Jerad, since I can't cover it
    out of checking.  If I don't hear in time I'll call Raymond James and make unhappy
    noises at them.
  * arrive back on Whidbey ~4:40
  @ How do tech companies make money? – Chelsea Troy  Heroku discontinues free plans
  % I saw a phantom cat out of the corner of my eye.  Curio?
  * 15min:  a little inbox cleanup.  Linkedin sends mail from lots of addresses
    -> Of course not, but memories are free.
  % 8:30 sitting and doing nothing for at least half an hour.  Ugh.  Depression?
  * 15min: made a batch of kheer ~9:30