mdlbear | Done Since 2023-05-07 (Reply)

It's been a week. I think. My sense of what day it is has been thoroughly confuzzled by having gone up to Whidbey in the middle of the week, to organize things for a pick-up by Habitat for Humanity. Which also involved looking at reminders of Colleen. And sleeping badly most nights, as usual. Um... it is Sunday today, isn't it?

Happy Mothers Day, to those who are celebrating it. Last Sunday was Bereaved Mother’s Day, and if you qualify for that one you have my heartfelt sympathy.

I don't seem to be making much progress with this post, which I started at around 11:23. So I should probably just post it. As opposed to procrastinating by diving down another rabbit hole.

Be well.

Notes & links:
0507Su International Bereaved Mother's Day * litter boxen
& awake 1:40ish no mask
* up 6:15ish; S=5:28; exercises (19 sit-ups)
* Dutch
@ How greatest biological discovery of 20th century got passed over
@ International Bereaved Mother's Day - Still Standing Magazine
International Bereaved Mother’s Day 2023: Date, History and Facts
Bereaved Mother's Day: Honoring women who have lost a child
& rabbit hole on verb tenses, from "have had three children". See above.
@ What If You Actually Cared About Tea? | TASTE
@ These To-Do List Methods Will Help You Finally Get Organized
@ What's your secret to staying optimistic? Readers weigh in : Goats and Soda : NPR
@ nebnamwen/buttonbox_c
" ButtonBox is a simple digital synthesizer with a configurable keyboard interface. "
-> Looks like fun, but doesn't build on Mint -- missing some functions at link time
-> add -lm -lSDL2 to the end of the gcc command

0508Mo
& awake 3:ish; S=3:32;
* up 5am; S=5:26, BP=119/79, P=65; (minimal) exercise -- toe touching, 1 rep for back
% severe dry mouth--CPAP humidifier enpty -* fill
-> can't get water because cat. -> took a while
% forget about getting back to sleep -- Florida
% L shoulder -> ibuprofen 200mg 5:50
@ US-Grown Tea Is Incredibly Rare. This Small Farm Is Blazing a Trail
* Dutch. Also French, because I started using my phone and it was still set there.
The two daily lessons had the same vocabulary, which makes sense.
* guitar: QV, Millennium's Dawn
@ What To Expect When You're Injecting - by Doc Impossible
" This guide is meant as a preview of what to expect for those considering injectable
HRT and a reference guide for those who want to make sure they’re following safe,
sanitary injection procedures. "
@ ‘Too greedy’: mass walkout at global science journal over ‘unethical’ fees | The
Guardian Elsevier
@ First Thing: Ted Cruz faces backlash after deadly Texas mall shooting | Guardian
" Texas senator Ted Cruz’s comment that he was “praying” for families of the eight
victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as
many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather
than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence. "
% Why does it feel like Thursday?
@ New UK Cybersecurity Campaign Leads Kids Directly to Pirate Apps & Malware
" In summary, CyberFlix is a) a popular piracy app and b) a government campaign to
help kids avoid trouble online. Got it. "
@ Stop using Electron for your Desktop Applications | Aleksei Novikov | Apr, 2023
@ suckless.org software that sucks less
* 15min: empty / load dishwasher
* tidied up the Makefile in buttonbox, added the build product to .gitignore, and
created a pull request
& rabbit hole - from flowers to finite simple groups. Finally (I think) getting a
handle on dihedral groups (the symmetries of regular n-gons)
* sleepy-time tea. Did it help? who knows?
@ Why Tea Addicts Go Crazy for Pu-Erh

0509Tu National Teacher Day * litter boxen
& awake 3:30ish;
* up 6ish; S=7:08; exercises+20 situps
* Dutch. On phone. between poor short-term memory and bad accent it did not go well
@ Modern-day Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish people found to have Pictish
ancestry
@ A Disaster the Size of Multiple Katrinas Is Building Off Washington’s Coast
Cascadia subduction zone 9.0 earthquake and tsunami. Unpredictable but inevitable.
@ NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spies debris belts around Fomalhaut star - ABC
* 10:00 - 11:30 Memory Keepers grief support group
% I felt like there were things I wanted to say, but couldn't organize coherently.
Probably mostly my imagination,
& 2pm sleepy
* order top sheet for lair

0510We
& awake 2ish?; got back to sleep pretty quickly
* up 7am; S=8:05, W=195.2; exercises (15 sit-ups)
* strip bed
* 10ish-noonish work with N and G to sync schedules with lawyer
* pack: N's eggs. Use the Ikea bag
* drive up to RE, fairly early
& TJ's had the chocolate mousse flower cakes that Colleen loved so much. Got a box.
@ Westercon 75 Anaheim Disbands; Memberships to be Honored by 2023 Loscon
* organize stuff to be picked up
garage: shower seat, vessel sink bowl, maybe some of the tiles;
house: 4-dr file cabinet; both 2-drawer; rocking chair (ask), floor lamp
whiteboards (ask), card tables, baker's rack, shelving
-> I found the missing valances!! In a turned-over box labeled "donate" in the garage
@ The dark universe: can a scientist battling long Covid unlock the mysteries of the
cosmos? | Astronomy | The Guardian
@ Cattywampus, Taradiddle, and More Funny-Sounding Words | Merriam-Webster
& ordered COVID tests from USPS. We'll see: I may have ordered fron this address before
@ Transgender minors protected from parents under new WA law | The Seattle Times
@ CSS Zen Garden: The Beauty of CSS Design
Created 20 years ago!
* odd/1 CPAP RE: change nosepiece -> every other month while bilocated
* Back on Whidbey: let N know that I'm home.
* after arrival: * water orchids * sort mail
@ FDA advisers vote unanimously in favor of OTC birth control pills | Ars Technica
* laundry

0511Th
& awake 3:30ish. Give up 4:30
* up 4:40; S=4:14;
@ Farewell to Guppe
@ Twitter’s Encrypted DMs Are Deeply Inferior to Signal and WhatsApp | WIRED
" The social network's new privacy feature is technically flawed, opt-in, and limited
in its functionality. All this for just $8 a month. "
@ First human ‘pangenome’ aims to catalogue genetic diversity
@ Glasgow researchers say cats were hit by new Covid variants at same time as humans
@ Mysterious planet has "unusually shiny atmosphere" and may contain water vapor
* 15min: clean the windowsill behind (what was) the sewing table.
* 15min: top up sprayer with glyphosate, clean intake tube filter. Works; poorly, but
well enough to hit the hemlock in the front "yard".
Trimmed some branches that were too close to the driveway and mostly looked dead
* Habitat truck pickup -- sometime today; driver will call Freeland: (360) 331-6272
-> called 10:40ish; they said they're on the way but couldn't contact me. No calls.
they probably have the wrong number. -> they say not -> Finally got here ~12:15
-> They have too many file cabinets and didn't take anything from the garage; I'll
have to sort and call them back. Took the baker's rack, though, the rocking chair,
the whiteboards, and one of the hanging lamps. Left the task chairs and card table
-> need to call them back in a month or two, which will give me more time to organize
@ The Insane Engineering of MRI Machines - YouTube good exposition for non-experts
* 15min: put Molly on the charger, which I forgot to do yesterday.
* 15min: swap flower drapes for old valance in bedroom.
-> LR will be _much_ harder, and I don't intend to try it this trip.
@ Tech firms push 'passkeys' to usher in password-free logins - ABC News
" There are other drawbacks to passkeys as tying authentication to smartphones also
ties it to smartphone batteries.
"If I'm out in the world and my battery dies - my password manager just died," "
* 15min: schedule COVID booster for next Wednesday (after hearing and dentist appts)

0512Fr
& Awake 1:30ish; gave up 2:20. politics. Down 3:30
* up 5:30; S=5:05, BP=147/83, P=64;
* make a payment or do other paperwork -> water, pest control
@ Sagittarius A* today's featured picture on Wikipedia
" On May 12, 2022, astronomers released this first image of the accretion disk around
the event horizon of Sagittarius A*, produced in April 2017 by the Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) ... confirming the object to be a black hole. "
@ it is actually unhinged that twitter's new "inactive account" policy is 30 DAYS
" We encourage people to actively log in and use Twitter when they register an
account. To keep your account active, be sure to log in at least every 30
days. Accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity. "
* Dutch.
@ Shoelace web component library
@ Leak of MSI UEFI signing keys stokes fears of “doomsday” supply chain attack|Ars
Leak of Intel Boot Guard Keys Could Have Security Repercussions for Years
* 15min: start packing eggs. Only a few fit in egg cartons, though.
There are so many tiny things that I don't need but can't bear to let go of.
* ~2pm drive back down to RS (steak has been promised for dinner)
: the car in front of me wouldn't start at the end. Looked like a T-Bird.
: long line waiting in Mukilteo. Because weekend. Glad I was going the other way.
: G has acquired a L A R G E Travelpro suitcase. He's named it Clifford, of course.
% went with just the sheet, both because cats and because I was hot.

0513Sa
& awake 3:30; S=5:49;
-> nightmares about banking or something like that -- see next item
-> put on the fuzzy blanket.
* pay AX, check balances
% 4am, had trouble with logins on panther but eventually got it; just confuzzled.
I should probably not try to do anything complicated at 4am
* up 10ish; S=10:11; exercises (cannot do _any_ situps starting from a flat bed)
@ How to Apologize to Your Cat: A Vet's Advice - YouTube
Study: Letting cats decide when to be petted avoids hostility and increases their
affection C.A.T. -- Choice/Control, Attention, Touch.
@ The Mystery of the Bloop Has Been SOLVED | Alien Ocean - YouTube debunking
conspiracy theories and crediting actual sources. tl;dr: it's an icequake, i.e. an
iceberg breaking off of a glacier or ice sheet.
@ Eavesdropping on Pando, one of the largest trees in the world : NPR (ysabetwordsmith)
Fishlake National Forest - Home - Pando - (I Spread)
Friends of Pando
The Sweet Song Of The Pando, The Largest Tree On Earth
-> post mdlbear | Songs for
Saturday: The Songs of Pando.
@ Why brunch is actually wonderful, and all the haters are just plain wrong|SeaTimes
@ Books Unbanned | The Seattle Public Library joining Brooklyn in the fight
" What I always tell people is if there’s not something in your public library that
offends you, then we’ve done something terribly wrong "
% second finger on my L hand was stiff all of a sudden. Hit it with diclofenac, and it
seems to be improving. RSI from L mouse button, probably.