Done Since 2023-05-14

[mdlbear]

I don't think it was a bad week for me, particularly, but I can't think offhand of anything particularly good about it either. A little bit more fragile both emotionally (grief) and physically (back pain). Not a whole lot of good things going on in the world, either (SEE WARNINGS BELOW).

I had a hearing aid evaluation appointment Monday, and decided that it would be advisable for me to try OTC aids first. It would have cost $1500 just to get Colleen's readjusted for me, and since I don't really trust the batteries in one of them it wouldn't have been worth it. I looked into open source solutions and found a couple of projects, but none had hardware available. Tympan actually has hardware designed, but they're sold out. Of course.

Sunday and Monday there was a heat advisory for western Washington. There's an air conditioner in my bedroom on Whidbey, but it's too heavy for me to get into the car.

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment to get two crowns replaced. This is actually not a bad thing at all; it will keep stuff from getting stuck in a gap that's been there for a very long time. I should have done it in February after my root canal, but procrastination.

WARNING #1: If you have eyedrops made by, EzriCare, stop using them NOW, and get yourself checked ASAP if you have any symptoms of an eye infection. They are contaminated with a highly antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria.

WARNING #2: The NAACP, Florida Immigrant Coalition, and the trans rights group Equality Florida have all issued travel advisories warning travelers away from Florida. Here's Equality Florida's advisory and press release. Here's the NAACP advisory. Here's the Florida Immigrant Coalition's advisory.

Notes & links:
0514Su Mother's Day
  & awake 3:30ish...probably didn't get back to sleep after that -- cats, politics
  * awake 4:45; S=5:20;
    % quietly grieving
  * order kibble
  * up 7am; S=5:20; exercises
  * look for AC remote  -> under the bed, as expected
  * walk:  W to end of block.  Check out sawhorses  in the middle -- going to be a problem
  @ WA hospitals close labor and delivery units, raising fears for new parents
  @ It can now never be claimed that January 6 was not an "Insurrection"
  : heat advisory until 8pm Monday
    Seattle could hit 90 today as hot weather is here to stay | The Seattle Times
    The early heat wave gripping the Northwest is rare — and worrying - WaPo
    " Historic data shows there have only been six years since 1948 when May temperatures
      reached this level, and they have never occurred this early in the month. "
    12 million people are under a heat advisory in the Pacific Northwest
  * 11am Mother's day French Toast party -> I did the cooking, with G providing the
    setup, the household recipe, and plate distribution.
  * make sure hearing aids are charged
  $ $2626 on AX gold for hotel in one of our destinations; G+N will cover the other
    -> triggered a fraud check and also created a "virtual card number" for this and
       future transactions with that merchant (i.e. the hotel).
    -> Called to get it sorted out
  * 15min: dishes
  * check in with the kids
  * 9ish - head for the Lair.  Hope it's cooler than the house.

0515Mo  * litter boxen
  & awake 3:50ish
  * up 5:45ish; S=6:48, W=~196.5; exercises (10 situps)
    -> scale gave several different readings -- ?needs batteries
  * Dutch
  @ How to lose a divorce case very very badly (andrewducker)
  @ Dan Gillmor:  thread:
    " Google search is still somewhat useful, but only because I use an
      ad-blocker that relentlessly tries to remove all the garbage that otherwise pollutes
      the results. Google, of course, works hard to re-pollute.
       Besides DuckDuckGo, what do people here prefer for quality search? "
  @ MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan Hits Ron DeSantis With Absolutely Biblical Fact-Check|HuffPost
    " Mohyeldin said it’s clear that the Republican Party is not, as is so often claimed,
      “the party of God.”  ...
      “They are not a party that demonstrates compassion in the spirit of Christianity,” "
  @ The UK’s Secretive Web Surveillance Program Is Ramping Up | WIRED
  @ The Fanfic Sex Trope That Caught a Plundering AI Red-Handed | WIRED
    Sudowrites scraping and mining AO3 for it's writing AI : r/AO3
  @ Why a Heat Advisory was issued in western Washington | king5.com
    Seattle breaks another record Sunday as early heat wave presses on |
  @ Twitter’s Purge of Old Accounts Will Be Pure Chaos | WIRED
  * call Whidbey Telecom about fiber hookup  -> CS rep couldn't find a pre-reg, which I
    know I did; they said they closed pre-regs in 2017, which is when I established my acct
    -> they will look it up and send me documentation
  * 12:20 leave for 12:45 checkin for 1pm at UW outpatient for hearing aid evaluation
    *- take Colleen's hearing aids.  Sling bag, with Sable.  -> audiologist:  Carly Cox
    -> fee is $1500 for 3rd party, so decided not to get Colleen's fitted, esp. since I'm
       not confident about the battery on the right-hand one.  right-eared?  Foo.
    -> went over styles, OTC options; then a nice conversation about mynoise.net and purrli
    -> given the time frame, my best bet is to get an OTC set with an app for tuning.
    -> Costco also sells hearing aids
    -> asked about open-source simulators; can probably fake one with a graphic equalizer
    : there seem to be several open source hearing aid projects, but none (so far) with
      available hardware.
    Tympan nice, compact.  promising.  sold out.
    Home · m-r-s/hearingaid-prototype Wiki, openMHA on Raspberry Pi
    Building hearing aids with a Linux-based open hardware board | Opensource.com
    5 best hearing aid apps Hmm.
    13 Best Hearing Aids (May 2023) | Tested by Experts & Users all pretty reasonablz
  % 4pm sleepy
  : m's air conditioner has gone missing.  It's a bit big for that, but nevertheless...
  @ Kansas City declares itself an LGBTQ sanctuary the _state_, OTOH...
    Missouri lawmakers ban gender-affirming care, trans athletes; Kansas City moves to
    defy state | AP News
    " California, Minnesota and Washington have declared themselves sanctuary states for
      gender-affirming care, as have the cities of Chicago; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and
      West Hollywood, California. "
  @ Where should my content live? Docs or blog?

0516Tu
  * up 5:30ish; S=2:59??; exercises, Dutch; woke up with mask off
  @ The Plastic Crisis Finally Gets Emergency Status | WIRED
  @ Buffalo Mass Shooting Victims' Families Sue Meta, Reddit, Amazon | WIRED
  @ The Pandemic Isn't Over. Here's How to Stay Safe | WIRED
  @ HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals
  % getting warning twinges from L hip.  Not good.
  @ Embarrassed by Low Detrans Rate, Right-Wing Claims Irreversible Damage Via Nickname
    " Since so few youth desist after a social transition conservatives, as represented by
      the conservative Free Beacon, are now attempting to claim that affirmation and
      socially transitioning is what causes people to be transgender. "
  * schedule recall service for Molly  -> 0518Th noon
  : 11:14 robo-call from cigna medicare about a prescription refill, redirected to express
    scripts; nobody could tell me why I got a robot call.  I expect this to keep
    happening.  Didn't help that since the phone was locked when I got the call I had
    trouble getting to the dialpad.  13min.  -> followed up on Exp. Scr. website, which
    wanted me to set up 2FA.  -> it's now noon, and I'm still coming down from it.
    Tempted to follow up with a phone call to (800)222-6700, but not sure what good it
    would do, except maybe cause more voice menu frustration.
    % also didn't help that I was just starting a batch of fried rice for m, so had to
      switch context.  Context switching is hard.
  * 1:15 take 500mg acetaminophen before heading to dentist  -> bottle now on desk
  * 1:20: leave for 2pm Dentist - crowns.
  % 8:50 500mg acetaminophen
  % headphones hurt more than usual on the R (where the dental work was done)
  * take another box of fiber cookies out to lair  -> in bag
  * load drugs

0517We  * litter boxen
  & awake 2:30ish; no mask
  * up 7am; S=4:34; very stiff.  Thinking very slowly; more so than usual.
  @ Grant (@granawkins): "BIOSPHERE 2 MEGATHREAD Could humans maintain an ecosystem on
    the Moon or Mars? In 1991, 8 researchers locked themselves inside this 3.14-acre
    sealed structure in the Arizona desert for 2 years to test just that. It remains the
    largest and longest experiment of its kind, ever. 1/" | nitter
  @ The Dangers of Google’s .zip TLD. Can you quickly tell which of the URLs… | Bobbyr
  @ Sharing advice and assisting with the great Mastodon migration | Medium
    (the link goes to the section about image posting and keeping your images from being
     badly cropped.  tl;dr: make all your images 16x9)
  * walk: 12:15; W. to end of block.  With m, which was pleasant.
  @ ChatGPT Scams Are Infiltrating Apple's App Store and Google Play | WIRED
  @ WordPress 6.2.1 Update Breaks Shortcode Support in Block Templates – WP Tavern
  * 2:40 leave for 3:00 COVID booster at Bartell's on 85th -> Pfizer bivalent
  : disk problems on Panther.  -> fsck /dev/sda5 seems to have worked; I'm prepared for
    some flakiness, though.  Thank you, git!

0518Th
  & awake 3:30ish; S=4:44;
    % getting back into bed around both cats was difficult, somewhat painful
    % the vivid part of my dream involved using `git subtree` or `git submodule` to allow
      two people (who didn't seem to work together very well) to work together on a blog.
      Or maybe it was just symlinks; trying to reconstruct a software configuration that I
      literally dreamt up is doomed from the start
  : FB message ostensibly from Al sent me off trying to find a way to auto-respond.
    -> apparently it can be done for a business page, but not from a user account :P
  : 9ish was putting on my socks when Desti begged me for some lap time.
  * Dutch
  % slightly under the weather probably due to yesterday's stab.  If so, it's by far the
    mildest reaction so far.  Also the first time I've had Pfizer.
  @ The EU's new Cyber Resilience Act is about to tell us how to code - Bert Hubert
  @ Dear everybody re ChatGPT etc,  The word you need that you don't know you need is
    CONFABULATION. 
  % earworm:  A Chat With Your Mother
  % apparently the newest rule of thumb for water consumption is body-weight/32/day
    (#ounces equal to half your weight in lbs.)
  * 11:30 leave for noon Bill Pierre for Molly recall service  -> arr. 11:50ish
    -> stopped by the lair to pick up the fuzzy red jacket.
       % shot appears to be messing with my body temp.
    : Bill's WiFi remembers me, which is nice.
  % moving very slowly right now
  % 5:50 500mg acetaminophen
  @ A Grief Care Plan: Your Foundation for Support - Whats your Grief fillable PDF
    My daily non-negotiabes; favorite mood boosters; distractions
    HALT:  am I Hungry?  Angry?  Lonely?  or Tired?
    People to reach out to; my favorite distractions; Places I feel calm;  Other resources
  @ Tiredness of life: the growing phenomenon in western society
  & going splat a little early (8:30) because eeep.

0519Fr  * litter boxen (E')
  & awake 12ish?; awake 3ish
  * up 7:30 S=4:52+??; exercises
    % weird dream; academic setting (MIT-ish?), some in a space setting.  Sometimes I was
      reading it in a book, and sometmes I was embedded in it.  Was just starting part 2
      (of 3) when I woke up.
  * Dutch
  * 9am E'
  @ The WSDOT Blog - Washington State Department of Transportation: Deactivating the 511
    Phone Number – and tools to use instead to stay informed
    Travel Center Map | WSDOT
  @ Florida parents sue to block enforcement of state’s gender-affirming care
    restrictions | The Hill
  @ Illinois to Become First State to Ban Book Bans
  @ The Rise of the Machines: AI ‘story engines’ – KJ Charles
  @ The Pastry A.I. That Learned to Fight Cancer | The New Yorker
    a computer vision system _not_ using deep learning.  Sort of ad-hoc; not really enough
    detail in the article.  BRAIN Co., Ltd; AI-Scan
  * practice a little guitar
  & wikipedia dive, started from an article in Stanford magazine about research into
    theraputic uses of psychedelics leading to looking up Default mode network
  & another dive, from Breccia,
    considered as the title of a River post.

0520Sa
  & awake 3:30ish;
  * up 5:15; S=6:00
  * load kibble bin (Natural Balance green pea and duck)
  * drive up to Whidbey (fairly early)
  * 9:45ish on-island
  @ Mourning Porn on Imgur, Mourning Trans & Kinky History | by Devon Price
  @ One more dead in horrific eye drop outbreak that now spans 18 states | Ars
    " US health officials have traced the bacteria's origins to contaminated eye drops,
      with EzriCare artificial tears being the most common product used by people infected
      during the outbreak. ... The manufacturer of EzriCare eye drops, India-based Global
      Pharma, also recalled two other products it makes: Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears
      and Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Ointment. The CDC and the FDA advise people to stop
      using these products immediately if they haven't already. "
    Outbreak of Extensively Drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Associated with
    Artificial Tears | HAI | CDC
  : Wonky wifi on Molly - probably forgot to renew something
  @ Yunhao Zhang's Egos-2000 Packs an Entire RISC-V Operating System Into Just 2,000
    Lines of Code - Hackster.io
    Egos-2000 | Hackaday
    egos-2000/ at main · yhzhang0128/egos-2000 · GitHub
    " This project's vision is to help every college student read all the code of an
      operating system. "
    RISC-V - Wikipedia
  * determined that the air conditioner is too heavy for me to handle by myself..
  @ Oh my God, the SpaceX explosion was much worse than it seemed. 
    It started THREE YEARS AGO when engineers said a launch pad needs trenches for cooling
    and thrust diversion. Musk overruled them "
  @ Georgia’s new anti-trans law also disparages autistic people
  * singing:  The Mary Ellen Carter.  Off book, kept forgetting chords and lines,
    % choked up on the last chorus but pushed through it; I think it helped.
  * Payless 4:30ish;   * SL: RE:  eggs, milk, ribs,  & cottage cheese
  % some of the bumps tweaked my back.  Ouch!  Using a gait belt to hole the heating pad
    in place; should have thought of that ages ago
  * finish bottle of Strait Gin.  dinner was a (pre-cooked) rack of baby back ribs.

On second thought, maybe it wasn't such a good week after all. Let's all hope this week is better.

Comments

[spiffyvoxel]

I had my Covid-19 vaccine booster shot on Thursday, and the effects kicked in on Friday — I'm still dealing with fatigue and a sore throat now.

I hadn't heard about WP 6.2.1 breaking short-code support, so that explains why 6.2.2 came out so soon after I guess? Luckily I don't use any on my sites, but yeah that's a serious clanger.