Done Since 2023-05-28
2023-06-04 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdlbearI've been walking a little more regularly, practicing a little more regularly, and attempting to learn Dutch; these may have improved my mood a little. Hard to tell, because of my usual combination of dysthymia and alexithymia. Maybe combined with anxiety and quiet grieving. I should write a river post soon, shouldn't I?
Meanwhile things have been getting worse here in the US. The parallels with the rise of the Nazis in Germany are uncanny -- and deliberate. They, too, went after the queers first. "First they came for..." etc. See under the cut.
And here I sit at my desk in the last house that Colleen and I lived in together, grieving more things than I care to list right now and worrying about my trans son's safety. I am not okay.
Notes & links:
0528Su
* up 5:30; S=6:25; exercises (15 situps); Dutch
* guitar - bad guys
* walk: same as yesterday: W. to park and around the nearest loop.
Next time should go around the entire park
~ would be a good day to go up to Whidbey; come back Tuesday? no -- conflicts with vet
-> go up Tuesday or Wednesday
% hearing aids in ~9am; triggered feedback on the R probably due to bad fit.
-> trying a small dome on R. Maybe? better. Maybe it won't squeeze out.
-> feedback may have damaged hearing in my right ear.
-> 10:20 R ear started hurting, possibly from dome in contact with eardrum. OUCH!
-> 10:28 trying a large dome. Doesn't seem as inclined to feed back. We'll see.
-> some sounds, e.g. traffic, airplanes, speech?!! ... cause a sort of sizzling effect.
-> 11:35 so far so good with the large dome; R. ear feels very different though
-> crunching potato chips cause ringing. Seems to be fixed by improving seal.
-> removed ~5pm. Earwax is a problem, perhaps a serious one.
@ This Video Is Sponsored By ███ VPN - YouTube Why you probably don't need one
@ DIY HRT Directory
@ KUOW - Don’t believe everything you read on Nextdoor, especially when it comes to
politics " reporter Eli Sanders says during a Mercer Island City Council election,
the platform was used to spread misinformation about a candidate. And that's not the
only time it's happened. "
@ Twitter pulls out of voluntary EU disinformation code - BBC News
@ Target's Pride Month boycott shows disturbing GOP plans
@ imartinez/privateGPT: Interact privately with your documents using the power of GPT,
100% privately, no data leaks interesting.
PrivateGPT: The Newest ChatGPT’s Sibling That’s Taking Over the Internet | Vemu
@ Carmakers like VW are bringing back buttons because drivers loathe all the touch
screens. about time
0529Mo Memorial Day * litter boxen
* awake 3ish; no mask (and laptop in lap)
* up 7am; W=195.4, S=4:52+~3; exercises, Dutch
* walk: around Greenwood Park - whole block (87th -> Evanston Av -> 89th
* 9:20 hearing aids in
A lot of "static" -- crackling -- and the usual medium-high-pitched whine.
(later) static from airplanes. -> AGC??
@ Octlantis is a just-discovered underwater city engineered by octopuses
" shell piles, or middens, were further sculpted to create dens, making these
octopuses true environmental engineers "
New evidence suggests that octopuses aren’t loners | UIC today
@ Abortion Bans Are Putting Basic Healthcare at Risk | MedPage Today
@ Eating Disorder Helpline Fires Staff, Transitions to Chatbot After Unionization
@ Project Gutenberg: "We just joined Mastodon, please…" - Indieweb.Social
...follow us. Still more posts to come soon.
@ Project Gutenberg (@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social)
@ The Rise and Fall of the Great Library of Alexandria: An Animated Introduction
@ Trans Youth Organizers Held a Prom in Front of the U.S. Capitol | Them
How Four Trans Teens Threw the Prom of Their Dreams | Time
@ Jan. 6 rioters are raking in thousands in donations. Now the US is coming after their
haul
% noonish -- I think I ground a pot's worth of coffee earlier, then forgot about it.
There was a lot more grounds in the pot I just made...
: From ApolloNeuro: "This issue should be resolved soon."
-> so at least it's a real issue.
-> I also mentioned the website -- not clear that will be fixed
& trying some A/B comparisons with/without hearing aids. Apart from volume there's
little, if any, difference.
@ Online Tone Generator - generate pure tones of any frequency
-> the hearing aid whine seems to be ~498?Hz (~B4, but sounds closer to D5 on guitar,
which would be 592) which is surprisingly low. square wave?
-> My tinnitus seems to be 3-4KHz
@ Stop Trying to Heal from Grief - Whats your Grief
" grief is not something we need to heal from. Rather, grief IS the healing. "
-> post longer quote in mdlbear | River: Some quotes about grieving
@ CPR's true survival rate is lower than many people think : Health News : NPR
* guitar: a bit of Eyes Like the Morning. I've lost a l o t.
% trying a large dome on the L hearing aid -- the R already had one. We'll see whether
it fits better. I.e. doesn't come out as often.
@ Antarctic currents supplying 40% of world's deep ocean with nutrients and oxygen
slowing dramatically melting ice reduces salinity; slows bottom water
Greenland ice melting 3x faster than 20th century | Metro News
0530Tu
& awake 4:05; S=4:54; gave up ~5:30
* up 5:30sh; S=5:39; exercises (21 situps); Dutch
* guitar: bad guys
* walk: to park - didn't go farther because I'd forgotten my phone. Again.
* 1:30 Ticia, Desti, and Cricket at FAH
claws clipped; Cricket got her immunizations (due later this year)
-> reduce the amount of kibble Desti and Ticia are eating -- they're overweight
-> putting their kibble into a puzzle feeder would help -> ordered
: Figured out something about the hearing aids -- not the whine, unfortunately -- but
the static etc is caused by the combination of a noise gate and AGC. A sound just
barely loud enough to trigger the noise gate causes the AGC to get cranked up. That
is probably not fixable with these. And there doesn't seem to be enough high-end
boost to be helpful there.
% took the hearing aids out ~3:30 because they were starting to hurt, esp. on the R.
@ AI poses ‘risk of extinction,’ industry leaders warn | The Seattle Times
Center for AI Safety (CAIS) Statement on AI Risk
" “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside
other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war,” "
@ Hearing aids are changing. Their users are, too | The Seattle Times
* guitar: Ship of Stone
* load drugs
0531We * litter boxen
& awake 2ish?; no mask
* up 6ish; S=4:03+; exercises; Dutch
% cold enough to set the AC on "heat". Once I figured out what the damned icons mean
* walk: around park. Evanston@90th is .4mi, so .8 round trip. Bartell's is .7
* 15min: dishes. I'll have to run another load later -- too many large items.
! thinking about possible songbook titles, I tried "The View From Rainbow's End", which
isn't bad; but when I got to "The View From Rainbow's Edge" I broke down a bit.
* start setup for USBank. Move account# and debit-card# references.
@ Dead & Company final tour.
: hearing aids: put the medium dome back on the R because it feels better -- not like
it's about to fall out.
: Hearing aids -- as a matter of fact, it's _almost_always_ noisy. It's distracting.
... voices down the hall sound better without it -- roughly as loud but no noise
... and muscle twitches in my ears move the damned things around
: brought out the slow feeders. They figured out how to use the labyrinth one: next
time I looked they'd dumped it out. Scratch that idea. They both seem frustrated by
the ceramic one, but I'll give them time.
* 15min: litter boxes -> back recovering.
0601Th Pride Month
& awake 3ish?
* up 6ish; S=7:15, W=195.4; exercises(+20); Dutch
@ Eating Disorder Helpline Disables Chatbot for 'Harmful' Responses After Firing Human
Staff surprise!
@ Once a fringe theory, "greedflation" gets its due
@ There's No Such Thing As a Smart Fascist (solarbird long but good
@ siderea | Gods and Golems [AI, p/a/s, Patreon]
" The idea of AI being an existential threat to humanity is often scorned by
reasonable people who reason, "How can an AI be an existential threat to humanity if
humans just... don't give AI the power to exterminate us? All we have to do to
protect ourselves from AI is not give it that power." Unfortunately, the very fact
that there's a lot of people out there who really, truly want AIs to be godlike
parents pretty much guarantees that – like horror-fiction cultists hell-bent on
raising the devil and destroying the world – there will be AI cultists hell-bent on
giving AI the power to destroy humanity. "
What Is the Paperclip Maximizer Problem and How Does It Relate to AI?
* 15min: laundry. -> the fate of most of my pens is being left in a shirt pocket
@ Opinion | In a deep red Florida county, a student-teacher revolt shames the right
@ Researchers tell owners to “assume compromise” of unpatched Zyxel firewalls | Ars
@ Reddit’s API pricing results in shocking $20 million-a-year bill for Apollo | Ars
@ Captcha Is Asking Users to Identify Objects That Don't Exist
* take hearing test with hearing aids in
-> improved at 4kHz (30) and 8kHz (40). Which is better than I expected.
-> it's possible that what I was hearing at the high end was static, not tones!
-> Left ear actually got _worse_ below 1kHz
-> I heard pulse in R ear with headphones at max volume; not at normal levels. Weird.
: heard from UW -- medicare supplement coverage not affected by Premera negotiations
* noon video hearing aid follow-up with Jackie Cooper
*- "static" on low-level voice, microwave, -> AGC as expected (she calls it
compression, but that's not how compression works, as I understand it)
*- fit -> ear canals apparently adjust (relax) over time
*- switch -- use tip of finger rather than nail. (we'll see how that works on R)
-> didn't work when I just tried it -- fingernails.
*- the hearing aid whine seems to be ~498?Hz (~B4, but sounds closer to D5 on guitar,
which would be 592) which is surprisingly low. square wave?
-> will send a new set -- try those with the large domes and see if it fixes this
<- actually it seems to have been a large dome in the R
-> medium dome has ringing triggered by (some) sounds. Esp. scratchy ones.
: somehow the rabbit-rabbit-rabbit post didn't get pushed to origin. Weird.
* SL: RS: get applesauce for N. 1 Granny Smith apple for chicken salad
: The pension deposit and mortgage withdrawal seem to have worked after the transition
% basically drifting, though continuing to click links and read interesting stuff
@ When your last $166 vanishes: ‘Fast fraud’ surges on payment apps | Seattle Times
" Zelle, which was founded by a coalition of banks, appears to have experienced less
fraud because it has more robust authentication for new users and more legal
protections in case of loss, security experts said. " -- doesn't mean I'll trust it
* order pill pockets
% had some sleepytime tea; started feeling nauseous after half a cup -> tums
0602Fr * litter boxen (E')
& awake 3am
* up 7am; S=6:51, BP=106/73, P=68, W=195.4; limited exercises
* */1 CPAP: change paper filter, wash tubs
* even/1 CPAP RS: change nosepiece -> every other month while bilocated
* 6n/1 CPAP RS: replace plastic filter: 1 mod 6 (Jan, July?)
* music practice!
We each did a song solo for critique; I did Ship of Stone and pulled it off pretty
well; I'd been especially worried about the guitar. N did Staying Home Tonight, and I
got a bit choked up. m did Gentle Arms of Eden.
% m mentioned (after asking whether it was okay to talk about what they observed of my
feelings, because alexithymia) that I seemed lonely. We agreed to take a walk
together on Tuesdays. I still don't feel quite at home with N's family at RS
* go up to RE -- remember to take white canvas bag, apollo -> arr. 4:55pm
% a couple of instances of bad driving. Nobody hurt, nothing damaged, but close
enough to be worrying.
* Back on Whidbey: let N know that I'm home.
* can order checks from USBank
% quite a lot of pain in L hip
0603Sa
* up 5:15ish; S=4:43; exercises(+15), shower, * Dutch -> on the leaderboard, for now
@ Experts warn bird flu virus changing rapidly in largest ever outbreak
@ Federal Judge rules Tennessee drag ban is unconstitutional
@ Utah school district removes Bible from elementary and middle schools for now
@ Furries have ‘nothing to do’ with Florida law, senator says | The Hill
@ Elon Musk: anti-trans video dispute ends with Ella Irwin departure
@ False 'Facts' about Science and Social Security Share Origins - Sci Am
" Why do conservatives keep attacking a successful program that pays for itself?
Because of its success. Social Security is “big government” that works. Its
accomplishments refute the conservative refrain that federal programs are costly
failures and that the government should just leave things to the free market. "
@ Musk:
"I Will Lobby To Criminalize Doctors" Providing Lifesaving Care To Trans Youth
: Why hasn't Molly sent me a text saying she's charged??
And why can't I get through to a human via the chat on chevrolet.com? After two
transfers it seems that the Connectons center doesn't chat on weekends. 877-558-8352
chat started 10:44. 11:13 agent said "we have staffing" and put me on a queue.
"Jane" told me to press the blue onstar button. I said that it isn't an app issue;
connected to "Eymi" at some other department -> EV Concierge. 11:40 -> MyChevyApp
team... 60 minutes and counting... Last message from Molly was 5/20 (displayed as
20.05, which is just weird)... -> 11:51 Angela is typing... 12:00 call "OnStar’s
toll-free number: 1-888-466-7827 and speak to our Connection Center team"
* SL: RE: packing tape; eggs, meat, EVOO, x prunes
& bottle of Bloom's Ambrosia rhubarb wine.
* SL: RS: * simethicone, x another set of small pill containers
% vaguely ??anxious about something. WTF?
-> or maybe it's because I haven't eaten much today (including lunch)
@ Millions of Gigabyte Motherboards Were Sold With a Firmware Backdoor | WIRED
* 3:25 call to Chevrolet Connection Center at 877-558-8352. 3:26 on hold (while agent is
on hold with the next person) At least there's no music... Transferred to Isabella;
3:42 and now there is hold music. transferring to connection center at 877-558-8352
-> couldn't transfer. Called (again) -> The setting is on the app, clicking on
"Charge Status" -> notifications. It is set correctly. -> 4:20 escalating; someone
will contact me -- I asked for email rather than phone. Another hour wasted.
-> not entirely wasted, since they told me where the setting is. It wasn't obvious.
-> Also, I plugged Molly in, so should get a text soon. Or not. Complete by 4:30
-> and I got the appropriate text. So WTF, but I'm not going to worry about it.
* 15min: weeds -- got the bamboo in the garden arc, some more near-bamboo, dead
hemlock, and thistles. -> back ~4:50
% 5:15 heart-rate still feels elevated -> 98. But blood O2 also ~98.
% hearing aids (since a little before 5pm). now (6pm) not too uncomfortable but
constant static probably due to the box fan. -> turns off fan -> yes
@ Grief Groceries – Hugh's Blog
* Singing: Eyes Like the Morning; guitar: Ship of Stone (poorly). too dark to read.
Since I joined Mastodon the number of links in these posts seems to have increased considerably. (Should remember to whip up a script to count them.) Starting to wonder whether I should split these posts between links and not-links. Pretty sure it wouldn't be a good idea, though. Thoughts?
Generating Tones
Date: 2023-06-04 09:34 pm (UTC)On "Compression", the original meaning for audio was dynamic range compression, long (and still) a staple for pop record mastering and radio broadcasts. Make it sound as LOUD as possible. Now data rate compression is also in the mix, leading to much confusion in almost any discussion of compression that I see.
Re: Generating Tones
Date: 2023-06-04 11:38 pm (UTC)Yup. I remember that test, and would have done it if I hadn't had one from an actual audiologist a few weeks ago.
Online Hearing Test & Audiogram Printout is a very good one as well because it's calibrated by comparing a test sound with rubbing your hands together in front of your nose.
In the case of the hearing aids, what they do sounds more like AGC and a noise gate.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-05 03:41 pm (UTC)Oh hearing aids. >.< Very much hoping you can deal with the feedback issue, that sounds painful as well as frustrating.
no subject
Date: 2023-06-05 03:59 pm (UTC)Thanks! The feedback was only actively painful once, but that was enough to keep me from experimenting much with increased gain.