Done Since 2023-09-03

[mdlbear]

A basically quiet week, but I'm still somewhat stressed and depressed. Mostly, I think, because we're getting the Whidbey house packed up ahead of being sold. A lot of nostalgia is getting packed up along with it.

Last week I said that Ticia and I are both "okay for now and in pretty decent shape for the elderly animals that we are." Well... Ticia is in pretty good shape -- the anti-arthritis drug and new toy seem to be doing her some good. Whether I'm in good shape may depend on the results of the appointments I have scheduled for the end of the month. And my blood pressure has been creeping up recently. So that's more stress.

For the blood pressure, I'm switching to unsalted potato chips, and will probably have to change my diet even more. Because I can't change the stupid. (I can't be sure that the idiots ruining democracy and the planet are what's raising my BP, but if they're not I'd have to blame myself.)

If you have cats, you may want to look at Ticia's new toy and its accessories, which I mentioned on Thursday. If you have elderly cats, you may want to ask your vet about Solensia.

Notes & links:
0903Su
  & awake 03:04 in recliner, no mask, neck pain.  :P
  * up 7:30; S=4:24, BP=110/80, P=66, W=191.4; (bed)exercises, Dutch
  @ Stephen Hawking Sings Monty Python… Galaxy Song (Music Video) - YouTube
  @ OpenTF Foundation github/opentffoundation
  @ Architects look to Warsaw for lessons on rebuilding Ukraine from rubble | Guardian
  @ Wavacity | Online Audio Editor Based on Audacity wavacity.com _runs in browser_
  @ The Tensor Product, Demystified
  @ X, Formerly Twitter, Plans to Collect User Biometric Data, Job, Education paywall
  * update payment dest. for CDBaby; check payment method for GoDaddy

0904Mo  (US)Labor Day  * litter boxen (E')
  & Awake 3ish; sitting, no mask; down 5ish?
  * up 7:30ish; S=3:51, BP=118/80, P=66, W=190ish; (bed)exercises, Dutch
    : scale isn't converging.  Growf.
  @ Announcing the Musaicum EU-plus 10m resolution image of Europe | Imagico.de
    The Musaicum EU-plus satellite image mosaic - Imagico.de Geovisualizations
    The Green Marble global mosaic - Imagico.de Geovisualizations
  * 10am  E'
  @ A Developer Built an AI-Powered 'Propaganda Machine' to Highlight Disinformation
    Dangers
  @ Monitoring Your Blood Pressure at Home | American Heart Association
  * order Epson WorkForce ES 300W Wireless Portable Duplex Document Scanner - Office Depot
  % 18:32 eyedrops - right eye
  * 19:31 sign, scan, and return (email) offer letter.
  * schedule prostate MRI to occur before 10/04Fr  -> 9/19  -> 0927Tu
  % 22:17 BP=150/82 73   139/83    128/83 71 diastolic still high

0905Tu
  & awake 3:30; S=5:37; cat cuddle; could not get back to sleep
  * up 6:30; S=7:33, W=188.2, bp=121/78, P=69; (mostly bed)exercises,
  @ Automate Therapaenis: 2,000-year-old Ancient Greek Robot Stuns Researchers
  * order The Internet Con – Verso  -> ordered 8/7 -> Sept. 5
  @ Solensia For Cats (Frunevetmab)
  % 14:08 drifty.  Also R. QL hurting for about the last hour.
  * walk:  around park, back via 89th and Aurora
  @ Fairphone 5 (Wikipedia)  from a Dutch company
    Fairphone 5 puts Apple, Google and Samsung to shame in one major way | TechRadar
     five years of OS updates and eight to ten years of total software support
    The First Truly Exciting Android Phone That Even Apple Fans Should Consider
  & look up Sailing to Byzantium -- today's earworm was the second line of...
    " Consume my heart away; sick with desire
      And fastened to a dying animal
      It knows not what it is; and gather me
      Into the artifice of eternity. "
  & and Byzantium (via the last line, all I remembered)
    " That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea "

0906We  * litter boxen
  & awake 00:30ish
  * up 6:15; S=5:26, W=198.2, BP=134/75, P=68; (bed)exercises
  @ Britain Admits Defeat in Controversial Online Safety Bill | WIRED
  @ Mozilla Foundation - ‘Privacy Nightmare on Wheels’: Every Car Brand Reviewed By
    Mozilla — Including Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota — Flunks Privacy Test
  @ “AI took my job, literally”—Gizmodo fires Spanish staff amid switch to AI trans...
  @ Climate change: The world has just experienced the hottest summer on record | CNN
    " The global average temperature this summer was 16.77 degrees C (62.19 Fahrenheit),
      according to Copernicus, which is 0.66 degrees C above the 1990 to 2020 average –
      beating the previous record, set in August 2019, by nearly 0.3 degrees C. "
  @ Home - Paulina
    " Paulina Project aims to create a global and multilingual search engine for authors
      and works in the public domain using Wikidata and Python. "  only shows people
  @ What Can You Tell a 17 Year Old Who’s Afraid of
    Dying from Climate Change? | by Steve Genco | Aug, 2023 | Medium discouraging
  % 2ish eyedrops (R, inside corner)
  % 16:22 400mg ibuprofen for R. QL
  : looks like FB received a bogus password reset request.  Weird.
  % I seem to be eating less.  It's reflected in my recent weight loss.  But WHY?
  * load drugs
  % 21:10 BP=120/78 P=67

0907Th
  & awake 3am;  -> gave up 03:50 - house, politics  -> down 4:50
    : Ticia was, as usual, curled up next to my face, purring
  * up 7ish; S=7:24, BP=113/81, P=71;
    didn't actually get out of bed until 7:40
  @ An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw It Into Reverse
    by Cory Doctorow | Aug, 2023 | Medium
  @ Technical Advantages Of Electric Cars That Made Me Switch | by Jan Kammerath
  * 11am go with N to Cricket's vet appointment (Solensia - arthritis med.)
  * tuna melt for lunch
  * Epson Workforce ES-300W scanner arrived.  (Tracking didn't even have it in the system
    until this morning.)  Will work fine in EU.
  % 16:02 emerge from a series of rabbit-holes.  Should do something constructive
    -> work on River post
  @ You, Your Cat, and Anxiety or Depression | Psych Central
  % 18:44 eyedrops.  L. eye outside corner

0908Fr  * litter boxen (E')
  & awake 3ish;
  * up 6am; S=5:53, W=198.4, BP=133/83, P=74; (some)exercises
  * tuna melt for breakfast.  Do something else with the other half-muffin
  @ ‘It’s time to start telling the truth’: Is summer’s record heat a sign of climate
    breakdown? | Euronews  tl;dr: yes.  We'll need hard work to keep it down to 3C
  @ Senate confirms Biden FCC pick as 5 Republicans join Democrats in 55-43 vote|Ars
  @ Your car wants to know about your sex life – POLITICO
    It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for
    Privacy | Mozilla | Privacy Not Included
    After Researching Cars and Privacy, Here’s What Keeps Us up at Night
  @ B.C. hospital sees fast spread of COVID-19, but no outbreak declared due to 'negative
    connotations' | CBC News
  * order kibble and wet food, to arrive Monday
  @ The Peculiar Math That Could Underlie the Laws of Nature | Quanta octonions
    (reprinted in Wired about a year ago -- that link was logged in 2022/07/18)
  * go up to Whidbey today with k sometime between 3 and 4pm
    -> left ~3:30; bad sun position made driving difficult
  : call from Harborview (while in ferry waiting are) -- my MRI appointment now 9/27 4:30
    Apparently it needs a particular MRI scanner, and a nurse needs to be present
  % forgot my bite guard again.  WTF?
  % eyedrops - both eyes feeling itchy

0909Sa
  & awake 1ish
  * Up 7:40; W=189.6, S=7:07, BP=111/79, P=66; exercises, shower
  @ Breakthrough as experts fathom how to put deadly bacteria to good use
  @ Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars 
    " Chrome now directly tracks users, generates a "topic" list it shares with
      advertisers. " (via R. Leigh Hennig: "You need to stop using Chrome …" - Indieweb.Social)
  @ Address bar autocomplete suggestions in Firefox
    Navigational Instruments | blarg Little-known firefox features.  Useful?
    some of the suggestions don't work.  OS issue?
  @ Twitter, now X, will begin collecting users' biometric data | CyberScoop
  @ Is it Time to Start Wearing a Mask Again?
    " “The short answer is, I think, yes,” says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious
      disease expert and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine"
  @ The Mastodon’s Guide to the Fediverse (starting with Mastodon step-by-step!)
  % insight - when I don't know what to do next, I reach for something to eat.
    ... and when I don't know what I want to _eat_ next,... (??)
  * SL:  RE:  adhesive house numbers for mailbox
  * grocery shopping ~5pm
  * laundry

Comments

[jenk]

A few notes that may be helpful, feel free to discard if not:
- Working in tech, I would often substitute food for rest or sleep. Feeling more rested means less substituting food, so I've been eating a bit less.

- I love having a BP measurement device at home because it lets me determine things like "does salt raise MY BP?" and so on. Useful since it turns out things like that can be individual. In my case, adding a new exercise habit reduced BP, adding salt doesn't change it.

[mdlbear]

1. In my case, sleep is limited by my bladder and my cat. But I'll keep it in mind.
2. Yeah, a BP monitor at home is a Good Thing.

[mama_kestrel]

Thank you for the Solensia recommendation. I have a severely arthritic 17 year old cat.

[mdlbear]

You're welcome. Ticia is also 17.

[cellio]

Those look like great cat toys!

[madfilkentist]

I found that eating beets every day does wonders for my blood pressure, when medication alone wasn't doing enough.

Beets are an odd food, though. To me they taste sweet. Others say they taste like dirt. I'm pretty sure there's an actual difference in how people's taste mechanisms work, so you'd have to judge for yourself.

Also, you're not under any obligation to constantly expose yourself to bad news that you can't do anything about, especially if it hurts your health.

[mdlbear]

Most beet preparations, especially the canned beets that get used in salads etc., are much too sweet for me, and have some other flavor problem that I don't remember. I may try juice and/or pickles.

ETA: I like them in home-made borscht, but that's an all-day operation. I remember canned borscht as being pretty awful, but it's been decades.

[chaoswolf]

Packing the house ahead of being sold means I should probably arrange some time to meet up with you and get my stuff. Travel over huge distances like to RCNE on Whidbey is probably going to be super uncomfy for Alex; so...how should we handle this?

[mdlbear]

Well, I could drive it down to you -- it's not that far. We should probably do the rest of the arranging by email.