mdlbear | Done Since 2025-02-09 (Reply)

I survived Valentine's Day mainly by making a difficult phone call (all phone calls are difficult for me) to the SVB (the Dutch version of social security) to get things moving on why I don't have health insurance yet. Should have called a month or two ago; N and I didn't realize that in order to get anything done here you have to make a phone call, or if you're lucky a live chat. Pretty much everything uses phone apps, too. The day wasn't a total loss; it also included a walk with m.

We (N and I, though I did all of the interactivestuff) got our business bank account going. Getting it approved required, you guessed it, multiple chat sessions with support, which also included several narrated screen-capture videos. Never having done that before, I also had trouble figuring out how to stop recording. From start to finish took Monday through Friday. Which of course wiped me out nearly as much as the phone call. I didn't get much else done all week.

I did re-fill two of my fountain pens, with Parker blue-black Quink, in hopes that taking handwritten notes while studying Dutch. Based on this morning's test run, it does seem to help a little. And, having also found my laser pointer in the boxes, I played chase-the-red-dot with the cats. Ticia clearly had it figured out, and lost interest. Bronx, well, Bronx is in many ways a perma-kitten.

There are a lot of links. Many are to list posts, and some of those point to other list posts. Exponential expansion, in other words. I have read very few of the second-level list entries, but many of them might be useful to some of you. I thought about using an emoji or other symbol in place of the @ on, e.g., the political ones. Maybe next week I'll do that.

Meanwhile, there were a couple of useful ones today that I've tacked on to the tail ind of the links; you'll see them again a week from now. And to end on a happier note, here you will find hundreds of animated cat gifs pulled from the wreckage of GeoCities.

Notes & links:
0209Su * sift litter boxen
& awake 4:30ish
* up 7ish; S=8:44, W=90.6; Dutch
# W with yukata 91.1, so yukata weighs .5kg (without e.g. a phone). Easy to work with
* drugs: first am 08:18; rest am 8.19; 2*coffee; pm
@ San Francisco unveils marble bust of Aaron Swartz
@ Musk’s DOGE goals: Slash government, control data and lean on machines - WaPo
% learned (earlier in the week) that anxiety chills are a thing. Here for easy grepping
@ Trump’s looming attack on higher education
* 2min: turn on heat in the entryway, Required experimentation to determine which way
to turn the valve.
% chilled, presumably mostly not due to air temp
* guitar: ship of stone, river, paper wings
@ GifCities.org?q=cat animated cat gifs
GifCities.org?about-gifcities

0210Mo * N" change litter boxen
& awake 3:15, 5:30ish
* up 6:30ish; ; Dutchm ,,, kegels
* drugs: first am x; rest am 7ish; pm 20:12
@ Why You Should Use Firefox: The Last Non-Chromium Browser Standing | by IperGiove
: m comes back to Den Haag, N flies to Seattle for Dr. appointments on 0212 and 0213
@ Ex-Twitter exec tips off federal
workers how to avoid being 'surveilled' by Musk's people - Raw Story
@ The SAVE Act Will Prevent One-Third of Women From Voting | by Carlyn Beccia
@ Covid vaccine ban in Idaho public clinics shows RFK-era vaccine distrust - WaPo
? paperwork to KvK -> does not appear to have a way to upload it
@ Why Blog If Nobody Reads It? | Andy's Blog <<-------- this
@ The end of law? - Robert Reich
Trump will overplay his hand. Be ready for when he does.
* applied for BUNQ business account for HSX/C-C. We;ll see whether it gets approved.
% 16:50ish feeling _very_ cold. It's not, of course. But see above.
@ Extremely rare ‘Einstein ring’ discovered close to Earth | Popular Science
@ Google Search’s “udm=14” trick lets you kill AI search for good - Ars Technica <==
@ fix Google Search
* load drugs: prednisone today, so start on Thursday. no Fe today, start tomorrow

0211Tu o sift litter boxen
& awake 4:55ish
* up 5ish; ; Dutch
* drugs: first am 06:20; rest am 06:20; 2*coffee; pm
@ Privacy Guides: Independent Privacy & Security Resources
Ad-Free Privacy Tool/Service Recommendations - Privacy Guides
@ CryptPad Review: Replacing Google Docs - Privacy Guides
" If you have been thinking about migrating to a privacy-focused replacement to Google
Docs, now is the time. "
Home page - CryptPad.fr flagship instance
cryptpad.disroot.org Dutch instance
@ Home | Disroot.org other services
@ Trump imposes 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum - The Washington Post
@ Nice PDF, But Can It Run Linux? Yikes! | Hackaday
@ Backdoor uncovered in China-made patient monitors — Contec CMS8000 raises questions
about healthcare device security | Tom's Hardware
CISA: Contec CMS8000 Contains a Backdoor
@ Genmitsu Cubiko, An Affordable Desktop CNC for Everyone by SainSmart Team backed
: heard back from Elles
" If you receive benefits or a pension from an EU, EEA or treaty country, the company
cannot cover you for health insurance. One must obtain health insurance in the
country where one receives the income. But as far as I know there is no such treaty
with the United States. " Hopefully not!
% really wanted a drink. Settled for herb tea. Not sure gin would be safe.
% ~6:15 not shivering, though. Weird. -> 19:32 am now, though
@ 10 Best Private and Secure Email Services for 2025
" StartMail shares a history with StartPage, a private search engine. However, there
is a notable difference in that StartPage is now owned by a US company called
System1, "
@ Scholastic Hack: Furry Finds 8 Million People Exposed
@ Lexipol Data Leak: Hackers Drop Police Training Manuals
" by a group referring to itself as “the puppygirl hacker polycule,” "
@ Have we already breached the 1.5°C global warming target? | New Scientist
@ Greenland ice sheet could fully melt after reaching specific tipping point, study
finds
@ Most People Worldwide Lack Good Treatment for Mental Illness
@ U.S. Travel Association Warns of Economic Tourism Disaster After Thousands of
Canadian Tourists Cancel Trips in Protest
% 21:58 going up to feed the cats and maybe get a few nuzzles

0212We * sift litter boxen
@ Charles Darwin's birthday
& awake 4ish
* up 07:10; ; ... Dutch
* drugs: first am 07:20; rest am 07:20; 2*coffee; pm 18:15
% 440mg naproxen 07:31; next dose allowed after 19:30 -> 20ish
* _finally_ got the HSX account validated, and N added. Took pretty much all morning in
chat with support. Some of the problem was not remembering to finish things like
taking images and making screen recordings. The reason N wasn't getting her invite
was that she created her account using her US phone (so did I for that matter--we made
the accounts specifically so that we could get Dutch phone service!) and I sent the
invite to her Dutch number. Why does this matter? The app is on both phones. But
it's sorted out now I think.
@ Establishment of The White House Faith Office – The White House (thisfinecrew
@ What we probably need
is a catchy but fundamentally annoying song [...] that just rattles off all the banned
words in one song. And then play that incessantly in front of the White House.
The List of Trump's Forbidden Words That Will Get Your Paper Flagged at NSF (jwz)
@ DOGE's Cyberattack Against America -- By Bruce Schneier
@ Judge orders HHS, CDC and FDA to restore webpages and data : Shots - NPR
@ Street Protest (24 photos) | STREET ART UTOPIA
* Tina (Creade's daughter) came over for the afternoon. (maybe a little older than G)
@ Schools say deeply personal survey saved lives. Then they released student data
@ I Switched From Windows To Linux For 1 Month — Here Is What Happened
@ Teleportation Achieved Between Quantum Computers in a World First : ScienceAlert
@ Goodbye, Mark Zuckerberg. Before we go “no contact” I will tell… | Laura Marland
* crochet: made about 4cm of chain without dropping the yarn off the hook. Progress.
* re-order meds from ExpScr. Hope it's not too late. Probably okay.
@ 'I will never recover from this': The internet is spiraling over the Duolingo owl's
untimely death - Fast Company WTF?

0213Th * sift litter boxen
& awake 3:30ish; down 4:30
~ weird dream that somehow involved being in a school that was also a nuclear-powered
boat about to be attacked by an enemy fleet. There was a lot more that I forgot
~ tried to log in on KvK and SVB sites on phone; no info; no obvious way to upload docs
* up 6ish; ; Dutch - 500-day streak! dishes,
* drugs: first am 06:46; rest am 06:46; coffee; pm 8:30ish
@ Groundbreaking BBC research shows issues with over half the answers from Artificial
Intelligence (AI) assistants
* generate bank statement for HSX; forward to (immigration lawyer)Elles, with questions
about sending that and the partnership agreement to KvK
-> uploaded to clientweb -> re-asked about KvK registration
% 11ish noticed that tomorrow is $V day. May not get much done.
& m wanted toast with nutella. The convection oven seems a bit quicker than the toaster
oven at RS, which is not surprising considering the voltage difference.
* load fountain pens - Parker 75, Vanishing Pt (Parker Quink blue-black arrived today)
Whether I'll actually use them is an open question; maybe with Duolingo
% feeling kind of washed out. shoulders and arms feeling weak and tired; could either
be tension, an effect of having _less_ tension, lack of sleep, or something else. WTF?
: G bought a bottle of Kraken -> hot buttered rum, in Colleen's lavender-spike teacup
@ MIT engineers develop a fully 3D-printed electrospray engine | MIT News
* a little guitar work. Also pulled out the folding guitar stand and put Flame on it
@ Why did Duolingo kill its owl mascot? : NPR
* top up litter box -- litter arrives today
" QOTD: me: " Anyway, I'm going to head off toward bed now -- "For I have promises to
keep / And cats to feed before I sleep" "

0214Fr * sift litter boxen Valentine's Day
@ Valentine's Day - Wikipedia
% don't expect me to get a whole lot done.
~ good day to sing through everything on Amethyst Rose -> but I didn't
& awake 3:30;
% the cats were in the dream this time. Bronx, Ticia, and what might have been either
a hamster or a rat. Involved taking them to a park, then trying to round them up
when the park started turning into an amusement park with Pepsi- run food booths.
* awake 5:30ish; ; (fell asleep in chair.)
* 2min: played "red dot" with the cats
* up 7:30 (alarm); ; Dutch, bath, phone/bureaucracy, laundry
* drugs: first am 07:59; rest am 08:00; 2*coffee; pm 22:11
@ Fred Hutch ending DEI initiatives in response to Trump orders | The Seattle Times
@ WA leaders tell Trump to ‘follow the damn law,’ vow to shield state | SeaTimes
@ The Latest Hyped AI Fallacy is Here. | Medium
@ Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral
* contact Bunq support about HSX savings. Works now.
@ Kids are stepping up to slow down Trump's devastation
: This week's Science shows more devastation in Us-funded agencies.
: another pair of letters from VGZ asking for info from SVB. So WTF?
* call SVB -> agent will send forms (by mail), which can be uploaded.
forms about living situation and business. He understands that it's urgent
also a "message box" website -- https://mijn.overheid.nl
MijnOverheid is your personal website for your dealings with the Dutch authorities.
% -> kicking myself for having wasted over a month by not making phone calls
-> N said "It isn't your fault. We're still learning,... " One of the things we're
learning is that apparently nothing gets done here without follow-up phone calls
* walk: with m, North to turnaround. 17:02
* sent R and E a happy valentine's day email. So far (21:37) only R has replied.
E is probably still at work. -> responded at 11:55 (noted on 2/15 when I got up)
* singing: Eyes Like the Morning, of course

0215Sa * sift litter boxen
& awake 03:15ish; both cats up by my head
% apparently I was programming in my sleep.
# usage: `defdir foo bar` defines variable FOO and command foo
defdir() {
${1^^}="$2" # define variable uppercase($1) as $2
alias $1="cd $2" # define command $1 as `cd $2`
} # roughly, modulo case changing fns and quoting.
# 08:19 all it needed was eval or `declare -g` in front of the assignment
-> 18:29 checked in a version, with default handling for $2, in Honu/.../_bashrc
* up 7:30ish (alarm); ; dishes, Dutch
* drugs: first am x; rest am 07:55; pm 20:46
* pay AX -> [ $ $1581 to AX Au; $1k to AX Pt, from USB ]
@ LGBTQIA+ Reanaissance – Ex Urbe
@ 500 Free Printable Workbooks & Manuals for Therapists/self-help (ysabetwordsmith)

==> from 0216Su:
@ Trans Literature Preservation Project: A Practical Guide to Resisting Censorship
@ ysabetwordsmith | Losing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau good links
ysabetwordsmith | Climate Change more good links - actions you can take
From freecycling to Fairphones: 24 ways to lead an anti-capitalist life in a
capitalist world | Environment | The Guardian
@ 40+ sources of news and information for the US in 2025