mdlbear | Done Since 2025-04-06 (Reply)

I'm always hesitant to put down just "okay" as my mood -- I'm not sure I know what it's supposed to feel like. But it's not a bad morning. The rest of the week hasn't been so good. According to my doctor, who I had an appointment with on Monday to discuss the results of last week's bloodwork, I'm very anemic. Also I have a referral for cardiology now, to go with the previous oncology referral. Both of those appointments are tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

There are yellow tulips blooming in two of the planters on our back patio. Sometimes I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that we're really Dutch residents now, but the tulips are very convincing.

In the links, Is It Time To Leave The US? is alarming. Good luck. To leave on a much lighter note, watch Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat (Animated Music Video) - YouTube. And if you're my kind of geek, read 20 years of Git. Still weird, still wonderful by Scott Chacon, one of the authors of Pro Git and one of the founders of GitHub.

Notes & links:
0406Su * sift litter boxen
& awake 03:20
* up 07:15; ; Dutch, dishes
* drugs: first am 07:32; rest am 08:54; 2*coffee; pm 21:23; naproxen 220 21:24
% R eye hurting all day, since blowing my nose forced gunk up the tear duct
Not the first time it's happened. But ouch!
@ WA protesters call on Trump, Musk to keep ‘hands off’ programs, rights | Sea Times
Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in ‘Hands Off!’
rallies | The Seattle Times
@ Hands Off rally in D.C. part of nationwide day of protest - The Washington Post
@ Moonquakes - NASA Science
@ Taste-testing "Sandwiches of History" - YouTube
@ How Cats Broke The Game (ysabetwordsmith: Earth's biosphere as game development)
@ 18 Vegetables That Were "Accidentally" Created by Farmers
: Raven seems to have been infested with the BIOS firmware that refuses to charge if the
battery isn't "official" -- it's also in the two X230s. Recent?
* kleenex for bedroom
% 20:14 falling asleep in my chair. Still haven't had (felt like making) dinner
@ Trump’s National Park Service rewrote the Underground Railroad’s history - WaPo
& 22:00 hot buttered rum; 30ml of the Kraken

0407Mo * sift litter boxen
& awake 5ish; may have slept though the night.
awakened by Bronx. At one point he was down at the foot of the bed chewing on my toes
% eye somewhat better. Earworm: Three Kobolds in a Trench Coat
@ Three Kobolds in a Trench Coat | Know Your Meme
Three Kobolds in a Trenchcoat (Animated Music Video) - YouTube
* up 5:15ish; ;
* drugs: first am 6:40; rest am 08:09; coffee; pm
@ Sound frequencies of stars sing of our galaxy’s past and future
Sound frequencies of stars sing of our galaxy's past and future | ScienceDaily
@ The Joy of Tech comic... How does Apple get around Trump's Tarrifs?
@ Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Attempt to
Dismantle Several Federal Agencies, Protecting California’s Libraries and Museums |
State of California - Department of Justice - Office of the Attorney General
@ A breakthrough moment: Researchers discover new class of antibiotics
@ Millions March Against Trump-Musk in Nationwide 'Hands Off' Protests|Common Dreams
@ This 15-Minute Fish Dinner Is 'Better Than Any Restaurant Dish' parmesan sauce
lekkerbek
@ No Bones About It: New Details About Skeletal Cell Aging Revealed
* SA: set up Apache2 on Centraal; start transferring N's downloaded videos. The
"website" needs a lot of cleanup, but it's a start. Ripped DVDs ought to be converted
to mp4 files, but that's a matter for another day.
-> 22:43 all 201 files (133Gb) transferred. 8MBytes/sec
* set alarm for Tuesday's doctor appointment
* write/print issue list for appointment *- use leftarrows
% 22:03 R eye hurting -> 440mg naproxen
: Forgot to put drugs in bag, so load tomorrow. Did the litter box at bed time

0408Tu * sift litter boxen
& awake 3:45
* up 07:10
* drugs: first am 07:23; rest am 08:33. coffee; pm 20:56
* load drugs o KCl
* order cat fud
* 1:50 to discuss bloodwork
-> I'm _very_ anemic -> scrip for iron (200mg 2/wk) and folate.
-> referral for cardio, in addition to the oncology referral
he called; I got called for an appointment while I was across the street about to
check in at the pharmacy.
~ log in at https://mijn.hagaziekenhuis.nl/inloggen (hospital portal) (070) 210 0000
Do you have any questions? Or... change or cance...? call (070) 210 2605
-> Try Wednesday; call if it fails again
* snag episode 1 of your inner fish
@ Old Person Smell is Real — This is Why It Occurs | by Eddie Valiant
@ Scientists Claim to Have Brought Back the Dire Wolf | WIRED
% 18:51 R eye seems to be doing a lot better after eyelid wipe and bleach this am
& introduced G to 3:16

0409We * sift, top up litter boxen
~ awake 3ish?? Maybe not
% woke up with Ticia on the bed next to me.
* up 7am; W=91.? ; dishes, Dutch
* drugs: first am 07:20; rest am 09:03; coffee; pm 20:51
! in a reasonably good mood. petted Ticia (on my chair) and booped Bronx (on tree)
@ This Warrior Was Buried in Ice Under a Bone Shield for 4,000 Years and His Face Was
Just Reconstructed (andrewducker)
@ 20 years of Git. Still weird, still wonderful. (andrewducker)
personal history from the author of the Pro Git book and one of the founders of GitHub
Why GitHub Actually Won
" We cared about the developer experience and had the creativity to throw away
assumptions about what it was supposed to be and build how we wanted to work.
Everyone else tried to build what they thought they could sell to advertisers or
CTOs. " Also, Ruby on Rails was a major user, not to mention what GH is built with
Git Internals | Source code control and beyond | Scott Chacon [PDF]
@ TIL Galinstan melts at −19°C(−2°F)
" Galinstan can replace mercury in thermometers at moderate temperatures "
* 15min: tidying boxes in the LR, goal to clear off the couch before next weekend
-> chaise section cleared; mic stand duffelbag, blanket, etc. stashed
* guitar: Bad Guys, mil-dawn, band-played, Nemesis, ship-of-stone, QV,
all but Nemesis off-book, of course.
* log in at https://mijn.hagaziekenhuis.nl/inloggen (hospital portal) -> failed again
-> did not call. Got to be a few minutes to five.
~ Framework 12" laptops are available for preorder. Configured, comes to ~718 less ssd
Bol has 2TB M.2 SSDs for about half the $300 FW wants for them (not WD Black, though)
Now the question is, do I _really_ want one,

0410Th * sift litter boxen
& awake 4:30ish
* up 7am; ;
% woke up with Ticia, then after she got down Bronx came up to take her place. More
active, but he's such a pettaable boy when he isn't being nippy. Boopable, too.
* drugs: first am 7:05; rest am 08:33; 2*coffee; pm 21:30ish
@ Ancient tools
from a South African cave reveal connections between prehistoric people (ysabetwordsmith)
@ ysabetwordsmith | The Return of the Dire Wolf
@ Samsung Washing Machine Song (F Schubert - Trout) w\ guitar accompaniment!
Samsung's End-Of-Cycle Laundry Machine Song Has A Surprising Backstory
Die Forelle - Wikipedia has the omitted final verse, a warning to young women
Schubart's Defiant Trout , by Scott Horton
@ Operation Blazing Sword – Offering Gun Education to the LGBTQ Community
* N" coming today
* MORNING: log in at https://mijn.hagaziekenhuis.nl/inloggen (hospital portal)
Do you have any questions? Or... change or cancel...? -* call (070) 210 2605
-* Try Thursday; o call if it fails again main (070) 210 0000
-> I exist in their system -- need to talk to them on Monday to get it worked out.
The questionaire can be "filled out" (i.e. they'll ask) when I get there.
* order Keepers of the Flame — Phoenyx | Prometheus Music
% running into serious executive disfunction around filing my tax extension.
* 18:30pm - 20:30 (9:30-11:30) Overlake med. center cancer support group - 2nd Th
presentation on EMDR during the first hour. Poor quality because of too many tabs
https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
& backed 4D TechBag with a secret: the detachable TechPack organizer by GearLand
there's also a backpack, but I have enough of those.
* guitar: bits and pieces

0411Fr * sift litter boxen
& awake 04:30ish
* up 6:55; ; Dutch, kegels
* drugs: first am 07:05; rest am; pm
@ Yahoo removes DEI pages from its website | TechCrunch
@ 8 Shocking American Foods Banned In Europe And Why You Should Be… Concerned! | by
David Peluchette | Expats Planet | Feb, 2025 | Medium
& verified that I had sent my medical records to HagaZiekenhuis--, which is where my
appointment will be on Monday.
& verified that my shipping info is correct for Kickstarter (n.b.: s@t)
@ Opinion: The United States is now an emerging market. Invest accordingly.
* download SSA 1099, note taxes paid on Mom's trust can be deducted
* update residence address with SSA. IRS wants ID.me, not login.gov as ssa does. foo.
-> probably don't need an account at irs.gov.
@ Kawasaki Unveils a Rideable Robot Horse That Runs on Hydrogen, Moves Like [...]
" The dramatic video shown alongside the presentation was pure CGI, K[...] admitted "
: received insurance bill for Scarlett
@ Global IPv4 Depletion: Charges Begin Next Month. Developers Struggle to Migrate,
Label IPv6 a “Disaster” with No Direct Usability | by Deo Wetton | CodeElevation
@ Data center in UK becomes proving ground for new carbon capture technology from
startup Orbital Materials | Semafor
% zoned out for about an hour, I think. 20:04
@ 9 Rules for New Technology - by Ted Gioia list from Wendel Berry 1987.
1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces
2. It should be at least as small as the one it replaces
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstratably better than...
4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces
5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as the body
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided they have
the right tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back
for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this
includes family and community relationships.
Several of these are questionable -- they were written to explain why Berry did not
want to replace his typewriter with a computer. 5 applies to things like bicycles and
solar-powered alarm clocks, but not, e.g., phones.

0412Sa * sift litter boxen; top up
& awake 3:30ish;
* up 6:30ish; S=7:54; laundry, Dutch
* drugs: first am 06:33; rest am 09:15; coffee; pm
& 22:26 napoxen 440 for back pain - next afte 10:30
* top up Bunq €500 from USB
: offer (via mijngezondheid.net; app) to register with a PGO called ivido
: PGO = Personal Health Environment. -> pgo.nl
<- ivido looks like a good way of aggregating health info but not clear what its
connection with everything else is, and whether I can get it in English
not clear what its relationship is to mijngezondheid.net. are there other PGOs?
-> Choose a PGO? FF translates PGO as
PBL, which is unhelpful. digi.me has English, but review says Haga isn't connected
* sign up with https://www.volgjezorg.nl/en which manages permission for information
sharing. Opt-in. log in with DigID, no registration required. GP and apotheek
already have permission. Whatever that really means. But need a PGO to see records
Doesn't look like IHCH has shared info; not sure how to enable that.
@ They Brought 1,000 Cats To The
Island - 8 Years Later, People Can't Believe Their Eyes! - YouTube
* guitar: Bad Guys, Life Cycle of Flowers, Ship of Stone, The River, Riverheart,
October Country. session ~40 min. ... Lock-Keeper.
-> Bm/A is easy unbarred. Why did that take so long to figure out?
@ Is It Time To Leave The US?
@ How to Make Useless Things Feel Priceless - YouTube
: TAXES: determined that I used H+R Block last year, so that will be the easiest way to
proceed this year. Copied the PDF of 2023-1040 out of ssa: Nearly $4K refund, so no
danger of owing anything if I file an extension.
* do laundry