Done Since 2025-11-23

[mdlbear]

Mixed. A couple of minor high points, including a very nice Thanksgiving (observed) dinner yesterday evening, but enough lows to more than compensate, plus enough problems with both my health, and my abject failure to get those across during my appointment Friday morning, to throw me into a tailspin that I still haven't fully recovered from. Oh, and Leslie Fish died yesterday. There's another bit storythere, too, but it'll wait for another day.

Three walks. One guitar practice, Friday, but after spending the day in a funk it lifted my spirits a litte, as did a little more Dutch on Duolingo. I take what I can get. The top quote of the week, from Paradox of hedonism - Wikipedia:

Happiness is like a cat, if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

Apparently the same thing applies to sleep. But it's only 20:48, so I have two hours, more or less, before I have to not-try to put that into practice. If the cats will let me. But I'll stop here, incoherent as this post is, because between now and then I have to compose an email to my doctors. (Or at least their clinic. It's complicated, and a large part of Friday's trainwreck was because I didn't know how complicated it had gotten while I wasn't looking.)

Why Nature will not allow the use of generative AI in images and video So apparently Nature abhors AI.

How about ending with The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”?

Notes & links:
1123Su  Fibonacci Sequence Day 11/23; Wolfenoon
  @ Fibonacci Day
  @ Wolfenoot
  : looks like it snowed last night
  @ Trust Me Bro: The Cloudflare Rust .unwrap() That Panicked Across 330+ Data Centers
  @ Archaeologists have discovered an intact prehistoric time capsule under the sea!
  * SL:  order another 2pair of comp sox
  @ The Arduino Terms of Service and Privacy Policy update: setting the record straight |
    Arduino Blog
  * walk:  9:56 DSB801 - bridge before turnaround, 10:10, .75km, 10hp, 14mm, 15min, 1380st
    % note:  fewer steps than the last several times, so bigger strides?  error?
    % sweater, scarf, green jacket, gloves -- still a bit cold.
  @ Microsoft Can't Keep EU Data Safe From US Authorities - Forbes (via LinkedIn)
  @ Wild Wolves May Have Figured Out How To Use Tools For The First Time | IFLScience
  % late afternoon:  cold.  shivering.
  % L thigh is painfully tense; not quite a full-on spasm, but getting there.  Seems to be
    connected to the shivering; or at least made worse by it.  Taking ibuprofen 16:04.
  @ In 1982, a physics joke gone wrong sparked the invention of the emoticon - Ars
  * 22:00 put out cardboard

1124Mo
  * bring in cardboard bin
  * walk:  DSB804 .75km, 8hp, 20mm, 14min, 1100st
  @ The number of fundamental constants from a spacetime-based perspective
    all you need is time.  can measure the length of a rod using three clocks
  @ On the Internet No One Knows You’re a “MAGA patriot” in Lagos
    Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Actors
  % very out-of-it this afternoon.  No call made/.
  @ How to Get Rid of "Citizens United" - Robert Reich Brilliant!
    " Importantly, a state that no longer grants its corporations the power to spend in
      elections also denies that power to corporations chartered in the other 49 states,
      if they wish to do business in that state. "
  @ Reflecting on the Internet Worm at 35 - CERIAS - Purdue University
  @ noticed an itchy spot on my wrist -- presumably caused by the watch band.
    -> cortizone ointment 19:47
  * set alarm for tomorrow's appointment
  % 21:46 I'm not thirsty, but I don't think I'm drinking enough water.  *guzzles some*
    
1125Tu
  ~ rescheduled to 13:30 on 12/03We 13:00 Parnassia - psychiatrist
  " QOTD:  Happiness is like a cat, if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you;
    it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business,
    you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap. "
    -- Paradox of hedonism - Wikipedia
  @ xkcd: Fifteen Years "Want to feel old?"  "Yes." *sigh*
  @ Big Tech is squeezing advertising jobs and companies – RJI
  @ Everything You Think You Know About Getting a Good Night’s Sleep Is Wrong | by
      Jessica Stillman | Medium " Sleep, she explains, is a passive process like
      digestion. You can’t force it. Sleep only comes when you are tired and relaxed. "
  - rabbit hole all morning, trying to stop 14:43
  * (writing as Chance on what used to be the bird site)
    " This is no place for a self-respecting crab anymore.  So long, and safe travels. "
  @ Unlocking the talents of neurodivergent IT pros | CIO
  @ FCC reversal removes federal cyber safeguards targeting telecom weaknesses post-Salt
    Typhoon attacks | Network World
  : Lizzy's new battery arrived this afternoon -- it is now charging
  % 17:58 cold, with thighs tensing up along with shivering.
  & further down the toki pona rabbit hole.
  * load drugs
  * upgraded Lilac to LMDE 7 (Trixie based) -- still no tablet joy.

1126We
  @ Wikipedia 25
  * st/roll with N  -> to Jumbo in Wateringen
    -> walk: 13hp, 35mm, 43min, 3200st, 1.8km (according to $gFit)
    -> new battery not much better than the old one.  I may have gotten ripped off, or
       (more likely) there's something else wrong with Lizzy.
  : call from alarm call center.  Gave them N's and G's phone#s.  070-379-5000
  * Lilac LMDE needs the same fix as Ubuntu.  The sensor proxy works now.  But the screen
    STILL doesn't flip.  It's possible that it also requires gnome or kde.
    ++ works! The display applet in Cinnamon has the rotation greyed out.  Mate has at
       least two display applets, one of which has the setting to enable automatic
       rotation.  But it doesn't actually rotate until you log back in to Cinnamon.  :P
    -> but it means I do have a way to get tablet mode.
    -> and Mate has _manual_ screen rotation in the display applet.  Which can work too.
  @ Why Nature will not allow the use of generative AI in images and video
    Nature abhors generative AI
  @ Advanced 2.5 Million-Year-Old Tools May Rewrite Human History
  % 21:30 ferocious itching around my R ankle.
  * put out PMD bin

1127Th  Thanksgiving (US)
  @ Thanksgiving (United States) - Wikipedia
  % told C' about leg; they said it merits an ER visit
    -> G pointed out that here you don't call an ambulance, you call your GP.
  * bring in PMD bin
  * LAUNDRY!
  @ We welcome the EU’s Top Court landmark judgment: Member States Must Recognise
    Same-Sex Marriages from Other EU Countries | ILGA-Europe
  * post Thankful Thanksgiving Thursday
  @ The Illustrated Version of “Alice’s Restaurant”:  Open Culture

1128Fr
    * drugs:  am1 6:30; am2 ?; 8*coffee; pm 22:00 ]
  ~ 8ish left early through mistaking the alarm; took scooter cape because raining
    -> really should have also used scarf and something to take the place of pockets
  * leave 8:15 for 09:30 GP clinic.  2.1km
    x- edema, itching, etc.  Possibility of blood clot.  deep vein thrombosis?
    ~- could also be due to amlodipine, which interacts with simvastatin
    x- increase lisinopril, drop amlodipine
    ~- compression socks
    BP okay; blood sugar a little high, so made me an appointment to talk to another NP
    about that in two weeks.  Triglycerides okay!  Iron still low (12 < 14)
    the nurse practitioner (POH S) I was talking with WASNOT LISTENING
    % really sent me into a spiral, that and finding out that ->
    apparently there was some kind of re-org or upheaval at the clinic -- Dr. Akram isn't
    there anymore.  I don't know what kind of person I was talking to; not a doctor.  I
    may have an appointment with a doctor??? probably not--Carmen in two weeks. (1209Tu)
    (huisarts phone# from mijngezondheid) 0703885231
  % probably scared N with my answer to "how's it going?" when I dropped Brooklyn off
    C' is definitely scared on my behalf
  @ LISP, "God's programming language" - YouTube
    in Spanish, with links
    Paul Graham "The Roots of Lisp"
  @ Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe, Digitized and Free to View Online
  * Cranberry relish.  Only started with one bag of berries, so not so much.  It'll be
    enough but probably not much for leftovers.
  * guitar:  Desolation Row, Millennium's Dawn intro, Bad Guys
  % I played some guitar and did more than the minimum of Dutch -> day not entirely wasted

1129Sa
  % 16:05 headache, L forehead above eye.
  * 9:30? D"
  @ This Dutch city was key to the origins of Thanksgiving  Leiden
  @ Makers slam Qualcomm for tightening the clamps on Arduino • The Register
  % my metal mesh watchband has gone missing, and I have spent altogether too much time
    both  looking for it and looking for alternatives with better fasteners.  :P
  * Thanksgiving dinner observed (at Schildhaven)
  : RIP Leslie Fish
  @ Part 1: My Life Is a Lie - by Michael W. Green poverty line now $140k
  @ Pong announced on 29 Nov 1972