Done Since 2026-03-22
2026-03-29 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdlbear Not a bad week, though not nearly as productive as it should have been.
(I know -- I shouldn't should
myself. But still, some
stuff needs to get done.) I have noticed that my brain doesn't
distinguish well between work and health-care-related stuff like
appointments. And to be fair there have been a lot of those.
Explanation, not excuse.
Part of the problem may be that writing and music aren't getting done because they're prioritized behind tax and other business paperwork, email, phone calls, and similar unpleasant and sometimes difficult things. So while I'm "busy" not doing those, the more pleasant things aren't getting done either.
I did walk six out of the seven days last week, so there's that. And I got (laptop)Lilac configured to the point of being usable on extended trips. (See Tuesday.) That's probably worth a curmudgeon post at some point -- it involved setting up an encrypted directory tree, and installing a DongleHider+ to put the (Logitech)mouse and (Lenovo)keyboard dongles on the same expansion slot.
From Monday, A Boy And His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie. From Tuesday, Geneva's CERN takes antiprotons for a spin in a never-before-tried test (there has to be a country music filk in there somewhere). Also, did you know there's a Socks Wiki?
Notes & links: 0322Su * walk: 08:47 DSB801: .85km, 22mm, 25min, 11hp, 1500st * load sling for Tuesday measurement appointment @ Semper Augustus Tulip mania @ Depression fatigue appears at the cellular level in brain and blood (ysabet) * hx work session * Dutch * add aidvantage (R's college loan, paid from BECU) to EOL README * calibrate small drinking glass (apple juice) 250, dragon tumbler 400, coffee mug 475; 0323Mo * downloaded floor plans. The house has disappeared from Funda.nl, but the whole set of images and specs was on the website of the agent who sold it to us * walk: 08:32 DSB804: .64km, 4hp, 16mm, 11min, 1000st @ ysabetwordsmith | Poem: "The Bridge of Mist" CW: impending pet death * 10:00 - 14:00 WZHThuiszorg leg-wrapping (here) 10:42 * 14 years with LinkedIn, meaning about 14 years since the end of my time at Ricoh. 2012 was... moving? And so was 2024, for the same reason. * hx work session @ LinkedIn Guide to Creating: Overview | LinkedIn Home - Create on LinkedIn * re-read Cubico CNC docs. * send update on my address(es) and phone #(s) for the Norwalk HS zoom reunion -> later (4am) thought better of it and sent retraction -- don't want them public * Dutch @ A Boy And His Atom: The World's Smallest Movie - YouTube IBM Moving Atoms: Making The World's Smallest Movie - YouTube found via Quire->folio->book size->largest & smallest books->smallest stop-motion movie * SL: printer paper 0324Tu % my earworm for yesterday and today has been "Star of the County Down". Best guess is that it was triggered by N's new scooter helmet (Kore is Greek for Colleen), Ysabet's poem "The Bridge of Mist" (link yesterday; note content warning), and a visit to R-E.net/Bridge (CW: sad). @ Geneva's CERN takes antiprotons for a spin in a never-before-tried test | AP News dilithium crystals? gotta be a Star Trek/Country crossover song in there. ~ 12:50 summon uber. take 2 pairs of compression socks for afterward. -> in sling * 13:20 pickup confirmed * 13:50 Livit.nl socks Livit Ottobock Care volendamlaan 1158 2547CZ Den Haag. Adviseur/consulent: Femke -> insurance pays for 2 pair. ordered open toe, different colors. -> wear at most twice before washing, daytime only. apply lotion at night @ The Comprehensive Guide to Wearing Compression Socks: When, How, and How Often? How to Care for Compression Socks Socks Wiki @ Watch sperm whale headbutt another for no apparent reason | Live Science * hx work session * verified that my current address doesn't appear in a web search (DDG, anyway) * Lilac setup: * anywhere mouse and Thinkpad keyboard on the double-dongle gadget. I now have two free slots, plus the USBC I need for PD. Lots of versatility. * set up the encrypted directory in ssa. Clumsy, but it worked, in place of an encrypted _home_ directory, which was clumsy. * Dutch * mictiedagboek to sling for tomorrow's appointment * set alarms for tomorrow's appointment * load drugs 0325We * walk: 6:53 DSB804 .64km, 10hp, 13min, 1100st : 10:30ish N leaves for Istanbul @ A popular Python library just became a backdoor to your entire machine * 08:30 don't piss * 09:30 leave for 10:30am Haga urology. Apparently I had NOT pre-scheduled a ride -> apparently I _had_, but Uber noticed and congratulated me on getting an earlier pickup. This probably happens a lot -- see above. There _is_ a way to check, but it's not obvious -- you have to click a button with a non-obvious legend. -> was supposed to have packed spare pantsu, but forgot. Fortunately not needed. -> try not using doxazosine for a couple weeks; call and try somthing else (if BP rises; keep with doxazosine) referral for pelvic floor physio don't need to drink quite so much (diary showed almost 3 l/day 10:30 flowmetry - full bladder; drink enough 2h before 11:00 appointment - Dr. H. van der Plas * -maybe- schedule wrapping for after 1300 * 13:00-14:00 WZHThuiszorg leg-wrapping (here) * SL: * niacin, * cat fud, * litter, * kleenex ($A) -> tomorrow * hx work session * Dutch 0326Th * walk: 08:25 DSB801: .85km, 11hp, 17mm, 14min, 1300st, * laundry, dishes @ Fly Home Winkie Winkie (pigeon) - Wikipedia Dickin Medal - Wikipedia * hx work session * Dutch . receipts 0327Fr * walk: 07:24 Erasmusweg 1.17km, 13hp, 24.5min, 25mm, 1920st @ AI Design Is Having Its Levittown Moment | Medium little boxes, little boxes... @ Mistral Small 4: The Open-Source Model That Does Everything and Costs You Nothing to License | by Mandar Karhade, MD. PhD. | Mar, 2026 | Medium [Hugging Face] Allen Institute for AI: OLMo Hybrid press release | Ai2 [Hugging Face] @ Using a VPN May Subject You to NSA Spying | WIRED " intelligence agencies presume that communications of unknown origin are foreign, Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they're entitled to " * flatten Gizmo's shipping crate (by deconstructing it -- too big for doorway) % nothing quite as satisfying as disassembling something @ Antimatter has been transported for the first time ... in the back of CERN’s truck & call about Scarlett; left somewhat incoherent voicemail. :P @ 36,000 same-sex couples have tied the knot in 25 years in NL - DutchNews.nl @ What To Know About BA.3.2, A New, Highly Mutated COVID Variant | HuffPost Life ~ hx work session * Dutch 0328Sa : D" coming tomorrow, not today (one time) * walk: 8:09 DSB804+garbage .72km, 6hp, 21mm, 22min, 1200st @ The Book That Terrified the People Building AI — And Why You Should Read It If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares | Hachette " artificial superintelligence — AI surpassing all human cognitive ability with its own goals — will cause human extinction. Not through malice, but indifference. " @ NJIT Physicists Trace Sun’s Magnetic Engine, 200,000 Kilometers Below Surface|NJIT @ The Tale of the Great Computing Machine--KTH " KTH Royal Institute of Technology has commissioned a new opera from Åsa and Carl Unander-Scharin, called “The Tale of the Great Computing Machine”. The opera will have its world premiere in the Reactor Hall of KTH – 25 meters below ground – on December 1, 2022. The opera is based on a book, written by Hannes Alfvén in 1966. " The Tale | KTH must enable embedded media! About the opera | KTH The tale of the big computer; a vision : Alfvén, Hannes, 1908-1995 : Archive.org o hx work session * Dutch
no subject
Date: 2026-03-29 12:18 pm (UTC)>> I have noticed that my brain doesn't distinguish well between work and health-care-related stuff like appointments. And to be fair there have been a lot of those. Explanation, not excuse. <<
I refer to this as 'they are drawing on the same spoons supply.' Which...is stretching the limits of the spoons metaphor, at best, so perhaps 'they are plugged into the same battery' is more useful?
For me it's the combination of anxiety (due to significance, time constraints, backlog, etc); complexity and non-automaticity (I can't autopilot through writing something like I can putting away dishes; working exectuive function required to stay on task); and social significance (someone else expects me to do something) that makes financial paperwork, major chores, work, doctor's appointments, car issues, and large social gatherings all things that have to be on the same energy-and-time budget.
>> Part of the problem may be that writing and music aren't getting done because they're prioritized behind tax and other business paperwork, email, phone calls, and similar unpleasant and sometimes difficult things. <<
Yeah that sucks. I don't have a fix.
I have *sometimes* had better results if I schedule a second-tier priority that gives me BACK some energy BEFORE / ahead of a first-tier priority that is a huge time-and-energy-suck...but not always.
Failure modes of the attempted solution are (a) doing one thing, but never accomplishing the avoidable but important thing (b) feeling crummy about EITHER doing OR not-doing the more fun and equally important but less urgent thing because I think it 'should' come second (c) total lockup because I'm trying to implement two different lists of priorities simultaneously.
>> So while I'm "busy" not doing those, the more pleasant things aren't getting done either. <<
Ding ding ding! Same hat, pal, same hat. I'm sorry.
(PS: No expectation regarding response; I hope (without expectation) that my commenting may help you to feel not-alone, and that's all.)
Thanks!
Date: 2026-03-29 01:07 pm (UTC)Actually, it does help. Quite a lot. I mean, I never thought I was the only one, but it's one thing to know it theoretically and another to get validation from an actual person.
Re: Thanks!
Date: 2026-03-29 06:53 pm (UTC)(Please note that none of this is a SUGGESTION per se or another chore. It's a list of things that *I* have found, to further reassure you that lots of people regularly have this kind of mental logjam, e.g. "can't do anything because have to do Z first and can't quite do Z yet." [So trying to Z *and* trying to not-Z both return error messages, thus feeling very busy and frazzled and anxious while *also* bored and sad and accomplishing near-zilch.] And, also, lots of folks have had to figure out how portage around said pile of dead trees.)
Things like ... wherever Stuff of Category X is accumulating, *put a basket for X there* so that it's automatically organized in a way you will *actually do*, rather than moving items elsewhere to put them away being *another* chore. Traffic patterns matter.
Or like...Using clear bins for storage so the contents are visible without being distracting (this one really depends on how people process or don't process 'clutter' though). Putting only one type of item on a shelf. Writing all labels on the same color background, and big enough to read from across the room.
And like...using a 'mise en place' of tea, laptop, etc for tackling a specific type of task.
And getting adequate dopamine in the brain BEFORE attempting something that requires focus. Chocolate can work.
Anyway. You are not alone.