Welcome to July, 2025!

It's worth noting that "happy" is a very rare mood tag these days. The last time I used it was in 2019, after Mom's 99th birthday party.

I went out walking five times last week. Altogether they probably amounted to 2.5km, but I have been going a little farther most days. Other than that I don't feel like I've gotten a whole lot done.

That's not entirely justified, however. I ordered a replacement for m's keyboard, which was apparently stolen off of their neigbors' porch. I got what I hope will be the last shot in my 2-year course of treatment. (I was expecting a follow-up phone call, but that had to be rescheduled due to a major phone outage. And I updated my LinkedIn profile and my "professional" website (https://stephen.savitzky.net/) to make it clear that I'm not job-hunting. And helped N get most of the patio furniture, in flatpack form, out to the patio. We put together one of the two Adirondack chairs this afternoon.

I also went down some interesting rabbit-holes, many of the m involving the Vera C. Rubin Observatory -- more links under Wednesday.

You don't have to prefix things with "doom" anymore, that's just the default now. You can just say scrolling. OTOH, if you're on Mastodon and need a break, check out #Bloomscrolling.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Welcome to the start of summer, and maybe of WWIII. This post that came across my Mastodon feed this morning kind of says it all:

You don't have to prefix things with "doom" anymore, that's just the default now. You can just say scrolling.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, ...

I had my oncology appointment; I'll be getting a hormone injection (tomorrow, and apparently they do house calls for that) rather than continuing with abiraterone (which insurance won't cover because not metastatic). It's good for six months, which will take me through the end of my 2-year course of treatment. I'm okay with this.

Last night I fell down a rabbit-hole troubleshooting my little script that prints out the URL of one's last post. See this commit. Pretty sure I can blame AI bots for that problem.

I fell down another rabbit-hole Friday, which started by looking for the overture to Wagner's opera Der fliegende Holländer. Turns out that J. Slauerhoff, whom our street is named after, wrote a poem about it. It's in his book, Eldorado. I expect to have a little fun trying to translate it. (And note in passing that doom is also mentioned in that connection.)

ysabetwordsmith has some good links about dealing with Heat. It was supposed to hit 30C (90F) today, but it looks like we may be getting a thunderstorm instead. It'll still be too hot indoors.

( Notes & links, as usual )

I think this was one of those weeks that makes me want to give up on trying to characterize my week. It wasn't particularly good, it wasn't particularly bad, I didn't get a whole lot done, the US had a lot of mostly-peaceful No Kings" demonstrations, but it also had political assassinations in Minnesota alongside other symptoms of its slide into fascism.

Last Sunday was the 23rd anniversary of this blog's founding, back on LJ. Today is the 27th Father's Day since my Dad's death in February of 1999, and I've been kind of wrecked since Thursday. The keyboard I ordered on Tuesday arrived Friday; it's flawed but will do what we need it to. The one I ordered for m has not arrived yet. I may have the start of a toothache.

Thursday was my first, and so far only, Thankful Thursday post ever with only two items. Since then, both of my kids wished me a happy Father's Day, so next week should have at least that many. I had a blood tests and a CT scan done last week, but I won't get to talk with a doctor about them until tomorrow.

See what I mean?

Here -- give a listen to the recordings of my and m's 2-song "set" at DFDF two weeks ago. In keeping with the theme of the week, the first verse and a half of Millennium's Dawn got cut off thanks to technical difficulties.

( Notes & links, as usual )

... so I still haven't done a full con report -- it's been almost a week -- so in the interim I'll just refer you to last week's "Done Since 2025-05-25" (posted on Monday) and "Thankful Thursday" posts. The only parts of the trip it doesn't cover very well are the songs we sang ( "Millennium's Dawn" deserves full S4S treatment), the hotel (the breakfast and dinner buffets, included in the room price), were noteworthy), and the travel.

Right. The travel. Tips:

• Don't leave anything in (travel guitar)Plink's case -- it could delay inspection (and did, at Hamburg).
• On arrival, stay in the plane until somebody tells you that your wheelchair is ready. Hamburg again.
• If you don't look disabled (like m, for example), take a cane and hobble out of the plane with it. This is especially true for Schiphol -- the Dutch tend to be ablist.

Yesterday N, m, and I had a good band practice/conference, including more tweaking on "Millennium's Dawn", scripting for several songs that still had only two-person arrangements, and harmony arrangements because we finally have someone in the band who can reliably sing harmony. We're also going to want a keyboard. Or two, since m is leaving tomorrow for Seattle.

Health-wise, I don't think I'm doing all that well, so it's a good thing I have an appointment with a cardiologist soon, as well as with an oncologist.

If you're interested in word origins, check out the Online Etymology Dictionary, which includes some fascinating articles as well as the dictionary entries.

( Notes & links, as usual )

This weekend, Thursday through Sunday, m and I were at D.F.D.F. | Das Frühlingsfest der Filksmusik in Hanstedt, Germany -- one of the two German filk cons. We got in a couple of good rehersals, Sunday and Wednesday. We'd signed up for a two-song set in the Main Concert, which is basically a couple of hours of two-fers interspersed with voice auction items. This is f'n brilliant, because the auction items overlap the tech setup for the next concert set, allowing the whole affair to proceed seamlessly.

Our "set" was Millennium's Dawn and Ship of Stone. We'd done quite a bit of hacking and slashing to bring "Millennium's Dawn" up to date (removing the verse that starts "There ought to be talking computers...", taking out the first chorus, and making some minor wording tweaks.) We absolutely nailed both songs.

The open filking mostly started after my bedtime, We did get to perform Gentle Arms of Eden and The Bears (middle-sized and middle-aged). m stayed up later, and their singing was also well-received. We'll be back.

There may be a proper con report in a few days.

The flight back was not fun, with hassles in both Hamburg and Schiphol. And Sunday afternoon and evening were kind of a blur due to ( a health issue )

I note in passing that the song pages for Kaleidofolk are in pretty sorry shape right now and badly in need of troubleshooting. Later this week. I also need to put up a page for our new album (in progress), Winds of Time.

( Notes & links, as usual )

It feels like it's been a busy week. I have actually gotten a few things done. (Some of them today, which doesn't really count.) Most notably, making travel arrangements to get to D.F.D.F..

It's also been a good week for finding stuff, including an obituary for my father, written by his friend and co-worker Walter Slavin [pdf]. Also, a box containing a small carpet, two plastic bins of memorabilia, and a number of old hard drives (which need to be looked at and erased before being discarded) that I thought had been left behind,

Happy Lilac Towel Day Also note that last Sunday was Mount St. Helens Day, so you'll find several more links immediately under the cut.

You'll also find the Epic v. Apple Contempt order, which is epic in more ways than one. I haven't had that much fun reading a court order since SCO v IBM. It's worth an extended quote:

In stark contrast to Apple’s initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option. To hide the truth, Vice-President of Finance, Alex Roman, outright lied under oath. Internally, Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the Injunction, but Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise. Cook chose poorly. [...] The Court refers the matter to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate.

This is an injunction, not a negotiation.

For a musical finale, here is Duetto buffo di due gatti (Duet for Two Cats). Put your drink down before listening.

( Notes & links, as usual )

So, not a bad week. (Can I accurately call it a "pretty good" week? I'm never able to make judgements like that.) But I did some guitar practice, and got out for a walk four times, and sang a little with m, who came back from the US last Sunday (bringing mail that had accumulated at our US address). N came back from New York yesterday; she gave me a little "engraving and drill pen" as an unbirthday present -- it had arrived while she was gone. j came over as well, so we had all of my Dutch family here. G made baked salmon.

Apparently I totally forgot about posting Thankful Thursday this week. Well, Thursday was pretty eventful, with a urology appointment (I can expect to hear back a week from Wednesday about what my ongoing treatment will be), some singing practice with m, and actually performing the songs we'd practiced at Eurofilk. (Is "at" the right word for attending an event by zoom?)

... and forgot to mention Mother's Day in last week's post, though that's not terribly surprising, since I have no-one to call anymore.

Yesterday I finally stopped waffling and (finally!) pre-ordered a Framework 12" Laptop. I've been eyeing it for some time, and coveting a Framework for years. I increased the specs over what I'd initially configured, but because I'd waffled over it I won't get it until Q3 sometime. Bah! I'll post a lot more once it finally ships.

Also, yesterday was the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia; there's that. Some more trans-related links under Saturday. And today is the 45th anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. (Which of course sent me down a rabbit-hole involving magma, hollow-Earth fiction, and so on.)

As for links, here from yesterdat is a list of The world's five happiest cities for 2025. Look for your hometown in the Institute for Quality of Life's Happy City Index 2025. Den Haag ranks #65, and Seattle is #80.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Today I am thankful for...

• The cats. Bronx seems to be getting a little more mellow. Finally.
• My human housemates -- N, G, and sometimes m -- and occasional visitor m's brother j.
• Warmer weather. NO thanks for anemia, which apparently makes me feel cold, especially in the evenings.
• 3-d printed geometrical models. Like the mini 120-Cell sitting on my desk right now.
• Fountain pens.
• Blue cheese. Especially good with tart apples.

Today I am grateful for...

• Good company -- j -- while putting together flatpack furniture. More of that queued up for tomorrow.
• Filk, filkers, and filking. Also filking over zoom.
• Public transit.
• Perfect walking weather. (No thanks for letting myself get out of shape -- my own damned fault of course.)
• Blue cheese and apples. (A combination Colleen introduced me to.)