Reading

Current Location: In the recliner
Current Music: NHK-World Newsline

Entry tags:

Cut that out!

We got a call from Temecula Healthcare Center after 2300. Dad's blood sugar tanked very low (again?!), but they got it back up without an ER trip. Dad does go below 20 on occasion, where normal is roughly 80-130 mg/dl. That's not good.

Bear is doing well. No seizures, and Chris doses her with phenobarbital in a bacon-flavored paste that she really likes. Achilles still scares her at times, and he tries to look nonthreatening to soothe her. She let him sniff her rear, but sniffing noses is a seldom thing with them. She gets too nervous. Monroe misses sheet fight with Dad.

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for...

Health insurance.
Apps that work reliably and well. (Thereby excluding the ones that don't, of which there is a greater number.)
Software that retains backward compatibility. (Thereby specifically excluding Python 3.)
Being alive. That is deliberately not saying much at this point.
Ticia. Thanks to Bronx is limited to those occasions when he isn't being nippy.

NO thanks to ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES USING A FSCKING PHONE.

Current Mood: reflective
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: For Amy

Entry tags:

River: Amethyst Rose: 35

Well. Today is my daughter Amethyst's 35th birthday. (I used present tense two years ago, and it still feels right. Past conditional is awkward and just plain wrong. If we can celebrate Washington's Birthday, I can celebrate Ame's.) This time last year her birthday fell on a Sunday, so it got attached to the weekly "Done Since" post. This year she has her own day back, and her own post.

Last year, too, we were getting ready to move to Den Haag; we have been here for ten months now.

G and I just raised a glass in her honor a little while ago, and I've sung her song, "For Amy". I don't seem to have much to say tonight.

"That's ok, Dad; neither do I."

"Good night, Ame."

Current Mood: underslept, probably
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

Entry tags:

Done Since 2025-07-27

It has not been a very productive week, but I did manage to take a walk every day except Friday. Monday's was short, but other than that I've been getting to the nearest cross street North, for a total of 1.2km (3/4 of a mile) round trip. Sometimes, like today, just barely. But still.

And I've been getting quite a lot of cat cuddle, though that's also contributed to what I suspect is chronic sleep-deprivation. Thank you, Bronx. :/ Wednesday G and I raised a glass in honor of the lovely Desti, our household's incarnation of Bast, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge two years ago.

In a couple of news articles I linked to last Sunday, Solar is now 41% cheaper than fossil fuels, new UN report finds: 'The sun is rising on a clean energy age', and The year of the European Union Linux desktop may finally arrive, thanks to a perfectly understandable desire for digital sovereignty.

On the other hand, Tom Lehrer is dead. But even if his website, where he dropped all of his songs into the public domain, goes away, his legacy will live on at The Internet Archive

On the gripping hand, if you haven't tried "vibe coding", enjoy this website of AI Coding Horrors, of which this is one of the worst examples. If you have been vibe coding, good luck with that.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Current Mood: under-caffeinated
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

Entry tags:

recurring

Rabbit rabbit rabbit!

Welcome to August, 2025!

Current Mood: grateful
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag

Entry tags:

thamks

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for...

Living in a sane country. (Nederland, in case you've just tuned in.)
Our cats, both the ones we have now, and the ones we have lost.
Having two of N's friends over for lunch.
Modular, repairable, future-proof Framework laptops, with the 12" touch-screen convertable coming out at a low enough price to make buying one almost a no-brainer. (And I am a bear of very little brain at this point.)
Discovering a new (to us) restaurant -- Ali's Lebanese Incredible Sandwiches -- that delivers.
Ventoy
Maybe the long-awaited Year of the Linux Desktop.

Current Mood: does a headache count?
Current Location: Schildhaven in Den Haag
Current Music: earworm: KippleFish: Jobson's Amen

Entry tags:

done,
links

Done Since 2025-07-20

This week seems to have passed very quickly. Six walks -- good. Three guitar practice sessions; four if you count a song played at Eurofilk -- not so good. I spent (too) much of the week continuing to configure the new Framework Laptop 12 (which arrived last Friday and, based on its color, has acquired the node name Lilac). (The official name for the color is "lavender", but Lilac is easier to say and type, and I am bad at color names anyway.)

I should probably do another post on how I configure Linux systems to boot multiple distributions. (The last one was Setting Up Sable, back in 2020, and it's actually still pretty good. Maybe I'll combine it with the Framework 12 review, coming soon.) The newest complication was my decision to leave Secure Boot turned on. There are still a few glitches, but it works.

Here, have another Framework 12 review while you're waiting for mine: The Best Laptop on Earth... is almost too easy to fix. - YT

As long as I'm linking cool stuff, Mobility scooter Relync R2 is our folding scooter, AKA (tin)Lizzy. She's a bit heavy -- just at the edge of my lift limit -- but she folds and unfolds in five seconds flat.

And finally a couple of links I ran across today (so they'll be in next Sunday's post): Solar is now 41% cheaper than fossil fuels, new UN report finds: 'The sun is rising on a clean energy age' (with a tip of the hat to ysabetwordsmith). And this visualization of the mind-blowing Terrell-Penrose effect.

( Notes & links, as usual )

(no subject)

Just got out of a week intubated in the icu (not outta the woods but on the mend) and had lost my ability to walk I felt proud of being able to walk around as a fat person so I was embarrassed and described myself as ”weak as a newborn kitten” but when I thought about it I realized kittens come out pretty darn weak but they’re designed to develop into killing machines whch they do in short order yeah I got this. No plans to kill any one just, metaphors have power