I’ve looked hither and yon for the comment tag amidst the comments. I can ‘reply’but not comment.
Anyway, we are on the very last stages of the library re-do, and we shall very soon be hauling in shelves and books.
It’s looking like part of the house, rather than a pit full of boxes.
I am SO looking forward to getting the litter box and other items out of my room!
The kitchen is more often looking like a kitchen instead of adjunct to a construction site.
There has been kitty peace: Tanner owns the new den and library and the other side of the basement, our two own the upstairs.
Nothing like two Alpha cats, one backed by a Beta.
And both of us are feeling better, partly thanks to the killer air filter. Says something that one of us fresh from basement construction can walk past it and send it roaring into Defcon1 or 2 (blue light goes yellow or red).
Phys Therapy is working pretty well, to the point now I’ve got a couple of things that are really sore, because the others that were misbehaving are fixed and throwing the action mostly on a couple of problem spots. But still making progress.I’m doing things thoughtlessly that used to hurt and go very slowly.
We still have half a foot of snow on the bridge. We can rejoice that our roof melts slower than anybody elses in sight, meaning we have really good insulation.
Hope you all are warm and dry.
Lucia is female, about five months old and in excellent health. Since she is an entirely outdoor cat, I will get her back in about a week, when she is entirely well from her hysterectomy.
Someone who has decided to live here with three to seven dogs running loose in the yard deserves to be taken care of as well as this barely acceptable servant can manage.
Good for you, getting her sterilised and taking care of her like that.
I still regularly watch TinyKittens videos on YouTube, that I got to know about because of Jane’s sister.
They are a cat shelter up in Canada who take care of a troop of feral and semi-feral cats living in the “Happy Forest”, get the pregnant cats indoors so at least the babies can be socialised and the moms spayed afterwards, and often the moms become socialised and get adopted too. They do Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for those cats that want to stay feral for their own forest troop and for several barn cat colonies in their area, as well as trying to socialise the cats, especially the ones with medical needs that prevent them from doing well outside. Some formerly-feral cats get so used to humans feeding them, they start to enjoy being played with and petted; for some they start with petting at a distance with a small pool noodle to make it less scary.
Maybe your Lucia can get to enjoy some interaction too, once she gets used to you?
If she will only forgive me for this imposition on her free will, I may again be able to pet her how and when she wants to be petted and hold her how and when she wants to be held. The vet and her staff have fallen head over ears in love, it seems.
She must be pretty brave and sweet to want to deal with several dogs around. It says something about your adoptability (LOL) as a hew-mon, that she’d think you’re OK, with dogs and all, for a cat like her.
I’m getting through my self-imposed mess, I guess. Today was a little easier for part of the day. Tomorrow will be one week without Smokey. Goober is taking full advantage of this.
As a side note, I think this has shown me the difference in frequency and output between Goober and Smokey, and (sigh) all the bad behavior except a bad habit of pooping just outside the box, was Smokey. Goober is of course not entirely without occasional bad behavior, but so far, he’s been fine except for that. I still hope Smokey has now been placed in a good home or was taken in to start with, rather than some worse fate. I miss the little blighter and still can’t forgive myself for what I view as my own lapse. Living with it and hoping he’s doing better than I am. Goober thinks he got a good deal, which tells me more about the nature of the relationship from his side, with Smokey. Which at least says, well, there were reasons to give Smokey a new home. But dang, I wish it were different.
This has forced a new chapter for me and has made me take a look at myself. I feel like something has lifted, while at the same time, yeah, not happy with myself and wish it could be better, and yet, he did clearly nee a change, and Goober needed a change. So, well, life goes on in a way I did not anticipate would ever happen or I would ever do.
I’m not expecting to take in a new cat. That said, the universe often pays no attention to my ideas on things, heheh.
And I have had proof that even in my highest ideals, I’m no better in practice than anyone else. A sobering realization. I want to do better. I’m still only human. Dang it all.
The world goes on anyway, regardless. My current expectation is to let Goober have his life without playing second banana to another cat. If somehow another cat finds his or her way into our lives, well, OK, cool. But I want a time to recover and feel like I can be a good owner to a new cat, and Goober deserves a good life with me in the years he still has. After that, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess.
I’ve told myself I’m going to put energy into getting things done. It hasn’t quite kicked in fully yet.
Looking forward to the remaining episodes of the Orville and hoping for renewal. Looking forward to whenever the Expanse returns on Amazon. And looking forward to Stranger Things on July 4th, especially after seeing a new trailer.
Nothing much else at the moment, just stumbling along, wanting to get through things and somehow improve my situation.
I like The Orville. I hope the mouse agrees….
@ Joe, et al: Seen this? So most of the claims I’ve read have been wrong, and the most direct thing, the thing people don’t want to take responsibility for is the right diagnosis.
https://www.ted.com/talks/noah_wilson_rich_what_s_killing_bees_and_how_to_save_them/up-next
Very satisfying. Here I had been preaching plant food diversity just because of the Irish Potato Famine and the saying, “Two or more trees is a bridge. One tree is a disaster in waiting”.
You will not believe how happy I am to hear that my suspicions have some scientific validity!
I find things like TED talks interesting, but wish by all the gods, goddesses, and little green fishes that they provided a synopsis, or at least a transcript. I process data much more easily if I read it rather than listen to a presentation; that’s my main bug with the recent fad our management has for imparting all information via webcasts. 95% of the webcasts I am forced to attend could have been covered by a memo and/or PowerPoint.
I’m not fond of PP, but I agree about transcripts.
You can have YouTube play at a faster speed using the cog icon.
I like TED talks, but yes, I also wish a text transcript was a standard offering. I also wish food / recipe YouTube posts regularly included the dang recipe and possibly a transcript. I don’t get it when YouTubers just post audio with a static image; they could’ve put up a podcast audio file (and text transcript 😉 ) instead; smaller file, saves space. YouTube videos that put up text with no audio? I can’t always read that, such as screen shots. Aggravating to me. But overall, I like media options. I like text best, but I’ve found I need audio sometimes for ease of use these days. So I’m in favor of multiple options. I am fairly sure I process text better, because I can find myself glazing over if I listen to audio for too long at one sitting. And the new LiveStream YouTube option is getting ridiculous with some YouTubers (in SF&F fandom and other subject areas) going 30min., an hour, over an hour…. I rarely want to spend over an hour with something like that, and 30min. might be longer than I want to do often too.
I’m grateful for the options, though, and I like that people are trying new things. I just hope that services remain so that the ordinary person with no budget can do videos, audio, text, whatever, because there is a great deal of good content out there that would not be produced if it required big bucks or licensing fees or lots of subscriptions. — Streaming service subscriptions are likely to become the bane of many viewers, I think.
@Walt about the Orville — Yes, exactly. It seems right after the Disney – Fox merger, JP at Egotastic Runtimes, a fan who has been a very vocal and funny fan evangelist and reviewer, was flagged by the newly merged company for alleged media / copyright violations, even though he has been very careful in how he does things, and has been noted by the Orville creative team and stars, for how much he’s helped get fans excited for the show. He re-uploaded a modified video in hopes of not getting flagged again, but who knows what will happen there. — When the big studios don’t remember that their core business is to entertain and attract fans, audience, paying customers; when they actively run them off, as some studios have, it ultimately ends up making them look bad and cuts into their profits.
That is, by the way, something most book authors are both more aware of, and yet required to be careful of, in rights issues, I realize.
I’m hoping someone at Disney-Fox will wake up and remember their core business, and that they get lots of free publicity and new and repeat viewers (fans, customers) by letting fans do reviews and fun stuff and evangelize. Folks at the Orville’s creative team (Seth et al., stars et al.) might remind the new Disney folks of this.
That said, if the season 3 renewal talks are still ongoing, well…. Seth and his team might have a better chance with Amazon or Netflix.
That’s just my lone opinion and speculation. Hah, none of the business people on any side of it are likely to listen to my opinion. Sigh. — I’m just hoping we get more show of the quality we’ve been getting. Of course, I often hope that about TV and films, and it doesn’t mean it necessarily will happen. Hah, I wish.
Unrelated: I just saw a new trailer for Stranger Things season 3 yesterday. Oh, man, does that look like it’s going to be good. High quality story, plot, characters, music, effects, yup, like that.
Looking forward to the 2nd book for Alliance Rising, and more Foreigner. Of course, I’d also look forward to whatever else CJ, Jane, and/or Lynn have up their sleeves. 😀
I hybridize rhododendrons, a member of the ARS (chapter meeting this evening and it’ll tale me over an hour to get 16mi across town), so worked our display at the Home & Garden Show last month. People who came asking how to treat “lace bug”, Stephanitis pyroidies, but wouldn’t listen to how to do so effectively and safely because they’d already made up their mind what they would and wouldn’t do, just “drove me up the wall”! It’s this meme, “I don’t care what the facts are and won’t listen to the science, I’ve made up my mind already.”
Dealing with the public can be really frustrating and weird sometimes. Some people are so great and others, you wonder how they get along in life or deal with any people. Maybe some of them absorbed more than you thought. A lot of people get very finicky about their favorite subjects or hobbies, and plant care is personal to them. But heck, if they’re gonna ask for your advice, listening to you would seem to be a good first step. Heh.
My grandmother had a large swath of rhododendrons for as long as I can remember, in one of her back yard flowerbeds. She loved seeing plants growing well and loved when things were beautiful, as well as her small garden for vegetables, until she couldn’t do so anymore. She was nearly always a fan of natural means, especially regarding any fruits and vegetables and herbs for her cooking, though she did use some commercial products. I know she would’ve loved the pictures and gardening talk that happen here on the blog.
Paul, at least you gave them your best information.
I always figured that Chondrite and I had the best jobs in the world. Librarians get to tell people stuff for their own good all day and nobody (usually) tries to hit us.
And if they don’t listen, remember that what goes around comes around. I remember doing a full bibliographic work-up for a guy on the French revolution. It turns out this was actually for his son. Since French revolution is grade 9 history curriculum, I was curious that he didn’t seem to know anything about it from his own grade 9. A bit more inquiry turned up that back then HIS dad had done the research for HIM.
My parents bought us a set of the World Book encyclopedia in 1964. Prior to that, they had gotten the Funk and Wagnall’s set volume by volume at the grocery store. If we asked them a question, they’d tell us to go look it up. I don’t know if they expected us to give them the information after we looked it up, but if we did, then at least they knew we’d gone ahead and done it. The library in my town was fairly small, but it was only 4 blocks from my house, and I could walk up there and find what I needed if we didn’t have it in the encyclopedia. Now, our library has expanded to a larger area and has much more capability than it did in the early 1960s.
We had the Columbia Desk Encylcopedia (one massive volume, covering a lot if not deeply) and the “American People’s Encyclopedia”, which I think was sold through Sears – it had yearbooks, too. It was geared for, I think, 10 and up – enough meat for older people to use it, but the introductions to the longer articles were simple. (I still remember its article on railroad locomotives explained the classification system: 4-4-2 is four wheels on the truck under the front end, four drivers, and two trailing wheels under the cab.)
I’ve been listening to the Audible version of Downbelow Station.
I have a greyhound who’s an ex-racer. His racing name was CRT Qadeer. (He had brothers named Quigley and Quick n’Easy.) His kennel nickname (aka “call name”) was Q. He keeps hearing his call-name from the speaker, and he’s confused.
Grrr, I have now developed bursitis, a bursa inflammation in my left shoulder, which hurts a lot. It means I won’t be able to play the GW2 game, maybe for months: I have to be careful about typing and mousing, even righthanded, as I don’t want to strain that side as well now I’ve got to do everything else that is really necessary one-handed.
Sorry, I’ve been on at the wrong times anyway lately to see Jane, but this means I just won’t be playing at all for a while.
Maybe my nephew can find a friend to keep the account alive…
Would a track-ball mouse be helpful? You use your thumb to roll the ball (moving the cursor), and use a finger to click, but you don’t move the mouse at all, so your shoulder isn’t involved in anything. I do a lot of text editing, and mousing everywhere to select text was hard on my arm, and also required a lot of mouse-pad space my work setup doesn’t have (because I have a 24″ monitor, so selecting text across the screen was difficult). I can just rest my arm on a pillow and not move anything but thumb and fingers; I don’t move my wrist or arm.
That might work, if it doesn’t increase the chance of RSI for that thumb. I’m definitely going to talk to my doctor about a better ergonomic mouse; some colleagues have a rather large one, where your hand rests vertically on the pinky-side; let’s see what she advises.
I was mousing lefthanded the last couple of months because before that, my right shoulder and arm got stiff from all the computerwork, so I really will have to change something to avoid trouble in future.
As we have a clean desk policy and no fixed working space, I have to cart around my laptop and any other equipment I need until I find a free desk each morning, so weight and size are considerations too, as well as budget (we get a replacement budget once per 3 years, and I’ve just spent mine last summer).
For now, I’m off work for a week to rest the arm, else I’d risk a frozen shoulder, they said.
There’s not much to be done with one arm except read, so time for a binge (re)read to take my mind off the soreness and boredom!
“…I have a 24″ monitor, so selecting text across the screen was difficult…”
Look for mouse pointer speed deep in Settings. The size of the screen shouldn’t matter. You should be able to put the heel of your hand on the mousepad and move all over the screen with just your fingers. The mouse pointer should move several times as far when you move it quickly instead of slowly.
Still, a trackball or just a different mouse may help. I’ve got a Logitech. But a trackball is very different; you’ll need a whole new set of muscle memories.
No matter who you buy your computer from, there’s some chance a given design will just have an awful something: mouse, keyboard,… This computer’s original keyboard was a joke: I usually like cheap keyboards–the clicky ones annoy me–but my microwave keypad had more feel. Quickly replaced!
Ow! Sorry to hear that, Hanneke. I don’t know how to resolve the game-play, which I presume requires active manipulation, but maybe you could use dictation/voice-to-word recognition software for posting comments, so we still have the pleasure of your company over the next months.
Many ow, so pain! I’m off for a couple of days, and am revisiting an old favorite MMORPG, Pirates of the Burning Sea. I stopped playing perhaps 6 years ago. In the meantime, my neck and upper back have decided they aren’t up to the rigors of playing for more than a couple hours at a time, and informed me so yesterday.
Hanneke, ouch. — Things like a good chiropractor, or swimming pool therapy, may help ease your shoulder and other joints. At least the swimming is also enjoyable, especially with summer coming up.