We’re ok here. And just this hour got word that Jane is out of surgery and will be home today.
We didn’t get too badly hit by the weather, but my second vaccination had to be postponed because of the weather delaying planes—as in, they didn’t want to ship during the storm. They say they’ll tell me when my revised appointment is.
Spokane is otherwise prepared for this kind of weather. Our roof will withstand a couple of feet of snow, easy, and our insulation is in the walls and overhead, on both the underside of the roof and atop the ceilings, while our pipes run through the basement, under the main floor. The insulation is 8″ thick and rated for this kind of cold. Unhappily—not the case down south where venting heat and withstanding wind and rain are the priorities.
I am very worried about Ben. He seems to have just gotten a break, and now he’s in the middle of one of the hard hit areas, in Houston.
I recall my vet saying something about periodic low-cost say/neuter vaccination programs near one of the grocery stores, but that’s been mover a year ago now, so I should ask again. I’ll do a search too; good idea. I know the vet’s rule is that any animal must have their shots at least started before they can be boarded or stay for surgery, so as to protect the other animal patients from catching something.
Brindle has been with me over 1/4 year now, and she’s a funny little mix of very tame with a wild streak. If she has learned that “kitty-kitty-kitty” means, “come here, something good for you,” or, “I want to see you,” or “it’s OK, you’re OK, come here, I’m here for you,” she hasn’t really shown it; and since I can’t see well enough, that has reinforced her tendency to avoid my patch or if I lean down to pet her or pick her up. Usually. Sometimes, she forgets, or she wants to play. So behaviorally, this came up with her playing hard to get when she got outside.
But oh, my once too-quiet kitten has (finally) discovered her meow, to such an extent that today, I thought maybe she’d started coming into heat. But no, I think this is, “hey, I want attention, come get me, I don’t want to come to you!” (Or something like that) along with, “Oh, I really want to go outside again! Lemme out! NaaOOww!” Heh. I am really hoping this new game gets old fast plus, that she will realize she can come to me when I call for her. (Her hearing is fine, and I think her vision is too.) So today has been wearing on the human’s nerves, and said kitten has had a grand old time. Goober is simply hanging out, avoiding her picking on him. Brindle show every sign of being a large (not petite), chunky young lady. She’s still growing and is currently quite chunky, sort of “hobby” is the cat fancier’s term. I feel sure she is a cousin or sibling to Ned and maybe to Curry and Mystic, or else a daughter or granddaughter to the latter two males. Her looks and her behavior show some of each of their personality traits. At some future point, after Goober, when I’m pretty sure I’ll get another cat so Brindle won’t be solo, it is going to get really interesting finding a match who doesn’t get buffaloed or doesn’t devolve into fights back and forth, as Brindle is an Alpha girl. She will need a cat companion who can balance that. But I never know how things will turn out. Only once (Goober) did I get a cat as a gift when I didn’t have “shown up,” except Ned, given to me too, but he “showed up” with the teens who brought him to me. Brindle continually reminds me of him. The universe has a way of giving us 2nd and 3rd chances, but also of reminding us when and if we screw up. Karma, I guess. But I’m glad she’s still here; I just wish I or Ned or both of us had done better. (I still can’t tell if I made the right tough choice or just didn’t find the right way to get through to Ned. I miss him, but I hope he got a good home. It bothers me that I didn’t have a sure way then to get him a home or shelter for certain. That’s just how I am, I guessss.)
I have not seen Mystic or the calico adult since the storm and freeze; i.e., since last Sunday before it got truly bad. I think they have one or more hote bases to get shelter with someone. I hope I’ll see them again soon to know they are OK. Mystic once again had a bedraggled, matted place on his tail; he’s a longhair.
—–
I spent most of the working day today on hold with customer support to get not even a handful of things straightened out in what I’d thought would not take more than an hour or two this morning, so not much else got done. Frustrating, and I’m going to watch a movie tonight (the Greatest Showman) which I had not seen when it came out.
LOL, a raft of deliveries showed up yesterday afternoon, so the neighbor kids said, “You the Box Man!” (and had questions, and thought maybe I’d just give them each a box…and one or two kids apparently did try to make off with a box each, caught by an adult and returned to me: Big Mama does not let her kids get away with that. Many thanks to her, and I wish we’d exchanged names. Dang, actual conversation, both with the kids and the mom or grandma. — Things arrived safe and sound. Items I’d ordered, and a grocery order, are still due in, as are items from the Wavy Navy team. Everything got delayed by the storm’s aftermath. (one of the kids was asking questions; one was basically joshing me; the two (I don’t know which, but younger boys) who made off with a box each, and then got caught, were young enough to think they could do that; that I’d “give” them a box, taking advantage of the commotion, and not old enough or smart enough to realize the two big holes in that plan. (1) No, I wouldn’t just give them a box or be talked into it, and that they’d try to sneak off with one; (2) that, duh, an adult (and maybe other kids) would catch them and make them return them. (None of the group was anywhere past 12 or 13, so young enough to try to excuse themselves out of it, without realizing that obviously wouldn’t work.) But hmm, so I know at least two kids would try to take other people’s mail. (I am sure they got a lecture and maybe more from the woman, who was, I think a relative.
The other fun bit: So here I was, trying to straighten out online logins and payments, etc. Of course, each wanted me to reset my passwords, plus other tedious merry-go-round stuff.
The funny part: One of the auto-suggested strong passwords, provided by the O.S., contained a very, very potent Anglo-Saxon cuss word, which I saw while on the phone with a customer service rep. Boy, am I glad I didn’t say anything when I read that and realized what it had done! No, I don’t accept those auto-generated passwords, as they are too long to see past the text box, and nothing I could ever remember. So, ah, I told it no, thanks, I didn’t want to do that, haha, and entered a sane password. — I was very surprised it would generate one with a cusss word in it, but maybe it was really a random occurrence. Oh, if you’d seen my face and heard my thoughts, hahaha!
Possibly, my computer doesn’t have a high opinion of that company’s service. (Hah.) Or maybe my computer has been lonely as was hoping for a date with their computer. I wouldn’t know. Heheh.
—–
I had read about half of Alliance Rising before things went out the airlock here. (I guess my starship ran “Pit pf Gas.”) (But even Mal didn’t have to wait that long!)
Alliance Rising is the title you want to look for, Deesha; The Hinder Stars is the subtitle, but probably won’t show up in a search. (Amazon and Audible for the US both know the book as Alliance Rising.) I don’t think there’s anything showing for the second volume, or for the next Foreigner book. A new audiobook for CJ did show up. I think it was one of her shorts collections, but I know it was not Visible Light. (I was downloading previous purchases.)
Had the follow up colonoscopy from last year’s surgery on Monday. My doc is very pleased, says everything looks healthy; the surgical site is in great shape, *and* that my prep was excellent because it was so clean. So it’s worth it to do it right folks. Five years clean is what what is wanted before it’s a ‘cure'(?) Odd to think that I will be in my eighties by then. So get those colonoscopies, my salads. They are life savers.
Ben, happy to see you back. There is a complete edition of of CJ’s short works including Visible Light. Can’t remember the name of it off hand; I will have to look through my completely disorganized shelves.
It’s “The Collected Short Fiction of CJ Cherryh”, published by DAW. It has most of her short fiction, missing some rarities and stories published after it was printed of course.
Go for the hardback or trade paperback, used at less than $10, it’s a big volume. Also on Kindle from Amazon.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-collected-short-fiction-of-cj-cherryh_cj-cherryh/636941/#edition=4153191&idiq=5838569
Excellent results & outcome, SmartCat!
Just looked on Amazon, don’t see anything from Audible.
I finally got my appointment! 3/16
IMNSHO, several levels of the state public health management should be fired for incompetence, when there’s a lull, not least for accepting the design & implementation of the public-facing online registration website. It is flat “unacceptable”.
I have been trying to get an appointment for the last 3 weeks, and have been unable to. Our Admin has been promising us for at least that long that as ‘essential workers’ we are at the top of the list for vaccinations, and they will let us know as soon as vaccines can be scheduled for us. Earlier this week, prison inmates here got vaccinated, but not essential workers. Go figure.
So if you steal a library book…. OK, no, that wouldn’t work for a number of reasons. Hahaha. So much for that life of crime….
* Apple’s Music (successor to iTunes) really, really wants ppl to sign up for their month’s free trial, so they’ll forget it and be charged at minimum $9.99 per month thereafter. No, thanks. No option not to try it. One has to go into one’s account and dig down into Manange Subscriptions, Edit, and specifically Cancel Subscription. (And so far, I’ve had to do this twice, because it’ll bring it up again after a search through my library of past purchases.) Their TV-Movie-Video app really wants to divert one to Watch Now and buy or subscribe further. — I am not at all impressed and despite a large library over the past many years, I intend to avoid both as much as possible and watch/listen on Amazon Prime. They too want you to subscribe to Amazon Music, but are not as pushy about it, so I can avoid it. I am actually considering that if I get any more videos or music, I may get physical media. But I also don’t intend to do much, to save for other things. Looks like I won’t be able to dodge Apple’s grubby little system for a while, and may have to be vigilant about Unsubscribing any time I watch a prior purchase or search among my purchases or their other listings on their store. Phooey. I wonder if Apple will get themselves into a class action suit over it, like other streaming / software companies have. Way to make a customer very annoyed, Apple.
* The new book is the Audible audiobooks version of C.J.’s Alliance Space, Alliance-Union universe series, which has two novels in one volume: Merchaner’s Luck and 40,000 in Gehenna, both well-loved. I didn’t look to see when the audiobook came out, but it’s been while I was offline. Of course, the ebook edition has been out for a few years. However, Alliance Rising is not yet out in audiobook, only in ebook and print (and presumably only US/CAN and perhaps UK editions; I don’t know about elsewhere).
* A couple of items were stuffed into my P.O. Box, (odd, it insists on capitalizing that), but I haven’t yet opened them. Also in were some matches and food items from the Wavy Navy team. My own (first new) grocery delivery got delivered yesterday, to much rejoicing. There were substitutions, not bad but puzzling. Either I ordered 2 lb. of hamburger as 1 lb. each and they sent a single 2 lb., or they upped it to make up for some missing item. Other minor stuff. But now I have meat and a little fish and salads, besides what the Wavy Navy sent. The apt. mgr. who’s been helping me called and is still in the midst of getting paperwork submitted for rent assistance from (I believe it is) the state level rather than federal, this go-round. Mail items are still delayed from the storm 10 days ago, so some things are still due in from the Wavy Navy and from my own recent orders. — And I had to order stamps and light bulbs for various fixtures: my refrigerator, my sink kitchen light, and my breakfast/dining light. I’d tried twice for the refrigerator light, but they sent the wrong size bulbs. This time, I think I’ve got it, but one try was (relatively) cheap while the Frigidaire brand is ridiculously pricey, and my grocery store’s website doesn’t list these, even though I think they have them in-store as a generic item. Hoping I get the right part and it works, that the fixture itself didn’t burn out. Little stuff like this keeps cropping up. The can opener (conventional hand can opener) I was sent broke on first contact, and a washer or other part rolled who-knows-where, so I’d ordered another type. The storm delayed them, but that arrived yesterday and will get tested out. (I didn’t have luck with the senior easy-grip can opener , and have to figure out what will reliably get it to hold the can and pierce the lid and go around consistency. Had not expected that to be vexing.) All tedious little stuff, no big problems besides what’s ongoing.
—–
Smartcat, I’m so glad you’re OK, plus I hope Jane is recovering fine at home. Anyone brae enough to do both the prep and test for a colonoscopy deserves, well, something soothing for their posterior, plus a real treat when they feel like eating again. I helped my grandmother through several, and oh, not nice for her, not nice for me.
Brindle has still discovered her meow and keeps (loudly) asking to go out. I thought, worried, maybe she’s gone into heat way early, but no, I think she just really, really wants out, and is testing me, and has not figured out how this two-way feline-human communication thing is supposed to work. Heh. And that’s two Earth-based lifeforms, both mammals. How we would actually communicate with aliens and be understood? I don’t know.
Trying to get a little done around here, but I feel like I’m just chipping away at it, not much notable progress yet.
I have twice now had no luck getting the right syntax or path or something, for web fonts to work for web page projects, mostly stuff I have had in my archives of story bits. I can’t figure out what I’ve got wrong, and on one, the other fonts work just fine, no issues, while the first set issn’t recognized, and my editor has a neat little command I hadn’t seen before, to copy the path or url for an item so you know it’s entered right. I’m stumped and I’d tried other fonts first for both problems. So I feel very frustrated that I can’t find out what I’ve got wrong, or if the newly-downloaded file is also corrupted, like I took the old files to be. Aggravating. I have not touched my fonts in almost two weeks, and still nervous iff I will be able to see well enough to continue doing fonts.
* Writing hasn’t happened yet. Nor drawing nor calligraphy practice. I am so out of practice for drawing and calligraphy….
* I watched the Greatest Showman and loved its message, despite knowing this is a glossed-over version and not the reality of what P.T. Barnum was like. I don’t know much about that. Even so, the songs and the movie were very good and uplifting, and oh, can I identify with wanting that. One has to overcome one’s own weaknesses as well as what life throws at one. Neither is an easy thing. One could wish for the struggle to be easier from time to time. Anyway, great message to the movie and great songs. I can so relate.
Brindle wants Outside, Outside, Meow, Meow, again. Bless her mouthy little self. — Their new tags are due to arrive any day now.
Hoping everyone’s doing better. It has turned warm here again. You wouldn’t think it could have been down to 17 or 18 degrees not two weeks ago. Out weather can be so odd, but this must be something of a record for how fast it went from a hard freeze to warming up in less than two weeks. Not complaining. Very glad to have electricity and not be freezing my posterior off. Hah, it was too cold, even inside, for refrigerator / freezer contents even to thaw. So there are some good points to it all after all. I hope others have been fortunate with the bad winter weather and health and housing and their pets.
I will likely be rather quiet, relatively speaking. I feel so relieved, but it’s partly an illusion, as things are still precarious. It’s just that my mind wants to think I’m fine now, because necessities are OK for a bit. Take care, everyone.
Officially, my state is vaccinating people down to age 65, plus essential workers, teachers, and some others. Practically, they’re only doing second shots for people who already have first shots, even if you’re over 70, and that assumes you can find a location within 25 miles of you.
My primary-care guy was after me to get a colonoscopy, but I still haven’t done it. For one thing, it’s a PITA to get a ride. And when I was going through assorted stuff before tarting chemo, they did a CT and a PET scan, and found no signs of trouble in that area.
The weather here has been dry and, frequently, windy. Tonight and tomorrow, the forecast is for 35 gusting to 50mph. I plan to stay home: it’s hard driving in those conditions! (Walking is worse.) Should be a one-day thing this time, but more (not nearly as bad) is expected Sunday.
So glad everybody is ok, particularly those of you down south. I’ve been kind of swamped with stuff—Jane’s doing great, but can’t bend over well yet, and the cats get helpful and knock things off. And when it’s a stack of papers, well….
Yep, making progress on Alliance 2, which doesn;t have an official title yet. The neuropathy is still bothering me, particularly when I have to touch anything rough or prickly…it’s diminished a bit, but the doc put me on a med that can cause seizures if you mess with its doses or try to come off it too fast…I’d rather not rely on it, but it at least has my hands a bit more fit for the keyboard. I’ll let little errors go, because it’s a pita to try to find and fix them. On book manuscript I have to be far more precise.
Jane’s up and about and able to get to the phys therapy sessions now, if I drive. Early on, she missed one appointment because she couldn;t get into the passenger seat—left leg was operated on. And darn sure couldn;’t drive.
I get my weather-postponed Covid shot this afternoon late. Of course it’s snowing. It always snows when we have an appointment. Jane will go with me — second shots can get a reaction, and she could drive, she says, if she had to. Given slick streets and a San Francisco-style hill we have to get down, I’m not totally happy with that plan. Just thinking about that now, it occurs to me if we turned left instead of right when leaving that parking garage, we could get to a flatter street by going opposite to home for a few blocks.
Anyway, we’ll cope. We’re ok with snow up here in Spokane. One thing for those of you down south, metal square-ended shovels of the sort you use with light stuff like grain, etc, make real good snow shovels if you can’t find the real thing. We’re using one on our back walk because the light plastic ones tend to get mis-filed in the locked shed during the summer, and we have not a clue. Maybe they wandered off on two feet, but we are now down to one, which resides near the front porch.
The house is an absolute pit. Having to get everything shipped, we have cardboard and more cardboard and packing stuff that fills up the recycling bin, and there is no chance during the Covid lockdown of getting the charity people to pick up the garage full of stuff we have for them, so we have Jane;s car wintering on the concrete pad in the back yard and the garage full of things too good for the dump, but that we don’t need.
Small problem, at least, except when it comes to trying to get rid of other stuff that I’d like to move out. There’s a lot of that, and a stairs to navigate. Jane and I are a collective mess: she can’t climb stairs yet and I who can climb stairs can’t carry stuff. But we’ll figure it out.
As somebody said, “Getting old ain’t for sissies!”
But I keep some waste corrugated cardboard around. It fits the middle space between newspaper and an abundance of small kindling when trying to start a fireplace or wood stove. Newspaper lights easily, gets the draft started, but burns out too fast. Corrugated cardboard lights easily enough, burns longer, and can start larger kindling or smaller wood. The great benefit is corrugations provides channels for oxygen.
If I had a wood stove or fireplace, that’s what I would use the torn-up cardboard cat scratching pads for!
CJ, for trips up and down the stairs, maybe keeping a duffel bag with a sling or backpack handy for carrying things would help. Full cups of coffee, I dunno 😀 Hmmm, I know the Atevi have many flavors of tea, but is coffee available via trade from Mospheira? Might it be something they would be interested in?
After her hip operation Mom had several of those cheap cotton tote bags with long shoulder-slinging handles (that one is given sometimes as advertising, and accumulate unused in a drawer) hanging off the end of the banister, upstairs and down, so she could carry small & light stuff up or down stairs slung round her neck, and use both hands for holding on.
It doesn’t work for carrying a filled cup, but an empty one can be put in the bag to be taken to the kitchen.
Very much looking forward to Alliance Rising 2. I miss the Alliance-Union universe and of course the Chanur / Compact portion of it too.
Poor Jane and CJ. Yep, getting older is a pain, and not for sissies, that’s sure. CJ, does capsaicin cream help with the neuropathy? Just an idea. My mom loved hot-spicy (client, chili-head), so she ate more hot peppers in an attempt to combat her diabetic neuropathy. Hah, I don’t know how much it helped her hands and feet, but she enjoyed the peppers! I, on the other hand, can only deal with mild to low heat from peppers. My tolerance is only slightly better than when I was younger.
I had a couple of bright ideas, I thought: I ordered half-letter size (5.5×8.5in) paper, and this might be a neat idea for some projects. I have not yet tested it out, but expect my laser printer will be fine with it. The other bright idea may not work: I saw black paper and thought, hmm, well, if I could get white ink, that might be easier to see, plus might be “cool” for “space” science fiction pages. Easier to print white and color on black than to exhaust a black laser toner or inkjet cartridge, right? Ah, except I had no luck finding white ink among the ocean of black cartridges when I tried to search for white ink cartridges. So I guess that idea is out. If someone knows there is an alternative, it would be worth some experimenting. (I considered briefly an inkjet printer so as not to have to change out my laser printer’s toner cartridges. But I haven’t done any such thing yet, and if no white’s available, then it doesn’t need to happen anyway. Just a thought.
However, I want to see if I can get white calligraphy ink, either the bottles/jars or the fountain pen cartridges. That and black or very dark paper might make striking stuff. My calligraphy is so out of practice it’s pitiful.
Side Issue: I finally got the right refrigerator light bulbs, but alas, no joy, the little man inside the refrigerator has died or moved away entirely. (Either there’s a fuse out or a switchh ooff, or it’s just plain dead.) I replaced the bulb, and no light. Very aggravating. I have to use a flashlight or feel by hand for things in the dark cavern of the fridge. I may submit a work order to the apartment complex, but I don’t know if it’ll be worth fixing. No real need to replace the fridge, although a tight seal would be appreciated.
Items delayed by the storm are still due in.
To the Wavy Navy team: please, folks, hold off on puppy/kitty training pads for at least a month. I am now overstocked. Thanks for the shipment!
Brindle (the new-ish kitten) got outside in the Parking lot again between 4 and 5 pm. It’s now 7 pm. She’s still right around in earshot; I can hear her collar bell, but any time I try to get near her, she darts off, “playing” and “hard to get.” Just now, I thought she might come in, but no, she still wants to be out there more than she wants to come to me. Never mind people, cars, maybe dogs, other cats, noises going on. I guess she’s used to all that. She’s not hungry right now. (I tried the food bribe, didn’t’t work.) I will keep trying at intervals, but so far, I guess I’ve been checking too soon. I think she’s making her choice to be an outside cat. Or at least, she hasn’t gotten her fill of it yet. But out there, she can get FIV, FeLV, and/or worms or bacteria, as other cats and dogs here have them. I’m deeply saddened and worried for her, and I hope I can get her back in this evening. If not, I will have to let her stay out there until she’s ready to come back, and then, well, who knows if she’ll want to stay in or go back out all the time. I may have to get used to having her as an indoor-outdoor or wholly outdoor cat. I’ve made the commitment to her and I’d thought we were bonded just fine, very strongly. But she wants to be out there right now, and in a couple of weeks or so, she’ll be old enough, she will come into heat eventually. (My best guess is she will be around six months old in mid-March.) Or she may stay away and not come unless she wants to. So I don’t know right now, and I’m facing that I may have lost her for good this time. Only it’s not good, and if she stays gone, I think it’ll be a long while before I get another cat. Meanwhile, I’ll take care of Goober as long as he’s still around. So I hope Brindle comes back so she can still have her permanent home base here. But right now, I’m worried she’s choosing to stay out, to leave home. I hope for better. I hope she’ll get her fill of it and come back to stay. Dang it all.
I got a note that there will be electricians by to check the apartments tomorrow. I intend to remind them about the front porch light (again) and hope it’ll get fixed for real this time. I hope to get across what’s really wrong, between the porch light and the living room wall outlet inside on the same wall. No knowing if it’ll get fixed. But they’re supposed to do their inspection for the city regs, so maybe it’ll get done.
Hi Wavy Navy Team, and regulars,
About 15 min after I sent the prior email to the team, saying Brindle still wasn’t back, I went out to call Brindle again and got no answer. I kept calling. Then a teenage girl asked , “Is this your cat?” and I described her (and her collar). Heh, sure enough, that was chunky little Brindle, quite content to be held by the girl, then passed along to me. I thanked the girl very much, twice, and went back in with Bindle. Brindle promptly wanted down and zipped in to use the litterbox. Hahah, I guess I know how I rate, and I guess when ya gotta go, ya gotta go! Oh well, she’s safe and sound and home again. She gave everything a once over, smelling. Yep, everything’s still here. I let her eat Goober’s leftovers. He didn’t eat most of his moist food, the second time he’s done that, which means he’s getting worse. I petted them both, told Brindle she was still a good kitty and I was glad she was home, told Goober much the same, and stopped to heat some soup.
What an evening! Yeesh. Just glad she’s home and in one piece, unharmed. I’m glad she found someone friendly who also cared, and who had surely heard me calling before. Unfortunately, the girl and I didn’t excange names, but I’m gvery glad she was around and that Brindle liked her. I’d much rather that than for her to get run off.
So all is well again. I doubt Brindle has this out of her system. I will keep watch, but just like tonight, I can’t always keep her from darting out.
Thanks to all of you for concern and good thoughts.
ReadyGuy and I managed to get our Moderna 1st doses yesterday morning. I checked the state vaccine checker late in the evening Monday night and they had opened up a new site’s appointments sometime after 5pm. The site was at a rural clinic 35 miles from home. The small town was not prepared at all. Originally they were supposed to get 400 doses. On Wednesday they were informed they’d get 1000 doses, so they opened up distro to any county residents 65+. What should have taken less than a half hour in the small town was 2.5 hours in our car waiting in lines. All totaled we spent almost 4 hours getting our jabs, but it was a fine birthday present for me. Reservations for 2nd dose have been made.
It is very good to hear that Associates are beginning to get their needed vaccinations!
I am now two weeks post-booster (Moderna) and my outlook on the future has totally improved. I will say that my state’s administration of the vaccine program started poorly with a health district by district approach. I actually received my vaccines through the local hospital as an end-of-the-day-finish-the-vial fill in after my wife received her official “health provider” appointment. It is not so amusing that the health district only called me yesterday for my official slot.
We were both lucky for side-effects: headaches, muscle aches for the two days after the second vaccine, my wife had a slight fever and chills that I avoided. But the weight that lifted with that second shot made it all worthwhile.
Virginia is now in its Phase 1b which includes K-12 educators, 65+, 64- with select medical conditions, and a few other categories of essential workers. They must be getting more supply now of the vaccine because they are opening up clinics at various pharmacies now.
I wish all of you good fortune in attaining your vaccines.
I made an appt. for Tuesday morning for Goober and Brindle at the vet. Brindle will need to be spayed soon, and needs her first checkup and shots. Goober…I don’t know what to think. Today, I cleaned up several bad messes, he’s way too thin, he’s sleeping most of the time, he hasn’t eaten his moist food much the past two days, yet he seems OK; he still has the will to live. After cleaning up again, I mopped the bathroom, and worried whether it’s Goober’s time to go. I will hope for better times this weekend and better news from the vet for him and her both. Their new tags still aren’t here yet.
No visit from the electricians to check my apartment per mgmt. note for city inspection, but last time there were any inspections, it extended for several days, more than predicted.
Amazon now says items I’d ordered before the storm may have been lost, so I may have to get a refund and reorder. Face masks, etc.
I’ve been fiddling with story / RPG gaming ideas, even though I’ve never done RPG / dungeon tabletop games like D&D or the old Star Trek FASA RPG from the 80’s. This may or may not pan out, but it’s some world-building from an angle I’ve never tried before, and I may get story plot lines out of this approach, so I’m letting it proceed to see how it goes.
I know there are a few gamers on here, for online or tabletop games. If anyone has any suggestions on an approach to create a game, such as open-source RPG gaming systems to base rules on, it’d be a big help. If I get far enough along, I’d like a couple of people to take a look at what I have then, to see if it looks playable and what holes or other problems it has that need to be fixed, or suggestions for improvements and additions.
Hey, what do you call a spacefaring Ancient Greek soldier starship? — A Hop-Light! Heheh. (Ouch, sorry, couldn’t keep it to myself. Heheh.)
BCS, there are TONS of gaming systems out there. D&D is a classic that almost all people who play RPGs know; you should be able to get used rule books cheap, I think they are on version 5 point something by now. Our old standby is a system called Champions or Hero System; we like it because you can do almost any genre easily: prehistoric, Greco-Roman, medieval, on through modern and science fiction, with or without magic and psychic abilities. If you have a good story you want to tell, that is the most important thing, and finding the right gaming system to put it in comes later. I can send you synapses of some of the games our group has run over the last 20-odd years.
Synapses? 🙂 synopses I think you mean – isn’t it wonderful what a difference one vowel can make, and there are nevertheless some writing systems that don’t feel the need to write down the vowels in their language!
I’m following Crash Course Linguistics on YouTube, and the variety that humans have come up with, and that all work for their users, is astonishing and marvellous!
I think you’re right — typewriter dyslexia R us!
See what the vet says when you take Goober in for his checkup. If he is that bad off, you may be going in with 1 cat and leaving with zero 🙁
Heh, I could use a few extra neurons to go with those synapses! ;D But some synopses would be good too! (My brain went too literal for a moment before my internal typo correction system caught it.)
Thanks much for the tip, I’ll see what I can find on that system. I (cough) ordered a D&D Stranger Things Starter Set, because, well, you know, reasons. :rolls-eyes: 🙂 That should give me something to start with and then the rules set / system you suggested.
I just watched a video on the Indus Script (the Harappan writing system from the civilization way before the Indo-Aryan Indo-Europeans arrived, conquered, and Sanskrit and Devanagari started). The Indus Script is still undeciphered due to no 2nd or 3rd language to provide a key. — I hadn’t run across Crash Course Linguistics on YouTube, and will be sure to check them. Thanks!
(I have had in mind to try Devanagari as a jumping off point, an inspiration, for a mahen chase writing system. I keep thinking maybe they’d do something syllabic, but had an inspiration about the vowels. It would still need much fiddling to get something that wasn’t obviously derived, and I want it to look alien. I may do something else ultimately, but it’s been in the back of my mind for a while.)
My keyboard nearly self-destructed, so I’ve had to order a new one. Don’t know if it was the cats or me or just age, but a couple of the key caps have disappeared without warning earlier today. I did manage to avoid the over $100 dollar something Mac-compatible keyboard, thankfully. But the keyboard I’ve been using is no longe made; bummer.
About Goober — He’s been happier and, well, not spritelier, but at least better today, and Brindle seems to be in a good mood too. So today has been better in the cat department. But yes, I don’t ultimately know what I’ll be facing when I bring in Goober. The plan is to bring in both, get them seen to, bring both back, unless one or both have to stay over. Or if Goober’s as far down as I’d feared last night and early this morning, then, well, yeah, he might not be returning. I’m telling myself to be prepared for either outcome. Their new tags finally arrived, but I don’t have their collars and tags switched out yet. And, hmm, I’m going to clean my shoes again and switch out. I must’ve missed something when I cleaned up this afternoon. Ick.
Goober is now over 14-1/4 years old and Brindle is between 5 and 6 months old, my best guess. She’s been here over 16 weeks, had arrived Nov. 5th. Hard to believe how quickly time has passed.
Deesha, thanks, I will look further about white ink and toner. My printer is a model of HP Color LaserJet multi-function, but I still have to locate the specific model number. I about fell over when I saw the current price for the four toner cartridges as a set. Good think I’m not yet out of them. White calligraphy ink, I’d likely use Speeedball or Osmiroid or Higgns brand. I hadn’t thought of the gel pens or other white ink markers, will need to look about those.
Try starting here:
https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Open_Game_Systems
These systems usually will be HTML or PDF, so you can magnify them on screen.
D20 and Pathfinder are closest to D&D. D6 systems will have the least expensive dice, and you may well have some, or you can get some when things open up, even from Goodwill or similar places. Fudge is a very old system, so it may have a lot of stuff out there; I’ve never used it, but it uses a d6 with faces +,+, [blank], [blank], -, -. D means die or dice; nDm means n dice with m sides each, usually added.
The Expanse is available on Amazon Prime, all existing 5 seasons, with season 6 approved, probably the last although the books go to 9 volumes, I think. One of the authors of the books started by making an RPG. A writer friend commented that it had way more backstory than most books, so they started writing the books. The RPG is out now, too. But first, watch it on Amazon Prime.
For board games, you want bgg.cc, shorthand for BoardGameGeek, but vision is likely to be a problem: smaller games are cheaper to print. Even so, you might want to check out BGG: it’s a very friendly and supportive community—except to intolerant people, who are quickly banned. I’ve been on BGG for about 15 years, and they are implacably consistent on that point.
Speaking of printing, do *NOT* get four laser cartridges! HP sells printers to get you to buy refill cartridges. It’s the same trap as Apple’s “Walled Garden.” Instead, get a Brother HL-L3210CW color printer. You can find it for $200. The HP cartridges will be $300-$400. I’ve had good luck with Brother, and I have an earlier version of that printer. Brother wants to sell cartridges, too, but they aren’t as rapacious as HP. (This is just a printer, but Brother offers multi-function devices.)
A nanosecond is sometimes known as a light-foot because light travels almost one foot per nanosecond in a vacuum. CDC, Control Data Corporation, was know for using loops of wire as delay lines in their computers. In any case, a hop-light is a light-meter. 😉
Walt, thank you! I take it big.cc is a forum website?
Hmm, yeah, not going to buy toner cartridges any time soon. Lucky I don’t yet need one. I’ll check out that Brother model and their multi-function printers. I got tired of my previous inkjet printer eating the little cartridges like candy, and thought a laser printer would be an improvement, back when I was better off. While it is a big improvement in that you don’t waste so much ink and money, for the toner to be so pricey, ugh, it’s six of one, half a dozen of another.
I need to rewatch season 4 of the Expanse. It’s ben so long, I’ve lost track of what happened; and then watch season 5. I greatly enjoyed the series but haven’t yet read the books. I always hear good things about them, though. They manage a real lived-in feel and a realistic look at tech and at how people are, good and bad alike.
Since this is a new message, here’s a link: http://www.bgg.cc
The unabbreviated name of the site is BoardGameGeek.com
They are for-profit, but use is free. It’s a huge site! Post in the New User Questions forum if you need help.
I changed to a laser because my HP inkjet cartridges would be dead whenever I needed to print something. The Brother laser is always ready, and since it has a wireless connection, it’s upstairs where I can only hear the noise if I listen for it.
BCS— Walt’s recommendation of Board Game Geek is spot on! My spouse and numerous of our friends —all avid gamers and game designers— are always checking in on, contributing to and quoting from Board Game Geek. Yesterday, while we were gaming over Zoom (a surprisingly good way to hang out with friends when you can’t be with them in person) we got into a discussion of how old BGG is—2000 was when it started, apparently.
Hop-alite, groan. Say Cat? Did you know there was a book called The High Crusade , by Paul Anderson? I’ve had a copy for years. It’s about an Alien Ship setting down in Medieval England, the local Lord decides to take advantage of it to bring to the aid of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. Being from a low tech society however, they find themselves lost in the depths of space, and decide to mount a crusade of their own. Talk about High Adventure, lol.
As regards to Alliance Rising? yes I know that’s the title of that book, I just haven’t been in a position to buy it online yet. I’ve a bank loan to pay back, and a credit card that needs cleared first. My C Card is due to expire soon anyway and I’ll be waiting for a replacement before even buying books on my Kindle. In the meantime, I’m ‘re-reading those books that are currently on there.
You asked about white ink, and after a quick look I notice you can get it on Amazon, not sure about printer cartridges ( would need to know which printer anyway ) but certainly you can buy white ink gel pens, and also bottles of white ink being sold amongst their art supplies.
It’s currently 3-15pm on Sat 27th, about this time last week I suddenly heard a rumble from above my head. Looking from outside, at the roof however I soon discovered the cause, a tile had came away and slid down into the roof gutter. We ( my Mother & I ) live ina semi detached cottage, and the tile had left a hole in the roof, right smack on the dividing line between the two properties. Ours is a Council ( local government ) owned property, so had to call them about getting it fixed. They showed up on Wednesday and fixed it.
I was working nightshift that week gone by, and had a bit of a series of events that day. I get home from work at 7am make a cup of tea, and something (snack like) to eat. I don’t go straight to bed as I stay upset to make Mum breakfast, and sort her morning tablets. About 9-30 I wake up and go wake up my mother.finally getting to bed about 11am . Now my room is at the back of the property, but that puts it into earshot of the next property along which is actually just around the corner, a side street off a side street as it were. They had recently replaced the connecting fence line, and were still busy doing a lot of banging about out there. Received two of those dodgy Scam phone calls, and then the phone goes a third time. This time however it was from the office for Mom’s Care team, wanting to hold a small survey. Back to bed again and an hour later still not quite asleep when comes a knocking at the bedroom door. Mum says there’s a van outside with a ladder, so up I get again and look, I reassure her that its a Council truck, clearly here to look at the roof, and go back to bed. I don’t think I got any sleep after that until about three, but I wake up and realize it’s now just after six in the evening. I had to go get some fuel for the car (literally every two days) and got takeaway chips for our dinner. Chicken for Mum, and Sausage for the dog and I. Somehow I was still running behind when I left for work, but I was still going to be on time for work when I got there however, but when I got to the industrial estate ( no street lights) suddenly found an animal right in front of me as I rounded a bend, braking as it moved to one side I looked out my door window to see what looked like a little deer running alongside me. . then there was a thump and could see this poor creature tumble head over heels. Stopping however, I got out to look, and damned if it hadn’t took off somewhere. I swear I looked, but it was dark and had definitely took off. Was def late getting into work after that, but wasn’t able to see any damage to the car until I got home the next day.
@BCS § Deesha: white ink tends to be very thick I believe, its light, opaque color created by fine particles. I strongly suspect it would clog up a printer quickly and ruin it. It also would flake off very easily. At least, when I used to mess around with calligraphy, that was the situation.
Comment – Greeks in Space ? There’s a book called `A True Story` by Lucian of Samosata, who was apparently a Greek speaking author of Assyrian descent. It was written in the 2nd Century and has been described as the first ever work of fiction to include such things as travel to outer space, and interplanetary warfare. It’s available on Kindle
Dad (turning 85 soon) got his first dose of Covid-vaccine Friday, and everything went smoothly, with hardly any waiting, just a few minutes.
They were all set up for the elderly to be accompanied by someone, and were processing only a few people at a time while the facility was clearly set up to handle many more at once (maybe a result of less doses being received lately, so less appointments being planned?). Everyone gets an exact time to appear for the jab, and then everyone had to wait 15 minutes in a post-processing area set up in lots of separate 2-chair nooks/booths with first aid responders keeping an eye on them, and medics standing by in case anyone should get anaphylactic shock.
Dad was panicky the whole week beforehand, worrying about lots of things and thinking he’d lost his papers and such things.
He is still quite healthy and can think things through when we talk them over, but he is getting forgetful, easily distracted, a bit obsessive in his worries, and quite stressed when things go a different way from the routine he is used to.
I don’t quite know how best to help him cope, if there is anything else I could do for him.
He keeps calling me up while I’m working when he gets into these sudden panics. I’m glad that I can soothe him out of them and generally solve whatever he’s worrying about, except for finding his misplaced papers from 100 km away, when I know they are in the house and he says he’s looked everywhere 3 times already. Even then, I can usually download a new form or talk him through where it might be, or calm him down and the next day it’ll turn up. I’m also very glad my employers generally accept that caring for an aging parent or young children comes with occasional interruptions to Zoom meetings!
But I do worry about the future a bit, with him getting more and more easily distressed.
———
Back to the subject of CJ’s post: the weather.
One last link to the fun we had with the freezing week and a half we had, at the same time as Texas – except here it was a chance for a rare skating holiday instead of a disaster. This one shows a group of distance skaters (not professional athletes) enjoying a day skating around Giethoorn (a village without roads, just waterways and bikelanes) – some is ideal black ice on the surrounding lakes, some softer snowy ice on the reed-lined ditches and canals (with occasional not quite frozen bits); there are people just enjoying having fun on the ice in the village, and even one ice-sailer along the frozen edge of the still-unfrozen shipping canal. The best of the wintery Netherlands.
A week later, the temperatures had gone from -3 C° to 17 C°, and it feels like spring is off to a running start, with crocusses everywhere and a turtledove building a nest over my kitchen window!
Thanks for the great skating footage, Hanneke! It was a pleasure to watch. I’ve not seen skates quite like those before, with —to me— extra long blades. I presume they are designed for distance skating. Growing up in New England (and Quebec before that), skating was also popular but girls/women had white, figure skates and boys/men had brown, hockey skates. Now, some women are using the chunkier men’s skates too. I used to skate on ponds, lakes and up the river that flowed into the mill pond in my home town as a kid (Durham, NH) but used the fine, figure skating blades.
Hi Raesean!
Yes, we have three standard types of skates in use around here, depending on what kind of skating you like. The two you mention, generally white figureskating ones, which are short skates with toepicks for figure skating and ice dancing (mostly used by girls); the icehockey skates that are generally dark colored, short skates without toepicks for speed and manoeuvreability (used by both boys and girls); and the third type with the long straight blades for distance skating, that we call Noren (= Norwegians).
For long-distance touring or a spin around the city moat, and for skating races of 400 meters and up those longer blades are preferred; they help keep the skater on track and help transfer movement energy to the ice.
A modern improvement to racing ‘Noren’ is making the rear shoe attachment separable, so you can lift the heel while the skate’s blade stays on the ice. That is called a “klapschaats”, and when the Dutch racers introduced it a decade or so ago they swept the winter Olympics skating races events that year :).
Then there are a few niche models, like the skates for little kids to learn on, with 4 short blades (2 in front and 2 in back, with an expandable middle section so they can grow with the kid’s shoes from year to year), and the nostalgic old wooden models tied under your ordinary shoes with woven tapes.
(I haven’t read through all the new replies yet.)
Deesha, that Greek story sounds like a must-read, and the High Crusade also sounds good. This got me to thinking of the utopian fantasy stories of the 18th century (1700’s), some of which we read excerpts from in my English lit. survey course, 2nd semester, way back when. I am no longer sure if I read Gulliver’s Travels in full or only in excerpts, and while thinking of sample texts to try for an EPUB3 tutorial, I thought of that plus Robinson Crusoe or Swill Family Robinson, both of which I don’t think I’ve ever read; or if so, it’s been so long that my memory’s off. (The tutorials have one take a text-only file / files and format them into HTML and CSS and add the EPUB3 stuff on top of that. I have not found an EPUB tutorial book which really covers EPUB3 (with maybe HTML5 and CSS3 as the basis, I don’t know) without assuming one has Adobe’s or Microsoft’s pricey suites, and tailored to produce the EPUB book with those suites.)
I am still foot-dragging about EPUB, and can’t quite figure to why I’m doing so. I want and need to learn it.
Deesha and Raesean – thanks about the white ink. I didn’t find a white toner cartridge for laser printers such as my HP Color Laserjet multi-function, or other laser printers either. All I found was black or CMYK. But I may keep looking. I didn’t do a thorough lookup about inkjet white cartridges, but Raesean, your advice sounds likely. A solid, opaque white on any dark paper would be difficult, but might be good enough for a comp or small runs. I’d think for anything more, a print shop would be best, but I’m nowhere near that stage yet.
If I do get to try this with a printer, I’ll likely take some photos so people can see the results, whichh could be interesting.
Neighbors are partying hard for the first time in months. Looks like I’m up for a while, so I’ll be writing out ideas, trying a draft of something.
Instead of Microsoft Office, I’ve switched to LibreOffice.
I don’t track it very closely any more, but last I heard Office was getting yet another interface revamp, to re-re-re-…modernize it. At least they’re being honest this time and not pretending to add any substantial features, which they haven’t since they were competing with Lotus in the 1980s(?).
Walt, how can you dismiss Microsoft’s Clippy the animated paper clip/help function as not being a “substantial feature’”? Surely Lotus never had Clippy? 🙃 God, how I irrationally hated that thing when it appeared on my screen!
I have built LO into later versions POD, ahem, “Paul’s Own Distro”, but I gave up using it. It’s a PIG! It pays too big a penalty being “Open”, using XML, and it will only use one processor core no matter how many are available. It would benefit greatly from using additional cores to preprocess that XML! So, as a consequence here on my table I have a Pentium-3 running Windows 98 with Office 97. Later I installed Wine and can now run my Office 97 on my 32-bit Linux systems. “Wine Is Not (an) Emulator”, and of course, it too is running on just one core, but it’s way, way faster than LO!
I also hated Clippy, in whatever animation, and uninstalled is ASAP. I likewise hated the Ribbon, so stay with “just enough” Office 97. I made Excel produce pedigree charts for me!
I use NeoOffice on the Mac, which is a Mac-specific version of OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice. It’s OK, but it may have the same issues as Paul says. If there were a better suite, I’d use it.
Corel tried to get back into the Mac market with a version of Corel Draw, but it was way too pricey, and IIRC, subscription-based. Ugh, no thanks. I don’t think they did a new version of WordPerfect, which they tried once on the Mac, years ago, and dropped.
I couldn’t stand the Microsoft ribbon and the new Office interface. The old one was clunky but usable.
Alas, poor Clippy, not gettin’ the love. Heh, yes, I also turned off Clippy, who kept popping up, intruding on my work. Eager little guy, I hope he found true love with a pack of sticky notes or something. LOL.
Clippy became the foundation of the dead and unlamented Bob. My impression of Clippy, and what I’ve heard of Bob, is they they are the result of a Marketing guy thinking, “We won’t have to pay for steak if we have a ton of sizzle!” (From the adage, “Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak.”—Elmer Wheeler) Clippy was friendly, personable, and ultimately useless, not unlike the more superficial Marketing types.
I don’t really mind the ribbon interface. I mind the lack of basic features like a way to easily choose fonts in Word when you have more than a few, the inability to create user-defined functions in Excel, or Excel’s hideously limited and dated graphics. My suspicion is that only the interface of Office can be changed because the innards are poorly commented spaghetti code.