works real well, no pain even on the shots, but…didn’t give me antibiotics, and he’s off today. Friday. Sigh. OTOH, thank goodness for my dentist, who does have Fridays—because half my face is red and the sinus hurts. We knew that one was affecting the sinus. And it did. Good news is, we got the med, and I’ll be on it for the next endodontist appointment next Wednesday.
We had freezing fog last night (road is clear now with daylight, but they can be interesting when the temp is 10 degrees in fog.) The trees are absolutely gorgeous, all frosted.
So the drive to the drugstore was really pretty.
Got all my shopping done—meaning everything I mail-ordered arrived; and we’re ready. Antibiotics isn’t quite the thing I’d wanted for Christmas, but hey, last evening I really, really wanted them. Early present, eh?
THe dentist is suspicious of yet one more molar, but the endodontist says give it time—this is the one the not-so-good dentist office worked on. I’ve never heard a doc actually say ‘malpractice’ but my current one said it of the last guy…mmm. But I’m not the suing sort. I’m just glad to have a good guy now.
Ouch, as I clamp my own jaws. Luckily I have rather good teeth, few cavities. But I have broken teeth – just got a gold crown – mucho bucks.
Hang tough and stay with the good dentist.
It has gotten down to zero in NH and we are expecting an interesting weather day on Saturday.
Alliance Rising – time to make some bread.
Have a good holiday season,
Jonathan
Hang onto a good dentist with all ten fingers and your teeth. It’s always a good feeling when everything winds down properly and you can take a breath until the next event.
The car will be out of commission for a couple of weeks, but is fixable and for less than the insurance would offer us to total it out. We were concerned that the insurance would decide it wasn’t worth fixing and give us a pittance, insufficient to replace it with another reliable vehicle. We’re holding out for an all electric car eventually, but not right now.
Good it’s getting taken care of and it’s doing fine.
One expects somehow, the trees coming back from the pharmacy were more gorgeous than before. Ahem. Good drugs for pain meds after dental work are a very, very good thing, yes, indeedy.
—–
Two bits of good news from down my way:
1. After weeks (months) of waiting, I finally get an appt. with a vocational rehab counselor for an assessment next week. Hurray! This from the div. of blind svcs. here. Hahaha, they want to check my keyboarding skills, among other things. Right now, my keyboarding skills on the old laptop keyboard are pretty awful. I *think * this is mostly the keyboard size and arrangement, which my hands *still* don’t want to adjust to. I hope it’s not a side-effect of my vision giving me more trouble lately. I want to see what my current typing speed really is. It should be a little off on accuracy, but maybe around 85 words per minute. It might have improved a bit over the years, even without being pushed much.
Anyway, this and more is to be assessed in a long interview next week. This means also that they have my paperwork partially through their system, which means (eventually) some help from that direction towards needed services like eye appt., retinal specialist, possible help toward eye surgery, definite help towards eyeglasses prescriptions and other vision aids as needed, and so on. Very good news, but still going slowly. A of yet, no appt. to see a retinal specialist to assess if I can have cataract surgery, but I am still hopeful this will be a go.
2. My old iMac was processed and YAY, I will get the full quoted price for the rebate. I *might* get to charge the new one before Christmas, then await its delivery before the New Year or soon after. I still believe this is my best option toward income for the foreseeable future. It would meanI can be bac in production toward fonts, but still some weeks/months before any income would ensue. My one sticking point is how to stretch the budget to pay off the charge and stay ahead of the interest climbing.
ut the ability to do it at all is a big, big plus, and I am counting it a win. I had looked at features and know what I want, and think I can risk it. I don’t feel I have much choice. No other good options for indep. income at present, so even long term is better than nothing.
Cpimtomg tjos as a wom. amuwau/ Ja[[u mews. bptj tjomg/
Huzzah on the new computer! The computer we have at the library designated ADA has a keyboard with huge black letters on bright yellow keys, and the screen is a touchscreen, if the mouse gives you fits. Sadly, it is a Windows machine, not a Mac. I wonder if ZoomText is available for Macs?
Nuts. Got off the home keys with that last sentence. It should read”
Counting this as a win. Happy news.
I am not sure of the last two words; probably, “Both things.”
I am giving up and plugging in an external keyboard so I can type decently. Sheesh.
I remember at work someone got off half the home keys when doing data entry and we got “Cikiradi” – and QC missed it. [sigh]
I can type fast enough on some things that it’s just a drumroll of keys. But I won’t guarantee accuracy at that speed. (It’s usually one of my long-memorized passwords.)
Ancient spare keyboard is ancient and has (now) too stiff keys. New, el cheapo keyboard will be on order.
Yay! The rebate / gift card from the recycler for the Apple Store arrived via email. I can now find how to Add it to the Apple Store Shopping Cart, and should be good to go from there.
Although I know the features I want, I’ll have to go thru the process of choosing them again, such as customizing the RAM, other hardware, and software I want added to a stock model. I may put in a phone call or online chat to an Apple Store rep to make sure of a couple of things, including, if I order online and have it delivered, will that work? I believe so, but have not done so from Apple for a computer before. Possibly tomorrow or Monday to order, which could mean before Christmas delivery, but more likely after; one of the other questions to look up.
@BlueCatShip – Perhaps there are are other things you can do besides design fonts.
If you can design logos, or icons, or do other kinds of graphic design work, take a look at freelancer.com – they have thousands of graphic design projects listed.
They also have 54 projects currently listed for ‘voice talent’. Perhaps there are also other categories that may suit you. Look under Work > Browse Categories, then scroll down to the full list of categories. Simply create a profile, and you can bid on projects.
If you know the basics of HTML and CSS and can do web design, then there are many more possibilities. Design of themes for web sites is really big these days. Learn a modern system like Bootstrap – which is easy to learn and very powerful (see the tutorial on W3Schools) – and you can create themes and sell them on sites like themeforest.net
@GreenWyvern, @Paul: Oh, thank you! I will look into freelancer.com;
I had tried Inkscape again and still don’t know what I’m missing, or if it’s buggy. Snap To isn’t really snapping to, either when drawing initially or when selectin objects and dragging them to a new spot. I feel like one hand is tied behind my back, and like I’m wearing a dunce cap. :-/ If I can get it working, I’ll be back up to speed with a vector drawing program, and can therefore do some design work again.
Yes, I used to design graphics, including logos and so on. From college until the late 1990’s, I worked as a desktop publisher, graphic artist, typesetter, editor, you name it, as half of a small business with my mom.
Yes, I am good with HTML5 and CSS3, but my JavaScript is very rusty, and I don’t yet know PHP or EPUB3. I don’t know Bootstrap. I will look at the W3Schools tutorials. I’d like to do website themes and learn themes/skins for WordPress and the major forum software packages out there.
I’m unsure if my laptop can still do audio in, but with a new Mac, I’ll be back up to speed for doing audio for podcasts and audio dramas. I’m an amateur, but I’ve had some experience.
My website is: http://www.shinyfiction.com and my as-yet-to-be font website is http://www.fontstylus.com — All the work there except WordPress blog(s) or forum(s) was done by me. My audio credits are listed, and there’s some non-meter, not-so-rhyming poetry as well as very short fiction and non-fiction. There are also fan pages and assorted odds and ends, and the Toy Box Tales for BJD dolls. It’s a mix. The FontStylus site is focused for future font production and things in progress.
I wish I still had good samples of past work, or a way to fully import/export old Freehand files, but that’s quite unlikely. If so, I’d have more to show from past design work. Most of that is now ancient history, heh.
Thank you again, freelancer.com should help some.
Ah, also, while I feel my French and Spanish are rusty, they are still serviceable. I had what amounted to nearly a minor in French in college, plus two good years of Spanish in high school. I sometimes wish I’d listened to my eccentric French prof, who tried to convince me to switch to a language major. (I was trying for English and then computer science.) At the time, I could think and dream in French and Spanish, albeit without complete vocabulary, and sometimes code-switched while taking notes in other classes. Heheh. My accent’s good, I have the ear and the tongue for it, and I can guess at other Romance languages and sometimes other Indo-European languages with a fair chance at it.
I had this odd idea back then, I’d do tech writing and translation by day, and write science fiction by night until I could support myself on SF&F writing. Life took a different path, but it was closer than I realized at the time.
In most cases that’s fixable–I’ve had to several times. You need some silicone lubricant grease/paste, silicone “dialectric” also works. Good hardware stores, some hobby shops, maybe even an old-timey Radio Shack like store should have it. Then a large strong paperclip, with the first 180° switchback unfolded to a 90. With a pair of pliers form an “L” at the end, a very sharp 90° bend, with the foot of the L only about 1/8″ long. Sometimes it’s easier to make it longer, and trim it to 1/8″.
Finagle the L under a key top at a corner and pull gently up until it just “gives”. Work around all four corners a little at a time working it up and off. Grease the shaft of the top lightly, and push it straight back in. The repair should last longer than the computer.
You can also wash a keyboard with water. I’ve done it before. Make sure it’s unplugged, and put it under the tap! Then make sure it’s thoroughly dry before you use it. Give it a day or two in a warm place to dry out completely.
I usually just take the keyboard apart without popping the keys, take the electronics out of it completely, then soak the other parts in warm water with a bit of dishwashing detergent. A good rinse, air dry, and then it goes back together, usually works just fine. While it’s tedious to unscrew 12 – 15 tiny screws, it does shorten the drying time if the parts are separate, and/or you can use a lint-free cloth to dry them.
I have a computer repair toolkit, which includes a “keycap puller” – it’s a handle with two wire loops sticking out, that each have one straight section that will fit under a keycap edge. They’re available singly, also.
Expressing solidarity with your dental woes, CJ. Had a breast sonogram today and tech said I have huge lymph nodes on one side, but then I also have them on my shoulders and in my neck. I think it’s from dental/sinus issues, myself, but will likely be having a biopsy of the enlarged nodes in the armpit for REASONS. Pragmatist that I am, I see no point in getting bent out of shape unless and until I see the words “carcinoma” or “lymphoma” on a biopsy report.
I’ve got an upper molar that’s intermittently given me fits for years, and the molar beneath it is not in such good shape either. Both are root canals. The dentist says I have a smoldering pocket of infection in amongst the roots. The radiologist looked at a CT of the same area and called it a “mucocele” which is a $200 word meaning “plugged up mucus gland”.
Don’t know what I will do when my beloved (and well used) Logitech gamer keyboard bites the dust. I’ve tried keyboard after keyboard and this is the only one with a halfway decent touch. It is ultra low-profile and back lighted.
Ran across this wonderful thing here: http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/135936899661/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-in-anglo-saxon
Say,Hwaet?
Thanks, I enjoyed Rudolph in Anglo-Saxon!
I’ve been using a Kensington “keyboard for Life’, which may not suit you, but it’s sturdy and does well for me. The characters wear off, though.
The blog, All Things Linguistic, on which the Anglo-Saxon Rudolph appears, has a later post about the movie, Arrival, and a review of it on Lingthusiasm, a new podcast on linguistics. It also mentions Ted Chiang’s short story, The Story of Your Life, and other science fiction shorts.
I was *very* impressed with the review in the podcast, and am looking forward to when I can see the movie and read the short, and I subscribed to the podcast. Well worth the short time to listen.
I love my lighted keyboard—except that I have long fingernails—and I wear divots through the coating, which means frequently used keys go all light. 😉 My keyboards are usually letterless after 9 months…
The deed is done: I have ordered a new iMac, applied the rebate from recycling the old one, and did not spend quite as much as I’d feared to buy the new one. It is not as fast as I would’ve liked, but should do for a number of good years. Now the hard part: paying off the charge. It is due to be delivered the week after Christmas, before New Year’s Eve. It’s being processed now. I am thrilled except for incurring the debt. I should be back up to speed fairly quickly once I get it. I might be back to editing fonts and other work after New Year’s, a few days. So I’m excited. ^..^
Hah, I am going to check out Rudolph in Anglo-Saxon. That should be great fun! Ih thee thancia! (I am sure that’s not really proper OE, closer to MidE, but I’m going with it.)
Keyboards: I may be able to get someoen to switch out the laptop’s internal keyboard. I could not get the case off entirely, to replace it myself, but I have the part. The old external keyboard was too cranky, but I have a cheap new one ordered.
I would love to try a backlit keyboard. It’ll be a wish list item for around my birthday, likely. — I do not have the issue of long fingernails, ahaha.
@ Blue Cat Ship: I think Logitech’s gamer keyboards are the cat’s meow, myself. They are lighted, the touch is light and responsive, they have a slim profile and they are durable. I’ve had mine for over four years now and I just love it. They’re pricy (mine was slightly less than $100) but you do definitely get what you pay for.
These people who type with long fingernails . . ! I have mine cut to the quick or my fingers hurt. I have had to learn to “stroke” the keys like a classically trained piano player or my finger joints ache — the legacy of 27 years of typing for a living on top of autoimmune damage to the joint surfaces of my finger joints due to a run-in with scarlet fever at the ripe old age of 21.
CJ, take a gander at the picture here (but don’t let Jane see!) https://theowlunderground.wordpress.com/2016/12/17/the-north-wind-doth-blow/
And here:
https://knitsfromtheowlunderground.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/twisted-cable-buttoned-cowl/
to see if I’m on track with Jane’s color palate. The second one is the yarn I’m making Jane’s shawl out of, with some of the yarn being solid colored in the lighter blue so that that blue color will predominate.
Also peek here at those “autumn-y” colors for you
https://theowlunderground.wordpress.com/2016/11/23/the-tawny-time-of-year/
The photo makes the yarn look a lot more orange than it actually is.
BTW, anyone in the crowd who is a knitter, Knits from the Owl Underground is the website where I publish all my knitting patterns. All patterns there are free under creative commons.
Due to my minor in Fine Art, with a Ceramics concentration, I got out of wearing any length of fingernails. Digging clay out from under daily got tedious, and they also tend to produce undesired crevasses. These days I tend to be the tool-using animal.
Pretty! Yes. Excellent.
Er . . “color palate” would be one’s taste in colors?
make that “color palette,” please.