Counter-survival
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhetleyA relative of ours was a foreign grad student at Harvard. After he earned his PhD, he did not go back to his birth country. Driving out foreign students hurts the US.
jhetley
cutting
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 12:23 pmchazzbannerSo the wifi tech came yesterday. What did we find out? The people who restored the downed line last Thursday somehow cut the line (cable) that goes to a box that talks with my wifi. Literally cut.
This meant the assignment had to be passed on to one of the cable/line guys.
Today I have book group (postponed), and pick up meal, so I moved the next appointment to tomorrow (Friday).
Not much to say, really, except I have something to google. OK: the answer.
As I was walking to the library I found myself whistling a melody, and thought, March and Procession of Bacchus? William Walton.
Then images of a coronation (GV, GVI?) came into my head and I thought, No, Crown Imperial -- William Walton.
Ten feet later, another melody came to mind. Now, that's March and Procession of Bacchus!
Connection between the two? We played both in high school band.
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This meant the assignment had to be passed on to one of the cable/line guys.
Today I have book group (postponed), and pick up meal, so I moved the next appointment to tomorrow (Friday).
Not much to say, really, except I have something to google. OK: the answer.
As I was walking to the library I found myself whistling a melody, and thought, March and Procession of Bacchus? William Walton.
Then images of a coronation (GV, GVI?) came into my head and I thought, No, Crown Imperial -- William Walton.
Ten feet later, another melody came to mind. Now, that's March and Procession of Bacchus!
Connection between the two? We played both in high school band.
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Goose guards off duty
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 10:34 amjhetleyNot raining or snowing, and the park looked clear, so I got out for my walk. Met up with Ms. Sasha and we performed the ritual of a session of scritches, a walk around the corner to her front steps, and another session. Mockingbird emphatic about ownership of one street-corner on our old block. Saw my first chipmunk of the year -- we think we have some efficient predators reducing the population.
Feathered dinosaurs
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 07:50 amjhetleyPair of geese grazing the park again, terrorizing the grackles. City crew mowed about 90% of the grass yesterday, and the geese are in the general area where one of the mowers bogged down and had to be dragged out by the other. Twice. Yes, our park is a bad neighborhood where the mowers patrol in pairs.
North-easter looming
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 06:58 amjhetleyAir temperature 45 F, wind east about 9 mph gusting to 18, cloudy. Clouds and wind supposed to hang around all day, going to rain overnight and into tomorrow. May be snow back in the hills. Catbird pair still hanging around our area but not working on a nest in the azalea. They have many other bushes available that don't have nosy neighbors.
calmer
Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 11:25 amchazzbannerI feel calmer today, having cancelled Friday's phone repair. Today's wifi appointment is scheduled for the afternoon, meaning I have some time this morning to do other things.
The library opened at 9:00, so I went there immediately and checked email, did most of my day's Duolingo, did the cancellation, checked FB. Now I'm at JCs, where I downloaded some podcasts (vital to my mental health these days!) and finished the Duolingo.
I could/can to on a walk, and/or drive to Lunds. Lunds I could do tomorrow, so maybe I should concentrate on a walk.
Yesterday I had an 8 a.m. oil change appointment - ten minutes away - and I stressed a bit until I learned the (failed) phone repair would be later in the morning. As usual I walked a couple of blocks to a cafe, rather than sit in the garage's waiting area.
When I got home, I washed clothes.
I'm reading Michael Palin's latest diaries. Alan Bennett appears -- not surprising -- and that sent me to start rereading Gloucester Crescent, a memoir by William Miller of growing up surrounded by literary/artistic Hampstead Labour types like his father (Jonathan) - and Alan Bennett.
Oh, in the diaries Olivia Harrison (George's widow) says she enjoys socializing with other 'rock widows', including Yoko and the widow of Peter Capaldi. No, no! He's alive, and though I think he was in a band once, he's, umm, an actor. :-). There's Jim Capaldi, however. I had to wait until now to google it, yes, Jim C died in 2005. He was in Traffic, with Steve Winwood et al.
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The library opened at 9:00, so I went there immediately and checked email, did most of my day's Duolingo, did the cancellation, checked FB. Now I'm at JCs, where I downloaded some podcasts (vital to my mental health these days!) and finished the Duolingo.
I could/can to on a walk, and/or drive to Lunds. Lunds I could do tomorrow, so maybe I should concentrate on a walk.
Yesterday I had an 8 a.m. oil change appointment - ten minutes away - and I stressed a bit until I learned the (failed) phone repair would be later in the morning. As usual I walked a couple of blocks to a cafe, rather than sit in the garage's waiting area.
When I got home, I washed clothes.
I'm reading Michael Palin's latest diaries. Alan Bennett appears -- not surprising -- and that sent me to start rereading Gloucester Crescent, a memoir by William Miller of growing up surrounded by literary/artistic Hampstead Labour types like his father (Jonathan) - and Alan Bennett.
Oh, in the diaries Olivia Harrison (George's widow) says she enjoys socializing with other 'rock widows', including Yoko and the widow of Peter Capaldi. No, no! He's alive, and though I think he was in a band once, he's, umm, an actor. :-). There's Jim Capaldi, however. I had to wait until now to google it, yes, Jim C died in 2005. He was in Traffic, with Steve Winwood et al.
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Around The World In 24 Hours
Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 09:42 amfilkferengiYou know those books where one day takes hundreds of pages? I'm in a bestseller titled _From 101.3 to 97.8 in 24 Hours_. Side effects were bonus scenes nobody wanted.
Now I hear the siren call, "Hi ho, hi ho! It's back to bed I go."
Now I hear the siren call, "Hi ho, hi ho! It's back to bed I go."
I'm not the one you need
Wednesday, May 21st, 2025 06:58 amjhetleyAir temperature 45 F, wind north 9 mph gusting to 19, partly cloudy. Brief interlude of sun before the rains return for the end of the week. City crew has returned to mowing our park, two machines in echelon left. No plans beyond some bird-watching and a walk.
stymied, still
Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 06:24 pmchazzbannerPoint one: I didn't have to go home early on Sunday, but I didn't now that. Phone techs don't work on Sunday.
Point two: Monday the wifi tech was running so far behind that I gave up on them mid-afternoon and reschedule for Wednesday. I didn't get to use the library computer, though, because they were all being used by *Geezers.
Point three: phone tech #1 tried to restore my dial tone today (remotely, not in my apartment), couldn't... turned it over to another tech, who also failed to fix it.
Point four: I rescheduled the phone tech for Friday... but I just may cancel my landline. I know I'm being a dinosaur, letting it go on so long.
*quoting my brother
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Point two: Monday the wifi tech was running so far behind that I gave up on them mid-afternoon and reschedule for Wednesday. I didn't get to use the library computer, though, because they were all being used by *Geezers.
Point three: phone tech #1 tried to restore my dial tone today (remotely, not in my apartment), couldn't... turned it over to another tech, who also failed to fix it.
Point four: I rescheduled the phone tech for Friday... but I just may cancel my landline. I know I'm being a dinosaur, letting it go on so long.
*quoting my brother
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Inscrutable ways
Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 09:43 amjhetleyThe parks and recreation people mowed about half our park, in the middle. They haven't been back. The lower section may still be too wet and soft for their machines, but the upper? That's where the kiddie soccer groups practice, and I'd think shorter grass would be better than longer, for the purpose.
Peaceable kingdom
Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 06:59 amjhetleyAir temperature 46 F, north wind 18 mph gusting to 33, cloudy. No rain on the weather radar or in the forecast, no airstrikes or combat drones. Foraging and walk planned.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
Monday, May 19th, 2025 07:17 amjhetleyAir temperature 51 F, wind northeast 11 mph gusting to 23, cloudy with wet roads from overnight rain. Stop me if you've heard this one before . . .
Both male and female hummingbirds sighted this morning.
Both male and female hummingbirds sighted this morning.
Week in review: Week to 17 May
Monday, May 19th, 2025 11:41 ampedanther. I had a much more productive and satisfying week at work.
. I'm having more trouble finding time to go for a walk or bike ride on weekdays now that it's getting dark so soon after the end of office hours, but I'm still managing to maintain a minimum of three per week.
. At board game club, we played Feed the Kraken, a social deduction game set on board a ship where some of the sailors have secret agendas. I'm iffy about social deduction games; I don't enjoy the ones that are all about being able to read opponents' body language to figure out if they're being dishonest, but I don't mind some of the ones that have some kind of mechanic that provides objective (though ambiguous) evidence of another kind. In the case of Feed the Kraken, that's plotting the ship's course: each of the factions on the ship wants to steer the ship toward a specific destination, so any change in the heading suggests something about the loyalties of the players who were contributing to navigation that round, but each decision involves three players drawing and discarding cards in such a way that it's never clear precisely who's responsible for the outcome. I enjoyed the game a lot, even before I ended up playing a key role in getting victory for my faction.
. I stopped using Duolingo a while back and uninstalled the app, but hadn't actually got around to closing my account, on the off chance that I might want to pick it up again at some point. Given the recent nonsense, I decided this week that that was never going to happen, and deleted my account.
. I have a rented storage unit which I had not had access to for months: the self-storage facility installed a new automatic front gate, and although I got the email notifying me of the upcoming change I never received the promised follow-up email containing instructions on how to open the new gate. And, being me, by the time I'd realised the follow-up email wasn't coming, enough time had passed that I felt awkward about contacting the site manager to raise the subject, a situation which obviously got no better the longer I put it off. I was reminded about this again this week, and decided enough was enough, and now the situation is resolved: I did an end-run around the contact awkwardness problem by driving to the self-storage facility, finding the manufacturer's logo on the housing of the gate mechanism, and googling for instructions. Fortunately for the success of this endeavour, it turns out that all the manufacturer's smart gates respond to a standard app that can be downloaded for free, and when I entered my contact information after installing the app it automatically matched me to the self-storage place's list of users and offered me a button to open the gate. Everything in the storage unit appears to be fine, if a bit more dusty and cobwebby than when I saw it last. (And I really should get around to talking to someone about the pile of stuff I agreed to temporarily store for a colleague until the covid lockdown ended...)
. Picked up Battletech again for the first time in a couple of weeks, and ended up playing it for a few hours. (Part of that was a big boss mission that took about an hour all on its own.) I'm still not sure exactly how much I'm really enjoying it, but there are enough little things that once I start playing I keep going "I'll just finish off this thing" or "I'll just tweak that thing". It's getting to the point I predicted earlier where the difficulty has ramped up enough that if I keep just coasting along with a vague idea of how the systems work I'm going to be in real trouble sooner or later; on the other hand, that leads to memorable events like a mission where I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at the last moment. (That mission was followed by a cutscene where one of my colleagues remarked that she wondered if the conflict we'd been taking part in was really worth it, and the team's executive officer gestured at our pay packet and said, "It's worth it to us." And then we needed to spend nearly the entire pay packet on repairs for the mechs that had been shredded in the mission. That's life in the armoured mercenary business, I guess.)
. I'm having more trouble finding time to go for a walk or bike ride on weekdays now that it's getting dark so soon after the end of office hours, but I'm still managing to maintain a minimum of three per week.
. At board game club, we played Feed the Kraken, a social deduction game set on board a ship where some of the sailors have secret agendas. I'm iffy about social deduction games; I don't enjoy the ones that are all about being able to read opponents' body language to figure out if they're being dishonest, but I don't mind some of the ones that have some kind of mechanic that provides objective (though ambiguous) evidence of another kind. In the case of Feed the Kraken, that's plotting the ship's course: each of the factions on the ship wants to steer the ship toward a specific destination, so any change in the heading suggests something about the loyalties of the players who were contributing to navigation that round, but each decision involves three players drawing and discarding cards in such a way that it's never clear precisely who's responsible for the outcome. I enjoyed the game a lot, even before I ended up playing a key role in getting victory for my faction.
. I stopped using Duolingo a while back and uninstalled the app, but hadn't actually got around to closing my account, on the off chance that I might want to pick it up again at some point. Given the recent nonsense, I decided this week that that was never going to happen, and deleted my account.
. I have a rented storage unit which I had not had access to for months: the self-storage facility installed a new automatic front gate, and although I got the email notifying me of the upcoming change I never received the promised follow-up email containing instructions on how to open the new gate. And, being me, by the time I'd realised the follow-up email wasn't coming, enough time had passed that I felt awkward about contacting the site manager to raise the subject, a situation which obviously got no better the longer I put it off. I was reminded about this again this week, and decided enough was enough, and now the situation is resolved: I did an end-run around the contact awkwardness problem by driving to the self-storage facility, finding the manufacturer's logo on the housing of the gate mechanism, and googling for instructions. Fortunately for the success of this endeavour, it turns out that all the manufacturer's smart gates respond to a standard app that can be downloaded for free, and when I entered my contact information after installing the app it automatically matched me to the self-storage place's list of users and offered me a button to open the gate. Everything in the storage unit appears to be fine, if a bit more dusty and cobwebby than when I saw it last. (And I really should get around to talking to someone about the pile of stuff I agreed to temporarily store for a colleague until the covid lockdown ended...)
. Picked up Battletech again for the first time in a couple of weeks, and ended up playing it for a few hours. (Part of that was a big boss mission that took about an hour all on its own.) I'm still not sure exactly how much I'm really enjoying it, but there are enough little things that once I start playing I keep going "I'll just finish off this thing" or "I'll just tweak that thing". It's getting to the point I predicted earlier where the difficulty has ramped up enough that if I keep just coasting along with a vague idea of how the systems work I'm going to be in real trouble sooner or later; on the other hand, that leads to memorable events like a mission where I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at the last moment. (That mission was followed by a cutscene where one of my colleagues remarked that she wondered if the conflict we'd been taking part in was really worth it, and the team's executive officer gestured at our pay packet and said, "It's worth it to us." And then we needed to spend nearly the entire pay packet on repairs for the mechs that had been shredded in the mission. That's life in the armoured mercenary business, I guess.)
update?
Sunday, May 18th, 2025 11:55 amchazzbannerI heard from the phone repair (automatic call) just after noon, and they said the tech would be there in half an hour, and that they'd call when he arrived. They didn't. I hung around all afternoon waiting for a call.
Now that I'm (briefly?) at my sister's place (with internet) I see they sent an email saying he did arrive (but I might not see him). I checked their website and it says that the repair will be finished *today* - i.e. that they had to come back. 8:00-0:00 whatever that means. Of course I didn't get a message before because I have no internet, and they didn't send it in a text!
So what to do? I was going to do Zoom this afternoon, as well las some Duolingo etc. (And have lunch.). Should I hurry home because of the 'person over 18 must be there' requirement? Ugh.
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Now that I'm (briefly?) at my sister's place (with internet) I see they sent an email saying he did arrive (but I might not see him). I checked their website and it says that the repair will be finished *today* - i.e. that they had to come back. 8:00-0:00 whatever that means. Of course I didn't get a message before because I have no internet, and they didn't send it in a text!
So what to do? I was going to do Zoom this afternoon, as well las some Duolingo etc. (And have lunch.). Should I hurry home because of the 'person over 18 must be there' requirement? Ugh.
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