One Day At a Time
Aug. 11th, 2025 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There is *no* way to ignore the puppy in the room.
Just ask Ruby.
Univ. of Chicago Press: 75% off ebooks, Aug. 11-17
Aug. 11th, 2025 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The sale includes publishers that the University of Chicago Press distributes: Acre Books, Bard Graduate Center, Brandeis University Press, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Gingko Library, Haus Publishing, Iter Press, Karolinum Press, Charles University, Seagull Books, Swan Isle Press, and The American Meteorological Society.
Use the code EBOOK75
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/virtualCatalog/vc106.html
Party Time
Aug. 10th, 2025 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
In my report from the Cable News Network, my Amazon shipment with Yet Another Cable was delayed until tomorrow, so we'll see how it works then, I hope.
And I have finally remembered to order a wireless keyboard and mouse for K to use at college. I'm still not sure which car I'm driving down there, but the Edge is looking fuller and fuller in my head. :)
Done Since 2025-08-03
Aug. 10th, 2025 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Up and down. Ame's thirty-fifth birthday, and the atomic bombings 80 years ago. OTOH m's return from the US Wednesday, and for some reason I noticed being in a good mood shortly before bedtime. Possibly from getting out of one of my support groups early. Or it could have been something somebody said in the group. Also, my balance seems to be improving a little after finding a test that I can practice against. But I should also find some exercises.
Not exactly a good week for walking either. I skipped Tuesday because (IIRC) I was running late after helping N give Cricket her meds, and had a doctor's appointment after that. Then I did something unpleasant to my right ankle Friday morning, probably on the stairs with an excessively heavy bag of garbage. (Mostly cat litter.) I went to the end of the block and back this morning but didn't want to push my luck. I have no idea what became of my little plastic bin full of knee, ankle, and wrist braces.
On the gripping hand, I have the old household server, Nova, running again. That's notable mainly (only?) because it's still running Mint version 21.3, so it still has Python 2 installed, so I can run my Dreamwidth posting client on it. (I also have it on Raven, but N is borrowing it. When she's done with it I'll be able to upgrade it.)
Nova is headless. I could ping it, but not ssh to it, which turned out to be because it was on the wrong subnet. Fixable by widening the netmask on Nova and one laptop. That was an interesting exercise, though, because I had to do it over ssh (i.e. without a display), which meant that I had to learn the text user interface for Network Manager. Feeling mildly accomplished from that.
Also, m and I had a good rehearsal of Ship of Stone yesterday. The plan is to do one song per day to use as scratch tracks for the next album. My intended recording hardware was not cooperating -- I seem to be missing one of my large-diaphragm vocal mics. May have to fix that. Meanwhile I used my trusty old Zoom H2, which is perfectly adequate for scratch tracks.
In links, last week Mastodon was added to the Digital Public Goods Alliance’s Registry, which is pretty cool. And the World’s first Facebook museum helps users face the future after its hoped-for demise.
Really Bad News, Filking, Puppies, and Cables
Aug. 9th, 2025 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I woke up this morning to find out that Tom Jeffers had died. Tom is an old friend of mine. When K was around a year old and Gretchen was recovering from her hysterectomy for endometrial cancer, Tom and Sue were good enough to come down and stay with us and help keep the household together. Tom was one of the nicest guys on the planet which just makes this seem much more unfair. And he and Sue had a lot of happy years together and should have had more. I'm going to miss him.
You hate to move on from something like that to common goings on, but it was a busy day here. I have finished my entry for the OVFF songwriting contest, for which the theme is "Steer by the Stars". I have checked this theme numerous times at this point to make sure that I have not repeated my error from FKO long ago, when I thought that the theme was "The End of the World" and it was actually "The End of Time". Oops. I ended up writing two songs that year; one for the wrong theme and one for the correct one. But this year's song is to the correct theme and no longer on my list of things to do.
Calvin the Puppy has decided that I am the Food God. He may be correct. In any case, he is a very hungry puppy. We have had a few housebreaking accidents, but this is mostly due to a failure to communicate. Ruby goes to the back door and complains when she needs to go out. Calvin just complains, leaving us unsure of what he wants, although food is frequently a good bet. But so is access to the great outdoors...
I continue to learn more about DisplayPort cables than I ever wanted to know. The new DisplayPort cables that I bought were to a new, faster standard. They were not, however, VESA certified, nor did they come with a latch that engages when they are fully pushed in. Today, two replacement cables arrived that are for DisplayPort 1.4, an older version of the standard, but which are VESA certified and have the latching feature. I've plugged them in and the monitors have only blinked once while I've been downstairs.
This is, of course, one time too many. More research followed. The long cable from the computer to the MST hub turns out to be a DisplayPort 1.2 cable, which is theoretically sufficient for MST, but the instructions for the hub say to use a minimum of a DisplayPort 1.4 cable. They also say that the cable should be shorter, but the computer needs to be on the opposite end of the console so that the Thunderbolt cable (which is *highly* length constrained) can reach from the computer to the Apollo unit.
I have now ordered *another* cable (stop laughing, Gretchen!) which is long enough to reach, has latches, and is both VESA certified and DisplayPort 1.4 compatible. It should arrive tomorrow.
And then we will see how it works.
Puppy!
Aug. 8th, 2025 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
He is an 11 week old hound mix who came to us with the name Calvin, which he will be keeping. He is very, very cute. And very, very hungry. He has also figured out that I am the feeder of dogs. :)
In other news, I have the two new monitors in the basement studio configured using a DisplayPort MST hub, but they periodically blink off. I am trying to figure out how to discourage this behavior, as it's simply annoying. So far, no luck.
On the other hand, when they aren't blinking, the extra screen is nice...
the tomato that conquered Pittsburgh
Aug. 8th, 2025 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This year I got three (different) tomato seedlings, all container-friendly, along with some peppers and other things. Having failed to do proper research, I allocated the tomato cages pretty arbitrarily. I should not have done that.
The giant tomato plant in the center is a Sungold. It seems to be in the process of conquering my patio, the neighborhood, and perhaps the city. It makes sweet, tasty, orange cherry tomatoes. I've had quite a bounty so far and there's plenty more to come. It was originally on that ledge with the others, but a month or so ago I realized that if I kept it there, I would not be able to harvest without a ladder. (So much for using that trellis.) At least this way I can climb up on that ledge to reach the ones I can't reach from the ground (or at least I hope I'll be able to reach them all!). Wowza. Next year, bigger cage! (They're very tasty, so I do plan to get this type next year.)
The other two tomato types are Patio Choice, advertised as good for small containers, and Mountain Magic. They both produce red grape tomatoes (Patio Choice are sweeter). On the right, not as clear in the picture, are two Cornito peppers and a banana pepper, all still working toward a first harvest. I've moved these around a few times over the course of the summer to try to optimize sunlight.
For Want of a Cable
Aug. 7th, 2025 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Yesterday, I assembled the desktop dual monitor stand and put the two new/refurb monitors on it, one on top of the other. Today, the Amazon shipment arrived with the missing cables and I figured I'd take a few minutes, run down to the basement and hook everything up. Getting the power cords into the monitors was a bit more challenging than I'd hoped, but by picking the tower up and putting it in my lap, I managed to get that done. All I had to do was to plug in the display port cables. I had ordered one with the monitors and another from Amazon last night when I realized that these monitors do not have a display port passthrough.
The cable from Amazon is fine. The cable from the refurb place is an HDMI to display port cable. Since these monitors do not have an HDMI port, that's sort of useless.
I have sent a complaint off to the refurb place. In the meantime, I have ordered yet another display port cable from Amazon which should arrive tomorrow.
*sigh*
In other news, the monitors on my desk are a slightly newer version. They have display port passthrough *and* an HDMI port. And they are going to stay *exactly* where they are. :)
Thankful Thursday
Aug. 7th, 2025 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Today I am thankful for...
- Health insurance.
- Apps that work reliably and well. (Thereby excluding the ones that don't, of which there is a greater number.)
- Software that retains backward compatibility. (Thereby specifically excluding Python 3.)
- Being alive. That is deliberately not saying much at this point.
- Ticia. Thanks to Bronx is limited to those occasions when he isn't being nippy.
NO thanks to ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES USING A FSCKING PHONE.
Wiring It Up
Aug. 6th, 2025 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So I have verified that the rather peppy processor in the new studio computer should run up to *four* displays on the Intel Integrated Graphics at the stunningly high 1080p resolution that I need here. All I need is a display port splitter. I have ordered one. And another display port cable. And a USB adapter brick to power the display port splitter. And another power strip so that I don't have to steal every extension cord in the house. *And* a mini-DP to display port cable which I am pretty sure will work with the monitor that I am sending to school with K and the new laptop that is waiting for her there.
Gretchen sent me a text asking when I would be done in the studio and I explained that I was ordering cables. This made her laugh, because *every* time I go to wire something in the studio, more cables are in order.
Synchronicity
Aug. 5th, 2025 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Now, if you've seen the movie, you know that one of the plot points was that the original version of "That Thing You Do" was a slow, boring ballad. It was then shifted to be up tempo and became a much, much better song and a big hit.
So this morning, I read the article linked below about how Decca Records didn't sign the Beatles based on the demo they were given, apparently for good reasons. And near the end of the article, there is a discussion about how "Please Please Me" started out as a slow ballad and was of no interest to the label, but then the Beatles took it up tempo, the label recorded it, and the song became a big hit.
Uh huh. Ok.
Why Decca Didn't Sign the Beatles
Play Ball!
Aug. 4th, 2025 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)