Computer Shopping

Apr. 23rd, 2025 05:17 am
kevin_standlee: (Reno)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
One of the tasks that Lisa and I had yesterday (and a contributing factor to why we got home relatively late) was that I decided that I'd better buy a new computer. While the one I have here is working okay, the vendor won't renew the hardware service plan. Some of you may recall that I used that plan last year. Also, it still is on Windows 10, which is also nearing end of service, and while I could and will update the machine, it did seem like it was time to do something. So we went to Best Buy to look at computers. We also were hoping to get a machine before The Regime's tariffs double the cost of the computers for the benefit of His Orange Highness enriching himself at the expense of everyone else.

There's no obvious direct replacement for my current machine. I want what is often placed as a "gaming laptop," not for gaming, but for video editing. That ups the cost because I want a powerful graphics card and a fair bit of memory. However, when I bought the current machine, the difference was like night and day when doing video work.

The machine we settled on buying wasn't in stock, but they said that they could have it by Friday. They offered free delivery, but given that package-delivery services have done things like just toss packages over the fence, that didn't seem like a good idea. Lisa reminded me that Kayla was coming into Reno on Friday. The sales person confirmed that as long as she brings the documentation for the sale, Kayla can pick it up for me, so she'll come over after her doctor's appointment on Friday afternoon.

After buying the computer, I bought several computer accessories. Among these was a USB-to-USB-C cable, which I need for my new iPhone and the external auxiliary battery, both of which only have double-ended USB-C cables. Also, I got an external hub with an Ethernet port in it, because the new machine doesn't have a built-in Ethernet jack. The older computer does, and we connect our computers to the wired network that Lisa installed.

I'm not looking forward the the hassle of setting up a new computer. That is one of the reasons I tend to stick with my computers as long as I possibly can. But with luck, this one will work for several years. I'd have to go back and look, but I thought this one lasted four years.
just_ann_now: (Seasonal: Spring: New Leaves)
[personal profile] just_ann_now
Sunny, warm(ish) and lovely the past several days. Rain predicted for late Friday into Saturday; my garden will be happy!

What I Just Finished Reading

Fourth Wing was, uh, everything I expected. I am SO not the audience for romantasy, but, as we used to say about our kids devouring Babysitter's Club or Goosebumps, "At least they are reading!" For a Goodreads Community Challenge.

Black Woods Blue Sky, by Eowyn Ivey. Ivey is a hometown girl, from the same town in Alaska where we lived, so of course I'll read everything she writes. The descriptive prose here was so evocative, and made me so homesick, while the plot, with its impending sense of dread, kept me glued to my couch. [personal profile] rachelmanija, take a look at this and let me know what you think of it. For A to Z Authors.

Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet, by Hannah Ritchie. "Don't believe gloomy headlines!" is the message here - yes, things are bad, but not quite as bad as they could be. Well written and interesting but oh, so many graphs. SO MANY. A to Z Authors.

What I Am Currently Reading/What I Am Reading Next

The Briar Club, by Kate Quinn, and Encounters at the Heart of the World, by Elizabeth A. Fenn.

Question of the Day: Out of Character Meme, from [personal profile] minoanmiss. Suppose you were on the phone with someone who knows you and you wanted to alert them that you were in a Bad Situation. What's the most out of character thing you could say? My reply was, "The Star Wars movies are the most asinine things ever produced."

Black Cherries by W. S. Merwin

Apr. 27th, 2025 04:13 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Late in May as the light lengthens
toward summer the young goldfinches
flutter down through the day for the first time
to find themselves among fallen petals
cradling their day's colors in the day's shadows
of the garden beside the old house
after a cold spring with no rain
not a sound comes from the empty village
as I stand eating the black cherries
from the loaded branches above me
saying to myself Remember this


*******


Link

There is a friending meme ongoing

Apr. 26th, 2025 04:05 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Clicky!

Also, I meant to say re: the utilities that you are all the best and I absolutely love you :)

(Still need to call National Grid and still don't wanna.)

Book Retrieval

Apr. 22nd, 2025 09:05 pm
kevin_standlee: (Beware of Trains)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
Lisa and I went into Reno/Sparks today to do several errands. The first stop was Jiffy Lube, where I retrieved my lost property that they fortunately held for me.

Dominion )

Next was Cost Plus World Market where we got several things and used $5 of store credit. I was happy to see that they had Icelandic Chocolate back in stock. I reckon this is likely to be the last time I get some withe pre-tariff pricing, though.

Best Buy was next. I will talk about that tomorrow.

WinCo Foods was our big grocery stop, but there were a few things that Lisa wanted that WinCo doesn't have, like Bubbie's pickles, which she has taken a shine to eating these days. For that, we stopped at Raley's before heading for home. On the way home, we collected the mail including some packages (about which more later).

It's been a long day for me, as I was awake before 4 AM and normally would have been in bed before 8 PM, so I'm putting off writing more until later.

Happy Earth Day!

Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:13 pm
wyld_dandelyon: (let's go!)
[personal profile] wyld_dandelyon
I've been under the weather. This time I managed to get Bronchitis just from the end of the winter heating season (unless a friend with a congestive heart condition was actually sick, and not just coughing because of the heart condition). But I think this was coming on earlier, and the med regime my former allergist suggested was keeping my lungs and sinuses a lot clearer than in the past, but not enough for my body to clear out the infection.

Well, I came to this conclusion Friday, with (among other things) singing at the Eurofilk showing me I was unusually short of breath for singing; I already had an appointment with my newish primary doc who I really like on Monday, and when I tried to call the allergist last month to set up an appointment, there was no answer or answering machine on his number, or on the alternate number I found on Google. I did find an article about him listing him as 81 years old, and I'm not sure how long ago that was written, so I'm assuming he died or retired. So, I waited out the weekend and got tireder and tireder, and shorter and shorter of breath.

Happily, she was willing to prescribe antibiotics and steroids (if I'd gotten antibiotics on Friday, that might have been enough), unhappily, when they figured out that the only way they could give me the meds the doc thought most appropriate that didn't have corn in it (kids' liquid, again), it turned out that the pharmacy couldn't fill it until today. It was too late to try to talk the doc into prescribing something different, as the clinic was closed.

So today I woke up way too early, and was NOT falling asleep again (my body does insist on waking when I really need meds, which freaked out my RN mother when I was first sick enough to always be awake when she came in to wake me up to take them). This was handy in that I was able to deal with a bank overdraft for my grown-up kid (she's still using the account I got her when she went to Denmark in 4th grade so I could easily transfer money to her if there was an unexpected need, so, being awake I saw the text notification) (Her birthday is later this month, so an early birthday gift was perfectly reasonable).

And then I had food and called the pharmacy, because I WANTED those meds before the rest of the day's errands, which included getting My Angel to her PT appointment, mailing a thing (in a post office, since there seems to be no more drop-off boxes outside our regular post office any more--WTF, government?--and going to pick up meds at a different pharmacy too.

The strip mall the post office was in had one of the closing JoAnne Fabrics, which had almost no fabric left, and not much of anything else either. I did find some things to buy, including two substantially marked down big bags designed to hold a sewing machine and sewing stuff, but which I plan to use one of for author stuff (books, display, etc.) on the assumption that I'll do signings at cons again, and the other for acrylic paints, brushes, and the like since my current bag and plastic bin plan isn't working out as well as I'd like, and because having that stuff on wheels will be very convenient.

I also got some beads, wire, a thimble and multitool, sewing machine needles, an ironing pad to put on a table, some tape, a couple of pillow forms for planned gifting, and, surprisingly, a basket of tumbled stones to put in the fishtank. Sadly, the heavy-duty dolly they had pictured in the front as available had already been sold. I looked at the jewelry making stuff, thought about the heavy duty crimper and some of those beads, but I haven't been making jewelry lately and can use the hemostats I use for holding autoharp strings to crimp things, so I left those behind. I did also get some very discounted project boards, so if we decide to go to one or more protests, we can take signs.

And I took photos of our daffodils in the middle of all that.

I am cheered by all the photos of protests I'm seeing, and by how badly Elon's car company is doing. It gives me hope. Keep contacting your elected officials, we've got to wear them down until they stand up to our very cruel and foolish leader.

Now I am going to hit post and go watch Rachel show all those pictures of the signs again, and do Duolinguo, so I don't miss a day, and fall in bed. Maybe I'll manage to post Daffodil pics tomorrow.

Ethics

Apr. 22nd, 2025 07:35 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
[personal profile] pjthompson
Random quote of the day:

“Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life—it is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound and universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.”

—Albert Schweitzer, quoted in Albert Schweitzer: The Man and His Mind by George Seaver



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
jjhunter: Watercolor of daisy with blue dots zooming around it like Bohr model electrons (science flower)
[personal profile] jjhunter
Let's take a breath for poetry. It is April, and as good a time as any for a collaborative poetry fest. Please find below a starting stanza or two of a brand new haikai (what's a haikai, you ask? Think extended haiku: alternating stanzas of 5-7-5 and 7-7). Comment with a following stanza to build on that seed. Someone (most likely me) will respond with another stanza, and so on and so forth throughout the day.
===

daffodil focus
bell song, valdrome, pheasant's eye
live stained glass glory

_

Earth Day, someday

Apr. 22nd, 2025 12:53 pm
ankh_hpl: (Default)
[personal profile] ankh_hpl
Earth Day
we pilgrims return
in hazmat suits

https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2025/

---Ann K. Schwader

Book Day...

Apr. 22nd, 2025 08:54 am
sartorias: (Default)
[personal profile] sartorias

This is quick, as things have been fraught, with a sick family member who doesn't do well with sickness.

 

Dobrenica 3: Revenant Eve

 

BVC e-book | Kindle | Kobo | Nook |
Amazon paperback | Ingram paperback

Re-edited and reissued: 

It’s now 1795, the rise of Napoleon, and Kim finds herself a guardian spirit for a twelve-year-old kid who will either become Kim’s ancestor . . . or the timeline will alter and Kim will vanish, along with the small, magical European country of Dobrenica. 

Kim hates time travel conundrums, and knows nothing about kids. How is she going to spirit-guide young Aurelie, born on Saint-Domingue, with whom she has nothing in common?

From pirate-infested Jamaica to mannered England to Revolutionary Paris in the early 1800s, Kim and Aurelie travel, sharing adventures and meeting fascinating people, such as the beautiful and charming Josephine, wife of Napoleon. 

 

larryhammer: a wisp of colored smoke, label: "softly and suddenly vanished away" (disappeared)
[personal profile] larryhammer
I totally forgot to post this yesterday, which is possibly indicative of … something. So here, have it for Poetry Tuesday instead:

what if a much of a which of a wind, e. e. cummings

what if a much of a which of a wind
gives truth to the summer’s lie;
bloodies with dizzying leaves the sun
and yanks immortal stars awry?
Blow king to beggar and queen to seem
(blow friend to fiend:blow space to time)
—when skies are hanged and oceans drowned,
the single secret will still be man

what if a keen of a lean wind flays
screaming hills with sleet and snow:
strangles valleys by ropes of thing
and stifles forests in white ago?
Blow hope to terror;blow seeing to blind
(blow pity to envy and soul to mind)
—whose hearts are mountains, roots are trees,
it’s they shall cry hello to the spring

what if a dawn of a doom of a dream
bites this universe in two,
peels forever out of his grave
and sprinkles nowhere with me and you?
Blow soon to never and never to twice
(blow life to isn’t:blow death to was)
—all nothing’s only our hugest home;
the most who die,the more we live

---L.

Subject quote from On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble, A. E. Housman.

coffle

Apr. 22nd, 2025 06:49 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
coffle (KOF-uhl, KAW-fuhl) - n., a line of people or animals fastened together, especially a chain of prisoners or slaves. v., to fasten in a coffle.


Or a caravan of camels crossing the desert:

camels in coffles in caravan
Thanks, WikiMedia!

This example is not random, because it's the root sense: taken in the 1790s from Arabic qāfila, caravan. Just to be clear, though, the primary use today is for prisoners chained in a line.

---L.

The movie Flow

Apr. 22nd, 2025 12:18 am
asakiyume: (far horizon)
[personal profile] asakiyume
Maybe you've seen the trailer for this wordless animated film about a black cat in a post-human world. (If not, here's a link.) The visuals were so evocative and beautiful--and the cat so like my own cat--that I was very excited to see it.

Yesterday I did see it, and it was indeed beautiful to look at ...

but... )

Haikai Fest: "Circadian Cueing"

Apr. 21st, 2025 08:29 pm
jjhunter: Gray-faced sheep with dreambubble reading 'dreamwidth' against a blue background; sheep's body is 'opal' (opal dreamsheep)
[personal profile] jjhunter
Let's take a breath for poetry. It is April, and as good a time as any for a collaborative poetry fest. Please find below a starting stanza or two of a brand new haikai (what's a haikai, you ask? Think extended haiku: alternating stanzas of 5-7-5 and 7-7). Comment with a following stanza to build on that seed. Someone (most likely me) will respond with another stanza, and so on and so forth throughout the day.
===

even single cells
know the daytime sync and sleep
for wake tomorrow

_
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
and applied for a shitton of jobs. The worst they can do is call me a dipshit, and they probably wouldn't do that to my face. I think? Seems like a waste of time to call somebody up and say "You're terrible, how could you think we'd consider you?"

*****************


Read more... )

Face the Dragon, by Joyce Sweeney

Apr. 21st, 2025 11:59 am
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


In this YA novel published in 1990, six fourteen-year-olds face their inner dragons while they're in an accelerated academic program which includes a class on Beowulf.

I read this when it first came out, so when I saw a copy at a library book sale, I grabbed it to re-read. It largely holds up, though I'd completely forgotten the main plot and only recalled the theme and the subplot.

My recollection of the book was that the six teenagers are inspired by class discussions on Beowulf to face their personal fears. This is correct. I also recalled that one of the girls was a gymnast with an eating disorder and one of the boys was an athlete partially paralyzed in an accident, and those two bonded over their love of sports and current conflicted/damaging relationship to sports and their bodies, and ended up dating. This is also correct.

What I'd completely forgotten was the main plot, which was about the narrator, Eric, who idolized his best friend, Paul, and had an idealized crush on one of the girls in the class, who he was correctly convinced had a crush on Paul, and incorrectly convinced Paul was mutually attracted to. Paul, who is charming and outgoing, convinces Eric, who is shy, to do a speech class with him, where Eric surprisingly excels. The main plot is about the Eric/Paul relationship, how Eric's jealousy nearly wrecks it, and how the boys both end up facing their dragons and fixing their friendship.

Paul's dragon is that he's secretly gay. The speech teacher takes a dislike to him, promotes Eric to the debate team when Paul deserves it more (and tells Eric this in private), and finally tries to destroy Paul in front of the whole class by accusing him of being gay! Eric defends Paul, Paul confesses his secret to him, and the boys repair their friendship.

While a bit dated/historical, especially in terms of both boys knowing literally nothing about what being gay actually means in terms of living your life, it's a very nicely done novel with lots of good character sketches. The teachers are all real characters, as are the six kids - all of whom have their own journeys. The crush object, for instance, is a pretty rich girl who's been crammed into a narrow box of traditional femininity, and her journey is to destroy the idealized image that Eric is in love with and her parents have imposed on her - and part of Eric's journey is to accept the role of being her supportive friend who helps her do it.

I was surprised and pleased to discover that this and other Sweeney books are currently available as ebooks. I will check some out.

Lost and Found

Apr. 21st, 2025 08:18 am
kevin_standlee: The SERVICE ENGINE SOON indicator light on Kevin's Chevrolet Astro minivan. (Service Engine Soon)
[personal profile] kevin_standlee
I called Jiffy Lube this morning, and lo and behold, they have my book! I would have checked yesterday, but they were closed on Easter Sunday. I must have taken it out of my bag, set it down, and forgotten about it. Lisa and I expect to go into Reno tomorrow afternoon after work, so I will stop by and collect it from them.

fossorial

Apr. 21st, 2025 07:25 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
fossorial (fo-SAWR-ee-uhl, fo-SOHR-ee-uhl) - (zool.) adj., adapted to digging and burrowing; living underground


Okay, if I'd been paying attention, I'd've run this one right after cursorial, and be ready to run arboreal immediately after. Ah, well. This was also coined in the 1830s from Late Latin, though in this case from fossōrius, of digging, from Latin fossor, digger, from fodere, to dig (ultimately from PIE *bʰedʰh₂-, to pierce/dig).

---L.
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
And what if I had simply passed you by,
your false skins gathering light in a basket,
those skins of unpolished copper,
would you have lived more greatly?

Now you are free of that metallic coating,
a broken hull of parchment,
the dried petals of a lily—
those who have not loved you
will not know differently.

But you are green fading into yellow—
how deceptive you have been.

Once I played the cithara,
fingers chafing against each note.
Once I worked the loom,
cast the shuttle through the warp.
Once I scrubbed the tiles
deep in the tub of Alejandro.
Now I try to deciper you.

Beyond the village, within a cloud
of wild cacao and tamarind,
they chant your tale, how you,
most common of your kind,
make the great warrior-men cry
but a woman can unravel you.


****


Link
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