filbo

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A pretty good day. (I started to type "year". Not so much.) A fair amount of progress at work, a bit of last-minute shopping including exercise-level walking, and definite signs that the new meds are working on the BPH.

My brother sent us a smoked duck. We probably have enough food in the house, and few enough people expected, not to need it today. We'll see.

On the down side, my doctor told me to lose at least 10 pounds: I'm pre-diabetic, and my triglycerides are high. In my opinion, I need to lose at least 30, and preferably 50. GAAK! I was actually making progress in 2007; the fact that I'm taking drugs that can cause weight gain makes a convenient excuse, but probably isn't the reason I gained 20 pounds in 2008.

A good insight: I like holidays, but tend to be less than enthusiastic; that may be because I also end up doing a lot of the work, and because although I like having interesting people to talk to, a house full of guests is guaranteed to put me well into overload. More later, probably.

Links under the cut, as usual.

Between now and next weekend the Starport is pretty much open every day: we take in strays for the holidays. Today's menu is borscht, honey-glazed ham, and the smoked duck my brother sent us. The annual "sometime around New Year" potluck is January 2^nd, a week from tomorrow. (The only exception is that we'll probably be off on a family outing this Sunday.)

The chaoswolf and selkit will be hosting on New Year's Eve.

If you feel like stopping by any time in between, you'll be welcome if anybody's home; it's usually a good idea to call ahead except for today, Wednesday, and next Saturday.

Me: "Look, there's a sticker showing a picture of the person who made it. Wouldn't it be fun to work for Lush and have a sticker saying 'made by Bam'?"

Bam: "A picture of Bam would attract anyone! With my rockin' blond hair!"

(And yes, I did get Lush for Christmas! My guy says they had a sign up saying "Smart husbands shop at Lush." Truth in advertising.)

... to cphoenix!!!! (And let's not forget Isaac Newton!) Have a great one!!

And don't forget to take a look at today's xkcd!!

Imagine, for a moment, that you could put a dozen of the world's most beautiful supermodels together somewhere. Then, you dress them all up in ridiculously vivid clothes, only to start hosing them down with fluorescent paint and glow in the dark glitter. Then, at the peak of this wet-nightie extravaganza, you demand that they start debating the merits of shamanic animism in the context of present-day environmental devastation, punctuating their sentences with fireworks and a fresh round of glow-spray.

Do all this as a $400M science fiction film and you have AVATAR. Dumb as mud, cringe-inducing, a fifteen-year-old's notion of deep ideas at best... but I would happily watch it chatter away for any arbitrary length of time. After all, I was fifteen once myself.

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For consideration: And say whatever else you must, as big dumb Hollywood blockbusters go, at least it's not an adaptation or licensed property or remake for once

to scendan and targeter. And I know there's someone else, but I forgot who.

me: "Your cousins still believe in Santa Claus - do you think you think you could be careful not to say anything to them about Santa not being real?"

Bam: "I know, I could join in the fun instead of spoiling it for them."

I'm so proud!

Hmm. Today I'm thankful for:

• Colleen, of course.
• My two daughters and their Significant Others.
• Family of choice.
• Occasional reminders that I'm not as theird as I usually wink I am -- no matter how disturbing that may be to my self-image.
• Books like The Highly Sensitive Person that turn my self-image upside-down and give it a good shake.
• Occasional reminders that my image of my kids also needs substantial revising from time to time.
• Work, and flexible enough hours that I don't have to take next week off if I don't want to.
• Holidays.

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Not a terribly productive day, so it had overtones of failure, but pretty good on the whole. Some very good spots: hearing that JRP wanted to keep the YD on for another year of modeling, etc. classes. A happy phone call delivering that news to Callie, while walking around the top of the nearby hill. (Not really much of a walk in terms of exercise, but it was sunny and pleasant.) Some conversation in the evening, though not as much as I would have liked. A little noodling on the guitar.

I finished reading The Highly Sensitive Person -- I'm still not sure how much of it is applicable, though certainly a lot of it is. Maybe I've just been very effective at suppressing a lot of what sensitivity I have, and never developed the skills to use it. It's certainly put things in a different light; there will be a River post once I've digested it more fully.

Too many projects I need to get back to.

Plenty of links up there under the cut.

... and it's too late to post a Wishful Wednesday, but not too late to wish you all a happy holiday season, whatever it is you celebrate.

I was diligent this season in getting out my Christmas-canceling headphones and iPod as quickly as I could whenever I walked into restaurants and such for the past five weeks. As a result, I only heard "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" ten or twenty times this month, and the two songs it quotes once or twice.  But that was enough to inspire the following parody.

The Relentless Tide of Yule
parody by Bob Kanefsky

Lyrics copyright ©2009 -- see www.songworm.com for info and final version

Walking around Christmas trees
In the Christian part of town.
Everyone shopping frantically
So they're hard to be around.

Dodging around Christmas gifts
As the Christmas music plays
In every damn place you can't avoid,
'Round the clock for thirty days.


Chorus:
You will get assimilated --
Willingly or not.
If someone tries to stuff your stocking,
( Read more... )

Ow ow ow. New medication and holiday overindulgence do *not* mix. I've had some horrible bouts of nausea.

On the bright side, Bam got so upset by me being sick and gave me loving hugs. It's always good to see evidence of caring in him. I know from my own experience that lack of empathy does not equal lack of caring, but it can be scary to see in your own child.

"Since" is since the last update six months ago.



Go-Gos continuing on a strong streak, but the new dark horse is Peter Gabriel with "Down to Earth" aka "the closing credits to WALL•E" aka "the only movie Liana has ever actually asked us to get for her on DVD so she could watch it again".

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For consideration: which she does, continually, now, so we're going to have to think about how to temper that

( raw notes )

Hmm. A pretty good day, I guess. OK, a very good day in terms of things accomplished: I started on the FSA receipts (didn't get very far, but hopefully I have some momentum now), got a diagnosis for my very recent urological problems (enlarged prostate), got some lab-work done (everything looks good except the triglycerides, as usual) got a start on The Next Sub-Project at work, and had a couple of good insights. But it didn't really feel all that productive.

And I know that a single dose of something that takes at least 3 weeks to work isn't going to fix the problem all at once, but...

Hopefully the momentum will keep me going.

OK, the insights:

• You can make a set of base-64 digits that sort properly and can be used in URLs and filenames in two different ways:
  "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz~"
"0123456789-ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
• I avoid a lot of things because of excess caution. If I don't do anything, I can't screw it up. (I think I mentioned this a couple of days ago.) It's closely related to avoiding things because I'm not sure of what I'm doing.
• I avoid a lot of things because of depression, not anxiety. I'm not actually afraid of them, they're just depressing to think about, and depression makes me apathetic.

I'm getting better, but it's rather slow.

Lots of good, fun links up there in the notes.

the better.