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Starlinography?

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/yes-you-can-store-data-on-a-bird-enthusiast-converts-png-to-bird-shaped-waveform-teaches-young-starling-to-recall-file-at-up-to-2mb-s

Taking this proof-of-concept to a ridiculous destination, imagine taking a very simple secret message, converting it to sound, and tasking a starling to smuggle it out somewhere. (This seems very impractical compared to an amateurishly knitted scarf with a code in the seemingly random purl stitches.)

Entry tags:

ten good things

some good things

Sense Has Prevailed. (There has been an ongoing a Fabric Of The Building thing -- we live in a block with 12 other flats, every owner has a share of the freehold -- and today we had an actual meeting where we Voted and Agreed Next Steps. Via an hour or so of frequently-infuriating back and forth.)
Which we celebrated by stopping at a pub on the way home and making them bring us dinner (and raspberry lemonade for me, and a beer for A) to our outside table in the sunshine, rather than slogging up the hill to bake a potato.
Have made substantial progress on wrangling the post-event lost property paperwork. I have sent so many e-mails.
Continuing to read one chapter at a time of Hyperbole and a Half with A. <3
Many many exuberant and ridiculous flowers on the walk home.
Lots of effusive praise for various bits of Admin: the LRP-related work (including some v high praise indeed for the current GOD management team, which includes yrs truly).
Own bed and good sleep.
Apricots. (Left over from grocery order over two weeks ago, but stored in the fridge and still Very Apricot, about which I am delighted).
Helpful response means I am now unstuck on finishing up my current EYB indexing project. (... which is just as well because another stack of books may have just arrived...)
Really enjoying the handful of combat trousers I got Oxfam to send me. POCKETS.

Entry tags:

admin: the lrp

tried really quite hard to lose my hair stick twice this event just gone

... this being the style I have already sacrificed one of to The Endless Woodchip. Attempt at loss the first occurred while putting up tent; attempt at loss the second occurred late on Saturday night, when I was rushing from A to B to provide a roll-mat to a player and lost a fight with the bunting we use to discourage people from walking into the tent in places we don't want them to.

It was dark. Nonetheless I spent several whole minutes searching before giving up and resolving to try again in daylight. Consequently I got up good and early to start hunting before the team started carting all of the Objects back out of the storage ISO (all of the in-character valuables get locked away overnight while the tent's unstaffed...) and... discovered it really wasn't going to need much hunting after all.

( Read more... )

Tragically the brass hair stick I pulled out of "freecycle" before letting the players at the aged-out lost objects... wound up getting dropped in a known fairly well-defined location, and vanishing utterly into the ether, despite a good five people having a hunt for it. Ah well; maybe it'll show up next time, and maybe it won't, and either way I am likely to have future opportunities to Acquire More Hair Adornment.

Prior Auth, my beloathéd

July 22: I message my symptoms team for a refill on my primary pain med (which is still only the next step up from Tylenol 3). And yet, it's what keeps me from regularly screaming when I exert myself in a way that stresses my right hip. I have 21 + 5 (a week plus a day and 2/3) left.

July 24: A list of detailed follow-up questions from the symptoms nurse, and my detailed reply. About 20 left.

July 25:
Hi [Azz],

I wanted to let you know that [doctor] sent a refill of the [med] to the Costco!

[Discussion of discontinuing another med]

And can I just say how much I enjoy your MyChart messages; I am always impressed at how in tune you are with your body.

Take care,
[Nurse]

Me: It's time to renew my prior auth again, alas.

Nurse: Aw dang!
No worries though, you gave us time (thank you by the way).
I have asked our billing specialist to help with this so we will call the Costco when we get it and then let you know.
Thanks,
[Nurse]

About 17 left.

***

July 26: About 14 left.
July 27: About 11 left.

***

July 28
Different nurse:
Hi [Azz],

We needed a new prior authorization on [med]. We received approval for this over the weekend. However, Costco has been unable to get this medication to process. They are in the process of calling your insurance to figure out where the issue lies.

[Image of prior auth as sent to doctor]

I will keep you updated

Thanks,
[Nurse]

Me: Thanks for the update!

***

A hair bleaching, trip through the shower, and time to drip dry later, I figure I will call Costco pharmacy and see what they've discovered, since they're still open and the symptoms care office is not.

[Call time: 6 minutes 54 seconds]

***

Me: I talked with darling [Don't Panic Pharmacy Assistant] at the pharmacy, who had my back the last time UHC was like this, and we had a real good chat about the state of things at UHC, and she is putting me through for 12 days so I can have some breathing room while you and she go and wrestle alligators. I will get that picked up tonight and we'll see when UHC can be made to see the light.

I drive to the pharmacy.
I receive my jar.
I tell our friend that I was so glad it was her who picked up when I called.
Don't Panic Pharmacy Assistant tells me that when she took my call about the prior auth on my med, the rest of the pharmacy was looking at her funny, because she swapped registers straight out of professional. "Is that a family member on the phone?" And yet again we had words about United Healthcare. Also, the pharmacy we used to go to is shutting down; she has this from her friend and ours, the guy with the Emperor's New Groove pin. He prefers to stay with that company, so he's not coming to Costco.

***

About 8 left, plus 12 days.

Entry tags:

gods,
magick

O Mother of Light

George Wallace Briggs wrote this Christian prayer:

"O Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning, Who Abidest steadfast as the stars of heaven: give us grace to rest upon Thy eternal changelessness, and in Thy faithfulness find peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord."

And I reworked it into this prayer to the Star Goddess: "O Mother of Light, within Whom exists every variation, Who abides, steadfast, as the stars of heaven: give us grace to rest within Thine eternal changing, and in Thy movements, find Peace."

Entry tags:

vital functions

vital functions

Reading. Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh, The Book, with A, a chapter at a time.

Also a bit more of The Age of Seeds, but only a very little bit.

Writing. Fun migraine facts: I spent the weekend discovering that writing by hand at speed Just Does Not Work Well. "Stopping" for "stopper", "fascinate" for "fastener", and so on and so forth...

Listening. Songs and stories! Including, apparently, these people + friends.

Playing. Admin: the LRP.

Eating. I may have slightly subsisted primarily on lemon and sugar crêpes. The raspberry and lemon curd toasties remain a delight. Some blackberries from the hedges.

Exploring. Finally (consciously) observed the giant purple cockerel. The Navarr woods at night.

Growing. Actually managed to water the plants before setting off, go me.

Observing. A BAT IN THE MARQUEE. ALSO A GIANT DRAGONFLY. Also the swallows (I think). Stars.

Alas, new glucometer

As sent to my primary care, who I actually do like:

United Healthcare, in their omnibenevolent wisdom, sees fit to drop the One Touch Ultra from my preferred drug list as of September. They have offered several alternatives.

My primary goal with a glucometer is to not require a smartphone to do the simple task of marking whether any reading is before or after a meal. Out of their list of suggestions, the Contour Plus Blue meter meets my requirements and is not discontinued.

Joy. And happiness.

(This is the primary care who, upon learning which insurance I had, while we were trying to solve a problem, asked whether I was up to date on the then-recent news about their CEO, then said "You'd think they'd have learned their lesson." She's from Canada.)

[Edit: I am not currently in need of a CGM, I just want to be able to enter whether a reading is before or after a meal without involving an app.]

Life. Oy.

Well, on the plus side, there is noticeable difference in my legs. But that (plus all the other body changes have pointed up the size of my arms. Wow. I had no idea. Thankfully, dealing with them is the final surgery. And that might be January, not March. Dr. Surgeon made a change in his surgical plan with this last surgery, and we might be at five procedures not six. That would be astounding. Because then there's 2 months of 4 day a week MLD followed by cutting back on that (though, ostensibly, using the pump a bit, too) AND having time for a bit of PT.

SO. Still home in May (i.e. 7 months later than planned) but possibly looking like a very different human.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: 🎵🎶I wish that you would just leave 🎶🎵

I put up my middle finger at him.

After Belovedest and I got our Home Depot errand finished, we went out to the car.

Belovedest: 6'4", white, short clipped brown hair, receding hairline, white Honeywell dome type N-95 mask, white T-shirt reading" Classically Trained" with a bunch of old-school video game controllers (but not any as old as the ones they started with), khaki colored cargo shorts, dark plastic slide type sandals.

Me: 5'6.5", white, shoulder length dark brown and variously blue fine 2c wavy hair held back with a grey rhinestone headband, violet eyeshadow with black liner behind blue frame rectangular glasses, black Breath of the Nature KF-94 mask, black chain necklace with spikes, silver star necklace, dark blue velour cardigan over a full length flowing embroidered black Holy Clothing dress, smartwatch with rainbow band, several medical bracelets and a medical necklace, some silver bangles with black, violet, and labradorite semiprecious gems, toeless black compression stockings, and a charcoal and violet pair of serious business support hiking sandals, just done driving a motorized grocery cart.

Him: sitting in his candy-colored Tesla, medium colored hair, with a full mountain man beard.

"You fuckin' weirdos," he muttered, deliberately loud enough to be heard inside the open windows of Belovedest's Toaster.

"Same to you, buddy!" I called as he started to pull out, waving my hand out the window.

Entry tags:

quotes

Quote: being free is an act of rebellion

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." -Albert Camus

Fast update

Yeah, I keep saying that, and it's never true.

Sunday night I had APPETITE. Like everything came roaring back in a way that, looking back, I can't remember for at least a couple years.

Monday I did ( insert medical activities here )

Then we went and got brunch at a decent deli conveniently located across the street from the doctor (I'd gotten takeaway from there before so already knew their latkes are GF and amazing; that no nightshades thing, I admit, goes out the window but what's with the thimbles of sour cream and applesauce?). Then to a Goodwill we'd seen a while back right near The Grove (our ostensible next destination) but we got glass so it was "book a Lyft to the Grove with a stop at home in the entirely opposite direction to drop that all off plus rollator". Then to The Grove, where much shopping and dining occurred (e.g., I have been missing having TY cards, stationery, etc. and lo, a Barnes and Noble appeared unto them).

Home more than 12 hours after we left. Certain parts of my body were more pleased about that than others but what struck me most was that I felt tired but not wiped out, and certainly not anemic. So I thought GREAT! I must be around 13. Apparently not, as the number was 12.1.

Yesterday was surgery. Lunch at deli again though body - which had been ALL PROTEIN ALL THE TIME - morphed into "Carbs and salad please!". I was stunned I wanted food at all, much less I was awake enough to eat but man, normalcy is my body's reaction to shock; collapse after. So slept at home then was awake but no brain.

Today I think is Wednesday Farmers Market and Capital One Café to deposit a check that I really would prefer go physically. Then post-surgical appointment including MLD and some wrapping. Then home to fall over.

Onwards.

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: near the cat
Current Music: The Doors

Entry tags:

cats,
catterel

Riders on the what?

I have a locational song for Yellface.

There's a kitten on the bed.
There's a kitten on the bed,
Please pet her silly head,
This kitten on the bed.

There's a kitten on the sill.
There's a kitten on the sill,
So please don't speak her ill,
This kitten on the sill.

There's a kitten on the couch.
There's a kitten on the couch,
She just might be a grouch,
This kitten on the couch.

Entry tags:

A good grade

One of the LED bulbs in the bathroom vanity developed a distracting (which is code for sensory nope) flicker. Since the porch fixture takes the same bulb, I proposed that the ailing bulb become a public nuisance rather than a private one.

One of my oncologists (I believe I have dubbed her Dr. Bitsblobs, the oncology gynecologist) is retiring soon. So she has been bidding her patients farewell. Apparently I am a "gold star" patient in terms of trying my best to comply with medical advice, and for self-advocacy. A good grade in cancer, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve.

Entry tags:

vital functions

vital functions

Reading. ( Wells, Lister, Tufte, Brosh, McMillan-Webster )

... I also technically started reading a little bit of Descartes, and more around Descartes, for the pain project -- but really not very much as yet.

Playing. A round of Hanabi with A & houseguest! We were playing with very different House Norms which led to some hilarious miscommunication, but A Good Time Was Had.

A good time was also had following the toddler around a playground, including some time On A Swing where we worked out How Legs Do. :)

Cooking. Several Questionable loaves of bread (mostly "too much liquid, ergo puddle"). Three more recipes from East, none of which were particularly interesting to us. (Piccalilli spiced rice; Sodha's variant on egg fried rice; a tempeh-and-pak-choi Situation.)

And Ribiselkuchen! I have been very very happily eating Appropriately Seasonal Ribiselkuchen.

Eating. A made us waffles for breakfast this morning. I had them with SLICED STRAWBERRIES and SLICED APRICOT and MAPLE SYRUP and also LEMON JUICE and VANILLA SUGAR and I was very happy about all of this.

Making & mending. It is Event Prep Week. There are so many potions.

Growing. ... I got some more supports in for my beans? I have just about managed to break even on the sugar snap peas this year (should NOT have eaten the handful I did...) and might yet manage to do a little better than that, with luck.

Squash starting to produce female flowers (yes I was late starting them). More soft fruit (which desperately needs processing; I will be sad if I wind up needing to just compost the jostaberries that have been sat in the fridge for ...a while, now). Many many tomatoes, none of which were actually ripe yet last time I actually made it to the plot...

Observing. Peacock butterfly at the plot! Tawny owl (audio only)! Bats (ditto)! The Teenage Magpie Persists!

Also a variety of awkward teenage waterfowl in Barking Park, along with a squirrel who was most unimpressed when our attempts to feed it mostly involved accidentally handing it an empty half-peanut-shell. It made it very clear (well before any of us had independently noticed The Issue) that it understood we were willing to feed it but that we were doing a terrible job at this and Should Try Harder. I was delighted.

Speedy update

So HGB on Wednesday (after 1st iron infusion on Friday) was 11.3 so we're getting somewhere. Second infusion (it's in two parts) was Wednesday. Transfusing tomorrow. I presume they're not running labs before transfusing though it would, in fact, be pretty helpful if they did (data nerd that I am the hospital spoiled me with the daily labs).

Then Monday I go for IV insertion at my surgeon's (because it finally occurred to me that it makes zero sense to try and start an IV when I'm dehydrated, tired, stressed, etc. So day before surgery and we super tape it down and pray.

Surgery Tuesday. He's actually going for a larger area than planned originally. Which might mean one less procedure. That would be super nice, but not holding my breath.

Off work two weeks. Hope that's enough.

Okay, time for bed.

some good things

Pilates. Managed to drag myself onto the mat, at gone 9.30 p.m., and wound up smiling to myself and the ceiling.
COOL SHOWER. LOW ENOUGH HUMIDITY TO AIR-DRY.
Listening to the bats as I type this up. (Less active than closer to dusk, but definitely still poking their heads out intermittently!)
Local supermarket has resumed stocking an apple-and-pear juice, and I do in fact prefer it to the significantly more expensive stuff from the ridiculous fancy veg box people. HURRAH for Treats For Me.
Played a round of Hanabi this evening. Enjoyed discovering a Clash Of House Styles, but nonetheless pleased with how we'd done. :)

(I have also made two extremely questionable loaves of bread -- the soda bread I managed to leave out half the flour, which meant it was... not quite inedibly salty, but... definitely Really Quite; the sourdough was just too high a hydration and Wanted To Be A Puddle -- and sent a couple of e-mails I was avoiding. And ordered a Small Treat.)