Tone-Deafness Test - The Music Lab
https://www.themusiclab.org/quizzes/td
This is a research study on perfect pitch, but also gives you a score at the end.
Needs headphones and a quiet place to be done properly. I did it on my phone, and in that interface, I found that for the dropdowns for various choices I had to double-tap the field to get the options to display.
(I achieved the 85th percentile.)
Introducing my new girlfriend
I’d like you all to meet my new girlfriend, showing off one of her projects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq4VZaPYaDA
Be sure to watch the follow-up video where she makes us a pool, and it will be best if you say to yourself, at the beginning: “How is she going to fill it up? There’s no way she’s going to fill the pool by hand, is there?!”
Jeff's YouTube playlists
This is the kind of stuff I play while I’m working from / relaxing at home.
Window: cool nature stuff
Fireplaces: perfect for cooler days
Chillhop: music and animation to chill out with
Piano Jazz: could listen to this all day (and have!)
Rain: love this when it’s raining but too cold to open the windows
Night walk: walking in cities, at night. I especially like the back-alley ones
Walking: as close as I’ll ever get to some of these places
Brown Noise: perfect for naps
Octopus intelligence
Complexity begets error
WhatIsThisThing Frequently Asked Things
https://www.reddit.com/r/WITT_FAT/
One of the more interesting Reddit groups is What Is This Thing… and this is the lest of commonly-asked-about things you are supposed to check before you ask about something.
To my Letters Against Isolation teammates
From the Letters Against Isolation project.
- To avoid burnout:
- Take a week off if you wish (everyone needs a vacation!)
- Adjust the number of letters you write… 4 is my magic number now, after struggling to do more before.
- A short note is as good as a long letter (and getting anything at all is way better than nothing!).
- I found that the more letters I did, the more I was unhappy with the look of my writing. So I decided to print my letters with my computer, using some nice hand-printing fonts. And because of that, I found that if I make a 2-column letter template, with the text at the bottom, I can fold it I half sideways (text out), then fold it down, to make a free-standing "card", to which I add some stickers and color doodles.
- The back of my "card" has the LAI name and website so people know the source of the letter.
- I use a single envelope to send the letters (they are bigger card envelopes, left over from some really bad cards I decided I couldn't in good conscience use 😊), which, at least for the amount I'm sending, uses only two stamps. I use "Letters Against Isolation" for the return address name so they know what the envelope is.
- I still struggle with what to write, so it's definitely easier for me to do short cards as opposed to longer letters. This is because I massively overthink everything. I'm working really hard to not do that. For right now what works for me is to do a nice greetings, wish them well, and provide a quote that fits my very strict requirements of What To Send To Someone I Don't Know Going Through Who Knows What.
And most importantly:
- These are just ideas of mine, how it makes sense for me to do it… I do *not* claim to be doing it the best way, a lot of the letters I see are sooo much nicer than mine, but I'm doing what I can, given my time, talent, and energy level. Don't fall into The Facebook Trap of comparing your normal stuff with those that choose to post the very excellent stuff, it's one of the things that makes social media so dangerous. In fact, I'd encourage you to send in images of what you're doing, even they aren't "super stupendous" so that everyone can see the wide range of what's going on, and not feel bummed that theirs aren't fantastic.
Keep making the world a better place, everyone! I'm very happy to be a part of such a great project, doing what we can to bring happiness to isolating/isolated seniors.
How to stop your glasses from fogging up when you wear a mask
https://www.theverge.com/21301830/face-mask-glasses-fogging-how-to-stop-clear
Also, shaving cream can be used to stop the bathroom mirror from fogging up: rub some on, and keep buffing it with a dry cloth until it goes away.
That would probably work for glasses too.
So you have kidney stones
- I urge you to read the WebMD articles on kidney stones:
- Kidney stones form in the kidney, and it's only when they leave the kidney and travel down the narrow ureter that the pain starts. (Although for years I felt a presence, a mass, in my right side, that I only barely noticed; a place where when I twisted my torso felt like there was something in there.)
- The pain comes in waves, because the stone blocks the flow of urine from the kidney to the bladder, and as the pressure builds, the pain increases… and then the pressure gets great enough that it squeezes by the stone, relieving the pressure that's causing the pain.
- There can also be blood in the urine from the stone cutting into the ureter, which is also scary.
- I've had enough of them (and enough treatment) that I now usually just suffer through them at home, and because I know what to expect, it's much less scary and therefore less painful.
- You can take pain relievers, but nothing with aspirin of ibuprofen (as they can contribute to increased bleeding).
- I've had a few surgeries, and by far the best one I've had is shockwave lithotripsy, where they basically just blast the stone to sand with shockwaves delivered while you lay on a special device. It's just that procedure (done as an outpatient), then you go home. I only got it once, though because the machine is apparently either really expensive, not used much, or both, so it travels between several local hospitals, and only once was I and the machine at the hospital at the right time.
- My first two surgeries were of the traditional kind, where they go in with a scope, grab our or break up the stone, then leave behind a urinary stent, a tube with curlicues on both ends, that allows the ureter to function despite being inflamed from all the rough stuff. One end is in the kidney, the other in the bladder, But these stents have to come out eventually (3-7 days), which can be done in two ways:
- At your urologist's office: They numb you up by injecting anesthetic into your urethra (the external opening where urine comes out) and also push in a whole lot of water to fill the bladder up so they have a good view. Then they go in with a camera, grab the end of the stent, and pull it out. This I not much fun: fully awake lying on a table with your pants around your ankles, while you try very hard not to pee on the doctor and their assistant that are playing the world's least fun video game through your genitals. They do it all day, so it's no big deal for them, but it's a procedure you're very glad is done when it's over, and you try not to remember it too much.
- At home: sometimes they leave you with a string hanging out of your ureter, and after a few days you're advised to pull it out yourself, which, if you've led a quiet life, will be the strangest thing ever. You stand in the bathtub, after drinking as much water as you can to provide a good flow, and urinate while you pull this string, which is attached to the stent, and it seems impossibly long (because the curlicues unwind as you pull it out). For me this was quite a trade-off: I liked taking care of it myself, but that string running through everything made me had to pee every 15 minutes, and that's no joke (I don't think it helped much to sleep, either). It was only after I started taking Phenazopyridine that that became merely every 30 minutes. That med, by the way, also turns your urine orange, and it stains everything it comes in contact with, so if you use it I'd suggest cleaning the toilet often.
- I think that having a stent enlarges the ureter, making it thereafter easier to pass larger stones at home.
A 5x10mm stone I passed at home a few years ago.
- Most importantly: don't try this unless your confident in how things usually go, and if things get rough (more blood or pain than usual), please seek medical attention ASAP.
- Drink lots of water (always) but especially when passing one at home, to help get it over with.
- If you can get a hold of some Phenazopyridine (or other medication) it can really help.
- I found that standing and rocking back and forth, or walking, or rocking in a rocking chair really helped.
- A heating pad can also be a great relief, and I once had one that also vibrated, and that was very helpful as well.
- Make sure someone knows what you're going through and is ready to take you in if needed… do *not* try to drive while passing a kidney stone, you'll be too distracted to do it safely.
- Drink water (or other safe fluids) a lot, all day. The goal here is to keep your urine light-colored, because if it's darker that means it has more "stuff" in it, and some of that stuff is what collects in the nooks and crannies of your kidneys and makes your kidney stones, that increase in size as time goes on.
- Meds: my stones are of the uric acid variety, so I've taken prescription Potassium Citrate pills for years, as that helps break down deposits of uric acid. There are meds for the other types of stones. Interesting thing: if you have calcium stones, you'd think you should stop taking in calcium… but doing so actually makes them worse. You're supposed to stop taking calcium *supplements*, but should not stop consuming natural sources of calcium.
- Dietary restrictions: your doc, after testing your stones, will tell you which kind they are and what you'll need to avoid eating. You can treat yourself to these things occasionally, but avoid them for at least a while to see how you do with meds and other lifestyle changes. As a uric acid stone maker, I mostly avoid red meat and red wine, but that only makes it all the better on the rare occasions I have it.
- Vibration: I've discovered that if I lean up against one of these every few weeks, it causes a bunch of little stones I barely feel to come out a day or three later, which keeps them from forming bigger ones that cause trouble. 5 minutes every week or two does it, and I reposition often to make sure the back and sides are covered (most of my stones come out of one kidney, but not always). Any device that provides a good strong vibration (Magic Wand, Vibration plate, or any vibrating massager with sufficient power) should work as well, but shiatsu massagers wouldn't do as good, I don't think, as they are more surface effect (you want the vibration to really get in there and shake everything up). My urologist says it's fine to do this. Exercise (even walking) can also help, for the same reason (shaking things loose).
Toby Morris & Siouxsie Wiles Covid-19 box set
https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/19-05-2020/the-great-toby-morris-siouxsie-wiles-covid-19-omnibus
“The animations and illustrations created by Toby Morris in collaboration with Siouxsie Wiles and published by The Spinoff have been shared in their hundreds of millions over the last couple of months. For ease of reference we’ve put them all together in one post.”
The coronavirus infodemic
The coronavirus infodemic
https://theweek.com/articles/914457/coronavirus-infodemic
Coronavirus, Trump, and the death of American exceptionalism
The USA is a third-world country wearing a Gucci belt.
Voted for Trump?
At sometime today, the US will cross the grim threshold of 60,000 dead.
Those of you reading this who voted for Trump (or who didn't vote or voted third party to send some nonexistent message that exists only in your own head): their deaths are on your hands. You were repeatedly warned that the man was a narcissist and a bully. You were repeatedly warned business men do not care about human suffering and therefore make bad leaders. You repeatedly dismissed or chose to ignore the piles of evidence that you were voting for a misogynist, a homophobe, and a racist.
Now, many of you I assume have seen the light and now despise Trump and regret your previous vote, and that's great.
But you also need to remember, as I myself do for voting for Bush in 2000: you can and have been fooled; you can and have been mistaken; there are more important things than your feelings, or your purity tests, or your ideology, and if you are offended by this statement (which also applies to me), then you are part of the problem. It isn't always about you. It isn't always about what you want.
Or, to quote a better President, "Every once in a while... every once in a while, there's a day with an absolute right and an absolute wrong, but those days almost always include body counts."
And every time, every time, every god damn time, you set foot in a voting booth, that you mail in a ballot, that you argue over policy with a friend, that you post something you think is insightful or funny or self-aggrandizing on social media. Every time. Every time. Every god damn time, you remember: there are 60,000 dead, and more to come, and you are in part responsible for their deaths because your decision-making process isn't always correct, because you don't always think beyond your nose, because you think nothing matters, because you think you are sending a message, because you think you are staying morally or ideologically pure.”
From a comment on Fark:
US media last week: "China's sweeping bodies under the rug, their death toll was 50% higher than they said it was." US media this week: "Uh, so we checked under our rug"
How We Reopen - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQxk9QA-o
How to safely, and lest expensively, recover from Covid-19.
Hold the Line
https://metropole.at/open-letter-yale-epidemologist/
“A public health expert gives a frank and tough assessment of what the next weeks and months may bring – and why social distancing is so crucial in the fight against the coronavirus.”
Trump: a partial catalog
- https://theintercept.com/2019/12/19/a-z-trump-impeachment/
- ttps://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-so-far-atrocities-1-546
- https://civilrights.org/trump-rollbacks/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/climate/trump-environment-water.amp.html
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-domestic-abuse-sexual-assault-definition-womens-rights-justice-department-a8744546.html?amp
- https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/12/24/5-major-trump-climate-rollbacks-you-might-have-missed-in-2019.html
- https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/fxvl7t/i_dont_take_responsibility_at_all_oc/
- https://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting
https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0
“Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we “open back up” and move forward, very powerful forces will try to convince us all to get back to normal. (That never happened. What are you talking about?) Billions of dollars will be spent on advertising, messaging, and television and media content to make you feel comfortable again.”
SomeGoodNews - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOe_y6KKvS3PdIfb9q9pGug
Episodes one and two are out as of this writing. Very nice!
Poverty isn’t a lack of character. It’s a lack of cash - The Correspondent
"Compare it to a new computer that's running 10 heavy programmes at once. It gets slower and slower, makes errors, and eventually freezes – not because it's a bad computer but because it has to do too much at once. Poor people have an analogous problem. They're making bad decisions not because they are stupid but because they're living in a context in which anyone would make bad decisions."
How Compound Interest Affects your Money – LifeSavvy
https://www.lifesavvy.com/471/how-compound-interest-affects-your-money/
This is the single most important bit of financial knowledge, in my opinion.