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Feb. 9th, 2026 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
somedayseattleAt the season's outset, I would not have made this prediction. T have never felt better about being wrong about something, 12's !!!!
somedayseattle2026QOTD February 11-15
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:52 amchristopher575Full list of February questions here.
11. Would you consider yourself superstitious?
No. Superstitions are adjacent to the supernatural and I don't believe in supernatural things either.
12. Do you have any siblings?
I do! I'm the youngest of five. My dad had three daughters in a previous marriage, the middle of which is estranged from the family. Then he married my mom and had my brother right away and almost five years later.
13. What’s the weather like today? Is it about average for the time of year?
Cloudy and just slightly rainy at 46F. Like a spray of rain, the kind that really coats your car windows. Depends on the year, sometimes there's snow!
14. How many flights of stairs would you consider walking up in a building, or do you always take the lift/elevator?
I suppose it depends if I'm carrying anything or what time of day it is or how my knees are feeling at the moment. I'd do a couple of flights under most circumstances.
15. Have you ever considered how you would leave your home in an emergency?
We live in a woodsy area within an urban area. Not too much to worry about. For instance, we could walk to the supermarket in ten minutes if we had to flee on foot and needed to get to the nearest shelter. If the house were on fire my car is parked on the street and less likely to be affected.
11. Would you consider yourself superstitious?
No. Superstitions are adjacent to the supernatural and I don't believe in supernatural things either.
12. Do you have any siblings?
I do! I'm the youngest of five. My dad had three daughters in a previous marriage, the middle of which is estranged from the family. Then he married my mom and had my brother right away and almost five years later.
13. What’s the weather like today? Is it about average for the time of year?
Cloudy and just slightly rainy at 46F. Like a spray of rain, the kind that really coats your car windows. Depends on the year, sometimes there's snow!
14. How many flights of stairs would you consider walking up in a building, or do you always take the lift/elevator?
I suppose it depends if I'm carrying anything or what time of day it is or how my knees are feeling at the moment. I'd do a couple of flights under most circumstances.
15. Have you ever considered how you would leave your home in an emergency?
We live in a woodsy area within an urban area. Not too much to worry about. For instance, we could walk to the supermarket in ten minutes if we had to flee on foot and needed to get to the nearest shelter. If the house were on fire my car is parked on the street and less likely to be affected.
State of the Kubuntu System
Feb. 9th, 2026 09:43 amarlieI got my first performance issues on the Ubuntu system this morning. Culprits appeared to be Steam and Firefox.
Steam took a bit of killing - after I closed all the windows I could find, it was still running, and using enough cpu cycles to have 2 processes highly visible on top. I applied "kill" (not "kill -9") to the one that seemed more likely to be the main one (name didn't include anything like "helper"). There was a flash or redraw on the right monitor, as if it was getting rid of a buried or invisible window, and things improved.
Note to self: do not leave Steam running overnight, and do double check with "ps" or "top" after I think I've shut it down.
Firefox is still using more cycles than I'd prefer, even while I'm not doing anything in any firefox window - i.e. it's windows calling home, updating themselves, and generally using my cpu resources for their own purposes. Kubuntu/Firefox doesn't appear to have the ability to semi-easily identify the offending web page possessed by MacOS/Safari, where their system monitor program will show something about the web page, not just that the offender is a web content sub-processs. So identifying which pages not to leave open will be a bit more difficult - I'll have to kill overly active web content processes by pid, and hope this leaves evidence like a dead window/tab, or an error message in a window or tab. (At least, I presume that the processes that show in top as "Isolated Web Co" and "Web Content" are the equivalent of safari/macos' web content processes, intended to prevent the main safari (or firefox) process from hanging when a single web page is a hyperactive pig hog.)
Other than that, I'm having essentially the same issue with every single game I've been able to run - the screen resolution I got by default is fine for every other type of task I've tried so far, but anything that displays text in a graphic window, presumably as graphics, comes out just a bit fuzzy, straining my elderly eyes. I don't really want to change global scaling to alleviate this, as I'm enjoying the large amount of text space I can fit on my two monitors,courtesy of what I think is improvements going from X11 to Wayland. Also, a naively chosen scaling factor might appear less crisp than the one the installation process chose for me.
Ah well, nothing is ever perfect. It's still way better than Pop!_OS, and often more congenial than modern MacOS, though I really didn't want to deal with performance issues this morning before coffee. (For the record, I rebooted 2 days ago, after installing some updates, so I don't think this was up-too-long bitrot.)
Steam took a bit of killing - after I closed all the windows I could find, it was still running, and using enough cpu cycles to have 2 processes highly visible on top. I applied "kill" (not "kill -9") to the one that seemed more likely to be the main one (name didn't include anything like "helper"). There was a flash or redraw on the right monitor, as if it was getting rid of a buried or invisible window, and things improved.
Note to self: do not leave Steam running overnight, and do double check with "ps" or "top" after I think I've shut it down.
Firefox is still using more cycles than I'd prefer, even while I'm not doing anything in any firefox window - i.e. it's windows calling home, updating themselves, and generally using my cpu resources for their own purposes. Kubuntu/Firefox doesn't appear to have the ability to semi-easily identify the offending web page possessed by MacOS/Safari, where their system monitor program will show something about the web page, not just that the offender is a web content sub-processs. So identifying which pages not to leave open will be a bit more difficult - I'll have to kill overly active web content processes by pid, and hope this leaves evidence like a dead window/tab, or an error message in a window or tab. (At least, I presume that the processes that show in top as "Isolated Web Co" and "Web Content" are the equivalent of safari/macos' web content processes, intended to prevent the main safari (or firefox) process from hanging when a single web page is a hyperactive pig hog.)
Other than that, I'm having essentially the same issue with every single game I've been able to run - the screen resolution I got by default is fine for every other type of task I've tried so far, but anything that displays text in a graphic window, presumably as graphics, comes out just a bit fuzzy, straining my elderly eyes. I don't really want to change global scaling to alleviate this, as I'm enjoying the large amount of text space I can fit on my two monitors,courtesy of what I think is improvements going from X11 to Wayland. Also, a naively chosen scaling factor might appear less crisp than the one the installation process chose for me.
Ah well, nothing is ever perfect. It's still way better than Pop!_OS, and often more congenial than modern MacOS, though I really didn't want to deal with performance issues this morning before coffee. (For the record, I rebooted 2 days ago, after installing some updates, so I don't think this was up-too-long bitrot.)
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2026 12:50 pmmajuAfter a weekend during which I spent a lot of time with the girls either one on one or in various combinations, I was quite looking forward to a quiet day today while they were at school. They left early (around 7 am) to go to run club*, but about 8:30, as I was settling down in the basement, they came back: school had been cancelled because the school buses wouldn't start, I assume because of the cold.
*Run club is one of several extracurricular activities running this term for, I think, 5 weeks. It's held before school, while all the others are after school. Violet is also in drama club, but I don't think either Eden or Aria is doing anything except run club. Last term in run club they just ran laps around the school, but because it's so cold this term they do running-related activities in the gym, which Violet is much happier about.
*Run club is one of several extracurricular activities running this term for, I think, 5 weeks. It's held before school, while all the others are after school. Violet is also in drama club, but I don't think either Eden or Aria is doing anything except run club. Last term in run club they just ran laps around the school, but because it's so cold this term they do running-related activities in the gym, which Violet is much happier about.
My Bluesky posts
Feb. 9th, 2026 01:43 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
matthew_feed- Sun, 11:10: Unfortunately terrible shot through the back window of our car: a guy outside a bar on Capitol Hill, twirling blue and white dance streamers, the gayest Seahawks fan around. https://t.co/TclBc964uv
- Sun, 16:06: You guys I’m watching the Super Bowl! I’M SO BORED
- Sun, 17:12: I almost never watch football and I have never understood the rules so forgive my ignorance. Do the New England Patriots ever score points?
- Sun, 17:37: That halftime show was fucking amazing. I’ve only seen a few in my life, and this one was the best—who cares if I couldn’t understand most of what he was singing? Millions of people did and thus probably felt seen in a way never experienced before. And the production value and the choreography across a ton of dancers was astounding. I’m so glad I watched.
- Sun, 19:09: https://t.co/yrgOVesTMB
- Sun, 21:39: Even though I could not possibly care less about football, I love it when events like this happen, the kind that unites an entire city. I even get a little emotional about it, seeing people of all walks of life unite in a common cause—especially when it’s celebratory. Shobhit and I went outside after the game, just to witness the people taking to the streets tonight, both on Capitol Hill, and we even took Light Rail down to Pioneer Square to see the predictably ample revelry around Lumen Field. I’ve learned my lesson after stupidly missing out on similar local, impromptu street celebrations twice before (the first election of Barack Obama in 2008, the first Seahawks Super Bowl win in 2014). And I actually love being in a crowd whose excitement is infectious. I’m not entirely convinced, however, that it was necessary to tear down a street sign and then play limbo underneath it. https://t.co/yrgOVesTMB
52/343: While
Feb. 8th, 2026 06:46 pmrejectomorphBeen feeling mostly crappy all day, and more so as it passed. There's really nothing to be done at such times. Usually I just watch videos. Funny ones to cheer me up and music to distract me when the cheering fails, as it tends to do. I could have gone to bed early, but then I'd have just woken up too early in the chilly dark being sad. I can't put it off any longer though. I hope I'll be tired enough not to notice how uncomfortable I am. Then it will be possible to sleep, at least for a while.
( Sunday Verse )
( Sunday Verse )
police band
Feb. 8th, 2026 11:24 pmlow_deltaSaturday night we went to Milwaukee to see the Milwaukee Police Band. Kind of an orchestra pops concert thing. It's the oldest police band in the country, since 1898. Cindy's friends were officers and are heavily involved in the band. Karen joined the band over 40 years ago, and has been the director for more than 25. The concert was free, and at the Pabst Theater on a Saturday night, so they must have some funding.
I honestly didn't want to go, since that sort of thing doesn't interest me much, and I felt like I had more important things to do, but Cindy wanted to support her friends. The band did medleys of songs by Journey, Meat Loaf, Billy Joel and The Beatles. Let me tell you, as a huge fan of rock music, there are few bands Cindy likes less than Journey and Meat Loaf. After the intermission, they did three tunes as a jazz ensemble. This was more my thing, and I really liked the first one in particular. Too bad the two women behind me were chattering and laughing loudly.
The show was free and we had free parking, three blocks away at my office. It was 20°F, which doesn't seem like it should be very cold, but it was cold!
I honestly didn't want to go, since that sort of thing doesn't interest me much, and I felt like I had more important things to do, but Cindy wanted to support her friends. The band did medleys of songs by Journey, Meat Loaf, Billy Joel and The Beatles. Let me tell you, as a huge fan of rock music, there are few bands Cindy likes less than Journey and Meat Loaf. After the intermission, they did three tunes as a jazz ensemble. This was more my thing, and I really liked the first one in particular. Too bad the two women behind me were chattering and laughing loudly.
The show was free and we had free parking, three blocks away at my office. It was 20°F, which doesn't seem like it should be very cold, but it was cold!
Dogs and Cats and a Smidge of the Olympics
Feb. 8th, 2026 08:35 pmdays_unfoldingGracie woke me up at 7:30 AM. Actually, she started waking me up earlier, but I pulled the covers over my head. Fed the dogs and ordered dog food. Fed us all.
Lindsay Vonn crashed. That’s sad. The US won the team ice skating competition.
Crap. The dogs pinned Oliver and were play-biting him, and he understandably freaked out. I eventually got him loose, and he ran into the bathroom. I closed the door to keep the dogs out and brought his food in there. He seems to be okay.
Nap time. It also gives the cats some time without the dogs, who are in the bedroom with me. Peace is reigning throughout the land (okay, house).
I’m feeling a twinge of grief because I don’t get email from my mom.
Napped. I’m very dehydrated, so I’m trying to chug water with some Mio lemonade mixed in. Had lunch. Now I want a post-lunch nap. The dogs are tired too. (Why?) Gracie and Bella are play-fighting, and Gracie emitted a growl that turned into a yawn. Funny.
Napped. Gracie stole my glasses, which I had put down on the kitchen table. Cheeky pup. I did get them back. Oh jeez. Oliver pulled one of the magnetic dry erase markers off of the refrigerator and dropped it, and Bella grabbed it. Great teamwork, guys.
Fed us all. I'm going to go to sleep soon to get up early and have my car jump-started.
Lindsay Vonn crashed. That’s sad. The US won the team ice skating competition.
Crap. The dogs pinned Oliver and were play-biting him, and he understandably freaked out. I eventually got him loose, and he ran into the bathroom. I closed the door to keep the dogs out and brought his food in there. He seems to be okay.
Nap time. It also gives the cats some time without the dogs, who are in the bedroom with me. Peace is reigning throughout the land (okay, house).
I’m feeling a twinge of grief because I don’t get email from my mom.
Napped. I’m very dehydrated, so I’m trying to chug water with some Mio lemonade mixed in. Had lunch. Now I want a post-lunch nap. The dogs are tired too. (Why?) Gracie and Bella are play-fighting, and Gracie emitted a growl that turned into a yawn. Funny.
Napped. Gracie stole my glasses, which I had put down on the kitchen table. Cheeky pup. I did get them back. Oh jeez. Oliver pulled one of the magnetic dry erase markers off of the refrigerator and dropped it, and Bella grabbed it. Great teamwork, guys.
Fed us all. I'm going to go to sleep soon to get up early and have my car jump-started.
(no subject)
Feb. 9th, 2026 02:07 amroseland_feedWe saw an eagle! “…Was that an eagle? Did we just see an eagle? Have I ever seen an eagle?”
“It looked like an eagle,” John said.
In the afternoon, he said he saw deer in the distance. I’d told him to go to our new bedroom to listen to the silence.
‘Can I call you? I’m in the car,’ my friend texted me. My phone rang before I could say a no, even though I had started the conversation. I answered her call, for a change. She was “selfishly happy” that we live closer now. She was on her way to get food for the Super Bowl. Was my TV still in a box? She could call me to watch the halftime show on her projector in real time. They got a projector because her son asked Santa for one. Their bunny chewed up the main cable line for the TV, and she was so angry, she told him she’d give the bunny away. “The real bad bunny,” I said. I told her about the eagle! The deer. “We are in their neighborhood now.”
“I love the quiet place,” said my exhausted daughter when I was putting her to bed. “What quiet place?” I said. “This quiet place.” Once more, I was convinced she is divine. “It’s good to hear nothing?” She asked.
“It looked like an eagle,” John said.
In the afternoon, he said he saw deer in the distance. I’d told him to go to our new bedroom to listen to the silence.
‘Can I call you? I’m in the car,’ my friend texted me. My phone rang before I could say a no, even though I had started the conversation. I answered her call, for a change. She was “selfishly happy” that we live closer now. She was on her way to get food for the Super Bowl. Was my TV still in a box? She could call me to watch the halftime show on her projector in real time. They got a projector because her son asked Santa for one. Their bunny chewed up the main cable line for the TV, and she was so angry, she told him she’d give the bunny away. “The real bad bunny,” I said. I told her about the eagle! The deer. “We are in their neighborhood now.”
“I love the quiet place,” said my exhausted daughter when I was putting her to bed. “What quiet place?” I said. “This quiet place.” Once more, I was convinced she is divine. “It’s good to hear nothing?” She asked.
Masonic treasures
Feb. 8th, 2026 05:43 pmjonwIt’s oddly hard to find Masonic stuff at local vintage and antique markets. As it’s been around forever (ok, like 4 centuries for sure) and given the Masons love their bling (guilty), it feels like it should be more common.
Found this today at a local vintage market that we’ve never found open so far. Happy to find it open today!
This is champagne glass, almost certainly from Colombia. I don't know how old it is but I feel not very. Still lovely to have and I wish there was a possibility I’d learn its travel to Vancouver Island, but I probably never will.
sunday later
Feb. 8th, 2026 02:42 pmsummersgate
My three kids: Jules, Chloe and Johnny. Next I want to make them for the three grandkids and their partners. Have a whole family of them. I'm planning a tiger for Hazel, a bat for Jordan... Is making stuffed toys enough of a purpose in life? I feel like there should be something more important but I don't know what.
A sunny blue sky day. Only 12F though.
I guess I need to start thinking about making dinner.
My Bluesky posts
Feb. 8th, 2026 05:04 pmmatthew_feed- Sat, 19:38: (@ Dusty’s Hideaway, Tacoma). https://t.co/34AX2ugk5q
- Sat, 21:37: Very imaginative, fun, even a bit moving, and even a bit provocative if you dig deep enough. https://t.co/Rse29IxQef
Downsizing
Feb. 8th, 2026 11:50 ambill_schubertLast week's lunch at an independent living facility continues to have ripples. I was getting something out of my sock drawer and realized that I no longer wear socks for 10 months of the year. I'm in shorts but for the couple of months it is cool and I don't wear socks but for pickleball when I'm in shorts. So why all the socks?
I dumped a bunch a few years ago but apparently not enough. So I made a pile:
I'll be adding some other stuff from the back of the closet and then off to Goodwill. I've only been in a Goodwill once in the past 40 or so years but now have a need. I've dropped off more than I can even remember when we relocated in 2018 and I cleaned out my life the first time. I've got some drop offs other than my socks. Several pairs of pants are clown size and I have to wear suspenders to keep them up. Just the long stuff. My shorts adapt.
But I do need long pants so I'll be looking.
Having pants that fit the smaller me keeps me in the mindset that I don't need to get bigger again. I've still got another 15 pounds to lose so I don't want to buy new stuff that will soon be too big. So Goodwill.
See what I can find.
I will miss some of those socks.
I dumped a bunch a few years ago but apparently not enough. So I made a pile:
I'll be adding some other stuff from the back of the closet and then off to Goodwill. I've only been in a Goodwill once in the past 40 or so years but now have a need. I've dropped off more than I can even remember when we relocated in 2018 and I cleaned out my life the first time. I've got some drop offs other than my socks. Several pairs of pants are clown size and I have to wear suspenders to keep them up. Just the long stuff. My shorts adapt.
But I do need long pants so I'll be looking.
Having pants that fit the smaller me keeps me in the mindset that I don't need to get bigger again. I've still got another 15 pounds to lose so I don't want to buy new stuff that will soon be too big. So Goodwill.
See what I can find.
I will miss some of those socks.
(no subject)
Feb. 8th, 2026 12:26 pmmajuI didn't have a very good night last night; when I went to bed I couldn't get to sleep, for no apparent reason. I might have had too much excitement right before going to bed; I went upstairs to use the bathroom there because someone was in the one down here, and when I went in I startled the cat, who was in the bath playing with a mouse. I wish someone would call an exterminator. Anyway, I didn't get much more than four hours sleep.
Something is finally happening with my Kaiser health insurance. On Friday when I checked my bank accounts I discovered that the cheques I had mailed off a month ago to cover what I hope will be my final three months of coverage had been presented to the bank. I can't believe it took them a month to do that. The same day, I received an email saying my request to cancel my insurance had been received but before they could cancel I needed to pay for the final three months. A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. I sent a quick reply saying the payment had been made and now I'm waiting for whatever happens next. I would really like this saga to be over.
The heating system in this house is weird. Apparently it's very cold upstairs in Eden and Aria's bedroom in spite of the heat being set to 72°F/22°C. Meanwhile it's warmer than I would like down here. I do think houses with more than one floor should have separate temperature controls on each floor.
It turns out Aria is quite an actor. She and Eden have been playing a game where you draw a card and act out whatever is on it. There have been quite a lot of animals, a camera, baking, etc, but the funniest was Aria being a banana. She insisted that she couldn't act out eating a banana, she had to *be* the banana.
Something is finally happening with my Kaiser health insurance. On Friday when I checked my bank accounts I discovered that the cheques I had mailed off a month ago to cover what I hope will be my final three months of coverage had been presented to the bank. I can't believe it took them a month to do that. The same day, I received an email saying my request to cancel my insurance had been received but before they could cancel I needed to pay for the final three months. A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. I sent a quick reply saying the payment had been made and now I'm waiting for whatever happens next. I would really like this saga to be over.
The heating system in this house is weird. Apparently it's very cold upstairs in Eden and Aria's bedroom in spite of the heat being set to 72°F/22°C. Meanwhile it's warmer than I would like down here. I do think houses with more than one floor should have separate temperature controls on each floor.
It turns out Aria is quite an actor. She and Eden have been playing a game where you draw a card and act out whatever is on it. There have been quite a lot of animals, a camera, baking, etc, but the funniest was Aria being a banana. She insisted that she couldn't act out eating a banana, she had to *be* the banana.
Done Since 2026-02-02
Feb. 8th, 2026 05:26 pmmdlbearI seem to have spent a lot of this week catching up on the sleep debt from Contabile plus the overnight ferry trip (three and a half; my usual is more like six). The con itself was a good one -- I had fun, and did some singing. Only three walks as such; however the ferry's gangway is long enough that it counts as walks for Monday and Tuesday, especially the 4.2k steps on Monday. (My goal is 3k/day, and I usually at least come close on days when I actually get out of the house and walk.)
I didn't post about it at the time, but my father died 27 years ago last Thursday. I still find myself wanting to call him to tell him about some recent development in software or science. He got me interested in both, along with science fiction. And wine. He got interested in wine and gourmet cooking to have something interesting to talk about at parties.
Links: Germany and Denmark Just Fired Microsoft: 15 Million Euros Saved | by Can Artuc and Microsoft's Quiet Exodus: Why Enterprise Developers Are Abandoning Windows for Linux Workstations (the last one is from Don Marti, who is well worth following).
And of course Meet Tombili: Istanbul’s Most Famous Street Cat And His Iconic Statue.
sunday
Feb. 8th, 2026 06:22 amsummersgate
Tinnitus. The idea for it came as I was lying in bed this morning.
The latest: Blu Bun. I was thinking of Chloe when I made it. Yesterday's Nerdy Turtle was for Johnny. Next up is an octopus for Jules.
Another cold day today. 5F at the moment. It's supposed to go down to -10 tonight. Blaa. Though Tuesday it's supposed to go up to 38F. We're having Sunday dinner today. Stuffed shells (vegan, made with tofu and hummus), garlic bread and a salad. I've decided to not have Sunday dinner every week. Every other week now. Two weeks ago we had the big blizzard and that one was cancelled so we haven't seen some of the people for a month now.