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I rose before 7, with no remembered dreams and a terrible headache; pollen! This is not a new thing, and I will soon start using the AC, vacuuming, and showering at night to reduce the amount of pollen I carry into my bed. Now, with temperatures just breaking into the 80s (26 °C), I simply open the windows and run the large fan in the dining room to cool the house. I might have Jeff put a ceiling fan in the master bedroom. I rose, drank some water, and soon the pain slowed and disappeared into the mesh of pain that is being over 60, the usual. I had posted a card for Mom Wild the previous night, but failed to set up the coffee. I made half a pot of coffee.

Deborah works from home on Friday, and also, like most working people (and I remember doing this too), does some chores, making the weekend free for other things, more planned things. We talk on and off all day. I spend the morning starting the laundry on Friday. From the days of working and the pandemic, Monday and Friday were laundry days. Our back-to-work days at the shoe company began on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and were later expanded to include Monday and Friday. For most, Friday remained a work-from-home day, and in the summer, the afternoons were yours. Thus, I would use Friday for laundry and, before The Machine, start the washer and leave, and finish after work. While I am retired, I find the schedule still works well for me. Sheets on Friday and towels on Monday.

The blog was late, and it was short, as the days have been a bit boring. I’m recovering slowly from being ill over the weekend, and my colon is playing tricks on me. It gets respect as it is 25cm shorter due to colon cancer. I am happy to have some colon left!

I shower and dress after wandering around the house and admiring my flowers in my yard. Although I see all the issues, it is lovely and well-maintained by my lawn service. I soon started on lunch.

A searched the pantry and freezer and discovered I had an expensive large Costco pasta sauce jar, artisan pasta, and ground beef. I heated the sauce in a pan until it was bubbling, not burning the sauce. I boiled water with lots of salt. I browned the beef until it was almost crunchy, and then, holding the pan at an angle, I spooned out the grease into a heat-resistant bowl. I poured the sauce into the frying pan after cooking the degreased meat for only a few minutes (the oil reduces the heat, meaning that without the grease, it is easy to burn the meat). The hot sauce boiled when poured, and I was careful to ensure everything was mixed (and not burned). I let the sauce and meat combine for a while until the sauce appears to be settled and starting to thicken. I boiled the pasta, remembering to reserve a cup of the starchy and salty liquid, and then added it to the sauce before mixing it with the drained pasta.

I enjoyed two bowls. When it cooled I put the whole pot in the frig. With broken sleep and full of pasta and my colon letting me enjoy some gut pain, I rested. I woke 90 minutes later. The headache (pollen!) was harsh. More water (no dice!). I grabbed a Hershey Bar with almonds in the frig and that broke the pain. Yikes!

I boarded Air VW the Gray and soon arrived early at the Mission: Impossible movie at the Movies at TV Regal Theater. Joan S joined me, and we soon found ourselves watching endless previews and ads for products we would not likely buy. Finally, with both of us wondering if being the voice of an animated Smurf is good for a person’s career, we get a very long 2:45 movie (shorter than the previous one) that is a festival of action, insane stunts, and breathtaking special effects. Oddly, the Entity changes shape between movies, and Tom Cruise is no longer in suits and short business haircuts. Also, Joan S pointed out, there are too many close-up shots of his face, and he looks better from a little distance. Hmmm.

It was 9 when we got out. We caught the 5:40 movie, and with the previews, it’s over three hours of sitting. I had to rush to the restroom after the movie, even though I had gone just before the movie and had no drink. Yikes! I thought the movie was unlike the previous version, with longer speeches and elevating Tom Cruise’s character to a savior-like level. But still a good flick and recommended.

Joan S and I went our separate ways, and the EV had me home soon. I was shocked to discover that the kitchen no longer looked like a mad Italian had attacked it, but was now cleaned, and the dishwasher was running. The pot was gone and replaced with one meal of pasta and meat in a container. Corwin, who is always welcome to what he finds, had my recent pasta creation for dinner, and then cleaned the kitchen for me. Excellent! I reheated the pasta, watched some more YouTube history, and ShipHappens update.

Somewhere on this day, I rented and watched the old movie The Day of the Jackal (1973). This is the typical, poorly aged early 1970s movie of the post-war spy genre, but this time it’s an assassin movie. The Jackal is a cold-blooded killer, and it’s hard to feel any affection for this excellently acted anti-hero. The actor whom I always remember in the James Bond movie as Drax plays a perfectly dispassionate detective who tracks down the Jackal. The treatment of women is awful. The book is better, but I have always wanted to watch this version. I enjoyed the novels of Frederick Forsyth while living in the Washington, D.C. area. Spies and assassination stories seemed more real there!

I found that the day was ending, I had trouble winding down, and the house was warm. I had remade the bed and left off some blankets. My new PJs, which fit (but a bit long), were too warm for the season. I finally got comfortable and slept.

Thanks for reading. And I will try to take pictures!

 

 

 

Going backward, I was up until after 11. I had started cooking some eggs, but they were not ready, hard-boiled, and peeled until 11:30. Next, having put on my PJs at 10, I crawled into bed, my mind drifted, and soon I boarded the dream bus and did not wake until sunrise Friday morning. I also wrote the postcard for Mom Wild and put it out, preventing the recent morning rush to get it out before the post arrives on Friday.

Also, I spent part of the late evening exploring how to split data sets into training and testing collections using routines supplied in Open-Source Python libraries. I was still looking for the original source of the Titanic data set, but I have located two copies that match. This dataset describes the victims of the Titanic wreck, including their identification and whether they survived. It makes a good practice set for Python coding of AI-based classifiers.

This then led me down a rabbit hole on testing and validating interesting software options. Still, as usual, the write-ups used too many computer terms (yes, this even happens to me), and I was having trouble decoding their use and application. My interest was piqued, but I am a harshly practical person when it comes to coding, and unless I can find a clear explanation, example code, and a compelling benefit case, I will soon disregard it.

But I am aware that these obscure processes are specifically helpful for the last-mile work. I have learned that it is easy to develop an 80% solution for a classification problem (simply copying some code found on the Internet), but achieving above 90% requires taking special actions to improve accuracy. And with the overfitting issue (where your AI model becomes overly reliant on a few data elements in the test set that are not present in the real dataset), it can easily become a game of thumping moles rather than genuine analysis.  I suspect that this hard-to-follow testing method would be one of the ways to reliably improve an AI model to high success rates. More studying required!

I was doing the Alice-in-Wonderland reading, as I have offered to give a talk on using the Titanic data set for the HOPE_16 conference. I am preparing a short talk on an introduction to Python and AI.  I’m not sure they will accept an introductory talk in such an over-the-top hacker audience, but I’m waiting to see.

Before this, and I regret not getting a photo, Dondrea, Z, and I shared a meal at The Cheesecake Factory. We sat in the bar area and had happy hour items followed by massive desserts. The food was good.

We mostly chatted about the American Civil War (ACW, gamers play both the ACW and the English Civil War, and thus, the clarity is required), as Z was starting that in class. Z asked what our favorite war was to study, an interesting question. I went with WW1 and Dondrea, Vietnam. Dondrea views Vietnam as a defining example of small wars with modern technology, a phenomenon now prevalent worldwide. I also view WWI in a technological sense. I perceive the start of WW1, its execution, and its aftermath as a lesson in the misunderstanding of technological change and political systems that deny the future and are then replaced (or, in the case of Russia, executed). For me the best examples of technology impacting the world are the rise of ironclads in the ACW (in a moment all navies were obsolete) at Hampton Roads 1862 and WW1 Jutland 1916 were bew technology failes to let the Royal Navy to decisivly defeat the inferiero German Imperial Navy in what was a clash of fleets–the only one in the war. We discussed Gettysburg in ACW and some aspects of Vietnam.

Moving further back, I picked up Subha at her house and drove to meet Scott at Cedar Hills McMenamins. Subha, I won’t tell her story for her. She was available for lunch, and Scott and I worked with her for years. It was great to have her join us for lunch. We caught up with her and she decided to try the turkey sandwich with soup and salad, the lunch box special at McMenamen. Our new go-to. She had coffee while Scott and I had beers.

Before all of this, I spent the morning doing the blog, getting ready for the day, and updating my transactions in Quicken. I had risen just after 6 as I had trouble sleeping. More pollen-driven discomfort, and it was warm yesterday (80F+), making sleep difficult. I was tired most of the day.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

I rose and nearly forgot to get a card out to Mom Wild. I rushed a postcard out to the mailbox and made it before the mail was picked up. I had slept late again and did not rise until after 8. I had slept poorly, as the sunrise was bright without clouds, which is not a usual sight in May in the Pacific Northwest (PNW).

Our sunrises should be damp, gray, with green colors seemingly glowing from rain and our limited gray light. Folks can deny climate change all they want, but I am a witness to climate change. For over twenty-five years, I never saw a sunrise in May in the PNW, no, really. Until the last two years, May and June were marked by “Pineapple Express” storms and Oregon mist; every day and every morning were gray. I have never seen the sun so much in May.

With the sun blazing, I started on the blog in my office. I see the hummingbird and other small birds enjoying my plantings while sitting at my desk. It was a short blog as yesterday was not busy; I continue to take it easy after being ill over the weekend. But I am now bored with this, and now I start to get some things done.

First, I purchase a ticket to the HOPE_16 2600 The Hacker Quarterly convention in Queens near NYC. I have always wanted to attend. Deborah was OK with me doing that alone (school starts in August and Deborah will be busy), but the invitation is open for her to hop a plane from Detroit to JFK and join me for a long weekend. I found a Delta flight direct to JFK from Portland for just over $400, and that was not for the cheap seats, done! The hotel, a Fairfield Inn, is a few miles from St. John’s University, which is hosting the convention, and there is a local bus that makes the connection work. I also read that there is a dive bar open until 4 within stumbling distance of the hotel and becoming a thing at HOPE. The hotel, at a stunning $250 a night, is the most expensive part of the trip. HOPE does provide housing in dorms, but I am getting too old for that, and I suspect they do not have AC. I will be in Brooklyn for a week, traveling on Tuesdays starting on 12 August. HOPE is over the weekend.

With the blog done and Tripit.com updated with my August travels, I soon find my way to the shower. Shaved, dressed, and all that, I board Air VW the Gray and head to BJ’s Brewhouse and have my favorite red ale and a California club sandwich with a side of fries. I have tried some other BJ’s Brewhouse locations, and I find this one’s food to be better. The steaks are delicious and perfectly grilled. The prime rib and pork chops (now relegated to only Sundays) are excellent, but a caloric disaster. My sandwich was almost too large. It had the avocado, but also a grilled split chicken breast instead of the usual lunchmeat, just stacked on the sandwich. Only two pieces of excellent toasted bread. The bartender was mostly quiet, and I spent my time on my lapt and enjoyed the solitude of a late lunch. The bartender asked me if I was on my lunch hour (meaning, did she have to rush my check), and that got a smile from me: “No, I am retired.”

Much of my surfing and searching, using my iPhone’s hotspot (I trust no local networks), was related to healthcare. The COBRA coverage runs out in December, and according to my planning, I should start looking for a replacement mid-2025 (or, in other words, now). I am looking at $1,300 a month (I am currently paying about $740 in COBRA) with me finding independent dental and vision coverage for an additional couple of hundred dollars. F**king lot of money. It would be bizarre to return to the workforce solely for coverage, but that is what Corporate America wants, and these prices drive us all to work. Another reason to get Social Security started in 2026 for my 62nd birthday; I will need it to cover the cost to bridge health care until I am 65. Unless Elon and company strip the SSA of workers to prevent the ability to have new claims, “Sorry, but we have a year backlog.” Or Trump and the nutty folks in the Senate refuse to pay the National Debt with the Red hats cheering, only to discover that most of the Debt is owed to the Social Security system, and eliminate SS that way. However, to coin a tired phrase, I suspect cooler heads (and a desire to be re-elected) will prevent most of that.

More to come on that. I paid the bill and returned home. I found on Apple+ that Natalie Portman had done an Indiana Jones or The Librarians style movie for Apple, The Fountain of Youth, and I gave it a try. I felt the pull of a Dan Brown-like rewrite of history and the Hollywood version of exploring taking over. Slicing a bit out of the somehow now intact HMS Lusitania wreck (now sitting upright, in near perfect condition, and with funnels still attached and still showing Cunard Red!), refloating it, and finding a nearly intact staircase hinted back to Clive Cussler’s Raise the Titanic! book and movie. And then, there are secrets in the Great Pyramid that man is not meant to know, which is actually a theme from H.P. Lovecraft’s ghostwriter stories for Houdini. More on that here. Of course, the young billionaire, who resembles a mix of Elon Musk and Tom Cook, is involved and paying the bill (ala the shipwreck hunters for the late Paul Allen). Without giving spoilers, it was entertaining and amazed me with its adventure telling. I would not recommend it sober, but it was not terrible.

Between the movie (I stopped it for a while and finished it when I got back — no reason to miss anything for this one), I reheated the couscous and baked chicken I had made the day before. It was still good. I still have some couscous sauce left.

Back to playing games at First United Methodist Church near the fountain in Beaverton during choir practice. It was just Z and me for this game, and Z picked a small map for the board game, Concordia. This one is from Salsa, and we had to adjust it as we don’t play with the salt commodity (I don’t find it adds much and often distracts). We play fast and furious, as this is a favorite, and we both know how to play. We include the Forum in the game, and I collect a lucky set of choices that lets me grab personality cards faster. Z claimed that a few mistakes caused a loss of points at the end, but I was running fast to keep up the whole time, and my winning score, over 50 points, was from grabbing the Farmer and Weaver personality cards. I paid high for the Farmer, and then my Forum ability let me get Weaver cheap (turning my Senator into an optional Console card). We looked over The Age of Steam for a future game, and played only a round of Furnace (the base game).

Z had a great time, and it’s always lovely to revisit Concordia. I will review the new complex boards so we can give them a try; the Rome board is quite different. It also reminds me that we need to get a game night going.

The EV got me home without events. The pound cake is all gone. I haven’t stopped by the store to pick up some items to make a cheesecake (for an unbirthday) and an orange-flavored cake. Instead of eating pre-processed sugar food made by some uncaring multinational with suspect ingredients, I make my own. But this evening I had only leftover chocolate in the fridge. Still, it was good, but not helpful when trying to sleep. Cakes and warm Sleepy-time tea are a better choice. Cakes will soon be made!

I went to bed, tried to sleep, and somewhere around 1, I slept until 4. I woke at 5:15 to Deborah’s text (I usually sleep through it — I don’t mind waking for them), and finally surrendered to Thursday at 6.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

I rose late, nearer to 9 than my 6. I had woken at 3 and 4 and was uncomfortable, but finally slept in the bright light that has been visiting Oregon this May. Never has it happened before in my memory. My roses are usually drowning with huge blooms that melt in the gray and rain. But this year, we seem to have moved to California, and my roses are covered in near-perfect blooms, some so heavy the canes are drifting to the ground.

I managed to find my focus and write a short blog about Monday on Tuesday morning. The coffee was waiting for me, the automatic turn-off already thrown, and the pot slowly cooling. I do my usual updates and text Deborah a few times, as she is working from home today since her sprinklers are being serviced for the summer. I manually water the plants and let the lawn go brown — water costs are high in Oregon. The roses survive the summer, being more like weeds, and any planting has to survive being ignored or my travels.

I heard from Jack and he asked me to join him shopping for shirts and maybe a sports coat. We agree that he will pick me up at 2ish. I finished up, showered, shaved, and dressed. I had a NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) with lox for breakfast, along with coffee, before I did all that.

I managed to scrape the tree topper, my second try, from the printing plate without breaking it or dropping it. I then washed it in the misty alcohol. My shipment of 99% pure rubbing alcohol has not arrived yet. I managed to wash it and let it dry for a while.

The print showed lines in the structure that moved in about 1/2 mm, creating a stripe in the structure. I have read that this is due to the movement of the print, known as wobble, and that I may need to adjust the tree topper print to be at an angle and add more structure to it. This will stabilize the print and remove these unslightly marks. The base was also printed strongly this time, and the inside was blocked by this. This kept alcohol and the resin, which are toxic, still inside. Soon, my bare hands were full of resin. Yikes! I will have to do the work to remove the structure in the garage in gloves, a mask, and other protective gear. More leanings. I managed to chip the base as I had to cut the base out of the supportive base. Humm. This is really looking like an angle print as I described above. I cured the star and recovered the chips. I also handled the previous print, and one part did not glue properly. I will try again. I may have to move to a two-part, stronger glue. I will try again with the jeweler’s cement. The material may be too powdery to join this way. Hmmm. More learning.

With that mess cleaned up. Ugh! I headed out for a quick lunch. I picked Popeye’s nearby and had three pieces of a caloric disaster, but lots of protein. The fried biscuit was terrific, as was the Cajun gravy on industrial whipped potatoes. I had spicy food and could taste it. I was happy to taste most of it.

It has been about a year since my recovery from brain surgery on May 20, 2024. My tastes have been off since the doctors had to salvage my nerves that control the left side of my face, eye, taste, and swallowing. I am happy to blink my left eye, taste the bitter liberal coffee, and swallow. Eating cheap fried chicken is a bonus!

Jack arrived a few moments early, and soon I was whisked away in his older model BMW four-door. While I am liberal, I believe that maintaining a gasoline-powered vehicle is taking advantage of the already sunk costs of the petroleum-based infrastructure. And we look cool.

JCPenney’s was our only stop at the Washington Square Mall. Their men’s shop (with none of the salesmen I remember selling me a suit — it’s now self-service only) is still full of decent choices and seems to be waiting for the friendly men to come back and sell us a suit. I missed them. However, we still found excellent choices of dress shirts, and Jack soon had me loaded up with five. There was no gray wool jacket, but we did try and found that Jack matches a standard size. Something that never happens to me. Only a few items were on sale. I was tempted to try on a suit, but I have three new ones that no longer fit. No reason to add to that!

Jack was offered a JCPenney’s credit card and got a discount. He will be back to check out some ties. With Jack’s goods safe in the BMW’s trunk, we headed to The 649. We crossed Beaverton again in heavy after-school traffic, a mess with buses and soccer moms/dads driving like insane people. Crystal was bartending and making some fantastic drinks. One was an espresso martini, and I told them that it is a new favorite of Deborah’s. We had beers and sat outside, chatting, and missed Happy Hour food (which ends at 4:30 on weekdays).

Jack got me home without incident (though my credit card disappeared somewhere between the beer and home; I failed to put it back in my wallet, F**K). I made baked chicken thighs with Moroccan-style spices plus salt and pepper. I heated a jar of the North African couscous sauce. I heated a pack of nuts, raisins, and dried cranberries from Trader Joe’s with Garam Masala and other spices in butter. I then added couscous to toast in the mix. Lastly, I added hot water and removed it from the heat. Dinner was excellent. I ate it while talking to Deborah, who was finishing her day and talking to me. It is lovely to start and end a day together.

I read the newly delivered 5E conversion of the Judges Guild adventure: The Caverns of Thrace. The Kickstarter was delivered today (without the tariffs from the China-based printing). The book is an inch thick and contains many ideas I have used in my own adventure writing for Dungeons & Dragons, mostly echoed in my Glass Factory story, with its multiple levels and submarine. I hope to form a player group to try this. It is also, from what I can read, not inconsistent with the new version of Dungeons and Dragons.

Time disappears soon, and I am in my PJs and reading Tom Mead’s book now. I return to my Apple and consider joining Hope_16 in August in Brooklyn. This is the hacker’s convention hosted by 2600 The Hacker Quarterly, and I have hoped to go for years. Events always seem to get in the way. But on Wednesday, I bought a ticket to Hope_16, booked flights and a hotel, and will be there; Deborah might hop a plane for part of my week in the NYC area.

The house is warm, and I nod off. I woke up to a nightmare that included being forced into tight spaces and possibly being roasted to escape some inexplicable but deadly risk. Yes, terrible, and clearly, I was having an asthma attack while sleeping, and was uncomfortable while sleeping.

I rise, the house is cooler now, and I get a glass of water. I am feeling better and will soon sleep, but I wake up often.

 

 

 

 

 

I rose around 7:30 and was happy to not be sick. I was sneezing, and my eyes burned from the pollen festival held by the local fauna. I contacted Joan S later, and we agreed to reschedule a movie as I should take another day and go slow. I now had no plans. I also heard from Richard that he is still traveling; therefore, there will be no Tuesday morning board game. I had a quiet Memorial Day.

The cough and unevenness resurfaced as the morning went on. A headache and a few visits to the restroom, with my colon reminding me it was still unhappy, made this a low-activity day. I limited the day’s plan to some light housework and printing on my 3D printer.

I made a NYC bagel (thanks, Joyce) with some lox I found in the freezer and defrosted. That went well with the coffee, liberal coffee — fair trade, made in a half-pot in my new coffee maker with a timer. This time, I forgot to make it last night, and managed to assemble it in my messy kitchen sink full of dishes (and the dishwasher full of clean ones).

I wrote the blog, read some emails, did some doom scrolling with the Trump and Republicans trying to grab back the headlines, but they seemed to be failing, and updated my Quicken transactions. I checked, and 2600 The Hacker Quarterly does not have new issues yet; my story is in that one or the next. I finished the blog, started the laundry, did all the dishes, and started the dishwasher. As a distraction, I rewatched the previous Mission: Impossible movie, number 7. It is a long 3+ hours. I reheated frozen green pea and ham soup I made and froze a few weeks ago for lunch. I was out of paper towels, but I found a packet of paper napkins that I could use instead.

I can’t remember when I watched the start of the two-part close for this season. There are rumors that the actor who plays the doctor quit or was fired, and that the show will be canceled or put on hold for a few years. I thought some episodes were great, while others drifted away from sci-fi to being too simple for a show that can also terrify.

I enjoyed Mission: Impossible 7. I have seen it a few times. I put on 6 and liked that, and now I see the connections between the two movies. Watching 6 and 7 made it clear the series is ending.

I put on gloves and took the tree topper I had printed and broken. I rewashed it, cut off the supports without further damaging it, and then cured the broken pieces, which were three large pieces. I later used my jeweler’s cement to glue the pieces together. The cracks are hard to see. This glue, which slowly hardens, is strong after 24 hours. It allows you to make adjustments for about an hour and often longer. It is a resin and is as strong as CA glue and dries clear. It is perfect for glass and gems, for example. It is dissolved by lacquer thinner and is not suitable for high-temperature use (an aerospace product is required for that).

The topper spills a mixture of alcohol and resin, which becomes a white, messy substance on my curing station. Ugh! This is not toxic as the resin is now hard but dissolved as powder in the alcohol. I’ll clean this mess up with a paper towel (the paper towel used for the modeling is never mixed with the kitchen for all the obvious reasons). I place the container of alcohol, about 3/4 of a gallon, out in the sun to turn all the dissolved resin into powder. This makes the resin-poisoned alcohol safer to handle and removes the toxic issues.

(David Austin’s Wedgwood climber)

Corwin stops by at around 4:30, and we split the leftover Chinese-style food. We discuss his new business ventures in window washing and roof treatment. He and his partner are still working out the details. Corwin is very hopeful.

Corwin was then off to deliver food, the pay had been less this holiday than he hoped. I got his car insurance for his birthday. Holidays are a mixed bag for food delivery, as Memorial Day is often a day for grilling.

I read and watch more, put away the laundry, and finished the MI-6 movie. I went to bed, got up, and ordered some stamp collecting supplies (stamp mount strips of various heights, for those who speak stamp collecting), and then went back to reading. I woke dreaming some of the story, still holding my Kindle. I put down the book. I had figured out the first murder and murderer (having seen a version of the murder, I think, in CSI Las Vegas), but the story is more complex. I am not sure where this is going.

(An orphaned rose I got cheap–they lost its name and sold it cheap)

I managed to sleep until it was bright and sunny at 6AM on Tuesday morning.

Thanks for reading.