Zoomies! #dogsofmastodon
2023-10-28 11:53
Category: News
2023-10-26 07:37
I slept so late this morning, the sun was already up when I got out to walk the dog!
2023-10-25 14:54
It has been 11 years since I wrote this bit of advice, and I think it may be the best advice I’ve ever provided to a new writer. In just 2 hours get a keen insight into how an editor looks at story submissions!
2023-10-24 07:17
As someone who just spent five weeks recovering from West Nile Fever, this article spoke to me:
climate change will result in the infectious disease dengue becoming endemic in parts of Europe and the United States,
Source: WHO chief scientist warns of endemic dengue in Europe, US – POLITICO
(Dengue and West Nile virus are both in the same family, along with Zika and Yellow Fever.)
Via Bruce Sterling.
Sharing more stuff on LinkedIn
In 2007, when I left Motorola, I was kind of reserving LinkedIn as a potential job-hunting site. In my brain I was already retired, but I hadn’t completely abandoned the possibility I might want another job, so I kept most of my random silliness off LinkedIn, just in case.
That hasn’t made any sense for at least a decade, but it has taken until now for me to get organized to fix it.
If you don’t want to read about my writing, sword fighting, dog walking, random sunrise photos, etc., feel free to use whatever tools LinkedIn provides to filter such stuff, or just stop following me. I’ll take no offense.
2023-10-23 14:06
Breakfast was a potato omelet with onions and peppers, and hot buttered toast with fresh sourdough baked by Jackie yesterday. Jackie also has toast, but her breakfast is granola with blueberries and homemade yogurt.
2023-10-21 09:41
The sun rises behind the buildings east of where I live this time of year, so I need to walk all the way to First Street if I want to see the sun on the horizon.
2023-10-20 07:24
Even while I was sick, I still had to walk the dog. I cut back just a bit—when I was at my sickest, I took her for just three walks a day. Now that I’m mostly better I’m back to five or six walks per day, although the mileage is still a bit shy of what it was before I got sick.
I appreciate the less spectacular dawn skies just like the more dramatic ones.
Sick. Mostly better. Diagnosis!
About three weeks ago I developed a fever and moderate flu-like symptoms. It felt like a virus, so I mostly just treated it liked one—sleeping extra, drinking extra fluids—and waited to get better.
It was kind of frustrating, because it just went on and on. For a brief period there in the middle of week two, it got a bit more exciting: I starting having trouble finding words. (I sounded exactly like my dad when his dementia made it impossible for him to say stuff. Pretty scary.) At about the same time I started suffering from double vision.
At the prompting of my mom and brother, I went to the emergency room for the word difficulty. They did a whole workup for a possible stroke: CT scan, chest x-ray, and and MRI.
I was not having a stroke.
Once I was released from the emergency room I made a follow-up with my regular doctor, who was kind of groping for possibilities, and put in an order for a few tests. The blood was draw on Monday, and today I got the results: positive for West Nile virus.
The related illness, West Nile Fever, does sound exactly like what I had. (That’s actually kind of a scary link. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to have any of the longer-term consequences. I was just sick for three weeks.)
Anyway, I think I’m on the mend. I’m resuming normal activity as each thing seems okay. It’s taking a while feel up to swordfighting, but I think I can finally do everything else on my usual list.
2023-09-29 12:07
Jackie has an Illuminated Brew Works Weird Studies. Isn’t that a lovely Cthulhu illustration? I’m drinking a Triptych Dank Meme.
At Black Dog bbq.
