Category: Uncategorized

“I Don’t Speak Binary.”

Despite a ten minute trawl over my virtual fishing grounds, my mobile phone has not seen fit to supply me with an image I could use to help explain Lodestar’s timeline.

And that is, it’s not doing any imagery at all this morning, not even photos. I don’t know why. I probably only use about 50% of the phone’s capabilities often, I suspect, because “I don’t speak binary”.

Don’t you love that line? Pure frustration spoken by the Mandalorian in the last instalment of Season Three at his R5 droid’s explanations that it couldn’t instantly open gate 5 that second.

I felt instant rapport with the Mandalorian at that moment. How many times today already have you been required to speak binary, and didn’t, because you don’t?

The upshot of all that? I will craft an image myself. Sketch, paint maybe, scan-shot if I use digital paint, cam-shot if I use pigments, import into media library. A simple 4-step operation.

“Add new post!”

Seriously? I’m completely boondoggled … is that even a word, I imagine you’re asking … I’ll need to check that myself. It’s been a while since I saw it written.

That suspicion was right. Not the right meaning. The Navy has my favorite explanation … a boondoggle is a fun, but unproductive meeting.

So. Try again. I’m completely at a loss … not as descriptive is it?

But me going to the thesaurus from here and then trying to get back with a good word under my arm… will take me another half hour.

I’m at a loss. My writing is on my laptop and the external hard drive. My research ditto. Everyplace where I might check somthing, also inaccessable.

It’s Friday, and here in Queensland, Monday is a public holiday. I won’t be able to take my ailing laptop to a repair place until Tuesday!

Couldn’t take it today, yesterday or day before due to too much other stuff those days. I have ME/CFS and am constrained by a frequent lack of energy.

I’ve been training myself to take 2200 steps per day. If I go over my daily limit, I’m setting myself up for a three day crash.

The computer repair place visit has to be done on the same day I need to go into that direction for another thing. Three blocks distance is all it is, and three blocks back. It’s all I’ll be able to that day.

Flowers from my garden

Blogging

Blogging by mobile/cell phone is a new thing for me. Entering this one fingered …

My laptop is frozen and I need to find a repair place that I can easily get to.

In former times I used a business that sent technicians on house visits. The local one of that sort is silent at the end of the phone line. Not even a message service. Brrr brrrr. Brrr brrrr.

Just then tried to find the function with which to get an image … lol, went to Jetpack instead and had to sign up for that, to be able to get back to this.

So maybe not an image today!

Nope! Did get a pic! This fearless explorer motorbike riding mechanic suits my present state of mind.

Lego: Skeletons

I had a great time over the weekend constructing a tiny ‘skeleton’ using Shaun AKA @brick.sheepa’s design that I discovered on one of my favorite Lego-dedicated websites, Tips and Bricks. My first result …

… with a couple of changes in the arms, where I was unable to fasten the hand-and-forearm component to components I don’t yet have. Never mind for the present, the creature’s arms are hanging together quite well with alternatives.

Shaun uses his skeletons to construct Star Wars figurines, and they look fabulous with appropriate helmets and weapons and customized with different colored body parts.

But, although I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Star Wars fan, my intention for these is for alternative characters to take part in the on-going storying. (Lol, though if I do end up going with these, I will need to rebuild nearly all my infrastructure!)

My first attempt at customizing, I put on a girl’s minifig head with hair on it. I didn’t like the effect. She looked like a body builder. My next try made her look like a robot.

Next, I played with some rounded elements to make her face, a bit of white hair and a cap. A skirt and top. The colors of her head and face can be definitely be improved on, they are what I had on hand.

But she standing upright! And has her own personality already. She needs a name. Got any suggestions?

What my table looked like … tidying afterwards aka sorting is complicated. Finding stuff is complicated. And I still have a 500gm bag of unsorted Technic elements. Nowhere to put them. Just need to find/buy a good set of little drawers.

Lodestar: Ahni & Srese, 34

Long time readers will remember that chapter numbers are continuous and that the character names signal a change of scene. Events in this chapter happen in what Kes and his people know as Rockeater’s Ridge. Srese and Sard live here, and Ahni and her people sought shelter here from Kes’s people. In this crucial chapter, Ahni’s implant takes over the habitat.

34.-what-the-implant-didDownload

Coffee!

After I read an article recently on how to make the perfect coffee1 I started to experiment on how to make ‘my’ perfect coffee. Coffee and I have had a troubled relationship for a while now. In my youth, say my 20s to 30s, I regularly drank up to 3 espressos for breakfast. I got into the espresso habit while traveling overseas. In many places cow’s milk was not available.

When middle age hit, I had to cut back on the amount of caffeine everyday as my heart and brain became more and more intolerant of its effects. For about six years, I could only drink green tea2 with only two or three tea-leaves in teapot.

Finally, I entered a time of falling over. Six falls with various injuries such as a broken wrist, and six months later a broken thumb. A General Practitioner stopping by my bed in hospital, told me to drink one cup of coffee a day, to wire me up, he said.

I started that and it works. The only time I have fallen since, was when I was unable to take the cure due to gastric illness. Another big plus is the taste. I love my long black.

However, now that I am in my seventies, I’m becoming intolerant again. It’s so frustrating to have to give up drinking coffee socially. If I have it at 11 AM, when most coffee meet-ups happen, it’ll interfere with my night’s sleep. Like, I don’t sleep that night!

A long black, with between 105 to 240 mgs of caffeine per a 250 mls mugs is way too strong for me now. It’s useless me buying them. A waste of money. I can only drink half or less and have to throw the rest away. At home I used to make myself a plunger coffee daily, with 8 grams of strong ground coffee. And that’s off the menu too now.

So I’m experimenting. Rather than decreasing my intake until I hit the sweet spot, I decided to work up from a lower than necessary level, to also re-establish my sleep pattern.

But, 2.5 grams of coffee does not make a very satisfying cup. [I decided to start with 2.5 purely based on the measuring spoons I have.] Then I read about a coffee and cocoa mix. How the cocoa flavanoids have a good effect on platelets, a blood component, and the caffeine content is lower than in coffee. Since I definitely need more platelets, having lost most of mine during chemo, I was looking for a way to add cocoa to my diet without sugar. So that’s my drink for the present.

2.5 grams ground coffee, 2.5 grams cocoa powder in a mug. Add hot water. Stir. Allow to brew. Don’t stir before drinking. The coffee grounds sink. Very mellow.

  1. https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/how-to-make-a-perfect-cup-of-coffee-at-home/11088316

2. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/caffeine