$ cat /var/log/meri

Hello, all.

I went to update my WordPress install this morning (as I do most mornings), and this time, I actually loaded the site, instead of going directly to the dashboard. Going to the site, I saw that it’s been four months (to the day, even) since I’ve updated.

Yeesh.

Life has been … hectic. I won’t go into all the details here, but suffice it to say that 2016 has not been my favorite year ever. I’ve endeavored to persevere, but that’s pretty much been taking all of my energy.

My most recent set of goals involved surviving until yesterday afternoon without dissolving into a puddle of hysterics. Yesterday afternoon has come and gone, and I am still in my standard form. Achievement unlocked.

I am now in “waiting for the other shoe to drop” mode. And I hate that mode. I prefer working myself into a tizzy over specific things, rather than living with an looming, overwhelming sense of dread. I’m just weird like that.

So, I think I’m going to try to take a vacation from excessive worrying. Not a long one, and I’m not giving up worrying completely. I’m just going to try to back things off enough that I can breathe without feeling a weight on my chest. So I can dream without nightmares. So I can release some of the tension that makes my shoulders and neck burn. I told G the other day that I was out of spoons, and had resorted to running on sporks. And sporks are pointy.

So yeah, I’m going to take a week off from the madness. I’m going to try to work on some of the things I’ve had to let slide over the past few months. I’m going to keep going to physical therapy. I’m going to maybe cook a meal or two. And perhaps have a drink or three. Mostly, I’m going to try to relax, and recharge, and restock the spoon drawer.

I may not succeed. There are any number of balls in the air that could come crashing back to earth and set off whole new waves of anxiety. But the effort is certainly worth a shot.

TL;DR:

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TL;DR:

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Waking up this morning was not the best of all possible experiences. My hips and my back hurt quite a bit, and I was more than a little peeved with the black ball of fluff who started insisting it was time for breakfast sometime around 3:45. I finally appeased the felines around 6:30, and discovered that walking was requiring both effort and thought, and that even when given plenty of both, the process was still both slow and unpleasant.

After I got home from dropping G off at the bus, I went through my usual morning pre-computer routine.¹ This time, I also grabbed a couple of ice packs.²

Thus supplied for the morning, I hobbled downstairs, and went to set up my laptop.³ It was at this point that I realized that the power cord for said laptop was still upstairs, in my carryon.

Crap. (more…)

I couldn’t really be bothered to make an actual Venn Diagram, so set notation will have to suffice.

Anyway, I know that I have friends who knit. I know that I have friends who garden. I do not currently know how much overlap actually exists between these two sets of friends, but I figure there’s gotta be some, right?

For those (currently theoretical) friends who both knit and garden¹, KnitPicks has a pattern that might be of interest to you. Go! Go get cozies for your plants!

I was making some changes on a web server that necessitated restarting the process, which I did. As per normal, I went and tailed the logs to make sure everything was coming back up all hunky dory.

Now, you all know me. I accept a wide variety of events as being normal.

This… this was not normal. (more…)

Today, in the world of knitting, I was reminded of one thing, and learned one thing.

I was reminded that the intersection of “knitting I actually care about” and “knitting I can work on while watching a movie in a theater” should be a null set. (I didn’t make any uncorrectable mistakes, but Mistakes Were Made™.)

I learned that trying to look at ones knitting whilst wearing 3D glasses is a good way to get a headache. I do not know if this was made better or worse by my yarn being a shade of red, but I did rather quickly stop trying to look at the project. Come to think of it, this may have contributed to the aforementioned mistakes.

Bonus hint: If you do take your knitting to the movies, make sure it’s on a circular needle. If you drop a straight or DPN, you will likely not be able to find it until after the lights come back up. This leaves you sans knitting for the remainder of the movie. Also, consider your average movie theater floor (especially the areas under the seats). Now imagine your needle after it’s been rolling around in that environment for a while. Ew.

Those of you who were following along with my flurry of updates and comments on facebook last night know that I was having a great deal of difficulty finding my way to sleep. This was particularly annoying as it was the third¹ night running that this was a problem. My body doesn’t have much in the way of reserves to draw upon, and it really needs to be able to recharge through sleep. Often more than once per day. Any significant drop in the aggregate amount of sleep I get in a 24 hour period generally leads to an abrupt and overwhelming system shutdown, where my body overrides my brain and takes charge of the situation.² These forced periods of near convalescence always occur at the most inconvenient times, and are generally a big drag. (more…)

TL; DR: My friend Stephanie’s (more local-to-her) friends urgently need help moving Stephanie’s belongings out of her Medford (Boston, MA) apartment by the end of the year (December 31, 2015, in case this gets picked up by some crazy hibernation / resurrection cycle). Assistance in the form of actual bodies-on-site is going to be vital in order to get this done on time. Financial contributions to help defray associated costs are also welcome. More details are included below.  If you want more information, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate person or persons. If you aren’t able to assist, but know someone (or multiple someones) who might be interested, feel free to share this post. (The blog post is obviously public, but the crossposts to facebook and LiveJournal are as well.) (more…)

Really, the subject just about says it all, but in case you require more detail: Interweave Knits / Knitting Daily is having a “5-Star¹ Products² for $5″ sale. At the time of this writing, there are 32 items on sale for $5.

Free Tip #1

Be sure to check what format you’re actually getting things in! The sale includes eBooks; printed books (paperback and hardcover); magazines; VHS (!) and DVD content, downloadable video content, and I’m sure I’ve missed some other way things are being distributed. I adore the digital editions, but some people hate them. Some features I find alluring for the digital editions include, “not having to find a place to store another physical thing,” “not tripping on another physical thing for which I did not find a storage space,” “I can carry ALL THE BOOKS on my laptop,” and “not having to pay for shipping.” But, whatever floats your boat.

Free Tip #2

Before buying something about which you’re not certain, I recommend double-checking the item’s reviews elsewhere online (I used Amazon, but see above, re: your boat). In addition to some more reviews, you might be able to find additional (or even any, depending on the item) images of what’s inside the covers.

Footnotes