Darkoshi

I've finished watching the last batch of Resident Alien episodes, and am still enjoying the series a lot. It is still quite amusing as well as touching. It's more about friendships than sci-fi.

Other TV recordings on Qiao's DVR still remaining for me to watch:
A Million Little Things
Killing Eve
The Wonder Years

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Since working from home, I've read very few books. I used to mainly read books during my lunch breaks, sitting on the picnic benches by the pond at work. I no longer take full-fledged lunch breaks like that due to the many other small breaks I take during the day. It takes me long enough to finish my work hours each day without adding an hour-long lunch break in between.

But last year I started reading books again, even if at first only while flossing my teeth before bed.

I finally finished "Good Omens", which I had started right before the pandemic. I didn't find it very amusing* nor did I feel a connection with any of the characters. But I still want to see if I like the TV series that was based on it. Maybe I'll connect more with TV characters.
*Perhaps some of the British-based humor passed me by, but perhaps also, satire of Christianity doesn't seem funny to me as I don't have enough esteem for the religion to begin with.

Now I've also started book-reading while using the exercise bike, which I try to do twice a day for ten minutes or more. Reading a book distracts me from the effort and tediousness of the exercise even better than playing word games or scrolling thru random DW entries.

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Lately, I often work on my laptop outside during the afternoons. I've sat outside in the sunshine enough this winter and spring to have gotten a tan on my arms.

I've still got a couple hours work to do, but I just remembered something: It's Friday!!!

It was a nice day today; a little cool but nicely warm in the sun. I cut a shoe box to provide a shade for my laptop screen, then took a chair outside and sat and worked on my laptop in the sunshine for quite a while. First time I've done that. There wasn't as much glare on my screen as I thought there might be. Will probably do that more days in the future as long as the weather is right.

Ah. It's the season for these little red running mites. I've had more of them crawling onto my arms from the desk while working inside than outside.

The yellow irises have bloomed, tall.

I don't really need anything right now (not yet), but keep wondering if I should go grocery shopping. I haven't been to a store since 3/15. I might run out of soymilk in 2 weeks, and that might be the worst time to go out. Although... if that webpage was right and our peak here will be on Apr.24, then now 14 days before the peak, might actually be a bad time too. I dunno. It's not like I can't do without soymilk for a while.

On that last shopping trip, I went to a Food Lion I hadn't been to before. (There used to be a Bi-Lo there before it shut down.) They had a lot of Passover items. Boxes of good-looking dark-chocolate covered orange peels, but with no price listed. I figured it would be expensive, so put only one box in my cart. It didn't ring up any price at the cash register either though, and the cashier ended up charging me only $1.50 for it! If I'd known, I'da gotten 3 or 4 boxes.

In the frozen food section, they also had eggplant cutlets, vegan schnitzel(!), potato "bourekas" (puff pastry squares with seasoned mashed potato filling), and bialys. I haven't had bialys since Rosewood Market stopped selling them. I hope this Food Lion stocks them year-round and not only for Passover.

8:46am. I'm so mad I want to hit something. But I'll try a written rant instead.

Been f*cking low on sleep for weeks; even lower than usual. Yesterday I was so sleepy I couldn't stop yawning until around the time I took my lunch break in the mid-afternoon. That, even though I got more sleep the night before, 6.6 hours, than the prior 3, and I hadn't been yawning on the prior days.

Today was the first time in weeks that I didn't have a morning Skype call for work. So I set my alarm for 9:30am and got to bed before 1am. By all rights I should have gotten over 8 hours of sleep.

But no, I wake up at 7:20am. And then my body's insides start churning like a f*cking construction crew, keeping me from being able to fall back asleep with all that racket and pounding going on. I finally got up and pointlessly sat on the toilet for a while, thinking that's what my body wanted, but no, that just made me wake up more.

The same kind of thing happened both days last weekend. Waking up early for no reason and not being able to fall back asleep. Although on Sunday, after a long time I did finally, and managed to get about 8 hours.

Been feeling prone to light nausea during the daytime too, which is another side effect I get when I'm low on sleep. BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I've been working too many hours because one of the projects I'm on was given a short timeline because the customer wants it quick. And then 2 of the team were unexpectedly out on sick leave for a week, which put us behind, so I was asked to help with the testing too. I counted together how much "overtime" I've done since the beginning of August, and it comes out to about an extra day of work each week. So it's as if I've been working Saturdays for a month and a half, something I would never agree to. BAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Even though the work itself has been rather fun. I don't plan to work late each day. It's just that by the time it's evening, I'm finally in a groove, no longer tired, focused, wanting to reach a certain goal before stopping.

I've got other work-work too, besides that project. So I've been trying to juggle them all.

Sh*t f*cking body not letting me sleep. Who f*cking cares. Then I f*cking WON'T SLEEP and let's see how you f*cking like that, you G*DD*MN F*CKING BODY!!!!

Work emails from colleagues in India and Vietnam often seem to suffer the problem of missing the word "not" in key places. When taking the statements as written, they seem to indicate the opposite of what the colleagues are intending to say, based on other cues in the email.

I wonder if it is due to negation being handled differently in their native languages.

For example: ...but I did see any differences...
instead of : ...but I did not see any differences...

For example: I doubt build was performed. I checked and could see latest build having changes.
instead of: ...I checked and could see the latest build NOT having the changes.

I've learned that if you're going to transport a mattress set in the back of a pickup truck, it would behoove you to check the local weather forecast even if you're in a hurry due to other people's needs and limits. Trusting the current weather pattern to hold is unwise. Having a torrential downpour start part-way through the drive is unfortunate.

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Tofurky has discontinued their vegan pepperoni. This disappoints me as I liked using it in my lunch sandwiches. The only other vegan pepperoni I know of, by Yves, didn't taste nearly as good to me back when I was still able to find it in stores. Now neither are available around here. The Yves one is available online, but based on my memory of it, I'm not sure it is worth ordering considering that I'd also need to order a cold pack with it.

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We needed the rain. I wish it had waited another hour though. I worry that the persons I gave the mattress to won't let it properly dry on all sides and that it'll get moldy or mildewy. Pity.

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This vegan "beefy cheddar pot pie" tastes good; the crust is very good too:
https://alphaplantbased.com/our-food/handheld-pot-pies/
https://alphaplantbased.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/beefy-cheddar-pot-pie-alpha.png

(Note to self: as of 2019/Dec, WalMart has those Alpha pot pies. Maybe that is also where I originally found them; I don't remember.)

These orange cream ice pops are also good. Nostalgic. The flavor is somewhat mild, but at least they are not so very sweet as some other ice pops are.
https://www.goodpops.com/flavors/orange-n-cream/

These coconut passion fruit ice pops from Whole Foods are also good, also nostalgic for me, and also not too sweet.
https://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/wordpress/2019/06/04/spotted-whole-foods-edition-6-4-2019/365-everyday-value-coconut-passion-fruit-fruit-bars-jpg/

Nostalgic for me because passion fruit juice was something I got to drink at my aunt's house in Germany when I was a kid. It was sold in bottles, usually mixed with other juices. We bought a fresh passion fruit from the fruit market one time. Juicy pebbly seeds inside. The same flavor but not as sweet as the juice. In German, it is called Maracuja, not passion fruit. From the Spanish or Portuguese name.

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why why?

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I take notes at work while testing and researching things. Every once in a while, I end up writing "wtf?!!".

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hey boom dop ditty dop boom bop wow.

how now, how now? one step at a time, one step and then nine.

and then you die, my young apprentice, and then you die.

The day after we found the little gosling, I saw that it was still with those 2 adult geese in the lake area behind Q's house. The next day, I saw 2 adult geese in that area, also in the afternoon, but no little one. That made me worry, as I had read that Canada geese are very habitual, hanging out at the same places at the same times each day. But the next couple of days, I didn't see any geese in that area at all. I keep thinking about that little one, worrying about what happened to it. Thinking things like: maybe it hatched late and/or couldn't keep up with it's original family and got left behind by them, and maybe then it also ended up being left behind by the new foster parents I thought we'd found for it... the poor little thing...

On Monday, I saw the first batch of goslings by the ponds near my work.

Today, I saw a goose nesting in a landscaped terrace area behind our building at work; an area which is only accessible from the ground after going up about 20 stairs. If the goose has babies up there, how will they get down all those stairs? They'd have to be brave enough to jump down them all, one at a time. Or they might be stuck up there, if no one helps them down. Later it occurred to me that even adult geese don't go up and down stairs. They'd have to fly up & down.

But apparently goslings can survive large jumps:

Geese nesting on a rooftop : "Generally newly hatched goslings can fall about 2 storeys without hurting themselves, because they are so small and fluffy."

Baby Steps? : "Waterfowl have occasionally been known to nest in high places. Fortunately the babies weigh almost nothing so when they jump they float more than fall to the ground. "

So depending on which way the parent goose leaves, maybe the goslings would jump right off the top of the wall by the nest, skipping all the stairs.

But after watching a few videos like the below, I thing that goslings would have no trouble going down a bunch of stairs, though going up them might be more difficult:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwaHVtr72X8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIQCfwE1dEs

I first noticed the tree being chewed on in May 2017:
https://darkoshi.dreamwidth.org/594424.html

March 2018:


December 3, 2018: Chewed all the way through but still upright, leaning against another tree.


December 11, 2018: Fallen into pond.



December 18, 2018: Stump cut (not by the beaver, presumably).

I've been feeling fairly chipper today, considering I got less than 4 hours sleep last night. I should have gotten 6, but had trouble falling asleep.

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Remember that big tree at work by the pond, which a beaver started chewing on over a year ago? The trunk finally was chewed all the way through. At first, the tree fell over onto a nearby tree and leaned that way for a while. Then it finally fell down into the pond. Within a few days of that, the grounds-people had taken it away. So much for all that work you did, beaver. I have photos; may post them one of these days.

The beaver (or beavers) have been gnawing on a bunch of other smaller trees too, and the small trunks get chewed through a lot quicker. One of the felled trees had nice bright green leaves, some kind of evergreen; I felt sad for the pretty tree. The grounds-people had removed it by the next day too.

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I bought two Wyze cams to try out. They are inexpensive, and let you record 12 second motion-activated clips and store them online for 2 weeks, for free. You can view the clips from your phone, and you can configure it to notify you when motion is detected. The cameras can also store video to a micro SD card, and you can view the camera live streams on your phone when you are away from home. So far, the cams seem really neat. One drawback is that after each 12 second clip that is stored online, it doesn't save more until after 5 minutes have passed. But if you have the SD card installed and keep your home's wi-fi running all the time, after getting a notification, you can make a note of the time, and then go and view the continuous video recording from the SD card, all remotely from your phone.

I have had a few problems so far. A 32 GB microSD card works fine, but an old 4GB card doesn't seem to work. And when I turned off my wi-fi overnight, for some reason the camera stopped recording an hour later until I turned wi-fi on again in the morning. Supposedly from what I read, it is supposed to keep recording to the card even when the wi-fi goes out. I'll have to try that again.

[ Update: It happened again; this time it stopped recording half an hour after turning off the router and wi-fi. So maybe that's not supported after all, but I will check. ]

I'm not sure how good these would be for security purposes (if a burglar can get to them, they can steal the camera along with the SD card, and then the recording on the SD card won't do you much good.) But for remotely monitoring things, they seem quite neat. This is the kind of security camera I've been looking for, where you don't have to pay an ongoing fee yet still can access the video streams remotely, and get notifications and all.

Admittedly, I have been viewing the video streams and clips only when connected to wi-fi (both at my house and remotely), as I don't want to use up my phone plan's data. Between yesterday and today, just from my playing around with it, the app on the phone has used half a Gig of wi-fi data. If I were using the phone's data, I'm not sure how long it would take for the video and clips to load.

They keep showing that car commercial on TV. The one that starts out with the music sounding like a Star Wars trailer. It feels like sacrilege to me. Apparently this isn't a new thing - there have been other car commercials in the past with Star Wars themes. But I don't remember seeing them, or if I did, they must not have bothered me as much.

Hmm, nope, I haven't seen this one before now. I rather like that one, and it has a funny part too.
On the other hand, this one is even WORSE than the one being shown on TV now. HOW DARE THEY! grrr.

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I found a grocery store that sells Accent (MSG). All the reviews say it makes "flavor come out" and "makes things taste better". But so far, it doesn't seem that way to me. I tried it on my pasta instead of salt, and ::blech::. Maybe it tastes better when it's added during cooking, or along with other flavors.

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At work, I noticed a bug in one of the file search utilities I use. I was searching some large XML files for certain element names to verify that all the expected nodes were there, but the count was coming up short in some of the files. The files didn't have line breaks. When I used another tool to add line breaks after each node, and then searched them again, the counts came out correct. So it seems like the utility has a problem searching large files without line breaks.

I thought I would submit a bug report along with a sample file to demonstrate the problem. I stayed late after work to create such a file. I didn't want to submit the original XML file as it had some company-specific things in it. So I started by doing a replace-all to change all instances of one element name to a string of plus signs of the same length. With the file like that, the count of the plus-signs-string still comes out wrong.

Then I did a regex replace-all, to convert *all* other characters in the file to minus signs. That way, the final file still has the same size, and the search string is still in all the same positions as in the original file.

But weirdly, after doing that, the count comes out correct. Even without having added line breaks. So that thwarted me. Tomorrow I may try again, this time not converting the less-than and greater-than characters.

Along the way, I found out that Notepad++ doesn't perform well when using regex to replace nearly all characters in a 10MB sized file. The one time it succeeded at the task, it took 10 minutes to complete. Several other times it locked up or crashed. Then I downloaded UltraEdit, which was able to do the same task in about a minute, maybe less.

I woke up, sitting in my chair at work with my head leaning back. I had fallen asleep at work! It was now the middle of the night... when I saw a clock, it showed 4am.

I got up and started walking, to wake myself up. I walked into the next building where I don't normally go, and promptly got lost. I was surprised that there were still a lot of other people around, still working at that hour.

I saw sunlight starting to brighten the curtains on the east side of the building, and walked over there to look at the sunrise. When I looked out the window, I saw the ocean and a beach down below! I exclaimed something in surprise, and another guy nearby said something like yeah, the company put that there for employees. I said I had never seen it before, and looked back outside again. It looked like the real ocean, with waves, but it only extended out for a short distance and ended.

I found my way back to my cube and was preparing to leave, when I heard/saw another co-worker just leaving, locking the door behind them. I worried for a moment that he was locking me in, but then I remembered that I had a key - hopefully it worked from the inside too, to unlock the door.