Whakkin ya head makes you weaker

Today, I had some weeds to scrape out of some cement. Simple?

The first issue is that I am not alllowed to use appropriate tools to do the job. Something like a shovel is too sharp, so I had to find a near-blunt scrapey thing which didn’t count as a sharp tool, and use that for sraping the weeds out of the cement.

The second issue is that even with a convenient-length tool, putting the effort in to scrape maybe 30 or 40 small stems out of cement pathways is, well, exhausting. I’m very glad that Mardie donated us an exercise ball, because it means that I have (non-sharp) tools for disentangling my backbone afterwards. The real, inside damage of having headbutted stuff at tens of kilometers per hour is starting to show through.

The third issue is picking up the scrapees. No way, end of story. Too much pain to make the job worthwhile. So — I tried a stiff broom... and after another exercise-ball session, I have some of the weeds tidied away.

The fourth issue is making healthy people understand that without beating or slicing any of me up, I hurt. Extensively. They/we simply cannot wrap their heads around the idea.

The fifth issue is that telling the Beer Joke to a set of three femmes makes me hurt more.

However... I am alive, talking, typing and (more or less) walking, which is (I am told) streets ahead of being DOA or some random flavour of vegetable. So — pain and all — it’s still a big win.

Comments

every-application-is-part-of-a-toolkit at work

I have a LibreOffice Impress slideshow that I wish to turn into a narrated video. 1. export the slideshow as PNG images (if that is partially broken — as at now — at higher resolutions, Export Directly as PDF then use ‘pdftoppm’ (from the poppler-utils package) to do the same). 2. write a small C program (63 lines including comments) to display those images one at a time, writing a config file entry for Imagination (default transition: ‘cross fade’) based on when the image-viewer application (‘display,’ from the GraphicsMagick suite) is closed on each one; run that, read each image aloud, then close each image in turn. 3. run ‘Imagination’ over the config file to produce a silent MP4 video with the correct timings. 4. run ‘Audacity’ to record speech while using ‘SMPlayer’ to display the silent video, then export that recording as a WAV file. 4a. optionally, use ‘TiMIDIty’ to convert a non-copyright-encumbered MIDI tune to WAV, then import that and blend it with the speech (as a quiet b

new life for an old (FTX) PSU, improved life for one human

the LEDs on this 5m strip happen to emit light centred on a red that does unexpectedly helpful things to (and surprisingly deeply within) a human routinely exposed to it. it has been soldered to a Molex connector, plugged into a TFX power supply from a (retired: the MoBo is cactus) Small Form Factor PC, the assorted PSU connectors (and loose end from the strip) have been taped over. the LED strip cost $10.24 including postage, the rest cost $0, the PSU is running at 12½% of capacity, consumes less power than a laptop plug-pack despite running a fan. trial runs begin today.

boundaries

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Plantagenet Penguinista

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