Don't forget: after your import is done, go and claim your LJ ID before you delete your account. After your account is gone you can't do it.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

I made a post on Dreamwidth. Not even going to crosspost links any more.

...So come over to Dreamwidth. Let me know who you are there.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

So after years of benign neglect, SUP (who owns LJ) has started behaving badly again. Last time I kept cross-posting back here from Dreamwidth because I was not getting any comments over there.

Now I'm hardly getting any comments here anyway, so I'm going back to posting just notices that I made a post that you have to go to DW to see.

Join us on Dreamwidth. It's like LJ with ethics.

Sort of where I'm going with this is the idea that your religion is your business, and not anyone else's.

If you are concerned with what religion I am or with making sure I know what religion you are, then you are in the wrong. You should not care what faith I do or do not follow at all and to whatever extent you are even curious about it or are interested in making sure I know that information about you, you are infringing on my liberty and right to be free from interference in my spiritual affairs.

Your god is not my business, and it is my right to explicitly not know about your god.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

I've had an idea rattling around in my head for a few years now, and it's almost ready to come out. This is related to that:

Can anyone name me any situation where a public profession of one's religion actually helps anyone? That is, is there ever a time when saying "I'm Jewish and so..." or "As a Christian I feel..." is useful to anyone?

I may be willing to concede the case where we're all discussing religion. But even then I'm not sure. But setting that case aside for the time being, is you telling me what your faith is ever a worthwhile thing to do?

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

I'm sure I've mentioned that Chris does period photography. He's really good at it.

Now he wants to build a replica of the Kew Photoheliograph, a camera from the 1880s that took pictures of the sun and thereby was instrumental in advancing our understanding of the sun and the solar system.

But to do that he needs more money than he has. So he's set up an indiegogo to fund his project. Please go take a look and toss him a few bucks if you can.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

I seem to have abandoned my intent to only make posts about tribulations after they are over, so this is a journal of my triumphs instead of troubles.

Sorry about that.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

Dave's Italian Kitchen closed forever Monday, with no warning to anyone including the staff.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

Spent the morning doing adulting things.
There are several things I should be doing once a month, once a quarter, every 6 months, etc. Changing filters and so on.

I now have appointments in my calendar once a month to do the monthly things, and one every quarter to do the quarterly things (and separate ones quarterly to remind me to buy the quarterly things so I have them when I need them and don't get stuck buying them all at once. Month one, buy a CPAP hose. Month two, buy the root killer to put down the drain, Month three buy a new 3 pack of cat water filters).

Also added a bunch of cons and other fun events to my calender so I don't double-book myself for things I want to do, and a reminder that the car insurance is due, and so on.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

Monday morning, my mom asked if I could engineer getting her car to her mechanic for a tune up, and I agreed.

Monday just after noon I went out to my car and it wouldn't start. After a lot of messing around, I ended up gettng it towed to my mechanic, and took a cab to mom's house to borrow her car.

Now my car is repaired. But because I intend soon to get rid of my car, I had him skip some of the more expensive parts of the repair. It's safe, but there's a chance it may not be reliable. So I'd like to give it as much opportunity as possible to fail before giving up mom's car.

Today I have to do the shuffle where I start with mom's car rolling and my car at my mechanic and end up with mom's car at her mechanic and my car rolling. This will involve some back-and-forth and a cab ride, no matter what. Here's what I plan to do:

1: drive mom's car to my mechanic. Park it.
2: drive my car to mom's mechanic. Park it.
3: take a cab back to my mechanic.
4: drive mom's car to mom's mechanic.
5: drive away in my car.

This gives my car two starting opportunites to fail before I give up mom's car, and makes giving up mom's car the very last step.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

Capricon is still the same as it always has been. I still want the same things from Capricon that I always did. Why am I not getting those things from Capricon any more? Why am I dissatisfied?

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

I've been skating regularly again, and last night I finally (10 years later...wow.) went to a rink I had not previously been to: Lynwood Roller Rink. (To read my previous reviews, click here. They're all from 10 years ago.)

The floor is strips of wood; a large square in the middle with all the wood going the long way, surrounded by a rectangle of wood laid in the direction of travel. The floor is new, and there are a couple of "WTF?!" things. They appear not to have taken up the old floor; just laid this new floor on top. So there's about a 5cm step down off the floor, and that is not well marked; many almost-falls. And they seem to have decided not to sand it after the wood went in, before they finished it. It's very rumbly and in a few places downright dangerous. I've never skated anywhere where the floor itself was a trip hazard. But this is also the first rink I've been to where the only markings are the figure skating loops and a derby track. The only "center oval" is the derby one.

There was only one floor monitor, and he seems to have restricted himself to helping people up when they fall. Rules are apparently not a thing at Lynwood. Plus: "no hats" is not a thing. Minus: All skating in the same direction is somewhat not a thing. People were mostly all skating right, but there were a few people skating whatever direction they liked. There were people taking selfies of themselves skating. Lots of purses on the ladies. The only rule they vigorously enforced (they made several announcements) was that all items must be stowed in a locker. Not sure if that's a revenue thing or a pilferage thing.

I was there on "unlimited pizza" night. Which sounds good. But isn't really: Stand in a long line. Get one small slice of crappy pizza. Eat that. Get back in line.

This is the rink where Roll Bounce was filmed. I've been told the production company redecorated it for that and it hasn't really been touched since, and I believe it. The walls are covered with crumpled aluminum foil and the neon all still says "Sweetwater"....

The music was "Ow! My ear!" loud. If I ever skate here again I will need to wear hearing protection.

All in all, not worth the trip out there. I might skate there if I happen to be down that way at the end of the day; I will not drive all the way down there again just to skate.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-31: Things did not go as planned. But that's fine.
I spent some time at the shop, but I didn't get to restart my failed mead because no one was there with more knowledge than I, and since I'd failed doing it my own self, I wanted someone who knows what's what to guide me. But the planned mead meetup was cancelled, because everyone else's was not ready for the next stage. So instead I just hung around. Which was fine.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-28: I had lunch with Chris at Mitsuwa! Chris had some business in Schaumburg, so we met up there for lunch. It was fun!

1-29: After work, I stopped by Nicky's house, and arrived at the beginning of a rehersal/brainstorming session for her jazz trio. She and her new band member and her other band member and we friends who randomly showed up sat around the dining room table snacking and singing and building a list of possible songs for them to perform. (The trio has only performed once before, and it was a Christmas event. So all new songs need to be chosen and rehearsed. And one of the three from that show is not available for this upcoming show, so this new guy Joe is coming on board.)

1-30: Went down to the shop and did a bit of maintenance. It was good to just be in that space, doing productive work, surrounded by friendly faces. Then I stopped by my mom's house and met her new kitty.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-27: I skated.
I've been "skating twice a week" for a few months now. But for the last few weeks there have been legitimate reasons to skip it more often than not. I was feeling like that was gettng to be more of a habit than actually skating, so even though I injured my toe a few days earlier and I suspected it would hurt a lot to skate, I went and did it anyway. And it did hurt, and I only lasted about 15 minutes. But I skated, and I will again on Friday or Saturday.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-24: Discovered the kitchen faucet was leaking. Spent the day reasearching what new faucet to buy. Determined that the one I would like will take weeks to arrive. Repaired the faucet. So no new faucet at all! Yay!

1-25: I was in a second rear-end accident last Thursday. Unlike the first accident, in this one the other driver in this accident had real insurance. Who called me Friday to schedule an assessment. Which was today. I was totally up front about the fact that most of the damage was from the previous accident. The assessor was totally up front about the fact that given the damage his client did cause, the fact that there was previous damage was irrelevant to how much it would cost him to repair the damage he was liable for. And cut me a check about twice what I was expecting.

1-26: I intended to bake a cake today, but work circumstances got in the way. But those same work circumstances let me buy some fancy sanding sugar for a little baking experiment I want to try, from a store I'm usually not near.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-21: Unexpected cake! As part of my work roaming, I met up with Chris and the girls. They had lunch, but by the time I arrived it was dessert time and they got me a slice of cake!

1-22/23: B-FEST! 24 hours of the worst cinema ever. It was glorious. I highly recommend Roar if you haven't seen it. We spent the entire film incredulous that it was ever made and laughing at the situation the actors found themselves in.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-20: It was pretty frustrating/boring day. But I did succeed in getting some snacks squared away for B-Fest. There's a store on the south side that sells surplus, closeout, and out-of-code groceries. So since I had a client call down that way I stopped in and ended up with some Zingers and indivdual packs of Nilla Wafers.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-19: A very nice evening at the hacker space. Many people were there, because it was the annual meeting and board elections. Had some lovely conversations. samwinolj came! I was quite pleased to see him up ad around after his surgery.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-18: I finally got sick of the memory/processor contention on this machine and did something about it.

I run Facebook in Chrome and everything else in Firefox. This keeps Facebook's pervasive tracking in check, because I can lock down Firefox's cookies to where nothing from Facebook is accepted.

The problem is that whenever Firefox, Chrome, and Thunderbird are all running, eventually the processor spikes to 100% and everything slows to a crawl. Stop any one of the three and everything is OK, but all three seem to fight.

So yesterday I installed Pale Moon, which is a Firefox derivative optomized for speed and efficiency. So far, everything is running much much faster.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-17: Field Museum! I took the train down to the Loop and met Chris and the girls for a day of fun at the museum, then we stopped at the hacker space so Chris could see the place. Then we stopped at a nifty little brewing/coffee roasting/photo supply/electronic kits shop I found last week, and finally had dinner at Pita Inn. It was a very good day.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-15: First thing in the morning, I baked a cake. For various reasons I have not tasted it yet, but it smelled amazing! I had lunch with Chris; and after the end of work, I went to the movies.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)

1-14: Mead! My work schedule fell apart, so i had some time to finish buying the supplies and equipment to take another run at making mead. Including buying a very nice 10l demijohn, with which they threw in a VERY nice glass double-bubble airlock. So in the evening I mixed up 10l of mead and set it to fermenting in the ferment chamber at the shop. And in a few days we'll see where it's heading.

The guy I talked to a couple of days ago tells me the batch that I tried to start a couple of years ago may not be ruined after all. so I intend to taste that and see what I can do for it in the next few days as well.

I bought a case of blue lever-lock bottles. Before bottling time I want to take a stab at laser-engraving them.

(originally posted on dreamwidth, where there are comments. I'd like to keep all my comments in one place, so I'd rather you comment there by creating an openID cross-site login.)