yendi

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/yes-you-can-store-data-on-a-bird-enthusiast-converts-png-to-bird-shaped-waveform-teaches-young-starling-to-recall-file-at-up-to-2mb-s

Taking this proof-of-concept to a ridiculous destination, imagine taking a very simple secret message, converting it to sound, and tasking a starling to smuggle it out somewhere. (This seems very impractical compared to an amateurishly knitted scarf with a code in the seemingly random purl stitches.)

azurelunatic

July 22: I message my symptoms team for a refill on my primary pain med (which is still only the next step up from Tylenol 3). And yet, it's what keeps me from regularly screaming when I exert myself in a way that stresses my right hip. I have 21 + 5 (a week plus a day and 2/3) left.

July 24: A list of detailed follow-up questions from the symptoms nurse, and my detailed reply. About 20 left.

July 25:
Hi [Azz],

I wanted to let you know that [doctor] sent a refill of the [med] to the Costco!

[Discussion of discontinuing another med]

And can I just say how much I enjoy your MyChart messages; I am always impressed at how in tune you are with your body.

Take care,
[Nurse]

Me: It's time to renew my prior auth again, alas.

Nurse: Aw dang!
No worries though, you gave us time (thank you by the way).
I have asked our billing specialist to help with this so we will call the Costco when we get it and then let you know.
Thanks,
[Nurse]

About 17 left.

***

July 26: About 14 left.
July 27: About 11 left.

***

July 28
Different nurse:
Hi [Azz],

We needed a new prior authorization on [med]. We received approval for this over the weekend. However, Costco has been unable to get this medication to process. They are in the process of calling your insurance to figure out where the issue lies.

[Image of prior auth as sent to doctor]

I will keep you updated

Thanks,
[Nurse]

Me: Thanks for the update!

***

A hair bleaching, trip through the shower, and time to drip dry later, I figure I will call Costco pharmacy and see what they've discovered, since they're still open and the symptoms care office is not.

[Call time: 6 minutes 54 seconds]

***

Me: I talked with darling [Don't Panic Pharmacy Assistant] at the pharmacy, who had my back the last time UHC was like this, and we had a real good chat about the state of things at UHC, and she is putting me through for 12 days so I can have some breathing room while you and she go and wrestle alligators. I will get that picked up tonight and we'll see when UHC can be made to see the light.

I drive to the pharmacy.
I receive my jar.
I tell our friend that I was so glad it was her who picked up when I called.
Don't Panic Pharmacy Assistant tells me that when she took my call about the prior auth on my med, the rest of the pharmacy was looking at her funny, because she swapped registers straight out of professional. "Is that a family member on the phone?" And yet again we had words about United Healthcare. Also, the pharmacy we used to go to is shutting down; she has this from her friend and ours, the guy with the Emperor's New Groove pin. He prefers to stay with that company, so he's not coming to Costco.

***

About 8 left, plus 12 days.

siliconshaman

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Current Mood: exhausted

siliconshaman

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Current Mood: creative

clawfoot

To my great relief, I'm feeling much better. As quickly as it came on, it seems to be retreating just as suddenly. Thank goodness for a strong immune system, I guess. I'm not yet at 100%, but I'm noticeably improved over yesterday. I'll likely work tomorrow (albeit from home, if only out of an overabundance of caution). And I should be good to continue with my long weekend plans.

I do have another at-home rapid COVID test, which I'll take tonight before bed, if only to be EXTRA sure. I'm not looking forward to it. It's unpleasant, sticking the swab as far as I can up my nose. It doesn't hurt, but the inside of my nasal passages feel super-sensitive, and swabbing them continuously for 10 seconds or so is not fun.

azurelunatic

As sent to my primary care, who I actually do like:

United Healthcare, in their omnibenevolent wisdom, sees fit to drop the One Touch Ultra from my preferred drug list as of September. They have offered several alternatives.

My primary goal with a glucometer is to not require a smartphone to do the simple task of marking whether any reading is before or after a meal. Out of their list of suggestions, the Contour Plus Blue meter meets my requirements and is not discontinued.

Joy. And happiness.

(This is the primary care who, upon learning which insurance I had, while we were trying to solve a problem, asked whether I was up to date on the then-recent news about their CEO, then said "You'd think they'd have learned their lesson." She's from Canada.)

[Edit: I am not currently in need of a CGM, I just want to be able to enter whether a reading is before or after a meal without involving an app.]

azurelunatic

After Belovedest and I got our Home Depot errand finished, we went out to the car.

Belovedest: 6'4", white, short clipped brown hair, receding hairline, white Honeywell dome type N-95 mask, white T-shirt reading" Classically Trained" with a bunch of old-school video game controllers (but not any as old as the ones they started with), khaki colored cargo shorts, dark plastic slide type sandals.

Me: 5'6.5", white, shoulder length dark brown and variously blue fine 2c wavy hair held back with a grey rhinestone headband, violet eyeshadow with black liner behind blue frame rectangular glasses, black Breath of the Nature KF-94 mask, black chain necklace with spikes, silver star necklace, dark blue velour cardigan over a full length flowing embroidered black Holy Clothing dress, smartwatch with rainbow band, several medical bracelets and a medical necklace, some silver bangles with black, violet, and labradorite semiprecious gems, toeless black compression stockings, and a charcoal and violet pair of serious business support hiking sandals, just done driving a motorized grocery cart.

Him: sitting in his candy-colored Tesla, medium colored hair, with a full mountain man beard.

"You fuckin' weirdos," he muttered, deliberately loud enough to be heard inside the open windows of Belovedest's Toaster.

"Same to you, buddy!" I called as he started to pull out, waving my hand out the window.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: 🎵🎶I wish that you would just leave 🎶🎵

clawfoot

So last night at about 10pm, my throat felt like it was developing a small tickle. By 11pm, it had graduated to an itch. When midnight rolled around, it was a full-blown sore throat.

I'd been in bed the entire time and unable to sleep. It was the weirdest feeling, being absolutely aware of a very rapid-onset sore throat.

In the morning, it was still there, so I called in sick to work and cancelled all my weekend plans. I have to get better by Monday, because I'm planning a weekend away for the August long weekend and I've already paid a non-refundable sum of over $300 for it. If I'm not notably better on Monday, I feel like I have to cancel.

What's weird about this is that the ONLY symptom I'm having is the sore throat. I'm not sneezing, sniffling, or even coughing a lot. My lungs are clear. My sinuses are clear. I have no headaches. I have no fever, I don't think. I have no body aches.

It's freaking weird.

But the current strain of COVID's signature symptom is "razor-blade throat," so maybe I'm being overly cautious, I don't know.

I wouldn't use the words "razor blades" to describe my sore throat, but this is weird enough that I'm worried about it.

siliconshaman

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Current Mood: relieved

jadelennox

This essay was alluded to and quoted from in several of the essays I read about Edna St. Vincent Millay. I correctly suspected I could find the journal issue (The Outlook, vol. 147 no. 10, 1927) on the Internet Archive, and I'm very glad I looked for it. Here's a couple-few excerpts.

This is also in reference to Sacco and Vanzetti.

( Read more... )

If I could meet one person from history I've always said it would be Millay, but right now I'm so enamored of her prose I can't even think what I'd say to her. To be able to write like that...!

Current Mood: thankful

jadelennox

Conscientious Objector

I shall die, but
that is all that I shall do for Death.
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;
I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,
business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.
But I will not hold the bridle
while he clinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself:
I will not give him a leg up.

Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,
I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where
the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
I am not on his pay-roll.

I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends
nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much,
I will not map him the route to any man's door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living,
that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the password and the plans of our city
are safe with me; never through me
Shall you be overcome.

Current Mood: just getting started

jadelennox

I posted "Justice Denied In Massachusetts" in poetry, and that led me into an absolute Millay spiral. (Also I ended up reading a few pieces like "On Edna St. Vincent Millay's 'Justice Denied in Massachusetts'", and I don't think I realized how many of the poems I already knew are Sacco and Vanzetti poems.)

I didn't feel like inflicting a whole bundle of Millay on everyone who reads poetry but I don't mind inflicting her on all of you. So here goes.

Two Sonnets In Memory

(Nicola Sacco—Bartolomeo Vanzetti)
Executed August 23, 1927

Ⅰ

As men have loved their lovers in times past
And sung their wit, their virtue and their grace,
So have we loved sweet Justice to the last,
That now lies here in an unseemly place.
The child will quit the cradle and grow wise
And stare on beauty till his senses drown;
Yet shall be seen no more by mortal eyes
Such beauty as here walked and here went down.
Like birds that hear the winter crying plain
Her courtiers leave to seek the clement south;
Many have praised her, we alone remain
To break a fist against the lying mouth
Of any man who says this was not so:
Though she be dead now, as indeed we know.

Ⅱ

Where can the heart be hidden in the ground
And be at peace, and be at peace forever,
Under the world, untroubled by the sound
Of mortal tears, that cease from pouring never?
Well for the heart, by stern compassion harried,
If death be deeper than the churchmen say,—
Gone from this world indeed what's graveward carried,
And laid to rest indeed what's laid away.
Anguish enough while yet the indignant breather
Have blood to spurt upon the oppressor's hand;
Who would eternal be, and hang in ether
A stuffless ghost above his struggling land,
Retching in vain to render up the groan
That is not there, being aching dust's alone?

Current Mood: melancholy

siliconshaman

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Current Mood: worried

clawfoot

So Gus the Big Mean Bunny's mother is dying. Even though I haven't been legally connected to the family since Gus died over twenty years ago, I still call them all my in-laws. I was contacted by my SIL (Gus' sister) Saturday night, saying MIL was not well, the doctors are "leaning towards" thyroid cancer, and that FIL admitted that MIL has been displaying signs of delirium/dementia for several days.

I had just returned to TO from KW, but I went right back Sunday morning after confirming that a visit from me would be welcome.

The ILs are incredibly proud and would drown themselves in a bathtub before asking for help.

I helped as much as I could anyway. I brought them food. I walked their dog. I took SIL to a support group meeting. I spoke with MIL about what was going on.

It's bad. I'm not going to detail it all out here, but I'll be surprised if she's still with us on our birthday.

Yes, we share a birthday.

I met her when I was eighteen. I started dating her son when I was nineteen. She's been my "first alternate" mother figure ever since. We see each other three or four times a year. I often call her on Mother's Day.

I am not ready to say goodbye.

azurelunatic

I have a locational song for Yellface.

There's a kitten on the bed.
There's a kitten on the bed,
Please pet her silly head,
This kitten on the bed.

There's a kitten on the sill.
There's a kitten on the sill,
So please don't speak her ill,
This kitten on the sill.

There's a kitten on the couch.
There's a kitten on the couch,
She just might be a grouch,
This kitten on the couch.

Current Mood: silly
Current Location: near the cat
Current Music: The Doors

jadelennox

I have started rereading the Amelia Peabody mysteries. It makes me sad that they've definitely had at least a light visit from the suck fairy ^[note], because I've never realised before how much Amelia is in love with Evelyn in The Crocodile On The Sandbank.

She's obviously got it bad for Emerson as well, but my goodness her jealous desire to spend her life with her beautiful Evelyn is overwhelming.

Note: Amelia was never supposed to be a reliable narrator, and her Victorian Orientalism was always to be read as historical. It's just that in modern conventions we -- correctly -- no longer feel it's okay to portray the likable heroines of (wholly unrealistic) historical romances with historically accurate racism. _[back]

siliconshaman

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Current Mood: creative

azurelunatic

One of the LED bulbs in the bathroom vanity developed a distracting (which is code for sensory nope) flicker. Since the porch fixture takes the same bulb, I proposed that the ailing bulb become a public nuisance rather than a private one.

One of my oncologists (I believe I have dubbed her Dr. Bitsblobs, the oncology gynecologist) is retiring soon. So she has been bidding her patients farewell. Apparently I am a "gold star" patient in terms of trying my best to comply with medical advice, and for self-advocacy. A good grade in cancer, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve.

jadelennox

if I were a fae of some sort in a punk band I would simply call my first album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pixies.

I will not be taking questions at this time.

Starlinography?

Prior Auth, my beloathéd

Under construction... mind the shaved yaks.

Warm up exercise.

Feeling better

Alas, new glucometer

I put up my middle finger at him.

When it rains, it pours

Update on Yuri

In a world more beautiful than this it would have mattered more.

Did you think I was done with Millay? I was not done.

Time to head for the best tasting poem you have. It's Millay Time.

Well... fuck.

Impending Grief

Riders on the what?

Actually Renee O'Connor and Lucy Lawless would have been great casting

Someone tell me this is bad idea...

A good grade

"The Sex Pixies" is just a Good Name for a fair folk band

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