Back to the future: how Mastodon is restoring the lost art of online conversation | John Naughton | The Guardian

The Guardian takes notice of Mastodon. Reconstructed mammoth or mastodon

The new social network with its interconnected ‘fediverse’ is a welcome alternative to blustering rival Twitter and Elon Musk

— Read on www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/21/back-to-the-future-how-mastodon-is-restoring-the-lost-art-of-online-conversation

Vaccine Dreams

At approximately 1020am this morning, I was sitting in a CVS Pharmacy getting a Moderna Covid19 bivalent booster vaccine, along with a flu shot. Within 3 hours, I was having the weirdest, semi-conscious, somewhat lucid dream of my life. I may be needing tea and sympathy tomorrow if, by some reports, the second day is the kicker.

Because we’re Team Moderna here, I had been looking at the various pharmacy sites ever since the new boosters were approved by the CDC, trying to find Moderna vaccine available near me. Once again I had to go pretty far afield to find it; not as far as the very first time when I had to drive about an hour south for my first 2 vaccines. This time I only had to go 30 minutes away, which is a 50% improvement, I guess. But for my previous booster, we got to go to breakfast with family at a a nearby restaurant and then fan out to multiple pharmacies after to get our boosters.

 

FINALLY. Team Moderna FTW!

David was off on a group gravel ride with friends, I had the morning free. So off I went, got my jabs, and on my way home caught up with a family friend via (hands free) phone as I drove.

During this call, I learned that a young family member’s toddler was never vaccinated, and is now ill from Covid for the second time. And the young family member sent a photo of a Covid test to others, asking “Does the faint line mean I have Covid too?”

DUH.

That is some world-class duh-nial there, kiddo. And it’s not the first time that this family member has questioned the evidence of her own eyes on a Covid test. She also wasn’t fully boosted, though with Omicron’s ability to evade previous versions of the vaccines, that’s not surprising. I’m just irked at her for putting her kid at risk, and wonder if she’s been hanging out with other vaccine duh-nialists and listening to the other insanities.

Anyway, after getting home and toddling around, I started to feel a slight headache, so I took a couple of Ibuprofen and settled down on the couch to relax.

While in the middle of composing a tweet, for God’s sake, I was suddenly aware that my consciousness was sinking deep into the couch and taking me with it. I remember thinking “This is a hell of a side effect, like a drug. Might as well enjoy it.” I couldn’t move, but I could think, and it was dark. I was comfortable and not scared, but it seemed like a very long time went by while I was… deeply cushioned and stuff was going on around me. It seemed like there were voices. For some reason, there was something about a dog or a coyote (NOT the cartoon kind).  At the time, I didn’t think I was asleep or dreaming, but the couch itself was rotated 90 degrees from its normal position and was against the living room windows.

After quite a long time in this altered state, my consciousness… resurfaced up from within the cushioning darkness and I gradually realized it was still full daylight, and then realized I was “awake” and could “move.” 

It took about 5 minutes or more to figure out that I must have been asleep and having a semi-lucid dream, but it was more a kind of twilight with some ability to think. I’ve had vivid lucid dreams before and this wasn’t that. Actually, I normally don’t experience the sensation of falling asleep; it has to sort of sneak up on me while my mind is distracted (usually via music or an audiobook and sleep headphones). Today I think I actually experienced the loss of consciousness to sleep. Very weird. 

I also spent a further 5 minutes or so trying to figure out if I really had been asleep, and if so, for how long. I woke up about 2pm, and had stopped for lunch before coming home, so I think I lost about 2 hours. 

As for other post-booster side effects, my shoulder muscles are a bit sore and my nose is runny, but that’s about it. 

David got back from his ride, totally wiped out, so we opted not to go out again for dinner with his dad (we went to a local brewpub last night on a whim). Tomorrow David has to get up ungodly early for an airport drop off; we’re hosting Guest Cat Gracie again for a week as a consequence. It’s nice to have a cat about the house. 

 

Today and Yesterday and a couple of days after tomorrow

Today my husband David and I got together with my father-in-law Shel, and Shel’s lady-love Linda for lunch. We had dinner together last night at Bahama Breeze, because COUPON. And we’re having dinner with them Wednesday for the purpose of congratulating my niece Naomi on graduating (early) from high school. I’m not sure where we’re eating, but I bet a poo-kon will be produced at the end.

Such an exciting life I lead! We eat out based on whichever of us has the best restaurant coupon!

It’s not that we can’t afford this stuff; we count ourselves lucky on that score. It’s that using a good coupon is one of our little family jokes. We’re not “extreme couponers;” we throw away grocery coupons although we do pay attention to in-store deals. We just keep an eye out for good deals from restaurants and some retail places that we actually visit frequently.

I’ve got a Bed Bath & Beyond coupon that’ll be used for something or other shortly. It’s our go-to place for housewares (kitchen) and soft goods (bedding and towels). I’ve got something from The Container Store that may lapse before I get around to going there; I usually reserve a trip there for Christmas gadget-shopping and my occasional “get organized” kicks.

A couple of months back, we met Shel and Linda at Texas de Brazil because Dad had a coupon good for half off for at least 2 entrees in a party of 4. But when the check came, he realized he’d left the “poo-kon” (my word) at home. As TdB isn’t an inexpensive place, there was dismay and anguish generally. But I saved the day, because I’d received the same email offer and it was still buried in my stack of emails that weren’t important enough to read, but important enough to not delete (most coupon deals I mark as spam and delete, but I give businesses I actually patronize a “pass”).

Last year for Shel’s birthday, we produced an edible “coupon good for 1 happy birthday” That was a pretty good prank, and also delicious. So redeeming it was… a piece of cake.

Upgrades in Progress

Not much accomplished today other than upgrading both the iPhone and iPad to the latest version of iOS, and also replacing a WordPress plugin with its replacement.

Everything seems to be working – the plugin pulls in items I post at Google+ and is highly configurable. I may tinker with getting it to create items as asides.

We ate lunch out at a neighborhood place, David and I, and then I had a nap.

Pretty much a perfect day off.

There are more upgrades contemplated, but tomorrow’s plan is pretty fuzzy.

Giving Thanks

We brought 2 pies to the family Thanksgiving gathering; we mingled, caught up with family members, got a new recipe (actually more of an ingredient list) and listened to all the chatter.

It’s always a good time lying in wait for cousin Randy’s trays of cream cheese and onion stuffed mushrooms. I could eat a whole tray of those things, they’re legendary. However, the ingredient list I snagged was for a tasty grain salad made with farro and unbrined Italian olives. So yummy.

The after-dinner conversational topics covered the usual ground; how lucky we all are, how busy we all are, health stuff, and a good dose of David’s cycling exploit today – he went riding with a friend and had to gear up so as not to become a popcyclist.

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Here he is, my shrimp with lobster claws (his description). He reports that he was warm enough today, though he’ll probably never be a true winter cyclist. He had to take some ribbing from cousin David, who lives just blocks from where my David was riding today.

Cousin David is pre-diabetic and so there was some information sharing about diet, exercise, and staying on top of things. Other family members are also diabetic, but were not participating, unfortunately.

We enjoyed seeing everyone, but for a few years now, I’ve been taking some time to remember those who are NOT there to gather around the table. Of course I miss my mom and my own family, and I miss my mom-in-law Leah. But there’s still much to be thankful for. But I also wish some other family members had chosen to be there, instead of making it clear they don’t want to be.

Sad.

Happy Snowy New Year

A cold white blanket of snow covers Burbclavia; we managed to get to the gathering place to celebrate the new year with family and eat yummy chili with all the extras, and the obligatory lox ‘n bagels.

My nephew Josh is in town and brought his girlfriend Ashley; FIL Shel and Linda made the trek and so did my BIL Dan and his girlfriend Tammy. Mitch and Gloria put on a really nice buffet and of course Rosie the pooch princess provided entertainment.

Things got raucous (or at least very loud) when Josh showed us this crazy trivia game called Face Off, where you hold a smartphone up on your forehead that shows trivia; the point is for each player to correctly guess what’s on the screen that everyone else can see. The song category was a flop because those of use who CAN sing or at least carry a tune didn’t know any Justin Bieber songs. Seriously. Justin Bieber? In a few years he’ll be Vanilla Ice with a bad combover.

The carrot cake with the orange/rum/butter sauce was pretty good! It wasn’t pretty, but it tasted amazing.

It’s been snowing all day and the front walk looks like David didn’t run the snowblower twice already. This weekend will be snowy and cold, and Monday the HIGH will be -8F, and it’ll get down to -15F if the forecast holds true.

Wish we’d ordered the fireplace insert when we first looked at it.

Damn. It’s even snowing on my iPhone, in a twee animation Apple has on the current version.

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Things Done, Things Left Undone for January 8 2013

Things Done

  • Tidied house with David for Wednesday’s cleaning ladies
  • Cleaned out a couple of boxes in basement and reorganized a bit
  • Repacked Christmas ornaments in a bigger tub (except for Mom’s figurines)
  • Hung out with friends online listening to music, because laughter is GOOD FOR YOU
  • Hugged my husband David because I love him very much
  • Did my oral care stuff
  • Listened to even more music, which makes me happeh
  • Collected more items for donation or disposal YAY
  • Tweeted to an astronaut, IN SPACE, about the song he recorded IN SPACE

Things Left Undone

  • Church website and Facebook page GAH
  • Clean, dust, vacuum office, UGH
  • Sort unused clothes and reorg closet
  • Exercise. Okay, danced a little to “NASA Johnson Style”

Things Done for January 6 2013 #fb

Things Done

  • Uploaded Christmas pictures to the St Nick’s
    Facebook page
  • Dinner with Mitch and Gloria, played with my doggie schniece, Rosie
  • Went to church and sang, sang, sang. Choir mistress cracked the whip!
  • Did all my post-op oral care stuff morning and evening
  • Shhh! We’re growing bone. It’s like backfilling your gums, people

Things Left Undone

  • Work on new web graphic for St Nick’s website.
  • Update blog, ditto
  • Need pack away Christmas box and last of the ornaments
  • Need reorganize boxes in basement

Inspired by a Facebook
post by Gillian Horvath; list accomplishments daily. Some days, getting out of bed counts!

A Pleasant Good Night

The weird warm weather continues. I’m getting the idea that it might be better to plan for a cool weather biking and walking vacation in late January than count on a cross-country ski vacation. We’re thinking of going someplace in Michigan, but plans are vague yet. After a lazy Sunday afternoon (David did go for a bike ride) we went to his dad’s so David could sign the mat for a photo he’s having framed for Shel. It’s another in a series of landscape photos – kind of high end “my kid’s art on the fridge,” if you will. It’ll look very nice. Afterwards we went to dinner at one of Shel’s favorite places with another family friend. It’s one of Shel’s favorites because they have GREAT coupons.