Mostly lemon based

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  • In addition

    So yesterday, whilst I was dinking with the media server I found the missing rips! Because I’d not known which disks were missing (I could have fished out the CD Boxes and worked out which disk I’d got up to then worked backwards to find them, I suppose, but that’s a bit much like effort) I’d not had anything specific to look for.

    It turns out that I’d created (at least) two separate FLAC folders, one which is where I thought it should be, and another which is in the ‘dump files for the server’ here folder (which to tie in with the Mac is called ‘DropBox’). I think that dates back to a time when I had so many problems with read/write access on the server from MacOS that I just created one folder that I could fight with rather than many.

    Despite being half asleep I worked my way through putting cover art in the ones that were missing it, I then spent an enjoyable chunk of time merging the folders making sure that there were no duplicates. I now have a ‘clean rips’ folder and a ‘digital downloads’ folder that actually make sense. Of course, the old ‘MP3’ folder’s a flipping disaster area and still contains a lot of digital downloads from the pre-FLAC era.

    However, the repaired Squeezebox has been providing good service, and I looked forward today to tapping ‘New Music’ and getting lots of shiny new music (well, old music) to listen to. But for reasons that are completely inexplicable to me, Logitech Media Server’s still stuck showing some of the stuff from Christmas as ‘New Music’, and nothing since then. Given the disaster that happened last time I asked it to refresh its database I’m slightly reluctant to force an update – and given that if I ever successfully get a 4TB drive I’ll be moving the whole lot onto a shiny media server (Plex + Logitech Media Server) – I’m prepared to wait. But it is weird, they show up complete with artwork if I navigate to the directory, through the LMS interface, but it seems to just not want to scan any of the new music.

    Ah well.

    IMG_20141228_185247

    Hopefully, some of these foibles might disappear when I’ve got a somewhat more powerful server. I realised today that there seems to be an actual performance hit on the server when its streaming music to the squeezebox…which is surprising. Since it can run on a RPi. But hey, the media server’s not exactly high spec.

  • More gradual progress

    Happily, I’ve continued painting my way around the corridor. After, essentially, 8 years of continuously decorating I must admit I’m feeling a little less enamoured with the process; although oddly, that hasn’t stopped me wanting to build a house when we get to the States.

    Anyhow, moderate lack of enthusiasm notwithstanding, I am strongly aware that we can’t sell the house until we finish decorating. So I’m plodding along, and actually it’s starting to make me feel more positive again. It’s one of those ‘small things are more noticeable than you perhaps at first think’ things.

    That and I spent a little time looking at the photo album, looking at where we started and the progress we’ve made. That made me feel quite a lot better about progress. Sadly, I don’t have any shots (that I can see) of the delightful ‘faux wood’ vinyl wallpaper that was on the space under the stairs (some of it’s still hidden under the hardboard, I think), but there’s a shot of the stairs with their fuzzy fluffy carpet…

    IMG_0428

    I mean, they’re not a patch on the stairs at our old house, but they were certainly a little dated.

    Of course, our new colour scheme occasionally makes me worry that we’re producing ‘house of the 1980s’ but, I’m still rather fond of it.

    Anyhow, I applied the final coat of the feature colour on the stair rail, although there’re plenty of other areas that still need more:

    IMG_20150120_105955

    And, in an attempt to progress further I spent a lot of time applying go faster stripes to the corridor:

    IMG_20150123_150821

    Then threw the first coat of paint onto that trim, and also attacked the kitchen door frame (which was in appalling condition having clearly been through several variations of which direction the door opened. The the original door had been replaced in the 60s(?) and I think they changed the direction it opened, because it’s the only frame in the house that had lost its lamb’s tongue trim. When the builders pulled the trim off with the door (because we were switching the door for the dining room door and having it open the other way) it took off paint, and there were quite a few dings in the frame from their ‘careful’ removal of the trim.

    So when I threw the (salvaged) lamb’s tongue trim on I knew it would take a fair bit of filler and tidying. I’d thrown (quite a lot of) filler on the frame, but never sanded it. Today I set to on the sanding, although only the filler’d bits, not the trim that’s in better condition. I also only did the side that’s going to be deep, deep red (the colour we’re using in the hall is called ‘Kimono’), and I also took the time to run a bead of caulk around the frame where the trim meets the frame. I’ve not started on the ‘kitchen’ side, but that I’m counting as part of the kitchen trim, rather than part of the hall trim. Still, the whole thing’s looking a hell of a lot more respectable, so I’m hoping that with a bit of liquid sanding that’ll be ready for me to progress. Over the next couple of weeks I’m hoping to finish the red on the trim, joining up with where I’d painted before downstairs and upstairs painting the high-up section that I’ve agreed not to paint until Kathryn’s home. At any rate, the hall seems to be coming together somewhat.

    IMG_20150123_164444

    I also got the mortgage statement today, which puts us about where I thought we were in terms of paid off; I’m really tempted to get an estate agent around and say ‘look, we’re going to finish these bits, how much do you think it’s worth?’.

    But that’s a little scary. Because then we get to do actual sums about how much money we’re going to have when we land in USAland, rather than our current finger in the air waffling.

  • tcfkag:

    Girls don’t want boys, girls want Agent Carter to get six full seasons and a movie,

  • Jan. 21 7:14 pm

    justice4mikebrown:

  • This place is not a place of honor.
    No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
    Nothing valued is here.
    This place is a message and part of a system of messages.
    Pay attention to it!
    Sending this message was important to us.
    We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

    What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.
    The danger is in a particular location. It increases toward a center. The center of danger is here, of a particular size and shape, and below us.
    The danger is still present in your time as it was in ours.
    The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
    The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.
    The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically.
    This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

    intended message of the warning marker design project at long-term nuclear waste disposal facilities at Yucca Mountain and WIPP, meant to discourage future generations from disturbing the sites for up to ten thousand years. (via starfoozle)

    OK, since several people I follow have reblogged this extraordinary passage (hello, morethanslightly, emilyenrose, and septembriseur), I can’t help adding that the report this comes from was actually one of two reports commissioned by the Department of Energy on this topic. The other was the product of an earlier interdisciplinary team called the Human Interference Task Force, which included the likes of linguist Thomas Sebeok and science fiction author Stanislaw Lem.

    Among the suggestions made by the Human Interference Task Force made: an “atomic priesthood”, an elected council who would pass the information about the nuclear site through ritual and myth, and “ray cats”, genetically engineered cats that would change color in the presence of nuclear radiation and whose significance would be relayed through oral tradition like fairy tales and songs.

    If you’re interested, you can read both reports in full: “Reducing the Likelihood of Future Human Activities that Could Affect Geologic High-Level Waste Repositories” (1984) and “Expert Judgment on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant” (1993).

    (via likecastle)

    99% Invisible did a fantastic episode about this: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ten-thousand-years/

    (99% Invisible is ace, incidentally)

  • tearyphoenix:

    seleyin:

    more than that : if you see a girl being harassed, she won’t always have that reflex. So YOU go and tell her : “Hiiii (insert random name here) I didn’t see you ! what are you doing here ? So glad to see you, come sit with me”. I promise you the girl won’t think twice before going with you.

    I was with friends in a late night tramway once, everyone was drunk and tired, and there was a girl all alone in the seat facing ours. She minded her own business, finishing the sauce of an empty french fries carton. Two drunk guys show up and sit on each side of her, telling her that she shouldn’t eat that, that she will get fat, that it would be a shame to let such a pretty body go fat, and a various number of disgusting things. So I said “hey Julie, why are you letting those douchebags annoy you, come back, sit with us.” She looked at me and immediately changed sides to sit with us. The guys were surprised, saying “she’s your friend ?!” and I just replied “yes, and you’re annoying her right now.” I stayed with her until she got out of the tramway safe.

    When you’re being harassed it’s sometimes very hard to think straight and find a quick way to react, so I encourage everybody to do this if you see another woman being harassed. Pretend you know her, and that she’s your friend. Let her know you’re here to side with her and protect her. Help girls be safe.

    perfect

  • Nervous Energy

    So, we sat down yesterday and toyed with citizenship and immigration forms. It didn’t exactly go smoothly, and ended up with us just largely throwing our hands up and going ‘uh, we can’t until X, Y and Z have happened’. Which was frustrating.

    A requires B which requires C which requires D to have happened.

    D, in this case, being our Marriage, which happens later this month. Not that we’re not married now. No, we are have been married for quite a while now. Or we will have are married. Or something. Because we retrospectively get married when we sign a piece of paper. So although we’re not married now, when we sign that piece of paper, and you’re reading this in a month, we are married. And were all along.

    Clear?

    Anyhow, when that happens it gets a lot easier for Kathryn to change her last name.

    …

    Which means she needs to let the US Social Security people know.

    Which it seems wise to do before we go asking if I can come live in the USA please, thanks.

    Of course, this leaves me feeling quite…fluttery. As long as there’s something to /do/ I can kind of ignore the nervous fidgety feeling of moving country. Whilst I could go for ‘I’m going to do some NCLEX prep’ at the moment I’m going for ‘doing the house’.

    Hence:

    IMG_20150119_144745

    Sanded, masked and as of now a first coat of paint.

    I’m (not) particularly looking forward to doing the spindles, which are meant to be white. There’s going to be a lot of masking stuff off before that happens. And the trim on the side of the stairs needs to be sealed/sanded/painted. So that’ll be fun to do.

    Oddly though, normally this’d leave me feeling fairly positive. I mean, this morning I’d done none of the stairs for months and I’ve ended the day with the feature colour on the handrail painted (granted only the first coat) and ready to set to on doing the rest, but it’s kind of anticlimactic. The problem is I have this screaming urge to move. To do it now. To just sell up and go.

    We are still looking at Port Townsend where there currently appear to be approximately no nursing jobs (currently the hospital is advertising for one per-diem (which I think is the equivalent of a ‘Zero Hours Contract’ in the UK) RN and a Surgical RN). I’ve signed up for job alerts from that hospital… but obviously, I’m not actually a Registered Nurse in the US yet; nor are we in any position to move.

    Which is all terribly frustrating.

  • The best bit of a day off is a decent latte… on Flickr.

    The best bit of a day off is a decent latte…

  • radnipple:

    why aren’t people talking about this anymore, its not over.

    radnipple:

    why aren’t people talking about this anymore, its not over.

    radnipple:

    why aren’t people talking about this anymore, its not over.

  • Coffee/cake on Flickr.

    Coffee/cake