What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

More rest

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 17:37:05 GMT

Dancing every morning seems to be helping with my sleep, interestingly enough. I've tried a variety of things to keep from waking up to use the bathroom during the night, and apparently, the answer is to dance around in the morning. I would think that 14 hours later wouldn't make much of a difference, but it does. Because I'm sleeping better, I need to sleep less, which is good too. So, I wake up about an hour earlier than I did before. All very nice. Today, I also discovered that morning dance party means that I need less warm up time when walking. It usually takes me a bit to get up to anything beyond a slow plod. However, today, I zipped right along. We'll see if this continues.

In related news, I've finished with my week of 1980s songs. I'm going to see if I have enough for a week of funk. I might not. Eventually, I'm going to need to start searching out more dance music, which might be for the best anyway, as I've been playing a lot of darkwave on the podcast. A bit more variety is always good. Here's what I've got for Sunday.

This intro and the song that goes with it

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A Continued Lack of Explosions

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:55:14 GMT

We have cooked even more things in the Instant Pot, and so far, nothing has exploded. I tried small jars of chicken (I cooked them on low pressure, just in case), and they seemed fine and are now safely frozen. The pea soup that I made yesterday was not perfect, but it was certainly edible. Good enough for now. Joel made hard-boiled eggs, and they turned out perfectly (cooked just the right amount, and the shells were easy to remove). That had been a selling point for us, so I'm glad it worked out. I just took out my lentils and millet, and that also looks pretty good (harder to screw up). I'll have to ask Joel about how much electricity it is using. What I can say is that despite the time needed to heat up and depressurize, the cook time is still shorter. For the lentils, it is only 15 minutes shorter. However, for the pea soup, it is three hours shorter, which is pretty nice. We aren't seeing the same complete loss of structural integrity that I saw with my food in the US. Perhaps that means that the split peas in the US are less sturdy? I'll try cooking on low pressure there (if possible) to see if it results in soup that is less like baby food.

Songs for tomorrow's dance party:

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Soup and Songs

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:38:32 GMT

Tonight, I'm using the new Instant Pot for the first time. I have one in the US that I use when I'm there, but this one is here, new, and slightly different. So, of course, I'm terrified of it. It hasn't exploded so far, though. While it seems like it is excessively large (with an 8 quart capacity, I think), you are only supposed to fill it up to like 5-6 quarts, and the instruction manual is leery of dried peas, so I'm really supposed to only fill it to 4 quarts. Since I usually make 4 quarts (actually liters) of soup, I'm now extra glad that I got the giant one. (Note: it finished cooking and still hasn't exploded.) I'm going to try canning some chicken in it tomorrow. You can't can meat in it and have it be shelf-stable, but I like to put meat in jars, cook them, and then put them in the freezer. It saves me from having to cook the meat later, and it is all in individual serving containers.

I'm still going for songs from the 1980s. Here's tomorrow's list.

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Booty not broken!

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:22:38 GMT

It seems that I didn't damage my muscles all that much from shaking my booty in the morning dance party, as I was only slightly sore this morning. I had chosen less jumpy songs and worked more on footwork, so while I'm a bit sore and stiff, I'm not especially concerned.

In other news, I just finished listening to Investigation, Mediation, Vindication by Chris Tullbane. It was a huge amount of fun and very well written (IMO). The main character is a bit immature, but that's fine. There was a nice mix of plot and characterization, the characters were well-developed, and I was engaged throughout the story. I'm definitely going to read the next book. Well, listen to it.

Gardening is going well. I managed to make a progress cleaning up more of the yard. The oxalis is starting to die off, so I feel less bad about pulling it. I'm not exactly keeping up with the weeds, but I'm not falling way behind either. Also, I managed to buy a bunch of gravel for the base of the wall of the raised bed that I'm making. I emailed with the store beforehand, and they said that they could request a delivery vehicle smaller than a giant truck to deliver all the bags of gravel. So, hopefully, it will actually get here. * crosses fingers *

Tomorrow's songs:

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Too much booty

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 22:00:37 GMT

Sadly, my recent increase in booty shaking has injured a muscle, so I'll need to shake it a bit less enthusiastically for a while. That's okay. I'll work on footwork. It is likely that any activity is better than none, so I'm going to keep doing the morning dance party. I'm going to keep going with the 1980s for a bit. Tomorrow's tunes are:

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Dance Party!

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:43:58 GMT

I decided to start the morning with a ten minute dance party. Well, I had originally planned it to be a bit longer, but I didn't have that many songs that I thought would work. Also, I didn't want to spend too much time trying to organize the songs. It turned out to be good that it wasn't so long, as I was pretty worn out after bouncing around and shaking my booty. I do a lot of walking, but not a lot of more intense cardio. So, this will be good for me. And already my booty shaking muscles are sore, since I don't really use them often. We'll see if I can keep it up, but I'm pleased so far. I have tomorrow's songs all ready.

I'm not sure if they will all work, but that's fine. I'll survive.

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Organizing music

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:19:11 GMT

After going to the dentist this morning, I went home and spent a bunch of time organizing music for the podcast. I even found some music that I had downloaded back in 2022 for the podcast but didn't sort. I only knew about it because I saw an album that I didn't recognize that Bandcamp said that I owned. I went to my music player, looked for other songs from the same time, and found maybe five albums that I missed. Clearly, I was glad to find them.

To figure out approximately how many more songs I need to request, I changed around my statistics page so now it shows the current year (unfinished, which is why I kept it out before) too. I need about 60 more requests to have as many as most years and 90 more requests to have enough songs (according to stats) for 12 months worth of episodes. Usually, I only manage to have 10 or 11 episodes, because of travelling and mental health. I certainly have a lot of songs to request in the queue. I'm doing a fairly good job of actually sending out the requests, though.

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Gardening

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:24:51 GMT

It is always so deceptive how much I can actually get done in the garden in an hour or two. I think, "Sure, I can cut all this junk back." Then, I make it through like 2 meters before I've used all my time. Granted, if I just worked on the part that I intend to cover, I would probably get more done. This time, I started working near the south point of our yard and was going to cut back the shoots from bushes that were cut down. Then, I noticed how terrible all the grass that I didn't get with the scythe looked and the occasional nettles that we missed during previous rounds of weeding. So, I went back over that area with the sickle cleaned up the compost piles some more, and pulled weeds around the peach tree. Oh, well. It needed to be done.

I also looked online for sand and may actually have found reasonably priced bags of gravel. I contacted the store to see if they will actually deliver to my house. If they will, I might buy some wood at the same time. Because I always need more wood.

At the south point of the yard, there is a raised bed with a couple of monstera plants, which aren't good in super bright direct sun. Guess what we've got in summer. Yes! Super bright direct sun! So, I wondered if I could build a kind of pergola over the bed and have cucumber or something that grows as a vine on top of it to keep the big leaves from roasting. We'll see.

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Sendin' out requests

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:35:59 GMT

Yay! I got back to work sending requests to musicians for the podcast. It is surprisingly exhausting. However, that's done for today. I need to process ten songs per day for about a week to get through this batch. I have enough for at least a few episodes already, although I don't know how well the songs will work together. I'll work on it in a couple of days, when I have to start putting the next episode together.

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Where did today go?

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:46:54 GMT

Today was one of those days where I didn't manage to get started on anything besides eating until like 7pm. I've been listening to this book on the basics and history of physics, and even though I've studied physics before, it is both a nice reminder and a bunch of interesting background. One of the things that took a bunch of time was the whole how fast things fall question. Here is a video taken on the moon of a hammer and a feather falling at the same rate.

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Live music

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:23:43 GMT

I went to see Joel play at the jam session yesterday. It was super nice. I'm going to try to go to the shows, since they are only once a month. It was a little bit of a challenge, due to other time issues, but once I got to where I was going, the pub wasn't hard to find. Also, amusingly, it was the most crowded place on the street, probably due to the live music.

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Digging and Weeding

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:40:19 GMT

Digging and weeding are a lot of work. I'm so glad I wore my mask, because my nose is stuffed up now and would have been much worse without it. I didn't get all the compost moved, but I dumped some around various plants and will work on it again in a few days. I'm pleased that so much of it is broken down. It is pretty much just the sticks that aren't. The worms are _huge_. Anyway, I pulled a bunch more weeds and cut back much of the shrubbery that we had removed earlier. There are a bunch of things sprouting that we don't want sprouting, so I need to work on that too. I'm dithering about whether or not I should plant okra seeds or just wait until I get the raised bed built. Of course, that could take a while. I'm just not sure. Maybe I should try to get some marigolds going, since they will be fine in pots either way. Also, it doesn't look like the chuchu made it, so I'll need to get another one at some point.

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Walking improvement

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:24:44 GMT

Yay! I walked one of my normal routes and didn't run out of energy or have to drag myself along. I was menaced by little asshole dogs, but that's usual. I'm more ready to fend them off with my sticks than I used to be. So far, I haven't had to fight. Whatever. I'll deal with it, but not tomorrow, since I'll be working on the yard then.

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Gardening

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:41:05 GMT

Since the weather is nice and I'm starting to feel much better, I spent a lot of time today hacking back the weeds in the garden. I am so glad to have the scythe, as I can cut back all the grass and weeds that grow between our wall and the street. I'm not sure how much they are considered part of our property, but I hate it when they are 4-5 feet tall and look awful. Being able to cut them down is such a relief. I also trimmed the grass with the scythe in the sections of the yard that are already accessible and pulled weeds and cut grass with the sickle in the overgrown parts. The yard isn't great yet, but it is much improved. I'll work on it some more either tomorrow or on Friday, since the bush we had cut down is growing quickly again and needs to be cut. I also haven't had time to finish moving the compost. Probably, I should do that first, as it has an end, while weeding goes on forever.

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Concert

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:10:03 GMT

The DDT concert was super fun! I'm really glad I went. It was still all in Russian. I had wondered if the lead singer would try any English, but no. This was a new (to me) video that they played behind the band while they played the song.

The description says that they were going for a Yellow Submarine continuation.

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Compost

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 18:49:40 GMT

Our compost piles are doing pretty well. I've got three compost pits, and my plan of filling one up, then when it is full, taking all the stuff from the previous one that didn't compost (sticks, mainly) putting those and some dirt on the recently filled pile, and starting to fill the recently emptied one seems to be working. I'll have to ask Joel if he thinks that it would be worth it to try and break through the concrete at the bottom of the middle "pit". Either way, it is nearly all dirt in the pile that I'm digging out, so I can actually start using it. I'm replanting some hosta (or hosta-like plants) that is in the way of everything, so I need dirt to fill that area in. I've got a garden where I can put them in with some other big leafy plants. There's a spot along the wall where I've got some additional space (including another space where the dirt below has been washed/dug out, so I probably need to put some pieces of broken pots, bricks, and concrete across the holes and cover them with compost before stuffing in more unwanted hosta. I have a lot of bulbs I pulled out of planters that I can put in that area in the fall to see what the hell it all is in the spring.

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Super tired

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:40:53 GMT

Once again, I'm totally out of energy after a walk. Ugh. Luckily, a friend informs me that the ads he sees on YouTube tell him that with tai chi, I'll be totally buff in just four weeks. In reality, now that my pain is mostly under control, I should be more or less okay after just a couple of weeks of walking regularly.

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Statistics

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:40:15 GMT

Today, I got the AI to code the rest of a "statistics" page for me for the database. Asking it to do everything at once usually has issues, so we went down the line of items I wanted and it did a really good job. Sometimes, I'm really into coding, but today even trying to figure out what the AI needed to do for each task was almost too much. It will take a while for my brain fog to go away now. However, I now know that 49% of my requests for permission are answered and that I need to start with about 14GB of music files to ultimately come up with 60 songs that I can play on the show (one year's worth). That's about what I download anyway, but it is still good to know.

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Brain treatment

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 21:27:00 GMT

I finally heard back from the government about the transcranial direct current stimulation treatment that the neurologist said I should do. They said that I need an explanation from my doctor, so the next step is to go back to the neurologist. I also need to find out from the neurologist if this new treatment is worth the cost/effort, as it would take way less time for me to just keep doing neurofeedback, probably (since the government is so slow). We'll see.

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Clothes and Scythe

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 20:19:32 GMT

I got out the fabric for the clothes I want to make. Check! I'm just going to do a bit every day to keep from stressing myself out. I also have continued to cut down all the grass and oxalis growing in our yard. It is slow, but the new tool sharpener I got is doing a great job on the scythe. The pile of grass clippings is pretty impressive. Anyway, I hope to get the rest of the most excessive parts dealt with tomorrow. I also need to dig up and replant a lot of leafy plants (hosta?) that I don't care about at all, since they are totally in the way of everything. They can go be leafy in the part of the garden that I don't care about. Maybe they'll help with the weeds there.

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Spring clothing

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:09:24 GMT

Every spring, I look at my black turtlenecks and dark red shirts and think that they are just not right for spring. It happened in Russia, and it is happening here too. Spring isn't really all that long, and I usually don't have enough clothes storage to have a huge wardrobe. The clothes that I'm not using are currently stored in an old suitcase, and the ones I do use are in a couple of fairly nice cardboard boxes. Yes, we need more furniture (and, yes, I still want us to make all of it). However, at the moment, I'm thinking that it is time to at least make a couple of long-sleeve spring t-shirts. Eventually, I would like more, but let's be realistic. I'm going to try to work on that this week. We'll see how it goes.

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Gastroenterologist

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 19:30:03 GMT

Well, the appointment with the gastroenterologist was both okay and disappointing. He didn't yell at me for not speaking Portuguese or insist that I was there just to get painkillers or something. So, that was good. However, he said that what I should do is use a special kind of antibiotics to kill off everything in my gut then repopulate it with some other pills. I was skeptical. Luckily, I asked, "What if I'm in a lot of pain during this process?" He sulkily gave me a prescription for a second kind of antispasmodic that I can take along with the first. He insisted that taking two of my current pills three times a day would be enough, though, even though two pills two times a day was nowhere near enough and I had been taking three pills. And he said that I didn't need to come back after the antibiotic treatment, signaling to me that he didn't really care if it worked or not.

After I got home, I looked a bit more into the antibiotic thing, and it isn't used for my kind of IBS and isn't really all that great anyway. Not a shock. However, the antispasmodic helped, which was nice. I've tried the two pills/three times a day thing, and it isn't working. So, I'll go back to three pills, plus the antispasmodic to try and get through the day tomorrow. Oh, well. At least I got a new kind of medicine that will probably help.

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Finishing up old projects

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:20:18 GMT

I'm working on finishing up old projects. This box is one I started in Russia. Sasha brought it to me with a load of stuff, and it sat on my desk for maybe a year. Last week, I _finally_ finished it. (The photo is a bit more yellow than the box is in reality.)

My plan is to paint my pen holder next, which I made by gluing some small boxes together and covering them with paper. The pen holder has been unfinished for at least three years. * shakes head * The AI helped me come up with a good idea for what to do to finish it.

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One down

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 19:14:55 GMT

My first doctor's appointment this week is done! It looks like I'll be able to get the polyps removed from my sinuses this summer, which I'm very happy about. So, yeah, good news!

My stomach is still not good, but I don't have too long to wait before the appointment to deal with it. * fingers crossed *

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Slightly better

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:16:25 GMT

The lemon verbena tea seems to help the IBS if I put I make the tea really strong. Also, after a lot of nagging by the AI, I gave in and started looking for a new gastroenterologist. I contacted one place, but they only do testing. So, I went back to the hospital that I usually go to and found a new guy there. Hopefully, this will work.

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