Two years and counting...

Parivirvana

One of my crew of doctors informs me that my liver is essentially shot (Meld 15), and my odds of living five more years is roughly 10%.  More likely, I've got two years left with an outside chance of croaking this year.  If that score hits 40, I have three months.

That kind of information gives one cause to pause and rethink one's options.  I've elected not to receive a liver transplant, for example.  And I've already had one NASH-related episode of mental confusion (hepatic encephalopathy).  An unexpected turn of events.  What, no aneurysm?  No stroke or heart attack?  No car crash?  Strange!

Oh well.  My other complications mitigate against wasting somebody's perfectly good (by comparison) liver on yours truly.

I meditate on these things. "When it's hot, I sweat.  When it's cold, I shiver."

Absurd "features" about Mac OS X Lion

If you set up your Mac for several users on the same Mac, and you're using Mac OS X Lion, you have a puzzle.  To wit, how to copy your Form 1040A from your side to their side, so everybody has a copy.  Not AirDrop, or another Mac.  What you have to do is set Finder Preferences... so everybody shows up.  That's a gotcha, because the feature is hiding.

Good luck!

Consolations of Philosophology

Milton

Ok, there are two ways to learn from another scholar, either coolly and dispassionately, or else head first in full immersion. The latter approach is learning by heart; the former learning by humor.

I think the first rule of scholarship is to recognize that learning from somebody else's book is self abrogation; unless one can raise a Spocklike eyebrow no learning occurs and no reference to the Real has transpired, not even when that reality is a mere hell imagined by clever poets. Dante. Milton. Fun minds who entertain. Or Einstein, unapproachable without years of frozen meditation and no fun at all without epiphany.

Whatever.  The truth is, I'm searching for a good recipe for lentil soup.  The rest is inconsequential.

SQLite Manager is back in my good graces

SQLite Manager 0.7.7 is a Firefox add-on that I used to use extensively, mainly because it's free and because it handles a great deal of personal information I really don't want to try maintaining with sqlite3, the CLI.

I couldn't use SM on Ubuntu for years because of some obscure bug or other. Very nice to see my data back on Mac OS X Lion.

Star Ocean Second Evolution (PSP)

Lots of replay value in this very retro-seeming game.  I finally remembered how to find the idol that sits on the altar in the Field of Courage, where it summons yet another Guardian.  On the lookout now for the Symbological Weapons Laboratory...

Update 2-9-12  I accidentally beat Gabriel (and recruited Noel, but missed Chisato and Opera Vector), so I never got back to Virtual Expel or the Maze of Tribulations.  A bit premature there...

Unhappy with TurboTax

I paid $30 at Best Buy for my copy of TurboTax.  They then dinged me another $30 for the Iowa state taxes download version.  I efiled my return(s) -- federal and Iowa -- and they billed me yet again, for a third party to collect charges for efiling -- an amount deducted from my refund!

Good lord, federal  efiling is supposed to be free.  I don't know why I had to pay the third party "fee" but it will  never happen again.

TurboTax is a sharp practice artiste.  I do not, can not, and will not recommend them to anybody.

Browncoats

The novel cover shown is pure fiction, but a lot of us would sure like to read it!  (It's at deviant art somewhere.  Personally, I think the tv series was tons lighter than the heavy-handed movie, Serenity.  I'd be happy with pulp fiction, or well written fan fic if naught else.