Social media post mortem

So I went through my Facebook and noticed a lot of stale. Like a lot. Various fan and meme pages that haven't posted anything in years, years I'm telling you. Pruned, unliked and unfollowed. It wasn't just liked pages, these dated back from when people became fans. I never thought I used social media to such an extent, but I suppose after fifteen years it adds up.

I looked it up. That really does seem like a long time.

But it wasn't the dead meme pages that caught my attention. It was the dead people. I suppose the number of people that I know that stopped living over that time frame isn't any higher than average, but as with the meme pages, it adds up.

What's the past-tense of doomscrolling?

Power corrupted

My desktop computer developed a strange, almost squeaking sound. A light squeal that would crop up every so often. Load up any particular program and it would squeal at me for a little bit, then stop. An intermittent noise that I never could pin down. 

I couldn't run some software because it would be non stop, and it would drive me crazy. Other applications wouldn't trigger it at all. I could find no pattern to this. High or low CPU usage, GPU, RAM use, it vexed me. Then about a week ago, the noise started again, but this time it didn't stop.

This didn't drive me as crazy as you might think: my office is in the basement, and I don't do much down there in the winter. It's cold down there.

I started looking at what components were replaced and when, checking the date stamps on this desktop of Theseus. I realized the power supply was a bit dated. And it was right at the limit for what I'd been running lately. Sticking my head into a computer case that's currently on isn't generally recommended, but it did the job. 

Replacing the power supply not only fixed it, but I realized just how acclimated I'd become to that noise. It was so subtle at first, so intermittent, it was easily ignored. My ears had become the frog in a pot. I didn't realize I had turned it on it was so quiet.

Snow timing

So it snowed last night and a fair bit today. It wasn't a lot of snow, but it was... well it was mostly ice. Then the wind kicked in. Took me awhile to clear my car off, then I started chopping the icy snow off the driveway. 

Then my arm told me to stop, the hard way.

The kids already had the day off school due to a federal holiday. What a waste of a snow day.

Zoom sucks

So, I'm no good at meetings. At all. I take in 100% of what I read, and 10% of what I hear. I could never attend parent-teacher conferences because while they were talking, nothing was sinking in. Any kind of meeting, I would sit down and immediately lose focus.

I try, really I do. But once it starts, I hear the first thing they say, maybe the second, then why is there a line in the wall like that? Some defect from installation, or was it damaged later? Maybe it's a deliberate style choice, I wonder if there are other lines in that same pattern in the-

You see where I'm coming from? Virtual meetings are the worst. There's even less of the people to try catching my attention.

Send me an email. I'll actually get all the information you're trying to convey.

The little furnace that wouldn't

Furnace went out on me last night. A kerosene heater and one electric space heater kept the place warm until a tech could come out this morning.

The problem was embarrassingly simple, and fixed in minutes. I could have done it myself, but my lack of knowledge on gas heaters was absolute. I know enough about electric and plumbing to tinker around, and mistakes were shocking and soggy, but gas? Nope. Not even gonna try. 

Honestly I just spent $200 to learn about flame sensors.