Welp, my laptop died last night (Saturday) and by died I mean first either it wouldn’t boot or the display wasn’t working, I’m not sure which, and then it powered up, chugged for a little bit and spontaneously powered down, after which it refused to power up at all. Note that the battery should have had plenty of juice. I tried unplugging it and plugging it in a different outlet whereupon the plug threw sparks and the laptop still refuses to power up. Examining the back/bottom of the computer reveals a distinct lack of options for removing the battery without unscrewing the entire back/bottom panel. I don’t think the thing is designed to let the customer replace the battery.   

There’s an Apple store within a five minute walk from my mom’s place and I needed a new iPad anyway since my old one is running out of storage (also I left it at home when I came up to visit my mom), so I headed over there for a looksy. Honestly, I was considering getting a MacBook until I saw the price for one with the size of SSD I wanted. I’ll get a notebook PC when I get home. I did end up getting a Ninth Gen iPad and a keyboard because I refuse to deal with the pain in the butt value of using an on-screen keyboard even for a week and a half. *sigh* I’d hoped to be able to take my time with getting a new iPad and maybe even get a refurb, but noooo, I have to get a brand new one right NOW. Fortunately, the store did have last year’s model in stock, so I didn’t have to get the latest version.

Assuming Doug sticks around Minato long enough to make a "first shrine visit of the new year", he's probably going to visit the Hikawa shrine. Unless he goes out of his way to find the local version of Tarikihonganji, of course.

And what does one do during the first shrine visit of the new year? Besides "make an offering, clap your hands, add more cow shrine bell, and make a wish", that is. Why, one gets one's new year's fortune, of course.

But Doug doesn't get one of the usual fortunes.

Quoting from Wikipedia's page on these fortunes:

Quote:Other [good-to-bad fortune] sequences may include additional degrees such as "middle blessing" (中吉, chū-kichi), "great misfortune" (大凶, dai-kyō), or "blessing [and] misfortune still undetermined" (吉凶未分, kikkyō imada wakarazu, i.e. one's fortune could end up being either good or bad depending on one's actions).

Barely as dribble of data getting through, and lots of authentication problems... Doesn't seem to be anything between my chair and the street, at least as far as I can test, but once it becomes Verizon's problem I can't tell...

I'm starting dialysis tomorrow morning, first thing. As it's being handled on an emergency basis to start, I"m going to get the line in the artery for the short term. Once the fistula operation's healed, the line comes out and I switch to standard hemodialysis.

I'm really looking forward to doing this at this point. There's this constant feeling of "heaviness" in my limbs these days, I'm frequently nauseous, and have to fight to keep food down. Hopefully these things will start to become history as they put me through dialysis regularly.

Once I'm stable and on regular dialysis, I'll be on the list for transplant. As I've got the universal recipient blood type, I'm in a good position to get a kidney. Time will tell how long that takes. For now, I'm just going to focus on the next month or so.

In case no one else has noticed it, at some point in the last few days, the wiki's Recent Changes page has started throwing errors instead of displaying changes. I've submitted a Phabricator ticket for it, and if the one thing posted in it so far is any indication, it seems to be a side effect, somehow, of the page deletion problem from earlier in the week.

Canada's health system works well, when it's properly staffed and funded. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that it isn't currently properly staffed and funded.

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario calls in the Red Cross to fill positions

It fits, so I sits.


link

Previous thread is previous

Since it came up at this week's writers' chat, here's the start of a style guide for this project.

In no particular order:

• American spellings in multiple-writer stories
  
• Third-person viewpoint in multiple-writer stories
  

Released tomorrow, I've been playing through the Open Beta of this this last week and having a blast. You, and three friends (Or randomers from the internet) against a vast swarm of 'zombies', a little like Left 4 Dead but with fire, explosions, two-handed chainswords and fully-automatic rocket-prepelled grenade launches. 4 classes - from a Military Veteran, a Psyker, a Zealot preacher and a big friendly Ogryn - with some customiseability along the way.

Probably the best thing about it are the environments - from the ship you're based on, to the detailed realisations of the Hive City (of about 70-90 billion people constructed over 10-millenia plus as a layer cake of city upon city ) where your missions are based, it gives the 41st Millenium a depth of weight and feeling that's been missing. Take a moment to look around and realise how vast spaces are - and that that is a spaceship several kilometres long parked in the distance - or that you're still Technically Indoors, with a ceiling kilometres above. Or that you're having a full blown way in the cty's depths while far above, life carries on as normal....

The second best thing are the weapons - which range from the effective (The humble lasgun is no mere flashlight but makes mincemeat of anything unarmoured) to the outright brutal. Boltguns especially have an impact befiting the fluff - blasting hordes apart, or cutting people in half with a two-handed eviscerator chainsword.

There're the usual microtransactions for fancy outfits and the like, but I haven't had to dabble in them yet.

So far - I've been playing a Zealot Preacher with a crazy scottish accent. And 'Tiny' - the largest Ogryn possible in the game.