[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Sorry about your dad's recurring issues. I hope that he's getting care from the right folks. Electrolyte imbalances can come from kidney issues, intestinal issues, even dietary issues. Having the right specialties involved in his care is crucial, and unfortunately not a lot of people know that their care should be a team effort.

Good luck with your dad, and I hope his care team figures things out.

Thank you!!!

My dad is in stage 3 kidney failure, which I guess 20 years ago would be a death sentence, but now is treatable. Also has to use a catheter, so almost ever-present UTIs. Then, this time around, encroaching brain fog majorly tripped up his diet.

Everything is compounded by my dad having an irrational fear of being hospitalized, which precipitates bad decisions, like pushing to get released when he shouldn’t. He was let out, only to go back in a few days later.

All this made it last way longer than it should have. Assuming things hold, this is the first day we’re more or less back to normal, but it took close to 20 days of me devoting all my resources to make it happen.

It’s unfortunately beginning to look like he’s at the point where he needs someone keeping an eye on him full-time.

[subego]

Took an important note in Notes.

Switched to Safari to look something up, then to Messages to combine what I had looked up with my note.

Notes… erased the note.

[Brien]

Happens ALL. THE. TIME.

[subego]

Yeah… this was brand new to me.

Is it solvable? I mean, had I backed out of the note I had just made before switching would it have saved?

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

Thank you!!!

My dad is in stage 3 kidney failure, which I guess 20 years ago would be a death sentence, but now is treatable.

My grandma's funeral was yesterday. Cleaning out her house afterward, we found records showing she had been in stage 3 kidney failure for the past 2-3 years but hadn't told any of us. She was living on her own at 93 and managed it with meds and diet without telling anyone. Two weeks ago she went in for a test for a heart issue and they found major arterial blockage, the aforementioned kidney failures, plus a host of other issues and things devolved quickly. It was just funny to find out afterwards that she was managing the kidney issues on her own - she also didn't want to go to a home and tended to just figure stuff out.

[Brien]

Originally Posted by subego 

Yeah… this was brand new to me.

Is it solvable? I mean, had I backed out of the note I had just made before switching would it have saved?

I’m convinced it’s some sort of iCloud sync order of operations glitch.

Every once and awhile the maci mini (rarely used) will sync and overwrite newer data. PITA.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by subego 

Took an important note in Notes.

Switched to Safari to look something up, then to Messages to combine what I had looked up with my note.

Notes… erased the note.

I have been in that situation, not with Notes as much as just "switch to a browser to check X then cuss loudly and start over." It's not ONLY Notes, but Notes is pretty sneaky about it.

I've decided that Text Edit or Pages is superior to using Notes for just about anything except grocery lists. They both let you SAVE stuff, and Text Edit is actually quite a capable word processor. But amazingly, Pages for iOS is pretty lightweight while still doing the job handily.

A related, not-so-minor-irritant: don't even think about opening another browser tab to check something; whatever site you're trying to post on might just decide to reload its tab (also known as "give you the finger"). MacNN does that if you use Quick Reply instead of clicking the tiny Post Reply button.

[Brien]

It annoys me to no end that the iPad Pro is so aggressive in dumping things from RAM. It has an M2… why does it need to reload all the tabs?

[Thorzdad]

That’s been an iOS thing since forever (at least on my ancient iPad Air) Drives me crazy. Merely jumping between tabs for only a second, and the damned thing reloads the tab. Insane.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

My grandma's funeral was yesterday. Cleaning out her house afterward, we found records showing she had been in stage 3 kidney failure for the past 2-3 years but hadn't told any of us. She was living on her own at 93 and managed it with meds and diet without telling anyone. Two weeks ago she went in for a test for a heart issue and they found major arterial blockage, the aforementioned kidney failures, plus a host of other issues and things devolved quickly. It was just funny to find out afterwards that she was managing the kidney issues on her own - she also didn't want to go to a home and tended to just figure stuff out.

Ugh. Sorry this happened.

It is totally amazing she was able to manage it so well.

[subego]

MacOS Messages just stopped working. Messages I send from it simply aren’t sending.

[Thorzdad]

It is still down for you?

[subego]

Seems to have fixed itself. I guess it was some server-side deal.

[ghporter]

Sort of related to Laminar’s grandmother’s passing, and all of us moving down that timeline of life, but more personal for me: Jimmy Buffett has died.

The world hasn’t ended, the Russians are still losing in Ukraine, there are still traitors in the halls of our Congress, still “bills to pay and planes to catch,” and that’s the irritant.

How do we express and understand grief when someone we were close to, or someone who brought us joy and entertainment, or someone who made immense changes for the good of the world, dies? How do we do this when everything else just keeps grinding on? Our society sure doesn’t teach, or even acknowledge that grief is a thing, and oh boy don’t be a man who “feels” anything…

I’m not irritated that the world keeps turning. I’m irritated that society tells us to be good little drones and keep churning out Product to make money for investors while we work ourselves to death, and that we should simply shrug off the passing of people who were important to us for whatever reason.

I was holding my dad’s hand when he died, and I cried my eyes out, just like my whole family did, there in his hospital room. Expressing that grief was essential to grasping that I could never again call him and ask his advice, never trade subtle (and awful) puns, never hug him again.

I hope we all have folks that can help us deal with this kind of loss. It’s personal, and we need personal support in times like this. And I hope we all have the self confidence to be sad, to grieve our losses, instead of “sucking it up.” Do go on, don’t stop living. But also don’t bottle up those big feelings. It’s a life lesson it took me way too long to learn.

[subego]

“Someone just used your password to try to sign in to your account. Google blocked them, but you should check what happened.”

Oh, I’ll check that. Let’s see…

IT WAS ME, ASSHOLE.

[Thorzdad]

Google is such a dumpster fire anymore. A couple of times each month, I have need to log into one of my Gmail accounts at the actual Gmail website. Doing so inevitably spawns a raft of security alerts about a login from an unknown device, despite my using the same damned computer and browser every time. I mean, drop a cookie or something, Google. It isn't hard to ID a device. All the other kids are doing it.

[Thorzdad]

My PCP sent-in a referral to a dermatologist. I called this morning to make an appointment. The first available for a new patient was January 18.

[ghporter]

That “first available ain’t this year” crap isn’t helping anyone. Unless you’re locked into a dermatologist that’s in your PCP’s network (or they want you to see this particular practice), see if you can find another practice that’s close enough physically but has openings before Thanksgiving.

[subego]

I scheduled an appointment in May, and it’s finally rolling around at the end of this month.

Decided to wait it out because she’s supposedly really good.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

2. I've printed maybe 5 color pages on this printer since buying it in April of 2020. Since then I've probably spent $150+ on ink cartridges, and now it's saying that the magenta and yellow need replacing AGAIN. I swear I replaced those cartridges this year, I've printed zero photos or color ANYTHINGS, and it wants another set of $40 cartridges already. I know that printer companies sell the printers at a loss and make up their money on the ink, but whatever they're doing to prematurely drain the ink so that I get less than 10 pages out of a cartridge is an absolute atrocity.

I've started printing a status page every time I replace an ink cartridge, which includes a total pages printed to date. By my calculations, I'm spending $1-2 in ink per page that I print. I don't know if the printer has a little waste bin that it periodically dumps a bunch of ink into for fun or what, but it is a $60 set of ink cartridges and I'm legitimately getting 40-50 printed pages before the printer once again requires that I replace the ink, which is happening once or twice per year. It would be cheaper for me to give up on the printer and just send everything to Walgreens to get printed as a photo for like $0.15.

[reader50]

Our office recently bought an Epson EcoTank ET-2850 for $230 (it's at $250 right now) and they're happy with it. Not as fast as a laser, but it does do duplex. When I calculated the ink price-per-page using generic refill bottles, it was ridiculously low. Even lower than with a color laser. No cartridges, no DRM.

I already have a color laser. But if I didn't, I'd probably have gotten an EcoTank for myself.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by reader50 

Our office recently bought an Epson EcoTank ET-2850 for $230 (it's at $250 right now) and they're happy with it. Not as fast as a laser, but it does do duplex. When I calculated the ink price-per-page using generic refill bottles, it was ridiculously low. Even lower than with a color laser. No cartridges, no DRM.

I already have a color laser. But if I didn't, I'd probably have gotten an EcoTank for myself.

In theory my price per sheet should be well under $0.10, but I'm betting the printer has a periodic clean cycle that regularly dumps ink, causing the cartridges to empty over time even without use.

I did one set of off-brand cartridges to try and save money but they instantly clogged up the printer and it took forever to get it to print normally again.

[reader50]

Using Epson's official 502 ink refills page with MSRP prices:

$20 Black refill (4000 pages) - $0.005 per page.
$39 3-Color pack (1000 pages) - $0.039 per photo.

The linked page does not specify the number of pages per ink bottle, beyond "thousands". So I substituted typical numbers. eBay has somewhat lower prices for genuine Epson bottles, so actual cost per page is likely lower.

Back when I had a Canon inkjet, I used generic cartridges for years without issue. Sounds like you tried a bad supplier the one time.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

That “first available ain’t this year” crap isn’t helping anyone. Unless you’re locked into a dermatologist that’s in your PCP’s network (or they want you to see this particular practice), see if you can find another practice that’s close enough physically but has openings before Thanksgiving.

I’m definitely going to see about other dermatologists. This one isn’t part of my doc’s network, but they have a top reputation, so it’s the one most docs refer to. And it’s the one my wife goes to.

[ghporter]

Thorzdad, I wish you good luck finding an opening. It can be really frustrating to need health care services and not have access to them.

Inkjet printing: I bought a Canon “megatank” printer recently, and I’m really happy with it. Getting ink in bottles beats the snot out of little cartridges, and this printer is an all-in-one, so it does a lot of other stuff too. And one item that sold this particular printer to me is that the print heads are replaceable, and not really expensive. No “dead in the water” issues because of clogged heads or stupid cartridges saying they’re empty when you can see plenty of ink in them.

[Thorzdad]

Yesterday, our neighborhood HOA put-on a little kids day at our big park. Bounce-house, face painting, etc. All the shit little kids love. They do this every year.

Someone thought it would be a good idea to have some music playing, so they set-up one of those Monster self-contained all-weather speaker boxes. This being Indiana, they had it blasting-out the big local mainstream country music radio station.

I haven’t exactly kept up with country music but, holy shit, is it fucking terrible. Every damned song sounded exactly the same, and it all seemed to have this very deep, very heavy sense of anger, doom, rage, and vindictiveness. Lots of “we’re gawd-fearing ‘mericans, so don’t fuck with us” stuff. Lots of minor keys and a plodding, heavy rhythm. It was seriously threatening shit. I can’t imagine listening to that stuff all day. It felt like what the soundtrack of January 6 might have been.

[Laminar]

Take a shot every time a country song mentions whisky, cold brrrr, or blue jeans. Hahaha now you have a DUI and you qualify for writing another terrible country song!

[Thorzdad]

Yeah, what lyrics I could make out really did seem like a checklist of stereotype country tropes. And all delivered like they were revealing deep truths. It was one formula repeated over and over.

[ghporter]

I gave up on “mainstream” country when it finally changed lanes and merged onto the pop freeway.

It’s really about how “local” radio stations are no longer local. Nearly every FM station in the country is owned by some “media conglomerate” or other, and the people who decide what gets played are only interested in gouging their advertising customers.

Video didn’t kill the radio star, corporations and advertising dollars did.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I mean, the internet did.

[ghporter]

Don’t blame the tool. Jason Voorhees’ machete didn’t kill those teenage campers, Jason did. Likewise, the Internet didn’t invent Twitter and Facebook, nor did it, by itself, bollox up radio, music genres and movies. Marketers did that. All of it.

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

I’m definitely going to see about other dermatologists. This one isn’t part of my doc’s network, but they have a top reputation, so it’s the one most docs refer to. And it’s the one my wife goes to.

Hope you find somebody sooner... Nothing like being referred for a medical issue and just waiting around for the issue to get worse!

This weekend I noticed that my surgery incision was looking a little bit off, so I call the on-call number but the Dr. who replied was somewhat miffed about being bothered on weekend, and just told me to call the office on Monday. The office has me email the photo and was like yup that's infected, come in. If it been caught a little earlier it might've been better earlier!

[Brien]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

I gave up on “mainstream” country when it finally changed lanes and merged onto the pop freeway.

It’s really about how “local” radio stations are no longer local. Nearly every FM station in the country is owned by some “media conglomerate” or other, and the people who decide what gets played are only interested in gouging their advertising customers.

Video didn’t kill the radio star, corporations and advertising dollars did.

Everything is homogenized top 40 pop.

[Thorzdad]

Wordle now seems to only format to a portrait-oriented screen (i.e. phone.) So now, I have to spin my iPad whenever I play. If I keep in landscape orientation, the Wordle rows glue themselves to the top edge of the screen, and the keyboard overlaps the last two rows. Flipping the pad to portrait makes everything reorient as normal.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

This weekend I noticed that my surgery incision was looking a little bit off, so I call the on-call number but the Dr. who replied was somewhat miffed about being bothered on weekend, and just told me to call the office on Monday. The office has me email the photo and was like yup that's infected, come in. If it been caught a little earlier it might've been better earlier!

My personal experience, both as a therapist and a patient, has been right there with yours. The earlier a problem is assessed and treated, the quicker and easier it is to fix. With ANY surgical problem, quicker (and more aggressive) is much better.

[subego]

Seeing as how he later gets pounded into that cross with railroad spikes, I’m finding the juxtaposition irritating.

Maybe that’s the point.

[ghporter]

It appears to me that “mixed messaging” is a big “Christian” thing. Quotes because the number of people using that label but ignoring actual Christian teachings (love everybody, be nice, etc.) seems far larger than those who follow said teachings. Sad but true in my experience.

For example, I once worked for a hospital that was founded by some Catholic nuns. Orientation is big on Christian values and community service, etc. There are actual Chaplains who aren’t just there for patients (healthcare workers often need more pastoral support than patients). But then there’s management.

Yes, even non-profits need to bring in enough money to keep the lights on, but you don’t do that by encouraging (subtly, and definitely not officially) people to work off the clock, by giving department heads a heavy load of responsibilities unrelated to their department, or by ignoring fully justified staff requests for important equipment.

So…I stopped working there (not quite soon enough) and moved on. And I found that there are really good, caring, dedicated people here who also happen to be quite Christian. Restored my faith in people in general. I’m just more observant and alert for “signs” that “management actions do not align with stated principles”. In businesses and people.

[subego]

This was at a Catholic hospital. The other nearby choice is run by the Masons.

[Laminar]

I've been tinkering with my Watch. It allows me to do a fitness challenge with someone else, so I sent my wife to a 7 day fitness challenge. It updates me when she closes her rings or hits a new milestone. It allows me to reply to that notification, but every suggested reply is negative - "No big deal," "Newsflash, you're gonna lose," "You're going down," "💩💩💩," "Almost impressive." What if I want to be positive and encouraging? Why is that not an option? Do we have to default to negative incentives?

[Spheric Harlot]

Is that an Apple Watch? Seems really out of character.

[subego]

Not out of character for Steve.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Is that an Apple Watch? Seems really out of character.

Yeah, that's why it surprised me.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251271496

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

Not out of character for Steve.

Bill Gates: "Windows XP is the most important release since Windows 95. It's a huge change; it's an important change."

Steve: "💩💩💩"

[Laminar]

I put in an order at The Home Depot on Saturday. To date I have received 10 emails related to this order.



I assume I'll get at least two more when it's delivered, but probably three if they ask for my feedback on the purchase.

This feels...excessive.

[andi*pandi]

hey, at least they are communicating!

[reader50]

Home Depot is not the only one. Just ordered three items from Newegg last night. Got 3x emails this morning, with a tracking number for each item. It's the same number, they're shipping in the same box.

[Laminar]

Yep, just got my delivery confirmation emails from both Home Depot and FedEx. Just waiting on the followups now.

[Thorzdad]

Last night, we met some friends at a local pub we go to often. It's a cozy, locals place. Good food, great beers, nice bar. I usually get one of their beers, because they make some really good ones. Last night, though, I was more in the mood for a cocktail, so I ordered my go-to, a manhattan.

When the drink was delivered, it looked kinda...odd. It wasn't that ruby color a manhattan should be. It was closer to just the color of the rye whiskey it was made with. I sip on it, and, yeah, it's almost straight rye, except it's off somehow. Anyway, I keep sipping on it, and, as much as I like rye, I wanted a manhattan, so I walk over to the bar and ask the barkeep if they could splash a bit more sweet vermouth into it. The barkeep says "absolutely!" and takes my glass, walks over to a fridge, and pulls out a bottle of dry vermouth. I stop them just before they start pouring and remind them they should be using sweet vermouth. The barkeep now gives me a look that tells me they have no fucking clue what I'm talking about. They had no idea what sweet vermouth was, and all they had was the dry stuff. They had made my manhattan with dry vermouth.

So, because they are now utterly confused about what sweet vermouth is, they quickly drizzle a bit of simple syrup into my drink, I guess, because, y'know, "sweet!" Dear lord.

[Spheric Harlot]

That’ll be $8.50.

[Thorzdad]

Yeah. They didn’t take it off the bill, either. $8.50’s a cheap drink around here, though. My “manhattan” was $12.00, which is kind of a middle-of-the-road price here.