John BS @johnabs@qoto.org

So I got a lathe, and I made this! (not the wood part, but I'm working on it) It's a Paua Abalone shell inlay into a size 10 wooden ring blank. Polished up to 12000 grit, and while the images don't exactly catch the opalescence, I'm very proud of my first attempt

I replaced 4 (non functional and super annoying) ceiling fans this week and set them up with home assistant and smart z-wave switches so I can monitor their state and help control them from our phones without all the data harvesting.

I absolutely LOVE this improvement and the automations, and it makes wiring 3-way switches a breeze, since you don't need the common wire anymore! And even if the network goes down for whatever reason, I can still use the switches as normal.

Now if I could only find a thermostat with z-wave capabilities so I don't have to use any google products...that would be sick.

So Windows decided to "update" when I was in the middle of a 20hr simulation....Whoever decided this can happen without your consent needs to be drawn and quartered.

I'm not a great artist, so someone else will have to draw them, but I can go to the bank and get 100$ in quarters.

Does anyone else get annoyed when people refer to atomically thick monolayers as "2-D". Clearly these materials have a non-zero thickness; who decided this was a good idea and why?!

My dog is finally settling in, and isn't unmanageable anymore!
Our lawn is finally mowed!
Our house is mostly clean!
My courses are almost finished!
Manuscripts are coming along and they look super promising!
I am finally about to take a 3 week vacation!!!
I JUST NEED THIS SEMESTER TO END ALREADY SO I CAN FINALLY CHILL

P.S.
Speaking of, here be the pooch. Look upon her dreaming visage and despair, for she is beautiful.

Not sure but it appears as though I've got some stressed induced balding occurring...I just hope it goes back to normal after the stress goes down, or I may need to shave my head.😢

I didn't realize how bad it was until I saw a comparison between last month and this month that I just so happened to have from recordings of my dog. This semester has just been hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F9gzQz1Pms

So I've been considering building a distributed, open-access, peer reviewed journal. Anyone interested in helping out?

So windows 11 is garbage, but I'm stuck using it (for the moment) until I know I can reliably play games (Elden Ring etc.) on my new rig with linux.

It's sad when my Thinkpad T420 with arch Linux can run circles around my beefy new desktop when it comes to web-based stuff solely because windows is so bad. I legitimately cannot believe it is the default OS on so many machines and produced by a multi-billion dollar company. It's pathetic, and the devs/company should be ashamed of themselves.

I heavily suggest giving this a read, and I'd love to hear anyone's take on it. I think this article is pretty much on point, and that worries me greatly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

Can anyone explain to me why I cannot bike through a drive through to get my food? No wonder this country is so morbidly obese: we actively penalize people for trying to accomplish basic tasks in a way that doesn't guzzle gas like a frat party guzzles kegs. This is ridiculous.

"I am silent, save the soft clack of my keyboard. I ponder deeply over the current quandary; progress has been slow of late, and late it is indeed.

Drip, rumble: the sounds of rain outside my window softly caress the ragged corners of my mind with the temptation of a dark, warm shower to cut off the assault on my senses. I know even in my damp solitude I cannot escape my yoke, for my mind continues to pull it.

Piano notes flit gently like moths drawn to my ears. They hit their targets with unexpected force, each chord jolting my fraying psyche into focus anew, if only for a brief moment. I continue working as I have done all day: beyond my limit.

Thoughts of sleep haunt me, the desire for true repose I don't believe will come; only a poor facsimile which provides barely enough to complete another day.

'Why?'

The question echoes in my mind. After hours of staring at a blinking cursor, and countless error messages, I fail to steel myself into action. I am finally still.

After what seems like both an instant and eternity, I decide rest may prove more fruitful, and head to sleep. Before my drift into that all too temporary bliss, I pray I will finally awaken with renewed vitality."

--My life right now 😩 😭

I just realized, this May will mark the 10 year anniversary of me starting my career as a researcher, and will be 10 years since my trip to Taiwan to work on my first research project.

I've learned a lot since then, but I still love what I do.

Y'all ever heard of Zulip? I just saw it on hackernews and I think I'm going to recommend it to my advisor that we use for our research group, especially since it's free for researchers! Sometimes it pays to get paid way less than what you could generate in the free market 😂

https://zulip.com/case-studies/lean/

As someone with a moderate fear of heights, Elden Ring is seriously making me anxious XD

@Pat @zpartacoos @namark

Thanks for your advice everyone! My wife and I finally got a bit of a break to regroup and think out a new strategy we'll be trying once our puppy gets back from our in-laws this weekend. She's having a blast with their 5 kids, and we think something that really excites her and tires her out is meeting new people, which we'll try to incorporate into her routine!

She already learned fetch which helps with her activity needs, and after spending some time with their boys she was just tuckered out. Worst case scenario, she seems like a great fit for their family, since they have so many hands on deck to keep her occupied, but we're going to do our best to provide an awesome home for this dog and play it by ear with my in-laws too!

So I won a teaching award from my university, and I'm really happy about it. I always tried really hard in my previous program to teach well, but rarely got recognition aside from my students. I'm so glad my efforts were noticed and even awarded this time. It's a huge boost, and I'm super grateful 😁

I am in the unfortunate position of needing to consider rehoming my puppy if nothing else works, and I'm hoping something will, because I'll be heartbroken if I have to give her up.

She is eating up every moment of my time with severe (what seems to be) separation anxiety which means I've barely gotten any work done at all. I'm exhausted, and so is my wife, who already has attentional issues, and the lack of sleep has just made functioning at all with such a demanding pup so much harder.

We're at the end of our rope here, and as much as I absolutely adore this dog, I'm not sure my wife and I can provide what she needs, whatever it is. If anyone else here has struggled with something similar and has advice, please let me know. We're desperate.

So my puppy loves Debussy and other classical music and saxophone jazz. She calms right down and just falls asleep in my lap with it on! You know what they say: "like daddy like daughter" XD

Oh! One more thing, for those of you with insomnia, sensory issues to noise while sleeping (or a tired puppy who can't ignore sounds yet) I HEAVILY recommend brownian noise + human heartbeat noises. I'm not sure whatever coma I arose from this morning, but I haven't slept better in bloody ages.

There's a free app on FDroid that provides this, called Noice.