Is 2022 a good year?

[Julian Macassey]

Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.

Why wasn't I told?

[Michel]

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.

It's been better than the preceding two, anyway.

This is obviously not saying much.

[John Dow]

Post by Michel

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.

It's been better than the preceding two, anyway.
This is obviously not saying much.

Oh I dunno. It's been pretty grim here :)

[The Horny Goat]

Post by John Dow

Post by Michel

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.

It's been better than the preceding two, anyway.
This is obviously not saying much.

Oh I dunno. It's been pretty grim here :)

Not a great deal for me either having lost my wife in March.

[Lee Ann Goldstein]

Post by The Horny Goat
Not a great deal for me either having lost my wife in March.

Damn. Sorry to hear that.

[David Gersic]

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

Good? No. Interesting, yes. Better than some, not as good as others.

2023 is looking very promising though.

[Gary Barnes]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2022 04:56:55 -0000 (UTC), David Gersic
<***@zaccaria-pinball.com> wrote:
: On Mon, 7 Nov 2022 10:31:03 -0000 (UTC), Julian Macassey <***@n6are.com> wrote:
: > Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
: > that all is well in the monastery.
: >
: > Why wasn't I told?
:
: Good? No. Interesting, yes. Better than some, not as good as others.
:
: 2023 is looking very promising though.

Well, it'd have to go downhill a lot to be worse than the last few years.

The day after tomorrow I'll get my fourth Covid jab, with a side helping of
flu jab to go with it.

Gaz

[The Horny Goat]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2022 04:56:55 -0000 (UTC), David Gersic

Post by David Gersic

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

Good? No. Interesting, yes. Better than some, not as good as others.
2023 is looking very promising though.

Let's face it it is easy to improve on 2020 and 2021 though 2022 got
off to a bad start for me with the death in early March of SWMBO.

While it hasn't been horrible the second half of the year that's kind
of like "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln how did you enjoy the play?"

[ptomblin+ (Paul Tomblin)]

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

I retired, and immediately (ok, it was ramping up the previous year) developed
a pain in a very specific part of my hip joint that has so far baffled 3
orthopedists, 1 neurologist, a pain clinic, 2 physical therapists, a
psychiatrist and a mental therapist. Nothing shows up on an MRI except one of
my discs has almost completely collapse but everybody says that's no related,
and so far none of the pain medicine actually touches the pain. Although the
Duloxitene I was taking for pain has stopped me for spending half the night
googling how to pay what I need to commit suicide.

It leaves me completely unable to do all the things I'd planned to do in
retirement, like paddle my kayak, travel for more than 30 minutes or so in a
car, sit in a normal seat for any length of time, fly economy. Oh, and the
various pain medicines have made me sleepy all the time and kind of dozy, so
the programming projects I planned to take on after retirement are out the
window, even if i could sit in a chair.

Life sucks, but at least I've made a pact with myself not to commit suicide
until 2024 at the earliest, so I've got that going for me.

[David Gersic]

Post by ptomblin+ (Paul Tomblin)

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

I retired, and immediately (ok, it was ramping up the previous year) developed
a pain in a very specific part of my hip joint that has so far baffled 3
orthopedists, 1 neurologist, a pain clinic, 2 physical therapists, a
psychiatrist and a mental therapist. Nothing shows up on an MRI except one of
my discs has almost completely collapse but everybody says that's no related,

A few years ago, I had something similar. Eventually diagosed as "sciatica".

Not the usual "back pain" kind, mine hurt from hip to toes, and was getting
worse to the point where I could not sit down at all. Working from home, I
ended up having to work in the kitchen, that was the only place with a counter
the right height for the laptop to sit on.

Some PT and a whole lot of stretching and exercise eventually helped. As did
walking, lots of walking. 10 miles or more per day, every day.

Post by ptomblin+ (Paul Tomblin)
and so far none of the pain medicine actually touches the pain. Although the
Duloxitene I was taking for pain has stopped me for spending half the night
googling how to pay what I need to commit suicide.

I was serioulsy over dosing on naproxyn to get through, to the point where my
regular doctor was getting worried. It was the only thing that allowed me to
function now, so I told her I'd deal with any potential damage from too much
later.

Post by ptomblin+ (Paul Tomblin)
It leaves me completely unable to do all the things I'd planned to do in
retirement, like paddle my kayak, travel for more than 30 minutes or so in a
car, sit in a normal seat for any length of time, fly economy. Oh, and the

That seriously sucks. I hope you find a cause, something that helps.

[The Horny Goat]

On Fri, 18 Nov 2022 01:11:51 -0000 (UTC), David Gersic

Post by David Gersic

Post by ptomblin+ (Paul Tomblin)
It leaves me completely unable to do all the things I'd planned to do in
retirement, like paddle my kayak, travel for more than 30 minutes or so in a
car, sit in a normal seat for any length of time, fly economy. Oh, and the

That seriously sucks. I hope you find a cause, something that helps.

+1 to that!

This was the year of my retirement and it hasn't turned out at all as
expected. Financially I'm fine but didn't cash out my shares in our
partnership nearly as lucratively as expected. (COVID had a lot to do
with that since our 2020-21 results were well below expectations) but
we're fine though suddenly finding you're doing retirement alone
rather than with your lady has put a crimp on things. (All symptoms
were cardiac - so says our family doctor - but because the coroner's
office did a post mortem COVID test - without asking for permission -
and she tested positive she's in the statistics as a COVID death)

[Though screw Apple Computer for giving me problems transferring her
iPad to me in a way that enables me to actually use it! (My problem is
I haven't got the original proof of purchase since it was a birthday
present and she's not in a position to tell me where it was left)
Since retiring I haven't carried a cellular - that's for the
convenience of other people wanting to contact me not vice versa and
I've got a pretty skookum connection]

[Pepinno The Great]

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

Nothing destroys happiness like the act of communicating it. For happiness
is subtle and free-form, and verbing chisels it to stone, which kills it.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Pepinno The Great

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

Nothing destroys happiness like the act of communicating it. For happiness
is subtle and free-form, and verbing chisels it to stone, which kills it.

It would be wonderful if the reverse were true - I retired this year
but was in the midst of negotiations on terms when SWMBO passed
suddenly so "retirement" hasn't been at all what I expected.

I was expecting to travel and things like that and while financially
things are fine I'm still working hard to deal with my new reality
since while SWMBO was often a right PITA (pain in the ...) she was a
lot more than that.

9 months ago it was "all the places we would go" now the big event of
December has been "your stone is ready and mounted".

2023 will be the year my only grandchild learns to walk so that at
least should be good.

[m***@att.net]

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.

I got a new video card for Yule. It is from a company that is not named
Basic Macro Apparati. It claims to work with penguins. I put it in my
penguin and it reliably runs like stink for about two minutes, until the
driver crashes.

A few days and several tests later (including one on $GAME_OS, where the
driver wouldn't install at all) I have figured out that they mean "works
with one specific old xreary on one specific flavor of penguin, but only
when you install a bunch of our libraries as well, and if you change any
piece of that entire stack, then you don't get to enjoy pixels displayed
quickly." It's just like installing hardware on penguins used to be, 20
years ago.

Other than that, I didn't have anything bad enough to post about for
almost all of 2022, so I guess that's good?

Matt Roberds

[The Horny Goat]

Post by m***@att.net
Other than that, I didn't have anything bad enough to post about for
almost all of 2022, so I guess that's good?

OMG - all your gear worked as advertised? Has Hell truly frozen over?

(Mine mostly has as well though my big event of the year was the
passing of SWMBO last March)

[Robin Stephenson]

Don't know about 2022, but 2020 seems to be dragging on rather:

cdate () {
perl -MPOSIX -MTime::Local -e '@t=localtime;$d=int(1+.5+(timelocal(0,0,3,@t[3..5])-timelocal(0,0,3,1,2,120))/(60*60*24));print strftime "%a Mar $d %X %Z 2020\n",@t'
}

[Stephen Harris]

Post by Robin Stephenson
cdate () {
}

#!/bin/bash

set -- $(date "$@" +"%s %a %X %Z")
case $0 in
*september) o=8643 ; m=Sep ; y=1993 ;;
*covdate) o=18321 ; m=Mar ; y=2020 ;;
*) echo Unknown command
exit
esac
let d=$1/86400-$o
echo "$2 $m $d $3 $4 $y"

% september ; covdate
Wed Sep 10774 14:36:42 EST 1993
Wed Mar 1096 14:36:42 EST 2020

[Gary Barnes]

On Wed, 1 Mar 2023 14:37:32 -0500, Stephen Harris
<***@spuddy.org> wrote:
: Robin Stephenson <***@aglet.net> wrote:
: > Don't know about 2022, but 2020 seems to be dragging on rather:
:
: > cdate () {
: > perl -MPOSIX -MTime::Local -e '@t=localtime;$d=int(1+.5+(timelocal(0,0,3,@t[3..5])-timelocal(0,0,3,1,2,120))/(60*60*24));print strftime "%a Mar $d %X %Z 2020\n",@t'
: > }
:
: #!/bin/bash
:
: set -- $(date "$@" +"%s %a %X %Z")
: case $0 in
: *september) o=8643 ; m=Sep ; y=1993 ;;
: *covdate) o=18321 ; m=Mar ; y=2020 ;;
: *) echo Unknown command
: exit
: esac
: let d=$1/86400-$o
: echo "$2 $m $d $3 $4 $y"
:
: % september ; covdate
: Wed Sep 10774 14:36:42 EST 1993
: Wed Mar 1096 14:36:42 EST 2020

I remember back in the 80's there was a scary new virus that caused panic,
there were strikes every week, we had a recession, the Russians were the
baddies, and we all feared balloons could start World War Three[0].

Oh, wait.

Gaz
[0] Luser: "At least things can't get worse."
Sysadmin: *Inspector Dreyfus twitch*

[Michel]

Post by Gary Barnes
[0] Luser: "At least things can't get worse."
Sysadmin: *Inspector Dreyfus twitch*

Pessimist: It can't get any worse.
Optimist: It can! It can!

Starting to feel like that optimist lately...

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Michel

Post by Gary Barnes
[0] Luser: "At least things can't get worse."
Sysadmin: *Inspector Dreyfus twitch*

Pessimist: It can't get any worse.
Optimist: It can! It can!
Starting to feel like that optimist lately...

Now I would have put that the opposite way (i.e. the pessimist say "it
can it can"

But then I lost an uncle, an aunt (opposite sides of the family) and a
wife in 2022 so was glad to have my "annus horrbilis" over with - and
anyone familiar with that term knows who the author of that term was
and we lost her in 2022 as well.

[Michel]

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by Michel

Post by Gary Barnes
[0] Luser: "At least things can't get worse."
Sysadmin: *Inspector Dreyfus twitch*

Pessimist: It can't get any worse.
Optimist: It can! It can!
Starting to feel like that optimist lately...

Now I would have put that the opposite way (i.e. the pessimist say "it
can it can"

Yeah but then it isn't funny, and it still doesn't make sense.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Michel

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by Michel

Post by Gary Barnes
[0] Luser: "At least things can't get worse."
Sysadmin: *Inspector Dreyfus twitch*

Pessimist: It can't get any worse.
Optimist: It can! It can!
Starting to feel like that optimist lately...

Now I would have put that the opposite way (i.e. the pessimist say "it
can it can"

Yeah but then it isn't funny, and it still doesn't make sense.

No definitely not but then I lost a very close family member in March
and an aunt and uncle in Nov and Dec respectively. So definitely an
"annus horribilus" for me in 2022.

Now the worst thing for me in 2023 is tax season but that at least we
all know is coming....what's the line "Death and taxes but death
doesn't get worse every year!"?

[m***@att.net]

Post by Gary Barnes
I remember back in the 80's there was a scary new virus that caused
panic, there were strikes every week, we had a recession, the Russians
were the baddies, and we all feared balloons could start World War
Three[0].

(lol necroposting!)

In mid-2020, I confused some younger people in a Web-based discussion
forum. Basically, I posted "I feel like a kid again! Lebanon is
blowing up, the President is on TV saying things that don't make any
sense, and Dr. Fauci is telling us how to beat the virus."

Matt Roberds

[0] NMF

[Niklas Karlsson]

Post by m***@att.net
In mid-2020, I confused some younger people in a Web-based discussion
forum. Basically, I posted "I feel like a kid again! Lebanon is
blowing up, the President is on TV saying things that don't make any
sense, and Dr. Fauci is telling us how to beat the virus."

I just came back from spending a week (plus additional days due to the
air travel both there and back turning into clusterfscks) in .nc.us.
There were ten of us in total, all relatives to our host[0]. My father
and I caught something on the flight and got pretty sick after a couple
of days, and it then spread to both the rest of the group and our hosts.

... hosts reported they tested themselves for the recent Plague we all
know so well shortly after we departed, and were positive. I suppose it
was inevitable I'd get it eventually, despite having had four shots (of
course, the last one was quite a while back now). It only manifested as
a bad cold, even in the 89-year-old in the group, thankfully.

Niklas

[0] who was found thanks to a DNA match with me some years back; he had
visited .se in 1967 and everyone old enough to have been around
remembered him.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Niklas Karlsson
... hosts reported they tested themselves for the recent Plague we all
know so well shortly after we departed, and were positive. I suppose it
was inevitable I'd get it eventually, despite having had four shots (of
course, the last one was quite a while back now). It only manifested as
a bad cold, even in the 89-year-old in the group, thankfully.

That has been the experience of all 3 of my children (all
30-somethings) all of whom having gotten it after their full shots (4
I think for all - e.g. myself + the three of them - sure but not
sure). Given their description of what it was like I've been lucky
enough to miss it.

My wife passed in March 2022 and the coroner's office made a
unauthorized post-mortem covid test on her and the result was positive
despite the fact that all the symptoms pointed to a heart attack or
some other form of cardiac arrest.

(I don't _think_ I mentioned it to the ambulance attendants but she
was a strong opponent of vaccinations and masks which of course
seriously limited her activities during 2020-2021 - I ended up doing
most of the grocery shopping etc during that period)

And I'm mad at hell over the fact that 18 months later I >STILL< can't
get a copy of the coroner's report despite being told by the ambulance
crew that it likely would be 6 months before I could get it (and then
six months after being told they were still heavily behind - short
staff and yada yada - it would still be another 6-9 months)

[Dave Brown]

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

I've failed to avoid having to run systems, but at least the new gig
lets me say things like "Oh, that's Windows? I have no idea, and can't
do anything anyway."

Actually there's a lot of "that's not my department so you have to ask
someone who cares." I don't mind that.

Oh and I got married and bought a house, and then immediately quit the
previous gig and good riddance. That was very recovery-inducing.

--Dave

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Dave Brown

Post by Julian Macassey
Am I to assume that with the dearth of posts this year,
that all is well in the monastery.
Why wasn't I told?

I've failed to avoid having to run systems, but at least the new gig
lets me say things like "Oh, that's Windows? I have no idea, and can't
do anything anyway."
Actually there's a lot of "that's not my department so you have to ask
someone who cares." I don't mind that.
Oh and I got married and bought a house, and then immediately quit the
previous gig and good riddance. That was very recovery-inducing.

Regretably, for me 2022 was (1) arrange for retirement in May, (2)
death of wife in March, (3) birth of first grandchild (so far only
grandchild) in May and completion of #1.

Materially I'm fine having done all the things one is supposed to do
pre retirement but upstairs still having issues (3 guesses on which of
the above points)