Jeri Dansky
While this list was designed to help people wanting to move off US-based services, it's also helpful for those of us just trying to get off Google. One of the very few Google services I still used was Google translate, and now I have an alternative.
(I thought DeepL looked good, but there are four other choices and I'm open to other suggestions.)
I'm not doing any heavy translation work; I just sometimes want to translate something I see online, purely for my own curiosity.
Jeri Dansky
Update: Scheduled with cardiologist on February 12, so that's good. Glad I could get in reasonably quickly. Thanks for all the good wishes!
Jeri Dansky
Well darn. I was all set to have cataract surgery today, but then I had heart and jaw pain as they were administering the eye drops pre-surgery.
EKG was totally normal and I feel fine now, and one of the drops could have been the cause. But now I need to see a cardiologist before I have the cataract surgery, just to be sure all’s OK.
Jeri Dansky
Update: Cataract surgery re-scheduled for early March, assuming all will go fine with the cardiologist.
Looking forward to once again visiting the surgery center — with a completed surgery this time. Here's an interesting item from the waiting room; it made me think of @skinnylatte.
Jeri Dansky
Wrote to my Senators, with a polite WTF? Waiting until Monday instead of meeting over the weekend? Could we please show some sign of urgency? (And maybe drop the bipartisan part?)
"Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire is the top Dem on Senate Foreign Relations. Wall Street Journal reporter Alex Ward says on X she told him this situation is 'incredibly serious and unprecedented' & a 'bipartisan' group of senators will discuss what to do tomorrow when Senate is back."
https://bsky.app/profile/janenorman.bsky.social/post/3lh7ulumdkc2x
(Sorry for the Bluesky link. I don't have a Bluesky account but sometimes I check in on a few people.)
Jeri Dansky
Want some more good news? Of course you do!
"The MacArthur Foundation .. announced more than $6 million in grants to support the growing field of climate journalism in the United States."
Words you don't often see, but mentioned here: "the existential crisis [that] climate change poses to humanity."
The announcement includes a list of the newsrooms being supported, if you want some good climate-focused news sources: Grist, High Country News, and 13 more.
https://www.macfound.org/press/press-releases/more-than-6-million-in-support-of-climate-journalism
Jeri Dansky
Aviation safety is already getting worse.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/san-mateo-airport-faa-20066006.php or
https://archive.vn/BWA3k#selection-1275.0-1275.79
"The San Carlos Airport, a hub for Silicon Valley businesses that lies along the approach to San Francisco International Airport, will no longer have air traffic controllers guiding planes in and out of the airport starting on Saturday, according to airport manager Gretchen Kelly.
"The airport’s controllers resigned after the Federal Aviation Administration changed contracts to a controller firm with lower pay that does not 'account for the high cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area,' Kelly said in a news release."
Jeri Dansky
Both of the January 30 FireAid LA concerts have performers I'd love to see (but you have to pick one). Joni Mitchell! Stevie Nicks! Stevie Wonder! And many more!
As an out-of-towner who wanted to help with fire recovery, I donated to the Immigrant Fire Relief Fund at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which someone on here recommended.
https://ndlon.org
(And I'm not forgetting the folks in Asheville, NC, and continuing to donate to help with their ongoing recovery needs.)
Jeri Dansky
#FootpathFriday — a path leading up to Venice Beach in Half Moon Bay
Jeri Dansky
Advice from Mike Monteiro:
"Am I telling you to bury your head in the sand? Far from it. I am telling you to moderate your exposure to the bullshit. Your retweet or reskeet or repost is not going to save democracy. Your hot take on some idiot’s confirmation hearing is, at most, freaking out your friends. And if you want to remain on social media, as I will be, do your best to separate the signal from the noise.
"Follow people who are engaged in your community, follow people who are engaged in helping others, follow people who are posting pictures of their new puppy because puppies are awesome. … And yes, follow some trusted news sources, and double check their shit with a second news source."
https://buttondown.com/monteiro/archive/how-to-survive-being-online/
Jeri Dansky
@kingrat I do that, too. I also get their full list of vaccinations, not just Covid, and keep that in a file on my Mac and my iPhone. But I like having the physical card, too.
Sometimes the California record is wrong, and you have to write to them to get it fixed. They're good about making the fixes, though. They had my September 2024 Covid vax listed as a Tdap vax!
But the card that goes into an iPhone's wallet only has the last four vaccinations. (You can keep older versions to go all the way back, but I didn't realize this at first, so I'm missing my first two.)
Jeri Dansky
Very glad I got Covid vaxxed (second one of the current formulation) yesterday. Slightly achy arm today.
The pharmacist said, "Ready for your flu vaccination?" Seems she's saying that so much lately that it came out reflexively. Yes, she really had my Moderna vax.
And remember those vaccination cards we got, way back when? I'm on my third one now. (Rite Aid still had some in stock.)
Jeri Dansky
@EricFielding @avlcharlie That's a frog sculpture.
Jeri Dansky
There are times when I can't use my microwave because that would disturb Tennessee.
#CatsOfMastodon
Jeri Dansky
With just an iPhone SE camera there's a limit on the bird photos I can get, but these are two common ravens per Merlin.
Jeri Dansky
An unnecessarily scary headline for those of us who don't feed our cats raw cat food. But good info on "the murky and largely unregulated industry of raw pet-food manufacturing."
And a reminder that "cats are extraordinarily susceptible to H5N1 infection" — making me very glad Tennessee is an indoors cat with no chance of contact with infected birds.
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2025-01-18/cat-deaths-bird-flu-prompts-pet-food-new-rules or
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA1xqYbk
Jeri Dansky
Jeri Dansky
Unless I change my mind, I’m celebrsting inauguration day by getting another Covid vaccination.
It’s been four and a half months since my last one, which is fine medically but timing-wise not as ideal as waiting to six months. Or at least, that would have been my thinking in the past. But how sure do we feel that these vaccines will contoinue to be available — and for how long?
Also: Getting vaccinated on Monday means I’ll have the best possible protection when I have my cataract surgery two weeks later. I’m sure I’ll need to unmask for a while as part of this. The medical staff will need to be masked due to Santa Clara County regulations, but still.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rfk-jr-asked-fda-to-nix-covid-vaccine-during-pandemic/
Jeri Dansky
Odd to be reading about a major fire that isn’t a wildfire. I drove past the Moss Landing power plant with its distinctive towers last May on my way down to Big Sur.
Friday:
https://pajaronian.com/moss-landing-fire-update-battling-battery-fires-difficult/
Friday evening:
https://lookout.co/santa-cruz-county-issues-health-warning-as-blaze-erupts-at-moss-landing-power-plant/
Jeri Dansky
Trump isn’t even in office yet and Border Patrol is doing raids in California, targeting farm workers.
“Acres of orange fields sat unpicked in Kern County this week as word of Border Patrol raids circulated."
"The panic and confusion, for both immigrants and local businesses that rely on their labor, foreshadow what awaits communities across California if Trump follows through on his promise to conduct mass deportations."
“'If this is the new normal, this is absolute economic devastation,' said Richard S. Gearhart, an associate professor of economics at Cal State-Bakersfield."
https://calmatters.org/economy/2025/01/kern-county-immigration-sweep/
Retired professional organizer (the clutter-clearing type); retired editor. Feminist. Cat owner. Jewish atheist. Pro-union. Pro-vaccination, masking and ventilation/filtration. Owner/moderator of my local freecycle group. All photos by me unless otherwise noted.Header photo: A large black Maine Coon cat looks at a computer screen.#nobridge
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