I can't win, glasses or none

The other day, I was at Target and decided to try out a pair of reading glasses in the lowest diopter (?) they offered, 1.0... Since I have to periodically enlarge fonts to compensate for migraine & Chiari issues messing with my vision, I figured that simple reading glasses would help. At the store, they magnified things nicely without warping them like all of the "Dean Edell" ones from the drugstore my mother usually buys.
Well, I just tried them for a lark, despite not having any problems... They still seem to do a good job at magnifying without warping, and my sight had no problem snapping back to "normal" once I took them off... However, I'm now nursing the early visual signs of a Chiari/migraine!
I'll have to talk to my mother about this, but for now I have to go give the cat his fluid treatment. Sigh -- I just can't win, can I?

Creative descriptions, mocp, teaching...

Well, I still haven't quite managed to set up an alternative to this as I basically crashed last night, but did get an interesting little console-based music player called MOC running.  Well, mostly running... Here is the original "creative" explanation I wrote to the blogger that recommended mocp:

I just tried mocp, and I'm encountering skipping with frequent 40-90% CPU use for 5 to 60 seconds. At one point it turned into a little epic battle... mocp locked up while seizing 98% of the CPU and valiantly fended off all of htop's attempts to kill it -- it only died when I shot the terminal app out from underneath it instead.

The above sense of humor, incidentally, is how I used to entertain myself while writing computer tutorials in the 90s for family members. It didn't take long for me to figure out that making the material amusing made learning a bit easier for them, and that using their favorite real-world objects/places as metaphors made an even bigger difference.
For example, I remember having to explain the concept of multi-tasking with the Program Manager in Windows 3.11 to my then-43-year-old mother after we got our first PC (an IBM DX2/50), as she couldn't comprehend any of it. After a few failed attempts, I succeeded by describing it entirely in terms of her favorite place, Disneyland, complete with a little hand-drawn diagram. She took Main Street (booted up) to reach Central Plaza (Program Manager), which she had to use to visit different Lands (programs); just as Central Plaza kept existing even when she was in Fantasyland, and Fantasyland was still there even if she went to Tomorrowland, the Program Manager & different applications stuck around regardless of which one was active.
I think that's enough for the moment; I had more to say, but I'm starting to feel hungry and remarkably distracted. Bye!

Argh at Blogger's Web Interface!

I was about to write all about the leap to WYSISWYG both as a kid & as an adult blogger, which was inspired by my frustrated fumbling with links in Blogger's web interface.
Unfortunately, Blogger's web interface mixed with Firefox 3.6 is literally migraine-inducing for me... Even with global Stylish CSS applied to keep it from being snow-blinding white, there's just something that really bugs my eyes about it.
Ironically, before I was going to rant about that issue, I was going to write about some interesting console apps I was planning to check out...and which I'm now likely going to end up using to write my next post.  So, I'll go check the applicable programs out, see if I can write/post with them, and then hopefully return (though likely after I act as chauffeur for my mother's errands).

The record industry said to do *what*?

Hanging out listening to the Grateful Dead's old album Workingman's Dead for the first time, I got an entertaining little surprise from the last "bonus" track... It started up with the song Easy Wind in progress, then a relaxed fellow's voice said over it:

"The Workingman's Dead, by the Grateful Dead. Available on Warner Brothers** tapes and records; you should be able to get your copy by May 15th. Workingman's Dead by the Grateful Dead."

The song continued for a few seconds, and then the guy came back to add:

"Steal one."

**which recently had YouTube remove all Frets On Fire videos that use Grateful Dead music.

Absurdity saves my sanity (or sense of humor)

I just spent 2-3 frustrating hours trying to sort out what was trashing my internet connection, only to discover that (surprise, surprise) it's a trojan on my mother's XP system... Well, after blocking the port it was hammering, I was irritably looking up overload on another port when I saw this comment from someone else with the same issue:

"Maybe its the aliens contacting me@#$%^!@#$!~"

Amazing how a silly little comment like that can do wonders for my mood...

(Listening to: Ultima 7 soundtrack)