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Working my way through The Outer Worlds. Debating writing stuff up; I've mostly been playing it as the last thing I do before bed, which isn't conducive to taking notes. Last night's round of the adorable asexual homoromantic engineer and her attempts at figuring out how to navigate the waters of engineer romance was pretty fun, though. And the first time I've seen the opportunity to have an RPG character say 'it's okay, I'm not into physical stuff either', too.

Did my voting at today's primary. The big one, a couple of local government positions, and 'town committee! vote for no more than 35 people!', which is weird no matter how long I live in this part of Massachusetts.

Mom is after me to go back to the doctor to have my cough checked out for a possible secondary infection after the virus in December and the flu the other week. I am starting to get tempted to call the WTC responder registry people, ask for my medical records from them for the past however many years, and then just drop them in her lap. My coughs are going to last for months and respond to changes in temperature and/or changes in exercise status no matter what I do, Mom. This isn't something a medication is going to fix, unless that medication is a combo of Atrovent, Claritin, and some high end cough suppressant. And I'm not taking high end cough suppressant unless I absolutely have to, because I would like to be able to fly, thank you. As long as I'm not having coughing fits I can't control I'm not going to take more medication than is strictly necessary. Regardless, this isn't a pathogen. I'm not having symptoms other than post-nasal drip and cough cough cough. This is just how my stupid stupid respiratory tract is. I've had fiberoptic hose things shoved up my nose twice now, and two different doctors have confirmed it's an unpleasant place in there by default. Quit assuming there's something that can cure this.

Meanwhile, working on getting setups together that'll allow people from my company's main trading floor to work for home for two weeks at a time. Turns out they make reasonably decent PCs in chassis sizes smaller than my office telephone, if you don't mind having an antenna sticking out the back making them easy to confuse with a router. The big issue is that the traders all have two or three 24-inch monitors on their desks here, so using Gotomypc to switch between remote windows is kinda awkward; we're going to have to set them up with company-owned monitors so that their Gotomypc sessions can have two screens each. Might set them up with webcams and headsets, too, but we'll have to see whether video calls are in the cards.

(no subject)

I've been doing low-end weightlifting stuff for a little over a year now as my primary non-staircase non-bicycle form of exercise. I've got a couple of sets of dumbbells- a pair of neoprene-covered ten pound weights, a pair of 15-pound weights from the Cheap and Ugly section of Dick's Sporting Goods, and a forty-pound adjustable dumbbell set with some extra plates so I can take my total up to ... hrm... I think I can achieve a total of something like forty-two and a half pounds per hand, although I have so far only done this weight combo for deadlifts. No full-sized barbells, though, because I live on the third floor of a three floor walkup, and also because I have cats, one of whom is sensible enough to stay out of the way and one of whom is of the 'whatcha doin'?' variety.

I also don't have a bench. I've considered getting a folding one, to minimize the amount of room that gets cluttered up, but I'd still have to put the folded bench somewhere and the coffee table is not of a design that would allow me to hide it beneath the table. I'm debating buying a medium-sized wooden plyo box, one with dimensions on the order of 20/40/16 or similar. I have no intention of any exercise program that involves jumping while I am at home rather than at the office, but a wooden box capable of supporting four hundred pounds at a time is a wooden box that can have a towel draped over it for someone my size to lie back on and use as a very small bench alternative for better range of motion. Plus, I can use a good, solid, secure box for step-up exercises- I admit, I got the idea to put them into my workout from reading Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories From Behind Bars. At one point one of the guys writing about his experience in prison talked about his exercise routine, and indicated that it was pretty common to use the toilet as a step for leg workouts. I can't really do that but something that height sounds like a good way to build leg and other lower body strength, and a box is easier to store under my kitchen prep table than a bench would be to store in the living room.

I'm led to understand these things are relatively easy to build if you know what you're doing (there's an article on the website The Art Of Manliness, which, btw, is a good place to go if you need some assistance learning how to cook bacon or steak), but I don't have the tools for woodworking. More specifically, I don't have the tools for measuring and sawing. If Home Depot could cut the pieces to exactly the right specs I could do the sanding and drilling and screw work and any glue that might be involved. I'm not sure I want to go through all of that if I can get a box pre-cut and pre-sanded, though. I'm fine with putting it together, I just don't want to be responsible for the effort of making sure every single cut, corner, etc. is shaped and cut in a sufficiently secure and supportive manner.

Debating whether buying one on eBay is a good idea or whether I should go to one of the companies and buy directly through them or what. I'd prefer to avoid purchasing through the demon Bezos if I can.