Jane makes good soap…

I was at Amcorp flea market today and bought 2 bars of Jane’s Cottage Soaps, an Indian nettle and Dead Sea mud. I had to use the Israel “holy land” soap first and it felt really nice. I feel clean and fresh, light even. Gotta love home made soaps and bath time / shower time, on my “luxury” bath stool. I still use Good Virtues on and off, varying my skincare, which I think is a good idea as it evens out things. Even my hair feels softer.

Dead sea mud (left), and Indian nettle (right)

Meanwhile, I’m preparing for the final onslaught on drafter.py which has stalled for half a week now. It must be done by dinner. I’ve been nibbling at it, trying to find purchase to block in code but so far the prevention over my work has stopped this unique writer’s IDE from being released. I did put up an alpha on FreeLunch.my but it’s pretty lame. My other 3 apps, vrs, chicn, and yak are ready to use, tho. Thinking of jamming in code and debugging it line by line. Anything other than this incessant vacillating. More later…

Dinner was tasty and quick to make. Coconut cream / water, occasionally is so nutritious. There was a foul smell in my room, then it rained and I opened the windows to let it air. Watching Sara Lubratt’s writer’s vlog while typing this. I did a lot of coding yet the app is still incomplete. Juggling 2 open files and multiple chapters needs lots of if statements. One of the files should be the rough outline, the other, the draft (chapter). Later, one could be the draft chapter and the other, the polished work.

Woke up early, on the floor, with a bad right knee. Thankfully it healed and I was able to work out and run before dawn. Talked long yesterday about the coming end times and the signs of the rapture / judgement. The false teachers and wanton sexual activity. Wearing my Casio MQ-27 tank on Bonetti WR faux croc. Will code lazily this Sunday while monitoring the situation in the mindspaces.

Are those end times going to kick in…?

Several signs of the end of the age nobody should have missed:

1. Vineyards being destroyed while durian being planted in ongoing forest clearing. Why this is a sign, is the feet of clay and iron are fragmenting into blocks like BRICS, etc.
2. Bitcoin refuses to die. What crypto is, is a world economy between the very intelligent, just the same as forex is our average joe economy. Why this is a sign is ultimate revenge for offenses against humanitarianism.
3. Socks appeared for sale, printed with Allah’s name. The police pixelate the photos while Scandinavians (former Vikings) burn the Koran. Why this is a sign is that false teachers and later false leaders will emerge deceiving many.
4. There is a man called Donald Trump who appears to be a buffoon, a Washington pariah, and a madman. He wants to be President to unleash an agenda that failed the last time he took office. Why is this a sign? He will try to bring about the 3rd Temple if he wins election.
5. People who can change the world are being sidelined, some if they are popular, even killed. Why is this a sign? “All the world will hate you because of my (which is, Jesus) name”. “For love of the truth they had not”. “That they came under a strong deception”. Read those quotes in reverse.

Personally, I’ve been also shown several signs. I will be wearing a moonphase watch which is water resistant at the time of the Coming. I have it on often lately, on a water resistant NATO. There will be a park near my house, just a stone’s throw where I must wait on that day. That is by our new house, almost ready to move into. I will no longer be using computers or internet (almost) at all, but will be drawing, and playing music to pass the time. A family member of mine may pass away for some reason, and he/she is already worried about it. When he/she dies, the witchcraft strangling the world will suffer a heavy blow. Then I will be in demand to speak truth, but shortly I’m taken away from the world by angels. More later…

Did some work on my website, FreeLunch.my, to get a page up with download links and screenshots of my python apps even tho Drafter has stalled at mostly-completed. It was a matter of some urgency to release my code. Western forces attacked us, repentant Christians living in a home in the mindspace around me. Trying to be brave yet kind to these desperate mental criminals.

Finally did some coding. I gathered the tk button objects in the treeView and printed their labels. Then I fell asleep at the laptop again. This morning, I wanted to load individual chapter files into the view but am too sleepy still. Then my niece started flinching my elbow violently. Don’t think I’ll head out today as I need to work harder.

I had no constipation or diarrhea so I took the opportunity to get some walking in. Bought ingredients for nasi lemak so Mom doesn’t have to cook. Also a bottle of oolong tea for all of us to rehydrate. Drank a lo cal Coke which helped replenish my electrolytes. Showered with Jane’s dead sea mud soap and it is the boss. So cleansing and light. Today is of course house cleaning time. And I am getting ready to finish coding Drafter. I set my font to Noto, with a neutral bluesy color scheme. Was thrown off by the stark reds and greens of IDLE. Thonny is my favorite Python3 IDE which I used to use on my Pi4.

I didn’t know this about pen and paper…

While I was at the mall today, I bought a notepad and artist’s marker for about $3. Some kids started asking why I needed so much stationery. It was long ago when ink and pen were invented but paper had to wait till much later. People wrote on pot shards, goat skin, bark etc. But when paper finally arrived big time, they knew that the pen had to improve, and to date we have a fine selection of nibs, points, and brushes. This is not to mention the invention of the book, and engraving which led to mass printing and dissemination of creativity. Later, the scanner and smartphone would take over this via apps and broadband.

The point I’m making is that with all sorts of media nowadays, people forget if and when they have something specific to say, write, type or draw. People convey the ordinary, and also the obscene extremes. But what art is, what documenting an idea is, is buried under heaps of targeted advertising ingenuity and a plethora of marketing, pandering to vanities, etc. At the same time, the disadvantaged will scribble on scraps with scratchy BICs and discouraged, never take their ambitions to the heights they might achieve.

Through my explorations, I have found my Parker Jotter and 10RM BookXcess notepad to be a good match. Nobody should use a Jotter’s French ink on Lotus’s ruled pads and manage a smile. I also found Daler-Rowney pads to be extremely inhibitive. I loved Zequence rollup A6 square ruled pads which I filled with sketches inked by my Rotrings. Now I have a new sketching setup, with a Kurecolor marker and Herlitz pad. And I wonder if I will be creative again?

Out and about...

I have to get out of the house alone today. It’s almost a week since I brisk walked. A few hours would be good for my health. Will put in 1 more hour of coding then head out before noon. Resume work after dinner, late. More later…

Change of plans. Had to help the folks with some errands. Made tuna salad on toast for dinner as Mom is tired and a bit worried about things, health etc. I did finish coding chiCN. Not very polished, but usable and simple, algorithmically. Now it’s raining and I’m messing with Solaris to pass the time before coding Drafter late tonight. Liew forces retreat for now. The balance of power is precarious.

3 of my apps, YAK Composer, chiCN and vrs have very minimalist interfaces. Drafter is the odd one out with 4+ windows. But it is also the most straightforward to code. Evil witchy Liews jerking my elbow as I work. More later…

I was up early and did the brief routine workout. Ready for that long walk from Asia Jaya to DigiMall and then to Taman Jaya. Got fresh funds in, just $100. Not sure what I want to buy… But for some reason, I opted to stay home yet again. Went on a brief run instead to keep fit. I used to have near blackouts before I went running. I also take less sweet foods as my blood sugar is a little high.

Did some usability testing on vrs and uncovered some glaringly silly, slow, and irrelevant code in the search / regex matching. Gave it an overhaul. Also overhauled chiCN’s search, which was alarmingly unpredictable and complex. Now it’s almost time for bed and Drafter is unfinished. Took my meds and showered. It will be an early day tomorrow, taking Mom to hospital and buying groceries. Playing with my new Bodhi Linux install which is cool.

Weekend is here…

Just back from a run along our guarded road. Had an iced Milo shake. They had a special on those for Raya (Id) at Lotus’s. Feels so good to… be a good person. A productive skilled worker. A spiritual leader.

Now YAK and VRS are under my belt. Soon Drafter will follow. Will try to complete it today and beta test it, Sunday. My head is swimming with others’ thoughts and some mild emotions so it’s hard to work well. Will skip lunch as I am a bit overweight. Imagine, took me over 2 years for my apps to mature into usable form. More later…

Late last night, good witches suggested I finish the Chinese spelling app that I started 2 years ago. Spent hours editing a table of radicals, finally falling asleep at 3am. This morning, I've resumed coding the new chi which I named "Chikn". It will be very simple with no bells and whistles, and I hope to code it in an hour or so. Later, it may interface to CEdict.

Mid-morning, I broke away for a run. Felt good to stretch my legs seeing as how I stay home more lately to avoid too much spending. Telepathic arguing is less this morning as well. Someone liked one of my posts on Medium. DogBlots is still getting many visits lately, less so my site, FreeLunch.my.

Sunday draws to a close and I am rushing to finish coding chiCN (small name change) now that the basics are in place and the UI fully mapped out. Still wearing my Q&Q moonphase. My favorite complication.

Monday, and the bugs in chiCn’s code remain glaring. Western forces attacked after we put down the Liew witches. It’s amazing not to get a thank-you instead. Ran instead of heading out. Folks are busy equipping their new house. Drank a latte for brunch.

Just solved all the bugs in the spelling box with completion suggestions. It’s important that it’s user friendly. Now my menus of  Chinese characters are way too long. I need a solution to split them up and a new file or somewhere to store the matches. Looks to be another hour or so of work if it doesn’t drag on till dinner. Definitely will be too burnt out to tackle Drafter until maybe 10pm.

Past lunchtime and chiCN is looking good. Thought of a neat way to associate spellings with the cascading menu entries, utilizing a split symbol “,“ in the text entry field. Will take a bit of coding. Do it after some well-deserved rest.

Had dinner. Tofu in mince sauce, and microwaved broccoli. Mom cooked despite being tired. I haven’t looed today for some reason. My Chinese speller app is almost wrapped up. May stay up late again and do something different to wind down. Still feeling a bit burnt out from all the logical thinking necessary for coding. Maybe I will try a different OS for my netbook. But first, to lay down some code.

Coding my Python apps…

Developing 2 apps side by side on my Raspberry Pi 4 / Ubuntu is taxing but quite exhilarating. To be busy with something worthwhile is good for the spirit. Last night, Sis pwned me for my “useless” efforts. But soon she saw the value of my 3 humble apps, built by slinging mud at a wall and never giving up on the features and functionality I wanted for myself and my users. That same spirit that once gave the 3gs LittlePad / Displaced Qwerty, and Browse -the fastest Edge / 2g web browser on iPhone.

Later, we’ll be at the Sogo area for cloth shopping. Haven’t much ideas what to buy for myself except a nice lunch. More later…

Vrs is almost finished. There was some conflict in my mind whether to add nifty features, buttons, panes etc. or to simplify the workflow, Apple style. In the end, the original basic UI managed to handle most what a student / reader would need, which was fortunate. Search, explore further, then annotate. Need to generate a JSON annotations file. No idea how to do that. Otherwise, this app is done!

It’s getting late. Just finished vrs. Quite happy with it. But the daunting complexity of Drafter is causing me procrastination big time. Maybe just solve one thing tonight, the edit row. Then if possible the fuzzy button highlighting. A slow day for the witchy Liews where prophecy went against them. More later…

Had to fix a slew of bugs in vrs during testing so was unable to code Drafter last night and this morning. Poor logic due to my brain damage. But in the end my Bible search-explore app is out of beta. Took a much needed shower. I think I fell asleep on the floor last night.

Yet to go on my run. Will do an evening session around 6pm. Right now there’s a lot of work to finish. I chiseled off the pointy end of my nib holder and smoothed it round with a pencil sharpener. I had always wanted a stubby ergonomic nib holder. I also like my pastel highlighters which work well with the Pelikan ink line work. The folks will be at the new house all day for deliveries. Gotta eat that frog so JT Foxx says.

My artist’s tools…

I was out this morning for a few hours, to get my weekly exercise and see new things instead of my usual computer screen and 4 walls of my room. I didn’t spend much money, just $16 on a set of watercolors which came with a fold out palette and a 2-piece brush. Over time, I had amassed a bunch of artist’s tools like charcoal, pastels, Chinese brushes, and stylographs, not to mention numerous sketch pads I filled with ballpen scrawls of my ideas. But my hard cake watercolor set was woefully bad.

I would never succeed with pigments like the ones in my 12RM watercolor set. Compared to the Cotman I bought, the hard round cakes look vulgarly primary, and… so Super VGA (I am that old). My new set has designer pigments that should easily make my sketches look professional. They look like something from nature.

So I watched some YouTube videos on what artists carry with them, in order to build my own tool set. Seemed to me I am rather more minimalist than the average painter. My equipment consists of:

1. Sketch paper (and rough paper for studies) folded with a pleather binder and elastic closure
2. A small tube of water
3. A piece of sponge
4. A Pilot Croquis mini pencil
5. A putty eraser (I hate eraser dung)
6. A 4-color multipen with gel ink
7. My new Cotman paints / brush / palette box
8. Paper towels

All in, about the size of a paperback Bible. I stopped the paints from adhering to the top of the palette box with a piece of waxy sticker backing paper which was included with the package. I wonder if they knew it would come in handy?

The reason I’m taking up art (again) is that there could be a lot of downtime. Especially with the economic crunch and staying home most days from the heat, viruses, violence, what have you. Art is something you can earn money from right away. It’s different from music, or writing which require a publisher / producer / manager etc. More later…

Dinner is very late as Mom struggles with her aches and pains. Yesterday, I made meals for us. Creamy jerk spice pork and avocado. Tomorrow, I may fix the folks something special so they can rest. Will sleep late tonight to code and write a bit. Run in the evening or mid morning, tomorrow. Keeping up the ol’ health, as many use me to steady their jobs and deflect attacks from their bodies.

I forgot to take some of my meds and am still wide awake at 1am. Putting in some coding. Just a bit left to go. I can’t imagine I have so many blog visitors lately. Mom will be leaving for her heart check up early and I might not get up in time for breakfast with Dad. I have cut out sweet jam sandwiches but am drinking more slightly sweetish Milo nowadays.