Woot!

Jun. 10th, 2025 07:21 am
iosonochesono: Jewish Andalite (Animorphs: Jewish Andalite)
[personal profile] iosonochesono
I paid and closed off my card today. I'll need to make sure my bills are all moved to my primary current account or one of its virtual cards, but it's done, so I should be able to start overpaying and saving somewhere around £500/month. If I really work at it, possibly even up to £1,000 if I figure out how to cut back on my bills.

E.g. a life insurance policy that is only mortgage repayment - a LOT cheaper than my current policy.

Patrick is doing the same - we have the house now, no need for credit cards. Everything to saving for house works and overpayments.

Ugh, I'm so excited to be (non-mortgage, non-car) debt free again. I fucking hate you can't buy a house without debt history lol.

Done Since 2025-06-02

Jun. 8th, 2025 04:14 pm
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)
[personal profile] mdlbear

... so I still haven't done a full con report -- it's been almost a week -- so in the interim I'll just refer you to last week's "Done Since 2025-05-25" (posted on Monday) and "Thankful Thursday" posts. The only parts of the trip it doesn't cover very well are the songs we sang ( "Millennium's Dawn" deserves full S4S treatment), the hotel (the breakfast and dinner buffets, included in the room price), were noteworthy), and the travel.

Right. The travel. Tips:

  • Don't leave anything in (travel guitar)Plink's case -- it could delay inspection (and did, at Hamburg).
  • On arrival, stay in the plane until somebody tells you that your wheelchair is ready. Hamburg again.
  • If you don't look disabled (like m, for example), take a cane and hobble out of the plane with it. This is especially true for Schiphol -- the Dutch tend to be ablist.

Yesterday N, m, and I had a good band practice/conference, including more tweaking on "Millennium's Dawn", scripting for several songs that still had only two-person arrangements, and harmony arrangements because we finally have someone in the band who can reliably sing harmony. We're also going to want a keyboard. Or two, since m is leaving tomorrow for Seattle.

Health-wise, I don't think I'm doing all that well, so it's a good thing I have an appointment with a cardiologist soon, as well as with an oncologist.

If you're interested in word origins, check out the Online Etymology Dictionary, which includes some fascinating articles as well as the dictionary entries.

Notes & links, as usual )

Thankful Thursday

Jun. 5th, 2025 04:48 pm
mdlbear: Wild turkey hen close-up (turkey)
[personal profile] mdlbear

Today I am thankful for...

  • The folks we met at DFDF, and particularly the concom, for a wonderful convention. Additional thanks to whoever came up with the con's memorable URL.
  • My nibling and bandmate m.
  • The two wheelchair pushers at Hamburg, without whom we wouldn't have made our flight home. NO thanks to the security people at Hamburg, nor to the wheelchair pusher at Schiphol, who tried to claim that m didn't have wheelchair assistance.
  • Myself, for remembering to check under-seat bag size restrictions on KLM, and Red, my little REI backpack that is squishable enough to just barely fit. NO thanks to companies that claim their bags fit under an airplane seat, when they actually don't. No thanks, also, to airlines that keep reducing the available space year after year.
  • Ticia and, especially, Bronx, for letting me sleep and giving me all the lap-cuddles.

Done Since 2025-05-25

Jun. 2nd, 2025 09:38 pm
mdlbear: blue fractal bear with text "since 2002" (Default)
[personal profile] mdlbear

This weekend, Thursday through Sunday, m and I were at D.F.D.F. | Das Frühlingsfest der Filksmusik in Hanstedt, Germany -- one of the two German filk cons. We got in a couple of good rehersals, Sunday and Wednesday. We'd signed up for a two-song set in the Main Concert, which is basically a couple of hours of two-fers interspersed with voice auction items. This is f'n brilliant, because the auction items overlap the tech setup for the next concert set, allowing the whole affair to proceed seamlessly.

Our "set" was Millennium's Dawn and Ship of Stone. We'd done quite a bit of hacking and slashing to bring "Millennium's Dawn" up to date (removing the verse that starts "There ought to be talking computers...", taking out the first chorus, and making some minor wording tweaks.) We absolutely nailed both songs.

The open filking mostly started after my bedtime, We did get to perform Gentle Arms of Eden and The Bears (middle-sized and middle-aged). m stayed up later, and their singing was also well-received. We'll be back.

There may be a proper con report in a few days.

The flight back was not fun, with hassles in both Hamburg and Schiphol. And Sunday afternoon and evening were kind of a blur due to a health issue )

that had me very worried. Fortunately it resolved this morning.

I note in passing that the song pages for Kaleidofolk are in pretty sorry shape right now and badly in need of troubleshooting. Later this week. I also need to put up a page for our new album (in progress), Winds of Time.

Notes & links, as usual )

Rabbit rabbit rabbit!

Jun. 1st, 2025 08:26 am
mdlbear: Three rabbits dancing (rabbit-rabbit-rabbit)
[personal profile] mdlbear
Welcome to June, 2025. Almost halfway around the year.

The usual "done since" will be posted tomorrow, after the con.

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