Two small shakes in a row to keep us on our toes this morning. Both were shallow and only about 15 Km away. 〜
It's the pheasants that alert us before we even feel the shake. They have a special earthquake squawk.
Every Friday our builder gives us a report on the new house. Now the roof is on, the next payment milestone is watertight, except for the garage. Our builder, Steve, says:
First the guys will wrap, then do soffits, install window joinery, fit cavity battens and have a cavity inspection with Council, install cladding, scribers and flashings. Once this part is complete then the Brickwork will start, half high brick inspection with Council and once passed then the brickwork can be completed.
I don't know exactly what some of that means, but it's good to know. 🏡
Invoice time: Trusses & Roof Stood milestone on our new build achieved. 🏡
This builder's photo shows the north side of the house, where the kitchen and living room areas will be.
Today's sunny start …
Less than 2 hours after emailing BBEdit Support I have a helpful response which has solved my problem:
The OS will generally quarantine files that have been downloaded, but may do so for other reasons; there are various tools for correcting this, but the most straightforward is probably the `xattr` command line tool.
The following Terminal command will remove quarantine from any given file (use the actual File path rather than "/path/to/file"):
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/file
and once you have done so, this issue should not recur.
Something I very rarely need to do: I contacted BBEdit for support. For years and years I've successfully run all kinds of Applescripts from the Scripts menu within BBEdit to perform all kinds of operations on my texts.
In the last few days though all I get is an error message:
This script file has been quarantined by macOS (application error code: 13312).
Gah!
I hope Support can help me get my scripts running again — I rely on them.
Woke to the unusual but welcome sound of rain on the roof this morning. Real, proper rain. 💦
Our new house now has a roof, as the photos from the builder show. 🏡
Physiotherapist Will Harlow makes excellent videos on strength and mobility for the over-50s so signing up for his special Lifelong Mobility course was a quick decision:
To help people just like you – active, health-conscious individuals over the age of fifty – to regain their strength, mobility and independence...
...then KEEP it that way, no matter your age!
A visualisation requirement led me to abandon a Mandarin course
My efforts with the free Mandarin Blueprint Challenge! ran into problems early on.
For one thing we're engaged in all this stuff around selling our house, which has been pretty distracting.
But the bigger reason is twofold:
- The free course is a very high-pressure sales funnel to the expensive course. Such high pressure is something I do not respond well to.
- The method demands extensive visualisation to help with learning the Chinese characters: create a scene, a person who does something, props they use, an action. These all connect to the Chinese character as an aide memoire.
I'm sure that technique works well for lots of people, but I just can't visualise things: people, places, scenery, things.
You know when you've had a dream and you can sort of remember it in the morning — but not quite? That's what my visualisations are like. Asking me to recall my childhood home, or imagine Sean Connery standing in my kitchen with a stick : nope. "See" a samurai chopping the top off a vegetable with a sword : nope.
So, I've reverted to the Udemy course I signed up for at the same time, and the Learn A Chinese Word A Day website.
We'll see how that goes …
There was a beautiful light at 10 minutes to sunset tonight.
I watched Still Alice — a very moving and powerful film that I wish I had seen before my mother's dementia diagnosis a couple of decades ago:
Dr. Alice Howland, a linguistics professor at Columbia University, celebrates her 50th birthday …. After she forgets a word during a lecture and becomes lost during a jog on campus, Alice's doctor diagnoses her with early onset familial Alzheimer's disease.
So well done!
It's pretty standard stuff, but Deb and I are enjoying watching the TV show Return to Paradise. Set in Australia, it features a quirky but brilliant detective whose impeccable eye for detail and ability to connect clues allows her to solve seemingly impossible crimes.
Such an interesting 9 minute video: Successful season for rare New Zealand fairy tern! 🐦 :
Follow along as we incubate, hatch and hand-rear tara iti (New Zealand fairy tern) for release into the wild. First, they head to a purpose-built predator-proof area on the beach. It’s here that the chicks perfect their flying and fishing skills before joining the wild population.
Tara iti are Aotearoa New Zealand’s most endangered bird as there are just 35 adults existing today. Every successful chick that reaches breeding age is a massive win for the future of the species.
One of my go-to sources for how to do stuff on my Mac, iPhone, iPad and other Apple devices has always been Take Control Books. I've learned so much over the last couple of decades …
If you want to boost your knowledge then check out the catalogue today as they have a brief sale:
Pi Day+ Sale! Save 31.4% on all books (including upgrades)! Sale runs through Monday, March 17 at 11:59 PM CST.
Really interesting 22 minute interview video: How Ibtihaj Muhammad made Olympic history.
This was a particularly interesting moment 😵💫:
Q: While you were competing you also wore your hijab. Again, it was a huge talking point but did you receive any backlash for being visibly Muslim and representing Team USA?
A: To be honest I thought that death threats and hate and those type of things were really common for public figures but apparently it's not. It doesn't happen to everyone.
Interviewer: Samantha Johnson.
This was a lightweight and rather enjoyable read which took us as readers in unusual directions. Cat relies on her skills honed as a mother of three to help solve the case. One Deadly Take (The Cat Caliban Mysteries Book 1) by D.B. Borton. 📚
Armed with nothing but a library card and a stack of well-thumbed mystery novels, Cat’s ready for her first case as a sleuth-in-training
Yesterday I picked 8 Kg apples off my Granny Smith tree — that's about $35 worth. I also left some on the tree as they didn't really seem willing to leave home yet.
Now I have to peel and chop them all, stew and freeze them!
As expected, there were no bids on our house for sale at the auction. Now folks who wanted a firm price and who will make conditional offers will emerge from the woodwork.
Tomorrow is the auction where our Waikawa Beach house may not sell.
We met with the auctioneer and estate agent to discuss the reserve price and what happens next.
We can expect offers though within the next two weeks. Apparently this is normal — Selling a house at auction:
If the property fails to sell it is “passed in”. The sale can continue through negotiation with a buyer either on the day or in the following days with many sales completed within 24-48 hours.
All a bit nerve-wracking …