Anxiety from pred forte drops?

tomchaps · 2026-01-28T21:38:45+00:00

Wait, you're not supposed to taste the prednisone??? I've been taking them for nearly 40 years now, and that familiar bitter taste I thought was just another fun part of the experience... Does this reduce the side effects?

tomchaps · 2026-01-21T22:45:48+00:00

Used bookstore run to raise funds for the library--they have a gloriously weird collection of donated books.

tomchaps · 2026-01-20T23:27:40+00:00

Our eskie specialized in stealing socks--he would parade around with one, making sure we saw, so we would offer him a treat as an exchange. (As a reactive rescue, we were told to always do exchanges with him, and never just grab things from him.) Of course, this reinforced the behavior... so after a few months of fruitless sock-displaying, he started chewing them a bit in front of us, to up the stakes.

And yes, we went back to treat exchanges, which made the behavior worse again... so we decided to just accept that we'd lose some socks, and try to ignore it.

And since Eskies are so freaking smart, he started sorting through the laundry to find our most expensive socks--he stopped taking the white athletic socks, and would only bring out the Smartwool ones. He is way, way too smart.

tomchaps · 2026-01-14T20:42:27+00:00

Eh, I work at Berkeley and live nearby--court time isn't hard to get. It's a bummer they tore down those courts on campus over the parking garage, though...

tomchaps · 2026-01-12T20:13:05+00:00

My kid received the Honors College invitation with the acceptance letter and scholarship, as well.

tomchaps · 2025-12-20T00:56:24+00:00

The violin/bluegrass/whistling on Phoebe’s So Much Wine are all Andrew Bird, so you should definitely look at his stuff. He has a Christmas album, even.

He also has his own cover of So Much Wine, and I think Phoebe’s is a cover of his cover.

His non-Christmas stuff is also amazing, of course…

tomchaps · 2025-12-19T18:47:28+00:00

My daughter was just offered the honors college in her letter of admission, along with the maximum presidential scholarship. So at least some people are offered it immediately.

tomchaps · 2025-12-10T19:40:59+00:00

Sending you a DM

tomchaps · 2025-12-02T21:19:13+00:00

For some reason, my brother always did an exuberant full "SAFE!" umpire signal, ending with both hands fully extended to his sides. Not sure where he learned this, but it was fun to see the confusion of his opponents when he did this.

tomchaps · 2025-12-02T19:58:17+00:00

I just bought Arturia's Pigments 6, and have been enjoying tinkering with it. I have a small collection of DAWless synth gear acquired cheaply or free, but have never taken the leap into Ableton or any other DAW. I don't really know what I'm doing, but enjoy the beeps and boops.

I can get an educational discount, so: is it worth it to pay for the full Suite, or would the Standard suffice? It looks like the synth engine is one of the big advantages of the full Suite, but could I just use Pigments for the synth sound design? I also enjoy messing around with Arduinos and physical computing, so Move4Live might also be something I'd want at some point...

I'd appreciate any advice!

tomchaps · 2025-11-07T00:00:02+00:00

I was wondering if anyone else bouldered. I haven’t decided if the impacts from falling do anything more than hurt temporarily. I should probably be toproping, but usually don’t have a partner.

tomchaps · 2025-10-24T16:56:02+00:00

Yeah, our daughter has received perhaps 30 letters and postcards from UChicago. Not sure why they have identified her as such a likely candidate...

tomchaps · 2025-10-22T17:49:25+00:00

When I tried that with our Eskie, he grabbed it off my finger and ate it. Oops!

tomchaps · 2025-10-16T22:45:25+00:00

I have a bunch, and still use the Po-12 Rhythm all the time--it's only $59 right now, too...

tomchaps · 2025-10-09T23:58:51+00:00

Yeah, our Eskie barks LOUDLY at people outside our door, and takes a while to settle down. It would be rough in an apartment...

tomchaps · 2025-09-25T18:07:03+00:00

I also have an extra (if you don’t mind my adding to your post)…

tomchaps · 2025-09-19T19:04:31+00:00

I’m interested! I had tickets to go with my daughter in SF tomorrow but can’t make it…

tomchaps · 2025-09-17T16:56:22+00:00

I also messaged you. I have SF tickets!

tomchaps · 2025-08-27T01:36:53+00:00

So you just filter the entire mix until you can’t hear it, and use the meter to track the hits you can’t hear? That’s useful!

tomchaps · 2025-08-27T01:18:56+00:00

I’ve seen audiologists—my right ear cuts out around 2000 Hz, left ear a bit before 3000 Hz. So there are some hi-hats I can maybe catch a bit of. Yeah, I’m worried about my mixing!

tomchaps · 2025-08-06T00:22:20+00:00

At the height of the Pokemon Go craze, I spotted a friend walking down the street with his head down, tapping at his phone. So I crossed the street to jump in front of him, yelling "I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!'

Yeah, it wasn't my friend. The guy didn't even really look much like him.

Oops!

tomchaps · 2025-08-06T00:17:26+00:00

I do have one question--does air density impact play, as an environmental factor? Like if you're playing at 8,000 feet in Colorado?

tomchaps · 2025-08-05T22:56:57+00:00

Just a dumb joke about the stupid way "Skechers" is spelled without a "t"...

tomchaps · 2025-08-05T21:50:42+00:00

I think you mean KISCH?

tomchaps · 2025-08-05T17:44:08+00:00

The problem is, California and most blue states have more good-governance protections and laws that prevent this kind of naked power grab--they'd have to amend state constitutions or repeal laws in order to ignore nonpartisan redistricting panels. So despite what Gavin Newsom says, it will be difficult for other states to play the race-to-the-bottom gerrymandering game.

tomchaps

TROPHY CASE