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Weekly update 02/21/26 – 02/27/26 (Dental Work Experience, Blog Indexing Issues, and Political Reflections)

Weekly update 02/21/26 – 02/27/26 (Dental Work Experience, Blog Indexing Issues, and Political Reflections) I hope everyone has had a good February! This week, I got started on dental work. On Wednesday, I got two fillings, one on the left side and one on the right. The process was mostly painless. The biggest shock came when they were working on the tooth on the right side. I do not know what kind of drill they were using, but man, it was loud. It sounded like they were using a jackhammer on my head. There was a little shaking, but the noise was unbelievable. I think it must have been transmitted directly from the jawbone to the ear. It was odd having to have both sides of my face numbed. The oddest part was later, when I tried to drink from a cup. My upper lip was swollen and very numb. When I put the cup to my mouth, I simply could not feel it or the water in it until the water reached the back of my mouth. I am going to be spending some time this weekend working with Ch...
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Weekly Update 02/14/26 to 02/20/26 (Glasses, Gums, and Better Sleep)

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 Weekly Update 02/14/26 to 02/20/26 (Glasses, Gums, and Better Sleep) Finally, my new glasses arrived. I’m very pleased with them. I can see much better now. In fact, I’m wondering whether I still need separate computer and regular glasses. I can see the screen well with my regular glasses, though the computer ones may still be slightly better. I’m a little disappointed that they are larger than I would prefer, but overall, I’m very satisfied. This week I had my first dental treatment for periodontal disease, and I was very worried about it. I had heard stories about gum cutting with lasers. It was nothing like that. In fact, I’ve had many routine cleanings that were much worse than this treatment. The main differences were that the procedure was done over two days, though I’m not sure why, and that the sonic cleaning technology seems improved since my last visit. In the past, I often felt like I was drowning in the water used during the cleaning. That did not happen this time....
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Weekly update 02/07/26 to 02/13/26 (Work Progress, Drum Corps International, New Glasses, and EKG Results)

 Weekly update 02/07/26 to 02/13/26 (Work Progress, Drum Corps International, New Glasses, and EKG Results) Things are going well at work. I now have FACTS communicating with the web and opening web pages. This is a big step forward. Otherwise, last weekend was the Super Bowl. I, of course, did not watch, not even to see a Bad Bunny at the halftime show. The only reason I would have had to watch was that President Trump did not want me to. Personally, I have felt for a long time that the way the halftime show at the Super Bowl, something I have never seen, is handled, bringing in popular stars to perform, makes no sense. This is supposed to be a halftime show, and as we all know, halftime shows are made up of marching bands. I strongly believe that the people who put on the Super Bowl should team up with www.dci.org , Drum Corps International. If you have ever seen a highly polished marching performance that looks and sounds more like a professional production than a halfti...
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Weekly Update 01/31/26 – 02/06/26 (Work, Medical Appointments, and Reflection)

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  Weekly Update 01/31/26 – 02/06/26 Things continue to go well at work. I received my second paycheck on Friday, and it was my first full paycheck. Outside of work, this was very much a medical week. It began on Saturday with new prescriptions for eyeglasses. I hadn’t gotten new glasses since 2022, and my eyes have changed quite a bit since then. When I got home, I went online to 39dollarglasses.com. I’ve been using them since 2004 and have always been very satisfied. I was pleased to see the improvements they’ve made to their site. These include a new method for measuring pupillary distance, which should improve the performance of my bifocals, and a feature that lets me upload a photo of myself to see how the glasses will look on me. That’s far better than trying on frames in a store. Being extremely near-sighted, I’ve never really been able to see what glasses look like on me without them, and the online selection is vastly better than anything available in person. I now have fou...
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Weekly Update 01/24/2026 – 01/30/2026 (Work, Spaceflight Remembrance, and Visual Memory)

  Weekly Update 01/24/2026 – 01/30/2026 Things at work are going well. I’m learning a lot about integrating APIs with PxPlus using the Cordedll system.   Apart from work, this has been my annual week of remembrance, with January 27 marking the anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire in 1967 and the 28th marking the anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Next week we have February 1 st and the Columbia Disaster.  Remembering these events made me think about memory, especially visual memory and visual memory deficit: “a functional limitation in visual recall or recognition that interferes with daily tasks such as reading comprehension, spatial navigation, or visual learning.” It seems that you, Muggles, have a much greater ability to recall visual memories than I do. That made me think about what visual memories I do have. I remember being in a car, turning left from Riverside Drive onto Van Nuys Boulevard, when I heard the announcement about the Apollo 1 fire. I reme...
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Weekly Update 01/17/2026 – 01/23/2026 (Work Progress, First Payday, and Medical Alerts)

 01/17/2026 – 01/23/2026 This has been a good week. Things at work are going well, and I am learning a lot while making solid progress. I am relearning and remembering a great deal about FACTS software. It has been a very long time since I last worked on that platform, but it is all coming back to me. I have even found myself hitting “P” after loading a program. That is a habit I picked up in the 1990s when working with FACTS. The “P” command was used to enter the program’s password so I could access it. I stopped using “P” when I moved from FACTS to MAS 90, where it was not needed, but the habit has resurfaced now that I am back in FACTS. Even though the “P” command is no longer required and locking is handled differently, I still find myself doing it. The biggest event of the week was PAYDAY. This was my first payday since October 2022, so it was a big deal. It felt good to have money coming in again. Between October 2022 and January 2026, I spent some time on unemployment unti...
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Weekly Update 01/10/26 – 01/17/26 (New Job Work, Budget Rebuild, and Banking Changes)

  01/10/26 – 01/17/26 My week has been dedicated to my new job. I have finally reached the point where I am doing real programmer-type work. I have been reviewing the FACTS code to understand how their credit card processing software works and how we can use that code to integrate our own credit card system. I have found this to be educational work, and it has taken up most of my time this week. This was also the end of the first pay period of the new year, so I turned in my timecard and am looking forward to getting paid next week. I also spent some time redeveloping my budget. I like budgets, but somehow I lost my old template and had to rebuild it. I now have a solid template in place, including the ability to set up payments based on a percentage of net pay, fixed dollar amounts per month, and amounts set aside each month for recurring expenses such as bills that are paid every other month, every three months, every six months, and annually. Part of my new financial plan inc...
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