Life Update 2025-09-29

Published on: 2025-09-29 by Anita

2 min read

Current status: (~updated 2025-09-29)

I’m typing up this post using Emacs. I’ve decided that practice is the best way to learn the keystrokes I need and maybe I’ll find that it is as wonderful and powerful as avid users say. Thankfully it has a menu at the top that I’ve learned how to get to. Oh, did I mention that I’m using it without a mouse? So, F10 gets me up to the menu bar. Ctrl-x u is Undo. And Ctrl-x Ctrl-c closes it down quickly. These 3 things get me out of trouble which I do get into when learning–anything.
Fun fact: We discovered that we need a new drain field for our septic system. That means that while we wait for the permit and for the work to be done we have to be very careful about how much water we throw out like in showers and all that kind of stuff where water goes down a drain. You get the picture.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Inner Space by Jakub Szamalek - Fantastic story taking place on the ISS. Loved this book which was an English translation.
Dark Beauty by Peter Cawdron - Peter writes first contact novels. He’s prolific and each story I’ve read so far is unique.
The Darkness Between the Stars by Peter Cawdron (Novelette. Short and engrossing)
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson - Fantastic story. Long trip on a multigenerational ship. So intriguing and great descriptions of life as it might be on such a journey. An ending I don’t think I’ll forget and I usually do forget what I read.

Round the Bend by Nevil Shute - Maybe the mental process of going round the bend isn’t all that bad. This novel makes one wonder. Good story taking place in the Persian Gulf in the days before computers, fast transit, etc. A man fascinated with airplanes goes into business there. He meets up with someone who seems a little off in his thinking yet does great work on his planes. Shute is not big on happy endings it seems. I read On the Beach as a kid. No happy ending there, either.
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen by Matthew Fox (Read this for a discussion group.)
The Way of the Mystics by Howard Thurman - He brought in mystics of several religions. The book is an edited transcript of several of Thurman’s talks. I found him giving those talks online and it was wonderful to listen to him. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love to hear open-minded people talk about these things.

(I finished typing. Now let’s see if it will process into a post. First Ctrl-x Ctrl-s)