Howdy folks I know a lot of you haven’t heard from me in a while. That’s because I’ve been really ill these last few years. The short version is that I have severe ME/CFS that is steadily getting worse. And today is World Severe ME/CFS day. The longer story is that in 2020 during the Cape Town Pride Parade, I collapsed, just half a block from the start. If I tried to stand up I would become dizzy , my heart rate would shoot way up, and I’d fall over.

One good thing came out of Covid19 and that was that Defcon was run online in 2020 which meant that Pi and I got to attend. Since I have a particular interest in space, satellites and radio, we spent a good portion of the weekend working on the satellite hacking challenge, which we eventually completed. Below are my final commands that were sent to the satellite. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 !

Pi and I have been out doing some errands. We popped in at my psychiatrist’s office to pick up a new script, then headed to my ME/CFS specialist to pick up some meds that had been on backorder. Now we are at the mall to get some groceries, meds, and some baking supplies. I decided to go into the grocery store to look at cookie sheets and obviously stayed too long.

In the last day or so, I’ve realized how bad my memory has become in the last year or so. Re-watching movies like Mad Max Fury Road, Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice, and others, I found that I just didn’t remember half the movie. Typically the second half. This morning during a particularly intense conversation I found myself running out of energy quickly, to the point I needed to end the conversation and lie down.