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Mon Feb 14 06:00:01 EST 2022 ======================================== Slept from ten to six. Woke briefly around four. Partly cloudy early in the morning then becoming mostly cloudy. Scattered snow showers in the afternoon. Highs around 20. Southwest winds 5 to 25 mph decreasing to 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Chance of snow 50 percent. Lowest wind chill readings 5 below to 5 above zero in the morning. # Work * ✓ give notice to Meir * ✓ notify Julie of my departure * ✓ investigate Resident Verify dispute * ✓ alarm contact for Kensington Court for Lynn at Alltronics? * ✓ fix Certbot alerts from Friede * ✓ investigate WN automatic screening issue * ✓ work on hand-off document * ✓ order laptop and dock for SH service manager * ✓ move more IPsec tunnels to new fiber Strangely, I don't feel any sense of elation from resigning. A little queasy feeling, even, like I just stepped off a cliff, although I know rationally that this is a positive change. Levi Williams, our long-time Entrata account manager, got a new job too. Forty-minute walk at lunch. Mostly sunny and cold. In the afternoon, Meir sent a polite, even cordial, response to my resignation email. # Home Took out trash. https://openthemagazine.com/lounge/books/the-sword-and-the-stylus/ > In Herat a man can’t stretch his leg without touching a poet’s backside. > > […] > > North of the City of Victory, the Deccan was fragmented into a patchwork of small but culturally dynamic Shia Muslim Sultanates, the most cosmopolitan of which was Bijapur. The Nujum al Ulum, or Stars of Science, is a typical Bijapuri production of the period. It is a grimoire, or book of spells, which brings together the astrology of mediaeval Islamic and Hellenistic worlds and mixes it with the mystical Indic astrology of Vijayanagar. The Nujum is full of invocations of spirits and demonesses as well as esoteric musings on such subjects as the celestial levels, the nature of angels, sorcery and the signs of the Zodiac. It blends astronomy, mysticism and politics in a text that gives a remarkably heterodox vision of mediaeval Indian courtly culture. Hindu goddesses are placed next to Muslim astronomical symbols. Tantric methods of summoning gods into mandala diagrams are crossed with Middle Eastern techniques for summoning djinns. There follows a concluding section of love spells, one for each day of the week. > > […] > > Humayun, meanwhile, was sent straight ahead to Agra. As Babur noted, when his son took the surrender of the family of Bikramjit, the Raja of Gwalior, who were in Agra at the time, ‘they made him a voluntary offering of a mass of jewels and valuables, amongst which was the famous diamond which [Sultan] Ala’ ud-Din [Khalji] must have brought. Its reputation is that every appraiser has estimated its value at two and half day’s food for the whole world. Apparently it weighs 8 misqals… Humayun offered it to me when I arrived in Agra. I just gave it back.’ Servings: grains 1/6, fruit 2/4, vegetables 1/4, dairy 0/2, meat 1/3, nuts 0/0.5 Breakfast: banana, carrots, naan and chicken sandwich, coffee Lunch: orange Dinner: potato chips

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