Calamares is a distro- and desktop-agnostic Linux installer. It’s my day job. It is named for squid, in particular battered squid rings from the Mediterranean sea, Calamares. There’s lots of ways to catch squid and octopuses. One way is to use an octopus trap, and in Japan these have a fairly distinctive shape and are called tako tsubo. There is a specific kind of heart spasm that causes the left ventricle to take on the shape of an octopus trap; this is generally Not Good. Here’s a cute illustration from a squid-lover.

It’s been an education! Thank you to well-wishers who took time to send me email. Things turned out much less serious, and much more squidly, than originally feared. I saw a lot of white coats this week, all competent and friendly and concerned about my mom’s well-being. Got her home in decent shape on friday with a fistful of new prescriptions and doctor’s orders for rest – so that’s what’s planned for her for now.

One of my neighbours is a neurologist, another a cardiological nurse, and they helped me out by repeating what I’d already heard at the hospital – which is useful because then I can say “mom, M says thing as well!” Consistency in messaging is a great help.

So I’m about 60% back on track, reserving the rest of my energy for keeping an eye out on mom. Look for me in merge requests, code reviews, and calamares releases everywhere.

After reading Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith I think I won’t be eating squid and octopus quite so enthusiastically as I did in Greece, anymore.