Wednesday, January 29, 2020
For various reasons, when I make or notice changes to my appearance, I publicize the differences. For instance, I always like to provide recent photos, to insure the effects of aging are noted and current.
Over the last two or three years I have allowed my hair to grow out. At the same time, I have not dyed my hair so the advancing gray I wanted to be more a striking accent to my appearance- turned out to be, anything but. Did you see Poltergeist? By the end of the movie, JoBeth Williams' character had striking gray effects in her hair. I think, the natural state of my hair should look more like hers at the end of that movie.
The photos below were taken January 26, 2020 and show the enormous amount of gray in my hair:
That said, I love this brand. I loved how easy it was to apply, I loved the smell, I loved the way my hair felt after blowing it dry, and this morning after I took out the rollers.
The photos below taken this morning after I combed it out (camera flash highlighting the conditioner in my hair, most of the gray covered):
My natural hair color tends to have lighter brown/blonde highlights mixed in with the darker brown. The new color is a bit more auburn (especially where the gray was covered), however I like it.
Sunday, January 26, 2020
On Friday, January 17, 2020, I placed an order with Amazon comprised of the following items, which arrived, Thursday, January 23, 2020.
On Friday, January 18th, a huge spring on one of the garage doors broke and though a relative looked at the door and said it could be used without repair, I decided to research, and have the repair done. It turns out, if the spring is left unrepaired, the release latch that allows for manual operation, is useless because the door is to heavy to lift without the spring and both cables. One of the cables also snapped.
So, for the last week and a half- major projects included:
- Research, purchase and installation of 500 GB Harddrive for mini computer
- More software installed on new mini computer, i.e., Thingamablog, iTunes, etc.
- Garage door repair research
- 2019 Tax Returns (Federal & Maryland) Filed
I needed a new desktop calculator with a small footprint and I am pretty happy with the Casio HR-10RC Printing Calculator I ordered. Below is a 9 second video demonstration of the calculator.
My mother has a slightly larger Casio Printing Calculator (Casio HR-100TM) which is also pretty good, so below, I am providing links to both calculators.
The installation of the Seagate 500GB harddrive was pretty easy, however it did not automatically show up as a new drive. I had to add the device under the Windows Control Panel Hardware tab (showed up as hardware that needed to be added).
These days, storage on harddrives is easy to purchase, and you may notice that I tend to purchase devices with lower storage amounts. This is on purpose. I try to purchase what I think I will need, not how much I can get.
P.S. I also use a Conair 1" Curling Iron which in combination with the items shown, help to keep my curls in place all day.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
I have been researching portable monitors for awhile and finally decided to purchase the Elecrow 10.1" 2K IPS Touchscreen Monitor.
Initially, the touchscreen capability was not a high priority, however overtime decided I would prefer a portable monitor with this option. When I found the Elecrow, several of the features I wanted with a monitor of this type were met, including:
- Touchscreen
- Monitor Size: 10.1 inches
- Screen Resolution: 2560x1600 (2K)
- Cost
The following is a short video demonstrating the Elecrow touchscreen feature.
Video Quality: I shot the videos for this post using my Canon VIXIA HF R700 Camcorder then merged the video files using a 640x480 lower resolution file size. This done mainly to accommodate my web hosting server. The original MP4 file was over 25MB and the converted file less than 10MB.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Recently, I upgraded my Windows 10 work environment from a tablet to a mini Pro environment.
Components of the new system include:
Currently, I develop software using a Macbook and Netbeans. Just for your information, however not related to my software development issues, my Thingamablog blogs are hosted on the Macbook (Remix) and a Windows XP (It's Personal [this blog], Résumé) platform. Thingamablog runs on a local system, i.e., PC or Mac and is written in Java.
The reasons I needed to upgrade this work environment? New security protocols (SSL) my older systems could not handle because newer releases of Java were not supported on the older systems.
The other problem? My Windows 10 tablet did not have enough, in the way of resources, to handle the installation of more recent software development tools.
I installed recent releases of the Java SDK and Netbeans on the new Windows 10 Pro system. This enabled my development environment to handle the newer security protocols being used by today's websites and producers of API and XML data.
Happy to report this upgrade went well, and looking forward to adding a newer Mac Mini to my development environment in the coming year.
Friday, January 03, 2020
In 2019, I had any number of unexpected business related expenses, where I spent more than I originally budgeted, for the year.
Major 2019 Business Expenses
- Replaced my Canon "Point & Shoot" camera with a Canon DSLR (EOS M50)
- Replaced my Android
- Updated a Windows 10 Tablet with a Windows 10 Pro Mini platform
Luckily, this year my family provided holiday gifts in the form of money so I was also able to afford a personal care unit I have always wanted to try.
I did a bit of research before purchasing the BoSidin Permanent Hair Removal System and though quite happy to date, still in the early stages in the use of the unit.
Other considerations as related to the selection of the gift? (1) I am dangerous with a razor blade, though some of the newer technology is pretty good. (2) my cordless razor battery died. (3) I wanted a more permanent solution.
Hope your New Year is off to a great start...
