Thursday, January 11, 2018
It has been very cold here. So cold, that I did not go out until yesterday after about a week inside. I went by my bank on Wednesday, Jan. 3rd 2018. Yesterday, it finally turned warm enough to venture out.
So what have I been up to? Working, sleeping and enjoying entertainment on television and radio.
What else?
- Social Media Posts see here and here.
- Upcoming: "The Girl on the Train" Showtime Saturday, January 13, 2018
- Upcoming: Australian Open January 15-29 2018
- Setting up a Samsung BlueRay player to access the wifi (we use Verizon FiOS) without WPS support. I am not sure why it stopped working-- WPS shows disabled when I connect to the router setup interface. WPS allows the press of a button on the router to connect to any device within range trying to access the service. Without WPS support, this took some time to figure out.
- Last year I used TurboTax to file my taxes. This year I will do the same, however last night I used efile.com to get a general idea of what to expect.
- Updating or creating graphics for projects I am working on. See the sidebar for the Remix blog or this blog, for the new WiredPages Events Graphic & Link. I also had to update the header graphics for one of my Facebook groups and a Facebook page.
- Finding the artists behind some of my new favorite tunes (listed below).
Some of my favorite tunes these days.
- George Tandy, Jr. - Already Love
- Jhene Aiko - While We're Young
- Keyshia Cole - Incapable
- Sam Smith - Too Good At GoodByes
- Izzy Bizu - Diamond
- Johnny Gill - Game Changer
It took me awhile to find the artists behind some of these songs. I tend to listen to "old school" or light jazz so I am not as well versed in what's popular. That said, I know KEM.
Saturday, September 03, 2016
US Open has been on since Monday, so I have been catching a lot of the action on WatchESPN.
Short video describing my setup this afternoon...
Other projects? School started a week ago in my area so I am planning updates to my Amazon Stores for the upcoming Fall and Holiday Seasons... I love Fall.
In addition, yesterday- when I tried to update an application on my Android, I received an insufficient storage message. This the reason I am backing up files to external hard drives and clearing space on several of my systems. Have you had this problem with your Android?
Monday, August 22, 2016
It has been a hot "August" and I have made it hotter with some of my favorite Mexican entrées.
Sunday before last [August 14, 2016], I made enchiladas for lunch/dinner and had the same as leftovers the following Monday and Tuesday.
Today for lunch, I decided to use the leftover flour tortillas to make fajitas. Note: The flour tortillas worked with the enchilada dish however I think I meant to get "soft white corn tortillas" for that dish.
Short video showing how I put together my lunch [fajitas] today [two attempts]:
I have been up to other things, too:
- Saturday's Olympic coverage including the Women's Triathlon.
- Cincinnati Tennis Open, US Open [Tennis] starts next week.
- Last night, the latest episode of "Power" on STARZ
- Watching Bei Bei's [National Zoo's Baby Panda] Birthday Celebrations [August 22nd is his birthday, he is one year old today].
Monday, March 07, 2016
Last week was kind of odd. Little things that were out of the ordinary, however nothing I am going to discuss here.
Things I will discuss?
Thursday morning, I woke up to a beautiful snowy day, that was made even more so, in that all of the snow had melted by noon. This is not odd in our area for this time of the year.
Friday night, I was home alone so I decided to try on sweaters and coats I have not had a chance to wear this winter. Yes, in the photo I purposely poofed up my hair to create a look similar to something I saw earlier in the day, while perusing fashion sites.
The series of photos [above], taken through the weekend and today.
In late February [2016], a regularly scheduled business expense was due, which for the first two months of the year sidelined other purchases I wanted to make. The remittance of the payment last week, to my credit card company, enabled me to feel comfortable about replacing somethings I needed.
I ordered 8 items on Saturday, and much to my surprise the first package arrived today. Shown in the group of photos above, the package that arrived today.
Plans for the rest of the week? Two Masters Tennis Tournaments are upcoming. Indian Wells starts Wednesday and runs through Sunday after next. The Miami Tournament starts the Wednesday after the end of Indian Wells.
I am not sure why these two tournaments are scheduled so closely together, however I plan on catching a lot of the action. WatchESPN and The TennisChannel are providing a lot of the live coverage.
Also tomorrow evening, I want to catch the 2006 movie "Babel" with Brad Pitt. It is airing on Showtime.
I am not getting out as much as I would like, so I provide details of what I am doing... and how it's hanging. This week, I thought I was going to cut back insofar as eating, however my Mother went to the market today, and purchased a lot of my favorites.
Monday, February 15, 2016
I did nothing special for Valentine's Day other than cook.
Saturday evening, I made a butter cake with chocolate buttercream icing. Sunday, after defrosting and braising a huge chuck roast [from Christmas/ we had Pork TenderLoin instead], I put the roast in the slow cooker for three and a half hours. The last half hour I added potatoes and a small whole onion.
Sunday dinner was pretty good, and leftovers even better today for lunch.
Last week, I watched several tennis matches via the TennisChannel and my Android. I have also been watching the Showtime series "Billions, so last night, I watched the fourth episode. The television in my bedroom is not HD so often when the show is after hours-- I watch via my Andriod which provides HD quality. Following graphic shows what I have been watching via my Android.
Several weeks ago- I ordered new sunglasses and they arrived in short order. I am pleased with the glasses even though they are not Ray Bans. I have been sporting them around town... [bank, photos for a business project, minor errands..].
Nothing else going on right now. As always, updating my Amazon Stores and other minor research projects.
It's snowing again today-- so I am hoping the two-three inches on the ground will melt with tomorrow's predicted 51° temperatures.
Temperatures--over the weekend mostly in the teens. Nice to stay in and keep warm.
Monday, January 18, 2016
For reasons I am not going into just yet, I did not get around to making enchiladas until today. Reminder, in an earlier post I indicated I would be making them last week. And then it was almost a disaster, anyway.
However, it worked out and they were pretty good.
It's about 6:40 here in the evening and in about 20 minutes I am going to continue watching live first round action from the Australian Open via watchESPN.
Saturday night, I checked [via OverDrive] the status of the books I have on hold at Maryland's Digital eLibrary-- thinking if I found nothing to do during the day these next two weeks [plan on watching a lot of the tennis in the evening], I could catch up on my reading.
Since I am still in a holding pattern insofar as the books, things I will probably do instead:
- Update my Amazon Stores, have a small issue with the Amazon widget in the upper area of this blog's sidebar that I want to research.
- Continue to research Hanover Businesses.
- Have fun with my Instagram account.
- Fill in my Australian Open draw sheets. I hate wasting toner for updated PDF draws, so I normally fill them in to get a better idea of what's next.
Believe it or not, I just received notification that one of the ebooks is now available.
Should be a good week.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Out of bed at 12:20 pm today. Asleep by 10:45 pm last night, up again at 4:07 am this morning [not on purpose, however watched part of the ATP Sydney Final]. Then up and about after twelve noon. This is very unusual for me. I feel rested now, but it was a hard morning.
Anyway, tomorrow evening I plan on watching several of the early round matches from the Australian Open via ESPN.
Of course, since the Australian Open is one of four Grand Slams, prize money is higher than that for most of the other types of professional tennis tournaments. Australian Open prize money [AUD currency] break-down and points for the 2016 tournament:
Shown, screen-grabs of the 2016 Men's Singles Draw.
Use the links below to print or save to file- this year's draws you wish to track.
The prize-money spreadsheet shown above was created using the OfficeSuite Pro App on my Android.
You can find the specific OfficeSuite Pro App for your device using one of these links: Apple App Store, Google Android App Store
Initially, I installed the non-Pro version of OfficeSuite, however found I could do more insofar as staying compatible with Microsoft Office Suite Tools and their file formats by upgrading to the OfficeSuite Pro version.
Here are the links for the non-pro version of OfficeSuite: Apple App Store, Google Android App Store
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Lately, I have been so tired that I have done very little. Over the last two days, I felt pretty good, however the seven days prior- too tired. Too much noise at night that I cannot escape from. FBI, I need relief from this, in that it is beginning to amp up, again. This is too invasive, too hard and too unfair.
That said, I did get a couple of things done. My Mother and I, both have extensive brass collections and when we combined them-- those collections became even larger.
I have discussed the set of brass fish in the main bath before, however earlier in the week I finally found a set that is very similar so I added it to my Amazon Store under the Brass category.
What have I been doing since waking this morning [out of bed at 9:00 am or so, this is late for me]:
- Paid my Verizon cell phone bill
- Lunch
- Updated the blog I maintain at qisoftware.wordpress.com with my Gravatar photo. See note below.
- Noting the Oscar News and posting to my Tumblr account.
You may have noticed, more of my accounts [i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Patch, about.me, blogher.com, etc.] are now using the same profile photo. The photo was taken in the Summer of 2015 and originally posted in this blog entry.
The Australian Open begins Sunday, so this morning I also captured the screen-grab shown below. ESPN and the TennisChannel will be carrying a lot of the action.
Of course, most of the live action can only be seen between 8:00 pm and 6:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.
The fact that I been watching some of the early action from other down-under tournaments, these last two weeks- have anything to do with my lack of sleep? No. See the photo from the last post. I am extremely tired in that photo. It was taken last Saturday, January 9th, 2016. Compare the photos from August and last Saturday. Both are untouched. I have complained about being tired before. A photo of me taken today [where my eyes are lifted], does not look as tired. Why is this still happening? What really bothers me? I was so tired, but could not sleep. Then at last Wednesday, no problems. This morning, I slept because I stayed in bed late. The problem has been ongoing since about 4:00 this morning. I need this to go away... Please look into this. I am too tired with this constant hammering.
Could someone check with old prison guards. My earpiece was put in sometime around 1995. I am told they stopped using that version because it was too dangerous. I am being tortured by crazy people. Please check.
There should be tapes, that show the constant drum on my heart can cause me to fall asleep within hours of my waking. There should also be tapes of the constant hammering that keeps me awake at night. This is not on my heart. Massaging my heart puts me to sleep. Should a console in a house within a block of me-- be able to do that?
On tuesday, I could not sleep and yet I could barely keep my eyes open. Please listen to the idiots doing this. I never left my bedroom the whole day. This is dangerous and idiots are doing this... Please listen.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Staying busy with various tasks. Think I need to get outside and do something about the gardens.
Specifically:
- Updating Amazon Stores--- thinking Fall and Technology.
- Researching technical issues as related to the latest software innovations.
- Movie: Tart
- Myriad of cosmetic changes to sites and online profiles.
- Professional tennis action through the Asian swing- [WTA/ATP Tournaments].
Sunday, September 27, 2015
This week, installed Windows10 on my Mother's HP Notebook. Insured Java Applet Tools like the Blogger Calendar on this blog-- run on her system. Updated the Internet Options Advanced Settings which were reset when the new Windows version was installed.
I have noticed that some of the latest releases of browsers [e.g. Chrome] for the Windows platforms are moving away from support of Java Applets. Oracle/Java addresses this issue here and here.
Macbooks, Mac Minis and other Apple Products [desktops and Macbooks] are not having the same issues with Applets and browser support. The Apple Safari Browser continues to support Java Applets.
Unfortunately, I need my tools and widgets to work with all platforms, so in the future I will be rewriting a lot of the tools using only Java Servlet Technology and not the combination of Java Applets and server-side Servlets.
That said, when I start updating my sites again, I will also need to branch around any Java Applets still in use [not sure what I will do about the Blogger Calendar], to support mobile devices like iPads, Androids and other mobile devices, e.g. cell phones. Some of you may have noticed when on your mobile devices, and visiting some of my site areas-- there are missing plugins. These are the Java Applets that tablets, iPads and phones do not support.
Another issue with my Mother's updated system? She seems particularly put out, one of her games, Hearts is no longer available with Windows10. I am still looking for an alternative she likes.
Other things I have been doing [or will be doing]:
- Tennis: Wuhan and China Open [Major]. WatchESPN covering a lot of the action, though most of it early morning. TennisChannel picking up rebroadcasts.
- Continuing minor cosmetic updates to site elements- mainly on the blogs.
- Upcoming: The Affair on Showtime resumes Sunday, Oct. 4th, 2015. Check your local listings.
- Verizon FiOS carried live coverage of the Pontiff's visit, so I caught a bit of that. I have never noticed FiOS dedicating several channels to an event of this type and it was kind of neat. Rebroadcasts are scheduled for at least the next couple of days..
- A number of business related tasks. Check out the Remix blog.
- Researching for the Amazon Stores.
Tuesday, September 08, 2015
I am a little worried about my weight. I have been trying on different things for the upcoming change of seasons-- however not really happy with the results. I am not sure what I am going to do about this problem.
That said, here are recent photos:
Check list of things I have been up to, some related to the photos above.
- Watching the US Open, ends Sunday. Are you watching the Quarterfinal between Serena and Venus this evening at 7:00 ET?
- Found a pair of brass earrings in a craft box in the basement. Mother said, "finders keepers"-- so I am happy.
- Repaired one of the servlets which allows me to track [via Excel spreadsheets] pro tennis players' earnings.
- Replaced the Verizon FiOS Set Top Box in the kitchen [again]. Started rebooting on its own [abstract noise indicating something else].. and finally died.
- Stretched my Anne Klein Brown Suede Booties [see here]. They did not have the nines [purchased a couple of years ago], so I got the 8.5's, which are a little snug. Blow dryer and socks- works.
- Updating my Amazon Stores-- here and here.
I am getting little things done-- so I am in good spirits [always feels good when I can check something off my "to do" list], however becoming more preoccupied with my weight. I wanted to hold off on a major purchase until... but feel I really need to get a new treadmill, ASAP.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Well its finally US Open time. I plan to catch most of the action live- on The Tennis Channel, ESPN and WatchESPN [via my tablet].
In case you don't know, this year is a little special in that Serena Williams is going for her fourth Grand Slam tournament win of the year, having already won the Australian, French and Wimbledon. This is called a "Grand Slam" of Tennis, because all 4 Grand Slam tournaments are won in the same calendar year. This has not been achieved since Steffi Graf did it in 1988.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Yesterday, I gave my sister her birthday gift, the arrangement of plants. She liked it. Saturday, I paid my cell phone bill. This morning, I paid the quarterly web hosting bill for qisoftware.com and balanced my checking account. I am happy all of my financial obligations for August have been paid or purchased and I have a little left over.
Just finished a pork chop and macaroni and cheese for lunch. It was very good.
Other things I have been up too:
- Movie: "The Giver", Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges
- Last week watched the Western & Southern Tennis Open
- Waiting for the US Open-- starts next Monday. The US Open has one of the largest prize offerings of any of the major tennis tournaments. See graphic below.
- Updated my Amazon Stores.
I am pretty happy with my first online order of plants, however as you
can see in one of the photos below, there is a little mold on one of
the plants. It should be easy to remove that leaf. All in all, the
plants were healthy, ready to bloom and beautiful.
News from Washington? Not sure what they are doing.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
I have two groups and several pages on Facebook [FB]. They include:
- High School Alumni Group
- Thingamablog Bloggers Group
- Hanover, MD Businesses page, amongst several.
Though I always have minor tasks as related to the Alumni Group, i.e., handling new member requests or deleting posts that other members dislike, I seldom work on my other FB pages or groups-- that is until recently.
A couple of weeks ago, a Hanover business owner "liked" the Hanover Businesses page so I decided to update the graphics. I also added a graphical link to the sidebar of this blog.
In other news, as I explained in a recent post- I am giving my sister a plant arrangement for her birthday- which she will get over the weekend. Unfortunately, I over watered the "spider" type plant a bit and the roots became soggy. I think I saved it, however I did have a backup plan if I needed it.
In any case, along with a photo of the plant as it looked about an hour ago, I have included other recent photos.. breakfast yesterday, etc.
The first photo [top left], is of a bloom on a tree my mother and I planted years ago. I no longer know the name of the tree-- so if you do, please drop me a line.
I also ordered Farberware baking sheets for the convection oven that I am pretty pleased with [photo lower left].
Other things I have been up to?
- Watching Rogers Cup Tennis [last week]
- Watching Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati [this week]
- Waiting for the US Open to begin [August 31st. 2015]. Are you going?
- Updating my Amazon Stores
News Washington? Nothing to report.
Monday, August 03, 2015
Last Thursday, I went by the bank so while out- I snapped several photos for a project I have been thinking about.
Awhile back [2010], I started a Facebook Page for Hanover, MD Businesses [sort of an unofficial Chamber of Commerce]. I really did not do much with the page over the years and just recently, thought I would start updating again.
Background: Arundel Mills the mega outlet mall opened November 2000 and since then many new businesses or franchises have opened.
In June 2012, the Maryland Live Casino opened.
The area [also where I reside, i.e., Hanover, MD], has experienced exponential growth, so in 2010 when I started the Facebook Page, I thought I would ask local businesses to "Like" the page and post their events or sites. Of course, there exists an official Chamber of Commerce [for a larger area], however I thought Hanover MD [with the many new businesses to the area] could justify an unofficial Facebook Page. That said, I simply did not do anything else with the page. Then a couple of weeks ago, a local business "Liked" the page.. I and I thought.. "goody" something new to work on....
I snapped more photos on Friday and incorporated them into the cover illustration I have been working on. Here is how the page looks as of this morning.
Okay, so what else have I been up to?
- Sent off for a Press Pass [in case I need one-- someday].
- Watched a myriad of Tennis Tournaments including the ATP Atlanta and Hamburg Opens.
- Watched: STARZ's Power Series and HBO's True Detective.
- Updating my Amazon Stores. Have you noticed the trend in retro dresses? I really like this style. I am also going to start watching my diet.
I thought this arena looked so inviting:
The Citi Tennis Open [Washington] and Bank of the West Open [Stanford, CA] begin today, so later I will be catching live action on WatchESPN and the Tennis Channel.
Are you from the area? Are you going to the Citi Tennis Open?
Monday, July 27, 2015
The Washington Citi Open Tennis Tournament will start Monday, August 3rd, 2015. I have attended and thoroughly enjoyed this tournament in the past, and wish I could be there [in person]- this year.
That said, The TennisChannel is covering a lot of the action, so I will catch many of the matches on live television.
Both, Men [ATP] and Women [WTP] will be in action, starting Monday. It should be interesting. Shown, Prize Money highlight.
Other things I have been up too?
- Keeping up with STARZ's Power and HBO's True Detective.
- Online shopping [I will show you later].
- Updating my Amazon Stores.
This morning, I made the Fruit Tart shown.
Last week I could not decide if I wanted cupcakes or a fruit tart for my birthday. I had cupcakes. This week, I will have the tart. I have made this [tart] before and shown the results. This year I did not allow the blueberry sauce to thicken as much, nevertheless it was pretty good. See video from Great Chefs- Fruit Tarte.
News from Washington? Always, just nothing I wish to report.
