Sunday, March 16, 2025
The last computer I purchased was in November 2020 just before starting my Maryland Real Estate course. I discuss the purchase in this post.
Since then, I have also purchased the following tablets:
- iPad Mini - May 2022 (related post)
- Samsung Galaxy Android - November 2023 (related post)
Forgot, I purchased a new laptop in November 2022, however it was a holiday gift for my mother.
For work, I primarily use the mini PCs with portable high resolution monitors or one of the tablets. The problem? The mini PCs are not mobile enough and my older laptops and desktops cannot handle today's technology.
Another issue? The space on one of the mini PCs was not adequate enough to handle the Visual Studio installation I wanted to experiment with. Yes, most of my development work (mainly Java) is done with the Netbeans IDE and Xampp, however, I wanted to experiment with Visual Studio on the non-production mini PC.
On both mini PCs I installed additional storage in the form of Seagate 500GB internal hard drives. In addition, both are setup with my software development tools, however, I do not install software tools I only want to experiment with, like Android Studio and Visual Studio on the production mini PC.
All this to say, last week, I ordered a new HP laptop.
New HP Laptop Specs (I paid under $600 on sale):
- Screen Size 14 Inches Touch Screen
- CPU AMD Ryzen 3 Processor (4 cores, 8 threads)
- Hard Disk Size 1 TB high-speed PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
- Ram Memory Size 32 GB
- Operating System Windows 11 Pro
- Display Resolution 1366 x 768 Touch Screen
- Connectivity Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 5
- Various Ports USB A (2), USB C, HDMI, SD
- Included Microsoft Office Lifetime License
- Included HP Original H10H Wireless Earphones
Applications I installed on the new HP Laptop, include:
- Netbeans IDE
- Java
- Php
- c/c++
- Xampp
- MySQL
- Php
- Android Studio
- Git
- Vim
- Microsoft Office 21 Professional (added Access & Publisher)
- Active Presenter
- Print Drivers for Konica Color Laser & Brother Monochrome Fax Laser
- FileZilla
- Canon EOS Camera Utilities
- Visual Studio
- node.js
- Python
- Chrome
- Thunderbird
- Any Video Converter
- FastStone
- Zoom
I am happy, I can pull out this new laptop wherever I am and work on tasks I cannot do on either my tablets or phone. No, the display on the laptop is not the 2560x1600 resolution of my portable monitors, however, I can live with that.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
One of the things I have tried to work on, my appearance in photos, virtual meetings, and videos. Photos are an issue, however not as much as the videos and virtual meetings.
One of the major issues, no matter good, bad, or ugly I have to be able to identify as me. I am concerned with mistaken identity as it relates to legal issues. This the reason I have not attempted to doctor or repaint my photos and videos with some of the new software editing technology.
One of the ways I try to filter my appearance is by using a low resolution video camera for videos and virtual meetings. I discuss my Zoom setup in this post.
Most of my photos are taken with my Canon EOS M50 and I am still trying to figure out how to downplay my big head in the full body shots.
The two photos shown below were taken Thursday evening (March 13, 2025) using my Canon EOS
M50, the first- as I was about to
set my hair. I had a good night's rest
the previous night and tried on my new sandals with different outfits for most
of the day (see last post). I did not have the haggard look I have noticed more often than I
want since mid
January 2025. The second photo, after I finished setting my hair.
This past week, I scheduled a virtual meeting with a business resource and
I was concerned I would have to use my Android Moto phone for the meeting. On
March 7, 2025 (see time stamps in the illustrations below), I ran some tests.
I was not happy, however was very tired and it showed.
I was rather surprised by how much the video editing software on the Android phone could change my appearance. I have never used Botox nor had any type of facial surgery. When I can afford to look better than I do, I am going to invest in good video editing software.
Friday, March 14, 2025
This week, two orders arrived that I am pretty pleased about.
The first, new computer hardware which I will discuss in a later post and a pair of summer sandals I wanted to check out.
- Strappy T-Strap Gladiator Thong Sandal - 2025
- Summer Maxi Dress - 2019
- Plaid Crop Top - 2019
- Thin Leather Belt - 2024
Sandal try-on video:
Saturday, March 08, 2025
This week, I did not leave the house. I did accomplish somethings I wanted to get out of the way, however, not everything turned out as planned.
- Business and personal taxes filed
- Refreshed my hair color
- Setup a business meeting (next week) for a new resource
- Researched ongoing issues with retiring API resources
As I lose more weight, I continue to investigate new ways to wear my old clothes. Below an old dress (late 80s) that I tried on with an old suit jacket and newer light weight sweaters.
Also shown a pair of Nine West slingbacks in a style I love. See this link for more information.
Thinking about having some of the length cut off my hair, however experience suggests, I am not going to be happy. What is the problem? I have to wear headbands to keep my hair in place as I prefer a more layered style. I would like to discontinue this practice.
Saturday, March 01, 2025
Today, while searching through my old large jewelry case (a gift from my father when I was in college), I found my old silver mood ring. The ring was a gift from my parents when we first arrived in Maryland.
I will explain more about the ring, however first let me explain why I was looking through my old jewelry case in the first place.
I wanted a pair of old fashioned flat black button earrings to pair with the outfit shown in one of the following photos.
The photos below show my ring. I forgot I had it. My sister and I got the same ring as Christmas presents, I think the first year we moved to Maryland. It was very popular at the time.
Surprised it fits? Yes, I would have been about eleven when I received the ring as a gift. I think that is why I did not wear it often, I thought it was too big.
Today, when I first took it out of the draw, the stone appeared dark gray and I did not think it would work. I am not sure when it changed to the aqua blue after I put it on, however when I noticed the change, I was happy it still worked.
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
It was bright and sunny yesterday, with a high of 56°. I had several errands to run so I decided on an old dress, boots, and my brown suede jacket.
- Olive Green Dress by Rabbit Designs purchased mid 1980s. See illustration below for more details.
- Nine West Magnett Knee High Chocolate Slouchy Boots
- Brown Suede Jacket - holiday gift 1997 or so.
- Leather Chocolate Thin Belt (link provides only black and caramel versions).
In some of the photos I have on a caramel pump by Sofft, discussed in this post, however, I wore the boots. Also not chosen the caramel leather jacket because it did not pair well with the boots.
