BBQ, Robotics, Martial Arts, GOG
By Derek | November 26, 2019
A good Tuesday. (26th)
Exercise first thing.
Lunch. BBQ Frito Pie.
One of our Robotics family’s kids got sick this morning, so they didn’t come, and another of our families are on vacation, so we had a very small turnout today. Still, got some work done on the Middle School robot. The drive unit is coming along.
Martial arts for they younger son tonight. While I waited for that, I worked on re-starring my music collection. My favorite playlist is my 4 and 5 star songs with the least play count. Turns out, I have a ton of good music in my library that have 0 stars, so I’m going through and picking out a bunch of songs at a time and setting them arbitrary to 4 stars. That will put them on my list temporarily, and allow me to listen to them, so that I can filter through each one and set it where it needs to be — either 3 stars if I want to hear it only when I listed to the artist or album, or 2 stars if I want to rarely listen to it.
Worked on a couple different customer’s systems tonight, for remote monitoring, just doing some routine check-ups and validation. Discovered that we need to be setting Windows Update’s Active Hours setting, to ensure that the system doesn’t restart on our customers when the system should be in use.
Installed GOG Galaxy 2 Beta on my gaming PC. It integrates all the PC-based launchers and shows you your games and friends across multiple platforms. Right now, it’s closed beta (invite only) but it seems to work well, so hopefully they’ll open it up soon to everyone. It’s very cool to see all my games (Epic / GOG / Origin / Steam / UPlay / Xbox) from one menu, and launch them from one place, well, at least for the PC versions of the games, not for the console versions.
Time for bed.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Food, Games, Health, Me, Microsoft, Music, Technology | No Comments »
Lost Ember, PT, Errands, Laptop
By Derek | November 25, 2019
A good Monday. (25th)
Woke up to still waiting on my Lost Ember video to process on YouTube. ?
Physical therapy first thing this morning.
Ran around and did a bunch of errands after that. Checked out a panaderia (Mexican Bakery) down the street, bought a few pastries and a Mexican Coke for myself and Jill.
Played Lost Ember yesterday. Finished the storyline, although I haven’t gone back through and tried to find all the collectables. I really, really enjoyed it. My play through video finally exported to YouTube properly (5h21m).
Worked on a customer’s new laptop, remotely. Got it all set up.
Time for bed.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Games, Health, Me | No Comments »
Excercise, Home Improvement, Shopping, Lost Ember
By Derek | November 24, 2019
A good Sunday. (24th)
Slept in a bit this morning. Got up and exercised first thing, though.
Swapped/reversed the dryer door, so that it points the correct way for our laundry room. Now it opens on the washer side. That will make life easier, and only took about 10 minutes.
Biscuits and gravy for lunch.
Made a trip to the library.
Had to run to CostCo to get gas for the car, and groceries for us.
A trip to Oreilly’s for license plate lights.
Time for dinner.
Played Lost Ember. Streamed it, and completed it. I’ll be posting the URL soon. I pushed the Twitch video to YouTube before I went to bed, but when I woke up, it still wasn’t done processing.
Topics: Auto, Entertainment, Family, Games, Health, Home Improvement, Me | 1 Comment »
Work, Cleaning, Lost Ember
By Derek | November 23, 2019
A good Saturday. (23rd)
Regular work day for me. Got up late due to staying up too late last night.
Didn’t have time to exercise before work.
Worked on the house some with Jill today, getting it ready for my parent’s visit for thanksgiving. They’ll be staying in our bedroom while they are here.
Forgot that Lost Ember released yesterday. It’s a game I kickstarted, and can be found here ( https://www.lostember.com/ ) on several platforms. I added it to my Steam Library tonight, hopefully I’ll get a chance to play it this weekend.
Our family friend who’s staying with us cooked for us, made a kind of stir fry with rice. It was really good, we had an Indian-style spicy green sauce to put on it.
Exercised before bed, pretty tired.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Food, Friends, Games, Health, Me, Photos, Work | No Comments »
Exercise, Work, Movies, Friends
By Derek | November 22, 2019
A great Friday. (22nd)
Exercise, first thing.
Regular work day for me. Switching back and forth between my two projects today. Got some good work done.
Started watching Night Watch ( https://reelgood.com/movie/night-watch-2004 ).
Had some friends over for dinner, and to hang out. We had some of Jill’s enchiladas for dinner, then we watched a very strange movie, Bronson ( https://reelgood.com/movie/bronson-2008 ).
Talked about the Tesla Cybertruck. It’s very Blade Runner. A couple of our friends really like it. I think it’s pretty neat, but I also noticed that it doesn’t have any Tesla logo on the front, so I’m not sure that what they showed isn’t just a concept, and the released one might be different. News outlets are saying it won’t enter manufacturing until the end of 2021. Almost two years out.
I was already thinking, and discussed this with friends, that they wouldn’t release it until they have the new battery chemistry ready. The rumored battery tech that will allow battery charging to ~80% in about 5 minutes. That’s when a truck makes sense. People are going to want to haul trailers and go camping with this thing, not just drive it around town. You can’t really do that with today’s battery tech.
Stayed up way too late talking before everyone left.
Topics: Auto, Entertainment, Family, Food, Friends, Health, Me, Movies, Photos, Technology, Work | No Comments »
Work, Potato, MST3K, Cybertruck
By Derek | November 21, 2019
A good Thursday. (21st)
Got up at regular time to exercise.
Regular work day. Mostly worked on my secondary documentation project.
Had a BBQ potato for lunch. Yummy.
Found a new crazy movie that I’m gonna have to watch. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians ( https://reelgood.com/movie/santa-claus-conquers-the-martians-1964 ). Apparently, it’s streaming in several places, but also available here: ( http://publicdomainmovies.net/movie/santa-clause-conquers-the-martians )
Martial arts for our younger son tonight. He’s got his last test of the year coming up the first of December, he’ll be testing for blue belt (second time).
You might not want to bother with the actual version of the aforementioned “film” — unless you are a sucker for punishment. The good news is that Tubi.tv has the MST3K version of it available, as well. That one is watchable, at least. Oof.
Watched the Tesla Cybertruck reveal. It’s certainly interesting. My wife thinks it’s ugly, she hates it. To me, it’s neat that they can develop a new vehicle “under wraps” without the secret getting out now. The artist’s renderings plastered all over the internet look nothing like this thing. I call it a sports car tank that can carry things.
Off to bed.
Topics: Auto, Entertainment, Food, Health, Me, Movies, Technology | No Comments »
Blade Runner, PT, Work, MIB
By Derek | November 20, 2019
A good Wednesday. (20th)
Today was Blade Runner day. Today is the day the original 1982 movie takes place in the future. Welcome to THE FUTURE everyone! Wait. Dang it.
Physical therapy. After PT came home and ate some biscuits and gravy for lunch that Jill made. Yummy!
Regular workday for me. Got quite a bit done on my secondary documentation project.
After work, worked on my Plex server a bit, and then watched MIB. I know, right? MIB on Blade Runner day. Weird.
Time for bed.
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Exercise, BBQ, Robotics, Martial Arts, Dryer
By Derek | November 19, 2019
A productive Tuesday. (19th)
Got up kind of late, but exercised first thing.
Lunch, then Robotics.
The kids decided to skip Wonder League today, due to the fact that we have a Vex competition coming up soon, and they need more time building on their robots.
Martial arts for our younger son.
Once we got back from that, our friend and I worked on converting our “new” dryer from a rear vent to a side vent. Had to go to Lowe’s and get a chisel. Forgot to buy duct tape while we were there and had to go to Walmart to get some. Lowe’s had already closed or we would have gone back, as they are closer.
Pulled the old dryer out, and slid the new dryer into place. Plugs in perfectly and fires up. The side vent slots right into the wall. As this wasn’t a new dryer for us, it was pre-owned, it had a bunch of dryer lint down in the trap that we had to scoop out. It’s filter is in the bottom front inside, but below the door.
Also, the door points the wrong way for the room we have it in. Reversing the door looks like a project for another day.
Time for bed, I have work & physical therapy tomorrow.
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Food, Friends, Health, Home Improvement, Me, Photos, Robotics, Technology | No Comments »
Movies, iPhone, Computer
By Derek | November 18, 2019
A good Monday. (18th)
Kicked around the house mostly.
Watched a couple of movies with Jill.
Went to help my older son get his new phone set up. He moved from an iPhone 5s to an iPhone 7 Plus.
Helped our friend tweak some more settings on his streaming PC.
Went to bed way too late.
Topics: Apple, Entertainment, Family, Friends, Me, Microsoft, Movies, Technology | No Comments »
Lunch, Pokemon, Tree
By Derek | November 17, 2019
A good Sunday. (17th)
Got up late-ish.
At some left over enchiladas for lunch, kind of skipped breakfast.
Went to play Pokemon Go with Jill, our younger son, and our friends from the BBQ restaurant we frequent. The owners are who got us into Pokemon Go in the first place.
Found a cool tree at a park where we were walking around at. I’ve posted some pics of it.
Side View 
Roots and Bones 
Hollow Under The Tree
Topics: Entertainment, Family, Friends, Games, Me, Photos | No Comments »