My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on February 18, 2019

The struggle continues for me to listen to music that isn’t 40+ years old; it is too easy to let my music taste to fall back into my “oldies” rut. I will keep reminding myself that this year’s plan is to try to highlight at least some music from this century.

This Music Monday’s band is Train and below are a couple memorable songs. Unless you live under a rock, you’ll know these two Train hits featuring the band’s co-founder Patrick Monahan singing lead (photo left). Their songs are easy to recall, even if you haven’t been a long term fan of this San Francisco based American rock band.

Category: Music | No Comments »
Tags: calling all angels, drops of jupiter, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, patrick monahan, train

Posted By RichC on February 17, 2019

Impressive safety advancements in car safety as a crash near the end of the Daytona 500 wiped out 12 cars. All drivers were fine and red flagged race has Toyota cars leading strong Ford and Chevrolet Cup cars waiting for a restart with 9 laps to go.

A long slow ending … but great 2nd Daytona win for Denny Hamlin. (more…)

Category: Automotive, Entertainment, Photos, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: crash, daytona500, nascar, racing, wreck

Posted By RichC on February 17, 2019

Like clockwork, it was time to either renew or cancel SiriusXM (again). I refuse to pay the month to month rate with them or the very few newspaper/magazine subscriptions I still use that does the same thing. Thankfully I marked my calendar with a notification as to the last day to cancel service … otherwise the subscription contract automatically renews at the higher rate (something I know from experience) … and then as expected they extended a better offer so as not to lose a customer. It would be nice if Amazon Prime and Netflix will do the same, or for that matter, Internet/Cable TV providers!

Now, I do use the service in my car and more than ever on the iPhone with my Aftershokz headphones… and most recently on the Amazon Echo devices … to stream the FoxBusiness channel (as well as occasional music channels).  As expected, SiriusXM offered an extension of their current promo, but this time it came with an unexpected surprise … a free Amazon Echo 3rd Gen device ($49.99), plus shipping and handling as indicated by the promo disclosure. To make this even a bigger surprise, after plugging in the promotional code to my Prime account, the shipping was $0.00. Such a deal … if you need another Echo device (Hm, maybe I’ll take it to Florida)? 

Category: Advice, Alexa, Audio, Cellphone, Entertainment, Music, Shopping, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: Alexa, amazon, deals, DOT, echo, prime, promo, siriusxm, streaming, subscriptions

Posted By RichC on February 16, 2019

Another wonder day spent with the ones I love, and a little one who definitely returns the love; now that’s the way to enjoy a Valentine’s Day!

Brenda and I headed to Katelyn and Drew’s in Perrysburg this past week and spent Valentine’s Day with Annalyn. I of course played the entire day, while Brenda, with Annalyn’s help, worked on making a special dinner to serve on Annalyn’s new kid-sized table when mommy and daddy got home from work (photo above- one of our our Christmas gift to her).  We all had a great time, although I was tired out!
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Category: Archive, Personal, Photos, Video | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, babysitting, bompa, brenda, drew, family, fort, katelyn, mp4, oma, perrysburg, richc, valentine's day

Posted By RichC on February 15, 2019

Same photo with min aperture option and maximum. Note Bokek effect.

On a recent trip, I happened to break my favorite pair of polarized sunglasses, so am using them as one last prop before tossing them in the trash … they have been epoxied and “jerry-rigged” (correct use of the term) together one too many times.

The advanced camera available on the new iPhone Xs and Xs Max has my iPhone 7 plus feeling a little old in the tooth. One of the neat A12 chip plus new software features is the ability to modify the blur of a background (selective focus in traditional photography) after the shot — Apple calls this Depth Control.

So instead of coughing up over $1000 for a new iPhone, I opted to download a new app: Focos. The app enables a few more DSLR feature for a bokeh effect.

The Focos app has a free version and a paid version ($11.99) that gives older iPhones with duel cameras to edit photos taken in the “portrait mode” to be aperture adjusted.

Currently I’ve only downloaded the free version and edited a couple previously portrait photos, but  will have to see a bit more from it before I purchase the paid version.

Category: Advice, Apple, Cellphone, Photography, Photos, Software | No Comments »
Tags: app, apple, drew, focos, iphone, iphone7plus, katelyn, mode, portrait, testing

Posted By RichC on February 14, 2019

It may be a quirky Valentine’s Day gift, but Brenda tossed our alarm clock of 36+ years into the trash a couple months ago saying, “I don’t trust it anymore.” I was relatively happy to see it go since the “honk, honk, honk” of the alarm was the most annoying alarm ever.

Besides, I’ve been using my phone for years now and we both agreed that we much prefer waking up gently to music over the “honk,” but depending on how she sets hers, it occasionally is muted or the volume is set too low.

So … since we’ve already opened our house to Amazon’s virtual assistant platform with a few Echo Dots and one bigger Echo … I reluctantly decided to go the next step and use Alexa as our alarm clock. I shopped and found a new  iHome iAV2B Alarm Clock for $35 on Ebay and we will see if it passes for a Valentine’s Day gift? (FYI … I know better … it won’t) 

Category: Alexa, Audio, Holiday, Innovation, Personal, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: alarm, Alexa, ani gif, clock, echo, ihome, nightstand, valentine, valentine's day

Posted By RichC on February 13, 2019

For those of us who grew up working on cars pre-Internet, the Haynes Manuals were one of the “go-to” sources on how to fix automobiles … or at least a particular brand and model of car. Last week  John Haynes, the founder of the publishing company, passed away at 80 years old.

Although I also have a few Bentley manuals and still have my original Chilton’s generic repair manual, the Haynes manuals were the ones that I remembered and relied on the most. I still have (and use) the one John is holding in this photo for my MGB … and a couple for my Mercedes 300D Turbodiesel too.

The online offerings and many free videos have mostly replaced the softback manuals that usually end up grease smudged and dogeared, but I still have a weak spot in my heart for those printed on paper … of course I also grew up working for newspapers and started a printing company!

25th March 1938 to 8th February 2019

 

John Haynes, the entrepreneur and creator of the Haynes Manual, founder of the Haynes Publishing Group PLC and the Haynes International Motor Museum passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on the evening of Friday 8th February, aged 80, after a short illness. John was a kind, generous, loving and devoted husband, brother, father and grandfather, who will be missed enormously.

(more…)

Category: Automotive, Education, Misc, Obituary | No Comments »
Tags: 300d, automotive, bentley, car, chiltons, john haynes, manual, mgb, obit, Obituary, publishing, repair