Presentation by Taylor and time with our granddaughters
Posted By RichC on March 26, 2023
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Many of us have a love/hate relationship with computers
Posted By RichC on March 25, 2023
Much of Friday was spend trying to recover tax oriented data that has been on the Windows virtual drive on my iMac computer. Earlier this year, I started taxes and had been slowly adding data and archiving items in a folder so I could file taxes this year. 
All the downloads were in place and everything was running as it should … except my back-up plan was ONLY Apple’s TimeMachine.
During a recent Windows update, I suspect the computer either went off or did a restart based on something on the Mac OS side. I really wasn’t paying attention. BUT in the end, the “blue screen” popped up on a restart and continued as I pursued every possible troubleshooting angle in order to repair the virtual drive and reboot Windows10. It didn’t work.
So back to re-installing the last good Windows.pvm (Parallels) version … or so I thought. The backup is on a USB 2.0 drive (slow) and after a full night of recovery, wasn’t far enough back to work. UGH! I’m in the process of trying again and will restore overnight tonight. Crossing my fingers as I’m already in the process of trying to figure out what to do if this doesn’t work.
Friday Filler: Did someone ask the gardener to smile?
Posted By RichC on March 24, 2023
Who among us wouldn’t smile back at this unique plant? 
Very unusual looking to say the least?
Although Friday Filler — or is it Filler Friday(?) — isn’t really a thing on MyDesultoryBlog, it does tend to be a way for to fill space on Friday with a Filler Foto when there’s 
no time to write or post.
Although it could have been a flower with lips (see Urban Garden Seed.com).
Catching up on family photos from the previous week #TBT
Posted By RichC on March 23, 2023
As is the norm for most of today’s families, sending text messages and photos is one way we stay connected. Last week Katelyn sent a photo 
of the girls snacking out of the back of her Volkswagen Tiguan and it reminded me of the times we did the same with our kids … and also with our granddaughters the past couple of summers.
As a family, we often “tailgated” on trips in the 1990s. Back then I drove a couple of leased Toyota 4-Runners on vacations and our hiking trips … which reminds me of the Nalgene bottle conversation with Katelyn … and the photo on my desk (below). When hiking this past summer in the Canadian Rockies, she felt it was time for me to retire my old bottle … but then after seeing this photo, she understood why it is more than a water bottle to me — definitely Throwback Thursday #TBT kind of memories!
Archive: Homemade band sander idea for the workshop
Posted By RichC on March 22, 2023
Although it looks like A LOT of work, I appreciated the construction design and quality of a homemade band sander. The plans are available, but a bit pricey considering there are sanders available AND someone who can weld and paint this up … can probably work from this photo to build one for their garage or workshop?
Modifying my blog and another MacBook Air Desultory update
Posted By RichC on March 21, 2023
When working with Bing‘s webmaster tools, I noticed that some search results for MyDesultory Blog.com were missing. After a bit of reading, it looks as if I may have crammed too much into the index HTML page? According to their guidelines (it doesn’t impact other search engines), a heavy index page (+125KB) removes a website from their indexing.
So, I’m going to try lighting up the homepage by removing the “tag cloud” and long list of “recent posts” that were at the bottom. Hopefully it is not a commonly looked at feature (more for my own shortcuts) and that it will help thin down my HTML. If it doesn’t bring the site back into Bing’s good graces, perhaps it is time to eliminate the growing and unused list of tags and categories?
On a further expansion of my spending and new computer build-out, I’ve added a new 15.6” IPS $99 portable CocoPar-brand display (Amazon “renewed” model – Gulp!) It is powered from the Thunderbolt/USB-C port on the MacBook Air M2 and will hopefully travel with me to give me added display space. It is nearly impossible to duplicate my two 27″ monitors, but having to try to do everything on the MacBook was not comfortable. Hopefully this will help as my small iPad on Apple Sidecar was not cutting it?
Also I’ve give up on trying to get comfortable with the Mac OS Stage Manager feature and am going back to just running multiple Desktops/Spaces to keep my windows and deskspaces organized.
Music Monday: “Jackie Blue” – Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Posted By RichC on March 20, 2023
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Truth For Life – Alistair Begg Sermon Series on Jude
Posted By RichC on March 19, 2023
Although I always enjoy the Truth For Life website as a daily devotional, I am especially enjoying the archived sermon series on Jude by Alistair Begg.
Since it is an ongoing series in 2023, I’m looking forward to the next message as the last three weeks have been so applicable to current events … and the issues facing churches, and in turn family life as it relates to “cultural progressivism” in today’s society.
Check out the well organized Sermon Archive starting with The Letter of Jude on February 27, 2023.
Bought an external 1TB SSD for the new MacBook Air M2
Posted By RichC on March 18, 2023
Even though the new MacBook Air M2 is cloud connected and semi-backing up (to iCloud, gDrive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc) … it is still uncomfortable to be loading up and using a new notebook computer for traveling without physically backing up files. In particular, setting up the built in Apple TimeMachine software in case the computer needs to be restored … apps, operating system and all. Yes… it happened once-upon-a-time on the iMac.
So … for $80, I opted to add a small “hopefully” reliable 1 TB Samsung SSD USB-C drive and created 2 partitions — one for archiving larger off-computer files like raw video and audio — and the larger one for TimeMachine backups. So far it is working great.
Tech Friday: A week of tinkering with a new MacBook Air M2
Posted By RichC on March 17, 2023
It has been almost a week and I’m slowly getting comfortable with my new “open box” MacBook Air M2. Everything is working as it should, but there are changes for me in getting comfortable with smaller type and less screen real estate. I suspect a second monitor is 
in my future?
I’ve looked at the Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter in order to plug in my Apple Thunderbolt Display (currently on my iMac), but can’t get myself to spend $50 if I’m really going to want something different when I’m traveling or away from my office and desk. So I’m looking at the portable display powered off the Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port or a dongle hub to add some additional space. I’m just not sure this will be sufficient?
As a test, I’m liking the built-in Apple Sidecar feature that permits me to use my iPad as an additional monitor (photo with my iPad still attached to the Brydge keyboard, just flattened out). It works great and I’m finding myself wishing I would have opted for the 3rd or 4th generation iPad Pro 12.9” model a few year back when I upgraded? On the other hand, if i keep looking around, maybe an older model will become available for cheap???
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.