My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on May 2, 2024

Every once in a while there is a doppelgänger photo, person, sculpture or something that reminds me of someone else (software isn’t always accurate). 😉 

Also a few years back, there was a person who reminded me of my brother Ron, so I posted about it. Back October 2011 at my nephew’s wedding, there was a portrait on the wall that looked a bit like my son Taylor at the time … so took a photo (photo right). 

BUT the other day on social media there were a few more uncanny photos that I thought might be worth including on the subject (click each for larger). Impressive. 

Category: Human Interest, Photos, Social Media, TBT, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: doppelgänger, family, look-alike, photo, sculpture

Posted By RichC on May 1, 2024

Both my wife and I drink too many carbonated beverages. For me it is usually Diet Mountain Dew and for Brenda it has always been Diet Pepsi. I scaled bad several times in my life, but ended up right back in the habit of 3+ cans everyday. Brenda seems to be able to turn it off when needed (pregnancies and medical procedures), but hasn’t really considered it a bad or overly harmful habit — although it has most recently become a financial cost (inflation). FYI, she drinks more than 3 per day! 

Over the years, we’ve read article after article on all the “bads” associated with carbonated soft drinks, but have started to send a few articles back and forth to each other in hoping to reduce the number of cans per day we consume. Here’s one Harvard Health article of interest:

Zero weight loss from zero calorie drinks? Say it ain’t so

… If you’re drinking two 12-ounce cans of regular Coke each day, you could eliminate 280 “empty” (non-nutritive) calories by switching to a zero-calorie alternative. Over a month, that’s 8,400 fewer calories, enough to lose almost two and a half pounds. So, what’s the catch?

One worry is that artificially sweetened diet sodas may create a craving for sweet, high-calorie foods. So, even as calorie counts drops from zero-calorie sodas, consumption of other foods and drinks might add back even more. In rodent studies, at least one artificial sweetener (aspartame) has been found to damage a part of the brain that tells the animal when to stop eating.

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Category: Blogs, Financial, Health, Human Interest, Misc, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: beverage, brenda, carbonated, diet mountain dew, diet pepsi, harvard, Health, pop, refreshments, richc, soda

Posted By RichC on April 30, 2024

While uploading a late April 2024 peaceful looking Delray Beach scene from my “aging” iPhone 7 Plus, the distorted panorama photo has me wondering just when it will be time to upgrade? Since my 7 year old smartphone will no longer update a few of the apps due to an old iOS … I do realize that Apple will soon force me to do something (even with the replaced battery last year).

Back to the above pano photo:
Brenda and I had a short but very relaxing trip to Florida to both enjoy the beach and closed the condo for hurricane season. I was able to semi-work half days, took an online option writing course and even sold an ornate 22K gold necklace and earrings I gave to Brenda in the 1990s. She doesn’t wear it so due to gold is selling at near $2400 an ounce, we decided it was time to say goodbye.

Also … I’ll add an interesting Florida alligator photo … not mine or near our condo  … but still eyeopening. 

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Financial, Nature, Personal, Photography, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: alligator, apple, beach, condo1718, delray beach, florida, gold, iphone, jewelry, pano, panoramic

Posted By RichC on April 29, 2024

Earlier this year, someone on my X.com feed included a Fleetwood Mac video from 1976. I saved it remembering how nearly all of us in Founders Hall at ONU who were listening to albums on our turntables, reel to reels, 8-tracks or cassette decks enjoyed their music.

One of the favorite songs … of many … was “Rhiannon.” So for today’s Music Monday, here it is from the album and the video mentioned above.
 

Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: fleetwood mac, founders hall, mp4, music monday, musicmonday, onu, rhiannon

Posted By RichC on April 28, 2024

This content is restricted.

Category: Archive, Art, History, Personal, Photos, Science | No Comments »
Tags: ancestry, ancestry.com, artwork, brenda, dna, ellerie, holmstrom, howard, mawhir

Posted By RichC on April 27, 2024

Towards the end of last year, I added a post titled “Semi-Depressing reminiscing about my childhood home” for Throwback Thursday #TBT in December 2023. A Zillow For Sale listing had me remembering good times AND a not so good photo that did not make me smile (see link).

My childhood home on Lake Erie in 1967

Fast forward to this past week and I noticed that there is now a sale pending on the property … which almost had me asking my brother … “did you make an offer.”

EDIT update: After talking with my brother, it was him (shock!): “Our offer was accepted, and the closing should be on or before May 13.” 😊  

Category: Archive, For Sale, Memories, Personal, Photos, TBT | No Comments »
Tags: for sale, lagoon, ronc, sale pending, zillow

Posted By RichC on April 26, 2024

Making changes to the Apple MacOS, or my current MacBook Air M2 computer workstation setup, is something I hesitate to do when everything is working smoothly. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few things that I wouldn’t mind Apple addressing that “might” make my life easier. 

First my tiny gripe … is that there isn’t a way to extend my MacBook desktop to access/control the iPhone (left) and iPad (right) in the above setup. There are so many times that I’m working on the Mac and “think” that I can move the cursor over to the iPad screen to make a quick change … but instead it needs to be “touched” with a finger (touch screen) … something that can’t be done on the MacOS. It really doesn’t make sense since Chromebooks and Windows devices have been touchscreen for years. Again, not a big deal, but obviously a decision to keep Apple users owning more devices.

Second, I hesitate to add browser based extensions, but sometimes it is just necessary. For example, one of my new favorites is the tab-auto-refresh extension. I have several tabs open on a Firefox browser all the time that I either keep alive and refreshing content on my older Intel-based iMac (off the photo to the right in the above) or a hidden tab or different desktop on my MacBook Air.  For example, I enjoy keeping an investment website “alive” as it will log out automatically if no actions are detected. The extension can be set to refresh the tab on whatever interval needed to keep it alive. Also I track an online portfolio of an advisor that I follow and the auto-refresh can be set to update these spreadsheet prices or changes.

The Third is another extension that I use on both Firefox and Brave (Chromium-based) browsers that will pop open a browser-based Text Editor. Simple and easy to use.

Category: Computer, Personal, Photos, Software, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: brave, browser, chrome, extension, firefox, ipad, iphone, macbook air, tab auto refresh, text editor

Posted By RichC on April 25, 2024

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything amateur radio related, so this is a blast from the ThrowBack Thursday #TBT past … and it reminded me of my teenage years and learning Morse Code visually (chart below the break).
  

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Category: Education, Radio, TBT, Video | No Comments »
Tags: amateur, ham, learning, morse code, mp4, radio, visual

Posted By RichC on April 24, 2024

An icy comet with a demonic sobriquet is now visible to the naked eye for the first time in 71 years.

Look for the “Devil Comet” in the hour after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere. The fuzzy blob can be glimpsed in the western sky, down and left from Jupiter’s bright orb. Using binoculars or a telescope will make it easier to spot.

“You’ve got a chance for the next couple of days,” said Jonti Horner, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland.

The comet is brightest in the sky this week, having just made its closest approach to the sun. With each passing day, it gets lower on the horizon and will soon disappear from view for skywatchers north of the equator. In the Southern Hemisphere, the comet should remain visible to the naked eye for another month or so.

Read More

Category: News, Space | No Comments »
Tags: astronomy, comet, space, wsj

Posted By RichC on April 23, 2024

As a “non-artist,” I’ve always admired (or had someone on the CPP payroll) who have had the ability and training to create art. Here’s a social media video tip for those of us who would just like to draw a car. 😊 

Category: Art, Social Media, Tidbits, Video | No Comments »
Tags: car, drawing, mp4, tips