Would you tow an 18-wheeler with a Tesla?
Posted By RichC on January 9, 2018
Music Monday: A new Bible & the impressive Amazon Echo Dot
Posted By RichC on January 8, 2018
Our Amazon Echo Dot Christmas gift is the gift that keeps on giving now that I’m learning new “skills.” There isn’t anything earth-shattering it is currently doing, but the “easy” interface to 
Amazon’s cloud server for content and function may be limitless … at least looking into the future. It is an impressive device; perhaps other “voice assistance” gadgest are just as impressive?
Music playing is a core function of the Echo, but that would be too simple to mention in this post — but it does a fine job of finding and playing Amazon Prime Music (we are Prime connected). Frankly I still prefer Pandora and the Echo is well connected to my 50+ channels. Surprisingly, this Amazon device plays Pandora (free) without commercials just like Pianobar on the Raspberry Pi (nice), unlike my iPhone, iPad and computer. iHeartRadio works well too. Spotify … nope, not unless you subscribe to their premium service.
Back to today’s MusicMonday connection. One of the connected Alexa “skills” that my son-in-law sent me happens to be a bible study podcast that I enjoy call Truth for Life by Alistair Begg (he was our pastor at Parkside Church when we lived in Hudson, Ohio). It is excellent for those quiet times reflecting and studying the word of God. I tried it out on Sunday and enjoyed following along in another of my new gifts, the Alistair Begg edition of Spurgeon Study Bible (thank you Katelyn, Drew and Annalyn).
Alistair, who has the obvious accent from growing up across the pond, closed Sunday’s podcast with a reference to The Beatles and their title song from their album Help!
How apropos for Music Monday.
| The Beatles – Help! | Recorded live in 1965 |
WordPress post scheduling problem?
Posted By RichC on January 7, 2018
After tweaking WordPress last week with AMP plugins, I noticed several posts were missing their schedules. I added a Schedule Post Trigger plug-in that corrected that issue, but never deactivated it after removing both AMP plug-ins.
This past weekend, scheduled posts were not triggered at the correctly dated times so am testing with this post after deactivating.
Our granddaughter Annalyn is now 10 months old!
Posted By RichC on January 7, 2018
This content is restricted.
Windsurfers and Waves … and getting some air! #video
Posted By RichC on January 6, 2018
Filling space with a 22 second video clip and testing “autoplay” and “loop.”
Tech Friday: Played with AMP plug-ins for blog but gave up
Posted By RichC on January 5, 2018
In order to improve efficiency on WordPress sites (my customer installs) I often experiment with updates on my personal MyDesultoryBlog first since very little on this site really matters for paying customers. So over the Christmas and New Years holidays I fiddled with a few highly recommended updates to the LAMP server and WordPress installs.
First I tried a couple different cache options and installed Cloudflare – they were not helping with speed even if they detected suspected hacking intrusion attempts. In any case I’m back to the existing DNS and Comet Cache.
Next was a return to the Accelerated Mobile Plug-ins (a couple different) which optimize both content and ads for mobile devices. Again as before, I remembered why I stopped using them: AMP optimization eliminates formatting, homepage links and content as well as much of the video, slideshow and contact form info. Neither the simple versions of AMP, Better AMP or the pay for more customizable version of AMP for WP could be tweaked to get the content to satisfy me on my iPhone or iPad.
So after all that, we’re back to square one and a non-optimized WP pages …which works fine the way I use it, but as content goes to mobile devices, AMP is something I’m going to have to embrace.
It may be winter in Cincinnati, but better here than in Savannah
Posted By RichC on January 4, 2018
The new year has certainly started out cold in Cincinnati. We’ve been below zero every night this week and now that the frozen pipe is behind me (I hope), I was able to get back to some sense of a normal routine since I put off 
meetings and a pile of work until after the holidays.
Of course we are not the only ones dealing with winter weather, those on the east coast and down in the southeast are getting both cold temperatures AND snow. Our Florida friends, who moved to an area outside of Savannah, Georgia last year, are probably ready to head back south. Mark sent a few photos from their yard on Wednesday – of course I couldn’t keep from laughing and thinking they have more snow than we do! 
Once in a while I can still find a super cheap flight on Southwest
Posted By RichC on January 3, 2018
Before sending another check to the guy I have doing some bottom work on Encore, I really need to inspect the work. I don’t want him to stop working, 
but I don’t want bottom paint slapped on the new epoxy fiberglass repair before double checking the layers, fairing and keel work and epoxy barrier coats either, so I’ve been checking airfares daily – yesterday I spotted a cheap flight that should work.
Of course I’m not sure when the work will be to the stage of checking, but mid-January was a"target date." Between work and scheduled activity, I’m not sure, but this $25 fare back to fly back from Fort Lauderdale after driving down was the only one on Southwest had left in January so I grabbed it. Gas for the drive down will cost far more than airfare, as will the Uber ride to get to FLL. I only wish the bill for the work on the boat was going to be that inexpensive! It’s a good thing I’ll be saving money staying at the "Jones Motel" on the drive down … their hotel rates never change! (it is great to have such wonderful friends … I can’t wait to see Mark and Dar!)
Thrifty souls unite – a snap fix for a broken zipper
Posted By RichC on January 2, 2018
Ok … so this nautical fix has not been endorsed by my wife, in fact, she will not be seen with me from wearing these pants in public ever again … although like most women, I’m not sure she is fond of cargo pants anyway?
My Eddie Bauer flannel lined winter cargo pants are a go to favorite when the temperatures are at or below zero, but the zipper fly broke the other day. They are only one-half season and are hard to justify throwing them out … nor can I will good conscience expect an exchange. Sewing in a new zipper is beyond my expertise and Brenda would say her time is worth more that fixing my pants – probably true?
Not to be dissuaded I started down the Velcro path and decided instead to "play" with my Sailrite Snap Fastener Kit instead (always looking for an excuse to bring sailing into a fix). Unfortunately the shiny silver snap is hard to get beyond with a tucked in shirt … but pulling over a fleece or untucked shirts are pretty easy when dressing casual in the winter. I’m calling this fix a success even if sewing it a Velcro fly would have been a better choice.
Happy New Year and LSSU banished words for 2018
Posted By RichC on January 1, 2018
Happy New Year 2018 to all those following or reading MyDesultoryBlog … thank you.
A regular inclusion each year has been the Lake Superior State University Annual List of Banished Words. This is their 43rd year of doing it and there are some welcomed ones in this year’s list — highlighting the ones that bug me most!
Unpack – Misused word for analyze, consider, assess. Concepts or positions are not packed, so they don’t need to be unpacked.
Tons – Refers to an exaggerated quantity, as in tons of sunshine or tons of work. ‘Lots’ would surely suffice.
Dish – As in to dish out the latest rumor on someone. Let’s go back to ‘talks about’ and leave dishes in the cupboard.
Pre-owned – What is so disgraceful about owning a used car now and then?
Onboarding / Offboarding – Creature from the HR Lagoon. We used to have hiring, training and orientation. Now we need to have an “onboarding” process. Firings, quitting, and retirements are streamlined into “offboarding.”
Nothingburger – Says nothing that ‘nothing’ doesn’t already. I’ll take a quarter-pound of something in mine.
Let that sink in – One could say shocking, profound, or important. Let that sink in.
Let me ask you this – Wholly unnecessary statement. Just ask the question already.
Impactful – A frivolous word groping for something ‘effective’ or ‘influential.’
Covfefe – An impulsive typo, born into a 140-character universe, somehow missed by the autocorrect feature.
Drill Down – Instead of expanding on a statement, we “drill down on it.”
Fake News – Once upon a time stories could be empirically disproved. Now ‘fake news’ is any story you disagree with.
Hot Water Heater – Hot water does not need to be heated. ‘Water heater’ or ‘hot water maker’ will keep us out of hot water.
Gig Economy – Gigs are for musicians and stand-up comedians. Now expanded to imply a sense of freedom and a lifestyle that rejects tradition in a changing economic culture. Runs a risk of sharecropping.
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.