Replaced a failed sump pump check valve after heavy rains

| June 26, 2021

Last weekend we had thunderstorms and tornado warning that dumped buckets of rain in our area. Thankfully no damage or serious flooding, but I did check on the sump and backyard pumps … I even added my spare pump to the pit in order to keep the water that builds up in the retention area […]

A leftover weekend photo and video turned animated gif

| June 22, 2021

Spent a lot more time this past weekend picking up branches, pumping out the pool and even set up a pump in the backyard to prevent flooding the pool. Thankfully no tornadoes on the ground, but the lightning, wind and rain was wild. Below is a video snippet … turned animated gif out the back […]

Tech Friday: Would you consider buying this iPhone 5G slider?

| May 7, 2021

If you keep your eyes open, there are plenty of interesting Android and iPhone concept videos floating around. As a Palm Pre slider user, I’ve always thought there might be another slider (or foldable) pocket friendly phone in my future. Here’s an iPhone slider demo that has promise … although personally I think we’ll see […]

It feels like winter, but those pesky Stink Bugs are still here?

| December 8, 2020

One of the irritations in using motion sensing security cameras (ani gif from previous post) at our house is that no matter how much I tweak the settings, they still detect motion and even declare “person detected” when it comes to movement. The biggest offender is slightly older Canary cam that I have set up […]

Tech Friday: Scanning options – jpg, jpeg, jp2, gif, png, heic, tiff

| November 20, 2020

It has been a while since I’ve compared scanning format and compression option when it comes to down and dirty document scanning. For the most part I either scan straight to PDF and live with the document (or shrink it, but that’s another post) … or go straight to the old fashion universal jpeg or […]

Is Ohio open for business today? #humor

| May 1, 2020

I can see it now, after being under the Coronavirus stay-at-home orders for the past 6 weeks or so, people are going to be excited to exit the safety of their cocoons … finally a taste of freedom again. Let’s just hope we don’t make foolish stumbles and ignore commonsense precautions. Be smart people! Phase […]

The Canary (cardinal) security cam alerts are driving me crazy

| April 6, 2020

Thought I would add a late day animated GIF to the blog … partially because these Canary alerts have become a normal annoyance by sending text message alerts and partially this cardinal is cute. Hopefully he will grow tired of “looking at himself” and find a female cardinal who he can impress! Also while sending […]

Filling space with LTE speed test and humorous automotive GIF

| February 11, 2020

A month ago Virgin Mobile sent this happy customer (great service) an update indicating that due to the Sprint T-Mobile combination that the Virgin partnership would be spun off to Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid group.They promised an equal or better “deal” which has yet to be noticed … but then it has only been a […]

When you must get a package delivered before Christmas

| December 25, 2019

UPS for the win! (wait for it)  Fedex and USPS better step up their game! “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Sunday Filler since the long weekend has been busy with family

| December 1, 2019

Likely too busy to post something … but this is mesmerizing (I wish I had this kind of TIG welding skill!)

Who really wants Northern Water Snakes in their pool?

| October 2, 2019

Although they are not venomous, the people I know  don’t like to go swimming with snakes … Northern Water Snakes in this case (I think – see screen grab below). After being away for a week, once again the local wildlife has decided to make our pool their home – it has been dry. I […]

Why not just stick with American Standard, Delta or Moen?

| July 15, 2019

My wife does not appreciate the common everyday American branded sinks, vanities or faucets … and wanted something a little more unique for the Condo master bathroom (sort of like the other bathroom update last year – see photo at bottom of post). I really didn’t think that much about it until realizing that not […]

Great advice on using ceiling fans and saving money

| June 8, 2019

We are big proponents of using ceiling fans and “I” have always assumed the electricity cost in running them was minimal compared to running air conditioning and for the most part just leave them on all the time in the summer. BUT … that’s not really the best idea according to an energy saving newsletter. […]

Creative bindery guy sets his machine up to fold paper airplanes

| February 27, 2019

Since printing presses (and bindery equipment) is in my DNA, I can’t help but have a soft spot for this guy tweaking his equipment to spit out paper airplanes. Personally I would rather … and remember many-a-late nights … calculating $$$ as our sheet-fed offset presses mesmerizingly crank out piles of paper. 🙂    

It is cold and windy. Another layer of warm clothes please.

| January 30, 2019

An ani-gif of our Canary driveway cam early Wednesday Morning – 1/30/2019 The … dare I say a hated and banished phrase … “polar vortex” has swooped down from the north and frozen everything. It is brutally cold, but then it is winter. Schools, of course, are closed and even mail delivery in Cincinnati has been suspended. […]

Sooner or later a close call with a drone will be too close

| January 25, 2019

As more and more federal employees decide they aren’t going to continue to work without a paycheck, the focus has shifted to the unpaid in the Coast Guard, TSA and Air Traffic Control. Air travel has now moved front and center as the “shutdown-standoff” continues (the Senate is at least negotiating). Flyers are feeling it […]

Shrimp are small, yet regulations and tax incentives can be big

| January 13, 2019

With incentives, South Dakota and Minnesota compete for tiny trū Shrimp and its promise of indoor shrimp farms. A company named trū Shrimp Co. had planned to break ground this spring in Luverne, Minn., on a $330 million to $360 million indoor shrimp farm. It aims to produce 8 million pounds of shrimp a year […]

A limited Corbett-Oostra family Christmas photo recap for 2018

| December 26, 2018

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Be bold and change the world

| April 23, 2018

It is impressive what can be accomplished with a little boldness …

Tech Friday: A 2nd Amazon Echo – the Dot now streams music

| March 2, 2018

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Tech Friday: Testing Apple Live Photo to downsized looping GIF

| December 15, 2017

We’ve had a colder than usual early December here in Cincinnati … and has much of the country. The freezing temperatures will likely show up in higher heating bills but I’m hoping the new LED Christmas lighting will offset that cost? We’ll see. I’ve been wanting to test the Live Photo editing feature on the […]

Getting hit or hitting something while sailing

| June 29, 2017

One of the fears when sailing long distances across oceans is either getting hit or hitting something. Numerous stories have been told by those who survive hitting “something” … and who knows how many are never told? My phobia is striking a partially submerged shipping container, debris or log with our fiberglass boat on a […]

Forgotten and leftover from Christmas 2016

| March 19, 2017

My son Taylor is geography and map kind of guy so I gave him a mag-lift spinning globe for his desk for Christmas 2016. His interests and innate sense of direction is probably why he pursued “Urban Planning and now coordinates development for Clermont County Ohio as a county planner. Anyway, I had forgotten that […]

Getting in the Christmas spirit. This is so very wrong —

| December 25, 2016

Christmas morning is almost here so I need to get this out of my system before getting together with Drew and my “soon to be a mom” daughter Katelyn. For the record, this is not an example of good parenting! Who doesn’t remember Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer?

The snow is starting … says the Raspberry Pi GarageCam

| December 13, 2016

Morning … Afternoon…

VW Rabbit-Golf facelift through the years #GIF

| January 21, 2016

The warm weather has fooled this Lilac branch

| December 12, 2015

As I was getting the paper this morning … in a tee-shirt in December … I noticed one branch of our struggling Lilac was confused as to the season. Hard to believe we’re getting ready for Christmas when temperatures are in the 60s.

Finish yard work in the dark but am slowing down now

| October 2, 2014

Finished spreading the last of the topsoil – then seeded and put the straw down just as it turned dark. Hopefully we won’t have to dig up drainage pipes for a while. Now it’s time to sit back and "slow" down … (playing with the slo-mo mode on my iPhone 5s)

Giphy.com or Gfycat and an emergency carry technique

| September 25, 2014

Here’s another Giphy.com test after using it for a Facebook share yesterday. I’ve found it a little be better than gfycat.com that I’ve used before since the purpose was to post to a social network.  Besides, I thought this was an interesting demo: A technique for carrying a person/body quickly in an emergency.

Whoops! The first iPhone6 in Perth, Australia

| September 19, 2014

Apple’s much anticipated iPhone6 went on sale today as folks in line finally get a chance to own a blemish and scratch free smartphone their own … and here’s what happened to Jack, the first to walk out of the Apple store in Perth, Australia with one.

The Amazing Octopus

| June 27, 2014

TechFriday: Animated GIF of surfing a 78 foot record wave

| June 20, 2014

Tinkering with GIF Grabber and gfycat.com in posting a TechFriday filler post since I’m busy today. Record ride in Portugal riding a 78 foot record wave … that’s big!

Odds and Ends: Animated GIF of a decapitated Copperhead snake

| May 17, 2014

An odd and ends Gifycat.com filler post: A decapitated Copperhead snake still has the reflex action to bite its own wiggling tail … a reminder to keep your distance from dead or perhaps “dying” poisonous snakes.

Monkeying with animated GIFs … pun intended

| May 4, 2014

Playing around with a couple video clips where a monkey and a kangaroo punch. I turned them into animated GIFs and then HTML5 using GFYCAT.com — just techie fun.

As the song goes: It’s beginning to look a lot like Easter …

| March 26, 2014

Ok … so I have the holidays confused, but then so does Mother Nature. While driving around on Tuesday afternoon the squalls started and figured it was a perfect opportunity for an animated GIF. We can’t seem to shake off winter.   I expect to see a few flurries when I’m in northeast Ohio (had […]

Tech Friday: Photos that fool your eyes and mind …

| December 6, 2013

Thought this photo would make an interesting animated GIF, so I tweaked it as a filler for today’s blog post. And in order to make this a “Tech Friday” post I’ll share a tweet that I haven’t confirmed works just yet: @LifeProAdvices: When you’re at an airport simply add ‘?.jpg’ at the end of any […]

Cats and toilet paper – rethinking over verses under

| May 30, 2013

Saw this animated GIF image and immediately thought of a couple of my friends who have cats … and the eternal debate as to which way to reload the toilet paper – over or under? (although doesn’t look like it matters!)

Finally … we know how to pronounce GIF

| May 22, 2013

Steve Wilhite, father of the Graphics Interchange Format, has ended the heated debate on how to pronounce "GIF." LINK

Archiving sailboat bottom paint information for Encore

| February 25, 2012

Ahh …  love that full flavored and steaming cup of coffee on a Saturday morning. While sifting through my pile of magazines and deciding what to toss and what to keep, I’ve clipped a few items I want to keep … but am just not sure how to archive them? Sometimes I still toss stuff […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog