lisaviolet's diary

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

skystuff
12:49 PM - 10/01/2024

The topic: New category
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Skystuff - trees, birds, clouds, sunset, sunrise, satellites...if I'm looking up and taking video or photographs? I'll be sharing it.

The first video is from June, when I caught one of the rockets from Vandenburg AFB.

If you watch closely, you can see debris falling from the trail.

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Monday, September 30, 2024

otherstuff
12:48 PM - 09/30/2024

The topic: Productive weekend
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Back in 2022, I ordered the television series "Northern Exposure" from Amazon. It wasn't cheap since I got the set from outside of the U.S. Why? Because the U.S. version didn't have the original soundtrack. A licensing thing. I ripped the shows to a hard drive and we watched them on the NAS I run from my Plex machine.

We quit watching a couple of episodes into the final season because we just weren't feeling it any longer. We knew that Rob Morrow was leaving and the storylines just didn't grab us.

I've been trying to finish it and this past weekend, I had eight episodes left and I finally did it. I finished the series.

One down.

In the garage, where my craft supplies are stored, there was an area where I would just dump stuff instead of putting it away. Well, I got that cleaned up.

That's two.

Earlier this summer, I bought a Glimmer machine. It was quite a bit less money than it is now. This is a foiling machine and I'd seen some cool things people were doing with it. One of the most helpful tools is washi tape. Washi tape is low adhesive, very easy to remove and the heat from the machine won't hurt it. The washi tape holds the cardstock and die in place. I knew I had a lot of it, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

After putting stuff away, I happened to see the box it was in. It was in plain sight. I have no idea how I missed it all of the times I looked for it. But I found it. So, yay!

That's three.

And I know I've mentioned making automata crafts. A couple that I really liked needed rubber bands. The first one I made was a dinosaur. The second was a duck rowing a boat.

Since I had no rubber bands, I ordered a bag of assorted from Amazon. Finished the dino.

A couple of months later, I started on the rowboat. I couldn't find the rubber bands. I ordered another bag. Finished the rowboat.

Well, when I pulled out the storage box that had the washi tape, what do you think was on top of it? Yep, the rubber bands.

They are now all in one bag and easily accessible.

That's four.

My intention with the automata is to take video of them in action and share them online.

But, it was a good weekend.

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Saturday, September 28, 2024

entertainmentstuff
07:20 AM - 09/28/2024
The current weather is Foggy as all get out!

The topic: Network (1976)
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Someone mentioned this on Facebook this past week. He said the message was still timely. It's in our Fandango at Home library.

Brian had never seen it. We watched it last night.

It is a 1976 movie and boy, did it hit home. Really had nothing great to say about the media, all about the ratings, rage sells, etc, etc, etc. How people lose themselves and how easily manipulated they can be. From IMDB:

A television network cynically exploits a deranged former anchor's ravings and revelations about mass media for its own profit

Sound familiar? And this all before social media.

Just amazed at how some things remain the same. And sad. There's a little bit of sadness as well.

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Friday, September 27, 2024

healthstuff
07:34 AM - 09/27/2024

The topic: Great news!
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Brian had a follow up MRI yesterday, to check the progress of the kidney removal.

He was told he'd get results in two to three weeks, but if you've signed up for the Kaiser dashboard, sometimes you see them more quickly. It's not like the doctor has this stuff in a "to do" pile, but results are input usually same day.

And his were back.

No cancer! Some stuff was found to be part of the normal aging process, nothing to be concerned about. So, yay!

kidney cancer brian's cancer

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healthstuff
06:31 AM - 09/27/2024

The topic: What a week
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Earlier this month I got it into my head to start taking fiber supplements. Ever since my gall bladder surgery back in 2011 things haven't been right with my intestines.

For instance, things that didn't bother my stomach now do like alcohol. The discomfort from a couple of margaritas was unbearable and not worth the buzz. So, I quit. And Brian did, too, because he didn't want to drink alone. Not that we drank that much, but it was nice to sit outside and watch the sunset, you know? I still miss those times. Tuna fish. Tomato soup. Grilled cheese sandwiches.

I quit eating after six in the evening. So many changes. The reflux got pretty bad and I'm on daily omeprazole pills (prescribed).

Well, this has all played havoc with my, uh, how to put this delicately...bowel movements. They are not consistent. We quit walking a couple of years ago because we'd be half a mile from home and it would hit me. Uh, oh, we have to hightail it home right now. The enjoyment of walking up and down a hill with butt cheeks squeezed tightly together was one of the lowlights of my life.

I mentioned it to my doctor last year and she mentioned a colonoscopy. Yeah, no. The procedure itself isn't a problem, the prep is. Not so much visits to the bathroom, but I was hungry. My last one had me in the kitchen crying because Brian was making a peanut butter sandwich and it smelled so good. I was standing at the stove, stirring some brown water. The can said "broth", but it was really just brown water. It was nasty.

Anyway, I get it into my head (yeah, another one of these great ideas that never pan out) to start taking fiber. Pumpkin seeds (yummy). Fiber gummies (yummy). Cut back on bread (not a problem for me at all).

I did this for a couple of weeks. I was amazed that I wasn't as hungry as I had been, I was feeling fuller and wasn't eating as much. This made me happy.

Until last Monday.

You know how fiber is supposed to regulate? Well, uh, it can also go either way. Constipation or diarrhea are another couple of alternatives.

Sunday, I had a big breakfast. I had a half of a sandwich for lunch. I had two slices of pizza Sunday night. My morning bathroom schedule produced nothing. Monday I had horrible heartburn. It wasn't reflux. I thought maybe I just needed a big burp and what has helped me since my twenties was baking soda and warm water. I did burp, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't much better Tuesday. Everything was still just sitting somewhere between my neck and my butt. Tuesday I figured I'd just clean the system out of anything stuck in there. I didn't eat. I took two Dulcolax laxatives. Later in the day, I was feeling a lot better. Wednesday, I was almost back to normal.

I haven't had a fiber gummy or handful of pumpkin seeds since last Sunday.

Yeah, I found out why it's advised to start slow with fiber. I hope I learned my lesson.

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Sunday, September 22, 2024

entertainmentstuff
03:17 PM - 09/22/2024

The topic: It isn’t often that nice surprises happen, but…
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This sure was one. I've had Fandango since before it was Vudu, back when it was called Ultraviolet. You could take a DVD disk to Walmart (if the store had this capability) and for a small fee, they'd check to see streaming availability and you'd have the streaming video added to your Vudu account. The first movie we did this with was Tin Cup. It was in 2012.

Then they just became Vudu and recently, Fandango bought them out, now it's called "Fandango at Home".

When I first started getting movies on Vudu I made use of the D2D option. We have a lot of movies on disk and I thought this was just great. And Vudu used to have these little programs they'd run on Wednesdays where you could get rewards added to your account (monetary) that you could use towards purchasing a video. One of the programs was watching one of their free movies. The freebies have commercials. But that ended a while ago.

At this point, we have close to seven hundred movies on Fandango. Some were only available on SD, most are HDX, and, when they were affordable (which means under $10, not the $24 or $19 they start out at), UHD 4K.

Anyway, this morning I got this notice and I'm happy with it. Especially with the new projector. Upgrading some of the movies to UHD at no cost to me! Yay!

nice surprise geekstuff

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