Facebook

I received an email from Facebook a few days ago saying that they were cancelling my account.  Which is fine; I don't use Facebook.  I think I opened an account in order to follow a link a year ago.  But it gets weird...

Apparently I have 180 days to appeal their decision (which I'm not bothering to do).  Their reason is that I have not maintained community standards (which in my case seems to be "not participating").  Cancelling my account for "not participating" seems to be a toothless threat.  Since I'm not using Facebook, I don't really care if they cancel my account.  LOL!

But here's the annoying part.  They send me 2-3 emails per day counting down the days left in the 180 day appeal process. I have them sent to spam, but I sure don't want go through this spam deletion for 6 months!  Clicking on "unsubscribe" just brings me to a login page, and it is a no-reply email.  

As far as I can tell, they are trying to punish me for not using them.  

I suppose I will have to set up a filter sending their appeals notifications directly to trash...

Cap Lock

I really never use "Cap Lock" deliberarely.  But it bedevils me while typing.  I will suddenly see a whole paragraph in CAPS and have to undo it. 

So I pried the bastard key off!  It feels like a missing tooth.  But like a missing tooth, at least I don't have to deal with it any more.  😀

Cabinet Door

When I cook, I use a lot of bowls, and I never know how many.  So I tend to leave that cabinet door open.  But if I bump my head into the lower corner ONE MORE TIME I am going to switch the door so it opens the other way!

Pet peeve...

 

I Shaved My Head Again

Well, I have a reason to do so.  It's not political or anything...

When Covid started spreading in 2020, those "Good Old Boys" in the barbershop not only refused to wear masks, they criticized me for doing so.  One said it wasn't "real".  Another said he was a professional in pharnaceuticlas and all I needed was Vitamin C and Zinc.  Real idiots.

I actually pay attention to real science and discussed it briefly.

But I was there for a haircut.  And admittedly, you can't get your hair cut wearing a mask.  So I took off my N-95 mask and got the haircut.  In 2020.

I haven't been back to a barber since.  The next time I needed a haircut, I bought a "barber kit".   Those things with different depth attachable combs to chose how closely you can cut your hair.  I shaved my head clean.  

Now, everytime I start to feel I have to brush it, I just shave it all off again.  It doesn't bother me to do that.  And in fact it just makes life easier.  I tend to wear baseball-style caps when shopping anyway.

Other Deck Plants

 I didn't show all the deck pots last time.  I have others that were "holding places" of perennials and self-sowers that I wanted to nurture for more permanent planting next year.

They don't look like much now, but they promise to be good additions to the meadow bed next year.  

The meadow bed has been a challenge.  Grasses grow large, but meadow flowers grow slowly.  I thing I hand to get in carefully from the edges and prune (or at least cut) the grasses.  As I understand it, meadow flowers can overcome grasses once established, but it takes a few years of help.  

On the plains, they did that themselves naturally.  Here, they have more trouble.  Grasses love this region!  I found a few grasses growing in spaces between the deck boards where a few leaves decomposed and gave them a place to start!  How grass seeds get up to the deck, I will know.

I have had a few meadow flowers grow and bloom.  They aren't impressive individually, but if I can keep some alive among the grass for a couple years while they mature, theyy will shade out the grass.  Most are 2-5' tall when a few years old and will shade out the grass (or I think) grow up faster and not be shaded by grass.

I get a few nice surprises.  Some few have overcome the grasses.

I know it is a deliberate planting, since there is a landscaping flag next to it.  But I don't want to step near it lest I step on another (slower one) that is struggling to establish itself and grow.

There have been a few blooms earlier.  One is like a black-eye daisy, but the leaves are a little different, and it flowered way earlier.

The coneflower was nice.  It's not one of mine from the other parts of the yard.  The center is much redder.  

So there is some progress.  But it sure is going to take a while.  I have 18 meadow flowers planted in a 4x8' framed bed just to help them grow stronger without grass competition.  Some show growth above ground, some don't at first.  

But I've learned enough about some of them to understand that some will grow and some won't.  Establishing a meadow bed is not a cheap or easy "hobby"...  Still, I really want one.

9-11

 I do not forget...

New Camera And Deck Pots

Well, I finally started using the new camera and took some pics of the deck pots...

I went big on Balsams and Coleus this year.  Grew the Balsams from seeds and found really good cheap Coleus at Walmart.  And there are a few Marigolds in there, too.

I also bought some small cheap orange Mums at Walmart for the front steps around Halloween, but I'll wait until they grow bigger...

The new camera gets the colors right.  Yay!  😀

Newer Camera

I bought a cheap camera 2 months ago and finally got around to trying to use it.  It was for "children and seniors".  Since the only real use I have for one is blogging and email pics, I thought that would be fine.  It isn't.   And it's too late to return it.

The buttons are monochromatic metal grey.  I can't distinguish the buttons even with my reading glasses.  It has few controls.  I took pics and couldn't upload any.  So I went back to the manual.  Apparently, on this one, you have to format the memory card.  So all the pictures I took with it were never saved!  The zoom function is display-controlled and that is a real pain.  And it allows for several shots real fast, but the control is hard to get at.  

So I did that and took some test pics.  They show up on the camera display and I can cycle through them.  But they won't upload to the computer iPhoto app.  So back to the manual.  It says "connect the provided cable, upload the pictures".  Wow, that was a lot of help.  😏.   I gave up on it.  A real loser of a camera!  Well, it was only $50...  

I'm used to researching products.  So I know that price isn't always the best determinant of quality and ease of use.  But in this case it sure was.  $50 gets you a very bad camera!

I'll give it to a neighbor kid.  They will have it working fine in a day, I'm sure.  😁

So I bought a new camera.  The same model I had.  The problem with the previous one was that it started favoring orange in indoor pics and I think the stabilization was failing.  I tried to fix that in processing in iPhoto by adjusting color adjustment with blue and other hues, but I don't seem to have a talent for that.  I routinely adjust light and color levels, and I increase "definition" in all pics, but the "hues" thing escapes me.

But I liked the old camera otherwise.  The buttons are black with white cut-ins.  I don't need many controls, but it has the ones I need (I'm not trying to do calendar-quality pictures here).  So I went with the same one I was familiar with.  At my age, "familiar" is a good thing...

It didn't take long to go through the settings.  Date and time didn't want to save because I couldn't navigate to the save function a few times but finally managed it.  I took a few test pics, but it it is late and I'll try processing those tomorrow.  But I expect it will work fine.  After all, it is the same model as the old one.

Sometimes I buy "best" and it is usually worth it (but sometimes not).  Sometimes I buy "average" and it works well enough.  I've never bought "cheap" and enjoyed the results.  I learn from that for a few years, but then finally something cheap looks too tempting and I try it.  😞

So anyway, hoping that future pictures on the blogs show up better.

Uh Oh! And More Saplings

 Felt a hair move on my wrist.  Black spot.  Then it jumped away.  Danm, a flea!  Not after me, but it means it is time to change the 8-month flea collars again.  I thought they were good for another month, but I suppose their effectiveness diminishes toward the end.  

Brought a trailerload of cut saplings to the Mulch Center, but there are many more to go.  I cut down a dozen but haven't dragged them to the trailer yet.  My neighbors are probably tired of seeing the trailer full of them.  So I'll leave them in the back yard until I have a full load.

Need to get the brush-mower fixed.  I left gas in it 2 years ago and I can't start it.  Thought I had drained the gas then but I didn't.  I tried to clean the gas lines, but gas engines aren't my best skill.  On a scale of 10; maybe a 2.

My eyeglasses went weird lately.  One lens keeps dropping out.  I keep screwing the tiny screw tight, but it won't stay tight.  I need to dab it with a toothpick drop of cement.  But to see it well enough enough I need the funny on-head magnifier and I can't seem to find it right now.   

And the frame suddenly didn't sit on my ears properly.  I had do to twist the nose rests, bend the ear holders, even twist the frame a bit.  Why it changed, I haven't a clue.  It's not like I sat on them or something.

Well, I need new ones anyway.  A weird thing (to me) is that my vision is actually getting more normal.  I've lived most of my life far-sighted.  Could see a hummingbird 150' away but couldn't focus on a book without reading glasses.  

Now I actually need less close up help.  I can still see the hummers but can't see the colors well enough to tell males from females.  A few more years and I will probably see the car dashboard better!  

Maybe I'll die with 20/20 vision, LOL!

Time For A New Keyboard

The keyboard is failing.  A few months ago, it started doubling my "h" key.  A couple of weeks ago, the "y" key.  Now it is doubling some numbers.  GRRR!

Well, I type a bit hard, so I shouldn't be surprised.   I hunt&peck (but rather well after all these years).  In fact, I don't even have to look to type some common short words.  But I do beat on a keyboard.  

And it is probably time anyway.  Some of the keyboard letters barely show the letter anymore, LOL!  I've worn it out.  I suppose replacing a keyboard once a year isn't the worst thing to have to do.

Actually the "daskeyboard" (brand name) has done pretty well.  Some others have lasted only half as long.    

I have another problem.  The Mac Mini has limited ports.  The monitor, mouse, and printer fill them.  I bought a multi-port base that fits under the Mac Mini and provides 4 more (but 1 is used to connect to the Mac Mini.  I bought another aftermarket multiport for additional ports, but even that of course uses 1 to connect.  So 4 ports per device actually means "3 and 3 and 3".  😒

I have 2 cameras (temporarily) with individual cables, an external hard drive (for backups).  And the keyboard has 2 port inputs (for reasons I do not understand).  And I'm still running out of available ports, LOL! 

New Camera

 My old digital camera got to the failure point.  It seriously favored making everything very orange.  But I only use a camera for the Mark's Mews and Cavebear blogs.  And I reduce the pics to about 300 KB anyway.  That's because I keep them on my hard drive.

So I bought a really cheap one that does flash on or off and outside shots.  I have to laugh; even that cheap one will take 30MB pics and has a serious zoom lens.  But I don't need that.  I do like the promise of improved stabilization (I have shaky hands sometimes).

But the battery died and I needed a usb cord (instead of a separate charger).  I had plenty of those of various connections) laying around so I grabbed one that fit.  

The battery wouldn't charge!  I tried a wall outlet using the provided charger.  I tried direct charging from the laptop and the desktop.  No luck "battery low"...  And I was ticked off that the cable kept coming loose when I checked the camera.

Read the manual once, read the manual twice, read the manual 3 times!  They mentioned "the cable that came with the camera".  Well of course!  Wait, I was using one I had sitting around...  Well guess what?  I thought cables were designed so no cable could fit in the wrong port.  Yeah there is.  

I don't know the identification, but there is at least one that fits easily into a wrong port.  It is smaller but fits.  So it was a "duh" moment.  It kept coming loose because it wasn't the right one!  Searching around the loose cable box, I found the right one.  Charged up the battery in 3 hours.  

I am so stupid sometimes...

Now I can use it and learn to download pics to iPhotos.  The camera display suggests the pic are true to color.  I'll set the camera to the lowest resolution it allows (about 12MB I think) which is way more than I have any use for.  

I still have some pics on the old camera that I will process.  It does natural light outdoor pics well.  But I will retire it after that.  Assuming the new camera pics process well.  I like to adjust the "definition" high, adjust the light level up or down, and straighten and crop the pics.  

But maybe the pics on both blogs will start to look better.  I'll like that and so will you.