"It's not about win or lose"

But it must be another slow news day.

As the last weekend of the year slowly crawls down to midnight, I decided to go outside and take a few pictures. I know my camera needs to be replaced and I keep putting it off, but I also know the dust spots that keep appearing aren't going to go away any time soon either. I just can't seem to get my act together to purchase another $499+ camera when my current one is still in relatively good working condition. But, like the sign of the times, things aren't made to last forever. So maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and get myself some upgrade before 2018 goes away.

In the meantime, I've got some pictures to post.

You can see some of the dust spots in this picture, unfortunately

I bought one of those Himalayan Salt Lamps a few months ago. It's apparently all the rage these days, and upon researching it, I can see why there's a few benefits to having it around. The downside is I can't sleep with the light on, as "soothing" as it is, because all light sources keep me up. Just like the fact I can't sleep with fans or any other white noise going on either.

As weird as it is to say "white noise keeps me up at night", no one can understand why I say it. I can't explain it either, except there's something about white noise and night lights that make me stay wide awake and my brain constantly talking to itself. It's okay, call me crazy. But I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round. Considering I spent sophomore year in college with 4 fans on in my room that ran 24/7, it's hard to comprehend just the smallest of noise or light keeps me amped up until I really do fall asleep. Friends and family reading this will remember the attic within the attic room I had in Brookline... it was crazy town and you know it. Thank god for my upgraded "let's look out to a fire escape and live next to the Dean" room the following year... Haha.

Anyway, back on track. While I had my camera out, I decided to hook up the Fotodiox Canon EOS Macro Extension Tube Set for Extreme Close-Ups to my camera and take some pictures.

One day I'll get the automatic / electronic macro kit. One day...

The salt lamp is ready for its closeups, Mr. DeMille.

I decided to keep poking around my desk area and came up with the next few shots. (Don't) Mind the dust.

I feel a little gated and fenced in

Center hole for the win?

My... precious....

Ain't nothin like doubled fences!
Fences make good neighbors?

Tacked on for good measure!

All jacked up on this last night of the year

Snitches get stitches. What do stitches get?

Cross weave

Multiple cross weave

I was bored, what can I say? I will probably be going to bed in an hour or so, just because there's nothing really to do. I don't feel like staying up all night to say "I haven't been to bed in a year!" or something else quite as stupid. The days of partying and watching the ball drop on the television is over and it's time to act like I really do live in Florida and go to bed early like the retirees do. "Laugh my ass off" and "Roll my eyes".

Last picture before I call it a night and wish everyone a hearty "Happy New Year!!":

Be good to yourselves and don't do anything completely insane...

Cheers;

See also (aka what I'm listening to as I type this):



See also (random stuff quoted):

"I got drama, can't be stolen"

"Everybody knows me now"

 Lazarus

★

David Bowie

The subject line popped in my head while I was writing a rather long winded remark to a friend of mine. Drama free is the place to be... if you're not of this Earth. I'm still waiting for the other foot to drop, so someone needs to be able to catch me when I fall.

I've been a bit slow on the promise of Christmas Day pictures, but I have a reasonably good excuse. I've been working 40 hours a week for the past three weeks.

Therefore, a little late, I shall call this a "slow news day" photo dump:

The new New Year's Eve ball drop?

It's no Yellow Ribbon, but it'll do?

"Look out my window, what do I see?"

Peanut's daddy is taunting him

Peanut heard his name in the other room

*Photos taken with my "old" Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR Camera.



Be good to yourself on this last weekend of the year.



Cheers;





See Also:

"I've been watching you"

"A la la la la long, a la la la la long long li long long long

C'mon

A la la la la long, a la la la la long long li long long long

Hey"

- © Inner Circle, Sweat

I know it's not some dance hall or bedroom, but it must be a holiday because I've been watching a character across the street watch me use my computer all this week.

Pictures taken on a Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR Camera using a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens


Today is Christmas and there is no snow. Again.

Oh wait, this is Florida. Nevermind... apparently snow doesn't come this far south...

So my question is, why is it that Bumble The Abominable Snowman has been giving me some weird stalker eyes lately? How is he staying fresh and free in 80 degree heat? Doesn't he need snow? It's been a long time since I've watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys or any other Rudolph movie, so I'm sure I am missing the part where Bumble retires to The Sunshine State.

I have to admit, watching my neighbors put up seasonal statues never fail to amaze me, since they're renters and the kids are a PITA (we once got rocks thrown at our cars and the boys called us a few dirty names at the same time). The family gets creative with their holidays as Halloween had a few scarecrows. Other months had their own bush coverings.

At any rate, I am really making this post rather short because I'm due to go to a friends' house in 20 minutes for a Christmas Day get together. I'll see what happens later tonight... maybe we'll go out walking around and I'll snag pictures of lit houses.

Happy Happy y'all be be good.




Cheers;

"And the clock on the wall has been stuck at 3 for days"

Song lyric from 3AM by Matchbox Twenty, off their 1996 album Yourself Or Someone Like You.


I'm not up all night watching the clock, but I had to keep track of the minutes this morning while making breakfast.

I ended up making myself some "three minute" eggs with toast. I had seen a "cheaters way" to make sunny side up eggs a few months ago, while watching a cooking show on a local station.

In this episode, the host explained how you get everything you need lined up on your counter, and keep an eye on the time. I'm going to paraphrase some of this as I've found a little more "cheats" to it.

First thing's first: turn on your stovetop to high and have your pan on the heat for three minutes.
Second: whatever you choose to "fry" the egg, whether it is butter, margarine or anything else, put it in the pan and wait until it boils down and looks like it's going to stop cooking. This takes about three minutes.
Third: crack your egg(s) into the pan.
Fourth (and seemingly last step): I have to stop and say this depends on what you've got around. The cooking show said use a (soup) pan lid, but I've recently acquired a set of silicone covers. It's got several uses (microwave or stove) and today I've used it on my eggs (the blue, 8 inch cover). Take the lid and put it over your pan. Let it cook for three minutes. The steam from the (butter, margarine, etc) cooks the egg and the steam through out the cooking circles around and the lid keeps everything nice and allows it to be the perfect runny egg. Cook it for more than 3 minutes and the center becomes cooked like a hard boiled egg. Be careful when you take the lid off because it'll be hot and the steam can burn you if you're not paying attention / take the lid off the wrong way.

The last step is why it is important to watch the time. As you have the lid on the pan, it's hard to keep an eye on how the egg is cooking, but anything less than 3 minutes is not cooked and anything more than 3 minutes doesn't give you the consistency you want for that runny middle. I mistakenly left it on the stove for 4 minutes so that center is getting to the hard boiled stage. But it was still good to eat.

Pictures or it didn't happen:

On a separately similar note:


It's been one of those days where I've tried my hand on something else to make. I had picked up a generic can of coconut milk (the can I bought doesn't seem listed on Amazon), put it in a shaker with a Starbucks VIA Instant Refreshers Very Berry Hibiscus, some ice and voila, grande java chain drink for half the price of gas (and frustration of ordering in line).

I'll have to buy everything again because I'd definitely make the Refresher with coconut milk another time. It's filling and it's smooth, a real different take on the normal version of water and powder. Plus, I've got a few powder packets laying around that need to be made before they expire (did you know they expire? I didn't until I opened one that had found moisture or something and became hard. It had to be thrown out).

At any rate, have a safe and Merry Christmas Eve to those celebrating tonight. To the others, be well and don't get too drunk in your festivus ways.

Cheers;

"Through early morning fog I see"

"Visions of the things to be

The pains that are withheld for me

I realize and I can see"

Johnny Mandel (music) and Mike Altman (lyrics)

Suicide Is Painless

Don't worry, I'm not looking to pull anything stupid. I've already done that with certain people in a certain set of stories. But, I was looking outside this morning and couldn't help but start singing the "theme" from M*A*S*H.

Yes, I have that record. Yes, it's still packed away. Yes, I've listened to both sides. No, you can't have my copy. Oh, and I'm not as young as people think I am, so don't get it twisted that I don't know the Robert Altman original movie (or the history of the story). There are a lot of things I remember watching when I was younger - TV shows and movies (and vice versa) that I shouldn't possibly know. Re runs may be some people's friends, but not all the time.

As I type this, I was listening to the song via a streaming site. I realized my friend Tay (hi D) recorded a song several years ago, where he has a similar style of singing and playing as Johnny Mandel does in Suicide. Were you thinking of this song when you recorded "Uncle John", Tay??? Oh, and since I mentioned a specific short story, people will know this friend of mine as "Tony". Just FYI.

The reason I started thinking of the song today was the fact that there's been a massive amount of global warming fog happening here in Florida lately. Challenge of the week: maneuver through the old folks to get to work as this morning's coverage was a little hard to manage. It seems that today's was a little thicker than average, as it was the first time I noticed the clouds linger in the yard. The days leading up to 6am this morning, really haven't been too bad on the streets until I get towards work. It's when I look around me and I can't see the high rises across the water, but it also seems to stabilize there as well. The fog doesn't seem to go away until 10ish, but no one complains. Today on the other hand, that's all I heard at work - how some people have not had opportunity to see this amount of cloud water droplets for as long as they could remember. One of the guys told me that he's been in the area for 7 years and "it's never been this bad". Who am I to compare it to? I've been here six and all I know about low lying mist is from New England...

I really don't have a lot to say, because I wanted to include some pictures. They were taken between 6:00am and 10:00am on Friday, December 22 2017.

All photos taken on an iPhone 6S with no editing.

Be good to yourselves and enjoy the weekend;


Cheers.






See Also:

Quick point

Not so much a throwback to my one word answer posts, but I do want to make a quick point about all my "seemingly negative" / "questionable" remarks regarding the Amazon Echo / Dot etc.

I want to try to "clear the air" and be as transparent as I can without making people scratch their heads even further.

I feel that the issue with the security / drive by challenge is mainly because I live in a community where the condos are in clumps of 4, but the buildings are in units of 12. It sounds confusing, but there is an upstairs unit and a downstairs unit, and each set of buildings has six downstairs units and six upstairs.

We're in close quarters with each other without stepping on each other. For example, my bedroom looks immediately out to my direct upstairs neighbor's front door. I can also see one of my downstairs neighbor's front door via the shared walkway for the upstairs unit. On the other side of my house, the guest room window looks out to my front door walkway and my other immediate neighbor's front door (to the right). ** see added pictures at the end of this post to not be so "huh?" **

Therefore, being so close together, I can see my neighbors' wifi sprays all the time, and this being a Comcast monopoly internet provided community, the xfinitywifi spray is a popular accessory... not that everyone doesn't have their own special name attached to their router... but every other unit has the added xfinity spray (not to be confused with the residents by one of the gates that use "flame_thrower", "worm_virus" and a couple other scare tactic names).

So, with some full time residents living next to renters, who could be living next to whatever wants to move into a unit, any person at any time can attach themselves to a "secure" network. Or try to make the attempt. Plus, if you don't use your own private network and just figure the regular Comcast (xfinitywifi) network works great, you can do that too. I've heard people have the ability to latch on to other networks if they know what they're doing, so it makes it worrisome.

*grabs tin foil*


Anyway, we've got a lot of people coming and going in the community some days, and to have a streaming device on a secure network with the ability to be turned on by someone passing by, is not something I want to try. I know it's rare to have that happen, but my luck says otherwise and I don't want to chance it. I know people who have the virtual assistants and love them to death, but this technology is not for me right now. Like I said the other day, if this one security detail gets worked out and I find I all of a sudden have a need for it, I'll be more than happy to purchase it and try it out. Until that happens, I am going to stick with my Roku and catch up on past seasons of new shows.

If anyone has tried any of the virtual assistants and have an opinion they want to share with the class, please feel free to leave a comment below and post your remarks!

Be good to yourselves.

Cheers;

Porch and front door of upstairs neighbor.
View from my bedroom window.

Porch of upstairs neighbor leading to shared walkway.
View from my bedroom window.

Front door area of downstairs neighbor.
View from my bedroom window.

The shared walkway leading to my front door and my other neighbor's front door.
View from guest room window.