Keeper of the house

(Or: things that make life a little easier).

I have a challenge with hanging things in my house.

Due to the simple fact of not wanting to put a dozen holes in my walls because I keep hitting the metal studs, my room has been rather bleak and blank for the past six years.

For those who were used to seeing every square foot of wall space in my Brockton room chock full of picture frames, my current Florida room looks more like a jail cell. And it's plainly due to the difference in the building structures.

To make up for the lack of holed memorabilia around, I've acquired several packs of 3M Command Strips: Poster Strip size.

Yes, Amazon is selling packs ranging from a measly 12-Strip, 6-Pack (72 Pairs Total) for $12.37 all the way to a whopping carton of 400 strips for $47.85. I haven't gone as far as getting the big box, but I probably have spent close to that amount on the smaller end purchases through out the years. If I were to get 400 strips, I'd go a little crazy with them. Plus, where to you keep them all?

No, my room is not loaded with hanging items now that I'm using the magic of tacky paper. Quite honestly, I've been using the strips to hang surge protectors (power strips) in my room as well as throughout the house.

Every single room has the same quandary when placing nails or hooks near studs. There is simply not enough room or adjustment options to hang things at a level nature. Not even the Hercules Hooks work, and I swore by those suckers back north for a while. It doesn't help that I've been told by a couple people that you need a special drill to get through these walls, and after that, it's still a crap shoot that anything would work. 

So investing in the Command Strips I go, unpeeling one sticky side and putting it on the power strip, to then unpeeling the "wall" sticky side and placing pressure on the power strip to the wall. Five minutes of leaving it alone later, I'm plugging my electronics into the strip and powering up I go.

I would suggest anyone doing this with the wider power strips (like the Witeem Surge Protector Power Strip with 10 Outlets & 4 Quick Charge USB Ports), use extra caution because it may be too heavy for one Command on each end of the power strip. I would use two on each end, just for extra security, especially if you're like me who constantly plugs and unplugs a (powered) streaming device.

Quite honestly and for practicality purposes, I just wouldn't suggest using the Commands for hanging a swivel strip (like the Belkin 8-Outlet Pivot-Plug Power Strip Surge Protector) because you might be pulling at it every day and eventually might rip everything off the wall. The Command Strips should be used for the flat power strips only.

The pictures I'm including in this post are the two I've got hanging at different points in my bedroom.

One power strip is an old Good Housekeeping: Good Choice power strip, which I've used one Command Strip on each end (because I originally had the power strip hanging horizontally on the wall, but thought it would bug the hell out of me when I walk into my room and see it. So by hanging it vertically close enough to semi "hide" next to a small rolling entertainment center, I'm more pleased with it).

Yes, there's a yellowed spot on the power strip. It didn't catch on fire or is currently causing problems. I am well aware it may cause future issues, but has been working fine for the past decade. knock on wood.

The second set of pictures is the other strip I have, again, hanging vertically behind my TV entertainment center. Rather, it used to be behind my entertainment center and very well hidden, but we ended up having some challenges a few weeks back and I had to get my room repainted. So smack in the space between my desk and my TV, is the power strip.

I must point out that you do see the Command Strip ends in some of the pictures. That's because it's the untacky piece of the Command Strip you want to keep visible behind all your products due to that being the end you pull in order to take the product (in my case power strip) off the wall.

The next set of photos shows the strips "hidden in plain site". Yes, all the pictures show parts of my room which are quite messy.

Those extra wires hanging from nowhere are 3 pairs of headphones
all hooked to a Command Hook.

Oh, and I forgot: the other thing I've used a Command Strip for? Holding the center of the curtain rod that is in front of my window. How could I forget, when I stare out this window every day? This time, it's not a poster Command Strip, it's a Velcro Command Strip (aka the Picture & Frame Hanging Strip).

That's about it for this update. Be safe and be nice. Do some housekeeping!

Cheers;



See Also:

It's a mash, but not a monster or the 4077

It's just a collection of thoughts for the moment, the night before National Eat More Turkey Day (or: Eat More Tofu Day, Eat More Pork, Eat More Chicken, Eat More Whatever).

My first quick rambling is relating to several back post regarding the Amazon Echo. I've made conversations with people I work with, on how we get reward points for doing good deeds. The rewards rack up and you can spend them however which way you choose. One of the things you can "buy" is an Echo Dot. I didn't choose that purchase adventure because I've read several reviews about security challenges the various devices have. The recent is a Bluetooth wiretap hack, but some of the other things include different incarnations of a drive-by.

For this reference of a drive-by, I know it's not the typical understanding of what people firs think of the word. An electronic drive-by in relation to the Echo situation is the simple fact a neighbor can connect itself to your smart device via its Bluetooth control and do whatever their heart's content on doing. Other people have performed an actual car drive-by and connected to someone's Echo. Anyone at anytime can "bing" turn on Alexa and she's doing whatever you want, even though you put the speaker to sleep, hours ago.

Knowing that someone can somehow be smart enough to look into my device(s) without my knowledge is one big turn off for me. I will still admit that I'm not 100% familiar with the device as it is, and I'm not going to pretend I'm close to 50% understanding of how it works. Another piece of the puzzle is that I don't have Prime just yet, so I wouldn't be able to utilize Alexa to full capacity. Prime seems to be a major deciding factor to a lot of Echo purchasers as it is (and vice versa), due to the fact that someone can quickly order a refill of a past order or get their Amazon Music streaming without connecting their phone.

Should the security challenges get worked out and I find myself with a need for this kind of smart device, I would probably find myself looking more in to it and purchasing something, I reckon.

The other thing that people like is the ability to use smart hubs and tell Alexa to turn on some electronic device. This is where I'm heading with my rambling, by the way. I was telling people I work with how you can buy an Echo, a smart hub, and get your house turned into a smart house with the flick of a Bluetooth connection. It reminds me of the Ray Bradbury story There Will Come Soft Rains. It's a science fiction short story about a smart house written in 1950. It's the craziest thing: as society now is connected to so many devices and the more we (general / societal "we") connect to our devices and smart hubs, we let our houses or businesses control our waking needs. The story will become more obvious and people won't realize something written "long ago" has this much relevance today. Hell, look at Star Trek and the electronics we have right now - how many times to we look at something and some older nerd / geek says "that's such and such in episode number [name the number] in season [name season] of Star Trek". A lot of my readers will understand the reference here; I'm not worried if the younger readers have to Ask Jeeves what the hell I'm talking about.

But anyway, I tell people the story has an underlying nuclear holocaust, but it's my opinion as the take away is different for everyone. Should you read it, you'll probably understand where I'm coming from. I don't want to create a #spoileralert, but I'll say that the house is on point with getting everyone who lives in it, together and ready for the day. It's amazing how Bradbury wrote this, given that in 2017 and we're seeing some of it happen (like the aforementioned smart hubs, coffee makers & toasters having morning timers, etc). It just so happens that with how the world is going in whatever tech route it wants to for the future, something written 67 years ago has an eerie resemblance to what could be coming soon.

Okay, enough about smart technology. I'm rambling.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is something my cousin Brady suggested I write about. Brady is my go to guy for marketing advice and suggestions, as that's his field. Thanks, B!

Last year, Starbucks made headlines that they were allegedly cheating customers out of liquid in their iced drinks. People were ordering 16 or more ounce drinks and due to ice, had a few ounces missing in the end. It wasn't enough to ask "where's the beef?" but it was enough that people were noticing their venti wasn't super full.

Well, forgetting that happened, I filled a 24oz Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee cup with a 16.9oz bottle of Coke Zero. I like to reuse and recycle my cups for as long as I can, because I like to make my own iced drinks and bring them to work or when I'm running errands. Sometimes you've got to skip a day in spending upwards of 4 or more dollars on a coffee fix and bring your own with you.

The cup:

With my drink, I added 2 small lemons and 1 small lime. It wasn't much, or so I thought, but the density of the fruit cost me a whopping 7.1 ounces of push in the cup. With no ice added to the mix, I ended up having to take a sip before someone knocked the cup over - it was full. So this first picture is what the cup looks like after that first sip.

Later that afternoon, I did some water research. I took the empty bottle and filled it with tap water. I stood it next to an unopened bottle of Coke Zero just to compare where the line should be of liquid. Then I poured the water into a marked mason jar and sure enough, it was 16.9 ounces. So somewhere I was missing 7.1 ounces, but I chalked it up to the fruit. That night, I filled the cup up again, this time with another Coke, and saw that the line above the "Dunkin'" meets the soda. There is no ice or fruit in this next picture; it's just straight liquid.

After all of this was done, I can't say I was shocked, but I understand where people voiced their opinions on why they feel beverage chains may short the drinks. 7.1 ounces is a big difference for a 24 ounce cup. If I had put ice in this second cup, I'm sure the liquid would be higher than it is without anything in it. Just like the one with the fruit. So the conversations people had about why they feel they're "paying good money" for a cup of [enter liquid here] isn't unreasonable. But on the other side to that, the people commenting that "you did order an iced drink..." are correct as well. There has to be an acceptance of order when you receive the final product. Yes you ordered 32 ounces of iced java and 28 ounces (let's say) is the java, while 4 ounces is ice, at least you're getting over 25 ounces of what you ordered. Sure it's not the full 32 because then they'd have to make a 36 ounce cup just to make sure the liquid to ice ratio was perfect.

Nobody's perfect, not even me.


Happy Pre Turkey day. Be good to yourselves and have fun.

Cheers;






See Also:
books

* This is a total collection of space stories written by Bradbury, which includes There Will Come Soft Rains

music grooving to during the duration of this writing


"other" information
Today marks the 54th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. Read up on American History.
Amazon links
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