#chillinlikeavillian #inthenewyear

 Way to start something fresh - pounding the blog title with a hashtag like I'm creating a viral trend. 😆

Housekeeping notes on the second day of the new year. 

• Product I forgot to talk about last week.
• Book I'm currently reading
• New pictures

One of the women I work with, is into tech (I think, as she has asked me how old the presentation laptop is and if it can run video conferencing software, quickly. Otherwise she will stick to her personal [new] laptop). 

She was given a Bluetooth speaker for Christmas from her manager, last week. It's called "YAyusi/Yayunshi BT800 Bluetooth speaker" and has a little light ring that strobes when you want it to, has a sub woofer that kicks out amazing lows, and is the shape of an over exaggerated egg that was cut in the middle so you have the top half seemingly hovering above the lights. 

Looks like this:

And it's not available on Amazon. Trust me, I looked. If it is, it's buried deep, as I didn't go past the second page, figuring if it doesn't show up on the first two, it's not there. I did search for it on Google and came up with one site. 

ONE. 

The site comes from China and is listed as "[a]  global cross-border E-commerce" and "is an international wholesaler and recommender as well as a Chinese purchasing agent. We assist our customers to purchase products directly from the manufacturer or supplier". The postal address is in Chongqing, China, so you know there's no other supplier in the continental United States. 

How the woman's manager stumbled on this site and purchased the speaker, I don't know. But the $21.45 price tag for this item seems highly reasonable, given what it does. I should have taken a video of it, but I didn't want the woman to have to go through that, especially since I'd have to explain my motives. 

Which is fine, but it's still weird to have to try to tell people I like to blog about random stuff. I'd rather just give the link and say "wanna know something cool?". 

I don't know.. I'm weird like that. 

When I've passed the woman's office, she seems to be enjoying it, as I've heard it on in a corner of the room. It's bassy enough that I can hear what she's listening to, even though it's not so loud (some low level things I can hear a little better, others not, given my ear problems). So I think she likes it. *Shrugs*

There's a book I'm currently reading, that I picked up somewhere in my travels. 

It's called Black Light and it's written by the team that brought everyone the Saw franchise.

 

The synopsis is as follows

"If you have a supernatural problem that won't go away, you need Buck Carlsbad: private eye, exorcist, and last resort.

Buck's got a way with spirits that no one else can match. He was normal, once. Until Something Horrible killed his parents and left him for dead.

Buck has spent years using his gift to trace his family. It's his only hope of finding out what happened to them-and what made him the way he is.

Now the voices say that something big is coming. Buck already knows what it is-a super high-tech bullet train running express across a stretch of unforgiving desert known for the most deadly paranormal events in history. A place where Buck almost died a few years ago, and where he swore he would never return.

But as the train prepares to rumble down the tracks, Buck knows it can only be the inevitable hand of fate pulling him back to the most harrowing unfinished case of his career at four hundred miles per hour."

I'm only on page 70, but so far I think it works. It's a little spotty in a page or two, based on descriptions, but I can definitely see myself finishing this book sometime soon. With all the spiritual / thriller / weird things I read, this is a book that I thought would be somewhere in my wheelhouse. As it turns out, coincidentally enough, I'm listening to a podcast series called "Into The Fray" while working. The episode I'm on now, a woman is being interviewed and is talking about spirits and mediums and how there are people who see things and want to help others. There are also people who try to force an ideology on others that aren't exactly true. Without spoiling both the episode and the book, I think there is a slight connection between the two, purely based on what the interviewee is explaining with contacting those who are "on the other side" and how the character of the book deals with his line of employment. 

Random pictures to add from the last couple days. As per usual, unless otherwise stated, the images have been taken on my fruit phone.

This tree was taken while on a walk around my complex. Someone obviously decided to spice up their spruce game:

Winter mornings equal cooler sunrises:

As yesterday was a slow day at work (yes, I worked). I figured I'd do something adventurous. I watched a 2 ½ hour movie while rearranging furniture. 

Hey, might as well take advantage of the time while I can, right? I mean, I was working... I ended up having to fix the chairs several times to maintain proper social distance (6 feet all around), proper viewing ration (the last few chairs on the ends don't get to see the full screen) and see how the sound comes out (not so great). 

The latter is always faulty. 

For some reason, the DVD player's output audio is super low, so you have to go to the main room audio and turn it to 11+ in order to feel like you're in a theater watching a movie (for not so comfortable seats). You shouldn't have to turn the room levels super chunking high in order to hear conversations. Moreover, the Listen Technologies two transmitters can not be turned on and in use at the same time. Creates way too much feedback and noise disruption in one receiver. I tried that too. Off I went, movie on pause, to turn one of the transmitters totally off, in order to listen to the movie without issue, since the ceiling speakers weren't coming out as loud as I wanted for the volume to be on 7 or 8. I didn't want anyone passing by the room to end up hearing things they shouldn't hear. I'm respectable like that. 

I just wish I know why the third party contractor we have for audio video work, keeps messing with the different inputs and won't adjust everything as we ask them to. I've had multiple conversations with them and citing various examples, they don't really like to configure the rooms the way they are asked to. It's maddening, but it's also not my job or responsibility to get so involved with it as I am. If I could do the AV work myself, I would, but I don't have access to the devices / programs / etc that I need, in order to make everything work as well as it should. 

Story of my life. If only I could get an actual job in the AV world, I'm sure I'd be better off too. I've got plenty of various experience at this point in my life... I know I can learn more as well. I'm open to it. Just got to get there.

Maybe this year will be different and will turn everything around for the better. 

Here's hoping we all have a prosperous new year.

Take care of yourselves.

Cheers;