Buckle up, we're gonna need a faster car.

- Enter redneckery here -  

So the other day, I'm stopped at a light, I look over to my right and there's this little hoopdee with a bunch of stickers on the passenger window. 

The one that caught my eye and made me immediately giggle, take my phone out, and send the picture to people, was the suggestion of getting the right hell out of the area, quick. There's backwards shenanigans afoot and you don't want to mess with it: 

The text I received from my friend Cat (hi Cat), was what we all immediately think :

To which I had to agree - without saying anything but "omg: Paddle faster 😂", she knew where I was going with the text. 

I found that exact sticker on Amazon. It's a six inch sticker that is selling for $5.89 with free delivery. There are so many other versions on the site, so choose what you want if you want comic relief. 

If you don't understand the reference, might I suggest a 1972 Burt Reynolds / Jon Voight movie? 

I'm telling you.. the things I see either going to work or driving home. I passed a car the other day, where I recognized the vanity plate. The owner got a new car (must have gotten the other destroyed in the hurricane), and decided to upgrade to a higher vehicle. The last car was a Kia or something of that size, and the new one is a pickup. Again, I only knew of the car because the Florida vanity plate - I'm not giving it out, but it's recognizable when you see it. I then had to think what else was on the car because they had stickers on it. When I talked it out (I had taken a video of the previous car with stickers and sent it to my friend), I realized what was missing in the other stuff: They had political stickers on the back window. This new car did not, as of the day I saw it. Previously, the back window held 3 right leaning Wig supporting exclamations and it was pretty loud of a non rebel yell. 

I don't like to show support for one side because I'm not for all the people trying to run this country, so I'm not posting the sticker, as I don't want to be lumped into that bracket of hate. I'll rag on someone, sure, but I don't believe in the madness and crazy of a certain Cheeto. Nor do I believe the other side right now and think he's god either. They both have done things and I'll stay neutrally charged. Vote a different person instead of adding fuel to the hatred fire. 

I guess in a way, since it's the primary election season, go out and rock the vote with a quote?

At least we all then can start getting the country back track to get out of some negativity we are in?

I'm torn to continue this subject because I don't like getting political all the time. There are some subjects my friends and I talk about (Shawn), but putting it all out here is not something I like to do. I want to stay neutral. So Switzerland I will be. 

Until I can figure out how to post stuff and not piss people off, stay sane, y'all.

Cheers;

Hotspots = Hot Mess

I learned something interesting today, and I can only "jump to [this] conclusion", based on my own experience. Whether or not my theory proves true, is another story.

Until someone explains I'm wrong, Comcast still sucks.

Okay, that's not the thing that's wrong. We all know the ISP is kind of shitty. 

The negative remarks tonight is the simple fact their hotspots ("XFINITY" and "xfinitywifi") block AirPrint from working via a smartphone. 

Let me explain...

If you have Comcast as your Internet Provider, they have the option to either enable or disable a secondary wireless frequency that lets you allow guests to use your internet without mooching off your private network. 

Per the Comcast site:

[T]he Xfinity WiFi hotspot that’s available on your residential Xfinity Gateway and where it can be used.

Your Xfinity Wireless Gateway broadcasts an additional “xfinitywifi” network signal, creating an extension of the Xfinity WiFi network right in your home.

We designed this feature for you and this service is completely separate from your secure, private home WiFi network and allows guests to sign in and connect without sharing your secure network password. Your Home Hotspot is included with your service at no additional charge.

To learn how to enable or disable your Xfinity WiFi Home Hotspot, please read the instructions below.

Notes:

• Xfinity WiFi hotspots are available at no extra charge if you rent an Xfinity Gateway. 

• Find your Gateway make and model by looking at the UPC seal located on the bottom or back of your device. 

• We encourage you to keep the Xfinity WiFi Home Hotspot feature enabled, as it allows more people to enjoy the benefits of Xfinity WiFi.

So, by enabling the hotspots, users have a choice to sign in to the locked version "XFINITY" (which is the more secured way) or the unlocked version "xfinitywifi" (which is the public WiFi businesses use, but allow you to still sign in with your credentials.

Users aren't "charged" per se, in regards to having guests use this version of the internet instead of asking for your password, but it's questionable at best, when you get a pop up on your phone that says the Certificate is not trusted.

Which is another story in and of itself. 

That's trying to sign in to the locked version too.

But anyway, I had enabled the hotspot usage on our Xfi modem the middle of this past week. Just because we were expecting people and there's still plenty of problems with power and internet going around. So rather than have people constantly get approved on our network, let's just open the "free hotspot".

Little did I know by enabling it, I'd throw off the use of wireless printing. 

We had disabled the hotspot for well over 2 years before I turned it back on. It was one of those things where I read about it and thought that it was a little over reaching - letting everyone in the neighborhood mooch off your spray (even though it's not your direct username - they are signing in to their own Comcast ID under the Xfinity sprays. They're just piggybacking your modem).

Off it went. 

Then Ian came a knocking and I decided to enable it once things calmed down a little and we got power back for a few days. 

Flash forward to today, when we needed to print someone's flight itinerary for February. 

Neither phone is seeing the wireless printers and they did a few days prior to me turning on the hotspots. 

So after researching answers for half the afternoon (try restarting your printer 2-3 times. Try restarting the modem. Try pressing the refresh button on the printer to search the wireless name. Try this. Try that), nothing worked. 

I ended up forwarding the itinerary to my email and printed it that way (which worked). Still trying to research, I realized it' has to be the hotspot spray. 

I logged into my Comcast account, disabled the hotspot access, et voilà, phones see printers. 

Which means, going with the theory I'm writing about, the "everyone has access to our internet" Comcast Hotspot, essentially cockblocks smart devices to printing on wireless printers if you are connected to a private network already. 

Plain and simple: I am connected to our (private) home network. All my devices are connected to this network. 

I open or create or utilize the secondary "guest" account that Comcast offers existing customers because I don't want to share my credentials and my guests are only here for a couple hours. Odds are, some of them are not going to be repeat visitors, so there's no need to give them my password. Plus, the other odds are that they too own identification into this corporate monopoly, so they can enter their own information into the spray. 

Well, having this secondary account freely attached to my main box hinders the use of the devices I have going on my first spray. The devices don't know what to do or where to look, thus, they say the (AirPrint) doesn't exist. 

Turn off the guest account, AirPlay was hiding in plain sight. 

So... my theory is that Comcast sucks for creating a hotspot on modems for non owner consumption and hurts the owner because they lose the right (?) to use their other equipment. All to share the wealth of the internet with those around them.

How do you know you're old (& it's Saturday)?

There was a point when I was still living in Massachusetts, where I would listen to a certain Boston college radio station when I wasn't listening to National Public Radio. I was able to get the station on the dial, but ended up having to go to their online streaming at some point because I was finding it easier to have it on in the background when I was doing work in The Dungeon. I also was using the streaming service when I was out of state and connected to the internet on my laptop. I remember different types of music and sometimes NPR type news casts on that station, but what I always looked forward to, was Saturday and Sunday nights. 

Saturday and Sunday evenings was when the station played a block of kids music. Stuff we all grew up on and loved. Didn't matter if it was something from the newest cartoon, the oldest musical or the craziest Weird Al parody. They played everything. 

If I didn't listen on Saturday, I listened on Sunday because radio conflicts arose - it was either A Prairie Home Companion on NPR (which coincidently was another college station) or it was The Playground on the other station. I had my weekend priorities. 

Sometimes if I were traveling on Saturday mornings, I'd have it on for the "coffee house" block of music, but my favorite was still the evening stuff. 

I miss the ability to just turn the radio on and hang out, take a drive, or do something to take my mind off of life for a moment. These were things that I made in to routine and unfortunately, slowly started deviating from the routine. I moved and no longer turned on the stations I was familiar with. Streaming is great, but it's not the same as actually being there.

The longer I've been away from the favored moments, the more I'm researching if they still exist, and sadly, they don't. People grow up and old and styles change. What was once a hit for a decade, has been taken off the list and something new added. If you "can't teach a dog new tricks", then I'm not learning anything new.

I've not really noticed anything similar to what I once sought out, down here in Florida. The local NPR station airs the same news casts, day in and day out, but just formatted slightly different per hour - it's all the same information for the better part of four years. It's become too problematic to listen to the station now because I'm tired of hearing the same story get rehashed. The other stations that come in clearly (in my car) usually are religious (all in the name of Jesus and God), Spanish, Country and Rap / Hip-Hop. Occasionally I find a rock station or an alt rock station but every time I leave it alone, it seems to get bought by something completely different. 

There is a "Throwback  Hip-Hop and R&B" station here that 'brings me back to my youth', but I don't always listen to it. After hearing the same 20 odd songs play every day, it gets older than the year it was dropped. Played out. I think I heard Kris Kross' Jump three times in one week a couple weeks ago. Not that I'm saying it's horrible, but there has to be something else you can play - maybe from their second album? That's not to say I don't turn it up when it's playing, but 3 days in a row must mean there's nothing else to air. 

So change of station it is. Or I leave the radio off, which happens a lot more these days. It's hard to find a decent pair of headphones, or else I'd just throw a podcast on while I am driving, as using the Bluetooth on the radio is hard because it comes through so low. I have to turn my phone volume all the way up to be able to use "volume 7" on the car. And sometimes that's hard to hear as I listen to mainly talk stuff. 

I've gone totally away from what I was going to write about. But nostalgia is nostalgia and I tend to ramble and get off topic a lot. 

Today is Saturday. We've had a lot of cool weather this week - high 50s, low 60s. Windows have been open and I've got to drive with my windows open. We've had the windows open in the house all week too. 

So this morning I'm in the kitchen, making my smoothie and coffee, and I start getting the Newsies soundtrack in my head. More specifically Carrying the Banner, Seize the Day and King of New York (which happened to be the most played song on that kids show). Of course, I had to find the clips from the movie online and start watching them in full. You forget how young Christian Bale was when he did this movie - he looks all of 12, but I think he was closer to 20 when it was made. 

It's time to change the watch band..

 ... Sixteen days into the start of the scary month.

I've been so out of touch with updating my wardrobe because the hurricane happened, I haven't even changed into my October earrings and attempt to change my watch band. Which means I haven't gone into my closet to get my Nightmare Before Christmas watch strap. Unfortunately, the one I have was purchased at a liquidation warehouse, so Amazon doesn't seem to have the one I'd be wearing. They have others, though. 

The second after I wrote the above paragraph, I got the watch band out of my accessories box. It's nice, but I should have attempted to try it on before I bought it. It doesn't slide into the watch so great, and I'm a little nervous it'll pop out. But, I think the magnets are holding. This is one instance where I'll be damned glad I'm not moving tables and chairs anymore. 

As it is, I was so afraid of the bumper I've got on the watch. I originally bought one of those all around plastic rubber ones for a pretty low price. But it's no longer available on Amazon as a single bumper purchase. The brand is currently selling a 2 pack for almost what I paid for the single one (and not a series 3). The bumper lasted me almost two years, but because it was a plasticy rubber, it started degrading and finally broke at one of the edges. I think it had to do with all the moving I was doing at work, plus the constant hand washing as well as the Florida heat and humidity shining on me all day. 

So when I went to the liquidation center, I picked up a no name bumper case with screen protector and it's working out pretty well. I've had it on my watch since March of this year, at least, and have had no problems. Reviews on Amazon say it can slip off and do other problems, but quite honestly, it slipped off once, and I think it was because I didn't install it right. I do have a ding on the screen part of the bumper, but my watch screen itself is unscathed. These things work, and I actually went and bought a few more cases for when I'd want to swap them out. The multi packs are cheap enough that it's worth it. You just need to be careful on what you're buying because not all of the cases have the screen protector. 

My earrings, as mentioned in the beginning, are not from Amazon. I have been buying my jewelry from another site since 2011, roughly. I'm grandfathered into their rewards system, so I get 10% off all orders but now they've decided to do free shipping over $50. Which isn't a bad thing, since I usually buy that and then some on most occasions (several pairs plus cleansers). The plugs and tunnels are good quality for being under ten dollars a pair sometimes. I usually switch out every week and depending on the month, I've got awareness ribbons, holiday drops and cool colors along with plain old clear and solids. 

One time when I was still working at the hotel, I was playing with the Mega Baby Q70 lights and trying to get them to dance with the thumping music I was playing. I locked myself in the lower office with the ceiling lights off. My boss comes in to check on me because he had finished with a meeting across campus. He asked what I was playing with on the sound and light board and how I was doing a specific light move, so I showed him. 

All of a sudden, he looks right at me and says my ears are turning bright and flashing. I grabbed my phone and turned on my camera. I said it's my earrings catching the shadows of the light. They were unintentionally black light earrings, I guess. It was so odd because I couldn't recreate it with other light shows and music or with other earrings. It was only the particular patterns that made the room look like a rave and I my head was part of the attraction.

Fun times at the hotel when you're the only tech for almost a year and the only one among your crew who becomes the light person.

The whole point of the post today is because my mother and I went walking a little around our neighborhood. Of course, I took pictures. 

We started out walking up our street and there are some houses with decorations. 

* All photos taken on my Canon EOS Rebel T7i and slightly edited (in some cases) in Photoshop CS 5.

Then we stopped at Betty's for something. 

We continued our walk and got to the front gate area. 

The pictures are little out of order, sorry. 

 

As you can see, everything looks pretty bad. 

We are now going on three weeks since the storm? I keep thinking the downed lamp lights need to be picked up because they do work - power is going to them - and I'm really surprised there's not been a fire yet.

Then again, we've had massive thunder storms the last few nights, so the ground is staying wet. 

But it just shows you how things can go by quickly on some cleanup, but still take forever in other parts. 

At the gate area, where all those chunks of trees are along a fence, you never used to be able to see the main boulevard or main street (intersection) because there were thick and high bushes / trees along each side of the fences. My mom joked that people wanted them cut back a bit, but she doesn't think it was supposed to be in this way. 

The coconuts in the trees are real coconuts. The landscapers take them off the trees by the bushel. I attempted to crack on open when we first moved here. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I'll leave it at that. 

The mound of trees on the sidewalk is from what the city (?) has cleared from the side of the fencing. We had to walk around it to get back on to the sidewalk. 

The palms are still headless... must be getting ready to ride with the Horseman. 

Work this past week has been interesting. I've been doing my 8 hours every day and the limited staff has dwindled down to an even lesser amount of people, mainly due to some got out of the state or still didn't have power. One of the girls I work with needed to meet with an insurance adjuster at one point this past week, so she had to come in late. I don't know how long she stayed once she got in, but she arrived about 3 hours later than she normally does. I have been watching the clock and watching the rain because we've had storms roll in around 3, and I don't want to get stuck in that area, seeing how one of the days a couple intersection lights went dark during a rain storm. Not what I wanted, at all. So rainy season isn't over and the power isn't up to 100%,

As it's 8:10pm, I should cut this off now and get ready for bed. It's Sunday and I know tomorrow will be a long day... Mondays are sometimes hard to get back into the swing of things. 

Until the next check in, stay dry and cool

Cheers

See also:

• I had Suddenly Seymour in my head for part of the writing of this post.
• Friendly reminder that I've got a Ko-Fi page. Like what you read? Buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi..