Darkoshi

mirror mirror on the ball

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 04:19:36 GMT

It's the time of the year and time of the day when sunlight hits the small mirror ball hanging by the window in one room. It throws glints of light across the walls and across me. I give the ball a slight twist, and the bits of light dance around the room. It is beautiful to watch.

I've previously taken videos, wanting to show how neat it looks. But I lack time to upload and post them; there are other things that need to be done.

...Ahh well. I decided to go ahead post one of those videos. I didn't think it would take 5.5 hours* to accomplish, but there you have it. That's why I rarely do.

Video title: Sunshine & Mirrorball

*Sure, I also took a walk down memory lane, browsing through and renaming 150 photos and other videos. And I washed sheets and ate dinner and hung up on a phone call, and updated the video editor software.

comments

a winter sunrise

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 09:36:05 GMT

comments

Time flows, tree glows

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 03:00:31 GMT

This year, I took the ornaments off the Christmas tree on May 27. I left the tree up, still enamored with the Twinkle lights on it which can be set to many different color combinations and effects. Today I took the silver garland off the tree branches. I'm still enamored of the lights and won't take the tree down at all this year (possibly the first time ever). It's too late anyway; no point in taking it down now just to put it up again in a few months. In December, maybe I will take it over to Qiao's house for a change.

.

I have watched both the Olympics and the Paralympics opening ceremonies. Both were wonderful. I have the closing ceremonies recorded, ready to watch.

comments

dazzles

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 05:07:15 GMT

This year I bought a set of Twinkly lights for the Christmas tree. Each bulb can be programmed to any color, and the app has bunches of pre-programmed effects to choose from, or you can create your own. I haven't even put any ornaments on the tree yet, and it's already so beautiful!!!

I also installed the latest version of the Foobar2000 music player on my laptop, with the projectM visualizer component, which "reimplements the esteemed Winamp Milkdrop by Geiss". I then connected the laptop via HDMI cable to the big TV, to play the visualizations on the TV. I turned on the whatchamacallit box, to play the TV sound through the external speakers.

It is awesomely beautiful.

Some of the Twinkly effects in the app have a music icon to let the Christmas tree lights flash in rhythm to music/sound picked up by the phone's microphone. But that's only working for me so far in preview mode... I'm very new to this.

Let me see if I can take a video and if Youtube will let me post it in spite of the music in the background.
...
Here we go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWDImT75xwg

New "Twinkly" brand lights on Christmas tree (without yet having been "mapped" in the app), and foobar2000 music player with projectM visualizer on computer and TV.
The background music on this video is "Violet Shrine" by Dan O'Connor (DanoSongs.com) (I removed the actual music that was being played by foobar2000 due to copyright).

comments

Holiday Lights

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 03:46:52 GMT

Fireflies Holiday Lights at Segra Stadium (the Fireflies are a local baseball team) - another pretty photo at the link:

A couple of well-lit houses:

comments

skyfire

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 01:33:23 GMT

For a while we were having fireworks and lightning AND fireflies aka lightning bugs at the same time.
I told Qiao if we get lucky, we'll get an earthquake too.

Now it is pouring down rain and someone has still been managing to set off a few fireworks (the noise at least).

comments

warm blue

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 19:26:57 GMT

My last working incandescent fairy lights strand. The color faded, more white than blue now. The bulbs get warm when it's plugged in. A hundred little furnaces in glass.

I still remember, about 30 years ago when I first bought them, plugging it in and draping it across my neck, lights adorning me, the warmth against my skin. Lights adorning the room. That room where I used to listen to music, dance, stare into the internet on the glowing computer monitor.

The short wave receiver, receiving signals through the air, sent from the other side of the world.

Compact disks, audio cassettes, the internet delivered over telephone lines.

The electric blue rug from that room is here in this room now.

Per my notes, the strand uses 41 Watts. That's not too bad. Do I keep it? For the physical tangible link back to my memories? Even though I've already replaced it with a strand of bluer blue LEDs?

comments

light bulbs and energy use

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 04:13:01 GMT

I thought I had switched out most light bulbs in my house to LED bulbs by now.
But I just counted them and was surprised by how many CFLs I still have.
I wonder if I should replace them with LED bulbs even though they're still working fine?

And I wonder if I do replace them, should I take the CFLs to a recycling drop-off, or ask if anyone around here wants them? Doing the latter might just shift the higher energy consumption from me to someone else. Or are there people still using incandescents who might appreciate "upgrading" to CFLs for free?

I may even still have a few incandescents in use myself, in 2 ceiling light fixtures where the glass shade covers the bulbs, so one can't easily tell. Too much of a bother to check, and they are in the hallway and washer-dryer nook where I don't usually leave the lights on for a long time anyway. But I really ought to get out the step-stool and check them sometime.

comments

just what I've been looking for! (maybe)

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 21:03:51 GMT

omg, romantic FLYING PIG solar-powered color-changing wind "chimes"!

comments

LED light strand mystery, continued. Also, DIY extensions for light-strands.

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 03:40:34 GMT

Prior episode.

I've now taken this LED light strand outside to put up on the porch for the holidays. It has bulbs of 5 alternating colors (red, blue, green, yellow, pink/purple).

When I plugged it in outside, there were several bulbs in the strand not lighting up. I think these same bulbs weren't working inside anymore either, but I didn't check it carefully before so am not certain.

4 of the non-working bulbs were at the far end. I pulled out the first of them (the one next to the working bulbs). The other 3 that were out came back on. Hrmmm?

The strand had 2 spare bulbs. I plugged one if them into the empty socket, and it worked.

In the middle of the strand were 2 more non-working bulbs next to each other. I pulled one of them out. The other one came back on. Hrmmm. I put the 2nd spare bulb in the now-empty socket, and it works. I am now out of spare bulbs.

Near the beginning of the strand are 2 more non-working bulbs. These are the 2 mentioned in the prior episode, which would sometimes flicker on and off. I pulled one out. Again, the other one came on. I pulled the 2nd one out... the whole strand goes out. Apparently that happens whenever 2 bulbs are out. You can have one out but not two.

I put the first bad bulb into the 2nd one's socket, and the 2nd one in the 1st's socket. The strand comes on again, except for those 2 bulbs. I try pulling the next light on either side of those 2 out. Each time, those 2 remain out, as well as the pulled-out one now being out.

Curiously, all 3 "bad" bulbs I pulled out are pink ones. I saw the last one flicker on and off the last time I put it back in, so I think they're not completely bad. But they may have a bad connection inside, as previously suggested by randomdreams.

I do a web search, but find no page discussing a weird LED light strand problem like this, where one bad bulb makes another one (or another 3) not turn on.

.

Earlier I did find something useful, though. I'm putting up 2 different strands on the porch, and they would fit best if there was an extension cord of about 6 feet put between them. I tried a normal indoor extension cord, but its plug is polarized and therefore doesn't fit into the end of a light strand.

I searched online for a 2-prong extension cord *without* a polarized plug, but didn't find any.
But I found these tutorials on how to make your own, from an old strand of lights. I have some of those actually, which I'd been planning to recycle. But now they can still be of use to me!

The first of these videos seems much simpler than what's described in the 2nd, but I think they are basically doing the same thing.

Video title: How To Make a Christmas Light Extension Cord (HowToLou.com)
Posted by: HowToLou
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOw8TgRVJ70
Date posted: Nov 23, 2012

Video title: How to convert Christmas Light strings in to FREE extension cords for Light O Rama
Posted by: Leechburg Lights
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQMTEVb3JU
Date posted: Dec 29, 2012

comments

christmas tree lights

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 05:30:21 GMT

I'm taking the Christmas tree down. I might have kept it up longer, but for the lights having completely gone out. At the start of the season, half of the green and half of another color were already out. But some time after Christmas they all went out, and even after taking them off the tree and jiggling them all around, they still don't work. The controller may have broken. The fuses seem ok.

These lights were the mini-bulb incandescent kind, from K-Mart (I still have the box), called "Magic Lights", with 4 colors (red, yellow, green, blue) and 8 functions (combination, in waves, sequential, slo-glo, chasing / flash, slow fade, twinkle / flash, steady on).

I mostly used the "steady on" mode, but "slo-glo" was also nice. That would cycle through each color individually, slowly fading out one color while fading in another, staying on that color for a little while before fading out to the next.

I'd been wanting to replace the incandescent strand with LEDs anyway. So I bought a multicolor LED strand to replace them. The new strand's description listed the exact same 4 colors and 8 functions as the old one, so I was hopeful it would work the same way. But it doesn't. The new strand always has at least 2 colors on at the same time. Slo-glo simply switches between both sets of 2 colors. Also, the fading in and out is too fast, and the fade-in isn't done at the same time as the fade-out, so there is a moment where all the lights go dark. That is not nearly as smooth and relaxing as slo-glo on the old set was.

Based on videos I found online, it seems possible for LED strands to do slo-glo mode the same way as my old set. They can at least fade in and out in a slow and gradual fashion. But I didn't actually find any multi-color ones for sale along with a video demonstrating all their modes so that one could be certain how they worked.

So I've gone ahead and put the new strand on the tree. (When putting the tree away for storage, I fold the branches in against the trunk, and store it in a "Christmas tree bag" in the attic. I keep the lights on the tree so that setting it up again in December is easier.)

To put the lights on the tree, I first wove the light strand from the center of the tree up one branch on the left side of the branch towards the tip of the branch, and then back down the right side of the branch the same way. I did the whole first bottom level of branches like that. It was quite simple to do it that way; faster than my usual method. But then I determined it didn't look so good that way. Too much visible cord, too many straight lines of cord.

So I started over and did it my old way: wrapping the cord around the branch a few times from the center up towards the tip, and then weaving it back down the right side towards the trunk. It does look better that way. The cord isn't as noticeable as it doesn't have as many straight lines.

However, I ran out of lights before I ran out of tree branches. The top foot of the tree is relatively dark. Both the old and new strands had 300 lights each, but the old one was 112 feet long and the new one is only 105.

Another difference is that the old strand was really 2 strands, both attached to the same controller box. The new one is one long strand.

It occurs to me now that I could get 2 completely different strands in different colors, and put each strand on alternating branches. Then I could have either one, the other, or both sets on at once. I feel like having pink lights at the moment, and orange. But oh well. What is, is. The lights are on the tree now and I'm not taking them off again if I don't have to.

comments

fun with gadgets and connections

Sun, 08 Dec 2019 21:10:42 GMT

I've set up one of my Wyze cams outside on the porch. Its power cable connects to the porch's lamp fixture. The lamp fixture has 2 candelabra-sized bulb sockets. I screwed a candelabra-to-regular-size socket adapter in one of the sockets, and into that a socket-to-outlet adapter. Into that, I plugged the Wyze cam's power adapter, which converts the 110V AC power to the 5V USB used by the camera.

With this setup, the lamp's power has to be kept turned on so that the camera can work 24/7. I'd like to have a bulb in the lamp's 2nd socket, but don't want the bulb on during the daytime.

I could use a daylight-sensor adapter along with a regular bulb. If the light were to be on all night, it should be a yellow bug-light to reduce the number of flying insects attracted to the porch area.

There are bug lights with candelabra bases. But when one adds a light sensor adapter to it, which also requires a socket adapter, they might not all fit into the lamp fixture. And daylight sensors haven't worked well for me in the past, especially under a porch roof which limits the amount of light that gets to the sensor.

I don't really want to keep the porch light on all night anyway. There's enough light from the nearby street lamp for most purposes.

So I instead tried out a remote-controlled color-changing light bulb. I can set it to an orange-yellow color, and can turn it on and off with the included remote. But I found that the remote control has to be fairly close to the bulb to work, and it doesn't work through the house wall.

If there's someone on the porch whose face you want to see more clearly before opening the door, having to step outside with the remote to turn on the light isn't practical.

Then I started thinking about smart bulbs controlled by wi-fi. Wyze now has smart bulbs, so I bought one of them to try out. These bulbs can be adjusted between warm & daylight whites but not to other colors. Therefore I wouldn't put it on the porch and leave it turned on all night, as that would attract insects. But it should suffice for intermittent on/off porch use.

To control the bulb, one can use the Wyze app on one's smartphone. That should work through the house wall just like the Wyze cam does. But I'd prefer a simpler and quicker way to turn the bulb on & off.

Qiao had bought an Echo Dot a long time ago, but for whatever reason never set it up. Lately, I've been curious to try it out. If I were to keep the echo dot near my front door, I should be able to turn the bulb on and off with voice commands without needing to touch my phone or have the phone nearby.

Setting up the Echo Dot requires using the Alexa app. I'm not sure I want to install Alexa on my phone, because of all the permissions it requires. Maybe I could disable some of the permissions that bother me, before it gets a chance to download all my contact info and texts to the Amazon servers somewhere, but I'm not sure.

I wouldn't mind installing Alexa on the iPad as I don't have much personal info on it, but the iPad is v9, and Alexa requires v11.

So now I'm looking if there's a way to set it up without having Alexa on my phone... Per this page, it may be possible: Can I set up and use an Echo without having a Smart phone?

I got to wondering if this approach would still work when the internet is down but my wi-fi is still up. My voice would activate the Echo Dot... would the Echo send a command message directly to the bulb? Or would it send a message over the internet to the Wyze servers or to some IFTTT server, which would then control the bulb? I'm not sure yet. (For that matter, does the Echo need to send my voice command to a server somewhere, to decode it and determine what command I am giving? I think it does. Otherwise Amazon's servers wouldn't have recordings of your voice commands, but from what I've read, they do. That would explain this report where all of a home's smart devices stopped working during an internet outage.)

All this because of that cam on the porch, and I'm not even sure I like it out there. It's too easy for someone to steal or vandalize. Pointing down from the soffit, it's field of view isn't even very good. I'd really like to install a few more cameras outside in other locations, but those aren't as well protected and don't have as easy access to a power supply, so would require more work.

But still, it is some fun trying these things out.

Wyze keeps coming out with neat new things. They're working on an outdoor camera that will be battery-powered. That will make things like this a lot easier, maybe.

..

Update, 2019/12/09:
Yesterday I also mounted a Wyze motion sensor above the front door. That lets me get a notification on my phone (if desired), or a video clip to be saved to the cloud when motion is detected in that area. The cams themselves have motion detection based on analyzing the video stream, but that gets triggered too often to be very useful (from branches moving in the wind, cars driving by, etc.). The motion sensor is triggered by body heat, so should be more discerning.

I had already mounted a contact sensor on the front door a week or so ago, which also lets you trigger events.

So last night I realized I could set up an IFTTT (if-this-then-that) trigger so that when motion is detected, to turn on the light bulb for a few minutes. I could also include conditions to only do it when it is after sunset, or only when the door is currently closed.

Then I realized I could mount another contact sensor on the inside wall by the door, with another trigger set up for it, and thereby have the sensor be a pseudo-light-switch (to be able to turn the light on without first opening the door), controlled by me manually moving one half of the sensor away from the other half.

But only as long as the internet and wi-fi are up and working.

Update, 2019/12/12:
I have discovered that the Wyze app lets you set up simple rules/triggers, so having an ifttt.com account isn't even necessary. The rules can be like "when motion is detected and it is between 8pm and 6am, turn on the light" or "if the light has been on for 5 minutes, turn it off", and so on.

comments

Loose Ends

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 05:43:15 GMT

Last weekend I went to a free concert in Finlay park, downtown. The band was Loose Ends featuring Jane Eugene, an R&B group from the 80s. I didn't recognize their name, but when I looked up some songs of theirs beforehand, at least one brought back nostalgic memories of my youth. So I thought I might enjoy the concert, and I very much did. They even had a meet'n'greet afterwards where audience members could buy CDs and get autographs and photos taken with the band.

I have a short clip of one of the songs that turned out pretty good audio-wise. I'll post it when I have time, if YouTube lets me.

I was at the concert with a family friend - it was her idea to go in the first place. After that concert was over, we met up with my mom and walked to the (tail end) of the Latin Festival which was taking place a few blocks away. We got to hear one or two songs over there before its last band wrapped up for the night. I bought a multi-colored flashing LED baton-type toy from a stall, yay!

The Wikipedia page for Loose Ends mentions several changes to the band members over the years, and seems to indicate that Jane is no longer with the group. That along with the "featuring Jane Eugene" part of the band name made me think that the other musicians playing with her here weren't original band-members, but I wasn't sure. I'm aware that band-members who have split up sometimes continue to perform separately under some variation of the original group name. Jane has a Twitter page and Loose Ends has a Facebook page, but looking at them, I was still confused.

Today I finally found an answer on this page:
https://citywinery.com/philadelphia/loose-ends-featuring-jane-eugene-11-7-2019.html
It lists the names of the musicians who perform with her; they aren't original band members, although Steve Nichol does occasionally make guest appearances.

There's a bit more info at the end of this page:
http://dance2.webdj.co/loose-ends-watching-you/
Carl McIntosh currently performs under the name 'Loose Ends Experience' or 'Loose Ends'...

Video title: Loose Ends - Slow Down
Posted by: koollatter
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdKdnCSeJwQ

1986 Soul Train performance of Slow Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzdPynoroCg

Video title: Loose Ends - Hangin on a String (Re-Edit A.V)
Posted by: 80's & 90's Forever
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WWHoVH4QM

comments

LED tubes, cumin soda, basil seed drink

Sun, 28 Jul 2019 00:55:35 GMT

I've installed the LED light tubes in the garage. Doing so was much easier for me this time. In part, because the tubes are plastic so I wasn't worried about glass breaking from me applying too much pressure on them. But mostly because I now know that I have to push the bottom of the tombstones outwards to make more space width-wise, while pushing the tubes up into them. As well of course, making sure the pins are lined up right with the slots.

.

The cumin soda turned out to be a disappointment. I don't like it. The flavor isn't cumin + other spices; it is only cumin, which is a lot more off-putting to me than I expected. This soda is also thick, more syrupy than normal, and SALTY. Now maybe I could appreciate a salty soda if it were some other flavor, like salty lime. But thick salty cumin soda turns out to be not my thing.

The lemongrass basil seed drink on the other hand, was good. It was sweeter than I'd like, but when I drank it I'd been working in the yard, getting hot and sweaty, so I didn't mind the sugar. The flavor reminded me of something pleasant from the past, but I couldn't remember what. The basil seeds make a fun swishy feeling in the mouth; hard to describe and different than chia seed drinks.

comments

fluorescent lamp fixture retrofit for LED tubes

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 08:07:58 GMT

I removed the ballasts and finished rewiring the remaining 4 lamp fixtures in the garage so they'll work with LED tubes. (I had already done this for 2 of the fixtures a few years back.)

( Read more and see photos... )

This page explains the rewiring of fluorescent fixtures:
Direct Wire LED T8 Tube Lights and What You Need to Know About Sockets

Now I just need to order 8 more LED tubes and insert them. Inserting them is one of the hardest parts; it's always tricky getting the pins on both sides of the tube to go in right so that they'll twist into place.

The before-last photo also shows one of the boards I screwed into the ceiling last year, to fix the sagging drywall ceiling panels. The panels had been sagging down due to rain that occasionally leaked into the attic, before the roof was replaced.

comments

retrofitting lamp fixtures with LED tubes

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 06:54:22 GMT

I'm retrofitting the remaining 4 fluorescent tube lamp fixtures in my garage to use LED tubes. I've already removed the ballasts.

I'm debating whether to wire them for single-ended tubes or double-ended tubes.

Safety Test Shows Double-Ended EasiRetrofit LED Tube Safer Than Single Ended Tube For Maintenance - according to this page, double-ended tube fixtures are safer, because if someone accidentally puts a regular fluorescent tube into a single-ended fixture, it will cause a short. The short could burn out the tube, or if it's a 277V fixture, possibly even make the tube explode.

The Perfect Tube: What are the Differences Between Single-Ended LED Linear Light Tube and Double-Ended LED Linear Light Tube? - according to this page, double-ended tube fixtures were originally more dangerous, because someone putting up a tube, holding it on both ends, could potentially get shocked. Since then, double-ended tubes have features to prevent that.

Based on the above, I'm still not sure which are really better or safer.

The tombstone sockets on my fixtures are not shunted, so they are ok for either kind of tube. They are however, discolored, as are the fixtures themselves (from white to shades of gray), apparently from the heat generated by the old tubes and/or ballasts. So I might end up replacing the sockets anyway, to be on the safe side.

For the 2 fixtures that I already retrofitted in 2014, I used single-ended tubes. It would be best to have all the garage lamp fixtures be consistent, so I should probably use single-ended ones in the other fixtures too.

But I'd hate to do that and a couple years down the line find out that single-ended ones are obsolete, and aren't made anymore. Or vice versa.

Or it may be that tubes in general will become obsolete, as new fixtures will tend to have the LEDs built-in rather than as separate bulbs.

Lowes seems to only have the kind of LED tubes that require a ballast to still be present. I expect those to become obsolete eventually, as LEDs don't inherently require ballasts. But if everyone installs these kind of LED tubes, maybe they'll eventually end up replacing the ballasts too.

Home Depot has some of those kind and some of the ones that work without ballasts. Their product pages don't say if the LED tubes are single or double-ended. I suspect the latter.

But other stores have more choices, so I won't be buying from Home Depot anyway.

Another thing to decide is whether to get glass tubes or shatterproof plastic ones. If I knew the plastic wouldn't discolor over time, that would seem the better choice. I think the LED tubes I have already are plastic.

And then, frosted versus clear. The existing LED tubes I have are clear.

Here are some that say Dual-End & Single-End Powered, Works with/Without Ballast. I wonder how they can work as either dual or single ended, with the same tube. I guess they must have something inside to detect which pins have voltage across them?

comments

yah yah yah

Fri, 31 May 2019 13:34:05 GMT

This is a catchy EDM tune. Such a big concert, so many people. Such beautiful colorful lights! Fireworks!

Video title: Armin van Buuren - Blah Blah Blah (+ Brennan Heart & Toneshifterz Remix) [Live at Tomorrowland 2018]
Posted by: A State Of Trance
Posted on: Jul 24, 2018
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45_MVtE5xsI

At first, watching that makes me wistful, wishing I could go to a concert like that. There aren't ever any techno concerts staged around here, that I know of. But then I think, all those crowds, what about when I have to use the bathroom? Having to walk a mile to get to one, and possibly wait an hour to use it? And then I remember the concerts I've been to, much smaller than this one, and how bad the acoustics were. How could the acoustics of a gigantic concert be any better? I think they must have edited the audio on this video to make it sound better, as well as probably having had microphones in better places compared to what the audience would hear. And then I think it's much more enjoyable watching something like that on my computer or TV screen, than it would be in real life. Except not getting the strobe lights flashing and sweeping over you, and not really feeling the excitement of the crowd.

comments

morning sunlight

Thu, 01 Nov 2018 13:15:34 GMT

At Q's house in the morning. Quiet, placid, murky water in the ~2/3s drained lake. Sparkles of sunlight glinting from the water surface where bubbles of air, from critters down below, surface and pop.

comments

glimpse the rainbow

Sat, 31 Mar 2018 02:37:55 GMT

Walking back from checking the mailbox, a car/SUV passed me on the street. It had rainbow changing-color lights on the tire rims and under the chassis, and looked awesome. But it was driving so fast, I didn't get more than that short glimpse of it.

comments

LED light strand mystery

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 07:30:37 GMT

Before xmas last year, I put up a new multi-colored xmas light strand at Qiao's house. It's the simple kind; it doesn't flash or blink or change colors. A few weeks ago, I noticed that 2 of the bulbs, fairly close to the end... the 9th and 10th ones from the plug, to be exact... were out. Every now and then, I see those same 2 bulbs turn back on for a while, or flicker in unison as if they are on a different circuit than all the other bulbs. The other 98 bulbs on the strand stay on steady. The strand itself is motionless the whole time. What could cause just 2 of the bulbs to flicker like that?

comments

get on with it, already...

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 03:53:30 GMT

note to self:
Yes, half of the green lights on the multi-colored light strand on the Christmas tree are out. I've already looked at and wiggled all of the unlit bulbs that I could find. There was no change. There's no way to find and fix the problem, without taking all the lights off the tree first. I'm not going to do that. It still looks good with the remaining lights. I think it already had this problem last year. Don't waste more time looking for the problem next year either, unless you are willing to remove the lights from the tree.

So just get over it. Let it go.

Finish decorating the tree. It will be fine.

And don't start ruminating on why I am doing this, putting up a tree. I am doing it. So just get on with it, already.

comments

week in review

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 04:58:31 GMT

Driving into the parking lot at work on Monday, I noticed the low tire pressure warning light on. There was a nail in my tire. I got the hole plugged at the service station nearby, but they recommended getting the tire replaced as the hole was close to the edge. So I the next day, I got the tire replaced at the Toyota dealership. The price seemed reasonable; I was surprised by that. The "advisor" who handled my case was cool... very gender variant looking. At first she struck me as a butch lesbian. Then I wondered, why did I assume that? Maybe he was FTM. Or maybe they were non-binary like me. His/her/their business card was stapled to my receipt. They have a gender neutral name! Later I wondered if they staple their card to everyone's receipt, and if they were as tickled by my gender variance as I was by theirs. And I wondered if something they had jokingly said early on could be considered flirting.

The waiting room at the dealership had many noises. Two TV's on, tuned to different channels. Kids shrieking and crying. Music playing. Vending machines humming. I had brought my work laptop to do some work while waiting, which I did, but the noise was distracting and stressful. Next time, it would be good to bring my noise-cancelling headphones.

The little fig tree didn't react well to the snow we got a couple weeks ago. The leaves withered and dried up. The pink magnolia reacted similarly. I hope they recover.

On the way to work, another company has a row of trees by the street. I saw them pruning some of the larger trees one day. It was after the trees had already sprouted leaves. (They surely didn't expect to trees to sprout so early this year.) Now when I drive by, the ones that were pruned are all bare, while the other ones still have their pretty green leaves. I hope the pruned ones recover too.

Yesterday I washed the dogs.
While I had the hose unfurled, I also washed the green algae and dirt off of one side of the garage.

I went to Best Buy to see if they have any quiet/silent wired mice, as the scrollwheel on my mouse at work is messing up, even after me taking it apart and cleaning out the dust. I didn't see any particularly good ones at Best Buy, so I ordered 2 from Amazon that were specifically advertised as being quiet. Two, because the one looks good and practical, but the other one looks awesome and lights up. And maybe the way the scrollwheel is on the latter, I can turn it further in a single swipe. I'm sure I'll need another mouse anyway, sooner or later.

I replaced the clear glass lampshades on the ceiling fan light fixture in Qiao's den with some translucent/milky alabaster glass ones, to reduce the glare. I also bought 2 colored LED light-bulbs (green and pink - Qiao chose the colors) to put in the 2 sockets which face us when watching TV, to further reduce the glare, as even 40W bulb equivalents up there seem pretty bright. The colored bulbs, even though they are only 3W each!, are still brighter than I expected them to be.

I raked some of the yard. I washed clothes. I vacuumed, and washed dishes and dog collars. I cleaned the tub using 4 different cleaners, and it's still not as clean as I'd like (I wish I had written down how I got it so clean last time). The "tub grip" (gah, they've increased the price by 50%!) that I applied to the floor of the tub to keep it from being slippery is very good in that regards, but it traps more dirt than a smooth surface would. Ecover used to make a tub/tile cleaner that worked very good, but it's not sold here any more. I'm not sure if a similar one I found on Amazon has the same ingredients or not, but I may get it anyway to try. Because I want my darn tub to be spotless! Then again, I read something about using dish washing liquid mixed with vinegar, which I may try first.

comments

hybrid halogen CFL bulbs / bulb lifespans

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:52:04 GMT

One of my CFL light-bulbs has been acting odd. When I turn the light switch on, the bulb comes on. But after about 30 seconds, it goes dark. I tried swapping its position with a different bulb, and it did the same thing in the new position.

I found this stackexchange page: Why would a CFL bulb dim by itself after 60 seconds? which suggests the bulb may be a hybrid halogen/CFL.

These bulbs have a halogen bulb inside the CFL swirl. The theory is that the halogen is used when the light is first turned on, providing instant light. The waste heat from the halogen bulb helps to warm the CFL, allowing it to reach full brightness quicker. The halogen is turned off after the CFL has warmed up...
once the CFL fails, you'll have a bulb that lights for a minute, then turns out on its own.

I don't remember buying any hybrid halogen CFLs, and that is something I think I'd remember. But sure enough, when I turn the bulb on, it gets bright in the middle, and you can see the darker shadows of the CFL swirl around the center brightness. The 2nd of this set (I originally bought a pair) still works normally, and I can see its CFL swirl brighten whereas the broken one's doesn't.

This article on the bulbs includes a photo of the packaging: GE Lighting to promote halogen-CFL hybrid bulb with Target.
The packaging (the front side, at least) doesn't mention anything about the bulb being a hybrid or containing a halogen bulb in addition to the CFL. So at least I wasn't inobservant when I bought these. I remember being drawn to them due to their having a smooth glass capsule around the CFL, similar to incandescents.

.

This article mentions something interesting that I hadn't heard before: Burned Out on CFLs? We Address the Real Issues and Solutions

projected CFL lifespans are based on a three-hour run time per start. In other words, during CFL testing, bulbs are cycled on for three hours and off for 20 minutes until half the samples have failed. If you turn them on frequently for less than three hours at a time — as I do in my bathroom — you’re in for a surprise.

"Incandescents are somewhat immune to the number of times you switch them on and off," Leslie says, "but the electrodes inside a CFL are stressed with each burst of starting voltage, and will eventually degrade and fail. With a CFL, the number of starts is the primary factor for determining how long it will last; the number of burning hours is secondary. A CFL rated at 10,000 hours in the three-hour-on standard test might last only 4,000 hours if left on for only 15 minutes per start."

So that may explain why in my experience too, CFL bulbs seem to have a much shorter life span than advertised.

My hybrid bulb that stopped working can't be older than 5 years, as it wasn't even available until Spring 2011. It may have even burned out a year or more ago, as I remember seeing it going out before, but as it kept "working" again, I thought it was just a bad connection or something.

LED light bulbs are also advertised as having long lifespans. I wonder if frequently turning them on and off reduces their lifespans too.

comments

odds, ends

Sun, 26 Jun 2016 23:40:04 GMT

The house's side door has a motion-activated light fixture mounted by it. The lights always attracted moths and other flying insects. To prevent the bugs flying into the house, I always had to slip inside the door and shut it quickly, but sometimes moths still got in. Now I've replaced the two bulbs with LED bug light bulbs. It's amazing the difference that makes. Light! And yet absolutely no bugs flying around in the light! The light is yellow, but that's no problem. I should have done this years ago.

.

Qiao bought a set of lithium battery-powered yard tools. At first the hedge trimmer looked scary to me, with all the sharp teeth. But it is easy to use. So easy that I have to remind myself to be careful with it. It's so much easier than using clippers to cut individual stalks, especially for the jessamine bushes on the fence.

.

Cyber bank robberies... North Korea to blame?

North Korea Linked To $81 Million Bangladesh Bank Heist
Obama strikes back at North Korea

...or maybe not North Korea, exactly?
Vietnamese bank hit by cyber heist
North Korean Cyberhacking Redux: The Bank Heist Cases

.

The unstoppable march of the upward inflection?
High rising terminal
(aka "upspeak")

A lady was talking on TV a while back, and I wasn't interested in whatever she was talking about, but was fascinated by her manner of speech. Her sentences kept ending on a rising note, as if she was asking a question even though she wasn't. It was much more pronounced than the audio samples on the first link above. When I recently came across that page, I realized that maybe it wasn't a peculiarity to her, but a common way of speaking, where ever she was from.

Then I realized the similarity of that to another manner of speaking which at first struck me as odd. Some people insert phrases like "you know what I mean", "you get me", "you know what I'm saying?", "you know?" in the middle of each sentence and/or after each sentence. They don't necessarily pitch it as a question, nor even slow down waiting for feedback - it just seems to be how they are used to speaking.

The rising pitch is similar, in that the speaker sounds like they are asking the listener if they understand or agree with what is being said, except without adding any extra words in.

Then again, maybe that is just my biased impression of it, and not what is actually intended by the speakers.

Vocal fry register : Speaking in the lowest register of your voice, where it makes a creaky grating sound. I do that sometimes, and didn't realize there was a term for it.

Apparently there's been a lot of criticism of how young women speak these days.

From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We 'Policing' Young Women's Voices?

From the audio samples given in that NPR broadcast and elsewhere, women using vocal fry in their speech sounds totally normal to me, and not bad. The upspeak can be a bit disconcerting to me, but not much so. That one lady I mentioned hearing speak on TV had a much more pronounced and unusual version of it, which is why it fascinated me so much. I wish I had written down who the speaker was.

comments