Tuesday, August 18, 2015

v44.9 :: Two In A Row!?

Yes, I know it sounds crazy but this is my second post in two days.  I don't know what has come over me.

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I'm sitting at home with a cup of coffee watching streaming Poker on the TV.  My life is so exciting sometimes I don't know how I can contain it.  I'm sure you've all see the Dos Equis commercial about the most interesting man in the world.  Well I am also the most interesting man in the world.  Allow me to explain so you all understand how interesting I am:

  1. I once cleaned my toilet... with a toothbrush!

  2. I load my dishwashers... with clean dishes!

  3. I play my Wii-U... without using my hands!

  4. I watch TV... with my eyes closed!

  5. When I go to bed... I brush my teeth (not with the same toothbrush)!

I'm sure my breakdown doesn't nearly do me justice, so here is one of the Dos Equis videos for you to enjoy.



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onhub-routerI was doing some reading on the new OnHub by Google.  I'm not sure how the internet works at your place, but when I have my children here for the weekend and all those little Wi-Fi devices start firing up, my router slows to a crawl and my internet/network traffic grinds to a halt.  I bought a decent router thinking it would be able to accommodate the barrage of Wi-Fi devices I would throw at it, but the poor thing cries every time my kids come over.

Based on what I've read so far, this little device is supposed to be the answer to those of us who experience network overload when we have so many devices connected at once.  When my children are here for the weekend, there is a minimum of 12 devices connected to my Wi-Fi every time.  Each one trying to get a piece of the internet to do its thing.  I also like to stream videos and music through my Chromecast but more often than not, that doesn't work very well on the weekends because the poor router is begging for me to pull out the hammer and smash it to pieces.

moneystackThe router itself looks a lot different from your traditional router.  According to Google "OnHub’s innovative circular antenna design provides reliable Wi-Fi coverage in more directions in your home."  I'm not sure how well this works in the majority of homes, but it sure sounds like a good idea.  Google also boasts "OnHub gives you Wi-Fi at a speed of up to 1900 Mbps by supporting both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, which means fast Wi-Fi for everyone.".  I'll admit that I really want one; not because it's made by Google, but because it sounds like it solves the exact problem I have at home.  Of course the price tag (currently $199 USD) on this thing is the only reason I haven't ordered one already.  Hell, if I had the money I would order one for my Kid's place and a couple more for my Parent's places.  Just imagine how many more Wi-Fi connections would be used when you got my entire family together for a weekend.  Just off the top of my head, I'm counting more than 25 devices that could potentially be connecting and accessing the internet through the router at my mother's house.  Most of the time the internet is unusable there because the router provided by the ISP is pure garbage (even admittedly so by their level 3 technical support team).

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Well folks, that's about all I have to write about tonight.  The coffee is now gone and the poker game is about to really take off.  I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow and if you're all very, very good, you may see me back tomorrow night.

Until next time...

Cheers,

Al

Monday, August 17, 2015

v44.8 :: The Old & The New

Long time no see!

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creative-writing-exercises-moral-dilemmasI relaunched this site back in February 2015 in hopes of getting to write more often.  Unfortunately that didn't last as long as I hoped so I started reading back through all of my Musings.  I noticed a definite trend to the frequency and content which was a little bit disturbing.  Not only did my post frequency start to dwindle, but the content of those posts was lacklustre and painful to read.

So what did I do?

I brought back all those old posts, I updated their titles to fall more in-line with the new format and I changed the "version" numbers of the posts since February to follow the old musings.  It took me the better part of two evenings to complete, but I now have all my old posts here for your reading enjoyment (or boredom :) ).  There is a lot of content here going as far back as March 2005 (that's over 10 years ago!) and I can't guarantee it will all be grand or glamorous, but it's all here; spelling, grammatical mistakes and all.

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So what's next?

I could sit here and tell you I want to write more and keep the site updated on a regular basis.  I could sit here and promise you I'll be providing at least one update a day/week/month/year, but the truth is, in order for me to write I need something to write about.  The days of old where I would sit at work and write over my morning coffee are gone.  While I have access to do that, work has changed so much over the years that taking that much time out of a morning will set me behind, resulting in working later or in the evening from home.  Reading back through these posts has made one thing very clear: my job didn't suck :)

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creative_writingSo what does a writer do when they have nothing to write about?  To throw a quote in here that seems fitting: "Writer's Write".
Writer's Write

I don't know who wrote it, but that's exactly what I plan on doing.  I may have nothing worthwhile to say or any deep thoughts to share, but if I write, something undoubtedly will happen.  After all, it was always my life-long dream to be a writer and have something published and I've written more unfinished partial stories than I can count.  These unfinished stories are all backed up on this site and may never see the light of day, but at least I did something and I have part of the groundwork done in the event I feel inspired to pick one of them up and finish.

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So here I sit, writing on my blog that I've grown to love and hate many times over the years.  Perhaps this time it will be different and I'll get off my lazy ass and do something; or perhaps not.  Either way, I'm here today writing for the whole world to see and hopefully soon (maybe even tomorrow) I will feel inspired to write something again.  Until next time, I thank those who took the time to read over the years and I'm grateful for the encouragement.

Cheers,

Al