Picking up Where We Left Off

Tonight, being Friday night, means once again, it's Quantum Leap Night. After we were rudely interrupted by the failure of our new-ish Samsung Blu-ray player last week, this week, we're back in business. This is not thanks to Samsung (more on that below), but is due to the fact that I put no faith in the fact that there would be a fix for this problem - quick or otherwise.

Instead, I ordered a new player last weekend, which has since arrived - and so far, at least, it seems to be working. (We'll see what happens, as we are fast approaching Zero Hour.)

There aren't a whole lot of choices out there for Blu-ray players - not unless I want to get into the Home Theater end of things - which I do not.I ended up buying a Sony, not because I have any particular love of Sony, but because it, a) appeared to be the closest thing to what we had and b) it was cheap.

I have since found out that Samsung, perhaps wisely, no longer produces Blu-Ray players for the good ol' U.S. of A. Maybe this is because they're just not any good at producing Blu-Ray players, or maybe they just view the good ol' U.S. of A. as a sinking ship - and they didn't want the be the last rat overboard. Either way, it's hard to fault them for their logic.

If I've gotten any pleasure from this adventure at all, it's in the excitement of logging on everyday to the Samsung "Community" Support page(s). I'm not sure what the purpose of this site is supposed to be - unless it's just a place for people to go and complain (which I have nothing against). If that's what it's for, it's working admirably. Comments range from threats of lawsuits (likely hollow - but, what the hey), all the way to one lonely guy who suggested that everyone chill-out and go spend some time with their wives and kids while the problem is being resolved. Yeah, right.

I've read some of the latest comments and it seems that some people are getting shipping labels to send their machines back to the factory while other malcontents are saying, no, Samsung is supposed to be posting a "fix" and won't be sending any labels. Like usual, I have no idea. I'm just waiting for the storm to settle a bit - which I don't think will be anytime soon. The amount of postings seem to be growing faster than asparagus. As of right now, there are One Hundred and Ninety Eight PAGES of complaints on this "Support" page. Go back in another ten minutes and it will likely be up from there.

And if you do go on their site, don't be fooled by the flagged, "Solved" at the top of the first page. This has been up there since Monday and has only served to get people's hopes up (including at one point, mine). All it says is:

We are aware of customers who have reported an issue with boot loops on some Blu-Ray players and we are looking into this further. We will post an update here on this thread when we have more information.

This so-called solution (posted, as I mentioned, back on Monday) only serves to piss people off even more.

Anyway, we'll see where this goes (maybe).  For now though, I've got more important things to do, things like going for a quick walk, taking a shower, popping popcorn, then arranging the pillows for Sam to lean against me as we watch Quantum Leap together.

Hopefully.

Bad Equation

Walking the very dusty farm fields. We need rain!

Nothing but walking, walking and more walking this week (surprise!).

I've been fortunate to be around as Sam has returned to work (Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00-12:00). As I think I mentioned, he's working out of the Middle School this summer - not out of the usual High School. The Middle School is about three quarters of a mile away from home and every day, with one exception, I've been able to walk him there - and then walk back again to meet him and walk him home.

The one exception was at the end of his shift Tuesday. Tuesday was, as it turned out, the tail-end of a high heat (and humidity) wave - and neither one of us were up to the task of trying to walk home. As it was, we barely made it there in the morning - and I struggled to return home after getting him there (more than usual, I mean).

We managed to attempt a walk Tuesday evening - a brief one to the rail yard. We made it as far as getting across the Bridge of Death, right about up to where a road crosses the rail yard path. At about that point, we were slammed (literally) with the unseen, but definitely felt, cloud of semi-toxic out-gassing which was rolling out from the very nearby sewage treatment plant.

This is often bad but on Tuesday afternoon, it was especially awful: High Heat + High Humidity + Sam/Sewage Treatment Plant  = :(

Looks like the rail path option may have to wait until fall. Or at least until the wind blows in the opposite direction.

Father's Day

I was lucky to have a dad who was loving, a dad who was interested and involved, a dad who had compassion and empathy for others - and someone who always managed to have time for me.

I don't know how many times I've posted this video before. At least half a dozen times, I'm sure. Here it is, one more time.

Thanks for everything, Dad.

Hmm...

Last night, as Sam was getting ready for bed, I stumbled across this article. Apparently, I'm not alone in the broken DVD player department. Like many others, our player is/was a Samsung Blu-ray and just as the article mentions, ours died out on June 19th - with the same symptoms as described by others.

This seems a little strange. I feel like my DVD player was in some way reporting back to it's Alien Master.

Untimely Demise

It couldn't have happened at a worse time.

While Sam was upstairs taking his shower, I poured his glass of ice water and arranged the pillows on the couch. The popcorn was popped and ready to go. I went to put the disk in the DVD player, and that's when I discovered the DVD player, the NEW DVD player (relatively speaking), was broken.

Even though the player willingly sucked in the disk, the magic wasn't happening. You could hear the disk chugging away inside the DVD machine, but nothing appeared on the TV screen. Nothing, other than a random, tantalizingly legible flicker which faded and reappeared over and over again. It was as if the disk was struggling to come up for air.

I tried several times to get the player to work, but even utilizing the full extent of my expertise in electronics (i.e., opening and closing the little drawer several times), I couldn't get it to work. So much for our highly anticipated, weekly Quantum Leap Night  (formerly known as McGyver Night, formerly known as Monk Night). A bitter disappointment for both of us.

We ate the popcorn anyway.

Today's Extended Complaint

Years ago, I was stupid enough to switch phone companies - or rather, carriers. I don't remember the exact reason for the switch. I'm sure it was to save all sorts of money. But one of the selling points (though not for me) was that this now long-since defunct carrier gave you a better, more detailed breakout of your monthly bill, compared to most other (still in business) carriers.

Well, when my first bill came, there was definitely more information - much, much more. This bill came in a 9x12 envelope, I think this was because there were so many papers, they couldn't fold them all and then stuff them in a regular sized envelope.

I quickly learned that much, much more information didn't mean better information. Much of the information was meaningless to me. And of the information that was semi-useful, well, it was so spread out, and then enlarged in scale, that it meant flipping through several pages to find what had previously been on one or two pages.

I'm reminded of this because Blogger is insisting on switching over to a new setup - one that, so far, I don't like.

Here's a picture of the old main page...

And here's a picture of the new main page...

No big deal, but why is everything so large? I had more information per page the way it was laid-out before. Maybe this will be more helpful as my eyesight inevitably gets worse. But like I said though, no big deal.

But now we move onto the stats page. This is where it begins to remind me of my old (meaning, "new") phone carrier.

Here's what the main stats page looked like before...

Nice and concise. All the "important" information (as these things go) is up front (assuming we care). See that little "More" link, just above the map and to the right of "Audience"? Click it and it brings you to this page...

Again, nice and concise. This tells me more than what I need to know - like, among other things, for this week, my biggest fan base (i.e. spammers) are centered in good ol' Turkmenistan - as opposed to some weeks, when they're from Belarus, or other weeks, when they've moved to Montenegro, etc, etc, etc. (I consider this a global following) - but if I were interested, at least it's all right there.

Anyway, now let's go to the new and improved Stats Page(s). It starts with this...

First of all, I don't need to know that the views for my latest post flat-lined up until June 17th - because I didn't even post it until June 18th. And secondly, I fully expect my post - any post - will flat-line immediately after I post it, and likely will remain that way- at least until Rachael or Ben happen by (Hi guys!). So thanks, but I  don't need the reminder of how (un)popular I am (which, I think, is my preferred status anyway) - let alone seeing my unpopularity in a handy, much-too-enlarged graph. 

But that's not all. Scroll down some more and you get this...

Scroll down a little more and you get a view of stats for "Pages" (which I don't use -therefore, no screenshot).

Now, on that last screenshot, see where it says, "More About This Blog"? Click on that link and you get this page...

I could have taken FOUR MORE screen shots of what's on this page (but I didn't). Near as I can tell, these, along with the previous screenshots, are not telling me anything that the original TWO pages were telling me in the old Blogger.

And that's just the start if it. What really sets me off is trying to embed a video.

Here's a short clip of a cute little girl seeing snow for the first time. I embedded this the old way...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yv-bTovwYFI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Do you like it? Of course you don't! It's only code!

I can't embed a video from YouTube in the same way I could before! Not only was it quick and easy before, but I could easily and consistently modify the size of the video to fit the ancient, obsolete layout of my blog. Now, with this new and improved version, I have to go up and click the "Insert Video" button, choose "YouTube" and then run a search for the video. Once I find it, assuming I find it, I can paste it in. How is this easier?

I realize that I'm complaining about something that's free. And maybe there are a lot of new features stuffed in here that I'll use and enjoy - someday. Maybe. And Maybe (probably) this is just me complaining about something just because it's new. We'll see.

Anyway, that's all I have to say... for now. If you made it this far, thank you for listening.

Oh... here's the video of the little girl in the snow. Pretty cute...

Shifting into a Lower Gear

How do you wind up a day after spending three hours cupping garbanzo AND black beans*?

* I'm not sure if that's a promotion, but I'll take it as such.

Well, first you walk home, get some lunch, then sit on the front porch and read comic books for a while...

After you've recharged, you go on a two mile walk through the humid, but shaded, woods...

After which, you home again, have some dinner, take an early shower, then watch an old Columbo before going to bed....

The End