It’s funny how I often buy things at opposite ends of the spectrum...

Tim back at ASD. Michael continuing his academics with Job Corps. COVID stats defy the government demands. Android 11 released and installed. California dealing with riots, fires, and power outages....

I’d been waiting for months for the Pixel 4a to be announced. It was expected to be ready in the late Spring, but things kept getting delayed. Finally I got word a few weeks ago that its announcement was “for real” happening in early August. Within an hour I went and pre-ordered. First I ordered one for me. But also I asked Abby if she’d like a replacement for her iPhone and she was ready....

Rose-Hulman Visit Near the end of our Midwest vacation, Timothy and I took a day to drive from Noblesville to Terre Haute and had a scheduled tour of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I’d visited once or twice after I’d graduated when Michelle and I lived in Dayton, but had never gone back once we settled in New Hampshire. It was just too far and we started having kids shortly after getting to NH....

Minivan It’s Back!! This evening around 5:15pm I finally paid up (a little less than $3100) and got our Odyssey back. Bunches of rings, gaskets, one piston rod, and lots of labor. 3 days worth! Expenses… Between the A/C and Front Brakes from a couple of weeks ago anticipating this trip, and the replacement of the rings for half of this engine, it’s getting debatable that I wouldn’t have come out on par to sell the van last month and just buy a low mileage Accord off lease....

Back when Michelle had just recovered from her initial rounds of chemotherapy, we sold our 2000 basic Honda Odyssey. Knowing the hell she’d been through, I wanted to treat her and we bought another Odyssey but this time bought the “EX-L” model. It had many amenities like heated leather, sunroof, climate control, power doors, etc. We didn’t get the “Touring” edition because Michelle thought things like the navigation and the drop down screens for watching DVDs were way overpriced and I agreed....

Moto G6 As I mentioned the other day, Michael’s phone died. Powering it on would just put it in a boot loop, and no amount of trying to boot into Android recovery would work. I’d chatted with Google Fi’s online help and they agreed to expedite another one right away. The replacement Moto G6 arrived this afternoon. I asked Michael to put it on a charger so it’d be ready for activation later....

Great gobbledygook title, eh? Enough to make you glaze over? Hang in there… This weekend I spent some more time tinkering with the cheap Linux laptop, my Pinebook Pro. One of the things I wanted to do was be able to see the files that we have on a home network drive as local files on my computer. I’ve never had luck with this in the past. Some back story: over three years ago back in April 2017, I ordered a nice Network Attached Storage (NAS) from one of the two leading providers: QNAP....

Movie As I wrapped up my Friday debugging, Claire and her beau came over. We opted to go for a family Chinese Dinner together – always a good call because it’s an affordable way to eat “family buffet style”. And the table we usually get (due to family size) is a larger round table away from most background noise, which makes for easier conversations and less distraction. When we got back, we watched “Tucker & Dale vs....

I’m waking up and digging into a light breakfast and decided to write about another small project of 2020: my experiences with the Pinebook Pro. In a nutshell it’s an inexpensive, ARM-based, Linux laptop. Inexpensive? $200. ARM-based? That’s the type of CPU that’s in your mobile phones, tablets, and usually smart watches. Linux? It’s the operating system that powers the internet, Android, TiVo’s, and much more. But no, it’s not Windows10 or MacOS....