21st century video entertainment.

One of my things to research was related to music streaming options but our research veered off into video options.  The elderly tube TV we were using for our workouts (too old to pick up HD signal, but capable of hooking up to a DVD) was increasingly unsatisfactory.  Among other things, having to buy our media content on DVDs was getting on our nerves.

So here's the quick checklist for what you need if you want to have decent video watching options but don't want to deal with buying a cable TV package:

1.  TV features - issues seem to include:

• Resolution - expressed in terms of pixels (p) but keep in mind that this is total pixels, and so the bigger the screen, the more spread-out those pixels are going to be.  So for a TV in the size we wanted (we were looking at things in the 40-inch range given the size of wall and room we were working with), 1080 seemed like the reasonable minimum.  Below that, we could see some effects of low pixels on curved sharp lines.  There was a really fancy 4,000 pixel OLED TV that was just gorgeous, but it was in the thousands of dollars so not what we were going for.  Maybe in a few years when they come down in price or we win the lottery.
• Availability of inputs/outputs - all seem to have an input for a cable or antenna.  Other desirable stuff?  HDMI slot or slots for hooking up media streamers.  AV jacks for hooking up an older DVD player.  USB slot for hooking up storage media, showing pictures, etc.
• Consider where you'll put it.  Want to hang on the wall, make sure it as holes in the back to allow that.  Want to set it on a stand, make sure the stand will fit on the surface you plan.  

2.  Where the media comes from?  Here's options:

• You can have a smart TV, like a Roku TV.  These can access a variety of media streams.  The ones we wanted to make sure were included were Amazon and Netflix.
• You can have a media streamer, which fits into an HDMI slot on the TV.  Roku does one of those too.  These will hook to your internet via wi-fi or wired connection and play stuff that's available online like the smart TV can.
• You can hook up an antenna which lets you get local broadcast TV.  This attaches via a coax cable.
• You can hook up a DVD player and watch the stuff you already own.

So, we found a nice deal on the Roku TV, bought an antenna and a wall-hanging rig to go with it, and picked up the right kind of AV cables to hook up the DVD player to it.  So far, very happy!  Hanging a TV is pretty straightforward - they're not too heavy.  Just worth taking the time to get things level!

Ready for a workout?

New Year, electronics purge, clean keyboard!

We're on a thorough decluttering rampage this January, and making amazing progress already.  Last weekend the amazing spouse cleared out many bags of graphic novels and books which we'd now replaced in electronic format.  I took them along with a big supply of Meyer lemons (from my tree) over to a local center which provides housing for families transitioning out of homelessness.

This weekend, I tackled some stacks of old electronics.  In past rounds of clean-up, I succeeded in collecting such things into a single space - but that space was taking up more than a full shelf of space and empirically hadn't been disturbed in months - so probably contained stuff we didn't need.

Sure enough, my purge uncovered many tech toys dating back to the 1990's in some cases that just didn't need to take up real estate in our home.  A grocery sack of items will now to to spouse's office where his IT team can be trusted to clean off drives and make things otherwise secure for donation or recycling; we also filled the recycling with lots of old manuals and documentation, and some items (like 3 inch floppies containing Win 95) went into the trash.

I also uncovered a keyboard which is quite compatible with our current desktop.  The current keyboard is nice - a very sleek apple keyboard, high on the "form factor".  But the older keyboard, while less sleek, has USB ports on it, which means that I could dispense with having a separate USB hub on the desk.  So I conclude that the form of the older keyboard is, on net, actually better than the new one.

But the old one was... filthy.  I am bad about eating at my desk, I have cats who wander the desk, the house has a certain amount of dust... the cumulative result was just gross.  So, before putting the thing into action, it needed a good cleaning.

How do you clean a mac keyboard?  It's simple:

1.  Take a photo or three of the keyboard before you start, both to document where the keys are positioned, and to remind yourself how gross it was when you started.

2.  Then just pop out the keys one at a time.  It helps to lay them out in the order they sat on the keyboard as an additional way of keeping track of what goes where.

3.  Then start wiping down the base of the keyboard.  Maybe take a picture to again remind yourself how gross it was.

4.  Once the keyboard is clean, you can start wiping down the keys one by one and replacing them on the keyboard. Once it's done, let it dry overnight to be sure that you don't have any dangerous dampness down in the electronics.  Oh, and take a picture to show how much improved it is!

Things to research

Started this blog years ago, then ignored it for the past year and more.  When I finish a project, my main interest is going on to the next project; I've failed to develop the good habit of documenting my work before moving on.

So will tweak what I'm doing as a sort of new year's resolution.

Before trying a new project, I often maintain a document where I capture my research about HOW to do the project - websites, facts and figures, etc.  If I collect that stuff in a blog post, then it'll be accessible to me later.  Use of tags and such should help me keep it all straight.

So to start with, here's a list of things to research:

1. Music solutions:
• Streaming services to access and play home library, listen to things I don't own, explore new stuff.
• Speakers for the house, which perhaps would have options to be controlled from different devices.  And/or possibly tied into above music service, like the Amazon thingies.
2. Travel and touristing:
• At some point I want to do some traveling in the UK outside of England; an opportunity might arise this summer.  Especially interested in Scotland, due to family roots, which means researching the places where those family roots actually lie and putting together an itinerary around those.  
• Touristing in my own hometown - I don't do enough exploring in my own city.  Need to start identifying cool things to do here, and do them.
• Touristing in towns where friends and family live 
• Other opportunities as they arise.
• And continue to research the best apps and online tools for researching and organizing travel.  
• And research the best equipment and ideas for making travel simple, comfortable, fun.
3. Home improvement:  Ah, so many things here
• Electrical infrastructure - to get wiring up to code and circuits properly loaded.  
• Lighting - replace unattractive and dysfunctional fixtures
• Plumbing - replace kitchen faucet, do something about guest bath/shower
• Insulation
• Then, aesthetics.  After all the other stuff is finished for a room so won't be making repeat holes in walls.
4. Yard and garden:  
• Hardscape for front and backyard, for aesthetics and ease of maintenance
• Irrigation
5. Sewing, also crochet and knitting
• I have stacks of old t-shirts.  t-shirt yarn - crocheted to something cool?  t-shirt quilt?  
• I love wearing leggings, am on the lookout for things to wear with leggings that cover my butt without being huge and baggy and sloppy up-top.
6. If I'm talking about resolutions I should research a few ways to be more fit:
• Exercises and stretches to reduce the hunched-forward posture I get from being at the computer all the time
• CV endurance - I never seem to have enough of it.
• Nutrition and how it plays into energy, health, fitness.  

So, um, yeah.  That's some stuff to research and share.  Let's see how it goes.

Four days later...

Potatoes have about doubled in height again!

Time to add more mounded up stuff. Some dirt, some leaves. 

Someone asked whether the peas would shade out the potato plants. So far, the taters are growing much faster than the legumes!

Potato update

They are growing well after a couple weeks of solid rain. Time to mound up dirt around them. 

Some sources said to pretty much cover the plant. Others said cover only half or even a third of the plant. I sort of compromised:  I covered the bottom quarter to third with soil, then mounded up dead leaves as mulch up to a height of half to three quarters of the plant. I figure that will shade the stems and then as the plant grows more I will later more soil then leaves - if nothing else it will be a good lasagna garden base. 

We will see what happens!

Dividing chard

My chard came up in big clusters which makes some sense as I believe I recall it I related to beets. 

So since I have had success digging and dividing beet clusters before, decided to try it with the chard. Dug out each clump and gently separated into individual plants:

Then put the sturdiest into better spacing:

Put some of the extra into pots:

We will see how it does...

Potato tower

So I have never tried growing potatoes before. I plan to try growing a variety that are supposedly purple, although the seed potatoes don't look very purple:

But they have good sprouts on them so there is that. 

Here is a 2x2 bed, filled with compost and dirt to a bit below the surface, with a bamboo and mesh cage surrounding three sides. I plan to wall up the fourth side with more mesh as I fill in the dirt and compost around the plants as they grow. 

So I lay my taters in the middle and also a line of peas around the edge (might as well get extra use from the trellis). 

I expect the soil to sink down a bit because I dug a ton of leaves and compost down into it. The plan is for this to be a combination compost pile and bed, I will use yard trimmings and such to hill up around the plants as they grow. So last step is to pile up soil - a couple of inches at the edge over the peas, 3-4 inches over the spuds. 

So - did I do right?