Thunderstorms

Falling to sleep during rain falling and distant thunderstorms rumbling is a once or twice a year occurrence at best.  We found that our Amazon Echo, playing the right selection from our Spotify Premium subscription (i.e., no ads), is every bit as calming as the real thing.  Stormy Evening by Taranis is our current favorite, the right balance of gentle rain and booming distant thunder.  It's also available on YouTube at the link below.

We also like the sound of waves crashing on a beach, but for some unknown reason, their soundtracks sound fake and don't do a thing for us.  The real thing, however, is bliss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lCpVQbj9Nk

Using AI For Creating Images

I have a whole bunch of links to websites that have free (I love free) images I can use for these blog posts or other of my writing adventures.  Searching can take a lot of time and is not always what I want, if I can find something reasonably close.  AI allows me to describe what I want, like "create an image of a scary Halloween pumpkin", as I did below using Canva, and select one of several options that I like best.  I think it hit the mark on scary!

https://www.canva.com

NY Brick Steak

When I saw NY Brick Steak & Crab-Stuffed Shrimp on the menu at Frankie Bones on Hilton Head Island, my dinner selection was done, although I had no clue what a "brick" steak really was.  After a little research, I found that it’s almost always a New York strip steak that’s either pressed while searing or cut thick and rectangular.  Add two garlic-butter roasted breaded shrimp stuffed with blue crab dressing, whipped potatoes, green beans, and bacon bordelaise sauce, and it was a dinner to fondly remember.

https://frankiebones.com

Chrome Split View

Google added Split View to its Chrome browser in version 142, and it's going to be a favorite of mine on my Mac Mini with its 32-inch display (it's really a TV, but that's not important).   Split View allows users to display two websites side by side within the same browser tab, as you see below with Amazon shopping on the left and Walmart's website on the right.  Instead of clicking back and forth between tabs or opening, resizing, and repositioning two windows next to each other, all you do is click on the tab you want on the left, and then select the tab you want on the right.  This will help me when I'm writing this blog and conducting genealogy research.  Read more at the link below.

https://www.androidauthority.com/chrome-split-view-feature-3613155

Mobile Reminder

YouTube TV has a nice search function to look for shows and movies.  When you find something you like, you can click the plus sign and it will record it the next time it airs.  That's nice, but do you have to go check your recordings every so often to see if they're ready?  Not if you click on the bell and set a reminder, like I did for Frosty The Snowman, one of my favorite Christmas shows.  Since I set the one you see below on one of my Fire TV Cubes, I'll get a text message when it's available.  For smartphone and tablet apps, those use the normal notifications on the device.

Google Photos Remix Feature

Google Photos recently introduced a "Remix" feature that allows you to take a photo and turn it into one of eight different cartoon styles.  I used it to create the image you see below from a picture taken at a recent wedding we attended.  To find that option, launch Google Photos, tap the three dots, then tap Remix.  Scroll through the styles, then tap Generate.  Your picture will be displayed in a few seconds.

More information can be found at the link below.

https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-photos-explains-how-remix-will-work-availability-upcoming

Using AI For Translating Text

Last Monday, I blogged about using the Perplexity AI Chatbot to read a handwritten letter and extract the text, which you see in the first screenshot below.  But as you will notice, it's not in English; in this case, it's in French, of which I barely know a few words.  So, I asked Perplexity to "translate the text to English", giving the result in the second screenshot.  That's one of the differences in using AI Chatbots over regular web services: it remembers the answers and the context of previous questions, allowing you to ask follow-up questions.

https://www.perplexity.ai

Tin And Tallow

The delicious smashburger you see below is from the Tim & Tallow, a Hilton Head Island restaurant that opened in early 2025.  “Tin” refers to the classic tinfoil wrapping used for their burgers, and “Tallow” refers to the beef tallow they use to cook all their burgers and fries.  They also offer craft coffee, draft & canned beer, wine, cocktails, and botanical seltzers.  We ate outside at one of the many picnic tables and watched a show on a monster, 4-screen TV.  A fun place to grab a bite to eat.

https://www.tinandtallow.com

This Old House

When we had our home office window replaced, I noticed the odd-looking nail you see below, which held the old window in place.  At first, I thought it was just the type of nail they used back in the 1950s when the house was built.  But after a fair amount of searching, I find that it's a masonry nail.  They are designed to attach materials to hard surfaces like brick, concrete, or stone (in our case, brick).  More information on these tough guys can be found at the following link.

https://concretecaptain.com/what-are-masonry-nails

Solitare

When I have a few minutes to burn, I like to play a game of Solitaire on my Pixel 7.  Recently, I had to find a new app, and trying to find one that didn't contain advertisements turned out to be a multi-day adventure.  Not only did apps say they didn't contain ads, but most of them did, and they were very annoying and sometimes impossible to bypass.  But after a lot of trial and error, I found the app you see below on the Google Play Store, which contains zero ads or any other annoyances.  Sorry, this is not available on Apple devices.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zeeron.solitaire