Cell Phone Signal Strength

This post is only for technology-curious people who have an iPhone.  Android users can find the information somewhere in their phone's Settings.

When you dial *3001#12345#* (including all the special characters), you can find some information about your connection to the cellular network.  The carrier listed below is TFW, which is short for TracFone Wireless, which Verizon bought and is now the label for Total Wireless.  The signal strength is the RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power) and RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality) numbers.  Since the phone has one bar, you would expect some bad numbers, and they are.  An RSRP between 0 and -90 dBm is considered good and the -127 dBm shown here is solidly in the bad range.  The RSRQ of -29 dBm is also really bad.

Lots more information for the curious can be found at the link below.

https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/blog/how-to-read-cell-phone-signal-strength-the-right-way

The Rifleman

The Rifleman was a TV series that aired from 1958 until 1963 and featured Chuck Connors in the title role.  In the opening sequence, the Rifleman is seen shooting his customized rapid-fire Winchester rifle.  I was a little boy at the time (born in 1955), but I do remember this.

The picture below is from the Texas A&M baseball field and the pitcher had just struck out a batter.  The scorecard lit up with that opening sequence, which you can see at the YouTube link below.  The Rifleman fires off about twelve shots, as fast as he can pull the lever.  Since this is Texas, celebrating a strikeout with a hail of bullets just seems to make perfect sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsitJZUcFL4

Beer-Braised Beef with Onion, Carrot, and Turnips

Gourmet Chef Elaine has made this dish many times, but I didn't blog on it before because the recipe wasn't available online.  The original recipe was copied to the link below, so all the details are available, but we suggest more than a pound of chuck roast if you're real meat eaters like us.  Avoid bagged carrots and pick out the best looking individual ones.  Compared to potatoes, turnips have one-fourth the calories and carbs, but if you don't tell people ahead of time, they probably won't know the difference.  The last tip is to cut everything into big chunks to make it easier to eat.

http://recipeofhealth.com/recipe/beer-braised-beef-with-onion-carrot-and-turnips-686541rb

Cinnamon Roll Grahams

Gourmet Chef Elaine and I have very different approaches to grocery shopping.  She's on a mission and focuses on finding the items on her list as quickly as possible.  I prefer to walk up and down every aisle looking for new and interesting products.  Such was the case when I spotted the Cinnamon Roll Grahams you see below.  I love graham crackers.  I love cinnamon rolls.  The goldfish size helps with portion control.  Each fish is only 4 calories, so even a handful doesn't kill the diet.  Yes, they are delicious flavor bombs.

https://www.pepperidgefarm.com/product/cinnamon-roll-grahams

Coldest Times

Over on my Life Experiences blog (link below) I write about seven times I was so bitterly cold and miserable, all but one self-inflicted.  It gave me chills (pun intended) to recall the details of each experience, reliving the frozen feet, numb fingers, and rattling teeth.  The cartoon below captures the feeling of sitting on a metal bleacher seat for three hours hoping the game would end soon.

https://lifeexperiences.paulishing.com/2025/03/the-coldest-times.html

Chiropractor

I've been going to a chiropractor most of my life, mainly to get my body aligned to avoid back problems and to get my back freed up during the painful times when it slips into a bad place.  Years ago, after battling plantar fasciitis for months, I mentioned it to my chiropractor and he used a percussion type on my heel and after a few weeks of treatment the pain was gone.  I recently had another painful foot problem

and was checked by my podiatrist who took dozens of x-rays but found nothing.  I told my chiropractor about it, and the pain was gone after two adjustments.  Lastly, I was having left shoulder pain, which was causing sleep issues, and after just one adjustment it's almost totally gone.

I know many people who don't even want to consider a chiropractor, but I firmly believe that getting and keeping my body's alignment correct is one of the most important things I can do for my health.

Eighteen Dollar Lesson

I use the Speedtest app on my Android phone to test the speed of Wi-Fi connections, and while visiting my sister-in-law in Pittsburgh, decided to check out how fast my cellular Google Fi (which uses T-Mobile's network) connection was.  I turned off my Wi-Fi and ran the app.  To my surprise, it came back at over 600 Mbps and I tried it a second time to verify it.  Shortly after I received an alert from Google Fi that I had exceeded my 2 GB limit for the month and that I would incur additional data charges.  Those blazing fast speed tests chewed up 1.8 GB and are the big part of that spike in data usage shown below.   I pay a dollar for each 100MB over 2GB, so this ended up being an $18 lesson I'll never make again.

Fresh Crusty Bread for Two

Gourmet Chef Elaine found this recipe for a small round of bread that's perfect to serve 2-3 people.  Since I'm the baker I made this recipe which is as simple as it can be.  Mix flour, salt, and rapid-rise yeast together and stir with 100-to-110-degree hot water.  Let rise for two hours, fold the sides to the middle a few times, and rise for another hour.  The dough ball is placed on a long strip of parchment paper and placed in a preheated 450-degree Dutch Oven.  Bake with the lid on for 15 minutes and then another 20 minutes with the lid removed.  Use the parchment paper to lift the bread out and let cool down on a wire rack.  All the minute details can be found at the link below.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/fresh-crusty-bread-for-two-19010473

PEBKAC

PEBKAC is an acronym for "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair".  And what is between the keyboard and the chair?  Yep, the human.  So it's just a coded way of saying there's nothing wrong with the computer and the user's to blame.  Is it surprising that the IT department with all the acronyms they have (even in the name of the department) would cook up something like this just so they can hide their insults?  

https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/p/pebkac.htm

Lean Cuisine Math

Gourmet Chef Elaine is a big fan of eating Lean Cuisine's for lunch.  She refuses to buy them at their normal price ($3.75 each in the picture below).  But when can be had for $1.99 each, she'll throw five or ten in the shopping cart.   

If you look closely at the sale sticker, you'll see a "buy 5 & save $5", but if you do the math, buying five at the sale price totals $9.95, but buying five at the $3.75 price totals $18.75, so the savings is actually $8.80. Math isn't their strong suit.