Buffalo Trace Coffee

What a hint of bourbon in your breakfast coffee?

It's a bit of a gimmick, but I guess if you like pretending your morning coffee has a little more kick than usual, what could it hurt?  We're not into flavored coffees, except the occasional Irish coffee, which we make sure has a REAL kick!

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/shop/product-page.bourbon-infused-buffalo-trace-coffee-10-pods.html

ChromeOS Flex

I had the opportunity recently to take a couple of old Windows laptops and make them into Chromebooks using the free (I love free) ChromeOS Flex.  Using the directions at the link below, you start by writing ChromeOS Flex to a flash drive using the Chromebook Recovery Utility, an extension you add to your Google Chrome browser.  That flash drive is then inserted into the target laptop and booted, and finding how to get the laptop to boot from it was the tricky part.   On an HP, I found that tapping "F2" as the machine powered up worked, but on the Dell it took the "Esc" key.  After getting past that, the rest was easy.

https://clark.com/technology/revive-your-old-laptop-for-free-chromebook

Windows Down

It's more than a bit concerning when you find all your car windows down in the morning and you're 100% sure you left them fully up the night before.  The cause was buried deep in our owner's manual and a "feature" I wasn't aware existed, but found with a little Internet sleuthing.  As divulged at the link below, if you hold the door unlock button on the keyless-entry remote for more than three seconds, the Infiniti G37x will start to roll down its windows.  I must have accidentally had my thumb on that button as I entered the house from the garage long enough for the windows to descend and the closing garage door masked the sound.  We're just glad the mystery was solved.

https://repairpal.com/windows-are-rolled-down-by-itself-when-all-doors-are-locked-and-engine-is-off-852

Triangles 2.0 Update

A big shoutout to Dan E who pointed out that there are no arrow keys on mobile devices.  I've updated Triangles to include using 1 and 2 in addition to the left and right arrows, and 9 and 0 in addition to the down and up arrows.  

https://triangles.paulishing.com

Triangles 2.0

In April 2020, I posted about a demonstration website I built and I finally got around to adding a number of new features to make it a bit more fun.  Instead of just triangles, it can draw squares, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, and octagons.  You can spin the drawing forward or reverse, make the shapes more or less convex or concave, draw in color or black and white, and pause or resume the spinning.  The RGB (Red-Green-Blue) of the last color drawn is also displayed.

This demo is best seen on a larger screen.

https://triangles.paulishing.com

 

Once In A Generation

As temperatures sank to -9 F last night and the weather fearmongers over at CNN called it a "once in a generation" storm and Cincinnati's Fox19 labeled it a "historic winter storm", it made me wonder how true that statement is, at least for me and my fellow Daytonians.

The last time it was colder than -9 F in Dayton was all the way back on January 2nd of 2018 when the low was -13 F, so if you're under 5 years old, that might (however very unlikely) hold true for you over the rest of your lifetime.

Since 1955 (I'm giving away my age but too old to care) there have been 19 years when the low temperature for the winter was -10 F or less, including 5 times when the low was -20 F or less.

Yes, it's cold outside, but how much help is all the hype?

https://www.currentresults.com/Yearly-Weather/USA/OH/Dayton/extreme-annual-dayton-low-temperature.php

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

This is a pretty quick, basic soup recipe, but the addition of gnocchi was the winner for me.  I (yes, I cook too) used Costco rotisserie chicken, sliced the carrots and celery very thin using a mandolin, substituted chicken stock for its broth brethren, and used my own homemade gnocchi.  Having a couple of large containers of soup handy as the temperatures dip below zero is a good idea.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/chicken-and-gnocchi-soup-recipe-1928026

Santa's Reindeer

We're not big fans of overdone outside Christmas decorations, but the Santa display shown below at a nearby neighbor's house is pretty cool.  It's complete with Santa, his sleigh, a pile of presents, and Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen, with Rudolph in the lead, lit up in multiple colors.

Transparent QR Code

I had the need to create a QR Code with a transparent background in order to avoid my background color not quite matching the color of an invitation.  That led me to the QR Code generator at the link below.  If you scan the QR Code in the image below, it will take to you to www.paulishing.com, a page that lists all the various blogs I write and a couple of demos.  

The dark blue background is part of a Google Slide and I inserted my transparent QR Code on top of it and then took a screenshot.  And as you can see, you can use hearts, among many options, to make the code more interesting.

https://qrgenerator.org

New Cabinets

This custom, heirloom-quality, Amish-made cabinet/stand, and its identical twin on the other side of the fireplace, are the latest home upgrades.  We started with a basic TV stand, decided on elm wood with a dark, reclaimed wood top, selected the stains, changed the dimensions to fit, and designed the drawer layout including the exact knobs and handles.  We estimate each weighs about 120 pounds and required my son's assistance to get them in the house.  Just don't ask what they cost...

http://www.jakesamishfurniture.com