Category Archives: Technology

I’m trying something new – life with Google Assistant, the Google Home Hub, and Google Mini

Posted on January 14, 2019 by Joel

We’ve been using the Amazon ‘Alexa’ AI assistant through their Echo Dot product since Oct 2017. After about a year of heavy usage, I still think it’s interesting. The family and I have various uses for it. I like that Amazon … Continue reading →

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New additions to my life – the Sonos Connect and Klipsch in-ear headphones

Posted on December 29, 2018 by Joel

I’ve always loved music. I’m a visual person at heart, but music has always been important. I enjoyed my music classes in junior high school. I played string bass for 8 years before college. I keep an extensive local music … Continue reading →

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I have no money — all of my money is tied up in fancy garage doors

Posted on October 13, 2018 by Joel

I think it was July or August when our main garage door broke. Specifically, one of the torsion springs snapped, and we’ve been unable to open the door ever since. I had a company come out to look at it … Continue reading →

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Goodbye old laser and inkjet printers. Hello big honking new color laser printer.

Posted on September 8, 2018 by Joel

I’ve been complaining about our printers for a while now. We all  have been complaining about our printers. They’re old. They’re wonky. They don’t respond when you send print requests. They weren’t good relationships for us.  We bought the black & … Continue reading →

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I’m building a new Plex / media server using a Synology DS918+ and Seagate IronWolf NAS drives

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Joel

We have a primary media / backup storage model, but I don’t like it. If I had a million bucks, I’d structure things differently. Wouldn’t we all? When you have needs but finite resources… what to do? [Trigger warning – … Continue reading →

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We renewed our contract with Verizon and upgraded to the FiOS Gigabit plan

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Joel

We’ve been out of contract with Verizon for their FiOS service for maybe two years now. Every time I went online to check their plans, any renewal would require me to increase my monthly spend for TV-internet-phone service another $30 … Continue reading →

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Landscape lighting refresh project – Phase 2

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Joel

Phase 2 is halfway done. The kids and I went out in the hear this afternoon to add a new line of landscape lights to the side of the house. We added two wall wash lights and a spotlight on … Continue reading →

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Landscape lighting refresh project – Phase 1

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Joel

For four years, I have been vexed by landscape lighting. The original owner had this mix of older style lights dotting the front and back yard. Some worked, a bunch didn’t, and there no lights where I wanted them. I … Continue reading →

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I’m liking my new Polar A370 – it’s useful and helping me to reach my goals

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Joel

My wife was kind and thoughtful enough to give me an activity tracker for Father’s Day. Truth be told, I’ve been looking into the benefits of finally purchasing one. It’s taken a long time for me to come around, but … Continue reading →

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Happy Father’s Day!

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Joel

Happy Father’s Day! It was a busy weekend to be sure. I was home Friday (sick/working) but after I wrapped up my last call around 5:15 PM, I went out for a solo bike ride. I was tired after a … Continue reading →

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