Listening to the Voices in my Head

First it was my knee

I hyper extended my lower right leg last week, and my knee is still letting me know it didn't like it. I ended up getting a 'patella band', and it does help.

Sooooo.. I was letting Ziggy in, and try to avoid stepping on Loki, I stubbed the little toe on my left foot, splitting the nail right down the middle. *sigh*

Garmin, you really suck

My old Samsung Galaxy 5, which had Navigon by Garmin on it, took a fall and starting having issues.

So, I got a new Samsung S7 and used SmartSwitch to import all my apps.

I started up Navigon, and got message that "This service is no longer a available" and to head to Google Play.

Ok, I did and discovered that I would have to shell out $40 if I wanted it to work. I charged up my S5, and even without a SIM chip, Navigon works on it. This is the only app I have been told I have to 're-buy' to use it on new device.

So, yes, Garmin, you suck.

As much as I like DIVX player

I had been having problems with VLC, it would 'forget' what audio device for sound and when I reselected which one, restarted it would start with the volume locked in 150%. So, I uninstalled it and installed DIVX.

DIVX player has better sound, can rescale video up while keeping the image quality good, it has a few things that irk me. It won't open in full screen when it starts, doesn't play DVDs unless you rip them to a hd, and 'stop' is missing from the tool bar.

I know it sounds petty but like water dripping in the middle of the night it can end up being enough. So, I reinstalled VLC player and hoped the issues I had been having were 'fixed' with a fresh install.

Although VLC doesn't have as good a sound quality, it does play DVDs, and can be configured to open full screen on start up.

Do I look like some shady character?

My knee has been bothering me almost a week. Regardless, I went for a walk, albeit slightly slower than usual trying to make sure I didn't limp, and kept my steps even. I still lurch a bit, because of the leg bit lazy.

As usual, I brought camera with me to take photos of birds, flowers, things of interest to me.

I had just gotten to the turn to back onto my street, and I hear a voice behind me.

"Can I help you?

I look around, and spot a young man, tradesman by the look of his vehicle, in front of the house that has two beautiful German Shepherds.

"Oh, hello there!"

He repeated "Can I help you?" very polite.

I replied "Oh, I live here. Just taking a walk, getting photos of birds, flowers and other odds and ends, but thank you for asking." and continued on my way.

He waited until I was at the 2nd left turn, or as I call it "into the homestretch" because I can see my house, and followed me. I walked up my driveway, up to front door, inserted key and opened the door. I smiled and waved at him, he smiled and toodled off.

I think he was making sure I was ok, as I was in some obvious discomfort. What a nice young man.

Amazing how much cat fur accrues

I'm just starting to get back into the game... The game of house cleaning. I don't think any of the floors have been vacuumed since mid-August, coincidentally when my shoulder was operated on. I have this receptacle on my bagless vacuum cleaner that collects fur, hair, sand, etc etc so the small filter/cannister doesn't get filled up.

Three times, I had to empty the receptacle out, and it's half filled again. That is only after my office, Wing 's office, master bedroom and the open area.

Where one fell to the curb, another stepped up

Last week, I blogged about how Zoner Photo had gone to the dark side, and went Subscription only with their latest release that had finally included support for layers. I had, prior to that, heartily recommended them as an alternative to the Adobe Creative Cloud model of 'renting' software.

Well, there are still alternatives to renting.. one of them is Cyberlink PhotoDirector 8. It's NOT rental/subscription. There will be a bit of a learning curve as there is when using new software. If you, like I, have a lot of photos, it will take some time to import their folders into PhotoDirector. Not copying them, just importing like other programs do.

The editing is pretty straight forward and clean. And it supports editing in layers.

I have only just installed the latest version, and am in the process of importing folders. I will take it through its paces after the import, and see just what it can do. :)

That figures

I finally get Registax to work by reducing size of 10 images to 80% (easy to 'embiggen' back to original size), as it's 32 bit so can only access 4gbs of the 32gb of ram I have installed.

Soooo, I get it working, get my footed monopod ready.. only to have clouds and rain.

Figures. (laughing)

POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING:

Ok. people must have noticed (yeah, right) how strongly I have come out against Donald Trump's sexually assaulting women by groping their genitals (aka grabbing their pussy). Many of his supporters think it's because of the language, but fuck that, I have a potty mouth, and words don't make me go all a'flutter.

I cringed when I heard the un-bleeped audio on he video of his bragging about grabbing women by the pussy and saying he can (not might, or would but CAN) get away with hit because he is a 'star'. I then flinched when I read the statement from one woman, then another, then another came forward with their own stories of being groped (Trump supporters, groped is 'nice' term for being sexually assaulted) by Donald Trump.

Why? Well, there is a reason my Ex is my Ex. The 'straw' was when I wasn't paying attention to him as I was writing an email to someone, he CRAMMED his hand/fingers under my clothing, into my crotch, bruising my genitals to the point it took close to two weeks for be to be able to sit comfortable or to wear jeans/shorts.

Now, I know there will be right wing nuts that will say it was my 'duty' to submit to my husband, or say I am bitter, but fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Bitter? No, I just don't want any other women being subjected to this treatment, and have the abuse dismissed because the man doing it is 'a star' or for ANY FUCKING REASON!

Yes, I believe these women. I believed the woman who came out in the 1990s, and I believe the others coming forward now. And I think now that the floodgate is opened, there will be more.

Well, Zoner Photo Studio, it was fun while it lasted

For a few years, I have been recommending Zoner Photo Studio Pro for photo editing as an alternative to having to 'rent' Adobe products.

For some unfathomable reason, ZP has decided to go the 'rental route', with monthly subscriptions. And if you don't renew, the software is booby trapped so it will stop working. They don't offer any other licensing except renewal payments monthly or yearly.

Since they have decided to go this way, I can no longer recommend it as Adobe alternative. You might as well rent Adobe Photoshop.

Week 9 Post Op

It seems the different dressing, a pressure dressing, is stopping the over-granulation, so I won't need silver nitrate injections to 'level it'. That's a mercy! Also, the inflammation due to waterproof dressing and solocite has gone way down.

Wound debrided, area swabbed, new double padded pressure dressing applied.

Go back Friday for re-assessment. (Yes, Wing I know, it's a right pain in the ass but I do try to get the appointments as early as possible or as late as possible. There is no magic wand or potion. )