What's everyone up to right now?

[Fireball]

Working on "shop" organization. I now have the miter gauge and "throat deepening frame" with the cutoff jig for the table saw mounted on a cabinet door in the "shop"- my garage. Also got a combination square up there. Stuff off the floor and not taking up room in the tool chest is always good.

[Angrboda]

Waking up on Christmas morning. I slept in late this morning and didn't get up until a quarter past eight. My family and I are celebrating Christmas this coming weekend, so no presents from family to open yet. My ILS worker surprised me this past week with a small gift. And I didn't get her anything. *sad* Technically they're not allowed to accept gifts, yet I don't know that a small Christmas gift would be objected to. So, I have this small, festive package staring at me, and I've yet to open it. I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, but I seem to be waiting for something. I suppose I'll know it when it happens.

[Rev. Rye]

Here’s what I got for Christmas this year:



Naturally, the Trainspotting 2 and Westworld Blu-rays might need to be exchanged, since I don’t actually have a 4K Blu-ray player or a Blu-ray player that plays Region B.

Also, we should all have surnames as awesome as Deathridge.

But I still gave Dad something. I found one of his favorite movies on the Criterion Collection and it turned out there was a 50% off Criterion sale a couple days ago at Barnes and Noble.

Here’s the card I made out of an index card.


That should be a BIG hint.

[Angrboda]

Fixed another problem with my Fire tablet. I accidentally gave an app permission to install a lock screen. Thankfully uninstalling and reinstalling the app fixed that shit. And yesterday, I figured out how to have albums of multiple artists show up as single albums, instead of a bunch of separate albums. Apparently the Amazon Fire Music app catalogs an album by the combined artist and album name, rather than just by the album name. Why it does that I have no idea. It's not as well designed as I'd like. Regardless, tagging the files with the separate 'albumartist' field set to one thing, "Various Artists," in my case, results in proper sorting.

I've hit a few snags with my new Fire 8 tablet that I bought on Black Friday, but overall I'm pleased as punch with it. The smaller size actually makes it more useful than my 10" tablet, not less so. And I don't have difficulty accurately hitting letters on the onscreen keyboard, unlike the 10" tablet, oddly enough. I don't know whether that's due to Android improvements or just a difference between the two tablets. And I'm finding having to sideload applications that aren't available from the Amazon app store not to be a big issue. And in spite of previous expectations, I am actually going to sign up for Amazon Prime and Amazon Music Unlimited, so I will be comfortably inside the Amazon ecosystem. I think, but would have to check, that Amazon Prime Video supports offline viewing. That may be a little more involved time wise than downloading music for offline listening, but it will be a nice feature if true. So, I spent more than I had intended, paying extra for an extended, 2-year warranty (90 days is standard), and the standard Amazon tablet case (which I really like, even though it was a little pricier). I hadn't planned on those expenses when I was budgeting, but I got both at a reduced Black Friday price and am happy with both purchases/expenses.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the heck out of my 3 month trial of Amazon Music Unlimited. And I found a budgeting tool that will do what I need. Sadly I haven't found a free tool that meets my needs, with the exception of the standalone prior version of the tool I'm using, which can be tricked into giving a perpetual trial period. Still, the current, online version is better than the standalone version in several important ways. Unfortunately it also costs $84 a year. That seems like one step forward, two steps back, but it may be worth it if it helps me avoid bankruptcy through effective budgeting. It seems to be a promising tool for achieving that end, so I'm pleased with it. Still, wishing it were free. The only saving grace is they have a 100% satisfaction guaranteed, no questions asked, refund policy. (link)

[Cod]

Just tidying up after a busy day.. Looking at the cherry brandy and wondering if I should

Family coming over in a bit for an evening of karaoke. I'm going to kill a few tunes later.

[Jackalope]

We're heading to my mom's later for roast beast.

[Fireball]

I bought a roast for my son to smoke, but when we opened it up, it smelled bad. it goes back to the store tomorrow. So, he's smoking a boneless leg of lamb (which I bought the same day) right now! Yummay!

[brewer]

Back from the casino. Bad juju, just filled with crazies today.

[Jackalope]

Back from the casino. Bad juju, just filled with crazies today.

I imagine it's mostly the degen gamblers.

[Fireball]

SMOKED LEG OF LAMB FTW! Man, that was tasty! I usually roast it on a spit, but man, this is a great alternative (especially since someone else did the work).