What are you doing?

drogulus · October 06, 2025, 10:29:23 AM

This morning I got a visit from a Comcast tech to fix my problem with the Xfinity login. He couldn't help, but I did get a new gateway out of it. The next step is an escalation to a technical high priest who will perform the necessary ritual.

drogulus · October 17, 2025, 09:41:23 AM

I got a new external drive for my media file archives. The archives are on my PC and the working drives are on my Chinoppo. My old 16TB drive had all my 2160p movies and collections. That drive started ticking and burping ominously so I'm replacing it with a 24TB drive which I'll use for both 2160p and normal movies, thereby killing 2 stones or something.

One advantage of my consolidation is all media are now on external drives, so when the time comes getting a new PC will be less troublesome. It will be like this:

Seagate 24TB 2160p/Movies

Seagate 10TB Collections

Kalevala · October 17, 2025, 02:46:14 PM

Steaming some spaghetti squash. I have some leftover red sauce to mix into it (along with some parm) and will probably steam some broccoli to have on the side....or maybe roast it?

K

drogulus · October 28, 2025, 10:21:57 AM

I sold 2 tiny holdings to make room for a few shares of Micron. What happened is I acquired shares as spinoffs and they just appeared in my portfolio and I go "that's this?" They're kind of junk is what.

I should mention that a spinoff can turn out to be quite valuable. I got a few shares of PJT back in 2015 and it's up 4,700%.

Kalevala · October 28, 2025, 11:08:58 AM

Quote from: drogulus on October 28, 2025, 10:21:57 AMI sold 2 tiny holdings to make room for a few shares of Micron. What happened is I acquired shares as spinoffs and they just appeared in my portfolio and I go "that's this?" They're kind of junk is what.

I should mention that a spinoff can turn out to be quite valuable. I got a few shares of PJT back in 2015 and it's up 4,700%.

I have never heard of either of those two companies, but I'm glad that things worked out for you--at least in one of the two instances.

Recuperating here after a couple of crazy weeks; fridge was on the fritz and I was looking around at new fridges and debating on whether or not to dive in a purchase a new one as my old one had been quite reliable 'til lately. In the end, I used the services of a very reliable and reasonably-priced repair person who replaced the fan. For a while though, it meant purchasing some more freezer packs and doing some regular replacement of them into some coolers [thankfully, I have a chest freezer in the basement and also a friend who is temporarily stowing some of my food and condiments]. Fridge is once again working normally and I gave it a good cleaning--removing shelving, etc.

A friend of mine mentioned replacing her fridge about a year and a half ago and seemed to be quite happy that she had purchased a 5-year extended warranty...which in the interests of our friendship, I didn't say was a waste of money; a fridge should last a lot longer than that! No idea what she bought.

Will make some soup later on.

K

drogulus · October 28, 2025, 01:07:16 PM

Quote from: Kalevala on October 28, 2025, 11:08:58 AMWill make some soup later on.

K

My Significant Other One made a beef stew for me on Saturday. It was from the Fanny Farmer cookbook and very traditional but with a mod in the form of allspice. I hope to have it again tomorrow.

Kalevala · October 29, 2025, 04:24:24 AM

Quote from: drogulus on October 28, 2025, 01:07:16 PMMy Significant Other One made a beef stew for me on Saturday. It was from the Fanny Farmer cookbook and very traditional but with a mod in the form of allspice. I hope to have it again tomorrow.

I suspect that it was their *"Old-fashioned Beef Stew" recipe [I have the 1979 edition--already 46 years old! Eek!] which calls for 1/4 tsp. of allspice. Does your SOO add more allspice or leave it out?

*And yes, it's getting to be that time of year to think thoughts of warming stews and soups.

Off to brew some coffee.

K

drogulus · October 29, 2025, 09:51:34 AM

I have a remux of Weapons that's 79GB, a typical size for a 2160p film, so I Handbrake it not only to squish it some but to get rid of the grey bars. Why are they not black?

So I use my custom preset which I named "4K QSV 16", which is very high quality. I expect the squish to be somewhere around 40GB with no encoded bars. Instead I get around 11GB!

I guess I'll try a different preset just to see what happens.