The Down Low on the Upload

    In case you haven't been keeping up with my attempts at social media dominance, I have a YouTube channel.  I just posted my latest video in the series I call "Making the Logo." Now, I usually try and post a video every three weeks.  I was a little late with my latest one, as I had to wait until I had a window of opportunity to film it-- an empty store, no urgent business, at least ten minutes of free time.  I also try and post these videos the day I make them.  Well, last Friday, I was so busy with other things, that I forgot to post my video until it was all but time to go to bed.  I didn't want to waste any sleep time, so I decided to wake up a little early and upload the video Saturday morning, after I finished up my regular morning computer time.  That morning, I went to the site and started uploading my video.  After I finished up with the basic information, I left my computer and did another morning chore.  Now, it usually only takes about ten to fifteen minutes for even the longest of my videos to upload, including the time it takes to place the links onto Facebook and LinkedIn.  Well, to my surprise, barely 5% of the video had uploaded in almost ten minutes.  This was confounding me.  I was wondering if I did something wrong, so I cancelled the initial upload and started over.  This time, I got up to 10% before I had to stop and finish getting ready for work.  I had no choice but to try uploading it from my store.  The problem with that was that not only did this mean I had to forego some other tasks, but I have bad internet service there.  While faster than what it was taking me at home, the initial estimate was going to be over an hour to post a video under four minutes long.  Fortunately, the estimate was wrong.  It only took about thirty minutes to upload the video, with a few more to cross-post the links onto my other sites.  I rushed through the YouTube process, and I missed the part where I could save time by posting on multiple sites at once.  Still, everything worked out, except for one thing.  I couldn't post a link to the video on my store's Facebook page.  That part, I would have to do separately.  I kept forgetting to do that all through the weekend.  I finally remembered, and I found the time one morning, before work.  Strangely enough, I had no problems posting my video onto Facebook.  I barely took any time at all.  Now, I must admit that I used the basic uploading process and not the more elaborate and detailed one the business sites can use.  The post was less flashy, but was up in under ten minutes.  Maybe much less.  The only difference with this time and the original tries was that I didn't use YouTube.  This led me to believe that I experienced problems Saturday morning because of the new cable service.  Instead of getting programming through a cable antenna source, everything was coming in through an app tied to Google and YouTube.  The plus side to this is well over two hundred channels to watch, including some pay services as a regular part of the deal.  The downside is that which watching programming on the stream, I really can't upload anything directly without the slowdown.  I have watched YouTube content on my computer at the same time as watching the television, without any problems with either.  I'm guessing that uploading and watching YouTube at the same time will now cause problems to the former while doing the latter.  I'll now more the next time I post a video, so I'll be on the lookout for problems.  And allotting at least a half an hour for the task.

School's Out Forever, Like Forever Ever

    First off, I think I might deserve some props for combining Alice Cooper and OutKast in the title of today's post.  I works, just read the post to find out.  Now, the main topic.  The university that I take graduate school classes at has started a multiple factor authentication protocol to allow access to various web resources that contain sensitive information, for both staff and students.  Basically, if one wants to access the already password protected site, such as their school account that includes their email and online courses, they will be sent a notification to a secondary device.  Once that notification has been accepted, then they will be allowed to continue onto their own personal account.  My problem is that I don't own a smartphone or other device that will allow me to do this.  I have never owned a smartphone, although I have looked into it and know the basics of how it works, because I haven't had the need for one.  I don't have any friends to call or text.  I am not allowed to go long distances on my own, so I don't need to check in about my whereabouts.  Most emergencies would occur in areas that would be in fairly public spaces, so I wouldn't have a huge need to notify anyone.  Anything else, I could just use my computer when I get elsewhere.  However, without a phone to download the app that will handle this new rigamarole, I won't be able to access my account.  Now, I wasn't planning on taking any classes this semester anyway, but I would still need to access my university email for a few things, as well as schedule any classes for after this fall.  I have already asked the IT desk about possible workarounds, but none of them are guaranteed to work, as this whole process is not Apple friendly.  In fact, I'm not too sure about any of their advice, as their emails have a few too many errors to give me confidence and the online instructions were cut off at the end.  These facts are triggering warnings that I might be falling for a scam, even though everything seems to be legit.  That being said, I've been looking into iPhones, even though I am not really in the best financial position to buy one, and it will be easier to connecting with my MacBook if I had an iPhone.  My mother checked on a local place, with mixed results.  Their least expensive offer involves the model that will soon be discontinued, and the salesperson didn't even seem to know the latest rumors about the new models coming out.  The clerk was either inexperienced or told not to give the best information.  Neither possibility is good.  Because of this,  there is a strong possibility that I will lose access to my account for a few weeks.  The stupid thing is that I could have already finished my degree a long time ago if I only stayed the course.  I took some time off to look into other programs at other places, but I was never accepted.  I almost took my final courses this past spring or summer, but I wasn't too interested in any of them.  I was planning on taking my exit exam this past spring, but I missed the deadline to apply because the email about the test was sent to my junk folder by mistake.  Just another reason to hate anything that is not Apple.  In fact, I've been thinking seriously about just dropping out entirely.  I originally, and technically still do, wanted a residency MFA creative writing program, not an online basic MA English degree.  I barely have enough technical knowhow to do my work.  I don't have the interaction I need to give or receive feedback.  For instance, last fall, I wrote a sonnet with what I felt was deep philosophical meaning.  The first piece of feedback I got thought it was a nice poem to read to children before they went to bed.  Now, while the two goals aren't mutually exclusive, that was not where my poem was going.  I didn't read any other responses.  In fact, I rarely gave any online responses to my work anything more that a casual glance.  It was just too much of a hassle trying to convert formats or figure out the correct way to look at them in a timely manner.  I wanted an MFA as it would allow me more flexibility in work and sooner than an MA, especially since I'm not interested in going after a doctorate.  Not at my age.  It took me around half my life to find a career path that would work for me.  I put off getting a life and family, just so that I could find a way to make money.  I though I finally found a way, but I just can't catch a break.  I had a plan in college to find that path, but I was never able to carry it out.  I was aimless for so many years, without anyone to help me along the way to find my path.  Now that I finally found a way to combine my creative instincts with my limited life experiences outside of the academic setting, that goal just seems more out of reach.  I mean, a major reason for going back to school was to interact with others in the only way I felt comfortable and knowledgable in.  Instead, I'm stuck in an online world where I don't know what I'm doing, and I can't explain myself properly.  I need people to talk to, not by email, message, or phone call.  I need to physically talk to someone to see if I'm doing the right thing the right way.  Maybe then I can start expanding my life beyond the sheltered existence I've been living, something beyond shopping and into actual interaction.  Yes, it would mean that I would've wasted a lot of money and time for something that I would just give up on.  Yes, it would look bad on any sort of resumé or personal history.  I am at the point where I almost don't care anymore.  I had been waiting for decades for the right idea and the best time, but I blew it.  I'm too old know to start living my life.  I wasted the best years of my life but something that never happened.  I never knew what I wanted.  Now that I have an idea, the barest glimmer of one anyway, I know that it will never happen.  I had so much I wanted to explore, so many possibilities.  All wasted.  It's pathetic.  I'm pathetic.  If I any had that one person in my life at the right time that I could've have trusted and talked to.  Instead, I heeded the wrong advice and never contacted anyone who might've been the one person I needed.  I like schoolwork, but not the way I've been doing it.  I just want what I want.  I want a life, my life.

Those Were the Days of My Life

    A few weeks ago, amidst a flurry of shocking entertainment news stories, NBC quietly tried to promote its new afternoon news hour, seemingly unconnected to the four-hour juggernaut that is The Today Show.  Buried in the item was the fact NBC would be making room for the new show by moving its long-running daytime serial, Days of Our Lives, over to its streaming service, Peacock.  Apparently, NBC hadn't told the cast and crew of this fact until the news broke.  Now, the show was readying its new season, so this would be a very important thing to know before too many episodes were recorded. [Unlike most other serials, Days is known for recording an entire season in one complete block of dates.  The more common practice is to record for a few weeks, take some weeks off, and repeat.  Supposedly, Days can save time and money doing it this way, but it also can cause problems it there are scheduling changes well down the line.] This part of the item made major headlines throughout the entertainment industry as Days was the last serial NBC was still airing.  Over the past thirty years, the six or seven others were cancelled.  Two, or three, of them, I watched.  I only watched one, Passions, from its debut until the time it was cancelled. [Technically, it did continue for awhile, but on a service I didn't have, and I don't think I even have now.]. I started watching Days one summer in high school.  Maybe the year after I graduated.  It's been over thirty years, so the exact time is lost to me.  Anyway, I was bored that summer, in the middle of the afternoon, so I decided to watch another serial on the same channel as another one I started watching a few years earlier to fight boredom, Santa Barbara.  I think one of the first scenes on that first day involved someone stopping a wedding because the bride was a gold digger who was only going through with the marriage to somehow make money.  I can't be sure, but I think in involved Victor Kiriakis, Justin Kiriakis, and John Black (back when he still thought he was Roman Brady) in some fashion.  Since that first day, I've tried to catch every episode, recording it on one of my trusty VCRs (see last week's post for more on that).  I've missed a few episodes of the years, due to preemptions, power failures, and relocation for a month-and-a-half due to a flood, but I tried to get recaps whenever I couldn't watch.  First from magazines, more lately online synopses.  I should have seen this coming when Peacock aired its second Beyond Salem series with very little lead in, and as a premium show instead of the basic tier like last year. This is what angers me.  See, Peacock has multiple subscription levels.  Basic allows a subscriber to watch a wide variety of older programming, with ads.  That is the level I subscribed to when I signed up to watch the first Beyond Salem series.  However, it looks like Days will be on the Premium level.  No ads, but you have to pay, about five or six dollars per month, possibly less if you encounter a special promotion.  I don't really have the extra money per month right now to be able to do that, especially since I would have to use a credit card as the basis.  Such deals are usually set up to renew automatically.  I am not the one to try and remember to keep checking such services to make sure the money is available.  Now, there might be some benefits for Days by moving to streaming (saucier language, more skin, no preemptions), but the money issue is the big downside for me.  In a few weeks time, I will be forced to survive on recaps and synopses, of rat least another year.  [Days was renewed for two years, but with the move, the contract might be changed.  So, only one year should be guaranteed, not the second one.].  I hate this, especially with the major murder mystery plot going on.  Hopefully, it will be resolved in the next three weeks.  If not, I will say goodbye, incomplete.  "Like sands through the hourglass,..."

Digital Killed the VCR Star

     I wasn't able to update my literary blog last week, as I had an appointment with my cable/internet provider to get set onto a new contract.  This also meant that I had to schedule an appointment to get new tech this morning.  The time was initially somewhere between eight and noon.  However, the cable guy arrived around 7:30  (What!?!?  I know.  They never arrive early.). Anyway, it took two tries to find a new 'Google assistant' that would connect the television to the new cable service.  I personally think that someone inserted an extra letter into the contact email, and that mistake led to the difficulties, but who knows what could've really happened.  Anyway, I now will be getting cable service over the internet, linked by the assistant.  Among the many new features provided by the updated service is DVR storage up to 100 hours per month free.  This also means that I no longer need to use my VCR.  In fact, I can't see any way I could connect the two together.  I have been using VCRs ever since I got my first one in ninth or eighth grade for Christmas.  I was actually with my mother when we picked it up.  She gave a cover story that it was a gift for a relative, when it was actually going to be my gift.  I don't know if the original story was true or not, all I know is that I ultimately got the VCR. (My mother has done this to me before.  One Christmas, I got a pair of pajamas that I know were originally for a male relative who died a few weeks before Christmas.  They were too big for me, and I never really grew into them.) At first, I barely used the VCR, until I discovered that it had an adjustable tuner.  Now, my television back then only could pick up channels two through thirteen.  It was an older model.  However, with the help of my VCR, I. could now pick up all of the other channels beyond thirteen, as long as I watched them over the VCR.  Sure, there weren't that many back then, but I could place them in any order I wanted, making watching faster.  This was especially useful when the cable lineup was expanded when I was in college.  I could even get the scrambled channels, although I couldn't see much. The television lasted longer than that first VCR, and my second one still had a tuner, just not one I could adjust to the way I wanted it.  The old television would finally give out, and the new one could get all the cable channels without using a VCR, but I was still recording through newer models until I got my current one in 2003 after the last big flood.  This one wasn't as flashy as the older models, but it has been working fairly okay with only a few hiccups.  First, there was the switchover to the new digital cable system.  While the VCR worked the first few days afterwards, I found out that it no longer had a directed tuner that could work with the new signal.  This meant that if I wanted to record multiple shows on different channels, I would be forced to pick just one to record on the channel I left the cable box on.  That sucked, as I was forced to forego many programs during the day just to get to see the one I wanted most.  Then, I was forced to purchase off-brand cassettes as stores stopped carrying and manufacturers stopped making the ones I liked.  I was thinking about changing to a disk DVR while I was out of town, but I was still unsure.  By the next time I looked for one there, they were no longer carried.  Only the hard drive models with monthly fee were available.  I didn't want to pay for such a service, so I stuck with my VCR.  I had to find a repairman to fix a problem with the power connections.  It wasn't easy, and the man was kind of sketchy and out-of-the-way, but it worked again.  Finally, I had to buy a new set in 2020.  This model didn't need to use the cable converter box, the second iteration of it, but that meant I couldn't use the VCR.  I found a workaround, but it meant using the cable box remote exclusively.  Speaking of remotes, I had to buy a replacement remote for the VCR (and the old television) a few years ago, and that remote started to have buttons that didn't always work, such as "Power," "Stop," and "2."  That last one was hard to deal with, as it made programming new shows to record tricky and changing the time and date after a power failure next to impossible.  That's a minimum of three 2s.  I was lucky I could get that button to work well enough to keep things working.  For the last few months, the cable box remote was also not working right, with at least seven buttons not working at all.  Just last night, while looking for all of the equipment to return, I found the second box and remote.  This second remote worked fine, and I used it for the last day of the old cable box.  Turns out that they only wanted the convertor boxes.  The remotes, cables, and packaging, we could throw away.  Anyway, just before I left, I programmed the assistant to record a show.  This evening, I will know if it worked and watch the show.  If/when it works, I will rewind my last cassette and finally disconnect my VCR.  Even at my most, I was only recording fifty to sixty hours per month.  For the past few year, this has gone down to about twenty-five to twenty-six hours, well under the 100 hour limit.  In another month, this total will go down by twenty hours, as the program I was watching the most ofter, Days of Our Lives, will be leaving network television to stream exclusively on Peacock.  As of now, I don't think I'll be able to watch it, but that is the topic for another post.

TO BE CONTINUED

I Can't See What You See

     A little over two weeks ago, I had an eye exam.  I had to get new glasses that day as well.  Although I was told that it would only take a week for the lenses to be made and installed, the process took about two weeks instead.  That is why I couldn't write this post last week.  My new glasses weren't in.  I'm not sure why it took so long.  Maybe I had a difficult prescription or there were supply problems or whatever.  By contrast, I was able to get not one pair, but two pairs of glasses one of the last times I needed new frames when I went to a mall on a day trip in about an hour.  Now, neither of those pairs were too complicated.   In fact, I still have the prescription sunglasses that I got that day.  Alas, the other pair broke about four years ago while I was cleaning them.  I had to make an emergency trip to a local optician to get a replacement pair that would work with my lenses.  Fortunately, I was able to find a pair I liked that worked with my current frames.  Unfortunately, the job was slightly rushed and adhesive traces were left on the lenses that couldn't be removed.  Considering how long it took me to find that original pair (months), I was lucky to find anything.  A little later after that fiasco, I had an eye exam.  Although I had an early appointment, I had to wait over two hours, maybe close to three, before I was even called back for prep.  Since I had already passed the time I had said I would open the store, I had to reschedule.  It just wasn't fair to me to wait any longer, especially the thirty plus minutes for my eyes to get dilated. Fortunately, that second time, I didn't have to wait as long.  However, the doctor hinted that I might be needing bifocals soon.  Well, my vision problems started immediately after that visit, beginning with the fact that my eyes took over a day to get back from getting dilated.  Now, it usually took my eyes awhile to get back to normal, that time was well longer than that.  Sometime later, I noticed that I would need to take my glasses off to read sometimes.  This became more frequent, but not too bad, up to the point of my most recent eye exam.  It was with a new doctor, so I had hopes that things would be better.  Most of my waiting time was taken up by filling out my electronic forms on a tablet.  I actually had to ask for some assistance, even though I had read up on how some of those devices work.  The actual exam was fairly routine.  I asked not to have the dilation drops put in.  The staff offered up an alternative, a machine that I could stick my head in to get a better view of my inner eye without having to have drops.  I opted not to go with that either, as it was about thirty dollars that wouldn't be covered by insurance.  At least the other digitized tests had enough information to show that I had a low risk for any problems.  I would be needing bifocals though.  I went with the progressive lenses, thinking that the line in regular bifocal lenses would be off-putting.  That might be the reason for the delay.  It took me longer than normal to find a pair of new frames that I liked as well as afford.  My new frames are in a different style, partially made of metal, so they are slightly heavier than I am used to.  They will probably need to be adjusted so they will sit right.  Getting used to the new lenses is taking awhile.  Everything outside my center of vision tends to move as I do.  Blurring occurs at the edges of the lenses.  This wouldn't be too much of a problem, except I tend to check my peripheral vision constantly and look down frequently when I walk.  The blurring is making hard for me to clean my glasses, as I'm unsure what is a smudge and what is just the natural distortion.  I have had a slight headache, but I am not sure if it due to the weight of my new glasses or if it is my eyes getting used to the new perspectives.  I no longer need to remove my frames to read, but I find myself still wanting to do so.  I've even switched back to my old glasses once for a few hours so that I could work at the computer more comfortably.  I technically can see clearer now, but I still think I might not have made the best choice for the new glasses.