March 2, 2022

Keto diet

I have been doing this since 12/7 (had my first doctor's appt on Jan. 20th). Since starting it I have gone from 353 to 310, and my lab work from 1/20 has improved dramatically in a little over a month.

Glucose - 158 to 111 in a month
Cholesterol - 233 (2/20/2021) to 123
Liver enzymes down about 20 points each in a month

I have yoyoed on weight my entire life. The difference this time is that I am not nearly as hungry. It wasn't that I was complete junk eater, it is just that I did consume fruit, whole grains and potatoes. I had an expectation of three meals and continuous snacking during the day to chase hunger which I always seemed to have.

Don't know if it will continue to work. As before I exercise (part of the reason my weight shot up from the 300# range was reduced exercising because of depression). 20,000 steps in the form of walking and stepping sometimes with hand weights. Also grab light dumb bell and use it while watching tv and use a heavier dumbell for presses, curls, and deadlifts.

March 1, 2022

A truly evil f__k - Father kills 4, including his 3 daughters, before shooting himself at Sacramento

Five people are dead, including three children, after a man opened fire inside a Sacramento-area church Monday night before turning the gun on himself. The 39-year-old gunman opened fire inside The Church in Sacramento, in the Arden Arcade neighborhood just east of the city, where a supervised visit between him and his daughters was taking place, according to authorities.

The three girls killed were 9, 10 and 13, said Sgt. Rodney Grassmann, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. Another man, who was not identified but was chaperoning the family visit, was also gunned down. “This was not a random shooting,” he said, adding that the shooter and victims “all knew each other.”


Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article258904863.html#storylink=cpy

February 16, 2022

Can I switch out the hard drive from one Windows 7 machine

to the exact same model in another machine? I think the cooling fan is shot which is causing a power down on my daughter's old computer. Right now the exact same model is available on Ebay for not much more than a new cooling fan. The fan replacement looks like a chore, and it might not even fix the problem.

Ideally I would just like to swap hard drives since the offerred machine doesn't have a licensed Windows 7 operating system. Worst case I could use it with the open source operating system if the switch doesn't work.

February 15, 2022

Question on digitizing VHS-C tapes (I know should have been done 10+ years ago)

I have 42 VHS-C tapes from the late 90s and early 2000s (before digital cameras) as well as and 30 VHS tapes that are dubs from some of the VHS-C tapes as well as other tapes (I need to go through and get it sorted).

I purchased a Funai DVD Recorder/VCR Recorder about five years ago in anticipation of digitizing the VHS-C tapes. Early in the process I found that neither the old camera or an adaptor to the VCR Recorder portion of the Funai allowed for tape playback (probably due to humidity over time etc). I gave up on the project and went on to other things.

I think the Funai is capable of playing the standard VHS tapes so I am going to try to digitize them myself.

I am looking at Legacy Box with two possible options for the VHS-C tapes

20 tapes - $258
40 tapes - $472

Would I give up too soon on the Funai if I go the Legacy Box option. They seem like a pretty solid company. $11-$12 does seem like a lot though.

These are family tapes so pretty important to me.

February 12, 2022

I think I might have just killed my external hard drive

I was not careful, and plugged the power adaptor from my 12 V PC into my 9 V External Hard drive. The light is still on when I put the correct power supply on it, but it is no longer being recognized by my PC. I have tried a second PC and still no luck. I know the power supply is good because I tested it on another external hard drive. I tried two separate USB cables. I don't have a another external drive that uses this type of USB, but my cables do allow recognition of a MP3 player.

Any suggestions?

It is a Western Digital 1TB hard drive.

February 2, 2022

My wife is a major hoarder and I need suggestions on how to proceed

My wife and I have been married for over 35 years. We have lived in our current home for over 20 years. My oldest daughter moved out when she got married in 2016 after college graduation. Last year my youngest daughter bought a condo about four blocks from our house, but she doesn't spend much time over there (she has a very stressful job as a 3rd shift charge nurse). She still sleeps mostly in the 3rd bedroom that used to be my oldest daughter's room. She takes her meals over here when she doesn't eat out with my wife, other daughter, and son in law (they eat out a lot). I do not eat out with them unless for special occasions like Birthdays. I used to have them bring food home for me, but I prepare most of my own food now as I am pursuing a Keto diet (or at least a greatly reduced carb diet - lots and lots of vegetables and good quality meat).

My wife has almost covered every inch of floor and counter space with newspapers, notecards (Birthday, Get Well, etc), old mail and bills, daughters' old schoolwork, pictures, Bath & Body Works bags with product, souvenirs, etc. Earlier in the marriage I attempted to push back, but I am something of a book hoarder myself (even though I have gotten rid of a lot of my books). Eventually I surrendered because of the stress of my job and my own mental issues (my wife doesn't work outside the home and hasn't since 1995).

I am trying to reclaim at least those rooms in which I need (our bedroom, my daughter's old bedroom which is now a family room/office (I am a Covid work at home). I have dusted and vacuumed as much as I can as well as getting an air purifier that I move between these two rooms. I just lift up her hoarded stuff, vacuum or dust, and place it back where I found it. Doing anything else generates a major freak out. She even freaks out by me just doing this. The areas that she controls (living room with attached dining room and kitchen) haven't been vacuumed or dusted in years. Like I said almost every available surface is covered. I plan to move my remaining books that are in four bookshelves from this common area thus leaving the entire area for her stuff. I am hoping she adopts a vertical strategy for her stuff in lieu of pruning it which appears to not be happening it anytime soon.

She leaves me a small space for meal preparation, but there is paper and nick nacks all around this small area. She is good about ensuring that food waste is properly disposed of and dishes and cooking/preparation surfaces are clean (I do a lot of cleaning myself as well as the bulk of cooking). She eats fast food about 1.5 - 2 times/day. She had done the bulk of the grocery shopping on her own, but now I am attending many shopping trips to ensure the food I need is purchased and to organzie the purchasing for the most economy (she is good about this as well except for purchasing high cost/low nutritional value which happens sometimes).

It seems she will choose the most difficult path when resolving home care issues. Recycling is an obsession even though I see a one off lets just throw it into the trash to get the process started makes more sense. Anything that has any sort of functional value must have a home found for it. She has ticked off many acquaintances by burdening them with this stuff.

If she goes through a box of stuff, many (if not most) items require a careful deliberation as to what should happen to it. She absolutely had to move a box and other stuff from next to our bed so that the bed frame could be replaced. She then spread it out in the only clean space in the house (my office). There it sits two days later as she laboriously works through the evaluation process.

I am looking for suggestions on how to proceed. I know the environmental conditions have been bad for us. It definitely impacted the kids growing up since they couldn't have friends over (I feel bad about this, but my 50-60 hour/week job at the time prevented more of an intervention).

Thanks.