Samsung Galaxy Tab A Nook

On August 25, 2018August 27, 2018 By Michel McDonaldIn NookLeave a comment

Samsung Galaxy Tab a Nook
So today has been quite the day for me. I’ve had trouble with my Nook HD+ battery not keeping a charge for quite some time, so I finally bought a battery from Amazon, and that bit me in the ass big time because now the touchscreen doesn’t work anymore. I removed the battery and finally got the touchscreen to work again, but then when I went to the gym and the touchscreen wasn’t working… again.

Lucky for me there’s a Barnes & Noble next door to my gym, so I went over there and bought a new Nook. This Nook is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A and it has 2 camera’s, 1GB of ram, 8GB memory and it’s small enough that it actually fits in my gym shorts pocket.

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My new Nook is my 3rd Nook so far. My first Nook is the original Nook e-ink reader with the little color touchscreen at the bottom. That was great for reading e-books, and it’s still a good e-book reader if I ever want to read a e-book outside, which is practically never. My 2nd Nook is the Nook HD+ that my life partner bought for me for Christmas 2013 and that has been a very good tablet for me, but I could barely install anything since it didn’t have a lot of ram installed, and most apps require 1GB or better. Before the screen stopped responding I scrolled through the Google Play store list of all the apps I’ve downloaded in the past and I think only 10 or 20 were even compatible with my Nook HD+. It’s frustrating when you want to use a specific app and you can’t even install it on a bigger tablet. So I’m happy to have this new upgrade. This new tablet is 2 years old, so it’s not new technology, but it is newer than my 5 year old Nook HD+.

So I bought a new case for it and a 64GB MicroSD card on Amazon, and I am glad I checked my order because I bought a case for a 10 inch tablet, so I had to cancel that. It’s too bad because it was a really nice case. I didn’t want to buy one from Barnes & Noble because they are $40 and I could buy a good one from Amazon for $10- $15, but at this point I just don’t want to have to wait because I’m afraid I’m going to break it on the treadmill without a case, so I will just buy a case when I go back to the gym on Sunday. I’ll just wait for the microSD card to come from Amazon.

I’ll be returning the Nook HD+ battery to the post office on Monday since our neighborhood post office is closed until then.

Nook Battery Replacement

On August 24, 2018August 24, 2018 By Michel McDonaldIn NookLeave a comment

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My life partner bought me a Nook HD+ for Christmas in 2013 and I have loved it every time I’ve used it. I appreciate every gift he has given to me, even though I don’t always use those gifts because they either stop working or become so obsolete that I need a new one.

My Nook HD+ hasn’t been the same for a very long time because the battery doesn’t keep a charge for too long. I don’t remember exactly how long you’re supposed to be able to read before the battery dies, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a few hours. I brought my Nook HD+ with me to Oregon recently and let my cousin’s son play a game on there, and the battery only lasted for 1 hour, maybe. I had to bring out a portable battery so he could keep playing.

I have been scanning my groceries with the National Consumer Panel for a few years. I earn points for scanning groceries and for doing surveys, and I get points every week just for being a member, and I can use those points to buy gift cards for Amazon. 21,000 points gets me a $25 Amazon gift card, and I recently used my 21,000 points to buy a gift card specifically so I could buy this battery for my Nook HD+.

It came with tools and I watched a video on YouTube on how to open my Nook HD+ so I can change the battery. it’s a lot harder than I had originally expected. I thought the back would just come off, but apparently I have to peel the frame around the front screen off, then unscrew about 20 screws, then flip it over and unplug the battery and peel the battery off the back because it’s glued on there, then I can put the new battery in and screw all the screws back on, then snap the frame back on. It’s a lot of work, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to be able to use my Nook without worrying about my battery constantly dying on me.

Now I will be able to read books again and not worry that the battery is going to die on me right in the middle of the good part.

Update: Well, I followed the instructions in a YouTube video to the letter. I removed the frame around the screen, it’s got like a double sided tape all around it which most of it came off and I had to toss in the trash, but I got the frame off. I unscrewed all 20 screws and removed the back and unplugged the battery, then carefully removed the old battery from the back of the device, as told in the instructional video I found. The battery was just on with double stick tape. Then I placed the new battery in the Nook and plugged it in and replaced the back and flipped it over and I noticed the screen had started up, so I went to press the circle up to turn it on so I could basically just turn it off while I screwed in the screws, but it didn’t respond to my touch. I screwed all 20 screws back in and replaced the screen frame and tried touching the screen and it wasn’t responding again. So I turned it off and did a soft reset and still no response. I did a factory reset and STILL no response. Now I have a brick. A $200 brick and a $23 battery that doesn’t do me any good. I am so pissed off right now I can’t even see straight.

Another update lol: Well, somehow I got it to work, but then I went to the gym and it wouldn’t work. Touch screen is dead. So, since my gym is right next door to a Barnes & Noble, I just decided to buy a new Nook. I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab A Nook since they were out of the cheaper $50 Nooks. I figured the Samsung one looked better than the cheap $50 one, and you get what you pay for, so now I have a new 7 inch Nook tablet. It’s not 9 inches, but that’s fine. It works.

Minecraft Pocket Edition Issues with Samsung Galaxy S3

On April 30, 2015 By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

I blogged the other day that I was having issues with Minecraft PE on my new phone, but I didn’t really get into what the problem was. I bought Minecraft PE on the Google Play Store about a month or 2 ago for $6.99. I have a app called Google Rewards that reward me in actual cash for surveys, and I don’t even have to wait a month for it, I can use the money to buy Android apps.

So I bought Minecraft PE specifically for when I’m not home and I am having Minecraft withdrawals. The struggle is real people LMAO!!! Of course when I bought it, I intended to only play it on my Nook HD+ because of the bigger screen, but as it turns out, I don’t bring my Nook to doctor’s appointments. My old HTC One V smart phone was a bit small, but it installed just fine and I have played it there with no issues. When I bought my Samsung Galaxy S3, no bueno! It installs, as you can see from the image above, but it just won’t play. Let me show you the screens that I get screen by screen.

So the first screen you see is the main screen when you first load the game. You click the Play button, obviously. The next screen is supposed to show your worlds, if you have created any, so you click the world, but since it’s new to my phone, I haven’t created any yet. So I click NEW at the top right corner and you get the 3rd image above. You can choose survival or creative, you can hit advanced and go through that menu. Once you hit Create World, you should see a world come up on the screen and you rush to get your shelter in order to stay alive, but instead, I’m seeing the 4th image. No bueno!

I’ve researched the issue, and one admin of a website mentions files, or the lack of rather. I went into the file manager and sure enough, in every folder where I see the word Minecraft, there are zero files. And there are several folders too, but what’s odd is that it shows that there are 44.38mb total, 14.69mb is application and 29.50mb is SD card app. Then of course the data, which should show a number since I tried creating a world, or 20.

I know people are going to suggest that I clear the cache and clear this and clear that, but trust me, I have done that. I have even copied the files from my Nook and even copied the worlds from my Nook to the Samsung phone and they still don’t work.

Just so you know, this is NOT a huge issue or deal. I can still play this game on my Nook HD+ and my PlayStation 4, but it’s just the idea that something won’t install that bothers me. I can’t upload images to Twitter and I’m not sweating over that one, it’s just that I don’t have an addiction to tweeting pictures as much as I have an addiction to games.

I am still researching every time I remember to and I’m hoping I can find out how to fix it because it does bother me that I bought something that I can’t even use on ALL of my Android devices.

Once again I am using a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Snapdragon. It’s a refurbished phone that I bought for $99 from Choxi (formerly Nomorerack). I’ve tried all the tricks I’ve seen in the message boards like uninstalling it and reinstalling it, unmounting the SD card, installing, then remounting the SD card. I’ve tried rebooting, then installing. Nothing works because it is not installing specific files, remember the empty folder? Every folder that has the word Minecraft in the title is empty on the device and on the SD card.

If anyone has answers, please comment. In the meantime, I’ll continue with Minecraft for PS4.

Nook HD+ Unlock Your eBook Prompt

On April 13, 2015 By Michel McDonaldIn Books, Nook, Reading3 Comments

I went into a slight panic attack yesterday when I saw this message. I highlight several eBooks in my Nook, and I was looking for one particular highlight so I could copy the quote. I saw the quote in the “Your Highlights and Notes” app on my Nook HD+ and clicked open, but it wouldn’t because the eBook was no longer downloaded. I guess after so much time, your eBooks get deleted from your tablets to save room for more stuff, and to read them again you simply download them again. I can see that being a good thing, but I personally don’t want to have to do that. If I decide I will never need the book again then I will archive it, but otherwise, I see no reason removing it from my Nook.

This is my issue with this particular problem. I bought this particular eBook when I bought my very first Nook back in 2007, or was it 2008? I can’t recall, which brings me to my next point, the credit card number that was used is long gone since it is long expired and I was issued a new card. My credit card or debit card number changes from year to year or every couple of years, that is of course depending on if I lost my card and had to get a new one. At any rate, the card I have now is definitely not the same card I had way back when I bought this particular eBook. So how the heck am I supposed to download this again if I don’t have that old credit card number?

So this is what I did. I went to Google and typed “Nook Unlock Your eBook” and found a website that said to archive that eBook, then make it active again. I had to use my computer for this because I wasn’t sure if I knew my Nook password lol. It’s stored in my computer rather than my Nooks browser because I very rarely visit the Nook website. I went to Nook.com and clicked MY NOOK at the top, then signed in and clicked My Library. Then I found the eBook and clicked move to archive. Then I had to scroll up and tick where it says Show Active Items or Archived, and clicked Archived. I found the eBook and clicked Move to Active. I was able to download it without issue on my Nook HD+ after that.

I’m sure no one has had this issue, but just in case someone has and haven’t a clue what to do, this should help, at least I hope it does. If it did, let me know.

Happy reading! Smile

Windows 8.1 Installed

On April 19, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

My new Windows 8.1 Full Installation DVD’s came yesterday via UPS. I didn’t exactly have the easiest time installing it, and it literally took me 4 or more hours to figure out why. It turns out Windows 8.1 hates my storage hard drive, so the only way for me to install it is to unplug it. I’m sure that now that Windows is installed, I shouldn’t have any issues plugging it back in, but just in case, I will use a second IDE cable to plug it into the IDE 2 slot in my motherboard instead of using the same cable.

This is the error message I kept getting.

But… here’s the thing, I was able to install the 64bit version of Windows 8.1 on the first try, but when it finished installing, it gave me an orange screen with thin white lines and a blinking underscore in the top left of the screen. I Googled that and found that it was a hardware error, but I figured it was because I didn’t have enough ram. I have 4GB of ram, but I figured maybe I needed to install the 32bit version, so I did and that was the first time I got the error message in the image above.

I asked on Facebook and a friend named James Benstine helped walk me through it on my Nook HD+ with Facebook messaging. I took several pictures with my phone so he could see what I was seeing. That is a huge help for anyone who is trying to help someone. I know I’ve tried helping people and they don’t think to take a picture with their phone to let me know what they are seeing, which makes it difficult to help, especially if they don’t give you details of what they are seeing. I took pictures of the BIOS menus every time he asked me to show it to him.

I kept telling James that my hard drive was SATA and he couldn’t figure out why it kept showing up as IDE in my BIOS menu. I knew I had a SATA drive, but I forgot that it was my DVD burner that was the SATA drive. I mean duh, it says it right there in the BIOS menu as clear as day.

So I wrote myself a note and put it in the Windows 8.1 box that tells me to unplug the storage drive before installing Windows. I know that I will eventually have to reinstall Windows, I’ve had to reinstall XP more than a dozen times over the years.

The reason there is an issue with that storage hard drive is because when I built this computer, I tried using that hard drive, but it wouldn’t run Windows XP, it wouldn’t even turn the screen on. I had to buy a new hard drive and install Windows XP onto it to be able to use my computer again. I knew that I couldn’t load an operating system onto it which is why it is a slave drive and not a master drive. I didn’t have any issue installing XP on the master drive, so I don’t know why I had an issue installing 8.1 with it installed as a slave.

My next question will be this, will it cause an issue loading Windows 8.1 when I plug it back in? Tune in to find out. Same bat time, same bat channel.

Update: I bought a can of compressed air from Walgreen’s and managed to blow out all the dust from my tower, including all the dust in the heat sink and the fans in the back, as well as the dust at the bottom and laying on top of the video card. There was dust EVERYWHERE! I was still sneezing hours later. Should’ve wore a mask first. Lesson learned!

It took a little longer to load Windows, but it did eventually load. It has taken me most of the day copying and pasting my files from the storage drive. I decided that I should probably check for redundancy and unwanted files, so I was deleting unwanted and unneeded files, copying the wanted files and then deleting them from the storage drive. Once I have everything that I want on the drive that runs my operating system, then I will format the storage drive.

It would be nice to have a storage drive to keep all my files on, but if it’s just going to slow things down then it just isn’t worth it. I will see if it still slows my computer down after I format it. If it doesn’t slow it down then I will keep it, if it does then I will have no choice but to unplug and remove it. I could always install it onto a external hard drive case and plug it in with the USB cable and just plug it in as needed.

Oh would you look at the time, it’s 2 a.m. I will finish my copies tomorrow.

Reformat Fun Time

On April 17, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I just love to reformat my hard drive and start over from scratch. Okay so that’s a lie, but it is nice to start fresh every now and then when my computer becomes so slow and even using crap cleaner and defragmenting doesn’t help.

The first thing you want to do before reformatting your hard drive is to back up all of your files either onto DVD’s, any cloud service or a back up hard drive. I chose to use a back up hard drive because I don’t really feel like having to copy all of the files from DVDs or having to download all of my files again. I won’t have to do anything with a back up hard drive, I’d just leave all the files there because they are easily accessible if I need them. I’ve already done that, although I had a little issue when moving files around that resulted in panic and using Recuva. See my last post.

The second step is to reformat my hard drive, but making sure I pick the correct hard drive, you know, the one that has my current operating system, not the back up hard drive, because talk about a nightmare. UGH!

The UPS tracking says it will arrive tomorrow between 10:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. which means I can start reformatting either tonight before I go to bed, or when I wake up early in the morning. I like to be prepared so I can just pop the DVD in the drive and get the show on the road, because the sooner I install the new operating system, the sooner I can get back to doing the thing I love to do, which is check Facebook and Twitter, despite the fact that I can do that on my Chromebook, Nook HD+ and my phone. Could someone remind me why I even still use a computer? :p

I’m just kidding, of course I have a computer so I can play EverQuest, blog, money management, print packing slips and labels for my Etsy shop among many other things. It’s not just about Facebook, although that’s mostly what I use it for.

I was hesitant to get Windows 8.1, but now I’m kind of excited to start over with a new operating system. This should be fun.

First Weigh In of 2014

On January 3, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn Blog, Diet, Nook, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

Today was my first official weigh in for 2014. When I decided to start my diet up again as my new year’s resolution for 2014, I was 213lbs and I wanted to drop a few pounds before officially starting, so I did and now I am down to 207lbs. See? I’m serious about this!

My goal last year was just to get down to 200lbs and I did that by my birthday, but I ended up going down to 193lbs which brought my weight loss to 70lbs. This time I want to get down to 150lbs which means if my official weigh in is 207lbs, then I have 57lbs to lose. I’m not positive 150lbs is the right weight for me since people insist that it’s not realistic because that is way too thin for me, but I’m 5’7” and the ideal weight for my height is 150lbs, and that was what I used to weigh, and I could still pinch an inch, so I wasn’t skinny by any means. Although, I have built up a lot of muscle since I weighed 150lbs, so perhaps 150lbs would be too thin. I don’t know so I will decide when to stop when I get to whatever weight that proves to be too thin.

So the image you see above is my weigh in screenshot from the Noom app on my Nook HD+. I will take screenshots every Friday when I weigh in and I will post them on my Noom page. According to the weight graph, I should be at 150lbs by September 28, 2014. Last year it told me that I would be at my goal by September (or was it November? I can’t recall) and I was at my goal by June. Perhaps I will be at my new goal by June again. That would be awesome because that would make the perfect birthday present to myself.

I will be using the waist graph in the Noom app, but I won’t be doing screenshots of it because I think that’s overkill. I mean, most people probably don’t give two shits about my weekly weigh in, so I’m sure the waist graph doesn’t make any difference lol. I barely care about it, but I use the waist graph because it would be neat to know how fat I was in inches from January 2013 when I weighed 263lbs compared to what my inches will be when I get down to 150lbs (hopefully in June).

Anyway, I don’t think I will be writing a blog post every weigh-in day, because I’m sure that’s too boring for people. Instead I will just upload the screenshot on my Noom page. I may blog here and there about this and that. So… until then.

Nook HD+ from Barnes & Noble

On January 2, 2014 By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Books, Christmas, eBook, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, Google Chrome, Kindle, Nook, Pictures, Products I Like, Reading, Social Network, TVLeave a comment

I love my Nook HD+. I have been having so much fun with it since I got it for Christmas, actually the week before Christmas. Yeah we don’t conform to the traditions of opening your presents on Christmas day, or even on birthdays. We open presents the day we get them. Screw tradition lol.

My Nook HD+ has a 9” screen, so it’s bigger than the Nook HD in the sense that it has 2 more inches, but I’m telling you that because there are certain apps that work with 7 inches, but don’t work with 9 inches. Like The Sims FreePlay and Viggle for example. The Sims FreePlay is downloadable, you just can’t play it because you get this warning when you try.

I am not sure if The Sims FreePlay will even work with a Nook HD 7” tablet. I know it works with the Kindle Fire because I’ve seen people taking pictures and video of it on that device. I’m pretty sure it was the 7”, so if it runs on the Kindle Fire 7”, then it probably runs on the Nook HD 7”. If so or not, please let me know.

Viggle on the other hand doesn’t even show up in the Google Play Store, so they don’t even give you the option. I know it works on 7” tablets because I installed it on my partner’s tablet to see if I could do trivia when trivia wasn’t giving me any points with my phone. It installed and looked great too, but the trivia was not working on his tablet any better than it was on my phone. Although, just because it installed on his tablet doesn’t mean I know if it will install on a Nook HD 7” tablet.

Facebook isn’t great on the Nook HD+ when you use the app. Using the browser is so much better because you get the full website that you get on the computer, but the only problem I have is when I use another tab to visit another website, or even if I use an app, like if I go check my email, when I come back to the Facebook tab, it goes straight to the mobile version. If I wanted to use Facebook mobile, I would just use the Facebook app.

The Twitter app that comes with the Nook HD+ from the Nook store isn’t updated, so it’s better to let Google Play update it. It’s easy to use and if you have multiple twitter accounts, you can switch back and forth very easily. It’s actually better on the Nook HD+ than it is on my phone. When I am using @xanapus on my phone, then try to switch over to another twitter name, for some odd reason it switches me back to @xanapus. It doesn’t do that on my Nook HD+.

I didn’t like the Google+ app on my phone and I rarely ever use it on my computer, but it is great on the Nook HD+. That’s one of the social media websites that I wanted to start using more often. It has a much better look than Facebook does in my opinion. Google+ doesn’t force you to look at ads or suggested posts.

One annoying thing that I noticed is that when I am in my library, I scroll down to My Files and see there are 564 files. How the heck am I supposed to weed through all of those files to get to the ebooks I have downloaded? Well, I discovered that if you click the words My Files, it brings up a new window which shows folders. They are in the Download folder. I have 6 ebooks that I downloaded from the EverQuest Next website that are fiction based books based on EverQuest the game, but they are all in PDF format. Ebooks that I’ve downloaded in ePub format will show up with my Nook books, but the PDF files don’t. I did download an app called File Manager HD which allowed me to create a new folder in my download folder so I could keep the EQN ebooks in there to keep that folder more organized.

PicsArt Photo Studio is a good app that I use on my phone to add stickers and frames and text to my pictures, but it’s such a small screen that sometimes it’s difficult to see what I’m doing. My Nook HD+ doesn’t have a camera, but I can use Google Drive to retrieve my files. What I really like most is that I can write on the screen with this. I can do that on my phone, but it’s too small.

Okay, so my handwriting isn’t the best, it’s even worse on paper lol.

Some useful apps that come with the Nook HD+ include Netflix and Hulu+ and if you have a Google Chromecast, you can watch them on your TV. You don’t even need to have the Google Chromecast app installed to use it. I know this because I bought it for my partner and I couldn’t get it to connect to his tablet. I connected it with my CR-48 aka Chromebook, then was able to connect it to his tablet. I don’t have the app installed on my Nook HD+ or my phone, but the icon is visible on YouTube, Netflix and Hulu+. I guess any Android or Apple device that is connected to my network will have that ability.

Of course, other good uses for the Nook HD+ is actually reading a book lol. You aren’t limited to Nook books either, you can read your Kindle books plus your Google Play books. In fact, if there is a service that sells ebooks, you can read the books you bought from them, including pdf files and ebooks. Some writers only publish their ebook with Amazon KDP Select because they get more advertising, and if they chose KDP Select, they can only publish with Amazon for 3 months. That’s why it’s good to use the Kindle on my Nook, because some ebooks aren’t available on the Nook.

One of the features that I do like is the Nook app “Your Highlights and Notes.” If you do a lot of highlighting and like to add notes, this is a good thing. It had all the highlights from the Nook for PC when I got it, but it didn’t show any text. When I add new highlights, it shows the page number and the first couple of sentences that I highlighted, and if I left a note, it shows my note. That makes it so much easier to find every highlight and every note on every ebook you own whether it’s downloaded or in the cloud. Highlighting and leaving notes on my Nook WiFi was so difficult and as soon as I started reading another ebook, all of the highlights and notes disappeared, which was very frustrating.

There is also a Nook app called “Your Lookups” that shows you every word you ever had to find the definition for. That does come in handy if you ever want to find that specific word again. The list of words you looked up are on the left, and the word, the book you found it in, the page and the date and time you looked it up are on the right along with the definition of the word. WOW! Now you have a record of the date and time you learned a new word.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts on the Nook HD+. I like it a lot and I will get a ton of use out of it. I still have my Nook WiFi and I don’t think I will use it as often for reading ebooks, but if the occasion ever arises when I go outside to read, I will be able to use it.

My Year In Review

On December 25, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

my year in chalkboard

before and after morro bay 2013 was a very good year for me. I started out not wanting to make a new years resolution out of fear of the disappointment that would always come from breaking it. I decided to make one after a few days, and I stayed with it, well, until July anyway. I said I wanted to lose weight and I did. By July I had lost 70lbs with an android app called Noom, but then the weight stopped dropping and I gained 10lbs back, but fluctuated throughout the rest of the year. I started out the year at 264lbs, went down to 194lbs and as of today I am 205lbs. I will make another resolution to get back on my diet so I can get down to the weight that I wanted to get down to. I know how to do it, I just need the willpower.

On March 16th I had an accident while riding the bicycle home from the grocery store at night and I broke my arm. It was the ball of my left arm that fits into the shoulder socket. I didn’t have a cast, instead all I was given was a sling from the emergency room. By that time I had already lost 35lbs, and as you can already tell from the previous paragraph, the broken arm didn’t stop me from reaching my weight loss goal.

While I was recovering from my broken arm, I decided that I wanted to start a new craft. Well, it wasn’t really a new craft, it was an old craft that I learned when I was 9 and in the Cub Scouts. I had some materials, so I wanted to use them up by making a couple of keychains. I had so much fun that I decided that I wanted to learn a more complicated pattern. I got so good at it and I was having so much fun that I ended up with about 40 keychains, so I opened up an Etsy shop. I started out with keychains, and I added dangle keychain style earrings, studs and hoops and I already have plans on making and selling dream catcher earrings.

On June 26th, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled DOMA to be unconstitutional and Prop 8 was finally repealed. HURRAY! What a glorious day that was for the gay community in California. In fact, 18 (or 19) states made gay marriage legal in 2013 and legal on a federal level. The reason I said or 19 is because Wikipedia doesn’t include DC, but says eighteen states AND District of Columbia. Whatever. 18 or 19, it’s still a huge victory for us. Illinois is in that 18, but theirs isn’t legal until June 2014.

In late July I started having pain in my parotid gland, which happens at least 2 or 3 times a year for I want to say the last 10 years, but I am not positive. It’s been going on for a very long time. The parotid gland is the saliva gland and for some reason the saliva doesn’t release into my mouth, instead something blocks the way and it swells up to the size of a golf ball or bigger. I try to milk it so the saliva goes into my mouth, and that does work, but it hurts really bad. The doctors usually give me an antibiotic and it clears up in a week, but this time it didn’t clear up. My doctor sent me to an ear, nose throat doctor and to have an ultrasound which showed that I had a stone inside of my parotid gland. The ENT doctor sent me to have a cat scan with contrast which showed that I had several stones in both of my parotid glands, but the ones on the right side were much bigger than the left. I had surgery on November 20th to remove my parotid gland. The area is still numb and I was told it will probably be numb for another couple or few months. YAY!

My back has caused me tons of pain for so many years and this summer I finally found out what was causing it. Apparently I have scoliosis in my spine. I told my aunt about it and she told me that my great-grandmother was born with scoliosis and she lived her entire life with it. I remember she had a hump on her back, that was the scoliosis. My doctor sent me to physical therapy for a month and that halted the pain, but it didn’t correct anything. I have an appointment in January to start treatment up again, and it’s a good thing too because the pain is already starting to come back. My first treatment was a shock, no, seriously, they put these electrodes on my back and it shot electricity to my nerves to dull them. They had me do exercises for half an hour and then they would give me a deep tissue massage. The electrode was only applied to me on the first visit, all the other appointments were just me laying on the table doing exercises and then massages. The last couple appointments didn’t include a massage.

We went to a thrift store in October and I found a bread machine for only $6. I can’t say I have ever had homemade bread before, like ever, so that was quite an experience. I did learn that I was doing it wrong for a very long time when I had such a horrible stomachache which felt like I had a 10lb brick sitting in my stomach. Apparently the bread was too dry. I read the instructions. It clearly stated that I was to use exact measurements, no more, no less, so I was only doing what I was told to do, but apparently rules are made to be broken. Now the bread is light and fluffy and it actually tastes better than store bought bread. My favorite bread to make is Spiced Pumpkin Bread with raisins. Have you ever had a ham sandwich or a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich with pumpkin bread with raisins? It’s quite awesome. Although I will have to cut back on the bread when I start my diet up again.

We also helped feed a couple of neighbors for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which frankly is what the holidays are all about. It’s nice to receive presents, but it’s even nicer to do a good deed for someone. I guess those were our good deeds for the year.

Of course we exchanged presents. I got a Nook HD+ 32GB tablet from my partner, and I gave him a Google Chromecast so he can watch Netflix and YouTube from his tablet, plus I got him Netflix.

I don’t know what will happen in 2014, but I’m sure it will be as memorable as 2013. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Google Chromecast

On December 23, 2013 By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I didn’t know what to get my partner for Christmas because he doesn’t seem to show any interest to anything. Everyone has a hobby of some sorts, but not him, so buying presents is difficult. Last month he bought a new tablet from Verizon and I remember seeing the ads for Chromecast, so I figured this would make the perfect gift for him so he could watch Netflix and YouTube on his HDTV.

Of course when it came, I couldn’t get it working. I thought the setup would be easy, but it was anything but. His tablet recognized it, but wouldn’t connect with it. I decided that he could use my CR-48 (Chromebook) to watch Netflix, so I installed the extension and it recognized the Chromecast and connected instantly. I went back to his tablet to the Chromecast app and it was already connected there too. Despite the fact that I never even installed the Chromecast app on my Nook HD+, I see the Chromecast connect icon on Netflix and YouTube.

When I bought the Chromecast through the Google Play Store, I read the reviews and saw a couple of people bitching about the fact that you cannot watch home videos or pictures you have taken with your phone or tablet, but I found that to be false. If you own a Chromecast, when you go to the Google Play Store on your device you will see a category with apps made specifically for Chromecast. There is an app called avia which says you can share your personal photos, videos and music on the big screen. The app is free, but it might be limited because it says “In-app purchase of $2.99 gives you Chromecast support, casting to DLNA enabled devices, access to Dropbox, support for themes and removes all ads.” As with everything in life, read the reviews and decide for yourself. There is only one app that will allow you to share your personal photos and videos… for now.

Loading the Chromecast is simple. When you want to watch something, just click the Chromecast icon so it streams to your TV, then hit the play button and it will automatically switch to the Chromecast. When you are done, you will have to get the remote control that came with your TV to switch the input back to the cable. It’s actually very easy.

It’s a great device for those who don’t have an internet streaming device like the Apple TV, Roku or a Blu-ray player, it’s also cheaper at only $35.

Here are a couple of screenshots of YouTube and Netflix with the Chromecast icon.

Xanapus` Lair

Tag: nook hd

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Google Chromecast

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