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Creepy Siri No More

7 Mar

I have Siri activated again on my iPhone XR and am so glad that it’s not creepy anymore. Previously on the now-retired iPhone5S, it activated itself without any prompt and at odd hours, it was creepy so I disabled the feature.

The only problem for now though is Siri not understanding my Asian voice command. Am I not pronouncing words right? They sound pretty distinct to me…

I was experimenting and Siri listed ‘ate’ instead of ‘eggs’ and ‘Martin’ instead of ‘mutton’ when I prompted it to write my grocery list. Hahaha… I guess both Siri and I have to get used to each other.

For now, Siri is useful to set my alarm as I don’t have to hold the phone to do so especially when I am horizontal in bed. Mundane but practical. In time, I am sure I can assign it to do more.

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Daily Bonus Mess Up, Part 2

5 Mar

The Candy Crush Soda Daily Bonus is messing up again. After that episode where both my iPad Mini and my iPhone XR showed the same figure, the next few days it went weird again.

First occurrence, the phone captured the Daily Bonus because I picked up the phone first. Then it didn’t show on the iPad, just like the first scare I had. Then the next day, I decided to launch both together and the iPad captured the Bonus but the phone didn’t. By the third morning, both captured the Bonus!

It’s like both devices are playing tag team to record the Daily Bonus – today my turn, tomorrow your turn and together in unison! I’d never know which devices’ turn to have the honor every morning.

I don’t know what’s going on but I figured if at least one of them is still on track to reach 1000 Days, it should be okay. Then I will stop this addiction after the record is achieved.

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The Challenge Threatened

4 Mar

I seem to be setting myself up for failure. I thought the week before with dinner engagements three days in a row was bad; this past weekend, it’s four days of (three) dinners and one lunch engagements, starting with Thursday right through to Sunday, there’s hardly a breather. Die…

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Thursday’s vegetarian Thai threesome dinner

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Friday’s foursome dinner after golf

But when the opportunity to catch up with girlfriends of yesteryear, golf buddies and celebrating a good friend’s birthday, how could I refuse? Being with these people are important to me and well, I would be silly not to eat because the occasions happened during meal times.

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Saturday night’s dinner (& desserts) for five included a bottle of hand crafted wine

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Sunday’s lunch for eight after golf with half a bottle of whiskey

The challenge to lose weight is now under threat. Tonight I have no choice but to continue with the ten pounder at the gym to work it all off. Die…

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No Pain, No Gain

1 Mar

For two days, my upper body was in pain after Monday’s gym session. Looking back, it did not seem like a Herculean effort to use a ten pound weight as I knew I could manage. Despite stopping gym for sometime, I took a chance and pushed myself to the limit. Maybe a little too much. The consequences thereafter showed that the body was unable to withstand the intense workout.

The pain level reminded me of the time after the Laparoscopy Surgery I underwent last year. I was so bloated upon discharge with all that gas still stuck in my abdomen, making the upper body so uncomfortable especially to breathe and this after-gym effect is almost on par.

By the third day, thankfully my aches and pain reduced. Well, there’d better be some gain for all this pain endured. I play a round of golf later today and hopefully, whatever remaining discomfort won’t affect my game. Come Monday, the cycle repeats itself.

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A Lovely Surprise, Part 2

28 Feb

I am really loving my new iPhone XR. Why didn’t I change earlier and subjected myself to such aggravation with the battery issue of the old phone?

The best feature so far for me is the Face ID and swiping upwards to unlock the phone without having to fuss keying in the password. And I don’t miss the Home button, something I once dreaded I couldn’t do without.

Oh… and I don’t have to carry a power bank anymore! No more worrying about the phone dying on me as it can last almost three days after a full charge with my usage pattern. Three days! So cool.

As for the size of the phone, hmm… I am still adjusting to get used to it because this is a like/don’t like issue.

I like it for the big screen size because it makes reading easier. But being bigger, it’s cumbersome to hold. And bigger means heavier, it is not comfortable to keep in the pocket of the pants. And if I wear my Uniqlo jeans, it sits in the most awkward position in the front pocket, poking me in all positions. So most times I put the phone in the handbag but this then adds weight to the handbag. Sigh…

Also being bigger, the phone is now a two-hand operation device. I find myself preferring to use both hands instead of having the keyboard moved to one side to type. Seriously, some adjustments to get used to with this giant.

But generally, there’s more positives––the interface, the battery lifespan and other cool stuff––to this upgrade and I have embraced them well enough. In time, I will forget my old once-reliable iPhone5S which is now retired to the bedside.

I must admit though, there are some nights I find myself holding it out of nostalgia and wonder in amazement how did I managed with this minuscule thing and its screen for the past five years?

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The Challenge Begins

26 Feb

Last Monday, we finally went back to gym after almost a month’s break. Thank goodness I did not feel sluggish after so long. The past month there were all these reasons to skip gym – valid reasons though – M2 leaving for Ireland, preparing for Chinese New Year, leaving town for the Reunion Dinner and all. But now, with all these out of the way, there’s no more reasons to miss gym anymore.

And last night we hit the gym again because last Friday, Saturday and Sunday was packed with dinner dates, making me guilty, so all the more not to skip.

The determination to want to lose that awful added weight made me rather pumped up. And like last week, I used one ten-pounder weight for some of my routines, a big jump from my usual two four-pounders.

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My serious ten-pounder

Although gym session is only once a week, I think I am off to a good start on the challenge especially with the solid program that my trainer has drawn up. Besides working out with her, there’s also golf to burn some calories too. I just need to stay more disciplined with the food intake, after all there’s a whole list of things I avoid due to Endometriosis, then I will do fine. I hope…

Today I am sore to the core and it will be worse by tomorrow. The challenge is on.

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Daily Bonus Mess Up

25 Feb

It was a usual morning must-do routine upon waking up yesterday. I would reach for my devices to launch Candy Crush Soda. The phone was picked up, the game launched and it showed ‘915 Days’ instead of ‘17 Days’!

Strange… Why is it showing this figure on the phone? Typically, not including the gold bar tally, all devices (the iPad Mini, iPhone XR and iPhone5S) are independent of each other for the Daily Bonus trek and rewards garnered.

Then I picked up the iPad to launch the app. There was no Daily Bonus showing! Oh no… It got messed up. Would it break the next day? I got worried even though there were many occasions I wanted to stop this silly addiction.

This morning, with a slight dread, I reached for the iPad first.

‘916 Days’ when I launched. Phew.

And the phone… ‘916 Days’ too! What a weird mess up.

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What to Name Your Caterpillar

22 Feb

The more I researched about caterpillars, the more fascinating it became. I thought about giving my caterpillar a name and would you believe it, there’s such a topic on the internet – What to name your caterpillar! It’s amazing what people talk about out there.

From websites like Reddit, Yahoo and Answers, there’s even a write up on ‘Caterpillar names: the finalists’ on MSNBC.

So what am I naming my caterpillar?

Munch Pot. That’s the name of my caterpillar but sadly, Munch Pot met its untimely demise. I could not find it at its usual spot on the branch yesterday evening when we got home! Noooooo…

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Some leaves are gone, so is Munch Pot!

It could have been discovered by the maid while she was watering the plants and squished it. So I checked with her and she said she didn’t even know Munch Pot existed. Or perhaps a bird came and swoop down on it? Now we will never know. So much for having it as a pet, a short-lived one.

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Killer Whales, Part 2

18 Feb
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The big and the mini vise clamps

A week before Chinese New Year, I bought a bigger vise clamp and put it to good use immediately over the weekend purchase. And in the midst of working on two whales back-to-back, I injured myself. But on the left foot! Huh? Where’s the connection here?

Let me explain…

The vise clamp worked beautifully and held the block well; I was able to shape the block without exerting any strength on the left hand which was good. But in the midst of the carving action, I got up too fast and caught the edge of the table so hard with my left foot. Ouch hardly describes the excruciating agony.

The shooting pain was right on the Lateral Malleolus, the bone bump and it bruised beautifully. What a sight to behold…

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Top (L): the day after, Top(R): after golf, a week later and Bottom: four days after the knock

 

 

 

Those cute whales are such killer whales I tell you. It was a good two and a half weeks before the bruise subsided. As for the pain, it is still there.

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Killer Whales

12 Feb

Actually, carving on Meranti wood is not good for me. While it may be satisfying to channel my energy into it and then feel the joy whenever a lovely piece is completed, the choice of the wood is the culprit that adds to my Wrist Tendonitis woes.

I was carving a lot of Meranti whales in December and they are much bigger pieces than the Gnomes and Citizens, which unfortunately have not increase in their population count. And being bigger pieces, it magnified the Wrist Tendonitis on the left hand because I have been gripping the wood block too tightly, looking back at the situation now. Sigh.

Although I have a vise clamp albeit a mini one, it cannot clamp the block for me to work on. And I have not been using my workbench enough to ease the situation. It is not the repetitive motion that’s causing the flare up because the repetition is on the right hand, the carving hand, and not the left hand – the non-working but gripping hand.

If I am not carving daily, the situation can be contained because with ample rest, nothing gets aggravated and it’s fine. The therapy sessions, which concluded, helped but I must not overdo things that can cause a recurrence. That something obviously being carving, of course. And I guess I overdid it in December. Oops.

Then in January as we were busy preparing for M2 to leave, carving took a backseat. But after M2 left, I was back to carving whales full swing AND playing golf before Chinese New Year, double whammy you could say. I felt a teeny weeny set back. Uh oh.

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The whales, cute as they may be, are really killer whales. And I’d better take care especially if I want to play more golf this year. Perhaps I should go back to balsa instead of Meranti or get a bigger vise clamp if setting up the workbench is too much? Something to seriously consider.

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