I’ve really be into home automation lately. “Hey Alexa, turn on my living room lights!” It’s been interesting diving into the world of home automation. But the one thing I could not fine (at least reasonably priced), was something that would open and close my blinds. Since I’m currently on parental leave from work and needed something to exercise my mind, I decided to tackle it myself.
Two Step Process
The whole approach was going to be two fold, find out if it is possible…then automate it. The first step was to see if I could get it done with a push of a button. What parts would I need? Do I have things on hand? Etc…. From there, I did some digging and came up with this result.
The question of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) use of the Designated Hitter (DH) is once again up for debate. ESPN spoke to all club managers and general mangers last winter meeting on the topic. Commissioner Rob Manfred threw out the option…then quickly took it back. This argument is probably as old as the 1973 rule change itself. It’s AL’ers vs. NL’ers, Progressives vs. Purists, Shift vs. No Shift, Republicans vs. Democrats, Cats vs. Dogs…er…
The new album from Ft. Worth’s own Green River Ordinance (GRO) was released a few weeks ago. I’ve been able to listen to the entire album a couple times and I’m impressed at how good a release this is. I initially found GRO by a random “give-away” by NoiseTrade (<- Gone…). My son and I constantly blurt out “She beats right through to the heart of me, to the part of me, that I can’t explain!” Their new album, Fifteen, dives much deeper into their country roots, which might alienate a few listeners, but the album is still very strong.
I read a ton of books last year. I spent so much time on planes and in travel last year that I was able to read quite a few stories. I set a goal…then blew it out of the water! My goal last year was to read 40 books. Somehow I was able to read 48 books the year before and thought that 40 would still be a good goal without being too easy. Only I read 55 books last year demolishing that goal. Goodreads presents my book reads better than I ever could, so checkout that page first and see what I did. Then come back as I highlight of few things here.
I’m quite proud of my homepage. As I said before, I used to use services like Flavors.me and About.me for my main page because they did something particular…that gathered my info in one place. From social sites to image sites, these tools did that easily. But I started to realize I wasn’t showing what I really wanted…additionally I was having a hard time keeping those connections up as well. So it was time to make my own.
So if you look at my old site you’ll see I made one post in 2015. One solitary post in January of that year, then nothing. There was a reason for that. If you read that post, you’ll see it was about simplifying my life. One of those things I did, was remove myself from blogging for a time. I don’t know if it helped or hurt, but it was one of the things I did.
I did it! I once again threw off the shackles of the old skin and slapped a new one on. This one is bigger, bolder, better, beautifuler, boomier, ballsier, boisterous, blistering, boilermaking, and bombastic. At least I like to think so. What do you think?
Notebook
The notebook is my new blog. I have cover images, large titles, and embeds. The “hamburger” icon [ ], yes…that’s really what it is called and I’m not a fan either but it’s a convention, will get you to all my personal links.
So if I have a new site, new style, new domain…you’d think I’d scrub all my old content. But that’s not exactly true.
Where’s all my old content?
No worries, it is safely tucked away. Due to the site refactoring, the old content remains in it’s old domain: http://blog.traeblain.com/. All your old links will work, and it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Below I am including all the links for posterity’s sake.
