My phone died

I was about to work out last night and my phone fell from a small table to a carpeted floor. It always has a screen protector and a case on.

My Google Pixel 4a 5G didn't make it. The screen kept on flickering and it went black.

I dealt with Google support twice. The first woman was great. The second one was a dud. My phone is less than a year old, so a replacement phone is coming my way.

The crazy thing is that I need to print labels to have my old phone shipped to Google. I no longer have access to anything at the office because we all have been locked out during the pandemic. I have sent my files to a local printing place. I feel that it would be cheaper to pay for these printouts than getting printer ink cartridges on a printer that I haven't used in years.

So much fun! Thank goodness for my trusty Google Pixel 2XL phone. I am thankful that it works.

Weekend and errands

The weekend is here. Next week is my last workweek before I go on vacation.

It's nice that I have a backup to train a new colleague. In the past, I'd have to work my vacation around training. The fact that I take my vacation during the first week of July made this decision easier to have my friend and colleague back me up.

It'll be a fun, busy day today. I'm running a bunch of errands. It's also the second full weekend where we are easing out of lockdown in Ontario. I haven't visited a ton of non-essential businesses. I still do grocery stores, bakeries, drugstores, and takeout from eateries.

I suppose that online shopping has helped during this pandemic. I still like hitting stores, but I don't have that spark right now.

Restoring my phone thanks to crappy app updates

Yesterday, my phone was acting up. After a number of automatic app updates, a number of apps weren't working properly afterwards

When I launched any e-mail app, it would flash and close up. I also had issues opening my Amazon, Sephora, and Rogers apps.

Normally, I can uninstall and reinstall a problematic app and I'm good. It didn't work for any of them. You also can't uninstall the Gmail app on a Google Pixel phone.

I ended up erasing everything on my phone and installing my data from a backup that had occurred three hours earlier.

Other than signing into every app that I use, my phone works well again. Man, I'm tired!

Last workday before going on my vacation

Today is my last workday before I take some much needed time off. I'm ready to take a break.

This vacation will be interesting. For years, I didn't have a backup. Well, we instituted a backup plan at work this year.

My backup is on vacation. My second backup is the diva. What goes around, comes around.

For years, she has had the tendency to take vacation during the height of craziness at work. She once took two weeks off and left our team to pick up the slack before a major software release. She can no longer do that. She has taken over many of my duties and I feel that she finally appreciates just how much work I did and do.

My manager is also taking the same week off. I usually back him up. Instead, it's diva who will.

I'm glad that I don't have to witness how things will go with diva handling all this extra work. We'll see.

For my regular work, I'm good and don't need her to take over. I just want her to back me up for pressing issues. Here's hoping that it's quiet for everyone's sake.

Issues with my Mac mini and file backups

I had a bit of a scare with my Mac mini a couple of days ago. It was one reason why I didn't post anything in my blog for a bit. Yesterday, my Mac mini was still out of commission. I used my laptop to make my update.

The last time I used my Mac mini was the night before I went on vacation. When I came back, I uploaded all my photos to my computer and then shut it down.

The next day, my Mac mini would not boot up. You typically get a white progress bar and then your screen to sign in. I ended up with a black screen with four options to restore my computer. It wasn't a good sign.

I rebooted it a few times. I got something different each time, including a circle with a slash across it. My Mac mini was also trying to detect the power button and my wireless mouse, but was unsuccessful.

I decided to unplug my computer's power cable from the wall outlet, wait for roughly five minutes, plug it back in, and start my computer up. Guess what? My computer came back to life. Yay!

I did some research online. This incident happens when an automatic software update starts, but doesn't install completely. It must have happened while I was uploading my photos, but I had no indication that an update had happened. Powering off my computer cleared this installation process up and allowed my computer to boot up properly.

The last time this computer died on me occurred when I was upgrading the operating system. I went to the Genius Bar at my local Apple store. For some reason, genius sounds sarcastic in my head. The solution was to reinstall the operating system, which meant that whatever files weren't backed up would be lost.

I was bright back then to have the majority of my important files, the bulk of which are my photos and music, on my external hard drive. Wiping my entire hard drive was fine. I restored them just fine.

However, after restoring my Mac mini, my music remained on my external hard drive, but my photos had to be on my computer's hard drive to sync properly with my iPhone.

This recent scare made me decide to do the following:

• Move my Photos library back to my external hard drive. I don't own an iPhone anymore, so I don't have the need to store this library on my hard drive.
• Back up my Mac mim's hard drive. 

The second point is significant. I don't know why I never got around to backing up my data. The photos that I take on my Google Pixel phone are automatically backed up to Google Photos, so I"m good there. My photos taken with my DSLR camera are not backed up. Should I lose them on my hard drive, I have nothing.

Right now, I am in the process of moving my photos from my hard drive to my external hard drive. I have 170 GB of photos. It will take a while!

I also have Time Machine set up to back up my files at long last. Better late than never, as the saying goes.

Sleepyhead who likes to snooze

It has been fun watching movies in bed with my guy. He has watched more movies than I have, so it's great getting recommendations from him. We end up cuddling, which is heavenly.

He has a tough time getting up in the morning. The alarm on my phone backs up his. He likes hitting the snooze button multiple times. I am up the first time that I hear the alarm.

The other day, he had a difficult time waking up. I ended up putting his phone on his head. It was on vibrate for ten minutes. It wasn't until I told him what time it was that he was alert and got ready for work.

He's my sleepyhead. I love him for who he is.

Death of my Google Pixel phone

Time of death: 8:25 am. Wednesday, September 26, 2018.

My Google Pixel phone worked just fine during the Elton John concert the other night. I took photos and a single video. Everything on my phone was automatically backed up.

As usual, before going to bed, I set my alarm on my phone, plugged it in, and went to bed.

I have two alarms set. One is on my old iPod, which works nicely. It woke me up on Wednesday morning. My phone did not.

I looked at my phone. The screen was dark. Pressing the power button did nothing. Pressing any button did nothing. Ugh.

Recently, I had a new batter installed. I thought that it may have caused the booting-up issue. I took it to the place that swapped out the phone's battery to look at it. The guy cleaned the USB-C connection on my phone. Nothing.

I left my phone with them to do diagnostics. Two hours later, I got a call. He couldn't revive my phone. The motherboard was shot. He said my phone was in pristine condition. There was no sign of water damage or odd abuse. He thought that perhaps there was a power surge overnight. Nope, I have a surge protector.

The good thing about this business is that it refunded the cost of my paying for the new battery. That was cool.

I have never owned a phone that has died in less than two years. I am currently using my four-year-old BlackBerry Passport. It works like a charm.

Next month, I am eligible to upgrade my phone without paying off its remaining balance. I am hoping that I can hold off for that long. I am still interested in getting a newer Google Pixel phone, despite this issue.

In the meantime, I have reported my dead phone to Google support. We'll see if anything can be done or if my phone is just a paperweight.

Q is for questions and questioning #AtoZchallenge

It has been an interesting Monday. I'm beat, but I'm still going.

At work, I get a bunch of questions fired at me from various folks. My co-op students take some coaxing, though. I have to ask them whether they have any questions for me. They seem more comfortable asking me through e-mail. It's a different generation, I suppose.

Tomorrow, I am attempting to get my tourist visa for China. I have spent some time filling out forms. There are a few questions that confuse me, so I'll need to ask someone about them. Ah, the joys of figuring out what people truly mean.

On Monday, I also spent some time creating documentation builds with my students. I like how everything we did worked and made logical sense. The problem was working with the software build person. She wanted the old documentation build, to be safe. Luckily, I am the type who plans everything. I had archived the old version. For me to quickly recreate the old documentation build was straightforward.

I am working from home tomorrow, which allows me to visit the Chinese consulate and relax. I do tense up more at work these days.

I am waiting for a free, new blood pressure monitor to arrive at my doorstep. It's one of the benefits of being on blood pressure medication, being the optimist. Still, I'd like to see how my blood pressure is doing these days.

My 500th post

I have finally reached my 500th post. It is bittersweet to a certain extent.

To reach this milestone, it has taken me nearly a decade. Life gets in the way.

I didn't blog as consistently as I would have liked to. A number of life-changing events happened to me:

• I was employee at four different companies, with one letting go 75% of our department, and another got acquired by my current employer.
• I was in an unhealthy marriage, and finally had the courage to separate from him by moving back to my home province, and both paying and filing for my divorce myself.
• I decided to get my Master's degree, which was both rewarding and stressful.
• I injured my back and had back surgery. I was then on short-term disability for two months.
• Something wonderful happened after I had injured my back. My guy and I talked more at work, and we have been together ever since. He is my best friend.
• I have had many spankings over the past decade, but the ones with my guy are the most satisfying. He had never spanked anyone in his life. Now, he enjoys it and spanks me so well. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Thanks to those who have dropped by over the years and for those who are regular readers of my blog. Your support means a lot to me.

I recently read Florida Dom's blog about Google imposing censorship rules on Blogger. The company is cracking down on blogs that have sexual content, but it seems more focused on sexual photos.

I agree with Florida Dom that the company wants to shut down blogs that have the adult content setting activated. I have never used this setting on my blog and I have not received any e-mail saying that my blog will be shut down.

Well, it looks like Google has changed its mind now, as Hermione has pointed out. Yay!