Breakthrough at work

I enjoyed work on Thursday. I managed to make an important breakthrough with a side project that I'm working on.

With this side project, the documentation is outdated. The software has changed its look and feel. The person working first-level support is horrible. Instead, I have been working with a software developer who has pointed me in the right direction a number of times. I have been so fortunate. Even she recognized that he's not the most savvy person.

I attended a meeting later on in the day. A speaker kept on saying "you know" so often that it became annoying. It was at least once in a sentence. Ugh!

One more workday to go. I like the sound of that!

Bluetooth speaker bottle - weird and broken

Yesterday, I received a gift from my company. It was a bluetooth speaker bottle. The idea is that the cap acts as the bluetooth speaker. You unscrew the cap and you have a beverage bottle.

It's such an odd combination. I hope that folks don't put water in the bottle and cap it.

My problem was unscrewing the cap. It was so tight that I actually broke the speaker. So, I only have a bottle without a cap.

It was a nice gesture, though. I do have many bluetooth speakers, so I'm not heartbroken about losing this one. I just wish that caps weren't secured so tight on bottles. It shouldn't take me half an hour to try and loosen it. Instead, I broke it!

Oh, well. At least I have a nice beverage bottle. It's stainless steel and pretty.

Speaking to a crowd and not being as petrified as I was in grade 7

Yesterday, I did a presentation online with an audience of twenty people who are my peers, including my manager's boss. I originally thought of creating a PowerPoint set of slides. One member on our team of four just said to present my points that I had summarized as my meeting minutes last week.

Well, I did. He decided to create a PowerPoint for his other group that he was leading. Geez, thanks!

On a good note, my presentation went so well that I have been asked to present it to my entire department. Yes, I will need to create PowerPoint slides. My minimalistic approach wasn't bad at all.

When I was in grade 7 and throughout most of my academic life, I was extremely nervous talking in front of roughly thirty people. I would rehearse a ton before doing any presentation. It helped.

I supposed that my work and life experiences talking within my team, training others, and hanging out with friends pre-pandemic have made me comfortable speaking in public. For yesterday's presentation, I didn't do much rehearsing or preparation work.

It's interesting how things change as you get older.

Trying out my Google Nest Mini

I have been chipping away at little projects around the house that I have put aside. It was a combination of not spending a lot of time at home and not being motivated.

Two months ago, I got a Google Nest Mini for free. I received in the mail and kept it in its box all this time.

Last night, I decided to give it a whirl. It plays my music fine. I can ask it to play my music and tell me what the weather forecast is. It works like my Alexa speaker.

It would be interesting to pit them together and see if they can converse with each other.

Trying out streaming music services

I love music. For a while, I have been using Amazon Music. Almost a year ago, I bought an Amazon Echo speaker (the U.S. version, as Canada didn't have it available until now).

I decided to cancel my Amazon Music subscription. For some reason, I spent last month trying to get the app to work on my phone and nothing loaded. It worked just fine until recently. As much as I love telling Alexa to play music from my library, there were limitations. I didn't get the entire set of songs from some bands or artists.

These days, I am doing three-month trials with Spotify Premium (99 cents for three months) and Google Play Music (free for three months). So far, I am pretty happy with both. The tough part is deciding which one I will ultimately be going with.

Both have a ton of music. I love the variety.

Google bought Songza years back. I loved Songza because it had playlists based on your mood or what you felt like listening to. Google has incorporated that aspect of Songza, which makes me happy.

Spotify is popular. It even works with my Waze GPS app.

The good news is that I have roughly three months before making a decision. For now, it has been fun testing and listening to fabulous music.

Long weekend is made for geeky projects and sleepyheads

It has been a three-day weekend for me, thanks to Family Day. Unfortunately, it has come to an end.

I have been fiddling around with geeky computer tasks that I once did often. For the longest time, my Mac mini has been without a speaker system. I finally got that resolved. I also ended up doing a few video conversions, so that I can play some of my videos on my phone. Don't worry -- nothing racy!

My guy continues to recover from jet lag. He told me that he is "sleeping around." I told him that he is my sweet slutty sleepyhead, which made him chuckle.

The Fifty Shades Darker DVD allegedly comes out in May. Pre-orders are already available on Amazon! I am going to hold off. Last time, Best Buy had a nice commemorative set that I snatched up last year for Fifty Shades of Grey. I am hoping for something similar with the second movie.

Shopping and technology

My guy and I share a love for shopping. Just before Christmas, a number of items had arrived from the States.

I lived in Minnesota for two years. I developed a love for watching QVC and ordering a number of items at decent prices. At one point, after I had moved back to Canada, QVC shipped up here. It then decided to stop doing that.

I found a service that provides you an address in the States. You provide this address as your shipping address. This service then takes your shipments sent to your U.S. address and ships them to its Canadian warehouse at reasonable rates. Since I learned about this service, I use it as often as I need to.

The good news is that I work pretty close to the pickup location that it is effortless to fetch my shipments. The folks there are kind and helpful. I actually ordered a fairly weighty baker's rack. The gentleman managed to place it in my car, which included the two of us shifting it around in my car to make it fit.

One item that I love these days that I had ordered from QVC is my Amazon Echo. It's a speaker, but you can ask Alexa pretty much anything. I ask her to provide me the current weather forecast, play specific songs, lower or hike up the volume, set alarms, and more. It is a ton of fun so far. My Echo is white, which I didn't realize that it typically is black.

Amazon Echo is not available in Canada for purchase. I didn't realize that fact! It works wonderfully. The sound is great and it recognizes my voice!

During the Boxing Day sale at Best Buy, which ended up lasting for what seems to be weeks, I got a new printer. I haven't printed anything to it yet, as I just got around to unpacking it yesterday. I do like the fact that I can send files or photos from my phone to the printer. Fancy!

My guy isn't surprised that I have these items. I love technology and I am his geeky gadget girl. I tried to convince him that I am a good geeky gadget girl, but he manages to always tell me that I am far from being good.