Four Small Wins

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. I'm driving less, but walking more. Since I use driving time for podcasts and lectures, I decided to get earbuds to make up the difference. I am very happy with the ones my wife bought for me.

2. Suddenly having need for a serviceable laptop that I can afford to get lost, damaged, or stolen, I decided to replace the spent battery of an old laptop we had on hand.

The instructions for the new battery called for several charge-and-drain cycles, which I very easily helped along by unplugging it and pointing a browser to the "nosleep.page."

What an easy way to keep a laptop awake! It was nice not having to dig around to find and change settings just to do this.

Conveniently, the site has a toggle to allow normal behavior while remaining there.

3. Over a period of about a month, my ancient coffee maker began taking longer and longer to brew. Sometimes, it wouldn't make a full cup. Eventually, I noticed that there would always be water left in the reservoir.

A quick search of YouTube turned up the video embedded below, which includes a description of the problem I was having, why it was occurring, and how to fix it for a similar model. The video made sense and the repair was very easy.

Ten minutes later, I tested the repair and very quickly was surprised at how much better my coffee was in addition to being glad I got this working again.

4. We took the kids to Disney for part of spring break, and the delicious La Choza Clasica margarita I enjoyed at Epcot reminded me that I'd had an interesting beer on a previous trip to the Magic Kingdom, Kungaloosh Spiced Excursion Ale. The reviews at the link do a pretty good job among them.

My main complaint about this one is related to the paucity of reviews: There are only a handful. This one is sold exclusively at the theme park.

-- CAV