Poopy Pond

Yesterday was crazy.  I woke up at 4 AM to get a jump on the day.  That sure helped a lot because if cannot imagine what my day would have been like if I had not done that.  However, my day turned out to be rather productive and by around mid-morning, I began to turn things around.   Me waking up at 4 in the morning is rare now.  I've done that since high school - zero period and jogging, work in college and I just got used to it.  Now, 5:30 or so is more typical.  My plan yesterday was to get some simple tasks done so I can get a jump on a jog and my own projects.  I was able to do all that and I figured I would have time for some downtime as well.   But that did not happen.   Emails upon emails.  Calls upon calls.  Reports.  Requests.  A flurry of work related stuff flooded in within an hour.  I admit I was sort of flustered from about eight through ten yesterday morning.  That has not happened for a while...

        UV-C portable sanitizer.       Let there be light! Well, let there be UV-C light!  In light (no pun intended), of the current pandemic, I want to revisit something that I have looked into, well, mostly my wife, UV light to disinfect drinking water.  The purpose of purchasing such an item was to add it to our earthquake kit.  It is similar to the steripen sold at REI.  I have not checked our earthquake kit but it probably might be the same steripen pictured below. Now, UV-C sanitizers come in various sizes, power, and claims.  So, with the pandemic hitting us, I an only assume that companies are taking advantage by flooding the market with their UV-C sanitizing products.  They all claim to work, but how do we know it works?  Are the light bulbs even emitting UV-C?  As humans we cannot see UV light, further more, UV-C is dangerous to our biology.  So, w...

  Toilet seat covers.     There are many wonders in this little beautiful blue planet of our that hold little secrets. Are you, like me curious, about what secrets everyday products will reveal? For the longest time I have wondered about that little pocket sewn into my pair of jeans. I have seriously pondered it’s secrets. I would ask questions like,  “Why is it there?”, and “What is it used for?”.  Right now there are more pressing issues than little pockets. There are websites that will reveal the “why’s” in products we use everyday or use sometimes.    What I want to talk about is toilet seat covers. I do not mean seat covers that you wrap your toilet seats to keep your tushy nice and warm. I am talking about the paper toilet seat covers at work or any public places. The questions I have are not about whether you should use them, or does it really protect your bottom from little tiny critters from other people’s nether regions and unspeaka...

I recently started reading a book about how we should maximize our limited time on earth and do what we are meant to do and outsource certain tasks to others who are more suited to do them - let coders who are better at it than we are, let someone else walk our dogs, or clean our homes.  While I believe the idea certainly has merits, it is not for everyone. Not in the beginning anyway.  Plus, there are things that we should do ourselves like walking my own dog (I don't own one).  And as for cleaning one's home, I do believe that unless you live in a mansion, you should take time to at least tidy up your place on a regular basis even if you are a high power attorney, doctor, or, you know, me.   Let's start at the beginning.  I'm not good at cleaning my own house.  I do it from time to time when inspired but for years I did not do it on a regular basis.  Fast forward to years later and what happened?  I now clean my house on a regular basis.  E...

 By Sarcast I’ve read all sort of neat and cool tips on the Internet.  I’ve bookmarked them for later reference or used them if I find them so useful that I could not wait a moment longer to implement them.  A few involved cleaning the kitchen stove, getting buildup from my glasses, or reusing items in ways I did not think off.  MacGyger things, you know?  And then there are tips that are petty interesting and right up the alley of Poopy Pond but then I have to think twice before trying them. The one I’m talking about is this one here where you can bury a bottle water in the ground to help you water your plants and save water at the same time.  You can cap the water bottle to prevent water loss through evaporation.  The water is inches deep underground that further prevents water loss and the roots of the plants happily hydrated.   I’m definitely going to try a variation of this.  Variation?  Yeah, see the thing is that I’m not sure bury...

Bringing it old school.  The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged what we know about about normal and therefore, it has brought on many changes.    Hopefully, the changes we are experiencing are temporary, whiles others are permanent. I will not focus on the temporary changes but on that I feel should be permanent.  Family time, for some families is the norm been going strong even before this pandemic. My wife would try and implement family game nights years before the pandemic. It would last a couple of weeks or maybe even a month, then life happens.  This past weekend during a three day holiday weekend, my wife asked me to play a game of Risk with my kids. I actually dreaded it. I dreaded because meant reading the instructions, explaining the rules, and referring back to it during the game.    All that would take extend the game. Before you call me lazy just remember that our sporadic family game nights happened years ago.    I want to also adm...