Author Paul - The Wry Eye Guy

Samsung S-Pen & Smart Switch

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Samsung S-Pen & Smart Switch

My Little Duck.
Drawn with the S-Pen!

Back in the day, I loved my BlackBerry phones. When app development in the Apple & Android universes exploded, I found myself wanting to do things that all those people could do. I learned how to side-load Android apps on my BlackBerry so that I could keep pace. And I loved my BlackBerry keyboard, so I remained faithful.

One of the other big things that my BlackBerry did was sync with my desktop Microsoft Outlook. Until one day it didn’t! They eventually got around to restoring that functionality but meantime, I discovered that Samsung also did that. With Samsung Smart Switch software, not with a 3rd party app. Because Android wasn’t native to BlackBerry then, one or two of my side-loaded apps weren’t working properly. I decided to give Samsung a whirl. I went with a Galaxy Note because of the size of the screen. I like to read on my phone, it’s always with me so I’m never stuck. I managed to get over not having a keyboard. And the Outlook sync thing worked really well. Once or twice, it’s been screwed up by a new revision. But the support folk usually tide me over ’til they get it sorted out.

You might wonder why I’m still using desktop Outlook, but that’s a whole other story. For another day. The reality is that being able to sync to my phone was a big deal & Samsung did it. It also opened up the full native Android universe for me. And it had the S-Pen!

I admit, the S-Pen was a novelty at first. And the early versions really weren’t all that great. But I’m on my 4th Galaxy Note phone now. And with plan renewal coming up, I’m looking forward to No. 5. In addition to the Oulook sync, my loyalty to the Note phones is driven by the S-Pen. I go to meetings without paper. Though some are so not noteworthy, that I just doodle with my S-Pen! I can take sketches at a customer site. Add notes & arrows to pics. It’s just crazy how useful this thing is. For work & play.

But most importantly … I can draw little ducks!

And that is positively cathartic.

Who knows where the tech world will take us next. Now that BlackBerry is running native Android, maybe I should have another look. And I might be overdue to take at look at the Apple stuff again. There are some newer apps out there now for Outlook sync on the Android platform, maybe that opens up other Android phones for consideration.

But for now, I’ll just carry on salivating about my next Note & S-Pen combo!

Results … Month #10

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Results … Month #10

Recovering from a fall!

Made an amazing new discovery this past month … it looks like it’s more difficult to lose 8lbs, than it was to gain that 8lbs in the first place!

Who knew!?!

After last month’s disaster, I wasn’t all that optimistic coming into the new month. It was the first time since I started this whole exercise where I felt that I really might have to force myself to “go on a real diet”. Considering I was going into the 10th month of the program, I was a little taken aback by that thought. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, & I was back to testing & tweaking again, within 3 or 4 days.

“Testing & tweaking” is how I try to add credibility to the act of me trying to figure out how to eat more bad stuff & not pile on the pounds. One of the new foods I tried this month was coconut sugar. It’s supposed to have a few less calories, a slightly lower glycemic load, a few more nutrients, & some other good stuff, like inulin, when compared to regular sugar. One of the best ways to test a sugar is by adding it to something that tastes nice … like cheesecake!

The cheesecake was pretty good. The darker color of coconut sugar gives the finished product a light caramel color. Makes it look like something far more wicked than it is. Not that a cake made of full fat cheese & sugar isn’t already a little wicked. Turns out it doesn’t behave quite like a glass of iced water when it comes to weight control. But, then, a life without cheesecake just wouldn’t be right, would it!?!

Bottom line is that I still haven’t recovered all of that 8lb gain from the previous month. But knocking off 4.4lbs for this month isn’t too bad. Besides, I generally didn’t feel up to working too hard at it. So it’s a bit like I got an almost-free 4.4lb pass for the past few weeks. Maybe this new month is the month where spring will finally be sprung. Maybe I’ll get rid of the rest of that rebound. And maybe we’ll soon get to those warmer months where I can start testing the dietary value of beer & wine on the deck. In the company of the little birdies, flapping & twittering around the treetops!

Roll on summer. Aaaahhhh!

PS … The cheesecake diet, even when the cheesecake is made with coconut sugar, will probably not become the next hot diet for rapid weight loss! 🙂

Best One-Pot Cooking Appliances

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Best One-Pot Cooking Appliances

Slow-cooker makes a meal of it!

Over the course of my “career” in the kitchen, I think I’ve had just about every small appliance that ever showed up in the stores. Or on a TV infomercial. And over time, I found myself dropping off most of them to the local thrift stores. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now, wouldn’t you?

Not!

Just splurged on a slow-cooker the other day. Don’t know why, but this might be the only one I have never tried before. It was on sale, so my “big splurge” cost me $29.95. And that was Canadian dollars. How do they even make the box & packaging materials for that kind of money? Never mind ship the thing to Canada from …. oh, never mind, you know what I mean. It’s just a silly price. And if this thing stops me getting take-out … just once … it’s already paid for itself.

The first meal was an eye of round roast. I know, I know … mea culpa … but I’m surrounded by skinny people who like lean meat! Now for a guy who drives an induction stove, because it’s so fast, this thing was a just a little frustrating starting out. No action. Nothing. C’mon pot, give me some sizzle or something!

Nothing. Nada. Nil. Is it even working!?!

I’ll be eating steak tartare come evening time, won’t I?

Came home after work to one sweet-smelling kitchen. Or should I say savory! And to a lump of beef that was falling apart. Yet, the potatoes hadn’t turned to mush. How’d it do that!?! This is an interesting little pot. I think I’ll be spending some more time playing with the thing.

And when I’m done, I’ll talk more more about why a guy like me needs so many one-pot cooking devices. I sense a head to head coming up between the programmable multi-purpose pressure cooker, the air-fryer, & this new slow-cooker.

And we’ll see what it does to my waistline at the end of the month! 🙂

Easter Eggs, Bunnies & Piggies

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Easter Eggs, Bunnies & Piggies

Ever wish you liked tea!

If you check in on this blog for weight-loss tips, this is probably not the best month to do it! When I was a kid, the best part of Lent was getting fish ‘n’ chips on Fridays. My rebelliousness has only grown with age!

Though now, with Easter behind us, I wish fish ‘n’ chips was the worst choice I made over the Easter holiday. Sadly, I must confess to a little indulgence in the commercial chocolate-fest that is the product marketer’s version of Easter too!

Though to be fair, I tried to be good while I was being bad. The eggs on offer weren’t free range so I decided to go with the healthier wild game option … I ate chocolate bunnies!!! Unfortunately, they were milk chocolate. So help me, I never realized that ’til I was on the 4th one. 🙂

This month, I was hoping to reverse some of last month’s gains. But spring can’t make up it’s mind whether it’s sprung, or not. Skies are grey, drizzle is constant, the morning fog is thick. Even the trees can’t decide if they should bud. An occasional good day makes me believe. And then it’s all snatched away again.

I wonder why there are only chocolate eggs, ducks & bunnies for Easter?

Are chocolate piggies too big a marketing challenge!!!

Bento’s Take on Weight Loss

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Bento’s Take on Weight Loss

Anchor

What’s Weighing Us Down?

I ran into Bento at the pub the other night. Bento is an old friend of mine & he often has a quirky take on things. Sometimes, Bento’s view of things can give me pause for thought.

He was rambling on about how remarkably similar American politics are, to what Irish politics were in the old days. This was all by way of him complaining about winter dragging on & he mused out loud (with the odd expletive to accent an important point): was spring ever going to arrive? Bento wondered if he could get away with saying that his father was born in a warm country somewhere? The idea being that he could claim citizenship there, without all the usual bother, & just head off to the sun for a few months ’til things warmed up. Modern politics gave you great freedom & flexibility these days, he thought.

Bento’s meandering tone, as he muses, has a way of making you believe the unbelievable.

Almost mid-sentence, he asked me why I was trying to lose weight!

He continued …

“Aren’t you better off just enjoying yourself, Paul?”

“It’s not like you’re out night-clubbing & chasing women or anything, is it? And even if you were, sure couldn’t you just find a woman that might like a nice fat fella, like yourself?”

Bento doesn’t necessarily always run his thoughts through a filter to make you feel any better about some particular challenge you might have.

“Is it the health?”, he quizzed aloud.

Not expecting me to fill the silence with what I thought, no answer was required. He then went on to reminisce about a few of our friends who had gone to the great pub in the sky. Undeservedly & well before their time, Bento adjudicated.

“You won’t be running any four-minute miles in the few years you have left, will you?”

Another question that he would undoubtedly answer for me. I sipped my pint. Again. Despite his silent pauses, there was no point interrupting him while he was in flow.

“You’d be better off doing things you’d like to be doing.”, he opines. Him looking up, under raised eyebrows, at me. The creamy froth of the pint still on his top lip. Then promptly removed with a practiced twist of the bottom one.

“And then maybe you’d spend less time thinking about what you would & wouldn’t like to eat, wouldn’t you?”

He’s different. But sometimes, Bento has a way of recognizing the anchor below the still surface of the water.

I was missing dinner. We had another pint. Bento carried on musing. All very enjoyable.

Down about a pound & a half this morning!