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Monthly Battery Checks
Every month I have a routine where I make sure batteries and devices that I don't use regularly are charged. Some may think that I'm a "prepper" getting ready for a major disaster, but I'm definitely not that extreme (I don't have a bunker and am not off the grid!). You never know when some of this will come in handy; a few months ago the power went out at dinner time due to an emergency transformer replacement. I pulled out the LED lanterns I have (the orange pucks in the picture) and we had light. It wasn't a big deal.
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Fighting back against rebates
The other day I was filling out a rebate form and it got me thinking. Rebates are a great way for companies to make people believe that they are getting a deal on a product. The reality from what I've read, is that most people don't bother filling out rebate forms or fill them out incorrectly and don't receive the rebate thereby making rebates just a marketing gimmick. Years ago, the minority of people that received rebates got checks that they could deposit.
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Dealing with the influx of scooters
I try to get out and run 3-4 times a week down by Mission Bay as there is a nice path and I don't have to be afraid of vehicle traffic. I used to run on the sidewalk where there was one and on dirt when there wasn't; however with traffic whizzing by at 55 mph (speed limit is 45 mph), I got smart and decided that I'd just drive to a nice place and run. Last year on one of my runs, I noticed electric scooters parked in groups along the path. Over the course of the next few months, the scooters started appearing just about everywhere I went in the city.
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Automating my TV
One of the lazy things that I've tried to do was have the Amazon Echo turn my TV on and off. When I had Home Assistant running on my Raspberry Pi, I used a component that controlled the TV and Apple TV via HDMI CEC. Unfortunately it wasn't quite reliable and I lost the ability to use it when I migrated to a VM for Home Assistant.