I Got the Oculus Go for Christmas!

I Got the Oculus Go for Christmas

Oculus Go is a virtual reality headset that let's you play immersive 360 videos and games without the need for a high end computer.

It's seriously awesome.

I have wanted to try virtual reality for ages.  Since the 80's or 90's, back when it first came out.  It was too expensive though. 

Then in 2012 or so I started reading about VR again and was super interested.  Oculus Rift came out that year, but I remember waiting and waiting for it to come out.  Unfortunately, it was super expensive and only for developers at first.  I didn't have a good enough computer to run it, even if I could have saved up for it.

Then the HTC Vive came out and I wanted that too, but it also needed a high end gaming computer.

Samsung Gear and Google Daydream sounded promising, but they both needed high end smartphones, and at the time I didn't even have a smartphone, let alone a high end one.

Then Google Cardboard came out and I did try that, and even got a cheap smartphone, but it wasn't the right kind so it didn't work.

When I first heard about the Oculus Go I was intrigued. It was an all in one VR headset that didn't require a computer or a smartphone. But I decided to wait to see if it would fizz out because I'd purchased an Xbox Kinect that was a lot of fun and so promising, and I loved it, but it sort of died out and developers stopped making games for it.  I wanted to see if developers would stick with the Go.

And they did! 

I downloaded tons of free games and apps for my new Go, and I also bought a ton of games and apps at insanely cheap prices due to boxing week sales. I paid less than a dollar for most games, between 2-6 dollars for the a few.  The most expensive one was only 11 bucks...Canadian!  

Plus there are loads of free videos on YouTube, and free 360 photos are everywhere.

I'm super excited, and my parents love it too.  

I'll do some game and app reviews soon.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2019

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This was the LAST Christmas of the Decade...

Isn't that hard to believe?

I hope you all had a nice holiday season.  I had a wonderful time with family and friends.  My parents bought an amazing blue spruce tree; it's huge!  Check it out:

Mom and Dad enjoyed opening their gifts, and were very happy with everything I bought them, but were also mad because they thought I spent too much, lol.  My Mom is hard to buy for and doesn't want anything, so I mostly got her clothes.  I bought her 5 new tops, 2 pairs of pajamas, socks, lol, and some lotions and creams and household items.  Here's Mom with some of her gifts:

Dad's main gift was a Aerogarden Harvest, which is a hydroponic grow light set up.   

It came with a set of herb pods, but I also bought him the lettuce seed pods.  He decided to plant the herb pods first.  We set everything up yesterday after supper, because the lights are super bright so we're using them to basically light up the kitchen and entrance hall, lol.  The lights will be on all night so we won't have to use any other lights. 

Here's Dad with his brand new Aerogarden Harvest.  It's so bright, lol.

Here are the seed pods, planted on Dec. 27th at around 7 PM.   It will be exciting to see how quickly they sprout.

The pets also enjoyed their Christmas.  Smokey, my African Grey Parrot, opened her gifts under the tree.  She tried to open our gifts too.  She has been opening gifts under the tree for 30 years now, so she is a pro, lol.

Dasha the dwarf hamster also enjoyed her gifts.  She decided to sit on one of her treats while she ate another.  I cracked up laughing when I saw these pictures, as she is totally using the green pretzel treat as a little sitting stool, lol.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!

Merry Christmas!

Chrocheted Christmas Mice for Sheltter Cats

Shelter Pets Need Love Too

Crocheted mice for the shelter cats

My heart always goes out to shelter pets, the dogs and cats and little furries that find themselves homeless through no fault of their own.

Our local humane society is like a dark pet prison, with it's narrow dog kennels and austere concrete flooring.  Some of the kennels have raised dog beds but some don't.  All of the cats have blankets but despite constantly getting donations of blankets, they shelter doesn't seem to ever give any to the dogs.

The cat rooms have one or two toys to share between sometimes more than 20 cats.  The dogs have no toys.

This Christmas I decided to crochet stuffed toys for the pets.  I'm on a fixed income, so as much as I wish I could buy more elevated beds so every kennel has one, it's out of my reach.  Crocheting is within my reach, and I've crocheted for my own dogs in the past.  They always loved their gifts.

I found some cool patterns on Ravelry.com, a nice pattern sharing website.  I decided to start with the cats, because there are currently 18 cats and kittens in the shelter.

This is the pattern I used: Jerry the Mouse

I'm working on dog toys now, and having lots of fun trying different patterns.

Goodbye Huion, Hello WACOM Intuos

Wacom Intuos Small Bluetooth Graphics Tablet

Goodbye, Huion, hello WACOM!

So, I was upset about my beautiful fancy big drawing display tablet arriving and then failing to turn on or power up or do anything at all.  The support people weren't very helpful, and really really didn't want me to return it. 

I'm still in the process of returning it, but in the meantime, I had signed up for an online art class that requires the use of a graphics tablet (or the more fancy display tablet that I wanted).

I haven't been reimbursed yet so didn't have a lot of money to spend, but did some research on inexpensive but RELIABLE graphics tablet companies, and everyone pointed me toward WACOM.

Wacom Rules (Or so "they" say)

There are tons of reviews saying that every tablet is wonderful, including my Huion that arrived broken, but I soon learned that most of the glowing reviews on YouTube were the result of artists being given the products for FREE and then asked to give a review in return.  

People who outright purchased Wacom with their own hard earned cash loved the thing, so I found one on sale at my local best buy and bought it for under $100 Canadian, on the last day of the Cyber Monday sale. 

My new WACOM Intuos Small Bluetooth graphics tablet

I don't know if you can tell, but the box...and the tablet...are MUCH smaller than the Huion Kamvas.

That's because, in order to buy a comparable size in the WACOM, I'd be out $883.41, according to today's prices on amazon.ca (I'm Canadian, so that's in Canadian dollars).

I can't justify that as I'm not an artist and have no idea what I'm doing.  I was so excited about the Huion because it was a DISPLAY tablet, which means it acted like a second monitor for your computer, except one that could be drawn on with a special pen.

The one I bought is called a drawing tablet, or a graphics tablet.  The word tablet is confusing because nowadays we think of tablets as mini computers, with a display, etc.  In this case, tablet refers to the old fashioned meaning, back when kids had tablets that were in fact little blackboards.  These tablets are just dark black slabs that have to be connected to the computer.  When you draw on the tablet, it appears on the computer.  Essentially, they are like a fancy trackpad with a pen.  You use the pen on the tablet to manipulate the cursor on your computer.  It takes some getting used to, but is easier than I thought it would be.

Wacom Intuos S Bluetooth Graphics Tablet

Out of the box, it comes with a tablet (mine is the small size, 7.9" by 6.3", and the drawing surface is just a bit smaller than that.  The dotted area in the photo below is the drawing area.  The little buttons across the top can be set to do things (I have no idea what yet, lol), and the little WACOM tag is the pen holder.

Bonus Software, like an early Christmas gift!!!

The photo above is not my photo; it's the one they use to sell the tablet but I wanted to show you the thing that made me so thrilled to get this thing.  BONUS SOFTARE.

The whole experience with this tablet was just so much nicer than the Huion experience. With Huion I downloaded the driver and had to figure things out myself. 

With Wacom, I went to their website and signed in and they welcomed me and walked me through everything.  How to download the drivers, how to set up the tablet, and they gave me a library to keep my art software with links to download the free software.  

Free Software

The software was totally free, no hidden costs.  

1. Corel Painter Essentials sells for $49.00.  I was thinking of buying it last week, in anticipation of my Huion and I'm so glad I didn't as I now have it free courtesy of Wacom.  I'm just starting to learn how to use it, but it looks very cool.

2. Corel Aftershot 3.  This is photo editing software sells for $59.99.  I've taken a quick look and it looks like fun. I do enjoy photo editing.  They're having a sale where I can upgrade to the pro version for 19.99 but I'm going to stick to standard for now.

3. Clip Studio Paint Pro: This comic and manga style art software sells for $59.99.  I got a free 2 year subscription to it, which is very cool.

So, I went from feeling almost broken hearted about the beautiful big but broken Huion to feeling happy about the tiny but mighty Wacom.

I sat down this morning with a cup of tea to work with my new tablet, to watch videos and lean and try to follow along and the next thing I knew it was after 5 and I hadn't noticed the time flying by.  I was hungry and really needed to run to the ladies room, but that's probably tmi, lol.

So, as long as Ebay follows up on their promise to get my money back, my tablet buying saga will have a happy ending :-).  And if I get good enough to justify it, maybe in a few years I'll upgrade to the Wacom Drawing Display tablet, which is called the Wacom Cintiq.  But for now I'm happy with my small Intuos.

Huion Kamvas Tablet arrived BROKEN

Huion Kamvas fancy pants drawing tablet was a dud!

So if you've been following me, you'll know I was super excited about the new Huion Kamvas GT 516 HD Drawing Tablet Display that I bought from Ebay.  It was second hand but the seller (Huion themselves) said it was 90% like new and works great.

I watched the shipping tracker every day like a kid waiting for Santa, and then it finally arrived.
I was through the roof happy.

I opened it, took photos of it, blogged about it...then I turned it on.  Nothing.  I reread the instructions.  Turned it on again.  Nothing. Black.

I decided to contact their support people and spent ages between emails and texts, and finally they asked me to take a video showing them the problem (they wouldn't believe it was not powering on).  The company is in China so that meant I was up at 3 AM taking videos and trying to get this thing resolved.  Here's my middle of the night video:  Oops, it's too big and blogger won't let me put it in.  If anyone wants to see it here's a link:  Broken Huion Kamvas Tablet video

I kept telling them I wanted to return it because I had just purchased it.  They wanted to send me a new power cable in case that was the problem.  But it would take a month to get here because they didn't have any in storage in Canada.  I said no, I just want my money back.  I'm not waiting for a month stuck with a brick.  I didn't want to be out of both the money and the product, and if I didn't go through Ebay, I wouldn't be protected.

So I clicked on the RETURN button on Ebay and started the return process.  The lady at Huion emailed me asking me to ship it back with a tracking number before they would decide to reimburse me.  I sent an email back saying Ebay has a policy that if the item is defective, the seller is responsible for shipping.  She didn't email back. So I contacted Ebay and they said not to worry; to give the seller until the 11th to respond through Ebay channels about the return, and that if they don't then Ebay will step in, and that they have me covered.  They said I'll get my money back and that they should NOT have tried to get me to return it outside of proper channels.

Meantime I had signed up for art classes that require a tablet and couldn't take them because my new tablet wouldn't work.  I googled inexpensive drawing tablets and did some research and decided to get a different brand, but I'll talk about that in my next post.

I was totally frustrated that Huion sent me a broken item and listed it as tested and working great.  It did look good, but it was a brick and clearly hadn't been tested.

It's Here! My New Huion Kamvas Art Tablet Arrived!

OMG I'm So Excited!

My new Huion Kamvas GT 156 HD Drawing Tablet arrived today!

I kept checking the shipping tracking number and this morning it said it had arrived in my hometown and was getting processed, so I figured I'd get it late today or tomorrow. But I went down to make my morning coffee and it was ALREADY here!  I am so excited!  I can't stop smiling.

This is what greeted me when I went downstairs.  My family members had accepted the parcel and not told me, thinking I was sleeping, lol.

Package waiting for me this morning 

Woohoo!  I was so happy to see this.  I was super tired because I've been sick with bronchitis and was up until 4:30 AM, unable to sleep.  So I took the time to make my coffee (decaf, but it still helps; probably works like a placebo, lol). 

Then I brought the package and my coffee upstairs and opened it and found another box inside the first box.  A very nice box though, lol.

Huion Kamvas GT 15.6 HD DrawingTablet

I was so excited my heart was racing.  I haven't anticipated anything like this for a long time, lol.

I opened the box and found this:

And this: 

Unboxing the Huion Kamvas GT 15.6 HD Drawing Tablet

Sooooo happy.  It came with the tablet, all of the various wires and multiple plug in adapters for various countries, a driver disc, instructions on how to download the driver if you don't have a disc drive on your computer (does anyone still have those?), a warrantee card, a very sturdy stand that can be angled in different ways for ease of drawing, and a little case with a pen and extra nibs. 

They even threw in an extra gift pen!  

I'm super excited and can't wait to set everything up and try it.  I'm not an artist and have no idea what I'm doing, lol, so this should be fun :-). 

Low Carb/Keto Chaffles and New Dash Mini Waffle Maker

Dash Mini Waffle Maker & Chaffles

I was super excited to buy this adorable Dash Mini Waffle Maker online during the black Friday sales, for only 11.99 Canadian!  I couldn't wait until it arrived (within 2 days; woohoo!).

Isn't it adorable????  And pink?

I found a zillion recipes for Chaffles (which are simply cheese waffles) online.  If you don't believe me, try googling it, lol.

I used a basic chaffle recipe, which I found here: link to delicious BASIC chaffle recipe.

The recipe is this (makes 2 mini waffles):

1 egg plus half cup grated cheese.  Grate the cheese,  mix in with the egg,  cook half at a time in the mini waffle maker (or all of it in a regular sized waffle maker) until golden brown.

That's it!  Super simple, super quick, and super delish.
Below you will see my super cute pink mini waffle maker.  Did I mention it's pink?  LOL  I love pink.

My brand new PINK mini waffle maker.  LOVE. 

 Here is the simple batter, consisting of 1 egg and half a cup of shredded cheese. I used Swiss cheese because that's all I had; next time I'll use mozzarella for a milder flavor, but it was delish with the Swiss.

Making Chaffles for the first time

Below you will see I have one chaffle finished, and half the batter left to make the other one.  So easy.  It takes about 3-4 min per chaffle.

Cooking chaffles in my new mini waffle maker.

First ever chaffle; yum!

 I used ED Smith no sugar added syrup.  Only 7 carbs in 3 tbsps., and I only used 1.5 tbsp., so 3.5 carbs only!

 Here they are with melted butter and syrup.  I already took a few bites from the smaller one, lol. I couldn't wait for the photos.  Soooooo good.

Swiss Cheese chaffles

 Here they are in the kitchen.  I couldn't wait longer, and didn't even use my fork. I just picked them up and ate them.  The little holes held in the syrup perfectly.  They were crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and had a great taste.

YUM!  I will definitely try these again.  There are so many ways to change the recipe up and I can't wait to try them all.

Cloud Bread, Keto Friendly Low Carb Bread

So, I tried  keto cloud bread for the first time.  It's this super low carb, low cal  (Serving: 1slice, Calories: 36kcal, Carbohydrates: 0g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 2g)  bread substitute that has been blowing up the internet for the past few years and I'm late to get on board with this.  I finally tried it, and this is how it turned out (I cut the recipe down so I only used 2 eggs):

Cloud Bread

I ate one hot, right out of the oven and my first impression was that it tasted like air,  lol.  These things are sooo light and fluffy; OMG.  Makes sense because they are basically egg whites that have been whipped until they form stiff peaks, plus a bit of cream cheese.  I'll add a link to the recipe I used here: Yummy cloud bread recipe

I used two to make a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich, and it was yummy, but the hot egg made the bottom cloud bread a bit soggy:

Ham, egg, and cheese on a cloud bread bun

It was yummy though, and I really appreciated the low cal 0 carb option.  I should have let the cloud rolls cool down though, as I put the left overs in the fridge and then next day they were sooooo much better.  They lost their eggy taste in the fridge overnight...don't ask me how, lol, and they tasted light a dessert bread, so I added a tsp on peanut butter and some blueberries and a sprinkling of splenda:

Super yummy peanut butter and blueberry cloudbread

OMG, this is what they were made for.  Sweets!  They were so good like this I couldn't believe it.

I think they'd be awesome with strawberries and a dollop of cream, or just sprinkled with some cinnamon and Splenda.  I'll try that next time :-).

New Art Tablet on the Way!

I've always been an arty/crafty person, but I'm not an artist.  I love art, and I've dabbled here and there, but never took classes or anything (beyond a 6 week intro to watercolors, about 20 years ago, lol).

I've been wanting to give digital art a try, but the price was out of my reach.  Until 2 days ago, when I saw a drawing tablet on sale on ebay at a drastically reduced price because it's used.  It's called a Huion Kamvas GT 156 HD Drawing Tablet Monitor, which is a mouthful, lol.  It has a 15.6 inch work area, and the overall unit is 16 inches, so nice and big for my poor eyes, lol.
Here's a photo from the seller:

So, I'm super excited, but because the company is Chinese, I figured I'd have to wait a month or more for it to arrive. Then yesterday the sent a notice saying it had been shipped and I discovered they were shipping it from Quebec.  I kept clicking on the link like a maniac yesterday to see where it was, and it had made it to Montreal Quebec before I went to bed last night.

Then this morning I clicked on it and it had made it to Sudbury, ON.  Woohoo; that's only a 4 hour drive from here!  Of course, they'll have to sort it in Sudbury and put it on a truck to the Sault, the small northern Ontario community where I live, but it should be here tomorrow.

I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning, lol.  I hope it will work ok, since it's not new.  The seller is actually the company that makes the unit, so it's probably a return.  The seller said it's 90% new, works well, and just has a few scratches and the box has been opened.  I hope the scratches are not on the screen, and are just on the outer portion. I only paid 234 Canadian and these sell for more than double that brand new, which is not something I could justify paying since I'm not an artist.

I'm so excited, lol. Off to watch more YouTube videos on how to use the free art software programs I downloaded.

Low Carb/Keto again

Hi Guys,

I am back on low carb/keto after several months of eating carbs. 
In 2017 I had gastric bypass surgery and in a year and a half I lost 130 Lbs.  I was super active, riding my bike for hundreds of miles each spring/summer/fall.  I felt great, but I started fainting. 
I wasn't eating enough calories or carbs.  My doctor told me to increase my calories to 1200 per day and to eat more carbs, especially on days where I would be getting a lot of exercise.

My scale broke and I put off replacing it.  My original goal of weight loss, given to me by the doctor, was to lose 70 Ibs.  I wanted to lose 100 so I did.  I read that everyone gains back a minimum of 30 Ibs so I lost the extra 30, thinking I'd be safe if I regained the 30.

Well, that did not work out, lol.  I gained some weight and outgrew my size 10 pants.  I was in size 12 pants and was fine with it; after all, I'd been wearing a pair of too tight size 24W pants (all the same brand and style of pants, George, from Walmart). 

So I ate carbs and more calories and knew i'd probably gained weight back because I was wearing size 12 pants, but wasn't too worried.  Until the size 12 pants started getting tight.  Not too tight to wear, but just not loose like they had been.

So I finally got on my Dad's scales and just about died.  My weight had skyrocketed to 236.  I was 168 at my lowest.  So that's a 68 Ib gain.  In just 6 months.  OMG. I just about died. I was so depressed. 

So, two weeks ago I decided to get back onto my low carb, lower calorie diet.  I'm eating less than 1000 calories a day, and trying to keep my carbs under 45 total grams.  Keto is under 30 net carbs so I try to aim for that 3 days a week. 

The first week back on low carb I lost 4.4 Ibs.  I weighed 231.6 Ibs.  Today is my second week back on track and I'm down another 3.2 Ibs, and weigh 228.4.  So that's a total of 7.6 Ibs lost in 2 weeks.

My first goal is to get under 200 Ibs, and my second goal is to get to 180, as I looked and felt good there.  My third goal is to get to 165. 

It's good to know that I can still do this.  I should never have let myself go so long without weighing myself.  I don't know how i managed to still fit into my size 12 pants (tight though they were, lol).  Maybe all of the walking and bike riding helped keep my lower body in shape. 

I knew I'd gained weight on top because I went from a size medium top to needing XL in most cases, and in some instances 1X (I like my tops to fit very loosely).

I'm learning some fun new recipes, mostly for bread replacements, and I'll share them soon.