Checking My Facts and Rechecking It Twice

I mentioned my experiment about the (factory set) High Efficiency setting on my iPhone vs. the Most Compatible that I wrote about last month to my techie son-in-law (who prefers Adroids). 

APPLE High Efficiency vs. Most Compatible Confusion (Here's the link.)

He says he did the experiment with my daughter's iPhone and thought the difference was negligible. 

"Really?" I said. 

"Did you take the photos you posted while holding the phone?" he asked. "Or did you use a tripod? Is it possible that your hand may have shaken while using the High Efficiency setting?"

Arrrghhh... "While holding it," I answered. I could just imagine him smiling.

I thought about it and thought about it and decided I needed to redo the experiment so people didn't get the wrong information from me.

I got out the tripod and set up my iPhone. I decided to use my Apple Watch to take the photo remotely so I wouldn't shake the iPhone by touching it. 

I took two photos using the High Efficiency and then the Most Compatible setting. And the photos looked the same and were the same MB size. And they were also both JPG.

Arrrghhh! What the heck!

Sooo... I REBOOTED 🙄 my iPhone and retook the photos AGAIN. This time there was a huge difference in size and the High Efficiency photo was a JPEG and the Most Compatible photo was JPG.

 

There was also a slight variation in color. 

I took the photos seconds apart to change the camera setting from High Efficiency to Most Compatible so the light couldn't have changed much.

I then cropped the photos to compare the clarity.

 

And yes. There is a difference, but you know what? For everyday photos for my blog, I don't need that much clarity to take up space on my account.

So... I changed my camera settings back to High Efficiency. However, if I'm taking a trip or wanting to take photos of family, I think I'll change my settings to Most Compatible.

On the other hand... will I remember? 😖 And will I remember to reboot my iPhone? Sigh...

P.S. And by the way, my techie son-in-law says unless someone has a super old Android phone, any photo you send to that person taken with either setting should be OK.

Braces for a Bum Knee

It happened some time before and during Thanksgiving. With all the cooking and preparing for the family Thanksgiving pot luck, I somehow injured my knee. I don't know if it was because I was standing so much over the sink or crouching down to get baking dishes. It just started hurting and wouldn't go away.

I finally looked for some sort of leg brace that I remembered we had and put it on.

I don't know who we got it for (Art says it wasn't him) but this is Hawaii and the elastic had deteriorated or stretched out and wouldn't stay up when I walked.

Sooo... I ordered a different kind of leg brace on Amazon.

OK... First problem. I put it on upside down. 

I saw the directions on the box the following day and turned it around, but I had problems with the diagonal crisscrossing of the straps. 

It must be my aging brain. Sheesh!

At that point, I decided to take some ibuprofen. 

But then, would you believe I found another knee brace in the closet? When I looked it up on Amazon, I saw it was cheaper than the one I bought. 🙄

And this one was much easier to put on. No crisscrossing straps. And I think it's more comfortable.

Art's comment: "Have you considered the fact that the ibuprofen is making you think this is the better brace?"

He wants me to send a message to my doctor for PT.

Maybe.

OK... I'll send him a message to see if it's necessary.

POSTSCRIPT:

I just got a call from my doctor's office. I have to go in next week to have him talk to me about treatment.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Mom sleeps with a wooden pillow. Frankly, I don't see how that could feel good, but she swears by it. 

She does wrap it with some towels to soften it which makes putting a pillow cover on it a little tricky.

I was cleaning out her linen closet (for the New Year) which had a LOT of OLD blankets, bedsheets, towels, etc.  (I put whatever was in good condition into the donation pile.) Mom did not even remember where any of it came from.

I pulled out a bedsheet that had a couple of tiny holes in it to discard but then realized I could make several pillow covers for her.

I also wrapped the wooden pillow with thicker old towels that I sewed on firmly so it would be easier to put a pillow cover over it.

But then... what to do with the rest of the cut up bed sheet...

When I wrote the blog post about Christmas Waste, several bloggers wrote about making furoshiki (Japanese type cloth gift wrap) or bags with material they had.

This gave me the idea to use the left over material (from making cloth covers for the wooden pillow) for a cloth bag for my brother. Whenever he comes over to pick up some newspaper or lemons from our tree that mom likes to give him or whatever, we put it in a plastic bag. Now we can use this cloth bag to transport things back and forth and it will be washable too. 😁

This is why I love blogging. I get so many really helpful ideas from all of you!

Amazing, Incredible New Year Osechi!

I've always been impressed with the New Year osechi that my cousins enjoy in Japan. They are so pretty and look really delicious!

My cousin, Ricky texted this photo to me from Tokyo last year. I'm sure they enjoyed something very similar this year.

What is osechi? Here's the explanation on Wikipedia:

"Osechi-ryōri (御節料理, お節料理 or おせち) are traditional Japanese New Year foods. The tradition started in the Heian period (794–1185). Osechi are easily recognizable by their special boxes called jūbako (重箱), which resemble bentō boxes. Like bentō boxes, jūbako are often kept stacked before and after use."

 I do know they are very expensive to buy in Japan.

And then another cousin's wife (who is from Japan) texted me a photo of what she had made herself right here in Hawaii for her family! OMG! OMG! Can you just imagine the work it took to make this?

But then our friends Cal and Myra texted this photo of what their friend gifted them this year. Apparently it was created from recipes she got from this website:

https://www.justonecookbook.com/

And us......?

Ummmm...

Art bought plates of sushi from Kozo Sushi. Mom cooked some miso soup and I warmed up some edamame (boiled soybeans).

My brother and sister-in-law provided the sake which I diluted with carbonated water.

And it was perfect! 

It was a great way to start the new year.

Now all I have to do is remember to write the correct date on checks, etc. It's almost the end of the month and I still automatically think it's 2022.

Sigh...

And for those who celebrate the Lunar New Year...

Xīnnián kuàilè (新年快乐) in Mandarin means New Year happiness

or 

Gong hei fat choy" (恭喜发财) in Cantonese means Wishing you happiness and prosperity.

One More Problem to Worry About When Traveling

On a recent FaceTime call with my children recently, my son asked if we had data blockers for charging our cellphones at airports or whatever. 

Ummm... no. But I do know not to use those USB charging ports all over airports and such because... according to the Federal Communications Commission:

"Malware installed through a dirty USB port can lock a device or export personal data and passwords directly to the perpetrator." 

I do know that a long time ago Art charged his Amazon Fire tablet at some foreign airport and it did something terrible to it so it wouldn't work properly.

That taught us never to use those USB charging stations. 

Instead, when we were in Newark last April, we only used charging stations that had regular outlets.

Keola showed us his data blocker and said we should really protect ourselves and our information if we're using a public charging station. 

Soooo....

OK.

We got it.

And we got Air Tags too in case they lose our luggage. (It was on my Christmas Wish List. Thank you, Tiffany.)

I hope we're now ready for any future travel. 

Fingers crossed. 🤞

POSTSCRIPT:

HOWEVER: We've since learned that Air Tags rely on other Apple products around the tags. In Europe, people might not have Apple phones and even less in Asia. Sigh... 😕

Cracks in My Cellphone Screen Protector

Well sheeeesh!

I bought the Ailun screen protector for my new iphone 14pro last year. We called the new iPhone my Christmas present from Art. (There was a big T-Mobile upgrade sale on it.) I then bought it for Art because T-Mobile had an even BETTER 🙄 upgrade deal a month later for Art. 

But then I ran into some problems. The super duper Otterbox iPhone drop protector cover would not fit with the Ailun camera lens protector on so I had to buy a different HLija camera lens protector instead which did fit. 

And then a month later, I noticed a fine line on the Ailun glass screen protector of my phone. I take very good care of my phone and had NEVER dropped it. I've only had it for a month, for goodness sakes! You can only see the cracks in a certain light so I missed seeing it for a while.

Anyway the screen protector came with 3 protectors so Art was able to use one on his new phone and now I could replace the cracked one with the remaining protector. 

And if it cracks again... well... I think I'll try another brand.

Sigh... 🙄

Is it REALLY Madame Pele?

When we went out walking the other morning, we bumped into a neighbor-friend who told us that his cousin had sent some amazing pictures he'd taken at Mauna Loa on the Big Island.

And indeed, when he showed a photo to us on his cellphone, we were amazed. He said it was of Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes.

And then there's this one.

Do you see her?

Now, I don't want you to think I'm a skeptic, but I also know what can be done with Photoshop.

Still, you'll never see me take a lava rock home from the Big Island because that could cause you EXTREME bad luck. 

I'm not wanting to scare anybody... but heed the warning if you're ever on the Big Island. 😳

New Year Cards from Sendai

My mother's youngest sister lives in Sendai. I met her for the first time in 1970 when I stayed with my grandparents at their temple. My aunt, uncle and cousins lived with them. I got to learn from and love all of them during those three weeks. It was the first time meeting them and gave me memories that are still precious to me.

Mom and Auntie have been writing regularly for years and years. But now that mom's two other sisters in Hawaii have passed away, the letters are traveling even more often. I now scan mom's letters, add my own with lots of photos and email them to Sendai. Auntie, however, still does snail mail.

This year, Auntie sent a New Year card for each of us to match our personalities. 

Auntie took me aside the first time she met Art and told me that I had chosen well. 

She remembered that he liked woodblock masters, Hokusai and especially Hiroshige. She even gave Art some copies of Hiroshige prints that my grandfather had kept. 

Thus, she selected a card with Hokusai's famous woodblock print of the Kanagawa Wave.

She gave mom a traditional elegant and beautiful plum or cherry blossom card. 

And me? I got a huge cherry blossom tree bursting with blooms. That made me happy.

Oh my gosh!

I just noticed that she even found a Hiroshige stamp!

What kind of card do you think you'd want for yourself.

Candied Fruit

Art and his sister love fruitcake. On the other hand, my brother and I are well... not fans. The only problem was that we were having a terrible time finding candied fruit which is what the recipe called for.

The funny thing is when Art went looking for fruitcake at a few different markets, he asked two different young workers where the candied fruit was and they had no idea what he was talking about. He explained it was for fruitcake, but they had no idea what fruitcake was. 🙄

So I decided to soak some dried fruit in mango-orange juice + a little added sugar. 

I did eventually order the candied fruit on Amazon. 

And guess what. It turned out just fine, but Art suggested I add more soaked dried fruit.

So I did, but then he said I might have added too much fruit. Then my friend told me it was the best one yet, but that she thought just using the soaked dried fruit might be better.

I think I'm going to have to do this more scientifically and actually measure how MUCH fruit I'm adding so I can duplicate it more accurately. AND I think I'll do it with just the soaked dried fruit next year.

By the way, it turned out that LOTS of friends and relatives LOVE fruitcake so yes, we did share quite a few of them.

50 Years Together

We were going to celebrate New Year together with the extended family, but my nephew is an ER nurse and was only able to get January 5th and 6th off. Since the 5th was a Thursday we opted for the 6th which just happened to be our 50th Wedding Anniversary.

I didn't tell anybody that it was our anniversary at first because I didn't want people to bring gifts. We have everything we need and it's right after Christmas on top of that.

However, my daughter, Tif (in Chicago) said that wasn't fair to everybody coming to be surprised that we'd be celebrating our 50th Anniversary. Sooo... I told everybody that yes, it was our 50th Anniversary, BUT not to bring gifts.

Then Tif and our son, Keola (who is half way around the world) said they didn't want me in the kitchen damaging my knees further. They ordered and paid for meat jun (Korean beef coated in a thin layer of egg) and teriyaki chicken which they asked their cousin, Cody to pick up and bring to the party. They also ordered a half sheet of Dream Cake from Liliha Bakery and 2 huge platters from Kozo Sushi. Everybody else would bring their own special dishes typical of pot luck parties in Hawaii.

We were blown away when our first guests arrived with a HUGE bouquet of 50 roses and a big balloon! They are cousins once removed because Jason is my late cousin's son. However, since they are younger than my children, we are "Auntie and Uncle" to them. This is Hawaii. There are lots of aunties and uncles.

Everybody started arriving with tons of food. It was amazing!!!  Little Jess would be my cousin 2 times removed but of course, I am auntie to her too. Mom was very touched and absolutely DELIGHTED when Jess gave her a huge hug. 

Dave, photographer husband of Diane, my Maid of Honor 50 years ago took photos for us. (I won't post the family photos he took because I didn't ask for everyone's permission.)

Other than Diane and Dave, everyone at the party was family because we had to keep the numbers down due to COVID.

Everybody took a COVID test before coming. The windows were opened and ceiling fans were blowing.

The cake from Liliha Bakery which Tif ordered for us was absolutely amazing piled generously with lots and lots of chocolate slivers. (Mom is looking forward to dessert with the leftovers.)

Tif also sent the gold Happy 50th Anniversary cake topper since the bakery can't write over a Dream Cake.

Dave and Diane brought a large card for us with our wedding photos and another section with photos of us that were taken by Dave through the years.

Despite my saying they were not to bring gifts, there were gifts anyway. Our family and friends are very generous and utterly kind.

But the BEST part in all this is that (with a lot of admonishment encouragement from our kids) we relinquished control of hosting and had the family take over cleaning up, passing out take-home containers, serving drinks, serving desserts, etc.

When Art and I woke up this morning, we smiled and said, "Wow! That was great!" and then "Happy Anniversary." 

My NEW Favorite Mug

Although it's usually known that Art has collections of things (stamps, coins, t-shirts, etc.), I must admit to my collection of mugs.

In 2016, I even wrote a post about my mug collection. (This is a photo from 2016.)

And well... it has grown a bit more since then (although I did recently give some away).

However, I found something interesting here when I looked at our favorite mugs today.

Mom still always uses her Butchart Gardens mug and there's Art with his black mug. He actually has two black mugs. 

That Cheers mug I used to have broke. I was really sad about that. I don't know why I liked that mug so much, but I just did. Perhaps I got it from a trip to Boston with the kids decades ago.

Anyway, I replaced it with the Albuquerque mug that I got when we visited our son who'd been living there for a few years. Maybe it was so I'd remember how to spell Albuquerque.

However, recently... I put the Albuquerque mug in the dishwasher and needed to take another mug from my collection. 

The Starbucks mug is one that was given to us by visitors we'd driven around the island many, many years ago. Since it wasn't a mug from one of our travels or where our kids might have lived, I was almost going to donate it.

But I thought I'd use it for a while first.

But you know what? 

I liked the feel of it. And now it's the mug I'm using every day. 

Does this mean Art and mom have secure, consistent feelings while I am transitory and inconstant? 

Ah well... we'll see...

Wow! Is it really 2023 already? I should tell Art he and mom should change their mugs for the New Year. 

Nah...

New Year Gifts!

Mom goes to a senior day care once a week and loves it. We were worried about her being in a crowded situation but the doctor said it would be better for her brain if she had more socialization. Most of the people go there more often apparently.

Before the Christmas holiday and even after, mom was coming home with gift bags from the people who also go there.

Most of the bags contained snacks, but some had pads of paper and a pen, scrubbing pads, handsewn wristlet for key attachments, handwipes, tooth paste and brush, etc.

It was fun seeing what everybody was coming up with. 

We realized we needed to come up with a gift for everybody too.

However, since everybody must be pretty inundated with Christmas bags, we decided to prepare a New Year's gift bag.

I wrote before about how I'm trying to be conscious of the environment so instead of plastic cellophane bags, I opted for paper bags.

It's also a lot more cost effective when you're doing 35 bags.

My brother (the Photoshop genius) created these large labels for me with an adorable rabbit for 2023.

This is the year of the rabbit.

According to the Chinese zodiac:

"2023 is the Year of the Rabbit based on Chinese zodiac. This is a Year of Water Rabbit, starting from Jan. 22, 2023 (Chinese New Year) and lasting to Feb. 9, 2024. Rabbit ranks fourth in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac signs. 

For Chinese people, the rabbit is a tame creature representing hope and life for a long time."

I hope everybody enjoys the gift bags. Mom can hold her head up high. Does this remind you of being a parent to an elementary school kid?

New Year With a Bang in Hawaii!

The economy is supposed to be hurting right? Everything costs more now? People are struggling with expenses? 

You wouldn't know it from the extremely expensive illegal fireworks we saw all around us from our window.

From what friends and relatives were texting us from around the island, they were all shocked at the amount of ILLEGAL, extremely loud fireworks we were seeing everywhere. This is the worst (or most amazing) display we've seen in the 15 years we've been living in Hawaii.

These photos were right outside our window. 

Because the trade winds had died down, noxious smoke from the fireworks were like a terrible smog all over the island. Therefore, we couldn't see into Honolulu like we usually are able to. These fireworks were next door to us.

And here's the evidence of which neighbor was shooting off the fireworks in our area. 

My teacher buddy, Judy texted the following picture which I loved.

Happy New Year, everybody!

I'm hoping 2023 will be healthier, safer and more peaceful here and around the world.

POSTSCRIPT:

According to the Star Advertiser this morning the amount of illegal fireworks this year was MUCH worse than previous years.

We all thought it would be safer this year because unlike the LEGAL 20,000 firecracker permits that were issued last year, only 13,679 were bought this year.

But it WAS worse, much worse. EMTs were called out because of people who couldn't breathe due to the ILLEGAL fireworks smoke.

A friend of mine said they were outside their house watching the fireworks around the neighborhood and she woke up the following morning with a runny nose and irritated eyes. We'd shut all our windows on New Year's Eve anticipating the bad air because the weather forecast had warned of diminishing trade winds.

One fellow in Wahiawa was in critical condition because the fireworks blew up in this face. A 12 year old girl was in serious condition from facial injuries. Fellow in Ewa Beach had fireworks exploding near his face. He was in serious condition due to loss of vision, bruising and lacerations. A woman had fireworks exploding and hitting her in the neck. And so on and so forth.

The Honolulu Fire Department Captain, Malcolm Medrano said, "I've never been anywhere in my life that had this concentration of aerials. I just feel really sorry for the people that were hurt by them. There were permanent life-altering injuries." 

It's insane! What a way to start the year!