WINTER'S REVENGER 2026 FEBRUARY

 It is interesting that just as I wrote a blog about the warmer weather, with snow melted in many places, this weekend winter came back with a vengeance.  At first the forecast said snow, but just 3" on Sunday then up to 6" on Monday.  That didn't sound too bad but then as the weekend drew closer the dire warning is up a foot of snow, with blizzard!  As of now (3:30 PM Feb 22, 2026) the prediction shot up to two feet!!!  Argh!  At least I know now I will be able to work from home Monday.  The time I save from the commute can be put into shoveling.  I hope to have the energy to shovel around the fire hydrant two houses over from me.  The responsibility rests on the house closest to it, but it's a Chinese family, usually not civic-minded, not sure if the snow will get cleared.

HALLELUJAH FOR WARMER WEATHER

 After a few weeks of freezing cold weather, Brooklyn NY and nearby area finally had some warmer weather.  Funny how 40 degree F is considered good weather.  It is all relative, I guess.  Maybe it is a sign of being older but I used to prefer cold weather.  I can dress for it, whereas when it was scorching hot, no matter how little clothes I wear I would still sweat profusely.  But not this winter.

First it snowed heavily.  As usual, unlike rain, snow just silently fell.  I like to shovel snow in layers so I did some in the morning.  Then another shovel job later on when it finally stopped.  Thanks to a huge tree and its expanded tree pit, my sidewalk is narrower than most of the block so I didn't have too much to do.  Being the civic-minded type, I cleared a path from the sidewalk out to the street.  Most people would just clear their sidewalks and would create snowbanks separating the sidewalk from the street.  People who want to cross the street would have to either climb over the snowbanks or go to the corner in hope of finding something more navigable.  I also cleared a path for my alley.  It's always good to have multiple exits from a house.

Next day, next task was to make sure the car can leave its parking spot.  I was fortunate enough to find a spot on the left side of the one-way street.  Department of Sanitation's plower always push snow to the right side, so the unfortunate cars that were parked on the right side ended up being locked in by tall snowbanks.  If you really need to get out, you would have to move quick and blast through those snowbanks, whether with professional help or lots of your own time and elbow grease.  Not in my case, but I still had much to do to make sure the car is useable, to get to work the next day.  The windshield obviously needed to be cleared of snow and ice, but a recent law in New York State required that the roof also be free of ice and snow.  It makes total sense, especially on highways.  You wouldn't want to be hit by a small avalanche of snow and ice that can temporarily blinds you or worse, like cracking your windshield.

I think overall the City did good with clearing the roads.  Not only the avenues were plowed, the side streets were too.  The challenge was in finding parking spots, which this year I was lucky and always managed to find a place to park after I came home from working in New Jersey.  Mind you the spots were not perfect, in that I had to spend an hour after parking to dig around the car as much as possible to ensure a smooth departure next day.  I didn't want to be late for work because I couldn't easily exit the parking spot.  I tried to be considerate but one night I had to park in the third spot of a three-car strip.  A car was already in the first spot, under normal circumstance I should park in the second spot, but there was a good chance someone would park behind me and I would have a difficult time getting out next day, because of all the snowbanks on the side of the road.  Somehow someone was able to take the second spot, it seemed the driver was able to backup into that spot.  All my worrying was not necessary.

Park, shovel, drive, rinse and repeat.  At long last, temperature reached 40+ degrees and while parking spots are not back to normal, i.e. there are still a few small hills of snow taking up precious parking spots, at least getting in and out of whatever available spot is not as difficult as it was just last week.  Well, tonight I did have to park at a meter spot and to my surprise even on Presidents Day, the big holiday about Presidents, the meter will need to be fed tomorrow.   I already have my alarm clock set to remind me to move the car before the meter goes into effect.

MEET-UP AT CASS 124 AVENUE O BROOKLYN NY

For a few years now, for my local Buy Nothing group, I help organize a regularly-scheduled free Swap Meet, or rather Meet-up, a physical event where people meet in the flesh, to give away items or take free items.  The group is fortunate to have the support of the local public library, Ulmer Park Branch of Brooklyn Public Library.  Because most of us work during the week and the library isn't open on Sundays, all the events so far are on Saturdays.  Some members, however, work Saturdays so they could rarely attend the event, unless they take the day off or not feeling well enough to work but can take a break from being out sick.

Through working with staff at Councilman William Colton, I was recently able to find a place that opens on Sunday which agreed to host us.  It's the Chinese American Social Service Center, or CASS, at 124 Avenue O.  It's a smaller place and not local to Bath Beach and Gravesend, but it's not far either.  Hopefully the usual crowd from the Buy Nothing group will attend, especially those who worked Saturdays.  Depends on how things go, maybe we will have it regularly, say, every other month.  We are already doing the library event every other month, CASS can fill in the gap.

Come attend the event!  Donate some portable, clean, unbroken stuff, take some, do both, or do neither, we are flexible.  Even better, come volunteer your time to help sort the donated items, to help keep things tidy, or to load stuff into the St. Mary's Church van that is scheduled for a 3 PMish pickup.

FAUX LFLs AND FOR-REAL ONES

Not too long ago, I discovered the Local feature on LibraryThing.com. You may recall that LibraryThing's primary use is for cataloguing one's book collection.  It has expanded into other areas.  With Local, you get a map of places in your area that offer books, whether for free, at a discount, or at the normal prices.  So you have Little Free Libraries and their kind, thrift stores, and bona fide bookstores, whether big chains or independent ones.  All in one big map!  I love adding the Little Free Libraries that I know about, plus similar places that are not registered with LFL, i.e. no charter number, or those with charter number but no longer listed in the official LFL web site.

It was fun for a while but in the end, I cannot stand the not-so-big map that LibraryThing Local offers.  It takes up about a third of the screen and cannot go full-screen.  It's a lot of zooming in and panning around.  I am taking a break from LibraryThing Local and already re-visited my Google Map called Little Free Libraries Faux and For Real.

I have been to many LFLs and similar places in Brooklyn and Staten Island, some areas in Carteret NJ and nearby townships, too.  However, since I will soon share the map with my local Buy Nothing group, for Bath Beach and Gravesend areas, I am focusing on Brooklyn for now.  There are more Brooklyn places to visit, but I will first finish posting what I already have.  Enjoy!

LFL FAUX AND FOR-REAL

GRAVEND LITTLE LIBRARY

 It is a cold and windy day, the type that one would be better off sitting in bed, covered with a blanket, the heat on, doing something enjoyable like reading a book.  That was my plan, at least to stay indoor as much as possible, but then I happened to look around the Little Free Library app and learned that there is a new one in my neighborhood.  It is called Gravesend Little Library and its charter number is 217085.  Until recently, 20abcd to me is considered new, but now it's 21abcd already.  Nice to see that people are opening new LFL and register them.  I know about dressing in layers but up until today I only do that for the upper body.  Today, I dressed in layers for the lower body, too, to make the short, but cold and windy, walk to Van Sicklen Street and Avenue V.  From the hint in the LFL app, I know it's near Gravesend Cemetery, but I could not find it at first.  Then it almost hit, it's attached to a utility pole!  I love the guerrilla tactic but not sure how long the utility company will allow it.  It was good to see that even though it is new it did have some books.  I added five books and didn't take any.  I signed in via the app too, First Customer, yay!

HAPPY JAR 2026

 At the beginning of 2025, I set out to resume blogging, to go side-by-side with a Happy Jar.  The Jar would have a note, with a few words to jog my memory, each note would be explained in more details on this blog.  Like many New Year Resolutions, it worked well for a few months, then the blog stopped getting updates.  No new notes in the Happy Jar either.  Still, as the year winds down, I see that at least I had 40 posts made in 2025.  That's a big jump from the previous years, whose number of posts were in the single digit.  A new year, a new hope, I will try again in 2026.  There are 52 weeks in a year, hitting 40 isn't such a bad thing.

In other news, I really love LibraryThing.com and expanded its use to my yearbooks collection for my high school, Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens NY.  The collection aims to catalog all the publications that my school produced over its 125+ existence.  Most of the entries are yearbooks, but I have a handful of literary magazines and other club magazines, too.  Take a gander at, change the catalog to that of Newtown Publications.  I love seeing all the covers and many have links in the Comment field to see the inside of the yearbook.

Qaptain Qwerty books on LibraryThing

One thing LibraryThing tells me is that over the years, I already spent over $1,000 on buying yearbooks.  Most are from eBay and Newtown itself, but AbeBooks and Amazon provided some.  A bunch were donations by generous alumni or teachers, thank you so much.  Still, I would like to get some financial support to keep the project going.  I turned to GoFundMe to make it easy for Newtown alumni to contribute to the project.  I already got $225.00 collected out of the initial $800, hope you can help me reach me goal!

Newtown HS Yearbooks Project

JHS 73 CLASS OF 1968

Lately I spend a lot of time with the alumni of Newtown High School of Elmhurst, Queens NY.  I am sure you saw the few posts about the Class of 1985's 40th Reunion, which came and went, with success, whew.  Before Newtown, I went to JHS 73 in Maspeth, Queens NY and I wrote some years ago about my time there.  Maybe it was just proper timing, the post was my most commented on, almost 150!

I recently received via email a link to a YouTube video.  The sender is from Class of 1968, which is almost 15 years before me.  I don't recognize any teachers, but the format of the yearbook is pretty much the same between 1968 and 1982.  Students are shown in group only, with a nickname each student themselves selected.

Enjoy!  Thank you, fantansam!

I NEED MY POPPY FIX

 Life sure is interesting.  I have this book, "The Poppy War" by R.F. Kuang, possibly from a bundle that I picked up from someone who moved away from my neighborhood.  She hated to throw them away and put in a free offer in the NextDoor app.  At least that's what I vaguely recall.  My intention was to re-distribute the books through my local Buy Nothing group or drop them off, a few at a time, at the many Little Free Libraries I visit every now and then.  For some reason, I set "The Poppy War" aside to read.  Maybe because I suspected it's about the Opium War that the West waged with China.  My late father used to commented that China lost the war because each soldier had two guns, one to shoot at the enemy and one to shoot drugs into their body.  Maybe I want to know a little more about China's history.  For months the book sat on a stack near the bed, waiting to be read.  Not long ago I saw some mention of the author R.F. Kuang.  I cannot even remember what the mention was, but it got me into starting to read the book.

At first, it seemed to be a chick lit, i.e. a piece of literature from a woman's point of view.  Not something a regular guy like me would be interested.  But once I start reading something I try much to finish it.  It seems to take place in China, because of the names, but there are other names that don't sound Chinese.  I stuck with it through the first few chapters.  Things got more interesting, some martial arts were involved, before I know it I was bringing it to work to read during lunch-break.  That's always a good sign.  Recently I finished it and discovered that it's merely Book One of a Trilogy.  Argh!  It turned out to be a popular series, Brooklyn Public Library has a long waiting list.  I will wait but I will explore other avenues.  Maybe some Little Free Library out there has it.  I know The Tom Lynch LFL in Staten Island has many books.  Maybe New York Public Library may have it.  NYPL covers Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island.  I commute through S.I. every weekday.  At one time, my Brooklyn library card was linked to NYPL so that I could borrow materials from NYPL.  Time to re-establish that link, assuming the option is still available, it's been a while.

Life is funny, eh?  One day a book was ignored, some time later its sequels are highly sought after.

AMAZING AMAZON DELIVERY, IN A BAD WAY

I used to live in a few places in Queens, NY so I belong to a few Facebook groups for those areas.  One common thread I see regularly involves mis-delivered packages, probably from Amazon since they are such a big deal nowadays.  There would be a photo of the lobby where the package was delivered to, but the recipient of the photo doesn't recognize the place.  I don't know how badly the mistake was made, maybe the street names are similar, maybe the house number was misread and some last digit wasn't seen.  I think in general some delivery people are just sloppy.  Don't give a dang about their job.  Under too much pressure to meet some quota so they just do the least amount of work, sometimes even less.  I once witnessed some UPS guy simply just dropped off the package and didn't ring any doorbell or knock on door.  One guy did yell "UPS", but that is only good if you are right by the door at the time.  The company is to blame, too, always squeezing more and more out of their slave workers.

This week it happened to my brother's package.  Around 6 PM, he was notified by email some package was delivered.  By 7 PM when I came home there was still nothing.  I walked to a few houses near mine, there were a few packages on the neighbors' porches but none had my brother's name.  I even went a block over because a few times I got packages and such meant for a house on that block, same house number.  No luck.  I told my brother to let Amazon know and hopefully they will send another package, no charge.  Strangely, he didn't even get a photo.  Was the delivery guy that lazy?  They told him to wait until 5 PM the next day.

The next day as I went off to work, early before the sun rose, there was a package on our porch, who knows since when.  It was the "missing" package.  I suppose it was mis-delivered to some house nearby but the neighbor was decent enough to drop it off at my house.  It is good to know there are still good people around.

FAKE SYSTEM ALERTS VIA WEB ADVERTISEMENT

 I was previewing this blog looking for typos and such when one advertisement caught my attention.  I cannot remember what it was but once I clicked it, the web browser put up a bunch of fake system alerts, with voice, claiming my computer was compromised.  That I should call some phone number and pay some exorbitant amount to get my system corrected.  You cannot just close the web browser, nothing in the web browser is responsive.  Luckily, I've seen this before, here's what you need to do if you ever get into this situation, at least on computers running Windows:

1. Press the three keys Ctrl , Alt , and Delete together
2. On the screen that appears, click Task Manager
3. In the Task Manager window, as shown below, select the web browser that's screaming foul.  In my case, it's Google Chrome
4. Click End Task.

The entire web browser will close.  When you re-open the browser, do not say Yes when asked if you want to re-open all the tabs, because doing so would re-open that offending web site again.

I am disgusted that Google would allow the ads to be placed in the first place.  I will try to complain to Google but with big corporations nowadays I have little faith anything will be done about it.  Maybe complaining about it openly in my blog will get their attention.  Or maybe they will shut me down, a la Jimmy Kimmel, ha ha ha, I am nowhere as influential as Mr. Kimmel, just a thought.

LIBRARYTHING

While I like to read books, I didn't own that many books.  Most of the books I already read were borrowed from public library.  Public library, a great use of taxpayers' money.  For the handful of books I owned at one time, years ago I used Delicious Library, a cataloging software for the Mac, to keep track of them.  Its interface is a book shelf, very elegant.  Perhaps because of some upgrade of the operating system, Delicious Library stopped working, along with many other software.  I hate it when Apple does that.  All of a sudden, a bunch of my software simply stopped working because they rely on codes that Apple decided to drop.

Not long ago, through the NextDoor app, I connected with an elderly woman who needed to gently dispose of her book collection.  She could have just dumped them, but she hated to see books go to waste.  Over a few trips, I brought a large chunk of her collection home.  All of a sudden, I have a lot of books to catalog!  Recently, by chance, in a Facebook group for supporters of Little Free Libraries, I learned about LibraryThing.  A free app for the iPhone, also accessible via a browser.  I don't mind paying for software I really like but the trend of forcing the subscription model stinks.  I get it that developers need money too, months after months, but I don't want to pay for something continuously just to be able to use it.  LibraryThing is great!  Free is good!

Here is a snapshot of what I currently have cataloged:

There are only twenty-four books in my catalog at the moment.  I definitely didn't spend enough time with LibraryThing.  But it got me to complete reading a few.  It's nice to go into the app and add a Completed Reading Date.  The scanning feature is great, but for some reason not all books are in whatever reference database that they use.  For example, the Star Trek book had to be entered manually via its ISBN number.  One minor quibble I have about the software is that when you edit a book, say, to indicate when you finished or started reading it, the Save button appears at the top of the Edit screen but as you scroll to find the field you want to edit, the Save button rolls out of view.  The Close button, however, remains visible the whole time.  A few times, I made the change, but mistakenly tap the Close button instead.  The program gladly close and didn't ask for confirmation that the change(s) was to be abandoned!  Overall it's a good program with a very good price.

GEEK OUT: ACROBAT READER WITHOUT THE SALES PITCH

 PDF is a good portable format and by default Adobe Acrobat Reader is the tool to read PDF files.  Unfortunately, Adobe has ruined the experience by constantly pushing for the purchase of Adobe Acrobat Pro or similar, to allow the users to edit, combine, make changes to PDF files.  Most users are perfectly happy with the reader, at most they need to fill out some forms or sign the document, things the reader fully capable of doing.  Thanks to the following articles, the PDF experience can be made not so unpleasant.

Disable New Interface

Disable Upsell

Hide Tools

The first one is simplest, as it involves using the Acrobat Reader menu.  Just pick the menu item as indicated and you see fewer upsell stuff.

The second link involves adding a key to the registry.  You may need to use an admin account to do it.  As all things with the registry, proceed with caution.  Once you have it done, no more "Try Acrobat Pro!" or such hawking!

The third one involves creating a folder in a critcal spot and moving three files into said folder.  It really provides a clean interface, without all the tools that do not work fully but are constantly shoved into your face.

GEEK OUT: WINDOWS 11 START MENU PINNED ITEMS

 

By default, Windows 11's Pinned Items, shown above in the Start Menu looks very busy.  The items got there because Microsoft thought they would be useful, or whatever.  You don't have to live with it.  I prefer a cleaner list of Pinned Items.  I am just trying to get some work done, I don't need to look at an airplane cockpit full of buttons.  I would remove the icons that I don't need and end up with something like this:

Now it is a lot cleaner, simpler.  But what if I have a bunch of computers to setup and want them all to have the same list of Pinned Items.  Just the useful stuff, nothing to distract the users.  That's where an article like

Backup and Restore Pinned Items on Start Menu in Windows 11

comes in handy.  Technically, when I apply the tip in the article it is not backing up but rather copying settings from one machine to another.  On computer #1, just remove icons to your heart's content, save the file in some place, move on to the computer #2 and replace the file in the same location, done!  Onward to computer #3 etc.  In my case, the file is called start2.bin, so don't follow the article to a tee.  Windows changes all the time, use the article as a guide.

FAUX LFL RE-SURFACED

 According to my son, my faux little free library went out of commission in April this year.  I cannot seem to remember these little things.  It was held up by two keyring hooks attached to an I.V. pole.  My Mother one time had a nurse come to the house to administer some fluid injection and when the work was done we were left with two I.V. poles, one of which became the support for my faux lfl.  I think one time I had too many books in the milk crate and the wind was strong, the hooks, or at least one, got twisted out of shape.  Somehow I never have the time to fix it, until recently, some four months later.  This time I use zip ties and so far the lfl is holding up.  Come patronize, take a book, share a book.  On Bay 40th Street in Brooklyn NY, near 86th Street.  I still have the cello-shaped magazine rack that also serves as an lfl.  It is chained to the fence with a lock but this past weekend I found it laying face down, luckily still chained.  Someone either wanted to take it for their use, or just want a piece of metal to sell to some junkyard.  Sad, that is why we cannot have nice things.

NHS '85 40TH REUNION - SEPT 4 DEADLINE

The 40th Reunion of Class of 1985 at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens NY now has a deadline of September 4, 2025.  That's one month ahead of the actual reunion date of October 4, 2025.  The event will be at the Marriott LaGuardia Airport, 7 P.M. to midnight.  Payment of $150 per person is to be done through BillHighway.com .  Contact me at linusly@mac.com to have your BillHighway account created.  I believe we already reached all interested parties and some are just waiting for a deadline to act, so now you have the deadline.  Event is open to all 1980s so bring friends and families!

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

I used to carry a small pouch to hold coins.  One after another became unuseable so after a while I don't carry coins any more.  But I get coins when I pay for things with cash.  Slowly the coins built up.  I thought of using one of those coin machines but they charge a fee.  Or you get a gift card but it's not the same as cash.  When you buy something, your money is already de-valued.  My son came up with the wonderful idea of paying for train rides with coins.  In New York City, subway and buses take MetroCard, a thin plastic that one swipes at the turnstile to get into the transit system.  I normally pay for it with a credit card, occasionally with bills, but never thought of using coins.  I recently put the idea to work, even though it was for the MetroCard's replacement, OMNY card, comes January 1, 2026.  It was a bit of a hassle, but I was able to spend $3.00+ to get an OMNY card.  It costs $1.00 to get the card, probably just to discourage people from just throwing empty ones away.  Yeah, humans suck, that's why we cannot have nice things.  I recall when the MetroCard didn't cost $1.00 to buy, spent ones were littered all over the subway station.  Anyway, back to the OMNY card, the coins had to be dropped just right in order for them to be registered.  If not done right, they travel down some separate path and come out in the tray where the cards would come out.  Still, it's the best way to use coins.

HAVING ECLAIRS AND VERY SHY

The ColdPlay couple, there are so many re-enactments but the audio stayed the same.  Over and over I heard "They either are having an affair or they are very shy..."  My punny mind twisted it to say "They are having eclairs and they are very shy" and came up with the drawing.  By hand, on a dry-erase board.  Not a work of AI, which I poked fun at by drawing extra arms on the people in the picture.  Maybe AI will be perfect in the future but for now it cannot handle fingers and appendages.  Most humans have only  five fingers, two arms, and two legs, but AI often gives them extra fingers, or longish fingers, or feet where hands should be.

I LOVE ICE

Tuesday, July 15, 2025, new fridge arrived and installed.  While my early childhood took place in some small town in Saigon, without luxuries like refrigerator, I don't remember much of that.  I do remember living on the third floor of a big building, with a refrigerator.  What a luxury!  Ever since living in the U.S., I appreciate refrigerators even more.  I just love cold drinks.  For a few years, my anemia caused me to have nasty bouts of sneezing whenever I didn't have enough sleep.  The day would start with frequent sneezes then by the end of the day the headache would come.  I just had to drop everything and go straight to bed, then the next day I was good again.  Tried a few doctors, one was a Chinese herbal doctor and he told me I would have to give up drinking cold stuff.  Good thing I decided to get to do more physical exercises, namely long-distance running, and continued to drink cold stuff.  What a sacrifice in life that would be, no cold drinks.  When the previous refrigerator was installed, we decided not to bother to have ice made.  Drinks were still cold, if left in the fridge long enough, but at times I sorely missed having ice ready made.  With the new fridge, I made sure they hooked up the water hose, voila, ice available all the time.  After the few days without a decent fridge, I love my ice.  Yes, the real ice, not those January 6th thugs who go around kidnapping people, no accountability, probably already promised by King Rump that whatever they do they would be pardoned again.  Go, South Park!

A FRIDGE TOO WARM

Thursday July 10th, almost end of the work day, Wife texted me if I did anything to the fridge in the kitchen.  The freezer stopped working!  I cannot remember why I wanted to do it, but I thought about moving the fridge out enough to get to the back and Swiff it.  Clean it, gather up some dust.  Not long ago Wife started stacking these plastic boxes bought from Temu or such to better organize things but I think they choke the fridge.  There just isn't enough circulation of air.  Thought I did but didn't do anything, that's why Wife asked, maybe to blame me for somehow killing the freezer.  The time has come, but alas Swiffing didn't do much.  There were some grills so I used a hand vacuum to pull out dirt bunnies.  Using a vacuum designed specifically for computer keyboards got some more bunnies, but nothing changed.  I cannot recall the exact sequence of events, but I think I unplugged the unit, unscrewed the cover, there is so much dust to remove.  Over fifteen years, the fridge was not cleaned once.  Note to self: treat the next fridge better.  Once a year it should be cleaned.  For this current fridge, while much dust was removed from the fan and it started to spin again, nothing changed.  Maybe the compressor is dead.  Sadly, it costs too much to repair, so fifteen years is a good run, we will shop for a new one on the weekend.

EARN IT OFF

I don't care much about the Apple Watch but I recently discovered that my health insurance, UnitedHealth, offers a rewards program that can get me a free Watch.  Up to $300, that is.  You need to install the UnitedHealth app and let it connect to a tracker app, such as Apple's built-in Health program, so that UH can track the number of steps you make in a given day, how many hours of sleep you have, etc.  You earn a few dollars here, 50 cents there, take a health survey, participate in some weekly challenges, basically doing healthy stuff.  Ideally, you do enough to earn $20+ a month, but if you don't then the difference will be charged to your credit card and the "free" Apple Watch isn't free any more.  So far, for the first month I have a few extra dollars earned.  They will help me pay off the watch sooner than July 2026.  Here's to healthier living!