A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Image Credit: © 2014 Lenovo via Amazon  Hi there, Dear Reader. I know, I know; I haven't posted here in a while, but I have been busy on the WordPress version of this blog, and I don't always have either the time or the energy to work on both blogs. But, hey, I'm back to writing the 1,389th post for A Certain Point of View. As you can guess from the headline, this is a quick update to inform you that the computer I used to write most of the posts on this blog from April 2016 to January of this year is, sadly, no longer operational. It was working fine on Saturday morning when I booted it up, and it was running without any issues when I closed it down for a bit so I could watch a few episodes of 2019's Chernobyl.  However, when I tried to boot my Lenovo C560 "all-in-one" so I could game for a bit, it did not power up. At all. It was deathly still, with not a flicker from the monitor or a whir from its cooling fan.   I already wrote a more complete account of th...

  Hello, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. The current temperature is 88 ˚ F (31 ˚ C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 56% and the wind blowing from the east-southeast at 7 MPH (11 KM/H), the heat index is 96 ˚ F (36 ˚ C). This afternoon we can expect thunderstorms to pass through the area; the high will be 91 ˚ F (33 ˚C) . Tonight, scattered showers will occur, and the low will be 74 ˚ F (23 ˚ C). The Air Quality Index (AQI) is 38 or Good . Well, where to begin? For starters, I have what seems to be a garden variety summer cold, so I am not exactly at my tip-top best right now. I’ve had a low-grade but persistent headache, intermittent sneezing fits, a nose that alternates between an uncomfortable stuffiness and an icky, disgusting runniness, and occasional (but mild) fits of coughing. I’ve had worse respiratory ailments, to be sure, but this is the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out early last y...

Look! My new laptop! (Photo by the author) Hi there, Dear Reader. Just a quick update to let you know that the Odyssey of the Wayward Laptop is over. Yesterday, Best Buy handed the replacement of my lost   Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop over to UPS, which then shipped it to Louisville, Kentucky in the afternoon, then – apparently – flew it from there to Jacksonville, Florida. This morning, the   Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop was sent to Lakeland, Florida, which is roughly 25 miles away from here. There, at 9:36 AM Eastern, it was placed on a UPS truck and marked Out for Delivery. Sometime after 3 PM Eastern, it arrived here, along with the 2018 Jurassic World Five-Movie 4K UHD/2K Blu-ray set with all five currently-extant films in the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World series. It’s late (10:27 PM Eastern) and I’m tired, so I’m going to close for now. I just wanted to let you know that I received my new laptop (even though UPS has not explained why the...

   "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." – Murphy’s Law Hi, everybody, how are you all doing? It’s early afternoon here in West Florida on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Currently, the temperature outside is 90 ˚ F (32 ˚ C) under sunny skies. With the wind blowing from the west at 13 MPH (18 KM/H) and humidity at 55%, the heat index is a whopping 97 ˚ F (35 ˚ C).   Today we were supposed to get light rain, and we still might, but as of right now all we are getting is broiling sun and heat. The high is expected to reach 91 ˚ F (33 ˚ C) by 3 PM Eastern. Tonight, the skies will be partly cloudy and the low will be 71 ˚ F (22 ˚ C). I’m writing this as an update to May 3’s Update from New Hometown post. That’s the one where I mentioned the purchase of a new Lenovo – IdeaPad S340 15″ Touch-Screen Laptop. If you recall, I wrote: Apparently, Best Buy does not have any laptops of my model in stores close to New Hometown, so my new  Lenovo IdeaPad S340 15" Touch-Screen L...

  Photo Credit: Lenovo, via BestBuy.com  It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida on Monday, May 3, 2021. Outside, it is a hot, almost summery day; the temperature is 92 ˚ F under sunny skies, but the heat index is 98 ˚ F and the light rain promised in the forecast for our area is nowhere in evidence. The afternoon is still young, though, so maybe we’ll see a few showers and a blissful bit of a cooldown later. Well, the trusty Compaq laptop that I bought – somewhat presciently – in 2009 and used to write many of the pre-2016 posts I wrote at my old house in Miami “died” on Saturday of old age and because it was running on an operating system (Windows Vista Home Edition) that Microsoft no longer supports. (Official mainstream support for Vista ended on  April 10, 2012 , and extended support ended on  April 11, 2017 )   I was able to use my old Compaq on safe mode for a little while late last month; I recovered several drafts of reviews I wrote for E...

Image by  John Hain  from  Pixabay  Hello, Dear Reader. As I start writing this, it's almost 9 AM Eastern in what I'll call New Hometown, Florida (as opposed to Miami, which is where I lived when I started this blog a decade ago). Right now the temperature is 77℉ (25℃) under mostly sunny skies. With a south-southwesterly breeze blowing at 5 MPH (9 KM/H) and humidity at 93%, the feels-like temperature is also 77℉ (25℃). Today's forecast calls for a high of 87℉ (30℃) and scattered showers throughout the day.  I'm sorry that I have not written here since September 29, but as you know, there are several reasons why I have been relatively slow in creating content for A Certain Point of View. First, as you know, Facebook blocked this blog in late March because some Trump supporter (or supporters) didn't like what I was writing about their beloved Donald Trump (aka Mango Mussolini or Orange Caligula). This forced me to create a "sister blog" over on WordPress — A...

  Image by  My pictures are CC0. When doing composting:  from  Pixabay   Hi, there. Well, here we are on Tuesday, September 29, 2020. It’s mid-afternoon here as I write this; I’m composing this blog post during my enforced “airplane mode” period, so by the time you read this it will be late afternoon in my small, depressing, and lonely corner of Florida. As you can guess from the post’s title, it’s a gloomy, rainy early autumn day here. According to the weather app on my smartphone, the current conditions indicate a light but steady rain, and the temperature is 77 ˚ F. With humidity at 93% and the wind blowing from the southwest at 11 MPH, the feels-like temperature is 77 ˚ F. I have lived all of my life in places where it rains heavily at this time of year. Mostly the Miami area, but I have lived for extended periods in Bogota, which tends to be rainy and chilly at least during the local wet season. I also spent three months, or almost three months, in ...

  Bloggin’ On: Thoughts Upon a Late September Sunday in 2020   Image by AbsolutVision Hi there, Dear Reader. I’m sorry that I have not been as active here as I used to be; writing material for A Certain Point of View, Too is consuming much of my writing time, and it is not often enough that I can create content for two blogs in one day. If a Trump supporter had not gotten bent out of shape over some of my more vocal political posts that I shared on Facebook back in March, I wouldn’t have needed to create a “sister blog” on WordPress and we’d be well past the 1,355-posts mark by now. Indeed, just getting to the 1,355-posts mark has been a struggle for me: I don’t really want to repeat myself on two blogs by creating semi-duplicate content on a daily basis, and sometimes I am just so tired of sitting at my desk and staring at a computer screen all day that I. Simply. Can’t. Write. For. Two. Blogs. On. The. Same. Day. My old neighborhood in South Florida. It's probably hot ...

Today is Sunday, May 10, 2020. As I start this blog post, it's almost 3:30 PM in my corner of Florida. It's a warm afternoon ﹘ 81℉ (27℃) under partly sunny skies ﹘ and it looks like it might rain. Of course, this is immaterial; ever since I left Miami and moved here I rarely ever go for walks or do anything outdoorsy, so the weather only affects me if there are thunderstorms or severe cold snaps. Right now, according to the forecast, we are experiencing the high for the day; at night the temperature is expected to drop to 65℉ (18℃). In a few weeks, if Florida weather sticks to its normal patterns, the days will be increasingly hotter, stickier, and less pleasant. Today is also Mother's Day, the 10th occurrence of the occasion since Mom got sick in 2009/2010 and the fifth since she died. My older half-sister Victoria and I managed to "celebrate" the day with our Mom for the last time in 2015 ﹘ she died a little over two months later, on July 19, 2015 ﹘ and eve...

Photo Illustration: Pixabay Hi, there, Constant Reader. Well, it's Saturday, May 2, and it's late morning here in my corner of Florida. The current temperature is 71℉ (22℃) under mostly sunny skies. Looking at the forecast, it looks like it's going to be a warm, sunny day, with temperatures expected to reach a high of 84℉ (29℃), dropping at night to a low of 63℉ (17℃). No rain is expected to fall in our area today. Well, here we are in the fifth month of 2020, and we Floridians are still hunkering down in our homes due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Sadly, the Sunshine State is governed (for lack of a better word) by the Republican Party, and our governor, Ron DeSantis is a Donald Trump loyalist who is rarin' to reopen the state for business ASAP. This is not an attitude unique to our state; other Southern (and Republican-dominated) states like Tennessee and Georgia are reopening some businesses, although this is pretty much asking for trouble, as ...

A view of man-made East Wind Lake, taken before I moved out of my former home in 2016. Photo Credit: © 2015 Alex Diaz-Granados (own work)  Hi there, Dear Reader, and welcome once more to Bloggin' On, the feature section where I take off my hats of product reviewer and/or political commentator and just talk about things that are on my mind. It's early morning on Monday, December 30, 2019, at least in my corner of Florida, and the sky is beginning to lighten as the sun rises ever so steadily over the horizon. Outside, the temperature is 71℉ (22℃) under cloudy skies; per the forecast on my PC's weather app, the high temperature is expected to reach 76℉ (25℃), it will remain mostly cloudy, and we may even see some rain. I haven't watched any weather updates on TV today, but just by looking at the forecast trends on my computer, it looks as though a weak cold front is passing through, as the high for tomorrow is only expected to reach 65℉ (19℃). Tomorrow, of cours...

Hi, there, Constant Reader. Today is Monday, December 23, 2019, and it's a cool but sunny winter morning in my corner of Florida. Right now the temperature is 65℉ (18℃) under mostly sunny skies; the forecast high is expected to reach 69℉ (21℃) and rain is expected to affect the area in the evening hours. I had hoped to report that I watched Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on Opening Day (Friday), or at the least on Opening Weekend, but I've been confined to the house by the flu (or a very bad cold) since last Monday. My significant other caught a respiratory bug from a co-worker, and in turn two of us here have caught that bug from her. I'm over the worst of it and no longer have a headache or a low-grade fever, but I still have a nagging dry cough that comes and goes at random. This, of course, has put the kibosh on any plans related to going to public venues; I don't want to bother any other moviegoers with my hacking and wheezing, and I definitely do not want to...