Videos

Good evening all. I will be posting different videos throughout the week now. Just ones I like and interesting ones. Nothing in particular or in any order. If you like fine, if not no big deal. Leave a comment if you feel like it, let me know what other ones you want to see or don't want to see. Have a good week.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Thrift Shop Ft. Wanz (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Alter Bridge - Blackbird

Black Stone Cherry - Things My Father Said [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Kids

What do you all think of this? Agree or disagree? I think kids do need to be coachable but not to tough on them to where it discourages them from participating in the sport or event that they are wanting to participate in. What do you think?

YouTube shortcuts

Solve YouTube’s “Spacebar Problem” with These Keyboard Shortcuts

Does this sound familiar? You start to watch a video on YouTube, and want to pause it. So you press the spacebar on your keyboard, but rather than pause the video, you randomly jump down the page instead.

If you’re like me, then you probably find this thoroughly aggravating. As it turns out, YouTube has its own keyboard shortcuts that solve this problem–albeit a little messily. But let’s start by talking about that annoying spacebar.

Why Does Pressing the Spacebar Jump Down the Page?

You’ve essentially been programmed to use the spacebar through a gradual and likely accidental form of Behavioral Engineering. Most, if not all, media players available today, including video streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, utilize the spacebar as the shortcut for playing and pausing media. It’s hard to tell where this started, but in my research, I found references to both RealPlayer and QuickTime as far back as 2001. During that time, other media players were using Ctrl+P as the method to control this function but eventually practically all media players adopted the spacebar convention.

Like other media players, YouTube also allows you to press the spacebar for play/pause, because that’s what everyone else does. There’s one catch, though: pressing spacebar only pauses when the player is focused or in Full Screen.

If the player isn’t in focus, it’ll use your browser’s default spacebar behavior: scrolling down the page. Why do browsers use the spacebar as a standard shortcut for page scrolling rather than just using the arrow keys? Your guess is as good as mine, but it’s a standard shortcut in nearly all browsers. YouTube is just respecting it.

Thankfully, you should never have to use spacebar to control YouTube: it has its own special keyboard shortcuts built-in.

YouTube’s Different Modes: Page Focused, Player Focused, and Full Screen

Here’s where things get messy: YouTube uses different shortcuts depending on how you’ve interacted with the page. YouTube essentially has three “modes”: Page Focused mode (1) is when you are watching a video on YouTube but you have not directly interacted with the video player. Player Focused mode (2) becomes enabled when you click one of the controls on the player. As you’d expect, Full Screen mode (3) is activated when you full screen the video.

Page Focused mode is the most limited mode for shortcuts, as to not interfere with normal browser controls. (That’s why spacebar jumps down the page instead of pausing the video). Full Screen mode and Player Focused mode can utilize YouTube’s full range of shortcuts.

Unfortunately, YouTube doesn’t make it easy to discover the various shortcuts, or even indicate which mode you’re in. But we have you covered.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Page Focused Mode

If you’re watching a video but haven’t interacted with the player itself yet, the following keyboard shortcuts are available to you:

Shortcut	Action
K	Play & Pause (toggle)
J	Rewind 10 seconds
L	Fast forward 10 seconds
M	Mute audio
F	Full Screen (toggle)
>	Increase playback speed
<	Decrease playback speed
Shift+N	Next video in the playlist
Shift+P	Previous video in the playlist

Keyboard Shortcuts for Player Focused and Full Screen Modes

If you’ve interacted with the video player or full-screened your video, you’ll be able to utilize a larger set of shortcuts, including all of the Page Focused mode shortcuts:

Shortcut	Action
K or Spacebar	Play & Pause (toggle)
J	Rewind 10 seconds
L	Just forward 10 seconds
M	Mute audio
F	Full Screen (toggle)
>	Increase playback speed
<	Decrease playback speed
Shift+N	Next video in the playlist
Shift+P	Previous video in the playlist
Left Arrow key	Rewind 5 seconds
Right Arrow key	Jump forward 5 seconds
Up Arrow key	Increase Volume (by 5%)
Down Arrow key	Decrease Volume (by 5%)
C	Closed Captioning / Subtitles (toggle)
B	Changes the visual elements of the Closed Captioning text. (repeat to explore all the available options)
+ or =	Increase the Closed Captioning font size (only available in Blink-based and Webkit-based browsers)
– or _	Decrease the Closed Captioning font size (only available in Blink-based and Webkit-based browsers)
Escape or F	Exit full screen mode
Home or 0	Jump to the beginning of the video
End	Jump to the end of the video
1	Jump to position, 10% of the video
2	Jump to position, 20% of the video
3	Jump to position, 30% of the video
4	Jump to position, 40% of the video
5	Jump to position, 50% of the video
6	Jump to position, 60% of the video
7	Jump to position, 70% of the video
8	Jump to position, 80% of the video
9	Jump to position, 90% of the video

These keyboard shortcuts should give you some relief to the frustrations of video playback on YouTube and in some ways might make YouTube viewing more enjoyable.

Let me know if this is useful to you or not.

Movie Reviews

Good morning all, so today I am going to post a link to my movie reviews. Granted these are all older movies now but I will be posting new ones as I see them. I am going to start my video reviews again to make sure that people get my opinion on the movies that are current. I love to see movies and although I am not a professional critic or anything of that nature I do have an "average Joe's" opinion and therefore would like to share that with the everyday movie going person. Plus its my opinion so you all can take it or leave it. That's the beauty of an opinion. Its just my thoughts on it. So without further adieu, click the link below to get my reviews. Hope you have a good Monday.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCvodBMiEz2Sxo9I_ilgl1g

Concert - TobyMac

The first act was Hollyn. Now understand she is a new artist. She only performed 2 songs, one of hers was her own and the second was one of her friends. Her performance was good though, not great but it was good. I tried to get a decent pic but the lights shining on her were a little much for my phone camera.

Next was Colton Dixon. His band was great and honestly the top 2 or 3 of the night. He performed 5 songs. They were all his hits. He is a good performer and had the crowd rockin. He also came out later on and performed a song with TobyMac. I liked his performance. Of course the stage was small for the band. It seemed like they were squashed in. Of course with a sold out show, about 8000 people, it was a great performance.

Then it was Capital Kings turn. They are not a band but instead they are a couple of DJ's. Their name comes from Washington, where they are from. They are very hyper and active dancers. Their performance was good as well but they performed 5 songs that were not full length. They were quick versions. Either way I like the songs they did sing and their beats were kickin...

Building 429 was next up on the list. There performance was in the top 3 as well. To me it was between Toby, Colton and Bldg 429. These guys had the crowd going crazy. Apparently they have been together for 16+ years. They did one song performance that was pretty good. They turned out the lights in the building and had everyone turn their cell phones on with the flashlights. It was surreal just looking around in the sold out Forum and seeing all the lights. They did 6 total songs.

Then it was Finding Favour's turn. They were up close while the main stage was getting ready for the next performer. So FF did 4 songs even though they have a bigger selection. My guess is that they arranged the artists so the stage crews could rearrange the stage for each act. Hollyn, Capital Kings and FF were all forward while everyone else was on the main stage. Either was they had a decent performance and had the crowd standing. 

Next up was Britt Nicole. She just had a baby and was out on tour with the blessing of her husband and two children. She is very energetic and the only one that had dancers with her. She performed 6 songs. 4 of her own and 2 new ones from her upcoming album. I was far away but she looked a lot younger than her age and she is a good performer.

Finally, the main event...TobyMac himself. He performed a lot of songs as expected. We had a break between Britt and Toby's performance. About 30 minutes worth, which was actually a good thing. It gave everyone a chance to go to the restroom and get some snacks. Up to this point the concert was 2.5 hours and now the main event was sure to take the night up till 11p. I did not know this but Toby was one of the members of DC Talk. The first Christian rap group. They are all doing their own solo careers right now but the group itself has never been officially disbanded. Anyway TobyMac's performance was on point. He had the crowd going crazy. Everyone was enjoying the show. If you ever get a chance. Go see this concert. Enjoy!

Dinner - Hopdoddys

The evening started with lunch/dinner at a new place called Hopdoddy. I had never heard of it before. Its a burger restaurant that opened in a new area called The Point in El Segundo, CA. Its a trendy, open air type mall. 

This is not your run of the mill type burger joint. The burgers themselves are a mix of various cultures but they are delicious! The have Bison, Angus and other types of meat. They are thick cut and cooked to your liking i.e. rare, well, medium, etc... Each one is served on a trey with a paper napkin type covering along with a knife and fork. I got one called the Llano Poblano.  It was very good. The bacon was thick cut and the whole burger was cooked exactly the way I wanted it. Juices flowed out the back of each delectable bite. They have a full service bar to go with the meal as well and the waiter staff was very friendly and helpful. I also got some Parmesan truffle cheese fries with the burger. They were good as well although I think they got the bottom of the barrel so to speak with them as most of them were small, either way they were good. 

I do recommend this place. Its a little more expensive but for a gourmet burger place its worth it. Has anyone else been there? If so let me know what you think.

RTS - Random Thought Saturday

So today I was thinking...I'm going to the Toby Mac concert tonight and its sold out. That means, depending on the configuration of the arena that there will be at least 7K to 15K people there tonight. Of course what comes to mind is getting there early enough because of all the traffic. Now anyone that lives in a major city knows that traffic is and can be a huge pain in the butt. People driving fast, slow, crazy, and like they have no clue what so ever. So whats my point you ask? My point is this...do people actually know what they lanes are for? Do the drivers out there pay attention to what is going on around them or just what is immediately in front of them. What I'm saying is that the left lane of the highway is for passing and those that are going fast. Yet drivers push there way into the left lane and then just hit cruise, therefore making everyone go around them if possible or holding up traffic because they don't want to go any quicker. Why don't they just go into one of the other lanes, like the cruising lane, instead of sitting in the passing lane slowing down others. Then when the highway is fairly clear those that are sitting in the left lane will not move out of the way for those that are going faster. They just sit there in their own world. Do they ever look in their rear view mirrors at all? I wonder because if someone comes up on them they don't do a thing. Then when they get passed they start looking around as if they did not know anyone else was there. It just baffles my mind. Sometimes people are in a hurry for some reason or another, instead of causing problems or possible problems just move out of the way and let them by. Is it going to kill you to move for the few seconds it will take for the other vehicle to pass you? 

I have a lot more to say on this but I will end it here. Let me know what you all think? Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!

Movie Review - Captive

Today's movie is Captive. It is based on a true story. The movie is about an escaped convict who comes to terms with God through the girl that he takes hostage in her own home. Neither of them are true believers to start but during the course of the ordeal and movie they start to see things differently, turn things around slowly. That is the power of God working through those that He has called. If you get a chance go see it. Its a good movie.

Cell Phones

http://www.knowyourmobile.com/mobile-phones/apple-iphone-6c/23153/iphone-7-release-date-specs-features-iOS-10-iphone-5se

So we know that there is a battle between the iPhone and Galaxy. Both version 7's will be coming out soon. Which one do you think will be better, which do you prefer?

I have had the Galaxy S5 and S6 so far and am happy with them. I know people are or at least seem to be loyal to their brand of phone that they have used since they came out. Have any of you switched phones to try out different ones before? 

Movie Review - Risen

My movie review for today is Risen. Some didn't like this movie, which is fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion correct? Anyway I liked the movie. It follows the story of a Roman soldier at the start of Jesus's death on the cross, the time during His burial and the days after He rose from the dead. I have read the reviews on it and one thing most of the "experts" say is that this one is more historically accurate from the Bible then most faith based films. I would tend to agree with them on that point. It follows Luke's account of his death and resurrection. So needless to say I did like this movie, yes its devoid of any real action, although it does open up with a fighting scene, but its a movie that I think can teach or at the very least get you curious about what really happened. What do you think?

Waze App

London Has Fallen’s Morgan Freeman is now the voice of Waze. It’s the best reason to need directions.

I don't know how many of you use the Waze app but for direction around any city, I have found its the best one. Granted it does take you through places you might not know but to get there in the quickest amount of time with the best directions. This is it. It utilizes inputs from users to know when and where trouble spots are such as construction, traffic jams, bad weather, etc... With this knowledge it plots out the best course for you to take. 

Also if you are meeting someone at a certain place and you are both using Waze you can broadcast to each other where your at and what your ETA (estimated time of arrival) is at your destination. Give it a try, I think you will like it.

PC Blues

If your PC has been feeling buggy or having trouble during startup, it’s possible that Windows system files have become corrupt, gone missing, or even have been changed by a software installation somewhere along the line. Like most versions of Windows before it, Windows 10 includes a Command Prompt utility named Windows Resource Protection that will scan, verify, and fix system files.

If your system is able to start, even in Safe Mode, you can run the utility right from Windows. If Windows won’t start, you can also run it from the Command Prompt available when you boot from your installation media into repair mode.

To run this utility in Windows, you will need to open the Command Prompt in administrator mode. Right-click on the Start menu or press Windows+X on your keyboard, and choose “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the Administrative Tools menu. You can also just use this nifty keyboard shortcut.

When you have the Command Prompt open in administrator mode, you can run the utility by using the following syntax:

SFC [/SCANNOW] [/VERIFYONLY] [/SCANFILE=<file>] [/VERIFYFILE=<file>]
[/OFFWINDIR=<offline windows directory> /OFFBOOTDIR=<offline boot directory>]

The most useful option is just to scan the whole system immediately, which will scan and attempt to repair any files that are changed or corrupted. You can do that with this command:

sfc /scannow

Alternatively, you can use the command sfc /verifyonly to scan for problems, but not perform any repairs.

You can also just scan or verify a particular file using the /scanfile=<file> or /verifyfile=<file> options along with the full path of the target file, like this:

sfc /scanfile=c:\windows\system32\kernel32.dll

As we mentioned, this utility does exist for previous versions of Windows, but you may encounter slightly different options. You can always use the command sfc /? to get all supported options for your version of Windows. And just in case you’re wondering why Windows Resource Protection uses the command SFC, it’s because the utility used to be named System File Checker.

I dont know about you all but I know sometimes my computer get little bugs in it. So tell me, do you think this article is helpful or not? 

Disney Parks

https://plus.google.com/107030833754563499016/posts/gkHnDy4Fi8m

Above is a link to an article on some secrets of the Disney Parks. Now I know I used to love to go to the parks all the time. Now that Im older though I dont have much time to go or the money as the prices have gone up so much the past few years. Still when the new Star Wars land is completed, you know I will be there. So tell me, do you or did you like going to the parks? 

They have always been a fun time for me and an escape to my childhood days I guess you can say. The rides are not all as great as say...Six Flags but, they are still good and timeless. I can't wait to go back and escape from the everyday work life again.

I remember going as an adult with friends and/or family. After we park I would always jet off to get to the tram to go into the park. I always got dirty looks from them because I would leave them behind basically. I had to stop and wait for them because they took their time to get going. That's OK the days and times spent there were always fun. 

I could never have a bad day at the Happiest Place on Earth. That brings up another question, which is better; Disneyland, California or Disney World, Florida. Let me know what you think.

Airline Tickets

Finally, there’s a scientific answer to that magic number of days before a flight when tickets are at their cheapest.

The answer? Are you ready? Are you reeeally ready?

Fifty-four days before takeoff is, on average, when domestic airline tickets are at their absolute lowest price. And if you don’t hit 54 days on the head, you should usually book between 112 to 21 days before your trip -- within the “prime booking window” -- for the lowest possible prices. In this window, ticket prices typically hover near the lowest price they’ll ever reach.

At least that’s what the data from 2015 tells us.

The folks at CheapAir spent the last year analyzing about three million airline trips. They tracked ticket prices from about 320 days before takeoff all the way up until the day before, calculating precisely which day each one hit its lowest point.

Air travelers tend to believe they’ll find the lowest of low prices when they book “at the last minute.” This, according to all present data, is one hundred percent false.

The researchers found that, on average, a ticket cost about $200 more when booked within 7 days of departure, compared to tickets booked in the "prime window." Those who bought tickets between 7 and 13 days before departure paid about $75 more.

This pretty much solidifies the rule that you should avoid booking your ticket within two weeks of a flight. WOMP.

While the researchers found that 54 days was indeed the magic number for booking on average, they’re quick to point out that this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule: your flight’s “best price” window depends a lot on the specific trip you’re taking.

If you’re going somewhere incredibly popular at an incredibly popular time -- like spring break in Florida, for example -- you should book well before the “prime booking window” even begins. When there’s constant, strong demand for a flight,the researchers explain, airlines have no incentive to lower ticket prices as time goes on. The same principle holds true for flights to hard-to-reach airports in small cities: There’s little airline competition there, so ticket prices don’t drop nearly as much over their lifespan.

Since foreign countries are popular destinations with hard-to-reach airports, researchers suggest booking much earlier than the 54 days recommended for domestic flights.

Happy booking, travelers!

Good luck travelers, let me know what you come up with....

Johnson & Johnson in trouble?

https://www.google.com/amp/cpt-amp.production.gannettdigital.com/story/80845030/?client=ms-android-verizon#fpstate=amp_viewer


Apparently everyone's favorite make it all company; Johnson & Johnson got their selves in trouble. They have to pay some money to a family, one of which died of complications from using their products.  Of course we all know that to a company that large, this is just pennies to them. What do you think, what the punishment to light, should it of been more severe? Let me know what you think.

Movie Review - War Room

I loved this movie, it is one of my all time favorites. For me that is something, since I go to movies all the time and I could not name a favorite at all. However this one ranks up there on my list. It came out in theaters (that's where I saw it) last year (2015).

Its the story of a couple who has a young daughter. The husband is a salesman and the wife is a real estate agent. The wife meets an elder woman while trying to sell her house. During the course of the process the wife is changed, transformed into a godly woman. In the meantime the husband goes through some trials of his own while coming to terms with his faith. 

The story is well written and acted out. Even if you are on the fence about your faith this movie is something that everyone should see, especially married couples. 

Routers; should you upgrade?

http://www.howtogeek.com/243039/why-you-should-upgrade-your-router-even-if-you-have-older-gadgets/

I am a little of a tech geek myself. Reading articles like this keep me updated on the latest tech that is coming into our world. With the speed that tech is progressing it is always a good thing to keep updated with the latest in electronics. Click on the link above to be in the know.

Let me know what you think of upgrading? Should you wait or do it right away? 

Just to start

This is my first writing so I wanted to make sure that I am doing this correctly. Being new to this, I'm trying to catch up to the times so to speak. I will be posting information on various subjects and items that are happening in the world today for you all to check out. Movies are a favorite of mine so I will be posting reviews periodically as well. Also I will include articles that I find through different sources as well as religious items that are of concern. If there is anything you as the reader would like me to review, post, etc... please feel free to do so in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for reading. If you like this blog or any of my posts please feel free to pass on the link to any of your friends or family. I would love to have it spread throughout. Thank you again.