Following yesterday's post, I was finishing my supper and had just tuned in an episode of FBI via out T9 Android 8.1 TV Box when I noticed my younger brother arriving home from wherever he had been drinking ─ it was maybe 8:20 p.m.
It appeared that I would be sitting up later than planned to watch some further shows with my brother once mine was done.
Well, he came into the house, and then engaged my two stepsons in their den area where they were immersed into their computers. I could tell by his loud voice ─ and his ridiculously exaggerated vocal parodies of whomever he was talking to them about ─ that he was plastered.
He spent some while involved with the two lads (aged 22 and 25), and eventually found his way into the living room where I was. He then seated himself (with more beer) to watch what remained of the episode I was trying to focus upon.
Before long, I could see that he was passing out. At one point he was snoring, but he pulled himself out of it. Then finally he seemed to sink more firmly into unconsciousness and commenced snoring without any stint.
I considered watching the episode to its conclusion, but then I reconsidered and decided that it was best to shut things down and vacate the living room before he managed to revive anew, or I would be obliged to remain with the drunkard because he is unable to operate the Amazon TV Box.
Apart from basic cable programming, he would still be able to access Netflix Canada through my youngest stepson's account, so he would still have plenty of entertainment options once I was removed.
Thus, with less than five minutes remaining to the FBI episode, I shut it and the Android TV Box down, and turned the T.V. over to basic cable. I then came upstairs here to my computer to spend a little time before getting to bed.
It occurred to me that my brother could well be out for some while, so I went back downstairs and cautiously turned off the T.V., leaving him in silence in the living room for all to behold.
If he has no shame concerning the spectacle he presents, I certainly will not practice it in his stead.
I was into my bed just ahead of 9:15 p.m.
Initially I felt weary enough to easily sleep, but that did not prove out. And when some sleep finally did visit me, I found myself awake again just ahead of 11:00 p.m. ─ my brother would still be downstairs, although conscious by this time. Had it been later, I would have risen to put work into the post I am developing at one of my six hosted websites.
Anon, I fell back into some further sleep, for when I checked the time, I was quite surprised to see that it was almost 2:00 a.m. How did that happen, I wondered?
So I rose and dressed, and was soon at work on that website post. My youngest stepson was still up, but soon the downstairs was in darkness.
I was to remain up until nearly 5:15 a.m.
Upon returning to bed, I managed some more sleep, but by 8:30 a.m. at latest I felt that I had run my course where easy sleep was concerned, and I decided to rise for the morning.
My brother was already watching T.V. downstairs, but I remained upstairs here at my computer until nearly 10:00 a.m. before I went downstairs to the kitchen to boil water for my day's first hot caffeinated beverage, and then I joined my brother and put the Android TV Box into operation.
We watched T.V. until around 11:50 a.m., and then he announced that he was going to his bedroom to "stretch out". He had been on his cellphone a little earlier talking with his friend Greg, and a rendezvous had evidently been arranged.
I had myself a little exercise and then my day's first meal, by which time my brother was back out of his bedroom and readying for his foray. He would be setting off afoot to catch a bus.
When he plans some potentially serious drinking, he will bus. Consequently, I am not expecting him to make it back until into the latter half of the evening. I will be getting myself another early evening of it.
After he left, I also sought a nap. It was not very long, and I felt worse thereafter, but at least my eyes had rested and I would be able to commence work on this blog post once I had my day's second hot caffeinated beverage for accompaniment.
The day has been a mix of Sun and lots of clouds ─ I have deemed there to be far more cloud than sunshine, so I am not feeling much guilt over not taking time to sit out in the backyard to benefit from the day.
Our annual billing for property taxes showed up today, and will probably have to be paid by earliest July ─ well, July 2nd, at any rate.
I have yet to alert my stepsons about it, but I must soon do so. Our annual home insurance is due on the 14th of June; then the monthly mortgage on the 21st of June; and now this!
Each year, I feel so keenly in need of a financial miracle, but one never ever gets bestowed.
On a somewhat related matter, I am an online affiliate with a few different commercial entities, including eBay. However, I only use their so-called Dynamic Feed Generator. I take the code that gets generated after I have submitted whatever keywords I want the feed to find products for, and then I place that code into a WordPress plugin called WP eBay Product Feeds that I have on each of my six hosted websites. (I use the free version of the plugin.)
For me, the Dynamic Feed Generator code on its own has only ever produced a text feed of eBay products in my WordPress sites. But when I paste that same code into the WP eBay Product Feeds plugin, the result produces images along with the items included in the eBay RSS feed.
Well, just today I received an E-mail from eBay that included this disturbing revelation:
At the end of June, the Dynamic Feed Generator will be globally decommissioned, and we ask that you move off of it completely no later than June 30. We will not be replacing the Feed Generator, but there are several other ways for you to retrieve this data: ...And then it went on to detail the various advertising options available to affiliates that have never been of any use to me. All I have ever wanted to do is to create a post at my websites, and then supply the keywords related to that post that will retrieve current products on offer at eBay that might relate to the post.
I do not blog about eBay products. And I never want nor intend to. I want instead for eBay to come up with products that might best match whatever my post topic is, and that is what the Dynamic Feed Generator managed to do.
And now the idiots at eBay are taking it away ─ the only affiliate tool that seems of any use to me.
I posted in the plugin's WordPress support area to ask if this is also to be the end of the functionality of the WP eBay Product Feeds plugin, since it will no longer be possible to generate the essential RSS feed at eBay to place into the plugin.
I am awaiting the answer to that dilemma. Someone else has already added their voice to the thread that I began.
I still have some exercising to do today, so I am going to bring this post to a close.
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