Category: Blog

So I'm down to the following types of Mystery Shopping:

• Grocery stores in the very local area – got to go there
• Gas stations (but absolutely no audits) in the immediate area
• Shops that are fun and near somewhere I have to go anyway.  I did a jewelry store shop o the way to Jenny Craig this week.  That way I can expense the mileage.
• Food that pays and is stuff I really like.
• Web shops — I have one that has been going on once a month that pays $80.  I've done some others that pay $10 – $15.
• Phone shops — those vary.  I'm going an annoying one that pays $15.  You have to call daily.
• At home shops 
• Fun stuff that pays a bonus.  Even if a bit of a drive.

May I did $500.  I'm up to $350 this month.  Note: the last week of the month is the most heavily bonused.  

I'm also trying another type of IC job.  It's called InSite Inspections and I've done one.  What I like about this, is there is nothing to memorize and as of the second one, today, I can do it on my tablet and have all the data entry done almost as soon as I finish.  The first one I did on paper and it sucked.  I also made a mistake.

They pay okay, but you have to make a call to the site within 4 hours of accepting the assignment and do it in 48 hours.  So no advanced planning.

As for the technology bootcamp.  There is a Udemy course on Web Design I really like.  It's "The Complete Web Developer Course 2.0" and you can often find a good deal on it.  I'm not a big fan of video courses, but this one is good.  It has exercises so you can practice.

I've made it through his HTML and CSS sections and am working on JavaScript now.  I don't think that the CSS is sufficient, but it's a good start.  

I blogged about it at http://blogs.kweaver.org/blog/2017/04/mystery-shopping-update.html and probably meant to do it here.

Last month I did over $800 in Mystery Shops, most of them paid me less than $10.00  Yeah, that’s a lot of mystery shopping.

I had a bad week this week.  Just got back from my husband and I yearly vacation together.  Before I left, I booked a typical week like April.  Total fail. 

I missed important parts of shops, took really bad images, using a phone I bought for a mystery shop on the 26th.  I took it back, because it was horrible.

So I’m going to limit myself to phone and internet shops and a few high dollar shops from now on.

And I’m trying to get back to CSS again. 

It's an interesting way to earn some extra money. So far I have earned $10 in iTunes gift cards that I can use right away. They also have Starbucks and cash gift cards. 

I've been using Mobee to earn gift cards and cash at the stores and restaurants near me! Download for iPhone or Android using my referral code 2DCK and we'll both earn an extra $3 worth of points when you complete your first mission.2DCK

Sent from my iPhone

The next section is all about color:

http://htmldog.com/guides/css/beginner/colors/

It mentions all the different ways to describe color, from key words, to hex code, rbg, and even HLS colors.

Either color or background color can be used:

p {

     color:  green;

     background-color: black;

}

Note that you need to surround CSS with { and } and delimit by : and ;

; end the css

: splits the selector and the property.

It’s always best to separate everything with white space, and not only makes it more readable, but easier to change.

Obviously it’s my CSS block that is slowing me down.

There are three ways to apply CSS.  I’m always like doing it backwards, because I think External Stylesheets are the most important.

http://htmldog.com/guides/css/beginner/applyingcss/

Every website should have one external style sheet.  It should apply to every page.  Occasionally you might want more than one, but only occasionally.

Internal stylesheets are for when you want one page to look different.  I’m serious about the one page thing.

Inline styles are for when you one to make a one-off change.  Think really hard before you do.  If you ever apply the same change more than once, it shouldn’t be in with the HTML.  Same goes for the inline.

It was scary.

My phone was laying on a table and one of my dogs knocked the table down. Landed in sand.

When I picked it up it looked dirty and I tried to clean it.  Nope, was almost pierced with glass breakage spider webbing out.

I was sure the phone itself was cracked, especially as I didn’t remember that the screen protector was glass.  Even talked to Apple Support about it, and they had me convinced that the screen was broken.

Friends took a look at it and convinced me it was the screen protector.

Irony:  screen replacement (but limited to two incidents) is $25.00  Replacing the screen protector?  Almost $45.00

When I purchase a wireless headphone that is designed to talk on the phone, I honestly expect that the headphones work both listening and talking without a cable.

Not so, the Beats Solo 2 Wireless headphones. At their price point, I really expect that, and I expect noise blanking.

The good news, is that I didn't purchase them, they came free with my new MacBook.  Of course, having an audio cable was a clue that the microphone wasn't wireless.

Twice I've tried to use them on a call with students and couldn't figure out why they didn't work.  I finally tried to record a movie today, was getting no audio, looked at the manual and still stubbornly thought they would work.  I called support (Apple, no less, answered, they did buy them out).  

The tech and I had a good laugh, agreeing they really should be completely Wireless.  They are at the very least pretty. and I don't really need them to be completely wireless for use with the MacBook.

And yes, if I had paid money for them, they'd have gone back.

While I still want to have a computer when away from the house overnight, I was able to grade an assignment remotely using my iPad Pro.

I like my iPad Pro but it definitely is not a laptop replacement.  It plays games better than the phone and it is easier to read magazines and the web than the phone.

However, with the Microsoft RD app I successfully graded a Scratch program today and logged my time.  However, I did forget to log the students work, which I will do now.

Oddly enough, privacy is important to me.  At one point I had my Facebook privacy so tight, people couldn't post to me.

I've also been disappointed in the Windows Phone.  I love mobile phone and tablet technology and sadly Windows isn't keeping up.  Plus they are removing apps right and left from the Marketplace.

So several months ago I tried an iPhone, and yes, I like it.  It's a iPhone 6S, and I liked it.  Especially the apps.

However, I couldn't write apps with the tools I had.  Since then, I've been trying out different solutions to the problem.  I have an old MacMini, and even with a memory upgrade, it's slow and hard to use.  I really like a laptop for development.

Remoting in was slow and awkward also.

Tried an old MacBook Pro from Best Buy (open box) and just wasn't happy.  I finally decided on a form factor I liked but went through 3 to find one that worked.   What DOES Best Buy do to their Macs when they are waiting to sell them.

So now I'm writing a book on how to write Apps with Swift.  It's fun, because I'm working with one of my first tutoring students from college.  We're making good progress.  

So now I have an iPhone and a MacBook – the latest one in Rose Gold.  High end, instead of the low end.

So far, even with shipping, Jenny Craig is more expensive. $180 for a week, versus $140. However, I need the structure.

Doctor’s office gave them the go ahead Monday morning. I think they faxed Jenny Craig in the evening but the local office had me sign a statement.

Probably not a bad idea. I went low at a special event. Dulce was alerted and I was ignoring it because it was her dinner time. After the second alert I started paying attention and the lady I was with got me a sweet tea. I was still under the 1700 calories.

We ended up all good. When I checked I was 80 with double arrows on the CGMS and it just started to alert when I checked it. So it was drink some tea and all was good. I let her decide how fast to walk etc after the event.

Anyway I lost two pounds between today and yesterday. Which was better than I was doing on DietToGo. Depending on cost as I learn some structure I will probably go back.