Sunflowers

September 24th, 2021

Gonna have sunflower ‘farm’ next year

https://shesaidsunflower.com/best-sunflower-companion-plants-vegetables-flowers/

Calm your emotions

April 14th, 2021

https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-calm-your-emotions-with-dialectical-behaviour-therapy

  • One of the first steps in regulating emotions is being able to accurately put a label on your emotion (‘name it to tame it’). This helps to increase your awareness of how you experience your emotions so you get to know them better.
  • Self-validation, or accepting your emotions, is soothing, and prevents extra emotional pain from arising.
  • Sometimes you need to calm down your body a bit before you get re-regulated. Doing a forward bend or paced breathing (counting your exhale so it’s longer than your inhale) are great ways to get your emotions a little quieter so you can figure out what to do next.
  • To reduce the intensity of an emotion, ‘acting opposite’ to what the emotion tells us to do – literally doing the reverse of what we feel compelled to do – can help.

 

Elements of an apology

July 29th, 2020

https://hms.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Departments/Ombuds%20Office/files/M.Wagner.ColumbiaUniversity.Elements%20of%20an%20Effective%20Apology.pdf

© 1999 Marsha L. Wagner, Columbia University

Elements of an Effective Apology

An apology is a powerful means of reconciliation and restoring trust. However, sometimes even well-intentioned apologies can exacerbate a conflict. It may be helpful to consider what elements to include in a statement of apology to make it most effective and constructive. Not all elements apply to all situations. Some of the most common considerations include the following:

1.A common understanding of the exact substance and nature of the offense, or perceived offense. (Example: “Yesterday on the telephone, I said….”)

2.Recognition of responsibility or accountability on the part of the one who offended. (Example: “I could have chosen other words.” “I spoke without thinking.”)

3.Acknowledgement of the pain or embarrassment that the offended party experienced. (Example: “It’s understandable that was upsetting to you.” “If someone had said that to me, I would not have liked it, either.” But not, “I’m sorry you’re so easily hurt.”)

4.A judgment about the offense. (Example: “I was insensitive.” “What I did was wrong.”) 5

.A statement of regret. (Example: “I’m sorry I used those words.”)

6.An indication of future intentions. (Example: “In the future, I will try to think about the impact of my words before speaking.” “I hope we can have a relationship of mutual respect.”)

Energy fields and the motivation to recover

February 1st, 2020

Energy fields and the motivation to recover

Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment

Healing From Narcissistic Abuse — A Shamanic Approach To Recovery

3 Kinds of Motivation for Addiction Recovery

Crystal Therapy: A Ritual To Aid In Recovery

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=recovery+healing+with+gems

https://www.bustle.com/p/these-women-believe-crystals-are-the-reason-theyre-still-sober-2912383

 

Resist Propaganda

January 21st, 2020

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212892095

First, recognize the attempts to indoctrinate you and which propaganda type you are dealing with – Ideological, Political or Religious fanatics differ in focus but share several traits:

-Only they possess the truth
-Will NOT tolerate opposing views
-No matter the subject of the discussion they will introduce THEIR values and judgement into the conversation.
-Attempt to force you to adopt or at least to concede the validity of their distorted out look

Look out for the use of one or more of the following methods of indoctrination:

-Music and dramatic recordings
-Posters video clips and films
-One sided media
-Lies half truths and incomplete information

 

Persuasive communications and personal growth

November 23rd, 2019

https://www.youtube.com/user/rhetoricaljourney/videos

Quick virus trojan malware checks

April 28th, 2019

run rkill first. when finished will have a window saying so. close that window and the results will show in a text file

rkill — stop processes that might stop cleaning malware, trojan or virus

Adwcleaner — adware cleaner

JRT — junk ware removal

comodo antivirus

Misbehavior

July 30th, 2018

if you are aware of it,
acknowledge it, and
know it is wrong
but don’t do anything
then is the same as participating in it

Anita Hill

Foods to stop craving

March 15th, 2017

https://authoritynutrition.com/18-healthy-foods-cravings/

Read the rest of this entry »

Writing structure

August 28th, 2015

W = Who – Determine who your most primary target audience is (not to be in the piece of writing).


W = What – Define what it is you are writing about.

W = Why – Discuss why it’s important.

W = Ways – Give 3-5 ways or tips so the reader can apply the “what”.

E = Example – Share an example or case study.

E = Encourage – End with a “you can do it!” paragraph.

Read the rest of this entry »

Breathing

March 7th, 2014

I’ve been working on breath control to improve my health, particularly for my heart. I found this nice summary of breathing exercises.

http://greatist.com/happiness/breathing-exercises-relax

Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you letters

October 14th, 2013

Thanks to http://www.themorningnews.org/article/how-to-write-a-thank-you-note

Summary:

  1. Get yourself some stationery, plain note cards or a selection of attractive postcards (yes, postcards are perfectly acceptable!), and proper postage. Avoid the pre-inscribed ‘Thank you!’ cards in loopy script, as there are times you’ll want to write notes where that aesthetic feels all wrong. Better to choose paper you like. Stay away from full-size sheets
  2. Greet the Giver — Dear Aunt Sally,
    Read the rest of this entry »

Software to create Windows install disks from existing setup

February 9th, 2024

This is about using software to take an existing Windows operating system (10 and 11) and creating an install disk to do a fresh install of the installation on other machines.

Convert the existing OS to a VHD using https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd

After VHD is created you can load it into VirtualBox and make changes. Then  recreate a VHD while in VirtualBox. Convert the VHD to .wim, then perhaps install .wim to .esd if necessary, create an install USB from a current Windows ISO using RUFUS, then replace the .wim or .esd file with the one from the VHD you edited.

Maybe. Yet to be tested fully.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/72031-create-windows-10-iso-image-existing-installation.html

Script to create wim file in powershell

Here is a simple powershell script to convert VHD file to WIM file

#set the VHD mount folder
$Mount="c:\mount"
#create a folder c:\mount
Mkdir $Mount

#mount the c:\temp\spiderip.vhd to $Mount folder

Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath "c:\temp\spiderip.vhd" -Path "$Mount" -Index 1
#Create new Wim image to c:\temp\spiderip.wim folder

New-WindowsImage -CapturePath "$Mount" -Name "spiderip image" -ImagePath "c:\temp\spiderip.wim" -Description "spiderip image" -Verify
#dismount  the $Mount folder
Dismount-WindowsImage -Path "$Mount" -Discard

Convert from .wim to .esd (my win10 install disk uses .esd and when converting vhd to wim I need to change it).

dism /export-image /sourceimagefile:<file location>:\install.wim /sourceindex:<1,2,3,4> /destinationimagefile:<output location>:\install.esd /compress:recovery

 

DISM++ has tool to create a wim image (to replace the install iso one). Just a note.

DISM++ free software, but now 5 years old so not so much
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hEde5WuCSY
Site to download: https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-Multi-language

NT Lite, paid software
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLCWtC6UYrM
Video makers website on NT Lite: https://christitus.com/ntlite-guide/
Video, also on NT Lite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gMJNQ3yWNE
Site for download: https://www.ntlite.com

 

 

Windows 10 11 User settings backup and restore

February 3rd, 2024

Pre work

If the user folders are linked to OneDrive there may be a difference in how user folders are addressed in a command prompt or powershell. I haven’t had a chance to test it.

If you go into explorer and right click the Documents folder that looks like it’s under “This PC” and select properties, the window that pops up will give the directory of the folder.

To find the true location of the user’s folders open regedit and go to:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

There you will see a list that includes the true path of user’s folders.

To include the whole source folder in the destination you must include the source folder’s name in the destination. You must also, for some stupid reason, include a space after the source and destination names.

Following is an example of a batch file, or command lines

Backup

echo.
echo.
echo Be sure you have the correct source directory paths!
echo Right click on file explorer and select properties for each user folder
echo.
echo.
pause

echo off
set month=%DATE:~4,2%
set day=%DATE:~7,2%
set month=%DATE:~,2%
set day=%DATE:~3,2%
set year=%DATE:~-2%
set hour=%time:~0,2%
set min=%time:~3,2%
set sec=%time:~6,2%
set milsec=%time:~9,2%
echo on
set FolderDateTime=%month%%day%%year%-%hour%%min%%sec%
set BackupDestination=Z:\UserBackup\%computername%\%username%\%FolderDateTime%

set src1=Documents
set src2=Pictures
set src3=Downloads
set src4=Desktop
set src5=Music
set src6=Videos

robocopy "%homedrive%%homepath%\src1 " "%BackupDestination%\src1 " /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T
robocopy "%homedrive%%homepath%\src2 " "%BackupDestination%\src2 " /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T
robocopy "%homedrive%%homepath%\src3 " "%BackupDestination%\src3 " /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T
robocopy "%homedrive%%homepath%\src4 " "%BackupDestination%\src4 " /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T
robocopy "%homedrive%%homepath%\src5 " "%BackupDestination%\src5 " /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T
robocopy "%homedrive%%homepath%\src6 " "%BackupDestination%\src6 " /MIR /COPY:DAT /DCOPY:T

echo.
echo.
echo Copy has completed
echo To open the destination directory continue 
echo.
echo.
pause
start %homedrive%%homepath%
pause

 

password never expires

January 29th, 2024

net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited

net user %username% [new password]

That first command sets all users’ passwords to never expire.

The second can be used to change the user’s password

Windows to VHD virtual hard drive

January 19th, 2024

Pretty basic process. Video helps a lot

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd

 

 

LibreOffice Writer macro code samples

January 17th, 2024

Current file name, directory and full path

with help from a question I asked at https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/macro-function-regex-not-working/97425

Sub CurrentFileLocation
	sUrl = ThisComponent.getURL()
	
	'To get the full path
	sFullPath = ConvertFromURL(sUrl)
	
	'Then to get the full path but no the file name
	sParts = Split(sFullPath,"\")
	ReDim Preserve sParts(0 to UBound(sParts) - 1)
	 sDirectory = Join(sParts, "/")
	 
	'Then to get just the document name
	sParts = split(sUrl,"/")
	sName =convertfromurl(sParts(ubound(sParts)))
	'ubound returns the last item in the array sParts
	
	'Then to see the results
	msgbox(sName & Chr$(13) & sDirectory & Chr$(13) & sFullPath )
end sub