The Hard truths of a Long Distance relationship!

Paul
Photo by @thiszun (follow me on IG, FB) from Pexels

The in-between days!

I’ve been talking about Long Distances relationships for quite a while. I recently got back from visiting my Fiancee and you must be like me. You are really struggling with all these feelings and some even negative thoughts. Each relationship is different and unique, and no one relationship is the same. I am however going to talk about my relationship in hopes to inspire others that it can be done and to bring positive vibes to others.

Staying active is always a good suggestion in a long distance relationship. ‘What are the hard truths of being in one?’ You are probably asking or at the very least thinking about. We’ve all been there and thought about it. I want to share with you some of my problems and thoughts on the subject.

The Feelings are real!

Sometimes I have to ask myself are these real feelings or am I just in a movie or dream? Each time I am with this wonderfully made woman and I get home it is like a dream. It can be hard to quantify it all but I really can’t. I’ve always had people tell me all these negative things about being a relationship. ‘They will not be faithful!’ or my favorite ‘How do you know you love them?’. Each question has been a struggle for me. For those questions have to be answered internally and thought about in one way or another before we can give our answer to others. One of the hardest truths with any LDR is that you will have people asking those questions and you should be ready to answer them.

No touching!

This one is the hardest for those who have a love language of touch. You will find that you can’t touch each other physically. When one of you is feeling down you can’t do anything but listen, and talk about the problem. You can’t even console or cuddle when you want to. You will have to deal with this all the time while in a long distance.

High Anxieties!

When you are in a relationship you have all these doubts and thoughts. Some of the most common doubts that come to my mind are ‘Are they being faithful?’ or ‘What are they doing while I am sleeping?‘. There are several that come to my mind and I am sure you have some, too. What if’s can be terrifying to say the least. Some of the questions even I am asking about are what happens after we are together? Will she love me or want to be with me after we move in together? Anxieties are higher than normal because you have to make more of an effort to trust that person and push those thoughts out of your mind. No relationship will ever have these issues but they seem to be more relevant because of the distance.

Expensive tickets

Even trying to find the cheapest flights can still be a challenge to even me. You have to save money and come up with the time and expense of traveling to see them. You have to get the days off and if you are like me the travel time just sucks. Even I have struggled in the past with getting enough money together to travel to see my Fiancee.

Loneliness

Even I suffer this from time to time after my visits to see my Fiancee. You have days where you are extremely lonely even when you are with a group of people. You also get very depressed and sad, each time I come back from my visits, it takes time to get back into my old routines. I know my fiancee also struggles with this because she has told me.

Sex

This one is really a struggle for every LDR that I’ve talked to. We’ve all want to have that intimate contact with their better half. It is ingrained into us that we want to have that kind of contact and it can be a hard struggle to have to wait for the next time when you are together. Although, those times the sex is even better because you both want it, that I heard!

Missing them!

Last one, no really! We find that we miss those times together once you get home and it makes you even more sad and want to be with them. I can only suggest that you remember those times together and use them to spur you on to the next visit. No one ever said an LDR would be easy and now I realized even more than that is so true.

At the end of the day, you have to decide what you really wanted and just do it. No relationship is without these questions but most of the time it’s even worse because of the distance. Do you have hard truths that you want to comment about? Why not leave A comment and tell people what is on your mind?

How spammers are still able to send your voicemail!

Paul
Photo by Daniel Moises Magulado from Pexels

Spam in my Voicemail

If you haven’t seen this feature or had this feature done to you then your one lucky person.  They seem to be able to avoid being blocked.   Spammers are sending you voicemail and not ringing your phone.   This prevents you from being able to block them or hear their spam or scam.   For instance this came in my voicemail:

Hi this is Caroline Ferguson agent id is two four five one (#2451) I am following back up with you regarding the recent have a lawsuit filing your student loan has been accepted into the settlement which now entitled you to receive some forgiveness on all future payments what screen about this is the settlement offer applies to all loan status is including if your loans are in default a suggested you call today to have this activated before expiration. The settlement line is (202)921-7300. Make sure to supply your personal eligibility validation number one one two zero one nine (#112019) when calling in hope this helps and have a nice day.

This should be an Opt-in feature!

I’m currently using Cricket Wireless as my Cell company and most cellular companies think this is a great feature.   Some cellular companies have a way to send your voice messages to voicemail without calling your phone.   It’s been called send to voicemail and a lot of cellular companies have ways to do this without you even hearing your phone ring.  When phone companies started making this feature well known, you had to know spam was to follow.  I called Cricket Wireless and tried to find a way to disable people from doing this but they couldn’t find a way.   I should be able to disable this feature or it should of been an opt in feature for new customers.

There’s an App!

If you didn’t know, you could easily do this with your phone and make it even harder for people to ignore you.  This is why spammers/scammers are using this feature.   There’s a app that you can download to do just for this called Slydial.  New company that should allow people to be opted out of this wonderful feature.   I can’t even find a way to opt out or have a way to disable them from sending me voicemail.   I am hopeful that they start something like this for people who don’t want to be bothered with spam voicemails.

Have you had this done to you or know how to fix this issue?  Feel free to leave a comment below and tell me your experiences and what you did to solve this issue.    I’m curious to hear our story, why not leave a comment and tell me.   If you find this article informational then please feel free to share it on Facebook or other social networks!

How to Install your Favorite Apps on Linux OS.

Paul
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels

Command Line Rocks

I simply love using command in Linux.   I currently using Linux Mint because I didn’t want to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10.   If you know anything about Linux, they seldom install the necessary apps for Laptops or Desktops.   You’d have to install them separately and some of the apps do some really useful things on Linux.   Such as the touch pad inidcator which will disable the touch pad when you are typing or when you are using a mouse.   I hate to use the Graphical User Interface to find and install these apps.  So I decided to create a shell script to install the needed laptop apps for any installation of Linux on a Laptop.  I do like to install programs from the GUI but that is when I am looking to install one program or just curious what they’ve added to the Synaptic Package Manager.   Since most of these apps are open sourced, I thought it would be nice to show you how to create a shell script that you might want to use from time to time.  The nice thing this helps if you are re-installing Linux or installing Linux on a new laptop Linux.

Creating a Shell Script

Before you begin this process, you’ll want to wrap your head around how to create the Linux script.  Once you learn about the process of creating the script.  You will understand more about the next process but you should at least get the basics so you can know what you can and can’t do in a script.   A shell script is almost like a batch file in Windows and you can do a lot of things in it.  Some things you can do are If/then or Echo, or Sudo commands.   If you want to make a complicated menu then that is fine also. I believe simplistic is best.   So I created my own little simple script to install the laptop apps that will help me on my laptop.

Laptop-linuxinstall.sh

echo Installing Touchpad Inidcator
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt update
sudo apt install touchpad-indicator

echo installing cpu frequency Inidcator
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:artfwo/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get indicator-cpufreq

echo Installing Battery Optimization
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw
sudo tlp start

echo Installing Laptop Mode Tools
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools

You could easily copy this and paste it into a text editor and start using it right away but I hope you at least learn about scripting.   This script will work with Linux Mint or Ubuntu, but I am unclear if it will work with other Linux OS.  This is why you will want to learn the create your own script because you might have to modify or add new lines into the script.  If you decide to use Laptop Mode tools, I suggest you read about how to configure the tools once you installed it.

Changing Permission in Linux

Changing Permissions

Once you have created the script and saved it to a file you will need to change the permissions of the file so Linux can run it from command line or if you decide to run it from the GUI.   You can either right click the file > Properties then go into permissions (See above for example) and check mark “Allow executing file as a program” or go into terminal mode.

Go to where the file is located and type “sudo chmod +x filename.sh”  and enter your Password.  Once this is done you can now either use the GUI or type “./locationoffile/file.sh” in the terminal.

All is Good!

After you have done all that, You now should keep the shell script on several locations so you can always use it if you need it.   I occasionally like to reinstall Linux to keep the system running smoothly so that is why I created shell scripts to install my favorite programs or stuff I might want to use on my laptop.   Do you have a favorite application or a suggestion please feel free to leave a comment below.   I’d love to hear what you install on your Linux OS and why.

Three ways to speed up your Laptop

Paul
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Laptops all around

You probably got a old laptop, which is probably slow and very sluggish. It is a single, double, or quad core low megahertz system and you really can’t do much with it because it is so unbearable slow. I grew up with 9600 baud rates, for the younger generation that is very slow internet. It can be very disheartening to have to just wait for the system to boot or a program to run. You could of even bought this laptop from a yard sale. So what can you do with this laptop besides make it a door stop? This article will tell you how I refurbish my laptops to make them faster and more responsive when I don’t want to buy a better laptop.

2x or 3x more RAM!

If your laptop can support another laptop memory module then you should install another RAM module. It however is dependent on what speed of ram you currently have installed. If your laptop only has one module slot you will need to go buy a bigger ram and install it instead the one you have. So you need to know how big you can install into the laptop. You can easily Google it and find out how much you can add to your laptop. I wouldn’t install anything to big, something like 8 GB to 16 GB will do to make it even faster. The faster the ram speed the faster the system will respond but it must be capable with the current module so I suggest installing the same speed if you aren’t going to replace the module.

Replace the HDD with SDD

If you’re considering doing this, I strongly recommend you backup your current system. Remember the rule of 3. You should always have at least 3 different ways to restore your current system. What’s is an SSD? It is short for Solid State Drives and don’t use mechanical plates to write data. Think of a HDD has having several layers of DVD plates that are much smaller and use magnetism to read and write data. SSD are almost like RAM and have no moving parts and thus are more responsive to reading and writing which makes booting the system way faster than you probably ever realize. You can find some SSD at Amazon if you need one. You can find some really cheap SSD because you probably don’t need a lot of space for your old laptop,\.

Install Linux

I’ve talked about this before but I will say this again. If you are using a really old laptop you probably can’t use Windows 10 and since Windows 7 is at it’s End of life. You really can’t go wrong, by going to opensource operating system. I personally love Linux Mint but I am sure there are other Linux system that might be better for your laptop because it might require a very simple Linux desktop. You want your system to boot up and be able to use your laptop with ease this is definitely the best recommendation I can give you. If you are planning to install windows 10, you should make sure your laptop can support it.

Got a favorite Linux system? Or maybe something else to make your Laptop speed up and more responsive why not leave a comment and let me know and others.

First Impressions of the Samsung A50.

Paul

Samsung A50

Amazon Affiliate Links : I use amazon affiliate links to help support my site. If you are looking to support my review please feel free to use my links. If not you can easily find these products on amazon. Thanks!

Quite Impressive!

I bought this phone a few days ago due to my other phone breaking the Motorola G7. I proceeded to order it and it came a few days. I also decided to order a belt holster

to try to keep my phone from breaking again. I must say after opening it up, it feels quite sturdy and I like the holographic backing on the phone. The plastic on the back feels durable and not going to break anytime soon. I am sure it is designed for scratches and being dropped but I would love to keep my phone from getting scratched or broken.

Specs

Display
Display : 6.4 Inches with Amoled
Resolution : 1080 x 2340 pixels, 19.5:9 ratio, 403 PPI
System chip: Samsung Exynos 7 Octa 9610
Processor: Octa-core, 2300 MHz, ARM Cortex-A73 and ARM Cortex-A53, 64-bit, 10 nm
GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
RAM: 4GB
Internal storage: 64GB
Storage expansion: microSDXC up to 512 GB
OS: Android (9.0 Pie), Samsung One UI

Battery
Capacity: 4000 mAh
Type: Li – Ion, Not user replaceable
Charging: Samsung Adaptive Fast Charging

Camera
Triple camera
Rear: 25 megapixels
Features: Phase-detection autofocus
Second camera: 8 megapixels
Features: Ultra-wide
Third camera: 5 megapixels
Features: Depth information
Video recording: 1920×1080 (Full HD) (30 fps), 1280×720 (HD) (240 fps)
Features: Hyperlapse, Digital image stabilization
Front: 25 megapixels

My thoughts!

It has some great potential for being a Samsung phone. This was a great buy from Amazon because you could pay a monthly for 60$. I am sure it will become cheaper as it gets older but the phone itself is sweet and is really responsive. I’ve had problems with the embedded finger printer reader. There’s a problem with it reading my finger print for me to use it, so I couldn’t use it. I absolutely like how this phone works with applications. It’s a good medium range phone for those who are looking for a durable phone. When you try this phone, and you will see just how sturdy it feels. This is a US version but if you intend to use it internationally, you should be able to use the 3g or 4g. I can’t be sure if it will work but I can’t see that it won’t work. I’m thoroughly impressed with phone and how well it feels and looks in my hand.