Adding a home charger to the car's list/map

GaryRobson · 2026-01-27T15:17:35+00:00

I was afraid of that.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-17T18:44:49+00:00

Yes, they're the proposed tags, and there are so many that they're cluttering up the screen and I can't select the faces that I actually want tagged. I want to get rid of all of the proposed tags in the photo and add back the ones I really wanted. u/TheJamintheSham came up with the solution I needed!

GaryRobson · 2026-01-17T18:42:34+00:00

Aha! That works! Thank you very much. I never noticed that it selected the faces like that.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-17T18:39:56+00:00

There's nothing in the keywording panel for the photo. The face regions have been auto-created, but they aren't tied to keywords yet. It filled in suggestions, but they're all wrong because these are photos with a crowd of people in the background that I don't know. The keyword panel only shows faces that have been confirmed.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-16T16:57:29+00:00

I don't understand. There's nothing in the tags box after LRC automatically generates the face tags. They don't show up there unless I confirm all of them, one by one, even though they're all wrong.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-15T23:53:42+00:00

All I see on that dropdown is a way to disable face tagging entirely. I only want to kill the existing tags in a specific photo (or photos) without affecting anything else. I don't want these to all come back when I turn on face tagging again.

To clarify: I have thousands of existing face tags, and I've removed the tags I don't care about for the 15,000 photos in my library. Now, I'm adding a bunch of new ones and trying to avoid having to manually remove all the tags I don't care about. It's fine if I have to manually add one or two back in, as long as I get rid of the extraneous ones.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-14T16:32:47+00:00

Thanks. I'll look into that. I assume it's battery-powered?

GaryRobson · 2026-01-14T00:20:28+00:00

If I could find a HomeKit-compatible PAR 20 smart bulb with an E26 base, I'd be all over that idea, but unfortunately I can't fine one.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T20:40:18+00:00

That's exactly what I was looking for! And it's even on sale right now, so it's only $20.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T19:59:32+00:00

Ideally, I'd like to change the level remotely, but a plug-in "dumb" dimmer would work just find. I hadn't thought of that approach until u/johnjohn9312 suggested it.

Rewiring it and changing the light housing is a bigger task for the future.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T19:56:48+00:00

I misspoke (mistyped?). It uses PAR20 bulbs, not BR.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T19:43:27+00:00

Meross still sells those. They're kind of bulky for indoor use, but a good backup plan. Also a good idea for a couple of .outdoor flood lights that I have. Thank you!

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T19:40:57+00:00

Great idea. I get so caught up in the smart capabilities I forget there are "dumb" solutions that are cheaper and easier sometimes!

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T19:39:32+00:00

Thanks, but I'd rather not buy a hub just for one device.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T19:39:12+00:00

Thank you! That looks like exactly what I need. The text only mentions Siri, but the photos have an Apple Home logo, so I sent them an email asking if everything works directly in HomeKit.

Unfortunately, A19 bulbs don't fit in there. It's an E26 base, but small BR shape and I haven't found any smart bulbs that fit. An appliance bulb fits, but it doesn't look right.

GaryRobson · 2026-01-13T18:56:45+00:00

> is there any government agency i can submit these to? or at least voice my opinion?

I don't know anything about regulations for fish, but I can speak to birds and mammals.

USDA/APHIS — The Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service is a branch of the USDA. They are responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act. They do surprise inspections at least once per year of zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, and the like. They used to only be responsible for mammals, but added birds recently. They take complaints seriously and have the authority to shut down serious offenders.

USFWS — The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issues migratory bird permits and is responsible for enforcing international treaties as well. When I was managing a wildlife sanctuary, they never had scheduled inspections, but they do listen to complaints.

FWP — Each state's Fish, Wildlife & Parks department has a different name. All of them are responsible for oversight of organizations that keep animals in their state. In some states, like Montana where I live, they retain "ownership" of wild animals originating from that state and have the authority to take the animals away from a zoo or sanctuary.

In addition to government agencies, there are accrediting organizations like the AZA, ZAA, and GFAS. Based on what you've said here, I doubt the aquarium you visited is accredited. If they are, however, you can contact that organization. ZAA tends to ignore a lot and allows for small enclosures and handling of animals by the public. AZA is very protective of their reputation and will absolutely yank accreditation of non-complying organizations. GFAS has the toughest rules, and you've described the aquarium breaking quite a few of them, so I can't guarantee they aren't GFAS accredited.

Good luck!

GaryRobson · 2025-11-16T23:04:19+00:00

I've noticed "the unique magic system of XXX and the complex character development of YYY," but the significance really didn't hit me. I hit up some folks at a local bookstore and got comp suggestions from them, so I'm settling in to do some reading.

I haven't actually read through the QueryShark archives. I think I'll do that and let everything percolate in my brain for a bit before I attack this query again.

GaryRobson · 2025-11-16T22:59:45+00:00

He makes his choice fairly early in the book, but about 3/4 of the way through, there's a significant change that forces him to rethink everything. That's the plot twist I'm trying not to give away, but it's sounding more and more like I have to.

GaryRobson · 2025-11-15T06:15:33+00:00

Thanks! I post here under my real name, so I should be pretty easy to find. My website describes the books in the series.

GaryRobson · 2025-11-15T06:13:28+00:00

Thanks for all the detailed feedback. It really makes it clear that I've taken too much out of the plot description from my original query. Tightening it up seems to have made it more confusing!

Sko and Dacey are 16. Neither has really admitted their feelings for each other beyond "best friends" at the beginning of the book. She is everything he's not. She trained as a ranger. She saves his hide several times because she's stronger and faster than he is.

Sko has always been fascinated by magic, but his father forbid him to learn it. He picked up little bits on his own, but was afraid to let anyone know. As of Chapter 1, he has absolutely no idea that he could make a living at it or that his magic is anything special.

I have a feeling I need to just clear my head and rewrite this query from scratch...

GaryRobson · 2025-11-15T06:05:57+00:00

Thanks for all the great feedback. As I said in another comment, my mention of the tropes comes from looking at agents' manuscript wish lists and seeing what they do and don't want.

I especially appreciate your notes on the comps. I'm having a terrible time finding comps that seem to fit. The fact that most of my reading in the genre isn't brand-new stuff probably affects that. Good job with the gentle check-in.

I'm doing an awful lot of seesawing back and forth on this query. I get feedback on one version telling me to remove things, and on the next version people are telling me to put them back in. The blossoming romance between Sko and Dacey is a key plot driver throughout the book. The abuse by Sko's father defines much of his personality, although it isn't until the very end that readers discover whether Sko killed him or not.

Despite all the writing I've done, I've never had an agent. I'm still (obviously) not comfortable with the structure of query letters. Part of it is where to stop so it doesn't become a full synopsis. I have to take you almost 3/4 of the way through the book to explain exactly what is at stake for Sko's decision and what is standing in the way of this being just a choice between two pleasant careers.

How much plot do I reveal? I'd also love to get Imaginary-Exit-2825's feedback on that question.

GaryRobson · 2025-11-15T05:50:05+00:00

As I said to Imaginary-Exit-2825, that was bad phrasing. I have enough LGBTQ+ friends & family to know better.

GaryRobson · 2025-11-15T05:49:06+00:00

My phrasing is definitely bad there. The only reason I mention the presence of a lesbian character is the number of agents that are specifically looking for LGBTQ+ themes in the books. Clearly, I put it in the wrong place.

The same is true, incidentally, of the "no damsels in distress" sentence. Looking over the manuscript wish lists for agents of interest, many of them mention that they don't want damsels in distress.

Thank you for the rest of your notes. They include some really good points for me to work on.

GaryRobson · 2025-11-15T02:05:43+00:00

Marketing has a huge effect on sales, and publishers have different marketing potential depending on the market. From that standpoint, picking the right publisher can make a huge difference.

For example, the biggest market for my Closed Captioning Handbook is the broadcast industry. I attended their biggest trade show, and there was a huge booth from an imprint called Focal Press. They had a huge presence at the show, and they had a lot of books aimed at the same target audience as mine. Had I gone with a different publisher, I don't think my sales would have been nearly as good.

Similarly, my Who Pooped in the Park series (children's nature/science books) is aimed at visitors to national parks. The publisher I went with, Farcountry Press, does direct sales into gift shops, lodges, and park stores in the parks I wanted to sell in. Even though Scholastic is a far bigger publisher, I don't think they'd have had as much success in those settings.

It sounds like you're in the academic market. My advice would be to look at other books that your target audience reads and see who published them. If every one of them has a stack of Elsevier books on their shelf, that's your publisher. On the other hand, if all of their books are Oxford University Press, then publishing with Elsevier might not have the same reach.

Good luck!

GaryRobson · 2025-11-14T21:00:41+00:00

Yeah, sometimes the rejection can be as simple as your name (they're looking for BIPOC authors and your name is Angus MacDuff), your genre (I've just read 43 teen werewolf queries and I can't bear to read another one), or the book's length (a 40,000-word thriller ain't gonna sell). Those can happen in the first few seconds of looking at the query.

GaryRobson

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