Naked Time, Naked Time, Across the USA!
— Lucy singing her own lyrics to the melody of “Booty Time” from
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane

Here’s another post on some stuff I sold recently, most of it via Craigslist (except for the iMac, which went to family). Craigslist is my main way to get rid of stuff these days. The main things I like about it:

• It’s free (how can you beat that?)
• It’s easy to post items
• It’s easy to get rid of large items (the customer just picks it up.)
• No shipping hassles because your customers are local

Occasionally I’ll use eBay, but that’s usually as a last resort. eBay is just too darn expensive (they really nickel and dime you to death with miscellaneous fees over there!) Also, the one or two times where I needed their support they truly, dearly just sucked.

Anyway…

It’s nice to have some open space. It’s actually quite amazing how much room you get back once you let go of a few bulky items.

“The trains are not racing. They’re crumbling—and it’s very frustrating!”
— Lucy, when her toy trains were being uncooperative yesterday morning

When the Amazon Kindle E-Reader was first released in late 2007, I thought it looked interesting. However, at $400 it was never a serious consideration for me. Over the next few years, its price dropped substantilly, but at a price just north of $200 I still wasn’t sufficiently enticed enough to pry open my wallet.

Earlier this year, the Apple iPad was released. This was another gadget with promise, though again at a prohibitive pricepoint. However, the release of the iPad was great in that it coaxed products like the Kindle (and the Barnes & Noble Nook) to reduce their prices. So on June 21, the Kindle dropped to $189—less than half its 2007 price. And it was still too rich for my blood.

Well, last week Amazon bought Woot, an online retailer that has gained notoriety by basically selling one item each day. Woot’s a site I try to visit every day, usually at 10 PM PST, the time their one product for the day goes on sale. And wouldn’t you know it, the day Amazon buys Woot, Woot offers a Kindle 2 for $149.

Well, though it wasn’t a “no-brainer” purchase (I guess $99 would have met this criterion) this was enough to get me to spend about an hour researching the product. And after completing my research I pulled the trigger and finally bought a Kindle. It arrived this past Wednesday, and so far it has been pretty cool. A few pics, observations:

Product box seemed sturdy enough.

The Kindle itself looked compact, sleek and stylish. At a little over 10 ounces, it’s a very appealing package for what’s basically a mobile library.

Selling points for me:

• Holds over 1500 books
• Battery lasts up to two weeks (with wireless off).
• In addition to the Kindle format, supports unprotected epub, pdf, and html via conversion with free Calibre software (this was a big selling point for me)
• Adjustable text-size (my deteriorating eyesight very much appreciates this)
• Built-in dictionary

When I finally decided to get the Kindle, I tried to justify the purchase by thinking, “Now I have a convenient way to access all those free public domain classics I’ve either forgotten about or never read in the first place.”

And I followed through with that pledge by dutifully downloading a bunch of classics at places like Google Books and Project Gutenberg. Yep—and those classics are currently sitting on my Kindle, unread.

Oh, I’m using my Kindle alright. And I am more than pleased with it. However, though I had aspirations of reading more substantial fare, the books I’ve read thus far are truer gauges of my maturity level:

• Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern (really funny stuff, especially the younger years)
• The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee by Sarah Silverman (more serious than I thought it’d be)

I suppose one of these days I’ll get to those neglected classics. Who knows, maybe the kid will end up reading them to me. But for now—at least I’m reading, right?

I’ve been wasting a lot of time playing around with different apps, looks, etc.. A fews of the apps I’ve been playing with:

• Misc Google Apps (Voice, Listen, Gmail, Goggles, Shopper, Earth, Places, etc.)
• Where (Location-based app for discovering new places)
• Layar (Augment your reality, dude!)
• Gmote (Remote Control)
• Ringdroid (Make your own ringtones)

I’m constantly on the lookout for cool apps. Any apps you consider essential for your phone?

BTW, here are a few other looks I’ve been using on my phone:

That’s where TIDYING UP 2: LETTING GO OF CLUTTER comes in. Yep, this is indeed a very big step for many of us.  However, it’s something that absolutely has to be done (especially if one lives in a small condo) less one becomes cozy with the idea of being a slave to useless possessions and junk.

Selling things is a great way to start letting go of stuff. When sufficiently inspired, I usually have a few things up on Craigslist or eBay. However, selling things can be a slow process, not to mention full of hassles.

This is where donating to charities comes in. It’s a great way to get rid of lots of stuff very quickly and with a minimum of trouble. Also, the idea that others in need could benefit from my junk is very appealing to me. Here’s a pic of a bunch of stuff Jill and I donated just this week:

Yep, just looking at all those bags full of old clothes, toys, appliances, etc., going to a place where they can help people makes me feel good inside. It also puts less strain on the ol’ condo and garage.

Alas, after getting rid of all that stuff to free up some room, I went out and got a shiny new gadget (that will no doubt be a piece of dull unneeded clutter one day.) Below is a pic of my new phone, a Droid Incredible. Hopefully, I’ll get some good use out of it before it ultimately begins making acquaintances with the denizens of the garage.

10 PM on a school night? No problem. We’d just make sure we had our trusty Maxell 90 minute cassette (“All Mod Cons” on one side, “Setting Sons” on the other) in the deck, a couple of bucks for gas, and we’d be off! Those were fun times (except for having to wake up for school the next day.)

I started going to Cho’s, a tiny dim sum restaurant on California Avenue in Palo Alto, back in the 1980s, when I worked at the now gone Tower Records in Mountain View. For me, Cho’s epitomized the small “Mom & Pop” type of place. I remember for art he had drawings of jet fighters, courtesy of his kid, scotchtaped to the walls. The kid was probably no more than 5 or 6 years old back then. He must be 30 by now!

Anyway, back then potstickers at Cho’s were always part of a good day on California Avenue: hit the comic shop, check out guitars at Draper’s Music, drop by Printers, Inc. Books, inhale potstickers at Cho’s, see a show at the Keystone Palo Alto. Yep, that would’ve been a pretty good day.

Years sprint by, things change. John’s in Arizona now. He’s married with three kids. California Avenue is a different place. No more comic store, no more Draper’s Music, no more Keystone, no more Printers, Inc.. Everything changes, old favorites drop off the radar and eventually (if I’m lucky) become treasured memories.

Cho’s is still there. I still find myself at Cho’s every once in a while when I need a potsticker fix (enough to warrant having Cho’s phone number on my cell phone!)

It’s comforting to hear Cho say, “Potstickers, ten minute. Bye-Bye.” when I place an order. I guess after all these years it’s just nice to have something remain consistent, something to just be there. Thanks for all the potstickers and for being there, Cho.

One of the perks of condo living is there are multiple recycle dumpsters throughout the complex. This can makes things interesting whenever I take out the garbage or recycleables, because I never quite know what may have materialized next to the dumpster since my previous visit.

This morning for example, I encountered some patio chairs, a big ol’ TV, kid’s table set, and a worn out punching bag. I actually thought about the bag a bit, but ultimately decided it was too worn to be of use.

However, at another dumpster I found a milk crate mother lode! Yep, five milk crates sitting forlornly in a dumpster. That was a total no-brainer! I love milk crates. Who doesn’t? (maybe some weirdoes, I guess.) Is there anything as flexible and utilitarian as a milk crate? Needless to say, I rescued all five of the plastic cubes and they’re currently nestled safely in the garage. I’m sure I’ll find some use for them after a good scrubbing.

Well, all good things come to an end. The last episode of Lost airs tonight. The series started way back in 2004, amazing considering it’s survived on a major network TV station all this time. In six years it’s had its share of klunker episodes, but in that time it also reached stages of flat-out genius. In fact, I can’t recall any TV show that’s left me stunned or marveling at the storytelling on such a continual basis. Just a few great things that stick out:

1) ‘Through the Looking Glass‘ – Season 3

I remember playing Pac-Man all the time with two friends, Kevin and John, way back when. I still even recall the day Kevin visited me flush with excitement because he’d actually witnessed a player who knew the correct patterns needed to advance far beyond the Pac-Man levels that had continually stumped us.

Kevin had actually drawn “maps” with the correct patterns for each stage while watching the Pac-Man guru (is that dedication or what?) We were stoked when we tried using the maps during our next Pac-Man session and realized they actually worked (though it was still quite challenging—any small miscue or hesitation during gameplay and the whole pattern was useless.)

The game’s supposed to remain on Google through the weekend. However, even when it’s gone you’ll still be able to play it by just grabbing the game from Google Gadgets. If that’s too much of a hassle, you can play Pac-Man right here!:

Pretty cool, eh? I just wish I could remember Kevin’s maps. But hey, at least there’s no need to scrounge up any quarters!

Verdict: Pretty easy. They do a good job in providing a few simple tools that allow the user to construct anything from a simple product link to a full-blown ’store’. And most of this can be done by just clicking a few radio buttons.

For now the store will just feature stuff we mention or use in the blog. Example: right now it mainly features the music that we’ve used in our home movies.

Making the store literally took less than five minutes. The time-consuming part is adding products (ya gotta stock those shelves, ya know!)

You can check out the store by clicking on the image below.

View our Store

Pics of food! Can’t go wrong with that. Anyway, above are a couple of pics of the organic strawberries and spinach I picked up at the Mountain View Farmers’ Market on on Sunday. We go through strawberries pretty quickly, so I said “what the heck!” and just bought a case. That’s over 12 pounds of strawberries! Luckily, our freezer is big enough for them.

One really cool thing about getting ‘em at the FM: they average out to about the same cost as the nonorganic strawberries I’d been getting from Costco. Score!

The organic spinach was actually kinda expensive compared to other places I can get it. However, I thought I’d pick some up to try out. It’s already just about gone and it’s just Tuesday.

The bottom left pic is just a quick shot of my (mostly) primal tacos: ground turkey on romaine lettuce hearts. There’s a bit of cheese there, but not too much. I like the romaine lettuce hearts because they give that satisfying crunch without having to use taco shells.

This weekend I’m going to try making a rice substitute out of cauliflower. Hopefully, it’ll work out because I miss my stir-fry over rice! I’ve no doubt the results will make it onto this blog via another food post.