Nov 27 2011
“Yes, but you’ll have to open the package first. They won’t spill out magically!”
— The kid’s answer when asked if she wanted some Halloween candy M&Ms in a bowl
Here’s a quick video of the kid playing with our new tablet. I’d originally planned on getting a Kindle Fire or Nook tablet. However, after a little research, I decided to spend a little more and get a full-sized tablet.
Dec 29 2010
“Stop….I see the jewelry collection!”
— Lucy, seated in a shopping cart, as we pass by the Costco jewelery cases
As the months have passed, I’ve slowly accumulated more and more stuff for my Krav Maga classes. At a certain point my old gym bag just didn’t have the room for my newly acquired gear. So I did a little research and found a local small business that had the bag I wanted.
How small was the local business? Well, small enough that soon after I placed my order the VP of the company emailed and asked if he could drop the bag off personally. I said “sure” and the bag was handed off to me the next day. Is that service or what?
The bag is pretty neat, made out of canvas hemp. From the vendor’s website:
Hemp is the strongest and most durable of all natural textile fibers (4X stronger than cotton). Hemp is a porous fiber which allows air to pass through easily helping to keep you or your gear aired out. Hemp is also anti-microbial so bacteria, fungus and mold can’t live in it. Hemp is also UV resistant.
That sounded good to me, especially the anti-microbial part. Gym bags can get pretty ripe so anything to help combat this is a very good thing. Here’s a pic of my gear along with the new bag:
See, I wasn’t lying when I said the gear was accumulating! Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I go through the hassle of actually carting this stuff to class every day just so I can get roughed up by various people!
Though you can’t really tell by the picture, even when stuffed with all my gear the new bag still has a decent amount of room left over. Here’s another view of the bag, all zipped up and ready to go:
I think the new bag is going to work out fine for a long time to come. Now, if I could only master rotating my hips, pivoting my feet, and keeping my hands up, I’d be well on my way to being halfway decent.
Oct 31 2010
“I’m the pretty princess. As soon as I go to sleep I’ll be the sleeping beauty!”
— Lucy’s take on Lucy
I got a microphone recently to use on video projects. It’s a Zoom H1, a really neat recording tool that basically looks like a toy.
Lucy was very interested in the H1, so I let her inspect it:
She gave it her approval and found it interesting enough to help me try it out. So we held an impromptu recording session with our new toy.
Here’s what we recorded:
Aug 31 2010
“They are having catfood soup, carrotcakes, ice cream tea, and cheesy muffins. And they’re having vanilla cookies because a girl is coming over, and a girl can’t eat catfood!”
“And now the animals have changed up the menu to a different style. Because now they are having marshmallows and vanilla ice cream and grape sandwiches. And honey cereal. They changed the menu now, Dad!”
— Lucy explaining her dolls’ and stuffed animals’ lunch menu
Macbook Pro from Mike C on Vimeo.
When August began, we didn’t have any plans to upgrade our two main computers. However, as the month closes, that’s exactly what’s happened.
Earlier this month, we purchased a new iMac to replace one we’d sold to my sister. Well, recently we learned that a nephew about to start college was in the market for an inexpensive Macbook. So, to make a long story short, he now has Jill’s old laptop and Jill has a pretty nifty early Christmas present: a Macbook Pro.
So, here’s the second Mac unboxing video of the month. Since it’s Jill’s computer, she and the kid nudged out Wubie a bit this time (though he does make an appearance at the end.) We should now be set computer-wise for a while (I think!)
Music Used:
Aug 21 2010
“Sometimes fyashyights get yost. They fall awound stuff.”
— Lucy explaining how household flashlights go missing
(“Sometimes flashlights get lost. They fall around stuff”)
What do ya know, another memory post. Please contain your excitement.
Once I was sure our new iMac was a keeper, I quickly ordered an extra 4GB of RAM. I took some pics while installing the additional RAM and decided to post ‘em here, along with notes on the installation process.
Aug 21 2010
“There’s something brown in the town.”
— Lucy spots Wubie in the kitchen
We got a new iMac a couple of weeks ago. It’s pretty spiffy. The deal I made with myself on the actual purchase was:
You want a new computer? Fine—but only if you can pay for it with money made from selling stuff you already have. And make sure to sell the old computer while you’re at it!
Though I’d sold a few things to help pay for it, I hadn’t sold enough to cover the entire purchase—until this morning. Now, it’s been covered (and then some).
I had a pricey gadget that had been sitting in my closet for a while. I decided to post it on a few sites to gauge interest. One of the places I tried was Facebook Marketplace. Talk about a waste of time! Within a few hours of posting the item on Facebook, I received four messages. “Wow, that’s cool!” I thought as I opened the messages. All four messages were from different users with variations on the same scam:
“My (friend/cousin/sibling/etc.) would be very interested in this item. However, they are in (Nigeria/Africa). Can I pay you now? Would you take the following (goofy circuitous route) of payment?”
“Wow, that’s completely lame!” I thought as I deleted the messages.
Luckily, Craigslist came through for me. The prospective buyer and I exchanged emails during the week. Once I determined he was on the up and up, I arranged to meet him in an open public space (a mall). Rules I have on selling stuff:
If it’s an inexpensive/bulky item, I might meet them outside my garage. However, for higher priced items, I always meet them in a public space.
You never know who’s going to show up, so you’ve got to use your head and play it safe. Anyway, the transaction went off without a hitch. Once it was completed, I had a bunch of cash and felt like a rapper for a second. However, I quickly reminded myself that this was money already spent.
Yep, the pragmatic polka singer in me usually wins out.
Aug 3 2010
“Welcome to bundle’s
The place to be
when the cats are barfingWelcome to bundle’s
Washing away the barf
Cleaning up the barfWelcome to bundle’s
When the cat barfs up!Welcome to bundle’s
Where mommy gets it on her hands!”
— Lucy improvising a song while her Mom cleans up after a sick Wubert
Kinda New Computer from Mike C on Vimeo.
We got a new (actually a refurb) computer last week, a 27″ i7 iMac, to replace the system I sold to my sister. I ordered it last Thursday afternoon and it actually arrived the very next day, so Wubie and I were psyched to bust it open and fire it up.
This was probably the 4th or 5th computer Wubie and I have opened together. We started with a G3 Blue and White back in 1999 when Wubie was a youngster. Wubie’s a teenager now, about 70 in human years, so he’s a little creakier now than he was back then (but then again, so am I.)
I’m hoping he’ll stick around for a few more system changes. It wouldn’t be the same (or nearly as fun) without him.
Here’s a photo collage of Wubie and some of the computers he’s “inspected” over the last 10+ years:
Jul 30 2010
“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:
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.
Jul 11 2010
“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:
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:
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?
Jun 19 2010
I got a new phone recently and have been a bit surprised at how much fun I’ve been having with it. It’s a Droid Incredible running Android. As you can see in this picture, it’s pretty customizable:
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:
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:
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