Mom found the iPed
Vchip!
Free Apps
http://freeappaday.com/
I just follow their Twitter via RSS.
Funimation Up for Sale?!
This will probably end "mainstream" anime in America. Hope ya like fan subs!
Cheap vid cam
Chloe went to work
New AC is now installed. True enough to its name, the new Friedrich Quietmaster Programmable sounds like the hurricane room at MOSI.
My Pipboy 3000
re: Today's pic of iPhone armband
Diane Krutzler - Nice arm band! :)
da Toad Krutzler - Thanks! I plotzed when I found it in Best Buy. It makes me feel like Buck Rogers. Can't wait until they get a FAST "go anywhere" Internet connection. It is also drool proof and chew resistant!
Foxconn
There 420,000 employees based at its Shenzhen plant alone. Foxconn has taken measures to counter the suicides by installing nets around the company dormitories where the employees live as well as the factories. According to the company's CEO, "Although this seems like a dumb measure, at least it could save a life should anyone else fall." Other measures include a contract in which employees promise not to comment suicide or sue the company.
Late Night Reflections
Costello Music
Norton Online Family; Review
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/05/norton-online-family-review/
Baby Update
BG has really, really advanced in the past week. She knows when she's tired and knows she needs help getting to sleep. Putting her in her crib to sleep is now a normal and acceptable thing.
Walking is the primary mode of movement, but she nearly always has to drag some one with her.
Chloe will now pick up an item, bring it to you, and say "This?". This is your cue to "do the thing". Usually reading a book or putting on this one particular shoe she likes (even though its 2 sizes too big).
Despite my initial concerns, she is very pleasant and "well behaved" (by baby standards), except for one thing:
She is greedy. Anything your using that catches her eye will be desired. She'll ask, then grab, then throw a fit. Even putting said object in her lap so you can "use it together" is unacceptable. Highly annoying!
Oh, and she's fat. This would be only the second time Chloe has looked "fat". She's so tall (I'm told) that its kinda hard to get some meat on her bones.
Rock Band 3 Speculation
Pfft, nursery. Shoulda cleaned out that room for plastic instruments.
Guest Blogger
I love it - drop side cribs have been around since the 50's - I used them with both of my daughters and now congress wants to ban them. Maybe instead of banning them, manufacturers should build them with better quality materials and higher standards - like they used to. If the cribs are too expensive for consumers they can just stop making them for that reason. We don't need an act of congress for this.
http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/news/local/story/Congress-may-ban-drop-side-cribs/Ct6jBM3ZTUe05gKlM0VxdA.cspx
OK, that is my rant for the day.
$5 Amazon MP3 giveaway
How's that for blogging!
I hate DCF
Now we have to explain the whole damn situation AGAIN because no one ever knows what's up and listen to some wanna-be do-gooder lecture about how great they are because they're "just doing it for the children".
ON A SATURDAY!
Many, many expletives deleted.
PvZ iPhone
Blogged (slowly) via iPod
No wonder they're killing themselves!
There's an "illegal" app for that!
SNES emulator
Multitasking
Caller blacklist
Themes
Force Feedback for tapping/typing
Here's the best though: An app that lets you use the old iPod video out cables. Yep, the old cables work fine but have been DISABLED BY APPLE SO YOU MUST BUY THEIR NEW $50 CABLE!
Its not just about free stuff, its about using the tech you paid $100s for to its fullest potential. Shame there doesn't seem to be a Flash enabled browser :( Wouldn't want to get all the free, legal games, movies, and music on Internet now would we?
Also, with all the news out of the Foxconn plant making these thing, I sure am glad I didn't give Apple any of my money.
New Pics
Everyone Laugh at Lou
iTunes Sucks
Jailbreaking the iPod
It was a breeze once I figured out what I was looking for. Lots of hardware variants & OS versions complicated this. This is obviously a Scene that has matured. Software was GUI and worked flawlessly. Even cleaner than the modern Wii hacks (the old ones I used were barbaric).
iPod Touch Pwnd!
Pros:
The screen- Amazing! Bright, good color, amazing viewing angle.
Interface- Touch interface works as well as advertised. Takes a while to get used to the glass screen vs old school mushy touch screens
OS- Its much faster than I would've expected. Google maps almost seems to run better than on my PC (probably due to a much lower resolution)
Feel: This thing feels sturdy. Very solid.
Cons:
No Flash support: yeah, I'm gonna kick that dead horse!
iTunes: Ugh! what a PoS. No 2 way synch! You've gotta be kidding me.
No SD slot: unforgivable & dumb
The meh:
Need a stand.
Speaker a little quiet.
Virtual keyboard kinda sucks when not in landscape mode and you can't tilt to change once you open the keyboard up.
The web browser is the best I've seen in a portable device EXCEPT IT DOESN'T SUPPORT FLASH!!!
*I'll be editing/add to this as time permits
Yeah, these are the kind of people that should be in charge of "protecting" children.
Oven Fixed
The Pirate Bay now a political refugee
“We got tired of Hollywood’s cat and mouse game with the Pirate Bay so we decided to offer the site bandwidth,” he adds. “It is time to take the bull by the horns and stand up for what we believe is a legitimate activity.”
The Party adds the attempts at censoring The Pirate Bay “is an attempt to silence one of today’s most important opinion makers in matters of civil liberties and rights on the web,” adding that it is “nothing less than political censorship, and something that any democratic-minded person must reject.”
What do I think? I like to get free stuff! However, I am also a strong believer in unrestricted and unmonitored Internet usage. Oh, and art wants to be free!
*Edit to add: Before anyone snickers at the Pirate Party, it is interesting to note that the party already has European Union Parliamentary seats in both Sweden and Germany.
Bathed in Blood
Update on Chloe and Dinner
BG has been a... problem the past couple of days. The Change is here! Run for the hills!
Public Service Announcement
Free Game for DSi
Who's Your Favorite Blogger?
Because if you don't, this here little baby may end up like this:
Think about it!
Free Game
Feeling Better
I should really make an effort to blab about the good stuff more. Its just... Ya know... Who the hell bothers to drag out the soapbox to tell people that things are just fine ;)
What the Heck Do I Do All Day?
6:30-7:30AM Chloe & Mike wake up. Liz readies & leaves for work.
7:30AM Baby feeding
8:30AM Tea & Internet
10:00AM Morning nap time; Projects & chores
11:30AM-12:30PM "Lunch Time Show" (dishes; Lunch; Bath; Baby dresses)
3:00PM Afternoon nap time; Video games & chores
5:30-6PM Liz home
6:30-7:30PM Dinner
8:30PM "Babyriffic Bedtime Show" (Baby changes to PJs; Snack; "Bullshit Nap")
10:00PM Liz & Chloe go to bed; Mike cleans & prepares AM supplies
12:00AM-1AM Mike goes to bed
Mmmm, that's horrible blogging ;)
Happy Baby!
Shoulda just asked me. I've got a spare.
Strike Witches
To the unfamiliar, I could introduce Strike Witches as the perfect example of everything wrong with modern anime, but the truth is that far too many other things could share that description. So I'll just say that it's a show about cutesy, pantsless teenage girls flying around with aerial engines on their legs. Each of them is based on an actual plane and/or a famous pilot, and there's even a blonde pseudo-American girl named after Chuck Yeager.
Baby Birthday
Gamestop Screws Up in Granpop's Favor
The first one contains the old game in a generic case that says its the new game. The other package has a retail case for the new game with the new game, but no manual.
Pfft, Gamestop. Thanks for the free copy of a game I already own. Good thing I got an extra otherwise I would've gotten the wrong one. Should be able to get a couple bucks back in trade for it :) Sorry folks, PS3. Wait. I think the S&J have PS3. Maybe I'll kick it their way.
Sarah was upset at the brand of formula we were using. What happens when her kid keeps calling me daddy? Seriously, where do kids pick up this kind of language ;) The other way is a problem as well. How much can you commit to a child that is perpetually leaving (possibly to never been seen again)?
Lords of Ultima
Hey there,
Dark Hand of Valor is a top 20 Alliance expanding from Continent 14(South of yours) and looking for new members to help us get a foothold on Continent 4. End game will require every Alliance to control and dominate areas of up to 8 different continents and we are looking to expand to yours. Most Alliances do not realize this and seem to focus only on one continent, join one like DHV which will help you enjoy end-game play.
We are a mix of casual and hard-core players and offer members a full range of in-game forums with many help files and an active player base that helps each other out. We also offer optional access to a high-end guild website consisting of more than 200 players active in various MMOs and corresponding forums.
If this Alliance sounds like a good fit for you,let me know and I will send you an invite.
Hurkk
DHV Commander
Other continents?! Yep. Turns out there are ALOT. DOZENS! DHV? They're actually ranked #16.
Big Game Worlds
Funny that a game from 1990 still has the largest world. Gotta love The Elder Scrolls series!
Quackers is Red
Cult of Motherhood
Hello Michael,
Happy Mothers Day!
Thanks, Mom for all that you do.
On this special day, check out the tribute that Pampers has for you! Come join us and other moms on Facebook and YouTube, and take a moment to share what you love best about being a mother.
Lords of Ultima
I'm shopping for alliances now. Found good one advertising its "gearing up for war" (vs. the "we're a social guild looking to help" pansies)
Here's my in game email to Darkyn, leader of Tiste Andii:
I have received an invite from a rival alliance. It seems I would find more worthy foes with Tiste Andii. I request to join your alliance.
Tremble,
The high and mighty Ultimanator
25% off used @ Gamestop
Only on used games, online only. Stacks w/%10 off from Edge card
Writing in the Margins of My Life: An Ode to Blogging
Writing in the Margins of My Life: An Ode to Blogging: "
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to blog about it, does it make a sound?
If you’re anything like me, you spend a good deal of time every day online, and at least part of that time is spent somehow documenting what you’re doing, what you’ve recently done, what you’re about to do. Maybe it’s a blog of some sort, or comments on a blog. Maybe it’s through your Facebook status updates, or Twitter. Maybe you simply email somebody about your day. Back in the analog days, perhaps we used a day planner or a diary or jotted things down on a wall calendar. But now it’s so easy to just broadcast what you’re doing or thinking at any time, and many of us do. I mean, sure, we expect somebody to be interested in everything, say, Neil Gaiman does. He’s a celebrity, a literary superstar, who could start a bidding war over a stick-figure doodle. But the rest of us can just as easily start up a blog or a Ustream webcast, whether or not we have any followers.
According to Margaret Wente, it’s because we’re guys and we suffer from Male Answer Syndrome, meaning we are quick to spout opinions about things we know nothing about. Never mind the fact that there are a lot of women bloggers, or that not all blogs are opinion pieces—the very name “blog” is short for “weblog” which is basically a diary. Or that Wente states this opinion from her regular online newspaper column with a comments section … how is this not a blog again? I couldn’t help laughing about her comment that “Opinionizing in public is a form of mental jousting” that she’s clearly not interested in doing.
For me, I’m sure it is somehow tied to my obsession with recording and documenting things. It’s the same compulsion that made our parents shoot hours of (mostly unwatched) home videos of us; the same motivation behind countless bad vacation slideshows. It’s what we’ve been training for since kindergarten Show ‘n’ Tell. As I admitted to Shannon Proudfoot for her article on “life tracking,” I don’t necessarily do it because I think other people are going to find it interesting—and if I stop to think about it, maybe I’d have to admit that most people probably don’t.
Sometimes it boils down to this: If I don’t blog about it, it didn’t happen.
Not convinced? Do a quick search on the phrase “I blog, therefore I am” and see how many blogs with that title you turn up. (There’s even a blog-based book by that title.) I blog because it’s the current incarnation of the diary. It’s my way of processing my day, thinking out loud, getting my thoughts in order (or at least throwing them all out in a pile so I can sift through them). It’s the running commentary, the footnotes, the little scribblings in the margins of my life.
Yes, Ms. Wente, I do have opinions and I like to spout them. But I’ve also been keeping a personal blog for family and friends for about eight years now, and it’s mostly not opinions, but just news. Since I’ve moved several times in the past decade, it became my way of keeping in touch with all the friends we’d made and left behind, of letting them know what we’re up to. It’s not monetized, search-engine-optimized, or branded. It’s not even on Google. Living in the rural Midwest, blogging has been my connection to rest of the world at large, my “voice crying in the wilderness,” so to speak. I also started blogging about books I’ve read basically so that I could keep track of things and remember what they were about. I have a readership that maybe numbers in the teens.
But now I’ve been writing for GeekDad for a year, which obviously gives me a much broader readership. Does it make me more convincing, what I say more true? Nope. Probably it just makes me louder, actually. What I love most about it is the camaraderie I enjoy with my fellow GeekDad writers—getting to know them via email and Twitter and the posts they write, and suddenly discovering that blogging doesn’t have to be this solitary activity, an one-way conversation. People talk back! And they talk to each other, and when I list my reasons for blogging, I can add this: it expands my world. I’m a stay-at-home dad with co-workers and colleagues. I’m just some guy, sitting in my house, who happens to be chatting with the world.
Baby Lamp
State of the Homestead Address
Court is tomorrow. No one is feeling very happy.
Oh... That was easy.
Lords o' Ultima
One MAJOR complaint is that I can't get a good overview of the area. I keep raising the resolution or using Ctrl+- to zoom out to see.
Uh...
Um, doing it again. Whoops! Add deodorant too ;)
Grab the Humble Indie Bundle for $[insert amount here]
NEWS - It's all about getting five indie games and supporting a good cause. Click here. Oh, you need more details?
The Humble Indie Bundle contains five games: World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru HD and Penumbra Overture. If any of these interest you, you can choose to "pay what you want" for the entire package. The games are presented DRM-free and are compatible with Mac, Windows & Linux. Plus, whatever amount you choose to pay will go straight to the developers, Child's Play charity, Electronic Frontier Foundation, or a mixture of all three.
Again I say, "Click here." You can get more information or make your purchase right away. I am personally very excited about this offer and am happy to support both the developers and the good causes involved. It's only available for the next week so be sure to act fast!
"
Sid Meier's Pirates! goes Wii
Best Buy Sucks
Need to put this on Twitter!
Building Stuff From Duct Tape!
http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/duct-tape-artscraftsideaskids.html
Might just do some of these myself for that matter :)
Attn: Mom
Hooked on Phonics?
Baby's First d20
Funny, she's not too good with a ball, but she'll roll that die for 10 mins straight
The time around court dates is always tough. Emotions surge and everyone else is on edge as well. I;m not gonna get into what I was planning on. Think I'll just keep my mouth shut (for once!). Its all such a waste of time considering how this is all gonna end up. There's no Emerald City at the end of this road.
Lords of Ultima
I am playing on World 5(US East coast). Look for Ultimanator in the city of Ultimaville.
Linky: http://www.lordofultima.com/