I finally put some patches on my laptop bag. I feel like it’s a necessity for the messenger bag format.
On the left is the Galaxy Quest logo, and on the right is (much more recognizably) the Ghostbusters logo. I had a Jetpack patch, but it fell off due to some shoddy glue work on my part, and I lost it.
I’ve been bored with the look and feel of my site, so over the next few days I may try out a few new themes. We’ll see how it goes.
There was a Woot Off today. For the uninitiated, Woot is a site that sells crap. Literally, one of their most exciting items is a “Bag of Crap”, which is a paper bag with random, unknown stuff inside. But that’s a special item…in general they sell anything and everything at really good prices, but it’s all outdated or refurbished, or otherwise not brand-new. Normally they just have one item for sale each day (in each category…electronics, home, kids, etc). But a Woot Off is a special event. During a Woot Off, as soon as the item is sold out they replace it with another one. So if you see something you want, you have to move fast. It really drives the “impulse buy” mentality.
Anyway, I have the app on my phone, which is supposed to give me push notifications when they post a new item, but it hasn’t been working today. So I’ve just been checking periodically, and came across a wifi camera for just $14. I’ve been thinking about getting another one for the house, so I jumped on it. And apparently I was first! I’ve never been so happy. I must’ve just loaded up the app at just the right time. Although at 1m43s to first Woot, this apparently wasn’t a crazy popular item. Sometimes they’re gone in seconds.
Jen and Gia got back today!
We’ve been telling Gia for a while that if she 💩s in the potty that we’ll take her out for ice cream. It’s the most recent in a long line of bribes we’ve offered her without much success. But she actually did go once yesterday, while in Phoenix, so Jen told her we’d go as soon as they got home.
This is the result (ignore the mark on her head…she fell and scraped it the other day. This is at least the third time she’s hit that exact spot):
One of the first things I did after unboxing my Android Wear watch was to search for lists of the top apps for the platform. One of the ones that came up was a game called Lifeline. I just installed it last night, and it’s pretty cool. And it’s not limited to just smartwatches, that just gives you another way to play.
It’s billed as a “real-time” game, following a choose your own adventure format. The plot is that you’ve been contacted via radio by a lone shipwreck survivor (in space), and you have to help guide him to survive and (I assume) solve the mystery of what happened. The real-time bits come into play because you can’t just work through the story all at once. One of the first decisions I had to make was whether to send him walking back towards the ship wreck or towards a distant mountain. I sent him back to the ship, and he says “ok, looks like about an hour’s walk away, I’ll let you know when I get there.” And then I don’t get anything from him for about an hour. The idea is you just play a little at a time. Hopefully it’s not too distracting during the work day. But there’s no penalty in just ignoring the messages until later.
I’ve only been playing since last night, but I feel really immersed in it. To the point that it pains me to only have a one line answer to his questions…I want to explain to him why I want him to do something. But all I can do is say “Do this” and hope he doesn’t react poorly because he thinks I’m ignoring other concerns.
Of course, the immersion was slightly ruined in a recent interaction…he asked if he would be safe sleeping next to the engine reactor, and told me what his suit reported for the radiation levels. He wanted me to look it up and get back to him, which I did. But all of the Google search results were peppered with references to the game, since that’s what people were doing before me. Kind of ruins the moment.
Anyway, it’s a fun game. You should check it out if you ever read Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid.
I had an avocado and some spinach on the verge of going bad, so I found this smoothie recipe: http://goo.gl/yEbjXB
I’ve also been looking for an excuse to use the can of coconut milk that’s been sitting in my pantry for a couple months, and the matcha green tea powder. So basically I didn’t have a choice but to make this today.
I didn’t measure anything (because who does), and I think I put in too much MCT oil, but otherwise it turned out great. I poured it into my hopside down glass because I thought it would look nice, and I never get a chance to use it. Hopefully it’s not too hard to clean out.
It was a great energy boost…I felt great after drinking it. I made a double recipe, so I’ve got more in the fridge for later.
Valentina also really liked it, but I figured after a couple bites I shouldn’t be giving her something with matcha (caffeine) in it, even if it’s just a little bit. So I switched her to yogurt and she was just as happy.
I also made the best bacon. Thick cut, cooked in the oven at 400° until perfectly crispy.
I’ve had my Android Wear watch for a week now, so here’s my fledgling review: I like it. It’s not really anything more than a notification center, but it does a great job of it. Even when I’m working, and my phone is right there next to me on the desk, it’s so much easier to glance at my wrist when it buzzes and flick away a notification than it is to turn on the phone and do the same thing.
As for the specific model of my watch (LG G Watch), it’s pretty basic, but I’m not sure if the more expensive models would really be worth the cost. The main features of nicer watches are better aesthetics (which I’m not worried about), heart rate monitors (which would possibly let me lose the FitBit, but I like having it), and ambient light sensors. The last would be pretty nice, but it hasn’t been an issue for me so far. I keep the screen brightness all the way down, and there’s a quick shortcut to boost it all the way up for a few seconds in direct sunlight if needed.
One thing I was concerned about ahead of time was the battery life, but that hasn’t been an issue for me at all…at least, not on the watch. It lasts all day, and still has 20-30% left when I put it on the charger at night. But my phone has been draining faster than usual. I was expecting my phone to perform better since I wasn’t turning the screen on as much, but the extra Bluetooth usage is apparently more significant.
A few months ago (December 17th, to be exact) I started running a Tasker script that wrote a record in a CSV every time I turned the screen on, unlocked it, or turned the screen off. I did it to try and see how often I was pulling my phone out of my pocket and turning it on, specifically to see if a smartwatch would be worthwhile. I’d actually forgotten it was running for a long time, and was surprised the data was all there when I went to look. The graph below shows that data. Hardly conclusive, but on average over the last 4 months I’ve turned my phone screen on 115 times per day. In the last week since I got my watch I’ve only turned it on 99 times per day. So yeah…hardly conclusive, but there is a difference there. I’ll leave the script running, and compare the data again in a few more weeks to see if any more distinctive trends emerge. I’d love to also compare the average amount of time that the phone was on, but I’m not sure my Excel skills are up to the challenge of correlating the data like that.
Jen took Gia with her to Phoenix this weekend to visit her sister and the new baby. I remember in the before time, the long long ago, before kids, when Jen would go out of town it meant I had the house to myself and I’d use it as an excuse just sit around watching tv and eating pizza all weekend.
But this time I still have a 1yo to take care of, so if I’m going to watch tv it’s going to be Sesame Street, and if I order pizza she’ll be the only one to eat it because I’m off carbs right now.
So instead I’ll have to come up with another plan. Maybe I can convince her that Daredevil is just grumpy Elmo.
With the company I work for being distributed all around the world, I’ve got the opportunity to travel a lot more than before, especially internationally. The worst part of international travel is how time consuming it is to pass through customs.
Luckily there’s a way to fast track it, with the global entry program. It’s $100, and good for 5 years. Well worth it for $20/year. It lets you skip the bulk of the line and go right to an automated machine, which validates your identity via fingerprint.
Once you apply it takes a couple weeks for the pre approval to come back, and then you have to schedule an appointment for an interview where they verify your ID and take your fingerprints. Supposedly the interview can be tough to schedule in some areas, but I live close enough to a major international airport that it was easy for me.
For me it was two weeks for pre approval, and one week to wait for the interview, and just 5 minutes for the interview itself. Now I’m all set for next time I fly into the country, which will be in a couple months on my way back from Australia.
I only promised
To post each day in April
Not that they’d be good
Skit Skat Skoodle Doot 