Smackdown: The Blind Side vs. Precious
Nov 24, 2009 in Reviews
I saw a double feature over the weekend: The Blind Side and Precious. Yes, it was a depressing double feature. Yes, I cried. Actually, I cried a lot more for The Blind Side; Precious just left me exhausted. And, while the whole wanting-to-go-to-bed-at-3:30pm-on-a-Sunday thing was a bit of a downside for the whole plan, I would definitely recommend seeing the two in a row; they just have some kind of an affinity for each other. Read on…
How to Get Your WiFi Network to Cover Your Whole House
Nov 19, 2009 in Tech
I live in a cool house. It’s not large, except apparently by the standards of WiFi networking. For an urban elitist liberal like me, being separated from my Gmail or Photobomb1 for as much as a few hours would be… disastrous. Plus, I work out of the garage, so I have to get e-mail2 there. Thus, my quest: cover the property with WiFi. Read on…
Beholden to The International Printing Conspiracy
Nov 18, 2009 in Tech
I have this dream, a very, very hopeless dream. My dream is that someday I will be able to print greeting cards on my very own color printer, featuring the photos that I took my own self. OK, so I have small dreams. The point is, I’d pay to live this particular dream. And that worked for parasailing, so I don’t know why greeting cards would be more difficult. Read on…
Government Web Sites Considered Dangerous
Nov 11, 2009 in
Like any good geek, I’d rather do things online then, you know, have to call or go to an office and interact with an actual human being. Thanks to Amazon Prime, I barely have to buy any technology or home products in a store anymore. In this household, we’ve tried to do some of our governmental-interaction things online as well. And it’s been a complete, unmitigated disaster. I can say with confidence that I will never, ever, do any government-related activity online again. Read on…
The Only Problem With Not Having a Land Line is Knowing What Number to Give at the Grocery
Nov 8, 2009 in Otherwise Uncategorized
Now that I live in a blended household, I find myself using our phone number at checkout counters to save the few percent that some loyalty program gives. In the old days, this would’ve been an easy job: type our happy home’s phone number into that swipe-your-credit-card-and-sign pad and we’re done. But, like the modern kids we are, we’re cell phone-only and our happy is phone number-free. Read on…
My Martini Glasses Are My Love
Nov 3, 2009 in True Life Stories
I may be predisposed to a bit of hoarding. Not that I collect empty yogurt containers or save used tissues; I just often find myself inclined to keep, you know, bowls that people gave me twelve years ago, or maybe I forget to throw away the stub of the movie ticket for Exit Wounds.1 One time, Mrs. DJ L’il Bit said this thing that helps me out, whenever I’m struggling to decide to throw something away or not: “that decorative peeler is not your mother’s love.” Read on…
How to Assign a Drive Letter to an Airport Disk on Windows XP
Nov 2, 2009 in Tech
I’ve been using a Time Capsule to back up my Mac for some time now, and have been very satisfied. I was wishing that I could run some kind of over-the-air backup for my wife’s laptop, which runs Windows XP, too. So I attached a USB hard drive to the Time Capsule, and tried to mount that on the Windows XP laptop. First I did it the wrong way, and there was much sadness. Then I did it the right way, and life was easy. I couldn’t find a description of how to do it right in a quick Google search, so here’s my story. It’s probably true for an Airport Extreme Base Station too, since that and the Time Capsule are similar.
Read on…
Pavlov's Resort
Nov 1, 2009 in Travel
The hardest part of coming home isn’t the end of the adventure, or the not being alone together, or driving on the right side of the road; it’s the lack of drums. At Lalati, drums tell you about everything. Happy hour? The drums will call you. Dinner? Drums! Time to go on the group snorkeling trip? You guessed it, drums. I keep on forgetting to have lunch because there’s no drums to tell me it’s lunch time, and I spend all afternoon looking forward to the 5pm happy hour drums, yet they don’t come. Read on…