Family
Its been 15 years!
Jan 1st
Today I am celebrating my 15th wedding anniversary to my best friend, the amazing @melissacaddell.
Wow, 15 years has flown by. Fifteen years ago we were in college. I had 9600 baud modem to upload programs for my computer class (and it took forever), a 486DX computer (an upgrade from the Tandy 1000), and a Motorola cell phone with a battery the size of a small shoe. I recorded most of my music off of CD’s to a cassette tape and our social media was watching Star Trek TNG and eating frozen pizza with our friends in our small mobile home with the $200/month rent we could afford in the middle of a sand pit. Some of you reading this have no idea what some of that is, so let me recap with the equivalent in today’s life:
Now we have cable modem, 3 laptops (one the kids share), an iPhone (that I have to pry out of the chubby hands of my game-playing toddler) and a Centro (that is half the size of the batter of our first cell phone). My kids have no idea what a cassette tape is, we talk to all of our college friends via Facebook, and I follow Wil Wheaton, Levar Burton & Brent Spinner (Star Trek TNG) on Twitter. We still like frozen pizza (though a better brand), watch tv when we want to off of our DVR and live in a comfy house in the ‘burbs.
There have been too many technology changes to mention in the last fifteen years. Some technology has actually been useful and improved our quality of life (raise your hand if you love your iPod). But some technology has made our lives much more complicated and/or cluttered (like why won’t The Wyf’s computer remember it has the print driver installed? Without having to be reinstalled for every print job?)
The struggle with how technology can actually be a hindrance to humans has led me to my focus for The SDG Group in 2010. The problem with most technology is that humans have to adapt to it instead of technology adapting to you. Stay tuned for some upcoming websites and software products that will address the human-technology interface problem.
I pray you all have a happy new year and live long prosper this year!
The Geek
© 2010, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
Our live in maid
Nov 10th
We have a live-in maid. She is short and kinda pudgy. In addition to providing endless entertainment and amusement, she does floors . Well, that’s all she does, actually. She is an iRobot Roomba, affectionately nicknamed the ‘Room-bug’. We love her.
About two years ago I got one for The Wyf for her birthday. Yes, I broke that one cardinal rule of husband-to-wife gift-giving; No appliances! It was a bit selfish on my part–ok a lot selfish. At the time I was the one who did most of the vacuuming (we live in a multi-level home and it was either move the heavy vacuum between levels or just do the vacuuming myself). The wyf did roll her eyes a bit when I got it, assuming that my intentions were mostly geek-lust. While their may have been some (smallish!) truth to that, she totally loves it now. I think I’ve been forgiven. She said it herself [here].
If you don’t have a Roomba, it’s kinda like a cell phone or a DVR–you can’t imagine ever going back.
Watching the Room-bug zip around the room is mesmerizing. We’ve spent quite a bit of time watching her work and seeing if she is going to move around things (she does) or if she will fall down the stairs (only once, but that’s another story). Knowing you don’t have to do the vacuuming is awesome. And, seriously, what’s cooler than having a robot do your floors?
(There are some tricks that make life with a Roomba easier—keep an eye out for my post on that.)
You can get more info about the iRobot Roomba here.
© 2009, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
Pumpkin Carving Tips
Oct 31st
1. Find a template online
-There are thousands of free templates out there. Just search in google
-The one in the picture is from: http://www.bandofcats.com/10-free-pumpkin-stencils-for-halloween-cat-lovers/
2. Scale the template.
-Use your printer settings to scale the picture so that it is the right size for the pupkin.
-I had to scale this one for Lady Bug’s pumpkin, which was the small one.
3. Cut out the top
-Cut at an angle
-Cuting a square or a triangle top is eaiser then a circle top
4. Scoop out the innards with an ice cream scoop
-easier than with your hands or a knife
5. Tape the template to the pupmkin
-make sure you pick a side that the pumkin sits correctly for
-you have to do some manipulation for the curve of the pumpkin
6. Outline the template on the pumpkin
-either a small paring knife poking or slicing very lightliy on the outline of the template
-A sewing stitch wheel also workd great
7. Remove template and drill out corners
-Use a cordless drill and drill hole the right size at each end and corner
-I used the drill for the ends of all the wiskers, eyebrows, and nose
-I used the drill like a dremmel for the eyes and nose
8. Cut the rest
-Using an appropirate sized knife cut from drill hole to dril hole along your template outline cuts.
9. Place a candle in the middle and enjoy.
© 2009, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
He’s Dead Jim (I’m a proud Uncle)
Jul 19th
I got a text from one of my sisters today. She said that two of my nieces (ages 5yrs & 4yrs), while playing a video game, said “He’s dead Jim”.
Awesome! I am so proud. I know they are beaming too.
© 2009, The Geek. All rights reserved. Click here for the Disclosure Statement
